Precariousness

Temple - a place for worship or business?

2012-02-06T21:32:00.002+05:30

Last weekend, I went to Iskcon Temple (Bangalore) along with my relatives. Since, long I have stopped believing in "Form-God". But still I feel sometimes it's good to see the faith of others in it. And there is nothing wrong in believing it. It's the peace which matters, not the way by which you get it. But I find out very ridiculous things in the temple and their way of attracting lot of money with which my relatives also agrees.

First of all, there is difference at the entry itself. The members of temples, they have better facilities and shorter path to reach to the main temple in comparison to those who aren't. And if you will ask "How one can become member of it? " - The correct answer is by paying a good amount of Money. The membership scheme starts from Rs. 36,000 to 12,00,000. So those who have good amount of money they can waive off the larger path. It's not only about the larger or shorter path. The

behavior of caretaker of temple is also vary from member to non-member. Those who have paid good amount of money gets chance to worship from the front while others have to stay behind the barricades. I used to think temples are the place where nobody discriminates on the basis of money. It's the place where atleast you will get peace but I guess I was wrong there is hardly any place like that.

Now this was the first part. They are going to open an another temple for which they are spending around Rs 700 crore !! or more. Now you just think why the hell do you need to make a simple temple. But I guess they want to show off the their powers with money. For this they had put up the wrong slogans which you won't be able to find in any religious books. The message goes something like this( I don't remember exactly, but it has the following meaning) :

If you build a very beautiful temple, you will get moksha

For proofing this has been taken from some epic literature, they wrote it in Sanskrit first than translated it back into English. They want to make 45 floors multistorey temple. One of the temple's person said " Giving money to building a temple is most auspicious charity". Damn you there are several other parts of the are there where if one will do charity people will get happiness that matters more than building your 45 floor petronas tower. There is one part of society which is lacking with basic amenities like food,shelter,clothes and education then there is a different society which wants to build a show-off temple to earn lot of more money. I want to ask one question to them but I didn't want to argue with him in front of my relatives at that time. My question is :

How the hell by building your Petronas Tower will help the society ?

Besides all the above mind-boggling things they are doing business inside the temple by selling lot of items and opening a restaurant. A complete business model. You are forced to go through those stalls as that is the exit path. I think this is one of the biggest corporate sector of India which doesn't give any single penny as an Income tax and enjoy all the rights.

I want to ask few more questions:

What's the point in making statues of God with gold and spending that much amount of money when on the other hand there is a part of society which lacks basic amenities?

Will you be more happy in buying a chocolate of worth Rs 10/- for a poor kid or donating (auspicious charity) at a temple ?

This is the upcoming temple on Kanakpura Road. Bangalore.

One of video I would like to share with you,check here.

P.S. : These ar my personal opinions about the temple not about the "Form-God". I don't have intention to hurt anyone's feeling.

Love on the Rocks- Murder on the High Seas

2012-02-01T22:07:00.003+05:30

Author: Ismita Tandon Dhankher
Publisher: Penguin Metro Reads
Price: 150/-

I owe the author a lot for this review. I have received this book by the end of November but couldn't finish it in time.

Anyways coming to the review of book. The book is a mixture of suspense, drama and romance(less). The main characters of the books are:

Popeye (Captain)

Aaron (Chief Officer)

Sancha(Aaron's Wife)

Harsh (Chief Engineer)

Kirk aka Baldy (Second Engineer)
Raghav (Detective)

The book starts with a story of a child who lives in Goa and whose Mother is more like a slut and hardly care about him. His real father has left her. And she has murdered her new man.

The author shifts from that story to a story on a ship (Sea Hyena). Sancha, is going on a Naval ship with Aaron for the first time, besides that she is the only woman among 26 crew members of the ship. There is a history connected with that ship. Few days back, one of the crew member(senior cook, Gary) has passed away in a so called accident. But nobody has came to know the reason behind it, some of the crew members think that he has been murdered.

Till few days journey was fun for all, but at one night somebody steals the money from the Popeye's safe. Then the situation becomes tensed for all as after a murder of one person, somebody stolen money also. Then, Raghav joins the crew and start his investigation with the help of Sancha and Harsh. During his search for the killer and thief, suspect kills one more guy- Baldy (who knows about the person who has murdered Gary).

On the other hand, due to some old photo of a girl with a child, Sancha wants to go back home and wants to split with Aaron. But she wants to stay back to find out the murderer as well but she finds that his husband has hidden the money in the CPU cabinet. That makes her think to leave before his husband being found as a culprit.

The search of Raghav and Aaron leads to a perfect (but from my point of view, a predictable) end. At the last, they find out the suspect and in the fight between the suspect and crew members, one of the crew member kill him(accidentally).

At the last, Sancha finds out the Rose (the girl in a photo) and clear his view points about Aaron and patches up with him.

To know who is the culprit and who is Rose? Go through the book.

In short, this book is a good read. In the starting while forming the characters, it lacks the grip but once the characters are set, the story grips you until the end of the book. But the suspect was too easy to guess. From the point of view of suspense I won't rate it good enough. Still author tried to maintain a good suspense.

So, if you are looking to read a suspense+romance novel you can pick it up. I guess it'll be a good read during journey as it is a short book ;).

Rating: 3/5

P.S. : Sorry, to author for taking more than 2 months to review her book.

Hot Tea Across India

2012-01-19T01:18:00.001+05:30

Author: Rishad Saam Mehta
Publisher: Tranquebar
Price: 195/-

This is the first time I have picked a entirely different genre book ("travel") which I usually read. Nonetheless the book impinge me a interest for this genre as well.

Rishad has mentioned about his journey across the whole India. From Gujarat to Maharashtra, from Ladakh to Kerala and several others. His novel title seems quite relevant with the travel. As whenever we travel out of the town in a car or on a bike, first thing we look for sure after few km is "tea". This is one of the easiest thing to get also of which we are very fond. And the cover of the book matched with the theme of book as well.

