Prakash Shenoy's Diary

या कादंबरीतून महासागरांचा इतिहास, जमिनीखाली आणि समुद्रामध्ये कशा प्रकारे संशोधन होते, संशोधकांचे जीवन कसे असते, सैनिक म्हणजे नक्की काय असतो, निसर्गाची उत्पत्ती कशी झाली आणि अशा प्रकारची बरीच माहिती मिळवता येईल. हे पुस्तक म्हणजे एक अशी कथा आहे, जिथे सर्व काही संपतं आणि सर्वांना पुन्हा नव्याने सुरुवात करावी लागते. ही सुरुवात नव्या जगाची आहे, नव्या जगण्याची आहे, जगण्याची नाही तर नव्याने जगवण्याची आहे, नव्याने घर शोधण्याची आहे, गमावलेल्या सर्व गोष्टी पुन्हा नव्याने कमावण्याची आहे. लेखकाला लहानपणापासून संशोधक होण्याची इच्छा, म्हणून भरपूर पुस्तके वाचून काढली. अनेक संशोधकांचे चरित्र वाचले. सर्वकाही सुरळीत चालू होते आणि त्यातच मिलिटरी स्कूलमध्ये शेवटच्या वर्षी लेखकाचा अपघात झाला. नंतर रेल्वेमध्ये प्रवास करत असताना अपघात झाला आणि लेखकाची बरीच स्वप्ने धुसर झाली. जास्त धावू नये, जास्त वजन उचलू नये अशी अनेक बंधने लेखकावर आली. संशोधनात काही करता आले नाही याचा खूप त्रास होत होता. संशोधनातून काहीतरी वेगळे प्रयोग करायचे आणि जगाला काहीतरी नवीन दाखवायचं ही खंत काही केल्या मनातून जात नव...

Most great cities have criminal underbellies. London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mos­cow, Istanbul—all these have nurtured notorious criminal networks. Mumbai’s underworld took shape in the 1950s and 1960s. The pioneering dons came from poor Muslim families—reflecting their socio-economic marginalisation. After the bomb blasts in 1993, the ascendancy of the Shiv Sena-led government and the rise of an elite, trigger-happy police unit, the balance of power shifted in favour of you­nger Maharashtrian Hindu mobsters. In Byculla to Bangkok, S. Hussain Zaidi focuses on this part of the underworld. The nerve-centre of organised crime runs down Mumbai’s own centre. The  ear­lier generation of dons came from the southern end, close to the docks, while their successors lived further mid-town. This lower-middle-class milieu of mill wor­kers, petty government servants and street vendors was host to the dreaded BRA gang (of Babu Reshim, Rama Naik and Arun Gawli) and Amar (Ra...

Cast:  Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Aaron Paul, Jason Bateman, Amy Ryan Director:  Rawson Marshall Thurber Call it the superhero scourge or the blight of franchise but the big-dollar cinema, which invariably has few brave men saving the world – sometimes in spandex, sometimes not-- seems to be throttling everything else. If a courageous film like the quirky buddy comedy Nice Guys finds its way to the theatres, we the audience decide to look the other way. You, O Hollywood, have conditioned us. Even when we are talking bromance, we want it with a generous serving of formula, and – please, oh please – someone save the world. Enter Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and buddy comedy 101, Central Intelligence. The film keeps so much to the bromance formula that it is funny in itself: We get jokes on anatomy (Dwayne Johnson’s character is called Robbie Weirdicht), fart jokes, the mandatory marital counselling session and other vulgar gags. But leave it to the pocket-sized Hart and his buddy...

Genius, it is said, is the ability to reduce the complex into the simple. The strength of Ignited Minds, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's latest essay at book-writing, lies in the scientist's ability to present some of the most tangled issues that confront the nation in easily digestible packages of information. Kalam throws modesty to the winds and makes bold to present his "I have a dream" kind of vision statement to pull the nation out of the morass of doubt that it has fallen into. But those looking for an erudite discourse on the nation's woes by someone who has achieved so much may feel let down. Kalam's world-view is at times far too simplistic, even bordering on the naive. Yet it is precisely the lack of cynicism that makes it a refreshing read especially for the young reader. Kalam's "Can Do" approach even at his age is a lesson for all those who curl their lips at any talk of India achieving greatness in the near future. The sc...

How do we know that stars are millions of miles away? How was the moon formed? Is there life on planets that circle other stars? What is a nova? What are black holes? You will find the answers in this book, and not in long, mind-numbing technicalities. Isaac Asimov’s unique skill and authority have never been better deployed than in this fantastic grand tour of the cosmos. Over the course of this brilliant expedition, the reader will experience close encounters with giant planets, unusual views of pulsating stars, and rendezvous with distant galaxies, as well as the unfolding history of astronomical discovery, beginning with Eratosthenes (who calculated the size of the Earth in 240 B.C.) and ending with the stunning scientific achievements of the present day. In no other book can the intelligent layman get so keen and thorough a summary of the riddles of Earth and space. Asimov deftly reveals the secrets of the universe with explanations that anyone from novice to scho...

The Demon-Haunted World is a collection of twenty-five essays, several written with Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan. The essays range in scope from eloquent paeans to science to impassioned denunciations of bigotry, from humorous accounts of a variety of pseudoscientific endeavors to serious attempts to understand the nature of alien abduction delusions. With intelligence and wit, and the rational calmness that is his trademark, Sagan takes on a wide variety of topics, among them: alien abductions, astrology, Atlantis, the Bell Curve, channeling, crop circles, demons, electromagnetism, ESP, the face on Mars, fairies, faith healing, magic, miracles, prayer, religion, Roswell, satanic rituals, therapy, and, of course, one of his favorite topics, UFOs and extraterrestrials. Only Velikovsky gets ignored this time around. Through each of his essays he extols the virtues of skepticism, empirical evidence and control studies, while uncovering a multitude of errors and weaknesses i...