Amma: Jayalalithaa's Journey from Movie Star to Political Queen

Author: Vaasanthi

Genre: NonFiction, Politics, Biography 

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: No surprises, offers nothing new for someone already familiar with Tamilnadu politics. A very quick read.  

I've been wanting to read this one for a while now. It is a very swift read and a quick run through of Amma's life from her childhood to her political life. For someone already quite familiar with Indian politics, lived in India and followed the news, this book offers nothing new.  It just felt like a collage of a lot of newspaper articles/wiki pages put together. The author has deliberately and carefully stayed away from writing in detail about the controversial topics that surrounded Jayalalithaa's life and only touched upon those events in each chapter which is quite alright. I enjoyed reading about Amma's childhood and her relationship with her mother. This part of her life was something I hadn't read or known about before so it was quite interesting.  Many of the incidents described in each chapter although known to everyone brought back memories of my childhood when I watched those with keen attention with my family in the news channels and newspapers. 

To me, personally this book gives an insight into how sexist Indian politics was/is and how one woman fought through all the turbulence in an entirely male dominated political world and emerged victorious. I would've liked to see more pictures from Jayalalithaa's childhood and adolescence and I also felt that the author did not do a good job of documenting in detail about all the welfare schemes created by Jayalalithaa which had heaped a lot of praises. The crisp language makes it a good read despite its over simplification of the content presented.

How to Hygge: The Nordic Secrets to a Happy Life

Author: Signe Johansen

Genre: NonFiction, Cultural, Self Help

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: Not much about Hygge as much as it is a collection of recipes and some superficial advice here and there. 

My husband received this book as a holiday gift from his manager. I was quite intrigued by the title and the front cover was dreamy, what better reason to start reading this on New year's day especially after an unprecedented year going by. We were all trying hard to adjust to the new normal and in the process I couldn't read much at all. 

Reading the initial few pages of this book felt like I was having a conversation with a close friend who lives in Norway. We've talked so much about life in the Nordic region and I used to be amazed at how everyone enjoys the harsh winters as much as the beautiful summers. I loved the first two chapters where Signe talks about how being outdoors is being alive and I completely believe in that. I love spending time outdoors with the family and making lots of fun memories. Just being out and staring at a mountain or listening to the sound of a creek or a stream helps clear the fog in your mind. 

But just when I thought the book was getting unputdownable, the author put together a bunch of recipes - almost 90 odd pages dedicated for this section and there weren't many options for my dietary choices and it really didn't appeal to me. I just glossed over them to the final section of the book. The rest of the book was pretty disappointing with just a few tips here and there about living spaces, specific furniture and the likes. 

Overall for me, it started out exciting and wore off pretty quickly. The book is not really about hygge, just a bunch of recipes and KonMari-type tips put together. I was really looking forward to reading about the cozy feeling of contentment and the nordic ways of living that makes them a happy bunch but didnt find it. 

China - Vilagum Thirai

Author: Pallavi Iyer

Genre: NonFiction, Cultural

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: The book has good content but the chapters felt disconnected and failed to keep up my interest. (May be the original English version might have been better)

I got this book from a friend during my last trip to India. I picked up this book for all the reasons except reading or knowing more about China as a country :) Yes, I didn't even read the foreword. I love short books, the color red and reading in Tamizh. This one checked off all those boxes. 

The book was written by Pallavi Iyer, a journalist who stayed in China for 5 years, travelled through all different parts of China and met with people from all classes of the society. The Tamil version was translated in Tamil by Raman Raja. The book documents Pallavi's experiences in China and provides insights into the country from an entirely different perspective. I love books that are not the usual travellogue types describing just the touristy places and take an entirely different approach to give interesting facts about the little known things that are unique to a country. Although I did not like the translated version as much, I enjoyed reading about the fact that there is no caste system, how the Marxist approach works and how the government operates. The chapter about SARS outbreak in China kept me hooked especially now when the world is battling Covid-19. At every chapter, I could not help but compare China against India.

Overall the book has great content but the translation didnt work well for me. I might have given this a higher rating if I had read the original one in English. 

