Chick lit experience!

After reading Emily Giffin, I couldn't get enough of chick lit. So browsed through http://chicklitreviews.com and chose to read:

1. Big Girl (which is actually a diet lit) 
2. Keep the change 
3. October breezes 

Big girl was definitely all about guilt calories and dealing with it. What I liked about the book is the author has given a good sketch about what the protagonist goes through due to which she thinks ice-creams are her savior and best friends. So much that she takes help of a psychiatrist to deal with it. But the part, which I found unreal was her final boyfriend who tells her to throw away the weighing scale and he doesn't really care about how she looks. Now, I am still waiting for a guy like that! In all a nice read, I finished it in one day. One thing I share with the character is a yearning for more understanding parents, who don't take you through the guilt trips over and over. Maybe that's where my problems lie.

Keep the Change is an awesome book written by a fellow Tam-bram from her life in SSV and Sons to an MNC in Mumbai, supposedly Citibank. What struck me was the amazing similarities that tam-bram girls deal with, no matter which part of the world they grow up in. I could relate to 32 Amman koil street even though I was raised in Mumbai. The only quality I din't share with her was her talent with number crunching. The narrative was very funny and filled with expressions like jumping into idli batter, termite peeping out of old furniture, and convincing her mom that Goa is as safe as Mount road in a Monday morning :). Definitely a must read!

October Breeze. This was a stupid book I picked because it starts with my favorite month. It was more like a hindi movie, because the protagonist ends up making all the wrong choices which proves that she din't have a brain, and that is the hypothesis Hindi film directors have been trying to prove over the last fifty years. Basically, its about teenage pregnancy. But I suggest to stay away from this book unless you are researching on the social effects of teenage pregnancy.

Spain milegi na dobara

Last week, I watched Zindagi milegi na dobara and yes it was as soggy as the Spanish economy. Though Farhaan tried to crack some jokes and Hrithik and Katrina did their best to keep gals and guys occupied, yet the story was missing somewhere. I did not find anything new because I have already watched the lonely planet episode of Spain in Discovery channel. After watching the movie, I really wanted to ask Farhan/Zoya; was Spain their first choice? Well truth is that there are a lot of Indians in Spain especially Sindhis and they have a very strong presence in the tourism industry. Maybe some Sindhi friend gave the idea to Farhaan to revive the tourism industry.

Speaking about Spain, its a bit heartbreaking to see such a beautiful country amidst huge public debt. As experts around the world are analyzing the cause of the debt, reasoning the housing bubble, trade deficit, and the curse of socialism coupled with the curse of Euro, Spain's tourism has definitely taking a hit. That is because before joining the Euro team, Spain was a cheap tourist destination for the western middle class but post Euro it lost to other destinations in Asia like Malaysia and Mauritius. Apart from investing heavily in infrastructure projects, it also tried to ape its neighbor France in socialist welfare policies. These policies made life difficult for employers, which caused the rise to 20 % unemployment. How France manages its welfare policies and still manages its economy is still a riddle.

Coming back to Spain, it is still a destination only for millionaires like Kabir (Abhay Deol). I have to wait for Spain to return to its national currency (pesetas) to be able to afford a peaceful holiday.( btw 1 rupee is equal to 3 pesetas!)