Miss Wisey Pants

I like books that make you think. And in my opinion, there are very few books that have the ability to take you back to your own childhood and leave you with the gentle embrace of reminiscence. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn does just that to you. In simple terms, this book is full of child-like innocence and hard-hitting at the same time. It's a brutally-honest story of a little girl, Francie, who's brought up in squalor and abject poverty by a strong-minded, hard-working mother who leaves no stone unturned to make ends meet and a father who's often shown lost somewhere in the hustle-bustle called life. Francie has a little brother who's also her friend and later a confidant. The story moves at a languid pace, though never boring, recounting the struggles Francie's family goes through just to manage a decent meal on most days. Amid all this is Francie with her wide-eyed amazement and child-like perspective towards everything in life. Like all kids, she has the simpl...

Timshel.. Thou mayest. You may. I chanced upon a gem of a book last month. Though, in my search for my next read, I did fall into a trap. I started reading this very catchy-titled book " The Paper Princess "(Part 1 of a trilogy). It turned out to be shallow and flimsy. It was an all-too-good-to-be-true story of a girl in her teens who was raised by a single mom (who was a stripper). The girl has now lost her mom and is surviving in this harsh world all by herself by studying hard during the day and working as a stripper herself at night to get through life. One day, there appears a man in her life, more than twice her age, who presents himself as her run-away father's bestie and who, also, turns out to be a business tycoon with nothing less than a whole airlines company under his belt! The run-away father, just before dying, found out that he has a daughter out of some flaky one-night-stand he had back in his 20-somethings, which he probably doesn't even remember n...

It's day 56398050 of quarantine. Yes, I've stopped keeping count. Having said that, it's not that I'm complaining. Not even a bit. I've learnt to be grateful for what I have. After a few initial hiccups at home, the dust has started settling down on the few differences I was facing with mom-dad. I mostly chose to give up fighting with them on not calling the maid for cleaning & mopping. In God, we trust. Anyway, I'm using this quarantine/house-arrest as an opportunity to learn new things, catch up with old favourite hobbies, spend quality time with my parents and take some time to stay away from alcohol. The last one is rather forced, but no complaints. I had been trying to strike a healthy balance for some time already. I've been trying to stay disciplined and stick to a schedule daily. So far so good. I've been reading a lot, thanks to Kindle, I still have access to new books! The last 2 books I read turned out to be a treat. Both starkly diff...

Just yesterday, I finished reading this book called “ Eleanor Oliphant is perfectly fine ” and I’m writing a post about the book is a testimony to the fact that it wasn’t one of those books that don’t leave you with an afterthought. I was initially a little suspicious about picking up this book, seeing a slightly lower rating on Goodreads (3.85/5) but after the torture I went through with LOTR , I would’ve pounced even on a Chetan Bhagat novel. I was fortunate to have other alternatives lined up for me in this respect. This is the kind of story which piques your interest right from page one. Our protagonist, Eleanor, is not anti-social. She just doesn’t know the world any other way. She only starts exploring the oh-so-varied ways of life rather late. Her wide-eyed amusement at this new-found awareness all too often reminded me of Sheldon Cooper’s character from the famous show Big Bang Theory . But Eleanor set herself apart in many different ways, so the similarity wit...

With Naam Shabana, the director Neeraj Pandey had a lot to carry on his shoulders. After movies like Special 26 & Baby , one would expect nothing but at least the same amount of creative excellence from the movie-makers. Naam Shabana, unfortunately, does not stand up to the past promises. The movie revolves around the protagonist Shabana, played by Taapsee Pannu , and her mundane struggles in life which turn her into a stoic woman who has never experienced life sans troubles. Manoj Bajpayee works for a secret agency & plays the lead for a covert mission undertaken by his mothership. The employees of this agency, by the way, share a close bond and can go to any length to help & support each other. But if they find a random woman in the middle of a deserted road, late at night, being bullied by a group of Hooligans, they’d proudly and unapologetically step back and let the drama unroll, even if they are fully capable of saving the woman just because she d...

This weekend, I had the misfortune of watching the newly-released & Anushka Sharma -produced movie Phillauri, which I’d say should be aptly called Fail-lauri instead. To be honest, the trailer of the movie left me more hopeful than even my future prospects ever did. I literally counted days to the release of this intriguing plotline. And boy, how they botched it! Even Varun Dhawan did a better job in Badrinath ki Dulhaniya than Anushka Sharma in Phillauri. I don’t believe my own words when I say something in favor of Varun Dhawan. If given a choice between Shakti Kapoor & Varun Dhawan, I’d gladly choose the former over the latter. That’s how much I dislike Varun Dhawan. The movie is painfully slow, with laughs very hard to find and logic gone on a vacation for the 138 mins that the movie runs for. I had more fun watching the guy sitting next to me sleeping away to glory than watching the so-called comedy scenes in the movie. Suraj Sharma does a great job in whate...

