Book Review: The Twentieth Wife!

Been waiting to pick this book since the time Swaram reviewed it! Heres my take on it:

'TwetiethWife' is the tale of Nurjehan... I luv the way these novels brings to live what are until then jus another borinbg name peeping out from the dusty history books! Be it this book or Draupadis personification in Palace of Illusions!

This book is a winner in its own rt but it fails to hold ur attention at few places(U could blame it on my reading marthon).... Possibly cause while the book is centered around NurJahan, there are multiple instances where the focus goes away from her n is instead embroiled in the drama surrounding other characters or rather on history!

Except this one grouse, the book is a true page turner!The way her character is etched ~~ U almost end up identifying with her ~~ Not a mean task considering we are talking of a character from history few generations back! Ofcourse not to forget the share of  interesting snippets!


As I was telling a friend of mine, Gift this book to an school student and lest assured he\she will remember history like the back of their hands n will love it too! Indu Sundaresan, Cant wait to finish all the books in this Taj Triology....

Wow! Another book done for south asian book challenge :-D

Book Review: Japanese Wife - Kunal Basu

Ok now letta try a diff approach for this book review... ok??


The cover page of the book has this quote by Aparna Sen ""The Japanese Wife" is a haunting but improbable love story, almost surreal its innocence"!

The backcover has this "Such is the dexterity with which Basu writes that the twelve separate stories melt together to become a book of evocation. In the end what one remember is the splendid and the remarkable"!!

Thus ma frnds I sign off the book review .... A remarkable approach to book review huh :-D.

Truly these lines above jus about covers what I hv to say this book... The story of 'Japnese Wife' is the creamiest story in the book, thou ofcourse every other story in it has tht distinct appeal to them (Thou I agree few went above ma head!)

Pic courtesy Google!

This ma frnds is the 2nd book in ma series of South Asian challenge! Do check out the rest here......

Book Review: 'Kaalam' by M.T. Vasudevan Nair

As I had said here... Am a  proud matrilineal nair woman !!! While this did set me apart from many of my peers, I really never appreciated the dynamics of it... All I knew was tht a few generations back in a typical Nair family the father never played active role in upbringing his children instead it was the maama(moms bros!)! While I hv heard a few snide comments on this abt 'Crafty Nair Women'(N I take a bow for it :-P)~~ I never knew enuf to what this setup translated to for this is never a topic thats come up for a discussion in my family circle (Well guess they had graver topics to worry abt!)

Haaa now b4 u ask me if this post wasnt supposed to be an book review ~~ Lemme dig in n introduce you to the book 'Kaalam' by M.T. Vasudevan Nair ~~ Haa but ofcourse the fraud mallu I am, I read an English translation of it by Gita KrishnanKutty ~~ A gr8 shes done with the book!

So as you must hv guessed the book revolves around the 'matrilineal Sambandham' system ~~ N heres a brief decko of the system  ~~ The lady continues to stay at her home(her mothers place if u prefer) post marriage while husband keeps paying her on-n-off visit(While this aint written anywhere how many of you would waana guess the 'Days-of-the-month' the husband will come visiting :-P) So but obviously the men-in-House would be the girls brothers and so their significance n so the matrineal system too!

Now while this is jus a decko am sure theres more to it... From the hear-say what I know is this is followed to avoid the wealth n property from being partioned ~~ While I am still to understand the chemistry of how matrilineal system prevents partition n such I can vouch with some level of accuracy that while today matrilineal system ot not the wealth does gets partioned but the rate may still be a degree lessser ~ Possibly to do with the closer bonds that a sister - sister as compared to a sister - SIL (N who are you kidding if u say tht the shots at a home is not called by the women!) or possibly cause this prevents a man from floundering all his wealth on his family(read wife n children) at cost of others  as well the key stakeholders here are the women( C'mon the chances of women floundering off wealth is much lesser!)


Ok now the above para was a digression from the book!  The story in 'Kaalam' revolves around the the family dynamics of a not-so-well-to-do Nair Families n the downfall of Namboodiris......   A book tht gives u a insight into the fibre of kerala society..... A nice good read!

This BTW is the 2nd book I finished  in keeping with the south asian book challenge ~~ A review of the first one coming up soon!

2011 South Asian Challenge!

Now now this is one that I been seeing on-n-off in all the blogs tht I silently lurk on...

N its quite simple n interesting too.... All u gota do is agree upon 'X' no. of books that you will read abt South Asia or by South Asian Authors... Quite simple  considering I hv a reasonable appetite for simple fiction... This aint asking much... Esp when  your no 'X' can range from 1-2 books n go all the way upto 10 +!! Wonder what took me so long to sign up for this one!!!

So here as I take a plunge into this one.. N all am targeting is a v v reasonable no of 7....Wish me luck!

Oooo! Whats with me n this sudden burst of activity - First NaBloPoMo N now this!!!!