Painful Stories with Writing Genius

Book Title: A State of Freedom

Author: Neel Mukherjee

I bumped into this novel called “A State of Freedom” by Neel Mukherjee when I was looking for offbeat novels to read. Since many readers recommended it on the internet and the author seemed to have a good track-record of awards for his past novels, I thought of grabbing a copy and getting a first hand experience. Here is what I think about this novel. 

Shiva Trilogy: My Review

After a lot of procrastination, I finally completed all the 3 parts of the Shiva Trilogy, written by Amish Tripathi. Here is my brief review of what I thought about this series and how was my reading experience. 

The story is based on an interesting premise. It is a fictional imagination of the story of Lord Shiva, portraying him (and all the other characters / gods) as humans living during the Indus Valley civilization. It’s a story of his transformation from a tribal barbarian to the Mahadev worshiped by the people. The series consists of 3 books and you have to read it all serially to understand the sequence of the story. The story begins somewhere near the Mansarovar Lake, the home of this tribal leader called Shiva who leads his tribe called “Gunas”.

Pure, Real and Unconventional

Book Title: A Mythical Bird
Author: Dr. Satyendra Srivastava

What do we think when we think of love stories? Whatever thoughts have come to your mind, this book will change the way you think about love stories. This is a story about pure relations between two hearts. A relation that doesn't need to be expressed, conveyed, or declared- it just silently resides within the hearts.

20 Years of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

A couple of weeks back, I bumped into a news item on a news website whose title read- "20 years of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai". In a jiffy, my mind traveled back in time- in the year 1998! At the back of my mind, it was getting difficult for me to believe that KKHH was now considered as nostalgia! For me, nostalgia was Amar Prem, Zanjeer, Sholay and the likes. No, I am not talking about getting older. It's about the time and crazy memories still stuck in my mind as the 'cool thing' of today is now a nostalgia. What changed it? Time of course! So here's a blog post dedicated to my fond memories that flashed my mind in a short span of 15 seconds after reading that news item.

I'm an Awakened Goan Common Man

The other day I had to attend a function at the MCC hall near the Margao Railway station. I decided to ride to the venue on my Honda Activa. I took the route via Arlem going through the Power House (Electricity Dept). As I was passing from Arlem, I had to ride my way dodging through the potholes, and some of them really dangerous. As I was trying to avoid one huge pothole, I almost reached the other side of the lane and blocked the way of a truck coming along the opposite direction. The honking sound brought me back to my senses. What was I thinking?

Best Wishes to AAP

General elections are round the corner, and I have never been as excited before the elections as I am this year. What is the cause of this interest? Well the answer I guess is the confused incumbent Government, the exponentially growing popularity of Modi, and the suspense created by the overnight emergence of AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. The political scene is much more interesting than the love triangles of Bollywood.

In 2012, Anna Hazare started a protest against corruption which soon turned into a nationwide revolution. I was happy to see such a revolution taking place. It was a sign that the people had had it enough.

Ideas !!!

For me, watching TED talks on youtube has always been fun and fascinating. This Sunday, (19^th Jan 2014), BITS Pilani Goa organized TEDxBITSGoa - an independently organized TED event. The organizers sent a special invite to the Toastmasters International, and I being a part of this wonderful organization, grabbed the opportunity.