A new find- Alexander McCall Smith

Few months back, I was tagged by Sanjana, who had asked me to list five of my favorite book quotes. I have been thinking and thinking and nothing comes to mind, except Gone with the wind's "I'll think about it tomorrow" :-D
I guess what I retain are the stories and the sketches, and I forget dialogues.
There is another in Harry Potter series, where Dumbledore says
"Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
In fact, I think I would pick most of my quotes from the Harry Potter and Bartimaeus series. Sorry for breaking the continuity Sanju :-)

I have been reading this book called "The No.1 ladies' detective agency" by Alexander McCall Smith. And this book has a lot of quotable quotes. Mainly, it is a good story told in a simple style. Do check out. It classifies as a good read in my opinion.

So long, farewell 2008

Don't you feel a kind of listlessness towards the end of any year ?
I certainly do. As if the world has shut shop and is enjoying the holidays, and meanwhile in India, we work though the services are down. Also, there is a feeling of impatience, that this year should get over soon and bring the new year. Albeit there is no big difference between the 31st and 1st, there is always a hope that the new year will bring more joy, more adventures, and more sanity to life.

The Mumbai attack affected all of us, more so because it brought the reality of what happened in Kashmir all these years right into our living rooms. Such audacious incursions and attacks must be pretty common in that beautiful state, it was just not lucrative news material for our news channels. We certainly did not see live coverages of their plight all these years. But the reality that any interior territory of India can be subjected to such an attack was a shocker. We did have bomb attacks, but they were silent killers. But, this was upfront warfare.
Subsequently, Pakistan army and its associates have been creating war hysteria, to deflect the world's attention from what it really has to do, namely clean up its backyards. Our media will do well in not assisting it in this cunning tactic.
Among the many positive signals arising out of this carnage, one was when the Muslims in Mumbai, refused to give proper burial to the terrorists. It sends a strong message to the local India-born terrorists even more than it does to those involved in this act.

Serious thoughts apart, I have not seen Rab ne Bana di Jodi yet. I am keeping that as my holiday treat. Though the movie features indigestibles, SRK rocks. I feel his success is more due to his genius in making you smile while escaping the real life for those three hours. Like a member of the previous generation said, "I hope he never ages".

I have been reading 2010 space odyssey lately. I had always heard about Arthur Clarke, but I am not much of a science fiction fan. My sci-fis have been limited to Michael Crichton, and Doug Adam's Hitchhikers (Of this Im a big fan). Reading space odyssey makes me feel as if Im actually setting off on a voyage. Interesting stuff.
Last good read was 'Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time' I was always afraid of reading this book. Insecurities maybe. But it is a good book. At no point does it dramatize, belittles or bemoans the kid's state. There is a quiet dignity associated with the kid. A must read I think. As necessary as it is to watch Taare zameen par.
Kalki's Ponniyan Selvan has been lying on my shelf for the past few days. I think it means Ponni's son, and is Ponni a river? Ill know more when I read it. Thats next on my reading list. This was highly recommended to me. I had read Kalki's Parthiban Kanavu (Parthiban's dream), which was beautiful, and which made me realise that our central board education system focuses more on the history of North India. I am told that Kalki's creations are mind blowing in its native language, Tamil. I don't read it fluently, so it is lost to me.

Wish you all merry Christmas and a very happy new year :-)

I'm upto this ..

On the books front, I have been busy with short stories of Ruskin Bond and more recently Chitra Banerjee Divakurni. I read somewhere, that short stories are tougher to write, as within a few pages, the writer has to catch the reader's attention, and make reading it worthwhile. Ruskin Bond's work conjures up beautiful images of the region around Nainitaal.

And finally, I got Rushdie's Midnight Children issued from the library. Having heard so much about his work, and especially this one, I am looking forward to reading this. In fact, his Haroun and the Sea of stories was very imaginative and I enjoyed it.

On my way to work, I get to see the beach everyday. I love this part of my journey. One can see the different moods of the weather reflected in the sea.

