Trek to Goecha La

     I have always wanted to write an article on my trek experiences but never got around to writing one. A 9-day(technically 11-day) trek in the beautiful Sikkim felt like a perfect opportunity for one. So here is how it happened:

      Continuing my tradition of choosing wrong timing for vacations(Mid-Summer tour to Cambodia and Vietnam, Winter trek in Kuari Pass), I chose to go to Sikkim during monsoon though this has more to do with the cheap tickets that SpiceJet offered rather than poor planning. Like most of the trips planned by friends, the trek started with 5 members planning and ended with 2 people going to the trip with the person who actually suggested it eventually dropping out of it without even booking any tickets!

It was an eventful trek with the likes of landslides, heavy snowfall, sudden rains, soggy paths, brake failures, night travel on ghat roads with sleepy driver in-between lengthy spells of fog and mist that gave me more experiences than I hoped for. The 2 most used sentences during the trek would give you an idea of how the trek was :
- Aajkal to Fog hi chal raha hai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x04LFTvOt0 for the non-hip guys)
- Halaat hi kharab hai yaar (It sounded much better in our wonderful trek leader's accent)

Since it was a 11-day trek and almost every day has its own memory-worthy experience, let me give a day-by-day narration that I am sure will put you to sleep.

# At the Bangalore Airport

Day 0 : We reached NJP station with apprehension and excitement mixed in our heart which is more or less the feeling you get while talking to your crush for the first time. The day was supposed to be a simple cab journey till the base camp Yuksom. But we had the first excitement even before the actual trek started when the car brakes failed while trying to maneuver the car through the Chakravyuha that the Sikkim road network is. Luckily we found a garage soon and heaved a sigh of relief after getting it fixed. We eventually reached Yuksom 3 hours late after changing the route 2 times because of landslides eventually following a route that I don't think can legally be called a road.

This is how Yuksom looks in the morning :)

Day 1 :  Trek to Sachen(7200 ft) : Since we were used to spending the days either in the cubicles or in the beds bent upon our laptops, the small 5 hour trek to the first base camp of Sachen made us question our sanity when we decided on the trek 30 days back. Lunch on the bridge with the beautiful waterfalls in the backdrop was a very good sight to our nature-deprived eyes. The main antagonist of our trek, the rain god made his appearance just as we ended the day's trek to snuggle into our comfortable sleeping bags.

Day 2 : Trek to Tshokha (9700 ft). The actual trek on this day felt much better than the earlier day though it was raining probably because we got a bit used to the exercise now. We passed another bridge that was just next to an area where a landslide happened. The first pleasant surprise of the trek happened around lunch time when we reached Bakhim. It was so beautiful that it reminded me of Hobbiton from LoTR. Here is a picture of the place though the pic doesn't do justice to the actual place.

I also got my loyal walking stick this day from our local guide, Norbu bayya that turned out to be very useful through out the trek. Hut instead of tent made it an easy night. This is the last place you get a signal. So, I called my parents, informed them that we will be unreachable for next 7 days and went to sleep.

Day 3 : Trek to Dzongri (12980 ft): We woke up early and was greeted by a huge layer of mist that blocked us from enjoying the view. This would be a recurring event through out the trek. After having breakfast, we listened to a returning team's description of the wonderful Dzongri Top while secretly envying them as they get to leave the same day to the comforts of civilization, away from all the rain and mist. The whole day is one big ascent all the way to Dzongri with a steep one towards the end. There was heavy rain through out the trek. I will never forget the cold lunch I had while freezing in wet clothes at Phedang. I blamed myself at least 3 times just during lunch break for choosing the trek during monsoon. After reaching Dzongri, had the first meadowy view that I was expecting to be there through out the trip which soothed my nerves and brought back joy.

Day 4 : Rest Day : This was a much needed rest day, both to get some rest as well as to get used to the high altitude. We had ample rest, played some games and shared experiences with each other. We had one small 30 minute window of sun shine that we used to the fullest by drying all our clothes. We  also had a very clear sky that night and I had a breathtaking view of star-lit sky that one will never ever get in a city. It was a gorgeous view. I could see patches of densely star-packed areas in the sky that looked amazing. In general, the rest day helped in lifting our spirits and looking forward to an amazing trek ahead. As luck would have it, there was little to no rain on the rest day!

Day 5 : Trek to Thansing (12900 ft) : We had an early morning trek(4 30 am) to Dzongri top. This is a very famous view point from where you get a 360 degree view of the beautiful Himalayan ranges. We passed several trekkers who came just till Dzongri view point and went back.  We were lucky enough to get a good 30 minute fog-free view at the top. It was an amazing view of all the peaks. We even got to see Kanchenjunga for a few minutes unlike the team that trekked there the day before.

