Critical Reviews!

 Dark Matter                                 Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is an amazing and mind-blowing book. It's a page-turner. There is a mediocre high school Physics professor- Jason, who always ponders about his life choices. What if he hadn't settled down with his wife? What if he didn't have a kid? What if he continued with his research? He keeps wondering about the path not taken. Our choices make us. Every decision that we take impacts our tomorrow.                Our world is three-dimensional. The two dimensions help in perceiving the length and breadth. The third dimension adds the element of depth. This makes up our reality. Now, this book deals with the fourth dimension- time. At a given moment we make a certain choice. Hence, with time we make various choices. Now imagine that one choice leads to where you are at present and the other...

  The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked                      A couple days ago, CJI N.V. Ramana said that there has been a decline in investigative journalism. Earlier, newspapers would be responsible for exposing big scandals and speculate scams. However, today journalism has been reduced to politics and sensational headlines. The media is doing more politics than politicians. This is the reality. Over time it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between the truth and a publicity stunt. Every other day there is an actor or an actress involved in a money laundering case or with narcotics. Trial by media is the new trend. Very few police evidence or courtroom dialogues are provided. The news today is the public or the powerful's opinion.           In this new era, Rahul Pandita's book The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked provides a refreshin...

  Sex, Explained           "Dad, how are children made?"           "Ask your mom."           "Mom, how are children made?"           "God made you.           "How come?"           "Baby, you are His blessings."           I was really curious about babies and their origin when my mother was pregnant with my sister. My mom told me that my sister was in her tummy. I was five or six at the time. Obsessed with cartoons and fairy tales, I believed that fairies were God's messengers and put the baby in my mom's tummy. That made total sense to me because my mom said that my sister was sent by God. Eventually, education happened. Then, the reproduction chapter brought some things to clarity. However, the process was still a mystery. Why? I have no idea. India has such a big population yet talking about sex is taboo. Fo...

  Killing Eve Dear Phoebe Waller-Bridge,           You have a beautiful mind. I wonder what is it like in there. How do you come up with such ideas? A female assassin and a female spy played by Jodi Comer and Sandra Oh respectively. Both are equally obsessed and fixated with each other. Two brilliant minds in a cat and mouse chase. Phoebe, every time I think I have figured you out, you successfully confuzzle me. Your writing is bizarre. It is unpredictable. Killing Eve is always a step ahead of the viewers.           Eve (played by Sandra Oh) is an MI5 British Intelligence agent stuck with a boring desk job. Her brilliance and caliber aren't used to the full extent in this particular cell. Her sharp observation and assassination obsession lands her a job in an MI6 spy cell. Her first task is to find out the assassin behind the murder of high-profile political figures. Phoebe, how did you decide that the assassin has to be a woman? ...

  Passengers We all have dreams. We plan our futures, like we're the captains of our fates. But we're passengers. We go where our fate takes us.           Passengers is captivating and enthralling from the beginning to the end. It has twists and turns that take the viewer on an emotional roller coaster ride. First and foremost, the graphics are amazing. They are breathtaking. Watching this move in 3D would've been perfect. Secondly, it has my favorite cast. Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora Lane, Chris Prattson as Jim Preston, and Laurence Fishburne as Gus. The Plot Dissection           A spaceship of 5,000 people is going to a new planet for colonization. All the people, i.e., the passengers, the crew, and the captain are kept in a hibernation pod. The journey from the earth to the new planet is about 120 years long. Hence, it is necessary to pause all metabolic processes and prevent aging. However, after 30 years of journey, there is a...

  Prophecy           Rick Riordan is a popular name among middle schools of the west. Therefore, it has quite a fan base in the east. Rick's domain is mythology. Greek mythology, Roman mythology, and Egyptian mythology. The Percy Jackson series explores the first one in great depth and the later part of the series explores the Roman. Finally, in the recently written Kane Chronicles,  Rick takes a dive into Egyptian Mythology. A detailed version about this is available in the first blog post - The Trials of Apollo.            Prophecy by Ellen Oh has nothing, nada, kuch nhi to do with Rick Riordan's book. So why mention him?!? The world is so focused on European and American mythologies, that they forget to look beyond the Asian cultures and into their origin. Prophecy is a stepping stone to the endless exploration of Asian mythology for the west. Ellen Oh wanted a hero that her daughters could relate with. Being an immi...

  The Mind, Explained           Have you ever noticed that you are 100% sure about a certain memory but your mother or father remembers that same memory differently? The gist is the same but there may be some alternations in their version. Why is that? Have you seen a crazy dream that makes no sense whatsoever? Yet, there are people who try and interpret this dream. They feel that it holds significance. Your heart is racing and your palms are sweaty. Is it anxiety or a panic attack? Nowadays, there is an emphasis on mindfulness. However, yogis are known to meditate. Are these two the same or different? Psychedelics are banned and discouraged, though they have been known to provide anxiety relief. Why? How is our mind affected by all this? Why do we react the way we do? Why are books like The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Ikigai, The Alchemist,  etc so popular? WHY?           In this blog, we will be indulging in topics l...