Whats in a name

I saw Orhan Pamuk's My name is red in the library and wanted to read it. I am curious about his book as I have heard much about him here and there. I admit that the work of Nobel laureates has ever been beyond my understanding.

Dont you think Orhan has a nice sound to it! Few months back I met a sweet Turkish lady with twinkling greyish blue eyes, whose husband's name was Orhan and she pronounced it very musically (OrHAAN). Maybe her affection to him also added to the charm.

A name defines the identity of a person, and so is a very important thing to that person. Names have character too.
And when someone doesnt even take the time to pronounce it right or spell it right, even when they know the person quite well, it is not right. At least I get very annoyed. You are not my friend until you know how I spell my name and how I expect you to pronounce it.

Some people have very beautiful names, many a times influenced by the local culture. For instance, what is Maitri or Maitreyi in other languages is Moitri in Bongland, sanjay is Shonjoy, or Kajal is Kajol.
He he sometimes the local language screws up the name too. Eg. in Tamil (Tamizh), maha is not accepted. So Mahalakshmi is Magalakshmi. This is a Tamilian enough name so it sounds nice. But when Zahera (ZAAhayRaa) changes to Jageera or Jagara, I draw the line :-D

As an aside, I realised that lately I have been giving very corny titles to my posts - Moving Movies, Post Mortem, Castles in the air! and whats in a name :-D Kya karen mamu, bheja chutti pe gayela hai and waise bhi creativity thodi apun k reach k baahar hai :-D

Anyway, another fantasy series I discovered is Septimus Heap by Angie Sage. The first part is called Magyk, and next one lined up is Flyte. It is an interesting read. Good timepass.

Over head transmissions

In general, when we listen to a seminar in some advanced topic, at least the first five minutes of the talk or the first 3 slides are understandable. Attended a talk today in which even the first slide flew over my head. It IS a tough task making people understand what we have been using our grey cells for. There were some specialists in the audience. So naturally their questions and speaker's answers also flew over our head :-D
I tend to talk too fast in my talks. That is a major drawback as that also ensures that the listeners are not with you. I'm trying to work on it.

I tried another book by Valerio Manfredi called Oracle. Gripping but very sinister.
I got Chronicles of Avonlea by LM Montgomery as a present. A very sweet book.
Saw Crash finally. Good movie. I never faced racism and hope I never do.
I'm really cutting down on reading books now. I mean hereafter :-D
I saved the Joanne Harris book for reading after I finish my deadlines. Something to look forward to.
Have a rocking week :-)

Potli mein hari bhari pariyon ke par

Well I was seriously working, and then I just glanced around, spotted Thief Lord lying nearby, felt I deserved a break, and then went on to finish reading the book in one continuous sitting. If only I worked with this fervour! The book is adorable.
Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke is the story of two brothers Prosper and Bo, who being recently orphaned, have run away from their aunt who wants to separate them. They arrive at Venice and join a bunch of kids who are likewise orphans and run-aways and live off by stealing. Actually their group leader Scipio steals and these kids just sell the stolen goods and live off the money. They are doing quite well and live a joyful contented life until a detective on the lookout for the two brothers gets to them. Its a lovely story with surprising twists. It must be very difficult to write books for kids as their attention span is much much shorter.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a cute romantic story set in the French revolution days. More Barbara Cartlandish.
Up next is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have heard a lot about this book. I hope its interesting.
Saw Joanne Harris' Five quarters of an orange in the library and yearned to read her latest books Gentleman Players and the Lollipop Shoes. Last time I checked, Gentleman Players costs some 600 bucks. No way.
Please suggest some book which is interesting without being depressing and very intellectual. Fantasy, Adventure, Humour, Romance, something.
Buonanotte (Good night in Italian) :-D

