Happy Birthday Asterix !

October 29th 2009 is the 50th birthday of Asterix !

About Asterix:

Asterix was created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in 1959. For millions of readers the world over (more than 325 million albums sold in over 100 languages), this extraordinary day commemorates 50 years of sheer happiness with Asterix.

Created for the Pilote weekly magazine in 1959, Asterix became the most famous Gaul in the world. Brainchild of the dynamic duo Goscinny / Uderzo while weathering a sweltering summer on a balcony in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, the adventures of the little Gaul hero with the winged helmet have since become classics.

With some 400 characters (from Aberdeenangus to Zurix!), the 33 Asterix albums (current series) describe a world teeming in activity and never-ending change, a universe that has spilled over into various media: cinema (8 animated films and 3 live-action films), video games and, of course, the Parc Astérix leisure park.

More dynamic than ever, Asterix and his friends are preparing a great number of events to celebrate a half century of merriment with their readers. They have just one idea in mind: to persist in "laughing and making others laugh".

A "Quickie" before "Nine Lives"

Am currently reading "Nine Lives" and am loving every word of it. Brilliantly written.

But a quickie came my way ... and it took me three hours of a good afternoon. "Balancing Act" by Meera Godbole Krishnamurthy. A rip roarously funny book about the self esteem of a "stay-at-home" mom vis-a-vis career woman.

Dont' we know this dichotomy ? All professionally qualified women giving up jobs to be stay-at-home moms ... all the time wondering whether it is the right thing to do ? or should the resume be dusted and the neighbourhood daycare be checked out !

Read it ... its funny and bilkul timepass.

Happy Diwali, all you lovely people !

To all friends, families of twistntales,

A very happy Diwali and great prosperous times ahead for all....

Chetan Bhagat's "Two States - the story of my marriage"

I liked the new book ! It's fun, racy and moves at a good pace. "Two States - the Story of my marriage" is a good tp read.

With this book, CB has matured. And it shows. Both in the flair and sensitivity with which he has tackled issues that are common within our families. From a Tam Brahm point of view, i think it is one the finest spoofs written on the community, after Clive Avenue.

Communities apart, we Indians do get married into families. Malhotras and Swaminathans apart, the story could be true of any love marriage in India, where the couple decides NOT to elope !

There is lot of reservation amongst the elite "book reading" class of society w.r.t Chetan Bhagat "type" of books. Almost a snigger. But really, the world needs to wake up. This guy writes well. And clean. We need to get to a more egalitarian book reading society. CB takes a dig at them as well. He writes somewhere, if the book had pretentions about winning an award, well he needed to spend two extra pages on the smell of rasam wafting across the living room in Ananya's house ! Clever !

And I must congratulate Rupa. Starting with "Inscrutable Americans", they have gone Biyani style hammer and tongs after the Rs. 95/- pricing. Making it irresistible.

Good Book, CB. I am "middle aged" and I liked it. You are not writing for India's "youngsters" any more !

Our small tree canopied lane - 2

There were these 2 girls - we would see them every fri, sat, sun - sometimes they would not show up for couple of weeks - and then again, one weekend with bags laden with groceries, veges... they will come and plonk themselves in the tnt chairs.

Initially, it was the books that attracted them. Both were good readers. As the bags waited outside to be taken home to be cooked, both will be inside immersed in books. Suddenly it will be too late, they will need a quick fix recipe, roomates will be waiting, and they will run. First books, then conversation, then i suddenly found myself helping them with recipe for rasam ! Bharathi and Nandana were roomates, Infy and Wipro were their employers. They came from BITS and IIT, M.

Today, Bharathi is an "Art of Living" teacher and Nandana is with Infy, Chennai.

There were also this group of guys - Vishwanath, Amit, few others more or less same batch @ Infy ... but these guys had read almost everything. Our Store was at its infancy, but trying to get the right books to keep these software engineers coming in was a challenge, everytime I went for book selection !

Some of them "met" at the Store, some dated, some married ... we have many stories to tell.

Then we had another one, who also lived in our lane. She wrote this. http://twistntales.blogspot.com/2007/02/reassurance-in-disguise.html

Then we had Jo. And many others. A few who have had long standing relationships with us, whether they be in London, Bangalore or Chennai.

And when Violet walked in couple of days back, it was deja vu. Our lovely tree canopied lane has given us a lot of joy !

Our small tree canopied lane !

Our small tree canopied lane starts from the Jungle Book corner and finishes at the petrol pump. Though frankly as far as i am concerned, the last frontier is Kumardhara. After that, it is all cement and concrete and ugly.