Book: Basics of Bharatnatyam

This post is very close to my heart. I had learnt one of the most amazing art forms, Bharatnatyam for a few years when I was very young. Sadly, I did not pursue it further and lost touch with it. It wasn't until a few years back that I started learning Bharatnatyam again along with my then 4 year old daughter. I wanted to introduce her to this beautiful art form at a very young age. My prime motive behind going to classes with her was to understand the lessons being taught in class and teach it to her at home. But little did I know at that time that both of us would begin to love and enjoy this journey so much. I'm going to be very honest here and say that the initial days, months and years were quite frustrating, demanding and exhausting. Bharatnatyam is a very intense art form which requires a lot of focus, patience, physical and mental strength, stamina and coordination. As a young child, D found it very difficult to grasp the basics and follow through with it. The practice sessions at home used to be very tiring and D needed a lot of coaxing and cajoling to practice. Some days tears would stream down her face and she would storm into her bedroom and slam the door shut because she wasn't getting the footwork right. Before we knew it, we had spent 2-3 years learning the basic adavus and korvais. At the back of my head, I wasn't still confident and was always questioning my decision to have enrolled D at such a young age. Some days, I used to get the feeling that she hated the dance and would get irritated at the very mention of it. I had almost given up on it and made a mental note to myself that if she doesn't begin to show any improvement in another 6 months, I would withdraw her from classes.

I now want to talk about the main idea behind this post, our guru: She is one of the most beautiful, resilient and amazing persons I have ever met so far in my life. She is a very tough teacher, like any other dedicated teacher admonishing us always when she spots casual attitude in class or if we show up without practice. She keeps us on our tracks and never let us slack off. As years rolled by, we worked really hard at home after classes, trying to perfect nrittas and facial expressions and it wasn't until last summer that D finally got it. It was an unbelievable transformation watching her go from struggling with the simplest of adavus to mastering the footwork for a complex jathi. She loves the art form so much now that she wouldn't hesitate a second when called for practice at home or wake up at 7 am on a weekend morning to show up for classes. The encouragement she gets from our guru is tremendous. I am so glad I didn't withdraw D from classes. We are both indebted to our teacher for cultivating in us the dedication, passion, perseverance, strength and focus to not just dance but tackling anything in life. She taught us what it is to never give up and just take a challenge head on with full gusto until we got it right. What I love the most is learning dance under her tutelage is a complete experience - We don't just learn the dance but she takes time to explain the meaning behind every word of every song and dance we learn. She may not spend all the classes teaching dance. Some classes are all about listening to her talk about the richness of our heritage, the lineage and legacy of traditions, the temples of south India, the dances of India, the mythological stories. Some classes are all about learning taalas, nadais, the structure of different dances and we spend a lot of time working out the taala numbers on the board for footwork. At the end of every class, I walk out with even more passion than I had before. She has amazing clarity in her speech and I can spend hours just listening to her talk about anything in this world. My motivation comes from the very fact that at more than 60 years of age, she is at the dance studio on every Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM to 5 PM with complete dedication to every student who attends classes. Apart from this she works through the week training 12-15 students every year for arangetrams. D and I are blessed to be under her tutelage and wish for many more years of learning this beautiful art from her.

I got the book I've mentioned here from our guru recently after a class when she talked about the history of Bharatnatyam. It has the basics of Bharatnatyam - the different hand gestures, the postures, and a few other things about the different items in Bharatnatyam. There are a lot of shlokas/verses for each hand gesture and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it and the dasavatharam gestures too.
I will continue to find books which delve deep into the history of classical dances, the South Indian temples and the famous dancers of India. I am so glad that both D and I have finally found something that we are so passionate about and enjoy so much. We can't imagine a world without dance now!

Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Author: Mark Manson
Genre: NonFiction, Self help
Rating: 1/5
Verdict: Don't give a f*ck about this book.

I have been quite wary of self help books and staying away from reading them mainly because most of these books are never one-size fits all. This book was another reaffirmation to that fact not because it was good and just doesn't fit everyone, but this was just a boatload of self-indulgent rubbish, extremely sexist and random pieces of content put together. The writing was abysmal as well. I cannot believe this topped the best seller's list at some point. After reading the first 25 pages, I was in complete rage. Getting life advice from a 30 something slacker of a dude who takes pride in being a complete "f*ckboy" during his youth rather than being remorseful and objectifies women as material possessions isn't exactly something I would call a deserving best seller. Casually saying he has a wife and there is nothing glamorous and exciting about it reeks of arrogance, misogyny and entitlement. It was quite an irony that there is a chapter about relationships and giving a f*ck about them in the book. That aside, the content in the book isn't remarkable, just felt like a bunch of blog posts thrown together without any research whatsoever. Most of it was just 'duh' and things you learn naturally in life as you grow older and wiser. I'm annoyed at myself for having fallen for picking up this one to read. The only reason I gave it a 1-star is for some chapters that there is actually value in reading it for. 

