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via Prem Writes

Day 35 : The Great Gatsby - A Book Review

You cannot be regular online book shopper or recommendations pilfer and not have come across this book's name thrown about a bunch of time onto you. It is like the cheeseburgers of classic stories. It is assumed that if you ever have read more than a couple dozen books in your life time. This has to be one of them. Especially if you have a bunch of bengali snobs as friends. So there you go, I've finally read this book. Happy now?

First reason to love - awesome cover!

This book is like a masterclass in novel writing. I wouldn't be surprised if they make students read this book as homework in every first year of every creative writing course. I mean, if nothing else, this book is very well written. The editing is on point. There are no paragraph out of place, no extra adjectives inserted, no words wastefully used. Everything so crisp and apt. Something that I fail a lot at, come to think of it. But Mr Fitzgerald is a natural at it. I am a fan just by that much.

Characters 

Nick Carraway - An unmarried veteran, recently starting out in the bonds business. He is not especially socially adept, but very optimistic and friendly. And as a new resident in a city like West Egg he finds none of those qualities actually amounts to much in here.

Daisy Buchanan - Nick's cousin. The main girl being fought over by the two alpha males. She is sweet, dreamy and the kind of girl who believes it when the fairy tales end with 'they lived happily ever after'.

Tom Buchanan - Daisy's husband, and pure-blood dude. He is rich, strong, flamboyant, charming and a philanderer. He is the kind of guy who has always known success and wealth, and truly believes his destined for nothing less than greatness.

Jay Gatsby - The mysterious filthy rich guy in town. Famous for throwing the most outlandish of parties, everyone is invited. Weekends at his house is filled with the who's who of West Egg. And nobody really knows who he is or why he throws these obscene parties. There are equally obscene and outlandish theories about him. But as they say, the truth is more strange

Plot Summary

The main plot of this book is how a guy who was always destined for greatness, after having amassed great big shiny things, now has come to an unknown town to win back the love he'd once lost. This plot I would guess has been recycled and reused multiple times over the years. I like to think this was the first of those. Must have been pretty fresh back then.

The protagonist is the eponymous Gatsby. A mysterious rich guy, who befriends his new neighbor, invites him to one of his famous parties. And in turn, starts on a path that he was confident he'd planned it all ahead and nothing could go wrong. But it inevitable does. He hadn't considered one important detail - human frailty and naive refusal to accept change or defeat.

Gatsby's main goal here is to get back with Daisy, who is now married to a wealthy alpha male Tom. Tom, though not without secrets of himself, does not take easily to Gatsby's sudden appearance in their lives. And is distrustful of the way his wife looks at him. His wife's brother, the guy who is narrating this story to us is Nick, the guy Gatsby befriends to get closer to Daisy. Nick is like the generic narratoresque character in any movie or book ever. Starts with a introduction about everything, inserts himself into every darn incident, and in the end concludes the story about what he'd learnt post the whole incident. Nothing new to see here.

The conclusion of the book is very Citizen Kane-ish. There is that Rosebud point here where the Nick is confronted with how, even after being the popular guy he was Gatsby in the end, had even lesser true friends than that guy you knew in the high school who could flip a coin off girls behind. Being popular and being friends with, are two different things.

Overall this book is a masterpiece. A classic. There are a lot of times in this book when you will pause and think, hey this is exactly what had happened in that book or that movie. That I suppose is mainly cause this book has always had an impact on so many peoples' creative language. I am sure a lot of writers having read this book have in some way changed how they tell their stories.

This I think is the real success of the book. Even after having been in circulation for nearly nine decades this little book like an annoying friend, will never quit teaching writers how to write. And like most friends, even though we hate being preached, we will still agreed to it do what it says. Just because, sometimes these annoying friends are right. Some times.

Day 34 : Cape Fear - A Book Review

At least once a year I go to this place in Mumbai where they have sale on used books. They are so cheap you can buy at least a dozen for the same amount that you pay for a McChicken. This is a very very dangerous place for me. Mainly because every time I go there I end up dragging a huge haul of books, which only ends up adding onto my unread pile. I am slowly catching up to them, but damn am I outnumbered here.

This book is one of those book. I mostly picked it up by virtue of name recognition. I'd loved the Scorsese movie. It was a remake of an older movie. It had brilliant performances from both Robert de Niro and Juilette Lewis. And had one of the best last shot of any movie ever. That was pretty much the only reason I picked up this book really. I am very glad that I did.

This book is really a very simple single-minded book about revenge and good guy v/s bad guy. There is a good/pure-white character and there is a bad/pure-dark character. Both of these cannot be more different from each other. And both these character now suddenly find themselves in a in a conflict that would only end with one of them being utterly destroyed.

Characters 

Max Cady - The Pure-Dark - A cold-hearted criminal filled with one hunger only. Only pure rage and thirst for revenge.

Sam Bowden - The Pure-White - A law abiding citizen who many years ago, got Cady imprisoned for rape of a teenage girl.

Carol - Sam's wife

Nancy, Jaime, Bucky - Sam's kids

Plot Summary

Well this going to be the easiest summary of any plot I've ever written. Heck, the introduction above nearly gives most of the details. The gist of it is. Cady spends his thirteen years in jail dreaming up of ways to bring terror into his arch nemesis' life. Sam Bowden leads a life of the straight arrow and tries to deal with this guy legally but law is not especially good at handling someone who has no concept of what really is. Cady is somebody who is so vicious and single-mindedly evil that there is no fear or doubt in him. And with the sheer physical size of him makes it all the more scary.

And that is where I really begin to like the book. The way the author builds the tension in the book. You see, there are hardly a dozen scenes in the book where you are actually in Cady's presence. It is always somebody else' account of his violence. That along with his own pure savagery, every moment that he does come into your pages, you sort get goosebumps yourself. I liked that feeling. It is something that very few writers accomplish in doing. This guy who I'd never heard of made that possible. I have immense respect for that.

And now for the part that I wish could've been better. As much as I liked the simple binary good & bad equation of the book. There are parts where the writer tries to explain why Cady is the way he is. He uses the Bowden for that. Which was pretty seemed very out of place for me. You don't try to rationalize why some violent serial criminal and rapist would try to rape and kill the women of your household. Also, the last few pages. I know I shouldn't be comparing the movie with the book here. But I must say in this one instance I am going to give the upper hand to the movie. The climax was awesome, in the movie. And it sucked, in the book. Period.

Just for Max Cady? An excellent read though.

Day 33 : Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - A Book Review

I have written about my love for Harry Potter here before. So obviously it was apparent I was going to pre-order the new Potter book the moment I got the chance to. And obviously I was not going to be able to put it down until I’d read the whole thing through.

And that’s exactly what I did. Twice.

