The Grand Design

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow's new book "The Grand Design" was released on Sep 7th 2010. It starts with the explanation of the lonian greeks idea of working of universe based on the laws and not on the will of God. It explains the latest thoughts about model-dependent realism (the idea that there is no one version of reality), and about the multiverse concept of reality in which there are many universes.

The central claim of the book is that the theory of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity together help understand how universes could have formed out of NOTHING.
The authors write:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

The authors explain, in a manner consistent with M-Theory, that as the Earth is only one of several planets in our solar system, and as our Milky Way galaxy is only one of many galaxies, the same may apply to our universe itself: that is, our universe may be one of a huge number of universes.
The book concludes with the statement that only some universes of the multiple universes (or multiverse) support life forms. We, of course, are located in one of those universes. The laws of nature that are required for life forms to exist appear in some universes by pure chance, Hawking and Mlodinow explain.

The book is available on amazon, landmark and other online stores for Rs.419.

The Seventh Secret - Irving Wallace

Its a fiction by Irving Wallace with the idea that Adolf Hitler survived the second world war by escaping from one of his under ground bunkers and letting his and his  wife's double die in the so called "Suicidal End" in the war.

One Oxford historian Harrison Ashcroft, when preparing to publish his book of biography of Hitler called "Herr Hitler" along with his daughter Emily Ashcroft receives a letter from an stranger in West Berlin telling that the book could be wrong if published with the popular version of suicide of Hitler as its end. He even writes that he can prove that the corpse shown in the 1945, April 30th photos of fuhrerbunker suicide plot were not of Hitler and his bride Eva Braun.

Intrigued by this information, Harrison travels to West Berlin and finds the stranger. Soon after a short meeting with the informant, Harrison calls a press conference and reveals that he doubts Hitler would've escaped the war and would be hiding under a false name and that he would excavate the graves of Hitler and Eva on the Russian side of Berlin.

Only seconds after this press conference, he would be killed in the crazy truck accident which will be witnessed by a press reporter. This press reporter writes to Ashcroft's daughter telling her that it wasn't an accident but a deliberate attempt to kill Harrison.

With the intention of finding why her father was killed, Emily comes to West Berlin and starts investigating. At the same time due to their own initiatives to resolve the mystery of Hitler's death 3 more people join her in the investigation. One Rex Foster - an architect from America, Neil Kirvov - a curator from a Russian museum and Tovah Levine from Jerusalem. Rex would be publishing a book of surviving buildings of Third Reich and he would be missing the 7 mystery buildings built during the final days of the war in Germany. To find those buildings and to get their plans, he comes to Berlin and finds Emily. Neil Kirvov would be a collector of Hitler's art and posses a valid Hitler oil painting which he wants to display in his museum's exhibition. He want someone to validate the oil as Hitler's and also to find the provenance of the painting. Tovah is a Mossad agent with the identity of a press reporter to Jerusalem post and she wants to trace surviving Nazis of second world war.

Emily along with Kirvov, Foster and Levine all used their combined power which leads them the unbelievable truth. Kirvov finds out about the painting that is supposed to be an authentic painting by Hitler that the real Adolf Hitler might still be alive. The painting that depicted a Nazi building shows the image of a renovated building that had an additional element that would be constructed in 1952. How could this painting which is supposed to be an authentic Hitler painting still have the designs of the builing that were added in 1952 which is 7 years after his supposed death?

Levine helps the four of them by discovering that Hitler and Eva Braun(his wife) had legitimate duplicates who normally attended functions in their place and who resembled Hitler very closely. Could the Hitler and Eva doubles have been the one who died in the bunker instead of the actual two people?

Rex discovers through a former Nazi bunker architect that Hitler had seven bunkers even though only six were known to other people. He discovers that the seventh Bunker is right next to the bunker that Hitler supposedly died in and he goes and investigates to find a secret passage that leads from the Hitler and Eva's personal bedroom to a seventh bunker in a hidden passage route which was previously build by Jewish slaves (who were later killed to silence by Hitler himself). As Foster goes through this passage he find out that it certainly leads to another unknown bunker where he find that his love, Emily Ashcroft, is hidden after her sudden disappearance in the Cafe Wolf (this bunker happens to be right beneath this cafe which Eva Braun first used as her photo studio and later turned into a cafe to not attract too much attention).

He also finds that Eva Braun is still alive and sleeping is the adjacent room! He will ask Emily to escape and he later drugs Eva(who goes by the name Evelyn Hoffman to not attract too much attention)with the truth drug which will make her spit out the facts! Braun admits that she and Hitler used their doubles when they claimed their death and were alive and living in this bunker the entire time which completely escaped the eyes of the Soviets when they raided the bunker. She claims that the real Hitler died on the same day as JFK did and ever since that, she has been at the head of the Nazis. She says that over fifty Nazis were in the secret bunker at the moment and that they would rise once more when Nazis were strong enough and when the Americans and Soviets destroyed each other with their missiles! Eva Braun also reveals one of the most ghastly secrets that she and Hitler had a child before he died!

