Unmuddlings!!

Seventy years earlier, Britain withdrew from most of its colonies. Now Britain has decided to withdraw from the EU.  The British acumen was one of the most dominant in the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. The British leveraged the value of globalisation through trade and colonisation.  It had the confidence and gumption to tread into unchartered territories and exert its durable influence. It could expand and amass wealth and prestige. That was that time (and up until the middle of the 20th century), the sun did not set in the British Empire. The world order changed post the WW-II. The relative influence of the British substantially reduced; though it did remain a major force. It retained its competitive edge and standard of living because of the wealth it has accumulated over the past couple of centuries. However, in the last 70 years, guess the British wealth creation and gumption continued to slip - despite the pound notionally gaining in value. We now are in a ...

I was a late entrant into Aja’a life, but during the few years I knew him he left a distinct impression in my mind. The first thoughts that come to my mind, when I think of Aja   - is that is he was a celebration of life. He was everything that a copy book story dreams of. A full and an eventful life.   Up until that very day that he had a fateful brain stroke on an early Monday morning, after he slipped into a state of semi-coma and in-cognition, Aja was an air of authority and in total control of his own kingdom. He wrote in his diary almost daily –recording the finances in fair detail and neatly recording the eventful happenings of the day. He had a very strong sense of what he wanted to do or didn’t want to do. More often than not he preferred to walk to the bathroom or to the dining table without any help. He was the master of his own will. Needless to say, added to his sense of security was the feeling that he was the boss of the house. He was a contented man....

e State of the Devas – A Book Review The book e State of the Devas, the first book of Sandip Dash, is a spiritual sci-fi thriller. Maybe we can christen it as a spi-fi. In a snapshot this book is about the path of Shriti to attain e State and reach the River Moksha, through a host of trials and tribulations that she faces in her life. I see some parallels between the journey of Sandip’s Shriti and that of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. However they are two significantly different journeys set in two different ages and are two characters are diametrically different individuals; and the two books are two vastly different books. This short book has good mix of intrigue, separation, sleaze, drama, hi tech medical jargons, science, elevated spirituality. It is fast paced, reads well and has a bunch of characters/situations that one can relate to. It has everything that one needs to have in a book to finish over a weekend. I will not get into the plot and intrigue, I will let the ...

‘Untamed Heart’ is an easy to read, well-paced novel. The 300 odd pages can be devoured quite quickly. As the name and the cover suggest, this book  is a woman’s quest for freedom.. But this ‘maiden’ novel by Mona Dash has many more layers to it. A few of those themes, as I saw them, are; one, how people can both unsuspectingly and conveniently get bound by social mores. Justify themselves to their comfort zones, while they miss out on the thrill of challenging them. This is applicable to everyone - not just an intrinsically talented, yet trapped India/Odia bahu of a 'contented' family - who chooses to take life on an auto-pilot. Two, the path of the river - it has to mingle with the sea, it’s path to moksha. The droplet atop a mountain, will, despite all hurdles, meet its level in a far away sea. As for Mohini s - going by her early instincts in life - she had to explore, she had to excel, she had to be in the thick of things. You cannot have her bound within ...

I was searching for Untamed Heart in Amazon and instead bumped into Dawn Drops. Was happily surprised to see that Mona had published a anthology of poems way back in 2001 (A Writers Workshop Redbird Book). Belated Congratulations. Many of us write articles / poems - which are hidden in almost forgotten diaries, odd newspaper clippings, college magazines and folders/hard-drives. Mona has nice expression for such people - 'closet writers'. But she has broken out of that mould and has started putting her work 'out there' (to borrow another of her expressions). Untamed Heart is a full length fiction published by Tara in 2016, her work is also a part of a collection of short stories Love Across a Broken Map ( http://theasianwriter.co.uk/2016/05/love-across-a-broken-map/ ) recently launched in London. To know more about her and her views, go to  http://www.monadash.net  or just google her up. Good work Mona, keep it up. Coming back to Dawn Drops. It has about 50 refreshi...

The facts first.. 1. Narsingh Yadav earned a quote for India  by winning bronze in the Rome world cup in the 74 KG category. 2. Sushil Kumar, the two time Olympic medallist, was injured so he could not participate in the Rome World cup and could not get a quota for India 3. Sushil Kumar says, the quota is for India so there should be trials for Rio games and the person with the best chance for getting a medal for the country should go. He was gunning for gold in Rio and is desperate to participate 4. Wrestling Federation of India feels - there should be an incentive to get a quota by being automatically selected for the Olympics. This has normally happened in India and is also happening to the other wrestlers in other categories. WFI feels it will an unwise and unhealthy decision to break from the precedence. 5. Narsingh feels that it is his right to go to Rio, going by precedence What does this mean... 1. Good: There is competition in 74 category. Which is a great s...

Virat is the best batsman ever in Indian cricket. Even if this means I need to give him higher marks than Tendulkar, Gavaskar and Dravid (well those are the only three there is any doubt, if at all). Virat has played out barely half his career and he needs to play at this level for a few more years to have comparable stats. But what has made make this bold statement, is his ability to constantly improve and adapt. His focus on goals.  Two stats of IPL 2016 - 36 sixes, 4 centuries in IPL 2016 (at the end of the 13 league matches for RCB) are enough. For someone who publicly stated more than once a month or two earlier (during Asia Cup and World Cup) that his game is not suited for hitting sixes and he depends one fours to achieve the desired to strike rates; his transformation as six hitter is mind blowing. As I am writing this blog he has the maximum numbers of sixes to his credit - ahead to McCullum, Gayle, Raina, ABD at the likes.  The other transformation is sco...