Cancer is real

A painting i made for the anti-tobacco campaign

Stealing arm rests

Today's dose is about stealing arm rests. We all do it. Those who don't are either lying or lying behind in the race of evolution. Oppurtunity knocks only once or twice in the world of arm rests.

Movie theaters, buses, waiting rooms- arm rests are everywhere and it's a race, a contest. The courageous and the cunning would survive. The rest shall bear the wrath of unrested elbows and unsupported arms.

Here are my tips for all of you

First, look for opportunity. The person by your side must need to scratch his head, reach for his mobile phone in his pocket, go to drink water, to poo, pee whatever. There are moments of weakness. You need to spot them and pounce. You need focus.

Good luck!

Study table

Here is a view of how I keep my table. Am not proud folks.

The Joy Of Being Connected

Well, Internet is fun indeed. Why? Why!? You ask why? Social networking, games, maps, GPS... need I list all the options? I am sure you'll get bored and I'll get tired listing them all. The most important thing that internet has brought for me is the sense of belonging not as an individual but as a citizen of the planet earth. I am capable of communicating with the millions of voices across the planet, I am capable of joining the bandwagons of my choice; for that I have an array of choices too!

I can support a cause, send emails to my favourite celeb, apply for jobs of my choice, all that and more at a single click from my mobile handset.

It's a fascinating world with a wide variety of options to choose from. In an age when the electronic media is throwing news at my face, I can choose what to watch, what to hear through the internet. Newspapers, TV channels tell me the news but the internet tells me things to which I can relate.

Social networking is fun. 
Websites like twitter squeeze life out of the latest news and happenings. It's like a big lounge where everyone knows everyone. People are more polite, eased out and free over the internet; there are exceptions always but internet makes communication with straangers easy and quick. Internet in fact has played match-maker to many of my friends, the sequence is carried forward by the mobile phone and the low fares during night-time are just what the doctor ordered for these love-lorn hearts.


Thinking of online dating, this song comes to mind -

Also,  the internet has made declaring your love to your loved one so easy. Now you can just change your status from "single" to "in a relationship" and zip zap zoom come all the inquiries- "Who is she? Kab milwa raha hai? Party de na!" etc etc


Also it has become easier for the parents to track down their wards' whereabouts and nail them down but we won't talk about that because we are here to look at the bright side.

Following sports is fun! 
Stuck in a lecture class and your favourite IPL team requires 6 runs from the last 2 balls? All attention is diverted to the guy with the phone with an internet pack or cricket updates subscription and you can never miss out on a nail-biter. The junkies have their fill without missing the odd lectures. In fact, it is somewhat like the return of the golden era when the whole village would sit near the transister and hear the running commentary and rejoice on every six; except that the transister has been replaced by the internet; which is FUN!

"Abey score kya hai?" Statistics have proved that our nation's favourite question has been asked less often in public places now that everyone has his own scorecard delivered to their mobile phone.

Following a car is fun!
Now with the help of internet, I can never get lost while traveling alone. People like me who are hesitant to ask for directions have the help of browsing the world through their mobiles. Not only maps, it finds me the quickest routes with least traffic! Unfortunately, it still doesn't have the button which says "stalk" and you just need to click it and all you can do is follow that pretty dame all day. On second thoughts, that would be creepy.

Finally I leave you with this old classic which pretty much sums up how internet follows us everywhere in our lives these days-

This entry is for Indiblogger's contest titled Internet is fun on Vodafone!

Here is a link to all the Vodafone fun- www.vodafone.in/fun

'The Devotion of Suspect X' - Book Review

Recently I was given the chance to review the Japanese best-seller Keigo Higashino's "The devotion of suspect X." by blogadda.com

I was sucked into the thrilling dark world of this novel as soon as the book arrived at my doorsteps.

Me in the dark dark world of the suspect X

 Book Review.

*** (Three and a half stars)

This bundle of nail-biting thrill and emotional turmoil spread over 374 pages takes you to the inner workings of a genius mathematician Ishigami who also happens to be a borderline-psychotic lover. This obsession leads to a chain of events which end up as a tangled mess. This mess is attempted to be sorted by another genius physicist Yukawa. Just like mathematics and physics differ in their basic philosophy, these two geniuses also have differences in their ideologies and approaches toward problem solving. Who wins in this tug of war between the two, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

The character sketches are very vivid. Yasuko Hanaoka- the divorced single mother is a character you'll empathize and hate at different times of the story. She is a victim no doubt but she ends up committing a crime as heinous as murder and later covering up for it. There are times where sense of guilt goes missing from her character which makes you hate her a bit. She finds time to indulge herself in those testing times. Her abusive ex-husband Togashi's character is the one I'd like to refer to as one that can be easily hated. He is an almost movie-villain like personality- snarling his way into Yasuko's life, stalking her, making her and her daughter Misato's lives miserable to no end. So much so that Yasuko and Misato end up murdering Togashi. This is when Ishigami's mad love brings him to rescue the damsels in distress where he weaves a puzzle to confuse the police. His character is lovable and charming, so much so that you end up rooting for the murderers and their accomplice. His elaborate plan is like a mathematical puzzle which baffles and confuses the police; it would have been a no competition had there not been a certain Mr. Yukawa on the detectives' side. Turned out that Ishigami and Yukawa had studied together and knew each other too well. This leads to interesting twists in the plot. There is also a line up of various characters providing alibis which keep swinging the favours toward both sides alternatively.

