The Covenant of Water: A Multi-generational Story of Struggle and Triumph

Book Review: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A compelling saga of a Kerala family struggling with a strange condition that makes them vulnerable in water. And in Kerala, one cannot escape water.

This is a beautiful multi-generational story of a family living in a Kerala village and how they struggle and learn to live with the strange affliction until the progress in medicine that trickles down from across the world provides them with answers. The book begins with the story of a twelve-year old girl who arrives at the altar to marry a 40-year old man with a son. She is aware of the rumours about a strange condition that affects the family and the family’s long history of death by drowning, but she keeps her doubts to herself. Her own poverty leaves her or her widowed mother with no say in the matter. She gradually wins over her reluctant husband, she loves her step-son as her own and eventually has her own kids. We see this timid twelve-year old girl finding love in the Parambil household and gradually transforming into a matriarch that commands love and respect from everyone around her. It is as much a story of her as it is of any other girl in India in that age and period. Also, this is a story of a village that witnessed tragedies, growth, progress at a snail’s pace and an eventual upliftment through the strong-willed efforts of many individuals.

Progress is often slow and our textbooks rarely do justice to the time that passes between each significant development in medicine or science and the painful groundwork that makes each milestone valuable and important. This book takes one page from our science books and lays it out in human-years, along with the pains, lives lost and the very real struggles that precede a discovery. It gives us a portrait of the life and the pace of change at a microscopic level in an Indian village from 1900-1970s.
I have read the book and also listened to the audiobook on Libby. I found the narration by Abraham Verghese beautiful, with each character beautifully rendered. I found the prose poetic, pulling me in every time I opened the book.
I have not read anything in this magnitude in recent times and feel triumphant. This book reminded me of Khaled Hosseini’s multi-generational storytelling. The details of everyday life felt very honest and real, just as in Hosseini’s stories. I was truly transported to the time and age and was so engrossed with the lives of Big Ammachi and all the other men and women around her who contributed to the running of her household in Parambil, Kerala. The story stayed with me months after reading it.
I must say that the family’s multi-generational struggle with water, the setting and the array of characters including the elephant, somehow reminded me of the famous Telugu movie, Murari. This book feels like a similar story from a different era, with a deeper insight into the hearts of each of the central characters and an elaborate sketch of the period the story was set in.

I liked the book. It may not be for everyone, given the slow progress of the story and not a strong anchor point that holds it all together. There is an intimate history of many of the characters and at one point we do not understand which is relevant and which is not. But the relationships between the mother and the son, the women in the household, the agonies of life, and the truest depictions of life and change made this a good book for me.

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Lost Between These Pages: A 2023 Reading Recap

My goal for this year was to read 30 books, with a focus on memoirs and popular science books. I read a total of 26 – 3 individual memoirs/autobiographies, 2 autobiographical essay collections. There were, sadly, no science books. I started Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee early this year but didn’t finish it yet. So my TBR for 2024 would probably be science-centric.

These were the books I read in the order I finished them, with links to my reviews (where available):

1. Carnality by Lina Wolff
2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
3. The Enchanted Hour by Meghan Cox Gurdon
4. Foster by Claire Keegan
5. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
6. The Husbands by Chandler Baker
7. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
8. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
10. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune
11. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
12. Surely, You’re Joking Mr.Feynman by Richard P. Feynman
13. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
14. Paula by Isabel Allende
15. An Elderly Lady is upto No Good by Helene Tursten
16. When I Was Your Age, Volume One: Original Stories About growing Up by Amy Ehrlich
17. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
18. Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
19. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
20. Celtic tales: Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
21. The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
22. The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
23. The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
24. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
25. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
26. The Star that Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson

The Latecomer is my favorite book of this year. I am especially glad I returned to Brandon Sanderson’s world with Warbreaker. I hope to read more of his other works or probably revisit Mistborn in 2024. I wish I had written brief reviews for all of them. Wanted to read a few from NYT’s 10 best books of 2022 but could only read Demon Copperhead.

Here’s the goodreads’ lovely rendition of my year in books:

So that’s it for 2023. Please pour in your comments and suggestions for 2024 and share the books you read and liked this year.

See you in January with a to-read list or two of my own. Happy reading!

Book Review: The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Lakshmi is a woman who escapes her abusive marriage to find her own way in a newly independent India. She has nothing but her unique skillset – as a healer and a henna artist, with which she grows into this famous professional in Jaipur, sought after by both men and women of the affluent families, (albeit for totally different reasons). She carefully architects this life for herself, finding a place in the high society of Jaipur, and comes very close to owning a house in the wonderful city when Radha, a younger sister she has never known, enters her life. How Radha’s arrival alters Lakshmi’s life and threatens her dreams, and the constantly evolving dynamic between the duo is the central story of the book.

