Posts

Showing posts from December, 2014

The (Pulitzer-Prize-winning) Goldfinch

Image
Usually I wait to review a book till after I have read it. But here I would like to capture what I feel before finishing the book because somehow apparently the ending is so awesome it is worth the drudgery. Actually even if the ending wasn't supposed to be awesome. I'm going to finish the book. Because I'm so close. 90% complete. I read the first 100 pages trying hard to get involved with the characters and the story but could not. It took me about 200 to 300 pages to get into the story even though there isn't any story to be honest. It's just our lady wanting to write a remarkable piece of literature that some told her, is about descriptions and on and on she goes describing. She describes a scene for some 30 pages and some 100 pages later our protagonist will remember that incident and yet again our writer describes it for 5-10 pages more like as though she has set her mind on using a thesaurus exhaustively such that there are no more adjectives, descriptive

Sheroes in Hyderabad 2014

Image
I happened upon an event this Saturday and it turned out to be a great one! BlogAdda has some passes to Sheroes in Your City events across the country for members. I registered for the event in Hyderabad at Radisson last Saturday. And to be honest, I wanted to go just because I had not been to a conference as such. I am not an entrepreneur and didn't really consider it an option for myself. But the event was thoroughly inspiring for me! So I can only imagine how anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit would have felt! For all those of you interested, there are some more coming up, check here . (I only have one picture and the light is bad but here it is anyway) To begin with we had TiE Hyderabad president (one of the sponsors of the event), Murali Bukkapatnam who spoke on entrepreneurship and why people choose it. A very informative and inspiring speech, he quoted Tagore on freedom, a few Sankrit slokas on women empowerment and even a song by an African woman that asks for n

Lego Art

Image
It's about time someone made things out of Lego, no? When I was growing up I didn't have Lego blocks exactly but a friend had them and they give these infield possibilities to build anything you like. It's extremely interesting and inspiring for young. Or so I thought. Recently when I was trying to buy something for some kid and thought of Legos, I found out that all the infinite possibilities have been reduced to only one single possibility per box you buy. And it's Lego that retains are the infinite possibilities that it sells as infinite sets of boxes, and deprives the parents of infinite money and children of their imagination which was what in the first place made Lego blocks so fantastic. I digress, but I think it's important to point out. Anyway, now that I explained how Lego lost its intrinsic brand value let's move on to the originally envisaged infinite possibilities of the generation that grew up with regular Lego. And it made me wonder how awes

BlogAdda and Akshaya Patra fighting hunger !

The possibilities: I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with  Akshaya Patra   and   BlogAdda . Across India you hear a similar theme in every class of people (except the rich): I work hard to provide a good education for my children so they gave a better life. A better life is what we all want for our next generation. And a better life they get, through education.  Now imagine a classroom full of children eager and willing to learn giving that extra something to make that extra distance. Now imagine this classroom full of children dull and bored and cannot hear a word you say because they are hungry. Now imagine this classroom full of students half empty because they prefer cleaning cars and serving tea for some food. Now imagine the entire class empty and the kids working here and there earning a few rupees, falling into crime, a generation lost! Why would the children clean cars if it didn't give them a means for satisfying their hunger? It's not like they love cleani