Great Expectations

She often told me that it was reading Great Expectations in standard seven that had got her really interested in reading.
Having made three or four attempts at reading this book of late, I just could not rest in peace thinking that if she could read it at the age of thirteen, why cant I get interested enough to finish the book.
Finally, raising this point with a friend made me realize that she must have actually read the abridged version of the book. The way I myself had read David Copperfield form Charles Dickens as well. I realised this only now.
Finally, I can throw the torturous book aside and sit with my one leg over the other and pick up my first ever P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves Takes Charge.

The Kite Runner

I often wonder who my favorite author is.
J.K. Rowling has held the position for some time.
But Khaled Hossini( sorry for misspelling) has displaced her without a shadow of a doubt.
If you are willing to swallow some Bollywood type twists and turns then he will get you excited the way very few can.
Lovely book.
Definitely one of the best I have read in a long long time.

Tango Charlie

A real life story or an army man whose story became immortal through his diary which was found and made public.
Bobby Deol for the first and the last time in his life is likeable.
Awesome story.
Great plot.
Must watch even if it bombed at the box office.

Memoirs of a Gheisha

The author starts off with an author's note saying that the book is a true story and ends with acknowledgement saying that it is a work of fiction.
All through out the five hundred pages, the thrill of imagining everything actually happening suddenly seemed hollow.
The book was fun, non dramatic for fiction, detailed, riveting.
Must read but remember, it is fictitious.

Ek Ruka Hua faisla

Its been a long time since I read a review of this movie and been anxious to watch it ever since. But the arithmetic of pleasure of watching a movie compared to the pain of starting downloading one and getting up to switch off the modem at 8 A.M. , as that's when my download begins to be charged, has resulted in me abandoning movie downloads completely. Of course I have piracy issues to cover up for my lazy reasons. Zee classic had different plans though and aired the movie on an afternoon my to-do list was shorter that usual.
Movies can be high budget or low budget. This one almost belongs to a new category : no budget. The movie has a NINEr on IMDB, which is rarely matched by Indian cinema. Great performances and awesome script make this movie a must watch.
Pankaj Kapoor plays a perfect loser and Anu Kapoor makes you doubt if he is playing himself. K.K. Raina, though, is a much better actor now than he was at the time of the movie. Being a writer myself, I now realize the challenge of maintaining the constancy in the personalities of character especially when writing a conversation of more than three of four people. The script caters that constraint with the highest possible precision.
The story is strong enough to engross you for every minute of the two hours the movie lasts.
No songs. What a relief.

Spidey, me, Johnny in labyrinth

The title of my other blog reads ' exploiting the urge to waste time in face of piles of work load'. Its amazing how much this line pretty much sums me up. After seven semesters of toiling, having seriously considered four career options, two of which are outrageously funny or ingenious, I have finally narrowed down on one definite move I do want to make which, thankfully, is highly conventional.
CAT is like cricket. Everybody has a theory in his mind that because of such & such reason, I have an edge over everybody else and I would do better than others. I am no different except the fact that I know that everybody feels what I feel.
Life is getting really hectic as CAT is drawing nearer day by day.
For the sake of juniors and batch mates who are also preparin for CAT, here is an account of one of my days as I slog it out thirteen hours a day for a make or break exam.
Date:11th Oct.
I got up at nine and without bathing, dressed in sporty shorts and t-shirt left for college as Electronics was slated to play Electrical in the semi finals of the Intra college cricket tournament.
Well, we lost and it hurt. We were the defending champions and the favorites.
Ashish (name changed) got into two fights during the match and grew grumpier every minute.
Hit, bruised, tanned all over I reached home, bathed, and got back to my latest addiction( which has nothing to do with CAT) The New York Times. It is as addictive as they get. I have spent more time on NYT than I have on youtube of late. Honestly!
Then it was Johnny Gaddar's turn. I love the name Johnny Cigar and wanted for long adopt this as my pen name. But the movie's title's similarity puts an end to that. My pen name cant be inspired by a bollywood movie.
The movie is nice. Well knit script, above average direction hence nice performances and different plot make the movie worth a watch.
As the movie took its last breaths, Bhai called up to ask me to jon him for Bhool Bhulaiya (cleverly mentioned in the title as labyrinth*wicked laughter*). I was disappointed when I read that HT has given it just two stars. It deserves three. I liked it.
As the clock struck 11, and I got back home with my knee cap, pelvic bone, right palm, the wedding ring finger, thigh, left calf crying in extreme pain from the afternoon match and the lack of rest there from, I for some reason decided to watch spidey. It was on the top of my movies missed because of the Paris trip list and been wanting to watch for a long time.
The movie disappointed though. But it wont make you regret the time spent on it.
At this point I reflected back on the day. Calculated that it is one month to CAT for which I am yet to stat preparing. What am I thinking.
A line from ATOI:
"No matter how convincing it sounds, you can never write me off"

Straight from the gut

As the T.V. serials on telecast redefine serious television by 'kareena kapoor embarrassing' make up of house maids and two hundred crore rupee deals signed like autographs by funky tycoons, one can not help but ask for a little run of the mill stuff as entertainment.
This is where Fortune's Manager of the century Jack Welch comes in. Having just read Ford's Lee Iacocca's autobiography, Jack Welch's seems just too everyday stuff. A career of forty one years put in over five hundred pages. He would have done better to keep it to three hundred.

Now reading : Shalimar the Clown.
Its funny that I noticed that the book's name the Clown and not the crown after having read a few pages.
It is a tough book to finish but I am curious to read Rushdie and I hope I can finish it.

The Google Story

The book began with me feeling a strong connection with the personalities of Lary Page and Sergy Brin, founders of Google. A HEAVY disregard for the impossible, unconventional thinking and all that. Brin's attempt to download the Internet in a week's time was typical Sachin. It eventually took him much more than a year. That is me.

But then, those guys are different. The book cleverly, deliberately misses out on the dirty part of establishing the world's fastest grown start up. The reason why they progressed was because developing a software like PageRank was tough and needed effort and innovation. The book only discusses the glamorous side probably aiming at alluring young engineers to join Google. Don't tell any one but it did succeed in making me feel that way and I might join Google if Page and Brin visit me sometime *joke to be understood by friends only* .

The board room tactics are similar to most biographies. In fact, definitely not one of the best I have read. But the sudden steep growth of a company by two half Stanford PhDs is inspiring. It tells you how important higher education actually is. Moreover, almost all biographies discuss events dating back at least twenty years. Here was a book, discussing business in our era. A product which I have used more than few times. Thus I could relate a lot more. I have not managed to complete my previous two readings ( namely 'Partitions' by Kamleshwar and 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens') and it was a relief to finish a book cover to cover because I just had to. A must read for especially for the people who are at the same stage of their career as me.

Presently reading: 'Straight from the gut' by Jack Welch.

first post coming up soon..
by the way..
'TNRreview' stands for Totally Not Required reviews..