# The small tip you see is Kanchenjunga.

With happy hearts and a healthy breakfast, we were hoping for a nice trek to next stop, Thansing. Rain god heard our prayers but interpreted it wrongly and promptly rain set in and it even brought mist for company. Descent to Kokuchurung took forever in the slippery mud. From Kokuchurung to Thansing, which was supposed to be very beautiful, we trekked in rainfall with wet clothes and heavy hearts unable to enjoy the nature views that we got in between. We were to realize how beautiful the path is, only while coming down 3 days later. Reaching Thansing camp felt similar to finding an oasis in a desert. Couple of people who stayed back from earlier group told us how beautiful the view was but all we could see is mist! Long day comes to end and we consoled ourselves to sleep.

Day 6 : Trek to Lamune (13650 ft) :Woke up early in the morning to see what all the fuss about view was and was surprised to see a clear sky with excellent view of Mt. Pandim.

We could see the fog from far off and could only do as much as what Merry and Pippin could do when they saw the orcs. We just waited for an onslaught. The day is small as we just had a simple 2 hour trek to Lamune, our base camp from where we will trek the Goecha La. One bright spot was the pleasant surprise I felt when I figured out that we are not walking in a huge meadow but in a valley next to mountains. I could figure it out only when the fog cleared partially and for some un-explainable reason felt happy at the surprise. The trek was very simple. It was more of a rest day to prepare ourselves for the next day's major one. We came to know from the previous batch who just trekked Goecha La that they couldn't get any view at all because of the mist. We spent quality time with each other discussing all kinds of things ranging from Indian Education, Cricket to personal life and slept as early as 6pm.

Day 7 aka the D-Day Trek to Goecha La (16000 ft): Woke up at 2 am hoping for a clear night but met with rain. Slept again hoping for it to clear and rain stopped for 30 minutes and we decided to go for it. Started around 3 am for Goechala and rain started at 3 05! But we were a determined lot and trudged along like Gandalf and the company on Misty mountains. We reached View point 1 just around sunrise but had 2 surprises. Snowfall and mist. Sorry make it 1 as we were anyway expecting mist! Supposed to get a good view of Mt. Kanchenjunga but all we could see was, you guessed it right, mist.

Took some customary pics at the top and decided to go to view point 2 ignoring the repeated warnings from the trek leader (turned out, he knows his stuff, after all). Some one from earlier team said it is a 1 hour trek from view pt-1 to view pt-2. We argued with the trek lead and local guide who said it will take 3 hours that they were wrong and started for view pt-2. Boy are we in for a surprise! 5 minutes into the trek I realized 2 things. We are not going to get any view from point-2 and that it was a good decision to go there because of the views during trek! 10 minutes into the trek I realized that we will most definitely not even reach view-point2 and that it is going to snow now!

Trekking in that heavy snow during a snowfall was once in a life time opportunity for a South-Indian like me and I enjoyed it to the fullest. Trekked for what felt like a day but in reality was around 90 minutes on a relatively easy path if not for the snow, snowfall and cold(almost subzero) only to come to a small hill covered completely in snow that we were supposed to climb to go to view point 2. Another 30 minutes during which I slipped almost 6 times and lost balance at least 5 times and reached 75% of the peak, I realized that there is a high probability of this being my final hours if I continue further up. Local guide was not at all encouraging giving mixed statements like, let me take you to the top safely(while himself slipping many times) and saying how we are in big trouble and wondering what he could do if something bad happens. I finally decided to abandon and started trekking down. My friend Vamshi was only too happy to see me coming down his way and readily volunteered to accompany me though I suspect is is not because of his good Samaritan nature! After waiting in freezing cold for the other 2 guys to join us and listening to the near-death experience of one of them whose finger turned black(!) while having breakfast, we started the trek back to Lamune and I did it non-stop through the rain and snowfall while experiencing what felt like snow blind on the way. Too bad we couldn't take pictures during the pt-1 to pt-2 part of the trek. It was a very memorable experience that I will never forget in my life.

We reached Lamune all wet and cold but the day is not yet over. We were supposed to go back to Thansing for the night. Had some lunch while it was raining outside. Once our hunger is gone, so did the rain and surprisingly the mist as well! Looks like the weather was just waiting for us to complete Goechala to give us some respite. Had the best trek back to Thansing not only because the big part is over but the path was so beautiful once the mist cleared that I felt like staying there for 10days just to enjoy the amazing views till the memory gets imprinted in my brain. The views in the trek back to Thansing itself was worth the trip. Took a leisurely 3 hours for the trek back and reached Thansing just as it started getting dark ready to pass-on the Gyan to the next batch. Had an amazing sleep for the first time in the trek fully satisfied with the day even though we couldn't get a view of Mt.Kanchenjunga.

