u/watervapour_7237

I have started Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua. This is my first book by an Assamese author. The summary of this book is the second picture. I think I'm going to finish it by today. I'm feeling both very sad and angry reading this, so, I took a break.

What about you all?

I bought this book two years ago from Delhi's International Book Fair. Now, I have finally read it. I have read this author's The Palace of Illusions, which was a retelling, didn't not liked it at all. However, this book has modern setting, so I had some expectations from it.

The book is set in the year 2002. The story follow Korobi, an 18 year old orphan(parents died before she was born), brought up by her conservative grandparents, decides to marry Rajat (who is probably in his mid-twenties) whom she only met three months ago and loves him very much. After the sudden death of her grandfather, she got to know that her father was alive all this time and her grandparents hid this fact from her. So, she decides to go to America to find her father and meanwhile the book also explores her struggles with her relationship with Rajat.

What I liked about the book is the author's language and her traditional Bengali home setting, which created a very good vibe.

But, overall, the book was very bad. This is the story of an immature girl who just got out school and is in a relationship with a much older guy, who is insecure, slightly controlling and classist. Again and again, her relationship looks so much forced from her side. It looked like she is in arrange marriage where she need to compromise on the relation no matter what. And I don't understand what is a guy in his mid twenties doing with an 18 year old kid, who have no maturity and experience.

We see her somewhat character development when she go the US to find her father. She became much more confidence. However, there is just one scene, where she went to meet with a lawyer (who she thought could be her father) invited her to his home and attempted to sexually assault her. This is where she takes help of the second lead, Vic. But, this scene looked so much forced, like straight out of an old Bollywood movie. Villain attempts to rape the heroine and the hero saves the damsel in distress.

Spoiler: She finally found her father and the plot twist was that her father is a black man and her parents never actually married because her mother made vow that she would never marry without her father's permission. Then, the chaos happens, Rajat and his family, thought that she hid this from them on purpose. Yet, the author ended the story with Rajat apologising to her and their wedding. Like wth.

My main issue is the relationship of the leads, it looked very suffocating for the female lead. For every small steps, her main worry is what will Rajat think. She wore a western suit, again worry about would Rajat think, she was going to find her father Vic's help, again what will Rajat think, snowstorm happened she need to stay in the motel, again what will Rajat think, she cut her hair, again what will Rajat think, her father turn out to be black, what will Rajat think. In the whole story, her main reason for stress is Rajat and her family. Rajat was good to her in some extent, but that doesn't negates his weird personality. And don't get me started with his weird ex Sonia (a very cliche name) following him around.

So, I give this book 2/5 rating. You can skip it.

I bought this book two years ago from Delhi's International Book Fair. Now, I have finally read it. I have read this author's The Palace of Illusions, which was a retelling, didn't not liked it at all. However, this book has modern setting, so I had some expectations from it.

The book is set in the year 2002, Kolkata. The story follow Korobi, an 18 year old orphan(parents died before she was born), brought up by her conservative grandparents, decides to marry Rajat (who is probably in his mid-twenties) whom she only met three months ago and loves him very much. After the sudden death of her grandfather, she got to know that her father was alive all this time and her grandparents hid this fact from her. So, she decides to go to America to find her father and meanwhile the book also explores her struggles with her relationship with Rajat.

What I liked about the book is the author's language and her traditional Bengali home setting, which created a very good vibe.

But, overall, the book was very bad. This is the story of an immature girl who just got out school and is in a relationship with a much older guy, who is insecure, slightly controlling and classist. Again and again, her relationship looks so much forced from her side. It looked like she is in arrange marriage where she need to compromise on the relation no matter what. That was like Preeti from Kabir Singh. And I don't understand what is a guy in his mid twenties doing with an 18 year old kid, who have no maturity and experience.

We see her somewhat character development when she go the US to find her father. She became much more confidence. However, there is just one scene, where she went to meet with a lawyer (who she thought could be her father) invited her to his home and attempted to sexually assault her. This is where she takes help of the second lead, Vic. But, this scene looked so much forced, like straight out of an old Bollywood movie. Villain attempts to rape the heroine and the hero saves the damsel in distress.

Spoiler: She finally found her father and the plot twist was that her father is a black man and her parents never actually married because her mother made vow that she would never marry without her father's permission. Then, the chaos happens, Rajat and his family, thought that she hid this from them on purpose. Yet, the author ended the story with Rajat apologising to her and their wedding. Like wth.

