A lot has occurred in my life since my last blog. Everything for the good though.
My latest fad seems to be the new iPhone 3G S. Apple - I take a bow. Your are simply a master at designing gadgets.
You even make a penny pinching miser such as me to gobble out 3 bucks on a blogging app on my iPhone.
That brings me to the essence of this post. Here you guys my first blog post from the now ubiquitous yet the inimitable iPhone.
-- Post From My iPhone
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
This week's Update - A Time Well Spent
Atleast from my perspective I guess! Had fun till the last paragraph ended. A Time to Kill was a time worthily spent. Everything was just perfect - multi-dimensional characters, fluid narration. It appeared as though the author wrote this novel in nonchalant times. JG's first novel at that. Followed up with the movie edition to compare the renditions of the courthouse scenes on my mind to the ones portrayed by the celluloid. I was close enough. I didn't like some of the improvisations done on the picture though. Matt McConnaghey (I hope I spelled his name right!) was the picture-perfect Mr. Jake Brigance. I was a little disappointed (distressed even if you may) at the casting of Ellen Roark. Not that I have anything against Sandra Bullock but one would have hoped she appeared (atleast in her first scene) the way Grisham tastefully described in his book - without her upper body inner garments. Oh well!
Next I am onto a less taxing novel by Chetan Bhagat - Three Mistakes of My Life. I say that because of his casual prose with words laced that only an Indian can understand. I am just on the second chapter and already loving it.
Hope to write here soon.
Next I am onto a less taxing novel by Chetan Bhagat - Three Mistakes of My Life. I say that because of his casual prose with words laced that only an Indian can understand. I am just on the second chapter and already loving it.
Hope to write here soon.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Afghan - Review
Back from a breezy prose by John Grisham, I stumbled on quite a few long and winding sentences employed by Frederick Forsyth in "The Afghan". But once you get a hang of his writing style, the content is absolutely gripping. Forsyth takes you on an educational primer on Islam, Wahhabism, the first four caliphates, Taliban, Al Qaeda and the like. For someone like me who is abysmally ignorant about these matters, it was piercingly insightful. However, I will have to agree with most others that are holes in the plot some even bordering on blunder. For example, it was not all sensical that the afghan after having infiltrated the fanatics, was immediately decreed by the chief himself to participate in the ultimate journey - Al Isra. There were other goof ups but were more of nitpick sorts that shows the author's research in poor light.
I, on the other hand forgave all the unnoticeable blemishes (the truth is I was naïve enough not to spot them!) and thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I particularly likened the rich detail used to describle the islands of the United Arab Emirates and seas and straits and canals that surround them. The final plot by Al Qaeda itself did not live up to the massive expectations set by the author in the first 300 pages so it was rather bleak and unfussy. I though am impressed and will be reading more of Forsyth as part of my fiction marathon.
With regards...
Fiction Marathon
It was a sedate Monday afternoon in an unusually cool spring April. Like any other week day for the past 4 years, I was returning to office after a rather mediocre lunch at home when this brilliant thought flashed my mind. Now that I am hooked into reading thriller novels, why not spruce it up with my own marathon challenge to keep myself going?
Modesty personified as I am, I have set myself a target of 100 novels for the year 2009, some of them will have the honor of being critiqued by the master himself. I have tried my hardest to recollect the ones I am done with:
1. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpha Lahiri
2. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
3. Run for life by James Patterson
4. The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth
5. The Associate by John Grisham
6. The Appeal by John Grisham
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone by J K Rowling
8. One Night Stands by ..................
9. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
91 to go and I am on "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham now.
Follow my journey if you are interested. I will be posting updates as and when I can.
So long...
Modesty personified as I am, I have set myself a target of 100 novels for the year 2009, some of them will have the honor of being critiqued by the master himself. I have tried my hardest to recollect the ones I am done with:
1. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpha Lahiri
2. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
3. Run for life by James Patterson
4. The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth
5. The Associate by John Grisham
6. The Appeal by John Grisham
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone by J K Rowling
8. One Night Stands by ..................
9. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
91 to go and I am on "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham now.
