Soul Kadhi

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

2010-12-17T02:15:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to miss this book. It comes up in discussions often and on lists like All Time 100 Best Novels From 1923-2005. It’s a shame that I hadn’t read this book all these years and I decided to take things into hand and finally get down to reading it.

The book is set in a mental asylum in Oregon which is run by a tyrannical nurse “Big Nurse” Miss. Ratched who manages the asylum and the patients according to her whims and fancies. She tacitly threatens the inmates – “The Acutes”, first level of insanes – with shock therapy and lobotomy which will make them “The Chronics”, who are in a vegetative state. The patients are naturally tormented by her but lack the courage to stand up and speak against her. A new patient, MacMurphy, makes an entry into the asylum faking insanity to escape a jail sentence. He gets into tiffs with the nurse and upsets the routine and questions her actions. This leads to a constant power struggle between McMurphy and the nurse.

The helpless condition of the inmates and the way the staff take advantage of their helplessness tugs at your heart. While most of this might be true about mental asylums, you still hope that these things exist only in the fictional world. Refusing medication and administering medication to induce sleep so that the staff can get away with their amorous activities and stealing, giving electric shocks for breaking a rule, not caring for hygiene and letting the inmates rot their in their own pee – this book is not for the faint of heart. McMurphy tries to bring in laughter to the asylum and constantly reminds the inmates to stand for their rights and makes them wonder whether they are really insane. He places a bet with the inmates that he can lift a heavy shower control panel and when he fails to do so, he says, “Atleast I tried”, which inspires the inmates. Several incidents like this make the inmates slowly take charge of their own lives and resist the unquestionable control of the nurse. It makes me wonder how many times I have let someone run over me and stood watching helplessly. I wish I could say ‘Atleast I tried’.

McMurphy and the nurse’s character are strong and opposing. While McMurphy makes you feel warm and energetic, the mention of Big Nurse makes you cower. The narrator Chief is another inmate in the asylum who pretends to be deaf and dumb and is hence privy to many dark secrets of the asylum. The other characters in the book – the stuttering Billy Bibbit, the strong Harding, the germaphobic George, the doctor, the black orderlies add variety. The language is smooth and easy. The story and the narration keeps your interest perked up. What takes the cake is the ending. While it’s not hard to predict what was coming, you can’t help getting emotional when you read the climax.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest borrows its title from a nursery rhyme.

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest

Cuckoo here refers to a mentally disturbed person and cuckoo’s nest is the asylum. McMurphy can be seen as the one who flew over the cuckoo’s nest because he went against the rules and disturbed the nest. Chief, the narrator, can also be the one because he frees himself from the clutches of the asylum.

The book was made into a film which went on to win many awards. Jack Nicholson won the best actor award for playing the role of McMurphy and Lousie Fletcher won the best actress award for playing Nurse Ratched. The film also won awards for Best Picture and Best Director. More details on wiki. I don’t have the courage to watch the movie. If you have, let me know how you find it. If you also read the book, then which one do you prefer – the book or the movie?

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

2010-05-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Wind in the Willows is about a mole, a water rat, a badger and a toad who has a penchant for expensive cars. Sounds interesting? You bet! It can be termed as a children's book, but it is for everybody who is a child at heart. There is something very 'cute' about the book - the innocent characters, the simple story line, the language they speak and the simple, everyday things that the characters take great pleasure in.

When I saw that this book appears on BBC's The Big Read - 'Top 100' and 30 books to read before you turn 30, I set really high expectations on this book. I had the memories of The Secret Garden fresh in my mind and I was hoping this book too is as likeable as the first one. While The Wind in the Willows is a good book, I don't understand what the hype is all about. The book definitely does not deserve to be part of any 'must read' lists. The Secret Garden is a totally different book - it revolves around humans and the story is something that one could easily relate to. There is a very strong presence of nature in it which makes it even more charming. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy animated characters and animals dressed up and leading a more human life, but Willows just didn't work for me. If I can relate to Calvin and Hobbes where the stuffed tiger lives only in the child's imagination, I should be able to appreciate any animal character, right? But the rat or the mole or the toad just didn't stir any feelings in me. All that stuff about the toad ordering expensive cars and wasting away his life and money, the rat and the mole being such good buddies and helping the toad find his goal in life - I could not digest all this.

Just a few words about this book can't be called a review, but I am still blogging this because I need to air my views somewhere. Please do not be discouraged by my view of this book. I am known to dislike books which others just love. In fact, you should mark a book as a 'have-to-read-it-no-matter-what' if I give it a bad review. Told you, I am insane!

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

2010-05-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

After thoroughly enjoying the first in the Millennium series The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I knew I will be reading the next book pretty soon and so I did! We meet the same characters Lisbeth Salander, the one with the tattoo and who apparently plays with the fire in this book and our hero Mikhael Blomkvist and a bunch of other supporting characters.

This time around, we have Salander in the hotspot - she is accused of triple murders and it is upto her friend Blomkvist to help her out in this difficult decision. The author takes immense pleasure in hanging the sword above Salander's head and letting the readers wonder 'Did she? Didn't she?' A journalist who is writing a book about sex trafficking, his girl friend who is writing a thesis on the same subject, a mysterious incident in Salander's life which she calls "All The Evil" - add all these and you have a page tuner in your hands - literally! Just like the first book, Larsson creates an air of mystery around Salander's so called evil incident and the reader is dying to know what the heck that is. Salander gets a few more layers to her - Larsson beautifully develops her character. Half the world thinks she is a psychopath and is dangerous to the society whereas the other half thinks she is the best thing ever that happened to mankind.

Larsson seems to be obsessed with the physical form of love. While the first book revolved completely around that and violence, Larsson could have easily avoided mentioning these in his second book, still he does. A more-than-necessary importance to lesbians and this really put me off. The author has an interesting plot on hands which will make the book sell like hot cakes, he need not resort to such cheap tactics just to increase the book's sales!

Larsson's writing is nothing great. As it happens with most murder mysteries, the importance is given to the plot, its twists and turns rather than the language and style and this book is no different. And I am totally fine with it. If I want to read good English and beautiful style, I will read some other book. When I read a mystery, I want to be given an interesting plot and so many twists and turns that I feel dizzy and Larsson's books fulfill these criteria. But there is a limit to how much shabby writing one can put up with. Larsson gets so descriptive in every scene (why do I care how many Billy Pan Pizza did Salander buy) that it gets really irritating (are you sure she folded her right leg over her left one and not the other way around? Who cares?). Still, I enjoyed this book just like how I enjoy a Govinda movie any day! You might not recall anything in this book after you close it, but you will enjoy it as long as you read it.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

2010-05-07T00:22:00.001-07:00

After being impressed by my first Atwood novel, The Handmaid's Tale, I picked up The Blind Assassin with a lot of expectations. If I have to sum up my opinion about this book in one word, it would be 'indifference'.

The Blind Assassin is about two sisters, Iris and Laura. The book moves back and forth in time - Iris is narrating her present life as an old, depressed woman who is separated from her granddaughter and she often visits her past where she tells us about her with her parents and her sister. Within this main story, there is another story going on, which is a book written by Laura and within this book is another story written by the protagonist of Laura's book. Confusing? It was, for me. With three different threads going on, it was very confusing to me and difficult to keep track of what I was reading.

I can't tell you anything more about the story unless I flag it as a spoiler. The narrator, Iris, seemed so hollow to me. I felt a strong urge to give her a nice shake to bring her out of her reverie and scream in her ears 'Show some emotion'. Laura, on the other hand, is interesting. As a child, especially, where she takes things literally that one can't jest with her and say 'Go jump in a well'. The way she takes things which we term as completely normal and the way she questions ("Does God lie?") makes her character very interesting. The other characters just exist to fill in the blanks in the sister's lives. Oh, one character which caught my attention is Reenie, Iris's caretaker - she was the most interesting in the book.

When it is Atwood, I don't really need to say anything about her writing. Beautiful words, thought provoking analogies, lovely flow.

I was sand, I was snow — written on, rewritten, smoothed over.

Mother might be resting, or doing good deeds elsewhere, but Reenie was always there. She’d scoop us up and sit us on the white enamel kitchen table, alongside the pie dough she was rolling out or the chicken she was cutting up or the fish she was gutting, and give us a lump of brown sugar to get us to close our mouths. Tell me where it hurts, she’d say. Stop howling. Just calm down and show me where. But some people can’t tell where it hurts. They can’t calm down. They can’t ever stop howling.

A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water.

Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the blind shadow cast by its absence.

You can read more quotes from this book on goodreads.

The book was enjoyable as long as I read it, but it has nothing memorable in it. I loved the language as long as it lasted. It's not a book that I would ask someone not to read, but I wouldn't highly recommend it either. I am indifferent towards this book, so it's left to you.

This book is on 1001 books to read before you die and Time's All Time 100 Novels. It won the Booker Prize in 2000.

Roots by Alex Haley

2010-04-26T04:19:00.000-07:00

My aunt had been asking me to read this book since ages. Considering that our literary tastes are not very similar, I was apprehensive about reading it. But when she asked me for the nth time if I got a chance to read that book, I figured I better read it and be done with it before she points a gun at me and screams, 'Read it now'.

Roots is about an African man, Kunta Kinte, who is forcefully brought to America to work as a slave. The book is about his early life in Juffure (now in Gambia), his eventual capture, his horrific travel to America and his life as a slave. The initial part where the author describes the native African life is very interesting. The book gives us a preview of the customs, beliefs of Africans and it is very intriguing. When Kinte is captured by whites to be brought to the US to work as a slave, the book takes a U-turn and the tragedy strikes. The part about Kinte's journey from Africa to America is lengthy and horrific. The state the slaves were kept in the ship, the way they were treated, the way women were used and abused - this needs a strong heart (and gut)! Kunta, who is in denial mode initially, finds himself accepting his fate and settling down in a foreign country. He gets married and has a daughter. The story continues about the daughter being sold to another American and what happens thereafter and this goes on for seven generations until Alex Haley, the author of this book, is born. The book is a mirror to the sufferings the African slaves were put through before they were accepted in the society as equals.

It is heart-warming to see that the author took the effort to trace down his ancestors and write a book about it, but one wonders how much of this is really true. Haley says his book is primarily a work of fiction, but also says that his ancestor is Kunta Kinte. He is said to have traveled to Jufure and talked to an elderly person there who vouched for the existence of Kunta Kinte, who was later captured and taken away. However, certain historians have challenged this claim. In fact, the elderly person from Juffure is said to have been 'coached' to lie about Kunta Kinte. When I finished reading the book, I was particularly impressed with Halley because he went to great lengths to unearth his ancestral lines, but when I read these allegations against his claim, I feel deceived. Why would one want to make up their ancestors? To make their book a bestseller? To gain sympathy from the world? As you can see, I am enraged!

As if these allegations were not enough to make me regret reading this book, Halley was even charged with plagiarism. Some of the portions of this book were directly picked from another book, which he denied initially, but later admitted it in writing. I wasted a part of my life, no matter how small, in reading a book which is completely unoriginal - both in content and in language.

Zero Percentile: Missed IIT, Kissed Russia by Neeraj Chhibba

2010-04-15T00:33:00.000-07:00

When Neeraj Chhibba, the author of this book, contacted me to ask if I can review his book, I was not sure about it. It didn’t look like a book which I would pick up on my own. Still, since I didn’t have any compelling reason to decline his request, I agreed to review his book. The very first thing I noticed about the book is its striking similarity to Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone. For the records, I haven’t read Bhagat’s book and don’t plan to do so. Without reading it, I know I am not going to like it. This was not a great way to start Chhibba’s book, but I tried to be as unbiased and unprejudiced as possible.

Zero Percentile is about Pankaj, a young lad who is like any other typical boy. The book starts with his birth and gives us a detailed view of how his life turns out. The story of his birth is amusing. The author tries to turn the story into a humor cum sarcastic one, but it just didn’t work. Pankaj is the apple of the eye back home and gets a special treatment by being sent to a public school whereas his sisters have to be satisfied with going to government school. He is bright, intelligent and does well in school. He tells us about his best friends – Priya and Motu, who are with him through thick and thin. His fights in school, crush on teachers and friends, studies, election as a Head Boy and so on. His aim in life is to get into IIT and he works hard towards it. An accident quashes his hopes and he has to console himself with something else. His Dad decides to send him to Russia to study engineering. This is the reason for the title ‘Missed IIT, Kissed Russia’. The book goes on to tell us his experience in Russia, his financial struggle and his love life.

The writing is simple and straight. The book actually reads like a diary of a young man. Since the book is in first person POV, this is quite acceptable, but Chhibba could have added some more style to his writing. There are quite a few errors, as pointed by many other readers. Not only print errors, there are a few places where Pankaj contradicts himself. When he is traveling to Russia, he is clearly a non-vegetarian, but he mentions about converting from vegetarian to non-vegetarian after landing in Russia.

The characters are all shallow. You don’t feel anything towards them – be it the protagonist or his friends or his parents. Pankaj himself comes across as a two dimensional character. If you don’t bond with the protagonist, there is very little chance that you will like the book.

The book reads like a last minute attempt in writing something down and getting it published. Or more like take someone’s diary and publish it. The story appears disconnected and things are introduced just to create drama. Nitin’s HIV episode, Pankaj’s stint as a salesman and so on. At one point of time, Pankaj is struggling to get hold of a few hundreds dollars whereas after his salesman days, he is suddenly playing with millions. A little hard to digest, isn’t it?

In the end, it all boils down to what I took back from the book. No inspiration from the story, no memorable characters, no contemplating moments – in the end, there is nothing that I gained from this book. Chhibba’s debut book might not strike a chord with book lovers, so he has try harder next time.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2010-04-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

Reading intellectually stimulating books is one thing, but there is nothing like reading a crime thriller. The former is like watching a documentary on Vietnam war. You need to be attentive, lest you miss some minor point. The latter, on the other hand, is like watching a thriller movie in which it is okay if you missed the initial few scenes because the most important thing is the climax fight or the chase. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a crime thriller but you would not want to miss any part of the book because there is not a single, dull moment in the book.

This book was originally written in Swedish and was named 'Män som hatar kvinnor', literal translation means 'Men who hate women'. What a lame title! Thank Heavens someone had the brains to change the title of the English version, otherwise I would definitely not have picked this book to read. This book is part of a trilogy called Millennium trilogy. The author had an unexpected death just before his work was published. His books went on to become best-sellers and he did not live to see it!

The first book in the trilogy is about Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo, who is a freak in the social world. She keeps to herself and behaves in a way for the others to think she is mentally unwell. What the world does not know is that she is an investigator and a hacker par excellence. Mikhael Blomkvist loses his money and credibility in a libel case. When he decides to take a break from his role as publisher of the magazine, he gets hired for an unexpected but interesting task by Henrik Vanger. His assignment is to crack the murder mystery of Vanger's niece Harriet which occurred some forty years back. Harriet disappears one fine day and nobody has any trace of her after that day. Vanger is sure someone killed her and to mock him, the murderer sends him a birthday gift every year. Vanger's only aim in life is to track the murderer and make him pay for it. The book is about how Mikhael, along with Lisbeth, solves this mystery. The plot is set in a fictional place in Sweden.

The book has a very promising start. With the first word, you are bang in the middle of all the action. The plot is interesting, to say the least. The author builds up an air of mystery around Harriet's disappearance and the reader so badly wants to know what on earth really happened to that girl. The main characters are believable, the most mysterious and interesting being Lisbeth. She comes across as innocent, yet shrewd. Her thoughts about how the world functions and her way of getting things she wants and how relationships work makes a very good read. You can't help but want to reach out and give her a hug. Blomkvist, according to me, comes across as plain. The protagonist of murder mysteries is usually a handsome hunk, who every living woman finds attractive and falls for, but not Blomkvist, atleast I didn't fall for him.

Though the book is quite big, it moves really fast. The story is quick paced and the eagerness to solve the mystery will make you finish the book in one sitting. The plot, the way the mystery is solved and the twists involved are all great, but the reason for the crime is lame. Somehow, in the end when the mystery is solved, you will ask yourself 'What the heck!'. Larsson has a great story to tell but he should have made his murderer more believable. The motive is not strong enough. Nevertheless, a great book and a perfect one to pick up when you are done with something heavy and need a filler.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

2010-03-25T01:17:00.001-07:00

Malcolm Gladwell is a well known author in the non-fiction book world. When his first book, The Tipping Point, came out in 2000, it took the world by surprise. Every book reader was reading and discussing this book. Blink was an even bigger influence on the book lovers. I read it to see what the big deal was and I remember that I wasn't all that impressed with it. When my brother recommended Outliers to me, I was skeptical. I didn't want to say no to him, but also wasn't eager to read this book. It was lying on my bookshelf all these days, patiently waiting for me to pick it up and the time finally came last week. On a whim, I just opened it and read the first page and I liked what I read so much that the current book went on the backburner and I started on Outliers right away.

If you are new to Gladwell, the first thing you notice is the bookcover. There is something captivating about the simple white background and bold, black letters. The bookcover tempts you to read the book. Isn't that what a bookcover should do? Allison J. Warner, is the cover artist, if you want to appreciate the effort.

Outliers looks at successful people and some not-so-successful people and analyzes them. Gladwell compares two individuals who have similar talent, similar IQ but one of them is successful while the other one is not and argues that the different is chance or opportunity. While one of them was given an opportunity, the other was not. Gladwell supports his theory by a lot of examples. These case studies make an interesting read. Gladwell tries to answer the question why Asians are good at math. His theory is interesting, to say the least. Not only does Gladwell talk about raw intelligence or IQ, he even says social skills - convincing and arguing ability are also important for success.

