*Originally appeared in readnshared
It’s been a long time since I read a book and really finished it. When I
see someone reading a book in train or bus or while waiting in
hospital, I feel very jealous of them.
Now I own iPhone. Can you see bright sunlight and heavy snow fall at the
same time? Well, I haven’t seen. And I am quite doubt-full about this.
One such device is this iPhone. According to me, this is the most stupid
and the very best device in the world. I am generally satisfied with
the way Apple guys had made this device Internet friendly. Over a period
of four years, I have owned a HP iPAQ, O2 Atom Life and a black berry. I
have friends who have different hand held devices: dopod, HT, Nokia E
series etc. But none of the devices can come in par with the easiness of
the iPhone’s browsing capabilities. To make it clear, the hero is the
multi-zoom functionality. Each and every device I mentioned in this
paragraph have WiFi, but when you try to browse the one thing you browse
through is your frustration.
Okie, I am not an ambassador of iPhone. Coming to the point, since I own
an iPhone now, I dont think of reading books while I travel. As soon as
I board the bus or train I open my google reader or twitter and start
browsing the updates of my fellow bloggers and twitters.
So iPhone absorbs most of my reading time. All the book loving fathers
of babies with in 1 year have limited reading time; read while you
travel. If you drive, hear while you drive.
Today in MRT as I am travelling towards Clementi, after a
tiresome day, I saw a man reading something. I am damn sure that it was a
novel. I have a very bad habit. If I see some one holding a book, I
cannot hold myself from trying to see the name of the book. I tried a
lot today to see the name of the book. He knew that I am trying
desperately. There was a man standing behind this guy and he was also
sneaking and reading this book. And finally this man closed the book
very slowly as if he wants to show me the name of the book. He was very
kind. The book was One Night at a call Center.
All through his reading, even though he was aware of my presence, he was
totally absorbed in the reading. I was closely monitoring his face. I
like to see people’s face when they read. He was giving a lot of
expression. At times funny and at times funny and shy. Thoroughly he was
enjoying his reading.
After all Kindles and iPhones people still read paper backs.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Observation and hence Eye witness
* Originally appeared in my other blog.
It’s a game. Observation game. I have given a video down here that shows few youngsters standing in a circle weaving in and out and passing basket ball to each other. Your job is to count how many times the basket ball is being passed among them? As simple as that. The video runs for 25 seconds. So 25 seconds is all you have got.
Here is the video link.
Done? Ok now answer me:
The famous evolutionist Richard Dawkins was one among the observers and he says in his new awesome book The Greatest Show On Earth that,surprisingly, he too didn’t took much notice of the gorilla. And most of the observers also didn’t saw the gorilla, they were busy counting the number of times the basket ball was being passed. They were focussed to their job in hand. In this 25 second video the gorilla appears and waves its hand and begs the observers to “see” it for a whole 9 seconds,almost one-third of the entire length of the video. And yet most of them didn’t see it.
If you can just spot the gorilla in the video, don’t immediately come to a conclusion that this entire game and research does not make much sense. Remember that circumstances and seriousness of the game could change the mentality of the observers and could easily divert their focus.
It’s a game. Observation game. I have given a video down here that shows few youngsters standing in a circle weaving in and out and passing basket ball to each other. Your job is to count how many times the basket ball is being passed among them? As simple as that. The video runs for 25 seconds. So 25 seconds is all you have got.
Here is the video link.
Done? Ok now answer me:
- How many times was the ball passed?
- How many of you actually saw a gorilla?
The famous evolutionist Richard Dawkins was one among the observers and he says in his new awesome book The Greatest Show On Earth that,surprisingly, he too didn’t took much notice of the gorilla. And most of the observers also didn’t saw the gorilla, they were busy counting the number of times the basket ball was being passed. They were focussed to their job in hand. In this 25 second video the gorilla appears and waves its hand and begs the observers to “see” it for a whole 9 seconds,almost one-third of the entire length of the video. And yet most of them didn’t see it.
If you can just spot the gorilla in the video, don’t immediately come to a conclusion that this entire game and research does not make much sense. Remember that circumstances and seriousness of the game could change the mentality of the observers and could easily divert their focus.
