Pligrim's India- ed. Arundhathi Subramanium

I bought this book to gift to a seeker, a pilgrim I wasn't going to read it, really. But the book seduced me into picking it up, by it's promise of translations from ancient texts and also just lying there on my center table, throwing me sly beckoning looks.

I succumbed and picked it up and was drawn into its many journeys, multiple quests and myriad voices.  The pieces are so carefully and beautifully selected- thanks Arundhati with a satisfying mix of prose and poetry ancient and contemporary.

I was hooked from the first piece - Jerry Pinto's visit to the Kumbh Mela and traveled into Kabir's poetry, Khasi folk tale. and more. There are visits to Dargha, churches, Sikh sacred destinations and the original fire temple. There are the famous shrines and road side destinations And of course the foreign seeker and the one who tries to find it with chemical help. The book is as secular as it is possible for a search for the divine can get. That is the strength of this book.

The writing is uniformly good and the translations are satisfying. They don't leave you with the half- satisfied feeling of having missed the main spice in a iconic dish that many translations often do. Again, another thanks to the editor

Of course , not all the journeys were satisfying. Some accounts  was a little too dry to keep me fully interested and the one about  the meeting with Sankaracharya of Kanchi a little too superficial to be satisfying.

But the sum is bigger than the parts. And more satisfying. And left me with questions about my own quest for the sacred. Namely- maybe it's time to start one.

A must for everybody who wondered about spiritual India.

Pomegranate Soup - Marsha Mehran

This was a book I read after a long hiatus. What can I say except what a perfect book to come back to reading with.
A book that warms you on cold wintry nights.
Marjan, Bahar and Layla escape the terrors of  Iran into the unpronounceable Irish town of Ballinacroagh . There Marjan starts her Babylon Cafe. There she serves the local exotic dishes seasoned with mysterious spices that hint of hope , dreams and other forbidden pleasures. There snakes in this paradise  and the sisters have to deal with them.

This is an evocative narrative that is filled with the fragrance of the Marjan's cooking, the lushness of Layla's burgeoning beauty yet shadowed by the dark despair that follows Bahar.

Pick it up- You'll love not only the three sisters and the townspeople , you'll also be tempted to try the recipes from Marjan's kitchen.
A perfect book-club selection