Shiva Trilogy - Amish

Immortals of Meluha & The secret of the Nagas.

What a lovely simple story.  And such an easy read that I could finish reading both books in less than a month, while keeping an eye on my 9 month old.

What I found interesting is that author has taken various mythological characters and places and come up with an entirely new story about them. Well, not entirely new, cuz it does has some references with the mythology. But still it’s a different version altogether.

The name of the series is based on its protagonist Shiva - who is worshipped today, but was a mortal some 4000 years back who did great deeds. It’s a story about good - evil and how they are the two faces of the same coin. It’s a story about faith, courage and righteousness.

 It is fun to read and the suspense element keeps you hooked. Some of the events do get predictable though and you can see them coming as the narration progresses. Eagerly waiting for the third part to come out – The Oath of the Vayuputras.

From The Holy Mountain - William Dalrymple

Okay I have taken record time to finish this book. And I am not be blamed for that. Actually this is not at all an easy read. Need to concentrate while reading and being a busy mommy that I am, I took 4-5 months to actually finish it. Anyway about the book now.

This travelogue has history, historical monuments, religion and conversations / stories of various people. William Dalrymple has tried to retrace the path travelled by John Moschos long back during Byzantine era and has tried to compare the world then and now. He has visited various religious places and monuments mentioned in the book. He is researching the current situation of Christianity in Levant area [The countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt], once a dominant religion in this region seems to be on a descent now, not to mention the dwindling Christian population. So he has talked to various people in this entire journey, trying to understand the problems they faced then and in today’s time.

Full tilt - Dervla Murphy

A sole woman's journey - pedalling across Europe and Asia, taken at the age of 31. The very description made me long to read this book. But considering the enthusiasm I had, the beginning proved quite a dampener. This book was not easily available in Indian markets and I finally got a copy from Flipkart after a long wait. And once I got my hands on it, I could barely wait to begin with it. However few chapters through the book, I was thoroughly disappointed to see that Dervla had finished writing about the first part of the journey from Ireland to Iran in just one chapter. Hardly any details were provided and there was minimum chronology. Random reminiscences formed this first chapter. And to be fair, she didn't really pedal all the way cuz of snow, as was the impression given from the description of the book.

The Dark half – Stephen King

Happened to read this genre of book after a real long time, cuz I guess I needed a break and wanted to read something really light and that which will not require much concentration from me. Incidentally I picked up the right sorts. Dark side is just the kind of book, which you can skim through without really making an effort to read it and yet you will get the entire story.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

After having read complete hitchhikers series for the second time and enjoying it all the same, I started looking for some more books by Douglas Adams and came across Dirk Gently. And glad I did, because its one read that should not be missed. Although when I started reading this book, it did not make much of sense. As I persevered with it, it became interesting as it went by, not because it started making sense, but cuz of the authors comical style of writing. And off course towards the end everything made sense cuz everything fell into place.

The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams

This is one book which everybody should read cuz it has so much hilarity packed in utter gibberish that it never ceases to amaze you.


Thats all I have to say :-)

Subtle Knife & Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman

Before I plunge into expressing my views about these books it’s just fair to give a small summary regarding the story [for the sake of continuity to the previous post if not anything else].

So in the previous book a doorway had opened into another world [Cittagazee] and Lyra had gone through it. Will, a 12 year intrepid boy is on the run and through a window between his world and another, finds refuge in the latter. Cittagazee is full of specters, some transparent creatures visible only to adults and which suck life out of adults rendering them alive but still lifeless. So anyway, Lyra and Will become best of friends, get hold of Subtle knife, which is a very unique knife that can cut anything, even windows between different worlds. They are in search of Will’s father, in course of which they meet some witches, who are keeping them safe and helping them reach Lord Asriel. Lord Asriel meanwhile is assembling the biggest army to fight Almighty or Creator. Whatever!!

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

Wow My last post was in December beginning!! Days going busy busy with house shifting and setting up…phew..

Haven’t been reading much these days. Did pick up “His Dark Materials” trilogy by Philip Pullman, and have been reading that on and off. Finished the first part – Golden Compass and have begun with the second part – Subtle knife.

