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Showing posts from October, 2015

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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Missoula by Jon Krakauer

It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering... Missoula has been on my wishlist ever since it was released early this year. This book isn't a typical Jon Krakauer book - there is no outdoor adventure gone wrong here. Missoula is all about rapes in college campuses. Besides, much of the cast of his other books are predominantly male. This book, however, is filled with mostly women. (I did think that this was an interesting choice of subject for Krakauer, but he explains in the end that someone close to him had been raped in college, resulting in her adopting several destructive coping mechanisms, such as heavy alcohol consumption and promiscuity.) Missoula is a typical college town - much of its population

The Sunday Salon: Can I go on vacation already?

Currently / Shreya wakes up way too early on weekends! I am not sure how she gets the memo that it is the weekend but she has been ready to welcome in the day by 6 AM. I'm just thankful it's not a weekday because then I end up feeling like crap in the mornings. Right now, my mom is playing with her while I have a nice hot cup of tea and type up this post. I have an apple crumble in the oven and I'm just enjoying the yummy fragrance of Fall! It's kind of chilly this weekend which is perfect weather to me though today looks like it's going to be wet as well. I feel like I wasn't anywhere in bloglandia this past week. Work was busy, life was busy. Also, Shreya snuck her way to her three-month old birthday last week. We still haven't done her photos yet (yikes) so I plan to have a photoshoot today. Work / has been very busy this past week. I spent a good part of three days doing pretty much the same thing - it was frustrating. Whe

The Sunday Salon: What to do when you wonder what to do

Lately, I've been feeling weighed down by digital clutter. There is so much stuff in my hard disk, and much more on my iPhone and iPad. Not to mention the lack of cohesiveness or structure to the stuff on my work PC. It's a mess really. But it's a deceptive mess too, because the difference between physical and digital clutter is that you can choose not to worry about digital clutter, because only you see it. As long as it doesn't bother you, you don't really have a problem. In addition to all this mess, there is just so much I can do on my phone, tablet, or my desktop. Hours can pass while I am using any of these devices, and I delude myself into believing that I am doing something worthwhile, something I want to do, something I've always been meaning to do. Truth be told, I'd like to limit my time with these devices. Since free time is a luxury nowadays - Baby is becoming more aware and interactive (yay!) - I want to use my time meaningfully. If someth

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

My memories of Agatha Christie books aren't very fond. Nor of Sherlock Holmes, for that matter. Much as I appreciate and respect their super smart and observant detectives, it does me little good to never be able to solve a mystery. And that's what I always feel like after reading either Christie's mysteries or the Sherlock Holmes books. Either the perpetrator is the person who was barely anywhere in the book and therefore feels like the least logical choice, or the crime itself is way too far-fetched. But most of the time, the mystery itself feels unsolvable and that's when the crime solver comes along to point out all the hints that the reader missed and then solve the crime. Thanks, that made me feel so good! #sarcasm. And so, I have never wanted to read any Agatha Christie books, even though she is revered heavily in the book industry. I may be selfish but I do like to solve a mystery before the detective does. But, And Then There Were None refused to step a

The Sunday Salon: And Then There Were None

Currently: Trying to fight the nap-urge after having a heavy Indian lunch. We had couple of our neighbors come over for lunch. I may or may not have eaten more than I usually do, so now I'm waiting for 4 am, so that I can have some nice piping hot tea. Last night was kind of rough. The little munchkin kept waking up every two hours, when usually she would only wake up once every 4-5 hours. I think maybe her hands (which are usually never covered) were a little too cold. We got some flannel pajamas for her yesterday - just in time, so hopefully, she won't feel too cold while sleeping. Right now, she's on her second nap of the day so I'm using the time to get caught up. Work was less dramatic this past week, which was nice. I wish we had tomorrow off for Columbus Day but like for most of the country, it's a holiday that's not a holiday at work. Reading: Yesterday, I finished reading And Then There Were None , my third Agatha Christie

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi

Now I had learnt that honour requires large sums of money to protect it, but that large sums of money could not be obtained without losing one's honour. Firdaus was sentenced to death for killing a man, and although several people have offered to apply for a pardon or some kind of mitigation of her sentence, she has staunchly refused any such interference. Our narrator is curious about this prisoner and wants to meet her, but Firdaus is firm - she doesn't want any visitors. However, on the night before she is to be executed, she changes her mind and decides to talk to the narrator. What follows is her story from her birth to the present, and all the ways she has been mistreated and taken advantage of. Firdaus' story is not pleasant. Her father only wanted sons and didn't care for this girl who outlived all or most of her siblings. Her earliest memories of her mother show a woman who may have cared for her, but very soon she was replaced by someone (either a crue

A pair of fingerless mitts | Inspiration on Monday

When I was in middle school, we had a knitting club that was always in high demand. I wasn't a member of it though I wanted to be. I was never quick enough to raise my hand when they were looking for members, which wasn't always. There's something intensely fascinating about whipping up a whole garment from some thread. I didn't know anyone who knitted and where I stayed (in Dubai and later South India), the temperatures were in the 90-110s year round. Knitting just didn't come my way in those days. My mom would sew and she taught me some of it, but I was never fascinated by it as much as the idea of knitting interested me. It wasn't until 2012 that I decided to teach myself. I started with a beginner staple - the garter scarf, a long rectangular piece knit completely in knit stitches. Easiest pattern in the world but also the most boring, so I didn't actually finish it until a year later, having abandoned it more than a few times. Around this time, I

The Sunday Salon: Life's Plan B (and a Facebook Page question for you)

I haven't been in the mood to post today so instead, I wrote all the posts for the week. All they need now is some touch-up before the Publish button needs to be hit. Last week, we had some layoffs at week that resulted in one brutal and unproductive day. For the first time, the office was empty by 5pm. Everyone had had enough. My team lost a good colleague so the repercussions continued on for a while. I could not have more happily welcomed this weekend. I also wish it wasn't yet time to go back tomorrow. The work drama eclipsed pretty much everything about this week. I started thinking about a Plan B should the husband or I get into a murky situation. Although every advice column in the world strongly recommends planning for a tragedy or a loss of income, it's unbearably hard to actually do it. Part of me doesn't want to do it because what if planning for it makes it happen. But the other half doesn't want to feel unsettled if anything disastrous happened. Now