Tale Share: Purely Fictional by Arundhati

Have you ever tried to bring a world from your imagination into the real world? Or tried to capture the world around you in a canvas of words, in a manner so perfect that even blind could see? It has been my lifelong dream to be able to do that. Arundhati Bhardwaj, a friend of mine by happen-stance and a film-maker-in-making by trade (yes, I wrote it that way deliberately, shush), managed to do just the same with her small anecdotal fiction pieces. I am impressed, and it's time for you to be the same. Read on.

Tale Share: I Was 4 When My Bhai Found “Cancer” In Me And Removed It From Between My Legs Every Night

For every one of these gutting tales that we hear about, there are several that never see the light of day. Statistics tell us that less that 30% of these cases ever get reported, but who knows how many children never even tell their parents? Statistics also shows that most perpetrators of child sexual abuse are those known to the victim, close relatives - an uncle, a brother...

This article was first published at Akkar Bakkar. Read on.

Musings: Walking the Cross-Cultural Tight Rope

This is to be the first of hopefully many pieces of my Office Diaries section. I suppose it is an effort to convince myself I am one of the evil minions now - part of multiple despised guilds, including but not restricted to 'office goers' and 'working class'. Office life, as it is, is often about moderation. You want to be appropriate. Except when you end up doing that too much, to your own detriment. Read on to know how.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World: Conclusion

So ten weeks ago I took an online certification course on Coursera on Fantasy and Science Fiction, linked here. It has been an instructional ten weeks, and finally I have completed it successfully. Read below for more details.

Musings: Of Effeminacy, Homosexuality, and Stereotyping

A friend of mine told me today that she had heard that gay couples has normative gender roles - that is, one of them was more manly and the other was more womanly. Now I believe that she spoke of what she heard, and in all probability respects homosexuals. But the ignorant stereotyping still got to me, and here I am typing away about the most talked about, and obvious topics, just to clear my own head.

Cory Doctorow: Final Thesis

So this was the last book I needed to read and prepare for my coursera course. If I pass, I will let you know. But for the time being, let us just enjoy the fact that it is DONE! Ha! I did it! *tap dances*

Ahem. Anyway. Back to Doctorow's Little Brother. Basically it follows on Orwell's 1984 Big Brother, and asks who will put Big Brother in check? In today's world, who fights against the Police State? Whoever this person is, or this outfit, one can assume it has to be a darn hard job to get even with the Big Man with all the power. And yet who but a teenager could have the reckless bravado required? And thus we reach the novel, which you can find on the author's website. Or, you could just read on this post, which summarizes, analyses and (hypo)thesizes this novel. Onwards!

Cory Doctorow: Introduction

To know more about this segment, read on.

Tale Share: The ICHR's Ayodhya Visit

Recently the new ICHR (Indian Council for Historic Research) chief visited Ayodhya, and then went on to make some controversial statements. This of course let to a lot of media coverage and opinion clashes and basically a lot of negative air. However, some expressed their opinion through humous, and one such blog post, by a certain Rajat Datta made my day. I have shared some of the snippets here below.

Ursula K LeGuin: Final Thesis

So this book was a treat to read. There is no free online copy that I can recommend (legally, that is), and so I will simply tell you a story, the story of Gethen and how it came to become a part of Ekumen, a sort of United Nations on a planetary scale in the Hainish universe. And then I will study one aspect that this tale that stood out to me. Capisce?