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Corals Bloom Again

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Corals Bloom Again is written by Rupinder Brar and published by Konark Publishers in 2026. it is divided into four parts namely Depths, Undertow, Cross Currents and Rising Tide each dealing with key events as the story develops.  The book is based on a small East African island named Mizinga. The book is a timely release as the issues of biodiversity loss, coral bleaching, commercial fishing in international waters causing loss to marine ecosystem and beyond the carrying capacity of ocean are gathering pace and attracting the public scrutiny and resultant accountability.  Coming to the book, the main character Maya Mehta finds herself entangled in the affairs of Mizinga when she inherits the property of Grandpa Odumbe. from there follows the turn of events which see the corporate greed, the suaveness of the PR firms, the treachery of local communities, the hald lies and half truths. The book introduces to the readers about the concept of blast fishing and its inricacies, how ...

दिनकर के साहित्य में शक्ति और शांति का सामंजस्य

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दिनकर के साहित्य में शक्ति और शांति का सामंजस्य इस माह दिनकर जी का जन्मदिवस था । दिनकर एक ऐसे साहित्य रत्न है जिन्होंने गद्द और पद्द दोनों ही विधा में पारंगतता  हासिल किया हुआ है । आधुनिक कवियों की सूची में शायद मैं दिनकर को सर्वश्रेष्ठ मानता हूँ। जिला मुंगेर, बिहार के सिमरिया गाँव में जन्मे रामधारी सिंह दिनकर का जन्म आज ही २३ सितम्बर, 1908 को हुआ था। प्रारंभिक शिक्षा के उपरांत शिक्षक के रूप में कार्य शुरू किया और वर्ष 1924 में प्रथम कविता का प्रकाशन किया। उसके बाद से साहित्यिक जगत से दिनकर का ऐसा जुड़ाव हुआ कि दिनकर अपनी विशिष्ट शैली में साहित्य सृजन करते रहे और नित नई जिम्मेदारियों के साथ अपने साहित्यिक प्रतिभा को भी निखारते रहे। राज्यसभा सांसद के रूप में अपनी सेवाएँ दी और भागलपुर विश्वविद्यालय के कुलपति रहे। दिनकर और वीर रस की कविताएँ एक पर्यायवाची के रूप में हो गए िसमें रश्मिरथी सबसे अग्रणी है । इस लेख का मुख्य प्रेरणा स्रोत भी यही है ।  आमतौर पर हम मौजूदा नव तरुणों को इस बात के लिए आरोपित करते हैं कि उन्हें हिंदी के स्वर्णिम काल का ज्ञान नहीं है और एक अरुचि है। लेकिन यह अ...

Readers Digest

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This is a very cherished post for the blog because till now I have been writing mostly standalone book reviews. In this blog, I’ll be sharing my love for long standing and continuous feature from 3 decades ie  Reader's Digest . I used to read this monthly magazine when in my teens as it was a regular sighting in school Library but let me confess that it was an elitist concept to have RD as part of your school library and if someone caught you reading then the teasing was unavoidable.  If you take any magazine, it is divided into several columns and features, of which different readers have different liking and dislikings (or less liking) which they skip altogether. So for me, there are a few sections of Reader's Digest which I like the most, the first is "Laughter, the Best Medicine" in which the jokes as provided by the readers across globe are shared, then there is Word Power to know about different word related to the particular theme like it may be any geographica...

Raiders from the North

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    Alex Rutherford is a name to reckon with if History is the field of study. "Raiders from the North" is first in the four book series under the project "Empire of the Moghul." The book is published by Hachette.      The book is an account of Babur who laid the foundation of Mughal Empire in India. However the book traces its journey to much before from the birth of Babur and his father's time in Ferghana, Afghanistan. The familial line of Babur traced from Timur and Ghengiz Khan from Central Asia. With such an illustritious blood line and being surrounded by bigger kingdoms of whom majority were his extended family and relatives, Babur faced survival as a daily assignment and threat of being eliminated after sudden death of his father in an earthquake. His ascedence to the throne was amidst lurking Turks, Uzbecks under Shaibani Khan and his uncle Ahmed ruling from Samarkand. He successfully navigated everyone and in the process to be rightful successor o...

Dashmukh

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Asura : Tale of the Vanquished The story of Ravan and His people Written by Anand Neelakantan and published by Leadstart. The author is  a former engineer in a PSU and has come up with this novel after lot of deliberation in which he narrates the story of Ravan from his own perspective. All the other versions are either of Ram or Hanuman and no one has tried to understand Ravan and his side of story. As it is said that the history is written by the victors and so none will take up his side. In the introduction, the author writes that Ravan is portrayed as 10 faced traditional income, ism places, importance on the control of emotions and projects the intellect alone as the being supreme.  His guru Mahabali advises Ravan to shun, the nine emotions of anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion, and ambition. Intellect alone is to be revered. But Ravan argues and states that all these 10 emotions make him a complete man without any pretence of holiness ...

श्याम फिर एक बार तुम मिल जाते!

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“श्याम फिर एक बार तुम मिल जाते!”             इस उपन्यास की रचना गुजराती साहित्यकार श्री दिनकर जोशी जी ने मूलतः गुजराती में किया है जिसका बाद में हिंदी अनुवाद प्रकाशित किया है विद्या विहार प्रकाशन ने। पुस्तक की विषयवस्तु महाभारत अंत के ३६ वर्ष उपरांत द्वारका नगरी में व्याप्त अराजकता है और गांधारी के श्राप के फलस्वरूप कैसे यादव कुल में विध्वंस मचा हुआ है। यादव कुल की आपसी लड़ाई और मद्यपान को लेकर कृष्ण व्यथित हैं और इसी क्रम में वन में उन्हें ज़रा का बाण लग जाता है। ज़रा को जब ज्ञात होता है की भूलवस बाण कृष्ण को लग गया तो वह क्षमा याचना करने लगा। श्री कृष्ण उसे संबोधित करते हुए कहते हैं, “पाप आचरण नहीं, भावना है ! आचरण कर्मप्रेरित निमित्त है - भावना ही आत्म प्रेरित है। तू भावना मुक्त है, वत्स । तुझे पाप स्पर्श नहीं करेगा..”         जैसे ही अर्जुन को यह ज्ञात होता है यादव कुल में कलह है वो कृष्ण से मिलने द्वारका और फिर प्रभास जाते हैं। वन में कृष्ण से भेंट और उनके आदेशानुसार कर्म करके जब अर्जुन महल लौटते हैं और कृष्ण के ...

The Tibetan Book of Dead

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"The Tibetan book of the Dead" is translation work of Prof. Robert Thurman. This book is translation of "The Great Book of Natural Liberation through understanding in-between" or “The Bardo Thodol” in Tibetan. This is the translation of the original composition by Padma Sambhav. There are many translations of this great text. However as per the preface of The Dalai Lama, this one by the author is more realistic.  The book explains the phenomena of dying and is related to body of literature popular in Tibet which is similar in theme, and is kind of a manual for people who are facing the death of self or of dear ones. Death is one of the most mystic and researched topic in the world. There is no absolute truth, no explanation which can tell us to what happens after one person dies. This book attempts to tackle and explain the phenomenon with help of Tibetan Buddhism. So the book basically explains the in-between state, which refers to whole process between the death a...