Day 8 : Woke up early the next day to take some good pictures before our enemy, the mist comes back. Had a hearty breakfast and started the trek back to Tshokha. Another amazing one hour with no rain, no mist and amazing views of rivers, streams and colourful flowers along the way.

Just as we felt we are very lucky, we reached Kokuchurung to experience the worst 4 hours of the whole trek. It was a boring walk through dense jungle on a boggy path which went on for what felt like forever but was actually 9kms till we reached Phedong. This is how our pants looked after this dreadful path.

After having lunch, it was an easy trek down to Tshokha. On seeing Tshokha, I felt so happy that I rushed forward and for the first time during the trek, walked barefoot in the wild after removing shoes in the hut. Had a heavy dinner and was dreaming of going back to Yuksom the next day only to hear the Trek lead say that there was a huge landslide on the way and it might get difficult to cross it. Also got enough network here to assure family that I am alive and well. Spent the evening listening to trek lead's stories about his earlier treks.

Day 9 : We started early so that we can go past the landslide area. Just as we reached that point, we saw another landslide happening at the same place! Too bad, we couldn't capture it on camera. Crossing that was not as difficult as we imagined but mules had to stay back as the path was not clear enough for them to pass. Had a fairly easy trek back to campsite reflecting on our trek and feeling sad that we had to return back to normal life away from the nature.

The long trek came to an end at Yuksom after taking a bath for the first time in 10 days. Just as we were relaxing checking mails and stuff and looking forward to a heavy sleep, trek lead said that there is going to be a strike the next day and we need to start for NJP immediately if we are to catch our flight! Our adventures are not over after-all. Started a long journey in the night with a sleepy driver praying for a clear path till we cross border. One funny experience (funny now, not then!) was when the road suddenly ended on the way as if some alien airlifted the land there. We had to go back and take another route. Kudos to the driver for his commitment to take us to Siliguri while he himself was feeling so sleepy. Somehow managed to reach Siliguri and asked driver to drop us close to Airport in case the strike extends.

Day 10: Just a lazy day involving us having food and watching movies in a shitty TV in a shitty hotel. But, it was much needed rest after the past 10 days and got enough rest since I was planning to go back to office after reaching Bangalore.

Thus ended an amazing and memorable 10 day trek in North Sikkim.

The Big Short : Review

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read his Liar's poker earlier, which though I liked, I struggled a lit bit in understanding the financial terms. It was a difficult read. I think he might have taken similar feedback from others for this book since in this, he tries to explain as much as possible in layman's terms, all that you need to understand.

That aside, the book itself is fairly engaging. In fact, I read 90% of the book in a single sitting which I don't remember when I last did. The book draws you a neat picture of what exactly happened that led to the biggest recession in recent times and he was openly critical of all the big investment banks and brokerage firms. I was surprised he could get away with all that straight forward hate against the big guys but I don't think they can sue him since it is true anyway! I have watched a famous documentary(don't remember the name) couple of years back that explains the same real estate bubble but I think this book has much more explanation that was missing in the documentary.

In the end, you feel bad for the normal public in US who are the ones that ultimately got screwed due to these Wall Street guys and the US Government. And the sad thing is, all the real players in the Doomsday Machine, got away with it..


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Inferno : Review

Inferno by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 One "first-time" for me with this book is that I could identify with the antagonist of this book right from his introduction since I too have pondered several times on the central issue of the book. I kept agreeing with his line of reasoning from the word get-go. Maybe that was Dan Brown's intention.

Without giving away much details, I will just say a few good things about the book:

- This is a much much better thriller than Dan Brown's last book, Lost Symbol and thankfully does not have too much of art/architecture mumbo-jumbo like the previous books.
- The central theme is quite relevant, interesting and something I think everyone should have a dialogue on. To quote the book, "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their silence at times of crisis."
-I quite liked the several red herrings and twists in the story though they are not that necessary.
- I think the ending is a "happy" one in its own way. It is like the best possible way to deal with the problem and it sounds like Dan Brown hit upon a best "realistic" possible solution to a "real" global problem and wove a Robert Langdon book around it.
-It has been a very long time since I last read Dan Brown but I felt this book has lot of quotable dialogues.

Go read the book, if you are a thriller fan and/or have read Dan Brown earlier.