A combination of drama and intrigue, this book is fast-paced, with an interesting setting and some realistic characters. The story is set in 1955-56, with short glimpses into the past of the protagonist and her family. This book also has an array of other characters who contribute to a lively portrayal of the Jaipur elite. This was one of the few things this book did well. The setting was brilliantly written and I was truly transported into one of those Jaipur streets.
I was reminded of Austen’s Emma when the different families were introduced and Lakshmi dons the matchmaker garb, but, this book took a different turn and Lakshmi finds herself in a bigger mess.

The portrayal of a thirteen-year old Radha was another thing this book did well. She is a bundle of energy, curiosity, emotions, confusion and strength as any adolescent would be and her actions, or the lack thereof, drive the plot. Her character development and evolution of the relationship between the two sisters was written really well.

I also liked the resolution of Lakshmi-Hari relationship, and how they find their roles reversed towards the end – Hari, the opresssor turned into the man who helped the poor and needy, and Lakshmi, unwittingly, the woman who supported a form of oppression.

But, there are a few things that disappointed me.
First, I wasn’t sure about the availability of the DNA test or any other testing methods to verify fatherhood claims in the 1950s India. What could have been a huge burden(given the time period) was resolved easily with a blood test. Also, I felt like the Sameer-Parvati-Lakshmi dynamic should have been a little more complex than what it was – weighing heavily in favor of Lakshmi, making even the strongest threats to her existence seem trivial in the end.

Final words on the book:
I really liked it for the setting. The plot started out strong but weakened towards the end, because too many things just fall into place for Lakshmi and Radha – hospital bills were paid off, loans written off, the main burdens of Lakshmi were off her shoulders due to timely interventions of friends and benefactors and yet, she is worried about leaving her house and Jaipur. This made me not really root for her anymore. Also, her travails in the end seemed forced and could have been avoided, like the unnecessary scenes with the oil vendor and his wife. So yeah, 2.5/5.

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How I navigate my kids’ sickness(es)

Short answer: By binge-watching TV.

Read on for an extra long answer that you might relate to and to learn how I made my peace with kids falling sick, over and over.

Every change in the season brings a different kind of sickness to our home. First it begins with the kid that goes to school and then the sibling. It’s almost always a cycle that brings us down for a week or two, preventing us from social gatherings and such. The first year this happened, it kind of left us all feeling guilty. Are we not giving her good food that keeps her immune from all the viruses? Are we doing something wrong? My kid’s first school year was 2021-22, the year after the dreadful two years of the Covid pandemic and the schools warily opened to welcome everyone back. We sent her to the PreK, sending her in each day with a mask and dutifully bathing her right after the school day and using hand sanitizers generously. But even with all the care in the world, some virus crept into her system and she fell ill like never before. It wasn’t Covid. It cycled through the whole family and left us wondering if we were doing the right thing sending her to school. It’s only PreK after all, and I am a stay-home mom, why not keep her home, keep her safe? We kept her from school for over a week as I debated within myself if I was doing the right thing for her and then did the usual ritual of sending her back in with doctor’s clearance etc. Then again in a month, during Christmas, the schools had to remain closed because there was a spike in the cases everywhere and we got a taste of what the families all over the world had struggled through for over two years – virtual classes. Once the schools began, it was just the same. Cold, cough, skip school for a few days, doctor’s note, rinse and repeat. Every bout of the cold made the house a sick zone – wheezing kids, Kleenex boxes on every surface, Zarbees bottles and medicines lined on the counter and one drowsy mom tending to the feverish, hallucinating kids screaming at night.

Over time, I have come to expect the sickness and accept it as part of life and part of growing up – both for my kids and myself. I have created some space for myself within all the craziness that accompanies a flu or a common cold. If I lay awake in the night, rocking my little one in my arms, I seek the company of a carefully selected TV series. I binge-watch episode after episode (on my phone), helping my kid sip water, rubbing her forehead, keeping her company as she drifts in and out of sleep, coughing in between. This helps me tend to her without grudging all the sleeplessness. It actually helped me manage my stress well too. The characters on the TV distract me from worrying myself to death over the little things. There’s only so much anyone can do when there’s cold or a flu. As any pead would say, fluids and plenty of rest is all you can give to a sick child and wait patiently for her to recover. So, to aid in my patience, I guiltlessly watched several series over the two years, over multiple sicknesses, including my own. I recommend this to any parent that needs some relief from all the stress that comes from caring for the little ones. Stop hunting for that miracle drug that would cure the cold overnight. Stop watching the home-remedy recipe videos on Youtube and watch a happy TV series or a movie instead. So without further ado, here I am sharing some of the series I watched over the last two years.

