Books Tag

Once upon a time, long long ago, when this blog had jus moved to wordpress, it had a page tat went by the name “Books am reading”. It had a list of around 15 to 20 books which were in various stages of reading, rereading. Then I removed the page 😦

Instead am putting up a post about books. No. Not a ranting about Authors. A simple tag. About Books. THnx to Priya 🙂 Here it goes.

1.Books that changed your life:

1. Windmills of the Gods, Sidney Sheldon. Flicked it from my aunt when I was in 6th. Couldn’t understand most of it. Read it just for the heck of it. But Sidney@6th std raised lots of eyebrows! 😉

2. Of Human Bondage, Somerset Maugham. No Idea how I found this book. Read it during high school.

3. Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne. OooOps! Robert Ludlum. Responsible for my cynical outlook towards world in general and also inspired my alter ego, Jason Spencer 😉

4. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand. Inspired lots of idealistic visions and crap posts.

5. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie. I bow, Sir!

6. Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger. As a wise friend of mine quipped once, in one way or the other, we all relate to Holden Caulfield.

2. Books that You have read more than once:

1. Barbarians at the Gates, Bryan Burrough and John Helyar Heard about LBOs?? any idea how Flextronics became Aricent?? read this book.

2. I met a Lady, Howard Spring. A beautiful book.

3. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie.

4. Paperweight, Stephen Fry.

5. As the crow flies, Jeffrey Archer.

3. A book that You’d take onto a deserted Island:

err…only one?

1. One Hundred Years of solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (no pun intended :P)

4. Books that made you laugh:

I don’t usually buy or read books that is intended to make me laugh. Prefer sombre works.

1. The Monk who sold a Ferrari, Robin Sharma.

2. Paperweight, Stephen Fry

5. Books that made you cry:

1. City of Joy, Dominique Lapierre. Learnt about the side of my birth city I had never known till then. And cried.

2. A short story written by Jeffrey Archer. Don’t remember the name. It was about a letter written by a son to his father about his love.

6. Books You are currently reading:

Ah! A long list:

Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak.

Surely you are joking, Richard Feynman.

Yes Minister transcripts.

First among Equals, Jeffrey Archer.

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy.

and lots more…

7. Books You have been meaning to read but yet to read:

1. Snow or My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk.(Was to be my bday present for myself but watched Sivaji with friends instead..not that I complained.)

2. Ulysses, James Joyce.  Paulo Coleho wrote in “Like a Flowing River” that Ulysses is the book every writer loves but can’t explain why.

3. Works of Samuel Beckett.

4. Crime and Punishment and other works of Fyodor Dostevosky.

5. Ponniyin Selvan , Kalki. Ok, I suck at tamil but ever since I heard my friends rave about it, I been wanting to read it.

6. The Golden Gate or A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth.

7. Das Kapital, Karl Marx.

8. Yet to beg/borrow/steal:

Wanna move onto the Classics now. Dickens, Jerome K Jerome,etc. And lots of modernist stuff too. Especially James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot,etc Also wanna read works of Tagore, Nehru and Rajaji.  And read more poems. Really regret hating them at school.

Everyone is free to continue this tag. Happy reading !

The BatPod

 

And they call it a BATPOD !! 😀

After Christopher Nolan infused some life into the big screen adaptations of the Batman series with his Batman Begins, he is back. He is gonna direct the next Batman Movie called The Dark Knight.  The pix above are that of  the redesigned Batcycle (or Batpod as they are gonna call it in the movie) to be used by the The Dark Knight in the movie.

Uber Cool !!! 😎

Aathaa..naan ‘sivaji’ paathuten !

As of today, I am 23 years and 1 day old. Celebrated my birthday yesterday. And what a way to celebrate it:

12 AM: Call from parents and friends.

9 AM: Call from chitthi. My8 year old cousin played “happy bday” on his keyboard and let me know that the next Rahman is on the way 😉

5 30 PM: Thalaivar Padam 😀 😀 😀

After standing for around 2 hours in the queue, got tickets for Sivaji :D. Thalaivar padam, first day first show 🙂 .Missed the opening scene 😦  (Dammit…!) The movie seriously rocks if you forgive the director’s “Anniyan” hangover and Peter Hein’s stunts (especially the KingKong fight…wtf was that about x-( ).