Friday, July 27, 2007
I bet you won’t cross 30 pages
As soon as my boss saw the book, Midnight’s Children, on my desk, he snapped saying, “Oh! Come on; don’t say you are reading that crap. If you are, I bet you won’t cross 30 pages.” But he was wrong, I crossed 50 pages. Here, I am compelled to say that, it is not an easy read. Forget those unknown words, that don’t matter at all. The problem is with the concept and the sentence formation, to be precise, the narration. When I say problem, I am not representing, the whole lot book readers. It is just my problem.
And after 50 pages, I had enough of his complex words and sentences and of course, the imagination. I cannot stand the perforated sheet and the Humming Bird. Finally, yesterday, I dumped it. I may return, later. Not now for sure!
I started reading Istanbul, Memories Of A City, today.
It is raining a lot here in Singapore. No day has passed in this week without an hour of rain. The usual, hot-and-humid annoying air has given way for cool-and-misty enjoyable climate. Suddenly, Telok Blangah looks like Camaroon Highlands. The chillness of the floor passes through my feet, as I step off my bed in the morning. Certainly, I miss Camaroon Highlands and Kodaikanal. And again I am compelled to say that, I have never been to Ooty.
And after 50 pages, I had enough of his complex words and sentences and of course, the imagination. I cannot stand the perforated sheet and the Humming Bird. Finally, yesterday, I dumped it. I may return, later. Not now for sure!
I started reading Istanbul, Memories Of A City, today.
It is raining a lot here in Singapore. No day has passed in this week without an hour of rain. The usual, hot-and-humid annoying air has given way for cool-and-misty enjoyable climate. Suddenly, Telok Blangah looks like Camaroon Highlands. The chillness of the floor passes through my feet, as I step off my bed in the morning. Certainly, I miss Camaroon Highlands and Kodaikanal. And again I am compelled to say that, I have never been to Ooty.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Whatsitsname, ah!, Sarcasm
Sometimes, I feel like, Rushdie deserves Fatwa. No. I haven’t read his Shame or Fury. But I have read The Ground Beneath Her Feet and now, reading – for a second time, though at first time I wouldn’t say, I read. I just flew through the pages, for no apparent reason! – Midnight’s Children. This time, I have to admit, I am enjoying it thoroughly. I always wonder where in the world he keeps all these words. Both the novels – The Ground Beneath Her Feet, is a first-class word galore! – use lot of unknown words, atleast for me. Again, No, don’t be silly, the Fatwa is not for using unknown words.
And then sometimes, I feel like, I love him, for his way of criticism. How in the world, he finds such sarcastic comments over anything and everything he sees or come in contact with. Being sarcastic is too bad, when the sarcasm is false. But he is right, at times, very right, indeed!
I can quote a lot from his books, but this thought – that urged me to write it down – popped up, after I read these lines in Midnights Children.
The twin hearts of her kingdom were her kitchen and her pantry. I never entered the former, but remembered staring through the pantry's locked screen doors at the enigmatic world within, a world of hanging wire baskets covered with linen cloths to keep out the flies, of tins which I knew to be full of gur and other sweets, of locked chests with neat square labels, of nuts and turnips and sacks of grain, of goose eggs and wooden brooms. Pantry and kitchen were her inalienable territory; and she defended them ferociously. When she was carrying her last child, my aunt Emerald, her husband offered to relieve her of the chore of supervising the cook. She did not reply; but the next day, when Aziz approached the kitchen, she emerged from it with a metal pot in her hands and barred the doorway. She was fat and also pregnant, so there was not much room left in the doorway. Aadam Aziz frowned. 'What is this, wife?' To which my grandmother answered, 'This, whatsitsname, is a very heavy pot; and if just once I catch you in here, whatsitsname, I'll push your head into it, add some dahi, and make, whatsitsname, a korma.' I don't know how my grandmother came to adopt the term whatsitsname as her leitmotif, but as the years passed it invaded her sentences more and more often. I like to think of it as an unconscious cry for help… as a seriously meant question. Reverend Mother was giving us a hint that, for all her presence and bulk, she was adrift in the universe. She didn't know, you see, what it was called.
- An excerpt from Midnights Children.
