Books I have read

I recently joined Library Thing and have created a list of books I have read till now. Although its impossible to remember all the books in the last 10-15 years, I have syill managed to remember a good portion of them.

You can see my list here - http://www.librarything.com/catalog/vishalp

Will keep updating it now & then. I am also planning to include short reviews of the books in the comments section. That is, if time permits.

Requests to Movie goers

1) Please Please Please keep your kids at home: Isn't it plain obvious that little kids are going to cry when the movie starts thanks to the darkness and loud sound. You are not only scaring the innocent child but also inconveniencing others in the movie hall.

2) Please learn about the movie you are watching before deciding to watch it. And if it doesn't meet your expectations, please dont crib in the "Movie Hall".Here are some of the snippets of conversation I heard while watching A Wednesday at Inox last Sunday:

At the start of the film -
"Story kya hai?"

"Pata nahi - bolte hai timepass film hai. Apne ko kya hai. Dekhte hai."

"Arre maine suna hai isme Jimmy Shergill hot dikhta hai?"

15 mins into the film -
"Isme heroine hai kya?"

During the interval:
"Yeh toh buddhe logon ka picture hai"
"Haan yaar. main toh bore ho gayi"

At the climax when Naseruddin Shah is giving his speech:
"Yeh kab khatam ho gaa"
"Baadme hum Pizza Hut jaayenge"
"Mummy ko phone lagaa tension karti hogi"

Unfortunately, I was sitting next to these esteemed ladies and they completely ruined the film for me. They just wouldn't shut up. Apparently they had anticipated a masala potboiler and were disappointed.

I know for some people going to the movies is more of an outing/timepass than serious movie watching. But atleast you can shut your mouth and let others watch the film in silence.

And pls dont get me started on cell phones ringing during the movie. That is another long rant for another day.

Movie Review - A Wednesday

Rating - 4/5

Breathless in "Bomb"ay

Fast paced. No Songs. Stellar performances. Tight script.

What more could you ask for in a thriller.

A few observations I made during the film:

1) The director has clearly side tracked the communal issue. That is by not identifying Naseeruddin Shah's religion, he has tried to avoind any cynicism in the film. This has worked in his favour.

2) The final twist in the story seemed just a little bit implausible. Something like Rang De Basanti. But while the second half of RDB was completely stupid, this had some semblance of feasibility.

3) In the beginning we are shown Naseruddin Shah leaving a bag in CST station. What happened to that?

4) Also, I did not understand the Jimmy Shergill's opening scene. He came across as a bad cop (helping the guy get out of jail into the hospital) but then throughout the film he is all goody goody.

All in all, a good film worth a watch.

Book Review - Unaccustomed Earth

Rating - 5/5

Outstanding. Mature writing. Engrossing stories.

This is Jhumpa Lahiri's third book after The Interpreter of Maladies (Short stories) and The Namesake (Novel).

I read The Interpreter of Maladies a year back and was very impressed by Lahiri's writing. Although her stories are open ended, the prose is very good and you are hooked in the first few pages.

The basic premise is the same in all her stories - bengalis staying in America or returning from America to India. But this common setting is just incidental. The real core of each story is the observations on human relationships - father & daughter, monthers and daughters, brothers and sisters.

While this time the stories are longer, they have more depth and the prose has improved by leaps and bounds.

If I were to rank her books, I would put Unaccustomed Earth on the top followed by The Namesake and last but not the least The Interpreter of Maladies.

The Amulet of Samarakand

This is the first part of a trilogy called 'The Bartimaeus Trilogy' by Jonathan Stroud.

It is far different from Harry Potter.

Though a bit predictable, it is a wonderful read nonetheless.

Rating - 3.5/5

Amazon

Stock Screener

Google Finance has a nifty little stock screener for U.S. companies. It's amazing. Check out the link below

Google Finance Stock Screener

I am so hoping they come up with a similar one for Indian Stocks :-)

Mumbai kicks Chennai's a**

Or rather it should be Jayasuria kicks Chennai's a**. Anyways, the main reason why they lost was a bad start. I am not whining here. It was apparent. They just played bad cricket.

