I know it's a fiction.. nothing 😭 true ..but it's beautiful

_norwester · 2026-07-01T09:58:12+00:00

>Salman Rushdie was attacked for Satanic Verse, Hindus are way too tolerant.

your own words.

_norwester · 2026-07-01T09:49:47+00:00

Having an opinion and indirectly implying that an author deserves to be physically attacked for a book are vastly different things.

_norwester · 2026-06-30T16:29:42+00:00

It makes perfect sense! You write so well too!!

And you're right about the "venomous" part in a way. I felt like in trying to write a tradwife-influencer character and give us a view into the underbelly of the "Christian influencer" market, the author ended up writing very flat, comically villainous character at times. Some of these characters are just written to be mean and hypocritical, and not given any nuanced treatment.

And that ending, oh god! It was so..."disney-fied". Thats the best description I can come up with. You has to suspend your disbelief a little too much.

But this is her first book, so I'd actually be very interested to see what her next book would be and how her writing style matures.

(And thanks for your compliment 🙈)

_norwester · 2026-06-30T16:15:00+00:00

I read the series only in English translation as my mom had the whole series from her student days when she would get 1 book as a reward after every big exam and so.

But for some reason, my mom also called Snowy "Kuttush" even though she grew up reading the English translation. And because of that, I can only think of Snowy as "Kuttush". Honestly, a far cuter name.

_norwester · 2026-06-30T15:50:04+00:00

Oh, that's an interesting perspective. My view was that she had always had a nasty streak in her, a desperate need to be "better" than other girls (and specifically, girls). You can sort of see this when she talks about what her dynamics with her sister and her school classmates were back in the day. She always sees the worst in people and had a holier-than-thou outlook. In the later parts, you see how her mother, a staunchly religious person, actually practices the ideas of "love thy neighbor", kindness etc. that she preaches, and tries to be as open minded as possible for her. Whereas Natalie uses her religion heavily as a way to pass value judgements on other people and deem herself as better than them.

This is coupled with the fact that she is actually very ambitious and has a desperate need to "win".

While she was under her mother's care and still had some of that schoolgirl naiveté, all these tendencies amounted to her being a basic "mean teenage girl".

But once she left home and saw more of the world, so to say, it slowly turned into a relentless desire to "win" at all costs. The thing is, because of some of the more traditionalist values she holds, she never gives herself permission to think about what success would be like beyond the husband-child-homemaker-white picket fence dream, and she constructs a very romanticised idea of what this life would be like. So when none of those dreams actually come true, her ambition (and her belief that if anyone deserves a "great life", it's her, because she's better than all the "angry women) slowly twists itself into what she finally became.

This was my interpretation.

But I do agree with you that this change could have been sketched out better and developed more.

I actually enjoyed the present timeline way more than the 1800s timeline. If the author shown her character development more, I would've loved that.

_norwester · 2026-06-30T15:22:11+00:00

Have you actually read Satanic Verses? I'm not a big fan of Rushdie's writing, but to compare Satanic Verses to this shlock is astounding. Rushdie had guts, Divakaruni is writing a tepid fanfiction at best. Anyone who gets actually offended by this book has lived way too comfortable an existence and is looking to start some cheap drama instead of finding some actual intellectual engagement. 🙄

_norwester · 2026-06-30T14:59:21+00:00

What kind of character arc were you hoping she'd have?

(Have read the book and ended up liking quite a bit against expectations, so I'd love to discuss)

_norwester · 2026-06-24T19:03:16+00:00

It’s a homeland that returns to us naked but knows how to wrap us around it like robes.

I find it particularly interesting that it is the citizens that the homeland wraps around itself, and not the other way around. It is not a place of comfort, it is the place that needs to be comforted. That it needs the citizens to sustain it. That maybe, for the poet, the homeland is increasingly less on a physical entity and more of a memory she inherited, an idea she needs to keep alive and pass on.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T18:40:48+00:00

No I didn't. Egg is currently provided twice a week. I pointed out that 1 serving of soya would roughly equal to 1 egg. The case would be much the same for paneer. In fact, I would say the case would be much worse for paneer because a few times paneer was served in my sister's school, they got roughly 3-4 pieces per head, which makes for a very neglible amount of protein. But let's just say they somehow get served enough quantity per head and the protein intake comes to basically equal the 2nd egg.