And then sometimes, I feel like, I love him, for his way of criticism. How in the world, he finds such sarcastic comments over anything and everything he sees or come in contact with. Being sarcastic is too bad, when the sarcasm is false. But he is right, at times, very right, indeed!
I can quote a lot from his books, but this thought – that urged me to write it down – popped up, after I read these lines in Midnights Children.
The twin hearts of her kingdom were her kitchen and her pantry. I never entered the former, but remembered staring through the pantry's locked screen doors at the enigmatic world within, a world of hanging wire baskets covered with linen cloths to keep out the flies, of tins which I knew to be full of gur and other sweets, of locked chests with neat square labels, of nuts and turnips and sacks of grain, of goose eggs and wooden brooms. Pantry and kitchen were her inalienable territory; and she defended them ferociously. When she was carrying her last child, my aunt Emerald, her husband offered to relieve her of the chore of supervising the cook. She did not reply; but the next day, when Aziz approached the kitchen, she emerged from it with a metal pot in her hands and barred the doorway. She was fat and also pregnant, so there was not much room left in the doorway. Aadam Aziz frowned. 'What is this, wife?' To which my grandmother answered, 'This, whatsitsname, is a very heavy pot; and if just once I catch you in here, whatsitsname, I'll push your head into it, add some dahi, and make, whatsitsname, a korma.' I don't know how my grandmother came to adopt the term whatsitsname as her leitmotif, but as the years passed it invaded her sentences more and more often. I like to think of it as an unconscious cry for help… as a seriously meant question. Reverend Mother was giving us a hint that, for all her presence and bulk, she was adrift in the universe. She didn't know, you see, what it was called.
- An excerpt from Midnights Children.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Not a Secret Anymore!
Sometimes you will be careful. Even Geetha (Not my friend. But Bagavat Geetha) says, what ever happens is for good. Yes. But sometimes things are out of your dirty littlle hand. We try to catch it, we do action well. We may feel like we are holding it. We may even feel like we had it in ourselves all along. But still like air, it will elude us. Like BinLaden. We will never get hold of air, can we? Even if we catch it, we cannot prove it, can we really?
What happened is, I should have gone to sleep, at least now, with this cold and cough. But the Cine-maniac inside me wanted to see The Departed for upteenth time. I selected the VOB file and played using VLC Media player. But after I saw Decaprio, I cannot control myself. I wanted a mustache like him. That’s where all started. Now I regret, earnestly.
At first I was going alright and yeah, in line. After all I just have to cut short my mustache, like Decaprio. I did it. But suddenly I got a call in my cell phone and now am doing a double duty. Result over-enthusiastic-me, cut a lump under nose. I became anti-hitler, at least in mustache. What can I do after that? What other options do I have?
Get rid of the mess or mustache or what ever you name it, that thing you got under your nose, shouted Charming-Me. So I got rid of.
PS:
Honestly, for this story, do you think it is fair to drag Bagavath Geetha and Hitler? Nazis, if they exist as they do in The Seventh Secret written by Irving Wallace will feel so upset.
What happened is, I should have gone to sleep, at least now, with this cold and cough. But the Cine-maniac inside me wanted to see The Departed for upteenth time. I selected the VOB file and played using VLC Media player. But after I saw Decaprio, I cannot control myself. I wanted a mustache like him. That’s where all started. Now I regret, earnestly.
At first I was going alright and yeah, in line. After all I just have to cut short my mustache, like Decaprio. I did it. But suddenly I got a call in my cell phone and now am doing a double duty. Result over-enthusiastic-me, cut a lump under nose. I became anti-hitler, at least in mustache. What can I do after that? What other options do I have?
Get rid of the mess or mustache or what ever you name it, that thing you got under your nose, shouted Charming-Me. So I got rid of.
PS:
Honestly, for this story, do you think it is fair to drag Bagavath Geetha and Hitler? Nazis, if they exist as they do in The Seventh Secret written by Irving Wallace will feel so upset.
Such is the power of the boy!
