Below is the graph of the Indian benchmark index the BSE Sensex for the year 2020 so far. 23 March 2020 was a significant low for the Sensex. And looking at the way things have played out, the Sensex recovered smartly from the lows and currently it is trading at fresh highs !! Predictions are…
Category: Books
Good reads for the monsoon 2020 #3 🕌
Time travel does not require a time machine, a good book will suffice. One such read is Istanbul by Thomas F Madden. This engrossing saga spans the conquest of this port city by the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, all the way to the making of the modern Turkey, weaving a tapestry of history, myth and legend….
Good reads for the monsoon 2020 #2 🗺
“We were the usual: nine-to-sixers, investment-makers, mall-goers, office-trippers and city-slickers. We were life-going-to-seeders.”…reads the opening para on the back cover of the book. Usual is common and common is boring; so what do they transform into? The authors are the writer couple Devapriya Roy and Saurav Jha. This is my third book by Devapriya Roy….
Good reads for the monsoon 2020 #1 🦋
Alphabet Soup For Lovers by Anita Nair is a fabulous read. This 200 page food love story is perfect to finish in one sitting. However, the end won’t leave you satiated….you will see😃. The back cover of the book detail a Malayalee couple – Lena Abraham and KK who own and run a tea plantation on…
Weaving magic from the mundane 🌺: The Weight Loss Club by Devapriya Roy 📖
The first book I read of the author Devapriya Roy is “Friends from College”. I loved the story and her writing style so much that I wanted to read more of her books. And so ended up ordering from Amazon her second book “The Weight Loss Club”. The colourful artwork on the book’s cover is more…
Namaste Hyderabad 🙏✨
10 years ago was my first visit to the city. I was in Hyderabad to conduct a training session being held at the Basheer Bagh branch of my then employer. In the evening, the office arranged a shopping-cum-sightseeing trip for all the participants to the old city – Charminar and Laad Bazaar. Charminar was closed…
Good reads for the holidays🎄📚
Winter or more aptly the cooler months in south India, free from the heat and rain are ideal for travel. Following the school calendar🗓, opportunity presents itself starting from October with the Puja holidays, followed by the Diwali hols and finally the Christmas holidays. And going by the travel trends reported in the papers, the millennials…
Brands we love: The Baggit Story👜
Handbags, made in India? What names pop up? Hidesign is numero uno. Then there is Baggit and Caprese. If it is a leather bag, I go for Hidesign; their bags are absolutely the best and for formal wear, nothing is classier than leather. What about non-leather? For a long time, I didn’t find anything I…
Celebrating Karnataka: Beyond Bangalore🌱
1st November is celebrated both in Kerala and Karnataka as their respective foundation day. Another very visible point of commonality between the two neighbouring states is that the state bus transport division in both states carry the same acronym KSTRC – Kerala/ Karnataka Road Transport Corporation. Everytime we see this bus in Bangalore, we are reminded of…
Easy Indian meal (Set #7)🐟and a fish tale📖
“Following Fish” by Samanth Subramanian……what search terms do you need to enter into Amazon to throw up such a book? 🤔Any guesses?? It’s not a collection of recipes on fish; it’s not a Moby Dick nor a Finding Nemo kind of a story. It’s a travelogue as the author traverses along the coast of the…
Brands we love: The Titan saga⌚️📖
“The Tatas would never be allowed to make watches as this sector was reserved for public and small-scale industries.” said the license raj prevailing in the country. But they did and made it a resounding success….how? That journey is detailed in the book by Vinay Kamath – TITAN – Inside India’s Most Successful Consumer Brand. Titan…
Karen Anand and Gambas Pil Pil👩🏻🍳
This is a very old book; I remember spying it in the bookshop and at that time I had not heard of Karen Anand. I leafed through the book, because of comments behind the book by known celebrities and after reading a few lines, I wanted to devour the book and also get myself something…
The Little Book on Pondicherry 📚🌺
Last October we were on road from Bekal in Kasargode district of Kerala to Kochi. Hubs announces that we will be passing through Pondicherry on our drive. I was skeptical, Pondicherry is nowhere enroute to Kochi, it’s on the other side of the Indian peninsula, facing the Bay of Bengal and we were on the…
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 📚📖
Wedding presents – “Two people wander around John Lewis picking out lovely items for themselves and then they make other people pay for them…..I simply fail to see how the act of legally formalising a human relationship necessitates friends, family and co-workers upgrading the contents of their kitchen for them.” says Eleanor Oliphant. I follow…
Ideas for profit from Peter Thiel🎯💰
Peter Thiel – founder of PayPal, his book Zero to One is regarded as a must read for aspiring entrepreneurs, but I would recommend this book for wannabe investors too. The book has been in my Amazon shopping cart for sometime; but I had a nagging feeling that we had this book in the house,…
Good reads for the Monsoon #3
If you live in Bangalore, you must know that its no joke to say – when it rains in Bangalore, the roads turn to rivers. There is no space for the water to run-off and the flooding slows down the traffic or worse, it brings the traffic to a grinding halt. And if you are…
Good reads for the Monsoon #2 (and a perfect getaway)
If you are residing in a concrete jungle like Bangalore, you will want to get away to some place green and serene given a long weekend to enjoy the monsoon. Where to? Where else but to charming Coorg !! In Coorg we stayed at a resort called Old Kent Estate – one word to describe…
Good reads for the Monsoon #1
Kerala is beautiful during the monsoons. The rains not only wash away dust from the leaves, the land also receives a fresh coat of green in various hues. Needless to say, I enjoy the rain from indoors and the days are perfect to indulge in some reading. I am currently in the mood for books…
A delightful Fiji tale
Fiji; the internet photos show sun, sand and blue skies; the articles talk about cannibalism, coups and tourism. Not very fond of reading on screens, I turn to find a book which will introduce me to Fiji. It was difficult to choose one – the choices were narrowed down to – [1] Getting Stoned with Savages:…
Miles and smiles 