Angel of the Dark - [Book Review]

Guys.. It's  book review time! :) Couldn't read and review any good books recently as i was busy and enjoying my travel to different places. 

Book details:

Title: Angel of the dark

Author: Tilly Bagshawe, Sidney Sheldon

Hardcover: 304 pages

Publisher: William Morrow

After a long gap of reading thrillers, I started this ‘on the edge’ thriller 2 weeks ago and it was very difficult to keep book away until I finished. This is written by Tilly Bagshawe, who is also one of the New York's best-selling authors. She writes in inimitable style of Sidney Sheldon researched from Sheldon's private archives.

Plot: 

LAPD detective Danny McGuire investigates a violent murder case of multi-millionaire Andre Jakes. Mrs. Andrew Jakes (Angela), who is a beautiful looking young wife is also raped and beaten by the criminal.  Lovely Angela is the only clue to find the criminal, but she vanishes from the country. With all the ways closed, Danny couldn't find the murderer and had to leave police department and move to some other place in disappointment. While Danny starts his life in France afresh, Andrew Jakes’s  son Matt comes to him asking his help to investigate on the murder. With his help, Danny could find similar kind of brutal murders happened in these 10 years in different parts of the world. All cases have only one thing in common, elderly multi-millionaires with a beautiful young wife. In all the cases, the young wife, who is the sole beneficiary of will, donates her complete property to charities. What is the motive of the crime? If the young wife is also helping the murderer, then why is she too beaten and raped?

What I liked?

Story seems to be intriguing till the end with enough twists and turns. It is a fast paced story, which is good. Met my expectation as a thriller.

What I didn't like..

Somehow, I feel the characters of ‘Sophia’ and ‘Marcini’ are not convincing to the reader at many points. Court trial at the end seems to be dragging to some extent. I didnt like the ending.

My overall rating: 4/5

Until next time,

Image courtesy: www.bookreporter.com

A Journey of Motherhood - Song of my life

I feel motherhood is a journey. It makes you mature from a newlywed girl to a woman. It makes you understand the happiness of giving. It is all together a new experience that only a mother can understand.

9 months of my pregnancy were smooth and happy. I was healthy, doing whatever I like and eating whatever I want except for 2 months when I suffered with morning sickness. I never dreamed how my baby should look like or how I should take care of him. I didn’t get the bonding with my baby boy from the first day of delivery unlike everyone else. May be it is because of suffering and pain that I had due to some complication after delivery. I remember the day of delivery.. my bundle of joy was slightly pinkish and chubby. He was so adorable. I couldn’t breastfeed him for first few days due to my health problems, I was lucky that he felt comfortable and adapted to both breast feed and formula feed. Breast feeding was very tiring and used to make me exhausted most of the times, it was painful. But, that is the time I felt like a mother, I felt like I was complete as a woman.Taking care of a baby single handed, that too first year is un-imaginable. Support of parents and spouse made me enjoy motherhood without any problems.

Every small achievement of my baby used to make me wonder of God’s creation. His first flip, rolling, sitting, first steps, waving bye for the first time, coos and different sounds, giggles and first few words like ‘thatha’ ‘amma’ ‘daa’. Children change the atmosphere around us and make home lively and pleasant always. There are many pleasant memories till now, he is 20 months old now and he is super active and naughty. But, there were also some days or times when it was difficult to manage him, some days when I prayed to God to make him sleep early and there were many sleepless nights too. I think, to get something good we may need to lose something else. Some compromises and adjustments are needed to enjoy motherhood for sure.

I realized my mother’s importance during this phase and my respect to her just doubled :) 
Last, but not the least, this excellent video by 'Mom &Me' made me refresh those mommy moments :)

“The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.”

― Karl Lagerfeld

"There is no way to be a perfect mother.. but a million ways to be a good one"

-- Unknown

Until next time,

Hope you too share your motherhood journey through this contest :)

English Vinglish – A simple, and good movie

English Vinglish is a simple movie, but screenplay, direction and good performances made it  a good movie.

