I love peacocks! I mean, who doesn’t? Although it’s hardly seen, a peacock in flight is STUNNING! Have you ever seen one in flight? As for pheasants, they’re on some real judgmental stuff. What do I mean? Stick around and find out.
Image: Peacock in flight! Isn’t it STUNNING?
Photo via Shivaram1970 on Jun 12, 2013
🐦 Peacocks and pheasants belong to the Phasianidae family, which also includes partridges, grouse, and turkeys. The peacock mainly makes their home in India and Sri Lanka, while pheasants can be found in Asia, Australia, Europe, Hawaii, New Zealand, and North America.
🐦 The peacock is also known as the Indian Peafowl or the Bird with One Hundred Eyes and is the national bird of India.
Image: The Golden Pheasant looks as if it’s wearing a judge’s wig… sort of. It also looks like it just stepped out of the “Remember the Time” music video.
🐦 Both peacock and pheasant prefer the same food when it comes to eating so no complaining for them at the buffet table! However, there is one food that peacocks eat that pheasant wouldn’t think twice about and that’s the juvenile cobra.
🐦 Male peacocks are celebrated for their beauty and male pheasants are known for their eye-catching appearance. You know what’s ironic? The fact that both male peacock and pheasant are brighter and more beautiful than the female, but they have to try their hardest best to win the dull-looking girl with their courtship display. Hmmm… I guess they would’ve been too full of themselves if it was the other way around! 😄
Image: Palawan Peacock-Pheasant. A thing of pure beauty.
🐦 Peacocks tend to avoid human-populated areas; they prefer the forests whereas pheasants tend to inhabit meadows, fields, and farmlands. The average lifespan for a peacock is 25 years, whereas pheasants can live up to 18 years.
Peacocks are enchantingly beautiful, and they’re a royal sight to behold. Their beauty is a reminder of God’s gorgeous and amazing creation while their regal appearance is a reminder that God has crowned us with glory and honor.
The White or Albino Peacock is pure and when its feathers are open and spread, it reminds me of a wedding dress somewhat and that Christ is coming for His bride soon. Via KRIBST, here’s a video of a princely white peacock showcasing God’s majestic aesthetic. It makes a commanding sound before putting on a feathertacular show to entertain the ever curious humans. Thank God for this gorgeous animal!
I have a confession: I forgot all about this challenge! 😔
Before I continue, I want to thank my sister Denisia for helping me with this project. She found the majority of photos – including the one I’m about to do – for she was excited to help. Thank you, sis! I really appreciate it. 💙 This bird is truly a beauty!
🐦 There are 15 different subspecies of the Blood Pheasant. This species is so named from the fact that the males have a vivid red coloring on the feathers of the breast, throat, and forehead. Females tend to have duller shades of reddish-brown, but both males and females have a ring of bare skin around the eye that is crimson-colored and red feet.
Image: Female Blood Pheasant
🐦 They originated from the Himalayas and can be found in the mountains of Nepal, Tibet, Sikkim, Tibet, northern Burma, and northwest areas of China.
🐦 The Blood Pheasant is the state bird of the Indian state of Sikkim. This is off-topic, but Sikkim is GORGEOUS!!
🐦 They are good runners, but poor fliers.
🐦 These birds prefer green natural habitat such as mixed forests and scrub areas right at the snowline. Depending on the season, they can be found at a higher elevation.
Other birds with the letter ‘B’ I considered were the Bald Eagle, Bahama Mockingbird, Bamboo Scrub-Warbler and the Barn Owl. I leave you with a video of the Blood Pheasant in its natural habitat.
I didn’t schedule anything for the blog today, but I was going through drafts and came across a half finish movie review, so I’ll be completing it today! 😄
“Everyone loves a holiday, but holidays don’t last forever.” Harry
WARNING:If you like, love, adore, or even worship SRK, then you better look away. Now. I said, now!
What would’ve taken me one sitting to watch a 2-hour movie took me a week. It was probably the first movie of SRK’s that I cringed throughout. In this movie, SRK is a tourist guide currently working in Amsterdam. His name is Harry and he’s a lonely man because he’s a “cheap womanizer”.
