"~ free"

***

Do not let your fears

Become your jailer

The walls are just a token

Your spirit is free

Do not let your failures

Become your captor

The shackles are now broken

This is your winning spree

Do not let the noises

Become your sentry

The music is within you

You are your best way to be.

***

"Children's Park / Peace Of Mind"

Kids in the park

In their eyes that spark

Wish I can make it mine

This eternal sunshine

Carefree laughter

No thought of what comes after

Paper boats

Rains without coats

Hues of butterflies

In crisp blue skies

Rolling in the sand

Then dusting off with a hand

Many a names

for a single game

Generations pass

But they are the same

Flavors of Youth 

served piping hot

Worries lost

In one fine shot

Here ageing reverses 

In high speed

Peace of mind

Guaranteed...!!!

A Poem On A Poem

***

A poem is sacred

It has a life of itself

It chooses which pages

Of which book on the shelf

A poem is like a soul

Waiting for some skin

It's being is intact

Through the thick and the thin

Just like a player is

never bigger than the game

The poem picks its subject

While only changing the name...!!!

***

Book Review: Unladylike by Radhika Vaz

A book that makes you think and laugh, at the same time. That is something very few books can do!

There are some books which are to be swallowed, some which are to be enjoyed sip by sip, and some which are to be downed in one big gulp. I had to chew this one, bite by bite. And I am glad I did. 

Unlike most times when I really get excited about a book and the book turns out to be a 2 on a scale of 10, this one lived up to the expectations, and more. 

The humor is fresh and crisp, and the under-thoughts​ are powerful. Along with making you laugh, smirk or nod in the silent appreciation of things that you always wanted​ to express but were somehow too timid to say yourself, the words in this book also make you think. 

I especially loved the part which the author dedicates to the pressure society creates on become parents 'On Time' and where she explains that if she ever wants/decides to become a parent, she would want to become 'The Dad'. I echo those emotions.

On my scale of Joy of Reading, this one is a 3.5/5.

Book Review: Three Thousand Stitches by Sudha Murty

There are only two prerequisites for being a story teller - having a good story, and having the unending desire to tell it.
There are also only two prerequisites for a good story - content and fluidity of expression.
Rest everything are side-effects.

And Sudha Murty does it best once again with her latest collection called Three Thousand Stitches.

These stories are a delight, for any time and any age. And the fact that these are real life accounts only adds to the joy of reading. Yes, truth is, more oftentimes, stranger than fiction. And at many points during the course of the book, this truth gives goosebumps, for the wonder called life.

Being a mother has seriously challenged my capacity to digest stories which don't end on an happily ever after, and I am trying to come out of it. But till then, I thank T.J.S. George who inspired the author to tell her stories.

With eleven bite sized chapters, this collection is different from her other works. It is reveling, relatable, thought provoking, thoroughly enjoyable and leaves the reader high on life. A unique token of gratitude, a chance meeting, having to eat your own words or being the single girl student in an engineering college class with 149 boys years ago, these are things that could or could not happen to anyone of us. Weaved in her characteristically simple English, the aftertaste of these stories will remain with you long after the last page has been turned over. And if I were to tell which was my favorite, well, hands down it has to be chapter number 6.

On my scale of Joy of Reading, I mark it a 3.5/5

Kindle Unlimited: How You Became My New Best Friend...!!!

From the times of gloriously licking and slurping every word off from the day's newspaper, I have now come to THAT place in my life where I get to lay my hands on a national daily only while aiming to dispose off soiled diapers.

And some headlines are such, they manage to jump at you and grab your eyeballs with their tiny invisible hands even in such uninhabitable conditions (ref: wrappings for soiled diapers).

It was one such headline that did the trick. It said something about a movie being made out of a book called: "How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company" by Varun Agarwal. 

I have a thing for books. And when someone tries to turn them into movies, my attention is rapt and undivided. Not because I like movies better. In fact I feel movies murder the spirit of books, as has happened with most cases, except for "To Kill A Mocking Bird". It is because I like to see different renditions of the same story - powerful insights into human behavior, a subject I adore.

Now, this book had been leaping at me time and again during my frequent visits to Amazon, something I do on a regular basis, in order to build up my To-Read list (to be converted into Order Confirmation Receipts when I can procure the funds, in the form of Gift Cards from Mr. Husband; cuz all book lovers know, a bought book isn't as much fun to read ;)). But I somehow managed to douse it every time. Till now.

So, instead of Amazon guiding my search 'based on my browsing history' and being the more-than-perfect salesperson it is, I went online window-shopping and purposefully looked it up. 

And there it was, perched elegantly next to this book, vouching for itself, decorated with the golden words "Subscribers read for Free". Needless to say, it was the last word of this phrase that actually caught my awareness. Just the way it works for us Indians.

I looked it up. Kindle Amazon that is. There were three different memberships - Monthly, Half-yearly and Annual. Despite its uncanny and almost eerie resemblance to school examinations, which thankfully are no longer a topic of worry amongst the many others inside the channels of my brain (soiled diapers being the predominant one), I appreciate the concept. Try for a month, validate your potential and then decide if you have the digestive capacity to go longer-stronger.

Given how I am, I had no other option than to try the monthly one, for I have always belonged to that school of thought which professes: "once you own, all charm is gone".

And thus arrived Kindle Unlimited into my phone and my life. And I am so happy it did. Because:

1. All the time "Wasted" on useless internet stuff (read: scrolling) is now spent reading.

2. This gives me an elevated sense of self, that I am doing 'at least something for myself''.

3. It is bringing me a tad bit closer to my goal of finishing 12 books in a year, a resolution I have been making every time since the last 3 years, and have been missing by game point.

4. And last but of course not the least, because it has brought me back to my writing, to my beloved blog.

Book reviews coming up soon.

Soiled diapers aren't that bad after all...!!! 

:) :)

#FirstMother'sDay...!!!

"A child gives birth to a Mom." With this calculation, I am almost 7 months old today. 

My baby, you only make my resolve stronger, my spirit undefeatable and my patience abundant. When you were inside me, I used to think that it is the best this way, you and me always together - like a Mamma and Baby Kangaroo, always in conversation and sharing everything; but since the moment you came in my arms, you made me realize that 'possibility' is so underrated. 

It never fails to amaze me how much love you can be capable of after being a Mom, and how less that can become the next instant! I may be unshowered or unkempt, sweaty or stained, exhausted or elated, but your eyes always, only spell love. And THAT makes my world go round.

I cannot find the right words to tell how happy I am about being eligible for being wished on this Mother's Day. All I can say is, Thank You Shivaansh...!!! This one is for both of us...!!!

(Could not recollect the login details to my blog last week, therefore this post is coming up now :D)