10 Confessions Of A Bookaholic

 

I know that many people are embarrassed to be tagged as bookworms. However, I don’t suffer from any such inhibitions. Yes I am a bookworm or bookaholic as some would say and I don’t see anything wrong with it at all. As a bookaholic, here are 10 confessions which I am sure other bookaholics like me will be able to relate to: 

1. People who borrow our books and don’t return them are our enemies. We hate them and are sure that there is a special place in hell reserved especially for them! 

2. We do not like to lend books, precisely due to the above mentioned reason. Plus, even those who do return our books – after much pestering and wheedling from our end – tend to have handled the books badly and it saddens us to see our beloved books rumpled or worse.  

3. We feel guilty about folding the pages of a book to mark where we have paused. It bothers us because we almost feel as though we are hurting the book. We always try our best to use bookmarks or atleast remember the page number in case a bookmark is not to be found. 

4. We might hesitate to splurge on designer clothes or high-end cosmetics, but we don’t think twice about spending huge amounts of money on books.  After all, we say to ourselves, the money is being spent on something useful. 

5. While some people can spend hours at fashion boutiques, we bookaholics can spend hours in book stores. To us, it feels exactly the same as a child might feel being let loose in Charlie’s chocolate factory – or actually, even better. We love going to book stores and it doesn’t matter if they are big, shiny ones or the local, shabby one. Book stores are one of our all-time favourite places on earth – or in paradise, come to think of it. 

6. We never fail to list the smell of books under our favourite smells. Much like the smell of freshly baked bread, the smell of a book talks to us, it calls out to us, it enchants us and we don't care if you call us dorks because of this!

7. We judge people who say that they don’t like to read. We think everybody must read. 

8. We consider books to be our best friends. We laugh with them, we cry with them and we dream with them. That’s what best friends are for right? 

9. We always have a book with us - one can never say when they will come in handy and we like to be prepared for emergencies. 

10. We cannot begin to fathom a world without printed books. Whatever studies and trends show, and even if we begin embracing ebooks, we can never really give up on printed books.

So, my fellow bookaholics, do you have anything more to add?

Room

Room by Emma Donoghue is a unique and intriguing tale that unfolds through the eyes of a 5 year old boy.

How long will it take for you to go crazy if you are locked up in a small room? Emma Donoghue’s Room is the impressive story of a little boy, Jack, who lives in a small room with his mother. The story is narrated by Jack and it is both sweet in its innocence as well as incredibly sad.  

The resilience and enterprise of the mother, called simply as ‘Ma’ is nothing short of amazing. Perhaps one’s survival instincts come to the fore only when one’s ability and strength are tested to their limits. I was thoroughly impressed by the author’s imagination. Anyone who has spent some time with kids will tell you how easily and quickly children get bored and how they seem to have boundless energy. To confine a child and his entire world to a single room, then, and to spin a gripping yarn based on it is by no means a simple task. I mean, just think about it for a minute: what on earth will you do day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year with a small child locked up with you in a tiny room with only a few bare necessities?

Room speaks to the reader on so many different levels and challenges our perceptions and perspectives. The contrast between a woman who grew up in the outside world and is now confined to the four walls of a room and a child who grows up only within the four walls of the room and is not even aware that a larger, outside world exists is sharp. For instance, while Ma wants the doors of rooms to be left open – because she can’t bear to see a locked door after years of forced confinement – Jack wants the doors closed – because that is what he is used to since birth, that is what he knows, that is what is familiar to him and offers him comfort and safety. This simple example so easily highlights the fact that we are afterall creatures of conditioning, who will however, eventually adapt to changing conditions if we have no other choice.

It also subtly drives home the fact that different people are entitled to have different opinions about the same entity – be it an experience or an object or even, a way of life. It simply means that each of us and thereby our thinking has been shaped by our own experiences and the conditions that we were exposed to; that our brains come to a conclusion about anything based on our side of the story – because that it is what it knows and that is our reality. It might seem strange to someone else, but that is because their reality is different from ours.

Room is set in contemporary times and the language is modern. There are many heart-in-the-mouth moments when you wonder if the book is going to end in triumph or tragedy and it kept me turning the pages.