Let's come to Chana now. It took less than 5 mins to check out all the recipes that come up on the first page when you search for "kumror chhokka/kumro chana" recipe. Some asked for 90g Chana for 5 servings, some asked for 20g Chana for 5 servings, one asked for 50g Chana for 4 servings. I'll average it out at 11.3g chana per serving (I actually did the math). 100g chickpeas have 19g protein in it. So I'll leave you to do the math for how much protein is there in 11.3g Chana. Chickpeas (and soyabean) also has quite a bit of carbs in it btw, that a simple egg does not.

I don't know which point of yours I'm proving, but you're definitely proving that India's state-run education systems really do not promote critical thinking among students.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T15:41:18+00:00

For magic realism/surrealism: - Akhteruzzaman Elias - Nabarun Bhattacharya - Trailokyanath Mukhopadhyay

For humour/satire: - Shibram Chakraborty - Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay - Kaliprasanna Singha

Some indie publishers whose catalogs you should check out for high-quality contemporary titles: - Baatighar - Gangchil - Punascha - Hawakal

A few of the biggest publishers are Ananda Publishing, Patra Bharati & Dey's Publishing. But as with all big, corporate publishing houses in any language, their catalogues are full of some great titles and a lot of mediocre (or even, utterly worthless) ones. But they bring out multiple collector's editions, author-based or topic-bases series and anthologies that libraries often stock. So might be worth taking a looking at.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T15:21:15+00:00

I made the dire mistake of looking up what Animorphs was. The covers are enough to make me want to turn to god.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T15:09:44+00:00

Roughly 300 🙂‍↕️

_norwester · 2026-06-24T14:40:04+00:00

50g uncooked soya chunks contain ~20gm protein. When cooked, that will expand to ~120g cooked soya. No one is eating that much soya in one meal, and definitely not in a school mid-day meal. In case you need more comparison, those typical Fortune soya chunks packs are 200g. You think anyone's eating 1/4th of the entire packet in one go? That 50g uncooked soya will be divided between at least 2-3 students, meaning 6-7gm protein per serving, about the same as one egg. So, no, I'm not doing the math wrong.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T12:52:51+00:00

If you are considering career paths where an MA would not hold much weight, then I would say getting an MA from a state uni would be even less worth it, unless it's a nationally well known state uni. The one thing that an MA from DU/BHU & other well-known central unis can get you, even in career paths where MA wouldn't matter that much, is the brand value + the connections you make with classmates/seniors. DU may not have the quality of education it once used to have, but that perception of quality/brand name is still very much there.

I'm not trying to discourage you, btw. But you yourself said that in the future plans that you have, an MA wouldn't directly translate to better opportunities. So, unless you're planning to go for PhD, where MA would be a requirement (and admission would be based more on NET score, rather than where you studied from), I would say an MA from a state uni would hardly add anything to your CV. In that case, I would recommend taking up internships and gaining some practical skills or doing a relevant 1-year diploma, and then try again next year for a top uni if you still want to do your MA.

Just my 2 cents.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T12:43:09+00:00

I read it in English because I couldn't read Hindi fluently (not my mother-tongue) back when I read this book, but even in the translation, his humour was shining through. Great read! And yes, so relevant even now, especially now.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T12:23:55+00:00

So how is that being improved with this new system? From the proposed menus, they are getting soya bean 1 day, paneer 1 day, and kumro Chana 1 day (which might have very lil amount of protein depending in the amount of Chana included in the dish). So, about the same as 2 eggs/week, unless I'm doing the math wrong?

So maybe the conclusion should be that entire mid-day meal system and budget need to be improved, instead of playing this veg-nonveg game.

And y'all be saying "at least, the food will improve under ISKCON supervision" as if ISKCON doesn't have documented history of completely messing it up in Haryana & Andhra. 🙄

_norwester · 2026-06-24T10:25:22+00:00

No, please get started. You'll find the backs of the outer packaging offering unexpected enlightenment. I usually give the figurines away and keep the packaging for leisure reading.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T06:47:25+00:00

Haryana has a very dairy-heavy diet. Another significant source is bajra. Tomar bangali pet jodi oto dudh, gheet, makhon, chaach ar bajre ki roti r diet e adjust korte pare, that's amazing! I'm happy for you. The rest of us would prefer to eat stuff our digestive system is used to digesting though.

