Day 11 - Puttachi asks for more (no, she doesn't)

I write this post at the risk of sounding totally weird. But I do it anyway in the hope that somebody out there will benefit from my stupidity and Puttachi's absentmindedness.

Puttachi is the kind who almost never asks for more food. Ever since she was a child, she just eats what I serve her, and makes it a point to finish everything. But very, very rarely does she say that she's still hungry. And very rarely does she ask for more food, or go ahead and take another helping. My explanation is that she is too lost in her own world to bother about such trivial things as nutrition for her growing body.

S and I love our food and so we are at a loss about what to make of this kid who doesn't seem as excited about food as we are. But we console ourselves with the fact that she is not even a little fussy, and eats food even if she doesn't particularly like it because, as she says, "It is good for me."

As a result, S and I just have to hazard a guess as to what quantity of food she will eat and make sure that that quantity is available to her. Thankfully, she does tell us if she is full, and so that way, we know how much she usually eats.

So over weeks and months, we all get used to a certain quantity. But then, all of a sudden, Puttachi starts complaining of headaches, or she says she's tired, or she's suddenly cranky, and we wonder why and worry for a couple of days until, bam! Realization hits us and we increase the quantity of food we put in her lunchbox or serve on her plate - and within a day, she's back to normal. Yes, she'd just outgrown the quantity of food, and was still hungry, and she needed more food. But she didn't know that.

Like I said, I know this is a totally "What are you talking about" post - but then, there you are. All kinds make up this world.

Day 10 - You know spring is here when . . .

9 years ago, I'd done a post, "You know summer is here when . . ."

That was Bangalore summer. This post is about Californian spring.

You know when spring is here when . . . (apart from the usual birdsong and flowers and budding leaves)

- You are walking around without socks after ages, and you look at your toes and say, "Hey, toes! Long time no see!"
- Acquaintances tell you that you've lost weight, and you say, "No, it's just that I'm wearing only one layer of clothes."
- You find yourself drinking water without having to heat it, even early in the morning.
- You find that you're not drinking as many beverages as usual.
- You don't need to close balcony doors and windows after you open them to let fresh air in.
- That crochet project using wool doesn't sound that exciting after all.
- You kick your blankets away in the middle of the night.
- You find yourself planning your walk earlier and earlier in the day, or late in the evening.
- You don't dread taking a shower.
- Cuddling with the kid gets uncomfortable after a few minutes.

What's your sign of spring/summer?

Day 9 - The day I thought on my feet (Keyboard chronicles continued)

Continued from here.

Back in school, I participated in every competition in school. Be it music, art, writing, debate, sport, I was there, entering my name. The only competition I didn't sign up was classical instrumental music, because I didn't know how to play any instrument.

One day, when I was in the ninth standard, the instrumental music competition was on at school, and we were allowed to go to the auditorium and watch. We sat there watching the eighth standard students play their violins and flutes and veenas. And then, the next participant came on to stage with a keyboard. I froze. Keyboards? Seriously, do keyboards count? I had never thought of it. I could have participated! I was so angry and frustrated that I could scream.

Just then, the boy finished playing and stepped down from the stage. Before I knew what I was doing, I got up and went out, and caught hold of him.

"Hey," I said. "My name is Shruthi. What's yours?"

"D," he said.

"Hey, D, can I borrow your keyboard today for the competition?"

"Sure," said D.

So I took the keyboard from him (it was a mini-keyboard) and went to the teachers and asked them to enter my name (the event for our class was to follow.)

But what would I play? I hadn't ever consciously played any classical composition on the keyboard. Yes, I knew quite a few compositions, having learnt to sing them. Yes, I was familiar with the keys on the keyboard, but I had no practice. What do I do? 

But I think, at the back of my mind, I already knew what I would do, even before I went up to D and asked him for the keyboard. Because I knew a little secret. The black keys on the keyboard constitute the notes of the raaga Mohana (called Bhupali in Hindustani). So if I played a composition in Raaga Mohana, using only the black keys, then there would not be a very great chance of my playing the wrong keys.

I took the keyboard a little away from the auditorium, and at a low volume, tried it out. I played a Mohana Varna. It worked. I made next to no mistakes. I was ready.

When they called my name out, I went on to stage and played. And guess what, I got the second prize.

For someone who is not very street smart, and doesn't think too quickly on her feet, this incident stands out, and I'm ridiculously proud of it.

100 Book Pact - 91 to 100

91/100 Tracks in the Snow by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

One of the better children's books I've read in a while. Erin is a persistent young girl who wants to go in search of her babysitter, whom nobody -- except her -- believes is missing. She gets her classmate Tiffany to join her with a ruse that they can study tracks in the snow for a school project. The two girls get caught in a blizzard in the woods, and an ordinary trek in the woods turns into a fight for survival. This is a tale of determination, persistence, friendship, loyalty and identity. The description and details are beautifully worked into the narration so that even while it enriches the book, it doesn't slacken the pace at all. This is the balance I strive for in my own writing. Puttachi loved it as much as I did. I took it along with me to Puttachi's basketball class, and I sat on the side and finished it in one go, in an hour. I couldn't take my eyes off the pages.