Plot is about a typical Indian house wife (Shashi) who doesn't know English. She is a dutiful wife, a good mother, but everyone in the family takes her for granted. She is worried when her own family members make fun of her and hurt her without understanding. This being the starting point, story takes a different turn when the protagonist Shashi (Sri devi) has to go to USA alone without her family, to attend the wedding of her sister’s daughter. Shashi joins English classes in New York and rest of the story is about how she learns English and how her confidence improves after that.

Amitha Bachan is a surprise bonus! His character is only for a few minutes, but is good. Other characters in the movie like - people with whom Shashi attends classes, her sister’s daughter (Priya Anand) etc., are good. Sri devi does look older and lost her charishma, but she excelled in the role as expected. There are some sarcastic and good dialogues in the movie like

 If a man cooks, it’s an art and when a woman cooks it’s her duty 

Mujhe pyar ki jarrorath nahin, jaroorath hai thodi ijjath ki

Family is the only place where you get love and respect

Shashi’s character is an example of many Indian women who keep their ambitions and interests aside giving family a priority. We may remember our mother or sister while watching the movie, whom we take for granted in our daily lives. When they cook good for us or help us in taking good decisions, we might have missed appreciating them or we might have hurt their feelings un-knowingly. It may make you think about them at least for sometime. 

A simple speech that Shashi gives about marriage and family at the end of the movie is very well written. The way she makes her husband and children realize her importance without hurting them is good.

Moral of the movie is -

 ‘ If you love yourselves, your life with problems also looks good.’

So, start loving yourselves :)

Last, but not the least, my rating for the movie is 4/5.

Until next time,

Image courtesy: Google images

Fall foliage trip - Day 2

Details of Day 1 trip are here.

Day 2 started fresh as we had good sleep. We got accommodation in 'America's Best value Inn' at Plattsburg. Room is not that clean, but manageable for one night stay.

Entrance

Tour started at 8.30AM to a place called ‘Ausable Chasm’. It is a wonderful place near Keeseville, New york , which offers nature trails, walking tours and treks at different difficulty levels. This place offers activities like rafting, tubing and  rappelling and mining. Scenic and adventure trails offer excellent views of rainbow falls, caves etc., As part of the tour, we couldn't go for rafting, but we went for an easy 3 mile walk which is called ‘RIM walk’. See below excellent views from the walk.

Rainbow Falls

Rainbow falls

Hydro electricity project

View from Rim walk

Our next stop is to Lake Champlain, which is the 6^th largest lake in US and Canada. We traveled by ferry to Vermont state from here, which took around 15 mins. 

Lake Champlain

All cars on ferry, even our bus was on ferry :)

Then, we reached Burlington, which is the largest city in Vermont State. We walked to Cherry Street and Church Street and stopped for lunch there. Burlington is a city with population of only around 40000. City seemed to be peaceful and pleasant.

We stopped at a teddy bear factory in Vermont. See wonderful photos from there.. Many big and small cute teddy bears in groups :)

do you see all colors in the same tree?? :)

The last attraction in our itinerary is Maple museum. This museum shows how maple syrup is made from maple leaves and other products based on maple syrup. Museum is very small with an entry fee of $3, which I think is not worth for the money. But, see their decoration for Halloween J Is ti interesting? J

Doesn't he look real?

Hope you liked the photos :)

Until next time,

Fall foliage trip - Day 1

Taketours.com offers great trips with the duration of 1 day to 16 days to cover east coast of US. One such tour is fall foliage covering Vermont State.

Fall season in US starts in september and ends by December. This season marks the transition from summer to winter. This is the excellent time to see all maple trees change their color from green to bright orange, red and purple hues. Fall foliage trip is a 2 day tour targeting to cover one place in New England region. New England region covers New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Our tour started from New York, taking us to White face mountain. Scenic Gondola ride which costs $19 is an excellent attraction. Total ride takes around 45 mins to reach to the peak of the white face mountain and return.

