Petals!

Daawat-e-Ishq is not about a love story that revolves around food. It is about Love and Dhokha. It is about a young girl's 'daring to dream' story. Are you ready for this? Daawat-e-Ishq: Love, Dowry and Dhokha The opening scene in Daawat-e-Ishq takes you straight into a ‘bride seeing’ ceremony in Hyderabad. The boy’s mother looks her nose down at everything offered. It’s the typical “no girl is ever good enough for my son” scene that is shown.  The prospective bride is Gulrez Khadir (starring Parineeti), who is a sales girl in a shoe shop. She has many dreams: of going to the US to study fashion design, of designing her own shoes and opening a shoe shop….yes, she is street smart, ambitious, full of amazing energy and she has a “weak spot for men who speak English well.” So, when the boy and girl get a chance to talk alone, all hell breaks loose! Gulrez Khadir is incensed that the prospective groom asked her if she watched “beelue” films instead of pronounci...

Here you go with my favorite posts for this month’s reading list: 23 amazing women writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka talk about what it means to a be a writer  . Is there a connection between writers and pubs?  YES, says Billy Wilder.  Head out to ScotlandsPubsandBars.co.uk , a great resource detailing dozens of pubs with connections to music, industry, literature, sport, architecture and more. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?  If you aren’t tipsy yet, you have to read: Vidya Sury’s thoughts on the book “The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker” .  Alice Walker’s book 'The Color Purple'  had given me sleepless nights because of the heart wrenching narrative.  Another heart-wrenching post is from Vishnu   about   the “We own you” mindset of Indian parents wherein “your success is their success, your failure is theirs, your income is theirs….” For those of us who are in the denial...

I had begun reading an unusual book called ' blue: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories from Sri Lanka ' edited by Ameena Hussein. It is recommended as a break-through in Sri Lankan writing. Here's a book review of it by Sharanya Manivannan . This is definitely not a genre I read. But my rationale for picking this up was:  Why not just see another person's perspective about an aspect of life that you know nothing about?  The problem is: As a reader, I felt a complete disconnect as I began reading this book. I could not understand what made so many young writers put in so much effort to write this kind of fiction. This book, no matter what the reviews say, is not a milestone in Sri Lankan writing. I couldn't tolerate it at all. Coming back to the genre of erotic books, the last book I read was ' Autobiography of a Sex Worker ' by a Malayali woman - this was at least three years ago.  After reading the book, I found myself able to empathize with se...

The year 2014, when it first began to unfold, promised me nothing and gave me no reason to hope. Fortunately, 2014 isn't anything like I expected it to be.  In 2013, I felt a hundred years old, really. I expected to feel worse at the beginning of the new year. But funny thing is, I didn't.  At a professional level, this has been my best year. At a personal level, I have begun to protect my fence of happiness and growth. I am not letting in people who make me feel negative about myself. The need to be surrounded by those who care and love me has outweighed everything else this year and yes, it has paid off in a big way.  I feel as though I can take on the world and conquer it with just a smile.  I would also like to believe that my best years have just begun as amazing, beautiful things are happening in my life. My new home is slowly getting ready and should be ready early next year. You know, it's a really small space in terms of square feet but the v...