We start at the bench. What a lovely idea ! Just put a bench at a junction and you can sit and watch life go by for hours. Earlier days, i would sit and make my calls frm there. Today, it has rickshawallahs, and other riff raff. But it still carries charm for me. Sometimes, with some "phursat", will love to sit there and read. If one can ignore the screeching brakes at our infamous accident spot. No. I dont think i can sit there any more. If evening has 2 wheelers, afternoons has school buses and vans. Too scary to sit and watch an impending accident because the bench gives you both sides perspective of the T junction.

Then its us. Of course, i LOVE us !

Then Venkateshwara Classes ... Before i opened the Store, i used to pass by in my red matiz to kumardhara, and used to wonder what happened there .... sometimes, i used to see students, sometimes none, but beautiful rangolis .... but always dressed up with plants .... Only later realised it was a coaching class. And now we have kids - waiting for parents, rickshaw kaka, vans to come and pick up..... sometimes wanting to hurriedly read a chapter or two before they come, parents with Xth std anxiety written all over them, waiting for their kids to finish.
Of course, we learn everything. From slokhas to figures of speech to vernier callipers.

And Kamal "Super" market. When i opened my store, the old grandad who sits on a chair o/s kamal said in his own way in hindi, "sirf dukhaan kholke baitna hai ..... kuch saal mein apne aap dhanda badtha hai" So true ! The retail business is all about keeping your Store open all day, all through the year ! A Bania knows it best. Our first lesson in small store economics is " give the ambience of a Crossword or a Landmark, but keep costs like Kamal"

Shilpa started Money Plant after "Sumo" aunty quit her photocopying and tea/coffee business. In the last 5 to 6 years, Shilpa has seen the Stock market zoom and crash. Big news stories break on their stock exchange screens first.

We miss Homeland. Everybody defined their address in the lane w.r.t Homeland. "Near Homeland" "Opposite Homeland" .... We miss Chauhan Aunty, though we see her green zen with her perenially novice driver ... hitting into some car or the other everyday.

Then we have Kumardhara. Praful and his dad and their partner, always polite. Unhelpful but polite. The Store is great. From filter coffee powder (can't live without) to specialities from the South, its a paradise to all South Indians living this side of town. And that's how I discovered my shop. Driving down to Kumardhara, kept eyeing the corner shop under the beautiful big tree.

Our tree. Where often there is a hornbill. Sometimes, it is our favorite langur.

This post is to be continued. It started as a tribute to all those who came into the lane for all these neighbours of ours, and fell in love with us. Thankyou neighbours.

Welcome Chitale, to our neighbourhood.

New Books and book news !

Hi all,

Sorry about our delays in mailing, this time too, we have managed to review few books and have listed for you ALL the new books in the Store! We hope to get to speed on our reviews, hopefully by the next mail, we will have lot more reviews done … For more frequent updates, check out our Facebook profile “twistntales, Aundh” and “become our” friend!

Thanks to all of you who came in for our Saraswati Puja on Sunday, 27th Sept’09. We feel really blessed … Thank you!

Lots of new happenings …

· The new Chetan Bhagat book (Two States: The Story of My Life) is to be released on 10th Oct.
· Eoin Colfer’s “And Another Thing” the 6th book in the Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s series (Eoin Colfer is the boy prodigy of the best-selling Artemis Fowl series) releasing also in October (will let you know when the book hits the stands).

Our Store will be closed on 17th, 18th, and 19th for Diwali. Kindly pick up your reading stock prior to the Diwali weekend!

New Books:

“Will Jellyfish Rule The World: A Book About Climate Change” by Leo Hickman @ Rs.299/- (Pgs 227)

Why does it rain so much in Britain? What do a glacier and a canary have in common? How you can help save the planet by thinking with your stomach?
Are jellyfish really going to rule the world?
Perhaps the better question to think about is: why would it ever be likely that jellyfish end up ruling the world? And the answer to that question is the subject of this book: climate change. In this book you will discover what the climate actually is, as well as how and why it’s changing, but most importantly you will learn how together we can help minimize the impact of climate change.

“The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives” by Leonard Mlodinow @ Rs.350/- (Pgs 252)

Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them?
The Drunkard’s Walk is a metaphor for our lives, our paths from college to career, from single life to family life. The tools used to understand the drunkard’s walk can also be employed to help understand the events of everyday life. It illustrates the role of chance in the world around us and to show how we may recognize it at work in human affairs. It challenges everything we think we know about how the world works’

“The Magic of Awakening” by Sirshree @ Rs.199/- (Pgs 165)
The truth of life lies in the art of being one with life…
Sirshree’s spiritual quest, began about 30 years ago, which led him on a journey through various schools of thoughts and different practices of meditation. He has delivered more than one thousand discourses and written over forty books on spirituality and self help. He is the founder of Tej Gyan Foundation. ‘Religious’ & ‘Spiritual’ are often used interchangeably. Someone who is religious might not necessarily be spiritual and vice versa. Spirituality in its true form is about reconnecting with our real self, understanding our hidden potential and much, much more… In ‘The Magic Of Awakening’, Sirshree gives us 111 answers on life and living. This book is presented in a question-and-answer format intended to awaken you. The questions range from existential dilemmas to essential spirituality. Every answer is intended to make you find yourself, know yourself & ultimately be yourself…

