A bear there was, a bear, a bear!

Here it is again, my weekly email newsletter that some of you *still* can't figure out. Is it a personal email? Is it a blog post? WHO KNOWS. I am enjoying myself sending it though.

We had a Birthday in the house this week and as a result, both me and Birthday Person have felt like we were on holiday more or less for the rest of the non-birthday days. This could also be because we invested in a projector--something we've been talking about doing for about a million years. Said projector is supposed to hook up to your laptop wirelessly, but that made it lag so I had to send off double quick for an HDMI cable. (I know, I know, this is all very fascinating.) Anyhow, we figured out a way to stream stuff through our cellphones and spent a very fun night watching Ex Machina. The film is about sentient AI, and has made me so curious about that stream of science, I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject. Fun fact: Stephen Hawking thinks we're screwed!

This week in stuff I wrote: As Aunty Feminist over at Youth Ki Awaaz, I wrote about the care and handling of mean girls. And my relationship column for this week, our best friends and our best friend's boyfriends.

This week in bookstores: I feel like Midlands doesn't get enough love. Everyone's always on about the fancy ones in Jor Bagh or Khan Market and not mentioning it at all. However, since it's now the bookstore closer to home for me, I've begun to appreciate it in new ways. Firstly, they have all the books and the books they don't have they order for you. Secondly, there's always some kind of discount. Thirdly, everyone in that store knows where all the books are and who all the authors are and can give you recommendations based on what you're buying which is fantastic and also means MORE BOOKS. Fourthly, the very last Wimpy's Burgers outlet is in the same market so you buy your books, buy a burger and then nostalgia eat-read.

Throwback book(s) of the week: Louisa May Alcott wrote a bunch of books which were not part of her Little Women series. I've read them all #nerdyhumblebrag but if I had a favourite, I think it would be Eight Cousins and its sequel Rose In Bloom. Eight Cousins features Rose, an orphaned young heiress sent to live with a bunch of aunts with one childless uncle as a guardian, plus seven boy cousins. Rose is a bit of a prig, as the introduction to my edition by Joan Aikin says, Uncle is a bit too much sometimes, but for experiments in parenting, it's quite fun. Rose In Bloom is where all the sexytimes begin as cousins fall wildly in love (WITH EACH OTHER!) and there's a bad boy who dies because he's bad and a good boy who wins the girl in the end. Easily available online FOR FREE on Gutenberg which I love.

This week in markets: Think global, shop local has totally been my motto this week and on a wine run (for Indian wine, Grover's La Reserve or the Fratelli Sangiovese make a reasonably priced and delicious addition for any palate. Red wine palate, i.e. White wine makes me headache-y) I went to SDA market, frequented so much by IIT students that the whole place has an air of Youth! and Vitality! A decent takeaway taco place, ice cream frozen right in front of you, smoothies and coffee, plus a really very nice wine shop (even though they kept making us move while they mopped.) SDA! Hurray!

This week in links: The Devil Wears Prada (aka One of the Best Movies Of All Time Even Though Andy Had Shitty Friends) turned 10! And Goddess Meryl Streep plus Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway did an interview about it. How to be polite (I tried this and it did not work. Oh Delhi.) Can you be a writer and a mother? It's complicated. Indian publishers compare books to coffee and why they need to stop. Sexual harassment lyrics in Bollywood. "They are treated worse than animals - even cattle live with greater security, greater comfort." 12% of Indian women are single. There's Sex and The City, and there's this. Goodbye, The Toast, you were brilliant but ahead of your time. Karan Johar is killing it on his new NDTV column. Full on cheating by this couple who claim to be the first Indian couple to climb the Everest. (SPOILER: THEY'RE NOT.)

Love and kisses,
m