Malice

 

I am big fan of Japanese write Keigo Higashino. His two earlier books have lasted impressions0 on me. I always recommend his books to all who want to enjoy good mystery. When I started reading Malice from very first chapter I was hooked. Its story of famous writer Kuniko Hidaka who found dead in his house by his old school friend and his newly wed wife. Some twist and turn into story and detective Kaga found that school friend might be killer. But Is he really a killer and what can be his motive of doing murder of his own best friend. What kind of person Hidaka was. Was he writing his own novel or was using some ghostwriter.

Its not regular who don it kind of book like all other previous books of Keigo. You know who has done if from very beginning but what  is the motive of murder and how he has done it. That’s what keep you intrigued till the end.

IF somebody ask me which is one write whose book you can pick out without reading the backcover, my answer would be any book of Keigo Higashino.

Do read this book and I can guarantee you will not regret.

My rating – 5

 

 

Private India – Book Review

Title – Private India
Author – Ashwin Sanghi and James Patterson
Publications – Random House

From the blurb – In Mumbai, seemingly unconnected people are dying, strangled in a chilling ritual and with strange objects carefully arranged with thr corpses.
For Santosh Wagh, head of Private India. the mumbai branch of World’s finest investigation agency, its a race against time to stop the killer striking again. In a city of over thriteen million, he’d have his work cut out at best of times, but this case has him betting Mumbai’s biggest gang lord and a godman who isn’t all he seems.
And then he discovers there may be an even greater danger facing Private India. Hidden in the shadow is someone who couldn’t destroy the whole organisation-along with thousands of innocent Mumbai citizens

Every day seemingly un-connected women are getting murdered in their own houses by same method. Killer is leaving yellow scarf and items like half coin, lotus in hands of victims.
First murder is of Doctor Kanya Jaiyen from Bangkok who is on personal trip to India and staying in top most hotel of Mumbai, still no security could prevent her murder.
Bhawana Choski, afternoon mirror gossip column talk to Bangkok doctor couple of times on the day of her murder and next day she also found murdered in her own house strangled with yellow scarf in exactly same way.

Who will be next women and why ony women. With such perfect murder with no evidence left, it seems quite tough case to crack for Private India. Is there a man behind all those who hate women or a woman can feel so much hatred toward her own species. Hari PAdhi, Nisha and Mubeen team of Private India is on their toes always to solvethis murder mystery and to save next murderer.Among all this chaos Santosh’s own past keep haunting him and he has to get answer for his own life as well.

My take on book – Having read and liked Ashwin Sanghi’s previous two books – Chankya Chant and Krishna Key, I was geniuly interested in this new book and was really happy to get review copy from blogadda. Reading this huge book in 7 day was days task a big task​keeping in mind my busy schedule and I am glad that I spent my time with this book. It was so interesting with lot of twist and tales that you really want to finish it in on go. Whosoover Whoevernk can be murder get herself murder next day.the next dayever, don’tpect too much of mytha myth mythological influenceis one as his previous work. May be its James Paterson’s influence 🙂
I havent read any of his book but I now want to read him as well.

On the other hand I wonder how these two author start writing the story together with so many different characters all tied together at end with common story. Do they startiting the end first and connect the dots backward or its other way around 🙂

Rating 4/5

This review is part of Blogadda bookreview program.

X is for Gen X

I always feel confused about Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z. Which is current generation and which are called older generation. To avoid this confusion I m writing it here so that my fellow bloggers can also consult if they ever feel confused over these Generation names 🙂
From Wikepedia
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western Post–World War II baby boom. Demographers, historians and commentators use beginning birth dates from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation[1] or Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. Researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

Generation Z is one name used for the cohort of people born after the Millennial Generation. There is no agreement on the exact dates of the generation with some sources starting it at the mid or late 1990s [1] or from the mid 2000s [2] to the present day. This is the generation that is currently being born.

W is for Worry

A baby is the decision to forever have your heart go walking outside your body. – From Pinterest

Before having babies, I used to just worry about my studies and then about my job. I was under the impression that if you have got a good career and a loving husband, life will be a bed of roses and the happily ever after type because nothing else seems to be as bad as working hard to pass the exams with good marks.

However, in practical life, the actual worry starts when you get that tiny little bundle of joy, made from your flesh and blood, who was part of your body for 9 months in your hands. The baby surely walks outside taking a part of your heart with it always. Till the time you don’t have a child of your own, you don’t know why everything related to kids is such a big deal. A typical mommy like me definitely thinks on following things daily without a doubt

1)Have my kids eaten healthy food? Are they eating less food than a normal, healthy child should eat or are they over-eating? I don’t want them to result into being unhealthy and overweight or even for that matter underweight.