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Comsos : Review

Cosmos by Carl Sagan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Carl Sagan's beautiful words transform you to outside the earth, into the cosmos and lets you appreciate the grandeur of the universe. It has so many unforgettable quotes which makes you ponder simultaneously on how precious human race is and also how trivial it is in the big picture. I think this is a must read not only for every science enthusiast but also for every person to appreciate the very fact we are "alive" and "conscious" in this universe and in his words how we are "star stuff pondering stars". His pitch for disarmament of nuclear weapons and increased investment in the cosmic exploration in the last chapter is nothing short of a historic speech if it has really been delivered on some big platform. I think every Nation head needs to read the last chapter especially in today's world to understand how important it is for us to make right decisions in this age. Read the book to appreciate the Universe and Nature and the fact that you are the result of innumerable, highly unlikely things occurring at the right place and the right time.



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Ideas on how to improve greenery

             Me and my flatmate were discussing on ways to improve greenery to combat rising pollution levels and hit upon some ideas which looked decent. So, I thought of sharing them here.

               Best way to get people to do anything would be to give them some incentive. So, one of the ways we thought might help is giving tax benefit to people for planting trees. For example, let us say they can get income tax exemption of 10,000 for each tree they plant and ALSO maintain it. After 2 years, let us say the tree dies because you have not looked after it, you will have to pay taxes of all the previous years. This will make sure that they will look after the plant till it becomes a tree. Government can provide the seeds/plants to them and even a location to plant. But one problem with this is there will be a huge problem with auditing them. There will be huge paper work and it is practically impossible and not realistic to audit trees planted at individual level.
                To overcome this problem, the government can do a couple of things. Instead of giving tax benefit to individual tax payer, they can give tax benefit to companies. This will be much easier to manage both for government and for the company since government will give the plants and the land. There is not much extra effort from government on audit side and the company can not only easily plant and maintain trees very cheaply and get tax benefit, but also show it proudly as a Corporate Social Responsibility activity. If getting such land is difficult, they can just ask them to plant and maintain trees on either side of highways from some km to another km stone. This is a win-win situation as it is easy to audit and also provides some employment opportunity to villages near that highway. I am sure they can come up with numbers such that government need not forego too much tax and companies can both save some tax money and also proudly show it as CSR. Also, as more companies join this program, there will be additional pressure on other companies who might be reluctant if they feel tax benefit is not worth it.
                Since, this might not cover much area unless individuals are involved, they can provide a way for individual also to get tax benefit by encouraging some group formation. For example, there can be a company which just does planting and maintenance of tress on highways and "sells" it to individuals. Let me explain. Let us say there is a company where you can go and buy Rs.100 per tree(assuming tax benifit of Rs.10,000 per tree to simplify matters.) Since you get a tax benefit of 1000(assuming you are in 10% bracket which is most common), you have an incentive to buy one tree. Now if 1000 people buy these trees. company raises Rs. 1Lakh which should be enough to pay a gardener to look after, say 1km stretch of highway and still make profit. It will be easy for government also to now audit the tax benifit claimed by the individual. You just submit the form which says you are paying for the plant just like you submit a Life Insurance policy form. Only problem here is, if you say stop paying to the tree maintenance company after 3 years, the plant may die but there is no way government can know this and go back and take away the taxes it exempted from the last 3 years(since you are individual) but I am sure the plant will not now die since the ownership of that plant can just be shifted to some new customer by the company. This way, we can ensure lot of greenery 15 years down the line with minimal effort from all sides.
                  This can be further tuned like, say if you are ready to do it in some place in city itself or on city roads, you can get more benefit! So, we can make sure cities themselves will have good greenery. Govt can just auction main roads in the city to whoever bids the best in terms of tax benefit they are ready to claim! For example, let us say for highways, benefit is 10,000 per plant. Inside city, the bidding can start at benefit of 20,000 per plant and whoever bids the lowest wins it. The bid can go lesser than 10K also since it is easy for company to maintain roads with-in the city. That way, there is an incentive for company and also govt can get greenery easily.
                  I am trying to minimize effort from government here since, I am sure any effort I assume from government side will not actually fructify!

How does the idea sound? Do let me know.

Speed of Light

When Manav jump starts a dormant blog, physics becomes weird, forcing him to write this blog. (for those of you who didn't get this line, pardon me for the shitty way of trying to mimic Avengers : Age of Ultron summary).

Don't ask what I was doing when I came up with this "theory" but I still find this interesting (probably because I came up with it :P).

