Book Challenge: Immortals of Meluha

Finished reading Immortals of Meluha. Just read the first chapter in the book and hooked up. Its a good read. Interesting and engaging.

Book Challenge: The curious incident of the dog in the night time.

Yay Yay. I finished reading "The curious incident of the dog in the night time".

Will update this space later with my brief review.

Another Challenge :-) Book 1: The girl who played with fire.

I'm unstoppable, I know. As soon as I failed in my previous challenge, here I'm taking up the next challange.

What this time? No blog writings.(I spare you people). I have to read 50 books in a year. As you know, I never cheat. As soon as I finished the book, I will tell you and you can keep the track of it. Ok?

The thing is half of the year is already gone. So, I'm going to read 25 books in 6 months. Starting from this month.

I have already completed one book this month. "The Girl who played with fire". I plan to write a small review as well. (That doesn't count for challenge)

And I will put the books in my side bar as soon as I finished.

Now, the review:
This is the second book in the millenium series. Fast paced and gripping . Blomkvist and Millenium are ready for another scoop with Dag and Mia. This time it is about sex trafficking. Dag and Mia are murdered before they publish it and all the evidence are against Lisbeth Salander. Police, Blomkvist and Armansky are in their own way try to discover the truth. But Salander has something else in her mind. To take revenge and to kill someone who is responsible for some horrible events that happened in her childhood. And that someone is not that easy to be found. His name is not listed in any documents anywhere in Sweden. How things turn out and what happens to salander is the rest of the story. Go for it. Recommended. But read the first part before you read this.

Currently Reading: The Curious incident of the dog in the night time.

Blog marathon post: Failed Failed Failed

I'm graciously accept my failure in the attempt of writing 31 posts in 31 days even after I have slightly changed the rules. (I think that is the key reason for my failure).

And I did "things-gone-wrong" analysis. What I found is not that astonishing.



1. Laziness and procrstinating.
2. Lack of ideas
3. Since my English is not that good, it took lot of time to write a post.
4. Started reading books and hooked up to it.
5. This current shift sucks.
Am in 12-10 shift. I will be reaching 11 and will be dog tired and no way I can
think about a post and write and publish it.

Now, how to make things better.
1. Have attainable objectives.
Think of all the hurdles and blockages you may come across and have some sort of
back up plan.
2. Don't procrastinate and dont be lazy.
3. Refer point no.2
4. Refer point no.3
5. Refer point no.4

And it is not how you fall but how you get up :-)





I think this will do.

Blog Marathon Post 12: Random things

Here I'm going to share some of my happy moments in the last few days.

First and Foremost:
This one blog I regularly reads. She is one hell of a writer with a magic pen, where she transforms even the mundane and boring things as an interesting read. Attention to details and great sense of humor well blended with social responsibility. Thats what she is. I like these species very much. Because they are very very rare to find. Though she respects each and every one of her readers, I somehow seem to be a fake to her. (This may be due to my old blog which is full of rubbish and whoever reads that they will think I'm a super duper fake and dull and jerk. So, this is not her fault). So, she blocked me from following her in twitter and rejected a couple of my comments from publishing. I was hurt but that didnt stop me reading her blog and the respect continue growing. And the happiest thing is, SHE PUBLISHED MY COMMENT IN HER BLOG. I'm so happy and am in cloud 9 and above that. Love you girl. :-)

2. Watched "The Karate Kid" and "The Postman". Enjoyed bothe the movies. Will write about postman later.

3. As you know, as you might have read my review of "The Girl with the dragon tatoo", I started reading books again and completed two books so far(That means in a week). One is the above mentioned and the other one is "Confessions of listmaniac" by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. Now, reading "Disgrace" by J. M. Cootze.

4. And I'm so happy that I too got a few followers. Thank you all who follow me even after reading. (Or, did they just follow without reading anything? Coz, with their right mind, no one will follow me after reading all these, correct?)

