Book Review: Once Upon a Time in India: The Marvellous Adventures of Captain Corcoran

Ratings: 1 Star Sam Miller shouldn’t have bothered translating this book in English. It was better if it were left untranslated in some dingy French bookstore not bothering anyone. But the deed was done. All I can glean from this book is that Europeans are brave and Indians are treacherous chickens. It actually wouldn’t have […]

Book Review: Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji

Ratings: 1 Star ‘Rebel Sultans’ reads like a cricket commentary, voluble but without any depth. A rat-tat-tat of facts thrown your way, a jumbled assortment of characters moving in and out of picture without leaving any mark – Pillai manages to turn an interesting epoch of history into mindless drivel. The principle problem is of […]

Vampire of chambal

Can Kishan, an IIT aspirant, survive the Vampire of Chambal?

First Time

It shot through the sky. 4-tiny engines, pushing against its momentum, preparing it for a gentle handshake. Do you think I am fidgeting too much, breaking up the tenuous bonds of water molecules lying thinly on my surface? Well, I am new at this – don’t test me! I see it now – the fiery […]

Discussing ‘Foundation’

“Of all human conditions, perhaps the most brilliant and at the same time the most anomalous, is that of the Governor General of British India. A private English gentleman, and the servant of a joint-stock company, during the brief period of his government, he is the deputed sovereign of the greatest empire in the world; […]

Why India works?

I firmly believe that even if a craven despot becomes the leader of the nation tomorrow, he won’t be able to do a lasting damage to our society. Mainly because the common folks have become impatient. They have become all the more interested in the specifics of what is being offered and are not rigidly […]

Essay No. 3 : Large Swings in India’s policies – Environment, GAAR derailing investments

The once ‘Shining India’ has lost its sheen. With inflation skyrocketing, a large CAD, amid low manufacturing outputs, India’s growth story has hit a bumper. The normal tendency of the ruling party is to blame it on recession in U.S. (of 2008). But there is a consensus amongst the learned economists of this country that, […]

Shit Things

Prologue What makes a hero? I don’t know. I have never been one. But right now, I can find an answer for you. You first of all visit an obscure little planet called Earth. Roll the globe a little till you get Asia, India, Gujarat, Vadodara. Ah……life. It fills oneself with joy and exuberance […]

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency / Book Review

To paraphrase an old adage, the first impression lingers on. I hated this book for its colonial undertones (not against the Africans as much against the Indians)and I still do. But, yet I find it a delightful and engrossing book to read. More so, as the world sketched in this book was totally alien to […]

Bollywood and Space

“Cinema in India is like brushing your teeth in the morning. You can’t escape it.” Shahrukh Khan Had it not been this particular tale, I might have written it in a different manner. But of course, I wouldn’t have even liked to write it in any other manner. Bollywood as you know dear readers […]