[/caption] A philosopher once said “the scope of our lives is far greater than our biggest imagination”. Even geniuses like Edison and Einstein utilized 20 percent of their brain power. So one can visualize how our potential is still untapped and how we can STRETCH OURSELVES to make it happen. And this is exactly what this book talks about. Stretch yourself is a concoction of all the means and techniques one requires to achieve their desires and how to inculcate success into our lives. Ramola Bachan, a socialite rightly quotes “Stretch Yourself is surely the mantra for a new generation of achievers “. The book implies that the human race has always had a limited power of thinking. We do not want to stretch our ambitions and thoughts for SOMETHING BIGGER AND BETTER. It has been observed that only a meagre 2 percent believe in the power of human mind and those who have placed faith on the supremacy of thinking have gone places. Take for instance Dhirubai Ambani’s case. He went on from selling pakoras to working in a gas station to building one of the HUGEST corporate empires Asia has ever seen. His formula for success was “Think big, think fast, and think ahead”. Life is a bunch of hurdles. We often stumble on our path to success and generally lose heart. But the author effectively expresses that ‘our thoughts rule our life’. He says that negative will definitely attract negative. So, it all lies within our mind. Positivity plays a significant role in the life of achievers. “Go ahead and be like them”, he says. It is never too late to reconfigure ourselves. The author is a natural stylist, and with the help of an easy and accessible approach of intriguing the reader. Most admirable is how the author motivates one and all with his magical words and tries to condition our mind to create the life of our dreams. At times, the voice is inspirational yet at times the author settles for practicality. Praiseworthy book, must read for the youth. So think big and kick ass.]]>
Authors: Steven Levitt and Stepheb Dubner
Publisher: Allen Lane
Cost: MRP 395
Yes, they’re back! Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are back with the second edition of their best selling book Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics. Four years after the duo got together and wrote their first book, the second one was released a fortnight ago.
If the first one got you hooked on to economics and made you laugh, then the second one will certainly blow you off your feet.
The cases mentioned in the second edition, are what some may consider by far rather outrageous, (for example why are prostitutes patriotic?) while some cases are completely illogical and point towards things that never ever comes to our mind in the ordinary course of life. Often , it puts into perspective unconventional questions like ‘why terrorists must buy life insurance?’ The book however erases the belief of humans not being altruistic, giving hope that the world may survive after all in spite of great environmental threats like that of global warming.
The book is an interesting read, providing an analysis that is not very common to come across in everyday life, hilarious as various instances and otherwise just gripping. It opens your eyes beyond the normal economics we get to read everyday. Every student, including non-eco students must read it, if not for anything else , then its sheer entertainment value.
A 7.5/10 for this fabulous book.
]]>‘Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.’ One of the most widely read books in the world , after the Holy Bible , the Little Prince is the story of one such explanation. On the occasion of children’s day , we suggest that to humour the child within ,do lay your hands on this book However, to limit it only to the genre of child fiction would be an extremely reductive reading of the text For those who have read it before, I strongly recommend that you peruse through it again for each reading incites a different interpretation . On the surface of it , it is the story of a pilot’s encounter with a small boy from another planet and the narratives of is inter galactic excursions . It also doubles as a thought provoking allegory of the human condition. It is through the eyes of the little prince and his reactions to the strange residents of planet earth , that the author delivers his message of cherishing the simple, meaningful things in life. Accompanied by illustrations, the language itself is simple, almost poetic and extremely profound. The story’s essence is contained in the lines, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Though this novella stretches over only hundred pages , believe you me ,what an amazing hundred pages they are. Time reading this would definitely be time well spent Rating : 4.5/ 5]]>
Author : Chetan Bhagat
Five years ago when Five Point Someone came out I quite fell in love with the book and emailed the author. I must have been among the very early readers of that novel because Chetan Bhagat wrote back to me personally inquiring about the book, and we shared a few emails back and forth.. But when hotmail revamped its mail setup increasing its mail space to 1 GB to catch up with Google ,I lost that mail along with many others. By that time Chetan Bhagat’s second, One Night at a Call Center had come out and it gave me no reason to feel bad for losing my correspondence.
However, after reading his latest book, 2 states: The Story Of My Marriage I am almost tempted to write to his office and request them to dig into the archives and see if they can find my mail and send me a copy. For 2 states comes very close to meeting the bar set by first book. Like Five Point Someone ,this book takes place at another holy Mecca of Indian Higher Education: IIM Ahemdabad. Punjabi guy Krish meets Tamil Brahmin Ananya in the canteen at IIM. She is the “best girl” among the very few girls in their batch. A whirlwind campus romance follows. Then boys parents meet the girl’s and disaster ensues. What follows is a quintessentially Indian tale, somewhat exaggerated and stereotypical at times, of the two young lovers trying to convince their distraught families who care unable to fathom why anyone would want to marry outside their community.
