• Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life

    Get wasted all the time, and you will have time of your life

    - Billy Connolly

     

  • Travelogue

    In Tryst With Every Inch

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    Karlsruhe, Germany

    Picture: Castle

    Just across the border from the Rhine river lies a small college town of Karlsruhe. Sandwitched between Heidelberg in Germany and Strasbourg in France, Karlsruhe is unglamourous yet very attractive town. It is clean, residents are well dressed and there are plenty of young people, thanks to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Surprisingly, everyone in the town is comfortable in speaking English, contrary to the general reputation of a German city. It seems to have everything one desires for peaceful and happy life. Plenty of nature, walkable city, lively city center, libraries, and friendly people. It is boutique town with elegance and quality of life of a large city.

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    Strasbourg, France

    Picture: Train Station

    While visiting for a conference in the city, a colleague suggested me to visit the European parliament. Little did he told the city itself is a world heritage site. Strasbourg embodies the life and times of the medieval age, barring all the violence and barbarism! The roads are narrow, canal encircles the city, shops closes early, ice creams are the tastiest, and every corner of the city is picturesque. All the roads lead to the famous (and huge) cathedral, which I believe is the envy of the other christian cities. Residents bike, walk, use Tram, and speak French. But many names in the city can sound German, as it is just a stone throw away from Germany, a former occupier of it.

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    Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Picture: Sheikh Zayed Mosque

    The future has been seen, it is Abu Dhabi. The UAE capital is epitomizes modernity in its fullest sense: beauty, architecture, infrastructure, culture, transportation and housing. It looks that the rulers of Abu Dhabi are determined to bring the world there. No cuisine unfound, no world-wide brands absent, and no nationality missing. Boasting of several tourist spots such as Lourve museum, it is the Zayed Mosque, the Aquarium and the Presidential Palace stands out beyond measure. The rulers not just have the wealth but also the taste for luxury and delicacies. While it is desert, it feels like none. It is easy find water everywhere, but almost impossible to spot a camel.

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    Bordeaux, France

    Picture: Victoire Place

    Bordeaux is not the city that comes to mind when someone says France; the honor usually goes to Paris or Nice. But this mini-Paris located next to the Atlantic ocean, is full of surprises and history. I was travelling to the city to visit a collaborator and never expected much, only to be proven wrong with the medieval architecture, night-lit city, wine region (including a museum dedicated to wine history), authentic food, and eye-catching scenery of river Garonne passing through the city. Not commonly known, even to French, that Bordeaux was part of British empire for some period, who converted it into wine region to avoid purchasing French wines! What an irony!

  • Podcasts

    Periodicals and Special Series

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    Weekly

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    Seasonal

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    Monthly

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    Special Series

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    Special Series

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    Special Series

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  • Knowledge from Podcasts

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    Lifestyle Changes: Slowing cognitive decline

    • Eating healthier - Fruits and Vegetables
    • Staying socially engaged
    • Exercise - Sit less, move more
    • Good Sleep
    • Dental Health

    Breathing: Improving brain aging and cognitive health

    • Breathwork - Slowing breathing
    • Yoga
    • Chanting Meditation - Paces Breath
    • Listening Soothing Music
    • Singing and Humming
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    Focus

    How to Change a Habit:

    • Create a Physical and Mental barrier to the habit
    • Replace the habit with another activity

    Physical Boundaries:

    • Keep phone out of bedroom
    • Use alarm and clock
    • Read a Physical Book
    • Walk in Nature
  • Normal People

