Sleeping Murder

Miss Marple's last case is another beauty. This book is typical of Agatha Christhie in that one does not ever know who is the killer despite best efforts at peeking into her words to detect hints. An eighteen year murder, an assortment of characters and a stunning climax.Goodreads 5/5

Bad Company

Anthony Hopkins is a delight in any movie of his. This was too good, with Chris Rock, providing the afro-american humour. It is an action packed movie typical of Hollywood, a bomb getting in the wrong hands, and our heroes swing into action. Good movie. IMDB 5/10

Love Aaj Kal

Attempted to see this newest movie starring Saif and Deepika. It is one wholesome crap. more like a documentary than a motion picture. Left it half way.

Phone Booth

"Phone Booth" starring Colin Farell, Forest Whittaker is another of those mad, crazy movies that comes out of Hollywood from time to time. Colin is cornered inside a phone booth by a maniac phsycopath talking to him on the phone and knows a lot of his intimate details. Psycopath motives are not all clear, there are a couple of murders, police swarming all over the place, extensive and live TV coverage. Ultimately, stage is set for a second part, soon to come.

 

 

Do me a Favour, Drop Dead

That is the name of the book by James Hadley Chase, a popular fiction writer of the 70s. 

Chase invariably wrote about the underdregs of the world, with their scheming plans to get rich, murders, sex, love, emotion, drama. His books are not more than 200 to 250 pages, fast paced and fast read as well. 

I finished this pulsating book in about 2 days recently. Goodreads 5/5

I think I love my wife

American romantic comedy "I Think I love my Wife" (2007) directed by Chris Rock and starring Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres amongst others. 

That is the name of a movie starring Chris Rock, which I happened to watch on a lazy saturday afternoon. Chris is the only recognizable face in the movie. Chris, a happily married man is beginning to sulk towards boredom, when he runs into a svelte former classmate, who is happily looking for a place to settle. Fireworks spark in the household, also an irreverent look at african-american attitudes in America

Code to Zero

Just finished reading "Code to Zero" by Ken Follett, my first one of him. It is a spy novel surrounding the launching of the first American space satellite Explorer I. It has suspense, drama, action, murders all along. Goodreads 3/5

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Oye Lucky

Oye Lucky.... is an enthralling story of a small time burglar from a small town India, who continously evades the police with his ingenuity. Played delectably by abhay deol with three in one role by paresh rawal and sundry other small town cops, families etc. Oye Lucky is a delightfully watchable film.

The Tristan Betrayal

Just finished reading "The Tristan Betrayal" by Robert Ludlum a spy novel set in the last stages of the world war II. It has got lot of drama, suspense, love, betrayal, action in typical Ludlum fashion. I have read one other book by him i.e. "The matarese circle". Goodreads 3/5

Maharathi

Maharathi is a Hitchcockian type thriller, a plot which evolves all the time and keeps the viewer on the tenterhooks as much as the central protagonists, which were paresh rawal and boman irani with a delicious cameo by tara sharma, who plays the role of a sleep walking bumbling budding architect. Edge of the seat stuff.

The Affluent Society

JK Galbraith was a leading economist of the last century. His book "The Affluent Society" became a best selling economics book. 

He was of the opinion that increasing production numbers gave a false assumption that all is well with the economy. He also wanted to spend more government money on education. 

Galbraith made economics popular in that he wrote wittily with simple language which non-economics students can also understand. It is a must read book for all economics students and management students. Goodreads 5/5

Scoop

Saw "Scoop" starring Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johannson and Woody Allen. Written and directed by Woody Allen, it is a murder mystery with loads of humour in it. 

Scarlett as a student journalist is investigating a serial murder mystery in England whereas Woody is a magician who is roped into by Scarlett to assist her. Hugh, an aristocrat is the suspect. 

Romance intervenes in the air with Scarlett falling for Hugh. Scarlett is the surprise package as she acts decently and also exudes fair amount of sensuality. 

Hugh is impressive but Woody is incredible and steals the show as usual.

Dialogue with Death

Just finished reading "Dialogue with Death" by Eknath Easwaran. It is my first spiritual or religious book. 

This book is not about death and dying, but about life and living. The tag line says it is a "Journey through consciousness". 