In one chapter, he quotes a study which involved a set of kids from mixed background. It was observed that the kids from rich household were better at studies than the poorer ones. Gladwell talks about a special school for poor kids to train them and make them equal to their richer counterparts. He outlines a typical day in the life of a student in that school and it is disturbing to see that the kid doesn't have even a minute to play. All she does is wake up, run to school, study, get back home, do her homework and go to bed. Agreed that this is for her benefit so that she doesn't miss out on opportunities for being poor, but let the kids be kids, right? Let her play and enjoy her life. She might not score better grades, but she definitely will have a better life. And since when did grades start affecting success? Isn't success subjective? Anyways, this was a chapter which I found very disturbing. I sat there and imagined that little girl who has to go this special school and sacrifice her childhood for better grades and I felt like screaming at the top of my voice, "Are you freaking crazy?"

The rest of the book is great. The chapter on Bill Gates and how hard work is an integral part of the path to success is conveyed very well. In the end, just talent and opportunities are not enough. One should utilize those opportunities and work hard.

An interesting and thought-provoking book. A must read if you are even vaguely interested in this kind of non-fiction work.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2010-03-10T02:41:00.000-08:00

This book is part of the BBC’s Big Read – Top 100 books.

One is never too old to read children's books. I, for one, love children's books and movies. I enjoy reading comics and watching cartoons. It had been so long since I read a kids' book, that I greedily lapped up Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden and enjoyed every word and letter.

Mary Lennox, who is living in India with her parents, is sent to England to live with her maternal uncle after her parents die because of cholera. As a child, she is unhealthy, stubborn and queer. Her uncle, Mr. Craven, is another queer man who keeps to himself and avoids meeting anyone. His house has as many as hundreds of rooms, of which many are kept closed and are unused. Mary hears a story of how Mrs. Craven died after she fell from a tree in her garden and how Mr. Craven hates the garden for it and hence has kept it locked. He has buried the key and no one has entered this garden for ten years. Mary is thrilled with this idea of a secret garden and wants to see what is in it.

While the plot is kiddish, the message the book conveys is not. The message that runs parallely along the story is that one needs to eat well and play well to be healthy. A main part of the story is about how a sick, unhealthy child learns to enjoy the life around. Nature has a strong presence in the book. Mary owes her health to her secret garden where as she plants the flowers, she grows along with the plants. Dickon, a country lad, is friends with all the wild animals and can even speak to a robin. If we all can learn to enjoy and respect the nature around us, we will have a healthier and a better life. The book is not patronizing. There are no messages passed on as wisdom. One just reads the story and realizes all these. After I finished reading this book, I couldn't help but smile and say to myself "Isn't life beautiful?"

It is only right that the book talks about enjoying little things in life. Burnett, who was born in a poor family, knows what are the important things in life. Materialistic things like clothes, money, wealth and grandeur are things that Burnett feels are useless and hence get no mention in the book at all.

This is one of the rare books which cater to minds of children and adults alike. Didn't someone say there is a child residing in everybody's heart? It is very difficult to try and please a variety of audience, but Burnett manages it with such ease. One can treat this book as a kids' book as well as a serious book which preaches ways of leading a happy life. No matter how you want to take it, it's a book worth reading. I so badly want to give this book to my son and say, "Read this now". I wish he was big enough.

A legal copy of this book is available online for free.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

2010-03-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

This book is part of the BBC's Big Read - Top 100 books.

Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War is exactly that - a book about love and war. I had never heard of either the book or the author before I saw the BBC's Top 100 list. I would never read this book if not for this book being chosen as the Book of the Month for March by the Ladies' Literary League on Goodreads. I love these reading groups, lists and challenges - isn't these how we discover new authors and books? Even though the title had war in it, (I don't like war books, you see), I still started this book with a broad mind and a genuine wish to like this book. But I failed. This book was a disappointment for me.

Birdsong is about Stephen, a hard-working, young boy who visits France to learn the trade of mills. He stays with the owner of the mill where he meets Isabelle, wife of the owner, and falls helplessly in love with her. Isabelle finds herself responding to Stephen's feelings and they end up having an affair right under the husband's nose. As it always happens, the husband comes to know of the affair and Isabelle draws enough courage to abandon her husband and her step-children to elope with Stephen. They settle down in a small place and start their life. I can't reveal more without spoiling it for the readers, so go and read the book to know what happens next.

The book grabs your attention from the very first page. Even though there is a lot of action in the rest of the book, I lost my interest as the story progressed. I found the war scenes especially boring. Didn't I say I dislike fiction books on wars? Even the story that proceeds seemed implausible to me. The characters lacked depth. The romance of Stephen and Isabelle failed to draw any reaction from me. Isabelle's action needed justification. Stephen's reaction to Isabelle's actions should have been stronger. And the characters that are introduced later on (can't name them here) also were poorly developed and could have used some layers. The book should have been about just war or love - the mix of both somehow didn't work for me. Or the author didn't do it well. I liked Atonement, where Ian McIwan has the same ingredients - love and war and he has done a wonderful job of supporting the main love story in the backdrop of war.

In the end, there is nothing I took back home from this book. No memorable characters, no quote-worthy lines, no 'wow' moment - nothing at all. I am not saying that people will not like this book. I am sure many readers will like this and praise this book. All I am saying is I didn't like this book.

Changing Places by David Lodge

2010-03-04T00:46:00.000-08:00

One fine day, when I was done with all the books borrowed from the library and didn't have anything tempting to read from my own collection, my friend lent me the book A David Lodge Trilogy. I had never heard of the author before, but was sure it will not disappoint me since I and my lending friend share similar tastes for books. The trilogy contains three books: Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work.

David Lodge is a British author and has more than 20 books to his credit. His latest book, Deaf Sentence, was released in 2008. His work, Small World and Nice Work were shortlisted for Booker prize and were made into television series later on. How Far Can You Go? won the Whitbread Book of the Year for 1980.

Changing Places is about Philip Swallow, an academic working at Rummidge University and Morris Zapp, Professor and an expert on Jane Austen at Euphoria University. As part of their exchange program, these two gentlemen swap places and assume the job of the other. Swallow is excited with this as he gets an escape from his drudgery, his wife and his kids. He remembers the time when he visited America last and he looks forward to having a wonderful time alone at the States. Zapp, on the other hand, is already tired with his journey and has agreed to this only because his wife has agreed to postpone their divorce if he moves out of their house for six months.

As the both of them settle down with their new jobs and surroundings, they also experience some amount of cultural shock. While Rummidge is a small, rural town where all the people live like one big, family, Zapp misses his night clubs and adventures. Swallow is overwhelmed with the freedom in Euphoria. Both the gentlemen end up having an affair with the other's wife. Some incidents and events in both the places make them want to stay on in their new place rather than go back to their previous lives.

The initial pages of the book took me by surprise. The fine characterization, witty lines, sarcastic humor reminded me of Tom Robbins, another favorite (humor) author of mine. This is the best part of the book. The humor quotient of the book dips as the story progresses. Each chapter of the book is structured in a different way. While the first chapter is laid out like the usual prose, we see another chapter written out in the form of a play and yet another like a script. The author was bringing in some humor no doubt, but it didn't work for me. I felt the author was trying too hard. He should have stuck to the prose structure and tried to add more wit to his story. The book also ends in an ambiguous way where the story just stops abruptly and the reader is left to wonder what happened. I personally don't like stories which end up being happy ones just to please the readers. Any deviation from this is welcome.

Another thing which I really liked about this book is the portrayal of cultural difference. Lodge, being British himself, has had the nerve to laugh at British and Americans alike. In the second chapter especially, where we see Swallow and Zapp settling down in their new places, the contrast that the author draws between the two characters and settings is amazing. Be it the lifestyle (Mrs. Swallow complains that Zapp visited her late at night where as it's just evening), culture (Mrs. Swallow is too polite to ask Zapp to leave), night life (Melanie and her parties), academic life (Swallow has not published any papers, yet he is a lecturer) - all these are so well brought out that I sometimes laughed at myself. I could see the similarities between our culture and the British and I just had to laugh and shake my head in amazement.

At the end of the day, the question is do I recommend this book? I say yes. It's an entertaining book, not a thought-provoking one and serves its purpose of making people laugh. So, go ahead and read it.

The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President by P M Nair

2010-03-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

A P J Abdul Kalam is a name which draws attention and curiosity. While his own books Wings of Fire, Ignited Minds, India 2020 became popular and were raved about, this book about him, written by his secretary failed to make any news. Nevertheless, the book drew my attention and I read it in one sitting.

The book states its goals very clearly. It is not meant to be Kalam's biography or his journey in life. It is about P M Nair's experience of working closely with Kalam for those five years when Kalam served as the 11th President of India between 2002 to 2007. It is not about how Kalam was born or what a troubled childhood he had or how he became a scientist. This book is about Kalam, the President, through Nair's eyes.

Nair has a great respect for Kalam and it shows. He points out Kalam's generosity, child like innocence and the dream he had for India. He set out to make a mark as the President in his five-year tenure. He made a mark and how! The book talks about many incidents to showcase Kalam's nature.

Don't we all read about Pratibha Patil going on foreign tours, one after the other, accompanied by her ~~village~~ family? Here is a change in the scene. When Kalam's extended family paid him a visit at his presidential house, Kalam ensured that not a penny from the government was used. He spent 2.5 lakhs on his family's expenditure - cars, hotels, tours, food. Doesn't that show this man's integrity? Nair jots down many incidents like this which makes you respect Kalam even more.

Nair is quick to point out certain qualities which Kalam should work on. Kalam's punctuality (the lack of it) is something that annoyed Nair and no matter how much he tried, Kalam never changed his ways. Kalam's innocence, which the entire world knew about and took advantage of, put Nair in trouble sometimes. People would write to Kalam to give them jobs, education and money or else they will commit suicide. Kalam was genuinely moved by these letters and would ask Nair to fulfill the people's wishes.

There are tidbits like this which give us a glimpse of Kalam and the man he was. Bush's visit to India, Musharraf's visit, Mohammad Afzal's pardon plea, Sonia Gandhi's prime ministerial candidate - all these find a mention in the book.

While the book is interesting to read, it doesn't leave you better than what you were when you picked up the book. You know a few more things about Kalam, but what's the use of that? Narrating an incident is not enough. One should narrate it in a way that the reader gets inspired and that is not one of Nair's skills. The book is bland in its form, but rich in content. If you really want to know about Kalam, isn't it better to read books written by him than about him? I am indifferent to this book. No recommendations, no dissuasion.

It’s not about the bike: Lance Armstrong

2010-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

A serious reader could not have missed hearing about this book. It has been making news ever since it has been written. I too heard of it but never felt the urge to pick it up and read it. On my recent library visit, I picked this book up for lack of any other choice. I am glad I did it because this was one inspirational read I have done since a long time.

The book is written by Lance Armstrong, a cyclist. It is about his fight against cancer and survival. The author was diagnosed with cancer just when he was at the peak of his career. He was at the advanced stage and had to undergo multiple surgeries and multiple sessions of chemotherapy. The surgeries and chemotherapy drained out the last ounce of energy from his body and left him almost dead. He bounced back and entered the Tour de France and won it and went on to win three more of them. This book is his journey from diagnosis of cancer and his winning the Tour de France.

Armstrong could have easily adapted a tone of feeling sorry to win the sympathy of the world. Instead, he puts up a brave face and wants the world to be motivated by his fight. For Armstrong, the focus is on the fight and the ultimate bouncing back rather than the cancer and the suffering. This I feel is the best part of the book. The tone of the book is one of courage and not of self-pity. This is what made the book work for me.

The book starts with Armstrong’s childhood. He talks about his father abandoning his mother and how his mother struggled to run the house and pay his fees. Armstrong shares a strong bond with his mother and that is evident from the very beginning. They understand each other very well and you wish you had that kind of relationship with your mom. The book goes on to trace Armstrong’s journey as an amateur cyclist and his turning pro. It takes an emotional turn when Armstrong is diagnosed with cancer. His surgeries, his chemotherapy sessions, the way he and his mom read and read about cancer to gain knowledge in order to fight it out – all this makes for a motivating read. The book continues about his recuperation and his decision to get back to professional racing, his wavering between states of self-confidence and depression. There is even a detailed section on IVF, where Armstrong talks openly about his experience.

The book was easy and quick to read. This may not the best book I have read, but it will remain in my memory for a long time. If you are going through a low phase in your life and need some pepping up, this is the book for you.

The Book Thief : Markus Zusak

2009-10-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

This book is, hands down, the best book I have read in 2009 so far. Considering the number of days left in this year and the amount of time I get to read these days, this book might remain the best book of the year.

What is the book about? Here is what the publishers say:

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Words - written and spoken - are central to the book. This book is unusual in many ways. One, the structure of the book is something I have never seen earlier. It is broken up into chapters based on the books that the protagonist steals. Two, the narrator of the book is also unusual. I don't want to reveal it here because I don't want to deprive you of the thrill you get when you discover for yourself. Three, the actual idea of putting a book thief in the middle of Nazi Germany in 1940s - who would have thought? The good thing is it works really well. The author maintains the gravity required to describe the burning Germany and the humor and the wit required to captivate the readers.

I just loved the writing style. It is witty and humorous. Sometimes it is the kind of humor where you are laughing at yourself, unknowingly. I am guessing the author loves colors. He uses colors to describe almost all scenes in the book. In fact, the book starts colors. There were many sentences and paragraphs which made me stop reading and think. Some got a chuckle out of me and some disturbed me. I wish I had made a note of some so that I could quote here. Google came to the rescue and here are some.

First the colours.
Then the humans.
That’s usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.

The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.

…For some reason, dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it’s so they can die being right.

For now, Rudy and Liesel made their way onto Himmel Street in the rain.
He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world.
She was the book thief without the words.
Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.

“… it was raining on Himmel Street when the world ended for Liesel Meminger.
The sky was dripping.
Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn’t quite managed.”

If I could, I would quote the entire book here, that's how much I liked it. Why did I like the book? The writing was what got me initially. The story will tug at your heart. And the characters - Liesel and Rudy and Max and the Hubermanns - each one of them will remain with me for a long time. What I will never forget though, is the narrator.

A Sleeping and a Forgetting : William Dean Howells

2009-09-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

I won this book in a giveaway hosted by John Self. I have been following his blog since a long time now and find his reviews insightful. He is one of those readers who doesn't stop at just 'I liked it' or 'I hated it', but goes on to tell us what the book is actually about so that we can decide for ourselves whether to read the book or not.

Melville Hose Publishing has come out with a series 'The Art of the Novella' in which they aim to publish short fiction or novella - too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story. All the books in the series have the same plain yet attractive cover. These are small, weightless books which can fit into your bag or purse and can keep you engrossed for an hour.

This novella is about a woman who witnesses her mother's death and is so shocked at the incident that she stays unconscious for a few days and when she wakes up from it, she doesn't remember the incident. The shock damages her memory and she forgets people, names, faces and incidents. A doctor starts treating her at her father's request. The rest of the book is about the doctor's interactions with the patient and this is the best part of the book. I found myself thinking about the exchanges between the doctor and the woman about dreams, reality, memory, character, identity and so on. One particular passage that I found really interesting:

He had always said to himself that there could be no persistence of personality, of character, of identity, of consciousness, except through memory; yet here, to the last implication of temperament, they all persisted. The soul that was passing in its integrity through time without the helps, the crutches, of remembrance by which his own personality supported itself, why should not it pass so through eternity without that loss of identity which was equivalent to annihilation?

The passage might not seem relevant here, but works really well in the book.

I have to sincerely thank John for two things. One, for hosting the giveaway and two, for introducing me to W.D.Howells. If not for the giveaway, I would have never discovered this author. The book was like a treat - short and sweet. It was entertaining as well as thought provoking. If only I could get hold of more books from this series - don't know how many more gems it holds.

PS: This novella is available online.

The Lovely Bones : Alice Sebold

2009-09-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Almost everybody on my book forum was raving about this, so I had to read it to know what all the hype was about. It often happens that a hyped book fails to impress me and this is so true about this book.

The Lovely Bones is about Susie Salmon, who is raped and murdered by her neighbor. She goes to heaven and looks at Earth and narrates the story about her murder and her family's plight after her death. The cops are unable to locate her body, but even though Susie knows where it is, she doesn't have the power to reveal its location to those on Earth. The book traces the lives of Susie's family, her friends and her murderer for a few years post Susie's death.

I loved the character of Susie's father but her mother irritated me. I feel her actions were not justified. Another character, Ruana Singh, Susie's friend's mother is mysteriously interesting - was it intentional or the author just left out certain parts about this character? Susie's grandmom is another person who stays with you for sometime.

The book grabs you from the first page. The initial few pages are disturbing, that is where Susie describes her rape and murder. It is more so disturbing because the tone of the narrator is very plain, emotionless. The pace dips a bit somewhere in the middle of the book and I lost interest there. I could see what was coming and that bored me.

What I liked most about this book is the author's take on the heaven. She uses her imagination to create what heaven could be like and after you read her version, you feel that is exactly how heaven should be. I liked the storyline, but felt the author could have done better than this. Many people will disagree, so be it.

It is not a must-read, but it is a nice book if you don't have anything compelling to read.

