My Musings

Have you read/watched Robinson Crusoe ? No? Cast Away (Starring Tom Hanks) at least? If you haven’t, do it. Both are wonderful and so is Life of Pi. Author : Yann Martel Time/era of story - 1960's-1970’s Type : Adventures Journal I wanted to read a sea adventure and that is when a friend of mine suggested me to read this book. This is a simple tell-tale about the survival of a 15 year old kid in sea for 227 days in a small life boat with some extra ordinary company of the wild animals – Richard Parker, a Tiger; a female Orangutan, a zebra and a Hyena. The book starts of detailing his life as the son of a zoo owner in Madras, his explorations and affiliation to Christianity and Islam. Then when his family plans to move to Canada, things go awry and a sad shipwreck afflicts killing them all. Piscine Patel or “PI” manages to escape in a small boat only to find out later that he has company, dangerous company – wild animals. From here on, it is struggle for the survival, surviv...

Zee News has come up with a wonderful Green Initiative. It is a bunch of initiatives actually. The aim: to help people realize the worth of the environment and also to increase the awareness of environmental degradation, its adverse effects and steps to prevent it. Logon to http://www.zeenews.com/myearth and you literally enter into a green atmosphere. The various shades of green are eye catchy to say the least. The layout neat and decent. There is a carbon footprint calculator which is a very handy tool which help us keep a check on our carbon emission. Their Ideas/tips to save environment and also there is a did you know section, to increase you awareness of the state of the things. The catchiest thing is PLANTATION DRIVE scheduled for 25th August 2010. Register here and ZEE NEWS will plant a tree for every registration. Registration process is very simple, A small pop up form asking few personal details and on the click of submit button you are proudly responsible for plantin...

As I was reading through the blogs, a post by Purba Ray set my grey cells ticking (no, these days they are off work. On strike actually, a rebellion against the insult done to them by the kind of mundane office work I challenge them with). Let me give you the background first. My brother is the eldest in our generation amongst all my cousins and I am the second-in-command. So I have not had the pleasure of having an elder sister (No bhayya, I am not complaining about you). After reading Purva’s blog post, there is this question I want answered – Who would you prefer to have, given a chance – Elder or younger sister? Let me try to list down few points 1)       You have an Elder sister and you may get a caring and loving second mom like character but you have a younger sister and in you are in the hot seat to give her fatherly care. 2)       You can always wrestle your way around with elder sister (as observed in case of my friends) ...

his was to be posted long back. But nevertheless, here it is back from oblivion Who says TOY STORY-3 is a movie meant for kids and kids alone?? If you are under such a misconception, time to watch the movie and change your perception of it. Have you watched previous two versions of Toy story series? No? Not to bother, Just catch hold of a movie ticket, get your Pepsi, pop corn, nachos or whatever you need when you watch a movie and get seated. For you are about to have two hours of total entertainment. You will not be able to figure how two hours passed by while you were watching the movie. What was it that kept you engaged … Andy, the coming-of-age kid? Woody the cow boy? Buzz Lightyear and his dementia state antics? The big small baby or the PINK Lotsa hug bear with the strawberry smell?? Running at 103 minutes long, directed by Lee Unkrich,With Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack; TOY STORY-3, the latest edition in this series takes us through the adventures of the toys. First,...

First of all, hearty wishes on the 64th Independence Day. A peculiar thing I have observed is that, rather than Independence day, all over the media the hot topic being discussed is CWG 2010. Yes, I totally concur with all those who say that CWG is in a big time mess and No, I don’t agree that we must give up organising CWG. Despite all said and done, everything is not lost. Some patches here and there and we will be able to pull out a decent show at least and save our face. I try to list down the DO s for the road ahead with CWG            1)       First and foremost, we are being watched by the entire world and history is being written. Let’s all have an optimistic outlook and go ahead and give our best. 2)       Our Honourable Prime Minister Mr. ManMohan Singh must intervene and try to touchbase with all the concerned people and stop the media from pulling the panic bu...

Author: Agatha Christie Lead Character: Hercule M. Poirot Genre: Fiction, Crime Thriller, Murder Mystery Q) What happens when a rich man dies with no proper heir to his property? Ans) Bequeathing of property and some crime associated with it. Think of it and atleast a dozen bollywood movies and few Hollywood movies flash in front of your eyes. This is my first Agatha Christie Novel and above description is exactly what I went through after learning about the plot- Hollywood bollywood movies flashing away. But then I was in for a surprise.This book was written even before the ideas of these movies had had their inception in the minds of the people who made them and is defintely much better than most of the movies based on this premise. Agatha Christie takes this posthumous family drama plot of rich man and brews a wonderful crime story around it. The characterization of the family, their relationship with the dead man, their appearances and their nature has been very well sketc...

It was over coffee that we decided to write a flash fiction story (<300 words) with the line 'A housefly was hovering at the bakery'   in it. However, the line need not verbatim as suggested. It will suffice if it conveys the meaning and this is the best I could come up with A lone housefly was hovering at the bakery. This was his first posting and far away from his homeland. Born and brought up at the sewers that were full of deteriorating waste and degrading feces, he found this neat and clean bakery to his gentlemanly distaste. But nevertheless, it was his first posting and he had a point to prove. He was a guard now. A scout and a sleeper who will find out and inform about newer sources of food to survive, for the growing population to be supported, to help his kind to flourish and establish the world rule. He would be famous, history would record his most important contribution in establishing a world dominion of the flies and he will be their hero. All possible...