 The pace of the plot is quite good too, it is a fast read and you can finish the book in a matter of hours. You can almost picture the movie through the descriptions in the dark alleys of Japan. The cold weather, trench coats, hats all provide the elements necessary in a thriller. There is an interesting use of wordplay which can be sensed in the dialogues; there must be some things lost in translation. Also, this pace and rapid exit and entrance of well defined characters tends to make me believe that the author had a movie in mind during the time he was penning the book down. Of course you can enjoy the privileges of reading a book i.e. you get to know what exactly is going on in the character's mind instead of guessing it from his expressions in the movie but the black and white portrayal of characters where everyone seems to know their role: good or bad, tends to make the book a bit too dramatic.

 The quality of translation is pretty good although it depends on what your definition of "good" is. Alexander O. Smith has done a decent job in making the novel readable to even first time readers. The language has been kept simple and there is not a single long tangled sentence in the whole book. Although repetitions of phrases like "wry smile" and "he chuckled" tend to be annoying at a few places but that is the price you pay to keep a mass appeal in the novel.

 The fonts are clear with no misprints as expected from Hachette India. The cover page stimulates the imagination just about right. The climax is almost poetic but unexpected. The last few pages make the full read worthwhile. All in all, a good read. You won't feel cheated when you finish reading the novel.

Sign up for the Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. and get free books! Participate now!

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And here is the Facebook Fan Page for the novel- Fan page

Shivsena Ka Sher

Calvin's relocating

Who these children will grow up to be?

Vodafone buys Hutch, pays no tax!

Modern Panchtantra- Corruption, Supari etc.

Living it up with Kyra!

The following entry is for the Lakme Diva Blogger Contest (although I am not a Diva like Kyra (formerly Elena) here.

I would like to thank Indiblogger for giving me this opportunity to have a one on one with Ms. Elena

Here are my plans-

The Power Of Fun

The following entry has been written for the "Internet is fun" contest by Vodafone and Indiblogger. Check out a whole new world of fun at- www.vodafone.in/fun

I still remember the day when I got my first multimedia phone. It was a Nokia N70. My world hasn't been the same ever since. There are so many ways to make life vivid and fun when you have an internet connection and a multimedia phone to keep you connected, wherever and whenever.

1. The Zoozoi Story (inspired from the Vodafone zoozoos)

                          (Above Images Courtesy- Google Image Search on "Vodafone Zoozoos")
                                                   (Find the zoozoo ads here- TV ads)
Being a dentist, I get to play with a lot of cool materials. I carved out a zoozoo of my own from the acrylic we use to make the dentures. Using my phone, I used to update regarding my zoozoo on my Facebook Profile. It was super mad fun. I had named him Zoozoi. Slowly from a cute little thing, when did it snowballed into a "whodunnit" murder mystery.. only God knows!

Here is a photo of the first upload from my mobile of my small little creation-

Initial comments included praises, curiosity and even death threats to my Zoozooi!

 

 A few days later, the zoozoo was found dead under mysterious circumstances!

 When I started having fun with it, even my friends joined in! It was like a small Whodunnit spoof that I had started on Facebook! 

Later on, I spiced up the fun by introducing myself as many funny characters. Such as Detective X investigating the murder case!

                       Professor Troi Troi who autopsied Zoozoi and found some vital clues in the case!

 Later on, professor Troi- troi was found dead in the lab. And the mystery tangled furthermore!

 

Later on, mystery deepened when false rumours regarding Zoozoi's comeback were raised!

 

As you can see above, even the news reader was shot dead!

I went on to destroy the plot with way too many twists and turns and later on had to just give up on it, but my point is, I had fun! Wild, unadulterated fun! Many people who I had lost touch with, joined in and shared a good laugh. That's what internet can do! It can bring people together. It encourages everyone to chip in because no one here is a stranger!

 2. Expressing the artist within!

 

I had a talent for drawing cartoons but not many knew about it since I couldn't sell myself well enough. Moreover, I didn't know how to reach out and be seen. Internet again gave me all the "power of fun" and I was introduced to a whole new world of blogging. Now, I could draw, scribble anything and take a photo of it from my mobile and e-mail it to my blog (It's a blogger feature) and in minutes it would get published and garner response with the help of portals like indiblogger. I now blog regularly at my Toon blog- "Creaky noises doors make" and people from all over India and world can "hear" me now. It's pure bliss. Here are a few cartoons that I have uploaded on my blog!

                                     

                                                       Cartoon No. 1

 

Cartoon No. 2

 

3. Fun with Videos!

 Posting videos on YouTube and Facebook was never so easy. Now, I can, with just one click from my mobile, upload and share fun videos!

1. Here's a video of my hurting your musical sensibilities from my didi's wedding!

 

2. Here's a video that takes me back to the nostalgia of my first years days in college when we used to celebrate birthdays in hostel (The deadly birthday bumps! Only hostelers will "get" it)

3. Here is my lamest and first video that I ever posted on the internet. What was rocket science back then, looks so easy today.

 

4. ...And the fun never stops!!

From the constant chatter on twitter (handle: _A_B_D_) to the ease of checking live cricket scores on Vodafone, the possibilities are endless. Not an avid gamer, I have had my share of killing time with Angry Birds though!

5. Meeting new people!

 And now coming to the most fascinating aspect of internet! Yes! It's the people! Yesterday, I read a blog of a teenage girl who is physically disabled and has the zeal to overcome her fears by making them her strengths. Inspired!

On twitter, there are so many funny and witty people that I am at my wit's end just reading their tweets! 

There is so much anger, so much love, so much hope, so much noise in this calm ocean called the internet!

 Events like the one that happened at the Tahrir Square bring that power to the fore.

Here's more power to wit,

more power to will,

more power to the will to have your way!

more power to the will to have fun!

More power to the internet!

And even more power...

To You! To Us!