Happy New Year !

Bombay / Mumbai really is a tale of two cities. One that lives on the central line and one that lives on the western line. The city on the central line is nasty, brutish, rude and forever in a hurry and cares two hoots about stepping on other people's toes, elbowing people in their faces, or shoving them off the train entirely if it suits their purpose. The city on the western line is slightly more soft, has more than a few manners, and even though it too is in a rush is a wee bit slower and more orderly. If it by chance steps on toes, there is always an immediate apology and a genuine effort to not repeat the toe-stepping. And as of my experience, there is almost no elbowing in faces and shoving off trains etc.

Of course this analysis is confined to the fact of my experiences in the women's compartments on the two lines...men I am told are the same species everywhere.

I have discovered that I quite like my own company - for extended periods too. So now I know for sure what I had always wondered.. T.V / books / laptop are all the companions I need for an idyllic weekend. :-)

Experienced winter a wee bit. Just a wee bit.. in the process discovered that the temperature difference between Mumbai and Thane on any given day is at least 5 degrees - easily. My first (and probably only) experience with non-AC induced cold this season.

Now that holiday season is over - was wondering what to look forward to - turns out... am going to Kolkata soon. Yipppeee!!!

Ooohh.. for the first time ever - bought myself a gift. :-) A lovely, super expensive, never-again-will-I-spend-so-much-on-a-pen kind of pen!! + got so many gifts from so many people. Loved it this year!

Read "The Little Prince" recently... really liked it... a profound children's book. If you don't understand what I mean, you will have to go read it. Will be worth it. Promise.

Also, heard the new LG Ad on radio - They ask us to pledge to make Mumbai and Thane 'Green cities' - by tying a leaf at any of the specified outlets in Mumbai. I wonder how many trees will have to die if every single person in Mumbai and Thane decides to make this pledge in this exact way!!

The onset of Winter

Winter is my favourite season. Always has been. The colder it is - the more I love it. Yes, I am also very susceptible to the cold, and the nails on my hands and feet regularly keep going blue, I continuously live with cotton wads in my ears so as to protect my throat from a throat infection etc etc. But I still love the season. [Dare anyone ask about or make fun of the cotton-in-ears thing. If you've never heard of the connection b/w ENT - go read up!!!]

So... getting back to the point...every year I waaaaiiit for the first signs of winter. Usually, a definitte chill in the air just before Diwali and the sun not making too much of a difference to the crackers that you despareately try and get nice and dry before diwali night - is the first indication. Then in places like Ranchi and Bokaro, there's the annual tradition of getting the warm clothes out of storage and putting them out in the sun to air them and make them wearable for the season. Then next to our house in Ranchi.. there is this tree which flowers just before winter starts and the flower has a sickeningly sweet smell. The smell in many ways heralds our winter. Then ofcourse is the fact that all the monsoon insects start dying out slowly and your home becomes yours again.

Then, as winter proceeds, I wait for the water to become so cold that it physically hurts to touch it, I wake up early to catch the early morning fog and then waking early is no longer necessary - the fog continues into mid-day, I wait for the fog that my breath creates every time I open my mouth, and I wait for the warm, bright colours that comes out of everybody's wardrobes in winter. Winter seems a laidback time. The world is sleepy, nobody really wants to do anythign except drink hots cups of chai and eat pakoras and bhutta. :-)

None of this is true in Bombay (or Mumbai for those very particular). And I knew to expect it. I fully expected to hate my fiirst winter here. But apart from the fact that my office seeks to recreate winter everyday...I have discovered to my intense surprise, that winter has it's own charm here. The air loses it's overpowering humidity, the merciless sun almost becomes a friend and you begin to enjoy the warm glow of the pre noon and late afternoon sun, and because you don't expect it, the cool early morning air and the smell of winter that it carries with it, seems extra wonderful...The beginning seems promising. Will have to wait and see if the 'bright colours and the lazy winters' bit follows...

High hopes did I hear you say? Ah but I am an eternal optimist...

Read this.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-10-best-comebacks-of-all-time/

At long last...

Here is a simple, light, easy read which neither taxes nor assaults the reader's intelligence. The book is all about this uber-successful associate-on-the-verge-of-making-partner at the best law firm in London and her life or the lack thereof, and what happens, when suddenly circumstances force her to quit her job and take up housekeeping!!!!! Apart from the the fact that the book is relatively well written and is able to hold reader-attention for the most part, why this book felt so nice to read is that it describes almost perfectly, the life in a law firm. :-)

The ending has been dragged a fair bit longer than was strictly necessary and is a predictable cliche. But the book does not claim to be a literary gem. It aims only at making you smile and any book which leaves you with a smile as you turn over the last page should be worth a read. What say?

This is the other book I have been reading recently. This, I was put up to by one of my friends who got infected with the 'twilight' buzz just before the much delayed release of the movie in India. I did not expect to enjoy this book. here was a book aimed at the early teenagers and knowing how far behind I have left my teens, let alone 'early teens', I fully expected to find the book and the movie childish. Not so! I enjoyed the book thoroughly. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Turns out vampires and werewolves can be almost as interesting as wizards! Go figure! :-)

A squirrel is chillin' in a tree when a cow climbs up and sits next to him. "Whatcha doin' here?" asks the squirrel. "I'm here to eat some apples." "But this is a pine tree!" "I know. I brought my own apples."