The author describes about the scenic beauty of our country and the variety of food you can get at different parts of the country. His adventurous journey of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir on a Bullet. In which, he met several good people and had an experience of driving bikes on the mountain. In addition to that, he has also mentioned about the temples of Khujrao and of the places near Bangalore. In which, lot of beautiful carvings had been done and there is a history related to it.

The way he won the Raid-de-Himalaya and the story related to it is truly inspiring of not giving up hope at any point. He traveled the whole road from Manali to Leh which has three Passes and very high chances of getting snow on Alto! That sounds astonishing. One might think over hard before taking it on the Highway but this guy has taken it to the mountains and won the race.

Few of the amazing things which happened with him or connected with him, which he has also shared in the book which is a roller-coaster read. Like, Dhaba people finding him doing poop in front of Dhaba, forced by a big man to sell his Bullet to him, Joy Jhunjhunwalla's case and several other cases of Dhaba.

The author has not only describes the beauty of the places but also about the variation in climate, people, dresses, food, etc. And connection among humans which is important to enjoy your travel.

I enjoyed a book lot. This is my first book in this genre and I found it very interesting. At few parts of the book, I lost grip but still the book is able to grip you and force you to read till the end of the page.

If you are looking to give a try to Travel genre, then this might be a good pick (I guess). If you are already reading this genre then I don't know, you will like it or not. Overall the book is a good read.

Rating: 3/5

This review is a part of the http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews Book Reviews Program at http://www.blogadda.com BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

The Perfect World : A journey to infinite possibilities

2012-01-03T00:43:00.004+05:30

Author: Priya Kumar
Publisher: Embassy Books
Price: 275/-

The author of the book and as per the comments on the book says that "She is an Indian Paulo Coelho ." I cannot argue about it as I have not read any Paulo's book till now.

I was thinking to read a good motivating book since long, finally I ~~picked~~ it up(in fact got it for review, more than a month back).

This book is about a girl (Niki Sanders) who is lost in her own world and has no sole purpose in her life. She wants to write a book but not able to write as she thinks that she is very busy . She fights with people, not allowing others to interfere in her life and etc. In short, a muddlehead and pessimistic.

She loves to roam around in the jungle. Once, while roaming around in the jungle she finds a Sorceress, Thelda who is dead as per the world. Thelda tells her that she is going to save some planet "Zedius" and she should come with her. And two good souls are coming to take her.

But after coming back from the jungle, this thing keeps poking her to go back and check the claim of Thelda. She finds that Thelda was right. She finds two souls from some other planet ( Bren and Acordorf). Acordorf convinces Niki to come along with them to the Zedius planet which is a perfect planet but because of too much of perfection they are facing the problems.

She decided to go along with them. At each stage of the journey she has to pass some tests to show that she can help Zedius and she is not a trespasser. There are few other people also there doing the some thing to help out Zedius. After all the tests they chose Zi to be the person who can help them out. But one evil person(Jin) was there in the group tries to create chaos in Zedius- the perfect world.

The book goes on how Zi and Niki Sanders saves Zedius. On this whole journey Niki learns many things mainly "the purpose" of life which she was lacking behind at the Earth. All the initial conversations between Acordorf and Niki are quite philosophical and few other conversations of Niki in the tests like with Saga.

As though the book is self-motivation book but the story through which author was trying to motivate readers is not finished in this part. As it seems author is looking for other parts of this book.

I like one thing about the book that is it motivates the reader through the nice story in-spite of directly jumping into the too much philosophy which I think was lacking in "The Monk who sold his Ferrari".

If you are keen on reading some self-motivating book and particularly an Indian writer then this might be in your list.

Rating: 3/5

Who is responsible?

2011-12-20T02:19:00.002+05:30

I am just pondering over the issues we are facing in our country besides corruption, which is one of the major issue indeed as it is being leaded by one of the leading personality of our country - Anna Hazare.

But I feel there are some other major issues as well which are quite necessary to bring at upfront and needed to be leaded by someone too. One of the reason of those could be corruption but not all. Among them two major issues are- inequality and child education/health.

Inequality issues are well taken care of now a days by few of female leaders support who are bringing up these issues at front or by few fellow good bloggers too.

The issue which I think is under-blogged or less taken care of is Child Education. After 63 years of Independence, we realized that we need a Right to Education act. And after framing up this act also, they are not able to bring or enforce it properly. We are (un)able to bring these students to school. Few of the primary or secondary government schools are going to be closed as the number of students are very less there.

Why are we not able to motivate children to come to school atleast for primary education? What are the reasons behind? Few of the reasons which I have think over are following (which are very common, I guess):

Child Labour - As s/he is working since the age of 5 or 6 years.S/he likes to earn money for his/her family rather than going for a study. And their family also needs bit more money to survive (at such a high inflation rate which is going to touch Zimbabwe inflation rate may be).
Girl child is forced to stay back at home to look after her other siblings as her both parents are working. Or performing daily house chores. For taking care of younger children there are already Anganwadis but still things are not going on the way.
Schools are very far from their home and transport is also not available. And it is being difficult to walk so much. Or if transport is available also they cannot afford it for daily schooling.

One of the interesting story I got to know from one of my colleague. There is one boy whose father is a Cab driver. His father do want to send his son to school after getting motivated but his son likes to work at garage. His father has forcing him to go but still he is resisting to go. His father has beaten him up and send him back to school and used to call one teacher to know whether his son is coming to school regularly or not. This boy is too intelligent what he used to do is following. He used to attend the half an hour class of that teacher then bunks the rest of the classes.

What do you say about this kid who has the solutions to the problems but he is not willing to study? May be he wants to become someone (not a big personality also), this primary education will help him a lot in understanding the world around.

Who is responsible for this kid? His parents? Government? Or We?

Time Traveller's Wife

2011-11-28T01:02:00.000+05:30

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publisher: Vintage Books
Price: 350/-

Main Characters: Henry- a librarian
Clare - an artist

The book starts from the Library scene where Clare meets Henry and try to convince him that they know each other since long. Anyways, Henry doesn't have a hint about it; yet he decide to meet up later at dinner.

