You can run, but you can't hide

Everything was going nicely at its own pace .. and .. Parag tags me! I wish I can write about the favourite books of my kid, but then we'd be giving out a few secrets wouldn't we? Oops. Well .. moving right along ..

Total no. of books I own: Close to 100 maybe? Add a few hundred more if we are counting comics as well ;-) Dad passed on quite a few, many I have bought myself. However all are in Pune. I have very few books here.

Last book I bought: Five point someone, What not to do at IIT - Chetan Bhagat.

Last book I read: The Dilbert Future - Scott Adams.

Five books that mean a lot to me I remember liking a lot:
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Blue Nowhere - Jeffrey Deaver
Any Calvin n Hobbes book - Bill Watterson
The Partner - John Grisham
Call of the wild - Jack London

Arguably worst book I have ever read:
In the Company of Women - Khushwant Singh

Tag five people to do this thing on their blogs
Chinmay
Prashant
Ajit
Shantya

To helmet or not to helmet?

I read in todays timesofindia (pune edition) (the epaper .. i dont visit the website) that the helmet rule is to be extended (yet) again. The article says that the State Govt pleaded the Bombay High Court to extend the deadline for making helmets compulsory. It also states the reasons the state govt has given in its case. No, I'm not providing a link .. its not that important.

Now, either history is repeating itself or the Times, having totally lost all creative talent and journalistic ethics, is reprinting old stories on its front page. Helmets were supposed to be made compulsory some 5 years back. Either enforce the rule or do away with it .. whats this .. trying to sneak it in once every few months??

Personally, I used to use a helmet while riding my motorcycle. It made me 'feel' safe .. I dont know about actual safety as never got the chance to test it. Matix, on the other hand had more chances to test it than anyone else I know. Right dude?

A healthy dose of sarcasm

Read two books recently -

I'm a stranger here myself: [Bill Bryson]
The amusing observations of author Bill Bryson as published in a weekly British newspaper column upon coming back to America after spending 20 years in England. Makes for very entertaining reading. Originally intended for a British audience, I doubt how many Americans themselves will enjoy the book as Bryson takes potshots at the vagaries of the modern American life. Enjoy over a couple of weeks .. reading just a few columns every now and then.

The Dilbert Future: [Scott Adams]
Dilbert is one of my favourite cartoons to read and ponder upon. If you like Dilbert (and you do), you will like this book. Well, sort of. It is mainly Scott Adams' views of the near(?) future peppered with Dilbert comic strips in between. I did enjoy parts of it immensly, but not all commentary is as funny as the strips always are. I am still up for reading 'The Dilbert Principle' .. the original book which preceeded this one.

Meri photography nahi doonga!

I had a blast last weekend. Had gone to Chicago. Met a lot of friends. Some of my friends were participating in a dance fusion sort of thing. The show was an amalgamation of mainly Bharatnatyam and Katthak with some Ballet, folk dancing and Lezim thrown in for good measure. The theme was the depiction of the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Zanshi through dance. The whole show was well practised and coreographed and the audience loved it. Concise narration helped understand the story better.

Anyways, the narrator told everyone at the start that flash-photography was prohibited. Fair enough. I whipped out my newly acquired digital camera, turned off the flash and began capturing splendid images like this one. The organisers had hired a professional photographer who .. zounders .. was using a flash gun!! He was using a flash mind you. Not a teeny in-built flash, but a flash gun which kinda leaves your vision all white for a second. On top of it, he was standing right at the base of the stage, thus requiring me to summon up all my deftness to get a picture of my friends but leave him out. I grumbled to myself and kept my own flash off.
Then about 10 mins into the show, someone taps me on my shoulder and says 'photography is prohibited'. Me says 'I thought just flash-photography was prohibited .. I am not using a flash' and (in my mind) 'your official dude is flashing away to glory'. Upon asking why exactly can't I capture my friends dancing on stage and making fools of themselves, I get 'Because, there are issues of copyrights of the performances'!!! Double zounders!! So I started snapping pics discreetly which produced very interesting results. Also, I kinda liked the 'Bole chudiyan, bole kangana' [this had nothing to do with the Zaasi ki Raani theme, in case some of you smart alecs wonder] song-dance sequence. Quite the original work which requires copyright protection, I must say.

Spurred On!

There are only a few players I really like in the NBA.

Now what do I do with all the tartar sauce?

Australian custom officials caught a woman trying to smuggle live fish into the country. Apparently, she had strapped on an apron with lots of pockets underneath her skirt. The apron had 51 live tropical fish.
What is even more perplexing, is that the way I understand it, she could have just declared the fish at customs and gotten through without much trouble. The things people do ..

Movie Reviews

Maria Full of Grace: [Spanish, English subtitles] I had read about this movie somewhere and it had stuck in my mind. Maria is a girl growing up in a small village in Columbia, who wants a better life. She is smart, independent, strong willed and hardworking. The movie revolves on how she gets involved in acting as a 'mule' to get drugs, namely cocaine, across and into the US, and what happens then. Realistic plot, well directed, not overly emotional. What more do you need?

Black: Story based on the life of Helen Keller. As I would probably be the last person who hadnt seen this movie, no sense in writing a review huh? Anyways, acting by both Rani Mukherhjee and Amitabh is good. *The movie has no songs!!* I was overjoyed then I saw this .. this is truly a feat. And I nearly had a heart attack, when after the movie ended .. the credits started to scroll and the first line said .. "Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali" .... he can make watchable films, with understandable plots as well?? That will teach me to judge a person by his previous work. I liked the film, sniffled a bit too, but the Sanjay Bhansali [why does everyone say all 3 parts of his name?] part was the most gratifying one. Honestly.