The Twenty Third Man

March 21, 2026 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Ever had a feeling of deja-vu, like we already did something, like it is happening again, as if we are in a sci-fi movie and re-visited the moment in the past, like gamers playing the same level from the checkpoint? That is how I felt while reading the Twenty Third Man!

I felt like I read this one, ages ago, but I couldn’t recall the story at all. I had a nagging feeling that I read the book, but managed to forget it entirely!

Anyway, let me review this one, for everyone.

Published on : 1957

Read by QB : 10th February 2026

Written by : Gladys Mitchell

Review :

Dame Beatrice Bradley, a well known psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and amateur detective, (probably in her late sixties) lands on island of Hombres Muertos (literally means dead men) for her month long vacation.

She makes friends on the ship, from London to Spain. One Mr.Clun, a 29 year old, ex-prison bird who spent 3 years in prison for manslaughter (i.e. killing someone in a burst of anger or jealousy without premeditation) Then there is Mr.Telham and his newly widowed sister, Caroline Lockerby. Interestingly, the brother and sister seem to loathe Mr.Clun for some reason.

As the ship reaches the island, we meet more characters like Mr.Peterhouse, who organises local tours and is also into growing orchids, but it is later revealed that he is into growing poisonous plants!

Mrs.Angel, who is an enigma, rumour has it that she sends the local girls to South America, to work in estates illegally, in short, slave trade!

Ruiz and his daughter, run the beautiful hotel where everyone is staying at. They are the locals.

There are Clement, an obnoxious, loud boy and his adoptive parents and also Karl Emden, the English casanova, who makes many enemies from his two month long stay at the island. His incessant flirting with every girl on the island makes him notorious and everybody’s enemy. The story turns on it’s head, when Dame Beatrice discovers Karl Emden is missing!

The island Hombres Muertos is famous for its cave, where twenty three mummified kings (wearing fine jewellery) have been preserved. Their final resting place is also the main attraction and is the reason the island got its name .

When the latest batch of tourists enter the cave for their visit, hell breaks loose. Caroline Lockerby becomes hysterical, she thinks she saw one of the 23 dead kings move! Mr.Peterhouse, the tour guide notices nothing and Telham is calmer than ever. Dame herself notices that one of the dead man is taller than the rest, like he had been added recently!

One day later, Clement comments that there are 24 and not 23 dead men in the cave!

Who is the 24th dead body?

Is it Karl Emden? Who killed him?

Why is Mr.Peterhouse growing poisonous plants? Is he down with dementia?

Is the death of Caroline’s husband and Mr.Clun’s manslaughter case related in anyway?

Unable to get any clues in the island of Hombres Muertos, Dame Beatrice reaches London, to do a background check on all the tourists she had met on the island. Meanwhile, Dame sends her assistant, a new mother, Laura and her newborn baby to the island in her stead. (The dacoits on the island kidnap Laura, but once they find out that she has a newborn waiting at the hotel, eager for his dinner of milk, they let her go. Who knew even a newborn can be a saviour from dacoits!)

To find who really is the villain, it is better to read the book. I know you will!

P.S :

1. The writing style is very different to what I have been used to, since it was written in 1950’s. It is indirect and exhausting at first, but I got used to it pretty soon.

2. We get no clues at all about who the killer may be.

3. Since the detective, Dame Beatrice is psychology expert, her brilliance only proves Gladys herself was a genius. I will surely try to find more of her books. She is also a contemporary writer of Dame Agatha Cristie.

4. Incidentally, the dacoits kidnap Clement too, but let him go, unable to bear him! LOL!

I love the location where the novel is based on, which is new and unique.

Till the next post, cheerio.

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Dhurandhar : The Revenge

March 20, 2026 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Let’s just start with a prayer to all the people who said Dhurandhar is a propaganda movie! Dhurandhar : The Revenge has a 30 second clip of PM NaMo, giving his demonetization speech. Take that!

Our show was at 10:30 pm, but thanks to all the useless Ads, it started at 11:00 pm. Most of the audience was openly exasperated and complained loudly.

If you see full house at 10:30 pm, on a weekday, for a movie like Dhurandhar, you should know the audience is serious about it’s movie and not for fun. We came to watch our fearless Dhurandhar. I hope they refrain from wasting half an hour of our precious time.

Before anything else may divert you, let me put my two cents on the table, here goes the review.

Released On : 19th March 2026

Watched by QB on : 19th March 2026

Starring : Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, R.Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi, Gaurav Gera, Yami Gautam and more

Run Time : 3 hrs 49 min

Directed By : G.O.A.T Aditya Dhar

Jaskirat Singh Rangi buys an AK-47 for his brutal rampage, (mind numbing action sequence by Ranveer Singh) killing 12 men of a high profile MLA family, which earns him a death sentence.

