Stagnant minds are a waste of humanity

The main difference, as noted by a great philosopher who is not me, between animals and human beings is that human beings can think about the process of thinking. And then think further more about the thinking process of thinking and all Inception-esque rhetoric that follows thereafter. So you can picture a scene where you are thinking about something. An animal or an insect or even a dolphin, can't do that. Isn't that a mind blowing fact? Most other things that we do, a chimpanzee can imitate - maybe not as soulfully as we do, but they can get the job done - clumsily. They can be trained to speak, beat drums, eat with using expensive china and maybe, even a little bit of cooking (how hard is it to throw a couple of curry leaves in heating oil?). I wouldn't be surprised if they find a chimp that can read. Why not?

Many people aren't keen in trying to train their brain to do something. I am not myself least bit interested to learn advanced calculus or modern history. I would rather watch hours and hours of telly and TV shows on Netflix. Read comics. I am such a data consumer that you would think I know a lot about a lot of things. But I rarely remember an episode 24hrs after I watched it. I just keep processing this data as I consume it, but never really do anything with it. The result is that when you look back on your week, all you have is 40hrs at work and the rest is a blur. Like traveling, cooking, sitting with your laptop and texting your friends. The occasional microblogging and reddit-ing. As if I am Ashton Kutcher of Twitter and Trent Reznor doing an AMA on Reddit. Not to forget, hours and hours of browsing through Facebook feeds. Analyzing the current treding topics by reading feeds from friends and family and trying to comment on that. Such a waste!

The more you engage your brain in an activity, the more it tends to develop itself on those lines. The brain is needlesss to say, a very important organ. Which is why it is protected by your skull. Human beings developed hard skulls because they're so dumb that keep fatally hurting their head all the time. So the human body, much more intelligent than the human brain, evolved in such a way that it has hard skulls to protect it's dumb brain. A chimp's skull isn't so hard. Not that I am suggesting chimps are humans (Although we have the same ancestors). But a chimp doesn't hurt its brain in ways a human does.

This pink thing inside your skull, that is as squishy as animal fat, is responsible for soooo many things. It builds magnanimous structures, nano objects, it has the ability to discover the birth of the universe whilst sitting on a hill with just a telescope and so many other things. Why then, would we use it to kill each other? This is simple. Because we haven't fully evolved from being an animal. There is an animal hidden inside us all. Greed is a very animal thing. Sometimes, even animals don't show as much greed as humans do. There is a quote from "The Rum Diary" in which the protagonist says, "Human beings are the only creatures that believe in a God but they're also the only creatures that act like they don't have one". It's true. We break each and every rule in the book that we have for ourselves. Multiple times.



It is very important that the brain is kept to use. Otherwise, it's as good as an deer's mind. Or an elephant's. People suffer from nerve disorders that can cripple the brain. Some drugs that junkies use are equivalent of taking ice cream scoops out of your brain. It is said that there are 10 billion nerve cells in a man's brain, yet, we hardly use 5% of it on an average. Einstein himself, hadn't used more than 8% or something like that. It goes without saying that it should be used for the good. I mean good for the whole universe. Not just good for you. That'd be greedy. Think about it.Mull on it while waiting to get home in rush hour traffic. Embrace good thoughts. Live a good life. Leave a legacy behind you. Rock your socks off!

Dork 2 - God Save the Dork - Faster and funnier

Disclaimer: Only writing this review to recommend and further the cause of Indian light heart-ed English literature. No spoilers. So read away.

Finished this book a month or so back. Most of it on Amazon Kindle and the rest from a copy I borrowed from a friend. It was a great read. Just as some Telugu movie watching friends of mine would say, "We enjaayed a laat saar".

The book is a great follow up to "Dork: The Incredible..", more so because of it's faster narrative. I cannot remember the last time I finished a book so fast.(Not considering the books whose chapters I skipped because they were boring as hell). Easy to read and understand and smile often. There are some really laugh out loud moments in the book. I regret that I had to read those parts at work because I had to control my laughter. In my defense, I was too bored and needed motivation. It is definitely more enjoyable than the first part. Kinda like 'The Dark Knight' of books. Or a "For a few dollars more".

For some non-Keralites who don't know who Mohanlal is, the movie scene references might sound misplaced but let me remind you of all the Punjabi lyrics in Hindi songs these days that irk us, the gults, in ways beyond imaginable. This is nothing different. Go watch a Mohanlal movie or eat curd rice off a banana leaf to warm up before reading the book.

