BRAToSPHERE

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  • Half Girlfriend – Book Review

    Many years ago, in my early teens, I had bought a audio cassette of a movie. Yes, you heard it right. An audio cassette of a Hindi movie, with all the dialogues, back ground music and the songs. The complete movie without the video. It surprised me, making me wonder why anyone would listen to a movie?

    What surprised me even more were books of movie screenplays. A book with the complete dialogues of a movie, sentence after sentence. Like reading a play. Why would anyone want to read that?

    Chetan Bhagat’s latest offering, Half Girlfriend, is exactly like that. The screenplay of a movie script. Every page of the book feels like it has been written to be made into a movie. So much that the book is separated into three sections called Acts. Like a play!

    Well, that I suppose is the real intent of the book anyways, and no harm there. Who knows, it could probably catch up as a fad pretty soon. Big production houses releasing book versions of the movie before the actual release of the movie, additional source of revenue to the projects. (They have stopped calling them films anyways)

    Talking about the book, it is very much in the genre of the author’s previous offerings. Boy meets girl in a cool campus (moving away from the IIT/IIM to Stephens, probably in an attempt to widen the reader base), and falls in love. Add some drama, a little sex, whole lot of daily life situations and lo! You have a story ready.

    There is not much relevance of the title in the book, and it seems more a ploy to fulfil the authors fetish obsession with numbers (all his books have a number in them).

    Also, as it was touted in the media, there is not much relevance of the “Language divide” – those who know English and those who don’t. This again seems like a concept that has been force fitted into the theme of the book, to make it relevant to the present day reader. (The ongoing UPSC imbroglio makes it good timing)

    Relevance, yes. This is one thing that Chetan Bhagat needs to be given complete credit for. He knows the pulse of the nation and what the present day youth is thinking. He knows their fears and the dreams, and the daily challenges they face. English today is a big debate, and many young in the country are waking up to the fact that it is the language skills that matter the most.

    English does give nightmares to many, and its importance is only increasing with the increasing number of MNC’s coming into the country. Every young person, from a small town would completely relate to the main protagonist of the book, due to the language embarrassment that he is shown to face.

    Also, the author has a knack for fleshing out the daily observations in the most comic manner possible. Gems like,

    “I think when rich guys say something, girls find it extra funny”

    “When two women don’t share the right vibe, a peaceful hour together is a minor miracle”

    Overall, this book, like other books from the author, is an easy read, and pretty run of the mill kinds,

    Though many “elitists” would deny having read this book, I am sure everyone would go ahead and read it.

    Like it is rightly said about Chetan Bhagat, he truly is the Salman Khan of the literary world.

    Happy reading!!

  • Sunday Evenings

    Sitting in my 10th floor balcony, sipping on hot green tulsi tea. This is the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening. Add some interesting company to this, and there is nothing in this world that could beat this experience. (Working on this bit, to solve the imbroglio forever!)

    View from the balcony

    Even alone, the Sunday evening has much to offer. It is the solitude rather that is therapeutic. The perfect time to reflect on the week gone, and to plan the week ahead.

    I know of many people who loathe at Sunday evenings. The very mention of the Sunday evening gives a very depressing feel to many. I was one if them not very long ago. I used to hate the advent of the Sunday evening. Probably it had something to do with he inevitable Monday morning, or maybe it was due to the fact that it marks the end of a perfect weekend.

    I have now come to appreciate and like Sunday evening, it gives me the perfect relaxed time that I look forward to all week. No, before you ask,Saturday evenings do not compare as more often than not there are obligations and chores to attend to. Saturday is used to fix the functional part of the week to come. Sunday evenings on the other hand, fix the inner mind pepping it for the week ahead.

    There was a time, not so long ago again, when Saturday night implies party night. No matter what, and where, Saturday night would immediately conjure the internal mood to get ready for night full of fun, frolic and a lot of liquids.

    With a heavy head, and a tired body, I would wake up to a packet of maggi for my starved tummy. Wrapping up the weekend, I would attend to chores for the week to come. I guess this is the reason for the hatred to the Sunday evening – fun over, back to work feeling.

    That now seems like a bygone era.

    Now a days, my weekends have been in hibernation mode, spending time in solitude with myself.

    Sunday evenings especially.

    So, how do you spend your Sunday evenings?

  • The Journey Home – Book Review

    I am a frequent visitor to the ISKCON temple in Juhu, Mumbai and I love the vibes in the air in the temple premises. I love the simplicity in the affairs of the temple, and at the same time, the quest to achieve the inner most peace of the body and the mind.

    I must have read most of the books available in the book store attached to the temple, and insist to all to compulsorily read “BHAGWAD GITA.. As it is”. With this lineage, I was very excited to lay my hands on “The Journey Home”.

    photo Journey-Home-Book_Radhanath_Swami2_zpsc89a775c.jpgThis book is the transformation of the nineteen year old, Richard Slavin to Radhanath Swami. Like most of the teenagers of that time, Richard was immersed in the hippy counter culture and started off on a quest to find himself.

    He takes off to the most exotic locations in Europe with a bunch of friends, hitchhiking through Amsterdam, Florence, Rome, and all of this with literally no money. During this journey, a vision directs him towards India, which he reaches via Cholera infected Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan over a journey more than six months.