Inkheart

While reading a book, have you ever wanted to enter that world of make-believe? Or have you ever felt an aura around you of the fantasy world created by the book ?
Something like this happens in the fantasy Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. In this book, characters from a book come alive in this world. It is a very interesting read if you love fantasies. I found it un-putdownable and was sad later that it got over. But to my delight, I discovered that this is part of a trilogy. Second part is called Inkspell and the last one is not yet released. Im waiting to read the 2nd one. My birthday is coming closer and if you know when it is, you know what to do ;-)

Cornelia Funke is a german writer and the books we read are translations of her work. The other book I read is called Dragon Rider. Very interesting again. Her Thief Lord is the best-seller Im told. Yet to read that.
Have a nice weekend :-)

Supernova and time travel

(Ok I tried sleeping but I had terrible nightmares yesterday so just a lil scared of hitting the bed :-D So I thought Ill blab a little on my blabspot:-D )

A few days back we had a talk in our department by an astrophysicist on supernova remnants. This was a study of the dust cloud thats left behind by stars who could not stand their own weight and blew up, the explosions are called supernova/e . The SRs have been seen in our own galaxy too and are some 3000 light years away. An interesting question was raised. Since
these stars are some 3000 light years away (meaning the light from them has taken 3000 years to reach us), what is being studied now is in the past (in fact 3000 years back). How does one know what is the current status of those remnants? Seen this way, our future generations 3000 years from now will know what is happening now, not us :-D To this, the speaker had a smooth answer. SRs have been seen in other galaxies too and these are some 10000 light years away. Since, the constitution of those SRs is the same as those in our galaxy, we can compare the time status and predict what will happen to the observations 3000 years later. One advantage of predictive science. BTW pony tails seems to be the latest fad amongst physicists these days. Why would anyone ever want to grow hair at all?!!

Douglas Adams in Hitchhikers guide to galaxy has an interesting take on time travel. Ill copy paste that here

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. ... The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. ... Most readers get as far as the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up: and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

Hitchhikers is a must read :-D
(Pic from wiki)

Bartimaeus- the world's most notorious djinni

Book just read -

Golem's eye. The second book in the Bartimaeus trilogy.

Books in hand -

Adventures of Sally by PGW

Emily's Quest by LM Montgomery

Mostly Harmless by Doug Adams.

3 dull boring research papers ( to be honest 1 dull one. the others have been very useful and understandable. I am very happy when I find a journal paper that doesnt OHT (overhead transmit) . A couple of them have been a delight to read. Maano ya na maano :-D

Coming back to the Bartimaeus trilogy, the first book in the series was Amulet of Samarkhand. This is the story of an orphaned boy called Nathaniel who wants to be a famous magician. The story is set in London which is ruled by Magicians. ( The muggles here are called the commoners. thank god for a decent name. This we are used to, as every news channel keeps talking about aam aadmi and common man.. pray tell me who is an uncommon man!!)
Anyway he summons up a djinn called Bartimaeus who has been around for quite a long time. The djinn is a delightful character. He is witty, very vain, very practical, has a very condescending opinion of humans. His thoughts have been put as footnotes and they are the ones to watch out for. The story gets more engaging in the second book, Golem's eye. Looking forward to reading the third part.

You can check out the excerpts at their site. Its a book worth reading. Infact I found it more fascinating than the Harry Potters.

Goodnight :-)

Of books and movies

I got to see two classic movies on Sony Pix- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner & Lawrence of Arabia. Sydney Poitier had awesome presence in the first one (Kya Style hai! ) and the other one had real good dialogues. Its 3 hrs 45 mins long though.

Somebody recommended The Constant Gardener to me. Waiting to see the movie. Movie in campus this week is Munich. I checked it out on ImDB and I think Ill give it a try.

Im reading Orwell's 1984 in spells. Its difficult to read it in one go as it can get very depressing. All throughout one gets the feeling that there is no hope. I have ditched reading Glimpses of World History :-( I had reached till the era when Mughals came into picture. Someday when Im free Ill finish this. I have an allergy these days to detective, thrillers themes in books so much that I cant even read Agatha Christies. Im told Georgette Heyer writes good detective novels but I am staying away from them. She otherwise writes romances with the heroes being garbed in lavender satin breeches and pink coats and red shoes. I used to be a big fan of hers once upon a time :-D I think I have grown old. Really!