PS: The book is going to made into a movie. It will be interesting to see how heaven is picturized!

2009-09-11T04:13:00.000-07:00

Song: Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Movie: Balika vadhu (1976)
Music Director: R D Burman
Singer(s): Amit Kumar
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

When you want to express your love in simple words, this is the song you should sing. There is no mincing words here, everything is straight and to the point - bade achhe lagte hain. These simple words make this song a favorite with lovers. The singer, Amit Kumar, son of the versatile singer Kishore Kumar, sounds so much like his father that it is no surprise many people think this song has been sung by Kishoreda himself. Music is by Panchamda. Anand Bakshi has penned the words. The song is from Balika Badhu (no connection whatsoever with the Avika Gor starrer television series Balika Vadhu), which has Sachin Pilgaonkar in the lead. Sounds like an interesting movie. It is on my TBW (To Be Watched) list. If anyone has watched this movie, do let me know what you think.

This post is part of the Song of the Week series.

The Angel's Game: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2009-09-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

After thoroughly enjoying Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, I couldn't wait to read his next book. Though his works are available in Spanish, not all of them are translated to English. The first to be translated was Shadow of the Wind and the next one was The Angel's Game, both of them translated by Lucia Graves. I wonder when the next will be out.

The Angel's Game is similar to Shadow of the Wind in many ways. They both have literature at the core and deal with characters reappearing from the past. And they both have Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The protagonist of The Angel's Game, David Martin, is a writer who writes crime thriller series under a pseudonym. He is commissioned to write a novel on religion by a mysterious publisher, Andreas Corelli, who is supposed to have died decades earlier. As David starts uncovering the mystery behind Corelli, he learns a few secrets about his own life. If the last sentence reads like a line out of the back cover of the book, well, that's the best I can do. I don't want to include anything here that might turn out to be a spoiler.

A dark tower house with spirits, dead people appearing, a witch, disguised identities and a love story in the middle of all this - the book has all the ingredients that make this an entertaining read, although I didn't like The Angel's Game as much as I did the first book. One, the book was too long. I think the author tried to include a lot of things in one book. Zafon says in his interview that he initially planned to include four stories in a single book titled 'The Shadow of the Wind'. But when he realized that the book is going to be huge, he decided to make four books out of it and call the series 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books'. Another complaint about this book is, I feel the author hasn't tied up all the loose strings. When you finish reading a mystery book, you should get the feeling of a job well done. I didn't get that feeling here. It was as if the book ended too abruptly. And the epilogue is so silly, I don't know why it was even part of the book.

I wouldn't highly recommend this book, but if you are into mysteries and crime thrillers, this book will not be a complete waste of time.

SOTW: Rail Gaadi

2009-09-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

Song of the week: Rail Gaadi
Movie: Ashirwad (1968)
Music Director: Vasant Desai
Singer(s): Ashok Kumar
Lyrics: Harindranath Chattopadhyay

While the whole country is celebrating Teacher's Day, I would like to dedicate this song to all the little kids. This is one of those children songs which is enjoyed by the small and the big alike. The first time I heard this song, I was laughing my head off. I didn't know that such an entertaining song existed and more importantly couldn't believe that it was sung by Ashok Kumar. Dadamoni and singing? And for kids?

Dadamoni has packed a lot of energy in his singing. That part where he is ringing the bell for the train is so sincere. The lyrics of the song is great - you hear the names of a lot of stations.

The song is from the movie Ashirwad, which I know nothing about. I plan to watch the movie even it is just for this song and another one which is quite similar, Naani ki naav chali. This being a Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie, it will be a good watch.

There is some confusion over the lyricist of this song. Music India Online lists Gulzar as the lyricist, but the album I have 'Remembering Hrishikesh Mukherjee' has Harindranath Chattopadhyay as the lyricist and Earth Music agrees with this.

Paths of Glory – Jeffrey Archer

2009-09-03T22:26:00.001-07:00

Paths of Glory is a fictionalized account of George Mallory, a mountaineer who tried to conquer the Mount Everest in 1924, but nobody knows whether he succeeded because he died during that attempt. It is not confirmed whether Mallory died on the way down (which makes him the first man to have scaled Mount Everest) or on the way up. Many people believe that Mallory died before he climbed the highest point. Jeffrey Archer thinks otherwise. A newspaper in New Zealand called Archer’s book an insult to Sir Edmund Hillary, who is hailed as the first man to reach the top of the world.

This book is Archer’s take on this mystery. The book opens with the discovery of Mallory’s body on the mountain, so there is no need to guess the hero’s fate later in the book. Archer builds up readers’ confidence in Mallory by depicting him as a man with special skills. He shows Mallory as a courageous kid who doesn’t know what fear means. He portrays Mallory’s character in such a way that it is hard for the readers to believe that Mallory can fail at anything.

Keeping the mystery and the controversies aside, this book is an entertaining read. Archer is a wonderful story teller and knows how he should paint his characters so as to please his readers. He knows when to end a chapter to ensure that the reader hops onto the next one without any interval. I have always liked Archer for his gift of engaging his readers in an entertaining story with interesting characters. Reading Archer is like watching a Hindi masala movie – quick, entertaining and thrilling. This might not be the best book of Jeffrey Archer, but it still is a good book to read.

An innocent remark

2008-09-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

The Thackeray vs. Bachchans saga is back to bite us again. Just when Raj Thackeray was barred from making any public speeches and just when peace was prevailing, Mrs. Jaya Bachchan had to go out and put her foot in the mouth.

For those of you who don't know (and that is possible only if you have not switched on the television even for a minute in the last few days. Every channel is doing a special on this and you couldn't have missed it otherwise), Jaya Madam was on stage for the music release of her son's movie 'Drona' and she went ahead and said 'Hum UP ke log hain, hum Hindi mein baat karenge. Maharashtra ke log hume maaf karde' (We will talk in Hindi because we are from UP. Maharashtrians, please excuse us). Raj Thackeray promptly took offence and demanded an apology. Madamji did give an apology saying 'it was an innocent remark'. Any fool worth a 2-cents brain can make out that her statement was anything but innocent. Her remark was intentional and was uncalled for. All she had to do was say a few good things about her son and his movie and go back home in peace. But no, she had to take a dig at Mr.Thackeray.

While these big stalwarts taunt one another and nurse their egos, they forget a very important thing - that they are in the public eye and anything they do affects the common man. Jaya can get away with this statement. She can be safe in the comfort of her house with police protection. What about those pani-puri thelewalas and taxi drivers and paanwalas? Those non-Maharashtrians have to bear the brunt of Jaya's 'innocent remark'.

No, I don't support what Thackeray is doing. What happened to the common people on the streets of Maharashtra was definitely wrong. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and you can't expect only 'Marathi' speaking people to stay here. Asking for boards to be put up in Marathi or to make teaching Marathi compuslory in schools - all that is fine. But beating up paanwaalas is not the solution.

That being said I don't think Bachchans are any better. The Bachchan family has made Mumbai their home for decades now. They earn their name, fame and money in this city. Still, UP is so close to their heart, Big B goes and does an ad for his beloved friend Amar Singh saying 'UP mein dum hai kyun ki jurm yahan kam hai'. If you can have such undying love for your state, why do you object to Thackeray's views? And after you saw the massacre that took place just a few days ago, you had to make that statement?

I don't know who will have the last laugh in this war. But those who are crying are the movie producers and distributors. And the common man. So, Jayaji, next time you make 'an innocent statement', think about those innocent people on street who have to suffer because of you.

Freedom and Independence?

2008-08-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

My decision to quit work after having a baby has got mixed responses. Most of the older generation women are extremely supportive and are beaming with pride that their daughter or grand daughter has taken this bold decision. Few of the girls of my age (cousins, friends) are happy too. They say they wish they could likewise. Some of them are paying heavy EMIs against their home loans and can no way afford to quit. There is this other group which is totally against my decision. On interrogation they come up with comments like ‘Baby is not the only thing in your life. Why are you ending your personal life for the baby?’ and ‘You will lose your independence and freedom’ and ‘You will not have any personal life. You will be a mom slave’. I don’t have an answer for them, and I don’t really have to convince them, so I just smile at the comments and change the topic.

I have never had a dilemma. Even before I got married and started thinking about a kid, I always knew I want to stay at home with my baby. Luckily, I found an agreeing partner in my husband. He was totally happy with my opinion but left the final decision to me. He never pressurized me or influenced me. Since there was no doubt in my mind, I resigned even before I reached the third trimester. Till date, I haven’t regretted the decision. Things might change once the baby is here, but let’s cross the bridge when we come to it.

I recently visited my Uncle’s house in a tiny town called Koppa. I was born and brought up in a village and hence like the country side a lot. I instantly took to the place and it brought back my childhood memories. My Uncle works as a Manager in a relatively new sugar factory. When my Uncle joined this factory, the factory quarters was literally like a forest. Trees and dried grass everywhere and lots of snakes. Nobody took the initiative to make the place a bit more habitable. All the women continued with their rant, but did nothing. Until the Chief Officer (something like CEO) came along. CO’s wife (as she is addressed by everyone) was the one who transformed the place. Every single day, she would gather a bunch of workers and get the place cleaned. The trees and grass were cut, the ground was cleaned. She built fences around and planted banana, chiku, jackfruit and coconut trees. Not only did the snakes intrusion dwindle, the whole quarters was enjoying ‘home grown’ banana, coconut and jackfruit. Why am I mentioning this? Is there a connection between this lady and my decision? There is one.

The CO’s wife was married off very young. She had kids even before she could appreciate motherhood. She was only 32 when her first daughter was married off. She now has many kids, grand kids and great grand kids. She recently stayed in the US for a few months to assist in her grand daughter’s delivery. I don’t know if she is literate, but I doubt it. For any city-bred, educated, working woman, this lady’s life is a sad story. She doesn’t have any freedom. Really? Is that how it is? The lady is strong minded, thinks and acts independendtly. She didn’t follow the other ladies footsteps and continue to rant. Instead, she chose to act. She didn’t need her husband’s guidance or other women’s support. She did all this single handedly. If this is not freedom, what is? She has her own personal life in which she does what she likes. Does she have a paying job? No. On the other hand, I know many working women who can’t even buy vegetables on their own. They have to depend on their spouses to fill their kitchen with vegetables and grocery. Is she independent? No. Is she working? Yes.

I am not justifying my decision, but I am pointing at the wrong assumption we all have. Freedom does not come from being in a paying job. One may achieve finanicial independence if the husband doesn’t snatch the wife’s salary away. But, is finanical independence enough? It’s time we identify the difference. Freedom is a state of mind. If you ‘feel’ free, you are. Having one’s own personal life is a side effect of that. If you start thinking independently, keeping yourself apart from the family, you will have your own personal life.

Look at your mother. I am sure atleast half of us think that our mothers are more independent than we are. I surely do.

Better - Atul Gawande

2008-08-21T04:43:00.000-07:00

The review is here.

The View

2008-07-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

We moved to a new house recently. The main reason for moving was to get some peace in the house. Our earlier house, though small and sweet, had serious problems of neighbors. They used to be up the entire night watching TV and talking loudly over the phone. Request and arguments did not make any difference. That is when we decided to move to the adjacent block and this time our requirement was simple. Forest facing, corner flat. If you are wondering what this forest is, it is a 'mini-forest' as it is famously called. You can get a glimpse of it on Google Earth. Finally we did find a flat that met our requirements and additionally, it also has a beautiful view of the forest from the hall and the balcony. Though the rent is on the higher side than we wished for, we took the plunge.

Since it is a corner flat, there is abundant light and air. It has three balconies, so I can increase my stock of plants. We have reserved one balcony as the hobby balcony. This is where I do most of my knitting these days. The view of the forest from this balcony is lovely. There is total peace here, except for the crows, sparrows, cuckoos and squirrels. No, squirrels don't make noise, but they visit us often to see if I have kept some nuts for them, you know, just in case. I had put out some dates in the sun to dry and after a few days, there was not even one left! I keep a diya for the tulasi and one squirrel promptly comes every day and sucks out the oil in it. It has a schedule - every single day it comes at the same time. I wonder how these animals keep track of time. Advanced biological clock?

Thanks to the light and air, my plants are doing very well here. We bought this plant 3 years back hoping to see lovely flowers on it. No such luck until we moved to this house. It has a beautiful pink flower now and the plant looks much healthier.

And this is the beautiful view from our hall balcony. It is all green as far as you can see. With yesterday's rain and today's cloudy weather, the view is breath taking.

I know, this post is too personal for my taste. I have been staying at home since a week now (that is fodder for another post) and have been enjoying every single moment and I wanted to gloat! This bliss is partly because of the isolation and the peace that this house provides. And did I mention the view?

Citibank and its so called customer service

2008-07-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

We all have heard enough about how banks come up with creative ways to cheat customers. Be it hiding the annual fee clause from the customer or sending an unasked for, unwanted credit card to a customer AND charge an annual fee over it! Yeah, these banks put any artist to shame. I am just adding two more things to the never ending list of Citibank’s tricks.

1. Suvidha account points redemption

I had accrued quite a few Suvidha usage points in the last year. Before I could redeem those, they lapsed in March. When I called the customer service, I was given a prompt answer that points lapse in March. Why wasn’t I informed about it before hand? No answer. I pledged to take revenge by redeeming the points next year. So, this year, promptly in March, I redeemed those points and was left with a few ‘chillar’ of 20 points. I was expecting these to lapse by the end of the month, but guess what, they didn’t lapse. Another phone to their customer service and I am informed that the leftover points after redemption are carried forward. This is insane! Unredeemed points lapse but left over points are carried forward? Who made this rule? What is the logic behind this?

2. Debit card renewal fee

We have all heard about lifetime free credit cards, but did you know that Citibank will charge an annual fee of Rs. 99 on your debit card from July 2008 onwards? I was given this wonderful news when I called to order a debit card. I asked the customer care executive what is the logic behind offering free credit cards and not free debit cards? He obviously did not have an answer so I answered for him. Customers can survive without a credit card, but they cannot access their account or use the ATM without a debit card. Citibank knows this well and hence can take advantage of this by charging an annual fee on debit cards. The customer care executive was really shaken by this and asked me to complain “if I am not satisfied with this situation” by sending a mail to indiaservice@citicorp.com.

My mail may not result in the wakening of the Citibank executive’s conscience and the eventual cancellation of the debit card annual fee, but I surely will send a mail. If you care about your 99 bucks which Citibank is snatching right under your nose, then you too send a mail. Remember, it is not about the money.

The Music Room: Namita Devidayal

2008-05-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

The review.

Paan ice cream: Punjabi Times

2008-04-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

Punjabi Times has been around for some time now and everybody in the south of Bangalore knows about it and has been there at least once. For those who don’t, Punjabi Times is a Punjabi restaurant on Bannerghatta Road, opposite Shoppers Stop.

I had heard a lot about this restaurant and went there to try it out myself. For starters, we ordered Tandoori vegetables - assorted vegetables cooked in tandoor. It was delicious - the vegetables just melted in my mouth! The main course had to be Paratha. They offer a wide variety - aloo, gobi, matar, methi, pyaaz etc. Pyaaz paratha with a cup of curd and pickles was too good. I didn’t like the gobi paratha that much.

The best part of the meal has to be Paan ice cream. I didn’t know what to expect when I ordered it. It is a pista colored ice cream with pieces of brown supari in it. It was yummy, it was as if I was eating an actual paan. I don’t think it was ‘flaovred’, there were actual paan ingredients in it. After you eat this, you don’t need to eat paan. The taste stays in your mouth for a long time.

This is not a review of Punjabi Times. This is a post for those people who don’t know about the Paan icecream offered there. Even if you don’t eat a meal there, do eat the icecream. It is a rarity and an absolute must.

Work is worship

2008-04-16T04:00:00.001-07:00

We all know how government offices work. But have you ever called a government call center? I did. For the past two weeks, I and my husband have been calling the BSNL call center every day. Yeah, you read that right. Every Single Day.

We have BSNL broadband connection which was working just fine. Except for the frequent outage on weekends, it was fine. One fine morning, it refused to connect. Authentication failure, apparently. There was no reason why it should just stop working.

We called their call center the first day. It took us around 15 minutes to get through the terrible music and speak to a human. He made us go through the standard procedure - reenter all data and reboot the modem. When that didn't work, he promptly told us that the server is down. The same thing repeated the next few days. Thus started the saga of get back home from work, dial the number, listen to the wonderful music, finally get through the call, explain the problem, do the standard procedure and realize the server is down and then hang up.

I gave up and almost decided to dump BSNL and go for Airtel. My husband has a lot of patience than me and kept trying. Two days back, may be it was my husband's luckiest day, our call was answered by a person who knew what he was talking about. He told us that all usernames which have underscores and hyphens in them have been disabled. That made sense because there was no reason why the connection should stop working one fine day. He said he has to create a new username for us, but couldn't do so now because the server was down. He asked us to call the next day.

So... we called yesterday and our luck apparently ran out and our call was answered by some moron. We told him about this username thing and he had no clue what we were talking about. No matter how we tried to explain, he just refused to create a new username and even said that usernames can be created only at the local exchange. My husband asked him to handover the call to the person who answered our call the previous day. That guy gave some lame excuse that the other person was not available or some such thing and we hung up.

