And the Funeral is Finally Over…

Running on the treadmill in Gold’s Gym watching all the mourners pay tearful tributes to Michael Jackson, I just could not help wondering why I am left feeling so untouched about his death…

I grew up at the heights of the Thriller and Bad mania, and although I listened to his music and gaped open-mouthed at his dancing, even then I did not quite understand the fandom. I just went along with the crowd and pretended to be “with it”, although I far preferred listening to oldie Kishore Kumar hindi songs.

Today, I have the same feeling of deja vu. I am again left unmoved while everyone has gone into hysteria mode about the death of the “King of Pop”.

Uh..sorry guys, I just don’t get it.

He has not had a best-selling album in years. He’s had one sorry scandal after the other -and all the scandals were of a pretty disturbing nature. Dangling a small baby dangerously from a balcony, supposed molestation of small boys (even if he was innocent, which is quite possible, I find it very creepy that he shared his bed with small star-struck boys), the drugs, the plastic surgeries, the strange interviews, the sleeping in a pressurized oxygen chamber, the strange and unconvincing marriages (and children)…do we really need more examples of how fragile his mental state must have been?

Reading news reports about his death and the state his health was in, I just could not help feeling that maybe this was a welcome relief for a troubled singer who really had no clue how to live his life. At the time he died, he was bald, weighed 51 kg (through constant starvation), broke, and dependent on unscrupulous doctors to provide him medication that he was probably not supposed to have.

Hopefully, he is in a better place wherever he is…

And I will save my emotions for the everyday comedies/tragedies that happen to people who I actually know and love.

Farewell MJ!

Cheers,

Why do I blog? A survey

Ms Mazolla at State of Denmark is conducting a meme, where bloggers answer a few questions about their attitudes and motivations. I am doing this survey almost a month later, and so it’s probably not useful to her. However, since, I enjoyed reading other people’s survey responses, I thought I would participate too.

1. How long have you been blogging?
   I have been blogging since November 2007
2. Why did you start blogging?
   I used to read a couple of personal blogs that my friends wrote about their lives, families, thoughts and so on. I was thrilled about the idea of keeping an online journal about my life. However, once I started I found some things to be too personal, so my blog has finally evolved into an “almost a book review blog”, although I blog about a lot of other things as well.
3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
   I love looking back at all the memories of what I experienced at a particular point in time. I also love the opportunity to pen my thoughts.
4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
   2-3 times a week
5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
   I read about 5-6 blogs regularly
6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
   If I am in and out of the blog quickly, no. If I end up reading at least a couple of posts, then yes.
7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?
   Yes, I do keep track. I am fairly satisfied with the number of visitors. I am blown away by the geographical map of visitors (Samoa! French Guiana! wow!).

   But as far as numbers go, I really don’t know what to make of them. More than half my visitors come from Google, probably searching for something very specific, so my blog probably does not always correspond to what they are searching for.

   I definitely wish for more comments

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
   No.
9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
   I am not sure, I should hope so.I think regular readers have a pretty clear picture of me.
10. Do you blog under your real name?
    Yes
11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
    Yes, some personal stuff that could cause offense to people I know
12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
    I review all the places I’ve been to, books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen. Basically, this blog is a list of my experiences – good, bad, and ugly!
13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
    No, I have only one blog, but I am seriously considering creating a secondary book review blog as my blog is currently overrun with book reviews, and it would be nice to move it elsewhere and reduce the clutter. Unfortunately, I want to create the new blog on Blogger, however, I do not find any easy way to move my book reviews from WordPress to Blogger, and so I am a bit stuck there.

    If anyone can help me in this, please respond with a comment

Hope you found these answers interesting. If you would like to participate in this survey, blog about this and link back to me. I would love to read it.

Cheers,

Guilty Pleasures…

In this funny article in The Guardian, the reporter interviews Michelin award-winning chefs about their favorite guilty pleasure foods. The stuff that came out was quite surprising ranging from Burger King cheese burgers to Filet-o-fish from McDonald’s.

This is a fun article and actually quite reassuring to read. Reading the comments at the end of the article is even more fun, almost everyone has a few guilty pleasures.

Since, the article is now closed for commenting, I thought I would list my guilty pleasures here (in no particular order of preference, and not limited to food):

• Ooty Chocolates (especially the mint flavor). Not only am I guilty of this, but I have spread the mania to dozens of co-workers by bringing boxes of the stuff to office to distribute
• Baskin Robbins ice-cream – I don’t think there is a flavor they have that I don’t love
• Subway subs and cookies – yumm!
• Maggi noodles – the good ole Masala flavor
• Stardust and Cine Blitz magazines – all the gossip, the salaciousness. Best way to enjoy a rainy afternoon!
• Rereading Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Victoria Holt novels-occasionally even a Mills n Boon
• Random driving just for the sake of it – yes, even in Bangalore traffic, I just love it, and when I am speeding up on the Outer Ring Road, I sometimes like to pretend that I am an F1 driver

There, now I have unloaded … you tell me, what are your guilty pleasures in life?

