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Circus and Village freaks by Aparna Upadhyaya is a collection of 18 tales written in the format of poem.

The Strange tale of Subramanian- the crocodile man – A strange story of couple who came to supreme court to seek advice before considering separation. On outing to local pond in the area, Subramanian jumped into pond for a swim without noticing the crocodile. Despite his struggle he was strong enough to fight the crocodile and save his life. But the real trouble began after thart. What happens to him makes the rest of the tale.

Pablo was born with deformity to Mr and Mrs Kannan, who had given to circus which was in the village. He moved from city to city, town to town, he engaged the audience by taking role of clown and thus he was funny and witty. In the night, there women would just come to his tent just for gentle touch. He was noticed by a TV crew person only to change his future for good and thus rise of a porn star. We never know what fate hold us, but least parents can do is give support and encouragement to your child even if they have deformity and not considered them as devil and isolate them

The Sad tale of Vishnu, the village exterminator. Vishnu was famous in his village for exterminating snakes, scorpio and other that come into houses. But he was homosexual and was attracted to young man who was already married. But his fate was to die for falling in love with another man. So true, “Some truths are too raw to be faced bare” Homosexuals are again not very well accepted even today.

Sita and Gita, known as siamese twins where cojoined who shared the same heart. They were noticed in dump by circus master who took them in. They were part of the circus shows and moved from city to city. But as they grew, they fell in love with other people in circus. Being cojoined was a difficulty and they went for surgery to separate themselves. After the story they not only lost love they had with other people, but the pure love that once resided Thier hearts was replace by bitter demon. With half heart each, long for love still continued even after moving out of the circus.

A girl was born into Iyer family who was poor and destitute and was hoping for a boy child. She, as a devadasi, was the chosen one to wed the local godhead when the time was right. she also shared great love for food. She was destined to marry the godhead and she wasn’t even asked for opinion. The priest was old to match with her energy and desire. As time fled, she learnt cooking and her talents spread beyond the temple quarters. The priest made use of the opportunity to earn money from her cooking which they served to all People irrespective of caste and creed. This is the story of Urvasi, the devadasi.

As we proceed with the book there are twisted stories of various kinds people living lives among twisted people and very twisted world. The stories depicts characters such Jonas who found his peace in India, Siva who was loving and kind to reptiles, to characters who were neglected due to Thier abnormal physique or abnormalities, like Rita who had huge mustach.

The characters and stories represented the mindset of the people and that of society. How caste system, born to high caste still mattered, having boy child over girl was still preferred. Infact they considered having a boy child as lucky sign, babies with abnormalities were not accepted as thier own and how outsiders looked upon and unaccepted even by thier parents. The expectations towards girl children, how they grown up to get them married one day and considered a liability. Sexuality is also another issue touched upon in the book. The book not only talked how hypocrite our society and people are, but also about certain social issues.

Wilbur Addison Smith is a British novelist specializing in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families.

The story begin when Ben(an archaeologist and head of the archaeologist firm) and Louren(a multi-billionaire businessman and financier ) come across a aerial photograph an stumbles upon a great archaeological discovery of a lifetime.

Ben along with Sally his assistant and his team with help and funding from Louren move to city which is Opet which is translated into “City of the Moon”. Ben and Louren are and have been close friends as they studied in the same school. Ben is in love with Sally and intended to propose to her. Louren who is rich and used to getting all things his way, fell for Sally despite married to his fourth wife. Ben was called The Sunbird by the Xhai a member the tribe attributing to his behavior when he gets excited. He Jumps around like a bird when he makes a discovery or convey his excitement

With apt recruitment of team from time to time over the course of discovery, they found great paintings and cavern which told part of the story about the city and the people. But yet there was something more to this place which kept Ben and team in this place for long time. It took them time and research to identify the place where the written work of the people were found. Most of the work were about the accounting of the wealth that was gathered and amongst this treasure was few writing by Huy in golden sheets and saved in the pottery bottles. He had written great poems in the language that flourished in his time. The research didn’t just end there, with the curiosity and restlessness they found more about the people, story and the culture of the city. They managed to find the place where wealth was kept and burial tomb of the kings. But, the discovery came to abrupt stop as both Louren and Ben were exposed to a virus

The people of Opet have been very secretive and protective about their wealth, which were safeguarded with at most secrecy. The locking system were also very unique, opening of the place was part of the wall in the tunnel. Hence it is difficult to identify the opening and the symbol of sun god was used to open. They were also people who weren’t interested in art an related other activities, but concentrated more on gathering wealth and living a prosperous lives. The people of Opet were strong, warriors, religiously inclined and worshiped the Baal(God of Sun) and Astrate (God of Moon).

