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.

One Night at Call Center

It’s the good old book of Chetan Bhagat. All the earlier times when I tried to read this book, I could never go beyond 30 pages as it was very boring. I have a rule that when I start reading a book, I can self drivingly read 50 pages (or for the first half an hour—whichever is earlier) and after that it’s the author’s ability to create interest in the reader to read further. In the case of ‘One night at call center’ either of the things happened and I never succeeded in reading the book.

But this time one of my close friends joined a call center and he persuaded me to read book to get the feel of the call center world. I gave the extra effort in reading beyond the 50 pages and later I realized that it’s a great book.

It’s a story of 6 silly people doomed in a call center trying to save their jobs at the times the call center is calling for a shut down. Also it is the story of what typically happens in a call center in one night (which sometimes makes you feel that the story is moving nowhereL). There is one diffident Shyam who is the narrator and he is badly in love with Priyanka who also works in the same process as him and the shares the same cab with him. Priyanka is indoctrinated by her mother that she has to marry someone well settled, who has ample money, big job, cozy house, swanky car etc etc.. So she ditches the lover boy Shyam after 4 years of resilient love relationship. This further minifies the confidence of Shyam.

Shyam and his friend Vroom develop a website to assist the customers which they think will bring brownie points to them. But unfortunately it turns out to be a blunder screwing up the call volumes for the call center and the boss of the two- Bakshi takes the credit for developing the web manual. Annoyed by Bakshi’s foxy acts, the two decide resign their jobs.

The other characters in the book are of Radhika who marries her lover and struggles with the orthodox in laws. Later she finds out that her husband is having affair with another woman and she tries to get divorce from him. Esha is an aspiring model who is regretful about sleeping with a man to get a modeling assignment. Vroom loves Esha and when he finds this out, he feels bitter about Esha. The last is the Military uncle retired from the Army and looking out for money for the living. He has a son living in a far off place who’s airheaded about the father’s living conditions.

At one point, all the characters get fatigued by the ill fortunes of their lives and break out for a long drive in the middle of the night to a bar and when they are getting back to the call center their cab happens to fall in to a ditch. There the unexpected happens. God calls Shyam on his mobile and enlightens them as to how one should follow the inner calling and that’s the key to the success.

Later they head back to the call center and teach a lesson to Bakshi, save the call center from shutting down and Priyanka returns to Shyam.

The Odessa file-Frederick Forsyth

Odessa is an acronym for “Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen” which translates to “Organization of Former Members of the SS”. Odessa is a group of former SS men who served Hitler in his innumerous brutal mass killing operations of Jews in the West Germany during 1940 to 1945. When the Americans and the Russians conquered Germany at the end of the Second World War in 1945, these so called patriots of Germany fled to South American countries to shelter themselves against prosecution for war crimes.

The Odessa file is a very famous book which describes the butcher-ism of Hitler and the Nazi rule in Germany and the western European countries. One Jew by name Solomon Tauber commits suicide leaving a diary behind containing the documentations of the Jew concentration camp at Riga. The diary claims that a war criminal- Eduard Roschmann who is alive under a false name and should be held and prosecuted and that is the only hope of Tauber to keep him alive. The dairy also documents killing of an army officer in particular.

A reporter by name Miller challenges himself to find Roschmann and gets in to a lot of trouble on his chase to find Roschmann. He will be approached by a group of concentration camp survivors and will be led to infiltrate in to the Odessa. When he finally finds Roschmann and gets it confirmed that the army officer who was killed by him was in fact Miller’s father, he tells Roschmann that he isn't there to avenge Roschmann's Jewish victims and doesn't care how Roschmann tries to justify what he did to them and that he is there to kill Roschmann for killing his father. By the time Miller gets hold of Roschmann, he will be hit by Roschmann’s guard and Roschmann flies away to South America and gets a new identity.

While all this is happening, Miller brings to light that the country’s top radio manufacturing company’s head is Roschmann(under the name Vulkan) and in his factory, he is secretly developing the rocket guidance system for the Egyptian army. This way Roschmann and his SS men are trying to obliterate Israel by combining the German and the Egyptian forces. Later the factory will be shut down by the German authorities upon the compulsion from the Israelis.

The Paths Of Glory

It is a novel by Jeffrey Archer based on the life of George Mallory, a mountaineer who vanished on Mount Everest back in 1924, and who was last seen “going strongly for the summit”. Thus this is a story where the only things uncertain about the ending are whether Mallory reached the top or not, and what happened to him.


Born in 1886, George Mallory was a brilliant student who became part of the Bloomsbury Group at Cambridge in the early twentieth century and served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during World War I. After the war, he married, and had three children. His passion was mountain climbing. Mallory once told a reporter that he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, “because it is there.” He tried two times and failed. In the book it takes us all the way from George Mallory’s childhood, living in his father’s house, to the summit of Everest.

On his third try, in 1924, thirty-seven years old, he was last seen four hundred feet from the top. His body was eventually found in 1999. It is still a mystery whether he and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, ever reached the summit.

Paths of Glory is an excellent historical novel. How much of the story is fact and how much is fiction no one is able to tell as no one knows whether Mallory reached the peak or not. It is fascinating, persuasive, and extremely enjoyable to read. Great entertainment!

My first painting!

Thanks to my little cousin sister who helped me to do this painting. No one would believe if I say I did it. I couldn’t believe myself when it was completed.

Some time back in office I attended a workshop on water color painting and from there I picked up an abundant interest in painting. Over the weekend this is what seems to be the outcome of it.

My little sister was overwhelmed when I told her I wanted to make a painting. She is been trying to induce the interest in me about painting since we were kids. I always showed disinterest and lazed around when she assigned me any work with the colors and brush.

So when I asked her to guide me, she was ever ready and was there at my house right in the morning with her tools and colors. She brought a trace of the painting and black cloth along with her.

She first asked me to write the sketch of it with the chalk over the cloth and outline the figure which I did obediently. When the picture was clearly brought on the cloth she asked me to paint it with the colors I liked. While doing so she made sure that I don’t do any mistakes and gave me confidence that even if there any mistakes, they can well be patched. After almost two days of effort, the painting was ready and I took it to her house a little scared about the inaccuracies in it but at the same time confident that she will oblige as it’s my first painting.
After analyzing the intricacies of it, she told me that I have not committed any blunders in it and appreciated enormously just to boast my confidence and make me further interested.

The one thing I learnt after this new experience was to be patient until the bigger picture becomes visible.

My brother once said that there are three ways of draining out your emotions--One put them in to words and express which most people do on most occasions. The second-- Put them in swaras and make music out of it (which I am trying to learn) The third— Put them on the paper in the form of figures and colors which make a painting. I tried the last one-the first time.

Dutchman's Pipe

There were record breaking 48 bramha kamala flowers that blossomed on saturday night in our garden. The fragnant flowers brought a charm to our garden.

Earlier there were 11 Ashoka trees along with two coconut, a neem, a mango and a lemon tree in our garden and somehow my mother felt that these trees were blocking the sun's rays in to the house and so we cut them off. Now there stands a big and dominant bramha kamala plant which flowers often.