Harry drops a family off at the airport and here is where Miss Sejal comes in: she’s a member of the same family, but she can’t leave with them for she lost her engagement ring and she wants Harry to help her find it.
What could’ve been a funny-while-finding-oneself movie ends up being quite the opposite when Sejal leads the tour guide on a goose chase around Europe in search of an engagement ring when it was right in her bag all along. Bakwas! This movie was like forcing myself to finish a bad book. I enjoyed the European sights, but the dialogue was so cringy, it made the movie messier.
Here is the unbelievable logic of this movie: Sejal has been carrying around a bag since the beginning of the movie and she does not look in it until she and Harry are kidnapped. What does she look in the bag for? Antiseptic to clean Harry’s wounds. She empties the contents of her handbag and THERE, nestled in the bag was the ring all along. Are you telling me that as a woman she just carried the bag around Europe as arm decoration? Wouldn’t a woman turn her bag inside-out once she discovers that her engagement ring is missing? Had she done this at the very beginning of the movie, then this movie wouldn’t have seen the light of day so the writer had to prolong it.
Live scenes of me during JHMS
I’ve noticed that in some Bollywood movies where the white women are concerned, the Indian woman tends to feel threatened (especially if the woman in question is French) and it happened in this one also. The Indian woman would look at the white woman in disdain as she questions her Indian beau “How is she better than me? What do you see in her?” Sejal pulled this card on Harry… while still engaged to the faceless fiancé. Harry stupidly tells her that she is, in fact, better than Nastassia, the ex, and she is over the moon. Like, how does Sejal know this? She doesn’t even know Nas and it was plain to see that Nas was prettier than Sejal when it came down to looks. I think writers do this on purpose to sell the exotic beauty of the Indian woman which is unnecessary for Indian women are beautiful without trying.
As for character development, there was none. Let’s start with Harry.
More live scenes of me during JHMS
Harry is a womanizing travel guide. This was established early on in the movie. However, he comes off as a pervert. To be fair, SRK’s so-call romancing skills are actual perverted stalking skills, but who’s calling him out for it, eh? The ladies love him and they want him to stalk them. Him speaking German was lit, though! There’s a scene where Harry gets a flashback of his hometown in Punjab and he starts crying… then breaks into the most annoying song of the film ‘Radha’. Why do you hate me so much, Bollywood?
When Sejal arrives, she is annoying from the first frame and she talks and talks and talks and all the way to the end. She’s a lawyer, but I didn’t get any lawyerly vibes from her. She has a fiance, but she wants Harry to find her sexy, attractive, lit, for Harry thinks she’s a ‘sister type’ and this makes her mad. If anything, she should’ve thanked him for there was no hope or redemption for her character.
And she’s right for their chemistry was forced. I had no idea if the movie and I were watching the same movie, for I didn’t see how, why, and where Harry starts to fall for this ‘sister type’. Their pairing in this movie was just not happening. SRK had more chemistry with the European ladies than Anushka. Such a shame that one of those European women were not his leading lady!
SRK literally launched Anushka Sharma’s Bollywood career in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Their pairing was beautiful to watch! They next appeared in Jab Tak Hai Jaan and although they weren’t endgame, their chemistry in this movie was also a good thing. Endgame was SRK and Katrina Kaif’s characters.
I felt as if this movie came too late for this jodi, but they’ll have a chance to redeem their chemistry in Zero (see details after Final Notes).
FINAL NOTES:
^ The best thing about this movie was SRK listening to French music.
^ They should’ve called this movie “The Ring” or “Desperately Seeking the Ring”.
^ SRK does not know how to hold a woman so 90% of the time, they hold him.
^ And stop reducing SRK to a crying mess. It does not make my heart ache and feel sorry for him, it actually makes me want to punch his face! REAL. HARD!
^ SRK does not know how to kiss (unless it’s Miss Kaif) so someone should tell him to stop attempting to kiss on screen. They are cringy.
^ Please, Bollywood, I beg of you, stop reducing SRK to the ladies man. He’s getting down in age now; give him something suitable and relatable like his role in Dear Zindagi. SRK will be 70 and he’ll still be trying to woo young girls’ hearts. Nauseating.
