The Tower Of Silence by PJ Chevalier

My review for the book can only go to the lengths of displaying the sheer amusement I have had in reading the novel. In the author’s words, my review is “better imagined than described”. The book is relatively fast-paced and what happens in the 200 paged story would surely take at least a season of drama on TV to unfold.

Some of The Most Innovative TV Theories

Watching English TV Serials have become less of a pastime and more of an addiction. I have been gobbling up sitcoms and series in these four years of college like there is no tomorrow. Recently I had a deep conversation with my friend Joyneel Acharya regarding this topic. Instead of being the total nonsense entertainment that its Hindi counterpart provides the English ones give some interesting theories -

The Burnt Pan : Teaser

Our Author Shubham Sharma's Guest Post for The Whitescape.

The Burnt Pan

A short story over the suicide plan of a pan.

Do check out

Harry Potter vs. Percy Jackson

Name: Harry Potter
Affiliation:  Dumbledore’s Army

Background: The only known survivor of the Killing Curse , Harry became the youngest Quidditch Seeker in over a century and went on to win the Triwizard Tournament. He played a significant role in many battles of the Second Wizarding War and hunted down and destroyed Voldemort's Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione. Harry is also notable for being the only known Master of Death, having united the three Deathly Hallows.

Name: Perseus "Percy" Jackson 

Affiliation:  Camp Half Blood

Background: Percy is the son of Poseidon, called Neptune in Roman Mythology. He begins in The Lightning Thief as a troubled twelve-year-old boy with dyslexia and ADHD. He has always been branded a rebel, and he dislikes being restrained or forced to obey.

LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!!!!

#12: Batman vs Hulk

Having beaten the Captain at his own game in match 5, Batman now turns towards Hulk, the angry green beast.


Name: Bruce Wayne
Affiliation: Founding member of Justice League Of America
Background: Orphaned at the age of 14, Bruce Wane's life changed totally with the death of his parents. He vowed to take revenge on the criminal world. After completing his education in US, he went far-east to learn new fighting styles and criminal psychology. He initially fought as a plain-clothed vigilante but was so badly beaten up that he realised that he must wear a cowl to actually strike fear into the hearts of the villains. So he adorned his Batman armour and became the Dark Knight who protected Gotham.

Name: Dr. Bruce Banner
Affiliation : The Avengers
Background : An emotionally reserved genius scientist, Bruce first transformed into Hulk when he was subjected to a gamma bomb explosion as he tried to protect Rick Jones who had wandered into the testing range. The Hulk possesses a little of Banner's memory and intelligence, and is easily enraged making him a menace to the society. After the Asgardian trickster Loki trapped Hulk into destroying a train, Hulk joined the likes of Wasp, Iron Man , Thor and others to take revenge on Loki.

LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!!!!

Photo Credits : Statman

Udacity - Intro To Computer Science by David Evans

This is one of the beginner level courses being offered in Udacity. It aims to teach you Python while simultaneously building a search engine. It was initially a 7 week course when I had taken it, but now has expanded to teach more Python concepts as they try to keep up with edX's 6.00x and Coursera's Learn To Programming courses.

The course spans 11 lessons and gives the freedom of self-study to users. An experienced Python coder can finish the course in 11 hours while the newbies might take much longer, this flexibility is Udacity's USP and is what separates it from Coursera, edX and other similar MOOC sites. I have highlighted these in the Coursera vs Udacity post of mine. There are also in-video quizzes which are pretty effective in helping you clear your concepts. The Problem Sets and Office Hours sections are where the tougher problems and their solutions are discussed in details. The main contents covered are -

How to Write a Personal Statement for MBA Students

Alex Petryck

Alex is a writer at Best Essays. He helps other students with their education.

Admission into a top MBA program is a goal for many people. An MBA opens opportunities, gives valuable knowledge, and is often the gateway to important management positions. However, the biggest challenge to MBA programs is the application process.

Between the numbers of recent college graduates, mid-career business people upgrading their resumes, and career changers, the competition for prestigious MBA programs is stiff. Therefore, it is very important to make a strong case for why you should be accepted into a particular MBA program. To do this, use the following tips to submit a strong personal statement for MBA programs.

My Son Failed By An Inch: Chapter 6

Glory and Guilt

<<Back to the contents page

Santo played in the right wing and was filling for a star player whose stamina was hit by the FIFA virus and got injured in an international friendly. I knew what it was like to set foot on the green pitch engulfed in an ocean of supporters, critics and detractors and while your ears are muted by shouts of praise and support. So far, he seemed to have put all this behind and managed to put on a fine display of passing and crossing. Then came his moment of truth. He slipped past one of the finest midfielders in the Valencia side and left the last defender for dead as he slid the ball past through to his attacker. The pass tore their defense as an incision knife through wounded flesh that left it bleeding. The honors were complete as Real scored the only goal of the game and Santo was substituted in injury time to eat up some valuable seconds much to the frustration of the opposing team.

Go Goa Gone

Is the BJP critically in its “worst ever catastrophe” - to quote orgasmic television reporters, anchors and studio guests?