The movie is an out and out entertainer and masala mix. Yes it is preachy but not Ambi’s “Flush the toilet after use or else I will kill you” preachy. Shankar let us watch happily by directing his ire at the politicians and bureaucrats (thank God for that). Yes it has scenes that remind you of Gilli, Saami and a whole lot of other movies. But I strongly believe it was all included with a motive. Lots of one movie wonders and other bufoons have cropped up in Rajni’s absence and claim to be the next superstar. This movie puts them in their place. For instance, the scene where Vivek stops Rajni from mouthing a punch dialogue and sighs that almost every hero mouths one in their movie and asks “six kapparom seven da. Sivaji kapparom yevan da?“.

As usual, Sankar has paid attention to every detail.As usual, the songs have been picturised beautifully. As usual, Rahman’s music rocks . Rahman reminds us yet again that script alone was not the reason for Anniyan’s failure. Shriya ( or Shreya) looks great throughout the movie. Surprisingly, she acts well. And dances amazingly. Suman does full justice to his role. A good comeback.

However, Shankar’s magic touch has began to wane. If Anniyan despite Vikram was bad, this one minus Rajni would have been a disaster. The story is a huge letdown to all Sankar’s fans. For sometime, I did wonder, whatever happened to the guy who gave us Indian and Mudhalvan? But the image of Rajni (esp the mottai BOSS!) with  all those designer clothes and the Ray Ban takes care of everything. Substance gives way to Style. Who cares! Its the BOSS after all. 😉

Home Truths

Disclaimer: The author doesnt endorse or support any liquor or any kinda smoking
1. Reality bites. So stay away from it.
2. Ganja is cheaper than liquor(even the spurious ones! expect our FM to tax it this budget:P)
3. I kept up my new year resolution for all of 15 days. My resolution was to stop drinking coffee. I managed 3 cups for the first 15 days. The next 13 days, I had arnd 40.
4. Rushdie is in no way equal to GG Marquez. Its lyk claiming that Big B is equal to Al Pacino.
5. Shilpa Shetty finally proved that she can act; Jade Goody made an ass out of herself; And the whole episode proved that all those who even talk about it are morons.
6. How can one justifyKannagi burning the whole of madurai for her husband’s unjust killing?
7. Last year it was Atlas Shrugged, this year it was Midnight’s Children: book i read for 6 consecutive hours during a train journey.
8. I have fallen many times but (un)fortunately, never in love.
9. If we Indians are good at one thing, it is this: Snatchin defeat from the jaws of victory.
10.Truth is bitter. Beer is bitter. So is drinking beer seeking the ultimate truth?(I think i have read this somewher..not sure)
11. Quizzing, not water is the elixir of my life 😀
12. These days, I am most comfortable when its just the two of us: Me and my EGO.
12. And finally, we stood for a minute in silence expressing solidarity wit US after the 9/11 attack. But till now,I dont recall us standing for a minute to express solidarity wit the ppl of Kashmir(Arundati Roy, take note)

Plundering bookshops and a few questions

Friday the 19th:
Its not every evening that u walk into a city and the first thing that u notice is a thalluvandi selling second hand books. Much to my delight, thats what exactly happened.I walked into CBE and the first thing I noticed was the ubiquitous thalluvandi selling books instead of gobi manchurian(or in some cases, kaka biriyani :P).The usual fare: Rushdie,Roy,Stephen Covey; an iCON here, a Road Ahead there. My favorite book haunts were the three bookshops(I call them thrimurtis of luz) that dot the luz corner. But I was not ready to pass up an opportunity to buy a book at cbe(A souvenir :-P). God chose not to play dice and I found a lil book hiding behind “Seven steps to Succes” (or was it “Seven approaches to success?” who cares!). It was the booker prize winner “Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai. An Indian winning a Booker prize is a rarity and trusting the judgement of the Booker Committee members, I bought it. My patience as usual ran out and I started reading it the moment I got into the train.
Strangely, I felt disappointed after reading the first few pages. Oh no!not another novel on post colonial angst and pseudo-Anglican thoughts! As I read on, I realised that the book had lot more to offer. But I was still stuck by one thing: why is there an obsession with everything Raj? Do Indian-English writers still write to please the Sahibs? Or is it the only thing that gets them recognised? Of course I may be wrong. But glance through all award winning Indian authors (Roy, Rushdie, Naipul,Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth and now, Kiran Desai) and you will realise that the recurring themes are the effects of colonial past and the pressure of being a migrant somewhere outside India. I do accept that the two above stated issues have affected our lives but can’t our writers write or think about anything else? Why should it always be about stuff like racism,colonialism,imperialism and all the shit that comes along?? Or are the authors caught in some kinda time warp which forces to look behind these issues?
Two articles that shed some light on these issues:
1. Writing the Raj way by Una Chaudhuri
2. The Currency of Arundhati Roy by Amitava Kumar

