Chaitra Pai

The National Book award winner, James McBride does it again, by writing another groundbreaking book on race, religion and history. The book is inspired by the author’s grandmother, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who ran a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, during the 1930s and 40s. Primarily centered on a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where African Americans and Jewish immigrants coexist, the story revolves around its residents. As the narrative unfolds, new characters are introduced, adding depth to the community. Brimming with empathy, kindness and community living, the book is heartbreaking in places, and especially Chona’s story and Dodo’s predicament, ripped me apart. Beginning with a murder mystery—a skeleton found at the bottom of a covered well—the narrative then transports readers to the 1930s, unraveling the love story of Moshe and Chona, Jewish immigrants, and their adopted son Dodo, a hearing-impaired African American facing unfortunate circumstances. McBride adeptly captures the political and social commentary of the 1930s, depicting how the newly ordained “land of the free,” having welcomed immigrants, faces backlash from neighboring White communities toward a colored neighborhood. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Chona being my favourite character, with her heart of gold, always giving free grocery to the Black community on credit and feeding the hungry children of the neighbourhood. The pentitentiary scenes were equally heartbreaking and my heart wept for Dodo. A must read if you are looking for a snapshot of the social climate in 1930’s America, with a blistering story at its heart.

THE BOOKER PRIZE LONGLIST 2021 CHINA ROOM – Sanjeev Sahota Genre – Historical Fiction, India “That a wife was a wife, there to bear sons and otherwise live behind her veil, out of the way. Her face was barely worth considering”. This was the mindset of rural India & still is in some parts. The “chador”/veil makes it hard for a woman to identify the husband among his siblings, sometimes going a whole lifetime without knowing who it is, having to perform the marital relations in darkness. “They grow up in a prison & then get married into one.” The sadness of this thought shook me, thinking of how repressed women are. But despite that, the strong character of 16-year-old Mehar, shone through as she went about village life. Fast forward to 1999 - Mehar’s unnamed 19-year-old great-grandson, a Heroin addict, returns to the farm to go cold turkey. He bides his time in the China Room, where Mehar was sequestered, and he feels a connection flow through him from over the years. The 1929 rural life fascinated me – the dung patties, candle making, foraging for vegetables, delivering food to the farmworkers. Sahota’s vivid visions of village life are authentic for someone who has been to India only a handful of times. What I loved – - Mehar’s story of love & lust is heartbreaking – falling prey to the desire of a man because she was blindfolded by traditions. - The Indian's cry for Azaadi from colonization is beautifully portrayed through the form of Tejh Singh’s call for arms. - Mehar’s great-grandson, went through a process of self-discovery, making connections with people and the land, which was an insightful journey. - The flashbacks into the great-grandson’s childhood, where he was a victim of racism in London, led to his addiction. Apart from Mehar's story, this caused me a lot of heartbreak. I would have loved to know more about Radhika and the teacher, but it was touched on lightly. FACT - Sahota weaved this story taking instances from his own experience in London of racism and his great grandmother, who was one of 4 veiled daughters-in-law, who did not know who the husband was.

I had a hard time writing this review. The vivid images kept playing in front of my eyes like a reel. It is hard to translate my feelings into words, the circumstances of which are unfathomable, outside my understanding. Losing a home to war, not once but multiple times is hard to comprehend. Country politics can play such a dirty game on citizens, making them suffer cruelly for something which they are faultless. This book begins with an innocent reading of Turkish coffee-dregs, which portends a dark future for Salma's daughter, Alia. We watch this unsaid prophecy play out as their home is swept away in the wake of the Six-Day war of 1967 in Nablus. As they migrate and make a home in balmy Kuwait, nurturing beautiful but complicated children, Saddam Hussein chooses to invade Kuwait, and again devastation paves the way in their lives. Boston becomes their next choice of home, and soon the Twin Towers tragedy upturns their lives, with people viewing them with suspicion as Arabs, forcing them to move to Beirut. By this time, Alia is the proud grandmother to lovely, confused children, clueless as to where they belong. But another twist of fate leads to Beirut being under siege by the Israelites, making their entire family cower in fear, especially when the bombed airport gives no means of escape. The amount of tragedy and trauma endured by them is hard to comprehend. Choosing what to take from a house which may not be ever visited again, in a tiny suitcase, while migrating during a war is tragic. Being at home surrounded by family, but longing for a home that can never be visited because of an ongoing war is a sentiment difficult to understand. With chapters dedicated to Alia and her children, it was revelatory to be a worm in their brain, understanding how they see the world. The writing is lyrical, enunciating the sense of tragedy and mental torture in colorful, articulate language. If you are looking to understand the mental turmoil of the displaced Palestinians, this is a good book to start with. Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews - @bookswithchaipai