Here are a few of my observations/thoughts : Vidyut needs to play controlled shots. Fleming is not a replacement for Hussey or Hayden. One idea is to experiment a little with the batting order for the next two matches. Since they have a comfortable lead over others in the points table, it may not prove too costly. In the process they might discover the perfect opening pair (Dhoni and Morkel maybe). The bottomline is the CSK side has a very good mix of potentially good batsmen but many of them have just not found their footing in this tournament.

As far as the bowling is concerned, they have a good opening bowler in Manpreet Gony and second change Balaji not to speak of the wily Murali. Morkel needs to pull up his socks and discipline his bowling. All in all, there is a good scope for improvement in the bowling department.

Finally, we come to the man himself, MS Dhoni from Jharkhand Chennai. And he is the only reason why I have faith in the Kings clinching the cup. There is no doubt that he has led from the front. He has a totally cool demeanour even in the most pressure situations. He only needs to get his strategies right. He needs to completely understand the strengths and weaknesses of each member of his team and play his cards accordingly.

Chennai Super Kings ROCK !!!!!!

MIND IT !!!

The end is near......

Mkts plunge; Nifty slips below 4800

S&P 500 Index Closes Below January Low

Asia Bleeds Red, Financials Are Slammed

Oil Prices Near $106 on Record-Low US Dollar

Survivor

2 years in Chennai !!!!!!!!!!!

There must be some truth into this....what say ?

After Bebo Saif have his eyes on Priyanka Chopra – Saif ready to complete his shallenge of making 12 Bollywood bales fall for him in one year

Check out the Bollywood section. Hilarious headlines with bad grammar.

Just married and then I see this......

Minister's son not abducted, ran away from wife

Automated Search for mp3s

How to Search for MP3s using Google

Inflation in India

Ever wondered why in India we calculate inflation based on WPI while all other countries use the CPI.

Here's the answer :

"Finance ministry officials point out that there are many intricate problems from shifting from WPI to CPI model.

First of all, they say, in India, there are four different types of CPI indices, and that makes switching over to the Index from WPI fairly 'risky and unwieldy.' The four CPI series are: CPI Industrial Workers; CPI Urban Non-Manual Employees; CPI Agricultural labourers; and CPI Rural labour.

Secondly, officials say the CPI cannot be used in India because there is too much of a lag in reporting CPI numbers. In fact, as of May 21, the latest CPI number reported is for March 2006.

The WPI is published on a weekly basis and the CPI, on a monthly basis.

And in India, inflation is calculated on a weekly basis."

Check out the whole article here

Interesting read.

How to live your life

Check out Brian Kim's self improvement blog here. It's one of the blogs I visit regularly. Some of my favourite articles :

How to Stop Being Envious of Others

How to Stop Caring About What Other People Think About You

It's ALL YOU: Always Was, Always Is, Always Will Be

You can go directly to the archives page to get a list of his articles.

Tongue in cheek

Mumbai’s Traffic Is Faster Than Quickest Snail: Andy Mukherjee

An excerpt,

‘Archie, the garden mollusk that won the 1995 World Snail Racing Championship at the Congham Church’s annual fete in Norfolk, U.K., covered a 13-inch circular course in 2 minutes.

That record, which remains unbroken, gave the plodding slug a speed of almost 10 meters per hour.

Cars and taxis in Mumbai, by comparison, are 1,500 times faster. Motorists are now zipping through town at a breakneck speed of 15 kilometers (9 miles) per hour, according to Bombay First, an advocacy group that still uses the city’s old name.’

For the record, the flight from Chennai to mumbai takes about 1.5 hours while it took me about 2.5 hours to travel from Mumbai airport to Mulund.

(link via India Uncut)

Office space

This is really funny. I can totally relate to the printer thing.

This one from Office Space is an all time classic.

(First link via India Uncut)

LG Viewty

Drooooool.

Jodha - Akbar - Short review

Grand.

A little too long.

Good performances.

Good music.

Worth a watch. On the big screen.