Book Review: The Krishna Key

'The Krishna Key' by Ashwin Sanghi is a fabulous read. One cannot escape the thought of seeing similarities in concept with 'Angels and Demons' or The 'Da Vinci Code' of Dan Brown, but the adaptation and creativity involved in setting it in Indian context is extremely appealing. The characters and the interweaving of them with Indian Mythology is something to appreciate. No wonder, a lot of study and data collection has been into it and the effort is visible. Anil Varshney,the youngest linguist and symbolist of India, who had spent significant portion of his work-life at archaeological sites had found four seals and a base-plate in Kalibangan site. The seals formed a prized possession and in order to safe-guard them, Prof Varshney keeps each seal with three trusted friends of his and saves the base-plate with himself.

Taarik Vakil, a serial killer and a firm believer of his being the kalki avatar (the 10th) of Lord Krishna, whose motive is to retrieve the seals starts plotting and killing the current owners of the seals to own them. He is richly influenced by Mataji, who as a teacher in his school-days had heavy impact on him. Prof.Ravi Mohan Saini,a Historian and one of the best friends of Prof.Varshney, who had possessed one of the seals, is suspected of killing him and others who possessed the other seals. With eminent police force led by Ms. Radhika, how Mr. Saini escapes from the police-clutches and decodes and uses the hints to unveil the mystery is the core of the story. In Mr.Saini's efforts, is a helping hand given by his doctoral student,Priya. 

At every stage, how the modern facts are linked and traced back to the mythological aspects,is very impressive and convincing. The story is well built and unfolds at a brilliant pace keeping the reader engrossed and amazed at the research gone into information gathering. How the author can convince the reader that nuclear weapons existed back in the ages of Krishna and how the astronomical data indicates the happenings of the past are convincing enough, aren't they? 

 The juxtaposition of the Krishna-avatar bits and the current story makes it a wonderful read. An awesome thriller with a surprising climax is worth a read. A different genre in Indian context. It would be criminal to prospective readers to reveal the juicy details of the story and turn a spoiler, although can't help but appreciate every bit of literature in there. If you were a strong believer earlier that Maharabharata didn't really happen, this book makes an attempt to think otherwise, with its own logic and narration. If that it can do, its a significant attempt for it is trying to question our belief of ages and gives an interpretation to the story we have heard of Krishna and Mahabharata for ages!

 This is my first read of Ashwin Sanghi's books and most certainly will not be the last one. It has opened the avenue for a new genre and a great writer for me and I will certainly read his 'Chanakya Chant' and 'The Rozabal Line'. All in all, a must-read thriller and my rating 4/5.
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Book Review: The Reluctant Detective

"The Reluctant Detective" is the story of Kanan Mehra aka Kay, a home-maker married to an MBA-husband and having a five year old son, who is driven into being a detective or someone close owing to the situation where there were back-to-back murders in the locality.

Just when the Mehra family was headed to a party, the police knock on the doors of the Mehra house to indicate that  Mrs.Sheetal Jaiswal, the person who Mrs. Mehra used to see everyday when out for the morning jog and had vaguely known, was murdered.

When the Mehra family was getting back from the Bollywood party they had attended in the evening, they encounter the dead body of a man close to their apartment complex.

The serial murders pushes the folks of the locality to panic and fear and a lot of curiosity on how Mrs. Sheetal Jaiwal was murdered.  While Mrs. Mehra is panic-stricken herself, she gets a calling from within her heart to help find justice to Sheetal, who she establishes a virtual bond with. Kay feels Sheetal was always trying to say something to her via the dreams the former saw. 

While the police made a thief confess for the murder of Sheetal, Kay refuses to believe that Sheetal was murdered for reasons of theft alone, because in the death spot, the ipod Sheetal had been using was left alone. Kay tries to find clues to nail down the actual reason/person being Sheetal's murder. She talks to the maids, her detective friend Runa and inspects the location where the murder took place to find clues which ultimately gives good reasons to suspect and identify the person responsible for Sheetal's murder. I will spare the thrill-factor here by not mentioning who the person was.

While the story line is a bit guessable, a little weak, there is a dash of humor to the whole story. Bound to enjoy the funny narrations in some pieces, but it seems an over doze in several other situations. When talking of murder and death, perhaps, humor is not always recommended or natural. Kay seems overly obsessed with the weight and looks she possessed and on ways to improve it, a reader gets about fifty percent of the book to read about the description of the weight/dress issues which gets a little redundant.

