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The book 'Sapiens' is a must read for people curious about the human race's history and development. The author traces Homo Sapiens' history from when they were monkeys and isolates some of the major reasons (in his opinion) which affected how they developed and how today's world as we know it came about. The book is written in a very light manner, is easy to read and very gripping. Even if you may not agree with what is said, you will be interested to know more about what the author says and why. Below are some of the highlights of the book which I found worth mentioning: When humans started appearing on earth, there were 6 different types of human species in different parts of the world, of which only us (the Homo Sapiens) have survived. While Sapiens from East Africa still have strains in them of the Neanderthal and Denisovans species, the ones in Europe and Asia have none of it - they had completely wiped out the other human species. So even in ancient hist...

A lot of us assume what we know about the world to be true. And when new findings comes out in the open, the world as we know it changes. There are sometimes small new truths that change our view like ' daily flossing doesn't really help ' or the bigger ones like 'Pluto is no longer a planet'. I recently read a book which describes how much more we have learnt about old American civilisations and how it has changed our view of the Americas. In the same vein, I recently saw a show talking about the map of the world as we know it and the reality which is different. I had read about this difference many times before - how the relative size of the continents is not really accurate, and how that played into the hands of the imperialist powers. But somehow. I had never looked at the alternate 'more accurate' maps ever. Till I did! It felt creepy and unnatural! Its not the same world view as we have seen and known for years, what we were taught at school and ...

1491 is a non-fiction book on the history of the Americas before Columbus arrived there. The focus is not as much on providing a comprehensive history as on debunking a lot of myths propagated about the Americas by the colonists. These myths have been proved wrong by latest archaeological findings but not accepted as much as they should have been. There is a clear bias visible in the book against the so called white intellectuals. And while reading it, you also realise how much archaeologists are still finding about the Americas. Its still not as well known as we all assume and it may be that whatever was known till now may be absolutely wrong! There are three major myths that the author disproves, citing latest findings over the years and across the continent. The review below is not a comprehensive review, just a couple of interesting tidbits I found interesting. P.s. I use Indians below instead of Red Indians in keeping with the terminology in the book Myth : there were very...

(I was to write this blogpost 4 months ago, but think it has become more relevant now given the recent ‘floods’ in Gurugram:) ) I don’t think this article is going to come as a surprise to anyone. In fact most reactions would be something like - ‘ yeh to hota hi hai ’ or ‘this is how it happens’. But still given that I have been living out of India for quite some time and before that lived a sheltered live in army cantonments, it is still a surprise to me and I don’t think that’s how it should happen! My parents recently moved to a new place in Gurgaon (as it was called then!) and they realised during monsoons one of the side road gets flooded. It has been happening for years with the other residents, but as usual no one bothered to do anything about it. My father went to the local administration office to complain a couple of times. Accordingly the next year they sanctioned couple of crores to build a rain drain next to the road, and elevate the road so that water does not colle...

I generally write movie reviews only on films I see in the theatre. But I think I am going to make an exception for Aligarh. I saw it yesterday and am still so affected by it, that I had to put my thoughts on paper. Though it would be very difficult to describe what I felt and am still feeling - all the helplessness and the sadness. Aligarh is a masterpiece, and an understated one at that. It takes a very sensitive topic and presents it to us without any melodrama. Just as it is. And it touches you. When you finish watching it, you are affected, you are sad. And not because the movie showed sadness. But because it didn’t. Aligarh is based on the true story of an AMU professor, who was suspended after being unlawfully filmed as being a homosexual. He was treated unfairly by the University and society. He fights for himself and wins but is found dead before he can take up his job at the University again. In the movie, this is shown through the eyes of a journalist who wants to brin...

I recently attended two Indian singer's musical concerts in London - Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh's. This was my second time attending musical concerts (first was Jagjit Singh) because I always assumed that if you are not musically inclined, you might find them boring. And I am happy to have been proven wrong:). For a start, they were Bollywood singers, so the fact that I have grown up singing these songs ensured that I didn't get bored:). If you relate to Bollywood and its movies and music et al, there is no way you will not totally enjoy such concerts. The loud cheers and electric energy that went up in the crowd everytime a popular song was sung is testimony to that. Given my experience this time, I am looking forward to attending many more such concerts in the future. I also realised a couple of things, the first of which was that your experience can be widely different based on a lot of things, other than the quality of the singers. I will share some of the di...

A Salman movie on Eid, what can you expect:). 100 crores? 200 crores? The sky is definitely the limit here! After watching (and actually enjoying), most of Salman's movies in theatres, this time I was planning to give Sultan a miss. But rave reviews by friends on facebook tempted me and I finally went and saw it. My honest review - it was a very average movie. There have been tons of movies made like this and forgotten. But given the general level of Salman movies, this was very very good by his standards. One of those rare movies of his where you dont go 'Come on, really??!!' every 5 mins! And that is really an achievement. About the movie, it had a story line which was great. Acting was bearable except Salman's. But a star like him doesn't need to act anyways, correct? Or dance for that matter. Anushka was good, star cast good, music enjoyable. All in all, definitely a watchable movie. But my issue with not watching it was beyond that. Salman is a pa...