Posts from the history category.
Every few years, we stand in long queues under the scorching sun, proudly ink our fingers, and cast our votes. We are told that this is the greatest celebration of democracy.But I often find myself asking a simple question:If the voices of the people are not consistently reflected in governance, what is the true purpose of an election?Democracy was never meant to be just about choosing representat...
The stories that disturb us most are rarely the ones that reveal how evil looks. They are the ones that reveal how ordinary it can appear until the damage is already irreversible. That unsettling realization forms the emotional core of The Pune Serial Killers, where Sujata Sapre and Anandajit Goswami choose not to chase the spectacle of violence but the quieter, more difficult question that follow...
There is a familiar fantasy that action thrillers keep selling us: one highly trained individual can outthink governments, outrun armies, and reshape history through sheer competence. Most readers know it is improbable. Yet we return to these stories because they ask a more interesting question than whether the hero could survive. They ask whether individual conviction still has meaning in a world...
Not every rescue mission begins with a gunshot. Sometimes it begins with a betrayal nobody has noticed yet.That is the tension Adrian Magson builds into Close Quarters, the second novel in his Lone Mercenary series. On the surface, the premise feels comfortably familiar: Marc Portman — the elusive operative known as the Watchman — is sent into eastern Ukraine to extract a captured CIA negotiator. ...
Rajesh Talwar’s The Incredible Indians: The First Eleven begins with an interesting assumption: children do not need a shortage of heroes solved; they need better ways of meeting the heroes they already have. That distinction matters. We live in a time when young people can name global celebrities within seconds but often know national icons only through examination notes and commemorative speeche...
Military institutions often appear distant to civilians. They never did to me. My father served in the Indian Air Force, and growing up, the Armed Forces were never just uniforms on Republic Day or headlines after a conflict — they were part of the conversations, values, and discipline that quietly shaped my childhood. I, too, dreamt of joining the Indian Army. Life took me elsewhere, but that cur...
Often, when you read fiction, you’re eager to finish the book. You want to see how everything comes together and what the climax will be. But once in a while, you come across a novel you don’t want to end. You get completely engrossed in the world the author has created. You become invested in the lives of the characters and wish you could keep reading about them.The Covenant of Water by Abraham V...
Every generation inherits maps. Some inherit them from explorers, some from scientists, and others from sacred texts. The real debate is rarely about geography. It is about authority. Whose description of reality do we trust when different worldviews claim to explain the same horizon?That question sits at the heart of Phanindra Narayan Gundu’s Let There Be Light Upon the Universe — Beyond Maps: Ex...
Every age produces its own forbidden territories.Sometimes they are physical places. Sometimes they are ideas. More often, they are questions people are discouraged from asking.That tension sits at the heart of Let There Be Light Upon the Universe — Beyond Maps: Explore Earth’s Unseen Lands (Volume 1) by Phanindra Narayan Gundu. This is not merely a book about geography, cosmology, Antarctica, anc...
For every epic hero history remembers, there is usually another life standing just outside the spotlight. Not absent. Not insignificant. Simply overlooked.Few literary traditions illustrate this more clearly than the Ramayana. Generations have reflected on Rama’s duty, Sita’s endurance, and Lakshmana’s devotion. Yet one question lingers quietly in the background: what happens to the person who is ...
