Variety is the spice of life

This book has been on pipeline for almost 4 months now. Ever since Covid was tagged as “made in Wuhan” this book has been on the news for the fact that, there is a similar premise that is being mentioned on the book. When I read the reviews, they were mostly mixed and nothing majorly was being referenced to Covid and the theme of the book. I had made up my mind that this book was going to be another Robin cook kind of a thriller written by a different author. The initial chapter itself, threw me off the rails. It felt like a Stephen King horror story with paranormal and ghost related setup. To be honest I have never read books with horror or paranormal theme. Watching them as movies itself is scary and reading them would be allowing those thoughts to take visuals via my imagination and that would make it even scarier. But for this book, I was unprepared as well for such a setting. Eerie sounds, banging windows, falling things, messages suddenly appearing on boards, music systems blasti...

As the dust settles on the grave of the great man of music, looking at the outpouring of grief on social media about the famed singer, makes one wonder on the kind of life lead by him. To me he is a statistician’s nightmare, similar to Sachin. 40K songs across so many languages!! It is an impossible record to beat for any singer of this generation or upcoming generations. The survival instinct and capability to stretch his career well over 5 decades, maintaining his longevity is another impossible feat to match or even come close. With so many singers shooting up from every channel’s talent hunt and with so many music directors shooting up, picking voices from any and everywhere, there are plenty of fish in the ocean. Quite possibly there could’ve been an equally big crowd when SPB was making his splash as well. But how he managed to out do everyone of his competitor and picked every opportunity that came his way or other is probably a lesson to learn in survival and adaptation for pre...

Time travel has always been a favorite topic of mine to ponder. Have often wondered how it would be to revisit situations in the past and interestingly very rarely have I thought of travelling to future. My mind and head are always deeply buried in the sands of time to look behind, the path that has been travelled and about the turns not taken, rather than imagining a route forming up front at that very instant. When reviews were proclaiming this web series as the best sci-fi series ever, I was bit skeptical as I wasn’t sure if it would be easier to follow. Many of the times, in the name of making it as close to being factually and scientifically correct as possible, the makers kill the story element and end up creating a documentary with weird music. Dark starts off on the right note with some one waking up from a nightmare. That guy happens to be the hero and through him the story moves backwards, forwards, side wards, across dimensions and worlds. The starting premise reminds of Abo...

PK Dash.  As a name it may not send shivers down the spine. But the situations and issues it lead to really did made some people, not just shiver but literally got themselves hurt laughing. The day of onboarding: PKD: “Hey team..i’ven’t received my credentials” Recruiter: ”Did you submit all your forms?” PKD:”Yes I did. If you want I can resend them” Rec:”That would be great. Let me check in parallel on the status of your cred creation” Recruiter to IT (over call)  Rec:”Can you check why PK Dash doesn’t have his credentials yet” IT: “PK what?” Rec: “Dash” IT: “We can’t have special characters in name field” Rec: “Pls raise it with concerned team and resolve this system issue. The employee should get his mail id by today EOD” IT: “Connect me with the employee. Will talk with him” IT to PKD IT: “ Hi, we are IT. is it PKD?” PKD:”Yes” IT: “Can you let me know your full name with right spelling” PKD:” It is P as in PK, K as in alphabet after J and Dash” IT: “what is on the dash” PK...

Have always been fond of watching interviews regarding movie people and touring talkies channel has been a wonderful medium for those who have such hobby. Chitra Lakshmanan apparently is a walking talking google on movie people. The way he approaches each interview, the amount of pause he gives after each question only interjecting at portions where if he is looped in on that response is a lesson for anyone conducting interviews. The confidence with which he handles his host, despite the familiarity or personality of the person, the kind of personal questions he asks, some of which are way too personal, as compared to coffee talk shows like that of Karan johar’s does raise eyebrows. But the intent being absolutely clear on the seriousness behind the question unlike the wimpish attitude on the other shows, is quite evident. In all probability the guest is almost always sure that the host knows the answer anyway and are relaxed in being open about something which at times are outright pr...