Variety is the spice of life

“The show must go on” – the favorite cliché of entertainment industry. A statement with far deeper meaning than the superficial one of literal continuance. People in public domain, be it politics, sports or movies, are like products with expiry dates. Very few of them manage to prolong their end dates and for some, the public ensures it’s never ending. The famed lime light, not just puts the spotlight on the personality on focus, but also ages them quick. Few years back, while watching Wimbledon, my friend who is a die-hard Fedex fan, couldn’t stop admitting, grudgingly though, that Nadal was far better on that match. He went on to wonder that they belong to the same age group, yet the stamina and power of Nadal was impossible to imagine. I was stunned for a moment and immediately googled to figure out his age and was surprised to find that Nadal was in his twenties!!! Ditto for cricketers, who despite being on TV month after month featuring some tournament or other, often retire f...

Jo Nesbo - Latest addition to list of new authors I’ve started with. Though the series has been on the backburner for about 4 years now, when Brags first shared the list, I thought it was too dark and slow for my taste. But after getting accustomed to lot like Peter Swanson and Tudor, thought of giving it a try. Seems like, psychotic, dark, serial killer murder mysteries are toast of the town at the moment I guess. Probably, the popularity of such themes and topics, with their ingrained evil that is glorified all throughout in immaculate detailing, it has made the readers and general audience alike, numb towards such incidents when it happens in real life. An age old case of art mimicking real life or vice versa. But still, before reading these books, I thought people who make stories out of these should either be psychotic themselves or would’ve underwent/witnessed similar trauma in their own/relations life and predominantly they are recap of real life incidents. But the more commonpl...

There are lot of assumptions made on this post. The primary of them all being that, people who work in IT companies, the so called software engineers, are well educated. If not want to stress on the “well” part, at least should give some concession on the “educated” portion of it. Then again, the very definition of educated will raise some controversial topic, that will digress the intent of the post. Back to the topic. Whichever office I have been to, without any exception, every single one of their cafeteria, food courts and pantries will have certain signs, carrying the biggest font available, plastered on every vantage point leading to and on the corridors leading to the hand wash. The message is albeit a simple one – “PLEASE DONOT WASH YOUR LUNCH BOXES HERE”. In some places, I’ve even seen such messages plastered on the gap between the mirrors in hand wash. But in most of the wash basins you would find the water to be clogging with leftover food. Mostly the ladies are the culpri...

There was an episode in “Young Sheldon” series in which, a specific word triggers memories from his childhood as to when he heard it the first time and the associated incidents. Guess, for many it is quite common to have such “historical” words, especially the swear ones. I too have my share of it, but mostly the non-cuss ones. Few days back, there was a conversation in which one of the person called the other one, though absent but figured prominently in the chat, as sensitive. I was lost for a moment on what was being discussed further, for I was taken back to the very first instance of when I heard the word. It was during ninth or tenth standard vacation when one of my friends called me as “hyper sensitive”. That was two words about which I had no clue. I thought for a while that he was swearing at me an insult, but didn’t want to take any chance before checking the meaning on my dictionary. The description didn’t help much and I let it go for a while, after which I asked him dire...

Thanks to Brags and his never ending supply of good books to share, that off late I get to enjoy some really good thrillers, about which I would’ve never ever known, if not for him. He introduced me to Peter Swanson, Keigo Higashino and now to C.J Tudor. Halfway through the book, as always, was curious to know how it ends and I googled to find out how others have felt about the book. Was stunned to know this was the debut effort by the author and more surprisingly the author is a lady!!! Before you jump onto your feminist guns, would suggest you to have a read at the book and then come to your own conclusion. The way she has narrated the story from POV of a guy and the amount of detailing that goes into his relationships with his friends and acquaintances, the terminology used and above all the twisted storyline and violence, altogether lulled me into thinking that it must be a male author. One thing that scares me is the rise of such dark themed stories off late and their enormous s...

Very rarely does the events around me bother me to this extent. But this particular nuisance has been a thorn on my conscious since my college days – the curious case of Presidency/Pachaiyappa colleges. I was offered a good course for my UG in Presidency and even though everyone were dead against me joining the college for its bad reputation, I thought as long as I can manage my studies and stay away from the trouble elements, I should be able to manage and more over didn’t had any other choice. The first 5 days of the semester showed the challenges up ahead in crystal clear format. The very first day, first class, while Maths professor was writing down the syllabus for that sem, some guy came and announced that students have to participate in strike against existing fee structure and requested the professor to co-operate. The professor, came with us all the way till bus stand and warned us not to venture into the beach for he told that seniors are ragging juniors. I was confused and s...

Feels like we started with Jan 1st yesterday and already this year is one month old!! That is the speed with which earth rotates nowadays. With medical facilities improving life expectancy, I guess its earth’s way of compensating for it, by going quick round the sun, making you age faster. I tried to think of some worthwhile stuff which happened last year and literally couldn’t think of any. Everything seemed to have happened in a whizz, with the only consolation being those books that I got to read. One of my friend is a maniac of clicking pictures, especially of himself!!! I don’t know how he manages to find someone to take his pictures, but wherever he is, he always makes sure there is some snap with him on it and that too with the focus primarily on him. I once saw a picture of him sitting on some stairs and asked him about the pic and he said it was taken at Lincoln memorial. Funnily the picture couldn’t “accommodate” Lincoln and it was just him posing on those stairs. I asked h...