Book Review : The Story of A Suicide

The Story of a Suicide indeed illustrates the circumstances of how an individual decides why he no longer wants to live in this beautiful world.I am totally against suicide,yes even in cases where a person has no longer a life,we proclaim fit to proceed.I believe we are one of a kind and the mere fact that we are alive and thinking,must help us overcome the thoughts of being dead.I feel that half the courage one has in oneself  to be able to choose death willingly is more than enough for him to face the world and live a life ahead.

And the real reason,I believe that one becomes forced to choose death over life is the weight of the burden of expectations that hangs as dagger above us.Only if we are able to break free the expectations set upon us,will we be able to rise and make a mark.If we are born poor,our society deems us unfit to be a part of it and taunt us.Even if get the right education,if our social status is different that their "superior" ones we get insulted.It's a truth that this sort of expectation kills,especially in our social set up.The ranks,marks,relationships, everything matters to parents.Their entire future is closely aligned to their children’s.So if the child deviates a little bit from their path of dreams aka expectations and if there is an emotional background to it,it's better to be dead that be alive and being taunted for their rest of lives.

Being said that this web-novel narrates the story of four people Hari,Charu,Sam and Mani and how fate had intervened in their actions that each one becomes a responsibility to the death of the protagonist,Hari.It was a final destination of how the entire chapters were set up for the final showdown.The characters are well thought of and important taboo topics of child sex abuse, homosexuality, love, betrayal, expectations, cyber crime, sex, passion are well described,connected and illustrated.

The crux of the story,I felt was the failure of expectations.Sam believes Charu is in love with him and when he finds out it never was the way he had expected,he sets out for revenge.He sets up Charu and stalks her,that she decides to catch hold of him while in the act. A twist in the tale makes the trap set up for Charu ends with the life of Hari.Hari is forced to take the decision of death,due to the burden of expectations his parents,his social status and the expectations he had in his partner.He expects to find solace in his partner,Mani but Mani's actions had his relive his most traumatized part of a life of his robbed childhood.And Mani,he expects Hari to understand his acts as his love,but Hari could not tolerate the same.

We need to be aware that times are changing so fast that our outlook towards life also needs to be changed.The social status or facebook status is no longer important but the life status, on finding what you are meant to give this world and how you can do it must be one's aim.Parents should help and guide children to find their passion and support them for what they need to win their life.No matter what  circumstances are parents must spend time with their children,make them feel comfortable in sharing their thoughts and struggles.

Child sex abuse is very prevalent in any society and we all need to stand up against it.Status shows that mostly it is our family members whom we think we can trust, takes the chance to exploit the innocent kids.We must never turn away from what a child has to say and we must always support and help our child,cause these scars run deep and in turn changes their personality.By staying with them,helping them heal we can also forgive oneself.There are more ways of healing than ever before and I urge everyone to make use of it,rather than staying within themselves and being afraid of taboos.The website itself tells us more ways on how can one find a way out,it just a matter of reaching out.

Maybe I am too old for today's youngster's modus of Operandi in achieving instant likes,twitter shaming ,being bold by stating tales of vagina and penises.This novel also told me how I must help my child to channelize his talent to the welfare of another person.I as a parent must know that I can help my child build his world without comparisons,without hate but with compassion and love.It made me realize how the entire thing is relevant only in my head and not anywhere else!!

One of my quickest,deepest read of this year,this web-novel shows that we can easily mess up with a life.It is very easy to go into depression and thoughts of being insignificant emergences.It is a brutal truth of society we live in today.The tale ends with a death,not the sugar coated , the happy ending which we normally crave.The highlight of the web-novel is the illustrations.They were commendable and very apt to the chapters.It felt like Namboodiri's drawings. :)

Note : The entire team of The Story of Suicide,deserves a round of applause as I have never seen such a kind of amalgamation of gems in setting up of a story.Usually, when I read a book,I glance through the Thank you page and the names go into oblivion,but not in this case.Kudos to each one of you.

 

A Tale of Growth!!