92/100 Mistakes That Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones

A fun book with a lot of information on 40 accidental discoveries. Some of them were familiar, some new. The illustrations were quirky and surprising in their own right. Puttachi enjoyed them too. She doesn't like non-fiction much (surprise surprise) and wasn't too keen on reading this, but once she started, she couldn't stop.

93/100 Nanny X by Madelyn Rosenberg

A nanny with a difference - what's her secret? That's what the children under her care try to find out. I didn't enjoy it much, but seems like Puttachi did.

94/100 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

A story narrated by a gorilla. If that doesn't get your attention . . . Ivan is an art-loving gorilla confined to a cage in a mall for the entertainment of people, and he seems reconciled with his lot until the arrival of a little elephant. And then Ivan has to come up with a plan to get the little one out of the place. This was recommended by a friend and when I got this home, Puttachi told me that their librarian has been reading this out to them at school, and she is already half way through the book. She said she didn't like the first part, but she'd try reading the whole thing at one go. She did, and says she liked it very much. I liked it too. But it didn't blow me away though it has all the right ingredients for it. And that is one of the things I am not going to bother explaining. It just is!

95/100 Nirmala Bharati or Makkala Mahabharata by AR Krishna Shastri

A concise Mahabharata for children in Kannada. An iconic book in its time, but it is rather dated now, both in its style and illustrations. Actually Puttachi and I had already read Namita Gokhale's Puffin Mahabharata, and I keep telling her stories from here and there - so she knows the Mahabharata pretty well. But I wanted to read out something in Kannada for her, because we never get to read Kannada often, and so I chose this one. I didn't like it at all - neither the style of narration, nor the details. I persisted anyway, just so that Puttachi can hear some written-style Kannada. Now I really need to source some good Kannada books that I can read out to her. Any suggestions?

96/100 The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Reading this book, I had an epiphany. Amitav Ghosh is my favourite Indian writer. Yes, I haven't read all his work yet. Yes, I thought The Calcutta Chromosome was weird. Yes, I couldn't get through even two chapters of The Circle of Reason. However, the Ibis trilogy hurled me into his fandom, and now, The Hungry Tide has made that place pretty secure.

Set in the Sunderbans in West Bengal, the book deals with lives that are intertwined through decades, and the inexplicable relationships that arise between totally dissimilar people. As in his Ibis trilogy, his research leaves nothing to be desired, and plunges the reader (the kind who like such details) into a world that she is doesn't want to leave. And the storm. His description of the storm/cyclone was so effective that I was blown away (in several senses of the word).

97/100 The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

This was recommended to me by someone who knew I enjoyed Downton Abbey. And yes, it has all the same elements in it, and it had mystery and suspense but I didn't enjoy it wholeheartedly. I think I didn't like the way it was structured - an old lady reminiscing about her times, through stories told on tape to her missing grandson - I think a simpler storyline would have worked better. Though I must say that given how easily I abandon books these days, I didn't feel like giving this one up.

98/100 A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto

Interesting thriller about a man whose wife dies when he is away on business. And though the circumstances of the wife's death seem natural, the man is convinced that something is amiss, and he goes after the root of the mystery, with unfortunate consequences. The story is told from the POV of the man, and it is a kind of unusual POV, but if I tell you why, it would be a spoiler.

99/100 The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

A Jewish girl, who is annoyed with Jewish holidays that aim at "remembering", is transported back from the present time to 1942 and is sent to a death camp, and by the time she comes back to the present, she realizes why it is so important to remember. Very disturbing book. Also, I might have appreciated it better if I had been able to get past the question of how she happened to get transported. It is so random and so inexplicable, especially because she doesn't even retain her own identity, that it didn't work for me.

100/100 Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

A boy goes on an adventure to the land where stories come from, trying to get the Gift of the Gab back for his father who seems to have lost it, and meets several unforgettable characters along the way. I read this out to Puttachi, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. The puns and the wordplay are delightful and you can enjoy it at so many levels. We now speak to each other like the characters do, in their style. I think that I would have not enjoyed it as much if I had read it to myself.

Day 8 - The keyboard we owned, growing up.

We recently bought a keyboard. The story of how we got the keyboard remains to be told, and I'll do that some day. But the new arrival got me thinking about the keyboard that we had as kids.

It was a Casio, and my father brought it back from one of his official visits abroad. Nobody we knew had anything like this back then (This was in the eighties.) I still remember going to the airport to receive him, and he walking towards us carrying the keyboard in a kind of sling in his left hand.