Reading is a habit, which has to be developed over time. It is a skill that can be acquired –not easily though- at any period of our life. Most of the people acquire it when they retire- to be more precise, when they got nothing to do. Yes, that’s what the whole lot non book lovers think- reading a novel is such a waste and you have to do that only when you really have nothing on hand. When I say “I was reading” to my brother when he calls me, he would whine saying “oh, come on, do something more useful”
I read everywhere. I usually carry a book with me, always (Now I am carrying Black Swan Green by David Mitchell). Except, for the toughest stand in the train –yeah, sometimes you’ll have nothing to hold on to but the near by girl’s waist, which you’ll eye up on but will never try. Mind you, you’ll do some amazing dance steps which you will never be able to repeat under normal conditions, howsoever you try- I read all the times. I even read at escalators, if the novel is so interesting.
Then there is a new girl in our office. It is almost a week now and I never talked with her, didn’t get a chance, actually! And then there we are in a lift.
I began with a usual Hi. And it picked up from there. After formal mutual who-what-where introduction, she told she knew me even before she joined in our office. “Oh, Really? How?” “I am staying in the same line (MRT) and we have traveled together a lot of times. I have seen you all those times. Of course, you wouldn’t look at me, because you always bury your stupid head in to your stupid Harry Potter book. Honestly, what is there for you in that kid’s book?”
As a matter of fact, I finished 5 Harry Potter books at a stretch. I was carrying one after the other for the whole 2 months. No wonder she got pissed off.
She noticed me not because of my charms- yeah, sometimes I speak truth- but because of Harry Potter. Such is the power of the boy. As Rowling wrote - confident or premonition? - in her very first book in the very first chapter like this:
-There will be books written about Harry. Every child in our world will know his name.
I read everywhere. I usually carry a book with me, always (Now I am carrying Black Swan Green by David Mitchell). Except, for the toughest stand in the train –yeah, sometimes you’ll have nothing to hold on to but the near by girl’s waist, which you’ll eye up on but will never try. Mind you, you’ll do some amazing dance steps which you will never be able to repeat under normal conditions, howsoever you try- I read all the times. I even read at escalators, if the novel is so interesting.
Then there is a new girl in our office. It is almost a week now and I never talked with her, didn’t get a chance, actually! And then there we are in a lift.
I began with a usual Hi. And it picked up from there. After formal mutual who-what-where introduction, she told she knew me even before she joined in our office. “Oh, Really? How?” “I am staying in the same line (MRT) and we have traveled together a lot of times. I have seen you all those times. Of course, you wouldn’t look at me, because you always bury your stupid head in to your stupid Harry Potter book. Honestly, what is there for you in that kid’s book?”
As a matter of fact, I finished 5 Harry Potter books at a stretch. I was carrying one after the other for the whole 2 months. No wonder she got pissed off.
She noticed me not because of my charms- yeah, sometimes I speak truth- but because of Harry Potter. Such is the power of the boy. As Rowling wrote - confident or premonition? - in her very first book in the very first chapter like this:
-There will be books written about Harry. Every child in our world will know his name.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Book-Kraken
For the past two days, I had lots of free time, enough to finish up a 375 paged Man Booker prize nominated book. And then I started another one of same kind. I didn’t know how this booker thing got in to my mind. I have read some –a lot really! - Yester year’s nominees. Let me revisit my brain like Dumbledore visits his pensieve. First I got hold of The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, then The Perfect Man (didn’t care to finish!) and Seven Lies (finished it, but not sure of the story line!). Then I stopped. I really felt like had enough of war and people of Scotland or British villages. As a coherence all of the novels had something to do with War and it’s after effects. One thing for sure is, every one wants to have a go about war and they all have got something – or same thing - to say.
I jumped to Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix and finished it in one week. I really love it –needless to say. I love the creativity and the imagination. But what amazed me is how the imagination fits in for all the age groups? How she writes for all of us? Kids, Pre-Teens, Teens, Adults and even for grand-pa and grand-ma. I have a –stupid- habit of reading everywhere- not to mention trains, I have a story, which I will share later. Guess all the bloggers share this habit. Yes. As a matter of fact all are bookworms. Else they wouldn’t be blogging in first place. What on earth will they have to write –if they are not reading- daily? I have already told in my Tamil blog that bookworms are not supposed to be called like that! I hate that word, worm. Apart from the fact that worm slowly –rather patiently- eats up a book (or for that matter a leaf), that word doesn’t make any sense at all. I have seen book-anacondas. I have seen them gulping Shantharam in a week. I know a girl who reads 4 books per month- no matter what-so-ever business she has got. I would call her, the Book-Kraken!
