Asur Season 2: The Indian mythological thriller is contradictory, full of plot-holes but binge-worthy

Asur is an Indian mythological fantasy thriller series. Season 2 was released on 1st June, 2023.

Asur Season 2 photo
Asur Season 1 and 2 are available on JioCinema to watch for free.

Plot: Asur revolves around a child prodigy – genius – who considers himself an Asur (Demon), an incarnation of Kali (the demon in Kali Yuga (Modern times). His aim is to show society how failed are it’s morals and principles. He uses people’s love for their families and kin to ask them to make difficult choices about other people’s life and death. CBI is tasked with catching this psychopath killer / mythological terrorist.

Review: Overall, the show manages to create a very intriguing and tense thriller using mythological inferences. The story is unique, fresh and continuously asks questions about morality and justice. The acting is also good, for the most part. The dialogues are a hit and miss. Sometimes, they tell a very good story – blending stories of gods and demons with present day events. But, other times, they are clunky and very generic. A lot of exposition needs to be done which renders the dialogues banal and dry at many instances.

The biggest problem with Asur is it’s inherent contradictory nature. In order to make us believe the god-level antagonist, show goes to all lengths to create a mythology but then because it is a police procedural, it has to bring all of these events at earth level – where they die an instant death. The show also has no fully moral character – All characters at some point, break the law, even kill without remorse – lending the ultimate philosophical victory to the antagonist anyway.
Not to take other things away, Asur is a commendable effort in storytelling – straying here and there but still being binge-worthy.

Overall Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

How to be truly original ? Steal Like an Artist Book review

Steal Like An Artist

I really like the quote. Steal like an artist. Like his previous book, Show your work, Austin Kleon debunks a lot of myths about originality and inspires you to steal from your heroes. The main argument of the book is, no idea is original. Everybody is inspired from other sources. Do not steal exact content but steal the thinking behind the art. That way, you will start seeing the way the artist intended to.

It is a short book, which you can finish within the hour max. Lot of good quotes and takeaways. The style is easy and fun to read. Best way to read this is – keep it on your desk. Read a chapter everyday in the morning. You will be inspired.

Key Takeways:

1. Steal not from one but multiple artists. Remix the work. Put your own flair on it. It is the way of the world.

2. Computers are alienating. Our minds love to work their hands with the heads. Keep an analog workstation too if possible where you keep post its, notes, scribbles etc. Will ensure that you create something.

3. Keep a praise file and a swipe file. When you are out of luck or mood, read the praise file. Then use your swipe file to get inspired and create something.

My Rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

How to read more books and why you should?

Let me clarify. Reading more books will not make you smarter or richer overnight. There is no number (e.g. 50 per year or 100 per year) which will instantly make you Elon Musk. No. of books read is a vanity metric which frankly doesn’t matter.

How to read more
How to read more books

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

In order to read more books, first you have to let go the metric. Let go of the social approval you are seeking. Let go of the vanity that you will earn if you read “x” no. of books where “x” greater than my best friend’s “y”.

Once you have done that, let me tell you why you should read books. Put simply, books are wisdom condensed. Books are lives led by people which they are sharing with you so that you learn what they learned. So that you do not make the same mistakes they made. You maybe want to look at the world as they have.

Reading a blog is not same as books. When you read something on the internet, you have zero friction to change your choice. You don’t like the news – click on something else. You don’t like the long article, screw it. Hence, I consider reading physical books and reading on Kindle as “reading” in true sense.

Ok now let’s get to the tips:

1. Buy a Kindle. Do not worry about the model, battery life blah blah. If you can afford it, please buy a kindle. The return on investment for books and kindle is so huge that it will not matter. Seriously, just buy a kindle. End of story.

2. Go ahead and start reading blogs about books. Take for example Goodreads, Fivebooks etc. Go through them, curate a list of books that immediately draw your attention. Buy them on kindle immediately or buy them from Amazon. Buy 4 of them to be safe. Some of the easiest books to start your journey – Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Show your Work!

3. Treat books like Netflix Shows. Treat each chapter as a episode. Watch the first episode and then let it simmer. If you are a binger, then go ahead binge the whole show. If you don’t like it, just switch to another show. There are multiple books with the same wisdom, same knowledge. You should not put any particular book on a pedestal and think about finishing the book if you have started it. There are a lot of terrible books (shows) which you should leave when you have chance.

Netflix shows and books
Read Books as if you are watching a netflix show

Photo by Juraj Gabriel on Unsplash

4. Most non-fiction books will let you know their true advice in the introduction itself. Also, each chapter of a self-help or a non-fiction book can be read independently anyway. So, do not trudge through boring stuff – Just skip it. It is fine.

Once you have started doing the above steps, you will automatically fall into the rabbit hole of books. They are magical and once you get the bug, you will not leave it.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Book review

The diary of Naval is divided into two major sections – his thoughts on wealth creation and his thoughts on happiness, mediation, life, science, and philosophy.

Noticeably short and practical book. Infinitely usable and inspiring. It will change you in some way for sure.

It is available for free on his website to download and read [Almanack of Naval Ravikant (navalmanack.com)]. I bought a copy as I wanted the inspiration to sit on my bookshelf, ready for me to pick it up when I feel like it.

If you are new to Naval, I would recommend first listening to at least one of his big interviews, watch the Joe Rogan one. So that you get the basic feel of his style and where he comes from. The book is a collection of all his interviews, writings, and sayings. So, there is no prose, or chapters as such. It is questions and answers format and the big sections I said in the beginning. So, some pre-planning will help.

For those who follow him, a lot of this book has already been said. So, buy if you want but can skip also.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Owning equity and having leverage is key. Work towards these to create wealth.
  2. It helps a lot to read. Read, synthesize, and create mental models to live your life. Keep updating the models based on new evidence.
  3. Happiness is when your mind is at peace.

PS: I liked his science, happiness, philosophy section more than his wealth creation section. I am in the minority but that’s fine.

My rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Show Your Work! Book Review

Show Your Work! is one of those books that gets recommended a lot by creatives, or in the life changing books section. Now I can see why!

The book is short, very to-the-point, no fluff, useful insights on every page. You can see that these can also be blog posts, but all the chapters do follow a structure about showing your work.

The book comprehensively debunks many of the myths associated with online work. This will read like gospel to many folks who know they want to show their work but just can’t due to these inhibitions. If you are one of those, just read this book.

Key takeaways:

1. Lone Genius is a myth. Everybody is a unique type of genius.

2. People do not care, or your friends will not care if you start writing a blog or showing your life on YouTube. Most people are busy in their own lives to care about what you are doing.

3. Do not worry about platform, or hosting or whatnot. Worry about having a unique voice.

4. Do not perfect or over plan. Iterate fast and show your work consistently.

My Rating:
***** (5 out of 5 stars)