I probably started with Gilmore Girls. It is a classic featuring the story of a very friendly mother and daughter living in a small town called Stars Hollow. This little town has an array of characters, each very lovable and memorable, coming with their own quirks. Lauren Graham (Lorelai, the mom), is witty and very funny and though not very likable at all times, her relationship with her daughter really shines throughout the seven wonderful seasons. This show is my comfort watch, I watched it multiple times whenever I am lost between too many choices or I simply don’t have anything lined up. Must watch, highly recommend.

Little Things is another series I totally fell in love with. It is a story of a couple, Kavya and Dhruv and how they navigate their relationship amidst all the modern-day troubles. I like all the background songs of the series, my favorite being ‘Tu mere sang hai musalsal’. Lovely song.

The other series I enjoyed are Never Have I Ever, Working Moms – both featuring great friendships, mistakes, trauma and forgiveness. Also enjoyed Emily in Paris, some episodes of The Letdown. My current favorite is Firefly Lane. It is a story based on a book by Kristin Hannah, featuring friendship between two teenage girls, that matured into a strong bond that sustains them through hard times.

I gradually understood that I am gravitating towards series with everyday troubles, long friendships, mothers and daughters and overall happy vibes. I watched a few seasons but did not like Riverdale for being too dark and cheesy, Jane the Virgin for being overly dramatic and a bit too much like a Telugu soap opera.

Earlier I used to stress over a little runny nose or a sneeze from my kids. I used to dread the sleepless nights and drowsy mornings. Now, armed with the infinite number of series available to choose from, and a few that I could watch over and over, I feel so ready to handle any sickness head-on and I feel no guilt about it. I hope this changes soon and as my kids grow up, we can all watch TV in a relatively better health and better frame of mind but for now, pour in your recommendations for any good series and share your thoughts on how you navigate through sickness in your household.

Have a happy and healthy week.

Reading Update – March, April 2023

March was very uneventful in terms of reading. I was jumping from one book to another like a wild monkey and was running out of time for my book club read. It was The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz which was due to be discussed in the first week of April. In the end I joined the discussion without having read it fully. I was also reading and rereading Paula, marking pages and making notes and browsing through a lot of other books but couldn’t focus on one long enough to finish it. Then I found this audiobook The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune on hoopla. I have been meaning to read it for sometime now and couldn’t have come across it at a better time. It was a very predictable story but with an interesting set of characters, each bringing their own dimension to the story. The story is set on this island in the cerulean sea, where an orphanage for the magical children is located. Six magical children live together under the care of a fiercely loyal master who took it upon himself to educate them and prepare them for the world and also to protect the orphanage from being shut down, no matter what. The future of this orphanage would be decided by one Linus Baker, who abides by the rules given to him and tries to evaluate the place on his visit. It is a good tale of mischief, fun, innocence and angst woven together. I enjoyed listening to the book. But the experience was somewhat spoiled by the backstory I gleaned from some Goodreads reviews about what the story was inspired from. So as of now, I haven’t got an opinion on the book. I just don’t know how to judge it in light of the new information. It was an enjoyable book with a good number of funny and lovable moments.

The other book was Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. I found this as a ‘skip the line’ ebook from my library. Apparently it was a very popular book and usually has huge waiting times to borrow. But sometimes the library offers such books for 7 days as ‘skip the line’ collection and we can borrow many popular books there. So this one intrigued me and I jumped right into it. This was a faster read for me, couldn’t put it down at all. This is a well-structured and well-paced story of a woman who thought she moved on from her past, her first love. She gets engaged to an older guy. But when she chances upon her first love, eleven years after they had to part their ways, she wonders if she still loves him. He, on the other hand, reaffirms that he has never stopped loving her. Alternating between the current and past timelines, this was a beautiful story of two hearts growing to love each other without even realizing it and then parting ways, only to meet years later. I really enjoyed the teenage Macy and Elliott’s conversations among the bookshelves, particularly their usual question for each other, ‘Favorite word?’. They both share a lot of words over the many weekends they meet and the words relate to the ongoing story in someway or the other. I liked how the story develops. It was a beautiful weekend read.