And we were so thrilled with it. The only thing we'd seen like it was the harmonium, which was boring, and the grand piano, which was well, grand, and only seen in the lobbies of 5-star hotels. Our keyboard had different tones, and beats, and you could do all kinds of clever things with it. (Compared to what current keyboards can do, ours was pretty basic, but you must remember that it was the eighties.)

None of us in our family have formal training; we all learned to play by ear, and we got pretty good at it. In my teens, I've served as the keyboard accompanist to several songs and group songs both at school and in our township. Once, my sister Peevee and I performed Made in India (Alisha Chinai), Peevee singing, me on the keyboard. And one of the township uncles came over after the performance and said, "It was good, but not as good as Alisha Chinai's."

How we rolled our eyes. I write this and my eyes are automatically rolling again. (And I'm sure my sister is reading this and her eyeballs are going all over the place too.)

There was one time when we thought it was the end of the keyboard. Peevee had contracted scarlet fever. [I had just finished reading Little Women where one of the characters die of scarlet fever and for a few days I was terrified that something would happen to Peevee.] She was passing time playing the keyboard. My mother handed her a glass of Horlicks. Ordinarily, she would have to move away from the keyboard to drink, but since she was sick, I guess my mom was a little lenient.

But guess what, Peevee dropped the glass on the keyboard, and the Horlicks spilled out and trickled deep into all the cracks and crevices and between the keys and what have you.

After that, we established Project Dry-up-Keyboard. My father unscrewed it and set all the parts out, and all of us joined in to push increasingly tiny pieces of cotton into all the crevices to mop up the stickiness. Soon, the Horlicks dried and we had to moisten the cotton in order to get the Horlicks out of all the parts. The keyboard lay like a dissected whale for a few days, and then we mantled (the opposite of dismantled is mantled, right? No? It's okay. I'll use it anyway) the keyboard back and tentatively put the batteries in and turned it on.

And it worked!

Guess what, it still works.

Continued here.

Day 7 - The Writer's 12-step guide to reacting to a win

1) Receive news of a win/acceptance/publication/good review

2) Dance around the house.

3) Blow your own trumpet on social media.

4) Read the piece that won/was published. Pat yourself on the back. "I'm so brilliant!"

5) Re-read the piece. "Did I really write that? Hmm. Must have been one inspired moment."

6) Re-re-read the piece. "Seriously, I don't think I can write like this again."

7) Eat chocolate. "I can never write another word ever again."

8) Eat more chocolate. "Everybody will come to know that I'm a fraud."

9) Eat a big pack of potato chips. "Why do I even bother getting out of bed?"

10) Pick yourself up, finally, because your family is giving you "the look".

11) Write again. Because, well, you can't not write. And also, deadlines.

12) 1 to 11 - Rinse and Repeat.

Day 6 - TV Series that I've watched - 2

TV Series That I've Watched - 1

The Bletchley Circle - Four women who worked at Bletchley Park get together post-war, and solve murders by using their code-breaking and pattern-finding skills. What's not to like, really?

Fauda - An intense, well-made series based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I liked it for the gripping action, the wonderful performances by the entire cast, and for the fact that they've shown both sides of the conflict so well that you feel connected and invested in both sides! And I like watching non-western series, one of the reasons being that I love to look at different faces and features. These faces - they were Indian, but not quite. I quite enjoy that.

The Fall - A handsome, athletic man, a great, loving father, but also a serial killer. A cop, cold, confident and focused, out to find him before he finds his next victim. Great performances, very gripping. The second series was extremely slow compared to the first, but it picked up towards the end, and was satisfying.

Dicte -  A Danish series about a journalist, Dicte, who single-mindedly follows up crimes to report on them, and of course, ends up helping solve many of them. Good one. There are a lot of personal elements in this, about Dicte and the people around her.

The West Wing - Probably the first series we watched after getting here. Enjoyed it so much that I sometimes mixed up West Wing events with real events. Also got a good picture of how the American political system works.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - An Australian period drama of a highly emancipated-for-her-time feminist detective. I enjoyed the first few episodes, but then they got a little repetitive. I should go try the rest now, it has been a while.

Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot, of course, with David Suchet's famed performance. I admit Poirot started annoying me after a while, but the series is well-made (not the last couple of them, though - liked the initial episodes much more.)

Annedroids - Okay, this is something (the only thing, actually) that Puttachi watches. It is a fun, award-winning Canadian show for children, with STEM concepts explained in a simple way. Anne is a brilliant girl who has built her own androids, and she and her friends have several adventures. Puttachi started watching this at school (her teacher showed this to class during rainy-day-recess.

