...shoOOonya...

Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?     Ans: One   No. It is Five    Why?    Because there's a difference between deciding and doing!   ... Dont just think, Do Something ... 

  All conversations have some element of questions and answers and we have been told numerous times to be not only good listeners but also to understand the questions properly before answering them. The following incident is a simple Q&A between a father and a son … ---------------- "Dad, where did I come from?" asks this 10-years-old. The father was shocked that a 10 year old would be asking a question like that. He was hoping to wait a few more years before he would have to explain the facts of life, but he figured it was better a few years early than a few days too late, so, for the next two hours he explained every thing to his son. When he got finished, he asked his son what prompted his question to which his son replied, "I was talking to the new kid across the street and he said he came from Ohio, so I was just wondering where I came from." -------------------- Yes … that was actually just a joke but don't you t...

After a lull of 2 months, suddenly I get 2 books from BlogAdda for review in the same month within a span of 2 weeks. It's been some time since I received a book from BlogAdda for review and then "The Krishna Key" came up and that too they were giving away 200 copies for review. I have the 2 other novels by Ashwin but they were lined up for next year along with The Krishna Key. The blogAdda review just brought this one up in the schedule. Dan Brown attempted to bring together mythological stories into a modern world treasure hunt along with mysteries and secrets that can rock the world. A whole bunch of other authors have attempted the same over the years and 100's of novels have come up with plots connecting ancient secrets and round-the-globe hunts today. I had always wondered that India has a rich magnificent mythology and the geographical diversity of our country is a perfect setting for such novels. Why doesn't any Indian author attempt the same? The ...

I have been writing/blogging about what I read every month since 2010. Each post has a list of what I read the previous month along with a short quick few sentence review. Sometimes, I feel strongly about them and the review goes to almost half a page but never more. After all it is not a review but more of a record of what I read. Then, last year around Oct-Nov; I came across the Book Review program from BlogAdda.com and I started taking the review process (more) seriously. In this year, I have reviewed several books and it was a pleasant surprise to receive a book request straight from a new author. Smita Shetty, a Mumbaite currently based in UK, contacted me with a request to review her debut novel 'Untruly Yours'. So here it is … my very personal view on this new chic-lit by the new chic on the block. (One word review: GOOD. Longer review: read on) Right from the beginning, the book was easy to read and made for some simple light reading. The story starts wi...

Well, that was my first thought when I saw what was on screen at the HP - Blog Adda event last weekend. But I am getting ahead of myself … let me start at the beginning. It was a first for me. Attending a product promotion event, especially for bloggers and tweeps. The opportunity presented by Blog Adda and HP. The venue was 'At Fat Cat' (Veera Desai Road, Andheri West near Andheri Sports Complex), a new restaurant (for me) in a frequented part of the city ... I was wondering how come I missed it till now. The venue has a nice touch and feel to it. I would love to go back there in more relaxed ambience.   Besides the obvious HP event; the thing which attracted me was a chance to meet and interact with fellow bloggers and of course to meet the team from Blog Adda with whom I have been interacting for the past 9 months … but only through email. Now I could put faces to the names. Ditto for some of the bloggers and tweeps about whom I had heard but never ...

Ever since I started travelling international destinations in 2005; places around the globe have fascinated me. The fascination is from the point of view of how ‘different’ these countries and cities are as compared to my very own country and its cities. I have lived in Switzerland, Malaysia & UAE and visited Malaysia & Mauritius. It has been a very interesting experience… an eye opening experience in fact and has given me a wider perspective of life. As you can see, the places I have visited/lived besides India are not only spread geographically but also at different stages of development. Sorely missing from the list are the US and Australia; two countries which are furthest from India geographically and which offer yet again a very different outlook as compared to the ones I have already visited and lived in. For this reason (and one more); Australia has been hot on my places to visit since 2005. The other reason is of course an old friend who studied with me in Enginee...

  The first book review this month is Fractured Legend by Kranthi Askani. The name was pretty interesting but after reading the book, frankly I did not see any relevance of the title to the book. Guess I was unable to read between the lines. The intro about the book and the back cover reading seemed interesting but nothing prepared me for the disappointment I was to meet in the pages of the book. In fact, the back cover was the only thing that was interesting and of course the cover design. Don't get me wrong. It is not a bad book and I am sure there will be some who would praise the book and its writing style and appreciate the author's eye for detail as well as his descriptive writings. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. I am the one who found it excruciatingly difficult to finish this less than 200 page short novel. Right from the beginning, I noticed the Author's penchant for usage of 'so called difficult words' and peculiar sentence ...

  It's been some time since I received a book from BlogAdda for review (the last one was Clockwork Man in June). I had been selective in opting for books to review on BlogAdda and of course there are tons of bloggers who are glued into Blog Adda's book review program so I guess it took more than 2 months for my name to crop up again. And not only did it come up once but twice. I have received one novel and the other is on the way. Besides that, an author, Smita Shetty, has approached me directly to review her debut chic-lit / novel ... so that makes it 3 books to review this month … as of now, assuming more dont come my way :) The storm after the lull ….   So expect a couple of Book Review posts in coming week …

  Continued from previous post …   24. Novel: The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski After reading a Chris Kuzneski novel in January, I had thought of reading more of his works but somehow others novels kept coming up. Finally, I picked up the Death Relic. The story begins with an element of suspense with some interesting events. 2 parallel stories begin with events that don't seem to be remotely connected and continue parallel for almost two-thirds of the novel. Payne and Jones get involved because of Maria (from an earlier novel – The Sign of Cross). She gets a job offer from an archeologist who gets kidnapped within minutes of her meeting him. While the other story is around a master criminal who heads a Kidnapping and Ransom gang in Mexico. His two children are 'kidnapped' from his ultra high security home and he finds himself at the receiving end of a kidnapping with the demand for a large amount of cash and a historical/archeological artifact. The two s...

  Continued from previous post …   15. Sherlock Exploits: The Adventure of the Abbas Ruby by Adrian Doyle Sherlock and Watson are up against the 'death' of a gentleman (while his wife is fatally wounded) by what appears to be a murderous and suicidal behavior of the said gentleman. Murder doesn't even seem to be a possibility since the 2 were found dead immediately after shots were heard and people rushed to the scene of the crime which was a room bolted shut from the inside. It is deemed as suicide albeit a bit strange one hence the involvement of Sherlock Holmes.   16. Short Story: The Sultan's Battery by Aravind Adiga Frankly speaking this story made no sense to me at all. I had heard some good things about Arvind Adiga's 'The White Tiger' and when I came across 2 of his short stories; I decided to start with them rather than the Tiger. But now I am not so sure about reading the Tiger. I am tempted to drop AA from my list but as ...