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Book Review - Rollback by Michael C Grumley

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Mike Mansfield specializes in finding lost people. Not just lost people, but those on whom the whole society has already given up as dead. He is approached by David Bruni who wants to find his daughter who had disappeared four years ago. David would go to any extent to find his daughter, and that would mean creating a supercomputer that could collate pictures circulating all over the world to create a timeline of events. Through coalition of pictures David and his team keep searching for the last place that his daughter must have visited. What starts as a simple investigation turns into something deadly as Mike finds himself always one step behind an invisible enemy who doesn't want him to solve the case.  The story is fast-paced and keeps the reader engaged. The characters have played their part well. I especially liked how Mike is portrayed differently - not your regular good-looking and sturdy dude but someone in his mid-fifties with a hairline and a physique to show it. Mike re...
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Palakkad Days - Of Auto-rides at Dawn, Musical Cacophony Of Birds And Much More!

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Read The Previous Blog Here My cousin's train was supposed to arrive at Palakkad Junction at 5 am. My husband and I were planning to leave by 4.30. Accordingly I had set the alarm for 4 that morning.  Needless to say, I would have woken up even without the alarm. At dawn, the birds in the area broke out into a melodious cacophony, the likes of which I am yet to hear anywhere. Sharp, clear, melodious and rhythmic songs filled the dawn with sheer magic. The three days that I stayed in Palakkad, I woke up to this music every morning.  As I write this from my city, I can't help wondering what did we do with the birds, for there are very few here. Our auto arrived sharply at 4.30 and we left for the station. I was amazed to see many stalls already open enroute. Most of the shops were selling tea and coffee. I recorded a very short video of the ride but it was both exhilarating and peaceful to drive in the early morning on the lanes of Palakkad and watching the village slowly wake u...
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The Slightly-bearable Lightness Of Being Airborne

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Read Part 1 Here! "Psst! Remember that anti-histamine tablet that makes you drowsy? Why not gulp two of them at once! You won't feel anything on the flight!" Came my mind's brilliant idea. Of course I brushed it off. (But the temptation was too great to numb myself to not to feel any turbulence). The kid was hyper-excited, the husband was hyper-worried and I was hyper-paranoid. Still when we made it to the departure gate to walk towards the flight, my kid's enthusiasm turned infectious and we found ourselves smiling at his antics. That smile lasted on my face until I stepped inside the flight. Instant claustrophobia. Have the seats shrunken in flights in the past seven years? Was the flight always this congested?? Did I usually have only so much of leg room? The thoughts wreaked havoc on my mind. But the icing on the cake was yet to come. I and my husband hyped up the kid about the take-off process. The kid had the window seat and I was in the middle. All was goin...
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Book Review - The Yajurveda by Naveen Goyal

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The Vedas have enticed Indian (and foreign) minds since a long time. These timeless scripts of wisdom are considered as the first spiritual texts in the history of literature. Yajurveda by Naveen Goyal gives a concise insight into this branch of Vedas. Often considered to be a treatise on rituals, the Yajurveda digs far deeper. In the words of the author, 'it is a record of a profound psychological and civilizational shift. It tells the story of how our ancestors stopped being passive observers of nature and decided to become active participants in the cosmic order'. The author has beautifully narrated the various aspects of Yajurveda. There are four Vedas in all. If Rigveda is poetry, Samaveda is song and Atharvaveda is protection, then Yajurveda is the action. It roughly translates to 'knowledge of rituals'.  In this book, we learn about the Adhvaryu, the priest who looks after the construction of the altar for a yajna. We learn about the sacrificial ceremony, the man...
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The Unbearable Lightness Of Being - Airborne!

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When was the last time you did something for the first time? My travel diary displays this prompt for me right on the first page.  The diary has been gifted to me by my sister. Needless to say I am already obsessed with it, to this extent that I have started writing on it using a pencil so that I can erase my mistakes and not leave any trace on the beautiful pages of the diary. Yeah, I am weird that way. Deal with it.  Anyway, I digress. Back to the prompt.  Well, I do not really remember what I did for the first time and when. (It has got nothing to do with age). But I am going to do something after a very long time, something that I had decided never to do again. I am going to board a flight tomorrow. Was it that anti-climactic!?!? I could FEEL your disappointment, people!  I will explain. It has been around seven years since I last boarded a flight. It was from Coimbatore to Hyderabad. The flight experienced some turbulence. While it was not my first tryst with tu...
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Book Review - Burps, Chirps & Cat-astrophic Turfs by Sonal Singh

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Welcome to the delightful and chaotic world of Mrs.Choudhary and her motley crew of non-humans (and some humans too). She is the first to run to the rescue of any non-human in need (much to the chagrin of her family which is already dealing with an introvert tortoise, two cats with different personalities, a lizard, a parrot that spews every word that comes his way and a dog named Happy). The latest to join her rescue mission is a tiny bird in dire need of assistance. Mrs.Choudhary's maternal instincts click in as she gets emotionally invested in the bird - feeding her home-made nectar, researching about her species and giving regular updates about her latest rescue on her social media profile. Amidst rescue missions, preventing flower-thefts in her society and attending to her duties as a budding writer, Mrs.Choudhary's life is filled with chaos. But the thing about chaos is, it also allows for moments of calm, and in these moments, Mrs. Choudhary finds a part of herself that ...
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Book Review - Cappucino And Code by Darpan Datta

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Neel Khanna is an IT professional working in the corporate sector and reeling under the impact of reports and deadlines. He finds himself in a hurry most of the times and is quite stressed. He takes comfort in spending his time at a cozy cafe named Cappuccino and Code which is run by his friend Aarohi. One day, as he sits at his usual table in the cafe, he is greeted by Elle, an AI assistant programmed by Aarohi, who talks to him from a tablet kept at his table.  It starts as a normal conversation but soon turns into a hilarious debate as Elle hits Neel with classy sarcasm and doesn't hesitate to put him down. Neel starts enjoying his conversations with Elle and soon finds himself thinking more and more about AI assistance.  Neel introduces AI in his work, much to the wonderment of his colleagues. The book gradually shows the impact and role of AI in shaping the modern society.  The narrative is quite breezy and simple. The discussions between Neel and Elle are hilarious ...
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