2549 : Reading list 2019 : #16 : The Doctor and the Saint by Arundhati Roy

I like Arundhati Roy's literary skills. I also liked that she has put her skills to further the cause in which she believes in. Her stance is almost always anti-establishment, a bit like Noam Chomsky.

Do I always believe what she writes? No. But do I like it? Yes. It almost always gives me a different perspective.

Like this book, The Doctor and the Saint opens my worldview to include Dr BR Ambedkar and of course the horrible monster called caste.

Read it, be educated and of course flip on her skills. Its hard to give up on a successful career and take up a cause. and that's why I love her.

On a scale of 10 its a 10. At 171 pages brings my 2019 total to 2735 pages.

A definite read. Also I love the cover image :-)

2548 : Movie : Tabula Rasa Series

I recently watched the series "Tabula Rasa" - a Dutch series. I quite liked it - about a woman with retrograde amnesia. The writing is taut. The build-up is fabulous. And the actors are quite worth a shout.
The end is a bit of a damp squib.....almost hurried. But overall, it's really neat.

On a scale of 10, about 8.

On my overall scale

A Twelve Year Night

The Hungry

Delhi Crime

Nise(The heart of madness)

Masum
Natsamrat
The Kominsky Method

Fauda

Quicksand

Parfum (The Perfume)

Crime Diaries: The Candidate

Crime Diaries: Night Out

Forest (The Foret)

Bioscope
Revelations
Tabula Rasa
Solo 
Orange Mittai

Images from netflix

2547 : Reading list 2019: #15: Love without a story by Arundhati Subramaniam

Every now and then you find a book that just makes you wince. Makes you feel "damn, wish I had written this sentence".......and this book made me feel like this about a 100 times.
I read this back to back twice last week. And I totally fell in love with the book. Maybe something to do with the name Arundhati :-).

Brilliant poems. Will go down as one of the best collections I have read in my limited life.

Hits you very hard. On a scale of 10, 11+

Buy this and gift this to friends, to mothers, to lovers and of course to the divine feminine that graces our lives.

Images from google images.

At about 60 pages brings my 2019 total to 2564.

2546 : Reading list 2019 : #14: Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution

Images from Amazon and Podomatic

A different take on diet, blending in what our genes look forward to in a diet and how they decode messages based on our diet.

Made me think hard about my diet and some mistakes inherent in that diet. For the record, I am super unfit :-).

Brings my 2019 total reading to 3508 (this book is 304 pages).

Definitely worth a read. 

2545 : Reading list 2019 : #13 : Silence by Erling Kagge

A nice small book that meditates on how and why silence is such an important part of our lives. Or "rather should be" such an important part of our lives, "but it isn't".

Worth a read. Makes you examine your lives through a external lens.

Images from Amazon

At 130 pages brings my 2019 total to 3204 pages.

2544 : Reading list 2019: #12 : Autumn Light by Pico Iyer

This book goes straight into my all time favorite list - my "ever" "all time" favorite list. I rarely dream about books or passages (or visual graphic images) from books.....this one I have dreamt and meditated upon through the last 2 weeks.

Its one of the most brilliant explorations of frailty and mortality, and of course the tragic beauty of Kyoto.

Pico Iyer will remain one of my favorite authors, and Kyoto will forever remain a romance in my head. 

Go for it. 11 by 10 as I say for such books. One to re-read many times before you die.

At 256 pages brings my 2019 reading total to 3074 pages.

2543 : "Thok Denge"

So picture this.

I am in my apartment complex. Lets say, I live in a fairly sophisticated living quarters. Its NOT downtown, but its mid-town. Get the drift I presume.

I enter the lift today morning, and a man with two daughters (say about 3 and 5 years each), and his mother (say about 60) enters the lift.

The 5 year old is nagging her father for "Gems" and this is the gem her father offers. I  AM NOT Making this up, I CANT :-). So here goes for folks who understand hindi and I won't translate, because its the only language that this statement makes any impact in.

So the father tells his 5 years old " Aapko Gems Chahiye? Deta hoon Gems? Uska baad jab doctor aapko injection se thokega, tabh aapko samajh aayega." (and no I did not mis-hear tokega....this was a north India guy with clear as water diction.)

I was frozen. And I rest my case :-)

Modern parenting never seems to surprise me in weird ways.

This in one glance might be humorous, and in another deeply disturbing. 

