Quo Vadis?

Prologue June 25 th 1995 “Damn I missed it!” he groaned in frustration as he saw the Beach Tambaram local pull out of the station as he ran from the staircase in Nungambakkam suburban station. “Why did the egomaniac choose today to have the discussion on the project?” he rued. The egomaniac was the de facto HOD of his department, The Computer Science Department in the self- financing Stream of Loyola College. A stream that had an odd timing that ensured its students never fit in with the other students, coming in when the Day College ended and going out nearly the time when the Evening College ended. It also ensured that the return trips from college were always in the peak hour with the office crowd for the students taking the train like Rajesh. The highs of getting into one of the most prestigious colleges in the country waned soon for Rajesh when he realized that he and his classmates felt like misfits since they simply could not fit in. He walked up to the coin op...

The second anniversary celebration of the NDA government is puzzling for the scope and scale for the following reasons: -           Two years appears too early to celebrate as it is less than half the term but it may not be a bad thing if the scale was not so big -           If the government has done its job and I will concede that they have, why make a big song and dance about it? Was not the mandate given for them to do the job? Having done it why are they feeling so happy about it? -        Is the government celebrating to hide the fact that they have not done enough? When actions speak louder, should not the actions of the two years suffice? Why go on an overdrive with a Bollywood star to draw the crowds? -           Is the government feeling unsure whether it is on the right path and is using this me...

I have been on a book reading binge and giving my feedback to the authors. This is my first unsolicited feedback of two books by debutant authors. One of the authors has gone on to write few more books so it may be very late but as they say better late than never. The first book is “You, me and a secret” by Ganga Bharani . This was on my list for a long time and finally I managed to read it. The book starts off with a very interesting premise of the protagonist waking up after a memory loss and trying to reconstruct her past life. The author builds up the plot and takes it to a climax where it all unravels. There are a few gaps in the plot and the climax is rather contrived and seems like an afterthought. There is a lot of promise in the plot and shows that the author will go far with time and experience.  It is a love story, with thrill, crime, emotions but at the end the book leaves you wanting for a better finish that would have done justice to the initial promis...

This is my second attempt at giving my feedback for a novel. I am sticking to feedback as I am still a little wary of calling it a review, more so when the book in question is the fourth of the author. My doubts were partly laid to rest by the author who reached out and got my address to send a copy for my feedback. Thank you Meera Shivashankar for the lovely personal touch. I liked the cover though after reading the book the couple on the cover looked alien to the story. The interesting cover font and the thoughtfulness of the handwritten note inside made me take up the book on priority. There were some nice touches in the start of the book with two forewords that were engaging and they spurred the interest in me. The foreword and the list of characters further piqued my interest. The book is a quick read and took me 100 odd minutes but I will read it again to savour and soak in the beauty of the writing. There is some lovely wordplay throughout the book and some beaut...

The dust has settled after the elections to the state government; history has been made with the threat of incumbency given a trampling by Amma; memes have been made to celebrate, drown sorrows or ridicule; but the big question on the minds of many is “Now What?” The more the numbers of the voting patterns are studied the more the story emerges that beyond the 40% or so who wanted the same government another nearly 40% was willing to go to the deep sea and there remains the balance 20% who want change. There is a small percentage of voters in this 20% who did not want any of the current options, which apart from being a symbolic act matters little to either the results or the poll chances of the candidates. To those who kept saying that NOTA would have made the difference in the polling: pause and understand that he / she did not want to vote for anyone and instead of letting the vote get misused or go unused he / she has said “I am not voting for you” The apathy of Chennai...

I am not competent to review books but having read the debut novel of Bragadeesh Prasanna , a blogger I like and a person I admire for many reasons I thought I should give my views on the same. This novel made me do a couple of firsts, I actually overcame my aversion to reading novels on devices and finally downloaded a Kindle app for my desktop and my phone for this novel, I finished this novel on these two devices at a stretch and found that it was an interesting experience. It is a romantic novel and it goes by the name 300; the reason behind the name is given in the novel and I wondered if this name or rather the pet name of one of the protagonists should have graced the cover since it was repeated several times in the book. Those who are fans of the Gautham Menon style of story-telling will like this book, it appears semi- autobiographical, heavily referenced from real life, moves at a languid pace, lots of detailing with small quirks that the viewers may scoff outw...

A long time ago, I was informed that it is actually just 9 I got drawn into a group called I-Fix, another initiative that was formed on idealism, fuelled by youthful energy with a desire to make a change. There may have been others, in fact I remember voting for Lok Paritran, remember that party of youngsters like Surya in Ayudha Ezhuthu who wanted to clean the muck of politics and contested with the symbol of an axe? I-Fix wanted to make a change by doing little things by the individuals themselves without waiting for institutional or government support. Yes even before the politicians made “Namakku Naame” an election stunt, there were initiatives by the common man who sought to make things right one step at a time. I-Fix was into fixing potholes, those silent killers that we loathe on the roads but seldom find any solution to including not meeting the elected councillors for resolution. I-Fix volunteers used to meet quietly in some predetermined spot and fill the potholes ...