Devil's Advocate & Karan Thapar.

"Devil's Advocate : The Untold Story"  by the well known journalist Karan Thapar, was recently released . The book makes interesting,and occasionally compelling reading, with Karan Thapar's  incisive pen-portraits of well known personalities,ranging from Amitabh Bachchan, Former PM V.P.Singh, Benazir Bhutto, Amma, and Sh. Narendra Modi.

Sh. V.P.Singh comes across as a warm human being behind the political mask, and Karan Thapar  profiles him well, revealing his little known abilities of being a prolific painter, as well as a photographer,adept at catching his subject(in this case Karan Thapar), in  unrehearsed, unkempt candid pictures . Talk of the tables being turned on the interviewer by the interviewee!

Amitabh Bachchan is also sharply etched by Karan Thapar, along with his wife Jaya Bachan. Karan Thapar at his provocative best,asked him about Rekha and Praveen Babi, and elicited an emphatic "Yes,Why will I not believe him(Amitabh) ?" ( from Jaya Bachan),when he asked her about trusting her husband. That put the lid on any speculation.

The book is worth a dekho, it throws interesting sidelights  and profiles that are sharply etched.

M.P.Singh

Blog For Browsers . Digital Detox.

                                            Digital Detox .
We live at a frenzied pace,and the ubiquity of the internet and social media has shortened our attention spans. Twitter has narrowed our messsaging to a specified number of characters. Facebook has transformed most of us into a never-ending addiction to "status updates". And "Selfies" have pandered to the innate(basic?) instinct in us to capture for the moment,if not posterity, whatever trivial pursuit we are engaged in at that time. Lastly, like Karaoke was to the earlier generation, You Tube has projected our sometimes hilarious "takes" on everything under the sun,right into our living rooms.
And all this barrage of  infomedia has threatened to overwhelm us into passive consumers of  what every Tom,Dick,Harry and Jane,fondly thinks is the ultimate in creativity,though usually it may lull us into boredom and sleep.
So,in this ever-speeding and quickening pace of life, the book reader and the book browser is fighting a brave battle to save the neibhourhood book-shop from extinction,so that he/she can snatch a few peaceful moments away from the maddening din.
Hence,the title of this blog suggested itself,in a way, to allow the browser to quickly browse through a few interesting topics and titles, without having to wade through lengthy reviews and books. By keeping the canvas and focus wide enough,beyond only books,  the readers' interest will be sparked,hopefully, to skim through this blog,and glean something relevant and thoughtful.

M.P.Singh