Book : The Color of Love - Priti Nair

This is an interesting piece of fiction. It could be very well be titled as "Practical step by step guide to PR and Media Lies". That's what the story is all about.

Its about a painter at heart turned lawyer trying to break free of cobweb of lies that she builds around herself as the story progresses.It is inspiring to the extent that it does motivate you at some level to believe in yourself and just take the plunge. Somewhere I felt some shades of the alchemist's universal conspiracy theory in action and at others the media ritual theory of participative media.

So here is a woman who fools everyone and lies to the entire universe to be true to herself.

Media plays an important role in the build up. She creates a fictional character to live her life through the surrogate.What does media do?It makes fiction turn real so everyone knows about FORUKI - the fictional character.Media is news hungry , believes all you say ,investigates life and above all has the power to make or break lives.That's the power of media.

So whats with the color of love? Its a fun read. I don't know whether to call it Chic-lit or something else. But if you enjoy comedy of errors - this one is for you. Though it's not a must read.

Book: Shantaram

Shantaram. The book I took longest to read. If it were some other book I would have given it up in so much time, but I couldn't. It was because it was Shantaram. The book I read each day to walk vicariously with the author through the lanes and by lanes of Mumbai. I have lived in Mumbai for 4 years and the city just grows on you. I know it and I can vouch for it. If you love that city despite its pace and dirt you will love this book too.




There are various parts of the book that I really love.

On Love : Pg 372 :
I never believed in love at first sight until it happened to me. Then when it did happen, it was as if every atom in my body had been changed, somehow : as if I had become charged with heat and light. I was different , forever, just for the sight of her. And the love that opened in my heart seemed to drag the rest of my life behind it , from that moment onward. I heard her sound in every lovely sound the wind wrapped around me.I saw her face in every in brilliant mirrored flares of memory, everyday.

On Man and Money: Pg 804
You can't reason with a man who has no sense of money and its....its value. Its the one thing all civilised men have in common, don't you agree? If money doesn't mean anything there is no civilisation. There is nothing.

On Life : Pg 871
Every Life , every love , every action and feeling and thought has its reason and significance: its beginning and the part it plays in the end. Sometimes, we do see. Sometimes, we see the past so clearly, and read the legend of its parts with such acuity, that every stitch of time reveals its purpose, and a kind of message is enfolded in it.

There are many such moments in the book but the thing that stands out most are the characters . Lin and Karla , Prabhaker , Ulla and Khader Bhai , each one of them is so flesh and blood that you want the book to never end.

Movie: Namesake

(Its serendipity. I was planning to a review "Shantaram" -write on the book that I finished a week ago and unfortunately it took a backseat. The serendipity is that the movie I went for and am writing about currently is by the director who's next movie will be "Shantaram." And it has suddenly come to forefront.)

Namesake is splendid. Its a collage of moments from a lifetime. Some may find it incomplete and others superficial. But its the collage of moments that matter. We all have those moments in our lifetime that stand out. The defining moments of life.

My reviews normally talk of the moments that touched me somewhere deep inside. In this movie the one scene that really was hard hitting was the moment when Tabu is told to close her eyes and think of the moment when she felt "happy not thrilled just deeply happy". It held my attention and I will try the same. Close my eyes and look for the moment of happiness.

Death - loss of loved one- is also an experience that each one of us go through. I heard Mira Nair talk of it in one of the interviews and after watching the movie I agree that if it was her objective to convey the same then she has been successful 100%. Death is an experience that makes me smile and makes life and its challenges so petty. It puts all in perspective and makes one think of the purpose of existence - inspires one to make a difference somewhere.

Its an amazing movie. I would say - go for it!