The ease at which you can read this book at the same time find it funny is commendable of the author's efforts. Futurama Fry would say "Not sure if this book is easy to read or I am too intelligent at understanding it". For me, the hardest books to read are those whose words fail to paint a picture in my head. Example, if you read The Death of Vishnu - Manil Suri, I am the reader who couldn't visualize 'the landing'. In that sense, this is the easiest book to read. Considering Robin, the lead character, is the goofy eyebrow-ed guy on the cover of the book, all expressions he has are comical and clearly imaginable. Although I was surprised by the number of expletives in this book, none of them were out of context but underscored the 'lingo' of a contemporary MBA grad from the premier schools in India.

 I won't describe too much here because I don't want to spoil the fun. But just FYI: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK AT WORK. Chances are, you might get fired for laughing meaninglessly and on context of not being able to explain what the joke is.


 Final words: Highly recommended and can't wait to get my hands on his third book "Who let the Dork out"
(Not so much but I'd rather read this than the Shiva Trilogy")

Secret of the Nagas - The Shiva Trilogy by Amish- A Crtical Review

So I read this book almost like 5 months back. When a friend of mine, Mega, an avid reader and a LoTR fan, told me that there was an Indian trilogy that was akin to his favorite book, I was pleasantly surprised and picked it up immediately.

The first book - The Immortals of Meluha, was an okay read. Although the plot was more predictable than Satish Kaushik's Hindi adaptions of south Indian films, it invoked questions on who "Shiva", the beloved deity my family named me after was and what he stood for. I enjoyed mulling on those questions and I read through the book in a couple of days and added it to my local library (a shelf with coffee stains, outdated electronics and termites) and forgot the heck about it.

The second book - The secret of the Nagas, unfortunately impressed the shit out of some people who "highly" recommended it to me. I couldn't hang to my male genitalia when I read some reviews about the book and gave Mega a quick call and asked him to send the book to me ASAP. We met for Thanksgiving and I started reading the book at the start of the Christmas vacation of 2011. I must say, those hours I put in reading this book, I will regret thoroughly. I even hate reminiscing the time I read this book and I am putting myself through this torture so that whoever thinks of reading it, should stop thinking and just move on to find a better book. Chicken soup for the soul is better than this book. Yes. It is that bad.


The book starts in the mediocrity of the periodic, fictional (read fake) environment it setup in its previous book. Shiva is a mere mortal with a blue throat, Veerabhadra is a pot-smoking, girl chasing sidekick and Daksha, is a sissy. (Hindu religious fanatics, forewarning, neither the words I just said nor the ones I am going to say in this post are my own and please do not burn effigies of my blog or assassinate my character. These are totally picked out from the book.) The book then spirals downward in its predictable plots and sub-plots. Here are some notes I put in my iPhone when I was reading this book  the first time (and the last time):


- Uses the word 'sprinting' twice in two pages. Almost feels like the author thinks he invented the word.

- This is like a boring Bollywood movie. Although you don't quite enjoy the movie, you watch it anyway either because you are a fan of the protagonist or because you like the songs in the movie.


- Uses the word 'marijuana' when he should be really using the word ganja. Why am I bothered by that, you ask me? Because 'marijuana' is a western word. The word for cannabis in all of India is "Ganja", mainly because the word is of Sanskrit origin. Veerabhadra calling it Marijuana makes him sound like a white teenager from California. Problem?


- He is now talking about Bhaghiratha. Very predictable move by Shiva, saves Bhaghiratha's life. Writing this before I even read the full thing.

- As expected. A very predictable move saves Bhagiratha's life. Veerabhadra says, "Damn, that was too close" like a corporate high school going, hookah smoking, wannabe kid from Bangalore. There should be a 'dude' somewhere in it, and I would've closed it at that very moment.

- He thinks he invented the word 'frown' because that is how many times he uses it. IDK what the editor was doing.

-  Suddenly he hears a noise, suddenly he leaps and blows with sword and suddenly he ignores a whole platoon! Wow, that's an incredible piece of storytelling right there!

- I am listening to Rangeela songs while reading this book. That's how bored I am.

- I got too bored. So I put the book down and heard the whole album instead. My playlist pleasantly surprised me by shifting to Bob Dylan's Forgetful Heart and took me away from the confusing world where Lord Shiva lands in Magadha and is a huge chic magnet and Veerabhadra is chillum wielding girl chaser. Again, not my words at all. Okay, my words but the author's meaning.


