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Showing posts from August, 2015

Review of The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Best part is language. She writes prose but in a poetic language. She plays with words like little children plays with toys. She is genius of word play.  two examples: “...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again. That is their mystery and their magic.”  ― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things “But what was there to say? Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptine

Review of LInda Goodman Sun Sign

It is very cleverly written. So clever that you feel u r every sun sign from Aries to piesces. Its heresy, imaginary, unscientific, illogical and absurd. But still u look up for your DoB many times and check your sun sign again and again. It is written so cleverly you force yourself to believe the qualities of your so called sin sign (pun intended).  Its the majority opinion that its not science. Sun is star. Moon is satellite. But still considered for calculations. How the stars, planets and satellite and there relative motion affect our lives is beyond comprehension. And even if they do how it can be calculated mathematically. The qualities attributed to different planets is based on mythology, arbitrary and imaginary. Like Jupiter for education or Venus for sex. The signs also named after the shape of a particular constellation which they represent. And then she impose the quality of that particular shape on that sign people. Like Leo or lions have qualities of lions. Libra l

Review of Along came a spider

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Touted as a path breaking novel on a split personality psycho. Maybe it is. But I read it after watching 7 seasons of criminal minds. That may be a reason I am not impressed. But that is not the only reason. Pace is too slow. The hero Alex Cross is no Sherlock or poirot. James made him black but I don't find any particular reason for that. Soneji the split personality lunatic is too smart to be true. Detective work is very low grade or non existent. Soneji is caught by luck more than deduction. Climax seemed forced and Hollywood inspired.  

Review of Ashadh Ka Ek Din by Mohan Rakesh

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Ashadh Ka Ek Din (Hindi: आषाढ़ का एक दिन , One Day in the season of rain) is a debut Hindi play by Mohan Rakesh in 1958. Since the month of Ashadh (beginning on 22 June and ending on 22 July) is usually the onset period of the monsoon in North India, the name can be understood to mean One day during the Monsoon. The title of the play derives from the opening line of the Sanskrit dramatist Kalidas's play Meghadūta (Sanskrit: मेघदूत literally "cloud (Megh) messenger (Doot)"). The play is divided into three acts. First Act: The love of poet Kalidas and Mallika is not approved by Mallika's mother, Ambika. At this time, Kalidas has composed his first long poem Ritusambar. He wins recognition in the court of Ujjaini and the king has sent his horsemen to bring him. Another villager by the name of Vilom (also interested in Mallika) says that if Kalidas leaves for Ujjaini, he must take Mallika along. Kalidas, however, does not wish to go from the mou

International Friendship Day

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Today is international friendship day i.e. 2 nd August. Earlier, on 27 July 2011 the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 30 July as "International Day of Friendship". But nowadays it is celebrated on the first Sunday of August rather than 30 July.     How many days do we need? Apparently more than 365 because now we have reached a stage where we have to cram three or more days on a single day. Like recently on 21 June we celebrated World Music Day, Father's Day and International Yoga Day simultaneously. I think the concept of giving special attention to a particular cause or relationship goes for a toss in instances like this. A brief history thanks to Wikipedia:- Friendship Day was originally promoted by Joyce Hall , the founder of Hallmark cards in 1930, intended to be 2 August and a day when people celebrated their friendships by sending cards. The second of August was chosen as the center of the largest lull between holid

Review of Uneasy Money by PG Wodehouse

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My introduction to Wodehouse. I simply loved it. I have not heard about Wodehouse at that time. I was travelling with my friend in the train who was reading it and completed it before her stop. So while deboarding she gifted it to me. And what a book it was. Pure pleasure. I finished it before Delhi came. It is not like other books of the master. This is a simple love story. Though there are his usual trademark elements, but that is not all. It has a innocent romance too. Elizabeth Boyd is a treat. She is simply superb. A must read for all Wodehouse fans. Even those who don't like him (though i doubt such a person exists) they can read it as a love story.

Review of From Sex to Superconsciousness by Osho

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कही की ईट कही का रोड़ा भानुमति ने कुनबा जोड़ा. "From Sex to Superconsciousness" (Hindi "संभोग से समाधि की और") by Shri  Chandra Mohan Jain aka Acharya Rajneesh  aka Osho's most famous and most controversial book.   He takes eastern philosophy and interprets it in a bizzare way. He is something like Indian Dan Brown. like brown, Osho also takes historical and religious facts and then draws very improbable concusions. But he is more than brown; a self proclaimed God and is not just any garden variety godmen. Godmen are dime a dozen in India but osho is exceptional. Bhagwan Rajneesh. Osho is his name given by himself and derived from word oceanic meaning dissolving into ocean.   He is almost a genius, very well read, sharp analytical mind, very good with words, has vast vocabulary like Shakespeare and persuasive too. he had a large following all around the world. He was too hot to handle even for a free country like USA and was deported to India. H

Review of Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda

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“Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda” literally means “The seventh horse pulling the chariot of the sun.” It is one of the books of which I first saw the movie and then read the book. Movie by Shyam Benegal is brilliant so is Manik Mulla played by Rajat Kapoor. Usually in case of movie adaptations of literature movie is disappointing. But in this rare case both are brilliant. The novel is in narration style where Manik Mulla (name is very suggestive Hindu and Muslim both) tells story of failed romance of three women, to his friends on seven lazy summer afternoons. There are three heroines Jamuna (a simple middle class homely girl), Leela or Lily (the intellectual, independent, strong, feminist) and Satti (a feisty lower class woman). All three were in love with Manik Mulla at different points of time. Jamuna couldn’t marry her lover Tanna, because he is a coward and subsequently married off to an old man who dies. Widow Jamuna finds solace and happiness in extramarital r