Book review

ALOHA Where You Like Go? Driving to Satisfaction in a Honolulu Taxi by Cloudia Charters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent insight into living in Hawaii. Cloudia explains the meaning behind 'Aloha' giving a deeper meaning to the lives of natives.
She also shows how close knit the natives are and are very skeptical of outsiders almost amounting to xenophobia. This despite tourism and tourists being the mainstay of their economy.
The locals are very wary of their culture getting corrupted by crass commercialism and hence the tightly knit community do not accept outsiders easily as one of their own. But of course outsiders or tourists are not ill treated but the relationship is kept at arm's length forever.
This book also is a beautiful account of a girl coming in from Philadelphia and growing up in Hawaii in her quest for independence.

The book is a wonderful read if you like to read about different cultures and human relationships that are almost spiritual.

I highly recommend it.


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The Thugs & a Courtesan - Book review

In her ‘The thugs and a Courtesan’  Mukta Singh-Zocchi  guides us through 18^th/19^th century India, gently leading us by holding our hand through an action packed adventure that travel must have been in those days when there were no cars, trains, buses or airplanes.

The travel through one city to another inevitably had to be by caravans or groups to ensure safety from the thugs that waited to loot anyone and everyone. This led to formation of groups with strangers travelling on the same path but with no surety that the strangers were not a bunch of thugs.

This tale is of Firangia and his moral and emotional dilemmas as he travels home after a trade expedition and meets Chanda Bai on the way.

This tale is also about a couple of other romantic tales and the initiation of youth into the business of thuggery which is a way of life blessed by none other than Goddess Kali.

This enormous epic has been condensed into a mere 190 pages and another 100 or more pages would have possibly done justice to the enormity of the topic at hand.

At the end I felt like I had watched a trailer of a period film and would love to see the feature film on a big screen.

If you like travel, adventure or history you will enjoy going through this easy reading fiction. 

You can pre order the book at Flipkart for just Rs.146/- + shipping.
It is published by Srishti Publishers & Distributors