Richa Reads

Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, is about an author’s struggle with being a Muslim in America. The rich narrative, part biopic, part fictional in the book offered via his visits to Pakistan, mother’s deep attachment to her birth country and father being a super successful doctor treating Trump, has the qualities of a racy thriller, as well as deep nuanced thought. The combination of both, is simply heady! I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between the father and the son in the book. His father, a famous doctor when he makes the progression from being a researcher to private practice, after a few successful years, the practice goes belly up. He gets wrapped up in a legal battle. The entry of capitalism in the medical space had led to the private practices like his, being bought up by MBA led firms. These firms, insist on maximizing the number of patients that the doctor sees, thereby reducing the doctor patient time together. It’s a good example of when capitalism runs a practice, and it...

Pachinko is a compelling story of individuals who struggle to face historical catastrophes. I particularly loved the fact that it’s a story of ordinary people.  The book starts in 1910 Korea and marks it’s end in 1990 in Japan. It is an intergenerational story of a family. Sunja, the main protagonist is a first-generation immigrant from Korea, moving to Japan post marriage, looking for better life. I like the way the narration is omniscient: the narrator speaks from the characters point of view. Its makes for a great community narrative, which I think has worked very well for this story as there are so many stories interwoven in it. This kind of narration has made all characters come alive for me. There are clear major plot lines, but minor plot lines provide critical support to the story. Stories of the main characters looked fuller as the characters around them filled up the vacuum beautifully. While thinking about the name of the book, Pachinko, an interesting parallel came...

I have never read a psychological thriller, so why now? The slow paced life during Covid-19 made me pick up this genre, and within the genre "The Silent Patient" caught my attention as Good Reads Choice Awards - Best Debut Novel. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, strong plot, tightly packed story...enough to keep it interesting.  The book is a domestic tragedy. The main character Alicia  Berenson  is an artist living with her husband Gabriel  in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. Her seemingly perfect life comes to an halt, when one night she shoots her husband. Post that she never speaks again and after being convicted lives at the Grove,  a secure forensic unit in North London. .  In comes Theo, a  criminal psychotherapist who joins Grove with the sole aim of working with Alicia. The way the author has built the relationship between Theo and Alicia in slow steps, is the soul of the book. As a reade...

I was excited to pick up Indu Sundaresan’s The Taj mahal Trilogy, as the Mughal Era has always been captivating for me, historically and architecturally. One of my uncle’s stayed in Agra, so I got to see Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri very early on in life.   The author introduces us to many main characters that have been obscure in their mention in most of the fictional and non-fictional accounts of this era. It’s a very well researched series and the overriding theme across the three books is the substantial role that the women of the Zenana (women’s wing) played in ruling Hindustan.   The first two books, trace the story of Mehrunissa, born to a Persian nobleman, growing up in the times of Akbar ruling India. She falls in love with Salim (later emperor Jehangir) at the age of 8 and finally marries him at the age of 34 to become his  “Twentieth Wife”.  The next book  “Feast of Roses”  follows the journey of Mehrunissa, rena...

I picked up this book with great enthusiasm. I made a silent prayer that hope it isn’t a political play on economics and to my joy it isn’t.   I truly enjoyed the starting chapters, that detailed the author's early years. It set me up well to read the book. I too agree with Aung San Suu Kyi, that Mr. Ahluwalia made an excellent choice in Mrs. Isher Ahluwalia being his wife.   The book covers Indian economy from 1980 to 2014. The entire journey saw lots of leadership and economic changes. These changes have been captured beautifully, by providing the relevant political context in which the economic changes were being made.   My personal favorite is when the author was reviewing a speech that Rajiv Gandhi was to deliver. The speech talked about non-violence being deeply rooted in our value system. To this, the author observes that the statement is exaggerated, as the history of India is full of violence. After thinking about it for some time, Rajiv Gandhi r...

This is a powerful and raw story about a subject matter that is important, and I didn’t really know a whole lot about it. This book makes you uncomfortable, that’s the agenda. So pls, avoid the book if you are looking for an easy read. Alice Walker's forthright, honest portrayal of unpleasant truths that are often conveniently shoved under the carpet, is the pull of this book. One thing that I came out of this book, which surprised me is that it is more about women, women’s rights, and female relationships than it is about race. Don’t get me wrong, the race is an important element, but the way the men view, and treat women and the way, the women look at, and treat themselves is the crux of this story.   I adored Celie, the main character of the book. It really amazed me how a woman who was abused so much (sexually, physically, verbally) could still have so much love in her heart, and not be bitter. For me, she stood out as proof of the resilience of the human spirit. I als...

My trigger point for picking up this book was a conversation I had with a fellow mate during a Robotics competition in Delhi. The conversation went as follows: Mate: Hey, do you think our kids are getting a good but a narrow exposure by choosing to do Olympiad’s at this age? Me: Hmmm, yes, the exposure is good but I wonder how can it possibly harm them? Any thoughts? Mate: Specialisation too early has its pitfalls, as we may be molding their minds to think in a defined way. Me: Hmm… So, the question to be answered was:  Going towards a narrow specialization at a young age, is it the right thing to do?   Now I am armored with Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World in my kindle. The book starts by pointing out how Tiger Woods took up golf at an early age. This example is picked by many as an example of how mastery of a subject needs to be done. Epstein compares this to Roger Federer who played many sports before focusing on tennis. Epstein states, with ...