2) What all food should be included in their daily diet? Let me consult my pediatrician again or recipes from fellow ‘mommy bloggers’ would be helpful.

3) Too much ice-cream is always bad as it may spoil teeth or worst, he/she may get terrible cold. But ice-cream’s a favourite! Am I taking the joy of childhood away from my kids by not giving ice-creams?

4) Extended TV viewing is harmful for kids. How should I control her TV time because she is so fond of Noddy, Dora and Diego cartoons. It’s my mistake because I should be giving them better alternatives, only then will they be away from the idiot box.

5) Oh My God her Potty colour is dark yellow today. It should have been perfect yellow like each time. Is she sick? Is that the reason behind the colour of her potty? I should discuss this immediately with my mommy friends group on Whatsapp. I should be aware what the colour of potty of other kids is these days. Or Should I go to pediatrician directly?

6) What if my kid falls on the playground? The swing is too high, they may fall, roundabout is going too fast, they may fall; they are running too fast to catch each other, they may fall and hurt their knees. It’s too hot, they may just catch the flu. It’s too cold at the playground, they may have a running nose.

7) Am I taking ample photographs of kids? Have I missed the walking milestone pic. I’m yet to sort all the pics I have taken so far. They should be neatly organized as per date and year. I have to take many printouts too. What if my hard-disc gets corrupted overnight? I will lose all those precious moments. Noooooooooooo!

8) My kid is going only to one extra-curricular class. Should I be sending her to more classes? She is learning only dance! On the other hand what about music, skating, swimming, painting, arts and craft, aerobics, gardening, science fun class, phonetics and spelling classes? What else will interest my child and help her grow as well?

“Kids have special protection from God, He won’t let them fall. So just trust Him.”
I am a mom of two kids, with my older one soon going to be 5. With my 5 years of experience into mommyhood I can definitely say Worry is a big waste of time, energy, thoughts, health and happiness. My mother in law says, “Kids have special protection from God, He won’t let them fall. So just trust Him.”

I don’t know whether God is there watching them or not, but I have experienced many time that kids do save themselves from falling. They won’t go to bed with a hungry stomach, just like us. When we can’t sleep without food, how can they? We never had the option of summer camps and a dearth of other classes during our childhood. Still we turned out just fine and so will our kids! Relax and just enjoy this beautiful time with kids as they will soon grow up to fly away from our cocoon in their own big world.

This post first appears here

U is for Ugly Duckling

There is very old children’s fable – The Ugly Duckling.
In this story mumma duck gave birth to 6 ducklings out of which 5 are beautiful and one is ugly.
Now all beautiful duckling says to ugly duckling – You are ugly Go away.
Ugly duckling go away from that place and he met a boy – Boy says – You are ugly Go away
Ugly duckling then met a cow – cow says – You are ugly Go away
Ugly duckling then met couple of other animals who keep on pushing him away coz he is ugly.

I really don’t know who on earth can make this type of children story where emphasis is given on physical beauty and little ones who don’t know meaning of ugly keep on asking what is ugly
Why everybody is pushing this sweet duckling.
When angel was small I got this book as gift and while reading to her I just said to her ugly mean the child who doesn’t have good manners.
I don’t have heart to explain whats ugly .
These types of stories should be banned from publishing which teaches wrong things to children..

Have any of you read – Ugly Duckling…What are your thought on this.

T is for Toypedia Toylibrary

There has always been an incessant debate on the topic ‘Television viewing by kids’. There are parents who believe kids learn from visual media and it is not good to impose restriction on them and there is another set of parents who are strictly against TV.

Most of the kids these days are hooked to Chota Bheem, Doraemon, Shinchan and Nobita. Kids can spend hours in front of the TV even without blinking their eyes. I however, am from the school of thought who believe that TV does more harm than good to little’s eyes and little minds. Having said that I also don’t want to impose my preferences of limited TV viewing time on her. So my trick to resolve the issue is to give her better options.

It can be a good book or partaking in any interesting craft activity, taking her to the park to play or playing teacher-teacher, mama-baby etc. Now all these things require my active involvement which is not possible always. One other thing which brighten her eyes is a new toy. Like any other kid, her attention is very short-lived. One toy can’t hold her attention for long and at times when we are short of space, storing all those hardly used, long forgotten toys are also a helluva task.

Our toy library is full of toys which give wings to a child’s imagination and opens a lot of doors to new learning.
In this situation, the toy library seems like a God sent special gift. I am using the services of the toy library for almost a year now. There are a number of toys arranged nicely as per the skills you want to teach your child like ‘Body Kinesthetic’, Musical, Naturalist, Spatial, Interpersonal and intrapersonal. It just takes a few clicks to order a new toy every week. And I am not talking about battery operated toys which does little for physical movement. Our toy library is full of toys which give wings to a child’s imagination and opens a lot of doors to new learning.

