Shantaram Review

I have finished reading the novel Shantaram. I bought the book when my friend, Srinivas Reddy, told that the book was great and critically acclaimed.

Plot:

Gregory David Roberts is a armed robber who got penalised for 22 years. After bearing the torture for 2 years (by the guards in the Australian Prison) he escapes and lands in Mumbai in India, with a false passport. He renames himself as Lindsey (which the New Zealand) passport says. He befriends a local tourist guide named Prabaker. Prabaker takes him to his village and stays there for 6 months. Prabaker's mother renames him as Shantaram.

Once, he is back from the village he is robbed and he doesn't have anymore money which he brought with him and the one that he earned in India (through showing foreigners where to buy hashish, marizuana etc). As he can't stay in the hotel he stayed previously (because his visa expired and he doesn't have money to stay in a hotel), he stays in a slum (Zhopadpatti). He starts his own clinic to treat the locals.

Linbaba (which he is dearly called by his friends), then falls in the eye of Abdel Khader Khan (who is an Afghan and a mafia leader in Mumbai). He slowly turns out to be his pet. They share a father-son relationship. Abdel Khader Khan takes Lin to Afghanistan to fight against Mujahideens. In that war, Khader gets killed and Lin returns with 2 or 3 people to Mumbai. During his stay in Afghanistan, he finds that Karla (the woman whom he loved) recruited Lin to do the dirty work for Khader. He stops loving her after knowing that truth.

In the meanwhile, his friend Prabaker is killed in an accident. He thinks his mafia friend Abdullah Taheri is also killed. But, Abdullah returns after an year of hospitalization. In the end, Lin gets prepared to fight in Sri Lanka.

Pros:

1. The novel had a very good English, keeping in mind that it came from an ex-convict on run.

2. The author definitely loves India (and I being an Indian like it when a foreigner loves India)

3. It had all the ingredients of a good novel (love, hate, passion, struggle, war)

4. Couple of philosophical lines are extremely good:

1. All horse good, All men not good

2. The universe has to move forward. What all can make it go forward is good and what all

that stops it going forward is evil (there are many more like this)

Cons:

1. The novel is too lengthy

2. The author gets out of focus every once in a while. Satyajit Ray (Oscar winning director) says that there should be no scene in the movie which doesn't have any purpose to story telling. I feel that even novels have to follow this. Once in a while, going out of focus might be okay. But, every now and then the novel goes out of focus.

3. It looks as if he was trying to fill in the pages rather than real content going into them.

4. At certain times, you will little boring because the topic at hand is not dealt properly and goes way too much out of focus.

5. Except for few things, the author seems to lose his chronograph. Paanch Paapi movie was released in the year 1989. He says this has happened first. After that, he says Indira Gandhi was shot dead. This happened on 31st October, 1984. Where is the chronograph???!!!!

6. It's certainly not as gripping as Papillon. Papillon is about a guy who gets sentenced and tries to get out of jail for 7 times and then succeeds. The story telling was absolutely gripping and entertaining.

Rating:

2.5/5

Recommendation:

I would recommend this to people who are willing to spend lot of time to read the book to know about someone who is an ex-convict on run. Otherwise, don't bother to waste your time on this.

Seating in New Office

Yesterday, as we didn't have internet, myself and Kalyan sat in a conference room with our Laptops. Today, they changed us back to our places and gave us internet in our own systems.

None of the cubicles or chairs are for tall people like me. They don't give enough back rest and they have absolutely no head rest. I started getting aches in my upper back and lower neck.

I don't know whether they will change the seats and keyboards ever. Both of them are sloppy, ugly and uncomfortable.

Villain Review 2

Villain (2010):

Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachhan, Prithviraj, Prabhu, Priyamani, Karthik, Ranjitha

Basic Story Line:

Vikram's sister (Priyamani) gets caught by police, when the police try to catch Vikram (Veerayya). They ill-treat her (kick her and rape her). She commits suicide because of that. Verayya wants to take revenge of the police officer Dev (Prithvi Raj) who did this. He kidnaps his wife (Aishwarya Rai) to kill her after 14 hours. But, she tries to escape and gets hurt severly. Verayya and his entire clan take care of her for the rest of the days.

In the meanwhile, Karthik (suspended forest guard) helps Prithvi Raj to find his wife. Ultimately, Verayya and Dev have a breath taking fight. Of course, both of them live. After that, there is a climax which is not normal. I wouldn't say it as a normal ending.

Analysis:

Vikram was stunning. But, the sound clarity like in any Mani Ratnam's dark movies (like Nayakudu, Roja, Bombay etc) sucks. Music was good. But, the background score could have been lot better (for an Oscar winner, A.R.Rehman). Prithvi Raj was good. Priyamani and Prabhu were alright. Aishwarya Rai, seemed dumb. She might still have to learn lot of acting.

Cinematography was absolutely marvelous. Locales were mind boggling and fantastic.

Verdict:

Boring, unless you are fan of either Vikram or Mani Ratnam

New office

Today, at last we moved to our new office. There are absolutely no good things to talk about. Only bad, may worst things.

