Cordial Book House in Gachibowli, Hyderabad is closing

17th May 2026

Cordial Book House in Gachibowli, Hyderabad is shutting down. I was a member since 2017. My son read hundreds of books from here. I read a dozen may be. May be 50. Lost count. It started around 2012 as part of "Just books". Rebranded to Cordial in 2021, post covid.

Its owner Menindi Kiran Kumar told me he is selling his collection of 7500 books and needs to close it fast, mostly in next 1-2 weeks. Post which he is taking a mining job in Sierra Leone. He is a geology graduate from Andhra.

He said business has been untenable from past 1-2 years. Earlier he somehow managed. Best wishes to him. I don't remember any other shop/business which I have frequented so often. And I am sure many other customers will miss it too.

This closing will not receive any mention in any local media, though it should. Running a library for almost 15 years in Hyderabad while paying a significant rent is nothing short of a miracle. This library provided sustenance in its own way to all its members and their kids. A part of me goes away with its closing.

Hyderabad Lit Fest Day 1/2 Events attended

24th Jan 2026.

Orwell Awning 1 - Fact Checking workshop by Factly - 11:30AM-1:00PM
The NRB, Orwell Outdoors - Band Ananta (by Ananta and Paul) - 1-2PM
Battkoch movie  - 2 to 3:30 The Stage, District 150, 4th floor
3:30 - 4 Street Play - Chalo Duniya Sundar Banaye by CVR college The NRB, Orwell Outdoors
5-5:50 Panel by Naris Abraham, Ratna Rao Shekar, Tejaswini Yarlagadda Credai Orwell 1
6-7 Dastan-e Guru Dutt by Fouzia Dunbar Hall 
7-8 Aabha Hanjura Live band Soofisticated. Argus Opel pit 

25th Jan 2026

Orwell 2 - 11 to 11:50 - Scars: Totems of memory: Sayan Basu, Sveta Chakrabarti with Rohini Subrahmanyam
The Stage - District 150 - 4th Floor - 12 to 12:15 - Together We Sing by Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed - short movie
The Stage - District 150 - 4th Floor - 12:25 to 12:37 - Indian Fox: Fighting Habitat Loss by Chinnaboina Pradeep Kumar, Pranay Juvvadi
The NRB, Orwell Outdoors - 12:30 to 1:00 - Behind The Scenes: Stories that got lost in the final edit of 'The Hyderabadis'. Daneesh Majid

1 to 2 - Taki Taki Rumba ft. Rishi on Djembe Live and Tony on Rap
Orwell 2 - 2 to 2:50 - The Pain Pathways: Vimee Bindra, Arnab Barik with Pannari Gottipati
Dr Reddy's Amphiteater - 3 to 3:50 - Beyond Babel: The Twisted Tale of Tongues. Laura Spinney, Peggy Mohan with K. Venkatesh
Orwell 3 - 4 to 4:50 - Human-Dog Dilemma: Legal and Ethical Interpretations. Abodh Aras, Rohit Chawla, Vivek Mukherjee with Anjali Lal Gupta
4:50 to 5:30 Dance Party ft. Tony

Dunbar Hall at District 150 - 6 to 7 - Sada-e-Kashmir, A Folk Instrumental Symphony by Younis Majid Rather, Yawar Showkat
7 to 8 Argus Opel pit - Kavitvam Oka Teerani Daaham by Team Jhansi

Simple ways to remember India's lat long

Simple Ways to Remember India's Latitudes and Longitudes:

1. India lies above the Equator and to the right of the Prime Meridian. Therefore, it's better to measure the latitudes in degrees north and the longitudes in degrees east.

2. The northernmost latitude of India is 37.6° North, and the southernmost is 8.4° North. The difference is 37.6 - 8.4 = 29.2.

3. The westernmost longitude of India is 68.7° East, and the easternmost is 97.25° East. The difference is 97.25 - 68.7 = 28.55.

3a. So, if you round the two differences, both will give you approximately 29.

4. Trick to remember 37.6: 37.6 is considered the human body temperature above which we call it a fever. Since it's quite cold in northern India, going outside India is like risking a fever :-) Hence, India is optimally located below 37.6°.

