Creative Musings

Book Review -   I trapped a DOLPHIN but it REALLY wasn't my fault! Written by Singapore's best-selling author Neil Humphreys and co-authored by his four year old daughter Abbie Rose, the book,   " I trapped a DOLPHIN but it really wasn't my fault"   is the second book in the children's book series " ABBIE ROSE & the magic suitcase."  I actually bought this book for my 6 year old son and bought the author's other best-seller, Return to a Sexy Island for myself. However, I ended up reading the children's book first ( the cover page seemed more attractive and I could finish the book easily in the cab ride home).  And while my 'action hero' son liked the story but rejected the book because it's central character was a girl (he is at an age when his world is full of macho, super human boys and girls sadly figure nowhere on his horizon), I enjoyed the read thoroughly! As a parent who buys a lot of children...

I Deserve the Gallows, Readers! Yes, dear blog I know I have been absent for too long.  I confess I am guilty and I won't even ask for forgiveness this time. If the blogosphere envisaged a punishment for absenteeism - I would surely deserve the gallows!! So what happened, you may well ask??- Plenty actually! All this while I had loads of news and views to share but I got side-tracked and (yes I admit) lazy. Recap -April 2012 to March 2013  Is it even possible to recap one whole year in one single post? Well we live to try, isn't it? So here is my attempt to recap the events in my life in the past one year that occupied me, touched me, inspired me, changed my life for the better or for worse. April  to June 2012-  Welcoming the Baby and the Guests; 23rd April, 2012, Monday, 10.47 p.m - was when we welcomed our second son Akshit into the world. Since it was to be a planned C-section (the gyne was reluctant to do a VBAC for me), we had decided to have t...

The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

A debate that has been hotting up in Singapore recently is whether preschoolers ( kids between the age of 3 and 6) are better off learning through play or should they be sweating it out in school, enrichment classes and home in order to get a head start in Primary School.  The debate sparked off after Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong in his 2012 National Day Speech exhorted parents to stop hothousing their children and to allow them to learn through play. The response to the PM's comment from educationists and parents has been overwhelming but divided.  One set of parents ( mostly parents of children who are either going to college or have yet to start preschool or grandparents) have complimented the Prime Minister and lauded his advice. The other set of parents ( whose children are actually in preschool or preparing to go to primary school and who were presumably the targeted group for the comment ) have been largely critical of the Prime Minister's...

I have been a bit obsessed about the Fifty Shades Trilogy lately ( who isn't these days? ) and so here comes my third  article/ post on the books after Fifty Shades Unplugged and What is Driving the Success of the Fifty Shades Trilogy?  Here, I am listing out, what in my opinion, are the Best and the Worst Shades of the Fifty Shades; Shades of Grey - Fifty Shades has shades of white wrapped in innocence and pure love; shades of red embodied by bold passion and pain; shades of black in the form of dark secrets and evil intentions but most of all fifty shades has several shades of grey from the boldest steel to the shimmering silver to the darkest deep - this is the threshold where love and lust mingle, where erotica meets mush, where control fades into compromise and where innocence steps into self-assured maturity. The Names of the Characters - The names given by the author to the leading protagonists - Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele sound just so...

Earlier this month, 'Mind Your Body', a supplement of the Straits Times newspaper in Singapore turned its focus to the subject of Breastfeeding. In a nation that is currently obsessed with falling birth rates and on encouraging its youth to marry and procreate; breastfeeding ( the inevitable milestone for every new mother)  is a very relevant theme. The supplement carried reports of how hospitals in Singapore are encouraging new mothers to breastfeed. It also featured stories of some mothers who have successfully breast fed their babies despite problems such as clogged ducts and sore nipples. But shockingly the same supplement carried an editorial which was titled "Breastfeeding is not for everyone", it stressed on how cumbersome breastfeeding could be and how many women would not want to breastfeed after nine months of pregnancy, an arduous labor and because they did not want to feel like a cow! Hardly an appropriate editorial if the intention of the paper ...

A blubber from my Article  published on 13th August, 2012 on Helium. "So what is driving the phenomenal success of the novels ( the Fifty Shades Trilogy, by British author E.L.James) dubbed as “mommy porn” of the century, is it the hype or the marketing? is it the storyline or just the sex?"  In my article, "What is Driving the Success of the Fifty Shades Trilogy?" on helium ,  I have tried to unravel some of the factors which have contributed to the books’ runaway success, both literary and commercial. Click on the link to learn more. Genre- Helium- Arts & Humanities- Literature- British Literature