Man of Steel(?)

How can anyone make super man look super boring??? But "Man of Steel" did it! Even Russell Crowe couldn't save the film! Half of the movie I was wondering when will the actual action start? And start it did in the second half and lasted as much - a few seconds. All in all a very poorly made "Super-hero" film with no power or punch - err pun intended :)
PS: I actually dragged three of my friends to the movie and dint hear the end of it for a week!

Innocents and Wordkeepers...

"The Sea of innocence" is a moderately good read...The writing style in itself is not so commanding as the atrocities that are portrayed in the book...Goa- for many still remains as an elusive picture of a paradise lost has in fact a darker and murkier side to it...The story speaks of a middle-aged investigator who gets pulled into the case of a missing 16 year old by her ex-boyfriend of a cop...The things that the girl had to experience at sweet 16 leaves a bitter taste in the reader's mouth...

The narrative is far too predictable and the characterization is pretty weak..I mean you can't just tap into a drug-mafia and come out unscathed...Still, the story of the missing girl keeps you hooked onto the book to know whether she is still alive or not , if not for anything else...While the atrocities are unbelievably true, the characters could've been given some more meat to make the investigation and the conversations believable...

All in all, even though the book was not very well written, "The Sea of innocence" captures you with a temporary spell and leaves you heavy hearted imagining the kind of law-less, corrupt and incorrigible society we live in...


Speaking of Society, I also had the chance of reading another surprisingly well written book - "The Wordkeepers"...Keeping up with the recent trend of bringing mythological characters to life, "The wordkeepers" is the first of a triology that speaks of the last avatar of Vishnu and the Kali Yug...Although not a believer of Kalki, I fell for the book - hook, line and sinker...

There are places where you can make out the nascency of the author (this after all is her first book) but the overall narrative is riveting...Can't wait for the next book!

Of words and oleanders!

Just now finished a couple of beautiful books and my journey which started in Nazi Germany has now ended up in the crowded streets of Kolkatta...

I am so happy reading some meaningful books after the sorry excuse for a book - "Revolution 2020"...It was like cleansing myself raw after a long week of selling fish...

"The book thief" from which the phrase word shaker is borrowed is a beautiful, lyrical narration of the magnificence of human nature...It is amazing the depths to which people go to uphold the honor of their word...It is true sometimes, the worst of the situations brings out the best in people...It is heart wrenching to see the love story unfold amidst the uncertainty that Nazi Germany brought about to the millions of people who were neutral to the anti-Semitic movement....But most of all my favourite character of the book was the fair skinned Jesse Owens...One kiss that's all he asked for...*sigh*...

Then there was this sudden jolt and I woke up in a royal mansion in which the oleander girl is dealing with her uncertainties of impending nuptials and the incompleteness that has filled her life....I usually shy away from the works of Indian authors for the simple fact that almost all of them revolve around the intricate web of emotions that every Indian faces...My simple explanation is I have enough of that in my everyday life, I don't need to delve into someones else's to understand that...But surprisingly and refreshingly "The Oleander girl" takes me with her in search of her identity...The book is very well written without the usual mushiness and has strong characters that hold the fort on their own..Now that I reflect, I guess I liked the book so much because every character in the book is unabashedly themselves without any pretense...All in all a good read...

I have a stack of books waiting for me and cant wait to start them! Till then ciao!

Conversations...

I've always been in a dilemma as to whether to confront someone with something or to let it go simply because you know that it doesn't change anything. As one of my dear friends says I have always been kind of a pushover- a passive person. But dint mind it so much until lately I realized how important it is to actually communicate rather than just letting it go to avoid a confrontation.Conversations left unfinished remain stories entangled and be sure they will come back to haunt you. At some point in your life you will sit and reflect as to how things would've turned out if only you had spoken your mind. Can't change what has happened,have no regrets either. But here's to a new beginning and hopefully a better one...

Can't Wait!

Impatience is the new life - says the adcom for airtel broadband which pretty much summarises the way of life today so much so that when I couldn't remember this tag line within ten seconds I immediately called up my friend to look it up for me :)

Everything now-a-days has to happen with lightening speed and sometimes even that is slow...I wont be surprised if the unit of measure changes from a second to nanosecond(spoken like a true geek:))...

Alls fine with speed and manic restlessness BUT It irks me when people can't wait for their turn in the Queue (wherever!)...Why is it that waiting brings out the worst in people? I , for one , hate waiting but only when someone doesn't keep up an appointment ...but I fail to understand
Why the hell do people honk in traffic when they can see that there isnt space for the guy before him to manouver?
Why can't they stand in line but just brush past the waiting people to get a movie ticket?
Why is it that people go on calling even if they hear that their call is waiting?(a super invention by the way)
Why can't people wait for 10 seconds and have to switch the channel as soon as an ad is on?
and whenever I see any such thing happening (which is ever so often), it is all I can do to stop myself giving them an earfull!
Why I mean Why??

Aham brahmasmi!

Back from a week long trip to a loooot of temples :) ...We visited almost 8-9 temples within a span of 6 days and boy was it worth it! Every temple had a story to tell and a few deposits were made to my knowledge bank ;)...These new additions obviously set my ball of thought rolling and as a natural consequence I am blogging ;)...
As a Hindu I have the previlege of worshipping hundreds of deities in various forms...If you observe, every deity stands for certain qualities...these qualities are'nt usually those with which a person is born , they need to be attained through the course of life with a lot of self retrospection and learning there by...thus they are usually branded as unattainable by human standards...It makes me wonder may be it is these qualities we worship and to give them form we associate a godly figure to it-if so hats off to the genius of our ancestors to have exemplified these lessons by personifying these qualities...This is where the second word of my title comes --"Brahmam"
On a different plane, why DO we have so many dieties? Can't we have a single god and associate all the qualities with Him? May be it is our ancestors' way of saying that everyone is different :) and you can't expect all the qualities in a single human being :) A way of promoting tolerance in us-- a train of thought that I am still not very tolerant about though :)...
There is a saying in Gita -- "You will attain moksha when you see yourself in others and others in you". The first one is but natural, but not many do the second one...This is where the first word of my title comes--"Aham"...This prevents people in executing the second thought...
But only the one who realises that the two words are inseperable also sees that only when you believe in yourself do you attain true happiness...
Know thyself - be your best critic.

Gilly Gilly all the way!

Performing under pressure is the real mark of a champion...I fell in love with Gilly all over again on friday..What a knock that was! It knocked the senses out of me and I started jumping up and down for every shot that sent the ball flying or bouncing over the boundary-which meant a lot of physical exercise for me as every other ball was sent to meet the boundary....
The match started with a surprising decision by Gilly to bowl rather than bat first especially when the chargers lost the last 5 matches chasing...But the gentleman's decision was proved right (or was it right just because they won ;)) as the nerves of the semi-final attacked delhi when it lost two very early wickets...The chargers then tried everything in the book to restrict delhi to a defendable score...however friday was Gilly's day...the Daredevils' total seemed miniscule in front of the gargantuan skill of Gilly...Sehwag was in the receiving end of what he usually does to the opposition and he was flabbergasted...Every shot showed a genius in action...every ball - a yorker,short pitch, full toss, leg cutter- whatever the question was , Gilly had an answer....It was however a little sad that the magnificent journey of the daredevils to the semi-final reached an anti-climax...There was only one difference between both the teams that day- one gentleman-Adam Gilchrist!
I do sincerely hope he continues this in the final too and script the unexpected ending to a tournament in which the chargers started as the underdogs!