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is quite a remarkable book. For most readers it would seem like a fan fiction written by a fan for fans. There aren’t many parts in it that you’d read, and recognize it to be out of Rowling’s books. This is pretty much a different flavour of the Wizarding World than we are accustomed to. The difference is not only because this book is in the format of a script for a play. You will see a stage setting description and positions of the characters. Some of it sure will feel pretty jarring at times. But it is quite toned down, nothing that should scare readers away. This is not the full-of-hearts Harry Potter that you and I grew up with. This is a mature adult book with adult issues. Much like the problems you and I have right now. 

We have all grown up and apparently so have The Trio.

Tread cautiously now Muggles, spoilers ahead.

Known Characters

Hermione Granger-Weasley is now the Minister of Magic. Very dutiful and strict and uber feminist. Loves to throw her weight around, and still loves Ron to bits even when he is being an idiot.

Ron Weasley now runs the Weasley Wizard’s Wheezes. Is still just as loyal and funny. Though has started to put on a slight belly is still everyone’s favourite uncle.

Harry Potter is now the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. Is still just as popular as ever. And is still just as confounded by his celebrity.

Ginny Potter is now as ever my favourite Potter character. And now more than ever really has more of a part to play. Lovely to bits, just lovely.

Professor Minerva McGonagall is now the Headmistress of Hogwarts and oh how I’ve missed her cold-yet-mushy heart.

Draco Malfoy is, well still a Malfoy and everything that goes with it.

New Characters

Harry & Ginny’s children –

James Potter II

Albus Severus Potter

Lilly Luna Potter

Ron & Hermoine’s children –

Rose Granger-Weasley

Hugo Granger-Weasley

Draco & Astoria’s son –

Scorpious Malfoy

Amos Diggory, Cedric Diggory’s father 

Delphi Diggory, Amos’s niece and caregiver

Plot Summary 

The book follows a popular fan theory that Voldemort and his Death Eater’s are not yet given up on their bad ways. People who believe there was an heir somewhere who would come and bring back pure and superior magic into the world. But it has been so long since Harry’s scar has hurt, our friends have actually begun to forget all of it. All was well.

It was Albus’ and Rose’ first year at Hogwarts. They both were just as excited about it and just as nervous on their first ride aboard the Hogwarts Train. Rose was sure this was a deciding moment in their lives. Their parents first met during this ride and they become friends for life and went to on to do big things themselves. This was not a decision to be made lightly. Rose, needless to say, was much like her mother. Albus, meets Scorpious they had a bunch of sweets together. Spoke for a bit and decided they’d be best friends right then and there. Much like Ron and Harry did.

--

This is where I will leave you. There is much more to the plot. Much more.. But this is one book I would want you to read for yourself. 

There are parts that will take you back to that time you read about Snape’s love the first time. 

There are parts that will take you back to a time when you visited Godric Hollow for the first time.

There are parts that will take you back to the time you saw James and Lilly for the first time. And that heartbreaking green light for the first time. 

There are times you might just weep a little. 

There are times when you would laugh out loud with Ron or Scorpious and any nervous joke about Mouldy Voldy. 

Those are the parts that you will read this book again and again and again for. This is a book for you. For the fans. For the Potterheads. For the millions of millennials who have grown up into adults themselves. But still carry a bit of magical world in their hearts.

It is for you I will say now. There is real magic for those who seek it. Always.

Day 32 : Political Absurdity

India, for anybody who is looking from outside right now, is a place which is equal parts inspiring and bad shit craycray. There are a bunch of things that the country is doing great right now. And there are also a bunch of others where we seem to be getting terrible-er at each passing moment.

I am very active in social media (who isn't) from way back when we were all chilling it up in Myspace. I'd carried over a lot of those friends to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Many of them I have known only within the confines of some sorta screen. I have seen their graduation speeches, liked their wedding pictures, and congratulated them on their first-borns. I have people in there from countries that I didn't even realize had working internet, one of my first friends was a Kyrgyz grad student who used to say her town did not have working electricity half the day.

But now, as much as I like social media. The world being in the state that it is. The internet is the most scary place you can be in right now. Twitter and Facebook bring the news to you at such a pace that half the time you do not have time enough to think over what any of it means. And the ones supplying you with the headlines have even less time to make any sense of it. They have to publish the flashiest news the fastest to keep the clicks coming. In their haste, missing out on the basic filter of weeding out the bullshit. The actual job they were being paid to do.

When I was a kid, my father used to badger on about how we should read the newspaper daily. Be informed of what is going in the world around you. He put that sort of knowledge in high regards. If you were well read, you probably have already made a good impression with him without even having to say a single word. I barely read anything related to current affairs back then. But now there is no escaping them. Every other post on your newsfeed is related to some random guy's rant over some random politicians' some random policy or comments on something. All of a sudden everyone is a Poli-Sci genius and knows everything about everything.

I am in a bunch of fandom groups and read-a-thon online and off late there are rarely any posts in any of them that has anything related to the themes they are supposed to be about. Almost all of them are against/pro some sort of political agenda. Especially the ones that have even a handful of Americans in them. God, seriously. What the hell is really happening over there. How are they even considering a guy like that to lead their country. Wait a min. We have a PM who was allegedly involved in a communal riot. And another group of politicians who have ruled and looted the country for ages. Then we have this other politician from a divisive party who demands his followers intentionally insult the deities of the other religion to incite violence. Just as an excuse to kill people. Umm. Well atleast it is sure now that this sort of absurdity is not limited to any specific country. Stupidity is spread around quite evenly.

When I look at my real world people. The ones that I know and actually speak with on a daily basis. I don't see this sort of anger or frustration or fear or hatred. We are all just a bunch of normal people with normal people problems. We all realize that we do not really have any control over who becomes the president or prime minister. We all realize that we do not really control who gets to eat what kind of meat, or follow which kind of religion, or fall in love with which gender of people. We realize that all those things are something that is to be considered at an individual level. At a family & friends level.

People have to figure out things on their own. And if you are not directly effected by the outcome of something. You shouldn't give a hoot what happens.

You see, there is a news going around in social media of people being assaulted because they were caught consuming cow meat. Now, before you go on a rant about how it is against religion. Let me point out that, people have been eating cows and pigs and rabbits and frogs and even animal poop, for quite some time. And I don't care one bit about any of them. I love chicken, I love lamb, I love fish. I have never eaten beef just because I am pretty sure if I ever did my Ma wouldn't allow me inside our home. Now why she wouldn't want us to eat cow meat, might be a religious thing. But the reason I do not have it is because I care about things that my family cares about. As simple as that. Your most opinions do not really get shaped from that one post in social media. Eventhough those are the ones that make the most noise and with the most shock factor.

If you suddenly seem to feel frustrated, angry or scared to live in your own country. Just try getting off the internet for a bit. Just get a sense of the people around you and in your community. There is a good chance that you wouldn't find just as many intolerant rants and abhorrent incidents of people randomly assaulting each other. Sure there are bad eggs in the lot. But they are too few of them when compare them with the actual normal people who really are just like you.

