History

Sameer Gudhate Presents the Book Review of The Tanishq Story: How Trust Changed the Way India Bought

There is an old habit in Indian households that rarely gets questioned. When a wedding is being planned, a festival approaches, or a daughter’s future is discussed, someone eventually says, “Let’s go to our jeweller.”Not a jewellery store. Not a brand.Our jeweller.The phrase carries generations of trust, familiarity, and inherited loyalty. It describes a relationship that survived economic upheava...

Sameer Gudhate on the Soldier Who Tried to Warn a Nation

There’s a moment in every Indian household connected to the armed forces when history stops being a chapter in a textbook and becomes deeply personal. Sometimes it arrives through an old photograph in uniform. Sometimes through a trunk filled with fading documents. Sometimes through the way a father falls silent when a war is mentioned on television.While reading From Reveille to Retreat by Lt. Ge...

Sameer Gudhate Explores the Hidden Layers of Mysteries of Vedas by Kaushal Kishore

There’s a particular kind of silence that settles over a reader when a book doesn’t merely present an argument, but quietly questions the foundation on which decades of accepted thinking have been built. I felt that silence while reading Mysteries of Vedas: Five Keys for Decoding by Kaushal Kishore. Not because the book is aggressive or sensational, but because it carries the confidence of someone...

Boston Public Library

Sameer Gudhate on The Henna Artist: The Quiet Cost of Independence

There’s a certain kind of courage that doesn’t announce itself loudly… it just quietly refuses to go back.That’s the feeling that stayed with me while reading The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi.Not the kind of courage we celebrate on stages.The quieter one. The kind that rebuilds a life from scratch… and then guards it like a secret.Lakshmi’s journey begins in escape — but what unfolds is not a story ...

Sameer Gudhate Wonders: Are You Sure You Know Your Bharat? Think Again.

There was a moment, somewhere between two questions, when I stopped reading.Not because I was tired.But because I was… uncomfortable.Not the kind of discomfort a difficult book gives you.The quieter kind. The kind that makes you realise how much you thought you knew —and how much you actually don’t.That’s where The Viksit Bharat Quiz Book: Know Your Bharat, One Question at a Time! by Partha Sarthi...

Tiranga

i dont know what prompted this kid to start waving the Indian tricolor on a nondescript summer evening. Any reason is good enough.

The Future Didn’t Arrive With Noise. It Quietly Began Deciding for Us: Sameer Gudhate Reflects

There’s a peculiar moment we’re all living through right now — where the future isn’t arriving slowly… it’s quietly sitting beside us, finishing our sentences.That was the feeling that stayed with me while reading this book.Not excitement. Not fear. Something more unsettling — recognition.Because what this book does, very effectively, is remove the illusion that AI is “coming.” It shows you, almos...

From Mitti to Meaning: Sameer Gudhate Reflects on Rudraneil Sengupta’s Enter the Dangal

There’s a particular kind of strength that doesn’t shout. It sits quietly in the soil, in routine, in repetition—like a body learning to fall and rise on the same patch of earth every single day. That’s the feeling that stayed with me while reading Enter the Dangal: Travels through India's Wrestling Landscape by Rudraneil Sengupta. Not excitement. Not adrenaline. Something deeper. Something older....

When Courage Became Quiet Duty: Sameer Gudhate Reviews Para Commando, the Life of Captain Arun Singh

There is a particular stillness that comes over you when you read about a soldier who never expected to become a legend. Not the cinematic stillness of slow motion and background music — but the quieter kind, like standing before a memorial and suddenly realizing the name on the stone once laughed, argued, trained, worried, and chose duty anyway. That was the feeling that stayed with me while read...