Naga's Ruminations and Reviews

Rating 3.85/5  Genre Fiction, longing and nostalgia This novel is a long letter from an old father(of seventy seven) to his young son.  He is a pastor at his local church in Gilead, Ohio. His father and grand father were also pastors and he recollects some events in their lives in the letter. He tells of his grand father's visions from God, how he fought in the war, how he thought the war to be God's divine plan and preached to others as such, how he lost an eye and remained one-eyed for the rest of his life, how he left his family in old age and made a journey to his native place of Kansas and died there. He tells his son of what events led to the meeting of his wife who was very young compared to him and how they ended up marrying each other. The parts where he regrets not being able to grow up with his young son and wife, to not being there to show him the ways of life and guide him are touching and inspirational.  I thought the real interesting part of the lette

Rating 8/10  Genre: psychological thriller, suspense  Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams... Director: Jordan Peele  Rose and Chris have been in a relationship for 5 months. Rose tells Chris that he is the first black boyfriend she has ever had and asks him to her house to introduce him to her parents. Her father is a neurosurgeon and mother is a psychiatrist. Chris is initially hesitant to make the trip because as a black man he is aware of the bias and judgement his people face at the hands of white people everyday. But Rose convinces him otherwise and they set off on the journey.  They reach the house and Rose's parents are very welcoming of Chris. There are two black servants at the house and they pretend to be nice towards Chris but are subtly very hostile. He senses this and mentions to Rose but she doesn't understand him. The first night they are there, Rose's mother hypnotises Chris using a cup and spoon against his wish. He wakes up in the mornin

Rating 3.5/5 Genre Contemporary A woman in her late 20s works at an art gallery. She has had a troubled past with parents who were distant, selfish and uncaring. She has an inner voice that is highly judgemental and critical. She looks at everything and everyone with hatred and dislike. She doesn't like this about herself and wants a transition so profound that there is no trace left of the past her. She thinks sleeping endlessly without break for a year would help her erase her past and past self. To be reborn again as a new her. She finds a psychiatrist on yellow pages and tells her all kinds of stories and lies to get prescriptions for powerful drugs. The doctor Dr.Tuttle is quite a character who is wierd, forgetful, sloppy and incompetent. She uses loopholes in the insurance system to prescribe drugs for hearing loss, anxiety, paranoia etc when the complaint our protagonist has is insomnia. She even gives samples of drugs that are not approved to be in the market.

This is a short story and a quick read with only 27 pages. The story tries to redefine what it means to be living in hell. It creates an alternate reality of the place called hell where souls go after death. Here souls are neither roasted for eternity in fire nor tormented by hard physical torture. They are subjected to a different kind of pain.. Three souls having commited sins of deception, lies, narcissism and murder etc  are forced to stay together in a room in hell after they are dead. Soon their flaws, sins and insecurities are exposed to each other. They are locked in a tug of pull and push with each other. They cant love the other due to an awareness of their true nature. They cant hate the other cause they are stuck with them for eternity in the same room. What happens to someone if they cant go mad or die (to escape repetition and boredom) because it is a soul..  The story is quite popular from the author and it is great thrill to read it. Sometimes short stories

Rating 4/5 Genre Romance, Magic, Fantasy I am honestly surprised that there are not more people who have read this book(based on the number of ratings in goodreads) and found it impressive like me. With this book I learnt that I could appreciate a story with flawed characters and like them all despite the imperfections. The main characters are powerful in a supernatural way and drive the narrative forward with their fated (sometimes impulsive) actions and suffer through the lasting consequences of those actions. When I picked this book, based on the title, I expected something to do with magic, spells, curses and was only half keen on reading it past a few initial chapters. I have been doing this a lot lately..just trying a book on before committing myself to read it through to the end. I soon found myself engrossed in a tale of fated romance spanning multiple lives, dark magic binding the souls into a dance with each other for eternity. It’s the same story that plays

Genre horror, thriller  IMDb rating 6/10  Budget 50 - 80million dollars  Box office 40 million dollars  Starring Krksten Stewart of twilight fame.  I felt that the concept and story are pretty good but the cinematography is poor. Not just poor but really bad. I watched this film twice to make sense of what's actually happening.  Most of it is shot underwater in the glare of flashlights and headlights.  A bunch of people are caught in an underwater drilling station when an earth quake occurs. It damages most of the base stations and equipment. It also releases a swarming pool of alien like creatures into water which kill and feed on human flesh. With a high risk of their drill station exploding, they must reach a near by station in order to access air pods which can fly them back to the surface. With no alternate option available, they decide to make the journey on foot. To actually walk the distance on ocean bed. Braving the odds, some of them make it. Some don't. W