Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A book recommended to me by amazon based on my past reads. A very intriguing story set in Afganistan about the lives of two women Mariam and Laila since their childhoods.

It's about how Mariam and Laila stayed in the same neighborhood but never interacted and were one day married to the same guy, Rasheed, a shoe maker. There is hatred between Mariam and Laila initially, but as the story moves along, the hatred grows into love. They take the beatings of Rasheed together and save each other whenever they can.

The book travels through the life in Afganistan before and during Taliban. The brutality faced by the people living there especially, the women, even in the 2000s was a shock to me. There was so much I didn't know about how it was during Taliban, that I learned from this book.

The are sections in the book that are horrifying and will give you a shiver, like the one on child birth and the impositions of Taliban on the residents.

A very grippping story that captures the interest from the beginning, it's hard to put it down in the middle.

Before i finished this book, I went to the book store to pick The Kite Runner, Khaled's first novel coz i had to read his other work and am reading it currently!

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a great read and comes highly recommended!

Kerala - a paradise!

I recently did a trip to Kerala with my husband for our fourth wedding anniversary. An amazingly beautiful place! I couldn't believe i was there, a place i had always wanted to visit. We spent our first day at the backwaters in a houseboat, which was an amazing experience, just water and lush green trees as far as you can see! Pictures don't do justice to its beauty, but i'll still add one for you to check out.
The next day, made a stop at the Varkala beach on our way to Kovalam. Reached Kovalam late afternoon where we checked into Leela, a beautiful resort. I could spend all the time there, doing nothing, just being at the pool, taking a dip and reading my book, but we decided to checkout the "Vivekanada rock" at Kanyakumari, the next day. I would say, skip it and just chill at The Leela! :)

Sushi!

My first post and that too about food, who would have guessed :) Let's talk sushi, my favorite food! Coming from San Francisco, where i lived for a little over an year and had some of the best sushi, i was sad i am gonna have to keep craving for it while i am in India as i wasn't hoping to find good sushi here, but to my surprise, i found Sakura, a Japanese restaurant, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Cannaught Place!

A very casual place with good food! Salmon was the freshest of all, i would suggest trying Sashimi first , to get an idea of what fish is fresh and then placing the rest of the order. Really happy to have found it, will surely visit again! A must go for sushi lovers, comes at a price, but definitely worth it!