Birthday + Thanksgiving + New Year Resolutions

This was originally supposed to be a birthday post, where I wanted to talk about turning over a new decade, and entering the 5th one, no less! Like always, life got in the way - work life, to be specific - not the writer's block life which has delayed (canceled?) so many of my other …

2023 – A year in (fewer than usual) books

Yes, I fell severely short of my 50 book target for 2023 thanks to being ridiculously tied up with work (Work has been sucking my soul for 6-7 months now and I have had very little time to do anything). For the last 6 years I have been successfully reading at least 50 books a …

2022 – A year in books

So, another eventful year comes to an end, and it's time for my review of the books I read this year! Thanks to Goodreads, I can properly keep track of them, so here's a little infographic detailing the 50 books I read this year and stars I gave them: Yeah I read two whole technical …

2021 – A year in books

It is said that the world belongs to those who read, and 2021 (and 2020) made that literally true, and how!  Confined to our homes and immediate localities for the most part, reading is what opened the doors to far away lands for me these 2 years. I know, it always does, but it was …

Book Review: The Maid

Author: Nita Prose  Date of Publication: Expected on January 4, 2022 Genre: Mystery, Crime Legacy: This is the author and long-time editor's first novel How I heard about this book: Got an advance review copy of the e-book from Netgalley.com. I chose it because the plotline sounded interesting to me. Appropriate Audience: Teen/ Adult Rating: 3.5 …

Movie Review – The Great Indian Kitchen

[This post was originally published in a Marathi magazine called Palakneeti, published from Pune. You can read the original post on the magazine's free online version here] Once upon a time there is this beautiful girl - educated, trained in Indian classical dance, an expert at cooking; and as she grew up in a gulf …

One year!

It was exactly a year ago from today when I rushed in to my workplace and informed my boss that I will have to work from home for the next couple of days. At around 9:30 PM the night before, we had got notified that my daughter's school would be closed for the next 2 …

Fairy Tales of Fearless Girls (and why my daughter is not a princess!)

Came across this wonderful book by Susannah McFarlane, while browsing (online) my local library's bookshelves. It is a modern take on fairy tales, and I was blown away by it. What if Rapunzel wasn't a poor, helpless princess with her beautiful long hair as her only redeeming factor? What did she do all day in …

The (customary) birthday post

Yes, yes, I know, I have missed my birthday posts the last 3 years, so there is clearly no 'custom' followed, and I am a day late to publish this post; but with hope against hope hopen, I hope to re-establish it. I barely remember my birthdays in the last 4 years because it was …

Book Review: American as paneer pie

Author: Supriya Kelkar Date of Publication: 9 June 2020Genre: Young adult fiction, comedy-drama, coming-of-ageLegacy:  The author is an India-American brought up in the mid-west, and has written many brilliant children's books Intended Age Group: Any, but particularly tweens and teenagers This one was touted by many book lists, so I immediately reserved it at my local …

Earth Day 2020

Happy Earth Day 2020, people!  And really, when we speak of conserving the earth or the environment, we speak of nothing noble or sacrificial, but of making life better for us and for posterity, so happy "Us Day", too! So, on this Earth/Us Day, I thought I should make a list of changes my family …

Screen-time of the month – March (and February)

Yes, I do sound like a broken record when I say this, but I (also) missed publishing my screen time on February. However, these have been strange times, where there are new challenges and new headaches and new distractions. Anyway, here's the list of what I watched in February and March. DCI Banks - Netflix …

Screen-time of the month: January

Honestly, this is nothing but another attempt to keep writing... something! So here's what I watched during the month of January. Bala - Hotstar Had been waiting to watch this movie for a long time, so I pounced on this one! I loved it! Right from the writing to the acting to the direction, everything …

Happy New Year 2020!

Hello, everyone! Here's wishing a happy, happy new year to all my readers, or what's left of them anyway! (I know I have no one but myself to blame for that, but let's put that aside for now. ) This year has whizzed past me at astronomical speeds (both literally - the Earth did complete …

A Nobel project

"Where the mind is without fear, where the head is held high, Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls..." This amazingly beautiful classic poem from Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali was floating in my head while I was day-dreaming at work today. Everyone who knows me well …

Book review: Born a Crime (Stories From a South African Childhood)

Author: Trevor Noah Date of Publication: 15 November 2016 Genre: Autobiography, Social commentary Legacy:  This is the first book by the author who is a renowned comedian and TV host Intended Age Group: Any “We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where …

Movie Review: Dangal

Okay, first things first. Dangal is an excellent movie - entertaining, sensible, inspiring, and, surprise, surprise!, a very clean PG movie! I had a lot of mixed feelings about going to watch Dangal. I'm not a big fan of Aamir Khan (I do concede that he is an amazing actor, of course. Still, we cannot …

A new project – to improve the old one!

Hey friends! I have been thinking about revamping my blog for a long time now. Presentation, look-and-feel, colors, and so on. But I have realized that the most important thing I need to revamp is the content. Being a technical writer and an aspiring writer/editor myself, I think I should refresh my old blog of …

The Hysteria (and atrocity) of Mob Justice

A few days ago, India was shocked to hear the news of a mob of 200-odd people in UP beating to death a man who was rumored to be consuming beef. While there are many different serious issues involved in this situation, including why the beef ban makes no sense, and how the temple was used for entirely 'un-temple-like' matters, …

Eight years!

So, WordPress just alerts me that I have been with them for eight years! :O Hard to believe... so to acknowledge these eight years, here's a link to my first blog post: https://amruta.wordpress.com/2006/10/31/is-life-really-so-bad/ Hope you like it; or at least, like my later writing! 😉

The Birthday Blog Post

This was meant to be an actual birthday post, meaning it was supposed to be posted on my birthday, which was yesterday.  However, as most of my activities are these days, it had to be postponed. Thankfully, I can accredit it to my daughter, and not to my usual procrastination. 😀 Anyway, yesterday's the day I turned …

Mesothelioma Awareness

Recently, I was contacted by  Heather Von St. James, a triumphant survivor of mesothelioma. She wanted me to spread a word about this rare form of cancer. I must admit, I had never heard of mesothelioma before. Mesothelioma is dangerous, yet avoidable. It mainly occurs due to asbestos exposure. It has been cured in rare …

My childhood rain memories

It is that time of the year, again (In India)! 🙂 Yes, the monsoon season, indeed. As my readers already know from several of my previous posts, I love the rain. Rain reminds me the most about treks, chai-pakodas, the ‘terrifying and soothing at the same time’ property of nature, and the romantic breeze, of course; …

A Brand New (Mother of a) Role! :)

Literally! Yes, I am happy to announce that exactly a month ago, I assumed one of the most important roles I will ever play in my life. I gave birth to this sweet little girl that you can see in the accompanying photograph, Ananya. Her arrival was nothing short of a mini-tsunami of change in my life, …

Jab Celsius and Fahrenheit met!

I had heard about Chicago's cold winters. I had survived a couple of them. But nothing could have made me imagine the kind of cold that would come in, jab Celsius and Fahrenheit met! Yes, that's right. For those of you who did not know (and that includes me, until recently) at -40 degrees Celsius,  the …