5. My mobile is not working properly and that gives an excuse for not using it. And not using mobile feels superb. If you know what I mean :-)

Blog Marathon Post 11: The Karate Kid - Review

This movie I really enjoyed and everyone who came with me did enjoy.

I haven't seen the original version. So, I cannot compare. And I dont give a damn about whether it is better than that or not. This moive, the way it has taken works very well for me. It is not a great movie but a good movie to spend your time with.



The story is simple: Dre Parker's mother has to move to China due to her work. Parker couldn't accoustomed to this new atmosphere and hates every moment. Adding fuel to fire, he has to confront a bully in the school. The bully is very good at Kung Fu and learning from no mercy - no pain - bad bad bad master. Mr.Han a maintanance man in Dre's apartment, saves Dre from the bullies and trying to help him to join the Kung Fu academy where that bully is learning. But it turns out that Dre has to participate in the Kung Fu tournament and has to teach the kid. This is a feel good movie, so Dre must win and so he wins obiviously.



The scenes between Dre and the cutie chinese girl are funny and fantastic. Evertime he tries to impress her, it backfires him :-).
Especially when he plays TT with an old man. And also the reaction when he sees her dance. Awesome Jaden. I think he will become way better than Will Smith. (This is a praise for Jaden not a criticism of Will Smith).



The chemistry between Dre and Han works perfectly well. Jaden smith as Dre Parker catches everyone's heart with his awesome performance. His face reactions in few scenes are too good. When her moms says I love in front of the school gate, the way he reacts, in a hush tone, MOM,... fantastically captured the mentality of a 12 year old boy. Scenes like these make it a great experience.

Worth time spend. You won't regret. Highly Recommended.

Note: Pics taken from www.filmofilia.com

Blog marathon post 10: The girl with the dragon tattoo - Book review

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/exclusive-daniel-craig-18015
(Daniel Craig is to act in the movie Dragon girl. The movie is based on the book "The girl with a dragon tattoo".)



When I was hovering around in the book section at Landmark, I have seen this book. Even though the title immediately catched my attention I was little hesistant to buy that time. But, when I read the above piece of news I wanted to read before the movie is taken. It will be good to read first and then check how they transformed the book into a movie. Most of the times I was miserably dissappointed to see the movies. These experience and "Consequence of Analysis" told me, if I watch the movie first, I will ceratinly loose the interest to read the book. So, I decided to put my hands on that book as soon as possible. Since I have finished reading that book and I really liked that book, I just want to give you the feel about the book.

As most of you all aware, it is a page turner. A mystery novel. A 40+ aged hero with a 20+ aged heroine trying to find out the mystery behind a girls disapperance which happend in 1966.

The disappeared girl is the grand daughter of Henrik Vanger, ex CEO of Vanger's corporation. Her name is Harriet Vanger.
She used to give framed pressed flowers as gift to Henrik. But even after her disappearance, he is getting same kind of gifts on his birthday every year for 36 years. He cannot come out of this tragic event and wants to find out who really killed her.
He strongly belives that she cannot just dissapear into air without any trace so she must be murdered and that murderer should be one of his family members. After a small background check, he decides to hire Mikel Blomkvist.

Mikel Blomkvist: A financial journalist. Part owner of the magazine "Millenium". (This book is the first in Millenium Triology). A straight moral person. He is in a trouble now. The allegations he made about the industrialist back fired him. He has been sentenced to jail for three months and has to pay a huge fine. This has weaken the credibility of "Millenium". He either has to resign from "Millenium" editorial board or has to prove that his allegations are right. He doesnt know where to start and how to proceed. So, he decides to have a break from editorial board and wants to have a breat to think about it. The same time he gets an offer from Vanger.

