Time Crawlers – Book Review

Book Title: Time Crawlers

Author: Varun Sayal

Approx Read Time: 60 – 75 min

Review: It was a fine cold morning. As I was getting ready to leave for my day’s tour of London, my phone beeped letting me know an email was awaiting to be read in my inbox. When I checked and found it to be an email from Mr Varun Sayal requesting in a very humble and polite way, an honest review of his debut book – Time Crawlers, published a month earlier – I smiled. I didn’t have time or focus to do book reviews then. I asked for some time – three months – as I had a few more books to read as well. He persistently followed up for a month to try to get to me read it sooner. But since I was travelling through a new country and soaking it all in, I didn’t let myself find some time to go through the books. That was wrong on my part. This weekend I finally came around to reading Time Crawlers and quickly transferred the ebook copy, that Varun sent, to my Kindle. I breezed through it in an hour! That means I could have done this way earlier, way way earlier. For that, I feel apologetic. But I will not delay reviewing it further anymore. So let me dive into my honest unbiased opinion of it right away.

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How To Prep For International Flying First Time?

Let me in you on a secret. – Everybody who has flown before domestically gets some flutters as they approach their first time flying international. And those whose first flying experience is going to be flying international, well for them, the flutters are even greater. But I assure you for these latter set of first timers, its actually better; since they don’t have anything to benchmark their experience against!

Whatever set one falls in, one can only absorb as much information and try to prepare for the eventual experience. There are generally so many questions and internet provides so many answers to gobble up. But one never gets what one needs at a single place ever. An article can’t be everything for everyone. Its a tall order to follow. Nevertheless, it never stopped people from trying and it wont stop me too!

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Clean Up your Email Inbox Now

If you have ever felt clueless or helpless whenever you open your email inbox, then this is for you. If you have kept procrastinating or dreaded how to get your inbox in order, then this is for you! I was once in a situation where my mail box had more than 17,000 emails and it filled up by 100s or more every day. I HAD to clean it up. I kept procrastinating until it was too much. So I decided I will slug it out one hr every day for next 5 days and hopefully get this to more manageable level.

By the way, a simple Google search for “tips to clean your email inbox” throws up quite a few articles on how to get them done. I went through many of them after I had finished tackling my email clutter menace to see how others attacked this and is there anything I could learn and adapt to my situation in future. I did find few methods more efficient than mine and few where my approach seemed better. So I decided I will write this post to help other people out who are overwhelmed with their inboxes.

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Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of Ramayana – Book Review

Book Title: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Approx Leisure Read Time: 300 – 340 min

Review: For someone who has already read another book by the same author, it generally is quite difficult not to compare the two books. I too was tempted initially. I had picked up the book and abandoned it at least four times by the time I reached first 10 pages because it didn’t capture me right away like the Mahabharata adaptation did. Fifth time, before I picked it up I made up my mind to ignore the fact that it’s a book by same author and treat it individually on its merits and demerits. When I brought myself down from that expectation pedestal and started reading it again, I was finally able to slowly immerse myself in the epic’s retelling.

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Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata – Book Review

Book Title: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Approx Leisure Read Time: 320 – 360 min

Review: Impressions first. Jaya: An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata‘s cover is really eye catching. The illustration of Arjuna and Krishna on the chariot on the front cover indicated to me how the book is going to treat the Mahabharata. It somehow told me, ‘Look, if you are looking for meaning in life and want to get all the answers, then please stop, this one is more suitable as a brisk read for those who want to know what the fuss is all about this great Hindu epic called Mahabharata. For a deeper meaning of the incidents, find some other retelling. And that’s what exactly I found it to be. Fast paced, hard to keep down and interesting (for the fact that author seems to have done a bit of research and this is his synthesis of various versions of Mahabharata from various regions of the world.