"Growth",a very special term in a parent's dictionary, especially if they are new to nuisances of parenthood.I am one such parent who has the faintest idea about what to expect next in the life ?! Right from the day my girl was born, I always wanted to make sure she grows into a strong girl,immune to common diseases and always be active,to the extent that I become tired of answering her queries :)

I was happy that "N" used to have her food without much trouble.As long as she is full,she was happy and playing.Then the terrible-twos came by and my girl, "N" has become this stubborn lady who simply shouts "NO" to every kind of food we try to feed her with.I tried everything from rice-dal mixes to vegetable soups to fruit juices to milk to fish.I had exhausted every item in my list trying to feed her.Adding woes of being a working mother,I literally cried trying to make her eat anything at all.!! The lack of proper and nutritious food she became much more prone to common diseases like cold and fever which made our evening plans rather easier.Instead of going to a park to play,we started frequenting the medical clinics.And those medicines have made her appetite fly away into the clouds.

Sigh!

Not having any idea about what to do the next ,I on a whim bought Horlicks Growth +.I knew she would definitely say a big "NO" ,thus I gave a small spoonful of the same.You guessed it right,"N" spat it all out! Being a mother,your kid teaches you everything about being patient.I tried to give her a spoonful of the same next day.And after a couple of days, she came in and asked for a spoonful of "black Horlicks",in her cute little voice when I forgot about the same.She finally liked it.Slowly I tried to mix it up with milk and was able to feed her the same somehow!![No words to explain the process here].Anyways,the trick worked.Mama happy,Baby happy.She even named it as "Black Horlicks".Kids,I tell you!! Though I was apprehensive to give my girl anything which might sound artificial,I was more than happy that I could find something that can eventually make a way to her tummy and supplement her with the lost nutrients.I have seen that my girl has visibly become less tired and irritated.She now gets enthusiastically involved in various activities at her playschool.She learns,understands and try out new things at home as well.She also sleeps well and grown back to my old happy child :)

I already knew that steady and proper growth at the right time is a very crucial to the overall development of a child.A good plate of healthy and nutritious food in the early days of childhood helps kids grow into the later stage of life without any major lifestyle / health issues.But the most overwhelming task is in making kids eat the nutritious food which aid in their growth.The least we can do is to provide supplements as in the form of health drinks to the kids who refuse to eat a morsel of food in any other way.

https://cdn.indiblogger.in/v3/images/happyhours/horlicks1/brandcover.jpg

And Horlicks Growth + is very much recommended product,right from my experience!

Yugantha : The end of an epoch.

Well,I been reading

By Author

Irawati Karve,a well know researcher from Burma has written “Yugantha” which is a set of quality essays based on the well known tale of Mahabharatha. She has also written much about  other academic and general subjects.She is such a delight to read.

And this is all about ?

A set of essays retelling the epic,”Mahabharata”,in such a way that it does create a set of doubts on its authenticity!A thought provoking read,retold in such a way to create strong doubts about the tale.The book consists of essays which are critiques of different characters such as Gandhari, Kunti, Draupadi, Karna and Krishna etc which is based on the oldest available editions of Mahabharata,which itself helps us to wane of many side stories which might have been added later on as part of culture or traditions.

So, how was it ?

A must read for those who are interested in history and also for those with inquisitive minds,who would have had hundreds of questions while hearing the stories from their grand parents or parents.Once read through these essays,the author was able to cast a shadow of doubt in my mind about the authenticity of the characters presented.At some point of time,it did occur to me that the tale is not entirely fictious. A different set of thoughts bubbled up in me about the various characters in the tale,while reading through the essays which was certainly not what I had presumed or heard or told to me.

All the characters were stripped of their godliness only to be interpreted as humans with all the character flaws .The author did manage to dig deep into them and present the facts.

My personal favourite read from the lot was related with Bhisma and Draupadi.

Extra Notes : A more poetic and sensual read would be Randamoozham by MT,which is also retelling of the same tale  from “Bhima’s “point of view.

The Art of Thinking Clearly

What have I been reading ?  



A Crisp Note:  Clearly,I lost my thinking over the book :)

Charlie

We got to watch “Charlie” yesterday and boy,it was a very colourful-hippy -movie.



The story in simple sentence,” A quirky girl in search of an equally quirky guy :P”

This is a movie for all those misfits in the society,who dare to do things differently,who has in them what it takes to be weird and be happy about being weird.And I believe at least some point we all too might have wanted such colour and madness in life.

Charlie the protagonist,is a kind hearted artist...magician..rescuer..alcoholic(?).Again,I am not sure how he lives(?) or what he does to fill his stomach(?).His family is  his dad ,who confirms that travelling has made Charlie,who he is now. He also have a huge list of admirers who are bemused by his ways of life and love he showers to everyone of them.He is kind to all and goes that extra mile to help and rescue people in distress.