5. Trick to remember 8.4: 8 AM to 4 PM are typically the office working hours.

6. Trick to remember 68.7: The reverse of 68.7 is 78.6 or 786. 786 is a holy number for Muslims. To the west of India, we have Muslim countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and others. So, at India's western border - which ends at 68.7° - the number gets reversed and becomes 786.

7. Trick to remember 97.25: .25 means 1/4. There is a rule about leap years: add 1 day every 4 years, except if it's divisible by 100 and not by 400. This results in 97 leap days over a period of 400 years. Thus, 97 and .25 are related in that way.

Sindhi Poem Original

अम्मा ड़ी अम्मा,

अच फुल्को डे। 

बाबा ड़े बाबा, 

अच धड़को डे। 

वे गालाए,

किथे ती वनीं।

हल घुमाये,

किथे वें हली। 

Kaalkoot review

Inspired imitation is the highest form of compliment one can pay to the creator - someone.

This is the modified quote I cooked up to say that Kaalkoot is the compliment paid by the TVF world(Arunabh Kumar, Sumit Saxena, Gopal Dutt) to Anurag Kashyap(AK) universe. To take it even backwards, AK universe originated from Ram Gopal Varma(RGV) universe with the added spices of Indian mythology.

RGV (re?)started the trend of showing realistic violence in Indian cinema - both verbal and physical - as opposed to the typically prevalent artificial violence. While RGV focused on the gangsters of Mumbai and South India, AK & associates branched out and made it more north Indian and more mythological. Gulaal, Paatal Lok, Sacred games and what not.

In parallel we have the growth of TVF - by and for engineering college kids primarily. In TVF world - protagonist and most of the characters are highly likely to be upper caste Hindus - mostly Brahmin or Baniya. And that trend continues in Kaalkoot with Vijay Varma as a Brahmin. He also dons a backpack like a college/coaching student.

That aside, it is definitely worth a watch. I enjoyed all episodes except the last. And as usual for any web series, climax is very hard to get right.

Vijay Varma for me is Irrfan Khan reincarnate. He is the closest in terms of weaving the Irrfan magic. One complaint I had with Irrfan was that he departed too early. Here are my prayers for VV's long life as I don't want to miss what he will be able to conjure up in the next decades.

Some similarities with Paatal Lok are hard to miss. There Hathoda Tyagi's sisters underwent sexual violence and were teased with "Aapne jo taang uthakar di". Here Ravi's sister underwent similar violence and teased with "ek baar bhaiya ne zabardasti li phir usne marzi se di". 

Even the name "Kaalkoot" reminds me of "Chitrakoot" where Hathoda tyhai hailed from. Then there is this song "Hum kya batayein bhaiya kaisi raat Hui" which reminds me of lyrics of "Sheher" from Gulaal - "Aye ek waqt ki baat bataye, Ek waqt ki, Jab sheher hamara so gayo tho, Wo raaj gajab ki".

And then the love interest of Ravi is a female with epilepsy issues who is willing to have sex with him to "get rid of all her fears" while the love interest of Sardar Khan in Wasseypur also had epilepsy and wanted to have sex to cure it.

So I would say Kaalkoot is a crossover between TVF and AK universe - and a good one. Reminds me of another crossover going on in Bollywood right now. For me Luv Ranjan is to Kartik Aaryan what Imtiaz Ali is to Ranbir Kapoor. Recently they switched sides. Imtiaz Ali did Love Aaj Kal with Kartik and Luv Ranjan did Tu Jhoothi main makkar with Ranbir. I didn't watch the former but later was a lot of fun.

Hindi Poem Original

#original

राम भी सो गए, 

माधव कहीं खो गए।  

राधा जो बुन रही,

गीत कहीं गुम गए।  

किन्नर संभावना,

हतप्रभ वीरांगना।  

नित् नित् नृत्यांगना, 

नाचे मोरे आंगना।  

टेढ़ा मेढ़ा आंगना,

फिर भी मोहे नाचना। 

किसको है ढूंढना,

कैसे उसे बूझना। 

कब तक खंगालना,

कैसे निभाहना। 

Ret Samadhi Hangover?

Ret Samadhi(Tomb of sand) won Booker in 2022. It's a story of an Indian woman crossing over to Pakistan for love.

Now in 2023 we see 2 women crossing border(Seema Haider/Anju) for love. Is it only women who have such courage? Or men know that they won't get the similar sympathetic treatment?