Book Review – Memoirs of a Geisha

After a long time, I could read a book which was unputdownable. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I have not seen the movie, but after reading the book, and being fascinated by it, I am in a dilemma. I do want to watch the movie for the dressing and details, but I do not feel like destroying the cinematographic scenes of my mind.

From the theme, I thought the story would be erotic, and as they mentioned, I thought it would be more of prostitution. But it was not. The sentimental story, filled with emotions of a young girl, and the pain she has to go through at such a young age vividly creates a film of its own and draws you into her.

Mélange – Random Tidbits – VI

..::.. Two weeks away from words. But not from thoughts. It was not the writer’s block or anything. The times of resilience. The times of fight within. Though I am happy that I did not waste much time these days. There were many pending books on my shelf, which I tried to complete. Few movies which I watched worth reviewing, or penning down the thoughts upon, but not enough to exceed few words and to become a post.

..::.. Shashi Deshpande’s “The Dark holds no terrors” is supposed to be her first book. I don’t remember why I did buy this book that time. Normally, I have never disliked a book I have bought. Every book which I feel was not interesting enough to hit the top list, was atleast worth a library read. But this one surprised me in exceeding the limits. The writing was good, expressive and had bit of depth in details. Still it failed me to impress me. It indeed shows the struggle of a married woman who ran away for love and then from the love, to fight with herself and her fears, and guilt. But the story was not that strong to support the beautiful screenplay. Simply put, I couldn’t digest the ending.

Immersed in Books…

I had resorted to review immediately each and every book that I read, so that I could pen down my views and the emerging thoughts influenced by the writing onto the blog. But off late, the timing was not enough and bad scheduling have chopped off most of the thoughts. So before I lose them all, let me share few lines atleast for some of them.

Brida by Paul Coelho:

I had finished this soon after I did the page123 tag. The effect of Paul Coelho had kinda started to diminish in me one by one. Not that I disliked his theme n all, but I am not that impressed any more. Maybe that’s why I am hesitating to take up the thrid book of his from my bookshelf, “By the river Piedra…”. There had been many instances which I didn’t liked or believed in this book, say for example, the re-birth and the story of Wicca and Witchcraft. I don’t deny or say that re-birth is false, but its just that I have not been convinced yet of those thoughts. The main thing I liked is that, Brida was in search of her soulmate, if it ever existed, just like any young woman and the revelation to her that we can meet more than one soulmate in our lives. The concept of the Dark Forest was also meaningful at times, and I particularly liked the ending (if at all you have the patience to reach there!) , which is almost applicable in the present life.

Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair:

The starting of the book was great, since it spoke of the railway station and train journeys which reminded me of my own travels. There was a fictional part of listening to all the life stories of 5 people in one single night, but nevertheless its a fiction. The stories of all the young ladies strikes a note with present life, but not entirely at some places. Some places it looks exaggerated, but we never know what all happens at urban places or within relationships. The protagonist, Akhila searches for an answer whether is it essential for a woman to get married in life. The unrevealed answer is contained in the open ending, so as to create more depth in the intrigued solutions of the common question. For me, its actually par with the Arranged Marriage, but on the other side, and I feel it portrays unconventional answers, but depicting conventional importance.

Page 123

I have been tagged by Sreeram a while ago on the 123 book tag. Initially I thought it to be very easy one, and i thought I would do it the minute I got the time and internet on, but the choice of books have led me crazy. I am supposed to post the next 3 sentences from the fifth line of page 123 of the nearest book. But which book?

I was reading the “3 mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat when I  was tagged. But I didn’t had the pc that time in Chennai. So I thought I would take it up when I am at home, in Bangalore with nothing to do. But now, the number of books are too much lying around to pick one. I then thought of writing something from “Arranged Marriage” but it didn’t seemed to be interesting. It was a collection of short stories, and if I post some lines of some short story, it wouldn’t blend. Then I had “Brida”, but it was already posted by Sujatha. I glanced through some other books too which was unread, but nothing seems to be captivating except for this one. Its by Paulo Coelho again, “By the River Piedra I sat down and wept“. I don’t know what is it that urges me again to buy his books again and again. Maybe its food-for-thought imprint in every line of his book? Maybe. Maybe one day I would get fed up of his books and style too… hmmm.

Anyways here they are:

“The light from his cigarette illuminated our faces. He took my hand and we sat there for sometime. I ran my fingers through his hair.“

I am in real need of more books to feed my idle mind, and hence though the tag is not that interesting, I do want to tag the following few bloggers:

Megha (seems to be dormant.. but does she will accept my offer?)

Archana Raghuram (have been quite busy offlate… is it the work or writer’s block?)

