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    Book: The Disappearance of Tejas Sharma…and Other Hauntings Author: Manish Mahajan No. of Pages: 85 Genre: Horror, Fiction Publisher: Cinnamon Teal Publishing   I received this book as part of a book review program at The Tales Pensieve. When the opportunity came up, I was already waiting for another collection of horror stories up for review in Dec. I have read very little of horror genre – although a lot of mystery. I am not sure if I will want to read a horror novel but I am definitely game for short stories!!! Although I knew that the book was only 85 pages, but when the book arrived, I realized how thin an 85-page book is. I had almost forgotten that. Having read novel ranging from 200 to 600 pages and occasionally even longer, holding a 85 page book in hand to read stories is different.     Another pleasant surprise was the 'foreword' of the book … it was written by someone I personally know. Rohit Gore (author of 4 book – Circle of Tre...

A week ago, I wrote the review for 'Arjuna: Saga of the Pandava Warrior-Prince by Anuja Chandramouli'; and the review ended with the following para … The author of Asura is coming out with another book, the focus this time around is the Kauravas. I want to give that book a shot since the potential to weave a great story around Kauravas is immense. I hope he does not bungle up the opportunity like he did in Asura. It might be interesting to reach out to him and ask directly :) Well … I have sent my questions to the author through the publisher and now wait for his response. Based on the response, I might send in some more questions. And yes, I have asked the questions I wanted to ask. Also, here is the cover of his forthcoming book, " AJAYA – Epic of the Kaurava Clan " which is actually Duryodhana's story – so Anand once again writes the story from the villain's perspective … and I am definitely interested if it is Mahabharata from the eyes of...

Book: Baramulla Bomber Author: Clark Prasad No. of Pages: 316 Genre: Science Fiction Espionage Thriller Publisher: Niyogi Books I have actually waited for a very long time for this book. Much before it was being talked about in media. A very good friend of mine, Shraddha was giving the author review inputs in the early stages of the book writing process so I was looking forward to the book release. But a long time had passed When the book came up for review on BlogAdda.com, I snatched up the opportunity and the moment it got delivered, I rushed straight to the 'Acknowledgement' section which I hardly read in books. It was nice to see my friends name in there. I clicked a pic of the page and immediately sent it to her. Then began the reading of the book - It was fine at first and then slowly gradually things started to happen and mysteries and suspense began to build … The build-up was good. I began speculating about the climax and the plot and the type o...

  If you are a women / lady / girl who needs travels on her own to work / college, then I am sure that you would have read several 'safety' articles … especially in the past few months after the much publicized Delhi rape case and the more recent Mumbai rape case and the countless others that happen around the country. You might have also attended some session on safety and would have seen more vigilance measures adopted by your company or society. You might have found yourself being more alert and often paranoid about your own surrounding when returning late to home or when travelling alone in early mornings. Well … this article is for you. The lady who is worried about her safety and is slightly confused after reading the countless articles about safety and almost on the verge of buying or already in possession of the 'pepper spray' !! I write this article in response to the various 'safety measures and advice' that is floating around. Some I fin...

Prayers are something we all grow up with. Almost all our festivals in India (and we have quite a few in India) have the element of religious touch and prayer is an integral part of it. We have plenty of Gods in all shapes and sizes (literally) and dedicated festivals for them and related worshipping methods. From dedicated day of the week to 10-day festival seasons; we have them all. So in effect, we pray a lot – with or without the festival. Our parents try to inculcate the praying habit in us right from early childhood and it becomes an integral part of our lives. Praying becomes a part of the early morning rituals and we seek blessings from Gods for every small and big challenge of life. In the past decade or so, I have kind of 'standardized' my prayer. I ask for the same thing over and over again from all the different Gods. Yes, the same single prayer asking for the same set of things. So what do I ask for you ask ??? I ask for Happiness, Peace, Prosperity, Health...

