2012 was a big year for us. Kapil & I moved our life to the west coast and have not looked back since. Here I share some of my thoughts as we make the big move Read More…
Vipula

Vipula
Vipula is a culture and travel blogger from Los Angeles, California. She completed her MBA and currently works full time in a Fortune 10 company. She is a avid reader and loves traveling around the Globe. You will find her tips and reviews on best travel destinations, books and movie/tv shows on Shades of Words.
As I was just a few weeks away from my trip to India and Istanbul, I was itching to read something to get me into the spirit of things. I started with Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul, but the book wasn’t it. His Istanbul is black and white, always cold, and inhabited by jinns. I don’t know what it is with Pamuk and me. I love his writing; the prose is poetic, but I can never seem…
In September of this year, Kapil and I moved out of St. Louis after having lived there for almost 3 years. Since I had been clamoring for the big city life for so long I had not anticipated the wave of loss to hit me as I got ready to “leave on a jet plane”. Putting my thoughts to paper, I had planned to publish this post some time ago, but the craziness of the…
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” ― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair Isn’t that a beautiful start? I fell head over heels in love with the novel the minute I read that opening sentence. However, as it often happens, it was easier to fall in love than to stay in love. So, What’s It About?…
After an excruciatingly painful first half of 60 minutes, which could have been shorter or craftier, the film really kicks in. KCK is the story of Karthik (duh), a timid man, bullied around by everyone who gets much-needed help by therapeutic phone calls from himself. As bizarre as it may seem to get calls from himself, which have no existence on his phone records, he goes with the flow and trusts the caller. His life…
Hope Springs is a classic example of a movie where great acting can make up for an ordinary script. Screen legends, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, bring a lot of class to a simple yet deep story of a stagnating marriage. So What Is Hope Springs About? Kay and Arnold have been married for over 31 years and their life has inevitably set into a pattern. With the kids grown up and away with…
It’s nice to know that the circus is not dead. “Cirque du Soleil” or ‘Circus of the Sun’ retains the traditional aspects of the ageless crowd puller with a juggler, acrobat, dancer, trapeze artists, and tight rope walkers. It bumps up the experience several notches higher with fabulous choreography, music and art direction. The use of projectors and laser lighting brings a mystic and ethereal quality to the performance. It’s pure entertainment for 90 minutes…
Over the past one year, there are some books that I read and meant to blog about. However, they made so little an impression on me, either good or bad, that I never got around to reviewing them. I thought I would just mention them in a single blog post. Death At the Bar by Ngaio Marsh Marsh was a New Zealand writer, heavily inspired by Agatha Christie. I have read reviews of her works…