So, my humble version of trying to understand the constant of light is this. Like they say in the Vedas/Scriptures, I am the Universe and the Universe is Me. I think our consciousness is tightly connected to our senses and without any sense, there is no I, there is no consciousness. We can understand the universe only through our senses and since vision is the fastest way, we can transfer information among all the senses(faster than sound and smell? and I dont know if transfer of information through touch even makes sense) and light is through which we transfer it, it is the absolute constant in our understanding of Self/Universe. Bluntly put, nothing can go faster than light among the ways we know and hence light is the universal constant in our understanding of the cosmos. If there has been evoultion in our senses and say we can communicate directly from brain to brain without using sound or light, then we will see universe in a different way and come up with another theory in which light is not absolute constant and something else is! time travel then might look trivial like travel through space.

P.S : I wrote it some time back. It is in my draft folders and felt like posting it as it is.

The Scion of Ikshvaku

Scion of Ikshvaku by Amish Tripathi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

      As I feared, Amish started concentrating on other Indian Epics after the success of Shiva Trilogy. He started with the re-telling of Ramayana. I had almost zero expectations on the book but made a compulsive purchase of the book while browsing Amazon. As I started reading the book, it started meeting my expectations(zero!). I always disliked his style of writing. Honestly, I have seen many blogs with better English and better sentence structuring.

    In the first two books of Shiva Trilogy, this irksome nature of his writing was shadowed by my ignorance of Shiva's story and my appreciation of the concept(What if Gods were humans). But, in this book, since I am well aware of Ramayana, the bland writing is glaringly visible. I hate the way he writes the philosophical interactions between the characters. I hated it in Shiva Trilogy and it is no good in this book. I also noticed in this book that Amish's style is half-narrative and half-dialogue. I believe a story should be told through dialogue instead of narration. Narrative should only be used for non-story stuff like describing a scenery, at the start of a new story arc etc. But in his case, the story has lot more narration than needed making it more of an essay and less of a novel.

   Coming to the story, the first bad thing is, this is going to be another trilogy and the book ends with Raavan kidnapping Sita. He also made lot of references to the Shiva Trilogy (Nagas, Vayuputras, Malayaputras, Somras, even Meluha), some of which seemed forced instead of part of narrative. The whole episode of Manthara's daughter(I already forgot her name) is unnecessary (Did he incorporate it after Rape became a national issue?) and definitely avoidable. The story arc neither aids the story nor results in character development. The fabled love story of Ram and Sita is horribly under-cooked. They barely interact with each other in the book even though it is love at first sight for Ram.

   It does have its moments like the ending lines of the book hinting that Sita is the real Vishnu not Ram, the ambiguity/mystery in Sita's character  and the reference to Ram's life at his birth, both having troubles in his life and becoming a legendary King. Except a couple more such points, it has nothing else to offer.

Having said all this, I might still buy the next book as my fondness and pride for the Indian epics will nudge me to read the rest of this series. I keep wondering what if Amish was a first rate author. Then Indian Epics would have received the world-wide fame they deserve for their complexity and Epic nature.



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Hero Worship

             I was talking to a friend the other day and he said something like " I don't believe that movie star was selfish in floating the political party. The people around him must have used his innocence and screwed with him". What I wonder is how we feel so attached with some person's talent that instead of appreciating his talent, we start defending all his actions, important point being "all". The actor in question is Telugu Star Chiranjeevi who floated and eventually merged a political party. He maybe a great actor but that doesn't mean he is a great human being. Even a highly educated and intelligent person is not ready to believe that a movie star who was a true-hero in all the movies could be selfish in real life.
            We spend so much time debating who is the greatest batsman of all time instead of enjoying the cricketing shots of Bradman, Sachin and Lara. Human brain is so selfish that instead of enjoying cricketing shots which caused us great pleasure in the first place, we start associating the pleasure we felt to the person and start appreciating him instead of the shot. We waste energy in defending the person instead of just appreciating the cricket as it is and enjoy a good shot played by any person. I am just taking an example of cricket.
            This might have something to do with as simple as "convenient" to our brain. Hero worship maybe needed so that we get a role model for ourselves. Trying to be like another human is far easier trying to follow a set of principles. You just try to do whatever the person does. But after a while you forget to, rather do not bother to, check if what that person is doing is right or wrong. Then we waste energy in defending the said person.
            Why do we like a person? We look at some of their actions and like the actions and we associate them with those actions but after a while, the liking to the person develops so much that if that person does something wrong, we start defending the person instead of just accepting that and appreciating a good act wherever you see it. When it is the good act you appreciate, why not just  do that instead of appreciating the person who did that and later defending his other actions? Shouldn't we love/hate their actions given that those are what caused the reaction to that person in the first place?
               One theory I can think of is, you develop a feeling to a kind of person so that it is easy to take decisions on them. For example, if you like a lot of actions of a person, it increases the probability of you liking the person's future actions. Hence, you have his mental picture of him in 'like' state so that next time he says he is doing something and invites you, you can trust that you would also like doing that thing. After several works you do together reinforces this, you call him a 'friend'. Maybe when we replace 'like' here with 'awe', we get 'hero' instead of 'friend'.
                