I also watched a few comedy series as a background - sometimes to exercise, some while I cook or do other monotonous work. Some of these are Friends, Frasier and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - I don't have to tell you about the first two, I guess, but about the third - Kimmy has been in a bunker for 15 years, kidnapped by some weirdo, and she is now outside and trying to make a life for herself in NY. It was kind of fun, but I think one would enjoy it better if they get all the pop culture references that are a dime a dozen in the series.

I'll add to this list if I remember any more.

Edited to add on March 16th:

Happy Valley - Got to be one of my favourite series, really. The complex main character of Catherine Cawood, a cop, is one of the best I've seen on TV/movies. Stunning performances, gripping storylines. And what characterization, really!

Now it is time for you to suggest some good series! :)

Day 5 - TV Series that I've watched - 1

With all my talk of books, I've not spoken at all about the TV series that I've watched over the last couple of years. On Netflix. Some on Amazon Prime. I feel I must talk about these, because they've been an integral part of my daily life. After all, I love stories, and what difference does it make how it is told?  I'm always on the look out for good series that I can watch, and am very thankful to people who put up reviews. So I'm returning the favour (to whomsoever it may concern) and doing a few posts on the series I've watched.

Breaking Bad - A dying high-school Chemistry teacher decides to cook a batch of crystal meth to make some money for his family before he dies, and before he knows it, he gets sucked into it in a way that you cannot begin to imagine. I don't think I need to talk about this much, seeing as to how everybody seems to have already watched it. I enjoyed it in a weird, obsessed way. S and I started watching it together, but S dropped out after a few episodes. I continued, and finished it. Honestly, watching this series made me realize that all that advice of surrounding yourself with pleasant things because it will make you calm and serene - that advice makes sense. Because watching this was disturbing, even physically. I was glad to finish it and be done with it. A shout out to the character Gus Fring - the most interesting character I've seen in a series, and to the actor who played it - Giancarlo Esposito. What a fascinating face he has.

Downton Abbey - The life and times of a grand family on an old English estate. I have written about it before, about how the characters really held my interest. I had watched most of the seasons back in India on TV. Watched the last season here on Amazon Prime. I admit I have an affinity for these old English dramas, even in books, and this series fulfilled all my requirements. Loved it.

North and South - The story of a young woman whose family moves to the north of England, and how they struggle to adjust to life there. It is based on a novel of the same name. Very small series - just four episodes. But it really impressed me. Okay, to be very honest, it was Richard Armitage, who played the character John Thornton, who is the one of the main reasons for my love for this series. No, but really, the story is good, and the series is well-made.

River - A 6-part British series about a cop fighting psychological battles while looking for the killer of his partner. Very well-made, and great performances by Stellan Skarsgard and Nicola Walker. And the song "I love to love" which plays a part in the series, stayed with me for weeks after.

Wallander (Swedish TV Series): Adapted from Henning Mankell's novels, this is an excellent cop series with Krister Henriksson as Wallander, which we enjoyed. The cinematography is spectacular too.

Wallander (UK TV Series): Yeah, the same character, but different stories, and in English, this time played by Kenneth Branagh. We enjoyed the Swedish one better, but this one is good too.

Orange is the New Black: I am the only person I know who liked OITNB, a women's prison drama series. I admit I got annoyed sometimes, and yet, it did get gross sometimes, but then when it became too much to handle, I simply stopped watching, and continued later, and then I was not annoyed or grossed out any longer. I came to like and feel for the characters (except the main character - her I increasingly detested)

Blacklist: S and I started watching this in India, a set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief kind of series, and we liked the first season, esp the flamboyance of the character Reddington played by James Spader. The second season, which we watched here in the US, was ok-ok, but the third season was terrible. We finished it out of loyalty.

How to Get Away with Murder: Started off well, this story of a tough lawyer and her students, and liked the first series in spite of the back and forth screenplay. But couldn't get through the second series.

TV Series that I've Watched - 2

Day 4 - The Children First contest

Duckbill Publishers, along with Parag, an initiative of the Tata Trust, and Vidyasagar School, Chennai, conducted a contest called Children First, where they asked for stories which deal with challenges (physical/mental/emotional) that children face, and how, in spite of everything, children are children first.

I had sent in two stories and to my delight, both of them were shortlisted in the top 7 among the 150 entries received.

Today, I heard that that one of my stories is among the 4 winners of the contest. And the other one seems to have something in store for it too. See you tomorrow, I'll let this soak in until then.

Day 3 - Mandatory Puttachi update

Considering that my blog saw an upsurge of readership due to my Puttachi posts during her early childhood, it stands to reason that any readers who happen to be sticking around want Puttachi updates. Honestly, updates on a nearly ten-year-old isn't as much fun as updates on a child who is learning to walk, talk, and reason. (If you're new, do check out old Puttachi updates here. The newer ones are here.) However, since some of you asked, here it is.