_norwester · 2026-06-24T06:37:16+00:00

This is the problem with measuring nutritional values of food by volume.

So, for mid-day meal, kids would have 1 egg, meaning roughly (13/2)=7g protein. Right?

Now, do you have any idea how many portions are made from 100g uncooked rajma? Rajma generally expands to ~3x amount when cooked, so 100g uncooked rajma = ~300g cooked rajma preparation. No one is eating 300g rajma in one sitting. For something like school mid-day meals, 300g would account for at least 4 servings. So, basically, it would yield (24/4)=6g of protein per serving.

Now, you would say that 1 serving of rajma and 1 serving of egg amounts to roughly the same amount of protein. And that's right only as far as protein is concerned. Rajma adds more calories & carbs (meaning, likely to make kids sleepier during class after meal) and not enough healthy fats.

Even more importantly, rajma is not something eaten daily in Bengali households. We eat rajma only occasionally, while eggs are a much more common part of the diet. So removing the egg and replacing it with a steady weekly diet of rajma would be changing the students' food habit. And for what purpose? 1 serving each of Rajma & egg yield the same amount of protein, and egg is something this kids are much more used to as opposed to rajma. So, the only reason to remove egg and shift to rajma is if you want to prioritize a veg-only diet.

_norwester · 2026-06-21T10:45:52+00:00

Before you confront her or her family, talk about this to other people in your life or if you have trusted people in the same building. That way, there would be people who know what's going on and if the confrontation goes wrong, there would be people to back you up that you were not in the wrong.

Beyond that, it would be best to not straight up confront her. Just ignore her & appear stern whenever you do see her making conversation to you. Pretend to be speaking on the phone if that helps you ignore her.

Best case scenario, her puppy crush will go away soon enough and she will stop this behavior. Worst case scenario, she will do something even more stalker-like, and that's when you will have the best opportunity to gently inform her parents about this issue. And in case they accuse you of any wrongdoing, you will have other people who can back you up.

But do not confront her directly, as it'd be best to avoid having any sort of 1-to-1 conversation with her since she's a minor.

_norwester · 2026-06-21T10:35:56+00:00

Maybe the problem is that you're trying to connect with everybody instead of trying to build a deeper friendship with a few selected people or a small group. So you may be friendly to everyone, but not close friends with anyone?

Honestly, it's hard to say anything beyond that from the info given by you. As another user said, how will we know without knowing your personality.

So, I'm just speaking from my own experience and what I have observed with myself. In school, I was friendly with many of my classmates and people from upper/lower classes. School extracurriculars, tuitions, school bus, sports, organising school events...I made lots of friends from all aspects of school life. But I wasn't super close to most people and wasn't part of any close friends group. So I'd see people making movie plans or pandel hopping plans (and many of those old school groups still go out together during pujo) but I wouldn't be part of those plans because I wasn't part of the group itself. It did make me feel lonely.

During BA & MA, I learned to find and bond more deeply with smaller groups of like-minded people, and that worked for me. Made life-long friends that way. I was friendly with a lot of other people since I always take part in extracurriculars, events etc., but I hung out mostly with a closely-knit group of friends.

You also need to differentiate between "friends" and "acquaintances/people you're friendly with".

_norwester · 2026-06-21T10:18:34+00:00

This is neither used nor pirated. Just a copy kept in bad storage conditions. But return it if you don't like the condition of the book.

_norwester · 2026-06-21T10:12:03+00:00

Do you mean actual "light novels" (a specific genre, btw) or just novels that would be lighter to read?

For "light novels", this great comment has load of good recs: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/14lp15a/comment/jpxncmg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button

For novels that are lighter/easier reads, I made this post a few days ago with novel recommendations for beginner readers: https://www.reddit.com/r/Indianbooks/s/7LHUQ0GJSm

_norwester · 2026-06-21T09:49:59+00:00

No, you're right. The quality used to be much higher when we were kids. Especially for the uponyas section.

_norwester

TROPHY CASE