- 'Change is the only constant'. I wonder which Veda he picked that one up from. Perhaps from the same Veda where he read that Brihaspathi was blown into pieces by a suicide bomber or a terrorist.

- I am still reading this book hoping to find something interesting. I am not impressed. In fact, I am this close to calling it the Twilight of India.


Tripathi apparently told Mega that the Mahadev we all think assume to have been Shiva was just another tribal mortal and the actual Shiva was Lord Rudra who lived many eons before Shiva. Shiva is just a tribal who became a legend due to his actions. Another conspiracy theorist you heard from.


These authors with their fancy MBA degrees think they are writers when they are not just fooling a lot of naive Indian readers into thinking they are great writers but are also fooling themselves. Their writing is survey-based. Their target audience is the audience as suggested by surveys of a publisher or by their practical understanding of Indian readers of English fiction. I particularly despise the commercial interest, if any, behind this trilogy in invoking a religious genre of books while propagating unproven and sometimes nakedly false theories. If Tripathi hadn't called his lead character "Shiva" and based it on the actual deity, I would've enjoyed reading the misgivings of ancient Indians and the clumsiness of Veerabhadra. I even like the way he portrayed the classical caste system. Shiva is definitely a hero to look up to with his anti-caste remarks and actions. His war-turning skills and acts of valor. I would've still hated his excessive use of the word frown. Not to forget sprinting. And hated his slow paced predictable narrative style. Not to forget the weird obsession he has for making characters from Kashi, pot-smoking tribal people who couldn't protect their own asses in times of trouble.

It is obvious that a lot of research went into these two books as against a lot of creativity. I should curse Mega into getting me to read this book. Especially after saying it was better than Tolkien's LoTR. If the author likes researching so much, he should write non-fiction instead of wasting paper. It could be about how all these bull race loving Magadhans and about the great Ram Rajya. Of course, I wouldn't read it. So wouldn't you. It almost looks like he knew this all along which is why he made this Tomato soup of a story with rotten tomatoes.

I may come off a  bit harsh in my critical review here but it's only an honest opinion. The book irks me to an extent of calling it the Twilight of India. Another Chetan Bhagat in the making I suppose. I hope his next book makes me eat my words mainly because I believe any one can write. It is and should be, irrespective of what others think. It is like dancing on your prom. You know you look funny but you still dance because you want to have a good time. You don't stop speaking because someone hates your voice, do you? Not that I am saying the author will stop writing because of this review. Look at my blog, people have called it a lot of things. Including highly narcisstic, boring, lengthy and bull shitty. I haven't stopped writing, have I?

Just wish I read something else though. Anything at all that won't make me drool while I sleep reading the boring general having a boner looking at that hot princess from Chandravansh.


You guys, if you are really into mythologies, then you should read Ramesh Menon's version of the Mahabharatha. Trust me on this, if those two volumes don't give you gooesbumps twice in every page, I will shave my head... and my unmentionables (if you are into that sort of thing). Do not waste time/money on this book. I repeate, DO NOT waste time/money ON THIS BOOK.

P.S: This is my second book review, I wouldn't take myself seriously. So relax on the comments.

Dork - The incredible adventures of Robing "Einstein" Varghese - A small review

Note: I have never needed to publish my review of a book on my blog. This is something I am doing exceptionally. So book review critiques, shut it.


Dork, or D1 as Sidin Vadukut prefers calling it, is a great book. We have all read Five-Point someone, MBA, Stay Hungry, Stay foolish and all those books written out strategically for a certain group of young Indian readers. We have all liked them. We have only good words for them. What makes this book great is its simplicity in humor. A satire on freshly out of the college MBA grad's life, every page of this book eases its dry humor (and sometimes dark satire) on the reader. Although the book's tone is somewhat like Bridget Jones' Diary which is hardly appealing for Indian readers It didn't work out for me. What did work out though, was the easy flow from chapter to chapter. Doesn't look like a first time author's book. You know what you have to pick up from the local book store if we want more of that, don't you? The Immortals of Meluha (Chuckle).

I am an avid reader of the author's blog. It is funny, witty and classy. I have been following it since 2006. I could dive into the first pages of the book because of my familiarity with its flow of prose. Not sure if a first Sidin reader could ever speed through the initial chapters like I did. Every book lover will enjoy reading this book.