17 hours ago
Lounge Loves: ‘Diavola', deer spotting and more
Last weekend, a few of us drove down to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai for an excursion. The rains had transformed the forest into a lush green landscape. After walking for over two hours, we found ourselves by a stream, excited to unpack our breakfast for a little picnic. Just then someone from another group shushed us. He pointed towards the road, where a sambar had just stepped out to graze. Naturally, out came the phones, everyone hurriedly clicking pictures. But the deer was unmoved, going about getting her morning dose of vitamins. At one point she looked up and almost seemed to be posing for the many cameras. While everyone enjoyed the moment, we also couldn't help but wonder at how wildlife had adapted to the urban landscape of this bustling metropolis.
Haunted house stories will never go out of style when it comes to ghost stories. And yet, these days it is a tired trope since the general plot of such a story is highly predictable. The question then is how does an author keep things interesting? Well, Jennifer Thorne certainly cracks it in the superlative Daviola. Set primarily in Tuscany in Italy, it charts the harrowing experience of an American family that has rented a 500-year-old villa for the summer holidays. Thorne slowly ratchets up a sense of growing dread and ominous doom, while balancing it with a satirical look at a rich, dysfunctional family of 'Ugly Americans', and some excellent travel writing to boot. Unputdownable.
When my indie dog was younger, had boundless energy and chewed on everything (one week, I lost three pairs of shoes to her), I came across the yak chew. I wasn't optimistic about it, since every chew claimed to be the best for toothy dogs, but it surprised me. Made of yak milk cheese, the chew was hard but clearly also tasty (in my dog's opinion). She quickly got very attached, and to my relief, it would keep her busy for far longer than any other chew had. In my experience, dog chews can also be made of questionable ingredients, so I was pleased to have found one that my more delicate Retriever could also have. I learnt to take it away from my indie before she broke it into pieces and swallowed them, and sometimes I would microwave the small bits for a tastier snack.
Tired of the mindless merge and match-three mobile games I used to play obsessively, I started exploring cosy, casual games that might be just a little bit more emotionally and intellectually satisfying, like my all-time favourite Monument Valley. The Netflix game Storyteller caught my eye and has proven to be a literal page-turner. The gameplay takes place within a magical storybook, with the player deciding how the plot unfolds. The stories are simple at first and grow in complexity as the player works their way through a series of puzzles. The artwork in the game is delightful and so are the voice-overs and music, giving me a restful break from the blingy, noisy graphics of Candy Crush.