Why I wasn't satisfied with TDKR

Just stumbled across this piece that was in the form of draft for quite some time. I wrote this immediately after watching TDKR but by now I read many many blogs/discussion boards on the topic that this becomes irrelevant but still, here it goes...

   
Many people got surprised when I said I did not like the latest and last batman movie. Here are some of the reasons I didn't like it:

1) They show that Ra's Al Ghul comes back to that well/prison and rescues Bane and others. So why are there still people in the well? Did Ra's Al Ghul take over the fort and the well/prison and is now using it to maintain his own prisoners?
2) How the hell did Batman get back to Gotham so easily from the prison without anything when the whole city was blocked on all sides?
3) If you just look at the plot, it is like a typical action movie where there is a villian who has a nuclear weapon and the hero destroys it in the end. I have seen so many movies with this plot and batman repeats it??
4) Why does he make the Bat signal at the end when he should be trying to find the huge nuclear bomb?
5) The baseball filed scene is just an attempt to recreate the now iconic bank robbery scene from TDK.

   Incidentally, I quite liked the Robin part at the end which everyone hated!

My Review of Bankster

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


     I bought the book hoping it would be like another corporate thriller I read some-time back called Hickory Dickory Shock by another Indian author which I quite liked. But when I saw that he also wrote a book called "I bought the Ferrari the monk sold" I became skeptical that maybe he is just another sensationalist writer.
     He turns out to be so though he is not that bad a writer. While the author is definitely a more than decent writer, the cover and description is highly misleading.It is supposed to be thriller but the whole plot is understood in the first few pages. From then on, it just goes on and on and it felt as though we are reading it second time. He needs to first learn what a thriller means before attempting one!
      It starts off as a decent thriller promising to be an international one but soon becomes a teach-yourself-about-corporate-workings book. You know it is badly edited when
1)Almost the first 30% of the book introduces so many characters and has detailed descriptions of what happens in a Bank( when it had nothing to do with the main plot point of the book)
2)the main protagonist that the blurb talks of, doesn't come till half of the book.
I understand the book is about Banking sector but when it is almost clear in the first 50 pages that the book is about money laundering done by banks, there is nothing to look forward to for the rest of the book.
    Nobody cares about the final 'twist' in the tale . It was a lame attempt to justify the 'thriller' , the book is marketed to be. On hindsight, I should have known from the title and 'also from author' list that this is another bad wannabe-thriller book. I don't understand the count down to only 48 hours when nothing significant is going to happen at the end. The build-up of it (time at the  beginning of every chapter) is as if some big nuclear war is going to happen at 00hours!

    I try reading Indian authors now and then hoping some one impresses as much as Ashwin Sangh or  Samit Basu but still yet to find such high quality writers except the mentioned two people.

Biggest strength : 'Better' at writing than many contemporary 'popular' Indian authors.
Biggest drawback : The suspense part is completely missing in the book.




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"Oath of Vayuputras"

The Oath of the Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


    The series started off as a re-telling of the story of Indian God Shiva and the first book of the trilogy stood close to its intention by having some basic facts right and very nicely relatable to the Legend (Kailash/Somras/NeelKanth and especially the famous Har Har Mahadev). The second book deviated a bit from the Legend we know by defining a tribe called Nagas which were evil. In the first part I assumed Nagas were just "created" to account for the famous snake around the God's throat but in the second book he added so much story to them that it looked like he deviated a lot from the Ancient version(I never heard of a huge Naga tribe in any of our tales. It would have been much better if he defined them Asuras but that's a whole different thing) but I liked how he built the character of Ganesh and his relationship with Shiva and Sati.
   The biggest disappointment (in keeping with the way he diluted the story more in each book) is the third one where the real intention of retelling the "God" stature to these bunch of great men from the past was so far from its purpose that he explains away the present form of Ganesh we remember, the fact that Karthik is a huge god in the south and even the way we remember Bhagiratha only in the last 2 pages in a 600 page book! He even tries to sneak in the Shakti Peethas in the last lines of the book as being established by Shiva/his sons!
  He ended up treating this book as the end of a Fantasy series like LOTR by concentrating more on War strategies / Wars instead of making it a retelling of Indian Epics. You only see familiar names from Epics but they do not do a single thing you expect them to do if you know the stories. Even by concentrating on "never-heard-in-Indian-Epics-wars", he botched up the ending very badly. I appreciated what he did in the end to Sati but he could have made it as a mid-point of the book which honestly is what I expected and what he did in the last two pages should be the second half in more detail which is what you expect if you are re-telling the epic or making it a more believable story of "what-if they are normal mortals?" Add to that the irritating way in which he narrates a scene and I am truly disappointed. 
  Nothing happens in the book which you can imagine as a retelling/believable version of things all those centuries back which is what he promised about the series in the first book. He ends the book hinting at a retelling of Mahabharatha too but I sincerely hope he doesn't attempt it. I am OK with him re-telling the epics but not by completely deviating from them like he did with this Shiva trilogy.
  In conclusion, the book defeats the whole purpose of the series and my respect for Amish is almost completely gone.
Ohh and I forgot to mention that there is no "real" significance to the title of the book in the story.