The second half of the story takes us back to ancient world of Opet. Huy is the priest, poet, commander in chief and close aide of the king Lannon. The bond between them goes back to their childhood. Huy is also known for his loyalty toward Opet and king, his service towards city and man of principles. He was in love with a priestess Tanith although such a relationship is forbidden and hence kept hidden. on the other end, Under the commanding power of Huy and Lannon, they captured many tribes and turned them to slaves

But amongst there was one who was the king of his tribe vendi, Manatassi who had disfigured leg and yet courageously fought against the king. The the war that Mantassi fought was for revenge rather than the freedom of the tribe. When he was captured, Huy saved him after seeing the deformity as sign from God causing a rift between him and the king. Over the course of time Huy had surrender Manatassi to the king to regain his friend, but Manatassi escaped with his girl. Manatassi not only lost his girl ,but was made to work in mine. On his second attempt to escape along with other 30,000 slaves led to war between him and Huy and lost his hand. Over a course 2-3 years. He gathered an army and fought the final war against Opet, he not only killed people of the city, but also the entire city

The book gives a glimpse of both modern and ancient Africa and the balance of both is perfect in the book. The characterization of people were perfect and were not overdone. The irony of the story is the relationship of Huy and Lannon and that of Louren and Ben are just the same. Thier loyalties towards each other, value for their friendship, their characters and view towards life. I would rate the book 4/5

Patricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is known for writing a best-selling series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner

The story begin when Kay Scarpetta house becomes a scene for investigation after she was attacked by Chandonne, the Werewolf. Chandonne is known for killing women in his home town Paris and well as two murders in the US. Susan Pless was killed in new york two years back and latest victim is Diane Bray who worked for the police.

On other hand a special jury is formed to investigate Scarpetta, as she is suspected of killing Diane Bray. Although the interaction between them has been less, she never liked Bray which is one cause for suspicion. Scarpetta has to prove that she was in no way involved in the murder

Being the chief of medical examiner in Virginia, known for her honesty and integrity becomes the object of suspicion, doesn’t know who to trust as her friend Anna is also suspoened by Righter to give evidence against Kay. Berger comes to help her and solve the case

Jaime Berger who usually works based out of New York comes to Richmond to solves the case of both Susan Pless and Diane Bray as Kay did medical examination on the both and were murdered by Chandonne.

Kay recieved a letter from Benton her boyfriend who was murderered. She recieved the letter exactly one year after his death. Her friend Anna was subpoenaed to give witness against Kay. Anna reveals a few secrets of Benton that he was receiving threat mails against him and Kay and was depressed. He came to Anna for consultation and several information was revealed. Kay cames to of the file The Last Precinct that Benton kept to investigate the threats

With this information and reanalysis of the Susan Pless gave further clarification on the case. All the evidence were pointed out to Jay and Diane Bray. Jay was related to Chandonne and in protecting his family, he and Diane potted the murder in such way it points to Kay. For Diane it was revenge that Benton had ended the relationship with her abruptly.

