Richard Dawkins’ Books

This is not a single book review but a set of them, all about Genes and Evolution and all written by Richard Dawkins. For me, personally, it opened up a whole new world that I was blissfully unaware of. I was never a good science student with Biology and Chemistry being one of my least favourite subjects back at school. So, imagine my thrill when I found myself addicted to these books and probably rediscovered some lost part of me. I started with “The Selfish Gene” and later went through “The Blind Watchmaker“, “God Delusion“, “The Greatest Show on Earth“, …

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Personal Finance Books

Back in 2004, when I took up reading about ‘Personal Finance’ to save myself from the clutches of an LIC agent :-), I had to scourge the internet (rediff money and later economic times) to understand even the basics like PF vs PPF, why Term Insurance is the way to go or how evil ULIPs were . Thankfully, things have improved and there are some very good books that people can instead turn their attention to. Let’s Talk Money & Let’s Talk Mutual Funds – Monika Halan A book like this would save so much trouble for people looking for …

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Twenty Years Ago

It was exactly 20 years back that I had to started to blog online. Just when we finishing college, in 2001, two of my classmates from B.Tech CSE in Pondicherry Engineering College, Siva and Arun, had an idea to create something that will keep us all connected better than the only option available then – yahoomail group. It is funny to think of it now, but back then they were probably on to the first social media idea (along with several others including one Mark Z you could say 🙂 ). But unfortunately their campus placement offers were delayed and …

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[PS5] The Last of Us – Part 1

This game is set in the backdrop of a post-apolatypic dystopian future – specifically after a fungal infection outbreak has turned humans into something like zombies (controlled by the fungi) and dangerous. Originally made for PS3 a decade back and remade for PS5 last year, it is a visually captivating, emotionally haunting story with elements of action and adventure thrown in. If there ever was a video game that behaved like a movie that you could control and play in as the lead character this would be the one. Within the first few minutes of the game you understand that …

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Atomic Habits

Self help books are usually not my cup of tea. I have tried a few and absolutely not liked them (sorry fans of ‘The Alchemist’). But there are some on the right side of rationality while also being helpful with some day to day stuff and ‘Atomic Habits’ is one such book. It feels well researched and actually gives practical suggestions that could work. Moreover the tone of the book is more of opening up the knowledge instead of taking the “I know everything, now listen to me” attitude. I also like that it touches upon difficult topics like “genetics” …

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PS5 – The Gaming Monster

I have had my eyes on the Playstation roughly for 10 years, every time with the “Last of Us” game as the backdrop – starting from PS3, and then with the remastered version in PS4 and when PS5 came out was surprised that they reworked on the Part 1 again, but never thought of buying it. Once I got my gaming Laptop and managed to play few PS3 games on them (Uncharted 1-3) I was again interested in the playstation. I then managed to run the first few minutes of “Last of Us” and was convinced that I would be …

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Empirical Parenting

There are some amazing parents in the animal kingdom. Several birds try to deflect the predator’s attention to their young ones by making themselves a possible prey. The Giant octopus who lays the eggs, tends to them without eating and dies off. Orangutans, Polar bears and elephants who invest time and energy running into years to ensure that their offspring stands a good chance. Parenting is a required genetic trait, but there is one animal that outshines all when it comes to worrying and strategising about their progeny’s future – Humans. Depending on who you ask, today’s parents spend several …

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[Switch] Resident Evil 4

This was the first game I bought when I got Wii but never gotten around to playing it. Now that the HD remake on the switch was there I thought I will try it out and just got hooked on to it. Everything about this game is great – be it the story, the controls, the length and the difficulty. I was happy to see that they did not have any ‘easy’ level and started off with the default ‘normal’ level. With the first few minutes of the game you realize that this is not for the faint hearted. The …

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The Joy of Knowing

From our early times, we have been very curious about the world around us. We tried to make sense of stuff, know and understand it and pass on the knowledge to the next generation. Probably that is how we were able to survive and evolve. Even today, children ask so many questions and are filled with curiosity about everything. But as we grow up, this curiosity is slowly extinguished by the society’s obsession with success measured in units of marks scored. By the time we are adults, we hardly bother to learn or wonder anymore and will laugh at the …

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The Rugged Smartwatch – AmazFit T Rex 2

So, my 3 year old Huawei GT 2 stopped sending phone notifications (was working otherwise with the same amazing battery life) and I started to look out for some options. I never quite liked the default option for iPhone users – Apple watch (high price, low battery life, prefer circular dials). The Huawei/Honor is not in a great state (especially in India) and so did not want to commit to them. Finally ended up at Amazfit’s website and was happy with their iOS support. Their GTR, GTS models were good but the T Rex was what I always wanted like …

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