A Week with a Malayalam Chunkster and Endless Loops of Music

We’re nearly at the half-year mark, and it’s shaping up to be a strong reading year — 39 books in, including a graphic novel. Not too shabby, if I may say so myself. This week, I finally tackled a long-overdue Malayalam chunkster by Indugopan that’s been lingering on my TBR for a while.

2025, Week 20

Reading  

Finished two books this week, both in Malayalam, for a change. Indugopan’s “Aano” was long, often clever, and mostly engaging. I’m not sure why his huge fan base seems to have overlooked this one. For a Malayalam novel, pulling off a Dan Brown-esque setup was ambitious — and he managed it, more or less. I was especially intrigued by the drama set in the Vatican toward the end. Bonus points to the narrator on Storytel for improvising the Pope’s menacing voice — very Vader-like (lol). Maybe it was the travel night and the surrounding silence, I don’t know. May the trivialities of my life not affect me anymore, while reading?

The other one was പ്രോത്താസീസിന്റെ ഇതിഹാസം by the talented but ever-underwhelming Vinoy Thomas. It contained two Malayalam novellas. Silly. I saw it coming, yet couldn’t resist the length. Another one I listened to on Storytel.

Series 

Watched the first few minutes of Andor. I’ve never liked Star Wars. The moment I realized it was part of the franchise, I stopped.

I also finished episode 5 of The Last of Us. I’ve never played the game — I don’t game, don’t own gadgets good enough for it either. But I cared for Joel, thanks to Mr. Pascal. Now that he’s gone, I’m losing interest. The series feels like it’s struggling too.

Movies 

Wasn’t planning to watch Mission Impossible, but got an irresistible offer for a 4DX show with a colleague. Why not? More updates next week — I know what I’m in for.

Music 

Used chosic.com to generate songs similar to “I Am So Happy With My Little Dog” by Shabason & Krgovich — and just like that, I had 100 songs to explore. I also tried out tracks like Rites of Spring, followed by my all-time favorite, Mystery of Love. It was fun. Otherwise, I kept adding to my May 2025 – Voice and May 2025 – Instrumental playlists (two random names I use for the two playlists I create every month, every year).