Mathew Paust (1941-2021)

Yesterday, much to my shock, I learnt of the death of author and blogger, Mathew Paust at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom. Over the years, since I started blogging, quite a few of my fellow-bloggers have passed away, always leaving one wretched. However, Matt's death has hit me pretty hard as he was a blogging …

Forgotten Book: Gossip to the Grave by John Burke

Luke stared up at her. “Running off to construct a dream lover? That’s the way. The only way. Build him yourself.”Jenny Clark is what we would call a Page-3 reporter in India, somebody who covers parties thrown by the frivolous rich, adds spice and gossip, and hints at scandals. When the novel opens, she is …

‘Bodyline’: Once Again

 Cricket is a religion in India and cricket-lovers are not merely fans but rather fanatics. And thus it is but natural that when a serial based on a cricket-series was telecast way back in the late eighties, it should become immensely popular. Bodyline, the serial, was a dramatic (some would say over-dramatic) representation of the …

Throwback Thursday: Of Ink and Inkpots

A few days ago, while teaching my little one the English alphabet, I told him - I for Ink Pot - and then it struck me that he would see an ink pot only in illustration...and for us it used to be such an essential part of life.I remember that at the beginning of each …

Throwback Thursday: Remembering Marquez and His Chronicle

Throwback Thursday is a new meme @ Peggy Ann's Post  in which one shares 'old stuff': books, pictures, movies, T.V. shows. Lovely concept, isn't it?I have just heard the news that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is no more and so I thought that it'd be fitting to look  back at the first book that I read …

Remembering Bhagat Singh

"Any man who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith. Item by item he has to reason out every nook and corner of the prevailing faith. If after considerable reasoning one is led to believe in any theory or philosophy, his faith is welcomed. His reasoning can …

Tuesday’s Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V: Star Trek

In the late eighties, India had only one T.V. channel: The government owned and controlled Door Darshan. On weekdays, telecast was limited to a few hours, mostly in the evenings. Sundays were different though. One could watch programmes being beamed almost the entire day. Some of the serials were imported: Old Fox, Different Strokes, and …

Review: Lesser Breeds by Nayantara Sahgal

It happened during a conference. The professor was singing a paean in praise of a novel called Mistaken Identity and I was slowly getting enraged. I had read the novel a couple of years back and had found it no great shakes. In fact, to me, the writer had committed a cardinal sin. Though the …

Forgotten Book: Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie

Can any book by Agatha Christie be considered as a forgotten book? This week at Patti Abbot's blog, the focus is on finding a forgotten book by an author who outsells almost all other writers and whose books are still in print while her contemporaries (some of them absolutely brilliant) languish in obscurity. Quite a …

S is for Successor by Ismail Kadare

He turned the switch further, until the light was at maximum strength, then laughed again, ha-ha-ha, as if he'd just found a toy that pleased him. Everyone laughed with him, and the game went on until he began to turn the dimmer down. As the brightness dwindled, little by little everything began to freeze, to …