Crisp Reviews of Books On My Nightstand

Its an autobiography not to be missed. Its a tale of a mischievous young boy growing up in an African country during apartheid era, with a perfect blend of socio-political discussion.  I had learned about Trevor Noah as a stand-up comedian and some of his acts were different - subtle and exploring nuisances of multi-cultural world. So when someone recommended me his autobiography, I was a little intrigued but hesitant. The title did confuse me and I had to google about the book. The reviews all over the internet convinced me that I had to pick up this book and I am glad that I did. When we learn about the historical events like apartheid, we loathe the fact that human beings were treated this way. But its difficult to actually understand what life could have been under that regime. This book gives you an insight into the lives of those who suffered the most and had to endure the pain for generations.     What stood out to me the most was the fact that as much as I ad...

A woman transcends through various roles and learnings in life. As a daughter, she learns to be a person responsible towards well-being of her family and society. As she grows, she gets into role of friend and learns to be a part of unit, a role of girlfriend/wife and learns to care for someone more than herself and ultimately as a mother she learns to live for someone else. But only sometimes she realizes that she has a responsibility of one more important person and that's her. She often forgets herself and becomes what her family, friends, colleagues or society wants her to be. Only a few realize that they need to embark on a search for who they really are and what do they really want from this wonderful gift from god i.e. The life. Elizabeth Gilroy was also educated, had a wonderful house that she and her husband together built into a home and a successful career as a writer. But by the age of 32, she realized that there was still some...

There is a quote in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita in Sanskrit which says “Jatasya Maranam Dhruvam”. It literally means that the star called Dhruv which rise in night has to set but the implied meaning of the saying is “That which is born shall die”. We know that our life is not eternal and there is an end for our life too, but we don’t want to think about our end or even the journey called life. We keep ourselves too busy in our goals and fight so hard to reach those goals that we forget to give time to the most important things in life.  Here is a story by Mitch Albom where he shares the lessons of life he learnt from his long-lost professor. In his last days, Professor Morrie, or what he would like to be called ‘Coach’, would act as a mentor for the writer and answer the questions which were bothering writer from long time. The questions which our generation doesn’t want to think about, may be because we are too scared to know the answer. The writer and his professor takes us ...