Yes, she has just three months to go before she turns 10, as she doesn't stop reminding me. She loves reading (a little too much, if you ask me), and she loves somersaults so much that she actually moves from room to room somersaulting. It can be very funny or very annoying when you are in a hurry. And yes, she is still slow with her meals, although she eats anything and everything that you put in front of her.

She enjoys school, and has a good time doing homework and projects (yes she's that kind of kid.) She has good friends, at school, and at home (her bff lives a couple of doors away).

She is still a cheerful and smile-y girl, like she has always been, though the grumps hit her sometimes. She bounces back well, though.

She likes posing for pictures with flamboyant gestures, as is obvious:

She asks to read some of her childhood posts on my blog, and I curate some of them for her. She enjoys it, sometimes laughing breathlessly. That was my whole point of writing about her, and I'm glad it is bearing fruit.

I love reading out to her, and she loves listening. I also enjoy going for walks with her because she's good company. Another thing we enjoy doing together is learn Spanish.

Her reasoning and outlook on life is a lot of fun to listen to. And very educative. I love the way she thinks, basically. She is also developing a unique sense of humour - subtle, which surprises me at the oddest moments.

I also like her attitude towards most things. She is fearless and confident and willing to learn, always. She whines sometimes, and is lazy most of the times, but I think it can be worked on.

She goes to basketball classes. She is supposed to be learning music from my mom and me, but she doesn't practice.

She is a typical big sister to my niece, whom we meet in the weekends -- she can be huffy and go lock herself up to escape the little one's attentions, or she can be completely big-sisterly and feed her, cuddle her, read to her and play with her.

It is very obvious that the teens are just around the corner, and I have to constantly rethink and relearn ways of dealing with her and connecting with her.

Day 2 - Readers, unlimited

Back in Bangalore, Puttachi was one of the very few children I knew who liked to read. I can think of just 2 or 3 more children of her age who loved books and read as much as she did. Some read off and on, others read just the popular books doing the rounds, but the majority of them didn't read at all.

In contrast, here, I'm yet to find a child who does *not* read. All the kids I've met in our circles, and among Puttachi's friends, are not just readers, but voracious readers. Some of them seem to gobble down books, and they recommend books to each other, and then when the friends are done gobbling the books down, they discuss the stories and characters endlessly.

Kids in stores bring along books while their parents shop for groceries. There is a boy I see in the elevator who reads all the time, even in the elevator, on the way to school. A boy we met recently was shy and reticent until I asked him what he reads, and then he blossomed into a talker who wanted to talk about books and nothing else.

Is this a Bay Area phenomenon? - Was my initial thought. But my friends in other parts of the US tell me that their children love to read too.

All those doomsday prophecies of reading and books going out of fashion, and television taking over -- they all sound ridiculous. 

What is the reason for this book mania? The main reason that pops out at me is the availability of books - plain and simple. Puttachi, for instance, has access to three libraries. The public library, the school library, the class library. She can read, borrow and enjoy multiple books from these collections. And remember, access to all these libraries is free.

The second reason seems to be that books are an integral part of school -- public school, at least. Silent reading is encouraged in class. The librarian at school reads out from a book, continuing each week where they left off the previous week. Their teachers read out books to them. They have projects at school revolving around a classic children's novel each year. Children are encouraged to read for at least 20 minutes every day at home, and they have to submit reading logs each week, for credit. Their schools organize programs (like Bookleggers) where the love of books is kindled.

Obviously, it is hard not to get drawn into the world of books when you are surrounded by books. Besides, with more and more children reading, their peers who aren't too enamoured by books get drawn into conversations, and they probably end up reading too.

What do you think?

Day 1 - A post a day for March

So you thought I'd disappeared? And forgotten this blog? And was using it to link only to my books and the books I've read? Well, I'm back with a post a day for March. And please note that I chose a month with 31 days to show my sincerity.

So what have I been up to? Apart from learning to live in a new country (which sometimes doesn't feel like a different country at all), I've been editing, and I've been writing. I also did some work for a tech start-up. We travelled a fair bit last year, and hopefully, one of the things I'll do this month is do short write-ups on all our travels, with photos, my impressions, and itineraries and other (hopefully) useful information.

My second winter in California wasn't as bad as the first. No chilblains this time (except once) and generally, I've tolerated it better. I've heard people say that - "Oh! Your first winter! Don't worry, it gets better." I wonder why. Does the body adapt? Or is it the mind that adapts?

Before I go, let me leave you with this little bit of news that made me happy.

Chetsang Rinpoche (https://www.facebook.com/drikungkyabgon/)
- liked The Secret Garden
- quoted from it in a public speech while introducing Sonam Wangchuk (who also liked the book!)
- asked for the book to be translated into Tibetan.