    TV Series

  • Good lawyers know the law, great lawyers know the judge

    Anonymous

  • Noteworthy Episodes

    The Palace of Illusions - Delhi, Mughals and Mahabharata

    The Weekend Intelligence

  • Expenses

    Credit Cards

    Flights

    Amex Platinum

    Dining

    Amex

    Gold

    Coffee

    Amex Marriott Platinum

    Grocery

    Amex Preferred

    Cash

    Hotel

    Wells Fargo Autograph

    Clothes

    Amex Blue Cash

    Parking

    Amex Preferred

    Cash

  • Interviews

    Idea Exchange

    The Lallantop

    Teen Taal

  • Audiobook Listening

    Novels -- Fantasy-- History

    1

    Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

    The Palace of Illusions

    The Last Queen

    Independence

    Oleander Girl

    One Amazing Thing

    The Forest of Enchantments

    Before We Visit the Goddess

    Queen of Dreams

    The Vine of Desire

    The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

    Sister of My Heart

    The Mistress of Spices

    Arranged Marriage

    2

    Sarah Adams

    The Cheet Sheet

    Practice Makes Perfect

    When in Rome

    In Your Dreams

    Beg, Borrow, or Steal

    The Temporary Roommate

    The Off-limits Rule

    The Enemy

    The Match

    The Rule Book

    3

    George R. R. Martin

    Song of Ice and Fire

    A Game of Thrones

    A Clash of Kings

    A Storm of Swords

    A Feast of Crows

    A Dance of Dragons

    Fire and Blood

    The World of Ice and Fire

    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

    4

    Indian Partition

    Partition Voices - Kavita Puri

    Indian Summer

    The Great Partition (Yasmin Khan)

    Freedom at Midnight

    Empireland - Sathnam Sanghera

    5

    Corporate Biography

    The Founders (PayPal)

    Setting the Table

    The Sky High (Indigo)

    Bad Blood (Theranos)

    No Filter (Instagram)

    Becoming Trader Joe

    The Shopify Story

    Winner Sells All (Amazon)

    Last Man Standing (Duff McDonald)

    House of Huawei

    Mood Machine (Spotify)

    The Whole Story

    The Everything Store

    Reentry (SpaceX)

    Electronic Value Exchange (Visa)

    Nuts! (Southwest)

    Netflixed

    No Rules Rules (Netflix)

    Amazon Unbound

    The Thinking Machine (Nvidia)

    The Nvidia Way

    Sam Walton - Made in America (Walmart)

  • Book Series Reading: William Dalrymple

    Reading: White Mughals

    Read: Return of a King, The Last Mughal,The Golden Road; The Anarchy; Koh-i-noor.

    To be Read: Nine Lives; City of Djinns; From the Holy Mountain; In Xanadu.

  • Lifestyle

    Luxury Matters - Personal Care

    Wallets

    Shoes

    Toothpaste Tablets

    Hand and Nail Cream

  • Amusing Stories

    Poetic Eulogy on the Death of a Powerful Visier

    See how the Barmakid Blade of Indian steel has been struck

    By the steel of the Hashimites!

    The stars of generosity are out;

    The hand of benevolence is closed.

    The seas of bounty have ebbed away

    Now that the Barmakids are gone.

    Fate has betrayed the sons of Barmak,

    Did Yahya not govern the whole earth?

    Yet he woke to find himself beneath it.

    Source: The Golden Road Book

    Namechange

    Idi Amin, the Ugandan Dictator who had thrown thousands of his countrymen into prison, once told his foreign ministerthat Uganda should be named "Idi". "There is a problem", the sharp Ugandan foreign minister told his boss.

    "The people of Cyprus are called Cypriots; the people of Idi will be called Idiots"

    Idi dropped the idea.

    Source: Economist

    Brevity in Exams

    I am reminded of an old Oxford essay question: “Was Hegel a good philosopher? Be brief”. One smug student wrote, simply, “Yes”. When the paper came back, the examiner had given it a high mark but scribbled a comment in the margin: “This was a good, brief answer. But a better, briefer answer would have been No.”

    Source: Anonymous

    Origins of Symposium

    In ancient Greece, symposium was an occasion where intelligencia met to drink wine and have intellectual conversation. Master of ceremony was responsible for mixing appropriate amount of water in wine so that things don't go out of hand.

    Source: La Cite Du Vin

    Wine and Liver Treatment

    In ancient Egypt, wine was used to treat liver disease as a part of standard medical practice.

    Source: La Cite Du Vin

    Critial Book Review

    “That’s not writing, that’s typing”. But Randall Jarrell did just that, opining that a book by Oscar Williams “gave the impression of having been written on a typewriter by a typewriter”.

    Source: Economist

    On Obsession with You

    At some point, you will find someone who is obsessed with you and wants all your time. That person is your manager at work.

    Source: Internet

    Difference between a Diplomat and a Lady

    If a diplomat say "yes", he means "maybe"

    If he says "maybe", he means "no"

    If he says "no", he is no diplomat

     

    If a Lady says "no", she means "maybe"

    If she says "maybe", she means "yes"

    If she says "yes", she is no lady"

    Source: Warren Buffett

    A Perfect European

    A perfect European should drive like a Frenchman, cook like the Dutch, be as organized as the Greeks, and as humorous as a German.

    Source: Economist

    It's All Relative

    "How dirty are electric vehicles?", you asked. I am reminded of the quote from Lee Iacocca when he was at Ford: "How much clean air do we need?"