Follow my journey if you are interested. I will be posting updates as and when I can.
So long...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Appeal - A Review
The Appeal - a John Grisham novel was published in 2008 and customarily found its spot in every top seller list the media industry churned out. This was also a come back novel of sorts for JG wielding his magic in the "legal thrillers" genre after his brief yet hugely successful non-fiction work "The Innocent Man".
There has been much criticism about the one dimensional portraits of the characters in this book but as they say - critics are as critics does. If there has been one thing that I understood mirror-clear in the world was that a coin always had two sides but I digress.
If you want to be in the know-how of how trial lawyers work and the big corporations thwart them in big tort lawsuits, this book is for you. Having no prior knowledge of these matters, it was enlightening sometimes awe-mixed to see the whole of litigation world.
The prose was Grishamisque as usual. Simple yet powerful and narration truly wanting you to turn pages to the very end oblivious to the time of day. The book does lag in the middle to the point of crawling yet it appears to be an intentional plot by the author to have the readers wanting to take a quick pitstop in a formula one race. The climax happens abruptly just like that and could disappoint some readers who might have expected a little more offcourse left turns.
The biggest gripe yet is the fact that bad guys actually win and absolutely go scot-free which is a bummer for me as it could mislead certain young minds who read the piece. I remember one fan-critic requesting almost pleading the author to write a sequel where the good folks of Mississippi come roaring back and pound the obnoxious villains.
There has been much criticism about the one dimensional portraits of the characters in this book but as they say - critics are as critics does. If there has been one thing that I understood mirror-clear in the world was that a coin always had two sides but I digress.
If you want to be in the know-how of how trial lawyers work and the big corporations thwart them in big tort lawsuits, this book is for you. Having no prior knowledge of these matters, it was enlightening sometimes awe-mixed to see the whole of litigation world.
The prose was Grishamisque as usual. Simple yet powerful and narration truly wanting you to turn pages to the very end oblivious to the time of day. The book does lag in the middle to the point of crawling yet it appears to be an intentional plot by the author to have the readers wanting to take a quick pitstop in a formula one race. The climax happens abruptly just like that and could disappoint some readers who might have expected a little more offcourse left turns.
The biggest gripe yet is the fact that bad guys actually win and absolutely go scot-free which is a bummer for me as it could mislead certain young minds who read the piece. I remember one fan-critic requesting almost pleading the author to write a sequel where the good folks of Mississippi come roaring back and pound the obnoxious villains.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Gannu is back!
Okay, I'm back like Arnold always does in Terminator movies. It has taken me just short of some 3 years to visit my blogosphere but visit I did now. My latest fad is my new toy - The Kindle from Amazon - like the way the toy's name is prepositioned. Well, anyway the introduction of Kindle in my life has just taken my reading habits out of this galaxy. For a guy who is more of a collector of books than a reader of 'em, plodding through 3 books a week is no mean achievement. Needless to say I am smug with pride.
Hoping to kickstart my reading habits - one day I'd like my name inscribed on a book as an author, I am going to start reviewing albeit brief ones the literature works I am voraciously digesting every week. The comments and opinions expressed on my reviews are entirely my own and should not be construed as anything else.
Enough of my babble now and look out for my first review on "The Appeal" by John Grisham - thus far by favorite author.
Hoping to kickstart my reading habits - one day I'd like my name inscribed on a book as an author, I am going to start reviewing albeit brief ones the literature works I am voraciously digesting every week. The comments and opinions expressed on my reviews are entirely my own and should not be construed as anything else.
Enough of my babble now and look out for my first review on "The Appeal" by John Grisham - thus far by favorite author.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Man Proposes...God Agrees!!
Has something that you just felt out of a natural instinct or inner conscience came true? Especially the ones that you don't want to happen but you have a sneaky gut thought that it definitely will. It had happened to me a couple of years back. I was at a railway station sending off my very good friend to her native place.
Suddenly out of nowhere and against the topic of conversation, I uttered "this could be the last time we see each other". I still do not know where it came from and why I said that but I anyway did. Sure enough, it is now almost 3 years and life had taken us through different routes.
Though I am still in touch with my friend, the current circumstances considerably reduces the probability of meeting her again. Yeah, yeah I know the often used cliche - the world has shrunk and became a small place. I will anyways keep my fingers crossed and will post if I ever meet her again.
Suddenly out of nowhere and against the topic of conversation, I uttered "this could be the last time we see each other". I still do not know where it came from and why I said that but I anyway did. Sure enough, it is now almost 3 years and life had taken us through different routes.
Though I am still in touch with my friend, the current circumstances considerably reduces the probability of meeting her again. Yeah, yeah I know the often used cliche - the world has shrunk and became a small place. I will anyways keep my fingers crossed and will post if I ever meet her again.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Matters at the top
I always wanted to be among the top executives of my company some day and observe their actions and more importantly get to know their topics of discussion. Usually, when I banter with my friends, it either is about the chicks or filmy material. So I was a little curious on what goes on at the top. Maybe, I am just ready for my promotion or I am just too eager to get there.
Anyways, a couple of days back, I got an opportunity to rub shoulders and have dinner with a client partner, an account manager, a project manager, and a senior domain consultant. We were at a Grille at downtown San Francisco on a dark evening. As I had guessed, once the waiter showed us the menu, my account manager started bragging about his knowledge on this restaurant and which food was the most delicious.
Though I was on the edge to chip in to garner some attention to my side, the menu was not my forte. So I preferred to remain humble & silent and listen to what these connaisuers had to share their thoughts on the food. My account manager true to his title managed the whole show and bended the people around in ordering what he believed was the best in the house.
On a side note, I ordered a Miller Lite and smoked chicken pasta with lime vinigiarette. The managers ordered Red Wine (ofcourse) to drink and hi-fi sounding dishes predominantly that comes from the sea. An example could be the crab cake (I know it is a starter or a dessert, oh whatever!).
Alright, coming back to the crux of my blog, the first true involving topic that was brought up was how their mutual friends were doing. Great I thought - this is what I too do when I meet people, my friends. Ok, as you can understand I again had my lips tightly shut opening only when I had to take in the next fork-ful of pasta. I was not enjoying this at all. I wanted to be on the conversation but these guys are not giving me a chance.
After about maybe five minutes, the topic veered away to how our company was performing - a natural transformation from the people to the organization. Ah, come on guys, come on, this was a topic where I had a lot to offer. My first talk was an answer to the question posed by the project manager. What is the trading price of our stock today? Seventy four dollars with a reduction of 1.3% - bang came the reply from my mouth. Everyone turned and made an eye contact with me - wow I enjoyed being in the spotlight though for a short while.
From that point onwards, I wanted to really get in to the discussion and make them feel I am no mean to them and I too can have a lot to offer on the table. We then discussed about speaker systems and electronic gadgets (which was my strong point thanks to browsing cnet.com every other hour). I even advised my account manager not to go for a wireless home theatre system.
Things hotted up a little when everyone started picking each other's brains on what Apple was doing, is doing, and should do. Steve Jobs could have taken a 2 page note on different strategies his company could adopt to sustain its growth. I offered my share on how Apple should really innovate and just not rest on the laurels of the ipod success - for Sony and Microsoft and others have been coming out with impressive little mp3 gadgets. I got a couple of nods from the other side of table which made be believe I had a good sense of the business world.
As we were completing our main course and looking at the dessert menu, we talked about real estate both in the United States and India - how prices are so exhorbitant in Bangalore and Chennai and how many managers in our company are doing real estate brokering full time (forget about project management and delivery, we have guinea pigs (read as leads) to take care of such primitive stuff).
On completing the dessert - by the way I ordered a NewYork style cheesecake with blackberry sauce which never arrived at the table. Huh, my bad luck or the almighty wanted to limit the carbs I was taking that night. Anyway, as we ventured out of the restaurant - only to enjoy the wet cold of San Francisco winter, we naturally talked of the weather and how the alaskan currents on the pacific ocean makes the whole west coast foggy.
When it was time to leave, I said good-bye and as I was walking towards my home I looked back at my conversations with the supposedly top executives. It was no big deal. I just realized that the casual conversations you have depends on what stage of life you are at and what interests you at that time. It was perfectly natural that I talk about chicks and they talk about stocks and I will get there when chicks are of no interest anymore (hmmm maybe the one at home) and talk more about the other earthly pleasures.
Anyways, a couple of days back, I got an opportunity to rub shoulders and have dinner with a client partner, an account manager, a project manager, and a senior domain consultant. We were at a Grille at downtown San Francisco on a dark evening. As I had guessed, once the waiter showed us the menu, my account manager started bragging about his knowledge on this restaurant and which food was the most delicious.
Though I was on the edge to chip in to garner some attention to my side, the menu was not my forte. So I preferred to remain humble & silent and listen to what these connaisuers had to share their thoughts on the food. My account manager true to his title managed the whole show and bended the people around in ordering what he believed was the best in the house.
On a side note, I ordered a Miller Lite and smoked chicken pasta with lime vinigiarette. The managers ordered Red Wine (ofcourse) to drink and hi-fi sounding dishes predominantly that comes from the sea. An example could be the crab cake (I know it is a starter or a dessert, oh whatever!).
Alright, coming back to the crux of my blog, the first true involving topic that was brought up was how their mutual friends were doing. Great I thought - this is what I too do when I meet people, my friends. Ok, as you can understand I again had my lips tightly shut opening only when I had to take in the next fork-ful of pasta. I was not enjoying this at all. I wanted to be on the conversation but these guys are not giving me a chance.
After about maybe five minutes, the topic veered away to how our company was performing - a natural transformation from the people to the organization. Ah, come on guys, come on, this was a topic where I had a lot to offer. My first talk was an answer to the question posed by the project manager. What is the trading price of our stock today? Seventy four dollars with a reduction of 1.3% - bang came the reply from my mouth. Everyone turned and made an eye contact with me - wow I enjoyed being in the spotlight though for a short while.
From that point onwards, I wanted to really get in to the discussion and make them feel I am no mean to them and I too can have a lot to offer on the table. We then discussed about speaker systems and electronic gadgets (which was my strong point thanks to browsing cnet.com every other hour). I even advised my account manager not to go for a wireless home theatre system.
Things hotted up a little when everyone started picking each other's brains on what Apple was doing, is doing, and should do. Steve Jobs could have taken a 2 page note on different strategies his company could adopt to sustain its growth. I offered my share on how Apple should really innovate and just not rest on the laurels of the ipod success - for Sony and Microsoft and others have been coming out with impressive little mp3 gadgets. I got a couple of nods from the other side of table which made be believe I had a good sense of the business world.
As we were completing our main course and looking at the dessert menu, we talked about real estate both in the United States and India - how prices are so exhorbitant in Bangalore and Chennai and how many managers in our company are doing real estate brokering full time (forget about project management and delivery, we have guinea pigs (read as leads) to take care of such primitive stuff).
On completing the dessert - by the way I ordered a NewYork style cheesecake with blackberry sauce which never arrived at the table. Huh, my bad luck or the almighty wanted to limit the carbs I was taking that night. Anyway, as we ventured out of the restaurant - only to enjoy the wet cold of San Francisco winter, we naturally talked of the weather and how the alaskan currents on the pacific ocean makes the whole west coast foggy.
When it was time to leave, I said good-bye and as I was walking towards my home I looked back at my conversations with the supposedly top executives. It was no big deal. I just realized that the casual conversations you have depends on what stage of life you are at and what interests you at that time. It was perfectly natural that I talk about chicks and they talk about stocks and I will get there when chicks are of no interest anymore (hmmm maybe the one at home) and talk more about the other earthly pleasures.
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