Jewellery made with Lotus!

A very nice man assisting in the Shikara, made this for me, using the lotus picked from the Kodai lake. Boating in the lake on a cool foggy evening feels so serene. Some parts of the lake are not very clean though, but boating is a fun thing to do, unless it’s very crowded. Try this next time you're in Kodaikanal.

The Truth

There're times when I close my eyes and yet stare at the open sky,

Looking back at the moments gone and sometimes I just wonder why.

There had been times when I lost to life & faced it with a sigh-

Yet there were times of trivial unexpected victories called 'moments of high'.

I wonder at the feeling of love when his gaze can make her shy,

But I doubt the heart of man when on the streets I see a hungry baby cry.

Do you know how over small issues we worry and make them magnify,

Yet when the real challenge comes to shine out, we just let the moment go passing by.

On the green grass, under the same wide blue sky when I lie,

I just think - are we fit to live,

if we don’t discover for what can we die?

Top 20 - A List of MUST Read Books

A List of MUST Read books - by an avid reader

Friends, foremost, this list is not exhaustive as I plan my last activity in life being reading my own autobiography! I love reading and being from ICSE board schooling, I started my share of Shakespeare books when I was 12 years old.  I guess those amazing stories of Romeo Juliet, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Taming of the shrew, just laid the groundwork in making my mind hungry for more. I like reading all sorts of books, novels, be it fiction, non-fiction, romantic, sci-fi, thriller, crime, fantasy and the works. This list is the first of its kind I’ve made, and I’ve only named here the quality yet fun reads so that even the beginners into the reading world can buy these the next time they go to landmark, Amazon or Crosswords, and say thanks to me once they’re done with the last page.

I’ll mention the genres of the book and the author along with the title and the price (wherever I can remember). I hope you enjoy reading this article, as well as the books mentioned.

I am planning to write detailed reviews on individual titles soon. I request all the readers to please comment here on what you think is the best book from this list, and any other you think is worth a mention in the category of light fun reads.

Please note, the list is not in any order of ranking.

S. No	Name of the Book/Novel	Author	Genre	Approx Price
1	A Walk to Remember	Nicholas Sparks	Romance	300 Rs
2	Da Vinci Code	Dan Brown	Thriller	250 Rs
3	Angels and Demons	Dan Brown	Thriller	250 Rs
4	Shall we tell the President	Jeffery Archer	Thriller	250 Rs
5	The Lost Symbol	Dan Brown	Thriller	275 Rs
6	Brief History of Time	Stephen Hawking	Science	325 Rs
7	Fountainhead	Ann	Drama	300 Rs
8	The Sixth Man	David Baldacci	Thriller/Crime	300 Rs
9	The Chosen One	Sam Bourne	Thriller	250 Rs
10	Blink	Malcolm Gladwell	Psycology	300 Rs
11	Simple Genius	David Baldacci	Thriller	300 Rs
12	I wish you could see me now	Cecilia Ahern	Fantasy/Romance	250 rs
13	Murder of Roger Ackroyd	Agatha Christie	Murder Mystery	175 Rs
14	Connect the Dots	Rashmi Bansal	Non fiction	200 Rs
15	The Runaway Jury	John Grisham	Courtroom	275 Rs
16	Bombay Duck	Kanika Dhillon	Light Drama	250 Rs
17	Five Point Someone	Chetan Bhagat	Student Life	150 Rs
18	2 States	Chetan Bhagat	Comedy	150 Rs
19	Harry Potter Series	J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	400 Rs Each (approx)
20	Devil In Pinstripes	Ravi Subramanian	Drama(Banking)	200 Rs