    Source: Economist

    On Innovation

    If innovation has an iconography, it involves a genius, a breakthrough and a dash of serendipity. For example,

    Alexander Fleming notices mould growing on a plate of bacteria and discovers penicillin.

    John Snow produces a map of the victims of a cholera outbreak in 19th-century London and traces the outbreak to a single water pump.

    A German chemist called August Kekulé falls asleep, dreams about snakes eating their tails and realises upon waking that the benzene molecule has the shape of a ring.

    Source: Economist

    Difference Between Complete and Finished

    If one marries the right person, he is complete. If one marries the wrong person, he is finished.

    Source: Self thought

    Age of Revolution

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

    It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

    It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

    It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

    It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair

    We had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

    We were all going direct to Heaven, We were all going direct the other way

    Source: A Tale of Two Cities

    The Most Important Question

    Richard Hamming, a mathematician, famously asked chemistry fellows at Bell Labs

    what the most important problems in their field were,

    then what they were working on at the time, and

    then why they were working on things that were unimportant.

    This may not have been the best technique for making friends, but asking what was the most important problem he could be working on is pretty much exactly what is needed.

    Source: Economist

    The Most Important Question

    Richard Hamming, a mathematician, famously asked chemistry fellows at Bell Labs

    what the most important problems in their field were,

    then what they were working on at the time, and

    then why they were working on things that were unimportant.

    This may not have been the best technique for making friends, but asking what was the most important problem he could be working on is pretty much exactly what is needed.

    Source: Economist

    Irony of Reading

    When literature was considered transfressive, moralist couldn't get people to stop buying and reading dangerous books. Now that books are considered virtuous and edifying, moralists can't persuade anyone to pick one up.

    Source: The Atlantic

  • Great Sentences

    Honesty and Deceit

    The gold coin of honesty and scrupulous respect for one's engagements is a currency valid everywhere, which will preserve its owner from dishonor even in the most turbulent circumstances. If you are faithful and true, people will love you; deceit will only make people shun and loathe you!

    Source: Mirza Ata

    Opportunity Cost

    Working takes up hours that might be spent in libraries, browsing online, learning new languages, and reading classical texts, all activities foundational to the acquisition of specialized knowledege.

    Source: The Atlantic

  • Platforms for Purchasing Bond

    TreasuryDirect.gov

    US Government Bonds

  • Book Review

    Thoughts, musings, and ruminations.

    December 30, 2023
    While all economists are wrong, some are useful and entertaining. Such is the case with the book "Edible Economics". It gives a primer of various economic concepts and justifies them with selective facts. However, the justification is well-reasoned and respectable. Coming from a left leaning...
    Read more...
    December 30, 2023
    Is hierarchy embedded in thesocial fabric where one segment of society dominates others? Or is it possible to have equality in principle? More importantly, what is equality? Is it in the freedom of expression, equal income or equal access to resources? There is a saying that everyone can be...
    Read more...
    December 30, 2023
    It is said that books are humans’ best friends, where andhow did they come from is a mystery to many. The journey from the stone tablet to electronic tablet is largely unknown, especially the shape shifting nature of books. Imagine time traveling to 800 BCE and asking for a book and getting a...
    Read more...
  • TV Series

    In Desire of Next Season

    1

    Panchayat

    Season 1

    Season 2

    Season 3

    Season 4

    Season 5

    2

    House of Dragons

    Season 1

    Season 2

    Season 3

    3

    Shogun

    Season 1

    Season 2

    4

    The West Wing

    Season 1 (Ep 18)

    5

    Silicon Valley

    Season 1 (Ep 5)

    6

    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

    Season 1

    Season 2

    7

    A True Detective

    Season 1

    Season 2

  • Must Watch Movies

    The Godfather

    What is the most American movie? For the US citizens, it is debatable. For the rest of the world, it is undoubtedly Godfather, Godfather and Godfather! Produced in 1970 and set in 1950's, the movie deals with the complexities of Italian mafia family via father-son duo. Covered in the envelop of business empire, crime, deceit, family values, betrayal and promises, the movie is a recipe that illustrates strength and helpnesses at the same time. You can be the Godfather, but yet have to resign to the fate that bestows upon you.

    Take Michael Corleone, the son with a military career who wants to live a normal life. He is not interested in violence, but ends up being the most violent, including killing his own brother and brother-in-law. He demands absolute loyalty, but his own loyalty in doubt. Or take the family patriarch, the original Godfather, Vito Corleone, who seems to be in control and yet fails to find out who attacked him. His aura is gripping, yet he is helpless. A family man who keeps the vows, yet betrayed by his own gang members.


