The Bespeak journal
Stories, books & the music in between.
Books · 10 Sept 2024 · 3 min read
Book review: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
One should never be bookless, I said, to a voracious reader friend. As soon as I finished Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, I borrowed books from her after speaking about what I feel like reading now. And boy, I am so excited about…
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Books · 9 Jul 2024 · 3 min read
Book review: The storied life of A.J.Fikry
Thanks to my lovely friend Divya Iyer who thoughtfully gifted me this book for my birthday. As her note to me sweetly said, we have a shared love for the written word. I was the queen of non-fiction, and she, the queen of fiction. As I…
Books · 7 Jun 2024 · 3 min read
Book review: Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
I randomly chose the book from a friend’s library, and found the narrative style of the book overall compelling. Age of Vice was a page-turner, and it took me only a couple of days to read this 548 page book! So I would definitely give…
Books · 25 May 2024 · 2 min read
Book review: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman
After reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, this is the next time I’ve felt so much emotion about a book. Afterall, fiction is perhaps an extension of real -life experiences. What hits hard is that this is most likely someone’s…
Musings · 6 Feb 2022 · 6 min read
The Legendary Lata
I can’t say this enough – music has been an integral part of my life. More specifically -Bollywood/Hindi film music. And Lata Mangeshkar was the doyen of Bollywood singers. It is almost impossible to think of Bollywood songs without a…
Books · 30 Jan 2022 · 3 min read
Book review: Factfulness
Once in a while comes along a book that startles, educates and moves you all at once. Factfulness is one such book. There is no category of ‘readers’ who can afford to miss reading an important book as this. For, nowhere have I been…
Musings · 15 Jan 2022 · 6 min read
Twenty year milestone
Twenty years ago this day, I woke up in sheer nervousness. Did I pass? The million dollar question after writing my CA Final exams in November 2001! It was perhaps the first or second time that results were being announced on the…
Musings · 30 Oct 2021 · 1 min read
It’s a rummy feeling, what…
If you meet me this week and find me using phrases like ‘It’s rummy’, ‘Right ho’ , ‘Dash it all’ and ‘Leg it’, you’d know I’ve been bitten (again) by the Wodehouse bug. Cut back to childhood when my highly literary mother, her siblings…
Musings · 25 Oct 2021 · 2 min read
Thank you Khayyam, for Umrao Jaan
There are some albums that you can consume in entirety and admire for their quality, depth and meaning. Umrao Jaan (1981) is one such album for me. The still is from ‘In Aankhon ki masti ke’, one of my favourite Asha Bhonsle renditions,…
Musings · 31 Aug 2021 · 9 min read
Our (mis)adventures at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve
After 8 months into 2021, we decided that we wanted to get away for a little bit. Actually, the hubby wanted to get away. Ever since I started my freelance work, and everyone is at home, all days are equal and I seem quite content with…
Musings · 10 Jul 2021 · 3 min read
A slice of nostalgia
Sometimes, one of our senses activates a memory, and we are transported back in time to an entirely different moment. Apparently the brain has filed everything away with ‘categories‘ and ‘tags‘, hasn’t it? The magical thing about…
Musings · 16 Jun 2021 · 2 min read
Picking favourites – a tough job!
So many of my posts are about music. Bollywood music has been a mainstream staple in my house, and even now, whenever I go over to mom’s, early morning tea and Vivid Bharti are the perfect morning joys we have together. The magic of…
Musings · 11 Jun 2021 · 1 min read
The Superheroes of Guardians of the Galaxy
A confident five year old walks in and announces: I am brilliant. (No place for modesty here!) she brings her latest drawing and explains it to us… But there is attention to detail. Wonder woman’s shoes, Spider man surrounded by…
Musings · 11 Jun 2021 · 3 min read
Crazy for Kishore
I come from a family where Bollywood songs were a part of our everyday lives. And so we would hear stories about the singers, actors and actresses of all time during meal time conversations, or when we were listening to the radio or…
Musings · 12 Apr 2021 · 3 min read
The Constant Companion
Right from when I can recall, Hindi film music has been a part of my life. Music is like breath to me, I cannot exist without it! The radio, the good old cassette tapes, walkmans, CDs, MP3 players, streaming music websites and YouTube…
Musings · 2 Jan 2021 · 2 min read
The Magic Walks
This is Magic! He is our 6 month old pup, and we brought him home when we was a tiny 2 month old pup. In fact he looked like a plush toy, small, scared and just adorable. Magic came into our lives because there are two animal nuts in…
Musings · 24 Nov 2020 · 3 min read
A Lucky kinda day!