^ I blame the writer for 99.9% of this mess.
^ Final verdict: They should’ve never met. I can write a better love story for SRK. He’ll be deaf, his name would be Jai and he’ll try to win the heart of a Romanian woman. Now, that’s a challenge! 😉
ZERO
WHY????
I want a pocket-sized SRK, too! Oh, I think that’s EXACTLY what the producers wanted when they made SRK a dwarf for this film.
The gang’s all here
This film. This film. Where do I begin?
Two years or so ago, there were talks about SRK portraying a vertically challenged man in a film by Aanand L. Rai. The name of the film is called Zero and it sees SRK reunite with his leading ladies from Jab Tak Hai Jaan. I watched the trailer and I like what I see between SRK and Anushka’s characters this time around.
Although SRK is getting all the positive feedback, I think people should look out for Anushka’s character. She’s portraying a specially-abled person named Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder. Kaif would portray herself: a movie star. And I see that SRK is back to the kissing again. Eh, Kaif can do two things better than acting anyways: kissing and dancing. This movie is said to be SRK’s most expensive thus far and while it’s giving me My Name Is Khan vibes, I think this movie is going to be HUGE and it might just be one of the biggest if not the biggest Bollywood movie of the year. Yes, that was sarcasm. I think SRK’s best days are behind him, but we’ll see.
I saw this tag going around BookTube last month and decided to have a crack at it.
1) The last book you didn’t finish?
I recently DNF’ed Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts for it was not engaging. I’ll probably return to it after reading some better books. At one point a movie was in the works reportedly starring Johnny Depp *yawns* but now a TV series has been proposed with Depp in the production seat *yawns*.
2) The last book you re-read?
Besides the Bible, it was Violets Are Blue by James Patterson in April. I hardly do rereads apart from the Bible, but I plan to reread some of my favorite childhood books at some point.
3) The last book you bought?
A few I mentioned here: A mini book haul. I look forward to reading them for the Classic Challenge I plan on doing sometime early next year God’s willing.
4) The last book you said you read but didn’t?
I don’t ever lie about not reading a book for it doesn’t make sense to lie if I can’t explain what’s it really about from my point of view.
5) The last book you wrote in the margins of?
I was probably ten or so. Yes, I used to write in my books when I was really young especially the ones I know I would be disposing of after reading. I recall one of those books being Fearless by Francine Pascal. I found Gaia awesome at first, but as the series wore on I got bored with her perfect human antics. I can’t recall much of the series for I stopped reading somewhere around the 3rd one, but this book is like an ode to 90s culture. When it comes to spy stuff I’ll stick with Ethan Hunt.
6) The last book you had signed?
I don’t care for authors’ signatures.
7) The last book you lost?
I can’t recall losing a book, but I do recall lending books and never seeing them again, so I labeled them as lost. Quite surprisingly, I hardly got my James Patterson books back, so I stopped lending them out to the ‘suspects’.
8) The last book you had to replace?
The Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty by William Bligh and Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. While cleaning out I found tattered copies and had to replace those epic books immediately.
9) The last book you had an argument over?
I don’t argue over books for everyone is entitled to their opinions whether I like a book or not.
10) The last book you couldn’t get hold of?
What even is this question? I hold my books close to my heart all the time.
And that’s the end of this awesome tag!
***Photos (except the 2nd one which belongs to me) and Spencer Reid GIFs via Google Search
It’s been a while since I’ve done book reviews! I’ve been in a reading slump since June despite reading around the World Cup. It’s kind of hard for me to not read. I like being surrounded by books and it’s been fun watching my TBR go down in the past few months.
Let’s get to those 3 books I plan on reviewing today.
Book #125: Hidden Order by Brad Thor
This is the 12th book in the Scot Harvath series. I recall saying that this book was a 3/5 during my 3rd haul for the year and it most certainly was when I started reading it, but I won’t call this book a thriller and when I finally came to the end I had to deduct a coffee so it’s 2/5.
The book was too ‘talky’. We got a history lesson in the Federal Reserve, CIA, and Economics. I didn’t ask for thorough historical details. In one breath the author talks about the conspiracies surrounding these so-call organizations and in the next breath, he contradicts himself by calling ‘truthers’ crazy. Make up yer mind, man!