Bak to the few hours @CBE:
After buying the book, I had some time to spare and so walked around an empty Race Course Road. The road seems to have been given a neat facelift and there are models of Architectural landmarks like Tower of Pisa, Red Fort, Hawa Mahal,etc placed arnd the Road. I paid a visit to my favorite Sringeri Temple. I was visiting it for the first time in 4 years. And its still the same. One among the very few places where my mind somehow manages to stay clear of all unwanted things and I feel truly who I am.

Yeah, I still love the city 🙂

Sunday the 21st:
People of Chennai, listen up!!Therez a Higginbothams@Alwarpet. Seems they are clearing out stock to make way for fresh arrivals.Guess wat this means???A “Midnight’s Children“@ Rs. 100(added that to my lil collection of books :D). I even found a book on David Feckham(yeah, the spelling is rite!) and a psycho analysis of Samuel Beckett(how absurd!) but I wanted Vikram Seth’s Golden Gate.Unfortunately, it wasnt available. No II hand bookshop seems to sell it these days:-(.Nevertheless there are lots of other gud novels and non-fiction stuff available. The collection is gr8 and all are available at rock bottom price.

Before plundering Higginbothams, I had spotted a gem at a bookshop near the LIC building@Mount Road: We, the People by N.A. Palkhivala. It is an incisive analysis of what went wrong with India 20 years back(1984 edition). The author has expressed much pain and regret about the state of public affairs in our country. If the eminent jurist were alive today, he wouldnt have made many changes to ’84 edition. But he does hold onto an “unquenchable confidence” in the long-term future of India. The same confidence which we hold onto even to this day.

The Voice of Ada

There is a silence where hath been no sound
There is a silence where no sound may be
In the cold grave, under the deep deep sea.
-Thomas Hood

Click here to view the clip: The Heart Asks Pleasure First

The clip is from the movie “The Piano” starring Holly Hunter(as Ada McGrath, a mute pianist). A joint winner of Palme d’Or for the year 1993 and various other awards around the globe(including 3 Academy Awards), the movie features a piano score by Michael Nyman that,well,…watch the video,listen to the score and tell me 🙂

The Amber Nectar Effect

Fosters !

(burp!)(I am so wasssted!!)

Cats for beer!!

Crawl-ing

Nope!Its not easy. To be a two year old baby and to have every personwho looks at you, touching or kissin your cheeks and exclaiming supposibly “child talk” is not easy. Its ok if couple of people do it. Not every idiot who sees me!My biggest problem is that I cant talk yet. Wait till I start talking.These people are gonna run so far that they cant even find their way back to me.

Its eight o clock in the morning and I have been awake for quite sometime. I have tried my best to cry and tell the morons here that I need food. Wake up people!My mom is one of those new age gen Y moms. She belongs to the ilk of women whose first question to the doc, after the child is delivered, would be “Any way to remove these stretch marks of my belly?”Think how I would have felt.Heres my mom whoz has just delivered me and her first words are not “OH!Hes so cute(BTW i hate tat expression so don t u dare use tat in front of me). Some say you should not judge people based on your first impression. But my impression of my mom hasnt changed much after two years. Very rarely, she realises I am, after all. her child and hugs me and all. But most of the time, shes very busy in her work. I can understand if she expects my dad to accept her behavior but me??I need constant care and attention! Don t they ever understand?

