PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahren

The Blurb:

Everyone needs a guardian angel

Some people wait their whole lives to find their soul mates. But not Holly and Gerry.

Childhood sweethearts, they could finish each other's sentences and even when they fought, they laughed. No one could imagine Holly and Gerry without each other.

Until the unthinkable happens. Gerry's death devastates Holly. But as her 30th birthday looms, Gerry comes back to her. He's left her a bundle of notes, one for each of the months after his death, gently guiding Holly into her new life without him, each note signed 'PS, I Love You'.

As the notes are gradually opened, and as the year unfolds, Holly is both cheered up and challenged. The man who knows her better than anyone sets out to teach her that life goes on. With some help from her friends, and her noisy and loving family, Holly finds herself laughing, crying, singing, dancing – and being braver than ever before.

Life is for living, she realises – but it always helps if there's an angel watching over you.

How I Felt About the Book

Ever wondered what would you feel like if you loose someone as dear to you as your own soul?

The more difficult question would be  - How would you move on with life in that case? Do people ever forget and move on?

This light hearted yet so heavy book is all about answers to these questions. 'PS I Love You' is known as the romance fiction. Yes, the vet thought of getting love notes from your soulmate even after he/she rests in peace is utterly romantic. But, I found the story more about friendship, family and moving on (with the great help of soulmate of-course).

At some point or the other, I found myself imagining in place of holly and actually shivered at the very thought of my reaction on the loss of my family members - I know they say we should never think like this, but isn't this human nature? The author really made me laugh as well as cry at the same moment.

The letters - honestly speaking, I expected those letters to be more romantic and was actually disappointed when I found that they were just ideas/directions from Gerry to help Holly move on in life in the form of little love notes. Despite of my disappointment, I waited for the page which would reveal the contents of next letter.

Some lines worth rereading-

** Embrace the fact that you had someone whom you loved and who loved you back.

** I can't tease about him in conversation like I used to because it feels wrong. I can't talk about things he told me in confidence because I don't want to give his secrets away, because they are his secrets. I just don't quite know how to remember him in conversation. It doesn't mean I don't remember him up here.' she tapped her temples.

** Shoot for the moon, even if you fail, you'll land among the stars

** God leads you to it and takes you through it.

** Finding someone you love and who loves you back is a wonderful, wonderful feeling. But finding a true soul mate is an even better feeling. 

** A soul mate is someone who understands you like no other, loves you like no other, will be there for you forever, no matter what. 

** They say that nothing lasts forever, but I am a firm believer in the fact that for some, love lives on even after we're gone.

** Nobody's life is filled with perfect little moments. And if it were, they wouldn't be perfect little moments.

** We haven’t lost everything, if we haven’t lost our hope.

** you don't marry someone you can live with, you marry the person you cannot live without

** Sometimes there is only one thing left to say, P. S. I Love You....

If someone is looking for a deep romance fiction, this is not the book for that. However, I can easily recommend it to anyone who has not watched the movie and is looking for slightly light read and wants to know how people move on in life without forgetting sweet memories.

Title: PS I Love You

Author:  Cecelia Ahren

Language: English

• ISBN-10: 0786890932
• ISBN-13: 978-0786890934

Let Us Live

Do you remember the following?

Children stories - "Rare and Turtle", "Lion and Rat" etc

Phrases - "Dogs are men's best friends", "Hirni (female dear) jaisi chal (walk)"

Bollywood Songs - "Mahre hibra mein naache mor", "Hathi mere sathi"

Teasing lines and one liners - "Gainda (rhino - used for someone who is very fat)", "Maindak (frog - used for someone who makes irritating noise)"

The wonderful animals quoted in these could soon become a history and our coming generations would only think of them as fairy tales if they continue to diminish at the current rate. However bitter it might sound, but the mankind has been very cruel and selfish when it comes to other children of Mother Nature.

We humans have been using the resources available to us for both need and pleasure. While the need does seem relevant and logical, the usage of resources - both living and non-living has gone beyond required and is impacting the other species so much that some of them have already vanished and many are on the verge of extinction.

There is no doubt I am in for saving all of them - Frogs, Rhino, Elephant, Tigress,Blackbuck, Deer, Cobra, etc, all of them. But out of the twelve lives, I choose below three for this post:

Indian Wild Dog

So what if it's wild. So what if it's not that cute. It is a dog and an Indian. We can see all different foreign dogs around us. They definitely look awesome and make their owners proud. The other side that many of them suffer a lot because of the change in weather conditions and lifestyles they are subjected to is also true. It's time we do the deed to save at-least the species which belong to our own mother land 'The Indian Wild Dog' popularly known as the Dhole.

Did you know that Dhole is known to frighten even a tiger?

Indian Bull Frog

Honestly, I hate frogs. They are creepy and their skin is yuck (It might read not so fair, but I can't help feeling that way). These little creatures - the males, change their dark and dull skin to bright yellow accessorised with two blue vocal sacs during the mating season so that they can impress the female frogs. They look surprisingly beautiful at that time. Why do I want to save them? Because my kid love frog and its sound. I guess, all kids treasure making the sound of a frog.

