The book stood silently on my bookshelf, awaiting its turn. Perhaps it heaved a sigh every time I picked something else - a glossy new read from the library, a highly recommended audiobook or even a classic. I love memoirs yet I hesitated to pick this one. Why?...
The Reluctant Mother by Zehra Naqvi The Book: The Reluctant Mother is a book of rage. Rage at being alone in your pain, having your conflict belittled, and your struggles trivialised. It is the story of a young woman who seeks to find herself in a world that...
When Arundhati Roy shot to fame after her novel The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize, I became a reluctant observer of the excitement that follows when Indian authors are nominated for grand prizes. I was living in the USA when Roy won the prize. Given that...
Ever since I discovered audiobooks, I have galloped through my reading list, particularly the fiction section. I typically choose books with female protagonists. Biased? Perhaps. But I find the lives of women more multi-dimensional and therefore more...
Every year on Mother's Day I think about all the articles I have written about motherhood. The day and its associated fanfare serves as a cue to write something new. In May 2021, a few months before my children left home to pursue their future away from home,...
Like many employees adjusting to a "work from office" routine after the recent update to Covid-19-related rules, I was relieved to leave my workplace at the end of a day that seemed unusually long. By the time I reached home after my 45-minute commute, I felt...
I did not set out to intentionally read books with the word ‘project’ in the title. It just happened. Two novels that came to my attention in quick succession seemed to have a deliberate focus towards the discovery or attainment of something - in one case,...
 Not long ago, I would be annoyed at my daughter for stopping us from diving into a lovely meal at a restaurant so that she could take a photograph of the pristine plate.  She was on social media. I was not.  Of course, I wasn't pleased with this public display of...
We had a long weekend here in Singapore for Good Friday. After each such weekend, I wish that every weekend was a long one. Most regular weekends are spent flitting between tasks that seek to ambush and bombard me. A three-day weekend gives me a chance to slow...
Brief reviews of three very different books which interestingly have a time component to their narratives. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett I picked up this book minutes after spotting it at Pegasus Books at Berkeley in December. Ann Patchett is one of my...
