Howzzat!

Emily Bronte's 1847 classic Wuthering Heights, released under the male pseudonym "Ellis Bell," is remembered for its complex protagonists, its gothic elements, and the young age at which the author passed (she was thirty). But what caught Alice Munro's attention were the vivid descriptions of the farm, the house, the fields, and the little brooks brimming with melting snow (more than the lengthy accounts of the dark, brooding Heathcliff or the sad, eerie Cathy, who caught mine). Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro passed away on May 13th this year, aged 92. Over her lifetime, she published a total of fourteen short story collections, with most of them a staggering 40 pages long. (While interviewing Munro, Tamil writer A. Muthulingam quipped that her stories rarely appeared in Tamil magazines due to their reluctance to publish lengthy works.) Her works revolved around the lives of ordinary men, women, and children in rural or small-town Canad...

In the odd pages of Pavić’s magnum opus, the various trials undergone by the ‘great walking parchment’ is described in much detail. An envoy is sent to the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus with his entire body tattooed with Khazars’ history and topography. He lets his hand get chopped off in Constantinople when a man pays in solid gold for the second Khazar year chronicled on his left palm. He is forced to return to the Khazar capital from time to time so that the inscriptions can undergo multiple corrections and new additions. His daily bread comes from hours of standing still so that the Greek and other scribes could copy the Khazar history from his back and thighs into their books. He ultimately passes away, unable to bear the incessant itching brought about by the prized inscriptions and “…and it was with relief that he died, glad to be finally cleansed of history.” I found The Dictionary of Khazars to be an ode to the life of this great walking parchment who is belie...

It has been an eventful three months. I met some incredible people this year and they have made a dent in my universe- Kambili, the protagonist of Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's "Purple Hibiscus", Okoye, the head of Dora Milaje, the all women security force of Wakanda in the Black panther universe, Indu, a young widow from “Amma Vandhal” who wears her heart on her sleeve and Anne Frank who, with her fiery spirit and audacious mind, continues to draw sympathy, laughter and tears from all realms and makes everyone fall irrevocably in love with her awkward charm . I finally got back to reading and it feels so good like being able to breathe normally after holding it for what seemed like ages. The first few months of 2018 have been kind indeed. The Pantheress It is not everyday you find a movie that checks all the right boxes and milks the moolah. I'm not the quintessential Marvel-holier-than-DC fan or the other way around. Superhero movies are fun to watch a...

The pillow looks so inviting after a long day. As soon as I hit the bed and wait for sweet sleep to take over, few uninvited guests come knocking. "Tadading..  tadading... " no they aren't Facebook, WhatsApp notifications.  They are pesky neurons  transmitting thoughts at the speed of 120 miles per second. I think, think and think and finally fall asleep when my neurons had had enough.... some 2-3 odd hours later.   I know I'm not alone. This is one major epidemic seriously threatening body clocks world over.  This picture perfectly sums up how majority of our brains work.  Picture this. You live in a city. You look at the night sky and you hardly see any stars.  Where do they go? We fail to see them because of the artificial lights all around us.  They obstruct stars' light from falling within our line of sight. Meanwhile, if you go to a place with no man-made lighting around and look up, you'll find your jaw drop....