Oh, So Emo! by Gayatri: Book Review

Imagine a world where all of us are emotionally aware and direct our energies to understand our own selves.

Now, think that we pass on this knowledge of reflection and subsequent clarity of thought to our children, so that they can make sense of the world around them, how they react to situations and identify and manage their deep-rooted emotions.

Book Blurb

Psst! Here’s a secret – we understand what you’re feeling.

Some days you’re soaring high, on others you’re down, and sometimes you’re blank as a canvas, not even bothered to tie your shoelaces. Feeling nothing at all. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

YOU are not alone.

It’s all there, mapped out on the Wheel of Emotions. You’ll see when you join Amit, Susie, Moin, Frenny and Neela on their journeys through emotional ups and downs, showing you exactly where your feeling fits. Once you’ve located it, the Wheel is like a lantern guiding you through the twists and turns of life. Showing you how your feelings affect your thoughts, words and actions.

Oh, and let’s not forget Sku. Who’s Sku, you ask? Just a rare and dazzling ‘mind finder’, a sunbird who’s flown all the way from Tibet, and who knows what’s what. He’s carrying the secret of the Secret, which he learned from the boy-monk Dorji. And he’s willing to share the secrets with YOU.

Review

Oh, So Emo! by Gayatri, a therapist, a qualified practitioner of Buddhist psychology has penned a wonderful book that can used by children and adults alike to name their emotions, identify what they are feeling, work out and work with their emotions on a deeper level with positive affirmations to keep them going.

The book starts with the story of Buddhist monks walking through Tibet towards the India border. Dorji, a 10 yr old wise boy and his rescued sunbird Sku engage in a discussion and conversation about emotions, feelings and actions and how they manifest in the body.

The conversation is deep but engaging and relatable for children. Sku goes on to get other winged friends later, all of them as intuitive as Sku, helping children as they struggle to terms with the world around them.

The circumstances that the children in the book face are very realistic, without being cliched. As the stories unfold, the reader is presented varied emotions in a very engaging manner.

While reading the book, I quite looked forward to these emotions, an explanation of what they feel like, how to recognise them, practical tips on what to do about it, along with brilliantly worded affirmations.

For young readers, there is a colourful, detachable poster of the Wheel of Emotions for quick and easy reference.

Oh, So Emo! is a good book to have in your home library. The children would of course not read about all emotions all at once and maybe find a few too unfamiliar and complex but the book would serve as a good reference/reminder to them over the years.

With delightful illustrations by Shamika Chaves and a bright book cover, the book is like a friend, supporting and accepting and always there for you.

About the Author

Gayatri holds a Masters in English Literature, PG diploma in Journalism, Counselling Psychology, and Applied Buddhist Psychology and Ethics, a Nalanda Diploma in Buddhist Philosophy and is a student of the 5-year Nalanda Masters in Buddhist Philosophy, under the aegis of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She is a practitioner of Vipassana, and the Ngondro Gar under the lineage of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. She studied Vedic Culture & Spirituality and Indian Philosophy at Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Puttaparthi.

She has worked in the Indian media for 22 years and is a mental health columnist for MoneyControl. Her non-fiction work has appeared in the Hindustan Times, India Today and Mint Lounge, and also as part of an award-winning anthology of Out of Print edited by Meena Kandasamy and Samhita Arni. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2021 and featured in the Converse Anthology commemorating 75 years of Indian Independence in 2022, among others. She’s lived in Lagos, Nigeria; Kodaikanal, TN; and Thane, Maharashtra, and is currently a resident of Mysuru. She is the founder of Shamah | a mind-body-spirit alignment practice.

You can buy the book on Amazon.

The Colony of Shadows by Bikram Sharma: Book Review

Title: The Colony of Shadows
Author: Bikram Sharma
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Hachette India

Book Blurb

A GRIEVING CHILD.

A MYSTERIOUS COLONY.

A LURKING MENACE.