When Breath Becomes Air is an account of a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi's journey from being an aspiring young boy with a life full of possibilities & opportunities to being a man striving to find meaning in his life while staring at death in its face. Before I begin writing this post, I’d like to clearly mention that it’s not a review of the book. You don’t review a life, you learn from it. This post is about my experience reading the phenomenal story of Dr. Paul Kalanithi who was not a superhero, he was just a mortal human being...in front of whom even superheroes fall flat. The way Dr. Paul Kalanithi writes about his reaction when he first discovered he had Lung Cancer, his first thought, the whirlwind of emotions that swept through his heart in that moment is thought provoking. He had his entire life planned out but life had something else in store for him. That grit with which he pulled himself together and strove for meaning in whatever time he had left on e...

I admit I'm way too late in writing this review. But I'm just thankful that I'm writing this while the movie is still showing in the theatres. I had almost given up the hope of getting a chance to watch this movie on the big screen, and very sadly so..given my love for Alia Bhatt & SRK , but I made it to the movie finally! Thanks to a friend who, like me, was probably the only one who hadn't seen this movie. So there I went to see for myself what the fuss was all about! And I must say I did get a little disappointed. After a movie like English Vinglish , I expected more from Gauri Shinde . Sadly, the movie did not live up to, at least, my expectations!  First, Kaira (played by Alia) was shown to have such a flaky temper that it didn't make me feel any positive emotion for her. On the contrary, I felt bad for the guys she dated and dumped/ditched. I even sided with Raghuvendra (played by Kunal Kapoor ) in my heart when Kaira blamed him for being di...

Much has already been said & written about US Presidential elections. I'm no expert in this matter. So, I'll spare you another in-depth analysis on what went wrong, what should have been done and what does it now hold for America's & the rest of the world's future. Like some people are die-hard romantics, I'm a die-hard gyaan-seeker. Call me crazy, but that's what I do. I'll watch a movie like Black/RDB/Queen and I'll spend hours thinking about what I can take away from this movie and apply in my life. In real life, I like to observe people & their behaviour and to apply these learnings to my own life. The moment election result got sealed, the only thought that reeled in my head was what must have been Hillary Clinton's reaction. It's painful, as she said, but the pain is unimaginable. To be defeated in trying to fulfil your only ambition thrice! It almost sounds ruthless. I sound stupid when I say this, but I can almost dr...

At the risk of sounding stupid, I'd like to confess I'm one of those who always enjoyed Karan Johar 's movies. Today's day was an eye-opener for me. Okay now, let's keep the prologue short & cut right to the chase. Anushka Sharma plays the character of Alizeh who hails from Lucknow, lives in London & does absolutely nothing to earn a living whatsoever. In short, she's living a dream life. I'm assuming that she gets all the money to afford that kind of living in London from her rich dad, who, btw according to the story, doesn't love her enough. Kids, I tell ya! Alizeh, like in most of Anushka's movies & most of the movies today, is a protagonist who's full of life, badass, isn't scared of anything, lives life on her own rules & is every guy's dream-woman. Ranbir Kapoor plays Ayaan who also stays in London, comes from a filthy-rich family, is passionate about singing but has been forced to do an MBA on his father...

Pink - Probably one of the most awaited movies of the year. Probably one of the most anxiety-inducing movies of the year too, for some. I, for one, was very scared to see this movie & went with a strong heart & a vow to myself that no matter what, I won't cry or be scared. But the movie hardly had any such moments. For those planning to carry extra napkins just to wipe off their tears (like my mom), just don't bother with it. There are a couple of scenes that do shock you, instil a sense of fear in you...but they'll pass in no time. Cutting straight to the chase... Amitabh Bachchan plays a lawyer who's old & has probably given up on his fight with the society for making things right (at least this is what it looked like). But he doesn't think twice when he finds an opportunity to make things right at least for the three girls around whom the story revolves. He's often inexplicably shown lost in his own thoughts, even during trials, perhaps b...

This title can be interpreted in many ways when describing the movie.  - It could be a question - should you really watch it?  - It could also be the director's way of expressing the irony that the viewers are going to find themselves in when they watch the movie.  - Or it could also be the ultimate example of the director's sarcasm.  Whatever it is, one thing is for sure that the movie makers did take the name seriously.  They make you watch Jai's (played by Sidharth ) future in different permutations & combinations so many times that you start wishing to see him die too. Perhaps I'm being too ruthless. Because honestly, when I stepped out of the theatre... I gave it an okay rating in my mind. Before going for the movie, I had already heard how bad the movie is. So, I went for it with no expectations. Since I had zero expectations, whatever I got didn't seem too bad. Just like life, eh? ;-) Coming to the actors now. When a mortal human...

Just yesterday, my heart was filled with happiness over having watched three brilliant plays. Then I decided to go watch the movie "Happy Bhag Jaayegi".  I'll be honest. I did not have high expectations from the movie. After seeing Diana Penty in Cocktail, I wasn't yet ready to give her another chance. But I still went for it...for the love of Jimmy Shergil. And I'm proud to say he didn't disappoint.  But. Yes, there's a but. In this 120-min long ordeal, there was only one scene which made me laugh. Credit goes to Jimmy Shergil. Apart from this scene where Abhay Deol & Piyush Mishra have come to fetch Guddu in the disguise of musicians & the comedy that ensued thereafter when Jimmy Shergil enters the scene, the rest of the movie falls flat in its face.  Before I forget, special mention should go to Piyush Mishra who's an amazingly brilliant actor! But he's only human. And humans are bound to make mistakes. This movie was on...