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Best Reads 2016: Mrinmayee Ranade

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MRINMAYEE RANADE

As i start writing what I loved reading the most this year, I realise that I have read much less than I would have wanted to. Blame it on my addiction to the smartphone. I promise to myself to do better next year.
 

I have just started reading the biography of farmers’ leader, founder of the Shetkari Sanghatana, Sharad Joshi written by Bhanu Kale. It is heart wrenching, to know the absolutely horrific and shameful way our governments in particular and the society in general have treated the farmer of this country. It has opened my eyes wider, and more sensitive when I see the roadside vendor selling 10 lemons for 10 rupees. The first thought in my mind, how much will the farmer get?

 

I read a couple of Diwali special issues, a speciality of the Marathi literature world. More than 200 such special issues are published every year before Diwali. I loved  Mouj the best; Antarnad is good; and loved a couple of articles from Maharashtra Times and Divya Marathi.

 

I have subscribed to the online version of The New Yorker and read quite a lot of articles on that site. Articles about Trump, Hillary, Obama have been informative, and loved the language and its style.

 
I started reading My Name Is Red by Orhan Palmuk early last month. I was fascinated by the storyline, the style, the characters, the situations. However, I couldn’t go beyond 50 pages or so, probably because of short attention span. Again, blame the smartphone (Will start the book all over again now).
 

That’s it for 2016. Hope to have a better read in 2017.

 
Mrinmayee Ranade is the Mumbai based editor of Madhurima, a weekly supplement for women, with Dainik Divya Marathi, Dainik Bhaskar group. She has worked as a journalist in various English and Marathi newspapers since 1992, in Mumbai. She has also worked as a fixer for foreign authors/journalists on assignments in India.