KhepiAri

Book Review: We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafazi and Liz Welch Quote: So when I dream of home, I dream of mangoes I can pick off the trees.i dream of quiet and grass. I dream of peace. And nobody can take that away from me. - Maria Everyone knows Malala's story. The girl who opposed the Taliban with her pen. She is the symbol of girl empowerment, she like many who have preceded her and many who will follow her, knows education is the only way for women to have her say in this world. Malala has focused on the biggest Humanitarian crisis after Global Warning, Refugees. Documenting eleven stories of eleven women she met around the world. Migration is a reality, it happening and it has always been happening. Sometimes migration is a voluntary process and other times it's a decision made out of desperation to survive. The most vulnerable to violence are women and children, in a world where resources are imbalanced and equality is a scarce commodity between men

Book Review: When The River Sleeps by Easterine Kire. Quote: Perhaps the answer lay not in striving but in being. In simply accepting that the loneliness would never be eliminated fully, but that one could deal with it by learning to treat it like a companion and no longer an adversary. Ville a hunter wakes up from a dream, ventures out to search for the heart-stone; that holds the power of the river that's asleep. And this stone is guarded by wailing-angry-widow-spirits. Many attempts have been made at magical realism in Indian English writing, and I didn't like them. My personal opinion is that magical realism needs a deep connection with nature, maybe never explicitly explored in the text, but the traces of that connection always shows in the words written. And I have always argued that North East India is the most fertile ground to plant the seeds of magical realism in. Easterine Kire, pens our deep connection with nature for the national readership to gawk

Book Review: The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni Quote: Kaikeyi leans close to me. She reeks of tobacco. I can feel her hot, fetid breath on my skin. 'What's her story? That's a story that the loyal citizens of Ayodhya and your puppet newspaper may have trouble swallowing'. A nameless TV journalist, dares to do the impossible, on national television, she asks 'Where is Sita?' From then on the cat and mouse game of seeking the truth begins. Set in the city-state where Ram is the beloved king who is trying to bring Democracy. Ayodhya is an ever-growing kingdom that ate up Lanka's resources after defeating Ravan. In its omnivorous quest to be the shining example of development, many have been trampled. Our journalist keeps discovering secrets and ends up connecting dots to the other side of the story. From queen to princess she meets them all in her search for Sita. The book begins with Kaikeyi, within the first three pages I

Book Review: The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris Quote: Food is the thing that unites us all, that brings us back together. Food is the thing we can provide when there is nothing else we can do. That’s why we serve it at funerals. To remind us that Life always goes on. The fourth book in Chocolat Series was delicious like it's prequels. We are back to our little southern French village where Vianne Rocher has dropped her anchor. The story begins with a death; the florist Narcisse and deed of his estate. Rosette Vianne's winter child, who is specially-abled teen has been left with the inheritance of a strawberry farm. This deed serves as the bone of contention between Narcisse's daughter and the Rochers. The novel pans out again during the time of Easter and it unfolds stories within stories of this village. Finally, the classic Joanne Harris style murder and old memories enter this world too. We learn a bit more of Francis' history and

Book Review: Smokewater by Ibne Safi translated by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Quote: Hameed was of the opinion that if everybody in the world tried to study the newspaper with such concentration, at least half of them would go mad. Therefore, instead of reading the newspaper, he spent his mornings reciting ghazals to billy goat, and lecturing it on progress and morals. Until two weeks ago I didn't know who Ibne Safi was! Now I am ashamed that I didn't. Smokewater is a story about a case that comes to Colonel Faridi and his assistant Captain Hameed. When Shakila the intelligent and beautiful granddaughter of prominent industrialist Sir Fayyaz Ahmad comes knocking to their door, the corrupt world of super-rich gets revealed. The book is a sheer page-turner with two detectives who are eccentric. Though Faridi is the brains, it's Hameed who is the man in action leading the story. Till the end, I kept wondering why was Sir Fayyaz was drugged and kidnapped, but the reason

Webcomic Review: One Day by Pan (link at bottom) Quote: You love the book The Dreamcatcher, right? Hum...right. That novel is really awesome! I've come to your store for three days. Finally, I finished it. What? You finished all of it? One Day is a short webcomic that's sweet, fluffy and warm like pancakes which leave you happy after you devour it. In a rainy city, Bella a bookworm college student meets a backpacker in the bookshop she works at. They bond over an out of print book that Bella hides behind shelves so that she can finish it before someone buys it. They walk around the city, have coffee in Bella's favourite café and talk about their looming future as working adult. Bella doesn't want to work in a corporate job but her family is strict, and her new friend has a little secret of his own. There are two side stories, of a tomboy teen named Luciana who has a crush on her basketball teammate, and how her friends try to d