The daughter that they had was kept a secret from the rest of the world. Hitler did not want his daughter to rot in the bunker so he arranged for their previous maid to take care of the daughter as her own in exchange of a great bribe. The daughter's name is Klara Feigbig who is already married and pregnant with Hitler's grandchild but she has no idea about her actual parentage and she lives a peaceful life. Eva also reveals that the police chief, Wolfgang Scmitct, who the whole town trusted as an anti-Nazi was actually one of Hitler secret SS guards and was to take over as leader when the new Nazi Germany was established once again!

Though the book is slow paced, its worth a read. Its full of mystery and thrilling. Of course an  unputdownable!

ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ

ಸ್ಮಿತವಿರಲಿ ವದನದಲಿ, ಕಿವಿಗೆ ಕೇಳಿಸದಿರಲಿ |
ಹಿತವಿರಲಿ ವಚನದಲಿ, ಋತುವ ಬಿಡದಿರಲಿ ||
ಮಿತವಿರಲಿ ಮನಸಿನುದ್ವೇಗದಲಿ, ಭೋಗದಲಿ |
ಅತಿಬೇಡವೆಲ್ಲಿಯುಂ - ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ ||

ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ

ಇರುವ ಕೆಲಸವ ಮಾಡು ಕಿರಿದೆನದೆ ಮನವಿಟ್ಟು |
ದೊರೆತುದ ಹಸಾದವೆಂದುಣ್ಣು ಗೊಣಗಿಡದೆ ||
ಧರಿಸು ಲೋಕದ ಭರವ ಪರಮಾರ್ಥವನು ಬಿಡದೆ |
ಹೊರಡು ಕರೆ ಬರಲ್ ಅಳದೆ - ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ ||

The Mountain Shadow! Available for pre-order

A sequel to SHANTARAM but equally a standalone novel, The Mountain Shadow follows Lin on further adventures in shadowy worlds and cultures. It is a novel about seeking identity, love, meaning, purpose, home, even the secret of life…As the story begins, Lin has found happiness and love, but when he gets a call that a friend is in danger, he has no choice but to go to his aid, even though he knows that leaving this paradise puts everything at risk, including himself and his lover. When he arrives to fulfil his obligation, he enters a room with eight men: each will play a significant role in the story that follows. One will become a friend, one an enemy, one will try to kill Lin, one will be killed by another…Some characters appeared in Shantaram, others are introduced for the first time, including Navida Der, a half-Irish, half-Indian detective, and Edras, a philosopher with fundamental beliefs. Gregory David Roberts is an extraordinarily gifted writer whose stories are richly rewarding on many levels. Like Shantaram, The Mountain Shadow will be a compelling adventure story with a profound message at its heart.

The book is scheduled to be released in Sep 2010 and is available on Amzon.com for pre-order. Its priced around £14.24

Dan Brown's much awaited book

This is just awesome. I am loving this.. Follow this link to read the Dan Brown's new book-yet to be released for the general public..

http://www.columbia.edu/~ip71/fun/danbrown.html

To kill a mocking bird

The book deals with racial inequality between the Negros and the whites in a fictional town called Maycomb in America. The narrator is a six year old girl Scout Finch. She has a brother –Jem , 4 years elder to her . She lives with her widowed father Atticus Finch - a reputed lawyer in Maycomb. She and Jem befriends a boy- Dil who visits his aunt at Maycomb in summers. Scout has an unusual neighbor – Boo Radley who stays at home all the time. The children are fascinated by Boo and feed each another’s imaginations by rumors of his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden. After an year or two, Jem and Scout find a gift in a tree near Scout’s house. This is followed a series of gifts at the tree and Jem and Scout are excited and don’t dare to tell anybody thinking they are stealing the gifts which are kept for someone else.

Atticus is assigned to defend a black man called Tom Robinson charged for raping a white woman Mayella- daughter of town drunk -Bob Ewell. Atticus knows that Tom is innocent and takes up the job of defending him though the whole town castigates him and calls him a nigger lover. Scout wants to back her father but at school, she is also berated. On the judgment day, a lot of drama happens and Atticus loses the trail and Tom is convicted.

When Tom is imprisoned, he is shot dead and the authorities reason it as he was shot while trying to escape from prison.

Humiliated by the trail, Bob Ewell vows revenge on Atticus and attacks Scout and Jem when they are returning from the school Halloween pageant. Jem is injured and amidst all the darkness and confusions, a mystery man rescues the children and takes them home. In the meanwhile, Bob Ewell is dead in the struggle.

The stranger carries the children home and Scout realizes the stranger is no other than Boo Radley. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective and regrets that they never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.

Shantaram

Shantaram is one of the legendary books that I've read. Its huge both physically and philosophically. I am not able to still separate myself from it and write my thoughts about it.

After I read the book, my brother read it and listed some quotes of the novel. The link to his blog is
http://perjanya.blogspot.com/2009_12_04_archive.html

Cheers to Shantaram!