 

Strangely..I loved this. Maybe because it seems to be trying so hard to be a joke. :-)

Numbers

10 visarjan processions,

10 separate fireworks' displays

1 marriage procession

countless lighting displays

3 detours

3 fights

4 angry policemen

endless lines of vehicles,

2 hours,

185 rupees,

18 kms.

One Long Taxi Ride.

The 'Lost' Symbol...

Yesterday, I finished reading Dan Brown's (hereinafter "DB") latest - "The Lost Symbol". (No, I do not suddenly have more time on my hands in B'bay. I am at home now.)

SPOILER WARNING: - This piece contains information about the storyline of the book. If you have not read the book and are the kinds who prefer to read the book with a 'clean' slate, then do not proceed further.

If I were to ask myself to choose one word with which to describe the book - I sadly, would choose - 'Disappointing'.

I wonder what DB was attempting with this book. My initiation to DB was with the hoopla surrounding "The Da Vinci Code". Brilliant. It was after this that I read "Angels and Demons". Almost unbelievably, this book was even better. The suspense, the fast storyline, the obvious brilliance with which the book had been edited, the brilliance and the central role of the hero and the way in which symbology and all the secrets of Rome and Venice had been weaved into the storyline, so that the reader would not have to compromise on the main story, while being awed with all the additional, sensational information - these were the reasons that I loved those books. Thus, the day I heard that "the Lost Symbol" had been released, I escaped from office to go buy the book. Then, I waited patiently till I had the time and the opportunity to read the book at one stretch, and then did.

Sadly, all that I had anticipated, the very reasons why I loved the other two books, were absent in this one. DB seems to have tried too hard with this book. The book and the story seem forced rather than spontaneous. Of course, the brilliance and the minuteness of the research remains unaffected. What has changed is the way the research has been woven into the storyline. The story begins crisply, and very promisingly. Soon however, the story begins to lag in favour of long-winding lectures about the significance and the symbolism of Washington. entire pages are devoted to these lectures, without any bearing to the story. For example, Langdon spends two entire pages, 'lost in thought'. While he fruitlessly, 'thinks' the story does not move an inch. In fact, after he has broken out of his reminiscent reverie, it takes another three pages before he has composed himself and understood his surroundings enough for the story to even begin moving.

And that's another thing. One of the best features of the previous books is the brilliance of Robert Langdon. Here, he is almost an unnecessary appendage. I was patient. I waited and waited for Langdon to get the plot, to understand what was going on and take charge. Except, he never does!!! The story would probably have progressed faster without him!! At the end of the book, everybody is congratulating him, hugging him and thanking him for the brilliant work done. He, 'modestly' says, "You know I dint do anything, right?" No one else could have hit the nail straighter on the head. He has in fact, done NOTHING throughout the book.

Now to the plot itself. Remember Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys? Or even the Enid Blyton Mystery series? Remember how all their chapters ended with some sort of a suspense? A truck barrelling straight on into Nancy's car, or the gun-toting villain spotting the unarmed Frank in his blue sweater behind that wooden cupboard... the kid reading would then anxiously hold his breath, send a silent prayer for the well being of his / her hero and turn the page to learn what happens next... and the truck, at the last possible moment swerves to avoid Nancy, and the villain lunges, only to crash painfully into the cupboard and discover that Frank had left his sweater there only as a red herring... or something like that? Well believe it or not, this book is exactly like that! The false alarm chapter endings are seriously hilarious after a while.

DB also tries two twists in the plot. One: - At the end of one chapter you learn that Robert Langdon is dead. He has drowned. The effect is supposed to be disastrous on the reader. The reader is supposed to lay aside the book and howl and mourn the ultimate end of the hero. Only, the reader by now is so used to and fed up of the false alarm endings and the generally slow plot and the loose editing, that this shattering piece of news has no effect on him. He almost has expected it. Similarly, he expects at this point, that Langdon will make a 'miraculous' come back and that he is not 'truly' dead. A short while, and ample broad hints later, the reader is proved right.

Two: The villain turns out at the end, in what is supposed to be another startling revelation, to be one of the main character's previously thought to be dead, son. I mean, how corny. And apart from the idea, in itself being less than intelligent, the reader has been getting broad hints about this twist for a while now. Again, the reader has almost expected it. At any rate, 'surprise' would not be an apt description of the readers' state of mind at the moment.

A friend who had read the book mailed me the other day. She thought that the climax had been stretched for far too long. She's right. Again it is a case of loose editing. The book / story, for all intents and purposes ends at the 3/4th mark. The rest of the 1/4 of the book is devoted to stretching out the climax. When at long last the climax ends and the story is officially over, DB realises that he has forgotten to tie up the numerous loose ends in the book. He then proceeds to use up another 50 - 75 pages giving us now irrelevant bits of information about things that happened waaay back in the book. Katherine learns that her research is safe after all, we learn, once again, that the CIA Director is not the bad guy, and Langdon finally discovers the 'lost word' which will save all mankind.' But we never do discover why the CIA was involved in the first place. The 'national security' line does not quite manage to convince. And we never figure out what the danger to the 'world' at large was. what is it that was so 'successfully averted'. The plot overall is more reminiscent of 'Digital Fortress' and a hash of mediocre Hollywood movies than the stuff Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code were made of.

Read the book, if you will, for the information you will glean about Symbology and Washington DC in particular. The book, as I said, is well researched. Read it as a non-fiction and you will probably end up a happier reader than if you expect it to be first rate fiction.