I was dying to get back to fiction. Granth had a booksale and I picked up lots of lovely books. Picked up this book that I wanted to get for a long time called GYPSY MASALA by Preethi Nair. She was written about in the Femina how she quit her lucrative job to write and how she invested all her life savings into self publishing her book because of the rejections. And it has just snowballed from there.

And it is a lovely book. Yes it is set in a very Indian context ( and their obession with marriage) but the theme is universal. There are 3 protoganists in the book. Molu and her adoptive parents Bali and Sheila.Its about loosing and following your dreams. About love, loss and life. Simply lovely! It moves back and forth between Kerala and England and from lives that were so far apart and yet mysteriously intertwined. It moves through secrets that are so heavy that I wonder how one can keep them and one persons pride that becomes like a stone wall of isolation. At the end you come to understand the characters like you never could before. How we judge people without viewing the entire context that they acted in. The reasons why they did it don't necessarily make it right but definitely make it understandable. Sometimes that is more important than anything.

And even though the underlying theme is to follow your dreams and keep your heart open to the possibilities it also lets you in on lifes secrets. That duty can never replace love, that pride can make you so lonely and that taking chances are sometimes so scary that even if we have the opportunity to do something bigger we don't because we fear. A highly recommended book and looks like I have been having a little luck with the books since I have not written about any bad ones.............yet.............HAPPY NEW YEAR