My main issue is the relationship of the leads, it looked very suffocating for the female lead. For every small steps, her main worry is what will Rajat think. She wore a western suit, again worry about would Rajat think, she was going to find her father Vic's help, again what will Rajat think, snowstorm happened she need to stay in the motel, again what will Rajat think, she cut her hair, again what will Rajat think, her father turn out to be black, what will Rajat think. In the whole story, her main reason for stress is Rajat and her family. Rajat was good to her in some extent, but that doesn't negates his weird personality. And don't get me started with his weird ex Sonia (a very cliche name) following him around.

So, I give this book 2/5 rating. You can skip it.

I bought this book few days ago from a second hand book bookseller. It is originally written in German, translated into English by David Shaw. Now, I've finally picked it up and finished it. I mostly read fiction, but I picked it up because since last two years I suffer from gut issues and secondly, I love the caricature on this book.

The author delve into each topic regarding the gut from Gut's nervous system, gut bacteria to gut feeling and faeces, with great detail and I love how she explains them in such a fun and humorous language.

This book made me realise how little I used to know about the gut and gut-health. The author did used a lot of biological terms but explained them quite simple terms with fun examples. I also liked how she added various research and experiments, making it more interesting.

The author opens with the information of gut being one of the three most important systems of our body including Nervous system and Cardiovascular system. As someone who suffered anxiety because which later lead to gut issues, I find it quite intriguing how interconnected (not sure if this is the correct term) with gut, like how our brain and mood impact the gut as well as how the gut impacts the brain and the mood. My most likes part of the book was the bacteria topic. Also, I love how the book is filled with caricature like the one in the coverpage.

The author also acknowledges how still not much research have been done on the gut, compared to other organs, even though it is one of the most important part of our body. This book was published almost ten years ago, so, it is fascinating to see what has been discovered about the gut in the past years.

But again, sometimes, the issue with the books written on human body is that the research is still going on, so, what used to be believed earlier might be changed now or in the future. But, still there hasn't been that much time. Moreover, the author mentions the source of information and also the reseach studies, and many times how those research was actually done.

It has became so common among Muslims to deny the Islamic slavery, calling it against religion, when it is very much part of the religion. There are even instances of Muhammad himself participating slavery.

This video is made by a Muslim.

Has anyone bought any book from here? If yes, how was the experience?

I came across this video and I'm flabbergasted how these kinds of people are defending domestic violence.

The beauty of Islam where there are a list of instructions on how to beat your wife. This gives me ick whenever a Muslim woman says that Islam honoured women the most or it is the most feminist religion, while ignoring this.

I have taken only few screenshots, otherwise the entire comment section is filled with these types of comments by offended Muslim men.

This is especially for the people who says religion brings morality. These men are agressively defending r@ping wives. The level of shameless here. I feel so bad for the girls and women who are married to them or will end up marrying them.

All these Hindus, Muslims and Christians fighting to take credit for their God for saving this home.🤦🤦 Who do think gonna win this competition?

These people don't even have basic empathy for the people died in this flood whom their so called Gods decided not to save with their magic.

Seeing Muslims, Christians and Hindus coming to claim that their god saved this home.

So, according to these people, their God killed hundreds of people and did not even spared small children, but decided "oh, let me just spare this house"🤦 shame on these god and religion.

I have started reading Annihilation of Caste by Dr. BR Ambedkar.

What about you all?

I bought this book few days ago from a second hand book seller. This is an English translation of Manto's small short story collection from the original Urdu which was published in 1955.

I have read his popular short stories before like Toba Tek Singh, Khol Do and Thanda Gosht. But, this collection has the stories not much known.

Here, the story which I found the most interesting was "The Child". It is about a young women, married for few years, being constantly pressured by her own mother to have a child. The pressure was not in form of curses, violence etc, but as constant nagging, giving n number of remedies and the daily remainder that how her life is incomplete because she don't have a child and how her life is not fulfilled and how her life would only be happy when she would become a mother. And this kind of pressure was not on by her husband, in-laws, relatives but her own very mother.

This is about the woman from a hundred years ago, however, what is unfortunate is that, this very thing still happens today. People think that their constant pressure is some unharmful advice or what they are doing is for that woman's benefit. But, what they don't know is that emotionally and mentally exhausting and damaging is this for that woman.

This short story takes a very scary turn when the woman fell into depression and starts having hallucinations of children's voices. Manto showcases her start of schizophrenia which eventually became worse and worse, the breakdown of her mental health completely, eventually leading to her tragic fate.

What I find very interesting is that how Manto in a short story of few pages explore the themes of patriarchy, misogyny, mental health, depression and schizophrenia.