Lyra, a 11 year old girl who is the protagonist of this story is supposedly a blessed child, destined to bring about huge powerful changes in the world. She is shown to be curious, bold, with great intuitive powers. This story is set in an universe parallel to ours. And here the human beings have a inseparable part of themselves called daemon, which generally is in a form of an animal. This daemon is actually a part of the person, so if it is separated from the person by some power, it kinda means a death like life for the person or even death. Phew. Also this world has witches and talking bears. Anyway, so the story has a plot in which few bad goons led by Mrs Coulter, who is utmost charming and cunning at the same time, are conducting some experiments on kids to separate their daemons. All this because it is somehow related to “Dust”, which is never fully explain in the book [and that is why the second and third parts exist ;-) ]. All that I could gather was that “Dust”  is somehow related to “Original Sin”.

Rozabel Line - Ashwin Sanghi

This was a highly recommended book and so I went about reading it. But somehow it has impressed upon me as a very boring book. The initial few chapters were fine, interestingly building up the plot. But then as the book progressed, it became very repetitive, both in the content and style.

Story is based on religion and history, on various cults, on controversies and secretes. On how Jesus Christ was a normal human being, got married, had kids. On how the genealogy continues even till this date. [Not a new theme after Da Vinci Code] This book repeats this Jesus Christ angle till adnaseum. Plus it also has a mix of concepts from Islam and a huge stress on Hinduism’s rebirth belief. Overall it glorifies Indian history and Hinduism and also speaks of oneness of all religions. And intermingled in all this is terrorism, politics and nuclear bomb blast. All that is fine, but the repetitiveness kind of makes the plot lame.

Wonder If I have become too old for such books or the book itself wasn’t all that good.

The Wall (and other short stories) - Jean Paul Sartre

Nobody recommended me this book, nor had I heard about it. Somehow came across this author and subsequently this book while surfing, thought will give it a shot. And a good one it was.

“The Wall” is an eponymous collection of short stories. Each of these short stories delves on grey shades of human mind and emotion.

“The Wall” was one of my favorite short stories amongst these and I actually re read it couple of times more. It is based on the time of Spanish Civil war, and is narrated from the point of view of one of the prisoners, Pablo Ibbieta. Pablo and couple of more prisoners are put into a dark small cold cell and are sentenced to be executed at dawn. The execution will take place by shooting bullets at the prisoners lined up against the Wall. The whole story is about how the human mind and body conflict with each other while awaiting death, about how different people perceive the looming death. How once the illusion of eternity disappears, life and everything in it loses all meaning.

Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman!

Amazing read! Concise, witty, random memoirs of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman told in a very engaging manner.

I am so impressed by Mr. Feynman, who seems to have such a wonderful approach to life! Mundane stuff which might not even provoke any interest in most of the humans, are actually source of fun to his persona. Ever willing to learn and try out new things, enjoying whatever venture he takes up.

He seemed to have picked up so many things not to ace in them, but just to have fun learning them. Like when he had to visit Brazil or Japan for some work, he took up learning Portuguese and Japanese respectively, just because he was going there and wanted to mix up with the local people. Then when he was in Brazil since he was interested in Samba music, he picked up an instrument called frigideira and became a part of some local carnival band. He also played drums and kept experimenting with various rhythms. Not that he could read music or anything, just that he enjoyed playing drums, could make out different rhythms, and was decent enough to give music to some ballet performances.

Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

This book by Salman Rushdie is my first book by this author. Obviously having heard so much about the author n the book, I had to give it a try out of curiosity. However a bestseller need not be the “best read” for everybody. This one wasn’t for me.

The book is told in first person by the protagonist Saleem Sinai who happens to have born at the stroke of midnight the moment India got its independence. So the moment India and Pakistan were born, Saleem was also born. And his growth & destiny is entangled with that of the newly born nations.

Now having born at such a momentous moment, he was empowered with special powers, and so were all those kids who were born during the first hour after midnight. Hence forming the Midnight’s children group. Saleem possessed the power to read people’s mind, to talk to them through their minds. Later on in the story he lost that power, and instead gained the power of immensely sensitive olfactory sense. So he could smell not only the regular smells or fruits and flowers, but also the smell of human nature, the deceit, truth, hatred etc.

In Xanadu - William Dalrymple

Its been some time since I finished this book but couldn't find time to write about it earlier. This is another travelogue [and last one for the time being] in which the author has started his journey from Jerusalem and travelled all the way to Xanadu [summer palace of Kubla Khan] in Mongolia. He tried to follow the path taken by Marco Polo sometime in 1271. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_polo]

I wasn't really glued to this book. Author has explained the architecture and various monuments en route in minute details. And my limited comprehension about architecture couldn't appreciate all these details. Another aspect of the book, was the history regarding various places as an when author traversed them. It seemed very sporadic to me with limited coherence. Many a times I had to reread sections of history or architecture to grasp even an iota bit of it.

