What simple things or acts make you happy?
Do you ever examine your thoughts and feelings?
Sometimes I like my moments of quietude. I tried to meditate, not that I tried hard but went for a single class and gave up. I find good music meditative. While searching for good music I come across so many hidden gems. I listen to various genres of music depending on my mood. While listening to Abida Parveen’s rendition of KABIR DAS poems, I was mesmerised not only by her soul-stirring voice but also by the poems. Though I have studied Kabir’s Dohe at school, I wanted to know more about his life and the in-depth meanings of the Dohe. I went book hunting and I came across this book by Robert Bly, when I went looking for Kabir by Rabindranath Tagore.
When we were children, we would have so many golden thoughts and insights bestowed upon us by our elders but we would take them for granted. As an adult now, I try to recollect so many things my father used to say.
बुरा जो देखन मैं चला, बुरा न मिलिया कोय ।
जो दिल खोजा आपना, मुझसे बुरा न कोय ।।
This couplet was my dad’s favourite. The gist of these lines is that when I went looking for evil in the world, I couldn't find any. When I searched within, I found that there wasn't anything/anybody worse than me.     
पोथी पढ़ि पढ़ि जग मुआ, पंडित भया न कोय ।
ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़े सो पंडित होय ।।
I love these couplets. It means that humans do not become scholars by reading many books, on the other hand they become learned by spreading and showering love.
The best part about the poems of Kabir is that he wrote in the local dialects, which could be easily understood, unlike hymns, and poems, in Sanskrit.
The poems of Kabir depicted his unorthodox views, and he had a very secular outlook. The book has beautiful poems, all in English. My only contention was that I wanted to read the original verses of Kabir, side-by-side so that I could relate to them, but the book only has the translations.There are some stories of Kabir that are very interesting, some that I have heard and some that I havent.
If you like to read motivational and meaningful poems then I definitely would recommend this book to you.

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow.- Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The love between a parent and a child can make God fade into the background, and effusive love makes the breath run from here to there, so one might collapse for loss of breath, and the other puff up with the breaths of both. -Geetanjali Shree, Tomb of Sand
A mother-daughter relationship is so beautiful, that no matter what books I read or any number of movies I watch, it's simply indescribable. Nobody knows us better than our mothers. Mothers have that sixth sense and can tell even before we are sick, they get a premonition, they can sense our happy aura, and they can smell trouble. But as daughters do we realise what they go through, do we realise what kind of sacrifices they make to bring us up, do we know their highs and lows as they know ours? As teenagers, many become rebellious and make no heed of all the valuable golden words bestowed upon us, but we realise the true meanings only when we are older. Not all daughters are like Rory ( Gilmore girls)
 It is sad to see them suffer, particularly due to old age. Old age should not be debilitating but should be smooth sailing, in other words rather than wishing for longevity, one should look forward to a good quality of life.
Biographies are always very relatable. This is a small yet powerful book, where Annie Ernaux tells us the story of her mother. It’s a portrayal of a bitter-sweet relationship. She begins the book by telling us about the death of her mother and then she talks about her mother's life as a youngster, a married woman, a mother, as a career-oriented woman, and how her life changes when old age creeps in.
A must-read if you like biographies.

“Nobody knows what’s best for you other than yourself”- GRACE GROSSMANN
This is a very well-planned & well-written self-help book, for a better ‘yourself.’
She talks about how to handle pressures in life, how people get depressed comparing themselves with others, being happy for what they are, avoiding stress, positive thinking, and gratitude, and having a positive approach to life.
She talks about doing things we love to relieve ourselves of all the stress and more importantly she quotes snippets from her own life which are fun to read about and are very relatable.
I love this quote from the book:
“AS YOU WATER PLANTS DAILY, YOU ALSO NEED TO WATER YOURSELF WITH LOVE, CARE AND KINDNESS. FEED YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE PEOPLE, PEACEFUL PLACES AND PURIFYING PRACTICES.
She talks about the negative hate culture that people have on social media and how we can be better human beings by liking or sharing to make people happy.
Sometimes by having my ME-TIME, I do get recharged. The daily hustle and bustle of life, working, and taking care of elders and children can take a toll on us.
Many of my friends have told me that they don’t read self-help books because they forget once they finish. I feel self-help books are gentle reminders of things we know but have forgotten to do for ourselves and Grace definitely reminds us to take care of ourselves.
Thank you, Grace, for the book and for reminding me to remind myself to be happy, cheerful, and most important of all to love myself the most. 

SHANTA GOKHALE (OOTY LIT. FEST & TATA LIT. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD and many more awards)
“MY LIFE’S PHILOSOPHY WAS NOT TO LIFT MY SECOND FOOT UNTIL THE FIRST HAD FOUND A FIRM TOEHOLD.”- Shanta Gokhale
A witty, rational, and frank narrative of her life through parts of her body; a very unique way of telling one’s story.
Shanta Gokhale comes across as sensible, versatile, determined, pragmatic and feminist. A voracious reader, and a novelist, she was also the sub editor of FEMINA magazine, translator of many Marathi novels, and much more. I didn’t know that Shanta Gokhale is the famous actor Renuka Shahane’s mother.
A point I noted is that from the beginning she always carved out a ‘Me-Time’ whether she was at college, married, working or a parent. Although Virginia Woolf talks about what curbs women’s creativity in ‘A room of one’s own,’ it was clearer from the narrative of Shanta Gokhale where she reads/ writes undeterred by the complexities in life.
She has mentioned many books that she loved and has aptly used her bookish knowledge in various instances of her life.
Be it her tonsils or her teeth, when she was a girl, a chapter on her nose, about photic sneeze reflex, menstruation or menopause, her hairstyle obsession during her teenage or her hair loss after delivery or her tryst with cancer, every chapter portrays her humour, her resilience and tenacious nature.
The last chapter, a story about her buying shoes at Bata is hilarious and when she finally gets the shoes which are apt for her bunion, she slips her feet into them, yes, slip not squeeze! She thoroughly enjoys her morning walk the next day.
She ends with the lines: Heaven’s Gate …Seventy-eight…Bingo!
The book traverses a journey from her childhood to the age of Seventy- eight.
People face problems in life and every problem has its unique solution. It is nice to read about people’s lives. There are so many questions one has in life for which there is no universal teacher who can solve them all. Autobiographies often reveal how people tackle or juggle various difficult situations in life.
An amazing autobiography, recommended by a friend, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!
 

QOTD: Do you like audiobooks or physical books/eBooks?

This is an ideal read for the season. It has all the Christmas cheer, the setting, having faith, hope and goodwill and living life joyfully despite facing hardships.
It’s a short story about a seven-year-old boy and his sixty-something lady cousin who would call him Buddy.
They both are best friends and are enthusiastic about celebrating Christmas, although they are very poor. They are passionate about the festival, they plan for it, work hard to make treats, get the tree on their own and happily exchange gifts.
Movies based on Christmas nowadays, rather depict people from an economically sounder background. The hardships faced by poor families are what is portrayed in this story.
A short simple sweet yet poignant read, I am sure people will love to read this season!

The probability of winning the lottery is a very unlikely event. If a thousand people buy lotteries, the probability of one person winning it is one in a thousand.
I have read the book ‘We have always lived in a castle.’ The lottery is a short story by the same author. She is known for writing horror and mystery with a creepy touch and unusual, unexpected endings.