Empire of the Moghul : Brothers at War

As with the first book, Brothers at war, gives an engrossing account of Humayun's struggle to keep Hindustan under his reign and his quest to build a legacy for his future generations as his father Babur did. 

More than the challenge from external forces, he has to deal with his ever revolting and scheming half brothers - Kamaran, Askari and Hindal. Unlike his father Babur, Humayun, as a king and leader was more prone to vices and lapses of judgement; weaknesses that were well exploited by his enemies and half brothers throughout his reign. Initially starting as an under-confident and impulsive ruler, Humayun slowly regains his focus to quickly realize that his family's honor and legacy is at stake. What comes out clearly, is his extreme awareness of his goal in life and what he needs to do to get there. He is also very much aware of what his faults have been or mistakes that he has committed and quick to correct them. This extreme commitment to self correct also comes out as a strong personality trait.

Rich with historical anecdotes and cultural insights of the Indian subcontinent of 1530s; Brothers At War makes up for a good read. Although I found it to be a tad too stretched in the middle and boring at times, but overall, lives up to the expectations.Looking forward to start the next one soon.

Dan Brown's Inferno screws up with your head

Reading a Dan Brown book is like watching a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. You know for sure that it will deliver on the thriller / action punch you expect out of it.

Inferno is another taut thriller from the master of history-meets-cult-meets-conspiracy theory genre. This time Prof. Langdon sets out on a race against time to save the world from another catastrophe set in motion by an obsessive but brilliant man of science who is also a Dante fanatic. His twisted interpretation of the message of Dante's Inferno makes him turn the power of science against the human race setting in motion a series of events that pose a threatening question to the very existence of human race.

The book is a pacy read, full of rich scientific, cultural and historical references - typical of a Dan Brown book. Inferno, takes the readers into the dark world of Dante's masterpiece Inferno and a whole underbelly culture of art, architecture and paintings based on Dante's works. The plot has some really hard hitting twists that will make you keep on turning the pages.

Well you might ask what's new this time as that's always the case with any Dan Brown work but I would urge the readers to read between the lines and relate it to your current world scenario. The message that Inferno seems to convey there screws up a bit with your head. Simply because the threat posed this time is deeply entrenched in reality. It brings to the fore the dangers of the mindless expansion of the human race and our blatant disregard for nature's constraints, taking us ever so closer to our extinction with every passing second.

While some of Dan Brown's earlier works may not have registered beyond being the work of pure fiction, Inferno, however will make you sit and realize that seemingly fictional horrors could very well become real life scenarios if we do not adopt a more sustainable way of life. The solution to the problem, that forms the key element of the plot, is even more horrifying and seems dangerously real. I could not help but think that if someone with a really twisted but super brilliant mind reads this book, it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if this piece of fiction turns very real soon. Except, and sadly so, that there may not be any Prof. Langdon around to save the human race.

Bet I got you thinking there and may be feeling a bit uncomfortable but that's what makes Inferno different - you can feel the imminent danger all the time.

The Pixar Touch - story of men with stars in their eyes and grit in the minds

Cartoons, fairy tales and superhero dreams is what most of our childhood was made of. Bringing these stories to life and transforming them into something that we can watch, hear and sing along with, was a challenge that a few men decided to take on. The result was this whole phenomenon called Disney and a handful of other smaller studios that worked under the shadow of Disney. 

The Pixar Touch is the story of a few mavericks who stuck it out in the era where Disney ruled the animation space and dedicated their prime to the cause of developing 3D animation. In a time where 2D animation ruled the roost, of which Disney was the King, and 3D was wished away as only suitable for advertisements or professional grade publishing and non-entertainment related applications such as healthcare, these guys worked tirelessly with a single point aim of making 1 3D film in their lifetime and boy did they make 1 film. With that one film as good as Toy Story, they broke all technology and commercial barriers and established themselves as the Gold standard in animation surpassing even the mighty Disney in their technical prowess.

Pixar Touch is the heart warming and inspiring story of John Lesseter, Ed Catmull and the visionary Steve Jobs who made the core of Pixar Animation Studios and their herculean effort to make 3D technologies suitable for animation movies.

Readers will be amazed to find that these guys were not just animators and artists but actually inventors and scientists who were behind multiple complicated algorithms for rendering, texturing, colouring, shading and what not. They almost worked like a kitchen cooking up new algorithms and ways every day to enhance the animation potential of 3D. Their work almost solely forms the base of the work that adobe does today in desktop publishing and the healthcare imaging industry apart from giving us the wonderful world of 3D animation.

The book also explores the complicated relationship between Disney and Pixar and how Steve Jobs took this group from being a technology provider for Disney to an animation powerhouse giving ground breaking hits after hits.

Extremely well written and pacy, The Pixar Touch will take you inside the world of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Monstors Inc and many other hidden gems and the gems who worked tirelessly to bring these movies to us.

The Krishna Key - Book Review

Indian Fiction has seen a recent spurt of upcoming authors not shying away from questioning the existing faiths, be it Amish Tripathi or Anand Neelkantan or Devdutt Pattanaik. Ashwin Sanghi is a welcome addition to this crop of bold authors. 

In my view, it augurs well for the Indian literature especially fiction genre, that such authors are taking up age old themes and giving them a much needed face lift. At least the Indian readers are warming up to the Indian fiction as evident from the popularity of these authors and their books.

The plot basically revolves around a set of murders involving renowned intellectuals - all linked in some way or the other to the life of popular mythological / historical Hindu deity and 8th re-incarnation of Vishnu - Lord Krishna. One of their colleagues finds himself charged with these murders only to find himself a pawn in a greater conspiracy involving the origins of Mahabharata and Lord Krishna and in turn finding the key to possibly the greatest discovery of the mankind. This discovery could very well turn the entire Hindu faith upside down if unraveled and its left to this poor scholar to protect the secret from falling into wrong hands. 

While the book could still be improved upon in terms of tighter writing but full marks to Ashwin Sanghi for creating a wonderful piece of mythological / historical fiction. The story is as gripping as say a Dan Brown thriller and quite well researched.

The Krishna Key is an easy read if you are well versed with Hindu mythology, in particular Mahabharata. Otherwise as well, it does well to educate the uninitiated well enough to be able to appreciate the story line. I really liked the parallel narration from Mahabharata in Krishna's voice to refresh some of the characters and give a solid background to the story. Though starts a bit slow in pace but picks up equally quickly in the middle to become a sure shot page turner. It's got enough twists in the plot to keep you hooked on to the book till the very end.