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 ...

‘The cupid is still active in colleges, in offices and in today’s world, also on the internet’ is what the introduction of the book states. The author then goes to aptly point out that, love actually needs to sustain itself once the ‘first flush’ of passion passes by. This according to me is what renders the cupid’s role far more challenging. As his job now, isn’t just to commence ‘happily ever after’ but ensure that entire journey lasts that way. It’s this role of cupid that this Chicken Soup explores through stories of Indian couples both young and old by the use of 8 categories. Thankfully, the book isn’t focusing solely on the rosy aspects of love, where the boy meets the girl and they walk together into the sunset hand in hand. Nope. Only the first 60 odd pages are stories about how people found their soul-mates in their friends, or demure colleague, or in an online friend under the category of ‘Made in Heaven’ . Few stories in this category dangerously border on the flims...

While aimlessly surfing TV during lunch today, I landed up watching few scenes of ‘You've got email’ and came across a nice dialogue from there. " People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all... has happened"  . If you look around, this actually holds true.Over the last couple of months, I have actual seen this so closely around me. Whether its changes happening on work front or alterations at the home end, change seems synonymous to resistance, irrespective of whether it will do you good. One gets so sore everytime one is displaced from the coziness of the comfort zone, especially the older ones. The older you get, the more you want your bets to give the same outcome as what you desire.Even if there are experiences waiting to take you to a better place, you would vehemently resist that. Therefore, I feel this so called 'Steady State' in IT terms in personal liv...

Eateratti this time is going to give you a peek-view into the food that was meant for Gods.For the first time in my life, I witnessed the scale of spiritual dimension of food up-close. As a part of the Deewali Festivities (one of the most important Hindu Festivals), Annakoot Utsav was celebrated with opulence by my in-laws. Annakoot literally means a mountain of food, where at least 56 different varieties or ‘chappan bhog’ is prepared and offer it to Lord Krishna. I had seen this, once at the Iskcon Temple, but this one was celebrated at home!! Finishing touches to the offering being added by Mom-in law The idea is to invite Lord Krishna or Thakurji in to our homes & offer him gratitude in the form of food, for everything that he has been blessing us with. Therefore, every single item that’s offered to Lord Krishna or Thakurji is hand-made at home for which, weeks of preparation was devotedly put in by my mom-in law, her sister-in law my Aunt Sonal Kaki and their mother –in law who...