30 Day Book Challenge: Day 2

A Book that you have read more than 3 times

The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor: Since I wrote my Dissertation for the MA on it, it has to be the book I have read the most number of times. ;) I think this is an awesome book! Tharoor has rewritten the Mahabharata, the Indian Movement of Independence and the contemporary political scenario and drawn amazing parallels between the three. It takes serious amount of genius to be able to do that well. If you are interested in mythology, history and literature, you'll love it for it's style. If you aren't but you have a good knowledge of politics, you'll love it too, for it's humour. :)

My copy of the Great Indian Novel. Special memories (not necessarily good ones :P) related with this one. Have still kept the post-its intact on it. :P [Also, because this was gifted to me by Mungi. ;)]

I seriously recommend throwing yourself into this world, where Dhritrashtra is actually Nehru (or is it the other way round? :P), Pandu is Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhismapitama is Gandhiji and Indira Gandhi is equivalent to a 100 Kauravas. Here's my favourite example of why people should read this book. Written for Gandhiji after his first Satyagraha movement for the peasants of Champaran:

Groupies with rupees and large solar topis,
bakers and fakers and enema-takers,
journalists who promoted his cause with their pen,
these were among his favourite men!

Favourite Quotations

"In the midst of a winter, I finally learnt that there was in me an invincible summer."
"I'd rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is."
~ Albert Camus

"Each time liberty is in question, we are concerned, be we white, black, or yellow; and each time freedom is under siege, no matter where, I will engage myself completely." ~ Frantz Fanon.

"I've always been suspicious of collective truths."
"A critic should describe, and not prescribe" ~ Eugene Ionesco

"I prefer the absurdity of writing to the absurdity of not writing." ~ Wislawa Szymborska

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, the other falls spectacularly to pieces."
"Thank you, Daniel, that is very good to know. But if staying here means working within 10 yards of you, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussain's arse." ~ Bridget Jones's Diary.

"It's really hard to walk in single women's shoes. That's why, you sometimes need really special shoes."
"But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous." ~ Sex and the City

"I solemnly swear that I'm upto no good." ~ George Weasly, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"Those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it."
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on the earth should that mean it's not real?" ~ Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

"Guys can fake it?!! Unbelievable! The one thing that's ours!"
"Is it me? Is it like I have a beacon that only dogs and men with severe emotional problems can hear?"
~ Monica, F.R.I.E.N.D.S.


"I still want to be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany's." - Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany's.