If you want to see some reviews and buy the book, this is the place to go for the relevant links.

So I'll see you around with more news and chatty posts.

(Thanks for not giving up on me!)

100 book pact - 81 to 90

81/100 Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

A first-person account of a butler from a distinguished household, during a time when there aren't many left like him. The butler is out on a very rare road trip alone, and the story is told in a series of memories and flashbacks. I enjoyed this one.

82/100 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg

A middle-grade novel. An unusually narrated story of a brother and sister who run away from home for an unusual reason, and hide in an unusual place - the museum. Quite liked it.

83/100 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

A story told through in the POV of a 9 yo boy called Bruno, who becomes friends with a boy in Auschwitz, on the other side of the fence.
I had to wait for nearly 6 months to get this book at the library, since there were that many people in line before me to read this book. I can't quite decide how to rate it. On one hand, it gripped me and chilled me, so I do understand why the book is so popular. On the other hand, there was an underlying sense of dissatisfaction that the events are unrealistic, and Bruno and his sister don't act their age at all in any way. I am all for an author taking some license with events and facts, but this, I felt, stretched it a little too much, and I kept saying, "Aw, come on, this can't possibly happen." (And I'm not talking about the finale.) It diluted the enjoyment for me.
"prince"

84/100 The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Set in the 1960s in Mississippi, this is a book told in the voices of three women - two black, one white. The black women are maids who work in the house of white women. It is a book about race and relationships.
One of those books that I just couldn't put down. I kept finding reasons not to sleep/work/exercise so that I could get back to this book. I think I'm more in awe at the writer's storytelling skills than anything else. She's done the three voices so well. She's got those characters fleshed-out beautifully.

85/100 The Maid of the North: Feminist Folktales from Around the World by Ethel Johnston Phelps.

You know how it is with fairy tales being full of damsels in distress whose only destiny is to get married? This book seeks to place before us stories from different cultures that satisfy everything that fairy tales need to - the magic, the fantasy, the adventure -- but the women here are smart, clever, and courageous. And if they happen to be beautiful, it is only because it is an essential part of the story. They are also independent, know their minds, and take charge of their own lives, not waiting for men to help, and sometime assist men too. And even men are more well-rounded here, without being limited to being "handsome" and "prince".

An interesting side-note: Puttachi had no idea that these were supposed to be women-centric and feminist stories -- she hadn't observed the title. Halfway through the book, when one of the female characters in a story was in trouble and there was a man who was worried about her, Puttachi said, "Ha, why is he worried? She can look after herself. Doesn't he realize that?" I am not sure if it is Puttachi's general opinion about the independence of women that made her say this, or whether, already conditioned by the tone of the stories that went before this, she had already accepted and internalized that the women in this book were capable of looking after themselves. If it is the latter, then that is why we need more books where women play strong roles. Women being strong and capable must not be looked upon as something to marvel about and comment upon -- just like a brave, strong hero is not considered an anamoly -- that is where we should be headed as a society.

The book is great to read aloud - it has a lyrical beauty, and it is simple. Also, it is complex enough to keep adults engaged, but not so dark as to make kids uncomfortable.

#100bookpact #100bookspact

86/100 Kunti's Confessions by Women's Web

https://www.amazon.in/Kuntis-Confessions-Other-Short-Stories-ebook/dp/B01NCSCXY2?ie=UTF8&keywords=kunti%27s%20confessions&qid=1485495608

Inspired by words from books by India's best women's authors, this bunch of 15 stories are funny, pensive, heart-warming and philosophical. They are stories of hope, strength and feminism in its various hues.
Most of them are well-written, especially if you consider that the writers are amateurs (Are they really? A short bio of each writer would have been nice! It would've inspired other aspiring writers!)
I agree with what Aparna, the editor of Women's Web writes in the introduction, "Reading these (stories) was a revelation as to how many talented writers exist today in India, and how many of them are unafraid to draw deeply upon the stories often hidden under the surface of women’s lives."
A big thumbs up to both Aparna and Sandhya Renukamba for putting these stories together. I hope there are more collections to come, and I hope that they get better and better.

87/100 Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino

A pageturner. Even though I had to make a list of all those dozens of Japanese names to keep track of all the characters, it didn't slacken my pace. I loved how the author creates all these inter-connected characters and reveals the pieces of the puzzle to us piece by delicious piece. And another thing I admired in the storytelling is how the author narrates the developing story of the main characters over the years, through the eyes of minor characters. Some of these minor characters fall by the wayside (sometimes, literally) and some go on till the end of the book, but that's a clever writing trick, and difficult to do well, I would think.

88/100 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

A true graphic memoir of a girl in Iran who lived through the Islamic revolution, through persecution, and through the Iraq war. Hard-hitting, informative. Witty, funny. Heart-breaking. Amazing.

