Magic Moments

One post is not enough to sum up what a great and eventfulyear 2015 has been. So here’s the second post.  Looking back at the year that went by I realize I have so much to be grateful about. My Gratitude List for December is here. I feel elated to finally share it with you all. I am thankful for: 1.         Being an active part of an initiative- I had always wanted to take part in a group initiative, however small it might it. Taking part in the ‘ Secret Santa ’ initiative was so much fun. I learned a lot in the process- spreading happiness and cheer, believing more in giving than in receiving, and that there is no need for an occasion to gift someone, even a stranger. Bringing a smile to someone’s face can feel so good. I connected with so many like minded souls, read their words, felt inspired. The feeling of belonging was great. 2.      Being able to donate for charity- For the first time in life I made a donation from my own ...

2015 saw immense emotional growth in me. I found my strengths and held onto them tight- discovered many-a-things about myself. I grew more than a bit at an intellectual level too. There was parting and meeting with family and friends, a bit of homesickness too, but with a lifetime of experiences . Infosys, Mysore- Looks Greek, doesn't it? I got my call letter from Infosys in April, 2015. I was to join the Infosys training institute at Mysore- World’s largest corporate training institute, on 24 th May, 2015. Luckily I got one of my college besties as my roomie. And the awesome journey began. The place itself was enough to give you the feel good vibes- beautiful green campus, picturesque lake, world class architecture, and delicious food at the food courts. It was the best thing that happened in my life since years. The place itself would make you feel grateful and privileged to be there. It was as if ‘mundane’ didn’t exist there. Only your own adventure did. I was surrou...

It only takes a spark to get the fire going. And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love, Once you have experienced it You want to sing You feel like spring You want to pass it on… A few of us gathered together for Secret Santa tidings, divided by names and united through a common Christmas spirit of sharing. And it is in this spirit that we bring this blog chain to you. I am thankful to Roshan Radhakrishnan  for passing on the baton of spreading Christmas joy and spirit. It is here through words and my secret santee  that I #UnwrapChristmas on my blog for you. Christmas’s here. The season of giving, the season of festivities and cheer. It’s December and our perfect occasion for the year-end celebration has arrived. Families are preparing for picnics, friends and colleges are planning parties, and kids are excited about their winter vacations. Companies are organizing fun events for their em...

Book Blurb: He was a bestseller… She wanted him to make her one. Paperback king, Aditya Kapoor’s life is straight out of a modern man’s fantasy. His literary stardom is perfectly balanced by a loving wife and a spectacular career. With everything he touches turning to gold, Aditya is on a winning streak. Shreya Kaushik is a student with a heart full of ambition. Young, beautiful, and reckless, Shreya speaks her mind and obsessively chases after what she wants. And what she wants is to be a bestselling author. What happens when their worlds collide? Is it possible to love two people at the same time? Can real ambition come in the way of blind passion? Can trust once broken, be regained? Master storyteller Ravi Subramanian, delves into the glitzy world of bestsellers and uncovers a risky dalliance between a superstar novelist and his alluring protégé. The Bestseller She Wrote is a combustible cocktail of love, betrayal and redemption. My Review: This is the first book...

   I welcome Arun Kumar of Passion For Movies whose reviews have an identity of their own and shows his undulated love for movies. I thank him for finding time and agreeing to do a guest post in Magic Moments. It's a huge privilege. So here's a guest post by him on one of his favorite movies.   “The Fall” [2006] – A Tribute to the Power of Stories   Sometimes, you make an emotional bond with a film and dissect or interpret its vision in different ways, while a fellow movie-lover would pan it by using the most loathful words. Tarsem Singh’s visually exuberant movie, “The Fall” (2006) falls into that category. Many critics deemed it as a self-indulgent, vanity project; or as a preposterously intolerable, childish story. Does Tarsem have abundant directorial ego that drove the likes of Jodorowsky, Lynch or Gilliam, who all persistently came up with outlandishly inventive visuals? I would say yes. As a movie-lover, this so-called ‘directorial eg...

Book Blurb: A mystery story about love, the cosmos and other fictional universes Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel. Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? Meanwhile K wonders whether he should confess his own unrequited love for Sumire. Then, a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island: Sumire has mysteriously vanished... This is the first book by H.Murakami that I read. The blurb has most of the story. So here I’ll focus on whatever’s going on in my mind after reading this novel. One thing that I realized by reading this, don’t read it for the sake of knowing what happens to the characters at the end. One reason- it is abrupt. You don’t g...

  Let me arrange my thoughts first- this book has made me so overwhelmed- ecstatic sometimes and sometimes unusually happy. I have read certain books and watched a few movies about fulfilling wish lists, going on ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure trips, and the likes of it. So I was apprehensive when I began reading. I couldn’t be more wrong. The characters were so fresh, so new and endearing that I sighed that they don’t exist in real life. Or perhaps they do? I beg Aniesha Brahma, our dear author to reveal. And the plot gets its essence from her soulful writing. It’s not your usual lovey-dovey tale. It’s about living in those simple moments of life and cherishing the memories ever after. I had read ‘The Secret Proposal’ by the author and was hooked by her writing. In ‘When Our Worlds Collide’ I couldn’t help but reread certain sentences, certain thoughts and quotes again and again. I vouch it, my love for words are to blame. The events and incidents recreated themselves i...

Book Blurb: It was time for the Lords of the High Council to step in when the Grandmaster of Kryane is accused of murdering his own people. They had little choice but to prevent the collapse of the whole magicians order, so they sent Michael to investigate the allegations. The people of the desert planet were an enigma, but none more than Andesine, the healer assigned to assist Michael. Why did she report the Grandmaster? Was she involved, or was there something more sinister going on? The more people they interrogated the more they suspected that nothing was as it seemed. Not the murders, nor the Grandmasters' motive as everyone thought. Unable to resist the growing attraction between them, Michael and Andesine learn that they had to trust each other with their own secrets, and risking any future they might have. Time and again the High Lords had to step in to prevent chaos on Kryane, but time was running out for Michael and Andesine. They had to get a new Grandmaster ...