...shoOOonya...

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. 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). The stories have a certain element of intellectual debate or paradox in them. This month was a busy month on work front and for almost a week, I practically did not read anything much (which is like 25% of the time of a month). This took a toll on my reading but I still managed to read 3 novels   I got a short story collection to review and along with the Asimov stories that I read and the ones from Alfred Hitchcock series together put together a nice total of 28 for the mont...

    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.