Crisp Reviews of Books On My Nightstand

A plot inspired by a true story for a woman who provided us a peek into the life of indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and the human emotions at their best even while facing so many adversities in life. Three anthropologists who embarked on separate missions somehow ended up together on a journey that they would not have planned to go this way. The female protagonist who believed in the true spirit of humans, her husband who was chasing only glory and a stranger who was searching for meaning of life itself, all brought in circumstances that would challenge their basic human instincts to survive emotionally and physically. A journey that started in the search of knowledge ends in a bitter place where none is winner. Because as said in The Bhagavad Gita,  "For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters." And that's how those three end up at their destinies as we finish ...

‘Living The American Dream’ has been rooted in the hearts of every ambitious, middle class Indian kid who had seen around the perks of having a job ‘abroad’ (parallel word for USA for most of them). But the time which gave rise to this fascination was somewhat different in the beginning. It was an era when scholar kids with strong financial background used to go abroad for higher education because of less education opportunities in our own country. Here is a story from that time which encapsulates a year in the life of a scholar kid, Gopal, from a small town in India who goes to America for higher studies. Barely able to speak English but carrying high appetite of knowledge, Gopal reaches the American university & struggles to understand the American culture.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), he meets this friend-classmate-helper weirdo, Randy, who introduces him to an intriguing new world of American way of life. Gopal then meets various kinds of people there – Anan...

Human life is marked with a process of continuous learning through our surroundings. But there is a little difference in the way we learn things as we grow up. When we are young we tend to believe in whatever is taught to us by the closed ones who look after us but as we grow older, we learn to synthesize the information gathered and make our own beliefs.  Here is a tale of an Indian boy from   Pondicherry with wondrous story of how he got his name ‘Pi’, who explores issues of   spirituality   and practicality from an early age. His curiosity about various religions and their followers leads him to meet preachers of various religions. Being a non-orthodox family, his family appreciates his gesture and allows him to pursue his faith in all religions. His family-owned zoo in Pondicherry also has been a learning source for him. They decide to move to Canada with all the animals but unfortunately their ship meets with an accident on the way. Only survivors of...