PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 India is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse nations in the world; a melting pot of religions. Hinduism and Islam, the two major religions of India, have co-existed peacefully for many centuries, borrowing each other’s culture, art, language and traditions. The […]
The Mouse Charmers | Anuradha Goyal | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 2/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 How many of you book your tickets through IRCTC or Make My Trip or Yatra? How many of you buy your books from Amazon or Flipkart? How many of you use Jabong or Myntra or Zovi for your wardrobe shopping? How many of you use […]
The Steradian Trail | M.N. Krish | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 There are many mathematical problems which are still unsolved. The Clay Mathematics Institute has listed out seven “Millennium Prize Problems” of which, six are yet to be solved – Riemann Hypothesis, Hodge Conjecture, P versus NP, Yang-Mills Existence, etc. Many attempts have been […]
Prem Naam Hai Mera, Prem Chopra | Rakita Nanda | Book Review
CANDIDNESS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 Bollywood and cricket make up the major source of entertainment for Indians. We worship our cricketers and movie stars. We love gossiping about them, reading about them, and prodding into their personal lives. So when an actor or a cricketer writes a biography, it is all but […]
Behind the Game | John Sealey | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 In India, cricket is a religion. When team India plays, one billion pairs of eyes watch. Even when the game ends, it is discussed for days in village centres, office cubicles, college canteens, school buses and even in kitty parties. We consider ourselves […]
The Emperor’s Riddles | Satyarth Nayak | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 2.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 The contribution of ancient Indians to the development of various sciences is substantial. Aryabhatta invented zero and gave us the modern number system. Over 2600 years ago, Sushruta conducted surgeries like cataract, fractures, and brain surgeries. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by earth […]
The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science | Will Storr | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 The world is never short of alternate sciences or theories or remedies or any other thing. If there is a correct way to do a thing, many alternate ways, some good and some farce, always find a way into existence. Allopathy, homoeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture, etc. Psychotherapy […]
The Winds of Hastinapur | Sharath Komarraju | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 With more than 74,000 verses and about 1.8 million words, Mahabharata is the longest epic in the world. It has been widely translated, simplified, retold and fictionalised over the centuries. But most of them do not give you the total picture of the […]
Who Wrote the Bhagavadgita – A Secular Enquiry Into a Sacred Text | Meghnad Desai | Book Review
SUBJECT: 5/5 RELEVANCE: 5/5 RESEARCH: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 The Bhagavad-Gita, along with the Vedas and the Upanishads, constitutes a basic triad (prasthanatrayi) of the Hindu religion. It is by far one of the most sacred among Hindu religious texts. It forms the foundation for most of the ideologies of the Hindu […]
Losing My Religion | Vishwas Mudagal | Book Review
PLOT: 5/5 CHARACTERS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 5/5 Entrepreneurship is the “in” thing now; it is the buzz word. Everybody wants to be their own boss; they want to revolutionize the world with their ideas. But being an entrepreneur is not an easy task, and every entrepreneur worth his salt knows […]
Boats on Land – A Collection of Short Stories | Janice Pariat | Book Review
STORIES: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5 The beauty of the north-east lies in its culture, its people and its landscapes. The seven sisters, as these seven states are called, have their own culture, beliefs and language, and each one is more beautiful than the other. But these are in jeopardy due […]
Private India | Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 CLIMAX: 2/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 2.5/5 It is a dream collaboration – James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi. One is a master of crime writing, and the other is a master in weaving mystery. So when they co-author a book, it ought to be a classic; it ought to be […]