Happiness decoded
Non Fiction
THE HAPPINESS PROJECT
Gretchen Rubin
Published: Dec 25, 2015(Revised Edition)
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Pages: 368
For some, happiness means a cold glass of beer on a hot summer day. For others, it might be a good cup of coffee and a book to the pitter-patter of rain outside. Sleeping in late during the weekends is also said to make quite a lot of people extremely happy. What makes you happy today might not do so tomorrow, and what makes one person happy might have no effect whatsoever on someone else. But one thing is certain: We are all in our own little quests for happiness, and the pursuit of happiness is a never-ending one. That is where The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin can come to your rescue. This book is a great read to, in a way, understand happiness and try to devise your own pathway to bliss. Rubin, an author, wife and mother of two, felt she had lost her ability to find happiness in day-to-day life despite having everything she could ever want—a loving husband, wonderful kids, good health, and a career she was content with.
However, one day she had an epiphany of sorts when she was on a bus. She felt she was just going through the days without truly enjoying them. Rubin wanted to know what it was that was stopping her from being truly happy, and she decided to devote a year to what she called ‘The Happiness Project’.
The book is the outcome of Rubin’s own experiments in trying to improve her life, one resolution at a time while putting to test classic advice on happiness, from Thoreau to Oprah, to find out what works and what doesn’t. From boosting energy and making time for love to pursing a passion and being lighthearted, Rubin tackles one aspect of her life every month and works on it before moving on to another. This allows you to reflect on your own life and take in little nuggets of wisdom, learning from Rubin’s experiences. You are saved the hit and trail run that Rubin had to go through.
The memoir style writing is what makes The Happiness Project an engaging read and, because Rubin is never preachy, it’s unlike any other self-help book you have ever read. She never tells you what to do.
She just shows you what she did and how it affected her life, and implores you to identify areas in your life that you would like to work on (just like she did) and create your own happiness project in the process. Her book is just a rough guideline to get you started. And, believe us, it works.
For more of Rubin’s advice, you can visit her website that has podcasts and blogs as well. Her other works on happiness include The Four Tendencies, Better than Before, and Happier at Home.
Rustic appeal
My friend wanted to check out Booze Belly, which opened in February across from Roadhouse, Jhamsikhel. The main reason being in the evening the upper floor is lit in such a fashion that she assumed it was a large bar. And, of course, the name itself implies as much. When we got there at 5.30 on a Tuesday it looked much less interesting. The heavy wooden front door was shut and we wondered if the bar was closed.
On entering there is a less than welcoming square hallway. As it was our on first visit we had no idea where to go but the most obvious was stairs leading to the assumed rooftop bar. However, the first floor was not a bar but a terrace on two sides of a glass enclosed area with black sofas. We did not check if it was air-conditioned (which would be nice) because it was not appealing in daylight. Back downstairs we found a lovely outside space, which had a bar at the back. The rustic wooden sofas and tables were very welcoming and well spaced out so it’s possible to have a private conversation without being overheard.
On further investigation I found a cosy little library with old items such as one of the owners grandfather’s TV (circa 1980s in Nepal but 1950s elsewhere!) and old cassette recorders. Another long, narrow room housed a large aquarium and very small dining tables. My suggestion would be long tables so this could be for friends or family to come together, particularly in the winter.
On talking to the owners they said their target audience was ‘everyone’. For this reason there are so many types of furnishing in the different areas. But overall they say they are going for a rustic feel.
As it was World Cup time, they had a Special Events Menu with limited snacks and drinks. We ordered the Vegan Combo (which it was not, due to the mozzarella sticks). This was a great combination of mushroom chilli, peanut sandeko, onion rings, chips chilli and French fries. More than enough for two or three people for under Rs 1,000. The non-veg option was basically the same price with chicken, sausages, pork, and potato sandeko. Wanting to try BBQ items we ordered pork BBQ (Rs 500). The portion was big enough for two and the pieces very generous.
The taste was wonderful! Needing some carbs we tried the veg pizza on the special menu, which was heavily cheesed, very much to our taste! From the limited special menu we ordered a bottle of Sol de Chile. Under Rs 2,000, we thought value for money.
Looking around we noticed the other customers had ordered from the main menu. However, I was told this was an interim menu and the final one would be mainly focussing on Mexican food.
My recommendation would be not to try and reach ‘everyone’ but to focus on one theme. Once the new Mexican menu is up and running it will fit very well with the rustic theme of the outside (covered) area. The library is cute, encouraging people to come for coffee and pick up a book. We didn’t like the upstairs area much. We had to climb through plants to reach the toilet as the space is narrow.
