...shoOOonya...

Life has been busy and once again I haven't had time at hand to write in detail about my May reading yet. So here is just an interim post to list down my May reading without any comments on individual stories/novels etc. I will prepare the detailed posts about the stories and novels as and when I get time and post them later ...     1               Non-Fiction: Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik 2               Hitchcock – Most Wanted: A Matter of Chances by Ron Butler 3               Hitchcock – Most Wanted: The Marley Case by Linda Haldeman 4               JA Shorts - Quiver Full of Arrows: The Chinese Statue by Jeffrey Archer 5               JA Shorts - Quiver Full of Arrows: The Luncheon by Jeffrey Archer 6               JA Shorts - Quiver Full of Arrows: The Coup by Jeffrey Archer 7               Novel – Death on a Deadline by Christine Lynxwiler, Jan Reynolds & Sandy Gaskin 8               Hitchcock – ...

    Book: Romi and Gang Author: Tushar Raheja No. of Pages: 234 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Pirates Publisher It is quite possible that an author approaches a book reviewer with his / her debut novel. but how about a Publisher approaching a book reviewer with their 'debut novel' !!! Pirates Publisher approached me with the book review request and I accepted. I was intrigued by their name and the very very interesting email I received from an email which read Captain@Pirates ... I readily agreed and the book was delivered at my doorstep from their partner Snapdeal.  I was surprised to see that the Book was author-signed. Thank You Pirates and Author Tushar Raheja for that. These small things count.   Even before I began to read the book, I shot off an email to the Publishers … appreciating a couple of things. I am reproducing the exact text from the email for you to read … Received the book today. Will start reading it only on Monday but...

Take a look at this ... what do you think it is ...   Now look closely ... at the saMe picture ... magnified for your benefit ...

  Book: The Oath of the Vayuputras Author: Amish No. of Pages: 575 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Westland Publications Reading a trilogy as and when it gets published is painful … simply because of the waiting time in between. I prefer to read trilogies if I can buy the 3 parts together. Came across Meluha at a friend's place and read it. Liked it and realized it was a trilogy. Waited for the second one to come out and read that too … happy that the author did not disappoint. The wait for the 3 rd and final installment has been a long one and once the book got published, the reviews online and those from my close friend were not exactly exciting. So that created the dilemma of 'to read or not to read'. Not reading would like akin to leaving a book without completing it. On the other hand, reading may most possibly lead to disappointment. Remember the dialogue from The Dark Knight – "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yoursel...

Indiblogger presented an opportunity for a Reliance Digital Experience in some of their newly opened Reliance Digital stores dedicated to selling Electronic goods – TV, Music Players, Laptops, Tablets, Kitchen Durables and so on. I was back in Mumbai and took this as an opportunity to step outside with wifey. After having spent a couple of years in Dubai and being exposed to Super Stores like Carrefour and dedicated large format electronic stores like Jumbo and Max which are housed in buildings spanning several floors … Reliance Digital Store came as a disappointment at first sight. Reliance is one of the biggest companies in India and they do things at a large scale. I had expected a really HUGE store. But then a little thought tells me that they don't really need to have HUGE stores; big ones are just fine. I went to Reliance Digital at Infinity Mall in Malad and asked for their store manager. The staff found him after a few minutes and he guided me to an individual who s...

Packaged pre-cooked ready to eat food packets remind me of my first trip abroad after taking up a job after MBA. In India, the only things I could make in the kitchen were Maggie and Tea. When the prospect of going aboard for long term came up, I knew the biggest challenge I would face was Food since I had no clue about cooking.  The contest by Indiblogger in collaboration with Kitchens of India took me on a nostalgic trip to Switzerland which was the country of my first stay abroad. The first month of survival moved from dining in restaurants in first week to food packets in subsequent weeks. I don't recollect the brands that were available in those days but I remember surviving on packaged foods. If I had to have a packaged food themed party; I would surely invite some friends from those on-site days who all went through similar times and experiences of living on packaged food. I would plan a trek with them to a place like Matheran near Mumbai and there we would build a smal...

  I reach the airport a couple of hours in advance and sweet lady at the check-in counter tells me that she can put me on an earlier flight which is scheduled to leave in 30 minutes. I am overjoyed and say yes to the prospect of reaching home 2 hours earlier than scheduled time ... a surprise for my family ... With joy in the heart and a spring in my step, I reach the designated gate to find a subdued crowd around the airline staff. I make way and overhear the ground staff telling customers that the flight has developed technical glitch and a spare part is being flown in through an incoming flight. The flight will now leave with a delay of 2 hours. My feelings are 'grounded' (literally and figuratively) and I am Back to Square One.   (I write this while waiting for the flight at Bangalore International Airport .

Book: The Casual Vacancy Author: J K Rowling No. of Pages: 503 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Little Brown Book Group I am sure you have read this before but for the benefit of those who haven't, let me reiterate. Do not pick up 'The Casual Vacancy' looking at the name of the author. TCV has nothing to do with the hugely successful Harry potter series, it is not in the same / similar / comparable league and it is NOT meant for children anyway so do not expect the innocent exuberance which the earlier episodes of HP novels had. This is a young-adult novel, meant for the matured audience. It has a host of characters with complex relationships and random secrets and fears. JK Rowling spends quite some time in establishing the large number of characters of the story and their setting – a small county / village with another neighboring one and the marginalized society in between. A lot of complex relationships are discovered as the story moves forward and ...

  Indiblogger - Microsoft Office365 #CloudBlogathon Meet   Indiblogger is committed to bring together Bloggers in different cities and they manage to arrange pretty interesting and attractive events with good sponsors. Unfortunately, as a result of my travelling across the country, I have missed almost all of Mumbai Indiblogger events as it turns out that I am out of town, precisely on the day of the event. Many a good events missed … So it came as an interesting turn of event to be in Bangalore when a Bangalore event happened and I decided to break the jinx and attended the meet - The Indiblogger powered and Microsoft sponsored "Office365 #CloudBlogathon" Meet on Sunday 2nd June at 'The Tower Kitchen' in UB City It was a Microsoft Office365 promotion event with an invitation to about 200 bloggers   out of which I guess about 150 did turn up and we all crowded the venue – The Tower Kitchen at UB City. With most of us standing and most of us tweetin...