Gondola ride to peak of white face mountain

View from Gondola

Welcome Halloween

 It’s fantastic to see all trees with bright orange and red colors from the top view. The peak of the mountain is foggy and too cool. We can have an excellent view of Lake Placid from there. We couldn't stay at the top of the mountain for more time due to freezing cold weather. Gondola ride gives you a life time memorable experience.

Our next stop is Lake Placid. As the name suggests, it is very peaceful. Lake Placid is a village in Adirondack mountains in New york state. It comes under tri-lake region with near by lakes like Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake. Lake Placid is best known as a place which hosted winter olympics in1932 and 1980. The street along the side of the lake, is a good place for lovers of shopping.

After this, we reached the hotel in Plattsburg by 8PM itself. First day of tour ended. 

Wait for the second day updates :)

Until next time,

Corning glass museum - Everything about GLASS

I was on 3-day tour last week and this is the place that I liked most after Niagara Falls.
The Corning glass museum, which is in Corning, New York, USA is not only a museum with a collection of around 45000 glass objects but also an institution for glass making with a research lab. It allows you to explore different galleries of glass art from the ancient period to contemporary. Here are some extraordinary glass art designs:

Glass flower

Contemporary art

Unique piece

There are 45 minute live demos of glass making.
Museum also explains the history of glass making and latest innovations with examples.

Broken glass can also be an art?

A large construction of glass bowls

A live demo of glass making.. 

First attempt from man to prepare glass

Near the entrance, welcoming halloween

Weird?

Hope you liked the photos :) 

Until next time,

A day trip to New York

This is my first self guided trip in US with my colleague. I would have asked opinions of at least 10 of my friends on what to visit in New york and done some research in web before starting. We reached New York at 9AM from our place by train and had breakfast in New York Penn station. Understood, how difficult it is to get good veg food :) 

We planned to cover Statue of liberty, Empire state building, Madam Thussads museum, New york stock exchange  Wall street Bull, WTC towers(9/11 memorial) and last but not the least 'Times Square'. I have downloaded New york map and sub way route map applications in my smart phone, which are very useful :) Using my sony xperia at the best :p

We started to 'South ferry' station from 'New York penn station' by subway train route 1 and walked to Battery park to get tickets for ferry to Statue of liberty and Ellis island. Ellis island is not that great, but statue of liberty is good. 

View of Manhattan from 86th floor

We walked through WTC towers site to see 9/11 memorial from battery park and then visited New york stock exchange and the famous wall street bull. We took sub way train from Wallstreet station to New York Penn station (route 2) after completing lunch in a good North and South Indian restaurant 'Ruchi' near WTC towers (120 CEDAR street). Empire state building is just 2 blocks away from New york Penn station, we got the tickets for Sky ride and observatory. Sky ride has too much hype, but it is basically a simple motion ride. It simulates a helicopter tour of New york. Came out of sky ride by humming the tune of 'I love New york', which is very nice. Observatory is on 86th floor of Empire state building, where we can have a 360 degree view of whole city. 

Sky scrappers - no place for light to peep in

Empire state building

Busy streets of Times square

We were dead tired by this time, but still walked to 42nd street from 34th street to reach Times square by 6 PM. Times square is fantastic in the evening lights. We did street shopping too on the way. Took some more photos and took a sub way train to New york penn station from 42nd street even though it is a walkable distance. Our trip ended with Nj transit train back to our place from New york Penn station.
It was an excellent trip just because we were exploring the streets of Manhattan on our own, by following maps and roaming and shopping at a convenient pace, without taking any tour packages.
We missed Madam Thussads museum as we were tired by the evening, but overall, every thing went as per plan without any problem. Thanks to my colleagues for guiding and helping us with all sorts of suggestions :)

