Winter days

Hey Noor, just accepted the invitation to join your blog...better late than never, like they say.
So you'll find some of my posts scattered in between yours from now on...

Guest writing on one's best friend's blog has its advantages
-you get to post stuff on the net without maintaining a blog of your own :)
-the friend will no longer crib that you don't visit her blog often enough (net nanny at work to blame )

Winter days
Bangalore is at its best in winter.
Deep blue skies, the kind of blue you just don't see the rest of the year...with cotton-white clouds floating about. The red steeple of St.John's church framed against the sky. The breeze creating ripples on Ulsoor lake and the pale winter sun warming the early morning joggers. The abandoned granite buildings of the military barracks with their soot-blackened chimmneys. Even the trees here seem to wait for winter to shed their leaves and bloom. Thats the scenic route to work.
The nights are amazing too. Clear clear skies, a chill in the air that makes you glad to see the warm yellow glow emanating from the windows of your home. The huge full moon rising over the little islands on Ulsoor lake, the lights from the Philips campus reflected over the still waters. The early morning prayer from the local mosque breaking the stillness of the night air...reminding you of stories from the Arabian Nights.
Just the right kind of weather to laze around with a cup a coffee, a chocolate bar and a good book.

I recently got back from a visit to Chennai. It's a really nice city - great roads, well planned, etc.
But when it gives you a thrill just to see the signboards along the railroad change from Tamil to Kannada, you realize that Bengaluru with all its traffic and pollution and potholes is the best place on earth. Simply because its home.

This Must Be

All things are not always what they seem,
There’s always more than meets the eye,
All people aren’t always so good,
And all aern’t all that bad,
There is kindness in the darkest souls,
& even angels have a darker side.
U need to look within your self,
U need to find the path, u chose,
We are here bcuz we wanted to be.
We’d like to look up & blame the stars,
& shift fault to a force beyond,
But, we know, deep inside that ‘tis not true,
Some where somehow we’d made this choice,
We had decreed that this must be,
& that’s why we are where were meant to be.

Life's Truth's

1. “All are lunatics, but he who can analyse his delusion is called a
philosopher” - Ambrose Bierce

2. “For most of history, anonymous was a woman” - Virginia Wolf

3. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will” – Mahatma Gandhi

4. “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens”- Jimi Hendrix

5. “Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it”-Henry David Thoreau

6. “The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence” - Marianne Moore

7. “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike" - Oscar Wilde

8. “There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them” - Phyllis bottome

9. “We are forced to participate in the games of life before we can possibly learn how to use the options in the rules governing them” – Goethe

10. “What a wonderful life I’ve had. I only wish I had realised it sooner” - Collette

The Collected Short Stories

…contains 36 of Jeffrey Archer’s finest short stories. Almost all his stories have an unexpected twist in the end & are immensely readable. The stories have been drawn from his three volumes- ‘A Quiver Full Of Arrows’, ‘A Twist In The Tale’ & ‘12 Red Herrings’. Though I liked most of the stories, my favourite was ‘Christina Rosenthal’. Also brilliant were ‘The Perfect Murder’, ‘Clean Sweep Ignatius’ and ofcourse the romantic ‘Old Love’ with that wonderful multi-meaningful one-liner ‘Legend has it that there were never apart for more than a couple of hours’, just like my books & I, whatsay?
[No. of pages: 705]

Artemis Fowl

Fantasy became my new buzzword after ‘Lord of the Rings’ & the Harry Potter books. So, with me wanting to completely explore this genre, I was looking for more authors to exhaust & when Pratz mentioned Eoin Colfer’s ‘Artemis Fowl’, I was more than ready for this new adventure. Despite its hype & my huge expectations, the book did not disappoint. Thoroughly enjoyable, I can’t wait to read the entire series. The story is about a criminal-millionaire-mastermind Artemis Fowl, who happens to be a 12yr old boy. The entire Fowl’s race are pioneers in various criminal activities, so wanting to unload the Fairy community of their gold seemed to come naturally to the boy. But, when Artemis decided to capture a fairy, he hadn’t realised that he’d be getting the feisty & fiery Capt. Holly Short (of the LEPrecon Unit). What happens when these two diverse races clash, makes for a fun read. The other characters like Butler, his sister (Artemis’z allies) & Commander Root, Foaly (Holly’s comrades) add more spice to this already chilli hot book. After AF, I’m more in love with Fantasy than I was before. To Fantasy & Fowl, Addidas’z catchphrase aptly applies ‘Impossible Is Nothing’.
[No. of pages: 396]

Dan Brown

Has written a whole number of books which I’ve enjoyed immensely. It all started with the much talked about “Da Vince Code”. I read the book & ofcourse, liked it, however, since it was hyped up so much, it sort of spoilt the ‘joy of discovery’. But, it had been quite long since I had become so interested in an author’s work & so I decided to read all he’d ever written (My last such obsession being ‘Earle Stanley Gardner’ of ‘Perry Mason’ fame). So, I read his prequel to Da Vinci Code, which was “Angels & Demons”. It was Brilliant. It was leagues ahead of DVC & the ending was a complete shocker & that really is saying quite a bit. Living in a world, where we’ve seen & read so much and where nothing seems to raise an eyebrow anymore, this book thrilled. It was superbly written and it put Dan Brown high-high up on my list. So, ofcourse, I had to read his “Deception Point” & “Digital Fortress”. Both good, but paled in comparison to A&D. Deception Point dealt in depth with rocks & rocket scientists & Digital Fortress was ofcourse, about codes. A curious feature I observed in all (well..almost all) his books was that the lead character was inevitably a professor. I suppose, DB found that in order to extraordinarily brilliant in any chosen field, one couldn’t be any less. Like for e.g. In DVC & A&D the lead character was a Prof. & in Digital Fortress the heroine’s fiancé was a Professor. Deception Point seemed to be the only odd one out, without any of the protagonists being one, I wonder why…
All said and done, Dan Brown with his A&D is the current flavour of my season.


Here are DB’s books read by me, in order of me having read them:
1. Da Vinci Code [Pgs: 389]
2. Angels & Demons [Pgs: 592]
3. Digital Fortress [Pgs: 430]
4. Deception Point [Pgs: 558]

Not So Strange

Was in one of my melancholy-philosophical moods, when I came up this:

It’s not so strange when u think about it,
The world’s a stage & we all act,
When the cue begins, we cry,
We sing & dance & laugh & sigh.
But, it’s when our problems overwhelm our lives,
We think about life & the how & whom & the when & why,
We start to wish & pray & hope,
We invent & create a better way,
It’s not as strange as we think it to be,
All lives follow a similar strategy.
We think we know it all for a while,
But it’s when tragedy strikes our journeys begin,
We take strange paths & meet strange men,
We walk to mountains & to sages’ saint,
We slowly begin so see the light,
& see that it’s not so strange, after all.