2542 : Movie: Crime Diaries: Night Out & The Candidate

Watched "Crime Diaries:Night Out" and "Crime Diaries: The Candidate" which are essentially South American.
Both of these are gripping, tell a human angle tale(s) with some fab performances. These are based on real incidents which rocked Mexico and Colombia respectively. It helps to understand another country and culture (albeit in a very limited fashion....its like trying to learn about India by watching Bollywood....but still).

Night Out is about a Halloween Night at Colombia gone wrong for a college kid.
The Candidate is about president-to-be Colosio's assassination.

Go watch both and be truly enthralled. Worth your time completely.

On my overall ranking sheet

A Twelve Year Night

The Hungry

Delhi Crime

Nise(The heart of madness)

Masum
Natsamrat
The Kominsky Method

Fauda

Quicksand

Parfum (The Perfume)

Crime Diaries: The Candidate

Crime Diaries: Night Out

Forest (The Foret)

Bioscope
Revelations
Solo 
Orange Mittai


All images from netflix.com

2541 : Setsuko Hara

More about Setsuko Hara here


From Pico Iyer's Autumn Light

Setsuko Hara, who takes on the name of Noriko in one Ozu film after another, smiles more brilliantly the more she's pushing down her losses; in life, as soon as Ozu died, the actresses retreated to a house in Kamakura, where the never married director was buried (under a black stone, that says, simply, "nothingness"), and, unmarried herself, seldom showed her face in public again. It wasn't hard for the press to cast her as the true-life daughter she plated in Late Spring, tending to her honorary father's memory till she becomes a nun like figure in her nineties, coming out only to lat flowers on his grave.

Image from wikipedia

2540 : Movie : Delhi Crime

Very rarely does a series change my view of the world dramatically. Delhi Crime is based on the Nirbhaya rape of 2010. (The description of the rape in this series is gut wrenching and truly your insides recoil).

But....

What stood out for me was the potryal of the Police. My respect for Police in this country went up quite a few notches. The politics, the low pay, understaffed roles and of course just the challenge of dealing with a country like ours in the raw.

A silent heartfelt bow for the Police force.

A definite watch, (try and escape the scenes in which they describe the rape though).

A brilliant watch. Take a bow to the series and the Police.

On my overall list 

A Twelve Year Night

The Hungry

Delhi Crime

Nise(The heart of madness)

Masum
Natsamrat
The Kominsky Method

Fauda

Quicksand

Parfum (The Perfume)

Forest (The Foret)

Bioscope
Revelations
Solo 
Orange Mittai

2539 : Ordinary is best

Again from Autumn Light by Pico Iyer - speaking about himself when he was younger :-)

In those days, I couldn't see that the best part of us is what's ordinary, nothing special.

2538 : Arrow vs Buddha

From Pico Iyer's Autumn Light

If there's an arrow in your side, the Buddha famously said, you don't ask where it came from, or quibble about what kind of arrow it is; you simply pull it out.

2537 : Movie: Quicksand (Swedish)

I watched Quicksand (the Swedish series) and I quite liked it. Its a great exploration of how dystopia might look like.

It has some astonishingly brave and brilliant performances.

I would definitely recommend it on a watchlist to someone. Its a thriller, but also a compelling sign of times, a social signpost.

Overall ranking

A Twelve Year Night

The Hungry

Nise(The heart of madness)

Masum
Natsamrat
The Kominsky Method

Fauda

Quicksand

Parfum (The Perfume)

Forest (The Foret)

Bioscope
Revelations
Solo 
Orange Mittai

2536 : Movie: Parfum (The Perfume) in German

Watched an intriguing series called the Parfum. I quite liked it. I liked it for the build up, the story....did not quite like the end, but definitely there are moments in it which are quite magical.

Definitely recommend watching it one.
The visuals are just stunning.

Overall ranking

A Twelve Year Night

The Hungry

Nise(The heart of madness)

Masum
Natsamrat
The Kominsky Method

Fauda

Parfum (The Perfume)

Forest (The Foret)

Bioscope
Revelations
Solo 
Orange Mittai

2535 : Passing of time

Another one from Autumn Light by Pico Iyer.

"I suppose everyone tries to ignore the passing of time," the very English poet Philip Larkin told The Paris Review in 1982.
"Some people by doing a lot, being in California one year and Japan the next; or there's my way - making every day and every year exactly the same. Probably neither works."