After the untimely death of his parents, nine-year-old Varun struggles to adjust to his new life in Bangalore with his perceptive aunt and bedridden grandmother. When he climbs through a hole in the wall of their back garden, he discovers a mysterious colony that lies abandoned and in ruins. It’s strangely familiar, and the more he explores it, the more it resembles his old home in Delhi. But the comfort of familiarity is deceptive, for something dangerous lurks in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike – and wreak havoc. Will Varun survive this threat? Or will he vanish from the world, swallowed alive by the colony of shadows?

In this gripping debut novel, Bikram Sharma tells an emotionally rich tale about loss, grief, and hope, and the lengths we go to for the people we love.

The Story

When Varun explores the garden in his aunt and grandmother’s house in Bangalore, he finds a mysterious, ruined place beyond the boundary wall, a colony that looks similar to his house in Delhi. His parents are dead and burdened by a sense of grief and a longing to go back home to his parents, he explores the place again and again while memories rush back.

But the colony is sinister and Varun’s sense of danger vies for space with his longing. His life is with Jyoti and Usha but will he learn to reconcile with the idea of a new family?

Review

The Colony of Shadows is a quick and easy read. The language and narration are uncomplicated. I liked that it had a very Indian feel to everyday events.

The book is a sensory delight because much of the story is through Jyoti, Varun’s aunt who is visually challenged. Poppy the pet dog has some of the narration, and we get to experience the world through her senses. Intuition, sensory perception and emotional awareness make the text so much richer. In fact, even emotions have scents when Poppy experiences them. She can smell curiosity, fear, grief and make sense of what the humans are going through. Grief becomes a rancid bitterness; inquisitiveness is expressed through muscles tensed in anticipation of action.

There’s so much of a woman’s perspective in the book. Jyoti, Anu, their mother Usha are the orbits around the child Varun.

Maleness sees a put-down again and again, be it Poppy’s fear of men, the male gaze that Anu despises, or Praveen, who is a grey character, veering towards malice.

There is a lot about disability, both physical and mental and those in the margins, orphans, animals who have been treated cruelly, all of it very sensitively handled. While Jyoti can navigate her physical limitations, Usha is unable to fight her mental demons.

The story has a beautiful juxtaposition of the mundane, everyday life, of power cuts, household chores and of a fantastical world, that lies beyond the boundary wall of the house. To Varun, it is a place where he can return to his parents and the life he once had; to Poppy, it is the other world beyond a tunnel of darkness, where people are lured to, never to be seen again. In this world, shadows have a life of their own, while everything else lies in ruins, inanimate objects like coins and sticks converse, warn, think aloud. This other world seems curious, enticing in a way, and the sense of danger grows more menacing as the book progresses.

There is a lot of Varun’s perspective in the book, the child’s remorse of doing something that you were not supposed to, of a child’s notion that something went wrong, because they broke a promise or that if you were good, nothing would go wrong ever.


There are some subtle nuances like the gramophone that plucks ghostly voices from nowhere or the book that Jyoti and Varun are reading (pop culture references are exciting, I looked up the book), Praveen stalking Jyoti after he’s unable to handle the happenings or his own emotions or ineptitude.

I did not want to look at the book from a disability lens but it’s very empathetic writing. In fact it is about the marginalised — women, disability, orphans, strays, people we imagine need comfort and we end up patronising them but they only need support, they can make their own way.

One thing that rankled as the story progressed was that Usha and Jyoti have rather similar thoughts and reactions. The characters are all cast from the same mould. With the exception of Praveen, they are all gentle, sensitive, and caring. Also, pennies drop or people come to conclusions suddenly, without any trigger of revelation. While Varun’s grief is real, there was little mourning on Jyoti or Usha’s end, for Anu’s death.

The ending did not work for me, even though it is neatly tied. In fact the book faltered after the 60% mark. After the elaborate world building, random things happened when it came to ghosts, shadows, or dead people.