It was while reading this book that the news about the Cleveland abductor who held 3 women hostage for many years in his home surfaced. The coincidence was somewhat disturbing to be honest. Here I was reading a work of fiction on one hand and the next thing I know, reality imitates it! (Actually the book is inspired by real-life events.)

Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010 and is one of the most memorable books that I have savoured of late. Definitely a must read!

   

Poor Little Rich Slum

Poor Little Rich Slum by Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi offers us a peak into one of the world’s most famous slums – Dharavi. 

I’ve never been to Mumbai (so many years since it has been renamed and I still prefer calling it Bombay). It is the only metro in India that I haven’t visited yet but I have heard so much about it that it is high up on my wish list. I hope to explore it sometime in the future. However, I am quite sure that I probably wouldn’t be dropping into Dharavi. 

I really doubt if any Indian – except politicians, researchers, the religious, social workers or those who live & work in slums and those who avail of their services – would voluntarily step into a slum, unless forced to and especially not on a vacation. Somehow, Westerners seem to be enamoured by India’s slums. Call it an after effect of Slumdog Millionaire (a nice movie although why it won an Oscar is puzzling!) the spotlight seems to be suddenly shining on an entity which we Indians usually tend to ignore. Most of us are so used to seeing slums in our cities that we are pretty much oblivious to them. 

Mumbai’s famous slum has been covered a lot in recent times – but almost always by foreigners. Hence it is interesting to note that Poor Little Rich Slum has been created by Indians with a focus on the spirit on entrepreneurship in Dharavi. Also, I think that the book is written specifically for an Indian audience too - because there are a lot of quotes in Hindi for which no translation has been provided. The book has a coffee-table-book quality to it – although it is quite slim. It is made up of short, easy-to-read chapters, each talking about the bigger picture of Dharavi through the smaller stories of its inhabitants. 

The book is peppered with photographs – most quite fascinating while some, well, how do you capture filth and dirt beautifully? But the stories themselves and the enterprising people we meet during the course of the book are nothing short of inspiring. There are days when we, the privileged, seem to crib about the silliest of things in our lives; moaning that it is too hot to get any work done or that our neighbours were too noisy to let us sleep in peace. Therefore it is amazing to realize how much can be achieved with practically next to nothing – except courage, determination and perseverance. 

It is clear that the soul of Dharavi is its people. There is Jameel Shah - whose shoes are patronized by Bollywood biggies, Hanifabi and Salma – crusaders who are help women battle domestic violence, Panju Swamy – whose idli stall is Dharavi’s connection to South India, Faheem and Tauseef – the bright, young founders of Be The Local Tours & Travels and so many more resourceful people who have risen above the poverty, the uncertainty and the chaos that surround their lives; people who have not let their hopes and dreams to be overwhelmed by their circumstances. 

Perhaps because the negative aspects of Dharavi have already been well documented in mainstream media, this time the authors have tried to portray a different side of Dharavi by showcasing its positive points instead. Poor Little Rich Slum shows us that Dharavi is a lot of things to a lot of people; a place to call home, a workplace to earn a livelihood, a school of life, a novelty for tourists, a curiosity for outsiders and most importantly, a place that offers numerous opportunities for survival - but one which also pushes you to test your inner limits.

One Amazing Thing

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an uncomplicated tale of humanity.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the story of 9 people who are thrown together by an act of nature. Nine different characters – Uma, a young Indian woman brought up in the US, Jiang, an old Chinese-Indian lady settled in the US and her granddaughter Lily, Tariq, a young man of Indian origins but brought up in the US again, Mr. & Mrs. Pritchett, an elderly couple with a strained marriage, Cameron, a black man with a past, and finally Malathi and Mangalam, the staff - find themselves trapped by an earthquake at the Indian Consulate in America. How they hold onto hope while learning about each other and coping with the predicament that they have suddenly found themselves in, forms the rest of the story.

I guess I always try to find a little bit of myself in the protagonists of all the books I read. In this one, this particular sentence about one of the characters, Uma, caught my eye: “When flying, she always chose a window seat so that when the plane took off or landed, she could look down on the tiny houses and imagine the lives of the people who inhabited them.” Yep, sounds like me alright!

I am a big fan of Chitra Banerjee after reading The Palace Of Illusions. I enjoy her writing style and the thoughts that they provoke in me. In One Amazing Thing, I also enjoyed her sense of humour. For instance, “The pain in her wrist was still there, but like a nagging old relative to whose complaints she had grown accustomed.” -  Don’t we all know that relative!?

