Richa Reads

The urge to read about north-east of our country was triggered by a what's app group chat. In a close knit what's app group of 250 (smirk), someone spoke at length about Jharkhand and how it's part of the North East of India. It irked me immensely, as I have grown up in Bokaro Steel City, very much a part of Jharkhand. A friend from north east on the same group replied to the tune of, "Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation."  The book is written by an investigative journalist "Avalok Langer". He falls in love with a Naga Girl, Azo and follows her to Nagaland. Avalok’s love life doesn't fructify, but his love for North East does and it shines through very clearly in the book. The book captures the root causes of the dissension in North East via multiple interviews with the underground's / rebels. It dwells in great details and lays out the entire ...

A few of us picked up the book "Waiting" and read it together. It was a great experience, as the reading was followed by an animated discussion with polarized viewpoints. I have listed few of the remarks from the discussion:  1. Glad that I was forced to read this book, would have never picked it up myself 2. Gave me lots of societal and cultural inputs on China. I liked the diversity it brought to my reading palette 3. Loved the book, especially from a writing standpoint : Very fluid and richly developed characters 4. I could identify with the central character Lin : Sometimes, I find myself living my life in a limbo So, before I head deep into it, a small summary of the book : This is the story of Lin Kong, for 17 years this army doctor has been in love with a clever and a modern woman Manna Wu. She works with him as a nurse, in the army hospital, in a large city in China. Back home in the village, Lin has a wife Shuyu and a daughter. Every summer Lin goes back to divorce h...