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53 reviews

Aumkaar

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Aumkaar’s Bookshelves

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Aumkaar is Currently Reading

Aumkaar is currently reading

A Suitable Boy

by Vikram Seth

bookshelves: currently-reading

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"It reads so easily. Like an evening boat ride on the calm currents of Ganga." — Aug 26, 2026 07:15AM

Aug 26, 2026 07:13AM

Aumkaar is currently reading

The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase

by Mark Forsyth (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: writing, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

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Aumkaar said: " The book is replete with chapters on literary devices such as alliterations and assonance (citing only the popular ones, because the rest sound like latin incantations). But more importantly, it is replete with clever humour. I scanned through the fi The book is replete with chapters on literary devices such as alliterations and assonance (citing only the popular ones, because the rest sound like latin incantations). But more importantly, it is replete with clever humour. I scanned through the first few chapters, and already decided to rate it five.

However, I have also thought of trying something new through this book. Which is a chapter-wise, read-along commentary (idea borrowed from a popular GR user), trying to incorporate the literary device discussed in the chapter.

Chapter 1 (Alliteration): We witness why curiosity killed the cat and the baby was thrown with the bathwater. And, thereafter, why they would be dead as a doornail. Plus a picturing of Shakespeare's plunder.

Chapter 2 (Polyptoton): A friend complains that Monday is Monday-ing too hard, and their brain isn't braining enough. And you wonder how you can help. Well, like a true friend will, let them know that it's polyptoton they are using to express their misery.

Chapter 3 (Antithesis): Polyptoton was in talking the talk, antithesis is in walking the walk. And if that failed to convey what antithesis is, it's fine. Because to err is human, to forgive is divine.

Chapter 4 (Merism): The author has given pretty neat examples in the chapter, but he was bound to miss the best one, which comes from the Hindu mythology. Merism is what gave birth to the lore of Vishnu's Narasimha avatar. It is what Hiranyakashyapu thought would do the trick when denied a direct boon of immortality. To be killed by neither god, human, nor animal, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither on the ground nor in the sky, and so on and so on. But as the chapter concludes, "Merism searches for wholes, and leave holes", and into that very hole sank a scammed Hiranya-K.

Chapter 5 (Blazon): This one was quite specific. It gives name to what I thought was the forte of bollywood lyricists, but turns out to be an ancient, universal practice. Where poets feel compelled to hack the subject of their romance into parts (metaphorically, not criminally), in order to appreciate those parts using the most impossible similes. I am not going to try it here.

Chapter 6 (Synaesthesia): When senses and their respective adjectives join a swingers club, and result in a trippy imagery. A pungent noise, a honey-like voice, a loud colour, a taste duller. While the permutations and combinations are many, the chapter explores their varying acceptance in literature.

(to be continued, or perhaps not) ...more "

Aug 07, 2026 09:23AM · see review

Aumkaar is currently reading

VAJPAYEE: The Ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924–1977

by Abhishek Choudhary (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, biography, india, history, politics

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"It's slightly exasperating to see the biographer go out of his way to ensure that the subject of the biography is sufficiently belittled. Still, it's an informative read on the history of the ideology that rules the roost today. The latest chapter covered Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and now I finally see him as a historical individual with substance rather than just a political symbol." — Jul 22, 2026 12:00AM

Jul 21, 2026 11:49PM

Aumkaar’s Quotes

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

(Letter 16, 1657)”
― Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

tags: brevity, conciseness, correspondence, humor, letters, pithy, wit, writing

842 likes

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

tags: hell, love, suffering

5745 likes

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

tags: lies, love, respect, self-deception, truth

12096 likes

“Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live. ”
― Rabindranath Tagore

284 likes