    In India, Richard describes his brushes with various spiritual personalities he encountered, and his genuine curiosity to learn the secrets of a fulfilling life from them. His troubles evoke empathy many a times, and his little triumphs make you feel warm and happy.

    The mentions of the internal conflicts faced by him, and the inner voice communicating to him in all his dilemmas are all detailed out in detailed manner. It makes the reader feel that you are actually present there as a silent spectator watching the adventurous journey the author goes through.

    The experience that he has with baba Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba (Who I had earlier heard of in Steve Jobs autobiography), explain a lot of dilemmas faced by him, and the internal battles he was going through.

    After all the interesting interactions with himself and varies personalities in terms of teachers, social workers, cult leaders, Richard found his calling in Bhakti Yoga, and a guru in his holiness Srila Prabhupada of ISKCON.

    Overall, anyone, with even a faint interest in Spirituality should compulsorily read this book. It is a heavy book, and I suggest pacing it out over a month to grasp the maximum out of it.

    This journey needs to be made into a movie to spread the message, and to bring out the confusion all of us face when it comes to spirituality.

    Disclaimer: This book was sent to me for a review.

  • Delhi World Book Fair

    From when I can remember I have always loved books. More than that, I love collecting books, and being in their company. The smell of the paper in a new book still makes me go gaga and nothing in the world can match it.

    My two visits to the Jaipur Literature festival, in 2012 and 2013, have been quite enriching and totally worth every minute spent there. Being amidst books gives me an unparalleled high.

    Continuing the love, I was eagerly waiting for the bi-annual show – The New Delhi Book Fair, held at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. It is India’s oldest book fair, with the first one being held in 1972!

    I was very surprised to know, and am sure many of you would be too, that “India is the third biggest market for English publications with almost 12,000 publishers that publish around 90,000 titles a year in more than 18 languages”. In a country like India, that still has substantial illiteracy rates, this comes as a welcome surprise. With the up surging middle class and increased literacy and awareness we sure are on the way to be no. 1 very soon.
    The theme for the book fair was “Books in Indian Cinema”. This sure seemed like a step towards commercialization of the property to attract the youth of today. The only linkage to the theme was a small exhibition setup with posters of various movies, which have been inspired from books. No mention of the theme in the stalls, or a shelf stacking such books! Nothing!

    The book fair in itself was huge spread across 6 large halls of the overflowing Pragati Maidan, and there was substantial crowd. Stalls by every major bookseller were available and coupling it with cafeteria options from the likes of Costa Coffee made it a perfect hangout place.

    Sadly that is what it turned out to be.

    Admit that this is a book fair and not a literature festival, but the focus on commercializing the event super ceded the intellectual stimulation expected out of it. it more seemed like a garage sale of books than a exhibition of the complete range of books by each of the book publishers. I think this is what happens when you invite booksellers to setup a stall.

    For me, a book fair is a place for the publishers, distributors to showcase their wares and collection to the end consumer and a wonderful place to network among the entire stakeholder chain of this business called books. The latest change – ebooks, should also have been invited in a big way and the end consumer could have been witness to the pros and cons of this medium and given a glimpse to the future.

    What it turned out was a garage sale. All the booksellers were out there to empty their stockpiles of books that have been collecting dust in their outlets. Rs. 100 for 2 books one claimed, 3 said another, leading to a mad rush for people ready to deck up their bookshelves.

    Alas! That is all it turned out to be.

    Would I visit it next time? Of course I would. But this time the mindset would be to strike a bargain to fill up my bookshelf, and nothing else!

  • Think like a freak – Book Review

    I read the book, Freakonomics sometime in the beginning of this year, and it got me hooked to this way of thinking. The simplicity and the clarity brought in by the authors to explain real life incidents were fascinating.  Unexpected insights on topics as varied as abortion related to crime rates and Sumo wrestling made this book a winner, leading to subsequent sequels.

    Needless to say, I was looking forward to reading the remaining books by this author duo. I gave their third instalment, Think like a Freak priority over the second, SuperFreakonomics due to the catchier name, and also due to its recency.

    The Author duo – one an Economist and the other, a Journalist form a wonderful combination to perfectly blend the bland with the interesting. They have made the word Freakonomics, which started off as a book, into a complete brand. There is a movie, the Podcast, the blog and the occasional consultancy they do on similar lines of thought.

    The book delves into many interesting episodes, and continues from where it left off. The rational of the whole “why suicide bombers should get an insurance” , which is touched upon in their previous book is now explained in detail. The case where the link between the “Englishman tasting the sweat of the African slave” and the “high levels of heart disease in this community” is established very pictorially and convincingly.

    The pitfall of this book is that it seems a little like self-help. It sometimes gets into preachy mode, provoking the non-intuitive minds a trick or two. The whole book gives a very instruction manual feel, which makes it very preachy.

    The lessons that are offered are surely valuable but obvious. Common thoughts like, “Ask the right questions”, “Admit your shortcomings”, “Tell Stories to convince a strong opponent” are given as tools to think freakishly.

    Also, as someone who frequently listens to their podcast, it very much seemed like a repetition of the same at many places.

    Overall, this book does have some content, but on the whole it looks like a hurried affair to cash in on the previous success.