    The two-part movie is as American as it can get. It focuses on immigrants and their lives and their system. They trust their tribe more than the institutions. They have past that contantly begets them.


    The movie is a master class that needs to be watched again and again, albeit for different reasons. First time, it is the aura of the scenes, characters and story. Second time, to understand the minute events that were set up in the past. It is like an academic paper, where one needs to go back and forth to know what is going on. And third and more times, just to enjoy each scene as it goes by. Like a Shakespearean play, it is fresh every time.

    Ever wondered how one's journey have traversed through time, just watch Michael sit in his dining table, smoking and remembering all the chatter and family warmth at the same time with all his brothers, sister and family members. Time passes and we become the person that we hated the most.

  • Must Watch Movies

    Ocean's Series

    Despite being morally wrong, there is something in stealing that makes everyone gets glued to it. Or why else there are so many movies on "heist". But making a movie on heist is not that easy task. The plot needs to be compelling; villian and heroes needs to be well-defined (just because you steal doesn't mean you are the bad guy; recall Robinhood); what needs to be stolen should be precious (i.e. large sums of money, antique jwellery or ancient artifact, to name a few); how it is stolen should be impossible (but our hero still accomplishes it!); the motive behind the stealing should be convincing; and most importantly, after the heist, the hero should always remain free and the villian should die or go to prison. A bit of romance or passionate sex adds to the thrill. A starcast of elite actors is a plus. Ocean series somehow manages to bring everything together. But it does more, it adds style to it and a teamwork between the thiefs that is carefully thread together with storyline and is hard to replicate in every scenario. If the male version of the series is breathtaking, wait for the female version (Ocean's 8), which takes heist to the next level.

  • Must Watch Movies

    On Wall Street

    Wall Street is both loved and hated. Everyone wants a pie of money made by the Wall street, but hated for its people and culture. The words egomanics, greed, selfishness, corrupt, and immoral are commonly used to describe the Wall Street. The following movies shows inside working of the Wall Street, both proving and disproving the popular perception. One thing that is pervasive and not mentioned anywhere is that sleep is a luxury in the Wall Street. Late night meetings are the norm and nobody complaints about 100+ hours of work week. These are both strange and admiring.

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    Margin Call

    2011

    During the 2008 financial crisis, a financial firm realizes that its exposure to mortgage is unsustainable and could lead to the firm being bankrupt. Its mortgage portfolio is practically junk, and needs to be off-loaded before other firms realize. The key is how to convince morally and ethically driven investment bankers to follow the route.

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    The Big Short

    2015

    There is always people who benefit from a financial crisis. We call them devil, but they are people who identify the flaws in the system early and risk their money betting against the market; in this case economy (2008 financial crisis). This is a story of financial insiders and outsiders who got it right, when establishment was being too clever by half.

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    Too Big To Fail

    2011

    The two investment banks, Lehmann Brothers and AIG, are about to go bankrupt. They need a buyer for them, through which 2008 financial crisis can be potentially avoided. The behind the scenes drama of the real life events reveal how the financial system work. Petty the treasury secretary, who has to be both gentle and enforcing.

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    The Wolf of Wall Street

    2013

    Being an active investor is not for faint of hearts. In many cases, one has to do things over and beyond the law. Worst types just use the system to their advantage. This film caters to such an investor, who opened a successful firm, made a lot of money for himself and his team, but eventually lands in a prison, for all the shady things he did.

  • Reviews

    Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883

    There is a reason why the Dutton family is always grumpy in the three TV series: Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883. It is the USP (Unique Selling Point) of the drama, which makes the viewer glued to the show. In the modern day, when TV and movies are focussing on topics related to future and spaceships, Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883 takes us back to horses, cows and wolves. It is a story of a lifestyle and a family, and its struggle to protect their property, a big ranch.

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    Yellowstone

    Peacock

    John Dutton, a ranch owner and the family patriarch, runs a loss making enterprise of raising and selling cows for beef in the State of Montana, next to the Yellowstone National Park. The ranch spans several miles with beautiful landscapes and without any modern amenities, including roads. Needless to stay, it gets attention of the California and New York businesses for opening resorts and airports, with the future same as Breckenridge, Colorado. The problem is John Dutton doesn't want anyone entering his ranch, let alone sell it, but the wealthy are determined to acquire it by any means. There is also another problem, an Indian nation, who wants the ranch back to its fold, before the Dutton family arrived 150 years ago. So the drama unravels with guns, politics, kidnapping, deaths, and legal maneuvers. Honorable crime is the name of the game. One can kill but it doesn't mean one is guilty. There is a difference between killing and murdering! Not made for a faint heart, the show is gripping despite plenty of violence, including the sexual one.

