rrkreads
Aghora: At the Left Hand of God
My rating: 3.5, it was better than ok. I liked the book but it might never appeal me enough for a re-read, hence the rating. I still am planning to read the next in the series, Kundalini, as it is yet another intriguing & misunderstood topic. Back to this book: imagine the weirdest thing you can, ramp the strangeness to 10 to 20 levels higher & yet you might not grasp the weirdness in this book. I have read few books on Yogis but this was way different than, yet, quite similar to them. Am sure that doesn't make sense but that's how this book was. I went in knowing this book will be different but had no idea I'll fail at even my attempt to summarise it. 1 thing is for sure. This isn't for everybody, am not sure who this is for but... Not for everybody. Read this book with an open mind & make your own conclusions. I'll post a detailed review on this soon.
Ps: why on earth doesn't Goodreads have 1/2 star ratings??
For a detailed review on this book, check out @ https://reshtechwriter.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/aghora-i-at-the-left-hand-of-god/
The Bookshop on the Corner
My rating: 3.5 stars Heard the audiobook after reading the physical book for a few pages. Preferred the audiobook. I liked the book, ok. Especially loved the references to different books sprinkled throughout the book. It does get a little boring in some parts but overall it's a casual chill read. You'll be transported to Scotland & that says everything about the atmospherics in the book. Go for it if you need a cozy comforting read.
Why I killed Gandhi
Where should i even begin? While never a fan of MK Gandhi, or his auto biographical book, or his face on my hard earned money, I never thought I would be as repulsed by him as I am after reading this book.I have read scores of pro & anti-Gandhi articles to know that history is written & propagated, by winners, but, the blatant dishonesty in cooking & feeding of false history to generations of Indians, by the khangressis is disgusting!
This country has seen the worst people as leaders & is still bearing the brunt of their colossal mistakes. My heart ached when i read this book & what's worse is the realisation that virtually nothing has changed since the day Godse gave his statement. The appeasement continues, the feeding of political egos at the cost of the nation & specifically Hindus continues. Nothing has changed! Hindus are still in the emasculated form that British left them in, still forced to remain passive, not allowed to fight for their rights in their own country. All under the garb of secularism.
The injustice of it all rankles.
Every Hindu must read this book. Every Gandhian/non Gandhian must read it.The other side of the story (one that is not fed to us by vested interests) must be heard & the readers, must be the better judge of the truth.
There are amazing snippets in this book & I won't go into the legality or morality of what happened, but this book must be read by anybody who's even remotely interested in the history of this great unbroken civilization called Bharathavarsha.
It's a difficult book to read, the last book I read that was as difficult as this was The Train to Pakistan. The pain is real, raw and transcends the boundaries of time. It seems more recent than it really is.
Saying that Godse, with his actions, wittingly or unwittingly, helped India retain Hyderabad & put a break in the fracturing of this country into even more pieces, might not at all be an exaggerated statement.
Phew! It's a long review of a must read once in a life time kind of a book. If nothing else it might just shatter any kind of illusions you might have had about the so called father of the nation. He should have been called at best the father of Pakistan & nothing else. Our cultural independence is still a dream and probably can be achieved only when we start learning about and pay homages to the real heroes who fought, resisted, or died for the freedom of this country. Btw, apparently, Gandhi did not die with "Hey Ram" on his lips, he died with an "Ah!". This snippet is just to show you a tiny sample of the smorgasbord of lies that's still being fed to us, the people of India.
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Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master
I knew what to expect when I picked this book up. It's along the lines of autobiography of a yogi. Just that like a mishmash of telephone book & a map it has a mind boggling number of names & places. Some incidents mentioned in the book are so fantastic that they are unbelievable. But then this book is 1 of such books where u need to suspend disbelief, logic & just soak up the story. Maybe when the time comes even normal readers might grasp such miracles thru experience. 1 more thing tht constantly stayed with me was tht how utterly impractical this lofty goal of spiritual evolution is for common ppl. The author throughout the life has had the freedom to do his thing, even when he took up responsibility it was out of his own volition. Where can common ppl afford the luxury? Unless somebody comes to save them how can they get out of the whirlpool? It made me feel hopeless. Good book, but i was left wondering what was the goal of this book, to inspire?
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
He says how most of our decisions are unconscious.. as the writer is in awe of the power of the unconscious mind & gives the dangers of quick decisions too, the indication that we can do nothing abt it doesn't sit well with me. Book is like the soup, u might hv to read some other book as a main course. If I hv to describe this book in 2 words it will be inadequate & incomplete.
10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace
I really couldn't wait to finish this book, there are books that stay with you long after u hv read them & then there r books like these that u just want to finish simply because u started it. Most of the concepts have been flicked from Eastern philosophies & packaged as new age stuff. Absolutely no credits given to the original philosophies, texts or gurus. Typical of most of the new age books that are "best sellers". Guess selling old wine in new bottle without mentioning the source of the wine is considered smart these days & not intellectual dishonesty.
Shadow of Night
A gripping read. Author's talent lies in making each page interesting and not having too many parallel, confusing story lines.
The Difficulty of Being Good
This book was quite different. I started off the book thinking, yes it's difficult to be good but maybe he has figured out how to be good despite it being so difficult. This book is more of a question bank rather than an answer guide. It forces us to think and insists us to find our own answers. Svadharma or sadharana dharma, it's our job to figure it out for ourselves. If you are looking for answers, this is not your book. But if you want to ascertain things, revisit things you know, have heard etc, read this book. I read it because of my fondness of Mahabharatha and no matter how the characters are introduced I'll still lap it all up.
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles
It was a book on what is resistance and why we procrastinate, it gives the anatomy of resistance but nothing much beyond that. I was hoping for some tips or tricks or tools that will help us procrastinate less instead we only get to acknowledge resistance as a real problem. Breezy but disappointing read.
Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family
Loved this book for calling out real life problems and the probable solutions in the most candid manner. My initial thought was this is just another book on feminism , was pleasantly surprised to see that it was much more than that. It is a book on what our notions on equality are and what it should really be. The author has managed to give a fresh perspective of feminism that includes men as opposed to doing it all on our own. A workplace that values work and family equally sounds utopian but doesn’t seem that impractical. Much to learn from this book and definitely worth a read by everybody who has ever had to ponder on the big question of work-life balance (or fit, as this book suggests)!
Being Different
Heavy but very interesting read, I especially enjoyed reading his differentiation on gandhi the man and gandhism..
Stardust
I personally liked the movie better than the book. The characterization of the witch-woman seems to be better in the movie than in the book, somehow michelle pfeiffer brought out a chutzpah that the witch in the book cannot match.It is an easy read, though, I do not know if I could have grasped it as much as I did if I hadn't watched the movie beforehand.
Dance of Govinda
The characterization of Kamsa was the one of the few things that made me put this book down multiple times. Will the reader grasp the concept of evil only if it is a gross asura? does all of evil look a certain way? In the end, the author does clarify that the grossness was due to a potion, but the damage according to me was done. It was like a feast that was so heavy that it puts you off of all future feasts. If not for my obsession with Krishna's stories I wouldn't have bothered finishing half of this book, let alone finishing it.
Slayer Of Kamsa
More mystical than the other adaptations of the great mythological stories of Krishna. This book is more of setting the stage for the great hero than beginning the play, have to read the second of the series to form an opinion on the storytelling.
And the Mountains Echoed
Story of fractured relationships and broken bonds. Exceptional storytelling by khaled hosseini but its more of everybody else's story than of a brother and sister.