89/100 Devi, Diva or She-Devil by Sudha Menon

My book review for Women's Web

90/100 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Useful, practical, and generally common-sense advice on parenting. A good guide for interacting with others with kindness and understanding. Actually I think it will do us all a world of good if we read it and practice these suggestions with each other (as well as with children).

Goodreads Author Page

Just wanted to share with you my Goodreads Author page.

If you've read The Secret Garden, would you mind leaving a review/rating here? The Secret Garden on Goodreads.

As for Avani and the Pea Plant, if you have not read it yet, you can read it online here - Avani and the Pea Plant on Storyweaver.

And once you're done reading it, could you hop over to Goodreads, and leave a rating for me here? Avani and the Pea Plant on Goodreads.

If you don't have a Goodreads account, I must tell you that it is a wonderful way to keep track of the books you read and the books your friends are reading. And it is free, and sign up is easy!

Giveaway of The Secret Garden

If you are still around and haven't given up on me due to the inactivity on my blog, here are two things I want to tell you:

1) I'm going to do a post-a-day on my blog soon, and make up for all the silence.

2) There's a giveaway of my book The Secret Garden happening on Indian Moms Connect. Here is the link (at the end of a lovely review).

One copy up for grabs in India, and one in the US. Do sign up!

More about The Secret Garden:

Why don't fig trees bear any flowers?
What is the relationship between a gigantic fig tree and a tiny fig wasp?
Why are hornbills such great parents?
And what does a hornbill have to do with fig trees and fig wasps?

Find answers to these questions and much more in The Secret Garden, an engaging book with beautiful illustrations and rib-tickling cartoons. The book tells you all about the fascinating relationships between living beings in nature, and why one cannot survive without the other.

100 Book Pact - 71 to 80

71/100 The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
Ellie's scientist-grandfather experiments on himself and turns into a young boy who is barely a couple of years older than her. As Ellie adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new (?) grandfather, she also learns about the immense possibilities of science, and about how far it can go - sometimes too far.
This book ticks a lot of boxes for me - it has science, open-mindedness, the importance of questions, strong female characters, cultural diversity -- it is even set in the Bay Area haha! So I should have liked this book better than I actually did. I have no explanation for that, though.
Appropriate for 10-14 ages, I think. Some of the ideas might be too much for younger readers to appreciate. Puttachi hasn't read it yet, so I can't say for sure.

72/100 Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner.
This is a series of books, each by different authors, about two children who live in a parallel universe, but keep going back in time to "breaks" in history, and try to set things right. In terms of literary merit, this doesn't have much going for it. But the storytelling and plot is exciting - just what a kid would want to grab and read. Puttachi is on the fourth book now, but I stopped at this one.

73/100 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Puttachi saw this in the library of a different county, and thought it looked interesting. After all, it is about a boy who wants dogs desperately, and she identified with him :) So I got it from our county library, and both of us tried reading it simultaneously. Billy Colson wants two coon hounds, so that he can hunt raccoons. The book speaks about a very different time and life, in rural America decades ago. The book is autobiographical, and is full of hunting and killing and skinning of raccoons. It does have a whole lot of dog-love and loyalty and friendship and bravery. But the hunting got a little too much. I had gone ahead in the story, and after one point, where there was a particularly gory incident, I told Puttachi to stop reading it, knowing her as I do. She agreed with alacrity, which probably means that she wanted to stop too. I ploughed on ahead and finished it, and can see why it is a classic, but I wouldn't recommend it in a hurry.

74/100 Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

Rarely has a book been recommended to be by more people. And I can see why. Most (perhaps all) the people who suggested that I read it have read the English translation by Srinath Perur, which I've heard is very good. But I decided to read the Kannada original, because, well, why not?

It is the story of a middle-class family that attains sudden wealth. There are so many things to praise in this novella. The nuances. The details. The emotions. The depiction of the way that the nature of humans change, with variations in their fortunes. And the characters! So clear! And when they change, they do so true to their nature, making one wonder -- was that behaviour really surprising? Wasn't that characteristic present in them all this time? Didn't it just come out now, thanks to circumstances?
The sense of foreboding in the novel is a character in itself. Its presence is so slight that sometimes you wonder if it is even there. And then, the ending, which initially disappointed me. But as I dwelt on it and turned it over in my mind, I realized that this was the best ending that this story could have had. And this ending gave the story another layer. I simply have to read it again.

By the way, the Kannada book is actually a collection, and has other short stories of Vivek Shanbhag's. They are good too.