The central, glass enclosed upstairs area—I’m not sure who that’s attracting. Not me. When we left and I looked back, the lights indeed made it look like a bar, and perhaps they should convert the first floor into a proper bar, in-keeping with the name. Regarding the name, despite having a lovely outdoor area, suitable for children, the name does not sound very family friendly. Yes, I am a bit confused on what they are trying to achieve, but overall we really enjoyed our evening at Booze Belly!
Name: Booze Belly Restro and Bar
Location: Jhamsikhel
Contact: 985-1174522
Opening Time: noon till 10pm
Breakfast: No
Live Music: Yes
Ambiance: Relaxing
Cost: Lower to mid range
Service: Polite and friendly but lacking knowledge (7/10)
Overall value: 8/10
Challenging yet charming
Fiction/Thriller
SACRED GAMES
Vikram Chandra
Language: English
Published: 2006
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Pages: 947, Paperback
Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games is an immensely demanding novel. At nearly a thousand pages, you would be better off picking it up only when you have lots of free time. A fair bit of understanding of politics and various religious practices in India wouldn’t hurt either. If you have all that covered, reading Sacred Games will prove to be a thrilling ride. If not, you will have to take to Google on occasions to understand the references it makes to various places and events because of the author’s blatant refusal to let outsiders completely in on a city that isn’t theirs.Sacred Games, a vivid portrayal of modern India, focusing mostly on Bombay, introduces us to a Sikh policeman named Sartaj Singh who carries the weight of a broken marriage, and can’t seem to climb up the ranks like his more ambitious colleagues. When Singh had an affluent wife, he didn’t take bribes but he no longer has that option. A tip-off leads him into the hideout of a famous gangster, Ganesh Gaitonde. At the impregnable white cube with green windows, which resembles a bunker-like structure and is fitted with security cameras all over, a voice, through the intercom, tells Singh that he will never get through.
It is apparently Gaitonde himself. And that is how Singh begins a conversation with him. After declining to surrender, Gaitonde starts telling Singh his life story. He talks about the first murder that he committed that gave him enough money to build a criminal empire. The narrative is interrupted when a bulldozer arrives and the police force their way in, only to find Gaitonde has shot himself. But Gaitonde’s death isn’t the end of it as Singh is told to further investigate the gangster’s last few days in a top-secret manner. The plot moves forward in parallel narratives that also include Gaitonde’s posthumous confessions.
Seven years in the making and with a seven-figure advance, Sacred Games was indeed an ambitious undertaking that could have gone horribly wrong. But Chandra manages to establish his two main characters and the city, with its many labyrinths, in such a relatable way that you simply won’t be able to get the book out of your head, while you are reading it, and long after you are done. We won’t say reading it is going to be easy but one of the charms of the book lies in the fact that it constantly challenges you to discover new things through a little bit of hard work.
Sacred Games is now an Indian web television series on Netflix starring Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte.
Neat and satisfying: Coben at his best
Crime Fiction
FOOL ME ONCE
Harlan Coben
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Published: 2016
Pages: 405, Paperback
Harlan Coben is a popular name in the world of thriller writers, and rightly so. More than 70 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and his works regularly appear on the New York Times bestseller list. His trademark edge-of-your-seat and often gut-wrenching suspense is what makes his books such page-turning thrillers. Every time he comes out with a new work of fiction, Coben sets the bar higher for himself, and in ‘Fool Me Once’, his 28th novel featuring Captain Maya Stern, a former army special-ops helicopter pilot, he once again outdoes himself.
Here Maya is seen grieving the loss of her husband, Joe, whom she witnessed being killed during a robbery and she’s struggling to keep it all together for their daughter, Lily. Then she sees footage of her ‘dead’ husband playing with their daughter on the nanny cam she has set up after Joe’s death. When she finds out that her husband’s ‘murder’ is connected to her sister’s brutal killing four years ago, she sets out to get to the bottom of the matter. The plot basically revolves around Maya trying to unravel this mystery, and unearthing other long-buried secrets in the process.
For avid readers of thrillers and crime fiction, this might seem like a simple enough plot but don’t be fooled. Or, as Coben said in a recent interview, one enjoys being fooled if it’s done correctly, and Coben, the master of precision in that matter, fools you so well into believing one thing to be true till he catches you completely off guard. It’s the ‘gasp’ moment, as Coben said in the same interview, that makes reading Fool Me Once such a bloodcurdling delight.
Critics have called Coben a skilled magician who saves the best, most stunning trick for the very end and Fool Me Once, like most of his other works, will have you under its spell. The magic in Coben’s writing lies in the fact that you never see the ending coming though but in hindsight it will be apparent that it was the only possible conclusion. The best part is that you needn’t have read other titles in the series to enjoy Fool Me Once.