We sulked and sighed and finally decided that we are going to say bye-bye to BSNL. That's when our phone rang. Guess what? It was the same guy who told us about this username problem. He took the trouble of looking up our number and calling us. He even created a username and again guess what? It worked! Ecstatic is not the word, but I will use it anyway. We couldn't thank him enough and asked him if there is any way we can let his supervisor know about this wonderful deed. He gave us an email id where we can send a thank you mail, but I don't think anyone is going to read that. So here I am, thanking our angel and our saviour from the bottom of my heart and my husband's heart.

This post is not about how BSNL just decided to change all usernames without informing the customers or the customer care staff. It is not about how incompetent most of the call center staff are. This post is about that one person who stands out from the rest of the crowd because he cares about his customers, takes his work seriously and thus made a difference in someone's life. Vinod Kumar B R, if you are reading this, you retained a BSNL customer. More importantly, you taught us what is the meaning of 'work is worship' and made us realize that we should apply the same thing at our work place, and also that we can leave a mark in this world and make a difference no matter who you are. Thank You.

It's not about the money

2008-04-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, my maid decided to go on a vacation. She would be gone for a week so I asked her to find a replacement. She found a lady who was part of the housekeeping staff who was willing to do so.

The lady religiously came to work for the next few days. She wasn't great with her work, but I had to put up with what I had. She was talkative and very rude. I didn't bother much about her behavior since she would be gone after a few days anyway. On the last day of her work I paid her for her services. I didn't have change, so gave her a big note and asked her to return the change of Rs.20. I told her to hand it over to my maid. She nodded and left.

I informed my maid about this money business and asked her to collect it from the lady. For 3 weeks there was no sign of this housekeeping lady. The manager informed me she was on leave. I was almost sure I will never get my money back. Meanwhile, my maid happened to spot the lady somewhere and asked her about the money. The lady flatly refused! When my maid told me about this, I was furious. I had decided to let go of my money, but when I heard this from my maid, I pledged to get every penny that the lady owed me.

I searched for this lady high and low and finally found her one day. I asked her for the money and she had the audacity to ask me, "Why should I give you money?" I was shocked. That was MY money, isn't that a reason enough? I wanted to tell her that we don't grow money on trees, but before I could give her a piece of my mind, the manager interfered. He asked the lady to return the money and she did.

As I was walking back with the money clutched in my hand, I heard this lady mutter, "So much of drama for just 20 Rs.?" I wanted to tell her "It is not about the money", but I have a feeling she wouldn't understand.

Peshawari Biryani

2008-03-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

Reasons for trying out this recipe were many:

1. The photo looked so delicious and tempting. Sprouted matki and rice sounded like a yummy combination.
2. I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for. I didn't have cinnamon, so I used pepper instead. It was not meant to be a replacement, but an extension.
3. My list of rice items is limited and I wanted to try some new rice item.
4. The recipe was simple and nutritious.

The only downside of this recipe is it needs preparation the previous day if you want to use sprouted matki. The dish turned out really well. The rice which I thought would be bland was the best part of all. The fragrance of basmati rice mixed with spices like cardamom, pepper and cloves was heavenly. I made the gravy a bit spicy to satisfy my husband's taste glands.

This dish has such a wholesome taste - it feels as if the dish is satisfying every taste bud on your tongue. It gives you a satisfying feeling in your mouth and in your stomach. A simple recipe which gives you a delicious and nutritious rice item. This item will be a frequent visitor in my kitchen.

Animal's People

2008-03-12T05:00:00.001-07:00

The review is here.

A weekend all about food

2008-03-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend, the cook in me was on a high and I tried my hand at three new food items. No disappointments, all of them turned out well.

I was bored with the usual rice items I make and wanted to try out something different. A quick search on the net revealed this mouth watering Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe of Baoli Handi. I made a few changes to the original recipe. I didn't use beans, peas and cauliflower - because I didn't have them. I put a pinch of garam masala along with the chilli powder. The result was an all new, delicious and nutritious rice item. For once, my husband liked a new recipe!

The next item was not really a recipe, but a new dish. MTR's Spicy Idly instant mix. This is a newer and improved version of MTR's Rava Idly mix. The method is the same. Add curd and coriander and steam. All done in 15 minutes. Idlys were yummy. They were not really spicy, but had a mild taste of their own.

Snacks time. I tried out Nupur's recipe of Suralichi Vadi. It is a Maharashtrian delicacy and fairly easy to make. It doesn't take long - max 20 minutes, so a perfect snack when you have unexpected guests. Her recipe is so well explained, I couldn't have goofed up anywhere. The microwave version is a savior, it is so easy to cook in the microwave oven. The Vadi turned out really well. Some of the vadis didn't roll off the plate well. I am guessing I didn't spread the mixture evenly on the plate. I will keep this in mind for next time.

My Sister's Keeper: Jodi Picoult

2008-03-07T03:34:00.001-08:00

Read the review here.

Hungry eyes

2008-02-18T00:48:00.000-08:00

A darshini in J.P.Nagar. Friday Evening. Around 8.30.

It was a long, tiring day. No mood to cook and no patience to wait at restaurants waiting for food. “Dinner at a darshini?”, asks my husband. Sounds good.

We ordered dinner, as in we paid for it and collected it from the counter. A young man is relishing his noodles. A couple is busy stuffing the kid with idli. The road is almost deserted - 9 is late in Bangalore. An empty table at the far end, almost touching the road. That will do.

As I am gulping down my meal, my eyes lock with another pair of hungry eyes. I look away embarrassed. The other pair continues to stare alternately at me and my plate. A tug at my heart, a wrench in my stomach and my mind made up itself to face the situation.

I walk up to the owner of those hungry eyes.

“What’s your name?”

“Asif.”

“Do you know Kannada?”

He shakes his head.

“English?”

Shakes again.

“Which language?”

“Urdu.”

“Kya khaoge?”

No answer. I can see he is embarassed, ashamed.

“Idli khaoge?”

His eyes light up. He is almost inaudible. “Bhel Puri.”

“Idhar hi ruko.”

After five minutes, the darshini-wala calls out, “One plate bhel puri.”

I look around to spot the eyes. They are no where to be seen.

Darshini-wala says, “Is this for that boy?”

I nod.

He and his colleagues start searching for that boy. He is hiding behind a car. They call him. He shakes his head.

One guy shows the parceled bhel puri to the boy. “This is for you”, he says.

The boy is still not sure. Reluctantly he comes to collect it. He collects the parcel, and walks out, not even once looking at me.

Darshini-wala says, “He comes here everyday. Some four-five times. He will come back again after some time.”

I ask myself, “Did I do the right thing?”

The Secret Life of Bees: Sue Monk Kidd

2008-02-15T02:27:00.000-08:00

The review is here.

The English Patient: Michael Ondaatje

2008-02-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

The review is here.

Why do we support the weaker one?

2008-02-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

Watching Australian Open last month was fun, to say the least. We saw a lot of upsets. Federer challenged by Tipsarevic in round 3, the defending champion Serena Williams thrown out in quarter finals, the World No.1 Federer and No. 2 Nadal failing to reach the finals - this was one nail biting tournament.

I watched the semi-finals between Djokovic and Federer and then the finals between Djokovic and Tsonga. Amazing matches, both of them. In the semi-finals, the crowd was cheering for Djokovic. There were many Federer fans present, no doubt, but Djokovic fans were more vocal in their support.

Cut to the finals match and the exact opposite happened. People were cheering for Tsonga. Djokovic fans were unusually quiet. Djokovic showed his disappointment about this in his acceptance speech.

The match was not about Serbia vs. Switzerland or Serbia vs. France. This was about strong vs. week. The crowd was not cheering for the country the player represented but the quality he represented. In both the matches, the crowd wanted the weaker player to win.

Why are we humans like this? Why do we want the weaker player to win? Is it because we want to boost his confidence or empower him? Even if either person wins, the crowd doesn’t really gain anything. What do we gain by supporting the weaker player? To feel good that we didn’t support the obvious winner but supported the less obvious one and hence did a good deed? Or is it just because we want to see an upset and hence a hot news to talk about? What is the intention behind this loyalty shift?

Why only the crowd, even I wished the same. My loyalty towards Djokovic suddenly shifted in the finals and I was hoping Tsonga wins. If I ask myself why, I am not happy with the answer I get. I want the weaker player to win because this will create a new sensation and breaking news and I have something to talk about. I want to discuss/gossip about how the champion was defeated and that gives me some wild pleasure. Strange!

What’s your reason? Why do you support the weaker player?

An article on Jasper Fforde

2008-02-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t read Jasper Fforde yet, then I urge you to do so. And so does Pradeep Sebastian in his article which appeared in Hindu this Sunday.

On Chesil Beach: Ian McEwan.

2008-02-04T01:23:00.000-08:00

Review is here.

My Name Is Red: Orhan Palmuk

2008-01-29T02:57:00.000-08:00

Review is here.

Tribute to O P Nayyar

2008-01-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

The talented music composer, O.P.Nayyar's first death anniversary falls on January 28th. A tribute to the legend.

The Accidental: Ali Smith

2008-01-18T01:04:00.000-08:00

Review is here.

Aaoge Jab Tum O Saajana: Jab We Met

2008-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

Amidst the roaring success of the foot-tapping Mauja Hi Mauja and the melodious Tum Se Hi, another gem from the movie Jab We Met has gone unnoticed.

Aaoge Jab Tum O Sajana is melodious and has a classical touch to it. Sung beautifully by Ustad Rashid Khan, this song is four and a half minutes of sheer pleasure.

Aaoge Jab Tum O Saajana,
Angana phool khilenge
Barasega saawan, barasega saawan, jhoom jhoomake
Do dil aise milenge

This song is composed by the guest composer, Sandesh Shandilya, who has given us songs like Suraj Hua Maddham from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam, Bhaage Re Man from Chameli, Laree Chootee from Ek Chalis Ki Last Local.

The song is slow and melodious. Irhsad Kamil's words are simple and sweet. The best thing about the song is certainly singing. Ustad's voice has a folky touch and works well with the song. The song opens with his powerful alaap. Ustad sings with ease. The way he ends the 'phool khilenge' and 'do dil aise milenge' is as if he is lazy to complete the lines, and that adds a special effect to the song. His expressions are so genuine, one can feel the longing for the beloved. The song ends with a flute piece and Ustad's sargam. A perfect end to a great song.

Song: Aaoge Jab Tum O Saajana
Movie: Jab We Met
Composer: Sandesh Shandilya
Singer: Ustad Rashid Khan
Lyrics: Irhsad Kamil

You can listen to this song on Dhingana.

The Razor's Edge: Somerset Maugham

2008-01-13T22:07:00.000-08:00

Review is here.

Being nice to rude people

2008-01-09T01:48:00.000-08:00

During our routine post-lunch chit-chat, my friend made a gem of a statement - “It is easy being nice to nice people, but how can you be nice to rude people?”

I had been thinking about it for some days now and I was shocked when she made that statement. It was as if she was reading my mind. Many people would term it as a co-incidence, but I believe that incidents happen for a reason. This was no co-incidence. This was His way of sending a message across. But, I digress.

So, as soon as she said it, the words struck me. Few of my acquaintances are extremely sweet to me- always ready to help in any way they can, and I too reciprocate. I try to be nice to them as much as I can and all is well.

For the past few days, I am trying to be nice to people, and no where near being successful. I try to think before uttering a word so as not to offend anyone. But, whenever I encounter rude people, caution goes flying out of the window. Their act might be intentional or unintentional, but the point is they are rude. I find myself reciprocating in this case too. I use harsh words, sarcastic tone and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling for settling scores with them.

I know a few people who are nice to everybody. Even if someone is rude to them, they smile and act as if nothing happened - not a glimpse of anger, no teeth-grinding. I wonder how they can be nice to people who are mean to them?

Harsh words don’t upset them? Or they do get upset, but are capable of hiding it so well? Do they smile and bear with it only to bitch later and vent their anger? Do they feel superior to the other set and prove their superiority by forgiving? Do they feel sorry for the lesser mortals and hope they rise above the sins? Or is the secret word empathy here?

I will go on asking questions, but will never get a definitive answer. In effect, we come back to the statement we started with: “It is easy being nice to nice people, but how can you be nice to rude people?”

Your thoughts?

The Eyre Affair: Jasper Fforde

2008-01-06T00:31:00.000-08:00

Review is here.

Q&A: Vikas Swarup

2007-12-27T21:35:00.000-08:00

Q&A: Vikas Swarup - book review.

Trip to Pondicherry

2007-12-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

My trip to Pondicherry.

Mindtree Osmosis 2007: An external view

2007-12-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

My account of the event can be read here

Runaway: Alice Munro

2007-12-10T01:41:00.000-08:00

My review of Alice Munro's Runaway is posted here.

The Shadow Of The Wind: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2007-12-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

My thoughts on this book can be found here.

My thoughts on Saawariya

2007-11-29T03:39:00.001-08:00

I know I am not famous enough to be on Koffee with Karan, but if I was asked by the honorable host as to which movie I would choose to watch between Om Shanti Om and Saawariya, I would have answered without blinking, "Saawariya, of course." True to my answer, I went and watched Saawariya this weekend.

The movie is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story 'White Nights'. How far can you stretch a short story to make into a 3 hour movie? Owing to this, the story is not the best part of the movie and some people might even find it boring. What makes the movie come alive is the direction, music and Ranbir - in that order.

To create a dream world so beautiful and take your audience to this world and make them forget that they have left a real world behind is not easy. Sanjay Leela Bhansali does this and he is a genius. For as long as the screen was lit up, I was mesmerized. The whole movie is shot in a set which mimics a small town around a lake. By interval time, you feel you are a part of that town. There is one shot where Sonam is reading from a book and her aunt and her governess (??) are with her. The three women are shown in three mirrors and in between the focus shifts to Sonam and you can see the other women in two mirror. It's mind boggling to even think how SLB shot this!

If you are not fond of melodious music, do not watch this movie. It's like a Chitrahaar sometimes, with songs back to back and these songs add flavour to the movie. The first song 'Pari', so beautifully sung by Kunal Ganjawala is equally well crafted by SLB. I particularly liked the shots involving glass panes. Ranbir and the women are separated by a glass pane. The shot begins with Ranbir's reflection on the glass pane and the women slightly out-of-focus and as the shot proceeds, Ranbir fades out and you see the women. This technique repeats a couple of times all through the song.

Considering that it is Ranbir's first movie, he has done well. The whole movie stands on his shoulders and he carries it well. He comes across as this lovable, vivacious, naughty, lover boy who lives life to the fullest. His acting seems like overacting at times, but it is forgivable. He is exceptionally brilliant in his towel-clad act in 'Jabse tere naina'. He proves his dancing skills in the title song. It's the innocence on his face that takes your heart away. Sonam doesn't really have much scope to act. Moreover, with Ranbir hogging the screen, she failed to impress me.

There are certain places where the movie goes too far away from reality. Like the song 'Dekho chaand aaya'. The song is shot in a mosque and all the men are in white, except our Ranbir who is dressed in black. After the song, the men and women mingle and exchange greetings - which is sacrilegious in Muslim community. If this scene couldn't have been shot in any other way, SLB could have based this story in some other, more liberal community.

While the movie does have these far-from-reality pieces, it is closer to real life than most of our Bollywood movies. We are so used to seeing the male lead sacrificing his love for his friend and the female lead agreeing to marry her lover's friend for the sake of her love. In Saawariya, we actually get to see some real emotions, where the male lead places his own love above someone else's and asserts that man, after all, is selfish. I can't say much without marking it as a spoiler. People who have watched the movie will understand what I am talking about.

Even though it is not SLB's best, he definitely shines in this movie. If you are a romantic and sometimes let your heart overtake your head, then you will enjoy Saawariya.

Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë

2007-11-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

I already had an overdose of classic this month with The Great Gatsby and The Picture of Dorian Gray and that was a good reason not to pick any other classic for the next six months. Even then, I picked up Jane Eyre and th only reason being I want to read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair and I was told that I will appreciate the latter book better if I read the former one.

The book is noted for its strong main character. Some even compare her to Lizzy of Pride and Prejudice, but I prefer Lizzy any day to Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre, as the title suggests, traces Jane's life and gives us a glimpse of her childhood, her thoughts and opinions. The book is written in autobiographic style where Jane Eyre is directly addressing her audience. They say the book is actually an autobiography, because the author Charlotte Brontë led a similar life.

The language, description, dialogues, setting, characters - all are typical classic style. What probably is different is the main character. She is not the typical English lady - born rich, well brought up, polished and lady like. On the contrary, Jane is made orphan early in life and sees a bad childhood at a relative's house. She is then sent to a charity school where homeless girls are expected to live an colorless life mostly spent in praying. She turns out to be skillful and well educated. She works as a teacher for a few years and moves on to become a governess. There she falls in love with a man much elder to her. I cannot proceed further without being a spoilsport, so I shall stop.

While I did not feel like putting the book down, neither did I feel good after finishing it. I finished it only yesterday and there is nothing significant about the book I remember. I never felt like pausing at a paragraph and re-reading it. Neither did I feel that a quote was so profound that I had to mark it. In short, I didn't take back anything from the book. It was like a story - which I read with some indifference. I do not feel anything towards Jane Eyre - no sympathy, no love, no hatred - nothing. I did feel she was childish and was irritated with her in the pages that describe her courtship days.

This book goes on to strengthen my opinion that I don't really enjoy reading a classic. Well, I am glad I am done with Jane Eyre. I can at last start with The Eyre Affair.

