yes, there is a hope...

                                       This Explains Everything                                         John Brockman Published by Perennial is a compilation of different articles written by various scientists, academicians and researchers having expertise in their areas. It is an attempt by the author to explain all major phenomena, especially related to science space human life in a single omnibus.  Now packing more than 125 articles in 400-page book is quite a task, both for the editor and the writer. On the one hand it gives benefit to the reader for getting knowledge, even if superficial, while on the other it devoids the depth of understanding for any topic discussed in the chapter. Nonetheless, having gone thr...

राजधानी एक्सप्रेस वाया उम्मीदपुर हॉल्ट  यह पुस्तक मूलतः संघ लोक सेवा आयोग द्वारा आयोजित सिविल सेवा परीक्षा के तैयारी के दौरान एक साथ आए युवाओं के दोस्ती, संघर्ष और बलिदान की दास्तान है। लेकिन इसे सिर्फ़ सिविल सेवा परीक्षा तक सीमित कर देना अनुचित होगा क्योंकि यह पुस्तक आपको युवाओं के सपनों की उड़ान के पीछे क्या क्या दर्द छुपा होगा है उससे परिचय करवाती है। पुस्तक का प्रकाशन हिंदी युग्म प्रकाशन ने २०२५ में किया है। लेखक भारतीय राजस्व सेवा के वरिष्ठ अधिकारी हैं जिन्होंने पूर्व में कविता संग्रह प्रकाशित किए हैं और हिंदी साहित्य से वर्षों से  संबद्ध रहे हैं। उपन्यास की साहित्यिक समीक्षा के उपरांत ऐसा कतई नहीं लगेगा कि इसके रचनाकार का मूल कार्य साहित्य के इतर है । सिविल सेवा परीक्षा भारत देश में एक सम्प्रदाय के समान है,  जिसमें कोई अभ्यर्थी किसी भी जाति, धर्म, क्षेत्र और भाषाई विविधता का हो लेकिन उसके सिविल सेवा तैयारी के दौरान के अनुभव लगभग समान होते है और दिल्ली ही इस संप्रदाय का मुख्यालय बनाया जा सकता है। आपने यदि मुखर्जी नगर और राजेंद्र नगर में एक माह का समय भी सिविल सेवा की...

THE GOLDEN ROAD :  HOW ANCIENT INDIA TRANSFORMED THE WORLD WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, BLOOMSBURY, 2024 William Dalrymple does not need an introduction. Every reader has heard his name even if he hasn't read his works. His readership spreads from serious history researchers to casual history enthusiasts, from serious UPSC Civil services aspirants of History optionals to general studies specific students, from Indians interested in their cultural revivals to global readers interested in South-East Asia and especially India.  Recently, I have read his "The Golden Road" published by Bloomsbury which is about India's golden era where the dominance extended from Central Asia to China to South East Asia. The extent of influence was such that the entire cities were built on the patterns as in Bharatvarsh and Kings ruling in the name of Hindu dieties what he broadly terms as Indosphere. The book is presented in 10 chapters revolving around the common theme of Indic influence transcend...

THE LUMUMBA PLOT  The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination  The race of one-upmanship between USA and USSR during the cold war era was heating up. The competing blocks fought for the supremacy in all aspects of life and at any cost. The roles of their agencies CIA and KGB was very crucial and is well documented in the now declassified files.  This book is written by Stuart A Reid who is executive editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and is now associated ith CFR.  It revolves around the Democratic Republic of Congo which was also known as Zaire for some time. The central African country is one of the largest country in the world criss-crossed by River Congo. The country was a  personal estate of King Leopold of Belgium before becoming the  colony of Belgium.  After a brief struggle, the country got its Independence on 30 June 1960 but due to absense of administrative machinery and institutions to support the sudden withdrawal of Belgian...

 A Scholarly Work Guns, Germs and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin Random House in 1998 is a brief history of evolution of human civilization. Before we delve into the specifics of the book, we must introduce the author Jared Diamond, for he is one of the prolific author writing on evolution, human history. He is professor of Geography at UCLA and won Pulitzer Prize for this book. In order to explore the evolutionary process deeper he studied anthropology, biology, genetics, linguistics, ecology and history. His scholarship leaves an indelible mark which is evident in the book. The book revolves around the quest of the author to find answer as to why human development proceeded at such different rates in different continents and societies. What factors have caused this differential rate of evolution where even nearly placed societies experienced different growth trajectory. He spent 33 years in New Guinea for understanding the s...

