The Unspoken words: 2015

DIY Watch case for Father's day

Father's day is almost here. So are the summer holidays. What better way to make the best use of both than making a DIY gift for Dad! (Even if its not vacation time in your part of the world, which kid says No to craft?). Also, this craft requires little help from Moms, so its a great way to unwind from the routine and bond with your kid.

P/S: If you think sewing it is intimidating, take it from me, its easy peasy :). You can also use a felt glue if you think sewing is too much work.

Scion of Ikshvaku by Amish Tripathi

Read the first chapter Here

RAM RAJYA. THE PERFECT LAND.BUT PERFECTION HAS A PRICE. HE PAID THAT PRICE.

Scion of Ikshvaku
by
Amish Tripathi

Preorder @
Amazon.in

Blurb

3400 BCE. INDIA
Ayodhya is weakened by divisions. A terrible war has taken its toll. The damage runs deep. The demon King of Lanka, Raavan, does not impose his rule on the defeated. He, instead, imposes his trade. Money is sucked out of the empire. The Sapt Sindhu people descend into poverty, despondency and corruption. They cry for a leader to lead them out of the morass. Little do they appreciate that the leader is among them. One whom they know. A tortured and ostracised prince. A prince they tried to break. A prince called Ram.

He loves his country, even when his countrymen torment him. He stands alone for the law. His band of brothers, his Sita, and he, against the darkness of chaos.

Will Ram rise above the taint that others heap on him? Will his love for Sita sustain him through his struggle? Will he defeat the demon Lord Raavan who destroyed his childhood? Will he fulfil the destiny of the Vishnu?

Begin an epic journey with Amish’s latest: the Ram Chandra Series.

Watch the trailer

Excerpt

Nilanjana sighed. She wasn’t even sure if the child would be a boy. But she wouldn’t risk the merest flagging of her mistress’ spirits. She administered some herbal pain relievers to the queen and bided her time. Ideally, the doctor wanted the birth to take place before midday. The royal astrologer had warned her that if the child was born later, he would suffer great hardships throughout his life. On the other hand, if the child was born before the sun reached its zenith, he would be remembered as one of the greatest among men and would be celebrated for millennia.

Nilanjana cast a quick glance at the prahar lamp, which measured time in six-hour intervals. The sun had already risen and it was the third hour of the second prahar. In another three hours it would be midday. Nilanjana had decided to wait till a half hour before noon and, if the baby was still not born,

she would go ahead with the surgery.

Kaushalya was stricken with another bout of dilatory pain. She pursed her lips together and began chanting in her mind the name she had chosen for her child. This gave her strength for it wasn’t an ordinary name. The name she had picked was that of the sixth Vishnu.

‘Vishnu’ was a title given to the greatest of leaders who were remembered as the Propagators of Good. The sixth man to have achieved this title was Lord Parshu Ram. That is how he was remembered by the common folk. Parshu means axe, and the word had been added to the name of the sixth Vishnu because the mighty battle axe had been his favourite weapon. His birth name was Ram. That was the name that reverberated in Kaushalya’s mind.

Ram… Ram… Ram… Ram…

Read the First Chapter @

About
Amish Tripathi

Amish is an IIM (Kolkata)educated, boring banker turned happy author. The success of his debut book, The Immortals of Meluha (Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy), encouraged him to give up a fourteen-year-old career in financial services to focus on writing. He is passionate about history, mythology and philosophy, finding beauty and meaning in all world religions.

Amish has most recently written the Shiva Trilogy (The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas & The Oath of the Vayuputras), which have sold over a million copies in the Indian subcontinent since 2010. The books that he plans to write in the future are also in the areas of mythology & history.

Amish lives in Mumbai with his wife, Preeti and son, Neel.

Stalk him @

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Book Launch by:

D day :) - IMC Treasure Box

Today is a special day for me! I have taken my first tiny step towards doing something I love to. IndianMomsConnect a website by Moms for Moms, has come up with a Subscription box, the IMC Treasure box! The box will contain a handpicked Indian children's book(which is hard to come by in the US, I tell you), a related craft kit, a kid-tested recipe and an App suggestion.