75/100 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Short review: Absolutely loved it.
Long review: I'd placed a request on this book at the library, but knew it would be some time before I got it. So in the meantime, I got another book by him "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry", but I couldn't get through that one at all. I almost wondered if I should read A Man Called Ove after all. But I'm so thankful I did.
Ove is a grumpy man who isn't what he looks like. That's all I'd like to say about him without giving too much away. The shades and the layers in this character are phenomenally well-done. This is one of those books that gave me satisfaction in so many respects. I laughed, I cried (while reading it in public, and got strange looks), I was touched, I was inspired. And probably another reason I liked this so much that Ove is a lot like a certain man I know, and I had to stop reading at times in order to hold my tummy and laugh at, and appreciate the similarities.

76/100 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

After a long tussle about whether to continue reading the Harry Potter series to Puttachi, or wait until she is older, I caved in, and continued, partly because more and more of her peers are finishing the series and it is becoming nearly impossible to keep her away from spoilers.

We hurtled through the sixth book, thanks to things heating up in the story, and very often, I ended up with a strained and croaking voice, reading through long passages. As I write this review, we are already on the seventh book.

*Spoilers ahead*

For Puttachi, last week was a double disaster because, within a few hours, she went from 'What? Trump won?" to "What? Snape killed Dumbledore?"

Somehow, she has always been an ardent believer in Snape. ("I'm sure he is secretly good.") So she is deeply disappointed at the turn of events. Now I can't wait for her to find out that she wasn't wrong after all.

Here's to the final book!

77/100 The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schiltz

This is the diary of a girl who escapes drudgery on a farm, to go to Baltimore to work as a hired girl. She is employed by a Jewish family who is kind to her. A beautiful, sensitive book of growing up, discovery, feminism and freedom. This is a young adult book, but I think adults will appreciate it too. Too early for Puttachi, though.

78/100 The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

I like Allende's writing. Simple and flowing, and lyrical and deep. This book speaks about the many different kinds of love. Informative too - I didn't know much about Japanese internment camps before I read this.

79/100 The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountain by Neil Gaiman

I haven't read anything by Neil Gaiman before, so I picked this up on a whim. It is a graphic novel, and the story itself is like a short story. I wasn't too crazy about the kind of illustrations, though I must say that some of them gave me creeps and I had to hide them with another book while I read the text. So they are effective, obviously, and definitely suit the text which is very dark and macabre. And yes I did like the story.
I almost gave it to Puttachi to read before I did - glad that I didn't. By no means is it for children.

We did it! My throat is raw, my jaw is stiff, but I just finished reading aloud to Puttachi -

80/100 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

With a lot of nail-biting and wide-eyed apprehension and tumbling around the floor with joy and excitement, Puttachi absorbed the final chapters. I had to take several breaks to choke back tears all through the book, with Puttachi waiting patiently or offering to take over when I couldn't continue.

Now I can finally sit back and relax, and not worry about stifling Harry Potter spoilers that seemed to be waiting in every corner, poised to spring out at her.

Once again -- especially now that I'm making feeble attempts at writing a short novel -- I am in awe of Rowling, her capacity for imagination and her painstaking detailed planning of this complex plot.

We started the first book 18 months ago, during our move from Bangalore to the Bay Area. And now it is done.

The question now is - what next?

San Francisco

- Have I told you that I love San Francisco? Something about it. The charming houses, the juxtaposition of the old and the new and the weird, the skyscrapers, the graffiti, the sense of vastness, the crazy inclined roads.
- It has character, something that the suburbs -- even with their wide open spaces, and the hills (green now) and even though one such surburb is home to me -- don't have.
- Going to San Francisco is a sure-fire way to recall that I am in the US. Else, most of the time, I forget ;)
- I saw San Francisco in darkness for the first time this weekend. The night lights, the skyline with those lit windows - they drive me crazy with delight.
- A San Francisco winter evening is like being in a Christmas movie. Without the snow.

Two more publications

A short story in Spark

Cover story in India Currents

Article in National Geographic Traveller India

Ever since I was a little girl, I've held National Geographic magazine in awe and respect, and so, imagine my delight to have an article published in the November issue of Nat Geo Traveller India.

You can read it on Page 32 here - https://issuu.com/11blabmagg655/docs/9scsdcs

Come and say hello at FSACC!

The Festival of South Asian Children's Content, presented by Indian Moms Connect is going to be held on Nov 5th, at ICC Milpitas, California. It promises to be an exciting event - do see the Facebook page and website for details.

I'll be reading from Avani and the Pea Plant at 11 am. I'll have with me little jars with pea plants in different stages of growth, for kids to see, and hopefully be inspired!

If all goes well, I'll also have lots of copies of The Secret Garden for sale. 

Do come over, and say hello! And get signed copies of my books! If you don't live around here, or cannot attend, please do share the event details with friends and family who might be interested.

The details of the event:

Venue: India Community Center, 525 Los Coches St, Milpitas, CA 95035

Date: Nov 5th 2015

My session: 11 to 11 30 am.

See you there!