At the dinner, whole story takes off when the Henry got to know that he has met her when he is 36 years old (present age-28 years) while Clare was six years old. When he met her in her past he mentioned her the dates when and where he will meet her.

Flashback: Henry has chrono-genetic disorder due to which he can time travel either in the past or future. Whenever he feels stress, he will time travel without any clothes.That's the truth he cannot take anything alongwith him while time traveling. He met Clare when he time traveled in future and went back to her past. He always used to appear in the meadow of hers bungalow where she had kept clothes and food for him. He always tried to tell her the stories of future from where he is coming. He told her that he used to go to the same places again and again. Like at the place where her mother had an accident and died.

Present: They marry with each other and try to live the normal live. Henry keeps meeting with different doctors to resolve his time traveling problem (while form time travel, he knew also to which doctor he has to go who will help him).

Due to his genetic-disorder,Clare had a problem in pregnancy. But after several trials (including the one from the Henry from the past; actually this one was only successful), she gives a birth to girl.

Once Henry time travels during extreme winter (as he couldn't take anything alongwith him) to the outer park in the same city and he loses both of his legs due to hypothermia. Henry knew that he is gonna die soon (from his time travel). On the eve of New Year, he time travels to the same time when Clare was around 12 years old and her father and brother were out for hunting.While aiming for an animal, her brother shot Henry.

As this was the first book by the author, I was not expecting much but after reading it I was completely stunned. The book is written magnificently by the author. There are hardly any glitch either from the point of writing or story. You might expect few errors from a literary person while writing sci-fiction. But I hardly found them (except time travel gene).

Another good point of a book which I found interesting is that the author keeps rotating narration from Clare to Henry in the whole book. And she kept the track of time-line in a perfect manner.

From a romance novel point of view also, it has all the flavor. She has shown the ups and downs in the married life and the love of Clare for Henry and vice-versa.

If you are an avid reader and fond of books, you can't miss this one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Guest Post: Kaya waffle and paper boats

2011-11-01T01:53:00.001+05:30

This is a guest post by Aravamudhan Srivatsan

Tasty aah ? asked the passerby with a more-than-friendly-smile.

I looked up. I had the hot waffle on hand, just adjusting the paper bag to take the first bite from the roadside shop. "Yes" I smiled back. He must be in his mid 50s or more, its hard to guess the age of the Chinese people. He kept looking at me and saying somethings that I couldn't understand. I still don't know whether he wanted my waffle, nobody begs like that in Singapore. People sell tissue papers or sing on the entrance of train stations, but no one actually begged for food or money, or so I guessed. I was too hungry to walk back to him to ask if he wanted it.

I was standing in the neighborhood of workers. I came here to see a place to stay. I saw loads of workers, maids and old people who live on the edge. Who do anything to save that extra 1$. People who have left their families for years and made their life here.These are the people who cook, clean, take care of the kids, sell things, construct and work their sweat out. Compared to where they come from they ~~live~~ exist and eat in better places. I used to work here in IT. I had the fat pay check and rented the nice apartment close to airport. Funny i never realized how hard its for them, then.

By now I have reached the train station, but I kept walking towards the lake by the side exit. It was nice windy evening, may be half past 5. I walked for several minutes, and sat on a bench facing the waters. The clouds was turning like a chameleon on the horizon. I think sunsets are the best thing god gave us. I had no obligations to be somewhere, to meet someone, or to do something. So I sat there looking at the water, listening to the sound of the trees, and other sounds of nothings. Peace kissed me.

My alter ego was suddenly awake, and pestered me about my bank balance, my decision to quit my career, and decision to study in one of the costliest places on earth. "I still have me", I replied. "As long as I still have me, I can get all those things" It started to speak back and I snapped, " yes that 32$ shoe i saw last week, an apartment with swimming pool, I can afford all of them and much more, as longs as I have me " I shifted my attention back to waters. the breeze, the sunset. All be fine.

I walked close to the water and took out a paper from my bag and started making boat. I wrote my name on it and leaned down to let it go. I saw myself in the water, i checked my hair,my teeth and smiled at myself, Then I let go of my boat, for the next several minutes it wandered on the shore . Perhaps its big. I made a small one with the paper left and this time I threw it. Not only it landed safe but also started sailing towards the center of the lake. Perhaps our expectations out of life should be like the boat, small enough to sail us through and brave enough to throw at life.

I walked back to the train station, Air was still crisp and I felt much better. I took the train and got a seat. It was long walk and my legs needed rest. A women with lots of grocery bags boarded after me, She looked old and tired, well mostly tired. Must be from the neighborhood. I gave up my seat and stood near the window looking over the lake. My legs did not hurt anymore.

About the Guest : 'Srivats' (his nick) is very profound in writing and arts as well. He is the one who always listen to his heart. I highly admire him for few of his decisions which could be very difficult for anyone of us.

Thanks a lot Srivats for the guest post.

Loneliness

2011-10-29T02:31:00.001+05:30

Standing alone with a sole to find answers of some unanswered questions like:

" Why I have done this?"

" Why am I not able to speak it out?"

" Why the other persons don't able to understand me? "

" Am I keeping high expectations from people? "

" Am I going to remain in this turmoil forever?"

" Shall I fight my problem alone or take opinions of others? "

" How to proceed in this not moving life?"

" Do people always like to talk to you when you are in a good mood ?"

" Where am I going ? Am I moving towards solitude? Is solitude is the only answer?"

" Whom to talk and what to talk?"

" Whatever I have talked today, was there something wrong in that? "

" Shall I always talk formally even with the closed ones (always with a cheerful mood even in a worst mood)?"

" How much more time? "

" What is wrong and what is right?"

" Shall I move ahead without solving it or solve it first and then move ahead?"

Still couldn't find answers of many questions. But found out few things for sure. Keeping expectations from others is always a stupid thing. The best to rely on yourself and accept problems accordingly. Nobody is there to help you in your problems. Finally, you are the one who has to choose and decide. I have found out a combo for this solution (no idea, is this gonna work or not).

"Pretends that you are moving ahead at the same time keep your thinking open for the same problem because you learn from your own problems.And never depends or keep expectations from others".