Cheers,

Wizard’s First Rule – A Book Review

Wizard's First Rule

When I picked up Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, I kinda knew what to expect from the novel. A start to a long-winding Fantasy series somewhat on the lines of Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series, and yes…it is similar in some ways. This book is the first of the “Sword of Truth” series.

The story is mainly about this guy, named Richard Cypher, who finds out he’s destined to be a True Seeker (read the book to know what it means). He joins forces with the heroine of the book, Kahlan who has magical powers. They embark on a quest to defeat the evil Darken Rahl, a mighty wizard who is trying to use the Boxes of Orden (again read the book to find out what they are) to gain power to rule the entire land.

Terry Goodkind is obviously making a case against communism here. Darken Rahl is a dictator who wants people to divide the fruits of their hard work amongst others. Therefore, hard-working people have to starve because lazy people who cannot provide for themselves depend on the state for assistance…hehe, this concept sounds familiar…

The story moves predictably but quickly. Richard travels long distances and encounters various scary people and beasts, whom he is either able to convince them to support him, or subdue them. 500 pages or so into the book (this is a gargantuan book > 800 pages), and I was still gripped by it.

However, the last couple of hundred pages really killed it for me. Too many gratuitous sado-masochistic sex and torture scenes. The scenes where Darken Rahl tortures, kills, cooks, and eats a young boy were beyond disgusting (this actually happens in the beginning of the book itself). Also, the S & M scenes between Richard Cypher and Mistress Denna (a true-blue vamp) were completely unnecessary…even from a plot perspective, these sections did not move the story any further along, or in any way develop the character of the personalities.

The ending of the story was pretty good though, and sets the stage nicely for the rest of the novels in the series.

Last word: This book is definitely for people with a strong stomach and lovers of hard-core Fantasy novels. If you don’t like violence, don’t pick up this book.

Cheers,

Treadmill Walkers? This post is for you…

Just a few months ago, I used to be one of those girls. You know, the ones who walk on the treadmill clutching both sides terrified of tripping and falling, envying all the people who just let go and run.

And then I discovered an easy way to get started…

Discovered http://www.runnergirlsindia.com/ which helps you get started in a very easy way, and before you know it, you are running 5km in 30 minutes.

The Couch to 5k plan is very simple and straight-forward. At first, it combines short bursts of running with walking, and then slowly ups your running time. Below is the plan I followed (taken from runnergirlsindia.com):

Week	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
1	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
2	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
3	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 metres (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 metres (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:   Jog 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 metres (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 metres (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:   Jog 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 metres (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 metres (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 metres (or three minutes)
4	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:   Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 400m (or 3 minutes) Walk 200m (or 90 seconds) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes)
5	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:   Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 3 minutes) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 3 minutes) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:   Jog 1.2km (or 8 minutes) Walk 800m (or 5 minutes) Jog 1.2km (or 8 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3.2km (or 20 minutes) with no walking.
6	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:   Jog 800m (or 5 minutes) Walk 400m (or 3 minutes) Jog 1.2km (or 8 minutes) Walk 400m (or 3 minutes) Jog 800m (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:   Jog 1.6km (or 10 minutes) Walk 400m or 3 minutes) Jog 1.6km (or 10 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3.6km (or 25 minutes) with no walking.
7	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4km (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4km (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4km (or 25 minutes).
8	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4.5km (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4km (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4.5km (or 28 minutes).
9	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 4.5km (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 5km (or 30 minutes).	The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 5km (or 30 minutes).

 

At first, it looked impossible that I could run for 30 minutes continuously, when I was puffing and panting for just a 5-minute run. But, gradually my stamina improved, and now I can consistently run for 30 minutes.

It’s amazing how good you feel after a run. I don’t feel tired at all; in fact feel more fresh and ready to start the day.

Do consider following this plan. It is not as difficult as it appears to be, and you will see massive changes in your well-being.

Cheers,

The Lost World – A Book Review

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I have read most of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and have enjoyed most of them. This is the first time I am reading one of his science fiction novels “The Lost World” and must say that I enjoyed it just as much.

I love Conan Doyle’s style of writing. It is so crisp, and precise. Sort of reminds me of another favorite of mine – Isaac Asimov.

The premise of the novel is as follows:

Professor Challenger returns from the Amazon jungle with wild stories of having discovered prehistoric life still existing, only to be mocked at by other scientists and the general public. To prove his find, he leads another expedition to the Amazon. A reporter Malone (the narrator of the story) in an attempt to impress the lady he loves, decides to join up. They then face various adventures before returning successfully with ample proof of prehistoric life.

