Good bye California - Alistair MacLean

The plot for the book is set in the United States. An Islamic terrorist kidnaps nuclear scientists and steals radioactive material from a California nuclear power plant. The plot focusses on the plan of the kidnappers to build their own atomic bombs which if exploded along California's earthquake fault lines could kill millions of people and destroy California's major cities.

The inspiration for the plot appears to be acknowledged by Maclean himself in his preface to the 1977 edition of the book where he describes his first experience of an earthquake while in California on 9 February 1972.

This is a fiction which introduced to the world what Islam holy war means. Haven't we so often seen fictions becomes reality?

Bharath ek khoj - title track

I was a nursery kid when I used to hear this song. All I knew to do after the program was to jump up and clap.  I had perceived it as the most sacred hymn which all the humans in the room were obligated to listen with utmost possible silence. Never did I understand the meaning then, now I found a translation for the track from wiki.

The following is the lyrics of the track that is played at the beginning of each episode.
This first stanza is in Sanskrit (Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn 129)

नासदासीन्नोसदासीत्तादानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमापरो यत |
किमावरीव: कुहकस्यशर्मन्नम्भ: किमासीद्गहनं गभीरं ||

nāsadāsīn no sadāsīt tadānīṃ nāsīd rajo no vyomāparo yat |
kimāvarīvaḥ kuha kasya śarmannambhaḥ kimāsīd ghahanaṃ ghabhīram ||

Srishti se pehle Kuch nahin thaa
sat bhi nahin, asat bhi nahin
Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhee nahin thaa.
Chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhaka thaa?
Us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa.

Srishti kaa kaun hai kartaa?
Kartaa hai va akartaa
Oonche aakash mein rahtaa.
Sadaaa addhyaksh banaa rahtaa.
Wohee sach much mein jaantaa..Yaa nahin bhi jaanataa
Hain kisi ko nahin pataa,
Nahin pataa,
Nahin hai pataa, nahin hai pataa.

Following is the lyrics of the track that is played at the end of each episode. Again, the first stanza is in Sanskrit and it fades as the Hindi song begins.

हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेकासीत ।
स दाधार पृथ्वीं ध्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥

Voh tha hiranya garbh srishti se pehle vidyamaan.
Vohi to saare bhoot jaatee ka swami mahaan.
jo hai astitvamaana dharti aasmaan dhaaran kar.
Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?

Jis ke bal par tejomay hai ambar.
Prithvi hari bhari sthapit sthir.
Swarg aur sooraj bhi sthir.
Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?

Garbh mein apne agni dhaaran kar paida kar,
Vyapa tha jal idhar udhar neeche upar,
Jagarth Devon ka ekameva pran bankar,
Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?

Om ! Srishti nirmata swarg rachaiyta purvaj rakhsa kar.
Satya dharma palak atul jal niyamak raksha kar.
Phaili hain dishayen bahu jaisi uski sab mein sab par,
Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar,
Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar.

An extended version of the above was played only in the Final episode of Bharat Ek Khoj - this was like a concise summarisation of the entire history in one big episode.

Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin
Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhee nahin thaa.
Chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhaka thaa?
Us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa.
Nahi thi mritiyu, Ji Amarta bhi nahi,
nahi tha din, raat bhi nahi,
Hawa bhi nahi, Saans thi swyamev phir bhi,
Nahi tha koi kutch bi, Param tatva se aalag, ya pare bhi.
Ommmmm,
Karm bankar beej pehla jo Uga,
Kaam bankar woh jaga.
Kaviyo, Gyaniyo ne jana,
Asat aur Sat Ka nikat sambandh pehchana

Pehle sambandh me - Hiranya ..... neeche, Param tatva Uspar,
Upar ya neeche.
Vah tha bata hua. Purush aur Stree bana Hua.

Upar .......
Neeche ......
Shristi yeh bani kaise,Kisse, aayi hai kahan se.
koi kya jaanta hai, Bata Sakta hai.
devaoo ko nahi gyan, Ve aye shijan me kyon.

Srishti kaa kaun hai kartaa?
Kartaa hai ya vikartaa?
………….


Translation

The lyrics are only in Hindi because the Sanskrit lyrics are sung again in Hindi. The Universe has been generally used for Hindi word Srishti but that is not an accurate translation because Srishti means everything including the Universe and the heavens and the entirety of existence i.e. all-encompassing existence, thus 'all things' is used to refer to Srishti. Note that although it is easy to assume that there is a gender and/or personality associated with the Entity being referred in the lyrics, actually the lyrics go to great length in keeping the language gender and personality neutral. That is why we refer to the Entity using That and It throughout.

Goodness(being) did not exist before all things came to be
Evil(nonbeing) did not exist either
The atmosphere did not exist as well
The sky too was not present
Was anything hidden? Where?
Who had covered it?
At that moment
Unmoving, strong ocean was not there either

Who is the doer of all things?
Is that a doer or non-doer?
Living in the high skies?
Always plays the part of the leader?
Only that knows the truth
Or maybe that does not
No one knows really, No one knows
No one knows really, No one knows

That was the golden womb ever present before all things came
That is the great lord of all the elements
That is the presence through which the land and the skies materializes
Which God like that should we worship by offering ghee?

The skies are lit with its strength
The earth is established with greenery and prosperity
Heavens and Sun are also established
Which God like that should we worship by offering ghee?

It materialized fire in its womb to give birth
There was water here and there and up and below
Out of which only life awoke
Which God like that should we worship by offering ghee?

Om! (Incantation) That maker of all things, that architect of the heavens, our ancestor protect us
That enforcer of truth and dharma, that regulator as mighty as the ocean, protect us
That vastness stretched across all directions, everywhere and in everything
We should keep praying to God like that by offering ghee
We should keep praying to God like that by offering ghee

DVDs of all 52 episodes of the serial are available for online shopping in the doordarshan website archives and also in this link for Rs.2300.You can also watch all episodes of the serial at http://watchbharatekkhoj.blogspot.com/

The book "The Discovery of India" by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is available in almost all the book stores.

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!