Lisbeth Salander: The girl with the dragon tattoo. She is the one who did the background check of Mikel Blomkvist.A girl with numerous tattoos, two piercings in her face, with fancy clothings, and with an asocial behaviour. She works for Armansky who is the head of Milton security company. She tolerates no restrictions. She served several years in children prison and she is now under gaurdianship. She is an enigma. She never socializes with anyone and she never shows any emotions or affections. She never quits anything once she decides to take it up. She never asks for help and wants to do it by herself. She is ready to be beaten to death rather than giving in. But she respects people who treat her as a human being. After "taking care" of his second gaurdian who molested and raped her, she joins with Blomkvist to assist his investigation about Harriet's mystery as a research assistant.

1966: The day Harriet disappears. It is the day when all members in the vanger family get together for dinner. It is a practice that goes on for a long time. At midday, there is a terrible accident in a bridge in that village. All the attention of the whole village turn to that accident. The bridge is the only way to come/go to/from village. And it is locked due to accident. But, Harriet happens to be disappeared. The police, the village and Henrik appointed special force, all searched every nook and corner of the village even the sea nearby. They checked all possible theories and all lead to dead end. Now, 36 years have gone by. Still there is no trace of Harriet. Everyone belived that she has died. And Vanget wants to know who did that.

When Blomkvist takes up this job, he has no slightest hope that he will unfold the mystery. But when he goes thru all the police reports, photographs, press reports and Henriks notes again and again, he found that what the others missed in the investigation. He needs one more hand to help with him to research in depth and to get details. Who else than salander will be more appropriate? Together they approach the whole case in a new dimension and in new angle. But someone doesnt want them to find the truth. Someone is poking their nose into their affairs and in their house. Someone tries to kill Blomkvist. No matter what, they are not ready to give up. And atlast they find the truth. A horrible truth which will shatter the whole Vanger's corporation. What is the truth and what they do after they find out and what happens to Blomkvist career is the rest of the story.

If you are an imaginative reader, then there are so many things in this book for you to dwell into. One example is thinking about Lisbeth Salander. What might have happened to her childhood to make Lisbeth the way she is now? Blomkvist is a moralist. But he has to compromise at some point time in the story. What would have happened if he doesn't compromised?
There are someother things which are so captivating and put you in deep thinking but I dont want to spoil the surprise. If you like mystery novels, twists and turns and if you want to glued to the book for several hours then this is the book for you. Recommended.

Blog marathon post update: Rules slightly changed

I'm going to write about some amazing ladies with whom I have spent part of my life.

Will contd..


Updated :

I started this post since I have framed every word while travelling from Trichy to Chennai..but was not able to continue due to power cut and then....I slept :-(.

So, I have slightly changed the rules and regulations of the blog marathon. Instead of one post per day, I'm going to write 31 posts in 31 days. It doesn't matter how many posts I'm posting everyday. The higher the number of the posts it is good for my writing. Lets see how i'm sticking to this rule...hmph :-(

Blog marathon post 9: My Grandma

"A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother's heart"
~Author Unknown




I was a jerk, I'm now and am sure I'll be.

I didn't give damn shit about anything two years back. I didnt value people and my world revolved around me. I'm learning now, learning the real values of little things that make a big difference.

My grandma, my daddy's mother...both she and my daddy are no more now. They are not with me. No one in this world knows that how sick i feel inside me for not being responsive to their love, care and trust when they were alive.


Today is my grandma death anniversay.(Somehow, I relate the word "Anniversary" with happiness and celeberation. I dont feel comfortable using that word to describe this event. Need someother word.) She loved me the most among all her grand children. I was her favourite. I hope I'm still her favourite.

She tried all her best to make me happy. I still remember all those things. It was sad that she couldn't stay with both of her sons in her last years. She couldn't cope up with both her daughter-in-laws. Though she stayed very near to her younger son, she was all alone. She lived in a seperate home, she made her own food, she was a daily wager even in her 60s and 70s.