The story line and twist in the story was great. But I felt the story could have been more thrilling. I would rate the book 3.5/5

“I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable– but I always was so, only I never knew it” Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The palace of illusionThe book Palace of them illusion the story is narrated by Panchaali (Draupadi) from her the perspective. After a long time I have read a book that I didn’t want to put the book down from reading. The character has had a great impact on me and there circumstances in the story that made me pity for Panchaali. Reading the book has left me with mixed bag of emotions about the story and impact of various characters.Panchaali was born from fire along with his brother Dhri as result of yagna conducted by her father to avenge Drona. She was destined to change the history and played a very important role in satisfying his dad goal. Her childhood has been very lonely with her brother as her only companion and support and Krishna who she had friendly relationship. Apart these two people as her backbone she longed for someone to love her for what she is and accept her faults and love him in returnBut story took twist when she has to marry Pandavas and how the story goes from here makes it a great read. In Swayamvara held by her father Arjun comes in disguise of brahmin and wins the competition and get married to her. But the marriage in such a hurry hat she never gets glimpse of him. When they reach home Kunti puts a demand that Panchalli had to marry Pandavas and hence she has five husbands. But Vyas has put across certain rules to make her day to day life easy. In the course of the story she got to experience the role being wife to Pandavas, marriage ,motherhood although she was still deprived of the love she was longing for and her secret love for Karna. She and her husband were treated badly in the hands of Kauravas. When the kingdom was split she managed to build a palace and was name The palace of Illusion. The life went by the way Panchaali had dreamt off, having had one kid each from each husband. But when her husband lost their entire kingdom in the bet game of dice and after Panchalli was sexually embarrassed in the sabha,they had live twelve years in forest and last one year in disguise. When Panchalli was harassed , all she could do to think of Krishna which stopped further humiliation as her husbands didn’t come in support of Panchalli. She declared war and declared the death of Kaurava king. What happens in the war makes it a great readShe also was very strong women who questioned her own destiny, who avenged those humiliated her and took stand for herself which no other women would have in her days.I would rate the book 4/5#books#bookreader#avidreader#booknerdigans#bibliophile#abibliophilesbookblog#livelaughread#mustread#booksbooksbooks#bookbooksandmorebook#bookstagram#bookreader#bookreaderofinstagram#bookphotography#bookcommunity#bookrack#bookshelf#bookshelves#goodreads#epicreads#igreads#bookig#bookstagrammer#booknerdigan #igreaders#allthebooks#bookaddict#lovebooks

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The book talks about various aspects of life  and existence on the earth through conversations or rather last thesis of Morrie a professor with his student Mitch. In fact the book is based on on real conversation between them. Mitch was student of Morrie in college and shared a great bond then.

But when Mitch moved on with his life, family and driven move ahead in career ladder and earn more money he had drifted away from his own self and had forgotten about his professor as well.

Morrie was diagnosed with ALS a neurological disease affecting the voluntary movement of the muscle such as walking, talking, eating etc. Mitch came to about this when he saw him in a interview on television. This brought back lot of memories and he went and met after a long time of almost 16-17 years.

He then started meeting Morrie every Tuesday which was a custom which they had even when they were in college. They talked about various aspects of life and Morrie imparted crucial aspect and lessons of life to Mitch. This enable to Mitch to revalidate himself and bringing changes in himself.

My opinion, the various aspects discussed in the book are what is known to us or what we keep hearing from various walks of our life. But they are lessons which we have failed to impart in our lives. We concentrate finishing our education, have a great career and all of that, but we fail to develop relationships with people, forget to impart love with people around us. We have forgotten all the emotions in the drive to satisfy our materialistic needs

Rather than living in delusion and accepting that death is inevitable, then we are in an position to understand our lives better. We are then in a position to live or lives better, rather than running behind money, career and etc at the cost of giving up spending time with loved ones and impact on other lives. We forget to live our lives very consciously and learn to live better. Relationship do matter and that is one thing that is going to last, influence us and be there through our thick and thins. They will take of us like no other even in our deathbed. We need to be in touch with our emotions and the same time detach ourselves from it as well. Thus it is important to maintain a balance with various aspects of or life

You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.

The qoute is perfect. We can never reach the ideal perfection that we want. All we can do is to strive Towards the perfection with all our strength …………

When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir of Paul Kalanithi who was neurologist who questioned about life and death. He was always curious about the balance between life and death, meaning and ultimate purpose of life.Paul Kalanithi was literature student from Stanford and his search for answers to all his question lead to study medicine from university of Yale. It is here he met love of his life Lucy who he did marry eventually. He also was curious to how brain had the power to control not only of our physical body ,but also have control of our mind and life

Paul over the course of his study in medicine and residency has learnt a lot of patient-doctor relationship, but he was always in look out to make patient life more easier and reduce their struggle. Patient suffering from epilepsy and other disorder which restricts their movements, he was wanted to map brain signal and able to feed into the patient brains to enable their basic movement. He wanted become neurosurgeon-neuroscientist. But life had other big plans for him. At the verge of completion of his residency, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Over the course of his treatment his cancer rejected the first line of treatment and second line of treatment which was chemotherapy. In this period of his struggle, his wife Lucy was pregnant with their child which was the good that they did look forward too

Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.

