Making my House a Home

Everyone loves to be their own interior designer. When you're at you're creative best, you can visualize and design your own elements which can lift the look and feel of the place you live. Especially when it's you're comfort zone, your home.

Makemyhome.com has this exciting challenge to decorate your home with any three of their items from their catalogue whilst sticking to a theme.

Personally, my aim is to declutter and as much as possible retain the living spaces. Hence I've selected my individualistic style as 'Contemporary'

The three items I've chosen and why are as below:

Living room, as the name depicts is the place where you 'live' most of the day or so as to say, carry out various activities. Hence the lighting needs to be impeccable during the day as well as night time.

This painting I've chosen as my first of the three items would liven up the blank and empty wall above the sofa set in my living room. It's what I'd like me or people entering my home to take notice of. Not only will it brighten the walls up, but also a touch of a red in a painting brings out the creativity in any person.

I always wanted to use eco friendly earthern lamps rather than electric ones. The only time I use earthern lamps is during Diwali. So why not have one all throughout the year that will also immerse the surroundings with the fragrance of lavender oils. I will place this oil burner in the favourite corner of my home. At night, one would not require the lights to be switched on and one could just bask in its luminescence and eerie glow that it would cast not only in the entire hall.

Frankly I'm not really a morning person but if I do get up early in the morning, there's nothing like glancing at nature. This mural poster is bright and lively with warm colours having birds fluttering around amidst tree branches. Just the kind of thing I want to get inspired to start my day ahead. I would place this right above my dining table.

So, there you go, those are my ideas to brighten up my house 

This post is a part of Makemyhome activity at BlogAdda.com

Book Review: Private India

Now here's a book those mystery-thriller novel lovers would love to read. It's a fast paced, page turner one would really like not to put down. The 447 pager Private India book by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi  is now mine to review. Read on...

First I must confess, I am neither a Ashwin Sanghi loyalist nor a James Patterson fan. However, I love mystery or detective novels. Be it Agatha Christie's Poirot Series, Miss Marple series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series- the classics. So thanks to BlogAdda, I landed with a signed copy (yaay!) of the Private India book. The 'Private' series by James Patterson is a very popular series and die hard Patterson fans will swear by how captivating each book is and Private India is no less. The main protagonist is an ex-marine Jack Morgan and the mystery solving is up to him. Private is now in India and is based in Mumbai. This book describes the city's hustle bustle well, especially the strategic and popular locations like Colaba, The Tower of Silence, Shakti Mills, Chowpatty, Kamathipura,  ...woven well into the storyline and plot

Do not want to give too much away, but here are some of the deets. The storyline revolves around a series of murders happening across the length and breadth of Mumbai. Victims of these murders are seemingly unconnected. Santosh Wagh, the chief of Private India, is contacted by Jack Morgan to crack the serial murder case. Santosh has his own personal tragedy -revealed later in further chapters- and lives with a limp with a cane (which reminds me of Dr. House). Santosh's co-workers Nisha, Mubeen and Hari help him to crack the case open and their characters too have a significant role to play in the plot. Up to date techniques are depicted in order to solve the case. The writer builds the story in short, well woven chapters with every chapter having a cliffhanger at the end so much so you will want to turn the page.

What I really like about the book is that it has a well connect to Mumbai's history and geography and can be easily understood by anyone well acquainted with the city's current events. Involving the characters of an underworld gangster, head of a begging mafia, a terrorist outfit, a godman, etc. makes the story more exciting and interesting to read. Moreover the best part for me was how the secret is unveiled and the connections are made.
Little more details could have been used to describe the motive of the murderer behind the crimes, however this can be overlooked by the fact that there are monologues in between chapters that sneak a peek of what goes on in the murderer's mind.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who would love a good, quick read in the thriller, mystery, detective category. Go grab your copy and uncover the mystery!

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!