https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/bUjcy8sQfQt8UrPEkWm4eK/The-Ramzan-effect.html

वहम था कि सारा बाग़ अपना है

तूफ़ान के बाद पता चला कि...

...सूखे पत्तों पर भी हक़ हवाओं का था

(Forwarded)

Joe Celko’s Trees and Hierarchies in SQL for Smarties

Vadim Tropashko. SQL Design Patterns

Manage It! Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management

Practices of an Agile Developer

Pragmatic Project Automation: How to Build, Deploy, and Monitor Java Applications

Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects

Driving Technical Change: Why People On Your Team Don’t Act On Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should - Terrence Ryan

The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software - Jonathan Rasmusson

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software - Eric Evans

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering - Robert L. Glass

W. Steven Brown. Thirteen Fatal Errors Managers Make and How You Can Avoid Them.

Esther Derby. “What Your Weekly Meetings Aren’t Telling You.” Better Software

Peter Drucker. Managing for Results

Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Jr. Waterman. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies

Johanna Rothman. “No More Meeting Mutinies"

Lou Adler. Hire with Your Head: Using Power Hiring to Build Great Companies

Michael Bolton. “Are You Ready?”

Tom DeMarco. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

Tom Janz, Lowell Hellerik, and David C. Gilmore. Behavior Description Interviewing

Johanna Rothman. Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies, and Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People

Gerald M. Weinberg. Quality Software Management: Volume 1, Systems Thinking

तिनका हू तो क्या हुआ, वजूद है मेराभी
उड उड कर हवा का रुख तो बताता हू

(Source: bestshayari.in)

Yudhisthira: The Unfallen Pandava - Mallar Chatterjee

Besides being a huge fan of any novels about ancient secrets, I love books by Indian authors that interpret Indian mythology in a new way e.g. offerings by Amish Tripathy and Krishna Udayasankar. As far as the epic Maharbharata goes, Bheem and Arjun have cornered major portion of Pandava's fame. The eldest sibling, Yudhisthira, though portrayed as the epitome of virtue and justice, has never been able to shake off the stigma of being the one to wager, and lose, his wife in a game of dice. That single act has eclipsed his whole character.

So when I saw this book on the library aisle I wondered about what new interpretation the author has managed to give to the tale of Mahabharata in general, and to this much-maligned Pandava in particular. Alas! I was in for a mighty disappointment! This thick book simply narrates the old story, with a few stray sub-stories that you probably would have missed during your childhood days. No new interpretation whatsoever. Why the author felt the need to retell the old story, which almost every Indian knows by heart, I cannot fathom. In my humble opinion, the book also fails to adequately address the range of emotions that Yudhisthira must have felt, his struggles and conflicts, his dilemmas and doubts, his wins and failures. It simply doesn't tale his side of the story fully.

I rarely fail to finish any book. But I stopped reading this one even before I reached the halfway mark. If I have to read the epic itself, there are far better sources. :-(

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do - Michael Sandel

India: The Ancient Past - Burjor Avari

BBC's Podcasts

If you are in search of a good crime-related podcast, I would highly recommend ywo - BBC's Body On The Moor and Death In Ice Valley. If you are looking for some narrative on The Middle East, do check out their podcast - Our Man In The Middle East. And if you are a history buff, go ahead and download their Witness and The History Hour podcasts.

As you can see, when it comes to podcasts, I rarely need to go beyond BBC :-)