I have always thought of my personality as something that belongs to me — a set of preferences and habits I arrived at, the accumulated evidence of who I am. Becker suggests something far less comforting: that character isn't discovered, it's constructed, and it's constructed for one specific purpose. To keep me from looking too directly at the fact that I will die. He calls this the vital lie. Not a lie in the sense of dishonesty, but a necessary fiction — the narrowing of a

One of my favourite books is by Paulo Coelho, The Spy, which follows the struggles of an exotic dancer, seducer, and spy named Mata Hari. Her body exuded such grace that the wives of smitten men were convinced she was a witch. She used all her charms to eventually mix with high-ranking officials of France, extending her services beyond the body and extracting valuable secrets from enemy nations. And when her true motives were exposed, she was shot by the same French nation sh

The book sheds light on the events preceding the cyclone and the mismanagement of the British power following the cyclone leading to massive loss of life and suffering of the natives. Here is the story of British Barbarity at its best. And it’s different from most stories. It is not simply another book which describes volumes of injustices caused to poor Indians by dominant Britishers in as much as these accounts are only concerned with social and economic status and the subs