Remembering Geeta Dutt

2007-11-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

November 23rd is Geeta Dutt's birth anniversary

Geeta Dutt was vivacity personified. If one listened to her songs with eyes closed and tried to imagine the face behind the voice, one would see an innocent face with shining eyes full of life.

While one can dance to her tunes in Mera naam chun chun chu from Howrah Bridge, Tadbeer se bigdi huyi from Baazi dance songs, one can peacefully go to sleep listening to her Nanhi kali sone chali hawa dheera aana from Sujata. This particular lullaby is a particular favorite of mine. The wording are beautiful, the inclusion of the sound of baby's anklets, the wonderful singing - the song is just great.

Her playful, nuaghty songs like Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji from Mr&Mrs.55 and Hum aapki aankhon mein from Pyaasa, Ae Dil Mujhe Bata De from Bhai Bhai is what she is most famous for. These songs lift your spirits in no time.

Her sad songs are probably not that well known. Songs like Chand Hai Wohi Sitare Wohi Hain from Parineeta, Mera sundar sapna beet gaya from Do bhai makes one can be filled with grief. The last song, especially, is so melancholic. Geeta Dutt is literally crying in the song.

How can one forget the drunken, sensual singing of Na Jao Saiyan from Sahib biwi aur ghulam? The minimal background music, the intermittent pause singing and music, her slurred pronunciation makes one wonder if Geeta Dutt was really drunk when she sang this song.

Another favorite of mine, Piya Aiso Jiya Mein from Sahib Biwi Ghulam has Geetaji dreaming about her beloved. The lady sounds like she is actually in love and you blush and turn pink listening to the song. Look out for the subtle harkatein - no one could do it except for Geetaji. She is playful, complaining, mischievous - all at the same time!

She is the inspiration for many singers. It's no secret that Asha Bhosle used to imitate Geetaji in her initial days. The song Jaanu Jaanu Ri from Insaan Jaag Utha is such a pleasure to listen to. Two of the best female singers of the Hindi film industry, Geetaji and Ashaji, create magic in this song.

With Geeta Dutt's demise, Hindi industry has incurred a big loss, which is impossible to fill. Asha Bhosle gracefully stepped into her place and has done all the justice to it. If anyone can be compared with Geetaji, it has to be Ashaji. Nevertheless, if Geetaji had survived for a few more years, we would have had more gems from her.

The Bridge Across Forever: Richard Bach

2007-11-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

This book is a favorite of, or at least has impressed, many people I know. When I first picked up this book, I thought I was too young and I postponed reading it. The second attempt was when I was in college. For some reason, I had to put it down. Now, in the third and final attempt, I finally succeeded in finishing this book. Now that it is over, I wish I had read it in my younger days, when I used to fantasize about my soul mate, my Mr.Right, where he was and whether he too was wondering about where his soul mate is. After nearly 3 years of marriage, all notions of Mr.Right and Prince Charming are out of the window and this book sounds like a big joke. Just to clarify, I don't mean to say I am not happy with my husband, I just want to say that nobody is perfect, there is no Mr.Right. We all have to make some compromise no matter who we choose as our life partner.

Let's come back to the book. As the preface says, "it's about a knight who was dying, and the princess who saved his life." In general, it's about a guy who almost always day dreams about his soul mate and fantasizes about making a perfect couple. It would have sounded credible if the guy in question hadn't had a failed marriage. The book is the author day dreaming aloud.

The book begins on a good note. It starts with the author realizing that it is high time he looked out for his soul mate. He wonders the whereabouts of his soul mate and these few pages sound like they are straight out of a teenager's personal diary. Mine would have been similar too, if I had kept a diary. On one hand he is searching frantically for his soul mate, while on the other he loves his freedom over anything else and does not want be to tied to one woman. These are contradictory, I know, and I kept asking myself how much sense that makes.

He finally meets a woman and he is completely mesmerized by her. He decides to have a platonic relationship with her and starts calling her his 'sister'. When I read this, I just cringed. It brought back memories of all those incidents in my college, where every other guy and girl became brother-sister because they wanted a license to go out with each other. And most of these bro-sis pairs are married now, happily or otherwise. No guesses here, the sister doesn't remain a sister forever and he finds himself in bed with her. I knew I should have stopped reading the book at this time, but I pushed myself to carry on.

The couple spend time doing nothing but exchanging mushy-mushy words and general gyan on life and love. They are supposed to be learning and growing up. A book cannot have just a few romantic scenes and fights. You need a story, right? So, throw in a few incidents like the protest against cutting trees and author going bankrupt. No where in the book does the author come across as someone who is about to lose every penny he owns.

"What's written here happened in fact very nearly the way it's turned out in print" says the author in the preface. I have my own suspicions because certain incidents are quite unlikely to happen. The out-of-body experiences, the author's dreams in which he meets his past and future, the couple dreaming together, the deja-vu's - I mean, how can one believe all that? They say, a book needs a problem which the readers want to see solved. The problem about this book is it doesn't have a problem. Everything is sugar sweet, the author never takes off his pink glasses and uses his heart more often than his head.

If mushy-mushy, lovey-dovey, melodramatic Karan Johar movie is your taste, you will love this book. If you are too burdened with practicality of life, want to be lost in a world where there is no problem, pick this up and escape into the author's world.

Edit: I just now read that the so-called perfect couple of this book are no longer a couple; they have separated. I hope Bach does not end up writing another book to justify this act.

Music Review: Khoya Khoya Chand

2007-11-18T05:53:00.000-08:00

Album: Khoya Khoya Chand
Music Composer: Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics: Swanand Kirkire
Album Rating

Khoya Khoya Chand reminds one of the 70's Hindi film music, when melody was of the essence. With some new singers and some established ones, this album is a treat to the ears. The music composer being the same, this album has resemblance to Parineeta.

Chale Aao Saiyan
Singer: Shreya Goshal

A classical based song, beautifully sung by Shreya Goshal. The presense of sarod, ghungroo, tabla make it a thumree. A beautiful number which changes paces in between. Shreya sounds different - her voice is more shrill than nasal. It reminded me of Chalte Chalte from Pakeezah.

Khushboo Sa
Singer: Hamsika Iyer

A new singer on the block who has worked wonders in this song. This has a vague resemblance to 'Kaise Paheli' from Parineeta. The mellow tune, the piano and the singer's sensual's voice make this song worth listening to.

O Re Paakhi
Singers: Sonu Nigam

I can't help it, this song reminds me Parineeta's Soona man ka aangan. Sonu Nigam is brilliant as ever. The opening is beautiful - only piano is playing intermittently in the background and Sonu's voice is even more enjoyable. Mid-way, the background music stops and Sonu is just singing. A song which you should enjoy with closed eyes and with lights off.

Sakhi Piya
Singers: Shreya Goshal, Pranav Biswas

A beautiful, melodious number. Pranav Biswas has a base voice which sounds great with Shreya's melodious voice. Background music is minimal with intermittent piano and santoor (is it santoor?) and violin. A slow, relaxed song which is thoroughly enjoyable.

Thirak Thirak
Singers: Shreya Goshal, Sonu Nigam

Relatively fast paced, this song is full of masti. Just like in Piya bole from Parineeta, Sonu outshines Shreya. His voice is so expressive, Shreya sounds weaker. This song borrows a stanza from the mukhda of the next song, but you don't realize it until you listen to the next song.

Khoya Khoya Chand
Singer: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Swanand Kirkire

The best song of the album. Khan saab is wonderful and his voice is charming. Swanand adds some reciting in between. A very passionate and energetic song.

Yeh Nigahen
Singer: Antara Choudhary and Sonu Nigam

This song sounds so much like a 70's Rafi song. Sonu even tries to bring in the harkatein, which were Rafi's trademarks. Antara is good too, but she is pitted against Sonu and she will sound weaker.

A very beautiful album, with melody at its core. An album definitely worth listening to.

The Mystic Masseur: V S Naipual

2007-11-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

A bad choice for a book to read after Oscar Wilde and Tom Robbins. The former has a rich language and the latter, a great sense of humour. I have heard from people that Naipual's books are humorous. May be my sense of humour is pathetic, I didn't see any humour in this book.

The book is the story of Ganesh, his failure as a primary teacher, his transformation into a mystic, a writer and finally an MBE. The story is set in Trinidad and concentrates on the small Indian community settled there. I am confused about the location and the people. They speak a weird dialect of English and it is weird to an extent that the dialgoues began to irritate me. Every sentence spoken in adorned with man or girl (and sometimes both) and no where grammatically correct. If the dialogues are getting on your nerves, the narration doesn't help much. It is bland and sometimes makes you skip it. And why do newspapers in Trinidad carry reviews of Hindi films?

Ganesh's metamorphosis is not totally belieavable. He appears to be a useless, good for nothing guy at one time, and the know-it-all mystic with a lot of self confidence at other times. There is nothing about Ganesh which the reader would remember. Behary, Ganesh's friend, is an interesting character. I enjoyed the conversations between Behary (Suruj Poopa, as in Suruj ke pappa) and his wife, Suruj Mooma (you know what that means). Ganesh's wife and his father-in-law add a bit of garnishing.

I appreciate the subtle, polished humour of P G Wodehouse and also in the face, wacky humour of Tom Robbins. Naipaul's humour lies somewhere in between, and, I think, is targetted at the Indian community settled overseas. I can imagine the migrated Indians reading and laughing at the Indian culture and practices. I might be wrong about who his target audience is, but I am sure I am not one of them. This was my first Naipaul book, and in all probability, this will be the last one too.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde

2007-11-16T02:49:00.001-08:00

Oscar Wilde is arguably the most often quoted author. Today I realized why. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray and found marking almost every line of the book as a good quotation.

This was my first Wilde book and I loved every word it. The book was so engaging, I finished it little more than a day. That’s a record of sorts, because I am not a fast reader.

The plot is very interesting. It is about, as the title says, the picture of Dorian Gray. There are very only two main characters (three, if you consider the painter) and the story is fast paced and has quite a few twists. The book is so small, you wish it could go on for some more time.

The language is the first thing that gets you. The long, flowery sentences, words that are rarely used in today’s books, the poetic lines, the rare comparisons - reading this book is liking sailing in a lake on a moonlit night.

Wilde understands human psychology in and out. The whole book is about human mind, its actions and influences. Lord Henry’s words and thoughts are if he is dissecting a human mind. His opinions, some of which I disagree with, make you close the book for a while and think about them. The book is peppered with the author’s commentary on human nature and it reminded me of Maugham.

The book has a strong subtext. The interpretation can be varied, but one will understand that it’s not just a fairy tale that is told and forgotten. The book will remain with the readers long after reading it. I strongly recommend this to everyone.

Some quotes from the book which I liked:

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

...one can survive everything nowadays except death.

Spoilers follow: Please do not read the next paragraph if you haven’t read or intend to read the book.

The transformation of Dorian Gray from an adorable lad to a loathsome devil is so well achieved. Never does the reader ‘feel’ that it is sudden or unexpected. His obsession with youth and his actions resulting out of that seem justified. Lord Henry’s character is a mystery to me. He influences Gray in a negative way and he knows it. His motive is not clear to me. I attribute his actions to his jealousy of Gray’s youth and beauty. All my sympathies go to the painter - he pays a price for something that is not his fault.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde

2007-11-16T02:49:00.000-08:00

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

...one can survive everything nowadays except death.

Even cowgirls get the blues: Tom Robbins

2007-11-13T02:56:00.000-08:00

After I was floored by Jitterbug Perfume, I picked up another Tom Robbins' book Even cowgirls get the blues with a lot of expectation and the book lived up to it.

As with any Robbins' book, it's pointless to discuss the plot. How would it sound if I said, 'this book is about a girl with abnormally huge thumbs, whose profession is hitchhiking and about a spiritual guru named Chink and a ranch run by a band of cowgirls'. Not interesting, right? Robbins' book is not about plots. It's about humor, the interesting use of words, the absurd-yet-funny way of bringing in two different disconnected topics and connecting them together. Oh, you should read his book to believe it.

This is probably Robbins' most acclaimed book. It's even made into a movie, which I came to know only after reading the back cover. Robbins creates extremely interesting characters for his books. Considering that this book was first published in 1976, it touches upon rather controversial subjects. The author generously puts in enough graphical scenes - I don't see the need, though. The book is interesting enough without those pages.

Though I liked this book, I still prefer Jitterbug Perfume to this, probably because it was my first Robbins book.

Wikipedia entry for Tom Robbins says

His novels are complex, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details.

I agree with the complex, wild and obscure details part, but I fail to see the satirical bent. May be I don't have enough grey cells to understand it. All I know is Tom Robbins is a lot of fun.

If you read Scott Adams' blog and enjoy it, then it's highly likely that you will enjoy Tom Robbins' books.

Baavara Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

2007-11-06T04:13:00.001-08:00

Of all the numerous nasal songs and their even more nasal remixes coming out these days, there are very few songs that you want to go back and listen to. Evergreen songs so to say. One of these rare songs is one gem - Baavara Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna.

The first time I heard this song, I listened to it back to back for the whole day. I couldn't have enough of it. Thanks to my friend for introducing me to this song, otherwise my song collection would have had a big loss. It is from a movie Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, which I know nothing about.

The heavy classical touch, the hypnotizing voice, unique lyrics, beautiful orchestration - this song is as perfect as any song can be. The singer is in the right mood - he sounds aloof, yet passionate. The chorus adds a different charm to the song. The sitar (or sarod?), the peppering of violin, which sounds off-key at times and thus making the song even more beautiful. The best part of the song is arguably the lyrics. The deliberate repetition of the word 'Bavara' adds effect to the song.

Why waste time raving about it when one can actually relish it? You can listen to this song online on Music India Online. Music is by Shantanu Moitra. Lyricist and singer: Swanand Kirkire.

The Great Gatsby: F Scott Fitzgerald

2007-10-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Great Gatsby, as the name suggests, is about a middle aged, extremely rich man, Gatsby. It gives a glimpse of Gatsby's life - his lifestyle, his freinds, his interests and more importantly, the biggest irony of life.

The Great Gatsby has one of the best opening that I have come across. As soon as you start reading the first word, you are totally into the story. The book is quite small in size and has your attention in every page. It has a nice twist in the end which comes as unexpected. The last 40-50 pages are the best part of the book.

This book is classic, and as it so often happens with me, I didn't love this classic. I wouldn't say the book was bad. There was nothing in it that made me close it, but in the same way, there was nothing in it which made me love it. Yes, the book is well written, the irony is wonderfully portrayed - but still, the book didn't work for me.

I tend to like books which make me pause and think - I should take back something from the book. And in case of The Great Gatsby, there was nothing I took back with me apart from this beautiful quote:

"Whenever you feel like criticizing someone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

Double Fault: Lionel Shriver

2007-10-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Lionel Shriver's Double Fault is a story of a couple who are trying to make a mark in the field of international tennis. While Willy has been playing with a racket since five, Eric, picks it up at the ripe age of eighteen. Against her coach's advice, Willy goes on to marry Eric and there starts a rivalry between the couple which is not all that healthy. This is the story of Willy who has to come to terms with her partner beating her at tennis and to continue loving his arch rival.

While We need to talk about Kevin, with its dose of uncommon words, was like reading an Oxford dictionary, the author saves us from that trouble in Double Fault. Was that intentional? The book flows smoothly, the language is straight. There is a distinct change in the writing style in these two books.

Shriver handles the story well. As the couple go through their courtship, wedding and its tensions, the reader feels the joy and pain. Though the story is in third person, it could as well be written in first person from Willy's point of view. This is the same trick the author played in Kevin. The reader never got to see the 'real' world, everything was through Eva's looking glass. Even in this book, we don't really know the neutral version of incidents. Since everything is through Willy's eyes, the reader never gets to know the 'real' Eric.

Just like in Kevin, Shriver tries to find an answer for yet another common phenomenon - rivalry among spouses. And just like how Shriver did not conclude Kevin with a definitive answer, the beauty of Double Fault is that it ends without any concluding answer. The book need not have been about tennis at all - it could as well have been about a couple who fought over who was better at handling kids and it would have been equally interesting.

The book is not about who was wrong - Willy or Eric. It is about a marriage which started turning sour. It is this generalization that makes the book interesting. Shriver does not waste words in justifying anyone's actions or blaming anybody, she just narrates the story and the reader is left to read his own version of it. At the end of it, this is not just about marriage - this could well be applied to any relationship that exists.

Shriver understands life and humans and their nature to such an extent that she could probably be the happiest person living. With her novel, Shriver drives home one point - if a relationship turns sour, it's not just one person's fault - it's Double Fault. The book couldn't have had a better title.

Music Review: Saawariya

2007-09-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Album: Saawariya
Music Director: Monty Sharma
Lyrics: Sameer
Album Rating:

With musical hits like Khamoshi and Devdas behind him, Sanjay Leela Bhansali can be trusted to give us a movie with good music. He doesn't disappoint us with his new movie, Saawariya. The much hyped launch pad of kids of industry's two big names, Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor, has a good collection of songs. Romance, love, passion is oozing out of the songs. With songs being so hypnotic, I am waiting to see how they are taken to a new level by Bhansali's cinematic skills. I am sure it will be a feast for the eyes and ears.

Instead of giving us soft, monotonous songs, the relatively new director, Monty Sharma gives us songs with varying rhythms and notes. He has also given us two new noticeable voices, Shail Hada and Parthiv Gohil. Hada's Saawariya and Gohil's Yun Shabnami prove the singers' skills. In all, an album that deserves to be in your kitty.