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Dongri to Dubai

Dongri To Dubai: Six Decades of The Mumbai Mafia by S Hussain Zaidi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If you are interested in the underworld, you can read it once. The author gives a fleeting glimpse of oldies like Haji Mastan, Varda bhai etc. and mostly concentrates on Dawood. The book clearly reflects the author being a reporter as most of the book looks like several newspaper reports put together. A kind of linearity we expect on biographies is missing for the book. Still, you can read it to know about the life of Dawood and the rise of Mafia in Bombay.



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The Krishna Key

The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was skeptical as to whether he is trying really hard to become Dan Brown of India. turns out it is true! But I really liked how well he tried to build up the premise and how much research he has done. Though he is not an author who can engage you in general, the story will help you to peg on.
  The only complaint I have is how he is closely following Dan Brown . A mercenary, a secret group, a professor of history....everything is eerily similar to Brown's style of writing. But I like how he tried to connect a lot of things. I was also surprised that I didn't know so many things about Indian history. The only thing is , of many things he mentioned , I am not sure what sources are credible and what are fiction he wrote for the sake of book!
A brave attempt nevertheless, and a thumbs up to Ashwin Sanghi. He lived up to his fan's expectations and deleivered another awesome book!

I only hope, he becomes as famous as  Amish Tripathi.



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The Brain that changes itself

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I expected it to be more technical but it is a book written for a common man. Very interesting experiences. Makes you wonder at brain, life etc...
I highly recommend it to anybody interested in the wonder called Brain..



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Turbelence : Book by Samit Basu

Turbulence by Samit Basu

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I liked The Game World Trilogy a lot and had high expectations on Samit-Basu. But this is a big disappointment as it looks very very ordinary. The imagination looks like a little child's who watched too many super-hero movies. I think after you watch too many super-hero movies and read so many comics, anything you try in that area will eventually look like an existing super-hero.
   Even the plot was very hazy and the ending felt as if he didnt know what to do and just finished it someway. It all looked like a B-grade action movie. Suddenly  Tia and Jai's gang become insignificant and he never explains the Iron-man suit (it even becomes a suit-case just like the Iron Man movie!!). The whole thing is so badly written that I cannot believe that someone as imaginative as a person who wrote the amazing Game World Trilogy could have written it. Maybe even I could have had a better imagination if I started with the basic premise of the plot.

Bottomline: If you liked Game World Trilogy, don't read this. Your appreciation of Samit Basu will dampen!



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The Unwaba Revelations:Game World Trilogy-3

The Unwaba Revelations by Samit Basu

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


   I always had second thoughts on this book because after all that happened in the second, I was not sure how he could manage to close the trilogy thrilling enough. As I expected, the last few pages were interesting and relevant. The rest all, even the battle pages were boring and looked like they were written to just fill up the pages. Alsso he created so many characters that he couldn't give enough importance to any. Characters which were the main one's in the beginning too get very less pages in the third part. Aswin character was completely neglected(it was not etched properly,intentionally i guess, right from the beginning). Even Kirin and Maya do nothing in this book. I agree that it was all supposed to be part of the plan but seeing pages and pages of Rakshas-Ravian war is not exactly interesting.

     Still, I am satisfied with the ending and the trilogy as a whole. The only regret I have is this trilogy also turned out to be like maximum trilogies, awesome and exciting first part and downhill from there. Still, am proud that an Indian managed to successfully pull off a 1500 page fantasy trilogy!



