What to read:
Skin Privilege (Beyond Reach in the US) by Karin Slaughter is the sixth book in her Grant County series and was published nearly ten years ago, when a white Republican was the PoTUS. The book starts off with Sara Linton, a pediatrician, having to defend herself against the charges of medical negligence leading to death. Facing alienation from nearly the entire community, she decides to accompany her husband, who is a police chief, to track down his assistant, who has landed herself in a soup. As the story progresses, they proceed to uncover dark and potentially life-threatening secrets inhabiting the town which has been struck by meth trafficking.
When I picked up the book, I didn’t know that it was an instalment and nothing while reading it gave me cause to suspect otherwise. Slaughter sets up the plot quite wonderfully and makes a liberal use of red herrings throughout the story. Although she develops the new characters quite painstakingly, most of them fall short of being really relatable. The meaty middle of the book has been written in two different timelines which can be initially difficult to adjust to, but she does a neat job of merging them as the story nears its conclusion. Slaughter chooses to be quite gory in it’s detail of multiple rapes, tortures and brutal murders in the town. Although she ends the book with a possible cliffhanger, she hasn’t chosen to pursue this series further, but you never know.
To sum up, pick it up if you are in for a slightly long murder mystery and can deal with the chilling details that she offers.
--Kumaresh
What to watch:
Godless
A person could spend years and even decades waiting for a Western as immersive and satisfying as Godless. True to the genre in almost every way (and yet refreshingly modern in providing strong, vital roles to women), it plays like a seven-hour film without wasting a single glorious, gritty, panoramic minute. And as a bonus, not a single character is one of Westworld’s subservient cyborgs. This, here, is the real McCoy.
Godless, written and directed by Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Minority Report) for Netflix, and executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, is a gorgeous and slyly subversive affirmation of the genre’s power, even if it isn’t quite the “feminist Western” it was marketed as. The series has all the classic tropes: outlaws, train heists, brooding heroes, disillusioned lawmen and bleak emp. But it also has the weight of a world in which something is out of balance. The tension between freedom and order, between outlaw individualism and functioning communities, comes to a breaking point in Godless.
Any villain worth elevating into the pantheon needs a trademark; think Captain Ahab’s peg leg or Captain Hook’s hook. Godless tells its story with a brazen willingness to try for the epic, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels) has his own mark of past harm: a missing arm. But rather than cover the absence with a prosthesis, Frank carries around his dead limb. It’s a gruesome reminder of just how much he’s able to survive.
This 1880s-set western, is filled with vim and rage, some of it from Frank and some from those who fear his wrath. When Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell) escapes Frank’s gang, a small mining town populated with women is threatened by the potential cross fire. For all the shock that Godless squeezes out of just how far Frank is willing to go–and how far the amiable star playing him is willing to push himself–the show uses its seven often hour- plus-long episodes carefully, pacing out revelations about the relationship between Frank’s heedless warrior and Roy’s tormented protégé.
More riveting still are the women of La Belle, N.M., played by actors including Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) and Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie). That the arrival of new men into their lives is a dissonance for women who’d been handling the frontier on their own is Godless’ most satisfying twist on a genre as old as America.
-Nithin
Where to eat:
The Sassy Spoon
This restaurant has been around since 2013 and has been tested to be one of the best locations in town for a date, if you’re thinking of heading to Nariman Point. It has a beautiful decor and a great ambience including an outdoor seating to offer, making it a good option to dine in, during the winter months. The cuisine being largely European and Mediterranean, they have a wide menu for wines. Currently they’re offering a 1+1 offer on selected cocktails every Monday evening until Christmas eve. They’re the complete package, offering wine, delicious food and live entertainment all for approximately 1800 rupees for two.
--Ishita
What to listen :
The Lumineers (American folk rock)
If you’re into pop folk(Mumford and Sons kinda stuff) or if you just want to listen to some calm and slow rock songs with great vocals and guitar, you’re definitely gonna like them.
Famous songs include Ho Hey and Sleep on the Floor.
--Vishal