Saawariya
Singer: Shail Hada

This song is doing the rounds on TV and is already a hit. We have a new singer, Shail Hada, who has an unusual voice. The song is a romantic, passionate number. Shail pumps energy and passion into the song. He carries off some yodeling too. An apt title song for the movie. Lyrics are nothing exceptional, but the simple tune of the song takes your heart away.

Jab Se Tere Naina
Singer: Shaan

Another romantic song, sung by Shaan. It wavers between mellifluous notes and passionate beats. Shaan modulates his voice well - going soft at times and oozing energy where required. Lyricist has not done anything extra-ordinary. One can find quite a few cliché phrases. A nice song to listen to, especially if you are in love. You would want to switch off the lights, sit back, close your eyes and relish the song.

Mash-Allah
Singer: Kunal Ganjawala
Lyrics: Nusrat Badr

Kunal is back with his enchanting voice. When you listen to this song, you go into a trance. The soft background music, Kunal's hypnotizing voice, the magical lyrics - the song is so romantic, you will fall in love, if you haven't already. No other singer could have carried it off so well as Kunal. Not even Sonu Nigam. This is an out and out Kunal Ganjawala song.

Thode Badmash
Singer: Shreya Goshal

It's the girl's turn to express her love through this song. Shreya Goshal tries hard to bundle enough naughtiness and love in this song, but she fails at certain points. When the song reaches high notes, her voice sounds strained. Lyrics are very ordinary.

Yoon Shabnami
Singer: Parthiv Gohil
Lyrics: Sandeep Nath

Yet another romantic number. What's with Bollywood and moon? From ages, the girl's beauty is being compared to the moon and the tradition continues in this song. Parthiv Gohil is a brilliant singer - his voice is literally dancing when he modulates.

Daras bina nahin chain
Singer: Richa Sharma, Shail Hada & Parthiv Gohil

The song starts with Richa Sharm'a alaap. Has she become famous as an alaap provider rather than as a singer? The music director's attempt at including a classical based song in the album. With Richa's commanding voice, the chorus, the male voice (Is it Hada and Gohil or both?), this song is very powerful. There is a haunting tune in the background. I couldn't identify the instrument used. Does anyone have an idea what instrument that is? It's a beautiful number which will make you get up and dance. It reminds me of the dance numbers in Devdas.

Sawar Gayi
Singer: Shreya Goshal

A Shreya solo. Another classical based song. A soft, slow number. Shreya sings this really well. Don't pay attention to the wordings, because they are nothing new.

Jaan-e-jaan
Singers: Kunal Ganjawala and Shreya Goshal

Probably the weakest song in the album. A judaai number, sung by Kunal and Shreya. Kunal sings well, but this is not his forte. Lyrics are very very ordinary. This song reminds me of the old song 'Tum mere ho, mere hi mere ho'.

Pari
Singer: Kunal Ganjawala

The hero is fantasizing about his loved one. He compares her to an angel. Lyrics become a little interesting here. 'Uski khamosh aahat ko sunta hoon mein'. Nothing new, but still makes your ears stand. This is a Kunal song and he makes complete justice. It doesn't have a catchy tune and it is difficult to sing. I don't see this song becoming a hit with the public.

Chabeela
Singer: Alka Yagnik

A change from the soft, slow songs. This is a fast, dance number sung by Alka Yagnik. Alka tries hard at modulating her voice, but sounds strained. Has she already lost the strength in her voice? It has a catchy tune, this is going to be a hit with the dance troupes.

Saawariya (Reprise)
Singer: Shail Hada

Shail is back with the title song and his magic. A perfect end to this great album.

Music Review: Om Shanti Om

2007-09-18T05:01:00.001-07:00

Album: Om Shanti Om
Music Director: Vishal and Shekhar
Lyricist: Javed Akhtar
Album Rating:

Farah Khan’s next venture has the who is who of Bollywood. Considering this, I was expecting a few dozen songs in the movie. It manages to churn out one dozen. Her earlier movie, ‘Mein Hoon Na’ had some memorable numbers. The title song itself is still hummed at places. The peppy ‘Chale jaise hawayen’ is still fresh in people’s minds. Farah Khan had to present something good, if not better, but with this album is disappointing. This album lacks melody, noticeable tunes, interesting voices. The music composers have roped in some of the noteable singers (including Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma), but still fail to produce one memorable song. With its poor original songs and poorer remix versions, this album can be easily avoided.

Ajab Si
Singer: KK

A soft, melodious, romantic number. Interesting lyrics. “Dil ko banade jo patang saasen yeh teri woh hawayen hain”. For the first time, I see heart compared to a fly and breath to wind. Interesting! ‘Chandni teri roshani ka halka sa saaya hai’ - I loved this line. Javed Akhtar has given us a romantic song which is as fresh as a flower. KK sounds strained and nasal in some places.

Deewangi Deewangi
Singers: Shaan, Udit Narayan,Shreya Goshal, Sunidhi Chauhan,Rahul Saxena

The title song of the movie should have been more powerful. It will no doubt be compared to the evergreen Rishi Kapoor song ‘Om Shanti Om’. The song fails to make you sit up and take notice of the song. It’s very slow for a dance number and the voices sound all messed up.

Main Agar Kahoon
Singers: Sonu Nigam, Shreya Goshal

Remember Sonu Nigma’s popular album ‘Deewana’? This song could have been easily included in that album without disturbing its theme. The typical ball dance beats and the slow tempo and of course, Sonu Nigam’s voice - all of this remind you of his previous soft numbers from ‘Deewana’. It took some time to understand the words of the song, and that means Akhtar has worked hard on this!

Soona Lage
Singers: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma

When two voices as powerful as Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma come together in a song, you expect a magical song. Sadly, this song is far from it. The tune itself is not catchy - it falls flat on your ears. A classic case of wasting two great voices. Why are rustic voices like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma used only for melancholic songs? Maahi ve, Agle janam mohe, Maula mere maula mere are some examples.

Dhoom Tana
Singers: Abhijeet, Shreya Goshal

Abhijeet is back after a long time. His voice quality is so good and his singing is effortless - he is one singer wasted and the loss is ours. Compare Shreya’s and Ahbijeet’s singing in this song - you will know what I am talking about. Coming back to the song, the song searches for its identity - it can’t decide whether it wants to be called a wedding kind of song or a hip-hop or disco. Dhol, saxophone, hip-hop beats - one mixture which you are better far away from.

Daastaan-E-Om Shanti Om
Singers: Shaan

Its probably the scale of this song or the lyrics, this song reminds me of ‘Ek haseena thi, ek deewana tha’. Even the mood is similar. The song talks about treachery. Shaan’s voice is the saviour of the song and even he falters at times. The song is harsh on the ears and it doesn’t touch your heart.

Dard-E-Disco
Singers: Sukhwinder Singh

Don’t ask me what Dard-E-Disco means. Its probably the antonym of euphoria. Anyway, if you listen to this song, you will definitely be a victim of Dard-E-Disco. A remix which is a torture to your ears. Stay away from this song, you might even get a headache.

Deewangi (Rainbow remix)

Someone kindly explain what does rainbow remix mean. As if the original music wasn’t enough, this remix song tortures you till you can’t have enough.

Om Shanti Om (Medley Mix)

Take snippets of all the songs in the album, mix and match, throw in some beats and you have this song. Whats the purpose of this song? Ask the composers.

Daastaan-E-Om Shanti Om

Run as fast as you can. This song is dangerous for your health. Party goers will love this song, no doubt, but when it comes to me, I hate it.

Om Shanti Om Theme Music

After all the head-hurting remix songs, this is a welcome change. No shouting, no hard beats - small, soft clip which ends before you even start enjoying it.

Apart from the KK’s ‘Ajab Si’ and Sonu Nigam’s ‘Mein Agar Kahoon’, all the other songs are not ignorable. If I were you, I wouldn’t spend money on this.

Why I liked Chak De India

2007-09-11T04:55:00.001-07:00

1. The movie is crisp. It actually reminds me of a freshly starched cotton saree. Very little time wasted on unnecessary things. Rarely do you watch a movie which is as focused as this. From the moment the movie begins and till it ends, it revolves around the Indian Women's Hockey team.

2. SRK is acting. Finally. You get to see a different angle of SRK. He is brilliant.

3. The girls. The whole world is going gaga over them. If you have caught sight of them on TV, you know how they are. I thought Vidya had the meatiest role and she wouldn't have done a good job. Contrary to my assumption, she has quite a small role and she has done complete justice to her role. The girls look well settled in their roles. Only the prominent roles are developed and the rest are just used as fillers.

4. Music. This movie has a full fledged album with quite a few songs. None of them are lip-synced. This was a big relief. What you see on TV are all for promotional purposes. None of them figure in the movie.

5. No female lead. Thank God, SRK doesn't have a girlfriend or a wife who he goes to and cries with his head on her lap. I was so happy the director was smart enough to leave this out.

6. The intent of the movie. It answers more than one question. On one hand, it talks about other sports being overshadowed by cricket. On the other hand, it talks about women not being taken seriously in the sports field. But what touched me is the fight a man put up to prove his innocence. No media coverage, no press releases, no appearances on TV - one single blow to all those people who maligned his name. At a lower level, the movie showcases how volatile public opinion is.

I am not saying this movie is perfect. With all the ignorable limitations it has, the movie is still good. The positive points outweigh the negative ones. If you haven't watched this movie yet, I urge you to do so.

Ever heard of birthday blues?

2007-09-11T02:59:00.001-07:00

It was my friend's birthday yesterday. As usual, I didn't realize it until he came up to me with a stretched out hand and said, "Today is my birthday. Wish me." This rarely happens with me. My friends very well know I don't care about birthdays and hence don't bother to remember dates. My good friends don't expect any wish from me and they move on as if nothing happened. My other category of friends (politically correct word for 'bad') know that I don't remember their birthdays, and don't remind me about it, but they still expect me to wish them, as if I will remember it all of a sudden.

Why is there an inherent assumption that you are good friends only if you remember each other's important dates? I have never wished my best friend on her birthday. Does that mean I am not her friend? Knowing me, she doesn't care - she just ignores this tiny incident (or the absence of it). Why is it so difficult for people to get this? If it is your birthday, you have all the right to celebrate your feat of burdening this world and its inhabitants with your existence. I might not appreciate it enough to participate in your celebrations. Okay? Good.

Why is it that every birthday comes attached with this custom of giving gifts? I hate it when someone gives me a gift. I am obligated to reciprocate and buy something equally aweful (if I can't find something more awful) for them. Why not do away with this ritual? For all those who know me, if you give me a gift, don't expect the same from me. I might not even remember about your gift the next day, forget remembering it till your birthday!

Another annoying thing is 'treat'. 'Treat me because it's your birthday'. Either that or get loads of sweets so that your friends can gorge on it. This is being on the other side of the fence. Why do you assume I am celebrating this day and even if I am celebrating, what makes you think I want to include you in that?

Something which I was not aware of until recently: face painting. For ignorant people like me, face painting refers to that vulgar act of smearing the birthday boy's (or girl's) face with cream taken off the cake. This is the silliest of the lot. First off, it's cream - it's edible, don't waste it. Think of all those people who don't have a square meal in months and here you squander because you want to have fun. Secondly, these things shouldn't be done in your workplace. Heard of the word professionalism? Bet you haven't. Third point, of course, is to follow this ritual for every soul in your team. Ask the poor guy if he wants to celebrate his birthday at all?

Sun signs. They are side-effects of birthdays, right? What on earth can you find out about a person by knowing his/her sun sign? Oh you are a Taurian? oh good... we will get along well. You are a Scorpion? I better stay away from you. This is more prevalent among the fair skinned species. I mean, give me a break! You choose friends depending on their sun signs?

With all these qualms I have, I cringe whenever someone asks me about my birthday. I have decided I am going to say 'February 29'. Yeah, I thought of February 30th, but some people are actually smart enough to see through this trick. February 29th it is. That way, I have to endure only one fourth of this torture.

Ever heard of birthday blues?

2007-09-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

Music Review: Laaga Chunari Mein Daag

2007-09-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

Album: Laaga Chunari Mein Daag
Music Director: Shantanu Moitra
Lyricist: Swanand Kirkire
Album Rating:

With the huge success of Parineeta and Lage Raho Munnabhai weighing on his shoulders, expectations from Moitra are quite high. He tries to concoct a different mixture here, but fails to create the same magic. While Parineeta had periodic songs with a strong classical touch, Munnabhai was high on melody. The theme of this album seems to be fusion, but it doesn’t touch your heart. Compared to the nasal songs that top the charts these days, this album comes as a refreshing breeze, but still it doesn’t sound like it’s from the Moitra band.

Ik Teekhi Teekhi Si ladki
Singers: KK, Shreya Goshal

The album starts with this light-hearted, playful song. KK and Shreya Goshal add enough ‘natkhatpan’ into this song. KK’s singing is effortless and Shreya does justice. At one stage, the song’s mood changes and we hear Shreya’s digitized voice with some special effects. Apart from this, the song maintains its mood of light-heardedness throughout. Swanand Kirkire’s words are fresh.

Kachchi Kaliyan
Singers: Sonu Nigam, KK, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Goshal

This song starts with words from a folk song, but almost instantly changes to a fast song. This song is interspersed with English words and Hindi words sung in rap style. This song is an unusual mixture of fast, techno beats and folkish words. Apt for a wedding ceremony or a dance competition. Considering Moitra’s earlier works, this song is completely different. This peppy song is going to be surely a hit with the crowd. For me, probably the weakest song in the album.

Ehi Thaiyaa Motiya
Singer: Rekha Bharadwaj

Totally contrary to the previous song, this classical based song is slow and relaxing. Rekha Bharadwaj’s voice is husky and soothing. Sarod is prominently used in this song and it gives a mujra touch and makes the song sound authentic. With Kathak’s ‘taa-thaiyyas’ interespersed, this is a typical ‘kotha’ song.

Zara Gungunalein Chalo
Singer: Babul Supriyo, Mahalaxmi Iyer

A fast song which tries hard to cheer up the mood after the heavy classical song. Baabul’s voice creates magic, but Mahalaxmi’s singing sounds strained. The song is far from catchy. Moitra tries to give this song an exotic touch with Spanish words and guitar pieces. The tune is nothing exotic, though. Nothing extra-ordinary about this song.

Chunari Mein Daag
Singers: Shubha Mudgal, Meeta Vashisht

What’s Meeta Vashisht doing here? No idea. The combination of Vashisht and Mudgal brings back memories of Man Ke Manjeere. This song does sound similar. With those weird beats (no idea what they are called), this song is a fusion. The background music is kept minimal and Mudgal’s voice sounds great. This song is a different take on the immortal Manna Dey’s song.

Hum To Aise Hain
Singers: Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Goshal, Swanand Kirkire

Sung beautifully by Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Goshal, this fun-filled song defines the protagonist family. Sunidhi almost over-shadows Shreya. The tune and the words are catchy. With a prominent ‘dafali’ beat in the background, this song is soothing on the ears.

So, should you buy this album? May be not. Listen to the songs online and then decide whether you want this album for your collection.

iCon: Jeffrey young & William Simon

2007-09-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

“An unauthorized and unflinching portrait of the phenomenon behind Apple” says the back cover. Unauthorized, it definitely is, but I am not sure about the unflinching part, because the book does not reveal anything that an Apple enthusiast doesn’t already know.

The book sketches Steve Jobs’ intriguing life. It begins with RSJ’s (RSJ stands for Real Steve Jobs. If you don’t know what I am talking about, visit this site.) birth and sheds light on his childhood, his college days, founding of Apple, and RSJ’s and Apples’growth. It doesn’t show the readers a personal side of RSJ. It only paints RSJ through events that happened in the public. List of events in RSJ arranged in chronological order interspersed with conversations with a few people - that’s what the book is about. The book paints a contradicting picture - it quotes a few people saying working with Steve Jobs was a nightmare, some people say he was a terror, the book also describes Jobs as a charismatic figure, who improvised on all his speeches and held the audience captivated.

A biography need not be just a journal of events in a lifetime. Readers want to know about RSJ from a different perspective, his human side, if I can say that. Boardroom meetings, RSJ’s charismatic talks in MacWorld meetings, his break-up, his addiction with Zen - all this is available elsewhere too. What a biography should give something that is hidden from the public. This book can probably be forgiven because it says it is unauthorized. If not from Steve’s mouth himself, but a different perspective could have been given by including conversations from more people who have worked with Steve.

My expectations from this book was different from what the book actually gave me. I was expecting to know how Jobs managed Apple, his management tactics and his style of working. I was expecting a peephole to Apple’s world through RSJ’s eyes. This is not what I got. In fact, there is hardly any mention of how Jobs built this company and took it to where it is now. This book is like reading lots of Page 3 articles on Steve Jobs. How much of Page 3 can you take in, anyway? This book has nothing that I could take back home. It only leaves me more knowledgeable about Steve Jobs. Were my expectations flawed? May be.

If you want to know Steve Jobs better, pick this up. If you expect to know how Steve Jobs managed Apple, this is not the book for you.

Tribute to Hrishikesh Mukherjee

2007-08-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

August 27th marks Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s death anniversary.

They say comedy is a difficult genre and it is very difficult to make people laugh. Hrishikesh Mukherjee probably would not agree. With movies like Chupke Chupke, Golmaal, Kisi se na kehna under his crown, one can say comedy came easily to Hrishida.