I came across this book on Bill Gates summer reading list. I know, I know, what you are thinking, I thought the same and that’s precisely the reason I picked up the book, with a ready smirk that I am going to speed read and then rip the book apart (at least in my mind). Another negative thing going for the book was, that I was picking it up right after Becoming by Michelle Obama and I had already loved her story. Question: So, how did it stack up against all these negative prejudices?   Answer: Brilliantly How? Read on…. The basic idea of the book is very simple yet very profound, lift up the women and you will solve problems that you didn’t even know existed. Topics like Children’s nutrition, immunization, health is obviously related to women of the house. But then, Melinda talk’s about how Productivity in agriculture and even containing the AIDS epidemics are dependent on women empowerment. Melinda talks about her journey with the foundation in great detail, where her ...

Let me start by saying that I am a sucker for biographies, whether its books or movies. An autobiography is then on a higher pedestal. So that’s the reason why I picked up this book, and I expected it to make for a good read and it did.   The book turned out to be a page-turner for me, esp. the part before Barack Obama became the President. The whole process of going through Michelle’s life is a story of highs. An African American girl from a blue collared family, making it to best public school, Princeton and then to Harvard. It’s the stuff of dreams. From Michelle’s childhood, my favorite character was her mom. I felt both Michelle and her elder brother, drew a lot from her sense of grounding, calm and a clear sense of priority. That could be one of the biggest reasons why she wanted her mother to be there, in the white house with them. It would have definitely helped with providing the same sense of grounding for her kids, Malia and Saasha. At Princeton, she talk...

I was hesitant to read this book, as I feared, that it will make me painfully aware of my lack of understanding of my own culture and religion. And it did. However, the author has taken care of people like us, the first chapter is called “Foreigners in their own land”. The essence of it is captured in this phrase: Nehru had written of “Spiritual loneliness”, he puts it down to having become “a queer mix of the East and the West, out of place everywhere. At home, nowhere. “For a long time,” Aatish Taseer writes, “I had a recurring dream of the ancient Indian city of Benares, superimposed onto the geography of New York”. That's how the book begins, with a sense of duality. During the course of the book, the author (Who is gay and has a Pakistani father : wondering why I mentioned this? I too was wondering why was it necessary to cover this in the book in a longish way) travels to Benares to learn Sanskrit, observes the city as a first timer and has conversations. Most of these co...

I have been missing out on posting here for a little over a month now. I still don't have much to say, hence I am borrowing a poem written by my elder one, Manyaa in school. Its called "Family" There was a lonely kid called Sophie, and she was feeling kind of down, So she got herself a coffee, And she sat there with a frown. She just failed her science test today, So things were not okay. She called her brother, without any hesitation, Brother asked where are you going? I don't have a destination. I know a park with some nice rides As I just wanna hide. So they went into the park, Brother paid for the tickets, He said, "Race you to the swings." I don't think you are gonna make it. So they sat on the swing for a while, and she slowly started to smile. By Manyaa Dikshit 7A AVM, Bandra East

This was my first Murakami, so can't do any parallel comparisons. This book is a collection of 7 stories and they all center around the loneliness of the male characters. The characters in most stories are very well developed. The title gives away the linking theme, but that’s too simplistic. The tones are somewhat unemotional but are totally beguiling nonetheless. As you would expect they are beautifully written, containing lines that had me wondering to ponder over the pure truth of the statements. Murakami also introduced me to people who not only live in a very different culture but who also seem slightly off. It’s unsettling…Sometimes I can reconcile myself to who they are and why they do what they do, but mostly I struggle to relate to them. These stories spoke to me of introspection and addiction and of a yearning for relationships lost. I don’t think I’ve worked out the true underlying message in any of these tales yet. Filed in my head as : To be read again.  My f...

What attracted me to this story is that it is about human migration and how it impacts them. I have always been keen to know about how people adapt to displacement. To my mind, there are usually two kinds of behavior associated with migration. The first kind adapts to the new culture with open arms and is likely to move ahead. The second kind gets further seeped in their own culture in a new land. It's almost like if they change their ways, they are being disloyal to their roots. The question is, why do we choose what we choose? In the book, both these roles are beautifully filled in by the two main characters, Saeed and Nadia. In the story Saeed and Nadia, though not said as much, move from Syria to Greece to London to the USA. In the book, the comparison between Nadia and Saeed to migration is very well played out. When displaced, Saeed prays more, spends more time with his kind. It seems like the farther he moved away from the city of his birth through space and time, the ...

I must say my first and foremost motivation to read the book was to read Booker’s prize book by a Nobel Laureate, that’s only 220 pages. However, all plans fell flat, as the book will probably stick with me for long and not necessarily in a feel-good way. First things first: This is a very grown-up book, so pick it up only if you are ready for a grown-up conversation. But, at the same time, it isn't a hopeless one – it expresses confusion, anger, and sometimes despair, but also a certain sense of searching that at least imagines a different future.  The word Disgrace is what struck me with nearly every page. Coetzee’s writing is like that. Tight. There’s no escaping what he wants you to see. It’s not outrageously blatant, but it’s none too subtle either. Main character Lurie, has a sharp intelligence, but too little empathy.    My favorite passage from the book that describes him:  At 52, twice divorced, David is solitary, resigned, erudite and sarcastic. He...