I started somewhere and ended up at another place, like a kid learning to write in an un-ruled exercise notebook. So is this entry.
I jumped to Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix and finished it in one week. I really love it –needless to say. I love the creativity and the imagination. But what amazed me is how the imagination fits in for all the age groups? How she writes for all of us? Kids, Pre-Teens, Teens, Adults and even for grand-pa and grand-ma. I have a –stupid- habit of reading everywhere- not to mention trains, I have a story, which I will share later. Guess all the bloggers share this habit. Yes. As a matter of fact all are bookworms. Else they wouldn’t be blogging in first place. What on earth will they have to write –if they are not reading- daily? I have already told in my Tamil blog that bookworms are not supposed to be called like that! I hate that word, worm. Apart from the fact that worm slowly –rather patiently- eats up a book (or for that matter a leaf), that word doesn’t make any sense at all. I have seen book-anacondas. I have seen them gulping Shantharam in a week. I know a girl who reads 4 books per month- no matter what-so-ever business she has got. I would call her, the Book-Kraken!
I started somewhere and ended up at another place, like a kid learning to write in an un-ruled exercise notebook. So is this entry.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Life of Pi
I have been eyeing this novel for quite some time now. May be because it has won the Man Booker Prize award for the year 2002 or may be because my friends told it is worth a read or may be because of its title.
And at last, I got this novel last Friday from a lending library in my office towers - Suntec city. Usually they would give one month to finish a novel. Since this novel is classified under Serious Read, they gave me 2 months. But you know what, if you seriously read, you could finish the novel in 3 days, I mean 3 working days, say 2 hours a day. I finished like that. But I never returned back, in fact I don’t want to.
This novel is written by Yann Martel a Canadian author, who came to India – with little money and because in India you could do a lot with little Canadian dollar - to write a different novel and heard this unbelievable story in a hotel in Pondicherry. Yann Martel’s story itself is unbelievable, that how he raised from a dish washer to a Man Booker prize winner. Yann Martel is not so successful in his previous writings. His previous works like
Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios - a collection of short stories and Self, a novel are not a great success, commercially.
The story is narrated by Piscine Molitor Patel aka Pi Patel, younger son of Molitor Patel, who owned a zoo in Pondicherry. When I took the novel, I was particularly intrigued about the name PI. I was wondering, if it was the mathematics Pi, equivalent to 3.14. And why his father had given such a unique name. I thought his father could be a mathematics genius. But I was wrong. There is a story narrated by Pi Patel himself, about this weird name. I bet, you’ll laugh.
Pi Patel with his family and some animals – those were to be sent to Canada and those cannot be sold- starts his journey to Canada, in a Japanese ship named tsintsum. I really don’t know what does this word mean. The ship has Chinese and Taiwanese crew. After manila, suddenly the ship breaks and drowns immediately in 20 minutes – later told by Pi Patel, in an investigation by Japanese ship company.
Pi Patel survives the wreck, and gets hold of a life boat. When he boards in there is a zebra and a tiger – weighing 450 pounds. Later an orangutan – named Orange Juice – joins them aboard. Next morning he sees a hyena also in the boat. Hyena, since the tiger is sea-sick, attacks zebra and starts eating it alive, starting from its leg. Pi Patel startled to see this, but gets relieved that he is spared. Orangutan gets restless. Hyena continues to eat zebra alive. Pi Patel and orangutan can do nothing against the spotted hyena, but to just stare.
Later hyena eyes Pi and attacks orangutan. Orangutan, being a female cannot withstand a fight, gets eventually killed by the Hyena. Tiger, called as Richard Parker, gets into movement now. His sea sickness is overridden by his hungriness. He kills the hyena with out any kind of effort. Hyena succumbs meekly to Richard Parker with out a single fight.
Pi Patel and the tiger – Richard Parker; from now on will be referred to as R.P – are left in the boat. Pi Patel, at first thinks of getting rid of this beast out of the life boat, but later he tries to protect R.P, because he knows that RP is the least hope of his life and his only companion, in this never ending land of water, salty water. Since RP was a circus animal in the zoo – in the zoo owned by Pi Patel’s family in Pondicherry – Pi Patel tries to train him and every time Pi gives RP some food – either fish or dorado or turtle- he constantly reminds RP that he is the master, by blowing his whistle attached to his life jacket, orange in color, the color of hope in Hinduism, as he says.
Life rolls out in this ocean for a long time. Pi Patel and RP get weak and RP looses his eye sight, followed by Pi Patel.
And this is where the important part of the novel comes in. This part includes a blurred dialogue between Pi Patel and RP, followed by Pi Patel and another life boat rider, escaped from the ship wreck like Pi Patel. He says he has lost his eye sight like Pi Patel. Pi Patel gets him – the stranger - aboard in his life boat and RP kills him immediately.
Later when Pi Patel gets his sight back, he could see only the remains of the stranger.
Later they – Pi and RP- lands in an island full of algae which Pi finds so delicious. Pi and RP builds their strength. The island is so weird that it does not have any other inhabitant except meerkats – herbivorous version of mangoose –and the same algae everywhere. He also sees some fresh water ponds that had swarms of dead fishes floating. Pi Patel happily feasts over the algae while RP hunts meerkats.
He finds that in the night the rich growths of algae burn the entire island with its acidity.
Pi and RP leaves the island and travels again.
Later they reach the Mexico coast. RP jumps of the coast and disappears. Local tribes find him and take him to their village, bathe him and give him good food and shelter.
A couple of guys from the ship company investigate Pi about the ship wreck. That’s where the other side of the story – rather shocking – comes in to picture.
Altogether the novel is gripping, has a well defined plot, well knitted characters and a surprising end. The author has explained lots of complex things in simple sentences. He constantly reminds us of human characters and the divisions in them, particularly religious.
I would like to quote the words of Yann Martel about fear:
Next time when you are gripped with fear, pay close attention to your self.
And at last, I got this novel last Friday from a lending library in my office towers - Suntec city. Usually they would give one month to finish a novel. Since this novel is classified under Serious Read, they gave me 2 months. But you know what, if you seriously read, you could finish the novel in 3 days, I mean 3 working days, say 2 hours a day. I finished like that. But I never returned back, in fact I don’t want to.
This novel is written by Yann Martel a Canadian author, who came to India – with little money and because in India you could do a lot with little Canadian dollar - to write a different novel and heard this unbelievable story in a hotel in Pondicherry. Yann Martel’s story itself is unbelievable, that how he raised from a dish washer to a Man Booker prize winner. Yann Martel is not so successful in his previous writings. His previous works like
Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios - a collection of short stories and Self, a novel are not a great success, commercially.
The story is narrated by Piscine Molitor Patel aka Pi Patel, younger son of Molitor Patel, who owned a zoo in Pondicherry. When I took the novel, I was particularly intrigued about the name PI. I was wondering, if it was the mathematics Pi, equivalent to 3.14. And why his father had given such a unique name. I thought his father could be a mathematics genius. But I was wrong. There is a story narrated by Pi Patel himself, about this weird name. I bet, you’ll laugh.
Pi Patel with his family and some animals – those were to be sent to Canada and those cannot be sold- starts his journey to Canada, in a Japanese ship named tsintsum. I really don’t know what does this word mean. The ship has Chinese and Taiwanese crew. After manila, suddenly the ship breaks and drowns immediately in 20 minutes – later told by Pi Patel, in an investigation by Japanese ship company.
Pi Patel survives the wreck, and gets hold of a life boat. When he boards in there is a zebra and a tiger – weighing 450 pounds. Later an orangutan – named Orange Juice – joins them aboard. Next morning he sees a hyena also in the boat. Hyena, since the tiger is sea-sick, attacks zebra and starts eating it alive, starting from its leg. Pi Patel startled to see this, but gets relieved that he is spared. Orangutan gets restless. Hyena continues to eat zebra alive. Pi Patel and orangutan can do nothing against the spotted hyena, but to just stare.
Later hyena eyes Pi and attacks orangutan. Orangutan, being a female cannot withstand a fight, gets eventually killed by the Hyena. Tiger, called as Richard Parker, gets into movement now. His sea sickness is overridden by his hungriness. He kills the hyena with out any kind of effort. Hyena succumbs meekly to Richard Parker with out a single fight.
