Deep Ties

The blurb prepares you for what lies within – “A quickstart guide to creating a pack-and-carry career and work-from-home lifestyle on the move” Chandana Banerjee is an Air Force wife who took the road not taken by creating an identity of her own, not enmeshed with that of her husband’s. She added new skills, took short breaks and worked from home, proud to be her own boss. In this enlightening book, she shares her journey with her readers, describing how every military wife could crack the work-from-home life and create her own professional identity. Every chapter has been divided into bite-sized nuggets of wisdom that are practical and doable. Ms. Banerjee begins with the advantages of working from home, and she eschews the common excuses that prevent military wives, or milpreneurs, as she terms them, from stepping out of their comfort zones. Every person has a passion or a skill that can be turned into a work-from-home career. The book offers interesting work-fro...

Mathematics has been a subject of immense speculation over the centuries. One either loves it or is petrified of it. Curious is the fact that those who are worried about numbers hardly ever get over their fear of them. It is for this reason that Archana Sarat, a CA by profession and a math and science buff, as she refers to herself, went back into the hoary past and dredged out ancient stories, only to find that this subject not only extends over centuries of time, but traverses across geographical borders as well. This might be a book written for children, but it does hold the interest of adults as well. The book begins with the story of Ipiko who lived 40,000 years ago, and saved his tribe from being decimated by mammoths by using drawings and scratches which would later be seen as the first writing of mathematics. A subsequent chapter deals with Ipiko’s descendant, Neeraza, who hit upon the idea of tally marks for the very first time, a concept used liberally in today’s ...

How does one react?               When a dastardly act ends in the murder of a whole vehicle of CRPF personnel at Pulwama, dedicated young men who play on their lives every day to protect the Kashmir Valley? When, while the whole nation is mourning for the grievous loss, some petty souls resort to nit-picking, pointing fingers at the bereaved organization, wondering aloud about whether there was a lapse in their training or security? When those same petty souls have never thought about joining the Armed Forces, the CRPF or the ITBP, where, day in and day out, these young people are trained to defend their country in times of war and peace? When even the politicos come together to bemoan a colossal tragedy, but one spokesman points fingers at the leaders of the political parties in J&K? When all that the country needs is a time and a space to close its eyes and spend a moment in silence, condoling the...

‘The Anatomy of Choice’ is the second book in the Haveli series, narrating the tale of two women, Bhavya, the second daughter of the Sharma family, and Noorie, a courtesan who lived in the days of yore, and who now “rests close by, celebrated in death as she never was in life” singing “hauntingly sad ghazals.” The ivory-hued Haveli with the hundred doors and the black domed mausoleum by its side are now known as Chaand and Chaand Raat, as the love story of Noorie and Hamad Bahadur are played out by a modern pair of lovers. There is a hint of romance that plays its way like a will-o-the wisp, intriguing the reader, tantalizing and mysterious, as Noorie endeavours to “remind him of our love through the music he loved so much”. Transgressions are rarely forgiven, and Bhavya and Tenzin realize how far they have drifted as a consequence of their choices. Bhavya comes home to the Haveli, where she is welcomed back by her family. However, there is a feeling of disquiet, as they...

Sandy Raman is a nineteen-year-old journalist from Mumbai who does not hesitate to go where angels fear to tread. She lives as a paying guest with the Sawants, an Indian family after the death of her boyfriend, Saahil, in the Mumbai blasts. The appearance of Nirmal aka Nimmy, the son of the house, makes her feel she has an ally, even though she is a trifle startled by Nimmy’s sister, Asha, who first accosts her with a knife. Nimmy and Sandy grow closer, much to the disapproval of his family, but a few instances of his behaviour make her wonder, especially his reactions to her references to the mentally challenged Asha. As Sandy begins her Masters at the London School of Economics, she comes across the flamboyant Ritchie Johri, a film maker from Los Angeles. She is soon elected as the LSE television network executive head, and hopes to bag a grants programme run by a multinational conglomerate, EGG. Many influential people cross her path, and things seem almost too easy for ...

Shilpa Suraj, the winsome author of the delightful romance 'Driven By Desire', shares her thoughts in a guest post on my blog 'Deep Ties'. The Value of a Moment “Could you give me a moment?” I say those words close to fifty times a day. Sometimes I do get that moment of breathing space. Most times I don’t. My life is a constant juggling act and I often fear that if I slip up, I’ll get buried under all the balls that will come crashing down on my head. So, how do I deal? By stealing those moments. A moment to watch my daughter dance to Skidamarink for the 100 th time. A moment to hug my dog as he nuzzles my neck. A moment to watch a butterfly land on my rose bush. A moment to watch the birds splash around in the birdbath. A moment to read a line from a favourite book. A moment to listen to a song on the radio. A moment to watch my daughter sleep. A moment to breathe. A moment to be. Without the magic of those moments and so many more, I w...

‘Bahir’ by Monisha K Gumber is the tale of the stunning Sawera, a young girl who is born in Pakistan and adopted by her mother's sister, and the travails she goes through as she grows from “a petite girl with lots of facial hair” into a beautiful young girl with “the knack of attracting trouble”.  She moves along with her Ammi and Abba to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Once her brothers, Omar and Rashid, are born, she senses a change in the attitude of her Ammi towards her. Sawera turns into a rebel, craving love from others, as she looks for some excitement in her monotonous life. When she is caught with a boy, her parents take her back to Karachi to attend a wedding – her own. In her hurry to get married, she chooses Wasim, “nearly thirty and after a broken engagement and a broken heart, fell in love with my picture.”  However, she is soon disillusioned with her husband, and after delivering three children, she decides to leave him and go to Saudi, back to her parents,...