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Understanding Indian Classical Music

If you feel like you're in an alien country every time somebody discusses Indian Classical music around you, this could help. Swars (or swaras)                                                                  Essentially, all of Indian classical music is made up of 12 notes. These are called swars (or swaras ) . There are seven basic swars , one step away from each other. 1. Sa 2. Re 3. Ga 4. Ma 5. Pa 6. Dha 7. Ni

Book review: And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

(No spoilers) In one word, I'd say it was disappointing. Having read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I had formed an opinion about Khaled Hosseini as a master story-teller, someone who can twist your heart and make your eyes swell up with tears by just playing with words. When my copy of And The Mountains Echoed arrived, I was really eager to read it because I expected it to be like his other two books, a heart wrenching yet beautiful story. And The Mountains Echoed is, in the beginning, the story of two siblings who are forced to be separated from each other. It opens in the fictional village of Shadbagh, and from there the author takes the readers to many places including Kabul, Paris and San Francisco. Pari and her elder brother Abdullah, as inseparable as Juno's swans, are eventually estranged by fate.