Verdict

A very beautifully penned story that will make you feel warm, vulnerable and have an aching heart, all at once.

This post is part of Bookish League Blog Hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.

The Stolen Necklace by Shevlin Sebastian: My Thoughts on the book

True crime narratives are generally written because the human interest angle is very strong. For maximum leverage, sometimes the unsavoury bits are scrutinised a little too obsessively, because it’s what gets engagement.

The Stolen Necklace written by Sebastian Shevlin about V. K. Thajudheen’s story is a true account of wrongful arrest and subsequent incarceration. The role of the police in framing an innocent person on the basis of CCTV footage (which was not even conclusive) sounds horrendous and chillingly familiar.

Whether it’s Kerala or other Indian states, the menace of uniformed guardians of law is well-known. Wrongful imprisonment, mistreatment during custody and the common man’s fear of the police have been talked about in newspapers.

Thajudheen’s ordeal of nearly 2 months in jail, a reputation that took a dent from the moment the police apprehended him, the ways in which his family had to seek help from influential and politically connected people makes for a very relatable read.

The best part is that the narrative is calm, bordering on gentle which is a refreshing change from the sensationalism we see. There are no harsh judgements, the facts are presented and it’s up to the reader to take what they want from the story.

I would recommend The Stolen Necklace for a factual analysis and good narrative.

This post is part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.

Office Secrets by Harish Bhat: Book Review

Title: Office Secrets: 50 Human Truths You Should Absolutely Know
Author: Harish Bhat
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Business

Office Secrets by Harish Bhat delves deep into the workplace ethos and ecosystem with humour and insightful observations.

At the beginning, Harish remarks how a workplace is more than work and power play and strategies. Our offices are inhabited by people and it is the human element that has the most impact on the quality of our time spent working.

The 50 chapters touch on a large range of topics. Harish has excellent observation; I came upon so many categorizations which were spot on and left me chuckling. Right from meetings, to work from home habits to listening up to parallels drawn with authors and literary characters, there’s no aspect of office life that has escaped Harish’s notice.

Through the book, I conjured up an image of the kind of work load he has, the people he collaborates with and the office culture. Harish Bhat has worked with Tata Group for more than 35 years. The name Tata brings up a sense of awe and pride in me and I wanted a glimpse of the hallowed corridors by reading these accounts.

This book is a compilation of Harish Bhat’s columns which were published in Mint Lounge over a period of few years. I found this out after I finished the book. While reading I did think that the chapters would make for some great conversation-starting blog posts (being a blogger makes me see through this lens all the time).

The book cover is really good, the color scheme and the typography conveyed a sense of calm rather than the typical work stress and competitiveness that we encounter in offices.

My favourite chapters were those that spoke of Dickens, Shakespeare, Hercule Poirot, Einstein and dementors from Harry Potter. Make February your new January, What your Wall says about you on a Video Call, The Geronimo effect at Work, For your next offsite, opt for offbeat destinations were some that I enjoyed quite a bit.

If you work in an office, then the anecdotes in Office Secrets will be quite relatable. Anyone who’s part of the organised workforce in this country will find the light-hearted tone and the kindness endearing.

This post is part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.

The Yoga Sutras for Children by Roopa Pai

Title: The Yoga Sutras for Children
Author: Roopa Pai
Publisher: Hachette India
Pages: 296

The Yoga Sutras for Children by Roopa Pai is a captivating book, talking about Maharishi Patanjali’s compact text that was written around 2000 years ago. Trivia: the Yoga Sutras can be written on an A4 size of sheet if we use both sides.

At first glance, I felt this is a difficult subject for children and I nearly expected the text to be dense that becomes difficult to comprehend beyond a point. However, I was delighted to read the introduction or an elevator pitch as Roopa Pai calls it. It talks directly to children, addresses their concerns, draws examples from their lives, explains concepts simply, all the while keeping them engaged.

