Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happ New Year 2008
Happy New Year Blokes! What an year 2007 was! Hope 08 will be equally good to everyone.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
OSO - Brilliant, Simply Brilliant !
The stats are officially out, OSO a.k.a Om Shanti Om is the biggest Indian grosser of all time. The loud one pager ad in times of India confirms this news.
The entire OSO teams deserves applause for they are also the biggest conmen of all time! Look what they have achieved! They could sell the old wine in new bottle! Old and routine "reincarnation" based bollywood script, mediocre songs, equally mediocre acting and still it is the biggest grosser! Bravo. How stupid of us to have fallen for this scam.
But, honestly I am one of the admirers of this movie! I liked it, call it a slick spoof on Bollywood and et all if you wish, but it was entertaining. OSO's main stay was -what else, its age old script! Thats what real Bollywood movies are made of it, its their USP. They got it right.
However, I hope I dont fall for a similar trick from the stables of Farha and SRK again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!
The entire OSO teams deserves applause for they are also the biggest conmen of all time! Look what they have achieved! They could sell the old wine in new bottle! Old and routine "reincarnation" based bollywood script, mediocre songs, equally mediocre acting and still it is the biggest grosser! Bravo. How stupid of us to have fallen for this scam.
But, honestly I am one of the admirers of this movie! I liked it, call it a slick spoof on Bollywood and et all if you wish, but it was entertaining. OSO's main stay was -what else, its age old script! Thats what real Bollywood movies are made of it, its their USP. They got it right.
However, I hope I dont fall for a similar trick from the stables of Farha and SRK again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!
Monday, December 03, 2007
Winds of change!
Since last few months (or is it since I touched the dreaded age of 30 ?) I have seen a marked difference in my reading habits. Like age, even that has matured:) Or maybe it's due to lack of wider choice in my present library which is so poor as compared to my earlier one. It's really hard to say. But albeit poor, my library has a collection of classics. There are rows of books with yellowed pages which are any true book lovers' delight. I have always loved reading fact better than fiction, the last fiction I read being Da Vinci Code and last episode of H. Potter. Pretty mundane and commonplace reading, ain't it? But wait, this has changed.
Since there is nothing particularly interesting to read at my library all I do is randomly scan the book shelves during my weekly visits. But during one such aimless mission I hit upon a shelf of books related to ancient history, India and especially auto-biographes which are indeed my weakness. I had discovered an old treasure! Over weeks I devoured most of the books from that shelf. Following is a summary of the myriad reading done in last few months. Surprisingly, I have read most of these seemingly boring books at un-earthly hours (around 3AM!) thanks to the vigil we have to keep for our sweet pie daughter! Here's the list for the record:
1. Life and times in British India : This book chronicles events and history from 16th century when British first landed on shores of India and until about 1857 when the Queen of England became true empress of the sub-continent. It explains the day-to-day life of Europeans in India during that period with real life stories.
2. Lives of Indian Princess: This book, written in the seventies is extremely well researched and contains first hand interview based accounts of he last few living prince and princesses from the erstwhile princely Indian states under the British rule where they describe the royal past and life styly of their "illustrious" families. It has many rare photographs, some as old as early 1800. It feels almost surreal to read the exotic lives which our ancient kings lived, but at the same time this book was an eye opener that Indian Princess were actually allies of the British and were responsible for their elongated rule in India and they deserved every bit of raw treatment they received from Nehru and Indira's Congress which snatched away their privy purses.
3. Baburnama: I pledge to give a reward to anyone who can complete reading this autobiograpgy of the first Mughal emperor, Babur written in 14th century!! Never in my life have I read a more boring book. The translator himself has written a note inviting readers to drop passages from the book if they feel sleepy:-) I promptly returned it well before its due date. But this book is the only surving literature from that era and describes in great detail day-to-day life of the Mughal emperor and his lineage of that bygone time. A true Indian treasure. The only other boring book which can compete this is Hitlers Mein Kampf!
4. Ancient Egyptians: This book chronicles the history of Egypt from 3000 B.C onwards and covers overview of all important Egyptian Pharaohs and building of Pyramids. I now know exactly who Tutankhamun (King Tut) is!
