Pensha

What life doesn’t offer you or takes away from you, novels give it in abundance. A chance to juggle multiple answers for a question troubling you, a chance to peek into someone’s thoughts, a chance to bridge the perception of imagination and reality, is given or sought in the fictional world. “ These and other factors like awakening to the sensory experiences, the feeling of being sucked in by time, giving us motives, and the ability to break the boundaries of time and space are the ‘10 ways in which novels can change your life’,” says author Chandrahas Choudhury, who was in Pune recently at the invitation of Open Space, taking time off from his busy life in Delhi and Mumbai. To elaborate on the topic, Choudhury chose 10 passages from the works of the past and present writers, which were not necessarily the central plot or even focussed on the protagonists, but nevertheless struck a chord. He first read out the passage from Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise which depicts the se...

You are still living in the dinosaur age!” My friend exclaimed when I expressed curiosity at his buying books from Flipkart. Oops! I should have said ordered books from Flipkart because isn’t “buying” a physical act? Well, that’s so “romanticising” the past, I was told. Has the act of buying books from the bookstores — sniffing in the “bookish” air, sometimes standing on the toes and sometimes bending at the knees to hunt for books and finally grinning when you get the copy you were looking for — become so passe? Are the technology-driven businesses and corporate-owned bookstores appealing more to the sensibilities of generation now than those cosy book nooks around the corner? We spoke to readers and bookstore owners to find out... Leafing through change Says Sunil Gadgil, owner of Popular Bookstores, Deccan Gymkhana, “We are disadvantaged by the current competitive scenario. We can’t afford to sell the books at significant discounts like the online bookstores. Of course,...

Touted as “one of the 100 most influential people in the world” by TIME magazine, writer, speaker, Chetan Bhagat certainly doesn't mince his words when he says, “Youth who are not politically conscious, do not know the importance of voting, are not interested in the decision-making process, are as good as a bunch of illiterates.” Bhagat, who was in the city at the launch of Canada-based Mad Science, a science enrichment provider for kids, in India and Sri Lanka, said, “Both rural and urban youth are aspirational. They want to change their circumstances, which is good. But, they are not very politically conscious. I would say, kids from rural areas are more politically aware as compared to their urban compatriots. But, on the whole, youth today are not interested in decision-making process, they are disenchanted by democracy, which isn't a good sign. All of them can't become activists. They have to be a part of the socio-political fabric of the country.” Bhagat, who's ...