I was mortified to realise that I had considered Yoga to be part asanas, part breathing techniques and part, a way of life. What was this way of life I had no idea. Too many misconceptions, half baked information swam in my head. And to think that I would have missed this treasure had I stuck to my beliefs.

Since the book is for children, the format is very interactive. The text of course talks about deeper subjects but it rarely becomes monotonous because the language is suited to the younger generation, the text is broken frequently by asides, there are interesting illustrations and conversations.

The Yoga Sutras are explained through secrets and practices that let the reader ascend from the simple to the advanced stages of the verses.

There’s a very helpful pronunciation guide at the end of the book and it’s reassuring to be able to enunciate the Sanskrit words correctly.

I quite liked the fact that religions across the world were referenced multiple times. It builds a deeper understanding of the traditions of people and the fact that similar philosophies are followed elsewhere. We even learn more about ancient civilizations, their art and culture and what that means for the modern world.

The fact that a sutra usually consists of a few words only is a wonder and I was completely engrossed in reading all the sutras.

A word about the book cover — it is excellent. Vibrant colours, attractive, appealing, I loved the texture (bibliophiles are known to evaluate the feel and smell of books). The paperback quality is also fantastic.

Highly recommended for children (15+ in my opinion) and adults alike.

I am definitely going to pick her other book, The Gita for Children.

You can buy the book on Amazon.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023 

Attitude by Adam Ashton and Adam Jones

Title: Attitude
Author: Adam Ashton and Adam Jones
Genre: Non-fiction, Motivational
Publisher: Penguin Business
Pages: 200

Attitude is a little book of big ideas, that dissects success and the mental processes of successful people. It lays out a roadmap to achieve your vision and work towards your dreams. In spite of the serious topics it tackles, like bringing about change and moving through fear, the tone of the book is light-hearted and even entertaining.

Review

The premise of Attitude by Adam Ashton and Adam Jones is very interesting. On one hand, it is a collection of all the really useful, impressive and actually helpful ideas that the authors have encountered. On the other, the chapters discuss books from which these ideas were spawned. It’s exciting to get a summary of a wildly popular book that’s been a help to many people.

Attitude has been able to distil the philosophy of many books, presenting the concepts simply, in a relatable manner and analysing what it means to someone wanting to act on them.

As with all self-help books, I knew it won’t make sense reading it if I don’t have atleast one thing that can be actioned.

So in the middle of the reading, as I had more and more ideas thrown at me, I pulled out my Notes app to write down what I thought of a particularly brilliant idea and what I was going to do about it.

How is this book different

The language is relaxed, the tone friendly and fresh. I had in fact, really liked reading about the authors and what they have been doing with their lives and the fact that they had a podcast where they spoke about the books that had made am impact on them was alluring to me. The language is very conversational and it’s like you can talk about these concepts with someone else, as in discussing a cool new idea.

There were plenty of references to real life examples with YouTube video links. I found myself setting the book aside, watching a video and then getting back to my reading smiling at the ingenuity. The Adams also tell you to Google stuff that sounded unbelievable and their kick-ass phrases are too good.

Verdict

All in all, a refreshing pick-me-up if you want to stay motivated and pumped, with your favourite friends Ashto and Jonesy at your elbow guiding and counseling.

Behind Latticed Marble by Jyotirmoyee Devi Sen: Book Review

Name: Behind Latticed Marble: Inner Worlds of Women
Author: Jyotirmoyee Devi Sen
Translator: Apala G. Egan
Publisher: Thornbird, Niyogi Books
Length: 214 pages
Genre: Fiction

Behind Latticed Marble is a collection of short stories set in 19th century Rajasthan, with a glimpse of the royals and their lifestyle. It is also a view of the women who live in palaces and harems, as queens, consorts and concubines. As you read the tales, you become part of the labyrinthine alleys, the palace machinations and the intrigue, and also opulence that turns cloistered.