    The key that makes the show unique in not the Dutton family's fight with the outside world, but its struggle within it, which adds to the complexity. No one is spared, not even the dining table where no mean if ever finished. But the person who steals the show is Beth Dutton, the daughter of John, and an insane person yet lovable. No women likes to be her but admire her, and men don't even bother coming close. She will shame you to the death. She is the only person who lives in modernity and prefers riding Bentley and Mercedez over horses. Her boyfriend-turned-husband, Rip, is the only one she rides more! Rip strangly is a cowboy.

    Although Beth is a show stopper, other characters are no less important and plays there role to perfection. They all have their fans, even Tait, the grandson of John Dutton. Jokes are plenty, and dark humor is the underdog.

    The show is streamed on Peacock as of 2025 and runs for five seasons. It is not for self-moralizing environmentalists or vegans. Beth will beat you to the hell, like she did to Summer, her father's part-time girlfriend who complained how can one eat "Dove", the bird of peace! If that humiliation was not good enough, Beth sarcastically suggested to her father, John, that if you want to have a hooker, at least have a better and expensive one!

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    1923

    Paramount+

    If you think John Dutton was badass, then you haven't met his great-granduncle Jacob Dutton, played by Harrison Ford. Jacob Dutton is the family patriarch in 1923 TV Series, where he has two seasons to protect the ranch from a wealthy banker, who wants to convert the ranch to a tourist resort.

    Jacob is shot multiple times in an ambush, but survives. He is loosing men and cows to maintain his land and has no source of income. His wife tries best, but they are running out of time.

    There is one hope. Their estranged nephew, Spencer Dutton, who is roaming in the jungles of Africa, killing tigers and protecting British tourists. He left the ranch a while ago, but needs to return to it to save the family and the family property. The struggles of return are real, considering its 1923 and there are no airplanes. Only way is ships, boats, trains and horses; a several months of journey. The return is further complicated as Spencer is separated from his newly wed wife from a Royal family of England, which disapproves the wedding

    The wife and husband separately chart their path to Montana, and finally meet in Bozemann. But they are not alone; gunmen from the banker is waiting to kill them, and the rest of the Dutton family.

    An orgy of shootout happens. Who wins is not in question, after all it is the show on the Dutton family. How they win is more important and breathtaking.

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    1883

    Paramount+

    In the Yellowstone TV Series, the Indians frequently claim the Dutton ranch belong them generations ago, before John Dutton's great-grandfather took it from them. The question may have arisen, who are Duttons and where they came from. The pne-season 10-episode 1883 answers that question.

    The Duttons came from Texas, when James Dutton (Jacob Dutton's younger brother), decided to move to Portland, Oregon, with his family. He had his wife, his sister, her daughter, and his own daughter and a son. While initially planning to move alone with his family, he is persuaded to travel with an European caravan who has the same destination. The journey is arduous, and on the way he looses his sister and her daughter, and many other caravan companions.

    But it not the show about James Dutton, but his daughter Elsa Dutton, who comes off her age and aid her father in the journey. She becomes the first cow-girl, dates another cow-boy (before he dies) and eventually marries an Indian.

    But she also undone by an Indian tribe, who mistakenly attacks the caravan, fatally injuring Elsa. She has limited time, and Portland is far away. While most of the caravan disintegrates, the Dutton family ends up in Montana, and with the help of an Indian tribe, gets a piece of land next a river to restart their life. This is the place where Elsa decides to die, and this is the place that becomes the Dutton Ranch.

    There was only one thing about the gifted land. That after five generations, the tribeman will come and reclaim the land. James Dutton agreed, but everyone else forgot. But fate had it in the last episode of Yellowstone that the land went back the Indian tribe.

  • Reviews

    Chernobyl

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    Chernobyl

    HBO Max

    Truth is stranger than fiction. It is also unpredictable. While there have been many nuclear disasters, none have been like Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It occurred at the peak of the cold war and could have destroyed a continent. The story of the disaster is essential to be told to the general public. What happened? How did it happen? How was it contained? And more importantly, what was the human cost? Both in terms of population effect and the people involved in the containment zone. There is no better way to tell the story than via cinema.


