WRITTEN IN RED INK

Crosssword drew me in during my quest for this book. Once Ms Banu Musthaq was all over the press, the world woke up to her tremendous literary contribution. I urgently wanted to get my hands on "Heart Lamp". Our newspapers have perpetually been carrying heart-wrenching accounts of women's plight in India. Irrespective of our background, walk of life, education and financial status, patriarchy spares none. When such a social system is coupled with religious dictations, especially in a minority community, a woman's every living moment becomes a fight for survival. Existence shapeshifts into a thankless job filled with self-soothing compromises and delusions.

"Heart Lamp" had short stories, but left long-lasting impressions, I wasn't prepared to bear. I had to take breaks between each one for the sake of my own sanity. These cautionary tales required a period of recovery. Mind you, none of them felt fictitious. They can't be. You need to brace yourself for stories like "Heart Lamp" and "Be a woman once, Oh Lord!". From being moved to tears to chuckling at the desperate dramedy thereupon, I experienced chilling episodes throughout this book. Kudos to Ms Banu and everyone who was behind this masterpiece. The concluding Translator's note is a chef's kiss.

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MOVIE REVIEW-POSSUM

Possum (2018) Director: Matthew Holness Starring: Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong A defamed children's puppeteer who is emotionally unstable and psychologically scarred plans to dispose of his grotesque puppet. Every time she tries discarding it, the puppet comes back to haunt him emotionally by being there in his room the very next day. This disturbs him in turn and deprives him of his sleep. His step-father also lives next door with whom he has an estranged relationship. Meanwhile, a young boy in the same neighbourhood gets kidnapped and the policemen start suspecting the puppeteer for it, given his weird behaviour and constant trips with the bag. The climax of the movie gives answers to the following questions, -Who kidnapped the young lad? -Why does the possum keep chasing him? குழந்தைகளுக்காக பொம்மலாட்டம் செய்து வாழ்ந்து வருகிறார் அந்த நபர். தற்போது அந்த தொழிலுக்கு அவ்வளவு வரவேற்பு இல்லாததால் , தனக்கென இந்த உலகத்தில் இருக்கும் ஒரே துணையான "Possum" எனப்படும் அந...

THE CASTLE OF HOPE AND FAITH!

THE CHARIOT OF OUR ANGELS! After so many phases of colour transformations, finally, our bus has become yellow....Yellow????.sigh........ Anyway, I've seen blue with penguins but not this. Sometimes I hate our buses for chasing us away with our books and lunch boxes during the casual turns...so much remodelling..so many cras.....ssshhhesss... oopsie!!! I didn't mean to say that...Well..now it's a vibrant bucket of bolts...good! THE GRAND GATEWAY! It's hard for me to not keep thinking about our old watchman. Sharp at 8:45 these huge pair of gates would be closed.There would be a little door too...for other people to enter..and the notice board that you see right there always captivated us during monsoons....we'd wait for some holiday notes to be written so we could run back home. Emails or Phones or WhatsApp didn't exist then. Though these gates did scare us a few times...it very well taugh...

ALL FOR NOTHING

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...

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