Sunday, December 20, 2015

To report or not – That is the question.

The year before last, I was in Mumbai and had gone to a completely new area, to interview police constables for a college assignment. (There has to be irony in here somewhere!) After, and since it was late and both my friend and I had more than our share of work to do, my friend dropped me to the nearest local station. Since the major part of the assignment was done, (the interview), I was much more relaxed than I should have been, and as usual, I put on my earphones and started listening to music, rather loudly I guess. A few minutes later I saw two elder females pointing and whispering to something behind me, bringing me back to “reality”. A man was standing there, gradually coming nearer or seemed like it, at least, so obviously, I decided to move away, and that was when I realised he was really drunk and saw that his trouser was open (read unzipped)!

Like most females, even I have been eve teased, cat-called, been a victim (of attempts) to public groping and whatnot. Anyway, the open pant thing was a first for me and for two minutes I didn’t even know what to do! Luckily for me, just then, a police constable was passing by and saw the whole incident and quickly hit him 3-4 times with his 'lathi' before asking me if I was alright. The local train pulled in by then and after telling him I was fine, I got on and left, wondering the entire way about what it was that I should have done.

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Mahabharata Quest: The Alexander Secret review

I had received The Mahabharata Quest: The Alexander by Christopher C. Doyle, as part of Blogadda’s review program but was unable to review at that time, and being forgetful (by nature) forgot about it till now. Anyway, being a firm believer in the ‘better late than never’ philosophy, here’s the review as promised! (My most sincere apologies to the Blogadda team for the extreme lateness in posting this review!)

Just to add, this is the second part of a series, after The Mahabharata Secret, and even if one hasn’t read the first part, it’s easy to start on this book directly without missing much, as the plot of the sequel has little to no dependency on its prequel. 

So, to begin with here’s the book cover summary:

334 B.C.
Image Courtesy: Christopher C Doyle

Alexander the Great begins his conquest of the Persian Empire. But his plans for everlasting glory do not end there and the young king marches towards the Ends of the Earth - the lands of the Indus - on a secret quest. It will lead him to an ancient secret concealed in the myths of the Mahabharata; a secret that is powerful enough to transform him into a god.
Present Day
In Greece, the ancient tomb of a queen is discovered, a tomb that has been an enigma for over 2000 years.In New Delhi, the Intelligence Bureau discovers unexplained corpses in a hidden lab. Vijay Singh and his friends, now members of an elite task force, are sucked into a struggle with a powerful and ruthless enemy. In a deadly race against time, they will need to solve a riddle from antiquity that will lead them to encounter shocking secrets from the past; secrets that will reveal mystifying links between ancient history, the Mahabharata and the ancient enemy with diabolical plans for a future that will hold the world to ransom.
The Quest has just begun.