The Lost Flamingos of Bombay
Book by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

I read this book almost a month back and have not written about it as i could not decide on my feelings for this book...I love and hate this book in parts.

The central character of this book is Karan who is a photographer and through one of his assignments he gets introduced to Samar, a retired pianist and Zaira, the top name in bollywood. Karan during his pursuit of his personal ambition of creating a book with photographs of Mumbai meets Rhea, an artist who chose to get married over her ambitions and is somewhere dissatisfied with her life, at Crawford market in Mumbai.

As I proceeded in the book I realised that it has similarities to the Jessica lal murder case. Of course you have to read the book to know more about the who got murdered and where and what happens. The book gives you a peek into the high society life of Mumbai. I loved the book for the the range of issues it covered - gay relationships, real friendships in a society that seems so shallow overtly, standing up against the corrupt judicial system in out country, extra marital affair, child sexual abuse, AIDS and the most beautiful was the way it brought out the images of the city of Mumbai. I disliked the book for the same reasons i loved it...its too many complexities in one plot and the superfluous language made it a very difficult read.

So overall, go ahead and read it once if you don't mind the language bit :)

Almost Single
Book by Advaita kala

After a long time i read a "chick- flicky" book with a wacky sense of humor and written in total bollywood style ( and then i read that it will be soon made into a bollywood movie).

It is a story of a single woman Aisha Bhatia who lives and works in Delhi and leads a cosmopolitan lifestyle and manages to maintain a balance with her somewhat orthodox family, nosey neighbours ,a demanding boss and a hip circle of friends. It is a simply written story surely to make you laugh out loud

fast paced fun read

Curfewed Night
Book by Basharat Peer

Curfewed night is the story of Kashmir captured by a Kashmiri who was born in the valley about the same time as me (1976). It is not really a story, but, a series of experiences that the author or people he knew went through.The author talks about his life as a young boy in the valley, his move to Aligarh to study, his job in Delhi and then his return to the valley to research for this book.

I knew the story of partition in 1947 and have an idea about why Kashmir became an issue between India and Pakistan but this book really gives you the first hand stories of what happened on the ground. It is a book written from the heart with honesty that touches your heart and makes you angry as to why we let things go so wrong in Kashmir.

Like i said that the author was born in 1977 so its a book written about the happenings in Kashmir in our lifetime. It was hurtful to read that things in the Kashmir valley were so difficult when I was just in New Delhi doing my graduation so peacefully. Its not the best book in terms of story writing but definitely an insightful book and a must read.