Reading this amazing book on the Nehru Gandhi family. Contains some rare insights, the research and commentary is absolutely brilliant. Recommend that every Indian read this book to lear more about out political heritage and the way Indian politics have come about.

The book also gives some many personal and private details about the family, its a wonder it has not been banned in India. For eg it affirms the existence of a sexual relationship between Nehru and Edwina, it talks in detail about the difficult marriage between Feroze and Indira and also the realtionship between Gandhi and the Nehru family and something I knew very little about, Nehru's father Motilal's role in the freedom movement.


As time passes it becomes easier to write about the past...secrets, scandals have a way of acquiring legitimacy and can be made public if some considerable time has passed...

They should replace boring pedantic history books with such gems...history as a subject would have been so much more interestng in school.

Its been a long time since I blogged. Actually am doing less of reading nowadays. I am addicted to something else which has kind of replaced my reading in the local trains...:). Thats the iPod, guys! My husband recently gifted me with a 30GB fifth generation iPod with Video. Its balck in colour and very sleek and totally awesome. There couldnt be anything better to listen music with. Have downloaded quite a few songs and videos but will be some time before I can exhaust the 30 GB limit (which roughly translates into 8000 songs) :)

But reading is my first love and there's no way I can give it up for long. I started reading Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho highly recommended by a friend. It was so boring and pedantic that I gave it up after two chapters.... Then I started on another one "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" recommended by the same friend. That didnt last longer either. I stopped where the guy comes back from himalayas and is describing his meeting with the monks.....

So all the late night reading I am doing nowadays is some good ol' Asterix comics from my husband's collection. Asetrix never lets you down, trust me!

Must See: Memoirs of A Geisha

Okay forget about what I said earlier and the review. This is a beautiful and totally engrossing film. I am glad I watched it. All the lead actors give wonderful performances. I have no problem with the casting except maybe Michelle Yeoh as Mameha. Ken Watanabe as the Chairman is groovy. The whole film looks like a painting. Didn't know this: Its directed by Rob Marshall who made Chicago. And produced by Steven Spielberg. It has some lovely violin tracks by Yitzak Perlman (no wonder). Guys dont miss it!!

Here is an interesting tidbit: Arthur Golden was sued by Mineko Iwasaki a renowned geisha for breach of contract in associating her name with the novel. She came out with her autobiography Geisha of Gion soon after Memoirs..... which also went on to become an international bestseller.

Two new "movies based on books"- Pride & Prejudice, Memoirs of a Geisha

I am looking forward to watching these movies which got released this week in India. P & P has got good review fro critics here. This latest version has been nominated for couple of Oscars also. Although one thing is for sure. Mathew Macfayden is no substitute for Colin Firth as Mr Darcy.

Memoirs of a Geisha the international bestseller written by Arthur Golden is an absolutely fabulous and riveting book. I strongly recommend it to those who have not read it so far. Its unlikely that the movie will match up to the brilliance of the book. Here is one of the reviews I read on the Net: "One thing is for sure, the film is gorgeous. There are scenes where the colour seems to bleed off the screen, and some just look like portraits. That being said, the film seems to have forgotten subtlety as a facet of art. Memoirs of a Geisha feels like a distinctly American period film, a fabrication marked by artificiality. Instead of using the actors as a vehicle for conveyance, our eyes are instead drawn to the set design, the framing, the cinematography. As a Chinese-American, it was strange for me to see three actors who don't look Japanese play the part of the geisha. Additionally, the fact that the film is in English also proved problematic because although Michelle Yeoh's English is quite polished, Li Gong and Zhang Ziyi's English is definitely not. Much of the time, I was struggling to understand what they were saying (a gripe that I've seen mentioned by many others). The inconsistency of the dialogue (e.g., different accents from different characters, sporadic Japanese words during English conversation between characters)detracted from the film for me, because I had to keep asking myself, "Why is this not in Japanese?"

The Great Strand Book Sale (contd)..... uldn't wait to get to the sale last week which is on till 5th. The whole place ( pacify Rohan my husband I got him four Asterix titles, his favourite comic book.
I myself got a motley collection of fiction and non fiction. "Sister of My Heart" by Chitra Divakaruni whose Mistress of Spices is being made into a movie starring Aishwarya Rai. Vir Sanghvi is one of my favourite journos whose articles I never miss in HT. He also writes extensively on food in a very interesting style. So I bought "Rude Food" which I have heard a lot about.

Urdu writer Ismat Chugtai's collection of short stories and Anita Nair's Ladies Coupe are the other two novels I got. I also bought Busybee's collection of writings (Behram Contractor) which used to appear in Afternoon.

All in all a very prductive day even though by the end of it my feet were paining madly from all the standing and jostling among the crowd. :) :)

The Great Strand Bookstore Annual Sale

Hey you people.... the annual Strand Book sale is here again in Mumbai uptil 5th Feb. Make sure you dont miss it. Minimum 40% off on every book. Am planning to check it out today evening.

Reading at Airports

Nowadays I always make sure to carry some reading material with me while on the plane but somehow it doesn't quite work out. Last week was travelling to Chennai so bought "Everyone Worth Knowing" by Lauren Weisberger who also wrote the famous bestseller The Devil Wears Prada.

But couldn't get beyond reading first chapter really. The book makes for easy interesting reading so far. After finishing with check in and catching a bite to eat at the Taj counter in Chennai airport spend some time looking around for a seat to sit. Then decided to go for the security check in and after that decided to drink some coffee. Then I did manage to get a seat to sit and fished out my book but couldnt concentrate what with listening to the announcements and in between getting up to do some window shopping at a jewellery shop.

Then just thought will check the gate no and found that you have to take the escalator to go to Gate no 4 for all Mumbai travellers on Jet. So rushed there and by the time I again got a seat to sit they made announcement for boarding. In the plane after take-off i again fished out the book and started reading when the man next to me started talking and was forced to make some polite conversation.

Turns out he works with Paramount Pictures and we got talking on the latest films including King Kong which is produced by them and distributed in India.

So there goes..... Somehow at airports and in the plane I am never able to relax and read like some do effortlessly.

Next time will be better....