This comic strip is so apt sometimes !!

National Geographic

Isn't this beautiful !! I found this on the National Geographic's picture of the day section.
These pics reminded me of an intensely romantic novel called The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller in which the lead guy was a Nat Geo photographer who visits Madison County for a photo shoot. This guy, Richard Kincaid is in his 40s. He by chance meets a lady, Francesca in her 30s. She is married and has kids. Everyone is away for some reason and she is alone at home. They both fall in love with each other over the weekend but she stays back at home finally for her husband and kids. This novel is very moving and has to be read once in your lifetime. Apparently there was a movie adaptation of this. I would love to watch it sometime.
You can see the Madison County bridges here.

These many posts by me mean I am not working. I am never consistent. Thats one thing I would like to change about myself :-(

My wonderland

I had once mentioned my dream of a cosy library.
I saw one such place today. The setting was different but equally charming. This house was on the 4th floor. Faces a lake. And a room in this house is alloted for books. A cosy chair and a plush deewaan was added to make it every hardcore bookworm's cosy nest. And the collection there was mind-blowing. They are also avid readers and since they have piled up this collection over a span of 25 years, it was my fantasyland. I had read some of the books and I wanted to read the others :-D So you understand why i was so excited.. some day ill have a house like this. hmmm dreamzz unlimited :-D And they lent me Orwell's 1984 :)


Amulet of samarkhand was very interesting. A cute djinn in it. Its a trilogy so looking out for the rest.
Memoirs of a Geisha was too good. Collector's piece. I dont mind reading it again after a few years.
Want to read Rushdie's Midnight's children. Heard a very good review of it.
Also want to read the Satanic verses (I said this earlier)... heard a review of that too.


Saw Pirates this friday. Slimier, funnier. Understood half of it. Depp as good as ever. Wil see it again sometime and understand the rest of it :-D And there's a 3rd part... And it seems Davie Jones is a mythical character. I mean stories abt him exist. Wil research this in greater detail.

Want to see Omkara.., saw interesting reviews about it..
Heard that Gangster is a good movie.. will watch it after my assessment.

By the way my assessment on 1st. Wish me luck :) Its at 9.30 am. I hope I reach the dept by that time... imagine if the panel is made to wait for the student !! Wish me greater luck :-D
Goodnite!

Ebook fair

The World ebook fair is a haven for all the book lovers. I downloaded scores of classics which I would like to read sometime. Although its a pain to read ebooks and I anytime prefer reading a hard copy, I was tempted to read every other book I saw there. Sometime in my life when Im happily jobless, Ill read these. For now, download kar liya :)

Random thoughts

I hate it when people jump queues. I am not even talking about a family man here who always has to rush cos there is always something else he has to attend to, though even that doesnt justify jumping queues as there are others who also have something to attend to. I am talking about college students, who on one hand would go to a posh boutique and be at their politest best to the salesmen there, but would not show the slightest respect to the patience of those who have chosen to wait their turn in the queue.

France won :-D mainly cos of their luck and strong defence I think. I dont have any preferences for the finals as I have been supporting both the teams. But I think Italy has a better chance.. good strikers, good defence, and energy. Enjoyed the world cup :-) However, after it gets over, Ill have no more late-nights and will have more productive days. Enough of these hangovers :-D

I am reading a fantasy novel called Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Its about a boy who stumbles upon a legacy of Dragon Riders and is made a Rider himself. He starts on an adventure akin to Frodo's adventure in Lord of The Rings. The book is interesting and un-put-downable. Though, having read LOTR, I end up finding similarities and making comparisons. That is a disadvantage. Still, these days the book is the treat at the end of the day after crunching numbers :-D


I am yet to find a honest doctor. So no wonder I have zero zympathy for them.

