Seshadri's Musings

More web-series reviews… Elite – A Spanish web-series streaming in Netflix.  So far, 3 seasons have been released with 8 episodes each.  The show has been green-lighted for 2 more seasons.  The series started in 2018 and the 3 rd season came out in 2020.  The synopsis is as below, from www.imdb.com : - 'Elite' presents three young people who have received a scholarship to study in Las Encinas, the most prestigious institute in Spain, after the collapse suffered by the public school in which they studied. However, their arrival in Las Encinas will not be easy, and the students, belonging to the upper class, will not welcome the arrival of Samuel, Nadia and Christian, who will turn upside down, without them wanting it, life of their schoolmates. Christian and Nano (Samuel’s brother) were also there in Money Heist. From Wikipedia…. Elite explores concepts and themes associated with teen dramas, but also features more progressive issues and other sides t...

I was asked by one of my college friends, Bobby, as how I come to know of all the books and web-series that I write about.  He was amazed by me writing about so many series that he would never have heard of 😊. I will write about my sources before venturing into the actual book/series.  I have 2 websites that I browse on a daily basis as to the new movies and web-series that get released.  I also visit rediff and msn website for movies and web-series. Sometimes these sites would cover top 10/50 movies/web-series that one should watch.  Sometimes they would come with the list of movies/web-series that will be coming in the future.  Similar info is also provided by Times of India and Deccan Chronicle.  I will then find out more about these and make a noting in my to-do list with their dates of release.  If it is web-series based on a book, I will get the book and read it before watching the series.  I also get recommendations from my school friend...

Nowadays there are lots of web-series that are being made from Books.   While researching on this, I came across quite a lot of them.   This blog looks at 2 such books that have been made into web-series.   Both of them are as good as the books. These being I’ll be gone in the Dark and A Suitable Boy. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer – This is a book by Michelle McNamara.  The book was released 2 years after her death with the last 1/3 rd of the book being written by other people who were helping her in the search of the killer. The book’s title is taken from the Golden State Killer’s threat to one victim – You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark. The name – Golden State Killer, was also given by Michelle.  This book is about a person who had committed at least 13 killings and more than 50 rapes between 1973 and 1986 and he was never caught for it, till 2018, when he was 74 years old.  H...

During my childhood, there were lots of people who would drop in at our house.   These people became friends over a period of time.   As already informed, my parents were members of Delhi Tamil Sangam library from where we used to get Tamil and English books and magazines.   In those days, many Tamilians would be coming from Chennai and would be working in various government offices or banks.   Many of them would settle in Karol Bagh.   Since there was no other past-times, they all would become members of this library to socialize and also to read Tamil books. While socializing, they would become friends of my parents.   Most of them would be just some 10-15 years older to me and as was the norm, I used to call them as Annas.   They would be staying all alone in Delhi as their family would be in Chennai or in some other parts of Tamil Nadu.   Usually during evenings, they would come with either of my parents, from the library, to our home for ...

There was a colleague of mine in my class from 6 th class onwards.   I don’t remember as to till when 😊 .   Let’s call her V.    Most of the times, we both would be either the 1 st or 2 nd rank in class.   Since the students in the school were seated as boys and girls separately, boys and girls would not speak to each other.   Very rarely, if some work was to be discussed or shared, then only the talking would happen. There was a Tamil and English magazines library in Karol Bagh, where V’s mother and my mother were members.   So, they became friends, not exactly friends, but known to each other.   I was good at Maths and Sanskrit during my childhood and used to score the maximum in these subjects in the class.   V was getting maximum in other subjects.   Now depending on how high my marks were in Maths and Sanskrit than her, and how high her marks in the other subjects were, in comparison to mine, the 1 st and 2 nd rank would be ...

Memories are something that stay with you forever.   When you sit down and try to remember your childhood, the memories come quick and fast.   Some of them are so ingrained that you feel happy when you think of them. During childhood, I would often go to kitchen to see what all could be had to eat.   Mostly they would be bournvita powder, sometimes with sugar too (put one spoon of bournvita in your mouth, then put one spoon of sugar and then eat them together 😊 ), malai from milk, curd with sugar, cooked vegetables, specially aalu or arbi, immediately after they are cooked, and before actually eating the lunch or dinner.   Outside of house, candy in the shape of a cigarette was also good and so was heated shakaragandhi (sweet potato).   There were several vendors who used to heat shakaragandhi, cut it, put masala on it and sell.   Those would be too good!   We used to pick “ber, jaamun” from trees and eat.   There was also candies which was pri...

Some more reminisces of my school teachers…. In the 8 th Standard, we had an English teacher, Mrs KJ.   Since I was also the monitor of the class and also did well in the exam, I was in the good books of her.   That day it was the last period and she announced a holiday the next day due to some incident or something like that.   The following day was a Friday and hence we would get 3 days off.   As soon as she walked out of the class, the entire boys section of the class (boys and girls used to sit separately; right side 2 columns were boys and left side 2 columns were girls) stood up and started hooting!   Since the girls were sitting down, I could see Mrs KJ pass by the window and her eyes caught my eyes.   I just sat down with a sheepish grin.   On Monday, when she came to the class, she asked all the boys to stand up on the bench for causing too much noise earlier.   She then asked me if I was also indulging in creating noise.   I said...