Review

The book brings alive the vibrant culture of Rajasthan, with vivid descriptions of their living abodes, clothes, jewelery, food and entertainment practices. The stories are a veritable feast for the senses and also focuses on the cloying aspect and the indolence that comes from excessive wealth and comfort.

In the story ‘Frame-up: Maji Saheb’, we look at lives and events unfolding through the emotions and ponderings of a widowed maharani. It is masterfully written and explores many aspects of a woman’s psyche.

‘Two Women: Beti ka Baap’, ‘The Mistress Wife: Shethanijee’ and ‘The Child Bride: Baijilal’ are set in villages and towns, and they explore societal norms, gender oppression and fate dictating the way women live and die.

In the palaces, there are also dark secrets that haunt the perpetrators’ memories and manifest as ghosts. There are palace intrigues that change women’s fortunes dramatically, raising them in stature or seeing them falling from grace.

The titles given to the characters are beautiful. Maji Saheb, Lalji Saheb, Baijilal, the names roll off your tongue like honey. As for the settings, they are described in such detail that you can smell the mists rolling in, feel the heat of the hot winds or long for the cool breeze blowing through the khus khus screens.

With the narrators in the stories, you explore the corridors of the harem and the labyrinthine alleyways, enter the richly furnished apartments and the villas, learn of the lives of women, living in luxury and seclusion from the outside world. You learn of Rajput honor and the hopes and desires of young and old women and eunuchs.

Written by Jyotirmoyee Devi Sen who was born in Jaipur and spent her early life there, the stories are based on her witnessed accounts. Some of her stories talk of Bengalis living in the Rajputana land, people who are curious about the land they are living in, following their purdah norms there even though reluctantly, in awe and always co-existing.

Verdict

Behind Latticed Marble is a feast for the senses, as it immerses the reader in the royal world of princesses and maharanis, ranis and other women of the harem, as also in the ordinary women’s lives and their complex inner worlds.

January Reading: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Reflecting back on my January reads for the past 2-3 years I realised that I don’t pick easy books. I usually have tomes with unfamiliar tropes, complex storytelling and non-linear narratives as my way to gear up for the year ahead.

However, this year bookstagram wove its magic and I found myself looking at the impossibly lovely book cover of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches as a read in one of the online book clubs. Thanks, Resh! And I couldn’t resist reading about witches and irregular at that!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna is about witches, magic, love and familial relations that the characters find in the unlikeliest of places.

The author started writing the book a few months into the pandemic. I can understand the feeling of escapism and the need to find unconditional love and acceptance and everything heartwarming.


A welcoming house by the sea, lovely gardens, greenhouses, a friendly golden retriever, a bright, sunny-smiled witch, adorable little girls who can do magic, a sententious old man with a wicked sense of humour, a fussing-over-you housekeeper, a gentle and sweet gardener, a scowling-but-heart-of-gold librarian, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches manages to have all these elements so that the book is like a hug, cosy and nice.

Nealy no one here has a family. We meet orphans (all witches are, by virtue of a spell gone wrong), people seeking refuge outside abusive marriage, dysfunctional families, battling childhood trauma, having trust issues. But there’s no dark cloud on the horizon. Not even dead bodies or skeletons evoke horror. There’s so much love from strangers, adopted families and in the unlikeliest of places that this world becomes your favourite place to live in.

You are so entranced by everything that makes you happy and loved that you don’t mind the lack of conflict, rather the lack of serious conflict in the story. The only thing I can say that’s not warm and glowing about the book is that the disasters, the difficult circumstances are somehow glossed over, the obstacles fall too easily and the conflicts resolved too conveniently. However I wasn’t going to let that come in the way of my enjoyment.

I would recommend this book to everyone, if they want to just lose themselves in the world of what-can-be, rather than thinking can-it-be-possible.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

I was prodded into buying this book by my sister, who is very definitely an adult. The book is marketed for children and my first read (I have a feeling there are going to be re reads) confirms this.

