The best part about being in a community of active readers is that you keep getting introduced to new authors and books you didn't previously know about. Early last year, I attended a fun event organised by an innovative start-up, Let's Barter, where I met lots of new people, played some fun games, and exchanged books with fellow bibliophiles! I got quite a few great books, like Eat Pray Love, and some brand new releases from Harper Collins (they had sponsored a few books). I think around the same time I was battling with that Great Book Flood too. I am yet to get through my loot from such events and book sales but since I have lost the battle against these unseen (and very welcome) forces I have decided to give up the fight altogether. Which means the reformed reader in me is now hoarding books like never before!

Every time we, as feminists, talk about women rights, gender equality, and other topics along these lines, we encounter many people who are equally vocal in opposing our ideas with views steeped in ignorance, myopic thinking, and baseless prejudices. I have been in many situations where I bow out of a disagreement in order to save a relationship, which often leads the person on the other end (usually a man) to mistakenly believe he has won the argument. Most times, I haven't bothered to correct them, instead seeking satisfaction in the knowledge that I was a bigger person. Often I secretly chuckle at their folly and take sadistic pleasure in letting them make a fool of themselves.

6 months of living in Agra ten years ago and then a memorable trip last year weren’t as fulfilling and enriching as this particular trip was. A travel review assignment thanks to the IndiaisCalling initiative and HolidayIQ  and I was back in the 'City of Taj' that had first given me the hands-on experience of working in a hotel. Only this time I was looking at it from the other side – as a tourist.