Funny and refreshingly unpretentious it never claims to be much more than what it is: a Hindi Masala book equivalent of Bollywood films. Chetan Bhagat takes good natured digs at Tamil Brahmins and Punjabis , often making fun of the differences between the two communities. His rather unsparingly honest description of his previous profession , investment banking makes an interesting read.
However, the story is quite predictable with some of the plot twists actually being very ridiculous. Also, in many interviews Chetan Bhagat has admitted that he thinks of himself as 90% entertainer and 10% reformer. This reformer side shows up in his references to national integration and unity. This depiction however tends to get a little tacky.
Like Five Point Someone, this book also draws a lot from his own life, with Bhagat even discussing the unhappy circumstances of his parents’ marriage. How long will he be able to continue drawing from his life? Not much longer, it seems. Am I going to write to his office? Not yet, but maybe with the release of his next book .
At just 95 bucks a copy it is worth a shot.
Author: Mitch Albom
There are teachers who educate us, and there are teachers who inspire us. And there are teachers like Morrie Schwartz who do both and provide us with a simple view of looking at life differently.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a beautiful account of life’s greatest and most important lessons, narrated by Morrie to his student. As Mitch Albom says, there is always one person we look up to, somebody who is older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch, the college student, Morrie Schwartz was just like any other teacher, it was only later in life that he realizes the value of his mentor, and seeks to relearn. And so one fine Tuesday, he decides to meet his professor. The lectures begin, interspersed with weekly intervals. Every Tuesday, student and teacher meet to talk about anything and everything ranging from guilt, regret, death to family, love, ageing, money and marriage. As the weeks pass by, the student understands the meaning of the complexities of life, albeit in a simple way.
Morrie Schwartz is on his death bed, and yet there is this amazing aura about him which he radiates to one and all. A certain zest for life that is immaculate, pure and beautiful. If Professor Morrie Schwartz taught anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. It’s a pleasure to read this story where a teacher teaches a student from the experience called life- it’s an honest, deep, profound and effortless flow of thoughts.
Brilliant!
My rating: 4.5/5
Author : Janhavi Archarekar Publishers: Harper Collins, India Cost: Rs . 250 A crucible of thirty short stories, Janhavi Archerkar’s debut book Window Seat provides one an interesting contemplation of life in aamchi Mumbai. This relatively recent Harper Collins publication has been appreciation from critics and readers alike “Providing rush hour stories of the city” Window Seat attempts to portray the captured reality of the bustling city of dreams. Acharekar’s stories invest in the daily life and experiences of ordinary people. While a few stories may come across as overtly simplistic and slightly abrupt the incredibly flesh and blood characters and pithy diction make it an enjoyable read. The variety of narrative voices employed in telling the equally versatile anecdotes creative a colourful mosaic of Indian life . Great attention is paid to detail, which rather than making her stories boringly verbose provide an authentic and often hilarious note to them. Divided in two parts, Mumbai Montage and Mumbai Medley, her stories range from the introspective, poignant to the breezy. A harassed school teacher, a child of the twilight zone, cyberspace courtships, the bride with the distended nose, the weary jostled train commuters all manage to weave their way in her narration. Traversing the ground between fantasy and reality ,Window Seat, is an amalgam of imagined reality and lived experiences. Though she successfully captures the pneuma of Mumbai , her tales have an element of universality; some or the other sentiment that any reader who has lived in an Indian metro can relate to. A must read for those who appreciate short stories. For those who are not big fans of this form of writing, Acharekar’s novel could be a good start. Crisp but engagingly so The Window Seat should by no means be dismissed as “literature in a hurry”. Personal favourites: China, Freedom at Midnight, Miss! , Nose Job [email protected]]]>
Life of Pi follows the extraordinary survival story of 16-year-old Piscine “Pissing” Patel, or as the protagonist would have it, Pi. The son of a zookeeper, Pi grew up among exotic animals, a fact he comes to be exceedingly grateful for when he finds himself stranded in the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orang-utan and Bengal tiger for company after the ship taking them from Chennai to Canada sinks without a trace. His ordeal lasts for 227 days, almost seven months, in the course of which he loses his family, his shoes, his clothes, his eyesight, even his vegetarianism, but never his unwavering resolve to survive. Religion, in all its myriad forms and Richard Parker, the tiger become his sole means of comfort in the vast lonely ocean. While the tiger depended on Pi for sustenance, Pi clung to Richard Parker as the only thing that separated him from despair and hopelessness.