It is about meditation, curbing ones desires and reaching the state of OM. Eknath has used absolutely simple language to demystify spirituality. I would highly recommend this book and am looking for other books written by Eknath. Goodreads 5/5

Madhumati

saw an old bimal roy classic madhumati starring dilip and vyjyanti. it is a ghost story but the way in which bimal roy has woven the ghosts into the story is exceptional. the narrative is fluid, songs great and watching dilip act with utmost finesse is an experience in itself.

Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar birthday today, 4th August. Kishore was one of the best playback singers of his genre, the rich voice, across all range of emotions. Listening to Kishore is the best remedy to a melancholy soul. His sad songs were as popular as his mad songs.

Chaudvi ka Chand

revisited an old classic "chaudhvi ka chand" starring guru dutt, waheeda rehman, rehman and johny walker. the film moves beautifully from mad comedy in the beginning to serious drama effortlessly. songs are part of the film, acting of everybody is perfect, waheeda looks beautiful, dialogues are chaste urdu and meaningful. a great movie to watch any time. loss of a great movie maker through his early demise. 

Sujata

Watched that magnificient bimal roy classic "sujata" starring nutan and sunil dutt. 

The slow realisation of sujata that she belongs to another world of humans is deadening, with a magnificient performance by nutan. 

This must rank as one of the all time greats in indian cinema. IMDB 9/10

Shirdi and Shingneshwar

Had been to Shirdi over the weekend of 10th April 2009. It is a typical, chaotic temple town with all the amenities only on one stretch of road. Go any other place, the infrastructure reeks. We got darshan pretty quickly and went on to Shingneshwar temple, an abode for Shani which was about 75 kms as per the cabmaster, but definitely more than that. It took one and half hours each way, but the scenery was pretty good with agri crops sugarcane in plenty. That temple visit was also pretty fast. Shingneshwar is somewhat like Trimbakeshwar with decrepit infrastructure. No decent eating place. Shirdi does have a Dominoes, Reebok and Adidas showrooms, plenty of bank ATMs, but really the Shirdi Municipal authorities ought to do much more for the infrastructure there. I am sure they would have raking in crores of rupees due to temple tourism. Surely they could plough back something for the tourists' comforts. There are plenty of rooms available though, even of the A.C. variety. Drinking water is a problem though, recommend to have only mineral water. On the food side, there is a Woodlands, it is quite good, buts costs a bomb to have even a breakfast there. The bus journey going was okay but coming back was almost a nightmare with the a.c. bus breaking down in Sinnar a good 21 kms away from Nashik. From Nashik we got a non-a.c. to Mumbai reaching a good 15 hours after we set off, almost double the time.

South Karnataka

Had been to South Karnataka on a temple pilgrimage from week ending 6th June to 11th June 2009. Covered Kollur Mookambika, Murdeshwar, Dhareshwar, Idugunji, Shringeri, Dharamstala, Kukke Subrahmanya, Kateel and Udupi. Total distance covered in excess of 1000 kms. The scenery was breathtaking throughout the entire journey starting with drive from Kundapura railway station onwards. Dense and thick forests along the way all throughout was absolutely breathtaking. Udupi was a busy town, though other places where we halted for the night viz. Kollur and Kukke Subrahmanya left a lot to be desired. Power situation is absolutely poor in these parts. Food was no problem and in fact it was scintillatingly delightful. Karnataka is a mystery left to be discovered by one and all. It was indeed beautiful. The drive up to Shringeri was breathtaking and Shringeri itself was a delight in itself. What beautiful facilities have been created there a mix of the old and the new, the heritage stone temple being almost mystical. Kukke Subrahmanya was a surprise because there were book stalls inside the temple complex itself which is a new attraction for me. Picked up Gandhi's autobiography for just rs.95/- only. Got some more books from Udupi, there were some three small stalls where we purchased lots of books that we do not get otherwise in Bombay. At every place food was served free in the temple complex itself. The method of serving food was unique in all the places and the innovative methods adopted for serving at a time, more than 1000 persons deserves to be patented. Murdeshwar had a breathtaking statue of Shiva which was about 23 foot in height and near the Arabian Sea. There were other statues as well, which was an absolute wonder.