Miss Clueless

 Today is the last day of June, and I feel compelled to jot down the books I read this month to reflect on my experience and learnings. These are the books: ~The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen ~My Seditious Heart by Arundhati Roy ~Annihilation of Caste by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar ~History of Modern Manipur by Lal Dena Just four. It's okay, really. There is no compulsion to read 6/7 books every month. Reading fewer books doesn't mean I'm learning less. In fact, I learned more deeply. The books this month have been impactful in different ways. Clearly, there is a shift in my choices, and I feel this was meant to be. Meaning, I'm leaning more into nonfiction now. I guess I've always been angry and frustrated deep inside. Angry about the climate crisis, social injustice, discrimination, violence, war, exploitation, etc., etc. I was just deluding myself, living in the comforting world of fiction, escaping all these thoughts. As I read more nonfiction, I get angrier, but I k...

Reading Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq—the winner of the International Booker Prize 2025—was, I'm not going to lie, a frustrating experience. This is a collection of short stories about oppressed Muslim women, many of whom are trapped in painful, inhumane relationships, mostly with their husbands. What broke me was the fact that so many of these women had no way out. No choice. Their circumstances, their communities, and the world around them offered little to no support. Reading about their lives burned. It made me angry. It made me feel helpless.  But maybe that’s what this book is meant to do—hold up a mirror, make us feel the injustice, and help us understand what these women go through every day. Maybe if more people read these stories, things can change. Awareness is the first step. Empathy is next. Another thing that stood out to me was the writing itself. The book is translated from Kannada, and since I lived in a Kannada-speaking city for more than a decade, the language ...

The Doctor and the Saint  is a nonfiction essay that presents a theoretical debate between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi. The "Doctor" refers to Ambedkar, jurist, economist, and the chief architect of India’s Constitution, while the "Saint" is Gandhi, the internationally revered leader of India’s independence movement. The essay was published as the introduction to B.R. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste, a text of a speech that was never delivered. Gandhi admirers beware! The book reveals some surprising, lesser-known facts about him. For one, he was consistently inconsistent. Who'd've thought! Caste system. Can someone please explain? AR : "What we call the caste system today is known in Hinduism's founding texts as 'varnashrama dharma' or 'chaturvarna', the system of four varnas. The approximately four thousand endogamous castes and subcastes (jatis) in Hindu society, each with its own specified hereditary occupation, are divide...

May was a month of mixed moods and powerful stories. Some books were as comforting as a bedtime drink, while others cracked open bigger conversations about history, identity, and mortality. Here's a look at everything I read this month: 📘  The Little Prince , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry A tender philosophical tale wrapped in a children's story about a young prince's journey through planets and people. This may be a global favourite, but you don’t always have to love what others love. Still, it was nice,  wistful, and okay in the best way. 🧹  Kiki’s Delivery Service , Eiko Kadono A young witch starts her own delivery business and finds independence and friendship in a seaside town. Reading this felt like drinking a warm cup of milk. Pure comfort. 🌿  The God of Small Things , Arundhati Roy A haunting, nonlinear novel about forbidden love, caste, and childhood trauma in Kerala. I get why this is famous—and I totally agree. Roy’s language is lush, her story devastating. ...