I also really liked the way she describes several names – Farah: “…like a yearning poet’s sigh”, Flurry’s: “…a delicious name that melted in one’s mouth like the lightest of pastries.” Lovely, no? I went back and repeated the names to myself – marvelling at how appropriately the author managed to capture the spirit of these names.

To keep up their flagging spirits and for want of anything else to do, the group starts sharing stories. Each person tells a story from their life – through which we learn about the hopes and fears, the dreams and disappointments, the plans and mistakes that fill each of our lives. 

Each story gives us a peek into the lives of the protagonists and makes us understand the reasons behind why they are who they are. Of all the stories, I found Jiang’s and Mrs. Pritchett’s to be most moving; the former for being a victim of unfortunate circumstances and the latter for seeming like she had it all – only to discover belatedly that she didn’t in fact.  Malathi’s story was rather predictable, while Tariq’s was quite expected in today’s Islamaphobic world.

One thing that I didn’t like in the book was its open ending. I hate open endings – be it in movies or in books. I do not like it when the author leaves readers hanging in the balance, wondering whatever happens next and left to draw our own conclusions!

But apart from that, One Amazing Thing is a relatively simple story. The Palace Of Illusions was a complicated book  - given that it was a woman’s point of view of the great epic Mahabharat, which explains the multiple layers and dimensions. One the other hand, One Amazing Thing is a straight forward book that reiterates the fact that life- and people - is never black and white. 

P.S: Around the time that I was reading this book, a major earthquake struck Iran and we felt the tremors all the way here in the UAE. This is the second time I've felt an earthquake, but that was a spooky coincidence indeed!

Henna For The Broken-Hearted

Henna For The Broken-Hearted is an autobiographical modern day love story of Sharell Cook, an expat living in India.

I had been meaning to read Henna For The Broken-Hearted for quite some time and finally managed to get my hands on it. To begin with, I really like the title of the book. I think it is so poetic – and also, aptly captures the spirit of the story in just a few words.

Henna For The Broken-Hearted is narrated in first person. It tells the story of how the author led a seemingly complete, but apparently empty, life in Australia. Faced with some life altering changes, Cook decides to volunteer in India – where she rediscovers life and love, and in the process, herself.

As I started reading Cook’s description of herself, I thought, “Oh that sounds so much like me!” For instance, she says, “Despite what some would call an idyllic childhood … I grew into a shy, closed and introverted teenager … used to spending time by myself among nature and absorbed in books.”As she goes on to explain her career choices and other expectations from life, I was hooked.

But of course, that is really where the similarity ends, for I am no white woman trying to find the true meaning of her life while struggling to accept India’s idiosyncrasies. And that is where I have a problem with this book. Although the premise of the story – the search for love and peace – is universal, the story itself isn’t. I am assuming that the target audience of this book is predominantly foreigners. A lot of everyday, common things which the average Indian needs no introduction to, are described in detail. Even the prices of stuff is first mentioned in rupees and then duly converted to dollars. Hence, at times, I wanted to just skim over the oh-so-familiar details of Ganesh Chathurthi and arranged marriages. 

The book does give one an insider’s perspective of life in India – as Cook eventually settles down in Mumbai – but it is also peppered with the typical clichés about Indians; how we don’t stand in queues, how we push and shove in crowded places, how everything is plagued by bureaucratic red tape, how we make a fuss about grand weddings, how we wobble our heads and so on. Yes, yes (and I’m wobbling my head here), we know all that. Now can we move on?

But, apart from the done-to-death details about India, Cook’s story is a remarkable one indeed. One definitely has to admire the fact that she was brave enough to venture into India at a time when she was down in the dumps in her personal life. Afterall life in India is far from easy and needs a lot of “adjustments”, especially for those who come from orderly and follow-all-the-rules countries. Even many Indians like me, who get used to a comfortable lifestyle, would find India quite demanding, regardless of whether we love the country and consider it our home or not. 

I felt sorry for Cook, when she found herself in an Indian style squat toilet, clueless as to how to proceed! In her initial accommodation, when she is kept awake by an army of mosquitoes, I was reminded of my recent trip to Chennai; unable to sleep because of incessantly swatting mosquitoes that no amount of Odomos or Good Night could drive out, I indeed found myself longing for the cozy comfort of my bed in Dubai for a long and restful sleep!

