Kabira khada bazar me mange sabki khair; Na kahu se dosti na kahu se bair.

https://www.facebook.com/upasana.pannu/posts/10155311351232322 I immensely liked this post and wanted to add something to it. I accept what she wrote but the concept is not totally useless. कर्म प्रधान विश्व करी राखा , जो जस करई सो तस फल चाखा ।। Firstly   I know that I have to pay for my bad deeds, I will refrain from that. Similarly my good deeds will be rewarded so I will try to be a do-gooder. This is the law of cause and effect or “As you sow as you reap”. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (Newton’s third law). So Karma principle can be a natural deterrent against bad deeds as it has religious sanction. सकल पदारथ है जग माहीं,करमहीन नर पावत नाहीं Secondly this places emphasis on action rather than on luck or destiny. So it inspires us to work hard to achieve goals. Karma principle doesn’t let us become lethargic and fatalist. Instead of waiting for God’s grace we should strive to achieve things/ success by our own hard work. God help...

EVACUATING EARTH by Lavanya Nukavarapu My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Sometimes, it is not love that propels us in life. It is hate.” This is a post-apocalyptic story. The earth is dying and so is human race. But the good news is that there is another earth like planet which has 90% water and 10% land mass. So NASA launches an evacuating earth mission. Rafshar Alizen choose Zaria Pebel to be a part of the mission. Zaria has her own agenda of taking revenge When the planet is dying what matters. Nothing. The story is gripping. I understands Zaria motives and she is absolutely right in what she did. Denash and Misha (though I think Misha was caught in cross fire of Zaria and Denash) deserved their fate. The story is short and there was so many unanswered questions. The pace was quick and it could have more detailing. I enjoyed it very much. 5/ 5 stars. View all my reviews

So much is written about the movie even before its release that I felt no reason to write anything else. Then I read this wonderful review. https://www.facebook.com/lavanya.nukavarapu/posts/1645127058905892 I agree with almost all the points in the review by @Lavanya Nukavarapu but I liked the movie nevertheless. I am adding my view point in continuation of her review: 1. Ranveer Singh was hamming and over acted. Way over the top…. He was a caricature of Allauddin. Ranveer reminded of Shahrukh from Devdas. I liked both of them. Shahid was inadequate and Deepika was optimum, big watery (or was it glycerin) eyes notwithstanding. Rest of the cast was just ok, especially GORA and BADAL. They are mythical characters and Sanjay Bhansali casted unknown actors. Malik Kafur was given too much importance and the Gay angle was unnecessary to the plot. 2. Bahubali has set the bar so high that other filmmakers will take at least a decade to reach there. CGI and war scenes were so ...

Fate's Design by Subhashish Dey My rating: 4 of 5 stars I will start this review with the author’s introduction as given on Good reads. Subhashish is a 14 year old student of Chinmaya Vidyalaya Anna Nagar. He has been regularly contributing short stories to his school magazine. An avid reader, Subhashish believes that books open the doors to some wonderful insights in life. An inquisitive boy, Subhashish loves to explore different places and spends time trying to understand the culture of the people there. The reason is the age of the author. He is just 14. This book sure reads like it is written by a much older person. The story starts in Moscow, Russia. Anastasaai is a alcoholic loser who cats as a hit man of a mysterious Mafiosi. He is given the job of kidnapping an infant girl and then kill her after getting ransom. He kidnaps Natalia and they get ransom as well. Her father Andrei Federoff is third wealthiest person in town. His wife Irina Fe...

I think I know you...Karunya, Do I? by Ajit Panicker My rating: 2 of 5 stars Rebirth and terrorism can make a good story. Who cares if we are born again and again? However Geeta says that we have countless births till we attain freedom from cycle of birth and death. However there is no scientific proof of the same. But then again this is fiction and can have fantasy. There are three tracks in the story: 1. Boy (Karunya) meets girl (Aasma) in Gurgaon DLF cyber city office. They fall in love as expected and make out. Aasma keeps seeing visions which troubles her. They set out on a journey to a small town of Rajasthan. 2. Vishal was studying in IIT but was thrown out because Dimpy complained against him of sexual harassment. He picks up his life again and goes to Mumbai to be a professional photographer. 3. Varunya is elder brother of Arunya. He is in Indian army. There a terrorist plot being hatched to hit India hard at many places at once. STF is form...

Three Minutes of Eternity by Alon Amir My rating: 3 of 5 stars Israel is surrounded by hostile countries. Pop culture there is also affected by this. When their delegation goes to Azerbaijan they have remain under security whole the time. Yarden is a young talented singer who is representing Israel in Eurovision. Yanni is the head of press who is her support. She is not liking all the restrictions on the movement. Then they are taken to Russia secretly and all the weird things happen. Will Yarden come out on top? The book gives an inside peek into the lives of famous pop stars. This is not all hunky dory and it is a tough life out there. Everyone covers their own ass and blame others when they fail. The strategy of press handling is very cunning. They send out a press release and let the media talk about it and play the youtube clip of the interview. The book is funny and witty. 3.5/ 5 starts. A quick search on Google told me that Azerbaijan, the nat...

You Don't Know What Love Is by P. David Hornik My rating: 4 of 5 stars The love after marriage is a taboo. It is called affair for a reason. Why do people do it? Maybe because of lust, boredom or adventure. Sometime we marry and then the flame of love and sex dies down after 4-5 years. Then someone like us enters into our life who is equally desperate and the game of lust and sex starts. It is like a forbidden fruit which tastes very sweet initially. Bit sooner or later things takes a nasty and sinister turn. Lou and Hettie has their own affairs in past but somehow they did not undergo divorce. Their three wards Treenie, Ross and Alan has their own affirs/ pass time. Then Hattie goes for a wallk in the woods and tragedy strikes. What happens next? The book has many characters and their affairs. The reasons are sometimes vague. But that is understandable because that the way extramarital affairs works. The crime of passions are common occurrence. ...