Saw it on an email group forward and liked it.Sharing it here. The creator is not known so if you know who did this or if you are the creator, let me know. I will add the credit here. 

Book: Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince Author: Anuja Chandramouli No. of Pages: 364 Genre: Mythology / Fiction Publisher: Platinum Press, Leadstart     I had certain expectations from the book but it did not really turn out that way. I had expected Arjun's story in there but it did not feel like that. The story seems to swing from present to the past and then to the future throughout the book making it not-so-easy-to-connect-the-dots – for someone who is not familiar with the Mahabharata. Also, the author has shown his prowess in the English language by the use of several words in the book that make you think of the dictionary (and a lazy bum like me would rather assume a word than look into dictionary). And what the author/publisher may not realize is that that those difficult English words break the flow of reading and comprehension. They are like speed-breakers which make the journey of book reading jerky. Wish the author had stuck to simp...

Read this 'comment' while some random internet surfing on the topic of rational thinking … I was trying to explain to an atheist that both theist and atheist are illogical because it cannot be proven that god exist and it cannot be proven that god does not exist. The atheist focused on the statement - "it cannot be proven that god does not exist". So he replied with a string of profanities accusing me of trying to convince him that god does in fact exist when I had not said or even implied anything of the sort. In fact, I was surprised at how many people were very confused by this simple logic. Several defended atheism on the idea that if a theist cannot prove god exist, it therefore follows that god does not exist. Of course the former is no proof at all of the latter. The only LOGICAL position is that we cannot know or prove the existence of god one way or the other. It is very hard for people to understand this. (Comment by Intrepidd on this page ) When I ...

  Last month, I completed a collection of Philip K Dick stories and rather than picking up another one of his, I picked up Asimov this month. Started a collection of 17 short stories by Asimov titled "Earth is Room Enough" and ended up reading half of them in a single month. I had to struggle with myself to not complete the other half within the month itself. This is the first time I am reading Asimov short stories (consciously. I might have read an Asimov short story randomly or as part of some collection or magazine). I think I read one of his novel but did not like it much. The stories have a certain element of intellectual debate or paradoxes in them. The very first story 'Dead Past' is about viewing a past event (through a device) that is time travel without the actual travel. The story revolves around an individual's pursuit to build a chronoscope which will enable him to 'see' events of the past. His reasons are purely academic – histo...

    The Mahabharata has always fascinated me. It is one epic with a thousand threads, literally. Its an epic with literally 100's of significant characters spanning several generations; each with a history and eventful life.   Every event has a connection to the past and a bearing on the future. Every good deed results in something that ultimately save the individual's a$$ or even his/her life and at the same time every bad/evil deed results in something that ultimately leads to the downfall or even death and of course certain bad things result in good things and vice versa. The huge number of relationships and the extensive banyan tree like 'family tree' is truly astonishing. I rally wonder what the Kuru clan family tree look like. I really wonder the brilliant minds who concocted the epic in the first place. In the past one decade, I have come across quite a few versions of Mahabharata written focusing on different characters. I am currentl...

  Summary of novels, novellas, short stories read during September   1               Novel: The Plantation by Chris Kuzneski 2               PKD Shorts: Small Town by Philip K Dick 3               PKD Shorts: Souvenir by Philip K Dick 4               PKD Shorts: Survey Team by Philip K Dick 5               PKD Shorts: Prominent Author by Philip K Dick 6               3I Series by MZ- Novella: Mystery of Hitchcock Inheritance by Mark Zahn 7               Hitchcock – The Shadow of Silence: Day of the Tiger by Jack Webb 8               Hitchcock – The Shadow of Silence: Opportunity by Bill Pronzini 9               Hitchcock – The Shadow of Silence: The Magic Tree by James McKimmey 10           Novel: Fog Over Finny's Nose by Dana Mentink 11           Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: Vintage Murder by Vincent McConnor 12           Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade? By Bill Pronz...