Deep Ties

  Manali Desai’s latest book title ‘Love and (Mellow) Drama’ reads like a Bollywood romcom with all its twists and turns. It showcases romance and friendship as two sides of the same coin. Relationships play a significant role throughout the narrative, which is peppered with lyrics from Hindi songs and movies, provoking in the readers a sense of deja vu as they look forward to that happily-ever-after moment.  Gayatri Kulkarni and her beau, Varun Agarwal, are the two main protagonists who lead the reader on to a merry dance with their blow hot - blow cold romance. Gayatri with her passion for dancing and her choice of Political Science in college comes across as a bubbly drama queen with a penchant for Bollywood movies like DDLJ. Varun is the quintessential Mills and Boon hero who sweeps the heroine off her feet, even when she loses her footing and falls into his arms.  Many delightful characters pepper the book - Ayesha and Abhi (Varun's exuberant brother), Sharad (Gayatr...

                                                                        Unsplash   They called her the girl with chutzpah, who could take on the world and joust with windmills! She appeared from nowhere with long pigtails and the face of an angel. From the start, there was an aura about her, a coldness almost, which people noticed. Yet, she had chutzpah, a word that her friends had no idea about. It was more of an instinct, the idea that no one could mess with her. One glance from those gimlet eyes could quell even the highest spirits. Anyone who messed with the girl found themselves in hot water soon enough. Aman, who had taken her favourite pen surreptitiously, found his notebooks floating in water, the blue ink all smudged and unreadable. Suchitra who had scoffed at her hairstyle suddenly dis...

  The most important landmark in Cape Town is, of course, Table Mountain, and Signal Hill nestles next to it and is also known as Lion’s Rump. When seen together with Lion’s Head, which is another peak next to it, the whole formation appears like a lion sphinx. Thus, the three hills lie adjacent to one another – Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill and can be seen from any point in Cape Town on a clear day. Signal Hill got its name from the olden days when signals were sent to ships through signal flags to communicate warmings as well as anchoring instructions to visitor ships experiencing stormy weather. The first two days in Cape Town saw Table Mountain shrouded in clouds. The drive up Signal Hill was picturesque with views of Cape Town below and glimpses of the peaks as the cars cruised uphill. The grey clouds hung ominously overhead as the weather threatened to worsen and we were all thankful that we had worn our thickest jerseys and woollens. The view was beautiful wi...

  Once we had finished with Spier Hotel and Wine Farm, we were raring to go to the next leg of our trip. The gorgeous Malay Quarter, which nestles at the foot of Signal Mountain, took our breath away. The buildings were all tastefully painted in lovely colours, and I could hardly contain myself as we drove around. Pinks and blues, greens and oranges, yellows and reds… the sight was magnificent. History has it that the Malay Quarter came into being during the third quarter of the 18 th century. In the 1830s, when slavery was abolished, it is believed that the Malays who had been forcibly brought into the Cape, now earned their freedom and began to shift into this area. By the middle of the 19 th century, this area was dubbed the Islamic Quarter. The presence of this Quarter brought the Cape Malays together as a group, but in 1944, after World War 2, the quarter deteriorated to the extent that it was declared a slum. The City Council and the Historical Monuments Commission acted ...

Photo Credit - Spier Wine Farm Four days in Cape Town. It sounded too good to be true! So, the four grandparents, the parents and the two terrific twosome (Z and S) boarded their flight, filled with anticipation. Each of them had their own ideas about what lay ahead, but one central idea loomed large. They were all set to have the time of their lives. The week earlier, or at least part of it, had gone into planning our itinerary. After all, there was so much to be done; the problem was in sifting the parts that interested us most. The general view was that it was going to be freezing and that we would have to be clad like Eskimos most of the time. That was daunting (brrrr!) because I suspected that I would have to be thawed out every time I returned home after a jaunt. We stayed in a friend’s beautiful home which faced a water body which was a kayaking path. At times, kayaks would whiz by, manned by men women and children. A few ducks also made the crossing, and weaver birds had bu...

Monte Casino – the very name spells romance, glamour and intrigue. Tucked away in Johannesburg, Fourways, this sprawling structure looms, impressive and eye-catching and is one of the top entertainment spots in the city.  The name comes from Monte Cassino, a village near Rome in Italy and the entire complex resembles a typical Tuscan village. The first time we visited Monte Casino, it took our breath away. The moment we stepped onto the cobbled paths within, it was a different world altogether. From broad daylight and the scorching African sun, we walked into a sunset, an interior that exuded an evening ambience, with closed ceilings that alternated between the day and the night sky. While the main attraction is obviously the Casino which makes its presence felt with flashing lights, the sound of the counters and the hustle and the bustle, Monte Casino has much more to offer in the form of restaurants offering all kinds of cuisines, stores that show off their wares, little nooks ...

Africa is known for its parks, sanctuaries and zoos. Kruger Park and the myriad safaris are examples of the way animals are nurtured in this continent. It was time to take the little ones to a zoo. So, we decided to visit the Lory Park Zoo, Midrand, which is smaller than the Johannesburg Zoo, mainly because it was a nice hot day, and we thought that it would be better to go to the former before going for lunch to the Mall of Africa, which is one of the biggest malls around, maybe even in the whole of Africa. The Lory Park Zoo is located between Johannesburg and Pretoria and is home to more than a hundred species of various animals. It was started by Edward Philippus Van Eck in April 2002, who was an avid animal lover. He started it as a bird park, but later, it grew into an sanctuary for many kinds of animal species as well.  When Midrand turned into a residential area, people began to drop off wounded or captured animals to Lory Park Zoo. Edward Philippus also wanted to educate ...