Did you know that the Indian Bull Frog feeds on other tadpoles while it's a tadpole itself!

Asiatic Lioness

The Asiatic Lioness - the queen of the jungle is another powerful species and need to saved on priority. As much as the lions are to saved, lioness also need equal attention as they are the ones who can give birth to new generations. Being a female myself, I cannot skip this super queen.

Did you know that the majority of hunting for the pride is done my Female members in an Asiatic Lion's pride!

The main reason of all the animals being endangered is loss of habitat. In the race of development, man has taken away their place of living and food by excessive and unnecessary deforesting. With no place to thrive upon, the animals are forced to enter human societies and thus killed for being labeled as danger. A large population is not able to survive the changes. 

Illegal poaching is another major reason for their rapidly decreasing population. Hunting for animals is done for both pleasure and business. None of them makes sense. With the advancement of technology, all those feathers, skins, horns etc can easily be made just as pure as original. It's time we stop using those weapons and apply brains instead.

I want to mention again that despite of three specifically mentioned above, I raise mi hand to save all fifteen and may be more apart form them.

Below are some simple lines I am sure each one of them must be screaming with their heart:

Let me dance with my feathers among the rainbow,

Let me roar with the pride of king,

Let me make the ponds glow,

Let me feed the pride freely,

Let me flaunt my gorgeous skin,

Let me scare the Tigers away,

Let me crawl and hiss in my own home,

Let me display my horns proudly,

Let me eat with my fierce teeth,

Let us do everything freely,

LET US LIVE...

 I am participating in the Save the Species contest for the book “Capturing Wildlife Moments in India” in association with Saevus Wildlife India,  read the reviews for the book ‘Capturing Wildlife Moments in India’ here

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Lean In landed on my shelf along with another book under same category - Lady You Are Not A Man by Apurva Purohit.

About the Author: Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, she was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury Department.

She lost her dear husband recently in an accident while exercising.

She can be reached via her Twitter profile at - @sherylsandberg and the Facebook profile at - https://www.facebook.com/sherylsandberg.

The blurb says: Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. 

Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.

In Lean In, Sandberg digs deeper into these issues, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She recounts her own decisions, mistakes, and daily struggles to make the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.”  She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women in the workplace and at home. 

Written with both humor and wisdom, Sandberg’s book is an inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth. Lean In is destined to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can.

What I Felt About The Book:

I have to confess that I read other one first because I thought that I would be able to connect more with her being from same culture. I was so wrong as I was smiling and nodding to almost everything. While Sheryl has directed the book towards women and the need of them to be top or executive or senior positions across the world, a major part of book if read properly would also solve leadership issues of both sexes.

Sheryl has divided the book in 11 chapters each of them having instances from her own life and those of her near ams dear ones. She has also done a detailed homework in collecting various research/studies results and eye opening facts and figures.

I found her style of writing simple and clear and the book looked like she is standing in front of me and telling all those golden words. 

There were few sections I simply loved reading:

Sit at the table: reaction of Sheryl to her fifth ranking in Forbes most powerful women list - I might consider revealing that a spoiler, thus you need to read if you want to know it.

Make your partner a real partner: The answer to question what men could go to help advance women's leadership by Harvard a Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter as "The Laundry" need to be displayed in all offices in bold letters.

The inequality imposed by laws when it comes to maternity and paternity leaves definitely need to be brought up more. Imagine 12 weeks for mothers and rarely 15 days for father - both are equal parents. I am glad some one brought this topic up.

The advice to girls for dating all; the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic guys, the crazy boys - marrying/settling with the one who thinks women should be smart, opinionated and ambitious and this want equal partners gets a big high-five from me.

What I did not like about the book:

1. Too much concentration about having a baby and being a working mother - I agree that it's a major issue to be talked about, but the whole book need not run around this.

2. Too many statistics - this might be my personal opinion: I really got bored many times reading those statistics and skipped them.

3. Too many footnotes and references:

Frankly speaking, a major part of book looked like a good quality research work for some study. At the same time, kudos to Sheryl for sorting all that data under right sections.

Below are some words from the book which made me pick my phone and type them again:

** A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.

** Please ask yourself: What would I do if I weren't afraid?

** Success feels better when shared with others.

** When you want to change things, you can't please everyone. If you do please everyone, you aren't making enough progress.

** If you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask what seat. You just get on.

** Letting the other side make first offer is often crucial to achieving favourable terms.

** Taking risks, choosing growth, challenging ourselves, and asking for promotions (with smiles on our faces, of course) are all important elements of managing a career.

** We need more men to sit at the table... The kitchen table.

** Trying to do it all and expecting that it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment.

** Perfection is the enemy.

** ...success is making the best choices we can ... and accepting them.

All-together, Sheryl has done a pretty decent job and has been quite successful in proving her point of view. At the end, I did not regret reading it and might recommend to someone who looking to collect data for some speech on women related topics.