Some things that I couldn't stop taking notice of, how can a child "talk" with wrong spellings, "write" I agree. Although I understand the intent and perhaps the idea was to differentiate the kid's conversation and say that the child pronounces words differently, but he also happens to talk in sms language. How can a child say "u" instead of "you", as I said, for writing, I agree and its believable.

Another observation was, if only Mr.Mehra who followed Kay during her morning walk post the murders to ensure her safety had called out her name instead of seeming like stealthily following her, he would have been spared the pepper-spray treatment! Perhaps, I was getting a little too involved here!

Nevertheless, it brings out the thought that situations can turn a home-maker who had  very normal agendas in her daily routine into someone to help in different capacities. The concept is appealing. Good attempt for a first-time novelist. I wish the author many more successful ventures ahead.

Rating: 3/5

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Book Review: Harbart

Nabarun Bhattacharya's "Harbart"  translated to English by Arunava Sinha is a story revolving around Harbart Sarkar. Born to LalitKumar and Shobarani on 16th Sep, 1949, grew up to be a  fair and lean man having caucasian build. Although Lalitkumar had made handsome money from the war economy, he didnt need much time to lose it by gambling with films. When Harbart was less than two years old, he had lost both his parents, his father due to a jeep accident and his mother within a gap of eight months due to electrocution when putting the clothes to dry. 

Owing to twist of events in life, he went on to stay in his uncle, Girish Kumar's house. Growing up amidst indifference and neglect, so much that it had not come to anyone's notice that Harbart had discontinued going to school, his aunt was the only person who had some love and care to offer. Harbart had dropped out of school after class five and did self-study at home.

 When Harbart was fourteen, he discovers the presence of a skull and a few bones in a tin trunk in his room. This incident had a indelible impact on him and evoked his curiosity and imagination to link the personality to which the skull may have belonged. Although he held on to them for a while, a couple of years later, he disposed of them into the AdiGanga. This was the beginning of his irresistible attraction to the concept of death and after-life. He got engrossed in reading more and more about the topics closely. He spent most of his days reading 'All about the Afterworld" and such on the attic-roof of his house, which had become his abode, more or less.

Growing up amidst bullying by his nephews, he took instant liking to one nephew of a different kind, Binu who came to Calcutta to study and stay at his uncle's house. Binu's episode in Harbart's life was going to change the latter's life forever. Binu, a committed communist got severely injured by police firing during one of his movements of protest. When in death-bed, Binu revealed the secret of the location of his diary in the house before he departed to the other world.

Life moved on, faint memories of Binu and yet after about thirteen or fourteen years post Binu's death, Harbart had a dream in which he supposedly saw Binu and the latter seemed to give him out a secret of a diary. He followed the instructions he got in his dream to find the diary. Then began, the belief and trust in his super-natural powers as a god-man being able to have dialogues with the dead. He was inclined to start a business with his new-found potential as the investment. Harbart, in his delirium, had not realised that the location of diary was told by Binu himself before he breathed his last.

Harbart, with his "Dialogue with the Dead" office, was able to mesmerize a few people and make some pennies as well. It looked like there was no turning back until  a letter came from a Rationalists' Association which challenged his powers and condemned Harbart of fooling people. An encounter, well planned by the Rationalists' Association which had planned a sting operation by sending a Belgian lady to Harbart to talk of her mother who was told as being dead but was actually not. Harbart, with the given information, had made comments assuming the lady's mother was dead. So, this conflicting behavior was reason enough for the Rationalist group to fight morally.  This event shook Harbart from within and unable to handle the situation, he gave in. He breathed his last.

Thus ended the life of a person who was struck by delirium, brought up around sheer neglect and ignorance to believe in his fantasized thoughts. Perhaps, a little affection and attention early on in his life, would have saved him?

A story well-woven and vocabulary supreme, is a engrossing  and thought-provoking read.

Rating 3.5/5

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Brave show

How often do we take things for granted? Things that get so less focus from us as long as they function properly can seem insignificant too. Today, I want to make a conscious effort to applaud one such thing ( or a pair) for putting up a good show and saving grace. They stood the tests of time and ups and downs (stairs)of life for the day.

My footwear, my saving grace for the day. When I left home, they looked seemingly fit, but as the day progressed, one of the pair tried to hold itself together just to get me 'going' until I called it end of the day!

Thanks to you, for being on guard when fit and more even when you weren't. RIP.

Book Review: I'm not Twenty Four...

Sachin Garg's "I'm not Twenty Four..." is an easy-read. If one forms audience for the kind of books that don't lay much stress exhibiting literary richness, but attempt a casual and college-goer approach to narration, this is one such.