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The Manticore's Secret

The Manticore's Secret by Samit Basu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


       This book is even better than the first part! If the first part is just a setting to introduce the main characters and start off the narration, this has lot more plot items and excellent dibs at typecasts in the fantasy genre and is equally fun and entertaining as the first one.
       The plot with all the Gods discussing the Game World is pure magic. It has elements of philosophy, making fun, surprise everything. That part is a brilliant work by Samit Basu.
        All those references to various religions, mythologies too are very subtly placed and goes with the flow. I still don't know in which genre this book goes. Its definitely a fantasy but is it a spoof of fantasy genre or a light-hearted fantasy book which pokes fun of itself? Whatever it is, I am in love with this series which is important for any fantasy tale to be successful.
       I would LOVE to see it as a motion picture trilogy like LOTR but I don't think the book is famous enough in India itself and I don't think Western people can completely understand the Genius of Basu as many references include Indian Mythology.
       I am eagerly waiting to read the third part...
       



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The Simoqin Prophecies

The Simoqin Prophecies by Samit Basu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Never thought an Indian writer could write such a detailed fantasy book. A very good book with so many creatures and a decent story that you will never get bored. The first few chapters were a difficult to pass with so many characters getting introduced but after 60-100 pages, the book is un-putdownable.

Also the ending was a very good surprise. I am not sure how the lead characters are going to become in the second book. ****spoiler this line***** It looked like Heroes are going to become villians in the next book but need to read it to know! I already ordered the second part on flipkart.

I also enjoyed the gentle poking at traditional fantasy tales.
I highly recommend it to all readers who like fantasy tales but it is 500 pages long and only the first book of a trilogy!

The Rozabal Line

The Rozabal Line by Ashwin Sanghi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

       This is one of the best novels I have ever read and I am proud that it was written by an Indian. Its definitely way better than Da Vinci Code(maybe I am partial to him as he is an Indian). He is India's answer to people who think CB is the face of Indian writing. Though his narration looks a bit similar to Dan Brown's, the way he handled the story is highly commendable. He almost convinces you on everything he tries to say though I feel he went a bit overboard in driving the point(but I am definetely not complaining!). You can't deny but get convinced about the origin of several religions after reading his book.

      I liked the way he gave detailed references to all his research at the end of the book(the same thing I didn't like in Chanakya's Chant).The only complaint I have is his over enthusiasm to drive home the theory of Karma and Re-birth and also the ending was too much to take. After so many interesting theories, the ending looked just too hypothetical. I can understand his need to make it look like what he did.

But I am more than happy at such a great and successful attempt by an Indian. I rate it better than the other more famous recent Indian phenomenon 'The Shiva Trilogy'. A must-read for everyone to understand history(I am not saying religion) better.

Hats-off to Ashwin Sanghi....


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Some ramblings on neurosciences

         Today I was reading an article on some experiment conducted on brain. The objective was to explain why we feel confused at times of sudden refresh like say, when you just woke up after sleeping at a new place, you get confused as to where you are and take some time to understand the situation. They claim that the brain actually has no confusion. From some experiments they carried out on rats, they say that the brain actually was taking time to retrieve memory and swaps between two memory locations, one of your regular sleeping place and other of the new place. They say that the swapping of the two memories happens so fast(125ms per memory) that you take time to process. The main problem I have with this kind of articles is how can they distinguish between "you" and "brain"? Isn't consciousness a product/alias of brain? Are the two not same? If you distinguish 'brain' and 'you' then who are 'you' if no the brain?
 One more thing I don't like about such articles is the comparison to our digital logic. The article says, our brain needs to be as speed as a 100 core processor to distinguish between the swapping of two memories whatever that means! I feel the area of neurosciences is not appreciated by everyone mainly because they feel our brain is just a much better computer than the fastest supercomputer we have. But how can we compare boolean/digital logic with the complexity of brain? Most people say its similar because of the 'all or none'(fire-nofire' behavior of neurons.But this doesn't mean brain works in digital domain! For instance, we remember somethings 'vaguely'. A computer can never remember things vaguely.Sometimes I feel maybe, quantum theory has something to explain our thinking process. If I am not wrong, according to quantum theory, a particle can be in one place with some probability which means, it can be there or not there i.e. it is vaguely there(??). So maybe the probability of the memory being present is low when you say I remember vaguely and it is high when you have all details of the memory. I am just blindly comparing, of course but get the idea.
     I also feel the big companies in Semiconductor and Software industries(as they have some AI fundaes, though I don't think their idea of AI is even remotely connected to real intelligence) should form a group with academia and other neuroscience institutes like Riken institute and start a project to understand the brain like the Human Genome Project. That might at least give one breakthrough in this area.