FM, V and Evey

Its a long time since I have posted my tuppence on the blog instead of linking to other sites. So here's what I have read, seen and done these days for anyone who cares :-)

I read The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho.

There is a passage in the book where he says that we can learn three things from children - to be happy for no reason, to always be busy in doing something and to ask for what one wants until he gets it. Why do we lose this wisdom when we grow up? Evolution goes backwards?
This book was about a prophet who has been entrusted with bringing the people back to the flock. In trying to do so, he faces many hardships, escapes to a different country, struggles, settles down, finds love, loses it, his world is destroyed, and he rebuilds it. This book says that God leaves it to us to make our decisions. But at times I wish I knew what path has been set for me beforehand. But the thrill of living life would no longer exist right? I waver between indecision, confusion and exasperation most of the time :-D
***********
Then I saw V for Vendetta

Remember remember the fifth of November,
the gunpowder, treason and plot
I know of no reason why
the gunpowder and treason ever be forgot.

This movie is set in the future and is the story of a girl called Evey who runs into a man called V, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask. He, like many others, had been tortured in a detention camp by a totalitarian government twenty years ago. He now plans his vendetta and kills everyone responsible for the crime committed against him and others and he also brings about an uprising in the people. Somehow I feel I am not doing justice to the movie here. But I can say this much - Dont miss this movie.

Fear, freedom and confidence are more than words, they are perspectives.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Behind the mask, there is more than flesh. Behind the mask, there is an idea Mr. C and ideas are bulletproof.

These are the few dialogues I remember. There is an awesome dialogue when V introduces himself to Evey where he uses heavy-weight words starting with the letter v and its very beautifully and craftily put together.
V is played by Hugo Weaving (Elrond of LOTR). He is brilliant. Throughout the movie, he wears a mask, yet he is my favourite hero. Mind-blowing dialogue delivery and what voice!! He is such an impressive character without even his facial expressions to aid him.
Evey is played by Natalie Portman. She is as gorgeous bald-headed as she was in her blond curls. Superb acting.
This movie is actually an adaptation of a comic series by Alan Moore published in Britain in the 80's. Wiki tells you more about the comic. I am searching for this book now :-)

********

Italy entered the Qfinals. (Everything is fair ;-) :-D And France is through :-D Was thrilled to read about this the next day. Missed the match :-(
I am supporting France, Argentina, Portugal and ofcourse Italy in Qfinals. Looking forward :-)

Why do Vogons remind me of our administrative block inhabitants!!

This is what Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy says about Vogons :

"Vogon Constructor Fleets. Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy—not actually evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat and recycled as firelighters."

Applies very well to the Ad block creatures :-D
Hitchhiker's... is a very hilarious and intelligent science fiction written by Douglas Adams. Read it if you haven't read it yet.

