THE INDIAN COMMENTATOR

Traversing the length of the library I make a random decision. I will take a book home that is not connected to what I am doing presently in terms of my professional commitment, that of a researcher. Then I spot Jostein Garder. In fact, I spot Sophie’s World first. Then I move on to read the name of the author. What a delightful moment, to realize the author always stays at the second position in the ladder. First comes the work itself. This positioning takes away a lot of shameful inhibitions. As an author or artist, everyone has inhibitions at certain stages in life, like when you get too many positive reviews or none at all. Sophie’s World was sold more than any other book before the Harry Potter era. Then Potter came and the depressed mom made the whole world go gaga about the boy wizard, and especially about his friends. I opened Sophie’s World and found the fonts a bit unimpressive. Ariel or Calibri. These are a good pair of word processor fonts. I have my reserva...

What I am about to ask may appear rather controversial in terms of the business of cinema. Ultimately, that is what it is, a business where people follow the criteria they are sure to bring in a lot of favour. Some succeed, some don’t. What’s that mystery? Who knows?   My question is... where is Jason Statham? Transporter trilogy has been branded in his image and style. Last time I checked, he was taking his time off on a fishing boat or something, I mean the Transporter. Where does he go when they ‘refuelled’ this series? Refuelled is part of the same franchise, but portrays a younger Frank Martin, directed by Camille Delamarre. In Refuelled, Frank Martin is played by Ed Skrein. Image Courtesy: Google Now, let us sit down and talk over a tea. No, not coffee. I hear Americans drink coffee. In India, tea is a trendy all-time beverage. When you discuss the Refuelled instalment of The Transporter tea or coffee is a must. Otherwise, you may miss the whole point. As p...

If this book review turns out to be an unusually positive one, please do not resort to thinking I received financial benefit from Rick Yancey. To be honest, I felt an emotional connection with the author, because of an interview I watched with him. I watched one of his interviews in  YouTube  and in it he said something that piqued my attention. He said before being a full-time author, he was a government employee, working strict schedules for an average  pay-scale . Nothing is wrong with working tight schedules or receiving a meagre pay cheque at the end of the month.  Perhaps, one should work on ways to come to terms with these ideas if one has a dream to chase and a light to follow. “ I was writing at the time, and I thought, “Well, I need something to pay the bills, and I’ll just hang on to this until my writing takes off, or I actually get off my butt and get a master’s degree in English and maybe teach somewhere.” Then twelve years later, I w...

Blessings of Virgin Mary, Mystique Rose, Mother of God. Today, I met Prabuddha. Yes, if you have read the book, Prabuddha: The Clear-sighted , you may know who I am taking about. I told you in the beginning of the book that you will learn who Prabuddha is. You learned, right? Yes, you did. I met someone like you. He said, one of the stories that appear in Prabuddha , “The Dew Collectors,” which also appears in Wall of Colours , resembles a real life experience he had. He said he enjoyed Prabuddha so much that he is eager to read my next book, Mount Sermon .   He said that once, he went to attend an interview, just like the protagonist of “The Dew Collectors”. As the events unfolded in the story, this young man also came across a ‘mysterious’ old house, a friend’s in the real life story. The old mother of the friend serves the two young men lunch. During lunch, the man who told me this fascinating story of real life experience drank a mug of water that was o...

Author Khushwant Singh allegedly said in an interview that “there is no point in writing if you are not honest” (56). I took this advice and carried forward my spiritual act, my conscious affair with coming to term with who I truly am. The ‘I AM’ presence in me is joyous with what I write and when I write. It does not matter what I write, I have discovered over the years. Although I began with a strange fear that I must confine myself within a genre like poetry or fiction. But I kept coming across one answer to this dilemma. Whatever I write, the only thing I need to do is to open myself to the Source of all being. And I will be given what I am to write. I need not worry about the format or form. That suits me well. But that does not suit the market. It requires you to confine yourself within a certain form. Market as such does not have a say in what you do. It is the people or rather simply put it, it is what you think people are going to like about you that makes you confine...