This novel is fast-moving, and very easy to read. The story is set in the 1920s but surprisingly does not seem dated at all. Even more astonishing, the fact that I have read far more recent and far more famous novels on the same theme (Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton), did not in any way take away my enjoyment of this novel.

In fact, I appreciate it all the more because it has obviously been a source of inspiration to Crichton. Some of his descriptions of the jungles and the dinosaurs itself have definitely been sourced (not copied, mind you!) from Conan Doyle’s novel.

All in all, a great read, and highly recommend it to all!

Cheers,

The Power of a Chocolate-Chip Cookie

A very interesting article in the New York Times attempts to explain how and why we end up overeating.

Dr. Kessler is the head of the Food and Drug Administration, and here is what he has to say:

In an experiment of one, Dr. Kessler tested his willpower by buying two gooey chocolate chip cookies that he didn’t plan to eat. At home, he found himself staring at the cookies, and even distracted by memories of the chocolate chunks and doughy peaks as he left the room. He left the house, and the cookies remained uneaten. Feeling triumphant, he stopped for coffee, saw cookies on the counter and gobbled one down.

Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me? Dr. Kessler asked in an interview. Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie in my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.

The result of Dr. Kessler’s quest is a new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” where he attempts to deconstruct the problem of “compulsive hypereating” and suggests means and ways to control it.

Do read the rest of this article. Interesting stuff!

Cheers,

Virginia Woolf’s Superb Way with Words

What beautifully-worded sentences and with so much meaning. They don’t make them like her anymore…

Without self–confidence we are as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to one self. By feeling that one has some innate superiority—it may be wealth, or rank, a straight nose, or the portrait of a grandfather by Romney—for there is no end to the pathetic devices of the human imagination—over other people. Hence the enormous importance to a patriarch who has to conquer, who has to rule, of feeling that great numbers of people, half the human race indeed, are by nature inferior to himself. It must indeed be one of the chief sources of his power.

by Virginia Woolf in “A Room of One’s Own

Cheers,

The Good Guy – A Book Review

The Good Guy

Always on the prowl for a good suspense thriller writer ala John Sandford or Michael Connelly, I stumbled onto Dean Koontz, and took a chance on “The Good Guy”.

Dean Koontz is not a new author, he has been writing consistently since the late 1970s. It is just that I have not really registered him on my radar much. When I picked up this book, it was in the hope that it would introduce me to a whole new series of great thrillers.
Well, “The Good Guy” is a decent book, but still somewhat disappointing.

The premise of the story is as follows:

Tim Carrier (the protagonist) is a loner who frequents a bar most evenings. One night, a case of mistaken identity leads him to discover that a woman (Linda Paquette) who he’s never met is the target of a hit or contract. He has a choice: Stay out of it, or help the poor girl. He decides to help her and before he knows it, they have fallen in love and the two of them are forced to go on the run from a psychopathic killer.

The idea seems good, but the characters are pretty bland. The hero and the heroine are practically caricatures; they fall in love pretty much on first sight, and get along so well even in really stressful situations. In addition, both their backgrounds are pretty mysterious (why is the assassin after Linda? How does Tim know so much about self-defence), however, when their secrets are revealed, it turns out to be a damp squib.

The really interesting character is the psychopathic assassin (Krait), who is a homeless guy who does not remember anything about his life prior to 18 years. He fantasizes that he has come from a “Mirror” world and that he does not belong in this world (lot of references to “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll here). He also seems quite literary and quotes a lot of poetry. However, his character is not fleshed out beyond this, and although I was very curious to learn about his background, the author has chosen to keep him a mystery. Very disappointing!

I was also curious as to the reason why the assassin was after Linda. Who is the person who had paid him to kill her, and why? However, this aspect was also disappointing. The reason was too bizarre and unbelievable, and turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for me.

This book is decent enough for an airport/train read. But, if you want real thrills and chills, look elsewhere. This book was just too tame for me.

Readers of Dean Koontz/thriller buffs, do you think I should continue trying other novels of his? Are they all pretty much the same, or did I just happen to stumble onto a boring one? Which books would you recommend? What are your favorite thrillers/thriller writers?

Cheers,

Happy Birthday, Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie’s birthday is apparently a sign for Islamic fundamentalists to once again bring up death threats. These death threats first happened 20 years ago when a fatwa was placed on Rushdie for his book “The Satanic Verses”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1951462.ece

Can’t believe the whole thing is still alive in people’s memories even after 20 years!

For all the folks who want to ban his book, Rushdie has just this to say:

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

Way to go Rushdie, and hoping there’s tons more fantastic story-telling from you!

Cheers,