Pi Patel and the tiger – Richard Parker; from now on will be referred to as R.P – are left in the boat. Pi Patel, at first thinks of getting rid of this beast out of the life boat, but later he tries to protect R.P, because he knows that RP is the least hope of his life and his only companion, in this never ending land of water, salty water. Since RP was a circus animal in the zoo – in the zoo owned by Pi Patel’s family in Pondicherry – Pi Patel tries to train him and every time Pi gives RP some food – either fish or dorado or turtle- he constantly reminds RP that he is the master, by blowing his whistle attached to his life jacket, orange in color, the color of hope in Hinduism, as he says.
Life rolls out in this ocean for a long time. Pi Patel and RP get weak and RP looses his eye sight, followed by Pi Patel.
And this is where the important part of the novel comes in. This part includes a blurred dialogue between Pi Patel and RP, followed by Pi Patel and another life boat rider, escaped from the ship wreck like Pi Patel. He says he has lost his eye sight like Pi Patel. Pi Patel gets him – the stranger - aboard in his life boat and RP kills him immediately.
Later when Pi Patel gets his sight back, he could see only the remains of the stranger.
Later they – Pi and RP- lands in an island full of algae which Pi finds so delicious. Pi and RP builds their strength. The island is so weird that it does not have any other inhabitant except meerkats – herbivorous version of mangoose –and the same algae everywhere. He also sees some fresh water ponds that had swarms of dead fishes floating. Pi Patel happily feasts over the algae while RP hunts meerkats.
He finds that in the night the rich growths of algae burn the entire island with its acidity.
Pi and RP leaves the island and travels again.
Later they reach the Mexico coast. RP jumps of the coast and disappears. Local tribes find him and take him to their village, bathe him and give him good food and shelter.
A couple of guys from the ship company investigate Pi about the ship wreck. That’s where the other side of the story – rather shocking – comes in to picture.
Altogether the novel is gripping, has a well defined plot, well knitted characters and a surprising end. The author has explained lots of complex things in simple sentences. He constantly reminds us of human characters and the divisions in them, particularly religious.
I would like to quote the words of Yann Martel about fear:
Fear next turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something
terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and
your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an
opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ears go deaf. Your
muscles begin to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though
they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too
much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most
suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper
attention to fear.
Next time when you are gripped with fear, pay close attention to your self.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
World is Flat
Today, I have started reading this book, world is flat by Thomas L. Friedman, so far so good, actually, i gave this book as b'day gift to one of my friend, after reading some tempting reviews, i cant help it, yeah, i snatched back, and strolling through it at the expense of all my free time. reviews, later :)
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Da Vinci Code
After seeing 'Da Vinci Code' enjoying first place in the Top 10 Fiction books for more than 1 and half years, I got an immediate urge to read it.I bought the book and finished reading it in 2 nights.The book didnt disappoint me.
There are a lot of things that stunned me.And I searched the web for those things.Some of the pages told me they are true.
I might want to list some fictions/facts that are enlisted by Dan Brown
Now I am reading a book 'Sangatamil' by Dr.M.Karunanidhi.
There are a lot of things that stunned me.And I searched the web for those things.Some of the pages told me they are true.
I might want to list some fictions/facts that are enlisted by Dan Brown
- Jesus is married
- Jesus had a wife named Mary Magdalene and of course had a daughter named Sarah
- In reality, Jesus handled the task of maintaining the church to Mary Magdalene
- Mary Magdalene is illustrated as a pros in Bible
- Holy Grail is a treasure containing Documents that unleashes the truth of Jesus and it is not ordinary chalice used by Jesus during Last Supper
- Decendents of Jesus still lives
- And they and the Holy Grail are protected by Priory Of Sion
- Da Vinci was a member of Priory Of Sion
- Da Vinci was a Gay [Of course,We dont want this!!]
- Bible is written after 400 years of Jesus Christ's death
- Jesus was not a Son Of God or Messenger Of God,He is an ordinary man
- And it goes on...
Now I am reading a book 'Sangatamil' by Dr.M.Karunanidhi.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)