I especially like toys from the Early Learning Center (ELC).

There is a ‘Sand Water Table’ in which there is a dual use of a table, sand-pit for sand and water play. It comes with a rake, spade, boat, scoop, funnels, moulds, wheels and more. It’s fun to see Angel building castles from sand and water.

She happily spends hours in pouring, spinning, scooping and digging sand.

And there is an archery set where you can throw the arrow from a distance and see where it sticks on the paper tent. Practice for Olympics .

There are certain toys which we generally never buy on our own like outdoor toys which take too much of space.

Trampoline – so good for jumping and shaking your full body on it,

Slides – My kids love climbing to top of slides via a ladder and sit down on the top of the slide and “slides” down with a lot of hooting.

Sometime I just want to try out a toy before actually buying it. Like I wanted my daughter to start skating but was not sure if she will be interested in it or if it would be another thing lying in the corner of her room unused. So I ordered that from our toy library. She used it and loved it so I tried different models through the library and brought the one she liked most.

All the toys from the library are properly sanitized before sending it to the next kid so we don’t have to worry about the hygiene part.
All the toys from the library are properly sanitized before sending it to the next kid so we don’t have to worry about the hygiene part.

Another major benefit is your child is always using branded toys. The market is flooded with cheap chinese toys with degraded quality of plastic. Reports have shown that these toys are toxic as they contain high levels of heavy metal such as cadmium and lead.

She has also learnt to take care of her toys. When its Lego blocks set, she knows that she has to maintain the count. A single missing block and she will not get her new toy next week. She is now a pro in counting because of the habit of counting all parts of the toys before putting them back on the shelf. She can’t think of breaking toys as she understands very well that they are from the library and they should be used with care.

We also get one book per week with one toy as per our renting plan. As my daughter enjoys reading so getting the book is also an added advantage.

What are your thoughts on the toy library? I would love to hear your views on this.

R is for Roald Dahl

I read very good reviews about Roald Dahl children books and adult books approx. 2years back. Since then it was in my to read list.
Brought his first short story book – KissKiss around a year back and it was gracing my book shelf without moving from to –read to read shelf 
Without any particular reason I just didn’t read this book and finally started reading it last week.

I was literally awestruck by author’s ability to write amazing short stories from very ordinary mundane routine life. He has very keen observation and each short story included in Kiss Kiss book has twisted ending. You will predict where the story is going and at the end author has just written something totally different making your jaw wide opened. And it’s not twisted in routine way, he has written gentle hints and leaving upto to reader to make it as a whole story  The character development at the start of story really help in making out meaning of indirectly quoted end 

Now I have one big regret Why I took so long to know abt this great author and his work. My to read list now included all the books written by Roald Dahl and I am waiting for my kids to grow up and read his books 

You can read more about Roald Dahl here

Q is for ….Queen

I saw queen movie quite late then my friends. But wait was worth n u quite liked it.. So far best movie of Kangna Ranaut’s career.. In fact I never expected such performance for her .. Director has also captured simple scenes n daily life in beautiful way.. I like the chemistry between Rani n her three roommates at Amsterdam ..

The only problem in this movie n most of hindi movies is why in our movies heroine realise their worth after getting rejected from boy.. Why bitter experience is required to come out of our cocoon ..
May be a long way to go for Bollywood to come out this stereotypes

P.S – I wrote this entire post from my phone .. My first phone post .. I completely forget to schedule today ‘s post when I m out of town without laptop…thankfully phone is my saviour here 😄

P is for Parenting

This blog got birth when I become parent –
to capture birth of new parent
to capture birth of my little angel
her milestones
my worries and my happiness as new mom
my experiences as I sailed into this parenting journey
to seek advice to give advice
to share with all moms there that you are not alone
to know all other mommy bloggers who made my journey easy by sharing their experiences
to connect and make life long friends
to share my joy as second time mom
to share siblings fight and siblings love
to share why i need two kids and how life is with two kids
to share working parent dilemmas
to share joy of watching your little one growing each day
to share what all books you read to your kids
to share how your little one got hooked to books
to share any new interesting thing/activity you can do with your kids

In short this blog is all about my journey as parent. I am enjoying my journey as a parent and trying my level best to become that PERFECT PARENT for my kiddos 🙂

I strive for perfection in every thing. IF I am office I want to deliver all my projects in perfect way.
If I am at home I want to be a perfect parent.
At the end of day every parent just want their kids to be happy, to lead successful life, to enjoy every moment.
My parenting journey has become more enriching experience with this blog. I got to know lot of other mommy bloggers through my blog. It helps me in changing my perception about so many things. I feel I am more aware mom now 🙂

N for Nature

N of Nature..IT always give me pleausre..just seeing greenery around 🙂