Book Review: THE GENE: An Intimate History

Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Genre: Science, NonFiction
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: An incredibly well-written book with a comprehensive history on genetics.

This book was Genetics 101 for me. I knew very little about genes, heredity and genetic engineering before I picked up this book. The author takes us through the history of genes starting from Mendel and Darwin through Watson and finally right up to China announcing the first genetically modified human embryo. It was fascinating to read how much we have advanced in genetics in the last 40 years. It is a really well researched book and takes a good amount of refreshing of high school biology to absorb all the facts but it was a real page turner overall. Mukherjee also gets us thinking about the moral dilemmas we face today about genetic testing and gene therapy. I paused for a few minutes when I read about the perils that scientific advancements can and are causing today. It is quite a challenge writing about science for all kinds of audience but this was an amazingly clearly written book. It was a real slog to finish it due to the sheer volume of the book, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about life itself. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter and the diagrams and pictures are a treasure. I now look forward to reading his Pulitzer prize winning book on the biography of cancer.

Book Review: Becoming

Author: Michelle Obama
Genre: Autobiography, Memoir
Rating: 5/5
Verdict: One word - Wow! Buy it - It's a keeper.

Let me start by just saying that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be reading this book again and again for years to come. When I feel depressed, when I am in dire need of hope, something to cling on to, when I want to be uplifted, motivated and inspired. I've always loved, respected and admired Michelle Obama. Her intelligence, grace, class and commitment to her country, her husband and kids has been very inspiring. After reading this book, my respect and admiration for her has increased by leaps and bounds. 

Becoming is an honest, endearing and passionate memoir about Michelle's life right from her journey from Chicago to the White House. Michelle takes us back to her childhood days in the South Side of Chicago where she was raised by devoted parents, her father, a blue collar city worker and a mother who dedicated her life for Michelle and her older brother Craig. It was inspiring to see how her entire family (extended family too) stressed the importance of good education and exposed her to a variety of things from very early on - Something that I have always strongly believed in and extremely thankful for.

Michelle's writing is so intimate and powerful that makes you feel like you are sitting right across from her while she reveals her life story. She keeps you turning pages rapidly as she takes us through her early years in Chicago, through high school and college. I really enjoyed reading about Michelle and Barack Obama's first encounter, and their subsequent courtship period where she describes about Barack Obama's passion for reading and his core values that made her fall in love with him. What was more heart warming to read was that she was not at all uncomfortable to reveal that they worked really hard on their marriage, and that they even had gone to marital counseling when things got out of both their control sometimes. Revealing such personal details so honestly is not an easy task to do and Michelle has done it remarkably well.

The more I read, the more I realized that Michelle is so much like many of us, with dreams, doubts, the challenges with raising kids while having a husband who had to be away most of the time, the compromises, the everyday struggles of juggling school pick-ups, meal times, a full-time job and finally relenting to hiring a person to cook dinners at home. I love that the book has a bit of everything. Michelle's determination to succeed being a woman of color, her love for Barack and standing by him being his rock during ups and downs and the heart of their hearts - their girls - Sasha and Malia. I loved reading every bit about Barack as a father and their time together as a family. The book gives us a glimpse of their years in the White House and despite all the fame and frenzy, Michelle talks about how they were forced to live in a bubble always under constant scrutiny, security and surveillance and about how she and Barack struggled to give their daughters a "normal" life. I also loved how she worked towards issues that bothered her the most and her and Barack's accomplishments during their time at the White House. The photographs in the book are a treasure to see. 

I got so swept into reading this book that I read it until the wee hours of the morning and finished it. This book will go into my library collection as one of the best I have ever read. Thank you Michelle for sharing your life story with us and for BECOMING. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"You’ve got to be twice as good to get half as far."

"When they go low, we go high."

"Life was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient."