OK Now, Who's my Santa - An Awesomatic Hilariously Entertaining and Emotional Read

The first page of the first novel written by Vaishnavi Nair Kolli started off with the rantings of the ever effervescent Annika Pillai to none other than our beloved Saint Nicholas a.k.a Santa Claus or simply Santa! It set the tone and the stage perfectly for the plot to take its own time to unravel itself with the continuous back and forth responses from every character either through mails or by chats. The writing style is fresh ,original and different with heavy doses of slapstick and wit spread intelligently from the beginning till the very end.

The story is crisp and neat. There were instances when the narration could have become melodramatic or effusively sentimental. But, Vaishnavi showed her adroitness by reigning in the ropes tightly thus ensuring that the emotional quotient of the narration did not cross the border line and become sugary or mawkish. Likewise, the story has also its own suspense that is woven into the very fabric of the novel - Who's my Santa? At first glance, you think that you have decoded who might be the Santa. But, certain distractions peppered in very cleverly by Vaishnavi in the quintessential Agatha Christie-esque style ensured that the cat wasn't out of the bag until the climax.

If you are not an emotional type, then you can proceed to the next paragraph unless curiosity wants and makes you to read the current paragraph completely. But, if you are an emotional person, then kindly have a hand-kerchief with you so that you don't drench and wet the pages with your tears. I belonged to the latter and I did not have a hand kerchief! 

ONWMS is a picture-perfect Blockbuster Bollywood material. To bring in the element of subjectivity to the fore now, as I was reading the novel, only SRK as Abhay and Kajol as Annika were gently streaming in, strolling and dancing into my mind. Yeah. I am a big time DDLJ fan with subtitles. So, they were my natural choice to don the hero and heroine for this script.

Quirky. Off-beat. Wacky. Insanely funny and Highly Emotive. Humorously suspenseful and delightfully breezy. It's really hard to believe that Ok Now, Who's my Santa is written by a first-timer as it seemed more like a novel written by a seasoned writer. Awaiting more such awesomatic works.

Of Bridges Among Us - Concretely Constructed!

I have never written a proper book review in my life except at school where our library teacher usually asked me to give a short review of the books that I used to read every week and returned to her promptly on the due date. In hindsight, when I used to think about those days, I am in complete laughter now as those reviews were very very amateurish. It's more like reading the short synopsis given at the back of a novel in an elaborate manner!

I wondered for a long time why not try my hand at book review again and see how I am faring - whether I am still at the same old level or whether I have improved at least  marginally. That is left up to the reader of the blog to give their feedback to me. 

So, here goes the review for "Of Bridges Among Us" by Neeru Iyer.

What is it that excites people about marriage? Your dear and near ones getting married? Fun and frolic with friends and relatives? New dresses and jewelry? Yes. Very much. The reasons are aplenty and is certainly distinctive for every individual. But, there is one more important constituent in a wedding ceremony without which a marriage ceases to exist and which unites all the people from every social strata together. Of course, it's the mouth-watering and delicious food. 

Be it the grand Kerala Sadhya where you are served with a variety of indispensable necessities like Parippu, Sambar, Rasam, Olan, Kaalan, Avial, Pachadi, Papadam, Chips and Mango pickle or the famous Tamil Nadu Saapadu with an amalgam of different essentials such as Thayir Pachadi, Kootu, Poriyal, Curry, Sambar, Rasam, Payasam, Vadai and Appalam, any marriage cannot even think of existing without the celebrated wedding cuisines. 

What relevance does a ceremonial food has got to do with this book review? EVERYTHING!

Just like the distinct and independent delicacies in the menu on the plantain leaf which offers a sumptuous meal to the guests, "Of Bridges Among Us" is a collection of several short stories that is as unique and tasty as the food items in a marriage union. 

Every story has something or the other to offer to the reader. For instance, O Henry would have been really proud if he had read the 'Falling Stars'. The twist was such that it would really give the reader an unexpected and shocking surprise at the end of the story. 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' and 'Moonwalker' are extremely progressive and ahead of time in character and nature that would make any person who truly believes in the equality of all the people, irrespective of professions and conventional marriage system, to be very very happy. Likewise, the rest of the collection had their own clear-cut moments of romance, hope, optimism, faith and tragedy. 

The abyss mindset of the female protagonists in the stories has been well-explored in breadth, length and depth for the reader to clearly understand how a woman thinks from her point of view and how she perceives the world to be from her perspective. It is very insightful to get to know at least the partial functioning of a woman's highly complex brain at a cerebral and emotional level so that as a reader , you are able to empathise with the grief, anguish , happy and jubilant  states of the heroes a.k.a heroines in the stories.

"Of Bridges Among Us" is an exceptionally satisfying and very palatable nourishment to make it an enjoyable munching and crunching experience. The concluding story " She's not afraid of spiders" ends up with the line " It was definitely worth it". Yes. The book was definitely for sure. I am expecting and wishing Neeru Iyer all the best to write a full-fledged novel soon.

The Revenant - DiCaprio's ticket to holding the Oscar finally!

Certain performances leave you scratching your head and make you give a big yawn. Some will make you say not bad thereby utterly confusing the other person whether you meant the film to be good or bad. Still others demand you to clap and whistle. But, there is an elite category of stupendous performances which leaves you literally frozen to death and dumbfounded on seeing the sheer magnitude of the effort, determination and commitment that a person has put in their heart and soul to make you actually feel not for the character but for the person himself who had portrayed the character.

DiCaprio, as Glass, has shown the world what it really means to pursue your passion to the letter t. Be it slithering in the frigid land mass with his beard and mustache growing rigid with frost to sliding and wading through the bitterly cold waters to eating a liver of a bison,  DiCaprio has given one of the most astonishing and phenomenal performances of a life time by battling the harsh weather conditions thereby taking heavy toll on his body - read hypothermia - to demonstrate his single-minded devotion to his passion which goes beyond his profession. Even though everyone knows that he is a vegetarian, DiCaprio forced himself to eat a bison's liver as the character demanded and he just went ahead to be the character just like Heath Ledger's portrayal as Joker in The Dark Knight! 

The premise of the story is very simple and straight forward and can be said in a  matter of 2 minutes - Glass is mauled and hauled by a grizzly bear and is left to die by his comrade who not only feels that Glass would slow down their journey and risk the chances of their survival but also kill his son in the process. How does this highly injured and mutilated person seek and take revenge against this particular comrade braving his own physical pains and mental sorrow and having nothing but revenge as his sole aim forms the rest of the plot. What transcends and makes this uncomplicated storyline so spectacular is not only DiCaprio's raw and feral performance but also the stunning visuals of the landscape by the cinematographer which completely gave a thorough surrealistic and dreamy touch throughout the course of the film. The BGM was also at its haunting best and it seemed, sorry heard, like the music was coming from the outside the realms of our planet Earth. It's not going to be only a single hats off but infinite hats off to Innaritu for his persistent insistence to use only the natural light instead of the sets and also to the entire team for having undergone a laborious and gruelling time through the punishing and inclement weather of the remote locations to transform and buoy up an ordinary film into a really and truly mesmerizing revenge saga.

Just like how the blood and gore was literally making a red mark in the film, your heart will surely bleed and root for DiCaprio, who has gone beyond the natural call of duty to deliver a magnificent performance of tough endurance and heavy resilience, to hold his first 34 cm tall and 3.85kg oscar statuette for pushing himself so naturally and brutally to the unlimited limits. 

If the Oscar Jury does not give the coveted award to DiCaprio for the Best Actor, it means that either they are blind or they have slept through the film!

  

Sizzling Singapore - Part 1

When Vikram tells in the movie 'Anniyan' that Singapore is a very small country yet their growth is tremendous, I had always wanted to visit the Lion City to catch a glimpse of the flourishing development and immerse myself in the melange of cultural diversity that pervades this 697 sq km of  rich heritage. Tiger Airways was the bestower of my fantabulous trip for a dirt cheap price @ 15K. The fact that it was a round trip was too good to believe as fares for a two-way trip to Delhi would be surely more than that!

So, what makes Singapore so special with few natural resources? 

Simple. The people living in the country are very well-organized, systematic and highly disciplined with innovation that awestruck me and left me wondering as to why people in our country cannot follow such elementary rules. Despite the 120 crore population comprising several religions and castes to the significant length and breadth of India, the attitude of the people to be disciplined without hampering the creative freedom in the day to day activities could have been easily instilled had it been not for the power-hungry and money-laundering politicians who had rightly invested their time and effort in all the wrong places. According to Transparency.org, Singapore stands mighty tall handsomely at rank 7 with an overall score of 84 whereas India's rank of 85 is more than the score of overall score of Singapore!

But that still doesn't answer the question how come Singapore prospers so verdantly with limited natural resources?

Being subjugated under the British Empire, Singapore thrived to be one of the great entrepots under their regime.Then, during the late 1960s, Singapore persistently pursued export-centric industrialization by liberalizing their economy. With the advent of technology and developed countries progressing at a rapid pace, Singapore took the cue and transformed their labour-intensive industries to technology oriented firms like electronics.

But, the tourism and financial institutions are the mainstay of this blossoming economic centre of activity apart from being a major and dominant Entrepot in the Southeast Asia. Travel and Tourism has contributed 10.9% of total GDP in 2015. Although Singapore is heralded and touted as the global financial hub, issues and concerns have cropped up time and again for harbouring black money from  other corrupt politicians. Despite the single blot on the face of Singapore, the government has ensured that inflation is between 1% to 2% and unemployment rate stands at 2% which indicates that the government in collaboration with management and unions have ensured that the right plan of action has been put in place for the welfare of the people.

--- to be continued & concluded ---

Star Wars: The Force Awakening - An Entertaining and Engaging Battle

On the eve of Christmas, it was definitely due to the divine interference by Santa's grace that my friend and I got the last two available tickets for a pre-First day First Show of Star Wars at Escape Cinemas. Despite the fact that we knew Amma's propaganda and other jewellery ads would be displayed before the commencement of the film, we did not want to miss even a single moment but treasure and savor every moment of it. Comfortably seated in Streak, the anticipation and the expectation was running feverishly high after news broke out that Star Wars had broken every single BO record in the USA. At the single stroke of sight when the screen began to blur, all the 3D glasses were up in unison and everyone were waiting in bated breath for the iconic words and legendary theme music to have a war with us before the actual fight began in the movie. The entire theatre was in a perfectly synchronized state of heightened jubilation by whistling and clapping as soon as the theme music hit us and the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far,far away...." appeared majestically on the silver screen accompanied by its faithful and typical crawling text which gave the backdrop in a nutshell. From that moment onwards, there was no turning back for The Force Awakening whose story is set 30 years after The Return of Jedi.

There are going to be no spoilers here. Head to the nearest IMAX to immensely enjoy a complete immersive experience of the dizzying and pulsating action. 

It was refreshing to see a black guy occupying a major chunk of the movie. Many movies have had black people in the lead roles but certainly not for a big billion dollar franchise that has a humongous and an extremely ardent fandom across the world. John Boyega excels as the troubled stormtrooper FN-2187 who wants to purge himself of being a stormtrooper by turning a new leaf. My best guess is that the director is a big time fan of Natalie Portman who had reprised the role of Amidala in the Star Wars prequels. Rey had a remarkable and striking resemblance to her! 

After Mad Max Fury where Charlize Theron simply sizzled in the scenes, it was heartening to see that Rey was also given a central and key part in The Force Awakening instead of being used as an add-on or as a garnishing. The last fight sequence in the frozen lands between Rey and Ren was a riveting and visual spectacle. But, the biggest show stealer has got be BB - 8 - the very cute spherical orange and white droid. The way the droid communicated in its own language, moved by rolling down on its head and devoted to Poe was endearing. Kudos to JJ Abrams for not making it as CGI but as a real remote controlled robot. 