Until next time,

Barfi - Touching movie and as pure as dew drop

Movie: Barfi
Cast: Ranbir kappor, Ileana DCruz, Priyanka Chopra
Director : Anurag Basu

Watched hindi movie Barfi on weekend as we didn't have anything else to do :) Iam not a movie buff and after reading something on Barfi in web, i thought it is an art movie like 'Black' or 'Sawariyan' which might be boring to the core. I became a fan of Ranbir kapoor after watching 'Rocket singh' and so, thought Barfi might be watchable for Ranbir at least :)

Unlike many other commercial bollywood movies, this seemed to be very different. Hero being a deaf and mute guy, you should be feeling sorry for him if it is any other movie. But, i never felt that way in the whole movie except for one scene where police tries to fix him in some case as he cannot talk and prove his innocence. I never like acting of Ileana in telugu movies, but i felt she did justice to her role in this movie. Priyanka chopra is good too. There are many common/ simple scenes which were taken extraordinarily well. Director Anurag basu to be appreciated for that. Music is part of the film and mostly all songs are based on situation. Movie has good humorous touch throughout. 

There are no specific negative points about the movie, but i felt it is emotional and intense to some extent. Characters and story may stay in your heart for some days at least. Since it is an emotional movie and so we cannot watch movie again and again, i don't think it may become commercially successful. But it is a very good movie for one-time watch.

So, try to watch it, it's worth a watch :)

Until next time,

Image courtesy: Google images for non commercial reuse

A Simple formula for a tasty Veg recipe

This is not a food blog and I am not an excellent cook. That is the reason which made me write this blog post. :) Confused??!@#

Do you hate cooking? Do you feel cooking is a big work and want to come out of the kitchen as quickly as possible? Are you always scared about trying new recipes and fail most of the times? Do you always think that it will be nice to have a simple formula for all types of recipes so that there will not be any need to memorize procedures of cooking? Then, this blog post is just for you :)

I love algebra very much in my school days. I used to solve many problems and puzzles using algebra and equations. So, once i thought, can we have a formula in cooking too..
like
                 (a+b)^2=a^2+2ab+b^2
and we can change parameters (vegetables) and get the final output which is a tasty dish. Voila! how nice it would be if it is that easy!

So, this is my formula for a tasty simple veg curry:

Parameters:
1/4 kg vegetables - cut accordingly
1/2 medium onion - chopped
2 green chillies - sliced
turmeric - 1/4th spoon
salt - 1 spoon or as required
red chilly powder - 1/2 spoon or as required
oil - 1 or 2 spoons
Corriander powder - 1 spoon (optional)

Formula steps:
1. Add one spoon oil to the pan. Fry onions and green chillies until they turn light red
2. Add vegetables.
3. Add salt and turmeric. Fry vegetables with closed lid in less heat. This may take around 5 to 10 mins.
4. After vegetables become soft and half cooked, add chilli powder. Mix well and let it fry without lid for sometime
5. After it is fried very well, add 1/2 cup water, close the lid and keep it for few minutes with less heat until all water goes out and curry becomes thick.
6. Now, you can add coriander powder before removing from stove. Add coriander leaves at the end before serving.

Output:
A manageable or edible curry :) taste improves on experience.

Note:
1. Step 3 is very important and how much ever we can fry with proper salt and turmeric(without sticking to the pan, of course :)), curry will be that tasty.
2. Vegetables that suit for this recipe are - cauliflower, tomato, cabbage, capsicum, potato, Tindoora/Gherkins or Coccinia (dondakaya in telugu), lady fingers, bottle gaurd, ridge guard, beans, brinjal(egg plant), beetroot and carrot
3. Some vegetables need more time for cooking like potato, cabbage, beans, beetroot and carrot, which can be boiled for sometime before following the recipe.

So, how did you like this? let me know your opinion in comments :)

Until next time,

Image courtesy: google images for non commercial reuse