Origin - Spirits of the Past

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 5/1/2013 5:54:00 PM

'If you are wondering whether I am on an anime watching spree then you are right. You see, I met a bunch of anime lovers last month and copied as many anime movies and series as I could from them. And all that I do these days is watch them.Science is a blessing to mankind but man always failed to identify his limits and caused many of the history's worst disasters. Be it Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident or September 11 attacks - they only show our tendency to hurt ourselves.'Origin - (...)'

Read full article

Avatar - The Last Airbender

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 4/30/2013 7:00:00 PM

'The battle between good and bad is an overused concept. Be it movies or novels, we see and read how the so called guardian of the good takes on baddies single handed. Somehow we aren’t tired of this idea yet. I guess life is a constant battle between good and bad – sometimes against of inner selves and other times with people of this world – so we will never get bored of this theme.Avatar is one such guardian of good who remained trapped in a piece of ice for over hundred (...)'

Read full article

Fablery 2013

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 4/12/2013 8:41:00 PM

'DEADLINE: 30 June 2013Fablery presents short story writing contests in association with Lifi Publications…If you are a story writer who is looking for an opportunity to get published then Fablery.com is the right place for you. You could get published by just participating in genre-based short story writing contests that they hold every year.ABOUT FABLERY:Fablery provides aspiring writers with an opportunity to get published and reach out to the bigger audience. Fablery would c(...)'

Read full article

Fablery Creative Writing Workshop

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 11/16/2012 4:45:00 PM

'Fablery provides aspiring writers with an opportunity to get published and reach out to the bigger audience. Also, Fablery endeavors to contribute a little to the literary world by bringing out the best out of every writer who participates here. And this workshop is an attempt to achieve the same.This workshop would be a structured workshop and step-by-step development of plot, story, atmosphere, character and climax! Our speaker, Monika Pant, will talk about everything from in(...)'

Read full article

It's not working

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 10/27/2012 3:53:00 PM

''When is it?''It's on November 20th, I guess' Bharti said. It was obvious that she didn't really care. It was his cousin's wedding and that's the last thing she had to worry about at the moment. Aman continued to work on his computer, ignoring her reply. After what seemed an hours, he said, 'I am not booking the tickets' more to himself than to her.'My sister invited me home. I guess I will stay at her place for awhile. The other day, she was telling me how lonely she feels. I (...)'

Read full article

The Krishna Key

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 9/26/2012 5:54:00 PM

'All of us, at some point of time, must have wondered whether God exists or not. We have heard thousand tales about him, know him by thousand names and take his name at least thousand times. Ashwin Sanghi’s latest book ‘The Krishna Key’ deals with the same question and it is apparent that the author has exhaustively researched on Indian Mythology and its origin. The facts about Krishna, Shiva and Indian mythology itself that he has brought up in the book had my undivided interest; ho(...)'

Read full article

The devotion of suspect X

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 5/16/2012 6:41:00 PM

'Wikipedia says Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and anything Japanese and one who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. For the Japanophile I am, I had to read the book ‘The devotion of suspect X’ written by Keigo Higashino. It was a must read to me and I’m glad that I decided to read it.The story and the mystery kept me hooked to the book until the end and when the end happened, it got me and made me wonder, ‘why couldn’t I guess it?’ Then, I concluded - p(...)'

Read full article

The land of the wilted rose

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 3/14/2012 4:37:00 PM

'Are you an Indian? Did your granny ever narrate the story of firangis who ruled us for over two centuries and made us live like outsiders in our own country? My granny did. She was around ten during the time India got its independence and she still remembers how much she feared the British men who had camped outside her village. Her father never let her go anywhere unattended as he feared that those men would do something to her, such was the fear that these firangis had for them in(...)'

Read full article

Luwan of Brida by Sarang Mahajan

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 2/28/2012 5:01:00 PM

'Have you read J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’? Have you read Christopher Paolini’s ‘Inheritance Cycle’? I have read them and liked them a great deal. Being a sucker for fantasy genre books, I had assumed that I have read most of the books under “fantasy” tag but a friend made me realize that I haven’t read much. There are George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, Robert Jordan’s ‘The Wheel of Time’, Ursula Le Guin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ and Stephen King’s ‘The Dark To(...)'

Read full article

The Devil

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 2/2/2012 4:05:00 PM

'Image courtesy: desktopnexusNo, he hasn’t given up yet and he would never give up. How could he when she meant everything to him? But he also knew that he could never be with her, as she was too good for him. He was a devil, who punished the bad and she was an angel, who always gave love to everyone. He knew that even she liked him and she would bring sunshine into his life, if he gave himself a chance, but that would be asking for too much. In his opinion, he didn’t deserve a (...)'