The Lost Symbol

The book concentrates on Freemasonry, and takes place over a time span of 12 hours in Washington, D.C. Robert Langdon would be called to give a lecture in National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol, with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the Smithsonian Institution. However, when Langdon arrives at the Capitol, instead of an audience for his lecture, he finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed into a symbolic Hand of the Mysteries, and pointing straight upwards.

Solomon would’ve been kidnapped by the villain Mal'akh, who demands that Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Solomon's life.

This leads to a game of cat and mouse throughout the museums and buildings of Washington. Langdon joins hands with Solomon's sister, Katherine, a scientist studying noetic science in a secret laboratory in the Smithsonian Museum Support Center. Langdon and Katherine are pursued by both Mal'akh, and Inoue Sato, the head of the CIA's Office of Security. Sato's demand is that Langdon solve the mystery as a matter of national security, since Mal'akh would be planning to release a delusive video of Washington powerbrokers engaged in secret Masonic rituals.

The chase and the clues to the puzzles lead through the sub-basement of the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Freedom Plaza, the United States Botanical Garden, and Washington National Cathedral. The clues center around a small stone pyramid, entrusted several years ago by Solomon to Langdon. The pyramid and the box which holds it reveal several puzzles.

Mal'akh succeeds in capturing both Katherine and Langdon, torturing both of them, and then takes Peter Solomon to the top floor of the Masonic headquarters House of the Temple. Langdon and Katherine Solomon are rescued by the CIA, while in the meantime Mal'akh reveals to Peter Solomon that he is in fact Peter's own son, Zachary. (Well, the moment I read Zachary dies in Turkish prison and Mal’akh gets his rebirth, I knew they are not two different individuals. I am learning Dan Brown’s way of thinkingJ)

As a young man, Zachary would be unhappy with the way he had been treated by his father, so he would fake his own death in a Turkish prison. He then experiences a religious revelation, finding the need to learn the The Lost Word.

He plans to complete his transformation into a godlike being by inscribing his scalp with what he mistakenly believes to be the symbol for the Ancient Mysteries, the circumpunct.Trying to recreate the Biblical story of Abraham on the verge of sacrificing his son, Zachary attempts to force his father into killing him with Abraham' sacrificial Akedah knife on the altar of the Freemasons.

But Langdon intrudes, and a CIA helicopter interrupts the data connection to prevent the distribution of the video. Zachary is fatally injured when the helicopter accidentally shatters a skylight above him, and the falling shards pierce his body.

Peter Solomon then takes Langdon to the Washington Monument, viewed from above, a dot in a circular plaza, with a Bible in its cornerstone. Peter tells him that The Word that Mal'akh was seeking was in all holy books such as the Bible, Koran, and Bhagavad Gita. The Ancient Mystery is the realization that people are not God's subjects, but in fact possess the ability to be gods themselves. Langdon realizes that the lost symbol is God, standing for limitless human potential. The book is much slow paced compared to The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. It allows the reader to digest the myths and puzzles. For the first time in the Dan Brown’s books, I found the motive to be realistic. There is only one villain as compared to organizations and institutions becoming the villains in the other books.

Two states: Critic

It is a short and sweet book written by Chetan Bhagat. The book is about a Punjabi boy in love with the tamil- Brahmin-Iyer girl and their struggle to convince elders to get married. The hero Krish (Chetan) meets Ananya (Anusha) in IIMA canteen. They will start studying together in Ananya’s dorm and they fall in love. With high grades in IIMA, Krish gets his placement at City bank and Ananya at HLL at the end of their final year.

They plan to tell their parents about the love on the day of convocation. The two families meet with intense resistance to accept the love fostered by the younger ones. There will be plenty of fuss and the parents do not agree. Krish arranges to get his city bank posting at Chennai where Ananya lives. He’ll have tough time getting to know the city and its people. He’ll help with Ananya’s brother first for IIT entrance exams, then with her dad with a power point presentation which will bring him accolades. In one of the Citibank’s concert, he’ll have ananya’s mother sing along with SPB and Hariharan. By this he wins everyone’s heart at Ananya’s home.

Next he gets Ananya to his house to convince his mother. Ananya does a gimmick at Krish’s cousin’s wedding and she is also welcomed at Krish’s house. They think that their parents should get along with each other too and so they go to Goa. Again Krish and Ananya face conflicts with each other’s family members and between themselves. Ananya refuses to love Krish and he gets a nervous breakdown.

He goes to Chennai from Delhi to talk to Ananya but she refuses him. The next day, Krish’s father whom Krish never liked or respected, goes to Ananya’s house and talks to her parents and arranges for the wedding. The wedding will happen in Tamilain style with a lot of compromise from Krish’s family. In the epilogue after a couple of years Ananya delivers twin boys.

Like all the standard books of Chetan Bhagat, this doesn’t have a death scene or even the suicide attempt. When I read the book, I felt it is purely copied from “Abhiyum Naanum” a tamil movie. But long ago when I had watched that movie, I felt it’s the remake of “Father of the bride” movie. Incidentally “Abhiyum naanum” movie is remade in telugu as “Akashamatha” . Now I am wondering who copied from whom…. But two states is claimed to be chetan’s real story.