Am sure this journey must have been really thrilling and one hell of an experience, but I didn't enjoy much reading about it.

A long way Gone by Ishmael Beau

This book is Ishmael's memoirs as a boy soldier in the war ridden Sierra Leone [South Africa].

Browsing through the internet I got to know that this country is third lowest ranked in the human development index and seventh lowest in the human poverty index. Civil war went over for a decade starting from 1991 to 2000. During this war, different groups, the rebels, army kept fighting, for control over the country. The government was incompetent to handle the situation, and this led to military coup. The civil war continued until some peace was restored in 2001 when UN forces moved in and repressed the rebel army. War was over by 2002 and elections restored democracy by 2007. Over this course of time many thousands of innocent civilians were killed, forced to be homeless and flee for their lives.

Ishmael was born in 1980 in a village called Mogbwemo. He was 12 – 13 when he first experience war. Rebel army started attacking villages, killing indiscriminately and barbarically. He got separated from his family, never saw them again and was lost going from one village to another in hope of finding some shelter, food and more importantly a safe haven. He was with few of his friends initially, made new ones in course of time, which was some solace to him in the madness around.

Down Under

This book by Bill Bryson is about his travels in Australia [Down Under]. When I had read reviews on Bryson’s writings [online] & they hinted on his being a humorous style, I got tempted to order his books.


This book is a mix of author’s travels, many past anecdotes, general idea about life in Australia. Bryson seemed very fond of museums & national parks & have extensively seen as well as described them. Also he read quite a lot of books on Australia by local/non local authors, read local newspapers, and that became a source of many stories of past as well as present life in Australia. Was pretty interesting actually!

Wodehouse yet again

Took a breather from travelogues & read "The luck of the Bodkins" by Wodehouse. Even though the stories by Wodehouse seem more or less similar , they always manage to tickle my funny bone :-)

Eight Feet in Andes - Dervla Murphy

Ever since a friend of mine suggested me to pick one of Dervla Murphy's books, I have been on a look out for her books. But incidentally I couldn't find any in all the major bookstores in Pune, and finally I ordered couple of her books online. Normally I prefer buying books from a store, but my online book shopping experience was good enough and encouraged me to shop further from the comforts of my abode.

This book is about a trek by the author with her 10 year old daughter Rachel in Peru. They walked from Cajamarca to Cuzco, which lies along the lines of central Andes [approx 900 miles according to the book] in 3 months 10 days. This similar route was taken by the Spanish conquistadores [conquerors] sometime in 1533 when they conquered the Inca Empire in Peru.

Turn in the South - V S Naipaul

Another book in the travelogue genre, and this one is about the author's travels and experiences in the American south.

As opposed to my expectations, this book started on a boring tone. Instead of focusing on travel, it was more about a family, what they are eating, where and how they stay, routine etc. This was how it began. Later on however it became apparent that it is a theme based travelogue, theme being: racism, slavery, post civil war situation of blacks/whites.

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - Paul Theroux

After racking my brain over the cosmos I wanted to experiment with some new genre of books, and so I ended up picking up this travelogue. All these years I never tried reading any travel books, reason being I always felt that travel is something you should be doing and not something you sit at home & read about. And so I kept my distance from the travel magazines or books. But with this book my perspective has changed a bit. I still feel that travel is something you should be doing, but I guess it is something you can read about as well.


This book is a very light read, its like chatting with somebody who is narrating his travel experiences, where all he went, how did he travel, whom he met, some conversations he had, some history about the place, how it has changed since last he was there, how he felt about the place now. The route he has taken starts from London, through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan & finally via Russia back to London. So basically he has covered many Asian & some European nations. He is actually retracing his path, taken some 30-40 years back.

Fabric of Cosmos

You have got to take my word on this, its a fabulous book. Especially for people who love science but don't want to plunge into the depths, at least for now. I could actually feel the atoms and molecules in my brain working, or should I say the strings comprising those atoms vibrating, haha :D

I wont brag that I could understand everything explained by the author, but then isn’t it difficult to understand something that is beyond your imagination. For instance, time is not constant, it is different for everybody. For a person moving at a very high speed, time ticks slowly than the person at rest. And then, Gravitation manifests itself as the warps & curves of the space. Can you imagine space with curves & warps?? Phew!