I remember my first glimpse of Chupke Chupke - those stomach-wrenching guffaws, tears-filled eyes but still wanting more of it. Think of watching a movie on any Sunday lazy afternoon and the first movie that comes to mind is a Hrishida movie. The main reason Hrishida’s comedy movies became such a rage was because of their clean humor. In these days, where comedy has become synonymous with adultery, clean humor is almost non-existent.

While he was the unquestionable expert in the comedy genre, Hrishida gave us serious and thought-provoking movies like Anand, Abhimaan, Alaap and Sadma. If Hrishida’s comedy movies gave us much laughter, they were compensated with ample tears in his serious movies. Who can forget the ending scene in Anand? Or the one in Sadma?

Hrishida’s movies have given us numerous memorable characters. Cinema goers remember Pyaremohan and his obsession with Hindi even today. Raghu, the all-rounder cook, who had a solution to any problem, inspired Govinda’s role in Hero No.1 and continues to linger in our minds. The dying Anand with his undying spirit inspires us and teaches us how to make the most of our lives. Not to forget, Bhavani Shankar, with his philosophies on mustache, continues to entertain us even now, 32 years after the movie came out.

Music played a very important role in Hrishida’s movies. One of his earlier movies, Anuradha, had a singer as the main protagonist. Pandit Ravi Shankar composed music for this movie and gave us some memorable numbers. Hemant Kumar created magic in Anupama with songs like Dheere dheera machal and Ya dil ki suno duniyawalo. Aanewala pal jaanewala hai continues to be the philosophical song that the younger generation listens to even today. Songs like Ae ri pawan dhoonde kise tera man, Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye, Saawan ke jhoole pade, Mein shayar badnaam, Badi sooni sooni hai, Zindagi kaisi hai paheli, Bole re papeehara, Tere mere milan ki yeh raina tell us the appreciation and importance Hrishida had for music.

Hrishida, with his highly entertaining movies, with no violence and simple plots ruled the Hindi film industry from 1957 (Musafir) to 1998 (Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate). Any Hindi film director trying to make a comedy movie uses Hrishida as reference. They dream of making a comedy movie which comes anywhere close to Chupke Chupke. With the king of Hindi cinema’s comedy genre gone, the industry has incurred a big loss. The magician who made us laugh and cry with the same passion has left a big gap in the Hindi film industry which no one can fill.

Do visit Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s official website. They have a very interesting collection of Hrishida’s photographs.

Gali Mein Aaj Chand Nikala: Zakhm

2007-08-24T02:19:00.001-07:00

Song: Gali Mein Aaj Chand Nikala
Movie: Zakhm
Music Director: MM Kreem
Singer: Alka Yagnik
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

I have been hooked on to this song since morning. I have already listened to it some fifteen times, but still can’t have enough.

Gali Mein Aaj Chand Nikala from Zakhm. This beautiful song had slipped away from my music radar until I was recently reminded of it when I heard someone sing on Voice of India.

The song celebrates life - the lady is happy that her lover is arriving and she finds the whole world celebrating with her. The mukhda summarizes her feelings very well.

Tum aaye to aaya mujhe yaad, gali mein aaj chand nikala
Jaane kitne dinon ke baad, gali mein aaj chand nikala

The moon has arrived to brighten her house on this joyous occasion. Anand Bakshi’s took me by surprise. I haven’t found his words that interesting until now. The whole song is full of lines which you want to stop and think about. See this:

Maine tum ko aate dekha,
Apni jaan ko jaate dekha

Such beautiful lines. Not a single extraneous word - just perfect. When Alka sings these lines, the background music grinds to a halt. The magic and aura that these lines create is just awesome.

Though Alka Yagnik is not one of my favorite singers, I adore her in this song. She adds the right emotions to this song. The way her voice dances, sways and curves - I imagine her dancing in the studio while singing in the voice.

MM Kreem’s music makes you want to get up and dance. The song is so full of energy - you suddenly start feeling happy about everything around you. It begins with a soft and mellow note, and picks up speed and energy as it progresses and it ends with a shehanai piece. What other instrument can have a celebratory mood like shehnai? The song ends on a perfect note!

I was surprised to note that none of the people associated with this song are my favorites. Neither the composer, nor the singer, nor the lyricist, but still this is one of my favorite songs. This is one of those situations where three random people come together and make history. For me, this is one of the perfect songs, where everything is just right.

PS: Apologies if this post doesn’t make sense. You see, I am still swaying to the song. As they say ‘Mein nashe mein hoon’.

The Moon and Sixpence: Somerset Maugham

2007-08-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Accepting my friend’s recommendation, I read Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence. I hadn’t read Maugham before, didn’t know what he writes about, I didn’t read the backcover of the book, so I didn’t know what to expect from the book. This was probably good for me, because I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

The first thing that took me was the writing style. The Shakespearean English, the choice of words, long, flowery sentences - the book takes you back to where the action was. My friend calls it a ‘true piece of literature’! What the book is about is immaterial. I don’t think one thinks about the story in Maugham’s books. That does not mean that the story is not worth talking about. In fact, the story had me completely engrossed from the very beginning. The story is unique in itself, simple, yet powerful. What gets you is the characterization.

The main character, Strickland, is so strongly etched that one can start guessing what his reaction will be in certain situations. His wife’s character is so realistic - I guess women haven’t changed much since those days - she is just like any one of us. Maugham is known as the master of characterization and after reading this book, I realized what that meant.

More than the story, more than the characterization, what I personally found engaging was the narration. The story is peppered with generous amount of soliloquy of the narrator, in which he puts forth philosophy of life in his own terms. These paragraphs are interesting and thought-provoking. I often found myself putting the book down and pondering over what I had just read. The story of the doctor in Alexandria and his friend is so strikingly relevant even today. We, city dwellers especially, should stop and think about the narration that follows this story.

This is not intended to be a book review; one cannot review a classic. Reviewing Maugham’s work does not serve any purpose. No one is going to pick up a Maugham book depending on some review. This is penning down my thoughts about what I felt about The Moon and Sixpence. If you are one of the rare species like me who hasn’t tried Maugham’s books, I urge you to pick up one now.

The Blue Umbrella

2007-08-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

It is seldom that a Hindi film meant for children makes news. The Blue Umbrella grabs your attention and rightly so. The film is based on a novella written by Ruskin Bond. Set in a small village in Himachal Pradesh, the story is about a girl possessing a bright blue umbrella which no one in the village has seen before. The girl, played by Shreya Sharma, is exultant because of her prized possession and does not waste any chance to flaunt it. Nandakishore, owner of a small shop in the village, has his eyes set on the umbrella and wants to get it at any cost. Does he get it or not? Watch the movie and moreover, that's secondary.

Vishal Bharadwaj showcases Himachal Pradesh in all its glory. The picturesque mountains, the snow fall, the snow capped houses - the story couldn't have asked for a better place. The simplicity of life, the innocence of the people, the clean and pure way the villagers lead their lives - these are the best parts of the movie. Music, by Vishal Bharadwaj, adds spice to the movie. Gulzar's lyrics is as original as ever. The first half is fast and tight, while the second half drags a bit.

Shreya Sharma does justice to her role, but it is Pankaj Kapur who walks away with the cake. His acting is effortless and brilliant.

The movie is entertaining and refreshing. Go watch the movie and awaken the child within you. If this is not a reason good enough for you, then the movie won this year's National Award for Best Children's Film. Now at least, go watch it.

Moaning Meme

2007-08-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

This post is a result of Anuradha's tagging me.

5 people who will be annoyed you tagged them

Since the rule is to be honest, the answer is I don't know. I hardly have any committed audience, so I don't know my audience enough to know who will be annoyed. Moreover, somebody has to end this chain!

4 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth

1. Cigarettes. On a broader sense, tobacco in any form.
2. Eve teasing.
3. Dishonesty. Lying, stealing, killing - everything included.
4. All those idiotic mother's day, father's day, friend's day business.
5. Mobile phones. Yeah, I do carry one, but not by choice.

3 Things people do that make you want to shake them violently

1. People who keep their reverse horns on even though there is not a soul around who could be harmed because of their reversing.
2. People who don't have a backbone. Not literally, of course. Those who cannot stand up for themselves and their actions.
3. People who send me spams every hour and think they are actually doing a favor on me by doing so.

2 things you find yourself moaning about

1. I am wasting time watching TV instead of reading a book.
2. I don't drive enough.

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself

That half the people on Bangalore roads are morons? On a serious note, these answers say that I can't stand people who don't think before acting. Be it about dishonesty or smoking or honking. I can't stand people who don't give a moment's thought to what they are doing and how it affects others.

It doesn't make sense adding the rules here, because I haven't tagged anyone. Here it is anyway, just to follow the rules.

RULES OF THE MOANING MEME
- Link to the original meme at freelancecynic.com so people know what it’s all about!
- Be as honest as possible. This is about letting people get to know the real you!
- Try not to insult anyone - unless they really deserve it or are very, very ugly!
- Post these rules at the end of every meme!

A tribute to Rafi

2007-08-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

An article on Rafi's death anniversary.

The Speaking Tree: True relationships and its meaning

2007-07-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

If Times of India does one good thing, then it is publishing the column 'The Speaking Tree'. It is a daily column aimed at providing insight into spirituality. Today's article is an interesting read, it talks about the relationship with oneself. In this chaotic world, if one has to find inner peace, one should have a strong bonding with oneself. Sounds silly? Well, then you don't know what solitude is.

Here is the RSS feed for The Speaking Tree column, for those interested.

Test Blog for my RSS reader

2007-06-20T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ignore.

A nitwit on Orkut. There are many, you say?

2007-06-12T01:56:00.000-07:00

While doing my routine channel changes, I caught a news clip on a news channel (I forget which one it was). Orkut was the object of attention and with the amount of firing hurled at Orkut, I thought my television set will go up in flames.

The gist of the story: A girl met a boy on Orkut and they became paly-paly after some time (I refuse to use the sentence 'She was befriended by him', that's utter nonsense, he can't be friends with her if she doesn't want to). She shared her personal details, including photographs of her family, her phone number, her address etc. After a while, there was a tiff among them and the boy went ahead and 'published' all her details on Orkut. The girl claims that the boy put her name and phone number on his scrapbook for everyone to see.

The news channel invited the Managing Director of Google India and what surprises me is that the MD agreed to it! If a girl is stupid enough to give out her phone number to strangers, what can the MD of Google India can do about that? If she didn't know that the rules of real life applied pretty much the same way to the internet life, whose fault is it? How can she claim that Orkut was responsible for the mess when she didn't her own boundaries? How can she ask the MD to make scrapbooks private? If scrapbooks are private, then how do they differ from emails?

I am not pro-Orkut or anything, I know there are many pitfalls in using Orkut which many people don't know. (Read my older posts on about Orkut to know my opinion.) All I am saying is, don't point a finger at Orkut to justify your stupidity. If you are a nitwit, abstain from using Orkut.

PS: I really wonder how net-savvy this particular news channel is. For the above story, the headlines being shown was: 'Orkut hacked'. This news channel should have 'How computers work' and 'How internet works' on their wish list.

Admiration at zeroeth sight?

2007-06-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

How often does it happen that you meet a person and start liking her instantly? Well, it had never happened to me until yesterday.

I saw this girl in one of the numerous trainings that I have to attend as a new joinee. We didn't exchange words - oh, even our eyes hadn't met! She was introducing herself to the rest of the team and what attracted me towards her was her language and her simplicity. She was totally care free, not a hint of hesitation or consciousness in her voice. She was talking as if there was nobody else in the room. Her English was impeccable and she was oozing with confidence.

I switched places so that I could sit next to her and we exchanged a few words. The admiration was mutual - she too seemed quite impressed about me! Well, I don't know why she was impressed - I can't praise myself!

We have decided to meet over lunch so that we can take this forward! Gosh, do I sound like I am in a romantic relationship? Oh no, I am married and I am a girl.

Live a happier life

2007-06-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

When these words figure in the About section of this blog, the blog can't be anything but interesting.

Zen Habits is a blog which strives to make its readers happier, inculcate good habits, share tips about leading a simple, yet fruitful life and in general, improve their quality of life. These might seem to be harder to achieve goals, but the author with his simple-to-read and easy-to-follow posts makes it look like a cake walk.

I had been trying to wake up early everyday. As a godsend, I found a link to this article on lifehacker. The post is so powerful that it tempts you to wake up early and catch the sunrise. I am going to follow the tips given in this post and see if I can make waking up early a habit.

Another gem I found is the article on developing compassion for others. I just love this quote from His Holiness Dalai Lama:

"Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can." - Dalai Lama

Fell in the well... again

2007-06-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

After burying my Shuffle with tears in my eyes, I dared to buy another Apple product. Even after burning my fingers, I still went ahead and bought an Apple iPod. It's black, it has 80GB of memory and it can play videos! You guys think I should be stupid to buy this! Yeah, I think so too, but hey I can't act intellectual all the time. A little stupidity won't hurt.

The mouse wheel is as good as it was claimed to be. Just slide your finger over the glossy surface and iPod is at your service. It’s heavier than I thought. It’s black skin shines and it’s steel body is cold to the touch. It can play movies, it can store photographs… more than what I asked for. I was happy with just the music part.

I can access songs based on playlists, album, composer etc. Shuffle option is of course there. It comes pre-loaded with a few games. One of them is this cool game where a random song is picked and a part of it (not necessarily from the start) is played. You need to guess the song from the four options given. Probably boring for some, but for me, it sure is engaging. I could play this for ever.

What I really hate about this product is that it doesn’t have a stop button. Nope, I can’t stop playing a song. I can pause or start some other song, but I can’t stop. It’s official, it’s there on the site: iPod doesn’t have a stop button. I guess Apple wants to keep the music flowing. Don’t stop… let the music play.

There are two ways to pause the song. Hit the pause button or just the plug out the earphones. Neat design or what?

It has gapless playback feature, which means the iPod will play music back to back with no gap in between. When switching from one song to the other, you will have absolutely no lapse. This does support the previous ‘Let the music flow’ philosphy, doesn’t it?

All in all, my satisfaction meter shows thumbs up for this new addition in my kitty. Bring on the music.

Disclaimer: This is not intended to be a review of iPod. This is just me drooling over my new found joy (or toy?).

Happy New Year

2006-12-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

He was an infant a year back,
Now he is grown so old, he can hardly walk,
He is done with his share of joys
And his burden of sorrows

His body's frail but twinkle in his eyes,
A sweet smile and laughing lines,
Furrows on his forehead that
Show how learned he is

As he packs his bags and turns to leave,
He can't help but think
Of all the days that he brought along
And of all the things he taught us

He turns back to take one last look
Of the world that he is leaving behind
And sees an infant in his place
All ready to take on the world
He gives a warm smile, pats the infant
And says "Welcome, 2007"

Another year comes by
And I know not what it brings
But I do know it offers the same number
Of days, hours, minutes and seconds
And I plan to use it wisely

Time to say good-bye

2006-12-21T03:14:00.000-08:00

As I take a backup of the required things and clean my PC, I have a heavy feeling in my heart. The place where I spent 8 hours a day, five days a week for more than two years is going to be alien to me. The same place where I could come and go whenever I wanted, will demand my credibility the next time I come here. Funny, huh?

I spent 2 years and 7 months in this place which I call my work place. It has taught me a lot of things. It has shown both the good side and bad side of the corporate world. Not only has it helped me add weight to my resume by teaching me technical jargons, but also groomed me on a personal level. I take people's words with a pinch of salt now. Yeah, you can say I have become wiser.

Will I miss anything when I am gone from here? Certainly not the cafeteria food. I will miss the magnificent view I got from the office terrace. I will probably miss talking to a few of my colleagues. Oh yeah, I will miss the comic books that my colleague used to lend me. Now, that's a big loss. I will miss his witty remarks, his irritating PJ's. But, more than the people here, I think I am going to miss the building, my desk, my machine, my shelf, my phone and my board markers. Ironical, isn't it? People react, non-living things don't. But, I'll still miss these dead things rather than my co-workers.

As I pick up my bags and turn back, I see a place which made me wiser, stronger (and definitely richer), but above all I see a place which I can call my second home.

Adios, friends. Thanks for bearing with me for so long.

Your humble abode, no more?

2006-12-18T03:37:00.000-08:00

Of all the other things I did over the last weekend, I visited my Mom's place. It's an ordeal for me. Not because I don't like visiting her place, but it is so far away from my house, that I call it a little picnic. Pack your bag (no lunch required, that's taken care of by Mommy dear), grab a book and off you go for a long, long ride. My husband is patient enough to ferry me all the way and back while I spend the time judiciously reading. I drive sometimes, but that's quite rare.

Nothing special about this visit, but it led to a start realization. A revelation, in its own sense. I was helping my Mom in the kitchen and every time I wanted some thing, I had to ask her where it was. Want a kadhai, ask her. Want the lighter, ask her. Need water to drink, ask her. As this ask and fetch went on for sometime, I felt so sad that this is the house where I spent more than 20 years of my life and now I am a stranger! Yeah, my Mom has moved to her own house now, but that's not enough reason not to know where things are located, right?

The sorrow that engulfed me after that, didn't leave me for the whole day. My husband tried to console me by saying that I have got my own house in exchange of my mother's house.

A girl's life is quite weird in that sense. She grows up in a house thinking that it's her own and one day lightning strikes and it's no longer her house. She has a sparkling new house with new and not-so-friendly faces in exchange, whether she likes it or not. From that day, everything changes.