A story centered around Saumya, an MBA-graduate based out of Delhi, placed to work at Toranagallu, a small village in Karnataka.

 A city-bred girl with desires and wants like any other care-free girl happens to land in a setup demanding rigidity, strong-will and dare to face  real challenges in the form of deaths and accidents of employees at workplace. Certainly the job at hand was not for the soft-hearted. Partly, her name which could be mistaken for a boy's, lands her in a job so highly-demanding.

While Saumya introspected about handling the job or calling it quits, Amit, Mallappa and Shubro form her friend-circle during her stay at Toranagallu. Saumya didn't need to sweat to seek attention, she got more than she desired for, sometimes more than it could annoy, primarily for her looks and her being the lone lady employee in the department. However, her meet with  Shubro, a Bengali hippie, during her visit to Hampi stumps her. His Hugh-Grant-like looks was an instant attraction for her and his stories of 90-day stay in a place and move-on theory amazes her. Although a short meet, it was going to change her life forever, sooner or later. Before she departed from Hampi, she left him her address with a ray of hope he might consider his next 90-day stay at her place. 

Not all meets transform into love, so she thought and got involved with her work and work-place, developed a short-lived flair for Mallappa which ended in a tragedy. Hit by trauma, she was vulnerable and needed someone to support her emotionally. To her luck, Shubro does come over to Toranagallu for his next 90-day plan. 

A person who had travelled around the world but said less about himself was being a mystery to Saumya. She always felt the love for him but feared to admit that he might walk out of her life at the dawn of 91st morning. 

It happened, they fell in love and he walked out on the 91st dawn while he remained the mystery he was. She was unsure if he really loved her and made attempts to erase him from her memory, but as luck would have it, she chances upon his blog where he had posted about his love for her. The mystery surrounding the man unravels in his blog and she loves him more than ever for all the philanthropic causes he had worked around the world and made a difference to thousands of poor people. She discovers that he loves her truly too. She heads straight to find her love in Andaman and Nicobar, where Shubro had planned his next 3 months, and the story ends talking of a new beginning.

My Rating : 3/5

A book one would not drop mid-way if the expectation doesn't rise beyond easy-read.

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Interface with the world

The more we are out of our "Hello World" domain, the more we learn the lessons for life. The other day I happened to meet a cab driver who was as frustrated with his work as I probably was with mine, but the difference being he had an attitude to face life head-on, which I probably didn't have. When his boss called him up to impose  certain restrictions on him and the protocol he needs to follow, which the driver felt were unreasonable, the driver strictly refused to budge and said, he would park the car at his (boss') house in one hour after having dropped me and quit the job! For once, I felt he was being impractical and short-sighted to be quitting the current job, but I was amazed at his confidence to see what ensues but not deal with insanity being driven to him.

What I see is that being tolerant can be mis-read as being submissive. Talking what we believe in and being assertive about what we think and do is of utmost importance to safeguard our identity. Jobs can come and go, but identity needs to stay. Lesson learnt.

Two for life

X is a friend known to my husband as well as me. He is due to get married in a few months and as would any about-to-be-married guy be ragged and instilled fear, he is done the damage too. 

X seemed to have found my hubby online on fb and has had a conversation on random things.The topic of marriage has come up and X was pretty surprised at how my hubby has responded. Unlike others who seemed to have scared him  off marriage ( well, almost), my hubby has encouraged him to get married saying "It takes two to make lives meaningful" or something in that sense.

X was so happy to hear that from him that he pinged me to say what my hubby had told him. He said he had never heard such encouraging words from other friends who were married. They always made fun of marriage like many do (including me).

X was happy and went. But tell me, when my hubby says, "it takes two..." , don't I have the right to know when the second one is coming? Or if she already has?

Defy Aging

When a set of girls from college meet after a long time, there would be no dearth of topics. They can range from family to work to colleagues to stress and what not. Among them, cosmetic-tips sharing forms a part too.  More so for the girls then are now women in late 20s.

It surprises us to no end to realize that we are no different from the women we used to see and gossip about earlier, for being so conscious about looks. I guess, age does it. I wouldn't say we think about looking good all the time, but sure not as ignorant as earlier.

A friend of mine has been a patron of Olay products and was all praises for it and recommended each one of us to use it. From what she says and how she looks, her skin has got a good treatment.

When the product cost more than 700 rs for a tiny bottle, one has to be thoroughly convinced to buy it.The Olay-patron believes that although it is expensive, it works out fine because initially more amount of cream is needed but after a couple of days, a little of it would suffice.