That is precisely where the film derives its substantial strength. The perfect blend of CGIs and human element, the correct mixture and usage of old characters like Han Solo, Leia, Chewie, R2-D2, C-3PO and The Millennium Falcon with the current generation actors without compromising on the Star Wars legacy like the warping in the scenes - A dream come true for any and many die-hard Star Wars fan. Although the first half excitingly vanished like a smoke, the second half dragged a bit due to its sentiments and romances. 

Nevertheless, the force has come out as strong as the original Star Wars. As Harrison Ford says when he boards The Millennium Falcon "Chewie..We are home". Yes. We are. Indeed andTruly.  

Vignesh 50 - Breaking the Convention

Whoaaaa! 50 blogs this year...okay....50 blogs in 4 months time! I never realized that a simple change in mindset can reap in enormous benefits as a blogger. When I started writing my blogs during my engineering days, I was very stubborn that my blogs must necessarily have an element of story weaved in and built into the blog so that the reader does not feel any forlorn sense of humdrumness and prosaicness when they read my blogs. I wanted to give my readers an authentic and fresh user experience so that they not only dip into my blogs but also thoroughly enjoy the activity. But, when I was made to realize that I had written only 8 blogs during the course of 5 years and no blog had been tagged against my name for the past 2 years, I knew I have to take corrective measures to set things right.

The first and foremost action which I undertook was to be reflective and be consciously aware of my negative mindset which was serving as an obstacle for me to move forward to be a better writer. It took me a while to change my perspective. But, once when it was done, I was ready and up for the challenge. I have been writing on many subjects like Movie reviews, Food reviews, Cricket, Tennis, Festival, Floods and my own Personal escapades. Even the love story, which I had intended to write for more than 2 years, was written as teasers. I had also tried out many writing styles - linear, non-linear, fiction and non-fiction - to expand the repertoire of my writing skills and not being labelled as one-dimensional for my writing style. What I had learnt in Marketing during my MBA days is very simple and straightforward - to tailor make the content as per the intended audience and strike the right chord with them. I guess that my MBA is also integrated whenever I began to type in a new blog.

I had given my blogs to be reviewed by my friends. It was well-received and appreciated by everyone. What started as an amateurish work has seen a marked and tremendous upswing in terms of grammar,choice of words and content which was inferred by me from the feedback given by my friends. It was then I felt that no sense of complacency should drill into my head and that I should work even harder from then to continuously improve and excel in this wonderful art. 

It was not just that. Writing gave me the freedom during my spare time to break away from the normal day-to-day infinite loop of only going to office and coming back home. I had lost myself without connecting to my better part for more than a year since I joined TCS. I am not going to blame TCS or the outside world for putting me through a very boring phase of life. I am responsible for my actions that I did not realize and take the initiative to ease down the clutter in my life by connecting with what I loved to do most - writing. In fact, I have started to love sales as much as I do for writing. Initially, I liked sales as it gave me the opportunity to solve people's problems and bring happiness to them. But now, Life is very colorful like a rainbow to me as soon as I had tore down the veil of monotony that severely hampered my everyday life. 

Ultimately, it is upto the person to perceive the things in the world either for the good or the bad. In my case, it turned out to be the former. 