I was deeply moved and was terribly angry when she was suffering from a dog's bite. I was visiting her when I was doing my undergraduation(UG, I think so). She was completely tired and exhausted. The local doctor( he is not even a doctor, he used to inject penicilin almost for all disease. He will wait for two to three weeks and if nothing gets better, he will ask them to go to a hospital in town), gave some penicilin injection and there was no one to take care. And with that leg she made me food and everything. When I think about that now, I'm deeply touched and I cannot forgive myself for the things I didn't do which I should have done.

She used to visit temples and places once in a year in January. Every year same places, same bus travels, same drivers, same guides and all that... She was the organizer in our village. She took me with her for six years. I still remember bits and pieces of those visits. I remember Kangai konda cholapuram( I never visited this place after that, afraid of losing that memory in my mind), Thanjai Periya Kovil, Vadalur and the bath in the cold well water, struggling to see the Jyothi in the crowd, those little tales of Ramalinga Adigal, those songs before the meals....these beautiful memories, these are all the things I'm left with about her.

Like a hutch dog, I used to follow her everywhere. I was her constant companion. She will drag me with her whenever she goes to relatives house. If the place we want to visit is in miles around, we will go by walk. My grandma's sister(GS), lives in a village. It is 7 kms away from our place. Whenever we visit GS, we will go by walk. Between these places, you can find three or four villages. Everywhere we have relatives. Just visiting GS's place is like visiting all these relatives. Whatever they are cultivating that time, like sugarcane, peanuts, corns... they will give us. Eating all the way and the fun talk with my grandma, I never felt tired. My GS or SG's(small grandma) place is near to a dry lake. We have to cross the lake to reach her. Once I reached the lake, I will start running. The happiness in both grandma's eyes...once we all together, I have no words.

She didnt expect much from me. Instead, even after I started earning, she used to give money to me. I didn't realize the value of those money that time. But I do now. She had only one wish. She wanted me to go with her to some temple to pay some tribute. But, we couldn't do that. As I told you, I was a jerk. Regretting now will do nothing.

I don't know how I'm going to tell her that I really loved her. I should have shown my love through my actions when she was alive. I hope somehow she knew that. I'm feeling heavy now.

Rest in Peace!!

Blog Marathon post 8: Technically speaking.....

Yeah....I missed one day. But, no I'm not. Technically may be. This time is not yet my end of day. As per my calendar, my day ends only when I sleep. I'm here just to write this post. So, I'm still keeping up with this. Good to go Karthik. I, myself patting on my back. (What to do? There is no one here to do that. Pity me :-( )

As usual, I'm going to ramble something here. Best way is to describe what has happened today so far? In three words... Fantastic but awful.

Most of the day, I felt very happy. The code that I was struggling with is completed successfully. And it is not giving any errors.

I found so many blogs today and I'm happy with it. A few are movie blogs. Read some posts. How the hell these people are writing this good? Putting so much effort and their commitment. I have to learn a lot from them. Carefully reading them. Will try to imitate first, till I get my own style. Should be more careful not to imitate always. I know there is a limit to imitate and I should not cross.(This is note to myself).

Downloading the movie "Disgrace". I read reviews that it is awfully good movie. Can't wait to see it.

Read Leena Manimekalai's - a tamil poet - blog about some of the happenings in the last few weeks. I always admire bold and strong girls. She knows what she is talking about. She is very clear in what she is writing. Admiring her too. (I may not agree with what she is saying or writing. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't like her)
Read a few technical things about movies. The concept of long shot in "Vaarthaigal" blog. This seems really a good blog. Suresh Kannan's recommendation. Cannot be a bad one :-)

Forgot my key in the room itself. So, have to go to friend's office, have to disturb him in the middle of the night to get the key and got back just an hour before... and writing this post. (This is that awful part).

Seriously, I have to work on my absent mindedness and procrastinating habit.

Will see...

That sums up pretty much. See you tomorrow with another post.

The Calvin and Hobbes is for you to enjoy. Not related with this post, in case if you were thinking about it.