One detail I loved was the small town Jaskirat posing for a photo with his family. His body language shows his innocence, before he went on a killing rampage. The anguish and the change in Jaskirat seeps into the screen. We can feel his rage.

Enter Ajay Sanyal and Bansal, who recruit him into the Dhurandhar program. Jaskirat is now Hamza Ali Mazari, the babbar sher (king of beasts, the lion).

At the safe house in Afghanistan, Jaskirat burns his family photo, the last clue of his existence and new life ahead as Hamza.

Anyway, after the death of Rehman Dakait (Akshay Khanna), the throne of Lyari is up for grabs! Uzair Baloch is nothing compared to Rehman. Arshad Pappu becomes powerful by default.

Hamza, who is on a mission to eliminate as many terrorists as possible makes a move and Arshad Pappu is killed by Uzair Baloch, (A brutal killing here, just like the one Rehman Dakait commits in middle of the street), which lands Uzair Baloch in jail and that’s where he stays till the end. (I wondered why Hamza went soft on Uzair, but there is a reason for keeping him alive!)

Here, Hamza Ali Mazari is crowned the new Sher – e – Baloch. (This song has a little less pep than the Foos Foos song from Dhurandhar)

With the new title as King of Lyari, Hamza gets the chance to meet Bade Saab, Dawood Ibrahim. (Whoever said Emran Hashmi was playing Dawood Ibrahim needs to be reprimanded.)

Bade Saab, lives in a palatial bungalow with wires connected to him, living almost like a vegetable, but he still has enough hatred in his veins for more terror attacks on India! He asks Hamza to prove himself worthy of Lyari throne, like his predecessors and involves him in a drug racket. (The drug addicted Punjab needs to thank Bade saab for its drug culture.)

At this point, Hamza comes close to blowing his cover, but thanks to the pick pocketer from Rae Bareli, Hamza is saved. But, SP Aslam (Sanjay Dutt) has his doubts about Hamza being an Indian spy and that seals the deal for him!

SP Aslam is eliminated. (One clean execution here!)

We come to understand the fate of a spy, once Yalina (Sara Arjun) begins to doubt Hamza. Jaskirat ‘s days as Hamza are numbered.

Meanwhile, at Dubai, Hamza is given autonomy by Ajay Sanyal, to do as he pleases and all hell breaks loose. We see unknown men gunning down terrorists, terrorists suddenly dying from heart attacks and what not! (Salute to the unnamed and unknown masked men, who are serving the country in shadows)

Meanwhile, Omar, ASP, is after Hamza. He relays the information to Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal), who is shocked and frustrated.

A long drawn fight ensues, between Major Iqbal and Hamza. I, particularly love the scene where Hamza brings out a bazooka, to fire at Major Iqbal. (It is almost as beautiful as Rambha ho ho , scene from Dhurandhar!) Epic!

Major Iqbal dies and Hamza is captured!

Let me stop the story at that. The rest needs to be watched onscreen.

What I loved :

Ranveer Singh as Hamza Ali Mazari. It is a role of a lifetime for him. When people talk about Ranveer Singh, it will always be the talking point, B.D and A.D.(Before Dhurandhar and After Dhurandhar!) He killed it, lived it, breathed it and no one can ever take that away from him.

Rakesh Bedi as the true blue politician, Arjun Rampal as the twisted army officer, Sanjay Dutt as the brash SP, R. Madhavan as the pukka patriotic security chief and Sara Arjun, as a hopeless wife and loyal mother of a child, too were good.

Finally, the gripping direction and screenplay needs special mention. Take a bow!

P.S :

1. Who even manages to make 2 movies of bombastic content, in a duration of one and half year? No one! For that alone, Aditya Dhar is a GOAT.

2. The run time in no way made the movie boring. I have the habit of checking audience reaction and frankly, no one was sleepy or bored even at 3:00 am in the morning, when the movie finally ended.

3. The music and background score are good, but I loved the ones from Dhurandhar than Dhurandhar: The Revenge.

4. Just so you know, the video clip of PM Narendra Modi brought cheers from audience, just like the ones we get when a super star makes a cameo in a movie, interesting!

Overall, a not-to-miss experience. Do watch it.

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The Monster!

March 1, 2026 / queenbee / 0 Comments

This little incident happened recently when all the four of us were returning home late, one night.

Mr.Bee was driving, I sat beside him. GBee was seated in the seat behind us and KBee was feeling sleepy, so he sat in my lap. We were hardly 5 minutes away from our home.

Suddenly, he saw the road sign to our right side….

I don’t know in what angle the road sign looked like a monster. It was either the lack of street light or the radium paint on the road sign shining under our headlights or the weird stick figure dropping litter, which must have looked like black liquid leaking from his stretched hand, or, KBee’s over- active imagination…Whatever!

