So I have been trying to learn astrology in the last couple of months. Here are some thoughts that I had while learning astrology. These are working notes, not final learnings. Difference of 22-24 days / Sayana Versus Nirayana / Temporal versus sidereal The first thing that baffled me for several days until I learnt to unpack it. In Vedic astrology, Aries starts on Baishakh 1, which translates to Apr 14. In western astrology, Aries starts on March 21, a difference of 22-24 da

- I find the storytelling very fast. It needs to be a series. Its like watching Harry Potter or Mahabharata in three hours. There is just too much content. - If I say it is old wine in a new bottle, that is obvious, for Odyssey is a very, very old story. What I mean is a specific kind of wine – some specific qualities, which are reiterated here. Specifically, male machismo, domination, and the justification of male violence and victory. It deviates a little

AI Image from Prompt: Felurian in Kingkiller Chronicles Reading Name of the Wind is a pleasure in so many ways. Dark chocolate, someone called it. And I tend to agree. It's rich, and dark, and something to savor. The language is slow and meandering, the events happen naturally and are told without fanfare. The story is interesting and keeps you engaged. Let me just get it out of the way that I like Name of the Wind in general, it is a very well plotted and written book. Befor

AI Image Some time ago, I read this thing which intrigued me. Which was that, the Greek hero Achilles and the Hindu deity Krishna die in the same way: by an arrow to the heel. Somehow, I had never made that connection. Why should they die in the same way? That got me thinking about this connection. Is there a meaning here? Let’s start from the beginning. We all know why Achilles dies the way he does. His mother Thetis dips him the River Styx to make him immortal. She dips his

Difficult life Arundhati Roy had an extremely difficult life. I feel sorry for the child Arundhati. No child should go through what she did. No child should be beaten. And no child should be beaten in place of another, just to show that the guardian is not being partial. No child should have to hear that they are a millstone around the neck of their mother. No child should have to endure the kind of neglect that Arundhati and her brother had to. Even more difficult was her mo

I encountered Sinu Joseph and her work for the first time when my friend Gatha Rijal sent two links of her talks – one a TED talk, no...

Spoiler Warning: Contains spoilers for the Sanskrit collection Shuka Saptati, and the Hindi movie Mirch. I came across Shuka Saptati...

Reading Shoonya ko Mulya has been a strange experience – equal parts validation and confusion, admiration and trepidation. Let me start...

I am not going to bother with any introductions, because this film is so famous by now. If you need an introduction, you can watch the...

I know I have joined the party late. Very very late. And yet, once I watched it, I couldn't help but make a list of the most over the top...

Contains spoilers for Book 1 and Book 2 Let me start off by saying that ACOTAR is extremely well written and enjoyable. And it makes a...

Reflections on WoT till now (Book 3 – Dragon Reborn) So I have fallen into the trap again and started another high fantasy series. Sigh....

Here I am going to give a running commentary on Jawan, the text version of a reaction video, hahaha. P.S. My brain will provide some...

सर्पदंश Reading Sarpadamsha was deeply disturbing. And yet, the book was very very brave. Or maybe, just naïve, at an age when all kinds...

Episode six has raised a lo of questions and a storm of thoughts, not unlike the cataclysm unleashed at the end of it. I will try to put...

To give a very quick introduction, this book is a study of the lives of Brahmin women in a village somewhere in the hills of Nepal....

Some thoughts on Antarmukhi Antarmukhi is a novel by Parijat. I picked it up because I admire Parijat's writing already, and wanted to...

First impressions Just last month I was writing about how I am so knowledgeable about the western fantasy imagination because I read so...

Review: Wheel of time Wheel of time is an extremely well written book, and I liked it a lot. But then I might just be biased, it is ...