It is a new month. And last month has nudged me to be lil bolder than usual. I have picked up 3 books to be read across June and it is something I haven’t done in a while. What you ask? Setting a monthly reading target when my quarterly work target is already on the … More June, and her women
Somewhere in the middle of this loosely drawn, pencil-shined sketches, sits an instance in which Adrian Tomine, a fair figure in the cartoon industry, is at a book fair in Tokyo and is about to scribble, in palpable excitement, his first autograph of the day when he notices the book slipped under his fingers carrying … More Tonnes of goofiness, handed with a bow
I sat with this book for a long time. I didn’t know what I felt more – angry or hopeful. “I would answer violence with art.” But how to do it? Especially when one imagines the intensity, the horror, the sheer inexplicability of violence? Violence that beats its bare chest over the unarmed, defenceless body … More Art over violence, again, and again, and again
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo GarciaMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars ’It’s a dizzying sensation to know the destiny of a human being.’ I should know. But may not. Because no matter how well one prepares to say goodbye to a parent, seeing him/ her inching closer to that sunset with every … More Last Days of Gabo
Homo Irrealis by André AcimanMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars I am the gap between what I am and what I am not. Even before the essays – beautiful, wise, full yet strangely wistful – begin to sing, this quote of the maverick Fernando Pessoa finds place. And that rounds up the mood of the … More Life, as you don’t see it
Truck de India by Rajat UbhaykarMy Rating: 4 of 5 Stars When I was young, I used to look forward to my summer vacations and the trip to my hometown – this trip was such a big deal not just because it would take me to my grandma (aaie) and allow me to binge and … More Book Review: Truck de India by Rajat Ubhaykar (2019)
Autumn Light by Pico IyerMy Rating: 4 of 5 Stars It is good to meet life sometimes; not by seeing it in the eye but by interlocking fingers and walking by its side. In this book, Pico Iyer finds himself undertaking such a walk, under the light-heavy shadows of autumn. Twenty-five years after he first … More Book Review: Autumn Light by Pico Iyer (2019)
Art Matters by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris RiddellMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars When I walk down a street I take often, I don’t need telling where the hump is or where the manhole splays. But even so, on days the street light doesn’t work, I feel a pinch; as if the little streak … More Book Review: Art Matters by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris Riddell (2018)
This is Water by David Foster WallaceMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars ‘This is Water’. Water – Now I love that metaphor. I end up addressing many things and their traits and their progresses and their declines through this unbound source of immense satiation. But how does this fit into a speech delivered to students, facing … More Book Review: This Is Water by David Foster Wallace (2009)
It was a rainy evening about seven years ago when I entered a book store. It was the perfect refuge – warm lights, thin crowd, a tea bar and loads of books. I marched to the tea bar, ordered a ginger- mint tea, placed my bag on a chair in the seating area and hopped … More What I Talk About When I Talk About Murakami
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