Perchpectives of an Alexandrine Parakeet. Review of Free fall – The journey home
Is this a fable or a parable? Doesn’t matter, really. What matters is that the book takes you deep sea diving into life rejuvenating snippets that are actually giant-sized chunks of philosophy simplified for any reader. The inside blurb of the book does mention that the book is ‘about friendship, learning to trust, letting go,...
We have to act, sir. Review of ‘The Karachi Deception’
Well, the title I have chosen for this review tells me a lot about what is there in this thriller. There are people putting up an act, there are those to whom these words are like a catalyst, and yet again there are times when the same words become a grim pointer to some ground...
Paying to listen to Modi
Let me start by saying that we tend to become involved participants only when we pay for something… and I don’t mean the bribes some of us tend to pay to get a file in motion in any office. The word ‘free’ simply ends up giving licence to squander everything. That is one reason why...
The telegram: history or heritage?
We cannot do anything about events that happened hundreds of years back, created history but never got to be in the heritage list. But events that happen in our lifetime and then allowed to sink into the endless and dark cauldron of history without anyone even trying to make them relive as a heritage happens...
Are we going backward?
It is quite possible to go backward one step at a time. Yes, one step at a time until we go tumbling into the chronicles that future generations will read and say with a sigh: ‘This was one nation that couldn’t make it to the future.’ ‘What does the word backward mean to you,’ I...
Edward Snowden wants to be in Ram Rajya
Where’s Edward Snowden? President Morales says Snowden was not on his plane. Some journalists feel he is nowhere to be found in the Transit area of Moscow airport too. And no, I’m not trying to investigate and find out where he is. This is because I just happened to throw in the drift bottle in...
I preserve. I nurture. I elevate. Review of ‘My lawfully wedded husband’
I was helplessly spell-bound and I’m sure, like the author, ‘I loved it all. I love travelling, so I was happy just’ reading and ‘drinking it all in.’ The stories in the collection took me into little nooks and corners of strange minds and unknown perceptions and I loved going there. From the unlawfully wedded...
The Punjabization of insight. Review of ‘Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana’
If you don’t know what rustic philosophising really is, see this movie and know it. The movie takes you straight into the heart of metaphysics that ordinary people repeat and believe in… more so in the untutored villages of Punjab where they whole-heartedly mix and grind it all with slap-stick humour to offer you a...
Should life be converted into a ‘pre-defined component-based product’? Review of ‘Smart phones dumb people’
Technology is not here with some secret agenda to transform life into a form of submission… it really isn’t going to be anything like the over-enthusiastic Hollywood script-writers keep throwing at us. The author feels that technology need not really be painted as some sort of a villain anywhere, any time. …it is not impossible...
His life was a series of deceptions. Review of ‘Mothers, lovers and other strangers’
There are many ways this review can be twisted and turned. I can easily say that despite the title of the book, it is an engrossing murder mystery where Inspector Waghle travels far north for the sake of unravelling the truth that was simply trying its best to get erased. But no, the book isn’t...
Of Indians, idiots, and this idiocy called corruption!
“I say ninety percent of Indians are idiots. You people don’t have brains in your heads… it is so easy to take you for a ride,” said Justice Markandey Katju in December 2012. No, Justice Katju, only 10 percent of Indians are idiots, the rest are smart and corrupt. Obviously, Katju doesn’t get up at...
“Till now the people didn’t have a choice. They now have a choice.” An interview with Arvind Kejriwal
I sometimes wonder what I would be had I been born on 16 June 1968 in Sivani in Hissar. Would I too have gone on to complete my BTech from IIT, Kharagpur? Would I too have subsequently joined the IRS and then left it to get the Government of India get serious about the...