Thor takes stories from headlines and tosses his characters right in the middle of it. At times it read like a scene from the Mission: Impossible movies, but without the non-stop action.
Five names appear on a secret list. They’re kidnapped and start showing up dead and Scot is hired to find these kidnapped people. Scot runs the investigation without even asking or trying to figure out who had access to the list. Some agent, but it’s okay for not everyone can be Ethan Hunt. And I can’t warm up to Scot Harvath. Scot is so much into Scot he’s making Cristiano Ronaldo look like a saint. Thor needs to watch Ethan Hunt for inspiration and learn how to keep his protagonist likable so we can root for him and not roll our eyes everytime his ego checks in and he’s in luck for Fallout is in theaters now.
Book #126: Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood by Varsha Bajaj
Why? Why was this book released?
This book targets Middle Graders. I was excited to read it because I love reading books that feature India, but it tortured me and I had to give it 2/5.
Annoying 13-year-old Abby discovers that her father is a Bollywood star. Oh, excuse me, according to page 85: “is the King of Bollywood!” Shah Rukh Khan wouldn’t like that for he thinks he’s the greatest gift to women. 😆I’ll pass, though.
But back to the book. The plot was boring and the characters weren’t too colorful themselves. Abby Tara Spencer doesn’t know her father, but when she comes into the discovery that her father is Naveen Kumar and Bollywood’s biggest movie star, her life takes a dramatic turn. Naveen finds out about her and invites her to spend time with him in Mumbai so he can get to know his daughter better.
Almost everytime Naveen’s name is mentioned, it’s followed by the adjective “shirtless”. Abby is only 13 and is concerned about her Bollywood hunky dad being shirtless most of the time. It got quite annoying to the point where I wondered if the author had wished to have a hot shirtless Bollywood actor as a father or was Shah Rukh Khan actually Naveen in her mind?
After reading this book, I still had no idea what the author’s purpose was for writing it. My sisters read it before me and they too were underwhelmed. Knew I should’ve watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hai for the 10th time or so and skip this book!
Book #127: The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal
This might get lengthy for I have so much to say about this book. In every book I’ve read about Indian women, the main goal is for her to find the IIH (Ideal Indian Husband) despite age, despite her beauty, despite her future goals, and this same plot follows Meena, a 31-year-old Indian-American whose native tongue is Konkani (how beautiful!). Meena works in marketing and her job is to make Rathnaya (yes, that’s the name of the company) look good. This book was so boring and offensive in some areas that I can’t believe the great reviews it got on some sites.
The characters are boring, the writing is okay, but the story is mediocre. And the fat shaming being sprinkled around like parmesan cheese on pasta as early as page 3: If only Pinky ate a few less candy bars, she’d be attractive.
And I am only getting started. Meena is a short irritating idiotic woman. She is judgemental and her mind is set on material things. Her brothers act like 7 year-olds instead of their age. Then we have the tall love interest: enter Prajay, the rich idiot who co-owns the company Meena works at. He’s looking for a wife, but he only dates women over six feet. I can’t make this up even if I tried. He enlists Meena’s help to find him a datable giant babe from an online dating site because he needed a woman’s point of view. For what? The grocery list? As co-founder of Rathnaya, Prajay comes across as unintelligent and I lose a point of IQ every time he speaks.
This book is so superficial. There are subtle remarks from one’s height to skin color and class. It was also RAMMED with every imaginable Indian cliché:
* The obsession with fair skin.
* Why Hindus shouldn’t marry outside of faith (particularly Muslim).
* Arranged marriages and talk of it.
* Blaming of the American culture for influencing their children when the parents chose to migrate there and birth them.
* Parents value of sons over daughters.
There was no need for half of those topics for the author didn’t really do anything with them. All the author did was stereotype.