I turned my head to look at what caused the panic….understood that the road sign was the culprit. I pacified the kid saying, it is just a road sign.

That soothed his brain.

He began playing again, with the cars in his hands. (His hands are never empty. He has something or other always in his hands.)

This little incident made me realize that even harmless stuff like a road sign can be a cause of worry for little kids.

Just like the lump of coat hanging from a peg, which dances at night, thanks to the high speed fan, anything can be a monster!

P.S :

1. This particular incident had taken place inside the car, but, drawing the inside of the car is too tedious. So, I have kept it simple. The cartoons are supposed to show KBee and me sitting in the front seat but all the extra details of car would have made the cartoon clustered.

2. While this incident was happening, Mr.Bee was silently driving the car and GBee was shouting at the top of his lungs about his friends who stay nearby, etc. They were not involved in our conversation, so I refrained from drawing them.

3. Turns out KBee is giving me lots of material for my blog posts. Incidentally, both the kiddos name all their cars. We have vroom vroom car, First Asha, MK- 1 (short for Mortal Kombat), Point – 1 and Lighter! (These are some of their favourite cars)

Till the next post, cheerio!

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The Anaemic Pomegranate!

February 25, 2026 / queenbee / 2 Comments

One fine afternoon, GBee had yet to return home from school. KBee was busy watching his favourite Blippi in YouTube and I was surfing through the phone, doing my daily dose of mobile-cart shopping!

Gone are the days of window shopping, of hanging out with a bunch of friends in the shops and malls. The latest fad is to do the same in Virtual reality, dropping the goods in the cart, online, when in doubt, just wishlisting them, then forgetting all about it!

While I was stalking the online shelves of Myntra, KBee informed me that he was, indeed, very hungry.

I decided to feed him a Pomegranate.

The hungry baby

That day, three fourth of the fruit was red and a quarter of the pomegranate seeds were white and tiny. ( I think the pomegranate was a little Anemic!)

I didn’t want the kiddo to find fault with the fruit, so I told him that the pomegranate was still a baby and the white seeds were baby seeds! The fruit was in no way spoiled, it just had some colourless seeds.

Extra gyaan to the baby

After telling the kid the pomegranate as good to eat, I went into the kitchen to make myself a hot cuppa tea of apple cranberry flavour.

A little over 10 minutes of time had elapsed. I walked into the hall, with tea in my hand.

I saw KBee standing over the doormat and busy watering it!

KBee told me that he didn’t like the taste of the white pomegranate seeds. Since I told him they were still babies, he decided to plant them and water them.

What better place to plant them, than the turf – look – alike doormat, which resembles freshly mowed grass?

That is what he was doing.

He put all the white seeds on the doormat and began watering them with such enthusiasm.

I was left wondering about how he got the idea, that plants can grow on doormats!

P.S :

1. I have not come across many white pomegranate seeds. It is an acquired taste, astringent!

2. I am not an expert in nutrition but pomegranate without red pigment looks like it is anaemic.

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Stand By Me – A Review

February 24, 2026 / queenbee / 2 Comments

I love watching Hollywood movies, especially of America when it was less mad! (Before the Epstein files took the world by the storm)

Thanks to the AI in the Netflix, I got suggestions in my feed, the movies and shows which may suit my taste and that is how I came upon Stand By Me!

And…here goes the review.

Released In : 1986

QB watched On : 13th February, 2026

Directed by : Rob Reiner

Starring : *surprise… surprise* Will Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, John Cusack and the likes.

Review :

The story starts with Gordie, who reads a paper about the death of a lawyer and there begins the flash back.

Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) and his friends, Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) and Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell) meet at a tree house regularly for playing cards, smoking cigarettes and whatnot. All the 4 friends are around 12 years old. (No way is it the age to be smoking!)

The common feature among them is that none of them have a happy family. While Chris’s father is a drunkard, Teddy’s father has mental health issues and Vern’s family is not exactly a loving and caring one. The saddest life is of nerdy Gordie, whose elder brother, Denny, a gifted baseball player, dies in a car crash. Both his parents never get over the death and his father even tells Gordie, it should have been him and not his elder brother who had died! (Who even tells that to a 12 year old??)

Poor Gordie, the stories he writes are of little consequence to his father, who is more into sports. Incidentally, his brother Denny was the only one who was remotely interested in his younger brother’s talent.

Each kid has his own trauma to get over.

One day Vern tells his friends about overhearing, his brother talk about finding the dead body of the missing teen, Ray Brower. Vern’s brother and his friend are scared about informing the police, since they are delinquents and no one believes they can be innocent of foul play!

Vern and his friends decide to find the dead body by themselves so that they can become local heroes if they help the police discover the body. They pack their bags, Chris brings a revolver from his father’s desk, for safety purposes. Gordie brings a water bottle, Vern brings a comb!(He expects newspaper notoriety, so he wanted to look presentable for the photos) The one thing Teddy had to bring was food and he brings none.

