Weaving of Arachne

  Precious Me, Today is the last day of this stranger-than-fiction year, 2020. This year had derailed normal lives all around the globe. If I could meet my 2019 self and forewarn her, I am sure she would have dismissed it as one of my innumerable imaginary scenarios. Nevertheless, as every thing that begins must have an end, today 2020 has reached its tail-end. This is the time that we must retrospect and introspect about how we dealt with 2020. The year through its strange ways taught us valuable life lessons that I want to abide throughout my life. 2020 had unleashed upon us a pandemic and I am thankful to God that I lived through it, granted that the pandemic is not yet over; but atleast I made it to the end of 2020 and this in itself is a huge achievement. I want to confess that though there were times when I was very scared but mostly I remained unbothered by this raging virus which brought the whole world to a standstill. This made me aware of my privileges and induced a deep g

Life Over Two Beers  is an anthology of short stories and a few poems by Sanjeev Sanyal. The book had been lying on my shelf for a couple of years but I had always deferred reading it because I had inexplicably presumed that the book will disappoint me. However, after finishing the book, I am pleased to be proven wrong. The book is a gem hidden underneath the piles of mass-manufactured popular fiction by Indian authors, waiting to be discovered. The writing is crisp, lucid, and vivid. The stories evoke a vivid picture of the 21 st  century India and Indians belonging to different social strata. The writer relentlessly yet in a playful manner exposes the hypocrisies of society, and the double standards of the apparently ‘eminent’ and ‘illustrious’ personalities. Each of the stories successfully holds the attention of the reader and keeps her enthralled till the very last word. I hardly finish reading books in one sitting but I just couldn’t bring myself to put down this one until I fin

I  first read My Name is Red  by Orhan Pamuk some five years ago. I didn’t retain even the broad plotline much less the subtleties of the narrative yet I clearly remember the sheer pleasure and awe that I felt while reading it. Instigated by that awesome feeling I decided to reread the novel. All I can say is the awe that I felt on first reading it is now increased fivefold on my rereading it. The novel is like an immense, exquisite and intricate medieval miniature painting which is a treat for the eyes as well as the soul. I am simply amazed to see the attention paid to the minutest detail by the author. I am at a loss for words to define the novel; it in fact transcends every attempt of categorisation. The novel converges diverse genres such as, ekphrastic, historical, detective in keeping with the postmodernist tendency to transcend divisions and merge genres. The novel evokes a vivid picture of Istanbul of the 1590s through diverse narrators and multiple points of view. The narrat