Wondering if the cost of the product pricks her when she starts seeing the bottom of the container that she uses less of it after a couple of days unlike more amounts when it was brimming!

Office so much like home.

X:    Are you working from Home today?
Y:    No. It's a different thing I am not working at office either!!
X:    LoL
Y:    But why?
X :  Got some snacks from home, thought of sharing.
Y:   Wow.. thanks.. will drop by.

Broom too needs time to groom

A new broom sheds more dust than it can clean. If one failed to give it enough time, probably one would never realize its worth.

We might deny it however, we do go by first impression at many times. And if a broom were to be judged by first-impression, we are failed.

Giving every situation that's not in our favor some time perhaps might do some good?

Well, if you ask me why this dawned upon me, yes, I did some cleaning this weekend :P

For the broom to groom, I gave cleaning some time!!

Seven steps to success

If you wonder what, here are the seven steps to ensure that your man eats the sprouts that were packed for him.

1. Soak the grams overnight.

2. Drain the water in the morning and tie it in a cloth for a whole day.

3. The sprouts are ready next morning.

4. Add some salt, lime juice and if needed some chillies and garnishing.

5. Pack it in a container and send a spoon along.

6. call up at an appropriate time to remind him to eat.

7. Pray to God to help accomplish the goal.

Guess, I faltered at the 7th step. I tried calling, but he was too busy to pick the call. So the sprouts are back home, more or less turning plants!

What I fail to understand, when a lady can meticulously follow the 7 steps ( I agree, I missed the 7th), can't men just remember to EAT?!!!  Sigh!  Yeah I know, Mars' entities!

And here, I am not even accounting the efforts going into cajoling and lecturing the husbands to eat sprouts for good health.

Pls help me, (Female) God!!!

Why Marriage?

Well, a dear friend chatted with me for quite a while today. She is currently staying alone abroad and is due to come back to India very soon. She is a bag of mixed emotions. Happy for being able to get back home and sad or worried or anxious to realize that she may have to get married as soon as she returns.



I am no expert, but I have been there, done that. So, I totally understand her anxiety or fear of the unknown. If one says, 'Haven't you heard of Love marriages?', I would say, Love has to happen, it can't be made to ( unless they are Arranged Marriages :P). Some people just don't find or don't like to find the love of their life on their own. Or maybe, the first sights never did the magic. For whatever the reasons might be, if one lets the parents decide or help decide whom to marry, naturally they have several of questions.

 Why marriage?
 Well, I think one should not get married until one has this question in mind. Marry only when you think you should, for want of a partner. After all, having a companion for journey might help.

Honestly, for me, getting married was not an issue, but when it had to happen was. This is what I thought, one day I would want to get married, so why not sooner than later?

How do  I know if I will consent to the right person?

  Are you sure you know yourself all too well? I am afraid, I am not. As I often say, I might contradict myself anytime. If such is the case, how can we judge the other person completely, in a meeting or two or in a year or two?  All of us evolve, don't we? ( well, at least most do!)

Also, marriages fixed post one meeting have worked too while living-in of a year or two resulting in marriage might not have turned successful. All I want to say is, we can't define a personality and can't get into marriage after 'completely' knowing the person. If you think, the person respects you, then probably, he/she is good find. Because, he/she respects, all else like love and compromise will follow.

I understand, to conclude that a person is a good find, is a risk, but tell me, if you are not a risk-taker, then you are not made for marriage :P  It is like stock market, no one knows future, all you can bank on is hope.

What if it doesn't work?

Well, some marriages work and some don't. Just like any other thing. As long as we think marriage is THE thing rather than, 'just another thing', we tend to lay so much stress on it and eventually get paranoid.  As I said, I think we have to bank on hope.

Let God forbid, if it doesn't work, is it the end of the world? Are we not INDIVIDUALS who know what to make of our lives? We are educated, we work and have will to grow. What else? Life has to go on, perhaps with a few more challenges.


What if it curbs my Freedom?

 If a person loves you, your freedom is never gone. If he doesn't, then there is no point in being with him. So, Freedom stays, whether he does or not, depends.
 
Staying away from parents? In-laws? New house?

 Different Folks, different strokes. As we adjust to new set of people, we are equally new to that set too. It does call for a lot of exercise to be able to gel well and get along. Respecting space and choices might help.  Well, not that we are never angry with our parents? All in the game, baby :)

And lastly, all who are single are not always happy, and who are married, not always sad, and if sad, not necessarily because of marriage.

