Shadow of Life

This is a feel-good book where you read and remember your joyful times. If not those, it will motivate you to get back up and feel the positive vibes inside and around you. Or so matters will take place despite how you attempt to redeem yourself or manipulate your actions as not everything works based on only your inputs other factors also play a major part. It isn’t easy to get on with life just yet but take baby steps and try “not to be too harsh on yourself” (I always emphasize on this because we judge ourselves more and don’t let go things easily; I tend to do this often and gradually trying to let go of this habit or tendency). The book consists of contemporary poetry and one-liner quotes with beautiful pictures throughout, which makes it very appealing. It covers many topics like magic, youth, love, daydreaming, bookworms, old age, heartbreak, loss of a loved one, etc. This is one of those books which I want to read when I’m feeling low or just want to read something good and h...

I started it thinking it will be a light read, but it was dark and creepy. I’m not saying I didn’t like it, rather was in a different zone after reading it at night around 1:30. As the title of the story suggests the book is all about the yellow wallpaper but in a different context. There is nothing directly given in the story, but when you read you get what is happening in simple terms. What made me wonder is the ending, I could not get through it, especially the last paragraph. So, then I started the story in reverse. The book talks about how women were treated in the Victorian era. You can easily see the glimpse of it now and then. The protagonist is suffering from mental illness, which as per her husband and brother isn’t something major. So, they treat her like that. They move to a new house and the protagonist doesn’t like the surrounding, and especially her room and that yellow wallpaper. Despite that, her husband keeps avoiding the thing by saying it’s just in her mind. So, s...

“How do you lose a word? Does it vanish into your memory, like an old toy in a cupboard, and lie hidden in the cobwebs and dust, waiting to be cleaned out or rediscovered?” If you would ask me to describe this book in one word, it would be descriptive. There are so many details that your mind will explode. It will be like you are getting to know the geography of a region without being present in that location. The tales of the past adds spice to the story. Prima facie the book revolves around the coastal area of India and Bangladesh, Sunderbans and dolphins, but there is more to it. It talks about human interactions, the people you meet in your line of work and how they make you feel, what you have to go through to follow your dreams, how some people feel themselves superior that they forget to treat people in the right manner and what environmentalists and social servants do might not be in the best interest of everyone every time. The story took off well, but I lost interest afte...

When I first started reading, I didn’t know much about genres and used to have a hard time understanding one. So, as I read more over the years, they started making sense to me. Though, there are sub-genres to genres which tread on a fine line (we will talk about them later) as it becomes difficult to categorise them. Classics fell in the same category and it used to confuse me a lot. I did google about its basic definition which goes like, “A classic is a book  accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy, for example through an imprimatur  such as being listed in a list of great books , or through a reader's personal opinion.” Well, it made sense to me when I first read it because any book can be exemplary as per the reader’s opinion. So, what makes it different? Then I planned to read one classic every month, last year, to not burden up my reading schedule but stay connected to classics. Now, picking a classic book is a task, because usually, your first book in any genre shoul...

I was so excited to read this book especially after seeing a huge positive response from the bookstagram, since then I was waiting for the day to get my hand on it. So, one day during a random conversation with my husband I told him how I wished to read this one and wanted to buy the limited-edition cover of this work. I’m not fond of buying limited edition, but for this book, I wanted only that. Later, I forgot about this book as something new was happening in my life back then. But he didn’t forget and gifted this book on my birthday. The story revolves around Kaz Brekker and his crew members, who accompany him in a heist. The book takes off well, becomes little slow in the middle (or perhaps it was only me who slowed down while reading) and then picks pace by the end. I liked all the characters as each one has their own story to tell and reason to be a part of the heist, but it was fun knowing how they come together by keeping their differences aside for the given task....

Memories and conversations go hand in hand because we tend to relate one with the other and, later think about both. One can be picky with memories but not with conversations. What one has spoken remains intact as it cannot be changed and impacts a lot to the other party involved. Funny thing is, this is the only way you get to know a person prima-facie and also, how they make you feel. Don’t you think our conversations have become banal over some time? We are always beating around the bush but not saying what’s on one’s mind. We fear if we speak the truth then things might go wrong, but we are ready to deal with ourselves feeling bad. It is supposed to be wrong, but the majority of people will disagree with this. We tend to say things that we are not looking forward to doing, but end up doing exactly the same. This usually happens when we are not comfortable enough to share our inner thoughts and then we come to those conversations which happen overnight without letting yourself kno...

Many a time in our life we happen to face some situations where we start questioning about our existence. We are working round the clock but at someone else’s discretion as if what we want from our life doesn’t matter. It does matter to us, but not to them. Howsoever they want us to believe it is good for us but we all know we are not enjoying it. Also, I agree not everything is supposed to be for our enjoyment but when you do something which feels like a task or a burden, in the long run, you tend to make plans to run away from it. It doesn’t happen overnight. It starts building up as and when we feel we are getting near the breaking point. We start seeing the patterns which earlier wasn’t visible to our line of vision. Then we become anxious. Now when you know the patterns and want to break the chain, it won’t leave you no matter how much you want to be left alone. It’s a cycle. You know it. You sense it. You feel it. You struggle. You struggle really bad. It gets to the poin...