Book 4: The Railway by Hamid Ismailov I've read The Railway in two different periods of my life -- one when I was reading "world literature" for a year and this book was my pick for Uzbekistan, and second is this year when I was trying to take my literary reading seriously, or so I... Continue Reading →
The other day I was trying to record a video of myself talking and I wasn't able to do it successfully. I'm unable to jump onto the talk-to-the-camera bandwagon but I try, and I fail. I wanted to talk about the new "cool-girl" phenomenon as I call it; about how we're all expected to be... Continue Reading →
Book 3: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut I picked up this book because of many recommendations on Reddit and because the title describes the current situation of our planet. This is a fictionalised non-fiction book that paints a picture of the lives of eminent scientists (physicists, chemists, and biologists) who... Continue Reading →
The past couple of weeks have been interesting and while I have not written here, I was working on an essay that I submitted to a literary magazine, and currently, I am re-writing a poem for which I received critique. The poet who offered advice asked me "what" the poem was about, and I can't... Continue Reading →
Book 2: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman As someone who has read Backman's entire oeuvre, I found this book underwhelming and lacklustre. At 448 pages, this is a long novel, even longer than its page count. The second instalment in the Beartown series, this book follows the story of Beartown's hockey club and its... Continue Reading →
Book 1: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy After having abandoned Instagram for posting my book reviews, I have found a new home for them here on my blog. While book-hopping a stray Internet comment recommended this Tolstoy novella to whoever might be reading to reconsider what it meant to be alive. I... Continue Reading →
I am writing this after eating a delicious bowl of steaming dal khichri and air-fried chicken. I have the day off on account of a public holiday so an expanse of time lays before me unclaimed, and the afternoon laziness has come over me. After a good meal, my emotions usually reside in the vicinity... Continue Reading →
A prophecy that doesn't come true is gibberish from the past. Along with other books, I am currently reading Exhalation by Ted Chiang. To put it loosely, it is a collection of science fiction short stories that also underscore the meaning of being human. In the story that I am reading presently, a corporation creates... Continue Reading →
After joining a virtual reading group, I went to an in-person, silent-reading group meeting where we sat in a park in the evening and read our chosen books in silence for an hour. I have been silently committing to reducing the time I spend in front of digital devices and trying to find ease, a... Continue Reading →
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