They might go with a different sounding name than yours, or pray to the invisible man in the sky in a different way, or even eat or love differently than you do. But you wouldn't see a lot many people being openly disgusted by them or even spewing hate at those different than you. Most often you wouldn't see any of them recognized being any different than you unless they themselves say they are. People are just people. Lame, stupid, naive chunks of meat who by some freak of nature can form intelligible words. Which they somehow ended up using to put each other down by a few tweets.

Is there any actual need to be this hateful. Is there any goal that anyone hopes to achieve by sharing a one hate speech by any politician for all your followers and friends to see. By doing that you are only really adding to the noise. There is already enough of that going around. I am not saying you are not entitled to have an opinion. But if you happen to have any opinion which are the kind that you wouldn't want to discuss among the real world people and have them run away scared from you. You probably should not post them all over the internet either. Just add this one rule into your social media consumption. Maybe that would reduce the frequency of vileness in your posts. The world be thankful to you for that.

The world is not really a scary place. It is us who end up painting it that way. Your world doesn't really revolve around who sits in the high chair in a fancy conference room somewhere. Your world is really built of the people in them. So I guess what I am asking of you here is, don't scare them crapless by your angry rants in social media. Instead try talking to them maybe. Real talk, not sarcastic social-media-comment-speak. Maybe you will find that you don't really have to murder them after all.

Day 31 : Closure

Remember the good old times? When things used to just end.

You woke up. Sleep ended.
You ate. Hunger ended.
You got the highest score. The game ended.

Things always came to a conclusion. Things did not linger indefinitely, hanging there like an axe of inevitability over your neck. You never know when or how things would end. But you know for a fact it is definitely coming.

Nothing you will do will ever come close to making anything last longer than it was supposed to. Still you do not always take efforts to end anything. You keep lingering on with it. Trying to hold on to that moment as long as you can. Lying to yourself this moment is worth holding on to. While you really are just scared of letting go. Afraid of what might come next.

I think that is what makes it more uncomfortable. The unknown. We do not know what next. And it is the not-knowing part that makes eternally clingy monsters/exes. There is no real guide map that takes you from this stop to the next. Life is not Pokemon Go. You do not know where you should be heading to. Or if at all the path you choose leads to that rare precious creature you are looking for. There are a few Squirtle and Weedle jokes I can think of here, I will try and hold off on those for now. If I can.

People expect a bit of grandeur in their lives. They expect the next moment to contain something far more glamorous shinier and than what they have now. Mostly the next moment doesn't. Mostly all you get is the same old moment you were always going to have anyway. Does that really mean that it has any less potential to be just as memorable?

Stability and ordinary has lost its charm. I still love those old-timey pictures. People doing ordinary day things, looking and being their ordinary selves. They extraordinary for us now. Aristotle and Ved Vyas are extraordinary for us now. But I am sure back in their day they did completely ordinary things like we do now. I think they all dug for boogers in their respective ordinary noses.

Being ordinary and doing ordinary things are just fine. What survives is that one extraordinary thing that you leave behind. That one thing is not any one moment that would just happen to be there in your life. A bunch of seemingly inconsequential decisions that you make along the way leads you to that one thing you will be remembered for. Most often you don't know what those are crucial when you actually are making them. But in the end, your life is defined by those decisions.

Don't expect a constant stream of grandeur in your life. Don't cling on to something that has already overstayed its welcome. Learn to let things go. Thank it for giving you a visit and forever cherish its memory. Then open the doors wide and wait for whatever comes next. Welcome whatever it is, as it is.

All the while keep working on that extraordinary masterpiece of yours. The one thing that survives way after you've left this augmented-reality game that you are a pawn of, called life.

Day 30 : Young Adult Fiction

I guess I am too late in the game here. I just discovered YA. Before you start babbling on about how either 1. it is the world's most amazing thing, or 2. how it is the worst thing that as ever happened to the world since hipster suspenders. I'll just say that I agree, with both of those opinions. In the last few weeks I've seen and/or read eight YA movies and/or books. Two I liked, a lot. Three were just bad. Four had a brilliant plot point but lost its way in the end. And then there was this one which was so good that let's just say it could easily have been good book regardless of the genre it was associated with.

Most YA stories are basically any Molly Ringwald movie meets noir french depression saga, with a happy ending. There is a group of young people, usually friends or soon to be friends, they do something wacky or adventurous that hardly any high schoolers really get to do. The people doing these stunts are usually the ones that come under the geeks or dorks in the food chain. Yeah right, a geek did a B&E into a house in the middle of the night and shaved an eyebrow off of a jock's while was asleep. Would YOU do that when you were in high school?

Then there is this some sad drama in the middle of the story. Real heart wrenching stuff. Something that would make even the hard boiled bros to go get the tissues. Most of the time those have something to do with cancer. Don't ask me why.

Then after all that, near the end of the story, the protagonist gets a moment of awakening. He learns or discovers something about his past or future or his true self. He unravels the mysteries of life. He (or she, for the PC crowd) realizes how all that has happened or will happen, is for a reason. He goes all Zen on you. This is sort of my most favorite and most hated part of this genre. I love happy endings. I love how people get to figure out things in their lives and get shit sorted out. But I also am a realist enough to know that real life doesn't have these moments of clarity.

Most of us are just specks of dust floating about in the air. Sometimes we are soaring with the wind. Sometimes we are on a pile of crap behind old Mac's backyard. Not a lot of us can tell that we have our lives sorted out, not when we were in age of  the YA-target-demographic. We barely got enough hair in our armpits or enough courage to talk to the opposite sex, whichever comes first.

That is why I guess we need these stories, I guess. That is why we need any stories, really. They help transport us into a world that is more magical than our own. There is no pessimistic, nihilistic outlook on life in that world. Everything is sweet, and young, and beautiful. Sometimes that is enough.

(Plus, it gets a few young people to read a book for a change.)

Day 29 : The Drawing Of The Three - Book Review

This is book two of the seven part epic fantasy series - DARK TOWER, written by the always-amazing Stephen King.

This book  follows the gunslinger in this pursuit of the all-important Tower. In the previous book we find our hero, Roland Deschain, has finally caught up with the Man in Black and has learnt the secretes of time and space and how The Tower itself is in the center of it all. We learn how 'he who holds the Tower, controls the future/past of the world'. The gunslinger's world has moved on. The things he has loved and cherished is nothing but a distant memory, he is the last of his kind. All he has now is his ka, his destiny, to reach the Tower and defeat the Crimson King. At the very end of his palaver with the Man in Black, the priest tells Roland of the three draws he's been granted. He will have to choose three companions, or ka-tet, that would ride with him during this voyage.