Henna For The Broken-Hearted, is somewhat similar in theme to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. But I enjoyed reading Eat, Pray, Love more than this book. It could be because, Eat, Pray, Love takes us to Italy and Indonesia, apart from India, and since I am fascinated by both these countries, I found them exotic enough. Another reason I think Eat, Pray, Love, is better, is that although telling a personal story, it somehow managed to look at the bigger picture in the larger scheme of things. But Henna For The Broken-Hearted, is an intensely personal story, which focuses almost entirely on the author’s ups and downs. Although, the author’s courage in sharing her innermost fears and thoughts are to be admired, why would anyone want to wade through nearly 300 pages of a book detailing the nitty-gritties of a random stranger – especially if you already know how it all ends, since the author is quite popular in the blogosphere as she runs the Diary Of A White Indian Housewife site? In that sense, I felt that something was missing from Henna For The Broken-Hearted. A good read – but going beyond the personal, would have made it a great one.

Me Before You

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is a sentimental yet realistic story of a woman who is afraid to test her boundaries and a man who isn’t.

My first thought on reading Me Before You was that it is quite similar to the Hindi movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai - Guzaarish. Indeed the premise is the same. Will Traynor seems to have it all – money, looks, charm – until he is involved in a horrific accident which leaves him bed-ridden and dependent on others for everything. Lou Clark is the reluctant helper appointed to assist him.

Will is filled with bitterness and anger as he resents his fate and the fact that he doesn’t really have anything to look forward to anymore in life. Lou on the other hand is trying to find herself even as she struggles to be rid of a painful past. While everyone in Will’s life tread carefully afraid of irking him, Lou will have none of it. She refuses to be bullied by him and ignores his taunts and tantrums. She charms him with her spirit, outspokenness and a strange vulnerability. Over time a comfortable bond begins to develop between them – which eventually blooms into a fragile relationship. But what about Lou’s boyfriend? Where does he fit into this picture? And with Will having no future to speak of, where will this relationship end up?

I found this book to be an entertaining read. The ending moved me to tears – as I was desperately hoping for things to take another turn – but they don’t. This is the first book I've read by this author. I got it from a book club that I am a member of and I was fully expecting a typically romantic, candy-floss novel which would probably make me roll my eyes heavenwards with its unbearable clichés. But this book definitely went a step beyond that. 

Even if a little predictable, it wasn’t boring as it was fast-paced and things kept moving along swiftly. Although dealing with a difficult situation, the author doesn’t dwell too heavily on the depressing angles and instead manages to lighten the mood with ironic humour; which is why it makes the poignant moments tug at your heart strings and makes you wish fervently for a happy ending. In the end however, one cannot say that the ending is tragic – rather it is a practical one where each person discovers and embraces what is best for them in life.

Saying anything more would give away the story - so I'll stop here. But if you are looking for a moving and absorbing read, go for it!

Suits: A Woman On Wall Street

Suits by Nina Godiwalla is a racy story of a young woman who finds that the values and principles that she believed to be important are at loggerheads with those that the world deems to be essential.

I really enjoyed this book. Suits is a semi-autobiographical book written by an Indian-American woman who is just starting out on an exciting and challenging corporate career at Wall Street, NY. To me a good book or even a good movie is one which I can relate to, a story in which I can maybe see a little bit of myself or characters who reflect a facet of myself however minuscule it might be. That is the main reason why I don’t enjoy the current trend in Tamil cinema, where every other movie is set in a rural milieu. While such “offbeat” movies which are in fact, rapidly becoming mainstream ones might actually have a good story and talented actors, and I can of course understand the situations, I cannot put myself in their place, I cannot see myself as one among them. Now why am I talking about movies when this post is about a book? Silly me!

So in Suits, despite the fact that I am neither Indian-American nor do I have a high-blown corporate career nor am I by any stretch of imagination a finance whiz, I could still identify with the protagonist. I “get” what she says. It is an engrossing tale set in modern times and talks about what Nina had to face at her workplace on the prestigious Wall Street. By being an immigrant as well as a woman, she turns out to be a minority within a minority. Her saving grace is that she is almost “Americanized” with her looks and her accent and so although she escapes a vast majority of the discrimination, she still witnesses it being directed at more “fresh of the boat” colleagues.

