History

Posts from the history category.

Sameer Gudhate

Can We Ever Escape the Identity We Inherit? — Am I a Dalit? by Vijhay Sundar K.G., read and reviewed

There are some questions that are asked because we don’t know the answer.And then there are questions we ask because we are afraid of what the answer might mean.Am I a Dalit? belongs to the second category.Vijhay Sundar K.G.’s novel begins in a world where caste is not an abstract idea discussed in textbooks. It is present in families, relationships, social behaviour, humiliation and the choices p...

Can We Ever Escape the Identity We Inherit? — Am I a Dalit? by Vijhay Sundar K.G., read and reviewed
Sameer Gudhate

Parashurama Before the Axe, the Rage and the Legend — Kevin Missal’s The Axe of Rudra, Reviewed by S

There is a strange problem with legends.We meet them too late.By the time we hear their names, the transformation has already happened. The doubts have disappeared. The mistakes have been edited out. The person has become a symbol.Parashurama is one of those figures.We know the axe.We know the anger.We know the warrior.But who was Rama before he became Parashurama?That is where Kevin Missal’s Para...

Parashurama Before the Axe, the Rage and the Legend — Kevin Missal’s The Axe of Rudra, Reviewed by S
Sameer Gudhate

Dear Zahira, With Love by Sachin NG — Sameer Gudhate on Love, Loss and the Human Cost of Partition

When a Border Separates Two People, What Exactly Does It Fail to Separate?Some love stories are about two people trying to find each other.Dear Zahira, With Love by Sachin NG is about something more difficult: two people trying to remain connected when history has decided they belong on opposite sides of a border.That distinction stayed with me.Because we often talk about Partition through numbers...

Dear Zahira, With Love by Sachin NG — Sameer Gudhate on Love, Loss and the Human Cost of Partition
ashwin doke

Celebrating India - Trek to HarKiDun

It was 2015, just after we had passed out of our MBA college, when we three friends decided we needed a different kind of break. No fancy resort, no new city to “check off” a list—just us, our backpacks, and the mountains. That’s how Har Ki Dun happened.We didn’t know then that this trek would stay with us long after our sore muscles had healed.Stepping Out of ComfortOur biggest concern before the...

Celebrating India - Trek to HarKiDun
Sameer Gudhate

When Justice Failed, Fear Ruled: A Review of The Shadow of Evil by Jigs Ashar & Sarthak Dasgupta — B

There are crimes so brutal that they refuse to remain inside police files. They become part of a city’s memory. Parents whisper about them to protect their children. Entire neighbourhoods measure time by what happened before and after. The Shadow of Evil belongs to that unsettling category of true crime — not because it glorifies violence, but because it forces us to confront what happens when vio...

When Justice Failed, Fear Ruled: A Review of The Shadow of Evil by Jigs Ashar & Sarthak Dasgupta — B
Sameer Gudhate

Not Born Extraordinary, But Unwilling to Stop — A Review of She Rises: Unfinished Dreams by Harihara

There is something quietly revealing about the stories we choose to remember. History celebrates achievements, but the roads leading to those achievements are often far more meaningful than the destination itself. They are filled with rejection, loss, uncertainty, and moments when giving up would have been easier. She Rises: Unfinished Dreams by Hariharan Iyer chooses to tell those stories instead...

Not Born Extraordinary, But Unwilling to Stop — A Review of She Rises: Unfinished Dreams by Harihara
Sameer Gudhate

Sameer Gudhate Reviews Fractured Communities by Umar Khalid: History Is Never Just One Story

Some books arrive carrying more conversations than pages.Long before I knew what Fractured Communities was trying to say, I knew who had written it. That, perhaps, is the strange reality of our times. We often meet an author through headlines before we ever meet their ideas. Opinions are already formed. Sides are already chosen.It made me wonder how often we judge a book before opening it.Once I l...

Sameer Gudhate Reviews Fractured Communities by Umar Khalid: History Is Never Just One Story
Apurva Khode

Democracy Beyond Elections

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...

Sameer Gudhate

When Ordinary Minds Commit Extraordinary Evil: Sameer Gudhate on The Pune Serial Killers

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...

When Ordinary Minds Commit Extraordinary Evil: Sameer Gudhate on The Pune Serial Killers
Sameer Gudhate

The Most Dangerous Weapon in Hard Cover Isn’t a Gun — It’s Preparation | Hard Cover by Adrian Magson

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...

The Most Dangerous Weapon in Hard Cover Isn’t a Gun — It’s Preparation | Hard Cover by Adrian Magson