The beginning of the book is quite gritty and dry as any western imaginable. And to add to it quite dark and violent. In the end of which our hero looses three fingers and is poisoned by the venom of huge lobster-like creatures. Now he is weak, thirsty and all he can see for miles is just the dry sand, salty sea and hot sun. Still he drags on, towards the north, for some reason always north. He remembers the palaver with the Man in  Black in the dusty priest's robe. He remembers all of the knowledge he's gained from him. Roland also remembers how even the he wouldn't talk of the Crimson King. How even he seemed nervous to talk about him. All the more reasons for Roland to draw from the three doors that would come his way.

The doors are like a magical windows that opens into another time and somehow always into the same place. New York City. Our hero is tasked with going to their world and draw one person from there to join him on his quest.

~~~

Door #1 - The Prisoner 

When the Man in Black, draws the tarot card for the prisoner, Roland sees a man with a baboon riding on his back. The baboon whips like a slave and the man himself is strong and lanky but nonetheless helpless and chained. When Roland walks through the door, he finds the true prison this man has chained himself to. HEROIN. This man's name is Eddie Dean and he is an addict. The gunslinger walks into his mind, takes control of him. And somehow during the turn of events help each other, him by helping him rescue his equally addict elder brother. And for Roland by getting him the much needed medicine from Eddie's world. In the end, Eddie , the lean and lanky and intelligent addict begins to trust the gunslinger and agrees to join him in his adventure. Just because, he has lost call cause to return to his city, his world. There is nothing waiting for him back there, but another fix, and his own destruction.

Door #2 - The Lady Of Shadows

The second tarot card the Man in Black shows Roland is of a woman. A strong-willed, no nonsense woman who is brave and just and kind in equal measure. When the gunslinger walks into this door and into her mind, he finds himself in a deeper confusion than ever before. When he entered the prisoner's mind, there was shock and confusion and the hunger for another fix. Here too there was confusion and fear, but also a lot of hate. And in measures that did not seem to come from one complete mind. There seemed to two sets of personalities living in this one body. Detta Walker and Odetta Holmes. Alongwith a handicapped body, for the Lady was did not have any legs. She was strong and brave and cruel and smart. But was short two limbs. Roland liked her nonetheless, and decides he cannot proceed in his quest without earning the loyalty of her. And he does earn it in the end, before nearly killing himself.

Door #3 - The Pusher

The final tarot card the Man in Black shows him is of the Reaper. 'Death, but not for you, gunslinger' That is what the priest told him tauntingly. The Crimson King was surely not done with him just yet. When he walks into the third and final door, he returns to the same city New York, only into a more recent time to that of the Lady and of the kid he'd met during the first book - Jake. He loved Jake. He was like a son to him. And this guy behind the third door Jack Mort, a serial killer, the same one that 'pushes' the kid in front of a Cadillac. And also the same one that caused the destruction Lady's mind and loss of her two legs. Jack Mort has by far impacted more to Roland's fledgling ka-tet than anything else thus far. Roland doesn't appreciate that too much.

~~~

At the end of the book. Roland has finally assembled his posse and is now prepared to continue his quest for the Dark Tower. Sure he is short a few fingers, short of resources, short of bullets, is dying of poison spreading up his arm towards his heart. But now, he has the companions he's drawn from the other worlds. He is not alone now after a really long while.

Day 28 : The Awkward Dodge

I am the master of all beginnings.

Getting things started comes easy to me and I excel at facilitating getting more people kicked off at things. But when it comes to having closure on any of them I am a slave to bad timing and sheer procrastination. Nobody likes confrontations or awkward situations. I am no different. I avoid them like the plague. Actually there are times in my life when I have simply swerved away from people for years just to avoid an face-off. Most of the times I have been so successful for so long that I don't even remember why I am avoiding these people. It has become so much of a habit now I still avoid being a hundred meter radius around them like a coward's restraining order.

The reason this has turned out to be a big deal today is cause I am going this thing next weekend. And there is a chance that this person might be dropping by. I remember something weird happening between us. But no matter from what angle I look at it, I still cannot figure out what that thing was. We have no actual history together nor do we have a lot of mutual friends. Well there is one. She used date friend of mine. Who dumped her to get married to another (hotter) girl. Good times.

Um. Is that it? Am I avoiding this girl because one of my friends dumped her to do the dirty (legally) with somebody else? Nah I don't really think that's it. I have been around extended exes a bunch of times. That has never bothered me so far. Most of the time I do enjoy their company. We usually join forces and blast on our mutual acquaintance. More to his/her discomfort. Guys love doing that too, girls.

Anyway. This has been bothering me enough to make a whole post in here about. So clearly there is some merit to it. Until I figure this thing out, I think I am just going to leave this note here to everyone reading -
"If something ill happens to me during the next few weeks. Please let the world know, another innocent humble God-awesome sick-as-Shaft soul bites the dust to the fabled awkward-ian standoff. And do NOT tell me what happens in the latest episode of Game of Thrones. I swear I will freaking HAUNT you from my grave."

Day 27 : Temporal Paradox

A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or a logical contradiction that is associated with the idea of time and time travel.

And this is something that has been around for as long as we've had science fiction. Some of the best grossing movies of all time are based on time travel. Most of them end up the same way. How all our attempts to change the present only causes the past to repeat itself. Take 11.22.63 for example, both the book and the new TV show. It is like a cautionary tale for any nerd who dreams of travelling to the past and change it. It does have an brilliant ending though, will make you weep.

Time travel does that all the time apparently. Every single story they've written around it has ended with mourning and bitter disappointment. Including this week's Game of Thrones episode, which has got everyone weeping rivers of tears.

There is thing called causal loop. Doctor Who goes on and on about it a bunch of times. It is inevitable. You see your present is built by your past. So if you go to the past and change something to benefit your future, the present as you knew it doesn't exist any more. It becomes something else, something unforeseen. There are a lot different variations of this, the grandfather paradox, Novikov self-consistency principle. I confess I've only spent a little over a weekend on them. But I think I have learnt enough to say this much, this is way too complicated. There is no real way to just go in change what we want to and not mess shit up. 

Damn. That episode though. right in the guts. I remember right from the beginning in both books and show, everyone asking why Hodor used that one word for everything. Now we know. Because this wise-ass Bran went back in time used his mind of the past to get to his mind in the present to execute his will. Well the needle got stuck at 'Hold the door' which became Hodor, the only word the kid would ever know. And this is how people would know him in future, including Bran.

Paradox.

Your past crafts your present which is a stepping stone into your future. Things has to go through a series of specific sequence of events and actions. That is how things got to way things are now, and how things will turn in the future. Even a little deviation in those events are going to change a lot of things as we know it. People are trying to figure out a way out of this loop for ages. No progress yet. End of story.


There. We have just solved Time Travel. Pfft.