Read full article

The Perfect World

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 1/20/2012 5:15:00 PM

'I haven’t read too many motivational or inspirational books or anything other than fictions and of course, my course books. To be honest, I hadn’t read any motivational book at all but thanks to Priya Kumar’s “The Perfect World”, now I can claim that I have read one such book too. “The perfect world” was not just a motivational book but Priya has taken help of a fiction to tell readers whatever she intended to tell them, and that’s what makes the book interesting.It was a shame(...)'

Read full article

Fablery!

Author : Nethra A      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 1/13/2012 7:46:00 PM

'Dear Readers & Writers,I know that I haven’t been blogging these days and I am not even reading other blogs that I used to read regularly. I miss reading Blog, I rhyme without reason & A musing who update their blogs frequently and also, other bloggers whom I follow like Aura of Sleepless Dreams, The Unwise prevails over the Wise, Wandering thoughts, Nirvana, Shravan RN's, A rose is a rose is rose!…the list goes on. Note to self: I must visit their blogs soon. What to do? C(...)'

Read full article

Prevention is better than cure

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 12/10/2011 5:17:00 AM

'Courtesy: spiderkerala.netWe, Indians, always complain about how dirty our country is compared to the developed nations like USA, Japan, etc but when it comes to doing our bit, we do nothing. We throw wastes anywhere and everywhere we feel like-be it bus-stops or on our neighbor’s doorsteps. And when somebody complains about our wrongdoings, we ignore them by saying that they are just trying to be righteous, instead we could ponder upon our actions.Let’s exclude not-so-learned (...)'

Read full article

Prey by the Ganges

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 11/27/2011 10:58:00 AM

'Like every other Indian, I have watched the movie, Sholay, more than once. Not that I liked the movie so much that I wanted to watch it repeatedly but when we were still stuck in Doordarshan era, you wanted it or not, you had to watch the movies that they played during weekends on television because everyone watched it. I watched it too. It was a funny movie; the Thakur, the Gabbar and his Samba-everything about Sholay was funny.The book “Prey by the Ganges” written by Hemant Kumar(...)'

Read full article

Dear, I love you

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 11/10/2011 4:13:00 PM

'Who doesn’t want to love and be loved? If you say that you don’t then you are just lying, not just to others but to yourself too. Have you read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series? Initially, I found Edward to be very charming. I didn’t mind having a powerful boyfriend who had eyes only for me but Bella and Edward’s love overdose sickened me and my liking for him ended up as abhorrence. Alright, let’s talk about Arun Sabtharishi’s book named “Dear, I love you” now. To be honest, the p(...)'

Read full article

The Ancient Book

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 10/31/2011 8:14:00 PM

'I don’t remember my mother reading me to sleep but I read my niece to sleep sometimes. She likes stories of dragon, witches, monsters and what not. And “The Ancient Book” is one such book that I can read to her. The story of King Zius and his daughter Sara narrated by Parikshit Rane narrates the victory of good over evil. The pace of the book is good too. You remember the flashbacks in the movies when everything goes black and white or too colorful and the narrator starts sharing hi(...)'

Read full article

Making of a fantasy author

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 10/23/2011 3:57:00 PM

'Dear readers & bloggers,I won’t say that I always wanted to be an author. To be honest, I was dragged into this whole write-a-novel thing. Well, it’s a long story and I don’t intend to pen down another book explaining how I became an author and Blah! Blah! Blah! So, I shall keep it short and try to explain the entire journey in a few simple words.I was a crazy blogger (but I hardly blog nowadays) and I’m an avid reader too. I love reading fantasy fictions and paranormals, a(...)'

Read full article

The Storyteller of Marrakesh

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 10/12/2011 6:23:00 PM

'I did it again. I read another Indian author and I will never again tell anyone that I prefer reading only foreign authors because the author Joydeep Roy-Bhattachraya changed my perception about Indian authors and their writings. Well, I must accept that I was prejudiced but thanks to Joydeep, I am a changed person now. He had my attention from the first to the last page of the book “The Storyteller of Marrakesh”. And when it ended, I was left wanting more-so was the thirst that the(...)'

Read full article

Of Dreams

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 9/28/2011 1:42:00 PM

'Have you ever read or heard a story that makes you feel that you have read it before but still want to go on and know what happens next? I have read so many such stories. With around 7 billion people across the planet, we are losing uniqueness. Yesterday, I bought roses for my mom, dined at KFC with dad, took my dog out for a really long walk and also played with my little brother. I wonder how many of you would have followed the same schedule. You or people around you might have do(...)'

Read full article

My college diary

Author : Nethra      Blog : Otiose Opinions      Date : 9/18/2011 10:24:00 AM

'If you are a student too then you definitely know that no matter how hard you try, you just cannot pay attention to few lectures. You either sleep or entertain yourself by doing things that you’re not suppose to be doing sitting inside the class during lectures. Well, it’s perfectly alright to play on your phones or draw caricature of your professors during such lectures. I do it all the time but for a change, I wanted to try something else and ended up chatting with an elephant tha(...)'

Read full article