The gang of four go away for the hike, running away from a dog, narrowly escape being run over by a train, get their blood sucked by some very creepy leeches. (seeing them first time in mainstream cinema!) They also spend the night by campfire, while Gordie tells his friends the latest story he wrote about a kid named David “Lard-Ass” Hogan. Chris, the leader of the gang, the cleverest and the most passionate one tells Gordie that he is a good writer.

They take turns keeping a watch for any wild animals while in the forest. That is when Chris and Gordie bond better and share their sorrows and become better friends.

Next morning, they find the dead body of Ray Brower. This is when Gordie has a meltdown, since he is yet to get over the death of his brother Denny.

Parallelly, Vern’s brother and his gang of delinquents also reaches the dead body. Gordie scares the delinquents away with the revolver. But neither the delinquents nor Gordie and his gang get credit for their discovery of dead body. They make an anonymous call!

Later on, the kids return home, Gordie and Chris both get into colleges. Gordie is a writer and Chris is a lawyer. Vern and Teddy drift apart.

The movie ends with Gordie remembering his friend Chris who has been shot dead. He wonders if anyone ever makes good friends apart from childhood friends?

What I loved:

The actors did a great job and lived the roles. It felt like I was part of their world and it was not a movie!

One of the best coming of age movies. It stays with you, just like Dead Poet’s Society.

Interestingly, it was nominated for Academy Awards for best Adapted Screenplay.

P.S :

1. I was especially drawn to Chris and his acting. Gordie was good too. As the credits rolled, I understood why I loved Chris. He was River Phoenix! I have only heard about the brilliant actor River Phoenix was, but this is the first time I watched his movie. I felt immensely sad, because, he had such potential.

He was the elder brother of Joaquin Phoenix. River, died at the young age of 23, by accidental drug overdose! (He is super talented and his death caused a rise in fame for other actors like Leonardo Di Caprio. I hope he was not removed out of picture to make way for others! You know whose name is in the E*stein files, right?) River Phoenix was supposed to work in The Titanic, for the role of Jack.

2. Any The Big Bang Theory fans know Wil Wheaton and Wil Wheaton played Gordie, the main character in Stand By Me. No wonder I had familiar vibes.

3. This movie was adapted from the writer Stephen King’s novella, The Body.

Have you watched Shawshank Redemption? It is a classic, one of the top ten and top 100 all time movies, by IMDb rating. Well, that too is an adaptation of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a novella by Stephen King, who also wrote IT.

4. Watch the movie and thank me later!

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The Intruder – Review

January 28, 2026 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Thanks to the Republic Day sale at our local mall, I decided to buy books. Incidentally, the books which were dead cheap had some obsolete titles, ones that bookworms like me, never ever heard about. I bought 10 books and will complete them one by one.

The first one of the lot that I wanted to read is The Intruder. Let me review it for the fellow bookworms, waiting to get their hands on a book!

Published on : October 2025

QB read on : 26th January 2026, (Republic Day of India)

Author : Freida McFadden (my latest favourite)

Review :

The story starts with Casey, who is living in the middle of nowhere, but still within the reach of basic necessities.

The cabin that Casey rented has a questionable roof. The weather forecast warns of a heavy storm in the horizon. What’s more, even the tree in her yard is dangerously old and may fall on the house anytime soon.

Either the storm or the fallen tree may kill Casey. But then, she finds a pale face looking through her bedroom window!

Is it a hallucination caused by the fear of facing a storm alone or is it a shadow caused due to weird angle of flickering light?

Casey is well prepared for any adversity, thanks to her father, who trained her well. I love how she keeps thinking about her father and what he would have done at different situations. It shows the deep friendship she had with her dad. (I love a good father daughter bonding story)

Then there is her lone neighbour, Lee Traynor, who is concerned for Casey’s safety. He may or may not be the one who is trespassing her property!

Who is Lee? Does he have secrets of his own, like Casey?

During the blackout, Casey manages to find out the tool shed in her property is suddenly lit up. She decides to check out who it is! (Why go to all the trouble of facing the intruder?)

Who is the intruder?

Is it wise to face an intruder on your own, when alone?

As we read through the story of the Casey and the intruder, we also alternate to the life of Ella.

Who is Ella?

Then there is Ella’s mother. This is the first instance where I have read about a character who is in severe depression. I could only pity Ella. Such a pitiful childhood.

Ella finds respite in the friendship of Anton. (Anton is one such character which is good inspite of the circumstances around him. He is a good guy but flawed.)

Finally, when the story unfolds, it brings chills down my spine.

It shows the plight of a kid who has an irresponsible parent.

Scary and sad!