Day 26 : Success

Entitlement - it can be most easily defined as the feeling that somebody has that he should get everything that he desires, just by virtue of his desiring it.

This is something that we see a lot in people these days. People just expect for good things to miraculously happen to them. We are so narcissistic in our belief that our life is so star-studded awesome that all good things just have to come our way. We deserve every single happy thing that exists in this universe. You can be the biggest the laziest douchebag the world has ever known, but you will always expect your life to turn up like one of those feel-good movies. You sit on your ass all day, never even pretending to actually make an effort. But in the end, you always expect for your life to have the happy ending that all those famous people have.

I blame them stories that we are told when we are young. We read a three page article on how this guy became the next Mark Zuckerberg, but never really get to read the three hundred page chapter of what he had to do and sacrifice to get to become that. We see them successful people in Silicon Valley, or The Social Network, or Pirates.. , or Wall Street and we just get to thinking that to be successful the basic criteria that you check out is that you have to be smart and selfish and you definitely have to be a dick. If you each of  those, that's about it. All of the other stuff just falls into place. Nahhh.

One other theme in all of them stories is how those successful people in the end find themselves at the top of the mountain only to find that there is no one really around them to celebrate their success with. They are at the pinnacle of success but nobody who is close enough to them to give them a hug and a pat on their back to say, 'dude, you made it.' Now, you would say, that guy has millions for dollars laying around, do you think he even cares he has people around him. He can probably pay for random people to come to him and pat his back or even write a epic ballad singing his praises. He is frigging millionaire. He can do as he damn well pleases. Well, I guess he can.

But I also think all of us have this deep-set need to validated by the people we care for. We are not as insulated from our own feelings as we like to think. We may pretend to be the sarcastic cold hearted hipster jerks we are. However, we are all mush inside. And our feelings are the true chinks in our armors. But I just don't think that is our weakness really, that is mostly what makes our success more worthwhile. Being able to celebrate and share our success with people dear to us makes it more special.

Don't seclude yourself. Don't shed yourself of people close to you. They are not a burden. They are probably the things that would provide you with the crucial incentive to go through with that final push towards glory.

Day 25 : A World That Has Moved On

As mentioned in my previous post here I had just started on the epic Dark Tower series of fantasy books by Stephen King. It is an amazing tale, and is already becoming by favorite fantasy series of all time (Harry Potter will always be 'the one' for me yet. Can't help there, I grew up with it.)

This post is not really for showering praises on the Tower. That would probably come later. This here is regarding a specific phrase that sees repeated use in the book.

"The World Has Moved On"

This phrase is used by the hero in the book show how everything around him has been bespoiled and corrupted. The world is not what he knew once. None of the purity and innocence survives now. He is the only one that survives from the old world. And all that he has are memories of the times gone by. Sure, all this sounds very poetic and artistic and fantastical. How does this mean anything to anyone not reading this book. Well it does.

The world that we live in and the world that is depicted in the book, is not that different. We all have that something that has now firmly placed in the past. Something that is dear to us and now exists only in the past. All we can do is go back to those memories now and then and mournfully think of how things were. That is morose yes, on a personal level yes. But then when you come to think of it on a grander scale. Everything has moved on. The world we see now what our forefathers witnessed, nor would be what our children would live in. The world moves on. Nothing is constant, everything is fleeting. We get used to something in life, and soon we see it evolve into something else, or something take its place.

Sometimes it maybe a good thing. To welcome something new into our lives, we must say goodbye to something else. Our destinies are shaped by the choices that we make to change/better our lives. Or by not choosing to make those changes. But changes will happen, either you choose to make them happen, or they happen to you. The world has a tendency to not stay fixed to your needs or desires. It is a river that flows on, that moves on to deeper valleys. Most of these valleys are deep in sorrows, but now and then they raise to unfathomable heights and take you along with it.

Our destiny is not what you see. It is much beyond our own comprehension. It is not that next promotion, or that six digit salary, or that unattainable lover. Our destiny, our ka, reaches further than all of that. And most of our lives we never really understand what it is ourselves. Most of us know more about the sum total of our lives after we've passed on. We are remembered by the memories we leave behind of us. That is the only world where we survive eternally.

Memories have longer shelf life than anything else that we can create in a life time. I don't suppose there aren't anyone anymore who knows what the heroes in all of those legends and fables look like. But they survive still. Their memories survived ages even after their descendants withered away. This world is theirs too now, even though their doesn't exist any more. That is what I hope for. A world of mine that hasn't moved on yet.

For, my friend, there are other worlds than these.

Day 24 : The Gunslinger - Book Review

I think I have mentioned this here once before as well. I am a big fan of the writer Stephen King. He is one of the first writers whose work I became addicted to. Over the years I have discovered more writers and genres that I've liked and enjoyed immensely. But King would always be the one writer who I can honestly showed me how you can pick up just about any book and see yourself disappear into a world of your own. A secret world only know to you and the writer himself.

King's books are mostly him picking up one freakish camp fire horror story and giving it a tale of its own. And with the extensive writing chops as his. Any story he touches become a classic in itself, creating legions of fans with every new book. He has written extensively in horror, thrillers, drama, with hordes of fans reading everything that he output. I am glad to call myself one such fan, a Constant Reader as he calls his fans. And as a loyal Constant Reader I suppose, I shouldn't be putting of reading the work that King himself considers his best work - THE DARK TOWER

THE DARK TOWER is fantasy series of books writer by King over a period of nearly three decades. He came up with this idea when he was at the young age of 19. Yes, the age when you and I were taking long showers and getting rejected/ignored by every hot girl you come across. King was coming up with ideas that would mesmerize of thousands of readers in coming years. Has written in detail about the discovery of this book concept in the Introduction of the book. This book is the revised 2003 edition of the book, in which King polishes a few plot points and hints at the upcoming story events and better portrays the character of the protagonist of the series - the awesome gunslinger - Roland of Gilead.

The story revolves around Roland's epic search for the Tower, a mystical place that acts like a linchpin that holds all of creation in order. The one who hold the Tower holds shapes the destiny of the Universe. In the book, the world has "moved on", things are not the way that you and I, or Roland himself, has known. His voyage into the Mid-World and Out-World in search of this elusive Dark Tower is jam packed with lore and magic and mind-twisting realism. There are parts in the prose that you begin to feel the thirst and heat that Roland has to ride through. The desert is barren, dry and cruel. Our gunslinger has to face through with grit, for that is his duty. That is his ka.

At the begin of this book, we find the gunslinger making/dragging his way through the immense desert in pursuit of the Man in Black. A man of magical craft, and guile. Someone who could give him the directions to the Tower he seeks. But the gunslinger knows information like this wouldn't come easy. He has rode for eons, picking up scraps of information and trail of campfires that the Man in Black leaves behind.