“Unbordered Memories: Sindhi Stories of Partition” edited and translated by Rita Kothari @ Rs.250/- (Pgs 171)
“Unbordered Memories” is a collection of Sindhi stories of partition. The book is edited & translated by Rita Kothari. She has translated widely from Gujarati into English. Partition not only changed the lives of Sindhi Hindus but also of Sindhi Muslims. In “Unbordered Memories” we witness Sindhis from India & Pakistan making imaginative entries into each other’s worlds. These writings from both sides of the border fiercely critique the abuse of human dignity in the name of religion & national borders.

“Letters From Burma” by Aung San Suu Kyi with an introduction by Fergal Keane @ Rs.325/- (Pgs 209)

In this letters, Aung San reaches out beyond Burma’s borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. The reader catches a glimpse of exactly what is at stake as Aung San fights on for freedom in Burma, and of the love for her homeland that sustains her non-violent battle. Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals the impact of political decisions on the people of Burma

New Books Listed:

“Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition” by Guy Kawasaki @ Rs.599/-
“Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur” by Richard Branson @ Rs.340/-
“Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen: How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible” by Porus Munshi @ Rs.295/-
“The Future of the Internet” by Jonathan Zittrain @ Rs.350/-
“My Father’s Tears & Other Stories” by John Updike @ Rs.499/-
“Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal” by Tristram Stuart @Rs.325/-
“Rupture” By Sampurna Chatterjee @ Rs. 350/-
“The Idea Of Justice” by Amartya Sen @ Rs. 699/-
“Cockroach” by Rawi Hage @ Rs. 399/-
“Listening To Grasshoppers: Field Notes On Democracy” by Arundhati Roy @ Rs. 499/-
“The World At Your Feet: Three Strikes to a Successful Entrepreneurial Life” by Saburul Islam @ Rs. 275/-
“The Longer Long Tail” by Chris Anderson @ Rs.295/-
“Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World” by Michael Dowd @ Rs.565/-
“Burnt Shadows” by Kamila Shamsie @ Rs.425/-
“Gind: The Magical Adventures of a Vanara” by Harini Srinivasan @ Rs.199/-
“The Character of Physical Law” by Richard P.Feynman @ Rs.590/-
“Like a Diamond in the Sky” by Shazia Omar @ Rs.250/-
“Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect” by Vahan Janjigian @ Rs.499/-
“Jinnah – India-Partition Independence” by Jaswant Singh @ Rs. 695/-
“Another Way to Live: A Psychiatrist Among Indian Ascetics” by R.L. Kapur @ Rs.399/-
“The Cellist of Sarajevo” by Steven Galloway @ Rs.325/-
“The Widows of Eastwick” by John Updike @ Rs.350/-
“Why Is Q Always Followed By U? by Michael Quinion @ Rs.399/-
“So Be It: How I Found Myself In This Crazy World” by Latika Tripathi @ Rs. 250/-
“The Girl’s Guide To Being A Working Mum” by Caitlin Friedman & Kimberly Yorio @ Rs. 399/-
“Cheap – The High Cost of Discount Culture” by Ellen Ruppel Shell @ Rs. 750/-
“Runner” by Thomas Perry @ Rs. 499/-
“Monsters – History’s most evil Men and Women” by Simon Sebag Montefiore @ Rs. 399/-
“Making India Work” By William Nanda Bissell @ Rs. 499/-
“Rules of Vengence” by Christopher Reich @ Rs. 510/-
“Winning in Turbulence” by Darell Rigby @ Rs. 495/-
“The Dog of the Marriage – Collected short stories” by Amy Hempel @ Rs.299/-
“The Crossing Places” by Elly Griffiths @ Rs. 299/-
“The Difficulty of Being Good” by Gurcharan Das @ Rs. 699/-
“God and the New Physics” by Paul Davies @ Rs. 590/-
“Unmasked - The Final Years of Michael Jackson” by Ian Halperin @ Rs. 640/-
“Children’s Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook 2010” @ Rs. 599/-
“Michael Jackson – Legend, Hero, Icon” by James Aldis @ Rs. 699/-
“Where’s Hanuman ?” by Alister Taylor @ Rs. 125/- an activity book for children.