There is zero chemistry between the main characters. Meena fell in lust with Prajay and was pinning over him since accidentally bumping into him on their first encounter. She even made advances on him, but he just wasn’t feeling the shorty. There are hardly interactions on their behalf and yet, she thinks he’s the one? Give. Me. A. Break! That’s not love at all. The last chapter was a HUGE cringe. Whenever Prajay called Meena ‘baby’ the endearing term felt forced. Should’ve tried calling her ‘stupid’ for it definitely would’ve worked. My final verdict for this wannabe Bollywood mess is 1/5.
My travel plans always seem to fall through at the last minute, and I am beginning to dislike making them, but I wanted to do something fun today. 😄
I love exploring my country, reading about travel adventures, and watching astonishing videos/pictures of many countries. Sadly, I am yet to fulfill my travel dreams. 😞 But that doesn’t mean that I can’t share my top 10 travel destinations at the moment!
1. France
I’ve been wanting to visit France ever since I was a child when I discovered The Three Musketeers and became an immediate Francophile. With 89 million visitors (how do they even count these things?) in 2017, France retains its crown as the world’s most visited country. Paris alone sees more than 30 million visitors a year making it the most visited city in the world. France has everything and something for everyone.
2. Iceland
This travel destination became quite popular over the last two years thanks to Iceland’s participation in Euro 2016, but I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time. I’ll love to experience the Northern Lights during full dark nights (September to mid-April are said to be the best season) and to visit the Crystal Ice Cave in Vatnajökull. Iceland is magnificently beautiful and it’s like an ode to nature.
3. Los Angeles
This place is more than just glitz and glam. There’s the Santa Monica Pier, Grand Central Market, Griffith Observatory, OUE Skyspace LA etc. Angelenos will delightfully tell you that their city twinkles brightly when night falls.
4. Nantucket
This isolated island off Cape Cod will be my perfect getaway! Just think about the lighthouses, the beaches, the museums, the mill, and not to mention, the bike paths! This is island living at its best! I also enjoy reading books that feature this beautiful escape.
5. India
Beauty at its best. She is rich in culture and sits upon layers of history, and she fascinates me. She is the land of spices, a land of rich culture and one of heritage. And her attractions are top class: Morning boat rides in Varanasi, Dhuandhar Falls, the Himalayas, the wildlife etc. She is also home to Darjeeling, the world’s best tea.
6. Peru
I’m not going to lie, whenever someone says ‘Peru’ I think of the cute alpacas! 😄 Anyway, Peru is home to Cusco which was once the capital of the Inca Empire, the beautiful Lake Titicaca and of course, Machu Picchu.
7. Mexico
Whenever I think of Mexico, I think of civilizations of thousands of years! There is so much to see and do in this gorgeous place! I’ll love to visit the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal and see Puuc architecture up close. Cancun is always a good idea, too.
8. French Polynesia
PARADISE! Consisting of beautiful islands such as Tahiti, Papeete, Bora Bora, and 115 more dispersed islands, I can live out the rest of my life here.
9. Greece
Opa! Greece has more than 1400 islands and perfect climate conditions. It is completely surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea and so much history! Delphi off the coast of Mykonos is covered with Ancient Greek ruins so you know where you’ll find me.
10. Romania
Home to the world’s heaviest building (Palace of the Parliament) and the world’s most beautiful road (the Transfagarasan highway), Romania is rich in history and beautiful sights. Everything about Romania is spectacular!
Over to you now: Where was your favorite destination to visit? If you’re yet to travel like me, where would you like to go?
When Jack Morgan opens the Mumbai branch of Private, the world’s most elite detective agency, he hands the reins to top agent Santosh Wagh. Now, in this teeming metropolis of over thirteen million people where the guilty have everywhere to hide, Santosh goes on the hunt for one elusive killer. A killer who is targeting seemingly unconnected women and placing strange objects at their death scenes in a series of chilling rituals.
As the Private team races to find a link that will lead them to the next victim, an unseen menace threatens to destroy the agency from within -and plunge the city into chaos. With countless lives hanging in the balance, Santosh must confront the demons of his past . . . before Private India meets an explosive end.
Someday I will be even more celebrated and they will worship me like a deity.
This story is a collaboration between the world’s bestselling author and a man who can hold his very own in the literary world, Mr. Ashwin Sanghi. However, I can tell that this book was not written by JP as I can’t find any trace of his DNA in the story. I’ll give his involvement 40% given that he worked on character development.