Then we meet Allie, a bartender who works in a broken down drinking hole in a nearly deserted crap hole of a town called Tull. She is smitten by the rugged gunslinger. She gets closer to him. He acknowledges her affections, with thoughts of the Tower and the Man in Black always in the back of his mind. In the end, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Then we meet Jake, a kid of 12. A kid who does not belong this world in between worlds. He is a smaller blonde version of the gunslinger himself. And infinitely more innocent. Roland likes this kid a lot. He refuses to choose between the kid and the Tower, but in the end he is made to choose. Unfortunately.

Then we meet the Man in Black himself. He is lean and tall and conniving. He knows Roland has been pursuing him for years. He knows more about Roland than the gunslinger himself cares to remember. And with his magic, he even knows of the ka-tet Roland would band together in his pursuit of the Tower. He introduces Roland to the tarot cards and the prophecies they hold for him. He tells Roland about the true significance of the Tower. Of how Tower holds supreme over Time and Size. The universe is shaped by the size and time of contemplation. The Tower is bridge that connects and control it all.

The Tower is where he will meet his destiny. His ka.

This is an amazing book. A solid build up for the origins of what looks to be a mind blowing journey ahead. I blitzed through this book, hungry for more.

I agree with King. This has got to be his best work. Thank you, Steve-o.

Day 23 : JON SNOW LIVES - Book & Show Theory

Snow breathes again. Hoohah!
I've been waiting so long to write this. Damn.

I'd read the books and it ended with Snow lying in a pool of his own blood. I'd completed the TV show and even that ended with him laying in a pool of his own blood stabbed my his brothers of the Night's Watch. Ever since then no matter where I go, or who I meet, I have been blabbering on about how he will come back. No matter they asked for it or now.

There were all these hints and clues all over the books that predict how even after all those multiple stabs to gut, Jon Snow will still come out alive. It becomes more obvious in show. I mean there is no other character throughout the series that has ever had anything substantial to do with the White Walkers. Nobody has fought with them. Nobody has killed one (in the books, only Samwell Tarley is actually shown killing one though). Nobody else has been so adamant lecturing everyone how the wights are our real enemies. No one. They can't just built such a huge story arc dependent one character only to kill them of just like that. Makes no sense, they would just have to redo the exposure with somebody else, which at this late juncture would just confuse the audience.

The last few of minutes of the episodes is jam packed with little information and nuance. Which I am sure we would be analyzing very closely throughout the week. Ghost was awake when Melisandre enters the room, how come he just suddenly dozed off when she started the ritual. Throughout the last episode and this one, the Ghost's eyes were blood red, angry (and glowing?). But at the very end of the episode he sits up, he feels a lot more docile and eyes weren't that vivid. Jon Snow woke up only after the direwolf let out a cry.

Me thinks - Jon Snow is a Warg.
Me thinks - he went into Ghost's skin due to shock of getting stabbed and was stuck there not knowing how to come back to his own body.

It took Bran a long while to figure out how to come and go into Hodor's body. And he had help. Jon Snow hasn't even yet realized he is a skinchanger. As per her own admission, Melisandre's magic was weak when it comes to bringing back someone from death. But her magic in someway helped Jon to enter his own body again. Or well, she just gave him a new haircut, one that we can see on him for the rest of the season at the least. We will soon know.

Another theory that I believe in is of Jon being the real Azor A'hai. Stannis Baratheon was strong and just and very kingly. But he never really seemed like the kind of character that sticks till the very end. Plus his sword never really pulsed heat like the legendary Lightbringer was supposed to. All it used to was glow. While we all know Jon Snow's Longclaw is already made of ancient Valyrian steel, and has already shattered a White Walker to smithereens. His sword can easily be the Lightbringer they talk about in the legends.

There are still a lot that is unknown. Mainly regarding what has changed in Snow. Is he still going to be the babe in the woods we know, or is his personality itself going to have a reboot. If you remember during Arya's escape from the Brotherhood Without Banners we saw Beric Dondarrion brought back to life. He was clearly not stronger than The Hound, but he still fought fearlessly only because he had Thoros of Myr to bring him back from the dead using his magic. Beric says every time he is brought back, he looses some of his soul (umm Horcruxes in Westeros?) It would be interesting to see if the Night's King theory holds up at all. Or by some twist of fate he goes and joins them. Nah.

I still believe in R + L = J (it was no coincidence Lyanna showed up in Bran's dream).
I still believe in Three-headed Dragon (remember Daenery's hallucination in the House of  Undying).
And I still believe Jon Snow has a lot more role to play in the Game of Thrones.

There are a whole lot things that can happen between now and winter. Them bring back Jon Snow to life this early in the season can only mean there is another big battle to fought this season. And it is going to awesome!

Plus, for a culture where kinslaying is one of the big sins you can do. It seems almost every big player in Westeros has killed atleast one blood relative. Euron. Ramsay. Bad boy.

Plus, The Mountain is a badass,

Plus, the dragons came this close to eat Tyrion's head off.

Plus, Davos, the Wildlings, the Red Priestess all are at Castle Black.

As for us, we will all be waiting impatiently for the next episode.
This is going to be a tough week ahead for us Northerners.

Day 22 : Confoundists

con·found (kənˈfound/ verb) 
cause surprise or confusion in (someone), especially by acting against their expectations.

Life is an immensely complicated and deceptive beast. Every single moment that you'd hoped would turn out good, life eventually turns it into something entirely different. No amount of preparation and virtuous effort form your side even made a dent on the trajectory that life has assumed for itself. It will be as it will be, and you don't have any say on it.

I have been expecting this for so long now that I have actually noticed that nothing actually surprises me anymore. Nothing actually fazes me or rattles my stride. I have begun to unconsciously always expect a surprise around the corner that would flush all of my efforts down the drain and make me to start all over again. Square one isn't actually where I am sent back to, it usually is where I am usually. And I have made such a comfy nest down here, square one is really not half bad.

You see, I have seen people dream about the places they hope to be, the goals they hope to achieve or the things they wish to hold in their own hands. People seeing themselves in a better place in life than where they are right now. And for me, right here and right now, is reality. Real world is where all my troubles prizes are, here is where I should be too.

When people compare themselves with other who seem to have it better than themselves. I sort of compare myself with people with much unfortunate circumstances than myself. There is always that one day in life that you were down and disheartened. Deeply sad about the way things were. If your today is even a tiny bit better than that day. Dude, you're thriving. Being successful in life does not always mean having the best of everything and being famous and rich and prosperous. Sometimes it just mean being able to find content and joy and essential wonder in the life that you live than be bogged down with the regret of not having the life that you hope to live.

Life will keep on throwing curve balls at you. You will always be expected to find new ways to deflect them. And you need to be swift at it too, cause before you know it life would have already launched another covert attack into your happy place.

Always expect surprises. Always know in your very being that things will not go as you think it will. Always be prepared for any darn outcome in life. Prepare yourself. The surprises that life throws at you are not meant to confound you and confuse you into submission. They are to empower to succeed.