Magic's Magnetism

There is always something magical about magic. From time beyond one's recorded historical and geographical events, magic has decisively played its own part in shaping up people's beliefs ergo the civilizations ultimately. It has intrigued and fascinated may people thus have them hypnotized and spellbound under its enchanting spell. So, what is magic? It is certainly not what the magicians perform on stage to enthrall the audience with their performances. That is merely an illusion. One of the many forms of magic which has an inherent and intricate logic and science with years of hard toil attached to their tricks and unbeknownst to the spectators. So, back to our question. What is magic? It is very simple. Magic is an event, act or situation that is not understandable to the common man and woman which causes them to worry, fear, panic, alarm or be elated at the turnaround of the given circumstance. Before the advent of  theoretical and practical science, every phenomenon in the world - be it lightning, thunder, storms, day, night, seasons, diseases, origin of the universe etc. was attributed to God. In short, before science began to spread its wings and soar far and wide in this world, God was the greatest and grandest magician that this planet had ever seen. This can be very well found in Greeks, Egyptians, Christians, Hinduism or every other place and religion which regards The Almighty to be the most powerful and formidable being on this planet. Even now when you venture into the deepest jungles or simply move away from the city, you can still see quite a million, which goes into billions in reality!, who revere the divinity and sanctity of Gods for their day to day usage of objects. So, am I going to bore you to death on the different kinds of magic or the chronological record of events in magic like the ghost Professor Binns who had taught The History Of  Magic at Hogwarts? Def Not! 

Like the billions spread across the nook and corner of the world, I was also bitten by the magic bug when I was a kid. I saw magic everywhere - be it the TV, cinemas, cartoons, electricity, comics, super heroes etc. I always had the sense of awe and wonder as to what made these objects come live so beautifully and colorfully thus enriching the lives of the people who use them. It did not take me long to find out and know that it was due to science , courtesy schools. Still my interest in magic never diminished and I have always had the inclination for things that are improbably fantasized as equal to the things that are objectively real in front of me. The last week was truly magical in every sense of the spirit of the letter of the word.  

It started when I started to search for The Big Bang Theory's latest episode to torrent. Suddenly, the name "The Magicians" caught my eyes when I was scanning for the episode. Without any hesitation, I simply downloaded it first followed by the TBBT's  new episode. Later a quick search on the internet told me what I wanted to know about The Magicians minus the plot - A trilogy written by Lev Grossman. Wasting no time, I set out to delve into the world created by Grossman to see and explore newer concepts and life forms that were created in his universe.

When the pilot successfully and positively ended, my instinct and immediate reaction was to search for other famous alternatives on similar lines. It did not take me long as I struck gold and found another jackpot - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. An IMDB rating - 8.3/10 and Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90% was more than sufficient for me to watch this mini series aired by BBC based on the novel written by Sussana Clarke. Its based on a prophecy that 2 magicians were destined to bring the lost magic to England after a gap of 300 years. Mr. Norrel performs practical magic that is only respectable whereas Strange performs venturesome and audacious spells for his country's sake. It seemed like the perfect recipe for yet another "The Prestige". 

It was then it hit me that it had been ages since I caught up with Nolan's swashbuckling masterpiece "The Prestige". Every word. Every sentence. Every scene in the movie made immense sense in hindsight. For instance, when Tesla tells Angiers "At what cost"? where Tesla actually has understood the significance that Angiers would be killing himself every night when the latter desires to purchase the machine from the former. The importance of the dialogue would hit you like a boomerang only when you see this movie for a second time. Just like inception, till date, Nolan has left me in  a state of complete and perpetual ambiguity to the ending of the film - whether the Angiers shown in the tank is alive or not! The Prestige is a multi-layered masterclass magic by itself which lives up to the 3 essential components of a magic trick namely - The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige. The Pledge - the hanging of Borden and Angiers being victorious over him finally. The Turn - Borden is hung and Fallon goes after Lord Caldow. The Prestige - when the cat is out of the bag that Borden and Fallon are twins and that it was Borden who kills Angiers and eventually reunites with his daughter. One of the most brilliant and complex scripts handled with skill and ease by the ace director. Even Tesla's and Edison's rivalry were showcased for a brief moment in the movie much like the one upmanship between Angiers and Borden. The Prestige is indeed a roller-coaster ride which truly leaves everyone gaping with an open mouth at the end. The magic has done trick its trick.

What started with an innocuous search for TBBT's torrent lead me one after another to The Prestige thus making my week to be truly ABRACADABRA !