LK Advani “had” both the wisdom and the kindness to realize that when the BJP came to power earlier, Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be a more uniting factor than he himself was. Thoughtfully, Mr. Advani stood aside.

Now years later he realises Mr. Modi is not a Vajpayee and stands worried. He senses that the Modi juggernaut is  pre-emptive politics and it might damage the party. Mr. Advani stands as a man who faces the irony that his swansong may be an act of tempered refusal. 

 Advani knows that on a national front Modi may not be the force he is projected to be, and in the Gujarat Chief Minister's case he has earned a reputation that precedes him, and could well damage ties and alliances even before they are formed. Mr. Modi might completely shatter a party in crisis instead of being a force propelling the BJP into the future."

It is not just about the internal collisions within the party, its decisional rituals, its ideologies, the contending ambitions within it; it is also the question of coalitions. 

Jiah, Jiya Rey !! How Not To Commit A Suicide

While I try to stay away from most of the Bollywood News, you can clearly see from my title that I cannot boast about being successful in this field. As we are all aware of, Jiah Khan - the actress who starred in Nishabd, Ghajini and Housefull had committed suicide about 5 days back.

Since when has suicide become the easy way out for people who are not happy with their lives? Life is never a straight road, it is full of curves and bends and ups and downs. One moment you get some good news and the next moment it might turn into bad. What is next - a boy dying because his father didn't buy him a bike? Oh, wait that has already happened. Yes, a boy who had recently passed his 10th board exam had asked his father for a bike. His father refused as his son was underage for driving. A few hours later, he walks into his son's room to find him hanging from the ceiling. Think what is going through his father's mind - If only he had agreed to buy his son a bike this would never have happened. Just because the boy chose the cowardly path of ending his life doesn't mean he can make his old man suffer; that is just plain selfish.

#11: Martian Manhunter vs Vision

The Green Martian Detective has been poised to fight against the most powerful synthezoid of the Marvel Universe in a battle to prevent the decimation of their universes.

Name : J'onn J'onzz ( better known as Martian Manhunter)
Affiliation : Founding Member of the Justice League of America
Background : Born and bred on the planet Mars, he escaped to Earth when his civilization was destroyed. He shape shifted to look like a human and lived under the name of John Jones. He became an intergalactic law enforcer trapping and enforcing criminals from over 28 galaxies. When earth was in danger, he along with the other superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman etc. came together to form the Justice League of America.

Name : Vision or Victor Shade
Affiliation : Ultron's minion and Avengers
Background : Vision was created by Ultron, one of the most powerful robotic foes of the Avengers, who had the unique AI to make it able to think for itself. This synthetic humanoid was made from parts of the original Human Torch and the brain patterns of Wonder Man. The Vision was initially tasked to destroy the Avengers before being convinced by them to turn and destroy Ultron instead.

LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!!!!

Why The Game Of Thrones is Not for the Starks

*** NOTE : There are Spoilers in this Post ***

***Don't read this unless you have watched till the 309 episode of the Game Of Throne Series***

I'm sure that you would have guessed by now, that I have just finished watching the The Game Of Thrones 309 -  Rains Of Castamere episode. And yes, I am pissed and you should be too. From the day we were born, we have always seen the good triumphing over the bad, the heroes beating the villains and the angels stopping the demons. So naturally it was hard for me to digest when the Starks were slaughtered in the Wedding at the Twins. They bled left, right and center before biting the dust. They were one of the honourable houses of Westeros.

But the Starks are emotional and in no way do they have the temperament to protect their knigdom let alone win a war. Here are 5 mistakes made by the Starks of Winterfell which ultimately led to their downfall  -

Coursera - Introduction To Music Production by Loundon Stearns

Steve Clark

Steve is a professional programmer and amateur musician who has a long-stranding love of open source software. He has played in a few bands and recorded a few songs in his home studio. He writes about his experiences with music and Linux at Studio Spoon.

I had wanted to learn more about this topic for some time as I record music at home. Some friends on the Six String Bliss guitar forum were taking this course and so I decided to join them. This was my first on-line course. It’s not something I had considered before, having been brought up on traditional education methods, but as the course was free I had nothing to lose except for my time.

The course was led by Berklee lecturer Loudon Stearns. He told us from the start that this course was a new experience for him too which became obvious as we went along. There were various issues with the course materials and quizzes, but this was all openly discussed on the forum. I was impressed to hear that around 50,000 people were taking the course, but I do not know how many of those completed it.

The Curious Case of Flyte and Piracy

Flipkart shut down its digital music store Flyte, this week. At a price ranging from Rs 6 to Rs 15 per song, a lot of good music was available at one place. Why did Flipkart shut down Flyte?

Flyte didn't seem to be generating profit. Why? Many believe this is because Indians do not (or for the matter of fact anyone does not) like to pay for their music anymore. Everyone wants to buy pirated stuff which comes very cheap (read: free).

Is that the reason?  Well..there’s another side of the coin as well. Flipkart is successful because of its cash-on-delivery system, but then there was no way you could pay cash for Flyte purchases, and needed to use a card or net-banking.