Go with the flow
Trends in book writing keep changing ever so often. The readership patterns shifts from one genre to another and so most of us discover that sales graphs shift strangely from romances to thrillers to spy craft to horror to science fiction to historical fiction or to biographies, self-improvement, and other genres. It is obviously the...
Your degree is never enough
Most of us believe that education is getting hold of a degree in one or the other field and that any reading that extends beyond relevant textbooks is something that is just another pastime. It isn’t. Real education, let me add here, happens through well-written books. Even Dr Seuss tells us that ‘the more that...
The drama never ends
Memoirs can be superbly entertaining and, many times, be full of quaint incidents or snippets that inform as well. They aren’t all going around in some formulaic way because ‘Becoming’ by Michele Obama, ‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom, and even ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’...
No one takes my brinjals! – Review of a thriller
One doesn’t often get to read a thriller written by an Indian author where intrigue, suspense, murder, kidnapping, and even a chase runs for a long distance with guffaws, smirks, laughter, and even satire to keep company. Now, if the title of this review intrigues you, let me just add that I’m not talking about...
Rashmi Bansal on writing and publishing
Rashmi Bansal is a name that every reader in India is aware of. Who hasn’t bought and read Connect the dots, Follow every rainbow, Stay hungry stay foolish, I have a dream… and other books that she has written? Obviously then, if one gets an opportunity to talk to her, one is sure to let...
Readers, killers, and the extended queue of writers
Try and imagine a killer sitting on a bench at some railway station waiting for his victim to come. Not many will visualize this killer holding a book up and reading. Many will imagine furtive and restless glances, twitching fingers, uneasy shifting of the body, cold and disinterested eyes, and so on. The point I’m...
The pause after a poem is read
The mind reads a poem. And then the being grasps the meaning. This is what we perceive as a pause. And thus the relationship between life and poetry moves slowly from one pause to another. This is one sort of relationship where looking inwards also goes along with phases of looking at everything around you....
Conversations around art
Conversations around art Review of ‘The Book of Chocolate Saints’ by Jeet Thayil Jatin Das hasn’t probably read this book yet but what he said a couple of days back is relevant because he talks of the present having ‘no conversations around art. No one critiques it – there is no space to discuss...
Spent. And finished – is it?
Spent. And finished – is it? Review of ‘One Indian Girl’ written by Chetan Bhagat Radhika Mehta, who ‘makes a lot of money’, has ‘an opinion on everything’, and has had sex is the sort of person who has no inhibition in saying, ‘Why can’t women get a wife?’ With her as the protagonist...
Even obesity needs management principles
Even obesity needs management principles Review of ‘The Rich Labourer’ by Parthajeet Sarma & Sibani Sarma There are books that tell you how to do something and there are those that attempt to show how things can be done effectively. And if a book goes on to show and demonstrate management principles through a story,...
In pursuit of a promise
Life has three Ps… pursuit, promise, and perception. Each of us is seemingly pursuing a goal, a person, an idea, a thought, or an ambition. Our moments are full of promises to others, to our own self, to inanimate objects, and God. What we do and how we go about doing it is inextricably bound...
A book is so like me
I never read any of my books completely Actually cannot, as I read many At the same time or just open One from a page that catches my fancy! Look, don’t think I’m a flirtatious reader Whose attention hovers over many covers Truth is that love to uncover The truth in the books that I...