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Riya’s Office – Chapter Story

Surmiya parked his Swift in the visitor parking lot of FAME park. As he got out and lit a smoke, he marvelled at the fact that this government complex that houses the Ministry of Foreign & External Affairs had the top floor dedicated to the Research & Analysis Wing, the country’s top intelligence agency. Here, the best and brightest analytical minds of the country converge. They track, analyze and oversee the vast network of operations covert or otherwise that the Indian government runs to safeguard the sovereignty of India. One of them was Riya, who probably would be pacing up and down in her office, right now, barking orders on the phone trying to pull in all the information she could find on the situation. The situation; PMO’s office directly put her in charge. It must be pretty bad if it came to her, that much Surmiya had deduced from his past cases he helped her solve. She had a knack for getting the most trying of the cases. Surmiya checked his watch. Its 8:07am. Shit! Surmiya dropped the remaining cigarette to the ground, stomped on it while locking his car and walked towards the entrance. He entered the foyer and walked right past the guards to the elevator. Sound of a bell indicated that elevator has reached the top floor. As doors opened, he was greeted by smell of freshly painted office and wooden panelling. He saw there was a reception desk now and walks there to announce his presence.

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The Call – Chapter Story

The clock blinked 7:19am and in a minute the alarm went off. Surmiya moved off the bedside and snoozed the alarm. Two minutes later, his phone buzzed and he reluctantly stretched out his hand and picked it up. Hello. What is it. Riya shouted in the phone, Get up sleepyhead. I have a problem on my hands. I want you here in [pause] 25 mins.

Surmiya, now was fully awake. A call from Riya meant serious trouble. He recalled the times when Riya and he used to be best of buddies in college. A group case study had changed it all. He and she differed on the perspective of the case study and she got selected by the RAW for her analysis. That separated them and it drove Surmiya to go private.

For next six years, both focussed on their own careers. Riya rose quickly among the ranks due to her objectivity in analysis and good people management skills, while Surmiya quickly built a reputation solving cases where other investigators had given up hope. One was a rising star on government payrolls while other was building his reputation one case at a time in private sector. And then one fine day they crossed each other working on different parts of the same investigation. He and Riya teamed up and cracked open the case solving a twenty year old real estate logjam scam.

Since then, Riya had contacted him for his help in investigating various high profile secret cases. He had reluctantly agreed to help since he wanted a break from his regular clientele. He felt happy working alongside her and she was happy to have him beside her working with her, for her. Since then, she had cultivated the relationship and ocassionally asked for his help when RAW was unable to crack a case.

Surmiya shakes his head to pull himself from the memories and shouts back, Why don’t you guys improve your selection criteria? I m sure you could find some good analytical minds across the country only if you knew where to look. I don’t want to have to do anything with the government. Riya, knew the all familiar routine and she replies, Yes we know Mr Sherlock. You don’t approve our methods, but I can’t help it and it’s neither my concern. My job is to resolve a case I have been handed upon. And this one comes directly from PMO’s office. So I believe its something damn serious. Be sure to be here in, *she checks her watch* 23 min. Surmiya sighs, Ok ok. I will be there. Just keep the coffee pot ready as I like it. He puts down the receiver, glances at his watch 7: 37 am and gets up to get ready. His instincts tell him, this one would be a long one…

Moonlit Night – Chapter Story

 

The moon is shining bright in the night sky. The buzz of mosquito slows down as it is about to fall to its death. The mosquito repellant:AllOut burns as brightly as ever and somewhere in distance, the sound of a ringing phone pierces the dead of the night. There is some shuffling on the bed. The phone stops ringing for a minute and starts again. Another shuffle and another long wait for the insensitive caller on the other side. Who calls someone at 4 am in the morning! The phone starts ringing for the third time. The bed creaks as a frail body moves, gets up and shouts, “Darth pick up the phone or put that fucking shit on silent.”

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The Monotony Of Life Routine

Waking up everyday and coming to work has become a part of routine. Reading a book while on the way to work has become a part of routine. Observing and ignoring the pitiful state of the less fortunate ones on the streets that lead to the workplace has become a part of routine. Coming in to work and booting up the PC and playing catch up with workstation neighbours has become a part of routine. Going through the mails and ignoring half of them has become a part of routine. Meeting with team members and deciding the work to be done today has become a part of routine. Knowing well that

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