Glimpses of world history II

The arab civilization -

Arabs were nomadic people living the desert life. Nobody was interested in them. They were not interested in anyone else. The arba clans would live a tough life and fight among themselves. They were however, great travellers. Before Islam was introduced (technically Islam was introduced by Pr. Abraham, it was revived by Pr. Muhammad. As u know Islam is the youngest religion, and our scripure acknowledges Pr. Adam, Noah,Abraham, Moses, Isah (jesus) as our prophets too.), the arabs were also a superstitious lot, steeped in darkness, with many malpractices like female infanticide, etc. (Being a muslim myself, you should excuse some bias on my side :-D)
Then Pr. Muhammad preached his religion. The arabs fired with this new message and zeal, went on to spread their religion. Islam's message of equality and brotherhood had great appeal to the oppressed citizens of the neighbourng countries and hence, the arabs won wars in many places effortlessly. That was the greatness of a single person who enlightened the whole nation. The arabs are credited to be first ones to have scientific thinking. Infact, contrary to current status of the religion where questioning is considered kufr, in those days, questioning was encouraged. The first word to be revealed in Koran was Iqra which means read in Arabic. Emphasis was on gaining knowledge or Ilm rather than accepting the dogma. Therefore, renaisance came to Arab 1000 yrs before the european renaisance.
Anyway, returning to the history, this era was an age of development of science, art and culture. Arabs on their mission of conquest stopped at Sindh near India. In Europe, they were stopped at Tours in France. The arabs however, later adapted themselves to the luxurious life of the rulers. They were no longer the nomads of Arabia. But they still fought petty battles within themselves. However, their empires were still much more civilized and advanced than the other european empires of the time, which were still oppressed.
Then the warriors of Central Asia, the Seljik turks, converted to Islam. These tribes were an uncivilized lot compared to the arabs of the time. They became the new face of Islam. It seems that the custom of purdah was adapted by these turks. They were more or less barbaric and destroyed cities and did not encourage art and culture to flourish. I think it was around this period that Islam started being rigid. The free-thinking that was encouraged in the religion started by the Prophet was prohibited in the reign of the Turks and the current status of Islam to a large extent can be credited to these tribes who were illiterate in the first place and spread the distorted version of the religion to the nations they conquered. Same with Mahmud of Ghazni, who in the name of Islam, plundered and massacred in India for mercenary reasons. I wouldnt call him a muslim!

When I read this, I so much wished that I should have been born in the era of the Prophet. The religion then was at its height of brilliance. Women were encouraged to study. In fact, women held administrative positions in Prophet's days! Islam gave equal rights to the women. Their property and marital rights are still much advanced in this age. Its another issue that the rights in this age are manipulated by men. Triple talaq is not allowed in the religion. It has its stipulations though they are ignored by the men AND the "learned" men. Same with polgamy etc etc.

Somebody else who was very impressive to me was Chenghiz Khan ( he was not a muslim). Unlike other great conquerors who started young, he started his career when he was 50+. He won wars through strategy and organisation.

Isnt it interesting to read history this way? Whole centuries are described in a chapter. So one doesnt go into the minor details of the trials and tribulations of the people. Their day-to-day living, on this large a scale, becomes a story for the future generation. What story will I leave behind for my future generation? Will they say naani did this... did that... ? :-D I hope they are interested :-D

Glimpses of world history I

Long long ago, I dont remember how long ago, I had enthused about writing about Glimpses of World History by Nehru (JN) and then that was that. This is my first attempt. I have so many impressions gained from this book that its all cluttered in my mind. Ill try to be clear.

I have currently reached 1200 AD (or AC-after christ as Pt. Nehru puts it). Reading that book is really like a time travel through the ages coloured with JN's impressions. JN comes across as a very learned person, unprejudiced in his thoughts. He must have read so much to have this clear idea about every nation! He he, he does berate the English in the mildest, gentlest possible way now and then.
So here I start
Indian civilization has been around for more than 5000 years! Long before the western civilisations developed, Indians and Chinese were way ahead in art, culture, civil infrastructure. There were great centers of thinking in Asia and Africa while Europe was still barbaric. We dravidians are the oldest inhabitants of this nation :-D In fact, I think our genetic strains are also unique. I remember seeing something about this here. In fact, the tour through that site is also a time travel through the ages.
Buddhism started as early as 600BC. Hinduism has existed even before that. These two religions, inspite of being much older than Christianity or Islam, have managed to be less violent in history. There have been so many bloody wars carried out in the name of religion which in real have been for mercenary reasons. Empires barbaric and beastly in nature have ruled for centuries at a stretch and then these empires have perished into anonymity.
Alexander, the world-conqueror as he is called, achieved all that before he died at the age of 33! But he was not all that great and he destroyed great number of cities and people on his way. He reached the borders of India but the mountains and an Indian king called Porus kept him away. In fact, I had once heard about greek colonies still in some areas of Pakistan. Ill get more info about this and post here.