Now the story is progressed when our lady,Tessa,who also an artist,who had ran away from her mother rents a dingy home previously rented by Charlie,who had left behind a huge collection of his art.Being an artist herself,helps Tessa to admire and be intrigued about Charlie when she stumbles upon his graphic novel.A special mention to this graphic novel,which albeit was the crux of the story.That one was superbly done. :).She is super excited about the prospects of meeting a like headed man,and soon sets out to find him!She uses the portraits Charlie had drawn to find the folks and their stories associated with him and slowly Charlie is pieced together..! Finally,did Tessa and Charlie meet ?If they met,how was that meeting ? :)Thats for you to watch!!

First and for most the costumes,the home,the locations, esp the pooram :)..it was really nice to see so much of color in every frame!! :) and yea the graffiti,the hippy-ness,bohemian style of the movie.It all,added a certain warmth to the story.The music..very refreshing.And it does justice to movie or so I believe.The beauty of kochi,all those lanes and roads and old buildings which I haven’t seen in any other movie was so pleasant to watch,cinematography at the best!!

About the characters,the one person to whom I can totally relate was Tessa.She reminded me of what I used to be :D.And one scene,which struck with me was the eulogy given to self :).That was thought provoking and made me remember passages from Tuesdays with Morrie :).

But if you ask about the story,aah..I could not find one.It was all about one central character and too much of the central character.I was also annoyed at couple of abrupt endings or starting to the people he is associated somehow.

Though,everybody was praising Dulquer for his free spirited acting,I quite didn’t enjoy him.He was making so much of effort to look effortless :P Through out the movie,I was thinking who could have replaced him to throw in that spark to otherwise quirky movie.Parvathy was an absolute delight to watch! Her eyes,expressive and her body language which shows that excitement,with a slight tinge of disappointment whenever she misses Charlie :).Aparna was her usual self of being bold (?).Venuchettan was the most effortless actor,he reminded me of my grand father.And how can one forget about the “Thief”,he was great!

Once the movie was over,my dad exclaimed to have “enjoyed” the new gen movie but it reminded him of Estappan  by Aravindan G. And yeah,so I did dig about the movie!!

The most surprising thing,I found in the movie was the location of “Youth Hostel”.Its enroute to my maternal grandparents home :D, and I could not keep my eyes of the scenic beauty of my place.I was brimming with pride!!

My Rating : 3.5 / 5

Neermathalam Pootha Kaalam…

I always used to step away from Madhavikutty’s novels for obvious reasons(?) which I believed(ignorant me), but now I realize that was a big blunder. This is one memoir that swept me away.I bought the book on a spur of moment, after which I was thinking why did I buy it??It took me some more weeks to actually start reading the book. And what an amazing read!!

I do regret now, I should have read this earlier…Well, better late than never.

Musa - The Warrior

Language  :  Korean/Chinese

My Rating :  5/5

My Take    :  Just a word, EPIC !!!

A Korean envoy trying to save a Chinese princess who is being held as captive by the Mongolian army.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Language  :  English

My Rating :  4/5

My Take    :  The first thing I did after finishing the movie was to smell myself  :D. Sounds crazy...isn't it ?. The movie made me think about my most under utilized sense..."Smell".It was not until I watched this movie,that made me realize how lost I am in the vast world of aroma.I could therafter identify anything by the distinct smell associated with it after watching the movie.

Now we all can smell, but how can you preserve the distinct smell of every object we come across ?Is there a smell which can be the ultimate fragrance in this world ? Can any one ever create such a wonder aroma ?

These were the quest of the protagonist in the movie,played brilliantly by Ben Whishaw.

It's not much of a thriller as it claims to be, but yes one will be glued to the movie till the end.

IMDB

Nammuku Parkan Munthirithopukal

The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

What have I been reading ? : The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Have I heard about this somewhere ? :  "Everywhere"

A Crisp Note:  A cue, A routine and A reward.And baaam.... there our lives fail or succeed!!!

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

What have I been reading ? : The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Is it that...Movie ? :  The Book Thief(2014)

A Crisp Note:  Liesel Meminger,a 12 year old living with her foster parents, her friends and a secret tenant In short, the book deals with her life and the lives of others, through her eyes.