Book Review: ‘2001: A Space Odessey’

Review: 5 star The difference between Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke has always been that of the fantastic and the possible. And I must admit that I am mighty partial towards fantastic, though Asimov would be hurt by my assertion regarding his work. Clarke had always skirted closer to reality, whereas Asimov had pushed the […]

Book Review: ‘Ender’s Game’

Review: 4 stars Orson Scott Card can truly be called the father of ‘Modern YA literature’. Let’s not be pedantic about the perils of pulpy paperbacks – that stuff sells. And even though you swear on your stars that you can’t stand that trope, you love reading it. The stuff that screams action on every […]

Book Review: ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’

Review: 4 stars My mind cannot comprehend war. I have of course seen the movies and the documentaries, read the books by all the right authors – yet, fail to comprehend the immensity, brutality & the utter meaninglessness of war. I let myself be mindlessly pumped-up by jingoist fervor over a primetime debate on television, […]

Book Review: ‘Imaginary Homelands’

Review: 3 stars Salman Rushdie is a notorious name-dropper, or I must be simply unaware about the major chunk of literature that he enjoys and sometimes reveres. If this is the popular culture out there, then I must be the ostrich with my head in the ground. Or I can always say that it is […]

Book Review: ‘Genghis Khan and the making of the Modern World’

Review: 4 stars Let me tell you from the very outset, Genghis Khan was not a Muslim who perpetrated various acts of violence against the people of India. Furthermore, he even failed to mount a conquest on India as he found the weather to be too hot. Genghis Khan was a Mongol and a shaman […]

The Song of Democracy

“If I have to take police protection in my own country from my own people, then there is something wrong with me, I’m fighting within the framework of the Indian constitution and it is not against anyone, but for everyone.”[1] -Narendra Dabholkar On August 20th 2013, Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead while out on […]

Book Review: ‘Fahrenheit 451’

Review: 4 stars 1984 is terrifying, bleak, intricate, detailed and downright depressing,Fahrenheit 451 is lyrical. Before reading this classic by Ray Bradbury, my approach to dystopian novels was something as follows: gingerly open the first page, read few more, shut the book and pick it up after 6 months or so. I hated Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , […]

Humans dream of Organic Sheep!

I haven’t told you my name, have I? It’s Valmik Zone 365. Sub-writer of Speculative fiction. In direct employment of her holiness, Maa Gaia, Computer Supreme!

The Surgery

The following poetry has won the First Prize under Poetry Category in ‘Black Coffee Competition 2017’ organized by the Literary Committee at MICA. Act 1 It clutched the being by his lapels, And thrust the knife into his belly, five times dead. It moved onto the next, before the body fell, Pushing the […]

Book Review: ‘The King’s Speech’

Review: 3 stars ‘The King’s Speech’ tells me that appearances matter, more so – when it is the question of British Monarchy. An inspirational figurehead, the king is supposed to rally the support of his subjects around important issues of the day – for that a skill of oratory is must. And the job of […]