Patliputra, Nalanda, Magadh were centers of learning. Arthashastra talks about the local rules and regulations implemented in those days. It seems in those days, fines were imposed for chucking garbage, letting water or mud collect in the streets etc!! We don't have that kind of civilization now!! And compare all this with the current state of Patna. But the biharis I have met so far have been industrious, intelligent and enterprising. Like one of my friend said - just like Kerala -> god's own country and devil's own people, Bihar -> devil's own country and god's own people :-D No offence meant.

Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier

I read this novel and Ill give an outline of the story here. ( This is a spoiler for those who want to read the book. For them, Ill say go grab the book. Too good. )

John is an Englishman, a professor of french history, teaching in France. He has no family and is detached from the world. Just when he loses hope in his life and decides to join an abbey, he meets his mirror image, Jean who physically resembles him but is the exact opposite in nature. Through Jean's trickery, John is forced to live Jean's life when he dopes John and runs away with his documents, clothes- everything that defines John's identity. John is therefore forced to go to Jean's chateau. Knowing nothing about the people he meets, he gradually discovers their relation to Jean, their problems and Jean's role in creating those problems. Hence, he, who is now playing the role of Jean, is made to feel responsible for Jean's follies. John hesitantly gets involved and to a large extent, in a fumbling manner, sorts out the tangles Jean left behind. Just when he has settled into the family he saved from destruction, Jean returns to take his rightful place. Meanwhile, Jean (as John) has destroyed John's systematic life - he has resigned from the university, sold the apartment, encashed his savings, even his cherished Ford car is now muddied and battered. And the story ends with Jean going back to live in the chateau and John continues on his way to abbey.
DdM is a writer par excellence. Her narrative style engages the reader completely. John's path of discovery in the new place with new people, his personal mortification in having to deceive the people of the chateau, his bumbling attempts to solve their problems - almost everything has been very magically described.
Her stories generally reach the depths of despair but always, as a rule, end on a hopeful note. But I have issues with this story. Its not fair at all. Jean has always dealt with his relations in a heartless and reckless manner, destroying their happiness and not even repenting about it. He choses to leave John to deal with them and escapes to nowhere. And just when everything has been set right, he returns to take his place. He always get the best deal and John gets the bad one. Not fair :-(( I hate the ending with all my heart. I wish Jean had died.

I, as a rule, avoid depressing movies as I generally get involved in the plot. Therefore, I avoid books with sad endings with a greater passion, as with books, one uses one's imagination to picturise the setting and so its a greater risk to read such books. And after the ending in this book, I now need a hug very badly..mummmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie :-((

He he :-D
Happy weekend :-D

Books....

Books I have been reading recently-

• Valkyries by Paulo Coelho. This book is about getting in touch with your guardian angel. Ill confess most of it went above my head :-D But one good point I gathered from this book is to banish the second mind. I have this bad habit of parallel processing. At times, even when somebody is talking to me, I'll be thinking of something else at the same time. I do this while reading, working, etc. Getting rid if that habit will help me a lot in focussing :-D
  Something else was about not looking down and instead looking around while walking. I do that too :-D He puts it in more decent words viz. expanding one's soul :-D Many a times I have not seen my friends approaching me from the opposite direction, as I would have my head down and would be thinking about something . Those who know me just joke about it but those those who dont, think that I have deliberately ignored them. This book was more about philosophy and more spiritual and hence a bit (rather a lot) beyond me as Im mostly a I-me-myself kind of a person. No shame and no regrets about that :-D. I would like to read Devil and Miss Prym. I have heard a lot about that.
  

• A lovely well written romance novel. I don't remember the name :-D
  

• Currently reading Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier. I have loved all her books that I have read so far. She is one of the authors who stand out for their story telling and engaging plots. Every book of hers is a delight.

What would I ever do without books!!

Im looking forward to seeing Fanaa (more for Kajol than Aamir in the movie). Ill never ever see Krisshhhhh. The songs look funny. Hrithik looks gay. Priyanka looks artificial as ever.