Title: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Author: Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

Language: English

• ISBN-10: 0385349947
• ISBN-13: 978-0385349949

Also read the review of Lady You Are Not A Man by Apurva Purohit.

My Child - My Best Buddy

"Children are the best source of learning"

There are no second thoughts on above words. Children teach us small needs of life like - to smile, to cry, innocence and above all selfless love.

Gone are the days when parents used to keep the children under a stick. There is a small story around Lord Krishna and his mother Yashoda that people used to tease and plead Yashoda for letting her son cry a bit sometimes as it's also needed for kids. It is said that Yashoda never let Krishna cry and always made sure that he is ever smiling.

I might not be as loving as Yashoda, but I am trying my level best to be friends with my three year old. We - mother son, have found our own set of activities we love to do together and learn from each other.

Bed Time Stories

I am yet to find a kid who does not like stories and my son is no exception. I narrate small stories to him when it's time to sleep. The problem is that he wants a new story everyday. I have found a solution by using his favourite characters/toys in the stories and making sure that the stories pass simple good messages - sharing, helping, honesty, respect etc.

From some days, the little kiddo just repeats the story after me be saying that now he would narrate a story to me. While narrating, he has many times corrected my version that mummy you forgot to say thank you, sorry etc at that point.

Building Blocks

The traditional blocks set is never old enough to learn something new. The cute "handy many" sometimes comes up with vehicles I never thought of creating out of those blocks. Have a look at below creative parking lot, alloy wheels in the race car etc.

Mobile car parking

Truck helping a car which broke down

Aeroplane Carrying Cars

Aeroplane

Vocabulary Teacher

While the kid is learning to speak clearly and pronounce the words right, he is also helping his grandmother pronounce those words correct. For example, my mom has a tendency to add a 's' to spoon and say spoons. He corrects her many times. Also, my mother in law generally says 'sweet dream' and he keep her repeating till she says 'dreams'.

Play Mate

Both of us - myself and my son play together. Be it cricket (bat-ball), hide and seek, chor-police, football, racing or those slides in park, I accompany him everywhere whenever he does not have other kid to play. It's a bliss when sometimes I say that I do not how to play this game (to avoid playing) and he says - " mummy, mein sikhaunga" (mummy, I would teach you).

There are number of other little 'Kushi Ke Pal' (happy moments) when I enjoy the buddy parenting and make sure that the term 'Khuljaye Bachpan' stands true for my son. 

Sibling Love

Siblings - the only two or more enemies who can be your best friends ever.

I still remember the fierce fights I used to have with my brother. The horrible fights among my cousins also now seem fun. Today, I myself have two sons. When I conceived my second baby, everyone kept telling me that the elder one (2.5 years then) would become very possessive and would throw tantrums as he would feel jealous of the attention given to little one. Thankfully, by grace of God, little kiddo is not showing any of the signs many people warned me. In fact, he loves his little brother and boasts that he is his "Big Brother".

We did not work very hard but just kept in my few things in order to do the magic:

PREPARE HIM: Let your child know that the baby is coming well in advance so that it's not a surprise for him. This would also help you keep him cautious about the baby bump. My son was so excited about the baby in my tummy that he even used to play doctor-2 with me and pretend-cure the baby in mummy's tummy.

TELL HIM HE IS GOING TO BE BIG: All babies want to become big boys and girls. Teach him that he would become big brother as the baby come. Ask them that the little baby would be very small and he would need to help mummy in keeping him safe. It would also reduce your work a bit as he:she might help you pick those things when you do not want to get up.

ASK HIM TO TALK TO THE BABY IN WOMB: We all know that parents are advised to talk to baby in the womb to make that bond stronger. The same applies to elder sibling. Ask them once in a while to recite that new poem he learnt in school to the baby and tell him that baby liked it very much as it moved inside. My son used to ask me very frequently if the baby is moving and used to kiss my bump every now and then. He also used to assure the baby that he would be there to take care of him.

DO LET HIM KNOW THAT HE IS YOUR BEST BABY: Let your kid know that he is till your best baby and you live him the most. Kids always want to be the most loveable person on planet. I have been hugging my son and telling him that I love him. After the birth of his younger brother, I tell him that he is my most gorgeous baby and I love him most. Surprisingly, he then replies that the little baby is also my best baby and love him also. He looks so cute when he says that mummy now you have two boys.

PAY HIM A LITTLE EXTRA ATTENTION: While you are busy taking care of little one, do not let the elder one feel neglected. Actually, he now needs a bit extra attention. I now play more with him whenever I get time. He should know that nothing has changed with the arrival of another baby in house. Let him know time to time that he would have a friend to play with once the baby grows a bit big, all kids love friends.

While the above tips might not work all the time, some tweaks here and there would definitely make new parents life easier. With time, those innocent souls would become best of friends - remember, best friends are the ones with whom we quarrel the worst!

More articles on the subject can be found at link - Child and You

I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.