And I will be custom designing the craft kit for the US :) It all started with me encountering IMC by chance and my heartfelt thanks to Preethi of IMC for giving me this opportunity! I hope its received well and I am working hard to make the craft kits simple and fun. You can avail a 10% discount on the first month using the code below.

More interesting stuff coming shortly :)

Cover Reveal - Love Again!

Cover Reveal

Love Again
by

Shrruti Patole Clarence & Sumeetha Manikandan
A Double Header Novel

Blurb

Love, Again is a double header novel published by Half Baked Beans andFablery with two novellas - A Tulip in the Desert by Shrruti Patole Clarence and These Lines of Mehendi by Sumeetha Manikandan.

TULIP IN THE DESERT

SHRRUTI PATOLE CLARENCE

A historian in making, Charmaine has settled down in Amsterdam after her father migrated from India when she was very young. Life was picturesque until the final year of Graduation when she elected to specialize in Egyptology. Thereafter from the time she read the book about Cleopatra, revelation after revelation turns her world into a tornado!

Raj, another aspiring Historian, walks into her college and her life like a whirlwind. A simpleton from Delhi, Raj too finds mysteries unfolding before him from the time he enters the college library right through to their educational tour to Egypt.A series of events throws them together at every step of their college life despite Charmaine wanting to maintain a distance from ‘this’ natural charmer.

A twist of fate puts Raj and Charmaine in the most unthinkable situation that finally links back to their ‘revelations’. Raj must face a choice again…A choice of history over his love… or does he have the mettle to change history and create his own?

THESE LINES OF MEHENDI

SUMEETHA MANIKANDAN

Beautiful and efficient Lalitha loved to deck up brides for their wedding, though her own marriage was in shambles. When her estranged husband suddenly commits suicide she realizes that things wouldn’t be the same again…

Shrikanth thought that he was a confirmed bachelor but when his mother refused to get herself treated for cancer unless he got married, he had to get a bride in a hurry.She needed a husband in name, to save her career while he needed to marry to please his mother. Will they find love second time around? Will they lower their shields and succumb to a mutual passion?

About
The Authors

Shrruti Patole Clarence

Shrruti has been a voracious reader since early years and took to composing poems when she was very young. She has worked as an Aviation Manager for over ten years with various airlines, she has been on a sabbatical for her two son's aged six and one year respectively. She enjoys this welcome break from career, to be able to pursue her passion, writing!
She has to her credit six short stories featuring in different Anthologies; a Hindi poem featuring in Tumbhi’s contest Ehsaas judged by the famous screenwriter Javed Siddiqui.Shrruti is a warm and friendly person who loves music and watching sports when she is not writing.

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Sumeetha Manikandan

Sumeetha Manikandan is a freelance writer and an author who loves to write and base her plots on the tambrahm community of Mylapore, Chennai. She is the author of ‘The Perfect Groom’ that has been a best selling ebook on the top 50 charts of Amazon India ever since its publication in 2013.

An avid reader, she loves to read across different genres – romance, historical fiction, non-fiction, mystery, fantasy etc. A history buff to the core, she is currently translating Ponniyin Selvan – the evergreen tamil classic epic history by Kalki Krishnamurthy into English.

Married to film maker K.S. Manikandan, Sumeetha lives in Chennai, along with her six year old daughter.

Stalk her @

Are you ready

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Book Launch by:

Silly animals - Horton hatches the Egg.

This is an activity to go with the book 'Horton hatches the Egg' by Dr.Seuss that I did for Indian Moms Connect.

Have you read this month's recommendation from IMC, Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr.Seuss? I loved it! The beauty of the book is that there are hidden treasures in the book that when unraveled will make it all the more fun for your kids. So here is an activity to go with the book.

Since Easter is round the corner, I managed to grab few plastic eggs.And you need some cardstock and colors.

Print and color the animals and paste them on cardstock for easier use and cut them along the dotted lines.

Mix them up and add one each of the three portions to each egg.

Hide the eggs all over your home and let your kid go on an egg hunt.