Well, I might have blabbered here, but this is what I felt when I got married!

Confession

She: You know what, I love you!


He: Really??!!


She: April Fool!!!! :P

Sulabh tricks?

Yoga, Homeopathic therapy,Hinduism, Indian cuisine and Classical music have sure drawn the Westeners' attention to India. But Indian toilets too?

When I read the headline "US Army fascinated by Indian Sulabh toilets"  on one of the media channels' website, I was curious, no doubt. When, in the new-age Indian homes, it is difficult to find Indian-style toilets, what makes the West embrace the concept? Was it something to do with the posture or medical recommendations to aid lifestyle? Well, the headline had caught my attention and one click to get more details , answers my queries.

US Army is fascinated by Indian Sulabh toilets, so they want to implement the same (not in the U.S, but )in Afganistan!!

I for sure agree Sulabh toilets have been an extremely commendable step in the area of  Hygiene and cleanliness and it has to be appreciated that such benefits are extended to Afganistan too, but didn't the headline mis-lead? At least, I felt as if the web-site giggled and said "gotcha!!" when I had finished reading it and understand the complete story!  They got me to read their stuff,however!

A U-turn?

Just when we saw Sanias, Sainas, Malleshwaris and quite a handful of women sports-persons, putting India on the global map, a cloud of Sexual harassment claims hover around. Unfortunate, isn't it? It perhaps existed and rooted long ago, but coming to light now. It feels terrible to imagine what many might have gone through to uphold their passion for sports. And how many who could have brought glory to India backed out to show opposition for compromise ?

Just when people were opening up to different avenues, outside of academics, such bursts  of flame will sure make parents shun away from providing any encouragement to try the unconventional avenues. Who is to blame? The parents and guardians for not supporting their kids to try something that interests the latter? Or the dirty ugly world that sucks the modesty and kills the sportive spirit?

Every single time, we as a nation, take a U-turn, only the difference being the font of 'U', which seems to be getting only bigger!

 When there is a dearth in morality, how can we correlate the Indian population to strength? With monsters lurking all around, we will only go round and round.

Almost there

I hope I haven't lost it all. A lot of thoughts on mind and the lack of zeal (read lazy) to blog it.

Maybe blogging has lost casting its charm on me and I most certainly not happy about it. The last I remember doing anything to my blog is changing templates.. from horrible ones to more horrible ones!

Now, blogger has some cool templates and customizations, perhaps some reason to give blogging a retry.

Will come back, soon,perhaps!! Almost there, like you care??!!

Passion, face to face!

Does this mean that passion  earns its reward, someday?!
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article388837.ece?homepage=true

Tall expectations!

As we passed by Richmond circle yesterday, we saw a foreign national lady, extremely tall and this discussion followed:

Me : I think there would be no one as short as I am, in the western countries!

He: Why not, there will be and they are called Dwarfs!!


Grrr... oh to be a 5-footer!!

Wish-list

Dear God,
   May I know if my wish-list is big or small?

Well, I am supposing that this question will compel You to take a look at it !! :)

Anti-theft Mobile

First, my Lunch-mate[LM], then my cab-mate[CM] and finally my soul-mate[SM], were all bewildered for the same reason -The wallpaper I had on my mobile.

Scene1 :  

Time: Afternoon
=============

LM: Oh, you have your own photo for wall-paper?
Me: Yes :)
LM: My friends sometimes steal my mobile to put mine, I remove it.
Me: Oh,is it? Why so?
LM: Come on! How can one have their own !

Me: Hmm.. (mutters... like me!)

Scene2: 

Time:  Evening
===========

CM: Heights!
Me:  What?
CM: You have your own photo for wall-paper!
Me: Hmm.. yeah, you see, I don't have a kid that I can put his/hers!
CM: Makes sense! I have put my kid's :)

Not bad.. could convince him!

Scene 3:

Time: Night
=========

SM: Funny.. Your photo for wallpaper??!!

Me: Funny? What? Photo?
SM: Come on.. how can one put one's own snap for wallpaper?
Me:Why not?
SM: Well.. no one does that!
Me: It is a Chinese way of saying that it is my mobile, picture communication, you see!

[Did I hear him mutter 'seeing this pic, no one will flick!']  Ok.. it works as anti-theft too. Cool!

Dear LM, CM and SM,

     I am as surprised as you are, for different reasons. You on how one can have, and me on why you consider it it a big no-no!  When we can have every other random person,puppies,kitties,trees and flowers for wallpapers, why not one's own? After all, it is boring to have good wallpapers, all the time!