If something happens that you were never really prepared for - fall down, lift yourself up, and get back at it. Give it another try. If not the second or third or even the tenth, somewhere down the line you will succeed.

And succeed you will. For you are not rattled anymore, you are a Confoundist.

Day 21 : The Martian Chronicles - Book Review

The sci-fi world is field with a lot of absurd stories. Most of them tacky and campy filled with plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon. But some times along the way comes a book that is filled such character and gumption that no matter how much you'd like to be the cynic, you still end up being mesmerized by the sheer scope of the book.

And Ray Bradbury with this pint sized masterpiece achieves the improbable. He will make you believe that at the core of science fiction, lies true humanity with all of its foibles.

I am a big fan of the Twilight Zone show. And this book really reads like something like that show. It is sort of an anthology series that is set like a chronicles of the events that occur on the red planet since the first landing of humans from planet Earth. As each landing progresses and more men land on the new planet, we see changes occur on Mars. And as in Earth, the home specie dwindles and dies away as it is on our own planet when man takes over new landmass. We take over and destroy everything strange to us of the conquered.

Mars is described to be inhabited by a very intelligent and cerebral specie that lives in harmony with nature and enjoys the mellow life. For your reference purpose, remember the Na'vi people from the Avatar movie. (Bradbury did it first.) The couple chapter of man's visit to Mars did not end well for men. But then the Martian's were the big dog during that time. And they shared the sense of ownership with our specie. But loss of those first visitor's didn't stop naive Earthlings to put an end to attempting to colonize the new planet. As the new visits became more frequent, the home specie's population started to dwindle. The cause, a stupid strange disease brought over by the Earthlings and their rockets. A disease that has been found a cure for decades ago by scientists on Earth. But for Martians it proved deadly, rendering most of cities planet dead or dying.

The sudden demise of the Martian race, brought forth heightened influx of Human expeditions into Mars. Around this time is one of my favorite chapter in the book. The protagonist, Spender, is a archaeologist who lands along with a crew of assorted pricks who starts messing up the serenity of the Martian wastelands. He doesn't like it, wanders off into the barrens finds a dead city with a house with a huge collection of Martian books and arts. He starts learning more about their culture and discovers new respect for them. And doesn't like the idea of mankind coming over to this planet and destroying everything with their mining and other corporate interests. He plots a plan to delay the mining expeditions by a few decades till the scientists and archaeologists get a chance to research and learn more about the Martian's history. Captain Wilder, their leader, is the only who understands his plight. But even he cannot let Spender have his way, and he himself cannot name a single reason why he shouldn't. All he knows is that's what is expected of him..

There is a lot many more incidents and events detailed out in this book. Until the very end, in the year 2026, Earth is nothing more than planet torn and shredded with war and atomic bombs. Human specie is only a handful. Martian specie is all but forgotten. Mankind and humanity just words in books.

This is basically a cautionary tale about the progress of science and how mankind's conscience would not ever catch up with the developments in science. Love, hate, memory, greed, hunger, envy, distrust, all are very much deep rooted into our souls. And until we ever get around to discover a means to live in harmony amongst ourselves. There is no hope for us to live amongst other races in other planets.

I do hope we do figure it all out. I sure would love to visit Mars, if that is possible one day. I hear sandboarding is going to be real fun down there.

Day 20 : To Jerks with Love

You knew your mother wasn't kidding when she told you that you could be anything in the whole wide world, if only put some heart into it. You and a very few other extraordinary people took this advice to heart, and chose to be a prick.

I realize it is the in-thing to be the most sarcastic, mean mouthed person you can be. The more people you are able to put down any given day is going to sway your position in the food chain of popularity in your squad. You were always preparing for a life of pure asshatery. You were way ahead of your time. While us normal beings were watching The Breakfast Club and rooting for the students. You Sir, were watching it to study the quintessential authoritative asshole in the form of Paul Gleason. But you Sir, used it as your bible for the rest of your life.

It must have been a very difficult to invest so much time and effort into coming up with new and innovative ways to be a make somebody's life a living hell. I am sure there must have been at least some advanced level of planning involved in it. Some of y'all do make it seem a whole lot simpler than it is. Kudos to you for that. And for others who actually have had to strive to be the evil mastermind they are today, know this, your hard work is very much appreciated. Everyone can have an asshole, but you kind Sir, took every step conceivable to become one completely.

Something must have gone amazingly right in your life for you to be genius that you are now. Some might say that you were mostly probably dropped on your head when you were a child. But nah, I know better. You just spent hours and hours in your basement alone, bundled in your many stale clothes for weeks with nobody to talk to as a child. Nobody else could handle your level of extraordinary people skills. And you put all that lone time to good use. You became the best lone prick the world would ever see. You honed your specific set of skills for the betterment of the world around you and be the kind of role model that the kids these days need. They will need to learn so much from you. You are the one thing that stands between the world and total annihilation of sarcastic douchebaggery.

If there aren't many around you who say thank you for your service. Let me do that now, thank you Sir. Thank you for all the wonderful sacrifices you have made for making another human being cry herself into sleep. You must be so proud of yourself. I am sure your parents are too. They must boast to all of their friends and neighbors about the big person their loving child has become. If only they knew your number or where you live, I'm sure they would have said this to you themselves. After all its only been a year since you gave them a visit. Another sacrifice I am sure pains you deeply.

Thank you for being the dick that you are Sir.
You make the world the shitty place it is. Take a bow.

Day 19 : It's Kind of a Funny Story - Book Review

Okay this is weird. I never thought I would like a Young Adult book so much. I have made fun of the absurd amount hype associated with them and the hordes of crazy fans who flock in support of their favorite actors who play leads in the movie based out of these books. Some of those actors are really horrible. And some of the books itself are also terribly written. They pick up one unique, and frankly amazing, plot and stretch it to such an extent that they butcher the very thing that made it awesome.

But. This book is something different.

Just like many others I came to know of this book after I'd seen the movie based on it which I'd only seen that because it starred Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts. It was a decent movie. Had its own foibles as most YA movies do but some of the dialogues in the movie felt very precise and well structured, which could very well have been taken from a well-written book. This was a clearly YA movie but the characters didn't seemed to know that. The dialogue and plot could have been from any average movie and still work just as good. That got me to pick up the book to see for myself if this change was something that writer of novel intended originally or something the screenwriters pushed into their script. I know now, it was the writer of the novel who wrote them like that.

Author - Ned Vizzini.
Quck note - He himself suffered from clinical depression for most of his life and sadly committed suicide in 2013, at the age of 32.

