Diwali- ones again away from home

Ones again I couldn't be at home for Diwali, 7th time in past 9 years.
But this Diwali was not that bad. We three (Alok, Deepti & me) had great time.
Diwali celebrations this year included lightening candles and deepaks in our rooms, having sweets and a grand dinner at Mint Masala and taking lot of pics. Here are some of them showing the celebrations.

Technology came to rescue when I didn't have a proper poster/idol to perform pooja.



Diwali - A festival of lights


Just lights!!! Thats not enough! How can you call it a festival without sweets?



People who made it great.



Finally at dinner in Mint MAsala - Delicious food, efficient service, lovely ambience. Unfortunately nothing visible in this pic :)



I had a great time this Diwali! Can't wait to celebrate it next year. :)

"2 States: The story of my marriage" by Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is back with one more masala & drama filled novel.
Krish, a panjabi, IITD student meets Ananya, Tamil Brahmin, Economics topper, while standing at IIMA. Both of them soon become friends. Friendship turns into love when they spend a lot of time studying together in dorms. Both get their dream jobs and want to get married, but now the problems start.
The great difference in the families of these two, their opposition of duo's marriage and efforts taken by both of them to get the consent of each family are dramatically narrated in rest of the book.
Flow while reading is disturbed when the narrator changes from Krish to the third person. I found it discontinuous. Annanya's intervention in Krish's cousin's marriage & Krish's family's consequent liking for Ananya; Krish's bitter father suddenly getting filled with great love for his son and removing the obstacles in the duo's marriage seems stolen from typical Bollywood movies.
All in all Chetan has nothing new to offer to readers than telling the same old, repeatedly told stories. But book will be instant hit and best seller as its a story told by IITD/IIMA graduate.

Recommended reading:

1. What is living and what is dead in Indian philosophy? by Debiprasad Chattopadhyay

Democracy in India as perceived by JP

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan's views on the democracy in India.
Follow the links to see the three videos:
Part-1
Part-2
Part-3
Part-4
My own views are in accordance with his.