Ashwin (who has that voracious-book-reader look.. do you take up tags??? or always just torrents? )

and any lazy bloggers who wants to revive up…

Book Review – Arranged Marriage

“Arranged Marriage” by Chitra Banerjee is a small collection of short stories. Its been long I read short stories, and I even wondered for a sec whether I did a mistake by buying the book. But I was not that much dissatisfied. Maybe its because of the similar emotions I am dwindling in. Or maybe I could understand what they mean when they bring out the moral ” Perfect life is an illusion”. Now that doesn’t mean anything personal about me, but it somewhere resonates in the mind that its part of the bitter truth.

There are stories dealing with dreams and hopes of a bride to the hidden pains and troubles of marriage amidst the unexplainable bond of happiness or the silent comfort and dependency attached to it. I thought it would contain some reflections of a newly wedded couple and their thoughts, but the book grew beyond the small things to reflect upon the big picture. It talked about the live in relationships, pregnancy and abortion and related feelings, the depth of decision making at various stages in life, including that of a adoption, or the delicacies of hiding infidelity and disdain in absolute blankness. What touched me was the bare blankness attached to every character leaving them raw (or ripe?) enough to bare life with half-closed eyes.

The 350 bucks was too expensive for the collection. But nevertheless, it was a good read and had simple vocabulary enough to keep you bound. It can disturb your mood swings, so I would never recommend to read it unless you are in a state of what-the-hell with the world or are in practical terms with life.

I would rate it at 6.5/10.

Book Review – 3 mistakes of my life

Just finished reading the “3 mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhegat. I had read reviews of Ashwin and many others, and had not much hopes on it. But now I dont feel it as worse as his second book. And the author has always the style of hooking readers till the end, with a superb prologue.

The story plot at times and at many many places may sound very unrealistic. But its a fiction book. Unless you provide the fictionary part it becomes non-fiction. So I discard the irrelevant script of abroad trip and other impractical scenarios.

The twists and turns,the portrayal of the major issues of Gujarat and also India was good. I have seen the riots, the fights over religion in news and also in another film, Kazcha, based on the same and it had always let me down. On top of it, the tint of politics just added to the distaste.

There were instances I loved the subtle humor. The theme of love story didn’t interested me, though the love story did looked cute initially. The struggle of Govind to live, the disappointments, the resurrection after the unsuccessful dreams, and the cinematic climax were the only good points.

Overall I could rate it at around 6/10. Have you read this book? What is the rating???

The Seeker

Ways to Achieve success; Power of now; Law of Attraction;

Spiritual enlightening books. How do they motivate us? Do they?

I have been reading quite a few ones, like Alchemist, Tuesdays with Morrie, Fish, and some ways to achieve success etc. Most of them carry a single message and keep repeating it through every sequences/scenarios.

People are mostly composed of oscillating thoughts comprised of their dreams and practicality. They do have so many options of living life, the various established (un)realistical myths of right and wrong. The difficult part is to choose to follow. We do accept or hear various views, keeping apart our opinions and views in backend. We sometimes criticize or are empathetic to them, with profound established view point to various matters. There are matters of heart, relationships, money, ambitions, studies, love, family, and many others and innumerous diverse scenarios as much as a writer can be deeply immersed in.

How to accept yourself to follow and choose the selected path is quite easy, once you have selected the factors. They keep juggling inorder to form a balance in life, but there would be some ethics based on which we select the path. To frame the ethics, both material and immaterial ones, is of utmost importance rather than selecting the path or goals. Don’t you think so?

For example, everyone loves their family and their self. They are one of the top priorities along with money. Being selfish is humane, but it need not be purely opposite of selfless.

I don’t deny the definitions, and the established rules of life, they may have some experience – biased reasoning which is high above our understanding. But until we are able to interpret the course of life fully enough to understand its depth, we do can, rather we do alter its basic definitions. That’s just a phase of life when we question and find their answers. The phase when we start framing the ethics. Does that mean, we need to get all the answers to our questions to frame our ethics and thereby select the path to live? Need not be, and I am sure we won’t be getting the answers, we do get, but unsatisfactory. Its just that this is the phase we need to mould more, to create a more happy life. But then why no books available pertaining to this point?
Or is it that I missed some of them?

Book Review – Tuesdays with Morrie!!!

I just finished “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Alboom. The book is all about conversations between a student and a Coach, who is about to succumb to ALS disease. You can find instant similarity with the student, Mitch, if you are questioning the meaning of life. They talk about death, money, love, marriage, aging, emotions, family and friends, forgiveness and their essence in our lives. The Coach, Morrie Shwartz, is a teacher in sociology, and his interpretations of human relations and needs is very much true. It also talks abstractly about souls and life after death, and speaks along the borders of life and death.

Every human being is in search of love, and craves for attention. People are different, and hence all need not accept it publicly, the universal truth. We keep expecting more, and end up immersed in material needs like money, things, places, houses, cars, etc. As Morrie says, there is a clear line of distinction in what we need and what we want. But only when we realize that its our last day, we get to the essentials. Relationships and love only survive till our end. His famous aphorism was “Love each other or perish“. True indeed, thats the only one which can give you internal satisfaction, rather than the immaterial ones, which have an expiry date. “Death kills life, not the relationships“.

