Tushar Mangl Media

Yes, finally I got around to getting a new look and feel for the blog, although some readers think it resembles the old one too much. Also, did I mention that I joined the Instagram bandwagon? Well, it is no Flickr or Picassa but it works okay.  They say, its filters are amazing, I didn't find them as advertised but yes, they made a difference or two to my photos. I can put one here as well.  A photo posted by Tushar Mangl (@tusharmangl) on Aug 27, 2016 at 3:33am PDT On the reading side, I am going through the Jodi Picoult collection. I have put it off as long as I could, knowing how depressing it could be. But she is a gifted and very astute author. The other day I was at his famous book store, going through the best sellers, they had lined up near the door. Suddenly this guy enters with a heavy backpack on his back. The guard, in his politest best, asked him to submit it with him, but the guy with an attitude that would throw a romance novel's alph...

Brilliant setting but story stretched too long without any reason.Also things have been picked from author's other books too. As in why in every book the defendant has to keep lying to the lawyer ad then both have a fight whether the defendant will testify or not. It seems to have become a recurring theme in all her books. Remember Nineteen Minutes?

Electricity plays a major role in any elections in India. Not surprisingly therefore, when facing prospect of defeat in elections, last time when Congress was in power in Punjab, it decided to offer free electricity to farmers. But the gimmick did not work as expected and the Congress lost the elections. The Akali - BJP combine came into power, promising better power scenario to Punjab populace. Again things never went as per plans. The idea was to make Punjab a power surplus state. A noble idea and the strategy was good too. As power shortage was severe, the government took steps to set up massive thermal power plants with private players in the driving seat. This idea could work as the government itself had little money and power for industries or home use.  Then, the sorry tale of land acquisition started. Villagers refused to part land. Simultaneously the coal scam rocked the nation and rocked the boat for grand power plans of Punjab. Which also envisaged exporting ...

If you look at the M & A activity in the past few months, it seems like an era of independent free internet is slowly coming to an end. Linked In was bought in by Microsoft, Yahoo an iconic brand of the nineties was sold out to Verizon and Monster another survivor of the dot com bust of nineties finally went to hammer. It seems as if the surviving spirit of these and many like them is waning. Look at how Uber, although now a major player but once a struggling start up, conceded defeat in China as players with deep pockets closed ranks to check it in. Indeed it seems as happens in a true capitalist world, the big boys with deep pockets and perpetual line of credit seems to be showing who the boss is, with curbs on smaller different players. Take the case of Go Javas, a logistics firm, which was supposed to be bought by Snapdeal but once talks failed, again supposedly Go Javas lost the e-commerce giant's account. So, where does future lie for upcoming tech firms? Most of...

An amazing book by a gifted writer. Is it really love what we feel for a person so close to us? Does someone really mean they love you, when they say they do? What do you do when a person says they love you but refuse to share some very important things which are bothering them? Although you share everything and never lie to each other? Does that really belie the very undertaking of love? The claims made, the vows taken? This book leaves so many questions open but very little answers. Perhaps as it is in most cases, the answers lie deep within us. Or the answers really are out in open and we refuse to interpret them, to accept them? The Pact by Jodi Picoult is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores the complexities of love, family, and the human psyche. The story centers around the lives of two families, the Golds and the Hartes, who have been friends for over a decade and whose children, Emily and Chris, have grown up together. However, when Emily dies in an apparent s...

Imagine the plight of those people who are in tremendous pain but nothing can be done to reduce it, simply because they need organ transplant. If you look it at common sense level, the solution is so simple. Get people to donate organs when they are no longer alive and hence don't need it. In today's times, one would be shocked to see how many well educated people are so unware about organ donation. And these are the people whom we count on to change the world. After all, if such educated people cant understand the simple fact that you no longer need your organs after death and that they can be used to help others. Gift your Organ is one such organization which is pushing for this much needed awareness. It is co ordinating and enabling pledging of organs through its online portal http://www.giftyourorgan.org/ I mean, why is it so difficult for so many of us to give up something which you wont even feel about when donation is done?

I am not someone who is quite comfortable with the hills, but mountains somehow always remind me of them. People say one should be careful during travelling to hills due to landslides etc. The penchant of destroying our environment is so ingrained in Indians that the mountains once so lovely are now bare and crumbling. Which causes problems during monsoons. Other than that I love the mountains during rains. In plains we have so much water logging and sewage overflow. In hills, the water just flows, reminding us to keep flowing. The weather chills down but the trees and the rest of the flora comes out so fresh, so clean, you can actually breathe the freshness in. The other reason is the humidity. Somehow the humidity associated with rains, in plains or near oceans is almost absent in the hills. All the more reason to enjoy the rains without worrying about the follow on of the humid weather.

Over the weekend I was browsing through some video book reviews of Six Degrees. My prime interest was to know how reader's felt about our story Entangled Lives.  As I surfed through the video streaming sites, I wondered whether the time has come for video reviews. We all know the benefits of video over text. But internet speeds are quite slow in India and access still limited. Also the quality might suffer due to inadequate or obsolete recording devices. On the flip side, video reviews are super cool. You get to relate to  your readers so much better. Will this trend be a hit? I can not be sure about it. You see when you check out reviews for a book, you just skim down a list of reviews, say on the shopping site or on a review website. You don't want to spend a lot of time researching and learning about the book.

A girl from a poor family is gang-raped in Haryana by five men. That was the year 2013. Happens all the time. We don't need to panic or do anything as it did not happen in Delhi or Mumbai. It happened in Bhiwani. Why bother? Circa 2016. The same men, again gang rape the same girl. No one is shocked. The glib, English-speaking middle class is not interested. No one wants to discuss a girl from a poor background who despite being a victim of a heinous crime, was trying to rebuild her life by shifting to Rohtak and studying for her masters. Nops, no one gives a damn, especially the police. Since society never expected them to do anything, remember the riots in Rohtak for reservation a few months ago? And by living up to its expectations, the police never did anything. You really can't police the will of the people, especially if that will is deep rooted in lawlessness. We saw it during the reservation stir when police allowed a free for all rioting for every frustrated f...

We have had a lot of discussion on this blog, in earlier days about   Kashmir   and the perennial problem it is for the Indian state.  Now that the central government is pumping in a INR 80,000 crore package for the Kashmiris, plus the usual flow of tax payers’ money for security reasons, they have received an excellent feedback from people of the state. By openly supporting the death of a commander of a terrorist organization, the people of Kashmir have clearly shown where their loyalties lay. And they do not look at all at par with the Indian state.  That leaves a very uncomfortable question for the Indian polity of the day. What to do with Kashmir at this stage? Is pumping money blindly and empowering the armed forced really going to work? This is plainly the strategy that everyone who has ruled in Delhi has followed. While militancy has weakened due to a strong army, hostility between the army and locals is only increasing. An ...

Finally the Prime Minister has shuffled his cabinet. He kept most of his council of ministers intact, just making minor changes here and there. Key takeaways - Former Karnataka CM Sadananda Gowda is moving down steadily in political circles. From Railways to Law and now to an obscure ministry his stars are not shining. PM Modi seems to have realized the need to induct more powerful females in his council of ministers. Hence two of them have been brought in, blunting the power of other formidable women leaders. Bihar still has the maximum representation in the PM's cabinet even though the people of the state have moved towards the RJD, Congress and JDU combine. The biggest gain has been for the law ministry with two senior Supreme Court lawyers taking charge of it. Talk about expertise there. Another big gainer is the environment ministry which has now got a known environmentalist to reign it in. The government now has two very well qualified doctors on board, none of t...