Watermelon- Book Review (#1)

In the genre of chick-lits it is rare to find a story of a strong willed woman who proves she doesn’t need a man to be happy. Watermelon by Marian Keyes is one of those rare ones. It is the story of Claire, an Irish born Londoner who on the day she delivers her daughter, discovers that her husband had been cheating on her with their neighbour for the past six months and he is going to leave her to join the other woman. Devastated seem like an understatement when we put ourselves in the scene. With an one day old baby daughter in hand and no husband, her world seems shattered. With no one here to support her emotionally and financially, she decides to go to back to her family in Ireland. Though she comes across as a silly woman who gives in to her whims and fancies rather than the 29 year old woman that she is in the beginning, we get to see her smart and strong headed side as the story moves.

The initial description of her husband James is very 'Prince Charming' type where he is depicted as a true gentleman who got tired of his whimsical wife and decided to have a fling, albeit with an older married woman. It is impossible to believe that he would ever be the guy who wold leave his pregnant wife for another woman and more so for a woman who was mother of three kids making us blame Claire in some way.

As Claire moves in with her family, we get introduced to her slightly dysfunctional family, her father who is a major support, her mother, ever so dotting and kind but old fashioned and very much Christian, her two younger sisters Anna and Helen, both are eccentric and estranged in their own way. Though Anna is still sweet, Helen is haughty and selfish making us want to kill her at times, a feeling echoed by Claire too.

The story becomes gripping as we see how Claire copes up with the betrayal and loss of her husband, thanks to her strange family and her baby daughter and successfully comes out of it. It depicts her vulnerability, her fears, the depression, jealousy, failure and all the negative emotions which she lashes out on her family members who bear it gruntingly.

Slowly she tries to veer herself from all negativity meets an attractive guy and realises that probably all is not lost yet. She finally tries to get on with her life without her husband, only to find him on her doorstep asking her to come back to him. Claire is uttely confused as any woman would be. Should she give him a chance for the sake of their daughter or move on with her new life? Few months ago, she would have done anything to get her "perfect life" back but now things have changed, or have they? Should she let go of the new beginning or hold onto it? The climax is gripping and certainly worth the suspense. In the end, you admire Claire for her decision and fall in love with her and her strange family.Well, for the reasoning behind the name of the novel, it is with reference to her post pregnancy weight making her look like a watermelon.

My opinion- 5 stars. Certainly worth a read! Hoping to read more of Marian Keyes in the future.

Next book review soon to follow, till then keep reading and let me know what you feel about the book.

The M word..- Series 1

Hi All,

I feel all jittery to write my new post.. because its been so long, I haven't written a decent post and hopefully this time it comes alright. Okay, moving on, today's topic of post is Marriage..!!

I know folks, I am too young to write on that and people ahead of me have written crap load already. But as a 23 year old's perspective, I would like to put forth my view thoughts on the same. I mean with enough crap already, why not add one more to it. Okay, why am I talking about marriage you ask (even if you don't, I am gonna answer it!). Its because I am gonna get married soon.. Hell yeah!

And folks, it is an arranged marriage, so I haven't even met the guy more than once and I am going to live my whole life (hopefully!) with him. See it's all so strange but yet feels normal. A situation that will probably happen only in India or may be in some small countries, I am not too sure about that but I am trying to drive home a point here so let's ignore other directions. So this guy I am geting married to is 6 feet tall, wheatish and in a small way cute, you know the puppy cute and smiles all along. The last time I met him (the only time I ever met him) he was in a yellow -shirt around jeans and clean-shaved.

I always liked guys with stubble so kind of bit dissapointed. The house was full of people. Five from his family and 20 from mine.. Some 25 members for just a meeting. I was already nervous and influx of crowd scared the shit out of me.

In all those nervousness I forgot to look him properly and now I face a small problem, I dont remember the face of the guy! and probably I am going to marry him. Imagine not knowing the face of the you getting married to. Thanks to facebook and linkedin, I could re-establish his face in my mind. Inspite of all the modernity we speak about, things still happen in a very traditonal way almost everywhere and regarding my decision, well you have to wait till the next post!

What's with the Indian mind?

One of my best friends who is in relationship with a guy, decided to break the news to her parents. Before leaving from here (She stays as a PG here and her hometown is somewhere interior of the state) she was so scared to inform the news to her parents. She was skeptical whether they would agree.Though convincing the parents to accept the one you love is universal, its more so in India because as they say, In India, its not two human beings who marry, its a marriage of two families.So my friend being scared of facing her parents with the news was procrastinating it.

Her reason for worry? The guy is from a different caste and more importantly from a caste which is considered low by her community and by our society. In a world where we liberally sprinkle our language with democracy and freedom and talking about being open-minded and bold, such things shows the hidden black truth that the society has never been modern in a true sense, it has been quasi-modern or conveniently modern. We chose to be modern on things we found suited our desires like wearing an one piece or losing our mangalsutra or using western toilets and modular kitchens but when it comes to thoughts, we are still in ancient 19th century, a society catergorised in terms of caste and creed.

So this friend of mine, finally musters enough courage and goes home to reveal the news. What happens? What do you expect to happen. Of course the parents slap her, scold her followed by emotional blackmail of how they will loose all the respect they have in the society and more so call up the guy asking him to forget all about her. I so knew this will happen but still had a hope that probably her parents will realise the love she has for him and agree. But for Indian parents, honour among the society is more important than their children's happiness.

I haven't yet lost hope that her family will agree to it soon and she or her boyfriend are trudging along with that deep faith in humanity and themselves . I keep motivating them that after a hurricane, comes the rainbow. Meanwhile, I continue to dream of a future wherein an Indian mind learns to be broad minded in true sense and let people have their "happily ever after".

Some amazing lines I have read!

                            Amazing lines by Marianne Williamson, Author- A return to love (1992)

A motivational line by Tony A. Gaskins Jr., a motivational speaker

A fresh start

Hi Everybody!
I am beginning my new blog journey with a positive hope that this time people are gonna read it :P. After disastrous attempts at writing enumerable blogs, I finally decide enough of this tamasha, let me be serious and write some good stuff. So here I am again with a fresh mind to begin with my blogging.

So everyone, welcome to Cloud Cuckoo Land, the land of.. Well haven't thought what this land is going be famous for. So stick with me for a while and we will decipher it soon. Till then, keep reading, keep smiling!

Au revoir,
Divy@

Quote: Its innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.

- Mignon McLaughlin (American journalist & author)