Memoirs of a Geisha

I'm probably the last one to jump on this train of having read the book. The book itself was a good read. Although slow at certain parts, it gives wonderful insight into the life of women in Japan and the life of a geisha.

Anybody who picks up this book is going to put a geisha on the other side of a line, but you have to read it to understand what their real profession is. The narration of a kimono and the obi itself shows how colorful the geisha were dressed. I really wonder how life would be without having to make choices and choosing your destiny but being led by people all around you.

There are lot of women in this book and it gives you different perspectives about women - jealousy, compassion, ambition, endurance and greed. Somehow, i found it difficult to read this book although there are lot of interesting quips that puts your imagination into a real execution.
The romance between Sayuri and the chariman is actually quite boring since nothing really happens till the very end and you are ready to give it up.

The analogy to eels was quite hilarious and the fights between Sayuri and Hasutmomo was also quite energising. The plot is quite good and since i haven't really read a book as extensive about Japan and geisha, it kept me going. At one point, i really wanted to meet a geisha and watch her dance performance.

I would recommend this book, a very interesting read.

Project Green

Now most of us would be familiar with the word green. What with eco-shape containers and say-no-to-plastic trailers, we can all understand the importance of global warming and going green.
Little things go a long way, like cycling to office, planting a garden, bringing a water bottle to work and car pooling. But these are not little things, they are lifestyle changes and sometimes it is difficult to change how you have lived for over twenty-something years(with little or no consideration) to the environment.

So here i'am embarking on a PROJECT GREEN, where am going to learn a synergtic way to keep the environment safe for my grand children and many more generations to come and hopefully, they would be able to see the wonderful things, i have seen and enjoyed.

Summer Island

Summer Island by Kristin Hannah was a book that i started to read on a sunday evening and decided to bunk monday and finish it through. It gives me immense pleasure to take a day off just to finish a book, something i have not done in many years. The last i remember was in college and back then we were not accountable for anything. Sometimes when i look at my sister juggling office and family i wonder if such simple pleasures would ever come back, where taking a day off was just about that and nothing more and nothing less.

Neverthless, this was a book review so let me stick to that. What got me bowled over was the number of characters in the book and how Kristin had detailed each of these characters. Nora Bridge is the woman who not only walked out from her marriage but motherhood and even though she has made peace with the former, the latter haunts her every living day. Ruby is a strong willed, honest to the word teenager in an adult and when she comes of age, she sheds wisdom on every one of us. The tangles of the family, how it is important to realize that mistakes are a part of it and how to forgive is what holds us together is easily penned. When i started reading this book i compared it to one of the mills & boons but it never treads on the physical strings but leans on the emotional side.

I really enjoyed reading Kristin Hannah's writing and now i want to read her latest - Fire Fly lane. Summer Island is a book you need to curl up with coffee and cookies and be ready to make a call to your mom or sis immediately after that.

Will i find them?

I decided to sit down and make a list of books that i want to read in the next few weeks, so i dont have to go to the library and wonder what books am going to land up with. In the past, that has never worked.


Although it is utterly frustrating not to find the books that i really want to read, randomly picking them up hasn't helped me either. So i decided to make this list for the next couple of weeks and if i dont get this, i would rather settle for a daniel steele or John Grisham which would not be so much of a loss either way.


So here goes, (fingers crossed to find them)


HouseKeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackermann
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A couple of them are from the reviews my fellow bloggers gave, but i think this would make up a good read.

Digital Photography

Learnt about this website and its a god sent.
http://digital-photography-school.com/

My element - WATER

BEACHES are my favourite place. The water rushing towards you but never taking you in. The calm of watching the water lap up and down from the shore and having the time for yourself. Where you can forget about what job has to be done, what the manager has for you the next day and where you can forget about all the obligations you have for yourself and for the rest of the other people.

Maybe beaches had a strange comforting and resting feeling in my life. They bring a joy of small things, of when i was young and when you can feel thrilled about the water lapping on my feet.

Some pictures i took of the beaches and lakes in US - Lake Tahoe and the Santa Monica Beach.

Lake Tahoe - a vast stretch of calm water flowing serenly between snow capped mountains.

This picture was taken when we stopped for a pit stop on our way to skiing in Lake Tahoe.