The good? I felt as if I was transported to Mumbai. I felt the people, the pulsing of the street and the eclectic atmosphere that only Sanghi can take credit for. And I love Santosh Wagh.
The bad? Jack Morgan (I’ve never warmed up to this character) and the violence on Private’s end. Also, everything felt jam-packed into one book. Some could’ve been left over for a sequel.
Private India is headed by Santosh Wagh, a brilliant PI with a murky past. He is aided by the beautiful Nisha Gandhe, ex-cop turned PI, Mubeen the medical expert and the macho techie, Hari.
The first ten chapters or so were boring and depressing, but flawed characters were introduced. At times, I felt as if I was reading a history book about India, the goddess Durga and the Thugees.
What we have on our hand is a killer targeting women. 9 in particular as this killer is killing in the 9 stages of the goddess mother Durga. Each victim is garroted with a yellow scarf and left with tokens that represent the goddess during the 9 stages. Sanghi took us around town in Mumbai introducing us to exotic places like the Parsi Tower of Silence in Malabar Hill. Trust me, the Tower of Silence is terrifying!
via Google Images. One cannot see the place unless you’re a Parsi.
Overall, the book was a page-turner (I put my work on hold just to finish this book) with many twists and turns, you may or may not see coming.
I was left disappointed by the ending but it left the premises open for more Santosh Wagh so yes, Patterson and Sanghi, bring it!
Despite falling in love with Santosh Wagh, almost every ‘Private’ story is the same when the lead character is called into question: they’re dealing with a death of a loved one (in this case, Santosh’s son and wife) and they’re enemies with the friend they once were good with (in this case, Rupesh). I had tied in Rupesh and Santogh’s unfortunate story in the early stages of the story as a love triangle. Almost everyone in this story was up to something or living double lives and I loved how every character was tied together in this murderer’s spree.
Some reviewers had trouble reading this book because of the strange names. It’s India. You don’t see names such as Tom, Garth or James getting tossed around often. I often associate India with the exotic and the names suited each character well. The names were easy for me to remember and I had no trouble pronouncing the names at all.
UNSUB
3/5. Before the big reveal, I had put all of the pieces together. Nice try, though, Ashwin.
SANTOSH
Santosh was my absolute favorite! He is the Chief of the Indian’s Private firm and he is still battling with many problems. He has an encyclopedic memory and is a history nut who can recite stats at any time. Fascinating! I’m always on the look-out for characters as such. He’s India’s very own Dr. Spencer Reid and I love that he was flawed.
DIALOGUE
“Your bodies are ready,” announced the police surgeon, opening the door to the refrigerator chamber, like a baker announcing a fresh batch of bread from the oven. (page 45) The writing was well done and I like this baking metaphor.
COVER
1/5 … call me whatever you like, but since the story focuses on Mr. Santosh Wagh, an Indian detective should’ve been on the cover.
OPENING:
THEY EXPLODED DURING rush hour.
VERDICT:
… because James Patterson didn’t write this novel and I still can’t stand Jack Morgan. I picked up this book despite my lack of love for Jack Morgan because my love for India has no boundaries. 💙
Well, it’s that time again. I normally list the videos in the order I watch them, so let’s see what gold I struck this month. 😃
Best prank ever?
I’ll be the first to admit that I dislike pranks, but when the Dobre twins are out there pulling pranks on one another, I tend to find it amusing because their pranks are mostly harmless. However, Lucas pranked his twin into thinking that he was missing (some bad acting on some of the actors’ part in my opinion), but when Marcus got him back, he almost lost his marbles. I know you don’t mess with a man’s car because that’s their baby, wifey, girlfriend, babe etc., but this prank was EPIC! Lucas 1 Marcus 100.