5. Ancient Indians: This book was another eye opener on the real history of ancient India. I have been raised in my child hood on a staple diet of Amar Chitra Katha, which I believe is the best kiddo book series. It introduced me to ancient, medieval and modern India very early in my life. However the series has a serious drawback that it is based on popular folklores rather than well researched historical facts. This is where Ancient Indians opened my eyes to the hard fact that our great country had lost it greatness as early as 300 B.C, since then it has been ravaged and ruled by foreigners. The last true Hindu king was Ashoka. The books covers summary of our ancestors from 7000 B.C onwards!
6. Ancient Romans: This book is not as impressive as the other two. But it served the purpose by introducing the Roman ancient civilization and their quite modern governance of that era which provided, roads, canals, national laws and even a senate!
7. High Adventure: This auto-biography by Sir Edmund Hillary describes his adventures in Himalaya including his and Tenzings conquest of Everest. It is written in great detail and you climb every step along with him on that behemoth while reading the book. Deep in my heart I have always wanted to be a mountaineer, but my fragile high altitude worthiness never allowed to me attempt that profession. My love at first sight for the mountains began in high school when I trekked 3500 mts Kedarnath peak. The scary Himalaya instantly attracted me, but that love was short lived because by the time I finished my trek and spent the night in sub-zero temparatures at the temple on the peak it was clear that my physique is not made for those altitudes. Though I am quite immune to cold climes, altitudes of over 3500 mts are different game altogether!
8. Our Everest Expedition: Ths book by Sir John Hunt, who was the leader of the expedition in which Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest is another text book of montaineering. It teaches the planning and leadership skills required to climb such mountains. These expeditions can last for about 6 months from start to finish! So meticulate planning of about one year is a must!! The photographs and trekkers maps are invaluable and of antique value.
9. Ascent of Nanda Devi: This book, printed in 1936 and last issued from the library by someone in 1942 (before I issued it) is yet another text book of mountaineering and describes the first ascent of the in-approchable Nanda Devi by H.W Tillman and his team. From mid 1800 to 1900, Europeans spent lot of time surveying and mapping Himalayas which attracted many talented Alpine mountaineers who were hungry for high adventure. Tillman was one of them. His description of their 3 month trek to the base of the mountain is simply engrossing. The ascent was quite easy as compared to the trek. Nanda Devi was long considered un-reachable but Tillmans team found a way to reach the mountain and also climbed it. All these books introduced me to great mountaineers like Eric Shipton, Hillary, Hunt , Tillman who were real pioneers with lions hearts who dared to climb the Himalayan peaks which remained virgin for so many million years! A recent series on Discovery called 'Everest' which showed the most detailed videographed expedition under leadership of Russel exposes how Everest is now a tourist spot! With the kind of technology available any Tom, Dick and Harry can climb Everest these days. The likes of Russel are actually running a tourist company by helping a legless clmber, 70 year old man and a asthama patient to climb Everest using latest technology! The age of fearless and serious Himalayan climbers is long over.
10. Five past midnight: This book is written by one of my fav historical writers, Dominique Lapier (who wrote City of Joy and Freedom at Midnight) on the worst indutrial tragedy which occured in Bhopal on 3rd Dec 1984. Till date, all those responsible are roaming free and justice evades those 30,000 lives lost due to it. Its a very well researched book which raises goose bumps when you read the chilling accounts of people who died fighting for breath on that fateful night. My parents told me that just about a day after that incident we were on a train which passed Bhopal! What if we had been one day earlier? Probably you would not have seen this blog!
There are still many books waiting to be read from that shelf. But for now its goodbye and G'night
Signing off,
~Amit
Since there is nothing particularly interesting to read at my library all I do is randomly scan the book shelves during my weekly visits. But during one such aimless mission I hit upon a shelf of books related to ancient history, India and especially auto-biographes which are indeed my weakness. I had discovered an old treasure! Over weeks I devoured most of the books from that shelf. Following is a summary of the myriad reading done in last few months. Surprisingly, I have read most of these seemingly boring books at un-earthly hours (around 3AM!) thanks to the vigil we have to keep for our sweet pie daughter! Here's the list for the record:
1. Life and times in British India : This book chronicles events and history from 16th century when British first landed on shores of India and until about 1857 when the Queen of England became true empress of the sub-continent. It explains the day-to-day life of Europeans in India during that period with real life stories.