This book has similarities in ideas referenced by other books like “The Present” or the “LOA”(law of attraction). There are good days and bad days, and there would be times, when we cannot live our life fully as we expected. But we just need to live through the emotion, to experience it fully, and then move on to experience other emotions of life. Its easy to move on, once you grasped the idea of forgiveness. But how many of us do that in our day-to-day life? Maybe thats where people become unique. Every one has their own way of living life and thinking ways.

I would rate the book an 8.5/10 for its excellent message and impact on me. The marks lost in the descriptions of ALS disease, which lefts the strong realization of life in us, that everything is impermanent. But nevertheless, this book has brightened my mood, and I am sure, it can affect you too.

Happy reading.

Book review – The Alchemist

“Hi my beloved heart, are you listening?“

If ever you wondering whether I have gone nuts, no, I haven’t. I am just following what “The Alchemist” preaches. The book, written by Paul Coelho puts forward the quote “Follow your dreams”. I got the book for just Rs. 195 in exchange for gift vouchers I had with me. I had heard about this book long ago, but I was not into following the dreams that time. Rather I thought its about self-inspirational and motivational theme, the genre which I felt I ‘d never need. But having no other option than to get myself busy with some thing or the other, I starting reading about the alchemist and travelled along with The Boy in his journey.

There are several good quotes in the book, which are thought provoking and which provides the insight into the reality. Till the middle of the book, the quote which lingers around is the one which rhymes like, “When you work towards achieving your dreams, the entire universe conspires to help you to succeed”.For a second, I thought how the universe has helped me in achieving my dreams, when all I see is shattered dreams. Then again I tried to justify whether, what has happened is it what I dreamt of. I still don’t have an answer. Or maybe I am reluctant to accept the fact?

The book also speaks of love as part of the Soul of the world. Most of the religions and their practices speaks of spreading love and to love thyself and others. But I have not liked the way, the love story evolves in the book. The normal boy meets girl-love at first sight-kinda scenarios I can never accept, and I can never believe in it. But I do accept the quote it says, “listen to your heart as it speaks the truth”.

There are many more instances in the book, which makes us reminds of the old wise sayings of our elders. About life, about following our dreams, about reality, about the difficulties to face, about the omens we see, and especially, about relying on our heart and self. The strange thing is this book, as far to me, never portrayed about the emotional conflict and the social aspect we need to follow in the life.

There are many reviews online about this book, which speaks on and on about the inspiring quotes and how the book made an impression on them and all. This review provides some of the quotes provided in the book, while the wikipedia enlists the whole story in the form of summary.

Rating: 8/10

Lessons from management books

These days, I am interested in management books, which provides more insight into living life more beautifully. I came across many books, some of them which I read, some which I skipped, and some which are halfway. Of all, I liked the most till now, “The Present” by Dr.Spencer Johnson. The current one I have started with is the “Power of Subconscious mind” (will post the review soon once I finish it). There was also another book I recently bought from a book fair, called “FISH for life“.

In almost all books, I feel the first and foremost point advised is to enjoy the present.Make it fun or serious or with full concentration. But whatever it is, enjoy the time each and every moment. You can enjoy it by choosing what to do each moment, whether to help out or be helpful, or do something productive with utmost concentration etc. This somewhat relates to ‘follow your heart’ policy, or rather the subconscious mind (you can also call it intuition I guess). But how does the intuition thoughts get developed? “The Present” book says it all deals with the past.

Decision-making or having certain views rather called as attitude is developed from prior experience or the learned knowledge. Its this attitude or these decisions which makes your present more beautiful. You can find this saying everywhere : ‘learn from the past’. Indeed, every moment, we live comprises of the moments we lived on in the past, and it hits you like anything, creating an emotional turmoil. But its up to us, to choose how to live the current moment. You can brood over thinking over the past and get moody or dull, or you can remind yourself to move forward and work towards the future.

Attitudes can be for the moment you live or for the entire life. Just enjoying the present life will soon make you bored if there are no goals. Now, this goals can be either achieving your dreams, or some tasks you feel you should be completed in near future. This planning for future is not mentioned much in FISH book. Even in any interview, you can find yourself answering the questions of short-term goals and long-term goals. But how do we achieve them? They say you can make a realistic flexible plan to attain your goals. Does that mean some kind of compromise, by the word realistic? I guess it does. But if we were such a master minds to create a plan and follow them shouldn’t we be Gods? I guess that’s where the past experience and knowledge comes into matter.

“The Present” is very simple and does not drag at all. Its a just 100+ pages book which can be finished of within a hour or two by avid readers. For me, it was a simple inspirational book to read in my train journey en route home..