If you had a good childhood with loving parents, then count yourselves lucky instead of taking things for granted. Some kids are not so lucky.

P.S :

1. True to her style, Freida McFadden has some twists up her sleeves and she uses them well at some places.

2. I hate staying alone in a cabin, but if at all I was, I wouldn’t go ahead and search who the intruder was, in the tool shed, that too during a storm!

3. Worth a read. It gives some valuable lessons of how parenting should be done and how important parenting is.

Till the next post, ciao!

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Dhurandhar – A review

January 11, 2026 / queenbee / 0 Comments

After lot of mulling over, whether I can take in the violence and after Mr.Bee had watched it with his friends, I decided to watch Dhurandhar. Mr.Bee promised that he would warn me at the violent parts, so that I could cringe and grit my teeth, without having to see the gore and blood shed, but only listen to the audio at those parts! (I was THAT set on watching Dhurandhar)

This is a fair warning to all the people who love a good movie, but get the jitters at violence, do watch the movie, to get a general idea of how much our Army is sacrificing for mediocre individuals like us!

Firstly, a person who is skilled about what to do and how to do is called a Dhurandhar!

Now let’s jump into the review….

Released on : 5th December, 2025

Queen Bee watched on : 9th January, 2026

Starring : Ranveer Singh, Akshay Khanna, R.Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Gaurav Gera, Rakesh Bedi, Sara Arjun, Manav Gohil and more.

Directed by : Aditya Dhar

Review :

Movie starts with the 1999 Kandahar plane hijack and the killing of one of the passengers. It must have been a harrowing experience to all the passengers on the airplane. (Incidentally, all the Islamic terrorists had used Hindu code names during the hijack.)

We meet R.Madhavan, essaying the role of Ajay Sanyal, chief of National Security, who is patriotic and plans well ahead for the country. Project Dhurandhar is his brain child.

Next comes the 2001 terror attack of the Indian Parliament. The director included real footage of the incident too. I was not prepared for it, I shed a tear or two for the 9 brave hearts, the security personnel who died on that day, foiling the plans of the terrorists. Salute! (Imagine if only the suicide bomber had succeeded in entering the parliament, the damage would have been manifold.)

This incident puts the wheels in motion and the Dhurandhar, Ranveer Singh enters the enemy territory, as Hamza Ali Mazari. The song which introduces him is the best. Can’t get it out of my head! ( Na toh Karvan ki talaash hai….)

I was worried for him. Imagine living among enemies!

Anyway, by making the right moves, Hamza ends up in the close circle of Rehman Dakait (Akshay Khanna). Then there is Jameel Jamali (Rakesh Bedi), a PAP politician who uses Rehman Dakait, as an ally.

Hamza meets Yalina Jamali (Sara Arjun), the 19 year old daughter of Jameel Jamali, who falls for Hamza.

Through these links Hamza manages to get intelligence about the 500 and 1000 rupee note scam. (The information later is passed onto the IB chief Ajay Sanyal.)

The one at the center of this Indian currency scam is Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal), somehow, he looked creepy from the get go! (Anyone remembers those days in our childhood when people took extra care to check if the 500 note is original or not. Somehow, the information got leaked to even general public, but nothing was done to stop the scam)

The Khanani brothers who were part of the Indian currency scam also join hands with Rehman Dakait, along with Major Iqbal to procure weapons. They plan another terror attack on India, on October 3rd, 2008 with the spearhead being Ajmal Kasab.

Hamza passes on the information to IB chief and the terror plan on October 3rd is foiled. Major Iqbal successfully catches hold of the Indian spy among the terrorists!

The next scene is probably the most haunting scene I have ever watched in a movie. The Indian spy is tortured and I could hardly look at the screen. ( Not even an enemy deserves that torture.)

Inspite of the terror warnings given by Hamza and the other tortured spy, 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks happen!

Hamza’s pain is real. He is living among enemies, doing stuff he normally doesn’t do, watches first hand, how the enemy nation is torturing the Indian spy and still the terror attack couldn’t be averted.

In the next scene, Hamza shows this angst by amputating the fingers, one by one of a mere employee of Rehman Dakait! ( powerful scene indeed)

The movie ends with Hamza marrying Yalina, helping SP Aslam ( Sanjay Dutt) encounter Rehman Dakait.

During the last fight scenes, when Rehman was not easily bowing down to both Hamza and SP, I was like, maar saale ko, khatam kardo…that shows how well Akshay Khanna lived in the role of a violent crime lord.

I know, by now everyone is all praises for Akshay Khanna, but for me, Ranveer Singh is the man! He truly brought out the best and I don’t know how he managed his generally over-the -top personality, contain it and bring out such nuanced performance. He emoted with his eyes and how! I have always known that he is a good actor and he proved himself once again.

