Bulz gone bonkers.... Again

Capital by Rana Dasgupta A wonderful book about Delhi and very unlike the usual ones. It doesn't tell you how awesome the city but tries to figure out why it is so messed up. Many things in the book are applicable to this country as a whole but there are some things very inherent in Delhi. It is a dark book and hard to read at the end of a long work day. Whether you like the city or hate it, read this book. And the people who are neutral towards the city don't exist so everyone falls in either of these categories. When I hit you: Or, a portrait of the writer as a young wife by Meena Kandasamy  I couldn't find the kindle version and read it on the juggernaut app. The book is about the author's short lived marriage filled with domestic violence and rape. The author is a woman like you and me. She married a guy she chose and was the victim of his abuse for months. She managed to walk out only once she was on the verge of getting killed. This book should be read b

Amazon has tied up with content creators in India to create many series for Prime video. I watched Laakhon mein ek and Inside Edge. Both don't compare to the international series but are far superior to what we see on Indian television today. Laakhon Mein Ek LMK has been created by Biswa Kalyan Rath who is one of the best stand up comedians in the country. You must watch his live shows. The kind of energy he has on stage is amazing. He is genuinely funny and his content is very, very different from other comedians. LMK is a 6 episodes series (less than 30 mins long, thankfully) about a 15 year old, Akash, whose parents send him to an IIT entrance coaching institute in Vizag. He got 55% marks in 12th and wants to join Commerce but this is India and everyone must atleast try to be a doctor or an engineer even if it kills them.  The series isn't anything new but it's a story that can't be repeated enough number of times. Worth a watch. I hope season 2 cover

I have been scouting recommendations on the internet and watching good movies screened at MAMI last year. Here are the ones I have seen yet. Will keep updating them in this post so it's easier to access. An Insignificant Man   Language : Hindi  Available for viewing on Youtube. This documentary was screened at MAMI last year and was quite popular. I couldn't catch it in the theatres when it released this year but now it is available on Youtube. Arvind Kejriwal's arrival in politics is very significant in the country. The way he brought Delhites to the streets and banded them together against corruption is nothing short of a revolution. He brought people hope and made them realise there is an alternative to two options- BJP and Congress that were available until then. Whether you like him or hate him, you can't ignore any of this. Do catch it. The Similars (Los Parecidos)  Language : Spanish Available for viewing on Netflix. It is set in the 1960s when

Mukkabaaz Language : Hindi Director : Anurag Kashyap This was the opening film at MAMI this year. Which means that it is screened right after the opening ceremony. I don't know when it will release in the theatres. Generally, it takes around 6 months after screening at MAMI. Mukkabaaz is based in a small town of UP where Shravan Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh) aspires to be a famous boxer and compete nationally. His coach is Bhagwan Das Mishra (Jimmy Shergill) who makes everyone run his errands instead of training them. Shravan Singh falls for Bhagwan Das's niece and everything changes. Does Shravan marry the niece? Does he become a successful boxer? How does he deal with Bhagwan Das? The movie is a typical Anurag Kashyap film with lots of expletives, realistic look at the game in rural UP mixed with first of its kind love story. It has lots of flaws but I only remember the hooting, cheering, clapping of 500 or so people at every scene. Montparnesse Bienvenue Language

I've read Neil Gaiman's book American Gods but wasn't impressed. He couldn't tie all the loose ends and the climax wasn't half as good as the build up. I wish he had written a sequel instead. The Amazon original series based on the books is stunning. It brings out the darkness in the book very well and keeps the viewer hooked. Hopefully, the climax in the series will be much better than the one in the book.  In fact, the series is far, far better than the book or atleast whatever I can remember of it. I am seeing this happen more and more where a series plugs all the holes in the book and the casting makes it far superior to the book.  Do catch this one. I discovered this series on Amazon Prime and am surprised nobody is talking about it. This is from the 70s when many newsrooms only employed women as researchers and they weren't allowed to write. They could never be reporters. Researchers were paid less than half of what reporters got pa

The Vegetarian by Han King The cover of the book mentioned that this is an erotica and so I picked it up. The beginning was very intriguing with a woman, Yeong-hye who stops eating meat one day. In Korea, this is considered weird. Her husband, who didn't love her anyway, walked out of the marriage. Her brother-in-law becomes obsessed with her and they have sex. The sister catches them in the act and the woman tries to commit suicide. She is put in an institution.  I am still trying to figure out what the book was all about. It wasn't erotica for sure. Was it about mental illness? But it doesn't talk about that either.  The end felt like the writer was bored or lost his thought mid way.  An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor It took me a few weeks, a break of 2 months, and another few weeks to finish reading the book. Shashi Tharoor had given a speech about how the British rule is responsible for many of India's problems and they should pay a token penalty a