Author: snehashispanda

If not for this god-forsaken pandemic, I would have been out and about, painting the town red in Bengaluru. Who am I kidding? I would have been sitting down for a game of intense FIFA with greasy Chinese food delivered by Dunzo on the couch. My friend from Hebbal who will read this hopefully will […]

You might have seen lichens grow on rocks, breaking them down into soil paving for plants to occupy these niches. The lichens do all the dirty work as the pioneer species while everyone goes ga-ga over the flowers that bloom subsequently. Who cares about gnarly, old lichens? Scottish author John Buchan’s The 39 Steps suffers from a […]

Books about bibliophiles are quite something, no? The author name drops, the contextual literary references, the constant whiffing of old books inhaling their essence into the last letter. It’s a heady concoction because their passion is evident. There’s a certain degree of typecasting that bibliophiles have to endure in terms of their visual depictions in […]

I had earmarked Han Kang’s The Vegetarian as to-read on Goodreads way back in 2016. I think it was possibly because it won the Man Booker Prize that year. Or maybe I wanted to look cool in front of my Goodreads followers. Who knows, really? Irony probably died a million deaths as I swiped across […]

I’ve always preferred the book over its cinematic adaptation, movie, or series. I like my own sense of visualization, conjuring imagery constantly while reading subjecting characters and settings to my own prejudices and perceptions. I think I’d probably be in the minority, having read Fight Club before having watched it. Without getting into a debate […]

“I don’t see why not” tends to be Dominic Ullis’ common refrain over the weekend ender bender we accompany him as he shoots across Bombay in Jeet Thayil’s Low. It is a constant state of submission to the vagaries of the day, be it accompanying barely known acquaintances to breakfast at a random Irani cafe, […]

The narrative of human tenacity in the face of absolute adversity is one that has always held its own because of the pure, raw sentiment that fuels it. It’s the cornerstone for advertisers (Nike’s You Can’t Stop Us), film-makers across geographies (A quick glance across IMDB’s Top 250 movies is a clear indicator), and seemingly […]

It’s ironic that the first-ever post in this series will revolve around closure majorly. Having been massively disappointed at how the alt-history show “The Man in The High Castle” rounded out the final season and the series finale (deserves a full-fledged tirade of its own) in recent times, it took me a while to shed […]

I’ve always believed an effective combination of hard work powered by smart measures makes for a decent shot at practically anything. (Never thought I’d be able to say that with a straight face, but here we are) However, I can frankly admit the considerable efforts I’ve tend to put in over the years, across a […]