One of the famous line from a song "Tanhayi":

"क्यूँ ऐसी उम्मीद की मैंने जो ऐसे नाकाम हुई, दूर बनायीं थी मंजिल तो रस्ते में ही साम हुई "

Vivek and I

2011-10-28T23:31:00.000+05:30

Author: Mayur Patel

Publisher: Penguin

Price: 299/-

As you can guess from the cover and the name of the book, this book is about love story of a gay.

Kaushik(narrator of the story) moved to Valai from Baroda to hide from the guilty of being homo. There he has joined a school as an English teacher.

And in Valai also, he fell in love with his student, Vivek( as the name of the book suggest). He is very much influenced by the personality of Vivek. They formed a good friendship. Vivek too like his company but he never understood the plans of his teacher. In fact Kaushik never told him about his love for him and his secret of being a gay.

As Kaushik was a very charming guy, girls used to flirt with him and ready to mingle with him for anything. But Kaushik has no infatuation towards the girls. Vidya( a teacher in the same school) is always behind him for getting engaged, but he is never interested in her.

During his stay in Valai he formed a good relationship with old pairs like Mr and Mrs Desai (who always considered him as a son) and Mr and Mrs Gavit.

In the flashback, he had an affair in his college with a guy named Krishna. Krishna after having all physical relationship with him left him for a girl to settle his life. And Kaushik's family somehow got to know about this scene due to which he takes decision to join a school in Valai.

Till the end of the novel,Kaushik is unable to confess about his love to Vivek. He always have a fear of losing friendship of Vivek. Finally Vivek moves to Rajkot and gets married with a girl. And Kaushik decides to open a NGO to divert his mind.

Nature description at the sunset point and a tree Maya is quite appreciating. But the book has too much obscenity. At one point you might feel are you reading a descent novel or a cheap novel.

If you are looking to read a love story of a gay, go for it.I won't recommend it highly.

Ratings: 2.5/5

Split Personality

2011-10-26T02:16:00.001+05:30

Split Personality is a disorder in which a person behaves differently at different times but s/he can hardly remember.Why am I talking about a disorder? Am I or you suffering for this disorder?

I feel that all of us have this disorder somewhat less or more depends from person to person. It's the extreme which makes a person psychic. You might be thinking that how is it possible that you are suffering from a disorder and you don't have any idea about it.

In fact, we rarely think from this perspective. We usually come across the situation when We have to decide among the different options which one is good for us or bad. We hear different voices from inside: " Hey buddy, this option is good", "Hey buddy, don't choose that choose the other one", etc. Kind of conflicts within our mind. But most of the time we are able to decide an option according to one of the inside voice (if we are not on that extreme).

Still, sometimes you won't be able to decide: when one part of yours says to adhere to yourself while the other wants a change , anger or guilt at the same time. Introspection also doesn't work. But, you really need to come out of it .In this situation you generally talk with someone(not with anyone, someone who can understand you). And some of the people will be able to solve it but others can't. I too don't know how these people work out this(when they are not ill) but people may think about them as a psychic as still they are fighting within their mind with himself/herself.

Selfish World

2011-10-20T02:33:00.000+05:30

I was just thinking over it since long about how we interact with each other and why? I have observed a common pattern in it. People always wants to get interact with the other person because of the following reasons:

(a) The other person has more money i.e. greediness of money makes relationships;

(b) You need someone to share your problems and happiness.

All the above interactions are due to the selfishness (except the third one which is anyways a forced interaction). We have involved with ourself two much that we hardly see any other things and think mostly of ourselves.

Sometimes too much selfishness (believing too much on the interactions) leads to the unstable interactions.How to judge what is the limiting point for the other person ( before the selfish relationships goes to unstable stage)?

And I feel(as I observed also) money plays a very important role in making good interaction (selfish interaction).

So do you want to recheck you relationship status (selfish/true) ?

Disclaimer: I wrote this post as in general as per my perception. Don't take it personally and become angry on me. Hope you guys just give a thought over it nothing else.

"Dear I Love You"

2011-10-15T19:38:00.000+05:30

Author: Arun Sabtharishi

Publisher: Vaibhav Book Service

Price: 125/-

Brief by author:

A guy sees a girl, falls in love??? woos and wins her love. They both experience the ecstasy of love that develops between them and both realise the purport of love. They discover that love is blind, literally blind against anything in the world. The guy makes a mistake; he seeks forgiveness from the girl. The girl too commits a mistake. Again the guy seeks apologies from her. Does the girl forgive the guy modestly for the mistake SHE has made?

Beyond just hormone secretion or the chemical reaction that takes place in the human body, love is something more. Trust...hope...life...

A very simple love story seems more like a Bollywood movie than a novel. Unable to grips the reader for a longer time. It is not even an old wine in a new bottle. It's an old wine in an old bottle.

It's a story about a jackass guy (Goutham) who fell in love with an intelligent girl (Anu) from the first day of his engineering college life. And he is able to convince Anu for friendship (which turns into love after few meetings). But the mothers of two got to know about their kids' love story and like all old stories they want their kids to stay apart from each other. Due to this reason they had a break up several times but not for a long time. The story moves on in an unrealistic way(almost 80p.c. of it). At the end of their college life, both of them gets a job offer but from a different companies. So it is decided that they are gonna settle in a different cities.

As they have joined a company in different cities, the differences between them started increasing and leading to final breakup from Anus' side. The climax of the book is quite uncertain. As per the author, the book is gonna complete when Goutham would be able to convince Anu again for his love.

Few grammatical errors are also there which shows the lack of efforts by editing team. And the book is written in an informal way.

Rating: 1.5/5

Read it if you like bollywood love stories which is less realistic (according to me).

"All lines on this route are busy"

2011-10-03T20:30:00.001+05:30

"I am busy right now, See you later."

"Have loads to do."

"I don't have a time to call you."

"I have called you, but your phone was out of reach."

These are the common one liners, which you hear from most of the people (who pretends to be busy than they are). But I don't understand how people get so much busy that they don't even get a time to contact atleast their brother/sister or a good friend. While at the same time, they have the time to talk to their girlfriend/boyfriend (actually hours to spend). They are not busy for them until and unless there is a break up ;).