Then I started Surely, You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman. It is an interesting collection of anecdotes and experiences from the life of the Nobel-prize winning Physicist. Feynman is an inspiring personality. His life and story is as much about the little things he enjoyed as it is about the important contributions he made to the world. He inspires us to not lose the child in us, and stop having fun, ever. That little voice that wants us to go poke about and fiddle with things that escape our understanding and solve those little puzzles around us – we’d pay attention to that voice after reading this book. Absolutely loved the book.

So that was March and April, or rather, April readings for me. I will be back soon with more books and detailed reviews. So long!

Reading update for Jan, Feb 2023

A few days back I finally finished reading Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This is her first autobiographical account of her childhood, from age three till she was seventeen. It also serves as an account of discrimination against the blacks during the 30s and how they lived and suffered through it and how it shaped and defined Maya’s character. The book’s retrospectively humorous narrative style, which makes the traumatic experiences of Maya’s young life palatable to the reader, also signifies the strength of her character.

I have three books going on right now: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – a book of advice for aspiring writers, Paula by Isabelle Allende – a memoir and a tribute to the author’s deceased daughter, and The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee – a biography of Cancer. Most of this ‘reading’, I must say, happens also through listening audiobooks on hoopla, the digital library service provided by my local library. It is available as an app for Android or Apple. There are hundreds of ebooks and audiobooks (both for adults and kids) available on this platform, it would be a sin for any reader or enthusiast not to explore.

So, here goes the books I have read (or listened to) in Jan and Feb.

1. Carnality by Lina Wolff
2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
3. The Enchanted Hour by Meghan Cox Gurdon
4. Foster by Claire Keegan
5. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
6. The Husbands by Chandler Baker
7. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
8. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I can’t say I liked them all, there were some not-so-great books too. Most importantly, I realized that I have been reading predominantly women authors so far and this realization made me dizzy with happiness. I hope to find and read more books by women across genres.

So, that’s it folks. See you next Monday. Happy reading!

Book Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is Sanderson and I am a big fan of his writing, his evolved characters and wonderful magical worlds that flow out of his pen. I totally devoured Mistborn series reading all the 6 books in a few months. Having said all that, this book, Warbreaker, disappointed me towards the end. I read close to 600 pages with so much of buildup towards what felt like a rushed 50-page ending. And most of it went to characters whose motives weren’t fully explored earlier in the book. The second half was disappointing in many ways. Most characters, that we develop a bond with through all those pages, listening to their rambles and existential questions, did not get the closure they deserved. Susebron and Siri’s storyline took time to evolve and it should have gotten a few more pages in the end.

This is my initial reaction. Will hopefully write a detailed review soon.

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Book Review: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of previously published essays by Ann Patchett in different magazines. The essays draw from the author’s life and experiences and so this collection can be called a memoir. I liked Patchett’s style of writing and she is a great human being who, as we see in the essays, took care of people who she loved and was fiercely loyal to them through thick and thin.
The essays, ‘Non-fiction, an Introduction’, ‘This Dog’s life’, ‘The Wall’ were my favorites although each essay is a great piece of writing and can be read multiple times.
Definitely recommend this book, and also worth owning a copy.


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A woman’s pursuit for truth and another’s vengeance come together in ‘The Alice Network’ by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a review for the audio version of the book narrated by Saskia Maarleveld presented by Harperaudio.

This is a tale of two women entangled in their pursuits as they try to overcome their griefs and losses and follow each other in their quests, in a beautiful car chauffeured by a lanky Scottish man. It is an intriguing story of a spy network in France during the WWI and a young woman searching for her cousin in the wreckage of WWII.

The lives of the two women converge (or rather clash) at the beginning of the book. Charlie, the clever, math-loving, pregnant and unmarried American girl escapes from her controlling mother as they are on their way to Switzerland to take care of the “little problem”. She seeks the help of Eve Gardiner, a lonely old woman living in London, to help find her cousin Rose, who vanished during 1943. Eve is a stuttering, “deceivingly innocent” woman who becomes a spy in a French town under German occupation and performs a “top-class job” during her stint. But then, something happens that would scar her for the rest of her life and she spends thirty years grieving and raging alone in a London home. That is until Charlie bangs on her door one day and mentions the ‘Le Lethe’ restaurant. That name rekindles those raging embers and Eve at once springs to action. What ensues is a long pursuit of truth that also uncovers many dark secrets for the women.
The story is narrated in two alternating perspectives – Charlie and Eve – and accordingly, two different settings. Eve’s story is set during the years of WWI and shortly after and Charlie’s story begins in 1947 with brief flashbacks to her childhood.

