Thought for TODAY: 16th October 2012

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At times in life you reach a stage where you feel the only thing missing in your life is love and you will be complete. But that is a wrong belief as two incomplete people can never have a complete and fulfilling relationship. What you need at that time is a friend perhaps, who listens, understands,cares and is there for you. What we mistakenly recognize as the need for love is actually the need for companionship. By saying this I don't mean relationships are bad. But relationships come with a lot of responsibility and knowingly unknowingly you sometimes end up damaging the other person beyond repair. And that is where a friend is needed. You evolve as a person with that friend and gradually begin to love yourself. Once you reach that stage you attract like minded people who are complete, in love with themselves and have a caring heart to share. That is the moment when you will fall in love- with yourself, with life, with everything around you! And perhaps that is the moment when someone will fall in love with you or you might end up meeting that someone special.

Book Review: Desiccated Land by David Lepeska

ISBN: 978-9395481205 Genre: Non-fiction Publisher: Vishwakarma Publications Bringing together his experiences as a journalist and a keen observer, David Lepeska writes a raw and gut-wrenching book on Kashmir. Part memoir, part travelogue, and part reportage, Desiccated Land is a page-turner. The book starts by tracing the history of the region along with his own history, as a student who was dimly aware of the history of Kashmir and the turmoil it has been causing for centuries between India and Pakistan. Lepenska takes us to Nilamata Purana ( likely written in the 7th century ) which tells us the story leading to the birth of this region. He also shares an alternate possibility of the word being derived from a lake ‘Mira’ named after Vedic Sage Kashyapa. His first visit to Kashmir closely followed by his second (and much longer) visit as a journalist working for the Kashmir Observer after the 9/11 attacks, make for an interesting read. Lepeska had questions, a lot of them. An

From there to here to where

From this blog in 2011 to Barnes and Noble website, my reviewing journey has been full of surprises. I am working on an essay tracing it and realized that I started reviewing books in 2001 (Yes! I am old) for a small library next to my house. Needless to add, my payment was in the books. The library owner also happened to be the first person who taught me how to write a book review and what to focus on. And that is where I learned why reviews matter. Cut to 2016 when my book review was taught in a Literary Criticism class held by British Library. A relative happened to attend that class and the news spread like wildfire in the family. That is the moment when my family knew this much more than just a hobby.

Book Review: Never Mind Yaar by K Mathur

Introduction · ISBN - 978-0-473-17480-4 · Genre: Fiction · Publishers: Southpac Publishers · Price: Rs. 350/- ( I got this book from Blog Adda for a review ) The title is an attitude - our tendency to feel defeated by the scale and nature of certain problems. Rather than meet them head on, we circumvent them with a sigh and a consoling “never mind, yaar”. When long time friends Binaifer Desai and Louella D’Costa meet Shalini Dayal at Gyan Shakti College, a true friendship that transcends cultural and religious backgrounds is born. Louella is a Christian, Binaifer, a Parsi and Shalini, a Hindu. The novel’s main plotline surrounds Shalini who has fallen for an impetuous student activist, Bhagu. Where does his desire to help the less fortunate lead him? The challenges are many - Shalini’s tradition bound family, the couple’s youth and inexperience and the travails of life in Mumbai, a city the girls love but know, is fraug

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