2. Lives of Indian Princess: This book, written in the seventies is extremely well researched and contains first hand interview based accounts of he last few living prince and princesses from the erstwhile princely Indian states under the British rule where they describe the royal past and life styly of their "illustrious" families. It has many rare photographs, some as old as early 1800. It feels almost surreal to read the exotic lives which our ancient kings lived, but at the same time this book was an eye opener that Indian Princess were actually allies of the British and were responsible for their elongated rule in India and they deserved every bit of raw treatment they received from Nehru and Indira's Congress which snatched away their privy purses.
3. Baburnama: I pledge to give a reward to anyone who can complete reading this autobiograpgy of the first Mughal emperor, Babur written in 14th century!! Never in my life have I read a more boring book. The translator himself has written a note inviting readers to drop passages from the book if they feel sleepy:-) I promptly returned it well before its due date. But this book is the only surving literature from that era and describes in great detail day-to-day life of the Mughal emperor and his lineage of that bygone time. A true Indian treasure. The only other boring book which can compete this is Hitlers Mein Kampf!
4. Ancient Egyptians: This book chronicles the history of Egypt from 3000 B.C onwards and covers overview of all important Egyptian Pharaohs and building of Pyramids. I now know exactly who Tutankhamun (King Tut) is!
5. Ancient Indians: This book was another eye opener on the real history of ancient India. I have been raised in my child hood on a staple diet of Amar Chitra Katha, which I believe is the best kiddo book series. It introduced me to ancient, medieval and modern India very early in my life. However the series has a serious drawback that it is based on popular folklores rather than well researched historical facts. This is where Ancient Indians opened my eyes to the hard fact that our great country had lost it greatness as early as 300 B.C, since then it has been ravaged and ruled by foreigners. The last true Hindu king was Ashoka. The books covers summary of our ancestors from 7000 B.C onwards!
6. Ancient Romans: This book is not as impressive as the other two. But it served the purpose by introducing the Roman ancient civilization and their quite modern governance of that era which provided, roads, canals, national laws and even a senate!
7. High Adventure: This auto-biography by Sir Edmund Hillary describes his adventures in Himalaya including his and Tenzings conquest of Everest. It is written in great detail and you climb every step along with him on that behemoth while reading the book. Deep in my heart I have always wanted to be a mountaineer, but my fragile high altitude worthiness never allowed to me attempt that profession. My love at first sight for the mountains began in high school when I trekked 3500 mts Kedarnath peak. The scary Himalaya instantly attracted me, but that love was short lived because by the time I finished my trek and spent the night in sub-zero temparatures at the temple on the peak it was clear that my physique is not made for those altitudes. Though I am quite immune to cold climes, altitudes of over 3500 mts are different game altogether!
8. Our Everest Expedition: Ths book by Sir John Hunt, who was the leader of the expedition in which Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest is another text book of montaineering. It teaches the planning and leadership skills required to climb such mountains. These expeditions can last for about 6 months from start to finish! So meticulate planning of about one year is a must!! The photographs and trekkers maps are invaluable and of antique value.
9. Ascent of Nanda Devi: This book, printed in 1936 and last issued from the library by someone in 1942 (before I issued it) is yet another text book of mountaineering and describes the first ascent of the in-approchable Nanda Devi by H.W Tillman and his team. From mid 1800 to 1900, Europeans spent lot of time surveying and mapping Himalayas which attracted many talented Alpine mountaineers who were hungry for high adventure. Tillman was one of them. His description of their 3 month trek to the base of the mountain is simply engrossing. The ascent was quite easy as compared to the trek. Nanda Devi was long considered un-reachable but Tillmans team found a way to reach the mountain and also climbed it. All these books introduced me to great mountaineers like Eric Shipton, Hillary, Hunt , Tillman who were real pioneers with lions hearts who dared to climb the Himalayan peaks which remained virgin for so many million years! A recent series on Discovery called 'Everest' which showed the most detailed videographed expedition under leadership of Russel exposes how Everest is now a tourist spot! With the kind of technology available any Tom, Dick and Harry can climb Everest these days. The likes of Russel are actually running a tourist company by helping a legless clmber, 70 year old man and a asthama patient to climb Everest using latest technology! The age of fearless and serious Himalayan climbers is long over.
10. Five past midnight: This book is written by one of my fav historical writers, Dominique Lapier (who wrote City of Joy and Freedom at Midnight) on the worst indutrial tragedy which occured in Bhopal on 3rd Dec 1984. Till date, all those responsible are roaming free and justice evades those 30,000 lives lost due to it. Its a very well researched book which raises goose bumps when you read the chilling accounts of people who died fighting for breath on that fateful night. My parents told me that just about a day after that incident we were on a train which passed Bhopal! What if we had been one day earlier? Probably you would not have seen this blog!