    The 5-part TV series “Chernobyl” produced by HBO is a must watch masterpiece. It is bingeworthy. It is both suspenseful and factual. It covers the accident in detail, action taken by politicians (aka Soviet comrades) and role of scientists in determining the cause. The characters are real and the situation they face is unprecedented. Watching the series is like observing it in real time from a distant view. Whether it is the worry in the face of Mikhail Gorbachev, or the wife of a firefighter caring for her radiation infected husband, it is deeply personal. And deeply factual.


    Killing of animals because they were contaminated is cruel and scientific at the same time. Ordered not by a politician but a scientist who cared for the future generation. The lives of people changed overnight, and they have to find a new home for the rest of their lives. An old woman who didn't leave her village since birth, despite living the fears of the two world wars, Nazi occupation and Soviet capture, had to succumb to the radiation to find a new home.


    And finally, the culprit: Was it a human error or the faulty rods? While the TV series ends blaming the system and faulty rods, the answer is more profound. Shouldn't scientists consider human error when designing a reactor? Especially when the stake is high, like in the case of a nuclear power plant. These are the questions one is left wondering at the end of the series. And the thing that makes it so real and thought-provoking are the characters and the actors portraying them. I am glad that HBO made the TV series and I watched it.

  • Reviews

    True Detective

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    Season 1

    Finding a Missing Serial Killer

    One can be forgiven if they quit watching the eight-episode season in the first 15 minutes or after the first episode. It is genuinely boring; not just the first but first four to five episodes. Until one realizes they were building up to the climax. This season of the True Detective is rated highest for a reason. Unlike other detective drama, where the killer is somewhere around the ecosytem, the season tells you story from a detective's perpective, where evidence is gathered ambiguously, and one feels confused and second guessing all the time. Even detectives are under the scanner from the other detectives. The story peels through itself as new perspective arrive. Case seems to be solved, and then its seems that they have caught the wrong person. Nobody knows who is the killer until the very last. This is for people who love complex drama and have memory to remember previous episodes.

  • Must Watch List

    Jolly LLB Series

    Legal drama in Bollywood movies is all pomp and show, where Hero saves an innocent accused wrongly. But the Jolly LLB movies are a bit different. First, judge has a crucial role and is an central character. Second, the lawyer fighting are incompetent and alright morons. Third, the defence is professional and is very thorough in their case, despite being the guilty party. But the innocence of the victim and his incompetent laywer still carries the day, thanks to the judge who intervenes at the appropriate moment. "The law is blind, not the judge, who can see everything". The first movie is when a lawyer named "Jolly", played by Arshad Warsi, is fighting a hit and run case. The second movie is when another lawyer named also "Jolly", played by Akshay Kumar, fights a case of fake encounter. And in the third movie, both the Jollys team up to fight a case on fake land aquisition. What makes the movies great the opposite council, played by Boman Irani (first movie), Anu Kapoor (second movie) and Ram Gupta (third movie); three finest actors.

  • TV Series - Hindi

    Reviews

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    Panchayat

    Amazon Prime

    Indian Soap Operas are famous for their glamour, lack of content, unrealitic drama, and kitchen politics. They are primarily focused on women fighting among themselves, for reasons nobody knows; while men stand next their spouses or mothers making all kinds of wierd faces. It is still a mystery what men do for their living and why they spend most of their time at home. More importantly, how the family is so rich without anyone having a real job.

    Panchayat, luckily, is the Black Swan among the Indian TV. A story of an aspirant graduate who is preparing for MBA at the Indian Institutes of Management, a group of elite Indian Institutions. As happens to many aspirants, the man takes a side job as a government secretary. Work during the day, study during the night. But unfortunately, he is posted to a remote village called "Phulera" in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh, where things move at an extremely slow pace. Electricity is unreliable and roads barely exists. And then there is village politics.

    Fustrated as he is, the show goes through authentic life of villagers and their issues, which may seem remote to urbanties, but are so real for the rural populations. How to enforce government policies when villagers' are against them. For example, limiting a family to two children may seem a good policy. But do you convince a man with five children that government is interfering in his personal choices.

    Not all is bad for "Sachiv ji", as the man is referred to by the villagers. He apparantly has crush on the daughter of the "Pradhan", village's elected chief. Subtle romance and local politics, with small group of friends and enemies, keep "Sachiv Ji" entertained in the village. He has a chance to leave, but chooses against it.

    Each episode caters to unique problems of Indian villages, and the show reflects them in its utmost raw form. Finally, a true Indian drama that the world can peek into.