Let the kid arrange the pieces and check out what silly animal hatches from the egg. Have guaranteed giggles giving silly names to these silly animals.

For older children, you can add a chit containing adjectives describing Horton and Mayzie and discuss why the adjective fits them.

Have fun!

A new play area for a new home!

As I mentioned in this post previously, we moved to a new home and had to redo the play area for my LO again. Here is a pic,

And a mini library. This got her so excited!!

The Book Club Blog Tour - Breach

Breach

Amrita Chowdhury

The Blurb

How secure are your secrets in the virtual world? Weeks before pharma-giant Acel is ready to file a global patent application for cancer wonder-drug Colare, its offshore data centre in Mumbai is hacked. The charismatic, young leader of its Indian business, Dr Udai Vir Dhingra, finds himself being blamed for negligence and breach of security. Battling market pressures, media scrutiny, livid American bosses and crumbling relationships, Vir must find the perpetrators, or see his career – and his life – spiral downwards. But the deeper he gets dragged into the shadowy world of masked online identities and muddied digital footprints, the more Vir discovers that nothing is easy or obvious, and everything has a price. Set across Mumbai, Washington and Guangzhou, Breach is a compelling and edgy cyber thriller that explores the dark and dangerous underbelly of our increasingly virtual existence

Buy @

Amazon.com |Amazon.in |

Watch It

Meet the Author

Amrita Verma Chowdhury is the author of Faking It, an art crime thriller about fake modern and contemporary Indian art.

She holds engineering degrees from IIT Kanpur and UC Berkeley, where she was a Jane Lewis Fellow, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon (Tepper Business School). Her work as an engineer in Silicon Valley led to seven US patents for semi-conductor fabrication – something to show for those bad-haired days. She has done Strategy Consulting and Board Effectiveness work in the US and Australia and has spent long nights fitting five-syllable words inside two-by-two squares. She has worked in the rarefied bastions of Ivy League education bringing together ideas and people. She currently works in publishing.

She lives in Mumbai with her husband Sumit, their two children Shoumik and Aishani, and an assortment of pets including a cocker spaniel, a guinea pig and two turtles. She loves travelling, baking cupcakes with her daughter and hearing from her readers.

You can stalk her @

Check out The Book Club Tour Schedule

This Tour is Hosted by

Good Bye, Unspoken words!

Some introspection on blogging(thanks to blogathon) led me to conclude that my blog might see better days and treatment if it was a dedicated book review blog than a mix of everything. So, very soon(hopefully tomorrow,), am doing a revamp of the blog http://beinggaya3.blogspot.com/ now called the 'Unspoken words'and will henceforth be called 'Living a Thousand Lives...'

Not having the heart to trash the other non-book related posts, I have moved them to http://gaya3speaks.blogspot.com/ and this blog will be my 'Unspoken words'. Though, I don't have any idea of posting regularly here(unless I really feel an urge to say something). Good Bye, Hope you come along tomorrow to check my new design. I will be so thankful if you give me some feedback on tbe new blog :)

DIY Pillow box

Last-minute necessity is the mother of DIY. I made this pillow box for a gift card as I yet-another-time forgot to get a gift card cover. There are lots of links on the internet to make one, here is a quick link to the one I followed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0sI5i7Ev5o.

Micro-bharatham!

Living in a Cave -That's exactly what I feel about myself, every time I login to twitter. Oh, twitter! Why am I taking forever to adapt to you? Though I appreciate your design, I feel like am entering a forest where too many birds are chirping and I feel lost amidst all those hashtags trying desperately to catch up from where I left.

But Facebook is warm, I should say, its like entering your friend's home and relaxing with a cup of coffee listening to all their stories and telling mine. I use Pinterest too but am never bogged down by its tangled web. But twitter, sigh! I hope its a matter of time, as I have hoped many times in the past. The reason behind letting out such an alarming sigh is that I came across something so new to me, #TwitterFiction. Specifically Mahabharata in tweets. Or should I say Microbharata, as rightly mentioned elsewhere. Audacious, isn't it? This herculean task was done by Dr.Chindu Sreedharan for 1605 days through 2628 tweets. Recently, it has been published as a book by Harper collins (Look at what the description says, passing a camel through a needle's eye. Bang on!). Am overwhelmed.