I had also been to these phase several times that I am too busy or preoccupied with something. But I had observed that I always get the time to pick their phone's or call them(even mail them back). Atleast I get the time to think about them.

But I really don't feel like talking to those who always say they are too much busy due to the this and that. It's really pissing off when somebody calls and say s/he is really very busy.

How is it possible that you don't even get the 5 minutes time to talk to your close ones? Everyone has the same 24 hours a day. I feel they always have time but they always try to show that they are busy.

P.S. : If anyone of you have the answer for it, please reply me back I am still searching for it and would be happy to discussing with you. At the same time don't take it personally if you have done the same with me, I am still the same for you as I have mentioned before too.
Please don't call me and tell " Hey I am very busy now a days". :P

Shiva Trilogy-2 : The Secret of Nagas

2011-09-27T01:31:00.000+05:30

Author: Amish

Publisher: Westland

Price: 295/-

The story moved on where Amish had left in the Immortals of Meluha. He answered almost many questions which were unanswered in first part but till the end again he left us with few questions unanswered and to be answered in his last part of this trilogy.

In the last book(Immortals of Meluha), Shiva felt guilty after fighting for Suryavanshis against Chandravanshis (when he got to know that Chandravanshis were also waiting for him to save them.) He visited Ayodhya Temple after reaching Ayodhya to clear his own mess and met one of the Vasudev again who cleared his mess a bit. His wife, Sati, followed him to the temple.

He started off with the same scene, they had been attacked by the Naga (Lord of the People) who is quite clever, quick and well skilled warrior at the temple. Sati and Shiva both get wounded during this fight and the Naga ran off. Shiva later get to know that Nagas live in Panchvati but to reach there he needs a help of Kashi and Brangas' King.

He planned to visit Kashi first where he met Vasudev again at Vaishali temple. He answered few questions of Shiva like previous and later gave him a medicine to save his child's life. He and Sati had a son(Kartik) at Kashi.

Later Shiva moved for Branga alongwith Branga refugees (who were living in Kashi), Parvateswar, Anandmayi, Drapaku, Nandi,Bhagirath (King's Ayodhya son),etc. After knowing that Branga people needed the secret medicine of Naga before telling them the way to Naga's home, Shiva decided to bring Parshuram(who knows all the secrets of Medicine) to Branga. They fought with the Parshuram and his bandits and finally prisoned all of them. When Parshuram got to know that Shiva is the Neelkanth, he just surrendered himslef to Shiva and punished himself for hurting Shiva's friend(Drapaku).

On the other hand , Sati got to know that Kashi's King has a Naga sister whom he is hiding form his people. She promised him that she is not gonna tell it to anyone. Later when she went to Icchawar to save the people from the attack of Lions, she met her Naga son (Ganesh akka Lord of the People) and Naga sister (Kali akka Queen of Nagas) whom her father(Daksha) have abandoned.

Sati brought his sister (Kali) and his other son (Ganesh) back to Kashi and introduced them to Shiva and compelled Kashi's King to let them stay with her. While Shiva got angry when he saw Ganesh and got to know that he is the same Naga who has murdered his brother (Brahaspati).

When Ganesh saved Katik (and saved Sati also beforew at Icchawar),Shiva started believing Ganesh that Ganesh is a good person but he really want to know all the answers related to his brother death.

Ganesh and Kali after a long discussion decided to show the Secrets to Shiva and Sati and invited them to Panchvati. Reaching Panchvati took around an year to them. During this journey, they had been attacked by someone(unanswered).

Finally reaching there Shiva got to know that his brother (Brahaspati) is alive.

Great piece of work by Amish again. Like the Immortals of Meluha, here also he has tried to explain logics behind all the happenings and made it philosophical at few places. I would like to mention few nice quotes from the book :

“Some truth only cause pain, they best left buried”.

“Laws are not important, what is important is justice.If the purpose of justice is served by breaking the laws then break it.”

If you would be looking for a nice Hindu Mythological read then it woule be a good pick (provided you would have read the first part ;)).

Rating: 4/5

This review is a part of the http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews Book Reviews Program at http://www.blogadda.com BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

My First Bloggers Meet

2011-09-11T02:07:00.001+05:30

I was desperatley waiting for a meet with the other bloggers since long. Finally I met them all here in Bangalore. Met fabulous and loving people. It was really a nice meet thanks to Vineet Rajan and his Indiblogger team for arranging such a meet. A tried to get interact with many bloggers as I can but couldn't meet all.

For me it has started long time ago not on 10th September at 2:00. I was really excited for it due to the two reasons. First reason is obvious to meet other bloggers and second to meet my brother (who is also a blogger after a long time). I skipped my lunch and ran through my daily routine works so that I can reach there at time. I was amazed at such a warm welcome by Indiblogger team. Coming to bloggers , all the bloggers were smiling and quite happy (why we shouldn't be , it's kind of a bloggers day for us).

The meeting started with some nice interactions, checking tabs and all. Then Samsung team took the stage and talked about all technologies stuff related to their new launch Galaxy Tab 750. I liked it but it was too much technical at few times (and bit boring too as per me and the people sitting next to me ;)) and they didn't mention it properly why their product is better than others and why should I choose it ?

Then after a break of about an hour (in which they offered snacks and all). The twitter quiz session started in which they asked questions and we have to answer it on the twitter with the hash tag.First time I have seen the different type of quiz where you have to use twitter for answer your questions. Finally I won one Samsung Bluetooth Headset after saying that I would be happy to exchange my partner for the Galaxy Tab 750 ;).

Then we had a session in which we have to get the signs on our Galaxy Tab(a dummy) from other bloggers and signed on others. The whole point was to interact with all the bloggers. It was a nice thing to interact with other bloggers and get to know what they blog about. After an half an hour of meetings others and taking signs, we had discussion in group of four (Technology, Corruption, Indiblogger and Anything goes).