This morning, while sipping the morning tea, I glanced at an interview of Lucky Ali talking about remixes. And the memories came flooding. I knew right away it was a lucky kinda day…. I was in Class XI when ‘Sunoh’ was released. And we…
Musings · 6 Oct 2020 · 3 min read
Melodies and meanings
Remember the time when you fell in love with a song for all of the reasons? The melody, the lyrics and the singers? There are some songs that I love for the sheer depth of what they convey, some of life’s most deep feelings, thoughts…
Musings · 1 Oct 2020 · 3 min read
There’s a Tam in me!
As I am trying to reflect on SPB songs that I adore, it seems that while Sagara Sangamam and Sankara Bharanam top the list, all other favourites are in Tamil. A few in Hindi too, but not like the Tamil songs. I’ve obsessed about Mandram…
Screen · 13 Sept 2020 · 3 min read
Show review: Billions
I am no binge watcher by any standards. I’ve not watched many popular shows such as Game of Thrones, The West Wing, and closer home Inside Edge or Sacred Games and many others over the past years. There was a time when sitcoms were a…
Musings · 11 Sept 2020 · 2 min read
How much ‘bad’ does the ‘good’ you have?
As a child, we are taught that one is either good or bad. It is an absolute judgement. Stories and movies and everything around us seems to inculcate the absoluteness of heroship and villainy. The good guy (mostly) emerges victorious.…
Books · 16 Jul 2020 · 2 min read
Book review: Wedding night
Once in a while you need a chick flick to feel that young girl inside you. (It was lots of fun watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ with my two little ones 😉 ). Ditto with the books. A hilarious, girly read that got me laughing out loud…
Musings · 27 Jun 2020 · 3 min read
START.YOUR.RUN.
So after about five years, I took up running again. Let me back up a bit to give some perspective on my health and fitness journey. I had never played sports or done anything related to fitness most of my childhood. I did learn dance,…
Musings · 18 Jun 2020 · 2 min read
Four Forbidden Words
The husband was smitten. Enraptured is more like it. There’s nothing that occupies his mind in the mornings and afternoons and nights. When vacations were still a thing, this was the only thing he cared about. He fell in love with birds…
Musings · 10 Jun 2020 · 3 min read
What are you podcasting?
I am admittedly late on anything that’s trending. And usually by a few years. So if everyone got into podcasting 5 years ago, I am slowly delving into it now. The lockdown triggered a passion to try running again. And after a few runs…
Musings · 24 May 2020 · 2 min read
Five minutes : Give or Take
A person with varied interests will know, you can do some pretty amazing things in five minutes. Today I will write about 2 things – adding calories and taking them away. Yep – five minutes for a quick indulgent dessert and five minutes…
Books · 16 May 2020 · 3 min read
Book review: Anywhere but home
Let me begin by quoting directly from the back cover of Anywhere But Home. Anu Vaidyanathan is the first Asian woman to complete the Ultraman Canada: a punishing 10-km swim, a 420-km bike ride and 84.4-km run. If that does not impress,…
Musings · 15 May 2020 · 1 min read
What’s your indulgence?
One of the things I have learnt along the way is to know what my indulgence is when I am feeling low. This might have changed over the years, but I am guessing for most of us, it is something we eat 😉 Love for chocolate is not unknown,…
Musings · 12 May 2020 · 2 min read
The hunger for goodness: what every parent must watch
I could have very well titled this ‘Movie review: A beautiful day in the neighborhood’. I might have, even. Had it not impacted me deep inside somewhere, this would just be me reviewing yet another movie I watched and giving my free…
Musings · 10 May 2020 · 1 min read
Of underrated Motherhood and overrated Mother’s Days’
Undoubtedly, most of us love our mothers. We may or may not express it, in a general manner of everyday conversations. Do we appreciate it? Hell, we do! A lot more after having kids of our own. That is how it happened to me, for sure.…
Books · 9 May 2020 · 2 min read
Book review: Erotic stories for Punjabi widows
My kind neighbour who is responsible for my reading many new books this summer said ‘You’ll like this!’. First of all, the title caught my attention: I was instantly glad that someone thought about widows and desire in the same…
Musings · 8 May 2020 · 2 min read
If you’re a novice baker, start with muffins!