I devoured all of Eve’s parts, I sometimes wanted to skip the Charlie’s chapters to get ahead and know what happened in Eve’s life. The strongest part of the story for me remains the life of Eve, spent in Lille as ‘Marguerite Le Francois’, in the company of the stern Violette and a chatty Lili. And how they ran the spy network under the enemy’s watchful eyes. Charlie’s narrative on the other hand felt too weak to believe in the beginning. A 19-year old going in search of her cousin across unknown countries? Especially after she knew that her parents have made similar attempts and failed? But Charlie’s character unravels to lay open her grief for her brother and how she can’t afford to lose another loved one, if she can help it. People grieve in different ways and we come to understand Charlie’s grief in her fierce pursuit and protectiveness for those she loves.

The turn-off for me is the way Charlie was established as math genius from the start and all the strange equations she makes up in her head wanting to solve for x. They didn’t make sense most of the time and she really wasn’t doing any math-related work in the book. It was a false hope at the beginning that we would see Charlie challenging and surprising more people with her skills throughout the book. She was definitely brave and resourceful but her math skills don’t enter the book’s equation at all. And, because the book was named ‘The Alice Network’ and was covering two wars, I expected a similar network in operation that somehow connected to Rose. There was some passing mention, but it wasn’t explored.

Overall, it is a nice book. It made me want to read (or listen to) more period novels, especially those set during the two wars. The audiobook was well narrated, and I could totally enjoy the French and Scottish accents which definitely wouldn’t have been the same in my mind’s voice.

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Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

“Chemistry is change and change is the core of your belief system. Which is good because that’s what we need more of – people who refuse to accept the status quo, who aren’t afraid to take on the unacceptable.”

This is a classic case of “don’t judge the book by it’s cover”. I first found it on NYT bestsellers list last year but was probably put off by the cover thinking, “not another run-of-the-mill romance, please”. But Dheeraj read it enthusiastically last week and liked it very much. So I picked this up and honestly couldn’t put it down. I sneaked into the bathroom to read in peace more than once during the two days it took me to finish it. Such a great story and wonderful writing. But the cover could have been more in line with the story.

This book narrates how Elizabeth Zott, a chemist, whose life is rife with crises, rows against the discriminatory currents of the 1960s America to be what she had always wanted to be. Herself. It begins with Elizabeth getting ready to pack lunch for her daughter. She wonders how she ended up being a mother and a TV cook, despite her vehement protests that she didn’t want to be either. “I am a chemist”, she finds herself saying multiple times to different people who all seem to see only one thing about her – her gender. We are slowly and gradually introduced to all the other characters in the book, each with their own story and a role to play in Elizabeth’s journey.

It opens not with a simple sentence but with a one-sentence paragraph so heavy, my Hemingway editor would rate it “very hard to read”. But it sets the stage, pace as well as tone of the book right away. We need not read through five chapters for the pace to pick-up. And those early little notes Elizabeth writes for her daughter’s lunchbox, like “Play sports at recess but do not automatically let the boys win” clearly emphasize the theme of the book. Yes, this book is a feminist book. When I say it’s a feminist book, it doesn’t mean this drums up womanhood or debases men on every page. It merely states the reality from a woman’s point of view. It is so important for everyone to read such a book every now and then to realize and understand all kinds of deeply ingrained discriminations that pass off as norms of the day. This book deftly portrays a 1960s America where women were systemically prevented from pursuing, if not dreaming, careers in science. They were strictly relegated to the clerical or secretarial roles, if at all they could make it to a workplace. Forget the glass-ceiling, women were stopped at the doors.

I think this one sentence from the book captures the struggle of Elizabeth and also the idea of feminism perfectly:

She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful …. (Chap. 27)

I liked all the characters in the book including Madeline. She might come off as an exaggerated piece but, if Mozart could compose music at an age of five, Madeline Zott could read Dickens and request for Vladimir Nabokov at her school library. Elizabeth’s struggles as a new mother made for an enjoyable but very relatable read. I also liked Dr. Mason’s character. Despite his brief presence, he was truly kind and helping. And all the chapters with Supper at Six episodes were wonderful too. I would definitely watch a show like that or even better, read a cookbook that explains all the chemistry involved in cooking.

So, four stars for great characters, writing and overall message of the book. I recommend this to everyone, reader or non-reader. If you are looking for a book to start your reading journey, this makes for a good start. It is a moving, inspiring and captivating story of a young woman who persevered against all odds.

If you happen to read the book, let’s chat. Comments or DMs are always welcome and appreciated.