While I do agree that one does need to blend in and not stick out like a sore thumb, the whole atmosphere described in the book is dead set against anything or anybody who can be considered different. The mantra practiced is Conform, Conform, Conform! Add gender discrimination to the list - if you are a woman who dresses stylishly, you’re a bimbo or if you are too social, you’re just all-talk-and-no-work. When I was working in the corporate sector, I guess these issues did exist somewhere below the surface. When people talk about sexual or racial harassment in offices, most of us might think, “Oh but I wasn’t harassed at all!” Well good for you and I must say that I wasn’t either. But one cannot deny that undercurrents were present nevertheless.

For instance, in one of my project teams I happened to be the only woman. So when the guys headed out for a smoke break with the manager or bonded over a drink – what was I supposed to do? Even if I drank or smoked, could I just go and join the gang? And everyone knows that informal communication and information does occur during such bonding sessions – which I would probably be losing out on. Or when someone cracked a sexist joke or passed a distasteful comment on some woman walking by however harmless it might be, how should I react? Should I just laugh and join in the fun and be “one of the boys”? Or should I show the fact that I do not appreciate such talk at the risk of sounding too prudish or too stuck up? Or should I just fake indifference?

Apart from these issues, Suits also talks about the pressure and stress of working in a highly competitive environment, which is blatantly focused on making revenue and coming first in the rat race, than ethics or morals. While those on the outside, might only notice the flashy lifestyle it is a fact that many workers face emotional breakdowns as they are unable to handle the constant overload and the isolation that accompanies a life of almost zero work-life balance. As Nina sees herself gradually being swept away by it all and turning into one of “them”, she is forced to take a relook at her dreams and ideals.

Along the lines, we are also offered a glimpse of Nina’s home and family life, right from childhood. Her Parsi family sounds like a typical middle-class Indian family, or maybe even any immigrant family bent on working-hard and saving money for securing their children’s future and hoisting their own dreams and hopes onto their kids. And we see the little girl in Nina, who wants to prove – to herself, to her dad, to the world – that yes she can do it, she can fulfill all those expectations, that she is worthy of their love and admiration. These chapters contain some of the most heart-warming and humorous incidents in the book. And in the end, it is also her family that stands solidly by her and keeps her sane and grounded.

Nina says that when she was writing the book, she wasn’t expecting anyone to read it. Maybe that’s why she manages to tell a honest story, dil se.

The Palace Of Illusions

The Palace Of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee  Divakaruni, is an engrossing and reflective read - which paints the Mahabharat in a relatively contemporary light.

Let me start by saying that I loved this book! There were so many things that I adored about this book – so be warned that this is going to be one long post! The Palace Of Illusions is supposed to be Panchaali’s Mahabharat. Now I haven’t actually read the Mahabharat, but growing up in India, one cannot help but be exposed to it. Apart from all TV channels telecasting never-ending episodes of the great epic, several stories, morals and proverbs form part of everyday life. So although I do not know the nitty-gritty of the Mahabharat, I am reasonably familiar with the story and the characters.

But as the author says, seldom have we ever viewed the Mahabharat from the female protagonist’s viewpoint. She plays such an important role in the unfolding of events, and yet one doesn’t delve into her psyche and analyze her thoughts or actions. Of course, I know that there are a few books that attempt to do the same, but I have not read any. But I did read The Palace Of Illusions – and in my opinion it is remarkably successful. 

The author portrays Draupadi as an impulsive, short-tempered and strong-willed woman, whose life slowly transforms her from a naïve young girl to a mature woman.  Shown in this light, it is very easy to view Draupadi as a normal woman – just like you and me – rather than a strange woman, who had no qualms about marrying five husbands or throwing a damning curse on an entire clan.

Of course, both the author as well as the reader has the benefit of hindsight while reading this book. Hence it is possible to reflect on the incidents that happen with insightful questions as the story progresses. What is admirable about the book is that  though it is not possible to portray suspense - as I assume almost everyone who reads this book would already be aware of what’s going to happen next – still it was in no way boring or dragging.