Me, I am a self-confessed non-cook if there was ever one! So several years ago I took up baking, and luckily got reasonably good at it. If you haven’t baked, here are some good reasons to do that, followed by some good reasons as to why…
Musings · 7 May 2020 · 3 min read
Music for my many moods
Give me your mood, and I’ll give you a song to relate to it! Well, this might be a skill most of us have already. Me, I have a couple of songs for my most commonly predictable moods. As I mentioned on my homepage, hardly a day goes by…
Musings · 6 May 2020 · 2 min read
Five
High five there! It’s Cinco De Mayo, for those who care. And yeah, I heard of that only when I briefly lived in the United States back in the mid 2000s. Neverthless, for some crazy reason it got me thinking of the significance of number…
Books · 27 Apr 2020 · 3 min read
Book review: Little Fires everywhere
The Richardsons are a charming family of 6, living the quintessential dream life, owning 2 houses, having 3 children who ‘fit in’ and a 4th that rebels against everything they seem to stand for. The mother works for a local newspaper…
Books · 1 Apr 2020 · 2 min read
Book review: Purple Hibiscus
What are the odds of reading another African girl who debuted with a touching story, this one from Nigeria, right after Homegoing and From Scratch? I was handed this book by a different neighbor of mine. I had not heard of Chimamanda…
Books · 24 Mar 2020 · 1 min read
Book review: From Scratch
What strikes you profoundly as you start the book is the unfairness and grief surrounding the untimely death of a loved one, a spouse in this case, after a long battle with cancer. An inter racial marriage made of stuff out of a romance…
Books · 19 Mar 2020 · 2 min read
Book Review: Homegoing
One of the things I recently like about reading books is that I borrow them from friends, this has opened up a whole different genre of reading for me! A range of topics from around the globe, mythology, fiction, crime and comedy, I am…
Books · 7 Feb 2020 · 2 min read
Book review: Wild
An incredible and unputdownable book that was relatable on many levels -Wild is the (true) story of a young woman who takes up the daunting journey of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a ~1000 miles journey along the Pacific coast , in an…
Travel · 8 Oct 2019 · 2 min read
Travel Diaries: Gujarat
Happy dusserah to all my friends, family & extended family! We spent a few days of the Navratri at Gujarat and had an amazing time. For the food lovers: We ate samosas and fafdas, dhokla, lapsi fada, chola batura and lots of…
Books · 7 Jul 2019 · 2 min read
Book review: The Blue Sweater
Not so often does one read two amazing books back to back. Especially when one doesn’t read much to begin with. But here goes… I read the very honest, inspirational, real life first person account from ordinary to extraordinary life of…
Musings · 16 Sept 2018 · 1 min read
Divine Dance
Way back, even before I had firm ideas about marriage, I had a desire to have a daughter, and for the daughter to be a Bharatanatyam dancer. Yesterday was an incredibly sentimental moment for me, filled with gratitude as my daughter has…
Travel · 17 Jun 2018 · 1 min read
Travel diaries: Jim Corbett National Park
# shortestbreakever our four day getaway with 2 days of travel. But hell we made the most of it! # arewethereyet if you’ve done 14 hour journeys with two kids, you know you’ve heard this more times than the km traversed #sunrisers move…
Books · 22 Mar 2015 · 1 min read
Book review: Next
When I picked this up randomly at the airport, I realized that I’ve been a fan of Mr. Chrichton’s prior works. Jurassic Park ranks among my favorites, and I’ve also liked Disclosure. Next is about as gripping a bio-thriller(if you will)…
Books · 7 Mar 2015 · 1 min read
Book review: Love virtually
Ever read a book that was a dialogue between two people? Ever watched a movie that was just a dialogue between two people (Before Sunrise/Before Sunset)? Well this is the book – the first time ever I came across something like this.…
Books · 22 Feb 2014 · 3 min read
Book review: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
I’d heard about this book and the criticisms in the United States. Funnily enough, it is my own mother who asked me to read it, and kept following up with me until I bought it. I think it is a brave and honest book and that Amy Chua…
Musings · 29 Sept 2013 · 1 min read
Childing
Something I had written before potty-training the older one Ms.A, before she turned 3! The post is a hilarious look at the imaginary contents of a book written by a 3 year old on how to tackle parents. Childing by A: Including tips and…
Musings · 5 Apr 2013 · 2 min read
The second child conundrum
The past few weeks have been stressful ones. Even as Ms.A now started nursery and day care (first time away from family for the entire day as opposed to half day), I am now fraught with new stress. Everyday there are conversations about…
Screen · 16 Aug 2010 · 2 min read
Movie review: Aisha
Alright, I saw the promos and I was taken by Sonam Kapoor’s sense of style. The movie also stars Abhay Deol, who’s a really good actor. So when my mom suggested we watch the movie, I was all game for it. The movie is about, well, Sonam…
Musings · 30 Dec 2008 · 3 min read
Of Slumdogs and controversies
Ok – let me say it. Slumdog Millionaire is a brilliant movie and I loved it! I watched the movie soon as it was released so my opinion was not biased by how many awards it won or the level of recognition its getting worldwide. The movie…