And then my dad. Dont get me started about him. Instead of helping me change my underwear, he keeps writing something called software on his komputer. I dunno wat it is but he keeps staring at it all day long. Even mom has one lyk tat and she too does tat. How nice it would be if they were staring at me instead. Not all the time but atleast for sometime 😦

Mom and Dad fight most of the time. At first, it was good entertainment. Itz funny to watch two grown ups fight about something as silly as bedspread but then it got awefully boring and sometimes I wished they would stop fighting. You know, there have been times when they dont talk to each for other. She says it helps in maintaining peace. Peace??Is this some war ravaged country? His friends and her friends never get along. Her friends always keep talking about something called fashion. I ROCL ( C stands for cradle) whenever they talk about cooking. For the past two years, I have hardly seen my mom enter the kitchen. She used my birth as a pretext and never entered the kitchen during the first year. The next year, she started working and so smartly skipped cooking. I doubt if she even remembers where the kitchen is! And my dad’s friends?Most of them are nerds I guess. They all look creepy and sit beside my dad and keep staring at the komputer. I think my dad would have stopped fighting with my mom if she had delivered a komputer instead of me 😦

My grandparents drop in quite often. They are ok people. But they are mega serial addicts and between 7 30 and 9 o clock in the evening, all they do is to sit and watch mega serials. My mom and dad return late from office and these people are to take care of me. But they care more about how, some ass called Siva’s third wife learnt about his first wife who is dying of something called cancer, than me.

I know. I can understand if u feel “I have heard all these shit before so shut up”. But just because it sounds cliched ( I heard my mom use this word once :D) does not mean its untrue. I am celebrating my second birthday today. My mom keeps asking me what I want for my second birthday(as if I can talk!). I want to tell her that all that I want is to start talking. start crawling. start jumping start walking. And start running. Away from all these people. So that I can jump off the cradle and crawl away to freedom. I doubt if someone will ever realise that I am gone. No problem! All I want is to crawl away. Crawl away to freedom.

In search of freedom,

PS:
If any of you think that you might end up like my dad or mom, please, for heaven’s sake,do not have any kids. Better do not marry. It would be the one thing that would ensure your passage to heaven.

The Beauty of the Bag

My all time favorite scene(from the movie American Beauty).As Ricky says in the movie:“There’s so much beauty in the world I feel I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in”Click HERE

The Final Words

To Boddah

Speakings from the tongue of an experienced simpleton who obviously would rather be an emasculated, infantile complainee. This note should be pretty easy to understand. All the warnings from the Punk Rock 101 Courses over the years, it’s my first introduction to the, shall we say ethics involved with independence and the embracement of your community has been proven to be very true. I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to, as well as creating music, along with really writing something for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things, for example when we’re backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowd begins. It doesn’t affect me in the way which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love and relish the love and admiration from the crowd, which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can’t fool you, any of you. It simply isn’t fair to you, or to me. The worst crime I can think of would be to pull people off by faking it, pretending as if I’m having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as though I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on-stage. I’ve tried everything within my power to appreciate it, and I do, God believe me, I do, but it’s not enough. I appreciate the fact that I, and we, have affected, and entertained a lot of people. I must be one of the narcissists who only appreciate things when they’re alone. I’m too sensitive, I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasm.But, what’s sad is our child. On our last 3 tours, I’ve had a much better appreciation of all the people I’ve known personally, and as fans of our music. But I still can’t get out the frustration, the guilt, and the sympathy I have for everybody. There is good in all of us, and I simply love people too much. So much that it makes me feel too fucking sad. The sad little sensitive, unappreciative, pisces. Jesus man! why don’t you just enjoy it? I dont know! I have a goddess of a wife who sweats ambition and empathy, and a daughter who reminds me too much of what I used to be. full of love and joy, passing every person she meets because everyone is good and will do her no harm. And that terrifies me to the point to where I can barely function. I can’t stand the thought of Frances becoming the miserable self destructive, deathrocker I’ve become. I have it good, very good, and I’m grateful, but since the age of seven, I’ve become hateful towards all humans in general. Only because it seems so easy for people to get along and have empathy. Empathy only because I love and feel for people too much I guess. Thank you from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the last years. I’m too much of a neurotic moody person and I don’t have the passion anymore, so remember, it’s better to burn out, than to fade away. Peace, love, empathy, Kurt Cobain.
Frances and Courtney, I’ll be at your altar.
Please keep going Courtney for Frances for her life which will be so much happier without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU!

I still dunno y i am posting this. Sometimes, we read things that moves us so much that we keep reading it again and again and again…..this is one such thing….