Finally, we left with several happy memories. I loved it and will wait for an another meet. Meeting other bloggers was really fun. I met many good and fabulous persons there like C. Giridhar, Sandhya, Upasana, Vijay, Harsha, Prateek, Shruthi, Sujata, Gautam, Vineet, Rachna, Sibichen, Flyinfiddlesticks, Swati and many more ( sorry if I have not mentioned your name here, it doesn't mean that I have forgot you. I do remember your faces and may be names too but could not recollect it right now).

P.S. : I would be happy to stay in touch with other bloggers either through mails or a personal meet too. Feel free and mail me.

Introspection

2011-09-09T21:54:00.000+05:30

Sometimes you feel down due to something wrong happened to you or done by you and you don't know how to express your feelings. Then you start introspecting yourself again and again to find answers " Where and What I have done wrong (or happened wrong)?" Sometimes you find answers or sometimes you get stuck in a vicious circle of questions. You don't know what to do? To whom you should or shouldn't talk. How to begin an afresh? Whom you should trust or whom not? You feel you got stuck in some time which is not moving for you. You feel agitated most of the time.

I get stuck something like in the same situation and was(still) finding answers for the same. But still I think there is a long way ahead. I remember an adage by one of my relative:

"Waqt ki mar Waqt hi thik karta hai"

Then few days back I was listening one song with that I could correlate myself. It happens when you are emotional then suddenly some song comes into your mind and you really feel the meaning and depth of the song.

Crawling in my skin

These wounds they will not heal

Fear is how I fall

Confusing what is real

There's something inside me

That pulls beneath the surface

Consuming, confusing

This lack of self control I fear

Is never ending, controlling

I can't seem to find myself again

My walls are closing in

(Without a sense of confidence)

(I'm convinced that there's)

(Just too much pressure to take)

I've felt this way before so insecure

Crawling in my skin

These wounds they will not heal

Fear is how I fall

Confusing what is real

Discomfort, endlessly has pulled

Itself upon me distracting, reacting

Against my will I stand beside my own reflection

It's haunting how I can't seem

To find myself again

My walls are closing in

(Without a sense of confidence)

(I'm convinced that there's)

(Just too much pressure to take)

I've felt this way before so insecure

Crawling in my skin

These wounds they will not heal

Fear is how I fall

Confusing what is real

Death of Merit

2011-09-01T12:29:00.000+05:30

Few days back, there was some program by Insight Foundation on "The death of merit in India". They showed four documentaries and answered some of the queries of the audience.

Each of the documentary relates to a boy who has committed a suicide while pursuing his higher education. And the common thing among all the four documentaries are they all belong to SC/ST. As per the families their children used to be harassed by the faculty of the colleges. And as per the Insight Foundation, they have documented 18 cases as of now and in all of the 18 suicides happened in Sciences (IITs, AIIMS,etc.) colleges.

So why only sciences colleges? I am trying to figuring it out. How come it is happening only in sciences colleges? I have never seen this caste discrimination in mine college. Yeah I have seen one of the suicide in my college that was not related to caste discrimination or any other discrimination.May be something which I have never seen is true in some aspect.

But I know in our country, Caste discrimination is still prevailing.We used to say it is not there but still at home or in society ( or may be in college also as per Insight foundation) it is prevailing. People still used to serve lower caste people as untouchables. They doesn't allow them to enter into their house so easily and always consider them as inferior to them. It starts from home and reach to the higher level.

Is it the reservation bill which is making them suicide too (as faculty thinks they comes from some Quota?

Or it doesn't matter the reservation bill is there or not, We don't want to change ourselves?

I used to think that Literacy is the only thing which can abolish this caste discrimination or any other discrimination. But now it goes other way round! Literacy itself killing the people and creating more discrimination. Discouraging the students to join institutes.

If you are thinking that caste discrimination or any other discrimination is all useless, hear the stories of the Indians who went abroad. They are quite used to of racism which is quite similar to caste discrimination.

P.S. Hope you do ponder over this issue.

"If I Pretend I am Sorry! Will You Pretend and Forgive Me"

2011-08-07T21:56:00.003+05:30

Author: Prashant Sharma

Publisher: Srishti

Price: 100/-

Few days back I have joined one community known as “Book Readers Lounge”. It's a community where they support Indian writers. They have made a group of Book Reviewers also. So as a part of community I got a request from one of the author, Prashant Sharma to review his mentioned book.And the book name sounds fascinating to me as well..

This book is a story about three different persons named Rannvijay Singh, Rajvir Singh and Viraj Singh and how they are connected to underworld directly or indirectly.

The book is written from the perspective of all the three.

Rannvijay Singh. The book starts with a story of a Rannvijay Singh who lives in the slums of Mumbai. His mother and him got shifted to Mumbai from Punjab for the reasons which only his mother could answer. He doesn't know a bit about his father. He started working at early stage by opening a tea stall but his lust for Money and the love for Mumbai couldn't resist him to tea stall. He started stealing money and doing illegal things; putting all this illegal money to his legal business. Once he stole money from a Mumbai don (Anees ) which turned a bad thing for him. As Anees burned his mother alive within her house. So Rannvijay made up his mind to kill Anees and his boss, Irshad.

He did it in a very stylish and unique way. Then he decided to become a member of underworld and later he becomes a unknown hitman who kills for money and no one knows about him. He had a dream to become a king of Mumbai. He has his own style of killing the people and getting the message for killing. The boss of this underworld group lives in Delhi. His name is Rajvir Singh.

Rajvir Singh. His family was murdered in the riots after the India-Pakistan partition. And he murdered a person who killed his family and ran away form there to Punjab where he started working as a farmer. And he gets engaged with a zamindar daughter. The reason behind getting engaged with zamindar daughter was his lust for money. After few months, after killing his father-in-law and taking his all money; he ran away from their to Mumbai alone, leaving his pregnant wife alone.