1. We don't have good chairs. So, obviously working is painful

2. Because of my height, I can't use the keyboards properly as they are meant for normal people and not for taller people

3. Coffee machine sucks

4. Only one dustbin for every two people

5. No landline phones

6. This is the best thing. We don't have inter-fucking-net. I don't know where we are living!!!

7. Cubicles are so damn short, that I can see everyone in the office, without getting up from my place

8. The boards in our cubicles are just about the size of two A4 books...What in the hell should we do with them???

9. Basically, this office sucks...

Villain Review

I saw Villain on Friday (day of release). Man, almost after 4-5 years I bought tickets straight from the counter. I didn't even wait. The tickets were open and they were ready to give us any number of tickets. I was little scared before I went into the theatre.

The movie wasn't bad. But, it was good neither. I would give about 2/5. Vikram was just amazing. Prithviraj was OK. Aishwarya Rai still needs to learn a lot of acting. Prabhu was alright. Priyamani gave herself so much of hype, but she is just OK. None of the songs are individually picturised as in the case of any Mani Ratnam's movie. They just go in the background of some scenes.

Overall, the movie was a disappointment. Can be watched once for Vikram's histrionics.

New Office Blues 3

What we thought happened!!! Initially, we were promised to get two data ports per cubicle. One for laptop and one for normal desktop. Now, they got "Cost Cutting" into picture and we don't get two ports. We just get one port.

Funny part is, they are not even planning for a land line phone. The cubicles suck. Chairs are the most un-ergonomic in the world. Also, the "new company" is going to use "OLD" systems...Oops sorry! Not systems, just monitors and some C**k sucking key boards and mice.

The cubicles are so damn small that I don't think I can type easily. My hands are bound to get screwed royally. Anyway, we are going into the so-fucking-called "NEW" building on monday. We are going to have lunch there in that building (which means, neither can we get our own boxes or can we eat decent food). The food is going to be supplied probably from SoCtronics cafeteria. Rs12/- per plate...Hmmm...

Anyway, at last we are going on monday afternoon. I don't know what to expect there except the worst and the cheap.

Raavan/Villain

Today is the release of much awaited film Raavan. Of course, it is Villain in Telugu. I liked the movie name in Hindi and Tamil (Raavan and Raavanan respectively). In telugu, because of some ass hole who has already booked this name, the movie name became Villain....

Oooofffff!!!! Mani Ratnam should have screwed that guy by naming it something like "Neti Raavanudu" or "Chiyyan Raavanudu" (remember the Yuvaratna Rana long back of Balakrishna??). Just for record, Chiyyan is the nick name of Vikram. Anyways, I want to go to that movie in the evening.

I will write comments on the movie once I see it.

New Office blues 2

After 3 months, we are still in a temporary facility. The chairs suck, the A/C is useless and the facilities are just not there.

I drink coffee whenever I feel sleepy. Here, I have to drink only when it comes, whether I want it or not (because if I don't drink at that time, I wouldn't get a second chance).

Every evening, I along with my friends, I go and eat very very very very unhealthy snacks (like mirchi bajji, masala vada, egg bonda etc) which are full of OIL (saturated fat is dangerous to go into the body).

We have been promised to go to the "NEW" (so-called) building on May 15th. We don't still see a hope of going there till this weekend (at the least). My mother said something very funny, when I said "Amma! These problems would go away once we go to the new building". She said, "No! You will lose the hope also that there would be something good in the new building".

Hmmm...I guess she is right. We have been asking about our chairs since 2 months and they still want to give us the old "partially used' (what in the hell does that mean?!!!!...Something like "Slightly pregnant")...chairs...

Choosing the chairs was like Elections. You chose between worse and worst. We chose the worse. We were asked to choose, if you want hands, arms, back and neck pain or just hands, arms, back and more neck pain. We chose the 1st. They have been saying that they would give us some good chairs from some other company (come on...what do you expect...do you think they are new....Naaaaaaaaaaa!!!!)....we are still waiting for them.

The cubicles in the new company are so big that if I stand kicking my chair lightly, the chair would end up in another guys cubicle kicking him out....Man!!! The only thing stopping us from not leaving is the work....If work sucks, there is nothing here that would keep us back. By GOD's grace work is good (for now)....

Apple Apple Apple!!!

Today I have read about this article regarding Apple:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/198209/how_does_apple_stay_in_the_spotlight_secrecy_steve_appeal.html

My two cents worth about Apple products:

1. Mac OS is the best I have liked after Linux. The reason being:

1. It's so much like Linux and it makes my life easy for tasks like seeing the tasks that are running, killing

processes etc

2. It has a great look and feel (of course, you have to get used to it)

2. Macbook Pro is one of the finest laptops. Every time, I see non Mac laptops, I have something for them.

Macbooks (be it pro or air or whatever), don't ever put any sticker on them saying they have Intel Processor, ATI

or Nvidia Graphics blah blah blah. Why bother sticking them, when you can see if you boot the machine? The

stickers tend to stick out after some heavy usage and you will feel your hands sticky when ever you are using

your laptop.

3. They are damn expensive by any country's standards. They could be made little cheaper. But, at the end maybe

it's worth paying that much because of the features and quality.

4. Newer macbooks give you a single button large mouse, with multi-touch capabilities. That is just excellent.

5. Magic mouse is amazing. I would buy it very soon.

6. iPods are the best in class personal MP3 players.

7. iPhones (pardon my language, but) suck. They don't have many features that I would want from a high end phone.

Typically:

1. They don't have phone to phone blue tooth transfers

2. They don't have a louder ringtone (I living in India would want them to be very high, because of the

surrounding noise)

3. They are not operator independent (you should have either Airtel or Vodafone...Hmmmmmmm!!!!)