Did I enjoy it? I can’t say a definite yes and I cannot give it a thumbs down either.

If you haven’t watched the series, A Series of Unfortunate Events or read this book or the others, then read on. If you have, I am sure you have your own strong opinions and let me know those in comments.

For starters, the book and series name is abominable and I believe that’s part of the attraction. Ditto for the book cover. The guy looks really evil.

The blurb has this warning that there’s nothing but unpleasantness in the book and that’s quite right when you look at the storyline.

However, and here’s the part that’s got you curious, the book has a Roald Dahl feel (a bit, not imitation though). The author name, Lemony Snicket looks like it’s made up and yes, Daniel Handler has done that. It also hints at fun things and an intelligent way of making up the story.

The book and the series is about three children who discover their parents are dead with their mansion burnt down. Thus begins their saga, of misadventures, nay, misfortune mostly and their attempts at influencing the outcome of these events. They are shuttled off to the home of the executor of the parents’ will (more like an executioner, as the eldest child Violet thinks) and later to a very very distant relative, the evil Count Olaf, an actor by trade and greedy at heart. He wants the Baudelaire fortune at any cost (here it refers to the surname of the surviving children) and the story turns sinister (it seemed it was only for the adult in me; my children were unfazed and loved all the twists and turns).

I quite liked the way Lemony Snicket kept telling the meanings and context of words. Also interesting were the periodic warnings of more bad things coming up.

I might not have found the book magical but I cannot say with certainity that I would not read the next one. Sometimes, you just need time to let something grow on you.

Bending Over Backwards by Carlo Pizzati

Bending over Backwards is a memoir and a travelogue, of places and experiences that are literal as well as of spiritual significance. It’s also an exploration of the significance of technology in a spiritual quest and whether we can justify its use.

The book starts with the mention of a backache, chronic and all-pervading. It is for a cure that the journeys and fascinating experiences come about, ending in India.

Being an Indian, reading about India from a foreigner’s perspective seemed like an incomplete experience at best, whenever I did read such an account.

Though, a disclaimer here that Bending Over Backwards is not an India-centric experience only. In fact, the author’s journeys and esoteric cure seeking had me enthralled.

It’s quite entertaining to see different places, right from Italy to US to Argentina to India. As the writer gets on flights for yet another stop on his search for a cure, there’s curious stuff happening. We meet aura readers, to medical professionals to meditators, yoga practitioners, past life regression, exorcism, trance-dance therapy, dubious gadgets to inject credibility into esoteric practices, we see it all.

Carlo Pizzati’s writing has a luminescent quality, it illuminates the most banal, simple acts. There’s no pretension, no convoluted facts, things are put down as they are, perhaps it’s his journalistic experience that helps him write about life in a factual manner.

There’s humour in the way situations are recorded, a non-judgemental observation that brings forth how ridiculous something can be.

As a reader, you can see the journey, not just the physical aspect but spiritual as well, as his learnings deepen and become wiser.

In praise of the cover, the art is very typically Indian, quirky and bright and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to read the book.

The very Indian experiences of Ashtang yoga, of Ayurveda, of meditation, of bhajans, satsang, ashrams and gurus, even of the so-called chaos (for me it’s life as usual) and richness of daily life were not the first draws for me. In fact, the way the book distills these experiences and the completely unpretentious way the author moves from one quest to the next is mesmerising.

In the end, I really did not care if the author had his answers, in fact, they were a faithful reproduction of the conversations he had with various learned men and their views but whether he was closer to a satisfactory explanation, I am not sure.

While the author periodically wondered if he was being ridiculous in searching out answers in a non-traditional way that would not appeal to rationalists, I could only read in wonder as I know the leap of faith it takes to move from the concrete world of rationale to something undefined and even scoffed at as being pseudo science or pop psychology.

Reading this book was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a refreshing read, a breath of fresh air and voice, with subtle wit that underlies the quest for answers and cure.