Smells can be powerful, provocative triggers for memories, whether good or bad. The title of this book reveals this fact, but I wasn't prepared for the gut-wrenching tragedy of it all. We meet countless individuals in our lives, yet little do we know that each person is a central character in this world. It's difficult to imagine how everyone can be the centre of this universe, enduring tiresome days just to face the uncertainty of tomorrow. Amal and Hammoudi lead similar lives, separated by the veracity of their struggles amid a bloody revolution to overthrow an inhumane regime built upon a peace-fostering religion.            Author Olga sprinkles her narrative with dark humour and sarcasm, eliciting a painful smile as we read certain parts of this book. What is the purpose of all this? Why do we still aspire to live and persevere despite the pain and suffering that fate inflicts upon us from time to time? 'City of Jasmine' is a bold recounting of ...

  A text's verbosity reaches unfathomable grandiosity when poetry meets prose. Michael Ondaatje is gifted enough to weave a tale that's tragic in parts but wholly serene. At its core, "In the Skin of a Lion" treads the rugged path that courses a life chart making the journey somewhat worthwhile. Patrick Lewis is wildly swayed by the situational currents while what he truly yearns for is an ounce of regulated love. Love that is messy, uncompromising and effusively profound enough to make him feel things. At the fag end of his life, Patrick understands the universe's twisted sense of humour. In Patrick's case, timing plays a cursed role. Expectations are detached to deadlines. Everything has to run its course.  Alignments don't care about our whims and fancies. "Trust the process", we've been told.  But here's the neat part. By the time the pieces fall into place, everything ceases to makes sense; all dwindled down to a bunch of baloney. Al...

"MOTHER" is Maxim Gorky's fiery magnum opus. Nilovna like many long-suffering yet indomitable women, shows hope and remains a sign of courage to her kind who have lost their inspiration to lead and live in a patriarchal society. Revolution for the greater good is built upon bloodshed and polemical beliefs. The young blood in pre-revolutionary Soviet search for the truth and fight for their rights. For them, words' power supersedes swords' skills; sticks stones and guns even. While czarist censorship was rampant all over the city and suburbs, gendarmes mercilessly confiscated any piece of literature that could threaten the government importantly books and essays might provoke people to think or get ideas. Only intellectual freedom can ultimately free the workers of this world from the capitalistic clutches. If only it were easy to earn those rights. Mother's story is a precursor to the Russian revolutionary period which sparks ideas and thoughts that can cleans...

  Peter Ho Davies opens this tale with a small word origin for "Welsh". It means failing to fulfil one's promise. Much like the minimal doses of caffeine on a Monday morning, the plot's initial pages gradually intoxicate the readers. This slow pleasure prepares us for what is later revealed as a rocky path. Esther is a beautiful name for a woman who is as lost as any woman in this world, irrespective of her time, place or circumstances. For reasons, well-known, the protagonist is tormented by her tumultuous state of mind. When we see/hear the word "war', an image constructed with bleak and dreary details naturally comes to light. Human sufferings are archived in each pixel of that image remaining unnoticeable and microscopic given the scale of damage. Yet, they constitute the bigger picture.  "The Welsh Girl" zooms in on one such pixel, the life of Esther - the daughter of an old shepherd in North Wales set in the 1950s as it's showdown for Worl...

  "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" was the first book of Gabo that I'd read. It happened in haste, unplanned. Our school librarian was doing end-of-the-year stock verification and we were returning all borrowed books. Something with that book's cover caught my attention and convinced my inner voice to read the story. I promised my kind librarian I'd finish the book in one night and return it promptly. And it happened so. I was transported to an unknown world where longing and craving controlled every basic instinct. Gabo has the magical power to enthral his readers by sucking them into a tranced nuanced vortex. You can get into any anu world he has built and see it through the eyes of the protagonist. Reading Anna Magdalena's life built a strange commotion inside my brain.  Is her story my forgotten past? Or a forewarning into my future? August is a special month. I was born and reborn in it. Although the foreword from Gabo's sons warns us about a possibly ...

  Translated into numerous languages and formatted into different versions, "Sapiens" is a book that needs no introduction. From Carl Sagan's, "Cosmos" to David Attenborough's "Planet Earth", we've all tried to grasp the magnificent monstrosity of our world and construct meaning from that learning. Prof. Harari has taken a huge risk by recording humankind's history in a single book. Surprisingly he has done a splendid job. Discounting the endorsements from big shots and great thinkers, this book gets true appreciation from the intensive research behind it. It takes work to pack billion-year-old events in a single paperback and say, "This is us!".  The Universe is ~14 billion years old, earth is ~4 billion years old and we are ~200,000 - 300,000 years old.  Precision and accuracy are debatable when it comes to documenting history. The author beautifully lays out facts, figures and interpretations. Both sides of the coin are clearly...

Legal thrillers, I once believed were plain courtroom dramas. But “Shadow of Power” changed that notion. Paul Madriani seems to be the Sherlock of the legal world as he effortlessly untangles complex judicial knots. Given their compactness and heavily guarded privacy, courtrooms have made the judicial process seem minimalistic. Be it the prosecution or defence, the law is tricky especially because humans and emotions are involved. So, here's the plot. Fighting against time and shoddy police work, Madriani and his partner Harry go above and beyond to acquit an innocent victim who has gotten embroiled in the controversial death of a trouble-making writer Terry Scarborough.  In his afterword, author Steve Martin throws light on the problematic history of the US in the 1700s and 1800s when their constitution was drafted by the founding fathers. Although Jefferson’s letter plays a significant role as a fictional entity in this story, it sparks a sense of wonderment in readers about its ...

This book was gifted to me by one of my colleagues and a good friend Sanghamitra. Our conversations were never trivial or usual. They were always esoteric that mostly touched upon multiverses and meditation practices. Not being a keen believer of a practitioner of mediation myself, I dusted off her opinions on Yoga and Mindfulness. The thought of needing those skills and habits baffled me. In fact it was nothing short of absurdity. But then life has brutal ways of breaking you in order for you to see things and fall in line. Four years later, one fine day, I chanced upon this book that was calmly collecting dust on my cherished bookshelf. Something egged me to give it a try. I reluctantly relented.  This autobiography is the first one I'd read on a Spiritual Guru. Books written about well-known artisits,revolutionary figures, philosophers and politicians showed me how far humans could go to get what they want. I was able to experience a "core connection" with this one. Co...

This book came out in the 1970s. With a brazen confidence to predict the twists and turns,I dove into this suspenseful drama. Even the epic crime stories celebrate family. We’ve seen a celebrated Mafia Don certifying a man’s honour based on his strong familial bonds. However, the stellar storyteller Sidney Sheldon weaves a wild tale in Bloodline. “Do not let the straightforward suits and polished ties fool you” is the gist of this story. Man’s inherent greed is fueled by his insatiable needs. There’s a dirty rat race going on inside the most sophisticated conference rooms of the tallest ivory towers. Competition is a common thread that connects everyone in the social pyramid. When Sam Rolfe, the key board member of a multi-million-dollar pharmaceutical company, dies in a fatal accident, all hell breaks loose. Elizabeth, his daughter and the future president of Rolfe Pharmaceuticals, is a baby in the woods. While being pressurized to sell the company’s shares and bring in private invest...