There are still many books waiting to be read from that shelf. But for now its goodbye and G'night
Signing off,
~Amit
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
15 Nov 2007 !
15th Nov 2007 heralded the arrival of a very integral part and parcel of my life! My daughter and my bundle of joy! She's such a darling. This blog may soon be splashed over with tits and bits of my parenting experiences ;-) They are really blogworthy subjects!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Saawariya review !
He he he haa haa haa ho ho hooooo....
Got it?
Smile and bear, if you dare watch it.
~Amit
Got it?
Smile and bear, if you dare watch it.
~Amit
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Nuovo aspetto (New Appearance) !
Was quite bored with my old template. And always wanted to give my blog a touch of everything Italian. Fortunately Blogger had one template to suit my needs, so I settled on this one which gives a nice antique paper look to my blogs, very Italian rennaisance-ish look right? Anyway my blogs tend to get antique very soon since I am not updating them often. And moreover I am into "old" things these days (mainly books). More on that soon.
Till then Ciao!
Till then Ciao!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Craig Venter - New God ?
Craig Venter, the name doesn't ring any bells for a layman. I too heard of him recently. He is credited for his pioneering effort in sequencing the human genome few years back. I read a news about him in the news papers recently and was shocked by what he and his team claims to have achieved or will soon achieve. Its seems his team has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals. Though these are uncomformed reports it dawned on me that this discovery implies that he can create the first new artificial life form on Earth!!
Here is the extract from the news paper report - "American biologist Craig Venter used his knowledge of the human genome to create Mycoplasma laboratorium, a chromosome that is 381 genes long. When transplanted into a living cell, it is expected to take control of that cell and become a new ‘life form’. Until now, scientists have managed to take the genome out of one cell, put it into another cell and create an altogether new organism. But nobody knew how to create the genome itself. Venter just did that. "
This discovery, if true, will allow "Him" to play God. In time, "He" may be able to experiment with various life forms and can create hedious creatures as we see in ET based movies or create human beings who look like Roman Gods and Godesses.
I am a "limited-aethist". What it means is that my belief in God starts where science ends. There are still zillions of unsolved mysteries of nature which may force one to believe in Omnipresent God at some point. But "creation of life" was one such mystery which I always believed was as unsolvable as "is there after-life". Craig Venter and his team may be on the path to solve this mystery and redefine our concept of God. Who knows some day even human babies will be "made-to-order" in laboratories! And China, the manufacturing hub may overwhelm the world with its low quality "life-form" :-) So I sincerely wish "Him" bad-luck. Hope "He" doesn't succeed. Human life will then be so farcical. What will be difference between us and the "made-in-china" merchandise on display in Walmart?
(Btw, is the saffron brigade listening? Guys, it is not too late to change your concept of God and give up the resolve of building the financially unviable Ram-Setu bridge)
Here is the extract from the news paper report - "American biologist Craig Venter used his knowledge of the human genome to create Mycoplasma laboratorium, a chromosome that is 381 genes long. When transplanted into a living cell, it is expected to take control of that cell and become a new ‘life form’. Until now, scientists have managed to take the genome out of one cell, put it into another cell and create an altogether new organism. But nobody knew how to create the genome itself. Venter just did that. "
This discovery, if true, will allow "Him" to play God. In time, "He" may be able to experiment with various life forms and can create hedious creatures as we see in ET based movies or create human beings who look like Roman Gods and Godesses.
I am a "limited-aethist". What it means is that my belief in God starts where science ends. There are still zillions of unsolved mysteries of nature which may force one to believe in Omnipresent God at some point. But "creation of life" was one such mystery which I always believed was as unsolvable as "is there after-life". Craig Venter and his team may be on the path to solve this mystery and redefine our concept of God. Who knows some day even human babies will be "made-to-order" in laboratories! And China, the manufacturing hub may overwhelm the world with its low quality "life-form" :-) So I sincerely wish "Him" bad-luck. Hope "He" doesn't succeed. Human life will then be so farcical. What will be difference between us and the "made-in-china" merchandise on display in Walmart?
(Btw, is the saffron brigade listening? Guys, it is not too late to change your concept of God and give up the resolve of building the financially unviable Ram-Setu bridge)
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