MellowDrama

Feeling grumpy? Feeling lost? Feeling happy or just planning on having a do-good day? Whatever you might be going through,  Jack Meggitt-Phillips' The Beast and The Bethany: Revenge of the Beast, will put you in just the right spirits. This is a sequel to the amazingly well written book The Beast and The Bethany (obviously!) in which we meet both these characters and other important members of the cast and crew like the 511-year-old Ebenzer who has a penchant for a good life and kept the Beast in his attic.  He would feed the Beast all manner of objects and creatures and in return the Beast would vomit up expensive presents for him. But then the Bethany arrived. But after the arrival of notorious prankster Bethany, along with her new feathery friend Claudette, they finally managed to get rid off the Beast. Now Bethany is determined that she and Ebenezer are going to de-beast their lives and Do Good. But Bethany finds that being a former prankster makes it hard to get taken o...

Summer and Cee are neighbours and growing up in the vicinity have become best friends. In fact, Summer actually looks up to Cee. She also has a secret crush on Cee's brother.  One day in an attempt to have a little fun, the girls get into a car with a couple of boys and take some pills. The car meets with an accidents and Cee dies from a cardiac arrest. Summer is devastated by the loss of her best friend. She feels guilty as well to be alive instead of Cee who she thought had the zest for life.  Gradually the social media begins to turn into a bullying ground which begins to torment and trouble Summer. Adding to her woes, the townspeople also start bullying Summer making her life miserable. How Summer lives through these testing times and how she comes out on the other side of this avalanche of feelings is what comprises the story. The author writes Summer's story quite emphatically. Summer's pain as a young adult who has lost the one person, they thought knew them insid...

Aanandika Sood today breathed her last in the house that she had always seen in her dreams. The house was bustling with activity as her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews and their children played games, danced and chatted about life and its meangeries, all of which she had been witnessing intently. She had eaten her fill of the fruits of the season and had been humming 'Hum bekhudi main tumko pukare chale gaye.'

The Secret Life of Debbie G is the story of a teen girl named Soundarya. Her family and friends of course make for the rest of the cast of characters. But that is not the information that would want you to pick this book up and zip through it. Vibha Batra and Kalyani Ganpathy have created #agraphicnovel that is a coming of age story.  The book is very important in the number of topics it manages to bring to the fore. The writer and the illustrator have dared bring the topics generally swept under the carpet, out into the open.  What's more, with Debbie G's help and with that of the social media they have laid these bare and out in the open for everyone to pick up and examine with a lens of their choosing. Still, as you progress with the story you do realise that judgments are easy to pass especially at the younger lot who are just beginning to explore this world that adults before them have muddled up. As a mum of a teenager the book gave me a perspective on life as a teen in ...

I have always known that the respect in any relationship matters utmost. There are other things like being seen and heard that are mandatory for a relationship to thrive but here are some ways I have realised to see it in simpler tangible things. Whatever the nature of relationship might be- romantic or platonic.  1. It should make you feel good about yourself. Very important. Non negotiable. Absolutely. 2. Also I don't think there is an accusatory tone in a healthy relationship 3. I think it should give you aspiration, some inspiration and not hold you back from wanting and expressing what you think you are Some seriously good stuff from The Angry Therapist 1. Healthy feels like safety  2. You having the ability to express yourself and nothing is taken away. There are no consequences. 3. Held not grabbed 4. Supportive, encouraging and CHAMPIONING your story 5. Helps connect you to yourself 6. It should not hold you back from wanting something because you should be able to wan...

 To be loved means to be seen as existing.  My friend Ruchi had shared a clip from Thich Nhat Hanh's interview being conducted by Oprah Winfrey in which I heard these words for the first time. It was a couple of years ago.  As soon as I heard him say this my whole world sort of lit up.  I have always struggled with the idea of love. I have never found a satisfactory answer from people who claim or who I have known to be in love. I have had this conversation with Ruchi also and I don't know if this in any way contributed to her sending me this particular message but despite our discussions on purpose, authenticity, love, karma- I have my doubts. Well, anyway. So back to love. I think I was set on this search for meaning of love, quite unwittingly by my younger sister. We were small kids in a village in Himachal Pradesh living the life that could only be imagined via Blyton's books. One day after being scolded by either of the parents she went on to stand on the extend...

This post is brought to you by the cyclone Yaas, raging outside my window, shaking up the trees as if puppets and forcing rain to dance in every direction. Did you stay in an area where power cuts weren't the norm? Have you ever shuddered at the thought of an electricity cut? Did you completely abhor the fact that when the lights went out, you had nothing and I mean absolutely nothing to do? Well, well, well, save yourself the time and quit right here because this is an ode to the glory of windy or rainy days and rainy, windy and sultry nights when there would be a power cut, rendering the whole area, the whole house in darkness. This is in praise of all the times when there would be an electricity cut in various cities I have lived.  In Palampur that meant and if I am not wrong, till this day means, no electricity on Mondays from roughly 10 AM to 5 PM.  It also means that if there is hard rainfall or gusts of wind breaking the speedometer, the house might turn dark at any mom...