In Mumbai, he started a electrical equipment company which earned him a lot of money but he has a more lust for it. So he meets a owner of textile industry who has a daughter (widow). He decides at that moment, he is going to marry the owner's daughter for the money. Then he repeated the same thing, he killed his father-in-law again. And by that time he has formed a group with the underworld and became a leader of their group. He becomes a very rich person in Mumbai after getting taking over the business of his father-in law and becoming the boss of underworld. He got a son, Viraj Singh.For the safety of his family(particularly son), he shifted to Delhi. He sends his son to boarding school and abroad to keep him safe.

Viraj Singh. As he took a birth in a very rich family. He has never faced a money crisis like the other two characters. He enjoyed his life with a fair amount of money. He had all those things whichever he like cars, girls, etc. He had fallen in love with a french girl, Rachel. After spending around 10-12 months with her. They decided to get engaged. But Viraj wanted to convince his parents for that so he leaves for India after finishing his post-graduate. There he met an another girl, Saumya. With her also he falls in love. And when Rachel got to know that he and Saumya are getting married. She comes to India on the wedding day. And after looking into the eyes of Rachel, Viraj feels guilty and gets confused. He decides to run away with her. After 3 spending 3 months away from home he decides to go back to his home. There he meets again his supposed to be father-in-law who started threatening him to kill Rachel, otherwise he will kill his family and Rachel too. Finally Viraj takes decision to kill his wife for which he pays the money to the same hitman through his dad's partners.

Hitman knows complete story of Rajvir's son as he was there at the wedding party. So he thought it's better to kill Viraj instead of Rachel so that he can become the king of Mumbai. Rajvir knew that, after killing his son Rannvijay wants to kill him and his other four partners (who follows the orders of Rajvir). He decided to have a meeting at Mumbai while knowing that he is going to die.

The climax of the book is really nice in which you would get to know few hidden things (which I have not mentioned here as per the request of Prashant).

The book is quite different from the rest of the Indian author's book. This book gives a deep insight of underworld. The way author has compared the three characters and build up his story is quite good. And he has compared the difference between Western and Indian culture in a nice way. The most influencing character of this book is Rannvijay. His perspective and the way he kills is quite stunning. Author has mentioned a nice line in this book:

“ The fight was never against the British, the fight was always for power”

If you would like to read something different by an Indian author, you should read this.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

P.S.: This is my first book review for the Book Readers Lounge.

Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si

2011-08-02T22:15:00.000+05:30

Career choosing is always a difficult option for me and I have gone through the same situation again and again(once after +2 and once again after B.Tech-the most crap degree I have ever seen and get). As far I think not only me, in fact most of the people lying in the age group of 18-24 have the same confusion. It is always good to go according to your interest but sometimes you have to think about the others interest too.

What makes your interest for particular field?
How would you decide,what is interesting for you without even considering for it?
Without even doing work in that field?
Why there is very less chances of comeback to other interesting field once you entered in one field? What are the pros and cons of the options available? From where you can check out? Maybe the pros mentioned by other person are cons for you and cons mentioned by him/her are pros for you.
Do you need to think about others while choosing your option?
What matters most your interest or others interest?
Would you like to take your instincts as your final decision?

Lot of similar questions surrounds you when you keep thinking the available option which makes you sometimes introvert, angry put you in pessimistic and sadistic mode too. Sometimes you make others worrisome or sad because of your behavior. You cry, make others cry too. I have seen people and felt too doing the same. More precisely you need someone to believe in you instead of people who push you towards anything. Actually at this crossing you meet lot of people who tries to push you in different directions and very rarely with the other ones. Sometimes you think you are at the edge of breaking relationship with others too because of this.But one thing for sure for some people it's an easy thing but for many like me it's is not an easy task. Maybe this is a very small issue in the life as comparison to others but still very significant. I would like to add one of the adage here:

"Try to get what you like,

or you will be forced to like what you get"

Some of the good lines I would like to share here too from my one of the favorite serial Lost.

"I wish somebody had believed in me" - John Locke

"You don't have it, what it takes"- Christian Shepherd

P.S.: Just let me know if you have been going through the same or went through it. Because of it I was out of blogging since 2 months.

Three Cups of Tea

2011-07-17T15:56:00.001+05:30

Author: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Publisher: Penguin India

Price: 299/- (Paperback)

“With the first cup of tea, you are a stranger.

With the second … a friend.

With the third cup of tea, you are family.”

I was just browsing for the must read books on the internet and reviews related to them. Then I found this book much appealing and interesting after reading the reviews. I have ordered it and finished it in 2-3 sittings.

The book is all about a mountaineer Greg Mortenson who set out to climb K2 (the world’ second highest mountain) in the honor of his younger sister Christa. But he lost in the mountains and reached to some poor village known as Korphe (Pakistan) where he moved by their kindness towards the guests and offerings. Giving their best things to guest. He saw children studying under the tree where everything was temporary and they have to troubled a lot during that.They have to face storms during their classes So he decided to build one school in Korphe by raising some funds. But he found there were other problems too like a bridge they needed as much as school to connect with the outer world.

When he came back from USA he came to know that Korphe is not the only village. There are many other small villages like this in Pakistan and Afghanistan too where he need to do the same thing. So he along-with some fund raisers formed an organization known as Central Asia Institute. They build school in the remote areas even in Afghanistan at the time of US attack over them. He had been kidnapped once while traveling in Afghanistan. But they released him. After that kidnapping also he never let him down because of fear, he continued doing his work. People started believing him as a man of God.

There is one heart moving story in the book. When Greg was trying to raise fund for the first school in Korphe. He went to one school in Wisconsin (USA) to give a brief about his work. After that a fourth grader named Jefrey came up afterward and told him that he would help him, seriously. He said he had a piggy bank at home and was going to empty it out. That school raised 62,345 pennies!.While the only check he got from an adult was $100 and nothing from all the celebriteis to whom he has asked .

Summary: It's a true story. The way Greg Mortenson worked there is appreciable and remarkable.How he worked for that small villages while facing lot of hindrances is terrific The book itself is quite inspirational and motivational. It’s a must read book for everyone.

Rating: 4.5/5

P.S. After reading this book Greg Mortenson becomes my ideal.