Human relationship are share with many people we meet over the course of our life. Paul not only had the support and love of his life, but that of his parents as well. His parents moved to home nearby where Paul and Lucy to give them constant support and care. The extended family of paul had huge contribution were a great support system to him

Paul died 8 months after the birth of his child Cady. Even during cancer days he managed to finish his residency and graduate. The medicine field does miss Paul Kalanithi who has he been alive would have become not only a great neurosurgeon, but also a great neuro scientist. This book is about a person who question about death had to face it himself at a early stage of his life which in itself the answer.

I would rate the book 4 on 5

The Handmaid’s tale is my second read in dyspotian genre. And also the most recommended read in bookstagram, that is how I came to know of this book. The book talks about the patriarchy, women suppression etc. Here women are categorised based on their position in the society. The Martha’s do take care of the household, Handmaid’s sole job was to breed and bear babies for their commander’s and wives were the better half of the commander and took care of the household.

The story is about Offerd an handmaid who is unable to forget her past, with love of her life Luke and daughter, her best friend Moira who ran away from centre which trains women into handmaid not is she able to accept her present. Her struggle to live the life that she lives, her fight with emotion and how her body is treated forms the essence of the story. What happens to her after being arrested by the EYES is still a question for me at end

Handmaid’s were considered just people for giving babies and just breed on the food. They were mistreated and weren’t given a proper chance to take of the babies. They are separated from Thier families. They were also punished for deviating their job and breaking any rules.

Not letting women belonging to any stature ruthless act, but converting a women to be Handmaid’s to anyone is even worse.

#qotd : What in your opinion, are the changes that needs to be made bring about equality with women and Thier better treatment ?

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“The thing I realize is that it’s not what you take, it’s what you leave” – Violet, All the Bright Places

All the bright places is the second best read of this year for me. The story concentrates on mental health that the characters are affected and struggling to come out of it. This books has been in my TBR for past one year. Finally I was able to read the book and has had a great impact in me. I had my doubts about the book initially as it is one of the over-hyped reads by the bookstagram community. Usually the hyped books do not meet my expectations

Theodore Finch suffers from Bipolar disorder as result of which he has severe and extreme mood swings, does things on intuition and wants to suicide. He does research and looks into various case studies of people who have committed suicide. He often goes to top of his school building which is the bell tower and he meets violet. He does meet meet with counselor whenever he can. His parents are divorced and father lives with women and share a 7 year old child. He and his sisters meet their dad once a week. His own mother is busy with making the ends meet and isn’t able to give sufficient time required for her children

Violet Markey lost her sister Eleanor and has since then gone into depression and lost life in her and interest in writing. She is saved from dying by Theodore Finch who also was the weird person in the school. They start interacting with each other on Geography assignment. Both start learning about each other over the course of the interaction.

Violet realizes she falls in love with him and she come to life and looks outside of her and into the world. But he who showed the world to her, at cost of his own shrinking to just suicide causing loss and void to people close to him. How Theodore changed her life makes it an amazing read?

I would rate the book 4.5/5

My opinion on mental health is that I think it it’s important to pay attention to their children’s behavior and notice any abnormalities. Also to act on the abnormal behavior rather than accepting it as normal. Mental Health is one topic people avoid talking about. It is important to give importance that we give to our physical health as it is necessary to have balance with mental health as well. In this story Theodore wants to cure bipolar disorder himself for the sake of Violet. But fails in the end only to die. His erratic behavior has been assumed to normal by people at home and they haven’t paid attention to his mood as well. Proper attention needs to paid by people and extra care and support needs to given to people with mental issues