Lastly, full credit to the director Aditya Dhar for bringing out such a movie. The 3 hour 34 minute runtime didn’t feel long at all. Everyone were engrossed in the movie. Young India needs to know, learn, adapt and decide it’s own future. Thanks to brave hearts and brave story tellers who inspire us.

P.S:

1. Whoever called this a propaganda movie is nuts.

2. The movie made me numb! Who even gives instructions during a terror attack, step by step! The audio during the 26/11 terror attacks was played and it was shocking how cold terrorists can be.

Army is doing so much for the country, what are we even doing to earn it?

3. I have never watched any movie remotely patriotic. I plan to watch URI and Sam Bahadur soon.

4. On a lighter note, I like the background score, at the scene when Hamza is fighting gang war, flips his long hair in slo-mo, Ramba Ho ho ho….! I wish I had such beautiful, untangled hair!

Music by Shashwat Sachdev is off the charts and awesome. The Arabic rap song Foos Foos by Fa9la is also unforgettable.

Waiting for Dhurandhar 2, on 19th March 2026.

Till the next post, ciao!

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Munnar : Of Terror Attacks and No show safaris

December 3, 2025 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Day 6 (23rd April 2025):

We woke up, freshened up, had breakfast and sat in the hotel room. I was under the weather and Mr.Bee was sweet enough to take the boys out to play, by himself.

They played in the playground at the White House Hotel, while I had a rejuvenating nap. I woke feeling a little refreshed and active.

We had our lunch in the room, watched some random movie.

Incidentally, this was also the day after the Pahalgam terror attack, about which we came to know a little late. Since we had been on the road all day (Day 5), we couldn’t be in touch with anyone (no signals at most viewpoints) and that must have been terrible for both Mr.Bee’s and my parents. We didn’t know there was a terror attack and we didn’t know people were trying to get in touch with us!

Anyway, after our evening snacks, we got out of the room at last, to go for shopping. Mr.Bee bought me a Kasavu saree at the Kasavu Aalayam. (Yet to wear it)

Our next stop was the Munnar Chocolate Factory. GBee and KBee were excited about visiting MCF and even without eating a single chocolate, they seemed to be in a sweet-induced-high!

We reached room in time for our dinner and slept peacefully.

Day 7 :

As if Munnar was silently crying for the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, the day had started out bleak, with a downpour!

Although we were on a holiday, we still felt sad for the effect the terrorists had on tourists. (Incidentally, Munnar is a safe place. Most of the population here follow Christianity.)

I kept thinking about …what goes inside the brain of a terrorist ? Are they even human ? Are they crazy ? And more such thoughts continued…

We had originally planned for a safari tour, to watch the animals in the majestic Munnar. Sadly, the rain was a deterrent.

After our lunch, we decided to go out anyway. Coming to Munnar and sitting inside the hotel room for most part of the day, seemed useless.

Once the heavy rain turned into a drizzle, we booked our safari, through a phone call. (Safari tours are just a phone call away)

Our rental Ertiga driver, who was still with us in Munnar had no major work for two straight days. He was happy chatting up with other drivers and sleeping lazily throughout the day.

Our safari tour guide brought a jeep, loaded us inside and we started out.

I packed a bag with some 45th Avenue cookies, water bottles, ear muffs and fully charged phones and we were ready for the elephants!

As soon as we reached Anachal, we took beautiful photos at various viewpoints.

@ Anachal

We entered the forest area and thanks to the heavy rain since the morning, the forest was replete with waterfalls and rain water run-offs.

You really need to be there to see the beauty of Munnar. I can’t explain it any better.

At one viewpoint (pic above), we saw a car driver, park his car on the rocky trail, fill up a bucket with the water from the foot of the waterfalls, to wash his car! Even that simple task seemed new to us. (Who even washes a car near waterfalls in the city? No one.) It was a novel experience, although using a soap is not exactly environment friendly in places like Anachal and Mankulam.

Munnar is a beauty and thanks to the rain, we got to see it, in its true glory.

By the time we reached Perumbankuthu Waterfalls, the rain was not a drizzle anymore. It was more of a downpour. Our safari driver stopped the jeep, gave us two umbrellas and pointed towards the bridge and the steel deck we needed to go to, to take in the view.

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3

Steps leading to deck – on normal days, with no rains…

The bridge and the viewpoint were completely deserted. (Who even goes around for tours when there is a downpour? No one, except some rare specimens like QB and family!) Here too, inspite of the umbrella in my hands, drenched feet and cool breeze causing shivers, I still enjoyed the view. It will stay in my memories, for a long time to come.

@Tiger Cave – QueenBee and a bridge!

We later made a brief stop at the Tiger Cave, near Mankulam village. It was closed because of the rains and we returned to our jeep. Every village had small shops with noodles, tea, coffee and the forever unhealthy option of packets of half filled potato chips of Lays and others.