Written beautifully, the novel pulls the reader into Piscine’s travails through the blue waters of the Pacific and the fantastical island of carnivorous algae. As the central character, Pi is unlike any other hero. Named after a swimming pool and nicknamed after a number, his overwhelming devotion for God finds expression in his choice of religion – for he is Hindu, Muslim and Christian. He gives us vivid details of his experiences with a tinge of humour and ensures that there is never a dull moment in the story. Though a bit hard to swallow, Life of Pi is an enthralling book and completely deserves the Booker Prize it bagged. A must read!]]>
The very provocative yet intriguingly contradictory title of Joyce Carol Oates’s book grabs eyeballs. I admit this is what made me pick up this one fifty page book in the first place, and the rest of the book did not disappoint. Different in every respect of the word, this thought provoking novella narrates the traumatic turn Teena and her family’s lives take after her brutal gang rape at the hands of a few local hooligans. Explicit, disturbing, and yet heartbreakingly human, right from the start the narrative is skillfully intertwined with the brutal aftermath.
In this story about rage, rape and love, Joyce once again emerges as the master teller of tales about hapless women victimized by men. It highlights the disastrous turn a single day; a single decision can take when Teena Maguire chooses to take a shortcut after watching the Fourth of July fireworks with her daughter. Bethie has to hide within hearing range of her mother being brutally raped and murderously thrashed. What ensues is a fledgling struggle for justice. Legal justice may elude them but Oates through her brilliantly conceived character of Officer Droomor ensures that poetic justice is delivered in the end
In its very rawness, the book is both compelling and repelling. Oates minces no words in the description of the caustic mind numbing violence that the female protagonists are subjected to. The book itself becomes an attack and critique on the imbecilic misogynists, in whose minds the author is so brilliantly and astonishingly able to project herself. As one critic very appropriately sums it up, “Rape: A love Story, is a diamond-hard dissection of modern mores, it is also the tale of Teena and Bethie’s silent champion – a man who knows the meaning of justice. And love.”
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For me, the reputation of the novel preceded, the book itself.
Surrounded in controversy, I figured this debutante booker prize
-winning novel written by a journalist turned writer was bound to be
interesting. Seen through a journalist’s eye, I was sure the narrative
would maintain a tone of observational integrity.
As I grabbed my copy of the book, my imagination was further piqued
when I realized that the entire story is written in the course of
seven confessional, letters, from the garrulous Balram,an Indian
driver to the Chinese premier Wen Liabo.
Through this sardonic caustically funny account narrated by none other
than the ” white tiger” Balram himself, Adiga strives to paint a
picture of two disparate worlds. One is of the hopeless, backwardness
of a village lost in darkness In rural Bihar and the other of the
uncaring, fast paced, perversely corrupt merciless urban culture
seeping its way in Indian metros ,projected via a sliver of Delhi. The
two settings and the “animals” that inhabit them set out a chasm that
is utterly unbridgeable. Adiga deftly etches out Balram as an
entrepreneur, one whose tiger’s leap across the chasm is the product
of social forces he cannot control.
To what extent he succeeds in his attempt, I leave the reader to
decide. After finishing it, I found my mind in a quagmire of
contradictions. The book is indeed gripping and many witty
observations may seem to ring true but at the same time there are
sections where I found the depictions of characters a bit hollow,
deprecating and often trite.
If one was to look at the negatives, many a scenario seemed
implausible, the villains a little over the top, Bollywood style
melodramatic and the projection of Bihar a trifle inauthentic. However
the intriguing story line and brilliant writing style more than
compensate for it all.. On the surface it is a simple story of the
village boy turned driver who murders his master for a bag full of
cash. But Balram’s journey to the murder and beyond is such a
fascinating tale that leaves us understanding and perhaps even rooting
for the murderer who had taken life into his own hands. The tone of
Adiga’s protagonist is simple, bold and funny. But it is a simplicity
that is raw, a humour so dark and belying such anger that the result
is both unsettling and electrifying. Taking all these factors into
account, the book certainly is a one time read.]]>
The Hollywood box-office is most familiar to two types of films: the comic book films and the non-comic book ones. Starting with a few superheroes in metropolitan cities, this cinematic genre covers just about everything now, from fictional countries and Titan villains to miniscule heroes, and alien symbiotes, the list just goes on.
As the celebrated critic Rajeev Masand says, “Remember how the end credits sequence in the first Iron Man movie, all the way back in 2008, hinted at the idea of an Avengers Initiative? Who would have thought at the time that this is what it was leading up to!” Even out here in India, youngsters might not be aware of who won the Oscar for Best Actor or Actress but they would for sure know that Chris Evans plays Captain America and Jason Momoa plays Aquaman.
