Monday begins on Saturday

Imagine loving your work so much that Sunday was an unbearable gap in its pursuit. That any time spent away from work was a terrible bore, and that you often found yourself sneaking back to work despite explicit instructions to the contrary. This was the Soviet dream. I don’t know if this dream stayed confined …

Secondhand Time: The last of the Soviets

“We share a communist collective memory. We’re neighbors in memory.”  Earlier this year, before the world was halted by a virus, I visited Uzbekistan. This Central Asian country was part of Soviet Union till 1991, the final year in which the Union dissolved. It was an interesting place for many reasons, but for me what …

Zen: The Authentic Gate

I recently read Zen: The Authentic Gate by Yamada Koun. A good introduction to Zen, as I have known very little about it except for the emphasis on meditation in this form of buddhism. Through the reading, I learned that zen exclusively focuses on personal experience with the help of a teacher, and does not …

Nana by Emile Zola

That I found reading Nana difficult is an understatement. I expected some labour over it because classics is not my usual genre and Zola makes the slow pace even harsher by his scientific glare. But Nana presented more challenges than my anticipation. For instance, I couldn't empathise with the tempestuous, irritating child at the center …

Reborn: Susan Sontag early notebooks

I began this year with reading Susan Sontag’s notes of her early life (Age 14-30). 2020 has just started and this already feels like the most influential book I am going to read this year. Primarily because it has made me want to write more, to note down more thoughts, to distil. Susan says writing …