GBee loves potato and it’s byproducts, so he demanded me for a Lays packet. I complied his request, by giving him the millet cookie! He looked at me in silence, he has the whole life ahead of him, to complain, he will get there soon!

We continued our tour, the final destination being Anakulam. It was already half past five.

The jeep came to a halt at the junction which was prominently marked by Holy Mary with Baby Jesus in Her arms. Many vehicles were parked there, filled with tourists in all sizes and shapes. We even saw a white family, who waited for a glimpse of the elephants, patiently.

We met a desi family, who are NRIs from the U.K and we discussed the tour plans and feedbacks. They were past the age of 60 and the kiddos too didn’t shy away from telling them what they really thought about the safari tour!

We waited and waited till 6:30 and decided to return to Munnar from Anakulam, since it was already getting dark and the kids were hungry.

The safari tour guide had already warned us about a ‘no-show’ from the elephants, because, heavy rains meant cold climate and foggy pathways in the forests and the elephants preferred to stay together with their herds, than roam about towards the village or play in the water, like they usually did!

@ Anakulam – on a normal day

GBee was mighty disappointed and even after a month or so after the trip came to an end, the only thing he remembered was that we couldn’t spot a single elephant in our safari tour!

@ Anakulam – a “no – show” , when it rains.

After more than one hour, we finally reached the hotel. Mr.Bee, GBee and KBee had dozed off in the jeep but I stayed awake, looking at the deserted roads and sleepy forest, on our way back.

After a quick wash up and change of clothes, we were ready to call it a day. I wish I had seen some of the pukka local elephants, spray eachother with water, but one can’t have everything!

We slept like logs, thanks to the safari trip in the jeep.

P.S :

1. I admire the army personnel who were responsible for the Operation Sindoor. Thank you guys. I don’t know know how you do it, but thanks anyways!

2. I am also thankful that we have a pro active PM and not a meritorious silent puppet, who served the Desh Drohis in silence.

3. Since it is already December and I am yet to complete my April vacation posts, I decided to finish it off first, before writing about anything else. Timing sucks!

4. The photos which were taken by me or Mr.Bee have my blog name in them, but the others I have freely taken from online. Thanks to the kind sources, who let others use their photos, without plastering them with watermarks!

5. I seem to be attracting lots of spam messages. Thanks, but no thanks!

Till the next post, bubye!

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For the love of Pizza

December 1, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

My earliest memories of pizza are from my childhood, when my friends and I would haunt our favourite Global Bakery, order a small pizza, eat a slice each and go to our evening tutions.

When one of our friends had their birthday, we would celebrate with a pizza along with 200 ml each of Coca Cola or our desi favourite, Thumbs Up. Those were the best days, of no worries and screen-free childhood!

The nearby, Country Oven was somehow unsuccessful. Everyone preferred the Global Bakery.

Anyway, schooling was the time my love for pizza started.

Once I progressed to college, getting pizza delivered became a routine. Mid Land Bakery got most of our business. These orders grew manifold, once I began earning.

I miss those days when the Technical Division team girls had a fun lunch at the Pizza Hut and ate to our hearts content.

After marriage, when Mr.Bee and I, made Charlotte our new home, pizza had been the go-to lunch or dinner, during our lazy days.

Even though I have been in love with the Pizza, this post is not about me!

I remember my first ever pizza in Charlotte, which had nothing but mushrooms as the topping. (I hated the Mellow Mushrooms pizza, by the way. I am not a fan of mushrooms, even though they are one of the rare sources of protein for vegetarians.)

Then came the particularly soft Papa John’s pizza, who knew my heart and always sent extra pickles for this desi girl, Queen Bee! I could savour their soft pizza, thanks only to their pickles.

Then there was Vapiano Pizza, which had the best ambience and was the true Italian pizza, but I felt no connection! (Sadly, it was shut down during Covid lockdown and now the new pizzeria in it’s place is, the Bella Ciao)

The Pizza Hut pizza was good too, but could hardly conquer my taste buds.

The Fuel Pizzeria’s Garden Fresh Pizza with my all time favourite topping of Basil had me salivating like never before. Mr.Bee loved to have a Margarita Cheese Pizza. At Fuel, we ordered half and half, one half with my choice of toppings and the other half with three kinds of cheese for Mr.Bee. Sweet deal! The added advantage was of the ambience, which was friendly, but not too friendly.

Incidentally, the FUEL pizzeria was close to Mr.Bee’s office and that added to the charm. I also loved their Garlic Knots, which were my “soul” food, they made my soul happy!

The day we landed in Charlotte, we had pizza from Mellow Mushrooms, Mr.Bee got negative marks for this choice of pizza! He didn’t know about my aversion to mushrooms. To compensate, he took me to the Fuel pizzeria for dinner and that saved his neck!