“2018 for me like other comic book junkies has been the best year. My friends and I dropped everything in the middle of our entrance exams to watch Avengers: Infinity War,” Ayaan Paul, a first-year English Honors student recalls. He added, “I didn’t speak to anyone for the next 12 hours after exiting the hall.” That’s the massive impact
comic book films have on viewers. 2018 has been an explosive and quite a diverse year for the comic book adaptation
pantheon, with three releases by Marvel Studios, two from Sony (again in association with Marvel) and one each from DC and 20th Century Fox.
Rise of Diversity
‘Wakanda Forever’ is the battle cry that ushered in the emergence of Marvel, representing Black Panther. The film
went on to win critics’ and fans’ approval, and became the highest grossing motion picture with a majorly black cast. This surely was a strong move on Marvel and Disney’s (its parent owner) side as, of late, cinema has been marred with demands for more representation of minorities (or in basic terms, all non-whites). Even Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, the movie that closed 2018, has a black teenager, Miles Morales, as its lead web-slinging superhero. This showcases the possibility of Mexicans and/or Asians leading a superhero film on their shoulders in the near future.
Rise of the Women
Other than the representation of blacks, the representation that all critics complain about is an equal, and unbiased
representation of women. Thankfully, we are no more living in times of sexualised superheroines or damsels in distress. DC’s sole venture, Aquaman had Amber Heard (portraying Mera, the queen of the underwater realm of Atlantis) had almost as much screen time as the lead Jason Momoa. “I was not merely portraying a glamorous princess; the script required me to be a glamorous princess who kicks ass,” Heard remarked in an interview in early
November.
The July release, Ant Man and The Wasp, had the superheroine’s name in its title, and focused on not one, but on three major costume donning, power-wielding ladies. While 2017’s Wonder Woman, showcased female militias, a similar force was represented by Dora Milaje in Black Panther.
While actress Angela Bassett, as the Queen of Wakanda, was nothing more than a caricature in the film, brain and brawn were still represented by Shuri, the protagonist’s teen sister who is like a female Tony Stark, inventing all sorts of gadgets and gizmos. The Dora Milaje, a special forces team of bald and bold woman warriors, was responsible for serving the nation of Wakanda.
Rise of the Villains
If this year was about the women, it was also the year of villains. Superhero movies (especially the Marvel offerings) were known to have some well-developed heroes, which is not the case for the enemy characters. The beloved Loki, the God of mischief (who met a sad end at last year’s Avengers: Infinity War) is one of the exceptions.
However, this year, Marvel offered two strong characters, those of Erik Killmonger and Thanos. Killmonger is the son of a Wakandan slain by T’Challa’s (the heroic Black Panther) who considers himself the rightful heir to the throne of Wakanda. Killmonger is a smooth talking, physically powerful soldier, who has some practical plans to advance this fictional African nation but these conflict with plans of domination and massacre which ultimately make us root for the hero. Despite this, after watching the movie, he makes you question the means adopted to bring balance in the society, something which is further intensified with Thanos, the villain in Avengers: Infinity War
(Hollywood’s equivalent of the ‘Dewaangi Deewangi’ song from Om Shanti Om).
Thanos wants to decimate the populations of planets to half, to keep society in equilibrium, a way which some college Sociology students might call ‘Malthusian’. If you think practically (with no ounce of emotion towards fellow humans or cute dogs), it does seem like a realistic idea to control issues like overpopulation, global warming, and high cutoffs in the University of Delhi (DU). Here villains weren’t just insane baddies, but also individuals driven
by a purpose.
Rise of the Genre
The diverse nature of the genre was further exemplified with diverse emotions. While Infinity War was a tear-jerker with so many comic book sweethearts literally ‘fading off’, we had Deadpool 2 and Venom with their own brand of bizarre humour. Aquaman took itself lightly, while Spiderverse offered an exquisite blend of drama and comedy.
We got some good music (Kendrick Lamar’s raps from Black Panther), and some bad music (Pitbull’s horrendous verse from a cover of ‘Africa’ in Aquaman); diversity seeped in everywhere.
With no more sky beams shooting out of New York towers, we had underwater technology, a whole colourful nation
sheltered from civilisation, and an even more colourful parallel suburban landscape, with a couple of different Spidermen. Most importantly, the fanboys and fangirls who themselves come from diverse worlds, got the entertainment they asked for.
Whether you call it Western hegemony or comic book fantasies dominating over realities, these movies are one of the few things that can unite people from all over this planet, and truly save them.
Feature Image Credits: Amazon, Calender Club Co, Vox, ABPosters
Shaurya Thapa
[email protected]