“HR Transformation: Building Human Resources From The Outside In” by Dave Ulrich @ Rs. 525/-
“The Wow Factor” by Frances Cole Jones @ Rs. 770/-
“Compulsion” by Jonathan Kellerman @ Rs. 299/-
“Running In The Family” by Michael Ondaatje @ Rs. 299/-
“Tiya: A Parrot’s Journey Home” by Samarpan @ Rs. 150/-
“Risk: The Decision Matrix” by Alan Axelrod @ Rs. 450/-
“Risk: Adversaries And Allies” by Alan Axelrod @ Rs. 450/-
“Rooftops Of Tehran” by Mahbod Seraji @ Rs. 499/-
“The Diary Of A Social Butterfly” by Moni Mohsin @ Rs. 195/-
“Slumgirl Dreaming: My Journey To The Stars” by Rubina Ali @ Rs. 195/-
“Bollywood Becomes Her” by Meredith McGuire @ Rs. 295/-
“Free: The Future Of A Radical Price” by Chris Anderson @ Rs. 510/-
“The Compass: From Where You Are…To Where You Want To Be” by Tammy Kling & John Spencer Ellis @ Rs. 475/-
“Passport To A Healthy Pregnancy” by Dr. Gita Arjun @ Rs. 499/-
“In Search Of The Obvious: The Antidote For Today’s Marketing Mess” by Jack Trout @ Rs. 495/-
“Turn Small Talk Into Big Deals” by Don Gabor @ Rs. 295/-
“The Organizational Champion” by Mike Thompson @ Rs. 350/-
“The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown @ Rs. 699/-
“Value Investing And Behavioral Finance by Parag Parikh @ Rs. 375/-
“Rani Lakshmibai” by Deepa Agarwal @ Rs.150/-
“Ashoka” by Subhadra Sen Gupta @ Rs. 150/-
“Jawaharlal Nehru” by Aditi De @ Rs. 150/-
“A Boy from Siklis” by Manjushree Thapa @ Rs. 250/-
“Gods of War” by Ashok K. Banker @ Rs. 299/-
“Pilgrimage to Paradise” by Kamla Kapur @ Rs. 200/-
“The Great Indian Love Story” by Ira Trivedi @ Rs. 199/-
“The Perplexity of Hariya Hercules” by Manohar Shyam Joshi @ Rs. 199/-
“The Professional” by Subroto Bagchi @ Rs. 399/-
“Madoff- The Man Who Stole $65 Billion” by Erin Arvedlund @ Rs.399/-
“Who Killed Change” by Ken Blanchard @ Rs. 150/-
“Seeds of Terror- The Taliban, ISI & the New Opium Wars” by Gretchen Peters @Rs. 495/-
“An Indian for all Seasons- The Many Lives of R.C.Dutt” by late Meenakshi Mukherjee @Rs. 399/-
“The Organizational Champion” by Mike Thompson @ Rs. 350/-
“Owning Up- The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask” by Ram Charan @ Rs. 499/-
“Oxford Trees of India” by Pippa Mukherjee @ Rs. 225/-
“Twenties Girl” by Sophie Kinsella @ Rs. 510/-
“Dark Origins” by Anthony E Zuiker @ Rs. 399/-
“Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese @ Rs. 595/-
“In Other Rooms Other Wonders” by Daniel Mueenuddin @ Rs. 395/-
“The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie Tales” by Rudyard Kipling @ Rs. 199/-
“The Blue Notebook” by James A Levine @ Rs. 250/-
“The Satyam Saga” @ Rs. 395/-
“La’s Orchestra Saves the World” by Alexander McCall Smith @ Rs. 295/- (Pgs. 250)
“Summertime” by J.M.Coetzee @ Rs. 799/-
“Bazaars, Conversations And Freedom: For a Market Culture Beyond Greed & Fear” by Rajni Bakshi @ Rs. 450/-
“Bimal Roy: The Man Who spoke in Pictures” Ed. Rinki Roy Bhattacharya @ Rs. 499/-
“The Kapoors : The First Family Of Indian Cinema” by Madhu Jain @ Rs. 450/-


Phew! That’s a lot of new books at the Store … do drop in and check it out!

From the team at,

twistntales

Work @ twistntales

twistntales, has the following requirements :

Counter Staff
Full Time : 10 to 6, Female, Min graduation, prior exp. essential.
Part-time : 5 to 9, Students (min. XIIth), can be considered
Good spoken English, knowledge about books, and cash handling skills essential for both above.

Accounts Asst – Part time (10 to 4)
BCom/ MCom with upto 2 years of exp. in accounts upto finalization. Knowledge of Tally and vendor management skills desirable.

Communications expert
A book lover with interests in books, publishing and communities. Should be able to write well and be net savvy. Part-time/ work from home options can be considered for educated homemakers.

Please apply in confidence with position applied for to twistntales@hotmail.com or drop your CV in the Store.