...shoOOonya...

When it comes to my favorite city, it cannot be anything else other than Mumbai . There is no thinking required nor are there any two thoughts about it. Mumbai wins hands-on in my mind when it comes to being my favorite city. Yeah yeah … you have all heard about the horrors of Mumbai Locals, the rains and the incessant flooding and of course the Blasts have made the city famous time and again. Yes, it is a notorious city that way but the reason these things happen is because Mumbai is unequivocally THE most important city in the country. Thankfully, I have lived my entire life here and have grown to love it. For anyone from outside, it is difficult to fall in love with the city. It is a difficult city for people who are not use to it. In case you are the one amongst many who actually enjoy the Mumbai brand of life and living, there is no looking back.   The Drive One of the things I have always loved about the city is the sheer driving ease as compar...

  Book: Soul Warrior (The Age of Kali #1) Author: Falguni Kothari No. of Pages: 404 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Falguni Kothari (seems like self-published) The book blurb reads thus … Twisted myths. Discretion advised.  Fight fate, or succumb to destiny?   In the dark Age of Kali, the Soul Warrior alone stands guard over the Human Realm, protecting its denizens from evil-willed asuras or demons. When a trick of fate appoints him guru to a motley crew of godlings, he agrees to train them as demon hunters against his better judgment. Suddenly, Lord Karna is not only battling the usual asuras with sinister agendas, but also rebellious students and a fault-ridden past.Spanning the cosmic realms of mythic India, here is a tale of a band of supernatural warriors who come together over a singular purpose: the salvation of Karna’s secret child.   It was definitely an interesting blurb but I was already suffering from a Mahabharata overlo...

With so much coffee in office that keeps the body machine running through the day (and week); the sugar levels tend to go up for any working professional and so the advice these days from docs is to get the diabetes check done every quarter once you cross 30 (I remember the number being 40 just about 10 year ago). Additional suggestions are to keep the sugar intake limited. Can't really control the sugar intake in office coffee since it is either machine made (too much sugar or no sugar unfortunately) or made by our 'office boy' who is unfortunately 100 years old (at least it seems so) so any suggestion to alter the composition of the tea or coffee falls on deaf ears (literally). So either u get sweet (cross that, make that very sweet) coffee or you get 'no sugar' coffee. So as bad as machine made coffee So I am left with controlling sugar intake in terms of 'sweets' intake. As an indian, I am sure you will appreciate how diffi...

    Book: Seeking Redemption Author: Madhu Vajpayee No. of Pages: 194 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Half Baked Beans   Story of a girl Meera, who is unwittingly drawn into a conflict from where she finds it difficult to emerge unscathed. It's her journey from being a simple, medical graduate belonging to a middle class family to the uncharted territories of corruption and caste based politics. Her path is crossed by the two men, both compelling yet completely contrasting characters, who are forever going to change her life. If it is Aman who can challenge her ideals and defy her resolves, and makes her the person she finally becomes, it is Abhay's sublime love which enables her to go through the vicissitudes of life. It's also the story of her loss as well as triumph against her own demons to find her true self.   There are some books that have a very captivating writing style. My first impression was that ‘Seeking Redemption’ had a...

Book: Shanti and the Magic Mandala Author: F. T. Camargo No. of Pages: 366 Genre: Fiction Publisher: Lodestone Books   Shanti and the Magic Mandala is an adventure in which fantasy and reality are mingled. The book tells the story of six teenagers, from different religious and cultural origins and different parts of the world, who are mystically recruited to form two groups - one in the Northern Hemisphere, and one in the Southern. They eventually gather in Peru, and through a single alliance, begin a frantic chase for the sacred object that can stop the black magician's final plan. The plot may not be new but the treatment and the story telling is pretty colorful The characters, with different religions and cultural origins, come from different parts of the world and the author takes full advantage of this. He introduces the reader to the diverse cultural and regional things – places, culture, foods, lifestyle etc. The characters travel so there ...

Graham, Daniel, their friendship, life and death. Vampires, guardians' adventures at night.  Coffee, love and a new couple.  Imli and her mother in a complex web of darkness.  A small town girl confused about virginity.  Michael Jaikishen and his writing endeavours.  Child adoption by a gay couple.  Mahabharat - a modern tale in an epic form.  The spine-chilling tale of Tina and Uncle Joe.  A juicy love story by our guest author Sujata Parashar.  These and many other unputdownable stories in this book. First Brush on the Canvas is an anthology comprising selected stories from Melonade (2014), a nationwide writing marathon organized by Writersmelon.com . Goodreads  *  Amazon Melonade Authors’ Intro: Uttiya Roy – Nourished with Bangla literature, he aspires to change the world someday writing in English. His days pass blending Life Science textbooks with poetry.  Upasana Bhattacharjee – We ca...

  A long time ago (actually 10 years ago), I had made a post on this blog about the changing priorities of life from 'Roti, kapda and makaan' (Food, Clothing and Shelter) to what people look forward to every morning … "Bread, Butter and Broadband". I often use to joke with my friends that I 'google before gargle' Well, its not humor any longer. It's a fact of life. Our day begins, not by us staring at our sleepy selves brushing in the mirror … it now begins with picking up the phone and checking WhatsApp, FB and Youtube – and that is even before getting off the bed. Who wants to rummage thro the song list on the phone when u can stream music (albeit, latest) from online sites and apps. Who wants to see videos that are on the phone, when youtube is available with the latest trending videos. Biggest change I see (something Nikhil and I used to discuss often) is that you no longer connect to the internet. Your phone is always ...

Over the last 2 months, i have not only tried to be more active on the blog but also managed to cover a significant part of my book-reviews back log. I still have a lot of book reviews to post but I have another patch of life where the blog needs to take a back seat.  Along with my usual role of a Change Management Consultant, with the resignation of the Project Manager; i have been given the additional role of 'acting/interim' Project Manger and it is seriously taking up all my time (and more).  Also, my younger brother is getting married in a little over a week so I will be busy in that too.  All in all, I dont see myself posting anything on the blog for almost a month from now. Hopefully, life in office would have stabilized a bit by then and I would have time for my blog and pending book reviews once again.    See you later ... 

​   Book: The Great Indian Democracy Author: Manivannan K No. of Pages: 208 Genre: Fiction, Humor Publisher: Pirates     How do I review this book? It reminded me too much of the DORK series. I could draw some invisible parallels between the two books in terms of core concept. The GID is a light read with a heavy dose of satire on the Indian Political system, the stand-up comedy trend and even on the way guys look at and think of girls (and categorize them in weird categories). All with a help of a dork like character who encounters other dorky characters to fulfill their mission of making his life hell … in a humorous kind of way. The climax unexpectedly turned out to be quite predictable ... what an irony ! The author actually had some good context and situations to weave a better story ... it could have been better. Maybe the author needed a push to be more creative with the storyline and sequence of events and their treatment. ...

​ Book: Potluck: Metro Diaries Author: Namrata No. of Pages: 162 Genre: Fiction, Short Stories   Publisher: Amazon   A collection of very mushy love stories with an occasional spark of bold and scandalous variety sprinkled in between for some change and spice. I am not really a reader of the love story genre but an occasional foray into the mushy / emotional stuff is not bad for the reading appetite. And the risk with short stories is definitely less.   In the Metro Diaries, the author takes you on a near poetic ride of the emotional world of hearts in love … and that too, love which is not simple but complicated as usual. The author spends most of the words on exploring the inner thoughts and feelings of the people in love or those who are grappling with the concept of love and are unable to make up their mind about it. The stories hardly have too many things happening or sequence of events forming a storyline – there are a running comme...