Madly in Love, with ME!

Today's topic on Tamil TV talk show Neeya Naana was something I was thinking about last week. The discussion was about promoting and projecting one self(Warning: Extreme prattle ahead!). With the social media(blogs included) providing the perfect spot light, its a Me, Myself, Mine era.
Its the time for Selfies, "Me time"s and self-indulgence. You read, watch, eat, drink, feel, ponder and celebrate on social media. There is a 'Me' in the real world and there is a 'Me' in the virtual world. Slowly and silently, the idealist in everyone takes over and envelops the real 'Me' in the virtual world. The gap between the two 'Me's grows in proportion to the flaws that I want to overcome, those I wish I never had. Those who know the real 'Me' develop a distaste for the virtual 'Me' that I am not. Those who know the virtual 'Me' have trouble adapting to the real 'Me'. Projecting oneself falsely or rather idealistically happens in real world too but the problem with the virtual world is the amount of control one has in doing so. The point am trying to make is not about the pros or cons of the social media. Rather, its about the transformation that is happening within us. There is a perspective shift from earning something to deserving something. A surge in the level of consciousness about self. Letting go of the consciousness happens consciously too. And sadly, we want the world to know that as well.

Review: Where is the cake?

Where is the Cake?

T.T.Khing

I have never reviewed a baby book on this blog. But this book takes the cake.:) Where is the Cake? is a picture book with NO words and that's exactly what makes it interesting. This book follows the stolen cake of Mr.&Mrs.Dog and their chase behind the mouse thieves to get back their cake. As the chase continues, there are many other characters each with their own little story throughout the book. Like the baby bunny, mischievous monkeys and more.

While it is important to read books with rhyming words to your babies(for their language skills) picture books with no words cannot be overlooked too(for vocabulary). They give you a blank canvas and you develop the story in your own words with possibilities for introducing new words every time you read the book. And this book only makes the possibilities endless with all those little stories. I would say that this book can be enjoyed from as young as 1 year till 3-4 years old.

Below is a snapshot of a random page from the book,

1KBK

1000 Books to read before Kindergarten - I came across this wonderful initiative today while browsing randomly. Check their website, https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org. If you think its too high a target, they direct you to think of it this way. Reading 1 book per night makes it 365 a year and by 3 years one would have crossed 1095. In US, most children start Kindergarten by 5 so that gives them a lot of time. They have also compiled a wonderful collection of books that can be found here. Libraries in US are spreading this initiative among their members.

Updated Bingo

Below is the updated Bingo for 2014. Another incomplete challenge, sigh! Check here to know what it is. I had to drop two books as I couldn't fit them in any of these boxes. Clearly,the year 2014 was the year of Indireads. I read 4 novellas from Indireads and already reading one now in 2015 too.

Tweet tweet tweet

My definition of social media,

Facebook = Personal life moments.
Twitter = Observe the world around you keenly and Voice your opinions.
Blog = Yap, yap, yap.
LinkedIn = Where I think I should be, Ahem!
Pinterest = Ready reference
Youtube = Timepass!

As you can see, I view twitter more as an intellectual media and hence my absence(or minimal presence) is justified. Digging deeper, the truth actually is I have never been comfortable with the whole design of twitter inspite of the fact I embrace technology quite well. The time has come to explore twitter more fervently (am running out of ideas for marathon too!). So, I hereby add 'becoming a tweep' to my new year resolution list (come on, we are only a week into the new year and resolutions are still in vogue).

A Child's Play ;)

A picture post! This was the play area I setup for my LO in the corner of my living room. I really liked this space though I wished I had an entire room :) I regret for not taking a good quality pic that shows the complete stuff.

