Author Archives: murali

Reading  ‘English August’ and ‘Mammaries of the Welfare State’ by Upamanyu Chattterjee, prompted me to pen my own experiences with babus of the Welfare State . Most people include army in the ‘babus’ category, but, despite being a govt organization it is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

After her debut novel, Difficult  Daughters, Manju Kapur has followed it up with ‘ A married woman’, another story highlighting the struggle within a seemingly conventional woman to find her identity in the family and the society. ‘A married woman … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In the past month, I read two books with similar settings , but diametricaly oppposite story lines., “the White Tiger ‘ by Arvind Adiga and ‘a tale of two Indians ” by Maharshi Mehta.  Both the stories are set in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Having read Davidar’s first book, it was only natural to pick up his second book, “ The Solitude of Emperors”; to read. It is so different from his first book, yet there are similarities. If caste and racial issues were intertwined in  the earlier … Continue reading → Continue reading →

What drew me to the book was that it was set in rural Tamilnadu and that the author was my class-fellow at school. Firstly, about the author, I shall restrict myself to some trivia, which is not in the public domain, since … Continue reading → Continue reading →

On Board the First Fleet that bought convicts to Australia in 1788 was a young lieutenant of marines, William Dawes. Although nominally a soldier, he was a considerable scholar in Austronamy, mathematics and languages. The records left of the language of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

       A disclosure to begin with; Dr Peck has been one of my favourite authors, (a psychologist /philosopher /motivator ), I tend to agree with most of his ideas (not a good thing for independent thinking). Moreover, having … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Read a book Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, a historical novel based on the battle of Thermopylae. It is a nice mix of fact and fiction , the drama just enough to smoothen the rough edges and to add … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Regimental soldiers’ always looked down upon ‘book worms’, yet the Schools of Instructions in the Services like to project an image of Scholar-Warriors. There is a nice promotional video clip on the subject and it is even available on the … Continue reading → Continue reading →