OUTLIVE The Science and Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia, Bill Gifford Penguin Random House, UK, 2023 The author is a practising medical professional who is not satisfied with the traditional medicinal appoach which he has described as Medicine 2.0 and propagated Medicine 3.0 apporach to humankind. The book is divided into 3 parts where part 1 deals with the introduction of the longevity history of the human race and need to intoduce Medicine 3.0 for the age of chronic diseases. Part 2 deals with the centenarians and attempts to find a causality between those who live 100+ years and their lifestyle along with discussion on the 3 main causes which he calls as "Horsemen diseases" and how they are impacting us. Part 3 basically discusses means and strategies to avoid aging as well as horsemen diseases.  The book is result of years of knowledge gathered by the writer in dealing with patients and his pursuit to find one of the oldest and trickiest question ie. how to approach l...

      Being Mortal : Atul Gawande  Medicine and What Matters in the End A guide of death and what happens before. There is emergence of literature which is discussing the prior death experiences which was not much talked about previously. Paul Kalanithi's "When breath becomes Air" was recommended to me by an oncologist but haven't followed that genre for long.  I picked up  Being Mortal : Atul Gawande published by Penguin Books  recently and this was my first book of Dr. Gawande's literature who has mostly written on medicine and its interaction with humans. The book talks about the need to talk about detah and how medical profession is failing to keep up with the idea of dignified death and harps upon artficial life elongation instead of focussing on quality of life. The author banks upon his own experiences as a physician based in USA and near experiences of his father who himself was a doctor and develops cancer after 7 decades of healthy lif...

यह लेख मेरे लिए और इस ब्लॉग के लिए विशेष है क्योंकि यह साठवाँ अंक है। दशक पूर्व शुरू की गई इस यात्रा में कई  बार रुकावटें आई लेकिन कई प्रशंसकों ने पुनः इसे जीवित करने का निवेदन  किया तो उनके प्रोत्साहन से यात्रा अभी तक निरंतर चल रही है।  आज हम चर्चा करेंगे काशीनाथ सिंह रचित प्रसिद्ध  "रेहन पर रग्घू" जिसका प्रकाशन "राजकमल प्रकाशन" ने सन 2008 में किया है। काशीनाथ सिंह जी आज किसी भी परिचय के मोहताज नहीं है। आधुनिक हिन्दी साहित्य में उनका विशेष स्थान है । काशी का अस्सी प्रायः आप सभी ने पढ़ी होगी। उनका लेखनी का एक अलग अंदाज है, जिसमे ग्रामीण परिवेश, उस परिवेश में उधेड़ बन में लगा आदमी, पारिवारिक स्थितियों मे दबा, सामाजिक तानों- बानों  में अपने आप को उलझाता - निकालता हुआ व्यक्ति। रेहन का मतलब होता है किसी भी चीज को गिरवी रख देना।  रेहन पर रग्घू पुस्तक के मुख्य पात्र रघुनाथ सिंह किरदार के इर्द गिर्द घूमती है। रघुनाथ और शीला  की तीन संताने  हैं, बेटे संजय, धनंजय और बेटी सरला। मिर्जापुर के एक छोटे से गाँव पहाड़पुर कि पृसठभूमि में एक छोटे से परिवार कि महत्वाका...

इस लेख का शीर्षक लेख पूर्ण होने के बाद बदलना पड़ा। लेख पूर्ण होने के उपरांत सहसा लगा कि इस महान विभूति ने जीवन पर्यंत को प्राथमिकता दी है तो शीर्षक भी यात्रा आधारित होना चाहिए।  आज  आपका   परिचय   हिन्दी   साहित्य   के   उस   मूर्धन्य   साहित्यकार   से   कराने   जा   रहा   हूँ   जिसका   नाम   केदारनाथ   पांडे   था   लेकिन   प्रसिद्धि   हुई   राहुल   सांकृत्यायन   के   नाम   से।  बाद में उन्हें महापंडित की उपाधि से अलंकृत किया गया। इनका  जन्म  9 अप्रैल को  आज़मगढ़   ज़िले   में   हुआ।   सांकृत्यायन को   भारत   में   यात्रा   वृतांत   विधा   के   पितामह   के   रूप   में   भी   जाना   जाता   है   और   इन्हें  30  से   भी   अधिक   भाषाओं   का   ज्ञान   था।  इनकी   १३०   से   अधिक ...