Work responsibilities & unattainable goals are bogging you down? Want to maximize your savings & productivity? Wish to maintain a balance between work & play to achieve the perfect life? This book gives solutions to all these woes and more! Drawing examples from real-life instances, The Victory Project presents methods of being successful. As a layman, I can assure you, the solutions herein are not confined to professionals alone. The methods of achieving full potential can be utilised in all walks of life. I loved the glimpses into the lives of successful people like Jane Austen, Murakami, and how they charted their days to make the most of it. There are sparkling stories and interesting titbits dispersed throughout, which made a serious subject entertaining & drove the point home. Salient points of numerous books have been combed through & compiled to highlight why the solutions presented are critical. Extensive research & prominent people have been interviewed to find out success stories. The case study's at the end of each chapter are riveting & enlightening. Most of the popular books hold good for the US market. But this book is applicable to the Indian lifestyle & Investment construct & so is one of a kind My takeaway - -Train your brain to make a mind castle, much like what Holmes did, to prolong your memory. Multiple methods are put forward to ingrain this technique. - Extensive reading, isolation, decluttering & concentration are critical to success. Some of the brilliant minds read voraciously, which leads to concentration & immersion practices, and then decisions are made as to which data to retain or conveniently forget. -The importance of minimizing social media, unnecessary interactions during work hours has been highlighted. A detailed day-to-day schedule is a must for maximum performance, wherein all gadgets are kept away & thus immersive work will follow. This book is a repository of information. Instead of reading multiple books, I would suggest you read just this one, it is enlightening, engaging & contains a storehouse of knowledge

Religion - a word that governs the rules of marriage in rural India to this day. Familial ties are severed if a lovemate is of a different religion leading to banishment and being disinherited. If it is a daughter who has committed this transgression, she who is cultivated in a sheltered cocoon, at odds with a son's freedom - her sin remains unforgiven. Rukmini sails in this boat, having fallen in love with a Keralite. Being excommunicated, she lives a life bereft of family & love, disillusioned by her husband for whom she had given up everything. Fast forward 25 years, her daughter Loya returns to her roots, seeking the unanswered questions roaming in her head. Loya finds herself in the company of a grizzly grandfather, who is facing an inner turmoil of emotions & flashbacks of his daughter Rukmini & wife Usha. In the sleepy afternoons, Loya stealthily creeps through the house, sifting through her mothers' childhood pictures, trying to piece together her ancestry. The language is colorful, with scenic descriptions of Guwahati, painting the town to life. The Saraighat Bridge “looked deceptively fragile, a wisp of spun sugar against the grey sky". The Brahmaputra "Swollen, sullen, it grew belligerent with the monsoon rains & became quite another creature". "The river could make a grown man cry". Coincidentally, I spent a part of my childhood in Richmond Town, Bangalore, & the descriptions of Johnson Market & the churches took me back in time. A snapshot of the political scenario in Assam is revealed in gross morbidity. The ending stunned me, and I had to reread, hoping I misunderstood it. The gravity of what happened marred the happiness of the return of a beloved daughter. Undertow has an important message woven in its lyrical prose - one of living in regret and the need for reconciliation. The Matriarch, Uma, who had no love lost for her daughter, drew the ire in me for her bad decisions. This book unearthed a whirlpool of emotions in me like the strong undertow in a river. For more book reviews follows me - @bookswithchaipai

I hate fantasy! I have been trying to dip my finger in the vast ocean of choices out there from time to time, fascinated by the beautiful covers and picturesque castles and magical beings displayed in its glory, hoping I would grow a liking to it. I have to admit, the going is tough. The first few books I read were strictly ok. But The Ember in the Ashes series truly surprised me, and I am looking forward to reading the next installment. I am completely gripped! Usually, the first book is the best, and then it usually peters out. But this one was equally strong in character, fast-paced, and mindbogglingly heart-rending. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger which had a nail-biting quality. Every single time that I felt that the main criteria of the story is doomed and there is nowhere for the tale to lead, I was pleasantly surprised with the twist in the tale. And each twist was completely unexpected and out of the blue. It is very hard to review this one without giving out any spoilers. Some excruciating moments truly broke my heart. A character I had complete faith in and had fallen in love with reduced me to tears. I kept hoping it is not true and it is just a dream but was flabbergasted. A humungous tome, having 452 pages in all, looks daunting. But as you keep reading, the pages fly like the wind and you will be surprised you have reached the end.

As I turn the last page with moist eyes, I gaze at my warm cup of tea sitting innocently next to me & ruminate on the havoc it has caused over centuries. The humble tea leaf has traveled far - picked, pounded, dried, and then packaged to finally be steeped in hot water, for a calm evening tea break. But is this calm justifiable considering the inhumane conditions the laborers endured to grow this tea in Assam? The beauty of historical fiction is that it lets you take a step back into time, and observe a slice of life as if you are there. This book made me travel 200 years in time, made me watch the first tea leaves being sown in Assam, witness the Chinese slaves brought in to work, & then follow their descendants being driven out of India, which they now considered home. The vignettes of the Chinese laborers' daily life brought their world to life for me. I watched them board the ships with dreams in their eyes, to be soon jarred to reality. I saw them working in tea plantations in backbreaking conditions. I blushed when they fell in love with the locals, eventually marrying them. And when China encroached on Indian land, I observed the terror in their eyes, as friends turned to foe, and lovers averted their eyes, because of Chinese hatred. My tearstained eyes stared as they were termed enemies of the state, packed like sardines in trains, sans amenities, families broken up & escorted to jails in Rajasthan. As they boarded ships, to go back to a country the language & customs of which they were now alien to, branded as Chinese although their hearts were Indian, my heart broke. The inequitable treatment they are subjected to in Red China, living in fear, their hearts beating for a country far away, devastated me. Years later, when it came full circle, lovers reunited, lost family members found, I applauded tearfully. If you are ready to let a book claw into your heart and discover some raw incidents that occurred in India in the 1970s, this is the perfect book for you.