Testing our detective skills! 🔎
Tammy and I put our detective skills to the test with this Bright Side riddle package and got 6 out of 10 right. We’re still salty about the one where the snorkeler died in the forest. 😒
3 Marker Challenge with my favorite twins
I enjoyed watching this video for it made me smile. Demi won the first round, Lucas the second and Marcus the third. Little Alex is not good at coloring and he’s a spoiled crybaby. I dislike seeing him feature in the twins’ videos sometimes because he’s super annoying and not a good team player. Marcus is good with girls (on two occasions he told his brothers not to forget the flowers and he’s good at choosing flowers too. I guess he knows what girls like 😆) and he’s good with children. I hope he finds someone special one day for he’s so precious.
Thank you, Hayley!
Hayley has been an immense blessing and I pray that the good Lord will continue to bless and use her for His glory. I have to catch up on her blog, but I smile whenever I get a YT notification from her. 🙂
Strange wedding traditions around the world
Although I already knew a few of these traditions, this video was interesting, to say the least.
Hush! Don’t Cry is a story of a young girl who follows her dream of traveling to her ancestral home to find a suitable husband. She falls deeply in love and suffers silently while struggling to make a success of her marriage. Divorce for her is not an option. Kapil had warned her: “The next time I beat you, your mother would not recognize you.”
Could it be any worse, she pondered but did not have long to wait to find out.
Meera’s abuse is buried in a woman’s inability to carve her own destiny in a culture where a husband is considered to be god (pati parmeshwar). Her quiet strength and faith in family inspire her struggles until she is driven to the point of no return. Though a victim, she is a survivor in her own right. HUSH. DON’T CRY captures a panoramic sweep in a down-to-earth literary expression of everyday happenings, and tells the story in an easy-to-read account of a life nurtured for happiness yet spiraling headlong into misery and sorrow.
…REVIEW!
This book was recommended to me. I was told that it was an emotional journey, but after reading it, I have conflicting feelings. I am not stoic, I swear! I can’t stand to see people and animals suffer and I tend to be a little sensitive when it comes to sad moments in films and books, but somehow, somehow, this story failed to move me.
For the last time, I am moveable!
I am familiar not only with the Indian culture or that of Indo-Trinidad, but also with stories of abused women. In this story, we have Meera who left Trinidad for the Motherland (India) to take a husband and ended up marrying a “suitable boy” Kapil, ten years older than her at 31. Sly, cool and pleasant, he could have fooled anyone at first sight.
The raping of Meera’s virginity on her honeymoon night was somewhat déjà vu. I can’t recall if it was a book or film exactly, but I’ve read/watched something similar and yes, the couple involved was also Indian. The rough demand (“What are you waiting for? Take off your clothes,”), the nasty sarcasm (You must be waiting for me to do your pooja,”), and then the rape.
If only I could recall it!
Not saying the words are the same because that will be plagiarizing, but the setting I’ve seen/read somewhere before.
Anyway, back to the story.
The “suitable boy” turned out to be a monster.
Dr. Kapil (why do they always have to be doctors! I mean, hey Dr. Cabbie!) came to Trinidad with a motive: he needed to get rich fast. He was also cheating behind his wife’s back. His ‘get rich fast’ scheme fell apart when he killed his mistress during an abortion operation at the clinic. He fled to the USA with his wife and children. He still abused his wife and when their little girl screams, Meera will comfort her by saying, “Don’t cry, baby. Hush.”
After another commotion, the family was forced to move to India where Meera was hated by her in-laws. The thing is, when you meet them for the first time, you don’t feel the hate and the author simply switched emotions faster than you can say ‘Eiffel!’ More abuse. More infidelity from Kapil.
Although domestic violence is not a laughing matter especially in India, I couldn’t feel anything for Meera especially when she wrote the love letter to herself for her deranged husband to find. She brought that on herself. You don’t do those things knowing the kind of man you have for a husband.
Meera eventually returns to Trinidad where she throws herself into work, making herself somebody and becoming a wealthy business woman. She was finally able to take control of her life. She was finally free and yet I couldn’t feel it in my heart to cheer for her.
The story was easy to read and follow. Although it was a good story, it was missing THE feels. Like when Meera felt the need to retaliate after having enough, she just retaliated without paving the way to allow the dam to burst. I enjoy reading about India, but the author could have done better. I’ve wept openly over Indian serials more emotional than this offering.
QUOTABLE
“Trinidad is a little India.” (Chapter 2; Page 29)