Belgaum

2006-12-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend, we ran down to Belgaum and back. Not literally, but that sums up our trip quite well, considering that we were in Belgaum for just 12 hours.

We traveled by Pai Travels, Volvo and it was extremely comfortable. No noise of the other vehicles on the road, good, comfy seats with leg support. They even give you a warm shawl. Nice, huh? Talk about customer car. VRL, are you listening?

I woke up to the lush, green fields of north Karnataka. The beautiful trees and the mist greeted me with a wide smile. The road seemed to dance along with our bus and looked like a small kid who is excited to have guests come over to its place. The whole place was covered with light mist, giving it a very hill station look. My eyes reached out till the horizon to take in as much beauty as they could.

I found Belgaum to be a peaceful. laid back city. Not much traffic on the road, all people seem to have all the time on their hands. No hurrying off to work or to catch a bus. What's the hurry, let's take life slowly, right? With Marathi words falling on his ears, my husband felt at home.

The best part of the town is the military camp, of course. The camp spans over a wide area (I don't know the exact figure, but it sure is huge). British military were based here in those days and this area does have a very regal look. It's green everywhere, houses peppered here and there, one black road runs in between as if ripping the greenery apart. Houses have a vintage look, black stone walls, red roof and so calm and quiet as if nobody stays there at all!

Wouldn't it be nice to stay in a place like this? You bet.

What is the time, Mr. Software Engineer?

2006-11-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

What is it about software industry and punctuality? When the software industry was born, was there a deal made with punctuality that both of them can't exist together?

I myself am in this industry and the one of the few things I hate about it is tardiness, not being punctual. Meetings are scheduled at 10 AM and it always starts atleast 10 minutes late. This not only reflects in the professional life, but it also sneaks into personal lives.

Movie starts at 6 PM and you reach the theater at 6.15. You fix a time of 10 AM with other people and you end up coming half an hour late! You don't even bother informing those waiting that you will come late.

Why do people take others' time for granted? All these sloppy people should spend a month in Mumbai. When they miss trains by seconds and lose pay by minutes, they will realize what time means. They will understand the fact that time can be measured in seconds and not only in minutes (or for some people it's in hours).

It's time people respected others and other's time.

A touching gift

2006-11-27T00:49:00.000-08:00

For our second wedding anniversary, my husband gave me a wonderful surprise. He bought a cute little barbie for me! Yeah, I know I am 20+, but a toy won't do any harm.

My family was not very well off. I wouldn't call ourselves poor, but we didn't spend money like water. Every penny was accounted for. If I wanted to buy a pencil, I was never denied one, but my parents would ask me an account of what happened with the rest of the money they gave me.

Coming from a family which didn't earn more than 5K a month and which didn't believe in lavish life style, it was natural that I didn't spend my childhood among barbies and stuffed toys. I grew up in a small village where there were no shops dedicated for toys. Well, I don't think there were any good toys in the general shops either.

I had never touched a barbie in my life. None of my cousing, none of my friends, nobody I knew owned a barbie. I would watch the delicate barbie dolls and the cuddly stuffed toys on TV and dream that I too will own one of those one fine day. And that dream of mine has come true. Thanks to my husband and my dear mom.

My mom bought a cute, cuddly bunny for me from Singapore. Mr. Bunny has a cute pink nose and a pink bow around its neck. My husband bought me a dancing barbie, Genevieve with a little barbie called Lacey. Lacey spins and barbie twirls. They even have a pet cat called Twyla.
It shows the drastic change our lives have gone through. There was a time when my Mom would think twice before buying me a Rs.35 frock and now my husband went to a shop, picked a barbie worth Rs.1,500 and didn't even think once if it was really worth it or where that money was coming from.

All thanks to the education that my parents and my husband's parents gave us. Without our education backing us up and without our parents' blessings, we wouldn't be here where we are. I hope we end up giving our kids such a bright future and lovely life.

Hunting business

2006-11-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

I am at it again. 18 months back, I did once and I am doing it again. What? House hunting. With time, we change jobs and with jobs, we change houses. Ad mag has a lot to offer. I can query by property type (independent house/ apartment), sale type (rent / sale), area (JP nagar, Benson Town etc.), requirements (2BHK, 3 BHK, with car park) and voila it gives a neat list of items that match my query. It even has a camera icon next to properties which have photographs! Neat, huh?

It's good time-pass to read the descriptions. Some ads have good descriptions like 2BHK, pooja room, 2 fans, 1 geyser, 1 bathroom, 1 car park etc.Some have weird ones: 3 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms (You people bathe more often than you sleep?)Some are terse: 2BHK flat jayanagar. Good location. Call immediately.Some owners go on to include a nifty photograph of their proud properties.

I have short listed some of them, picking the 'Brokers excuse' over the 'Brokers welcome'. Next step is to call each of them and find out if the property is still available and if yes ask questions that are not answered in the ad.

That's scheduled for today. Let's see how it goes.

It's your head, dumbo

2006-11-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

With the helmet rule still on in this side of the world, I see helmets everywhere. Helmet on a luna, helmet on a bullett, helmet in a car... no the last one is not true.

There is a floating rumor that this rule might go away. Reason? The rule kicked in, peole bought their share of helmets, helmet shops cleared their stock, in short, mission accomplished. People think that the main reason the helmet rule came into being is to increase helmet sales. Hello!! I think you are forgetting one teeny-weeny fact. The helmet if for your protection. You wear the helmet, you save your head if you ram into a divider on a drunken night.

For all you dodos who make up reasons for the helmet rule and pray to God that the helmet rule goes away, I have just three words for you. "It's your head, you idiot". Yeah, yeah, I know that's not three words. So what?

Innocence

2006-11-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

This post was due on Children's Day. Better late than never.

Why do all people like children? Because they are innocent, they are non-judgemental, they are unbiased and above all, they are just lovable. The main difference in an adult and a kid (and which is why kids are kids) is innocence. The why's and what's that trouble adults, their assumptions, their mischievous smile - everything is based on the pure innocence. What if this main ingredient is taken out? Will you continue to like kids? I found that my answer to this is 'No'.

My niece-in-law, I mean, my husband's niece is 5 years old and she had recently visited us. She stayed with us for a fortnight and over these 15 days, my feeling towards went from love-like-ignore-dislike. I wouldn't use the word hate, but it came close to that. She compares herself with me, who is like her mother. She wants everything I want. I wear make-up, she wants it. I wear gold bangles, she wants it. She thinks looking beautiful is the most important thing in life.

Fairness is another obsession, which in fact is a side-effect of the first one. She wants people to tell her that she looks good and she is fair, which in fact, she is not. But, who cares? I would like the same even if she was pitch dark. She looks jealously at the neighboring kid and asks me, "Why am I not as fair as her?" I was flabbergasted. At her age, I didn't know fairness even existed, leave alone wanting it.

Gold. She wants to wear gold and feel important. She wants to decorate herself, admire herself in the mirror, walk the ramp in front of all the family members and won't quit until everybody gives her a nod of approval and a praise or two. She is god damn FIVE years old!

All this goes back to one main cause. Television. That's her biggest obsession. She is in front of the idiot box for as long as she is awake. And what does she watch? You name it and she watches it. Cartoons? Yes. Movies? Yes. Movie songs? Yes. Serials? Yes. Yes, you heard it right, she watches Ekta Kapoor serials. She adores all those saree clad, gold adorned, make-up smeared barbie dolls and that's the inspiration for looking good and looking fair (no, they don't go together. You need not be fair to look good and vice versa).

I tried explaining to her what kids her age should do. Didn't understand. I tried telling her how unimportant is looking good. Didn't understand. I gave up. This should explain the emotional wave of love-like-ignore-dislike, which almost reached hate. No, I don't blame her at all. Her parents, her care takers have made a terrible mistake for which she is paying the price.
This is the age where kids see a photo of Gandhi and say "Munnabhai". I won't be amused if people look at a photo of Bhagat Singh and then face a dilemma of naming that person Ajay Devgan or Bobby Deol.

People, please, don't deprive the kids of their basic right. Innocence.

The decision

2006-11-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

All I can say is 'Thank God it's over'. After a lot of grey cells grinding, nail biting, saree end twirling, hair splitting, I finally took a decision. It was a dilemma. It was either my dream or my responsibility. And, many would find it shocking, I chose my responsibility.

I let go of my dream and decided to fulfill my duty. I know if I let it go now, I will never be able to make my dream come true. It's now or never. And still, I decided to stick to the latter. That does say some things about me. That I have finally become a family woman. I care more about my husband and his wishes over mine. I choose him over others, including me.

I just hope to God that we both continue to love each other in the same way. May this love never cease to exist.

Firefox 2.0

2006-11-07T03:56:00.000-08:00

Firefox released the latest version. So did IE and so did Opera. I do not use the latter two browsers and I am a great fan of Firefox. The best thing I like about Firefox is the flexibility it provides to the users and the developers. Users can download any extension from the myriad available extensions. There is an extension for every possible thing that you can do with Firefox. Same way, the developers are given enough freedom to hack Firefox and add any feature which they deem as necessary.

With the latest Firefox released, I can't help but regret installing it. The only reason: most of my extensions are broken. Agreed, Firefox is smart enough to catch compatibility issues and inform you what extensions will not work and quietly disable it. It even searches for updates regularly and the moment any extension is upgraded, it informs you. But, why not inform the extension creators and ask them to upgrade the extension to be compatible with the latest version? After all, all it takes is a change in the maxVersion number, isn't it? At least, that's what I did for a few extensions to make them work.

With this complaint, I continue to use Firefox and admire it. Let's continue to fire the fox.

Ruffled because of Shuffle

2006-11-04T01:47:00.000-08:00

My beloved Apple iPod breathed its last today. I bought it exactly 14 months ago and as predicted by hundreds of users online, my Shuffle died its last before it completed even a day more than 14 months.

If you google for iPod shuffle I/O error, you get so many pages and all the pages have users ranting about the same problem. My shuffle died, restore doesn't work, what do I do? It's quite obvious from all this that something has gone horribly wrong with Shuffle. How accurately can you goof up a product where it dies exactly 14 months after its birth? Yes, you can expect this kind of accuracy with Apple alone!

Know what tops all this? Apple knows Shuffle is faulty. The moment you step in to an Apple service center and show them your now-dead Shuffle, they will quietly replace it for a shiny, brand new baby on the spot. No questions asked. Even if your warranty is expired.

That says a lot about Apple and how much it values it customers. Why not withdraw the product from the market altogether instead of replacing the faulty ones?

Dream jobs?

2006-11-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

A 10-day long vacation. All I did was cook, eat, sleep, watch T.V, play games and read books. The best holiday ever!

Life was so peaceful in those 10 days. My appetite was good, my sinusitis was under control, my stomach never grumbled and my head never ached. I have to go to office on Monday morning and I have all the problems I can think of. My stomach decided to act crazy, my nose imagined itself to be a fire hose, my sinus swelled up and before I knew it, I had a banging headache.

Why can't life be simple? Why do I have to work when I don't want to? Why do I have to do something which I don't like?

If I don't like what I am presently doing, what do I want to do? I want to own a library. Lend books to people and read a few books myself. Run a play home for kids. Play with them, enjoy their non-prejudiced, non-judging company and forget the evil, outside world. Teach. Yes, I have always wanted to teach and I am pretty good at it.

The truth is, I am not doing any of the above things. I am sitting here, in front of a dumb monitor, ranting about my life and hoping that it would be better one day. Hope, that's what keeps us alive, isn't it?

Death Penalty

2006-10-16T02:41:00.000-07:00

I watched a good programme on TV last Sunday. Rajdeep Sardesai had Kamini Jaiswal (advocate), Seshadri Chari (BJP), Ashwini Kumar (Congress) arguing over Mohammad Afzals's death penalty. As the nation waits for the President to announce his decision, I couldn't help but think what my stand is.

I want Mohammad Afzal to be hanged. I do not believe in euthanasia. Why are the two connected? Becuase both of them boil down to just one question (at least to me): Does a human have the right to take another human's life?

I am totally against euthanasia and I don't want to get into justifying it. Let's stick to the death penalty question.

If a man rapes and murders a 4-year old girl child, should he be given the death penalty? 9 out 10 people will say yes. This probably was an act of instinct, desperation or just plain lust. It's still not justified, but the point here is that the crime was not planned.

If a group of people plan for months and carry out that plan which could have resulted in the complete wipe out of the top level politicians of a country, leaving the country's law and order to dogs, should they be given death penalty? If these people knew what harm they were about to cause, then? And when they were caught, if these showed no sign of remorse or guilt whatsoever, then? No, I do not want revenge. These guys were cruel enough to plan such a heinous act and stand by it instead of feeling guilty. His family is putting forth his innocent son to evoke sympathy in the hearts of Indians. That same son will grow up and become a terrorist himself.

It's time India shed its peace loving, non-violence worshipping nation and show its enemies that if we can suffer mutely, we can as well stand up and hit back with equal power. It's time we abandoned Gandhigiri and embraced Hitlerism. British were humans, Pakistanis are not.

I say hang Mohammad Afzal and hang every single terrorist who gets caught.

A new achievement, so to say

2006-09-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Ever been in a situation where your head is strapped down to a bed with metal rods and bolts and you are shoved into a metal cylinder which is so small that you can't move your hands around and your only company is a pair of screws that mockingly stare at you from the metal rod that holds your head down and the music to ease your boredom is the weird noises that the cylinder is making?

I was; for full 2 hours and I wasn't amused. It's as if I was being punished for some mistake and I wasn't even asked what my last wish was. It was not a death sentence, I know, but it was close, so damn close.

The technician who strapped me down and turned me into a guniea pig was mad that I revolted against being in this non-enviable position for ten whole minutes while he checked the images! He said I could use some patience. I wanted to tell him, "Yeah, you lie down here and I will strap you down and shove you into the cold furnace. Let's see how much patience you have. Lend me some if you have any."

People around me find it entertaining when I narrate my experience. They ask me stupid questions and when I answer with utmost seriousness and high emotions, all they do is laugh. I don't think that's funny. Not at all.

For people who don't know what I am talking about. This is called MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Wish none of you ever need to get this done. Ever.

If you ask me how it feels to be given this opportunity of being MRI-ed (that's my addition to the English dictionary, no other word can describe how it feels to get an MRI done), I can sum it all up in just one word. Claustrophobic. That's exactly how I felt.

Mental tussle

2006-09-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

I have reached a stage where I have to choose between two wishes. Both wishes are equally important to me and I can't imagine letting go of one for the sake of another. No matter how much I try to defer this decision, I know one day I have to sit down and say I like wish A better than wish B and go with it.

Its sad to know that I have reached this stage at all. Could I have avoided it? Yes. Did I? No.

If I choose Wish A: I am happy that I went with A. Hubby is happy too. I am sad that I didn't go with wish B.
If I choose Wish B: I am happy that I went with B. Hubby is not all that happy. I am sad that I didn't go with B.

If you see the above situation, anybody would suggest that I should go with A because lesser number of people are sad. But, I can't go with A because if I let go of B now, I can never have that wish. Never again. That's not the case with A. I can defer it for sometime, of course with some risk involved.

I have further complicated this situation by telling my hubby about my mental state. He is sweet enough to say that he will support me no matter what decision I take. Even if he wants me to go with wish A from deep down his heart, he won't say it! He is so so so sweet, its all the more difficult for me to see him sad.

The bottom line is, I am in a fix. And I don't know what to do.

If you think I am talking gibberish, that's probably because I am.

That which we call a rose by any other...

2006-09-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

Humans think they are the most powerful. To believe that we have the power to decide whether a ball of mass is a planet or not: what a cheek! Who are we to decide whether Pluto is a planet or not? It will remain the size and color regardless of what its title is. I can't fathom how we can declare that 'Pluto will no longer be considered as a planet'? That is pretentious, to say the least.

I can see God reading the Times of India, chuckling to himself and saying, "You forget a teeny-weeny point, my children. If I want, I can wipe out your planet. Are you sure your planet will exist tomorrow?"

And do I hear a far cry of "We are a planet"? And why do I feel they are strange, green colored creatures?

More on Orkut

2006-09-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Further to my previous rant about orkut, I found how someone can exploit orkut to make money.

I got a call on my office extension today. Here is the excerpt:

Phone rings...

Me: Hello
He: Am I speaking to Anamika?
Me: Yes
He: Hi, I am Sankalp. I am a consultant.
Me: Ok...
He: Can you give me your mobile number? I will call you in the evening and brief you about the requirements.

Me: Why don't you give me your mobile number and I will call you back?
He: I can't give you my number because my mobile is provided by the office.
Me: Then how dare you call me on my number which is not only provided by the office, but is within the office campus?
He: Give me your email id atleast, I will send you a mail.
Me: Who gave you my name and number?
He: Some reliable source. Can't disclose the name. (Yeah right, I am Britney Spears and you are paparazzi)
Me: Why not?
He: I can't. Give me your mobile number.
Me: What the ? Who the are you?

Beeeeeeeeeep......... He hung up.

After a lot of thinking and logical reasoning, I somehow feel that this information was procured from orkut. Well, if one has the patience to scan through plethora of unfamiliar faces and their unreadable scrapbooks and note the name of the person and the company he/she is working for, one sure is desperate: not to change one's job, but to make sure somebody else changes their job.

PS: His English was nowhere as good as this. His words were smeared with coconut oil. He was a Mallu.