The part under the table was done completely out of diaper boxes and other cardboard boxes.The box above the table held stuff like books from the library, puzzles with many pieces, small magnetic letters etc that I did not want her to pick on her own(not anymore!). Above this toy box, I had pasted alphabet flash cards which is not shown in the picture. I particularly liked the small containers tied to the gate on the side as it was at the right height for the kiddo and neatly held small toys. We tucked in folded play tents behind the gate and that was perfect too.

The reason for posting this is that we are moving to another home soon and this is going to be dismantled and discarded! Am looking forward to see how the setup at the new home is going to turn out!

Virtual book club

As if the challenges I take aren't enough, I decided to follow the Virtual book club for kids :) It focuses on books and book inspired activities. Am planning to do this to introduce new and popular books to my LO and am going to try and incorporate activities based on the book as well. I generally pick books for her at the library based on my understanding of what she might enjoy. Somehow, acclaimed books never catch ~~our~~ my fancy. Hoping this virtual book club will change it. Below is a glimpse of the featured Authors list.

Beating around the bush!

New year starts with a ~~bang~~ bad weather accompanied by cold and fever! I did a cheat post yesterday and day before yesterday(ok, today too!). As I keep wondering what to post on this blog and browse aimlessly, I decided I wanted prompts! I exploited most of prompts from Maya last year, so I need a fresh bunch. So here they are, inspired from here. I handpicked them as per my taste. Feel free to use them if you would like to!

You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room.
Describe your last attempt to learn something that did not come easily to you.
When you were 16, what did you think your life would look like? Does it look like that? Is that a good thing?
“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.
If you could un-invent something, what would it be? Discuss why, potential repercussions, or a possible alternative
Write about the last disagreement you had with a friend or family member — from their perspective.
Write a piece about a typically “local” experience from where you come from as though it’s an entry in a travel guide.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex for a day? What do you think life would be like?
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a child. What became of it?
Describe your ultimate escape plan (and tell us what you’re escaping from).
Tell us about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.
Head to your favorite blog. Scroll down to the third post in the list. Take the third sentence in the post, and work it into a new post of your own.
Go back to a blog post you always thought could be better, or were unsatisfied with — now, fix it.
Pause whatever you’re doing, and ask the person nearest you what they’re thinking about (call someone if you have to).Write a post based on it.
Have you ever had a random encounter or fleeting moment with a stranger that stuck with you?
Interview your favorite fictional character.
Tell us about something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail (and tell us why you haven’t tried it yet).
Write a review of your life — or the life of someone close to you — as if it were a movie or a book.
Often, our blogs have taglines. But what if humans did, too? What would your tagline be?
We all have something we’d like to write about, but that
doesn’t really “fit” our blog. Write it anyway.
Who is the one person you hope isn’t reading your blog? Why?
You win a contest to build your dream home. Draft the plans.
If you could be a “fly on the wall” anywhere and at any time in history, where and when would you choose?
Do you consider yourself funny? What role does humor play in your life? Who’s the funniest person you know?
Grab the nearest book. Open it and go to the tenth word. Do a Google Image Search of the word. Write about what the image brings to mind.
Explain your biggest regret — as though to a small child(probably your kid).
If bloggers had their own Halloween and could go from blog to blog collecting “treats,” what would your blog hand out?
Was there a toy or thing you always wanted as a child, during the holidays or on your birthday, but never received? Tell us about it.

New year, new resolutions!

Last year, i had set myself a target of 20 books. I managed to read only 15. Again, this year am setting my target to 20 hoping to reach it atleast this time!
This was my last year bookshelf

Blogathon!!!! #1

Am doing a blogathon again this year and I hope to complete it this year as well. There are a couple of other things I want to do this year on the blog. One, I started a Mahabharatha characters series last year but never went beyond 'E'. I hope to do that as well.

Also, I want to read every other blog participating in this blogathon this year which is no simple task(43 bloggers so far!). As a start, I have added everyone to the Bloglines(Check here to know what Bloglines is about). And am sharing it here so that anyone interested in following the blogs participating in the blogathon can make use of it. Click here for accessing it!

My mantra for 2015 is going to be this..

Wish you all a Happy New Year!!!

The Unspoken words

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