Expectations.. Dreams.. Eligibility

2011-04-25T01:45:00.003+05:30

I was just going through the photos which has been uploaded by my sister. One of the picture has caught my attention . In this picture two children were lying down on the grass. The way small girl is looking, it seems it she has lot of expectation and dreams (as it seems to me, may be the elder one has too).

She has expectation that someone will peek through her eyes and let her achieve her dreams. But she is not able find anyone. But still as a child she loves to dream as much as she can. May be a celebrity, a big doctor, etc. etc. May be after dreaming too much when she looks at reality and the world around her; she would have been realizing that her expectation is too high than her eligibility.

Eligibility , yes eligibility. Eligibility not of age but of something else which she won't able to fulfill by any means. For which she wants others to peer through her eyes. Atleast one eye will be able to catch her eye and help her to realize her dream. And put his/her expectation with her expectation in achieving her dreams without any hindrance.

This is just a single story I have tried to put up in front of you. There are lot of other stories where the child has lot of dreams too and s/he is wandering for the same eligibility. I want to ask why ? Why we are not coming out to help them? For what we are waiting for? For Government? Government which has already lot of issues to cope-up like 2G Scam, Devas-ISRO Scam, Lokpal Bill etc. May be the Government is trying to reach them too, but they are trying that since long and still we have not come up with this.

P.S. : Hope some of you may think over this. Thanks a lot to Anshima for allowing me use her photo ( actually I didn't ask her ;)). And a special thanks to Preeti Shenoy for her convincing tweets.

"Suppose"

2011-03-07T23:02:00.008+05:30

"Suppose" - a word by which I think you would be more familiar than me. Till few days back, I too was too much confident about the meanings and the usage of this word. Generally we use "Suppose" to describe the things which are not present (Imaginary) or to describe things which are not easily understandable by taking a perfect or suitable existing examples.

I have just finished a TV series . It was really a good series. In the whole series, the thing which I like the most was the contrast between the faith(destiny) and the science (coincidence). For showing the faith of people in something there was a dialogue,

"You are not suppose to let it go" or "I am suppose to do this"

"Suppose"- the meaning was completely different. Destiny(Faith). But it was really a thing in which most of us (Indians) believe. Destiny is itself a big question. But still people believe in it. In Hindi there is an adage

" किस्मत से पहले और किस्मत से ज्यादा किसी को नही मिलता "

Our mythology too believe in destiny much more than facts or science. Who decides destiny ? Lot of unanswered comes when we talk about destiny.

These are the quite justified reasons which made me believe in science rather than in destiny. So I am a man of science rather than a man of faith. What you are?

Silence !

2011-02-06T02:04:00.008+05:30

Silence ! Does it say something ? Or does it means the real silence?

Few days back I was watching a movie, Dhobi Ghat (even after hearing lot of bad reviews about it). And indeed I liked it very much. The direction, music and screenplay of the movie was extremely good. In the whole movie I was trying to figure out the character of Aamir Khan or to fit into the shoes of his role. He hardly has any dialogues in the movie. But his eyes always say something. He always try to contact the world through his eyes. The way he interpret the world around him is really worth watch.

I too realised that the people who seldom talks or try to stay alone have really something to discuss. They must be trying to contact or see the world through their eyes only. And generally these people know things better than others. They have learned a lot of things by looking at someone's else life which itself a great lesson.

But what our society is doing for them. Mostly our society, boycott these kind of people and call them "Introverts". This ignorance by the society doesn't makes them weak. But with the time they become strong and prove themselves a Legend.

P.S.: I am too fumbling between introvert and extrovert life :P

Consumerism

2011-01-17T22:22:00.003+05:30

I heard from many people and have read at many places too that today's market is consumer market or completely focussed on Consumerism. Not only heard or read about it but have seen too by the services offers by the big electronics companies. The big companies always try to maintain their good reputation in the market or in short mainly among the consumers. For them consumers is like the God.

I think I have elaborated much about consumerism than what is needed :). As I know big companies are always loyal towards their customers so I was thinking to get some good reason to trap some FMCG company and check how loyal they are towards their consumers.

Generally instead of milk, I prefer to use Nestle Everyday Dairy Whitener i.e a milk powder for my coffee. Three to four months back I bought a pack of it when from my hometown for my personal usage. After 3-4 months, it got expired as it seemed to me. Because whenever I have tried to dissolve it in hot water it didn't get dissolve. Same thing happened to my previous pack too. But on their pack it is mentioned " Best Before 12 Months". But I always used to buy things after checking their manufacturing dates only so here I couldn't be wrong. So, finally I have decided to put up a complaint against it on their site atleast so let them know about their product quality.

At last I have filled a complaint for it. Four days later in the morning, I got a call from Nestle India that they going to take this issue seriously. They asked me about all the details about the product, Batch No. (got erased), etc.Then they told me that someone would come from Nestle to take that packet back for analysis and they would replace it soon with a new one. So it happened two guys from Nestle came to Hostel to the same afternoon with a replacement. They too have checked it and realised that there is something wrong with their product. They have replaced it with a new one.

I don't know what I did is either wrong or right. But I feel really proud of it. I made some company to realise about their product quality like a true consumer. I would like you all to be like this so that the big companies can't make us fool. It's not only about the replacement or money, it's something more to show how aware the consumer is.


Email they have sent me.

Traditions or Wastage of Money and Time

2010-12-28T01:34:00.002+05:30

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." - Buddha

In my last semester break, at home I have attended many weddings including my brother's and friend's too. I saw many traditions in their wedding which are rigid and needs to eradicate or modify.They are nothing just the wastage of money and time. I remember one of the dialogue from the movie Swadesh by SRK . "Whenever we are lagging behind the developed country and not able to compete with them in that particular field, we try to hide behind our traditions.That our traditions are too good and their traditions are bad."

And one more thing. now-a-days marriages are show-off of money. People with their empty wallets do show off. I think somewhere the reason behind it too is traditions.

I am not against my cultures and traditions. I too love my traditions and cultures as you are. I am passionate for my country and want to see my country as a developed country where all people can live their life cheerfully.

I mean to say we have to change according to time. Our traditions need to revised again and again with respect to time so that our next generation would also be able to carry it too.