Rathina's View Space
TRAVEL | CULTURE | FOOD
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Air Arabia Mumbai – Sharjah
Flying to international destinations from Tier 2 cities in India is a pain in the neck. You need to fly to the nearest metro with an international...
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Solo Travel
In my recent long distance travels whilst returning home by train the gentleman next seat asked me what took me to Kannur? “I was keen to explore...
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Chettinad doors to a faded glory
An edited version of this article was published in the February’15 issue of Travel + Leisure India and Southasia magazine as Chettinad’s treasure chest A beautiful Kolam...
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Goa paint me Red
An edited version of this article was published in the Feb’15 Vistara in-flight magazine. The waves lapped at my feet as the golden disc slipped down the...
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In love with Devon
An edited version of this article was published in Travel + Leisure India and South Asia magazine (December’14) It was my second trip to United Kingdom after...
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Dandeli Diaries – memorable experiences
Dandeli had been my abode for three days and I had enjoyed every moment of it. Three years back I had visited Dandeli but then it was just...
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Borough Market for the Global Cuisine
I climbed the stairs to step out of London Bridge’s tube station. A cold draught blew in and I zipped my jacket. It indicated I was getting...
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Balloon Safari – Romancing the sky
I woke up at dawn and got ready for the safari of my life. Have you ever been part of the limitless azure sky with white puffs...
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How Traveling Changes your Life
This post appeared in Women’s Web Traveling is the tonic for life that keeps the soul replenished. Every moment brings in a new perspective to the journey...
ABOUT
Want to know more about me? I am a freelance journalist based in Pune, India and write about Travel, Culture, Food, Wellness, Health and Lifestyle. My bylines have appeared in National Geographic Traveller India, Forbes India, Travel + Leisure India and South Asia, BBC Travel, Mint, NPR, Economic Times, Hindu Businessline and more. In an earlier avatar I worked as a software engineer. I let go off these 12 + years of cubicle life to spread my wings and explore the world. I am on the lookout for those offbeat extraordinary stories from…
PUBLISHED
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Oman Tourism Board Blogging Contest
One fine day I was in for a pleasant surprise when I received an email from Deepa Rachel Pinto outlining the unique concept of her book The Stopover and wanted my opinion on the same. She shared few pages from this colorful book based on which I had to pen down my thoughts. The book is planned to hit the stands mid October’12.
Title: The Krishna Key
Author: Ashwin Sanghi
ISBN: 978-93-81626-68-9
Publisher: Westland
Genre: Thriller
Source: Blogadda
Rating: 3 out of 5
Well I wonder from where I should start. This exhaustive piece of literary fascination has left me spellbound end of the day.
Summary – The story traverses through the whole of North West India from Gujarat to the Himalayan Ranges. Historian Ravi Mohan Saini embarks on a journey to crack the puzzle left behind by his murdered friend Varshney. The puzzle is a complicated maze that requires the knowledge of the vedic scriptures, archaeological sites, temples of historical significance, relics, chemistry, mathematics and cultural anthropology. Saini who is a master in all these areas is accused of murders of his close friends and manages to give a slip to the police multiple times. He confronts in Priya his close accomplice when he is on the run but later learns of her true intentions and identity. Priya is all set to realize the dreams of a Krishna fanatic who is of the belief he can create Kalki the last avatar of Lord Vishnu. It’s this run and chase game that leads Saini to the significance of the statement ‘The philosopher is more important than the stone.’
Review – The book is a product of a deep dive and exhaustive research of not only the Hindu scriptures but also Greek mythology, Christianity and Islamism. The author has taken great pains to understand the significance of each of these areas and weave into it a plot that stands in modern times. The story keeps you engaged but doesn’t pull you into a whirlwind. The Mataji character brings in a sense of enigma, power and cult outlook. I was all for a surprise when the revelation came into light that Priya was the real Mataji. Saini sounds to cogitate and has knowledge of all the before told subjects.
Though Radhika Singh is portrayed as a tough cop I was in for another surprise when Saini cries his heart out in the Saptarishi Cave fearing she would be dead. There wasn’t any prelude to his feelings for her. Also there have been few references to Priya as against Radhika in the description of the same incident on page 301; it looks like some editing error.
The book also is a great refresher of the Mahabharata happenings as each chapter opens up with snippets of the epic. It’s a story within a story where Krishna is the mainstay who drives home the point ‘As clothes are changed, similarly the soul adopts and discards bodies. The soul cannot be pierced by your arrows nor can it be burnt by fire. It cannot be wet by air. It is permanent and universal.’
The package as a whole would have been further appealing if the end would have had more meat. It sort of tapers of, as it doesn’t have the required action and the momentum to give it a perfect finish. The Krishna Key for few might be an overdose of the ancient texts while for others it might be a useful insight into our scriptures and epics. Either ways you could go for it as one gets a great view of the knowledge base that our ancestors had.
This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!
Title – The Third Twin
Author – Ken Follett
Genre – Fiction Mystery
Publisher – Pan Macmillan
ISBN – 033034837X
3 out of 5
Well I got this book from one of my team members and once I laid hands on to it there was no stopping.
Karthik and Ganesh
This post won the Our Myths Blogfest contest conducted by Tulika Publishers 
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This post is a part of the weekend blogging contest at BlogAdda.com in association with 18again.com
I still remember my school days when we would talk in hushed tones about someone in our group attaining puberty. You see it was a co-education school. In my sixth grade one of our Hindi teachers’s gathered us girls in a room and was in loss of words as she didn’t know from where to start. Well the problem was simple girls had started to dispose the sanitary napkins into the toilet rather than the dustbin and this had led to clogging in the plumbing system. But she found it very awkward to discuss this issue with us. Somehow she managed to convey the message in broken sentences and close the topic.
Skywatch – The Leader
Any clue who is this Indian Leader against the backdrop of a multicoloured sky.
For many more skylines check out – http://skyley.blogspot.in/
When someone refers to Australia ‘ The Southern Land’ I link it to the nimble footed Kangaroos. I have watched them in the National Geographic channel many a times with my kids. They for me are the metaphors of freedom, free to hop around. The ‘joey’ inside the pouch gives a warm and cosy feeling and I am sure a stay in Melbourne wouldn’t be any less.
Hmmmm…. suddenly it was very quiet. She had been narrating a story which has been my favorite, Little Krishna’s antics. It was the one where his mother tied him to a mortar. I never get tired listening to it. Probably she had gone off to sleep for I could hear the rhythmic sound of breathing and nothing else. I decided to stay still as I didn’t want to disturb her. It looked as if she had had a long day. Well it sure would be, now that I had grown huge and I had started to feel cramped.
Life for me is a splash of colours in varied hues that depict the moods and emotions. Imagine a life without colors doesn’t it sound dull? Its these colors that bring in flavors to our feelings be it happiness, anxiety, hope, sadness, love, despair etc. that brings in a catharsis in our life.
India is a country where colors are the way of life. We see these splashes in the festivals that one could term as Celebrating Life. When I stumbled on to Travel Supermarket’s contest it meant reliving the beautiful moments that I have experienced and each shade exemplifies an emotion in itself.
The Kutub Minar at Delhi is a UNESCO Heritage site and is the tallest minaret in India made of red sandstone. To view such beautiful skylines visit here
Blogmint
