Adjudicated Parallels

This  book is very interesting to read. The whole life of APJ Abdul Kalam from childhood till his involvement in Indian space programme is thoroughly noted. His working under the able leadership of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and the behind-the-scenes depiction of various inventions are mentioned aptly. The fact that he assembled a first-ever hovercraft purely by indigenous means in India doesn't escape this book's reach and makes it worth reading. Many enlightening aspects of his work such as how he gets inspiration for the many scientific inventions are described too. He once was inspired from a management textbook someone had left behind in the lobby of a hotel. He picked up and read it; he was creative. The course of events that led to the man of mettle he had grown into can well be found in this book. This man was an enigma and a true genius whose intellect paved the road for a successful space programme for India. All one can do is wait with a bated breath and watch the s

Everything about this  book is good in that Yuvraj Singh doesn't like to mince words about his personal battles. A lot of things are revealed to the author. At first, he was tentative about revealing the news to the media. Later, after someone broke the news about his very personal illness, he began to be comfortable with it. He has depicted scathing pain during chemotherapy and how he began to be emotional about his life or things after surviving the disease. The whole story in this book is about grit, determination and a steely resolve. He could manage to break free from the condition owing solely to his athletic abilities. Without these his heart could have burst as the diagnosis was done very late. This tale of a hard fought athlete encourages everyone to be physically fit. Otherwise, life could become very treacherous if afflicted with such a monstrous illness. A support factor like his mother is also very essential as she never left his side. Life is about dogged persev

Sexagenarians have a harried and impractical look on things. Though they are elders and crowned with wisdom, a big fact can be overlooked. This is nothing but an eerie feeling they have about death. They think that the people in their age bracket are nigh unto death when one or two of these pass away. I have come across many of these people ruing about this. Well, it is true that a few in their peer group have expired. But, this fact also remains that there are more number of those who haven't. So, why look at the glass that is half empty rather than half full? The world is an interesting place with all these ill-defined problems. Instead of enjoying their graceful and wise turnaround that comes with such an age group, they resort to all these arguments. It's all in the mind and there is never an age to die. Agree? Anyone?

Many people around are unaware of the repercussions surrounding the bliss they are in about crime. They think that if they remain watchful like the sentinels of prominent people, nothing untoward will happen to them. According to them, only gullible people are victims of such crimes. I was one of these people and an incident shook me out of my reverie. A brief narration follows: While traveling to my workplace daily I thought that a cell phone placed in the front pocket of my denims won't be stolen. But I was so wrong. One day while commuting in the bus, my phone worth ten grand was stolen and I could do nothing about it. This was because the bus in which the theft took place was changed by me to another in the course of travel. As trying to get to the thief was out of question, I reached home all decked up to face the music from my family- it was gifted to me by my siblings. Anything can happen to people anywhere in any region. Being blissfully unaware doesn't bode we

It is very heart rending when changing one's location or moving to another place. The friends changed while doing this is of the utmost difficulty. Old friends are dumped for new --though without one's say in it-- and the transition takes a toll. There is a five-year-old girl near my condo and she is moving to a different place in a few days' time. I liked her innocence and used to buy her eatables every now and then. She became attached to me through this. The fact that she is moving to some place else makes her seek play from me every evening. It is very difficult to see her cope up with this. The world is full of harsh realities and one has to be accommodating of these to make a living blissful. Though time heals everything, the very aspect of time to pass through it to be healed is its practicality. Bearing such immense transitory phase's sorrow or time-bound inertia can be taxing on one's emotions. But, who cares? Life must move on!

This  book starts with a perfectly raked up chronology of events from the annals of history in this acclaimed scientist's life. His personal life replete with his two marriages and the tussle with one of his sons, Eddu, who did not forgive him throughout his life is worth reading. Though the exact nature or the cause of enmity is not mentioned, it is still worth taking time to read. The mind of this great scientist does not stop mesmerising people even after decades of his death. He did have an acid tongue as many have described according to this book- he never minded retorting back to a well posed query that offended him. Nonetheless, his academic strides are very nerve-wrecking in that many talked about his theory of relativity and quipped that they didn't understand anything, but knew that he did understand. He had a great charisma that dumbfounded them and proved he was a great intellectual. A very good book to read. Very interesting. A lot about Einstein's life

The  book is well written. But a lot of paucity in bringing out the thoughts through translation can be seen. This hindrance crops up in the course of the book and at one point, it can be noted that it stops and the whole rendition of thoughts becomes lucid and vivid. No one can gauge this book to be totally horrible or distasteful, but it has to be given its time to become more readable. Gandhiji, as always, is very humble with his demeanour and throughout the course of this autobiography, explains his thoughts as experiments with truth. This is to drive home the point that his manner of thinking can change. He was a man just like his thoughts. Everything he learned by the day, he has put it in actions. The fact that the 'Father of the nation' doesn't mind travelling 'third class' in his journeys on trains throughout the country is very admirable. This put him closely at par with the poor of the era and what hardships they faced at the time has been understoo

The author has painstakingly put in a lot of efforts to bring out a good researched book . The fact that he is well-versed with the African culture, has helped this book become a very appealing one. Nelson Mandela's life is thoroughly investigated and right from his childhood: be it his three marriages; bleak prison life where he developed eyesight complications; three alma maters in the course of his life; his royal lineage; his extreme ANC wing called MK planning sabotage, and more. His numerous sacrifices all through his life for the sake of African nationalism and constant hideous games with the white supremacist government earning the name of 'black pimpernel' from the media are very endearing with a humane touch and entertaining respectively. The fact that he was a royal of the Thembu clan did not deter him from living the life of a less privileged person. All of these revelations have made the book a very enthusing biography. Along with a timeline of events in h

Egoistic and  narcissistic individuals are a nightmare if they come into your life. Throughout their tryst with you, they want themselves to be pampered and given importance. Though the praise lavished on them might be great, they still don't show gratitude. This was faced by one of my family members in her workplace. A brief narration of this follows with the strategy to tackle it. She became a friend with my kin and though seemed pleasant in vibes at first, soon she took over. An argument would crop up every time she did not praise her for her dressing style or makeup or appearance. This would take a toll on her work life. As this would snowball into great proportions and tempers would flare --but not physically-- I advised her on a strategy to mitigate this problem. Meantime, she had applied for a long leave of say, a week or so. I tipped her on how to manage this person. As soon as she returned from her leave, the 'friend' of hers would be uncomfortable about

The Diary  by Anne Frank is a great work and a lot can be learnt through the course of events narrated here. The war torn life of Anne wherein she has to remain locked inside a house fearing being deported to the concentration camps and how it has a effect on her daily life away from school and companions. There is a lesson to be learnt from this girl's life. She develops an interest to read books for want of company and to thwart away boredom to take control of her life. The compromises she makes with the everyday life and the lacking of even basic facilities such as: shower; a breath of fresh air; a morsel of tasty food rather than the bland mashed potatoes and many more, have a debilitating urge on her to break free and find company. The people she lived with in a secret location had high hopes of being freed from the regime of Hitler and were keen on listening to the radio for the invasion by countries which were powerful in the time. After being in the safe house for a lo