Team lunches and dinners for Mr.Bee always meant Pizza, he must have eaten more than twice of my share of pizzas, but still, this post is not about him either!

During the lockdown, the one person who missed pizza was none other than GBee. Yes, this post is about my elder munchkin and his love for the Pizza.

Thanks to lockdown and the after effects of it, we stopped eating out for a while. To satiate our demanding taste buds, we even made a pizza at home, with the head chef/ baker being Mr.Bee and the sous chef / baker being me!

Once GBee saw that we were making him a pizza, he was excited and I don’t remember how we made him sit for full 45 minutes, till it was done.

He was so excited, he rushed outside to the main gate, as soon as he heard the gate open. He shouted at the top of his voice about pizza being made at home. Sadly, the visitors were confused and were in too deep a conversation to even respond to the kiddo.

GBee sharing his happiness with random strangers!

Since we didn’t have an oven good enough to bake a sinful pizza, we made it with desi jugaad. That weekend had been memorable.

Before and After – Homemade pizza

Credit goes to Mr.Bee for the tasty pizza. Guess who loved it the most? GBee.

Although, he picked out every piece of vegetables on the pizza and piled it onto my plate, he still loved it! If only he ate it with all the vegetables, he would have been a bigger pizza fan!

Some day I would love to go to Italy and try the pizza there, probably made by a nonna . Does anyone have similar dream?

P.S :

1. Down the line, when we wanted to feed GBee to some sandwiches, we would bluff that they were just mini-pizza and he would believe us and eat them. Now, he is old enough to recognize the bluffs.

2. KBee, surprisingly doesn’t like pizza. We always order garlic bread for him to eat. Our choice of pizzeria in Hyderabad is the Pompeii. (The pizza is to die for!)

3. Before our flight to India, when we were finally returning home, Mr.Bee and I ate at the Fuel Pizza, one last time.

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Do Not Disturb – Review

November 26, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

On my good days, I can complete a novel of 350 or less pages in a day. But if the story is not engaging and if it’s a week day, which involves picking up and dropping off the kids at their schools, I can finish off a novel in two days, in style!

Luckily, I started this one on a Saturday and by night fall, I was ready to review it. So here goes the review….

Review:

Written By : Freida McFadden

Published On : Self Published in 2021

Read By Queen Bee On : 19 th October 2025

Do Not Disturb, rightly starts with Quinn Alexander, who doesn’t want to be disturbed!

Why?

Because she is busy washing off the blood on her hands. She had just killed her husband Derek Alexander!

Turns out Derek is a giant A**!

Although, Quinn’s ex boyfriend, a cop, Scott Dwyer is at her main door, investigationg the neighbour’s complaint, she manages to send him off, without raising his suspicion.

All the while, the dead body is in the kitchen, blimey!

Quinn could have just used the self defense theory to get out of the murder rap, but she doesn’t.

She is mighty scared and the best idea she comes up with is to run away! (Running away is a clear cut sign of guilt, any reader of crime thrillers and murder mysteries knows it.)

The story would have ended after a couple of pages, if Quinn had just surrendered to the police, showed him the bruises on her neck and proved the abuse, but nope.

Bumbling and painfully amateurish, she manages to reach a dilapidated motel called The Baxter Motel, all the while leaving enough clues for anyone to follow her. Turns out, she has always been lucky, but smart, she is not.

From this instance, the novel turns into a thriller, even reminding me of the classic Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, which I had watched, as a teen. (Take a bow, Mr.Hitchcock. It is an unforgettable movie, made in 1960, but is still relevant. More on that later.)

We meet Nick Baxter, the owner of the motel, who has an invalid wife, Rosalie, who was once a celebrated chef, but now, she just sits by the window and spies on her husband, through a binoculars.

Then there are other characters like Claudia, elder sister to Quinn; Rob, her husband, who is a plumber. A psychic, who is a permanent guest at the motel etc.

We also get to know the back story of the motel owner and his wife. (I felt the backstory could have been a little short. It completely diverted me from the MC, Quinn.)

Incidentally, the Baxter Motel is infamous for the murder of one of its guest, Christina Marsh. (Two years prior to the current story line.)

Just as Quinn decides to run away from the motel, she is stabbed…

What will happen to her?

Is the motel owner guilty of crime?

Who stabbed Quinn?

Who killed Christina Marsh?

Who is Derek Alexander’s mysterious girlfriend?

All the questions are answered at the end. Some of them may surprise you and some may not!

P.S:

1. The novel is worth a read, probably one of the writer’s initial works. I, for one, loved being reminded of the Psycho. Go ahead and watch it, now! The movie is unforgettable.

2. It is the second novel of Freida, where the ex – boyfriend is a cop!

Till the next post, bubye.

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