Money: Physics and Distributive Justice by Oded Kafri My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book has a very interesting premise. Physics is the study of laws of nature. Economics is the study of money and finance. Can it be explained through the laws of physics? More importantly distributive justice. Oded Kafri says that the concept of money has not been defined and hence economics is centuries behind the hard sciences. Now he presents the concept of money as two of physics principles: 1. Money as Energy- the Gas Economy : This is similar to Maxwell-Boltzman bell curve. But this concept has many issues. 2. Money as Heat: This is a better system. There are many interesting concepts like in near future there will be no cash transfers. The distribution of money of a nation is universal and independent of total wealth of a nation. The system of constraints weather by Governments or religion or moral principles tries to limit money’s movement. The author claims th...

Ben O'reilly by Adam Peled My rating: 3 of 5 stars Social media is a dangerous place. At least it makes a good thriller. Whatsapp has taken over Facebook. Mark Zukerberg was so terrified of it that he bought Whatsapp at exorbitant price. Whatsapp group are funny things. Anybody can add you if they have you number. Ben O’ Reilley our protagonist (the book is named after him) is added to a mysterious Whatsapp group. Only known member is Eddie. Then she meets sexy and beautiful Sharon. Members of group starts getting murdered one by one. It is up to Ben to solve the mystery and save him and Sharon. The book is fast paced and has short chapters (like James Patterson’s novels). This keeps the proceedings quick and moving. Language is simple and the suspense is nice. You keep guessing the next move of Ben and his opponents. 3/5 stars. View all my reviews

Three Voices by Nora Sarel My rating: 4 of 5 stars “I put the distance of time between us and I went, I thought that the distance of time would heal..” -N. Israeli This is an autobiographical fiction. This is divided into three parts called; first voice, second voice and third voice. Lena is a Jew, caught in the world war. Mr Stefanik takes Lena to woods to partisans. They fight Nazis from the woods like guerrilla fighters. She is only 6 or 6.5. they don’t accept her and Mr Stefanik has to take her back. He gives her a new name: Elka Isdebska and declares her Christian. The war was never ending as seemed to her. The description of passion of the priest for Tosha is superb. He is totally blind with passion and she is totally oblivious. He is consumed by carnal desires and when he grabs her, she resists with all her might. He becomes morose and vengeful. This episode reminded me of the deplorable behaviour of our so-called Hindu saints. Asharam bapu, D...

The online world is very dangerous place because of the anonymity it provide to the persons. One should be very careful while being on internet, Tanya is a happy go lucky gallery owner who is searching or love and some fun in her life. Her mom died at a very young age and her father brought her up. Her friend Dorothy takes her to a party in the opening scenes. Dorothy is dating online through an app which matches with a person of similar interest and lets them talk in a group or one on one. The account is created using voice so that a person can not create multiple accounts. Tanya also creates an account and meets a mysterious person named PHANTOM. Then the story takes sinister turn and rest you have to read for yourself. Online dating can a good plot device especially if you use it for thrills. Throw in a rogue lover and you get a good thriller. There are a lot of steamy scenes also. This is part  1 of a trilogy and it finished on a cliffhanger. It was good initially bu...

Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik My rating: 3 of 5 stars I could not finish this book as this is a not a retelling of Mahabharat. This is an ego trip. The conclusion drawn are absurd, illogical and have no basis in the text of original Mahabharat. That is not the only defect. The story telling is for kids it seems. There is no story. This is just a description of series of events. That is not fiction. There are hardly any dialogues. Some absurd conclusions: 1. Shiva is considered ardh narishwara, a god who is half woman. The children born through his grace possess both male and female qualities. He gives example of Shikhandi. But what about many other like Hanuman. 2. Kunti insists they marry the same woman because she fears if Draupadi marries only Arjuna, sexual jealousy will cause a rift between the brothers. (Later on he tells besides Draupadi, each pandva had other wives. ) 3. The epic ends not with the vict...

Letters in the Rain by Anubhav Shrivastava My rating: 4 of 5 stars Aman Malhotra is a studious nerd who is social misfit. His parents are from North and South India. His only friend is his diary where he pours his thoughts. He lives in defence colony of Delhi and study in DPS RK Puram. He is taking coaching for IIT in FIITJEE. He scores 98.7% in boards but couldn’t crack IIT, he crack ENAT Manipal and goes there. He meets Kiara Mehta there. She is a hazel eyed girl who needs only good food and good music to be happy. Her happy exterior conceals a dark past. They go the Agumbe “Cherapunji of South” where Malgudi days was shot. Aman feels that Kiara has romantic feelings for him. Kiara choose Girish as her boyfriend and angry argument takes place between them. What happens next is the story? The story is fast paced and kept me hooked. The language is very good. One example is the letter he wrote to Kiara: “I am in a state of shock because of the incide...

 What is love? Does true love exist or is it just the figment of imaginations of poets? When are we ready for marriage? Why today’s generation is commitment phobic? The book tries to answer these questions. Avni is almost 24 year old girl who is not yet ready for marriage. She is an introvert and is happy in here small circle of family and friends. That’s why marriage seems a herculean task to her. She meets Siddharth and he ask her what ring she wants. Diamond of course, was her reply. But then Siddharth cheats of her and breaks her trust on himself and love. Enters Ansh and now she is not able to trust him. The reluctance of Avni is of every girl. She is bit apprehensive of marriage. She has to leave her set life and adjust amongst strangers. Till now she is the master of her own destiny and lived her life on her own Terms and conditions. Avni made a plan to go party with her friends on outskirts of Delhi. Ansh forbids him due to security reasons but she feels tha...