The story of the Mahabharat, by itself is quite fascinating. The boundaries between divine and human isn’t too rigid, the characters are well-etched with each having a solid purpose and their lives are intertwined by destiny. But going beyond that, I admire Chitra’s language which captures the poignancy of moments beautifully. For instance, when Draupadi ponders over Karna and his unknown mother, she says, “For the rest of her life, she would wonder where her son was. Passing every handsome stranger, she’d ask herself (just as he would, walking by women he didn’t know), Could this be-? Each morning when they awoke – in the same town, or kingdoms apart – their first thoughts would be of each other. In anger and regret, they’d both wish she’d had the courage to choose another way.”

At another time, when she thinks about how the destinies of both her brother and Karna, pressed them towards tragedy, she says, “No matter how skilled they were at battle, ultimately it would not help them because they were forever defeated by their conscience. What cruel God fashioned the net of their minds this way, so they could never escape it?” How true!

She wonders, “Can our actions change our destiny? Or are they like sand piled against the breakage in a dam, merely delaying the inevitable?” Whether you believe in destiny or not, if you have ever tried to do anything which seems at loggerheads with it, this quote will surely resonate with you – it did with me.

And if you’ve ever felt vengeance in your blood even for a passing second, so will this; “Is the desire for vengeance stronger than the longing to be loved? What evil magic does it possess to draw the human heart so powerfully to it?”

When Draupadi tells us what she learnt after the shameful disrobing incident, I cannot help but agree whole-heartedly; “All this time I’d believed… that because they (her husbands) loved me they would do anything for me. But now I saw that though they did love me – as much perhaps as any man can love – there were other things they loved more. Their notions of honor, of loyalty toward each other, of reputation were more important to them than my suffering. They would avenge me later, yes, but only when they felt the circumstances would bring them heroic fame. A woman doesn’t think that way. … I wouldn’t have cared what anyone thought. The choice they made in the moment of my need changed something in our relationship. I no longer depended on them so completely in the future. And when I took care to guard myself from hurt, it was as much from them as from our enemies. For men, the softer emotions are always intertwined with power and pride.”

I am sure that any woman who has had a meaningful relationship can understand Draupadi’s sentiments here. To draw parallels to the world that we live in, even today, there are many men who will gladly help their wives with household chores – because they care about her and see nothing wrong in giving her a hand. BUT these same men, would hesitate to accept in front of their friends that yes, they do the dishes every night or that they wash their wives clothes once a week. Why? It’s because they fear that other people would think less of them, they are apprehensive that their reputation might be harmed and their pride might be hurt. They might have all the good intentions of not doing something; but if continuously taunted with “Why? Did you wife tell you not to do this?”, invariably they give in as it translates to a lack of manly power and control.

Apart from Panchaali, the character which most impacted me was of course Karna. What a cursed, cursed life and what a sad, sad death! Karna is the quintessential tragic hero - and one can never forget tragic heros, can we? And finally, when the great war ends, one does not feel any kind of triumph, jubilation or happiness. We can only feel the sorrow, the pain, the loss and the futility of it all. The Pandavas won. So what? And at what cost? Was it really worth all the trouble and sacrifice?

Although this book is from a women's point of view, I did not think it to be overly feminist. Yes several practices are questioned, but the questions could be from any modern woman of today. For example, when Sikhandi relates his story, he says that when he went back to his lover Salva as the Princess of Amba, she was turned away on the pretext that she was contaminated as Bheeshma had taken her by hand and that she belonged to him now. To this she replies, "If someone grasps my hand against my will, how does that make me his? I'm the one who decides to whom I belong." She goes on to add, "In the sandalwood days of love, I thought that if I could not have Salva, I would die. Now I discovered that a woman's life is tougher than a banyan root, which exists without soil or water."

Another incident which struck a chord with me was, when Panchaali wonders about Gandhari's vow to blindfold herself as her husband in also sightless. "... I agreed that Gandhari's sacrifice wan't particularly intelligent. If my husband couldn't see, I'd make doubly sure to keep my own eyes open..." Many a times have I thought the same thing!

Attempting to rewrite a classic epic is no mean task. Many writers say that a story ‘wrote itself’ once they began to write it. But here, that is not possible. It is afterall not your own creative story that you are writing. You cannot simply go off on a tangent, giving free reign to your imagination. You need to have the facts right and then use your imagination to interpret events and actions within the boundaries of what has already been written. And Chitra has done a fantastic job. I strongly recommend this marvellous book.