Happy Hour ... and Me

If there is a thing called being a ‘Mahabharata Person’ then that would be me. What I mean is, that I have read the Mahabharata a couple of times written by various authors. Till date the one written by C Rajagopalachari is one of the best books that I have read. However for a long time, I have been wanting to read the Ramayana, but never made an attempt to do so, until I came across this book. The first of this six-volume series, Rise of the Sun Prince, takes you through the divine story of Lord Rama from his birth up to his marriage. For generations we have been passed lessons of life via stories and mythology, where its purely upto the recipient how to interpret the underlying message or just absorb it as entertainment. Each of these stories have intricate layers embedded therefore spinning out multiple interpretations and one of those is what author Shubha Vilas has used while retelling the Ramayana. What I love about the book is that because it is split into multip...

I have always found Mythology interesting for the fascination and intrigue it created. When I first read some of  Devdutt Pattanaik’s work I thoroughly enjoyed it, because he added the dimension of relevance and began connecting mythology to the present day business world.  When his book, Business Sutra, a very Indian approach to management was released, I knew it would be my next read and  coincidentally  BlogAdda sent it across for review. Business Sutra uses mythologies, stories, symbols and rituals drawn from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythologies to relate to how we Indians look at doing business. It aims at promoting new management thinking using the Indian way as linked to Indian arts, history and mythology as contrast to the western principles. Ingrained characteristics like our ‘jugadi’ nature, finding comfort in chaos and co-existing with ambiguity define us as Indian across the world. Such facets peculiar to us apparently find their roots into...

“India’s answer to ‘The Da Vinci code’” was the singular thought resonating in my head when I read the back cover of the Krishna Key. This is precisely what made the first half of the book highly predictable and snapped the thrill that Da Vinci Code presented, out from the rest. However the similarity in plot would be a highly unfair reason to dismiss the book off. Despite the ‘been there and seen it all’ plot, there are two things that bind the book together; primary one being Krishna himself, who is so full of fascinating stories and multiple facets. Second is the research that flows through pages after pages in the book, which is entertaining for people like me who have a thing for mythological fiction.  The Krishna Key revolves around Ravi Mohan Saini who accused of the murder of his childhood friend Anil Varshney. Varshney had left 4 seals with Saini and 3 others along with a base plate in another location. All these put together would point towards a well guarde...

“The Devotion of Suspect X” is the work of one of Japan’s best-selling crime novelists Keigo Higashino and this book has not just sold some million copies but also won numerous awards. Therefore, when I picked up the book, my expectations from it were sky high and unfortunately which came crashing down with a huge thud. Usually, thrillers and murder mysteries have such a compounding effect that it’s hard to put the book down. But in this case; even tough the plot was interesting, it was an effort to pull the book up every time I put it down. The book has a stirring start, where right at the beginning the murder happens and we know who the murderer was. But what we are not told is how the murder was covered up, and most importantly, why would a stranger help the murderer cover-up the crime. The rest of the book is suppose to explore that, and it does but with a lackluster pace. Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced mother working in a box lunch shop is leading a peaceful life with ...