One Amazing Thing - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I completed Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's One Amazing thing. It was a read you can connect with. A book I would put on a read-again shelf.

The story is based on Nine people trapped in Visa Consulate office in an American city due to earthquake. All nine people are of different nationalities, has different way of thinking and different way of living life. All of them are having problems in their life. Problems we have heard of and we can connect to. Due to nothing to do other than stare each others faces, they decide to share their one amazing thing of life.

Two visa officers on verge of an affair. Malathi is conservative and by her own confession, selfish. She feels guilty of having an affair. On the other hand Mangalam is some sort of playboy. Cameron, an ex-soldier is haunted by guilt. Uma, A student feeling guilty for not informing her boyfriend about her plans of going to India. Tariq, a Muslim who is angry with the changes in America after 9/11. Jiang, an Indo-Chinese going India again after all her life with her granddaughter Lily and grandson. A couple having troubled marriage going to Rajasthan. All of them trapped in basement offices with debris falling now and them.
 
The narration quickly changes from third person to first person. While it might have gone wrong but Divakaruni did well. Characters were well described. Situations in the stories were illustrated well leaving no holes. The stories of characters are very common and predictable. We connect to them very easily. Though common stories Divakaruni managed to keep me gripped. She described the mental state of people very closely. The stories are more on the problems faced by characters than the one amazing thing in their life. Its the only thing that itched me. But some stories makes you make a note in mind not to do that mistake in your life.

Divakaruni has shown the natural tension and distrust between people at first by when people were requested to share whatever eatables they had with others, people had put only half of the things they had at first, People fighting and arguing whether to allow Cameron to handle the whole situation.

Its hard to find loopholes in this book. Its a nice, clean work.

What I think about friendships

Nowadays most of the people are convinced that friendship between two people is only with a reason. I agree here that most of them are. But those real friendships are still there. There are few but they do exist.

For such friendships a great deal of effort have to put by you. Yes you. You have to put most efforts because you want such a friendship. No emotional detachment will do here. You can't fake it. You want to trust them, first prove that they can trust you. Friendships and built on trust. If you are worth it, the person will surely trust you.

Why do we need friends? Because nowadays we depend on them the most and that is why we are complaining too. Everybody wants someone to depend upon. We depend on them in happiness, sorrow, crisis and .. (you complete the list). The main point is you need someone so you are searching. The friend that you think is with a reason also needs someone. They didn't care and you didn't care so you remained friends with a reason.

Another thing you can have only few true friends. Don't try to convert each friendship because you will go crazy. You are a human and you cannot manage everything. I say your life should have very few such friends. Because only than we will appreciate them.

Cecelia Ahern Experiment

Before you think that its a science post let me make it clear. No. Its my experiments with reading.

I recently completed One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern and found something interesting. She has written several novels but she is more famous for her novel PS I Love You. I am not a great fan of her works but I noted something.

From the three books I have read about Cecelia Ahern, I put together that they have three common points. One the main character is a woman, all of them had faced crisis recently and all of them recovered from them quite bravely. All her stories has a touch of feminism. Maybe its unintentional but sometimes you get a glimpse of it.

I read PS I Love You first. No comments on how much I liked it. In there Holly Kennedy is trying to cope up after her husband's death. Her husband has left her 10 letters to help her rediscover herself.

Then I read Thanks For Memories. Here Joyce Conway is recovering from a miscarriage and a divorce. The plot is stupid though but the only gripping thing was her independence and decision to take it her own way.

I recently completed One Hundred Names. Here Katherine Logan is coming up from a court case, trying to save her only job and completing her editor cum friend's dream feature article. I say that Katherine is stupid but  I loved the way she put together all the people to fulfill one task.


While reading I sometimes found plots silly and boring. Sometimes too predictable. The only thing I like was that in her stories women were fighting to withstand the situations and not surrendering to it. It at least made me complete her books.

My Drizziling Vacation

Exams are finally over. Last 15 days were not just a test of my academic work but also of my self control. I was on a Twitter Break from last 12-15 days. It took every ounce of my willpower not to go there. My reward was exams went excellent, I gained followers in my absence without losing any, Got to knew that my morning wishes were missed and people noted I was missing.
So finally I have a vacation and this time I would like to do something productive for a change. I have three things on my mind. The list goes like this-

• Grab some extra knowledge
  First I was planning to do some internships but as my exams were postponed most of them have already started. So I have decided to do some online courses on Coursera. They have some certificate courses called signature track where they provide a certificate if you complete the course successfully. The course I am going to pursue is not a signature track. But its totally free and professors of Standford are going to teach. So I am going to catch some free and extra knowledge.
• A foreign language
  I am suddenly very enthusiastic for learning a foreign language.  I still have to find some good classes but I am surely going to attend one, now or sometime later.
• Bengaluru visit
  I desperately want to visit my sister for two reason. One, I haven’t seen her for nearly five months and lately I have been remembering her often due to some incidents. Second, Its a long time since I have made a journey and this blog waits a travel post.

Its a monsoon vacation sadly or I would have put swimming at top of the list. My mother suggested to learn cooking but as usual I am going to run. I have to find a company in my city for my company project this year.
I can this see holidays can be productive if even two of the three things are done successfully. I hope so. I am going to get regular in writings. I want to get regular on blog. I have time and I better use it.