Jitesh

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

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.