The book is about a very intelligent overachieving teenager who works his butt off to get into a prestigious New York prep school. And once he is in can't cope with the pressure and stress linked with having to deal with all the work and the lack of social life that comes along it. He starts developing issues relating to people around him. He stops eating or sleeping, and spends all of his waking hours in a limbo worrying about how he can mess his whole life up by failing at this school. He then one night then decides he cannot take it anymore and decides to kill himself by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge.

Good sense prevails. He somehow manages to call up a suicide hotline and they help him get checked into emergency care. They take him in as a mental patient and put him on suicide watch. But the hospital is under renovation so he is bunked along with the adult ward. That's where the whole story unfolds, a fifteen year old high school kid amidst a bunch of adults with serious mental issues.

In the book seems like there a bunch of homages for real people in the writer's life, in the sense that they are all largely believable. Even the patient who thinks gravity doesn't exist anymore and that anytime now we would all just stop sticking to the Earth and just fall off into the sky. There are a bunch of wonderful ideas and interest experiences where the writer explains the sense of loneliness and hopelessness that someone with this illness would have to face in life. It all feels very frank and straight from the heart. Like how life for someone like this could be so much better for them if they simply just have the love and support of their family and friends.

I really like those parts in any book. The part where the writer says exactly what he feels. No B.S. This book has a lot of that. It is not overdone. Nor overly dramatic. Nor trying to be too funny or hip or in with the crowd. It is just right. (last couple pages notwithstanding)

It is good, mostly so cause I believe it was just being honest. There isn't anything in it that you will feel too jarring or something that would make you think that, yep this is definitely a book written for kids. Cause its not. Sure, it would be a book that would do a world of good to kid, if he/she read it, especially if she thinks she is unworthy. But I suppose this is a book for everyone who thinks that their life is too tough to handle at times.

I'd recommend this book to every newbie readers, in fact all readers even. It is a good story.

And to Mr Vizzini I'd like to say, you had a precious light in you. It is unfortunate that the darkness in you stopped you from seeing it. RIP.

Day 18 : Quidditch Through The Ages - Book Review

This one actually feels like a Hogwarts book. The language, the tone, the characters and most importantly - Quidditch.

This is written as a sort of serious non-fiction book that jots down the history of how the game has developed in its present form. As anything in the wizarding world, there was never really a hope of keeping anything serious. Almost every other page has a funny incident that happened with the game, or of the many quirky character that played their part in the games creation. I especially enjoyed the Daily Prophet excerpts by Rita Skeeter. She clearly was a reliable honest journalist as ever. (Not.)

Though my favorite in the whole book happens just a couple pages into it.

Yes you read that right. That is from the checkout page from the Hogwarts Library, with doodles and all. With actual entries from Ron, Hermoine, Malfoy, Padma Patil and Neville Longbottom. If you even wondered what their handwriting would look like. Well here you go, courtesy J K Rowling. I sort of wish they'd actually brought in an handwriting expert who actually got paid to devise what their handwriting would look like after reading all of the seven books and understand each of their characters.

And for those who ship "Draco+Hermoine", look up there, Draco has up and about getting that book as soon as Granger was done with it. Nobody else hurried to get this book as him. What if this was during the time he was Seeker for Slytherin and his checking out the book after our favorite know it all was just a coincedence, you say. Well, screw you. You can't prove anything.

There are also a bunch of other easter eggs through out the book. All glorious, all taking you back to simpler time where wasn't any flying dragons and blood-thirsty Red Priestesses. Hogwarts was where magic was good and bad. But mostly good, cause good always prevailed. In Hogwarts the good did not get beheaded in the first book itself in front of both his daughters. GRRM. Beep.

Anyways, as for the history of Quidditch there are a lot of minute details and specifics in here that I didn't know before. And I am sure if we did ever manage to build a Nimbus 1000, we would definitely this book as the go-to guide to build our own Quidditch Pitch.

I loved this book. I love the whole library set, in fact. It all feels so sweet to back to school now.

This is home.

Day 17 : Go home

“I don't know how I can be so ambitious and so lazy at the same time.”

Damn, that is so freaking apt for me right now. There are so many things that I dream of doing and experiencing, and most of that gets dumped into the back burner almost always. Just look at this blog. I am even not able to write here as often as I would like to. As a few of you have kindly pointed out, I am getting more consistent now. And I thank you all who come read here. But yet damn, I could still do so much better. And remember that "pet project" I was working on last year? Still not even close to being complete. There are a lot of things in life that I am not doing any to. There is always that nagging voice in the back of my head, "aren't you forgetting something?" Of course I am lady, what you think?! (Dunno why that voice inside my head always sounds like Meryl Streep.) You woke up today, planning to this, this, this and this. And how much have you actually got yourself to do? None. 

I mean don't get me wrong. I am a killer at work. There is no freak mistakes happening there, none whatsoever. I am good at what I do, and there is no way I am letting anything make things otherwise. But that is all that I can state in utmost confidence. A lot of people that I know and/or work with have to the same thing to say, we are all working way too much that we should. Almost everyone I know is doing atleast a couple hour each week than they are supposed to. Most of the people I know, still check on their work mailers way past their bed times. Even I have started to check up on my mails early in the morning. And I was the kind of guy who'd make fun of a thing like that. 

I suppose all this could be written off as being part of growing up. 

There comes a point, when at least the six of the last ten recent calls work related. (Who calls anyone at all these days.)

There comes a point, when an old friend texts you, you automatically start thinking up excuses for avoiding a meet-up. (And that is even before you reply with a Hi.)

There comes a point, when the best accomplishment you've done all week would be a good job from your folks at office. (And getting none at all, turns you into the Hulk. Inside your head of course)

There comes a point,  when the worst thing to happen to you all week is wake up healthy on a Monday. (And worse still is waking up sick, but still have to go to work because you have something urgent to do.)

The thing is. of late, I am listening to a lot of mishaps happening that are work related. We are all taking up too much on ourselves. Working long hours, And treat every single case of work-related hurdles like a matter of life and death. While honestly it is not. Not everyone amongst work at a place where every single mistake that you do cause actual physical harm to anyone. Stress is par for the course, if you work as a paramedic or in law enforcement etc. But if you spend the majority of you time at work sitting on your backside, you really shouldn't be spending every waking moment treating like you're wading through a mine field.

Don't take everything so seriously. Every once in a while, get up from your cubicle and walk around your floor. Take the time to interact with folks around you and actually make a human connection. That I've found relieves the stress in a big way. Also I've found people are very generous with laughter at work, they would laugh at practically anything. No matter how cringe worthy your joke was. That I've found also boosts your morale in a big way. 

Yet, if at all you goof up, and end up spending over 12 hours at a stretch in your cubicle. Just relax for a moment, take a breath. And tell yourself - "No one is going to die. The world will survive if this one thing didn't happen right now. Come back tomorrow and have a go at it again. Right now, you need to get out of here. Go home. Remember that place?"

Don't overstretch and over-stress yourself over anything, mate. Nothing in life is worth it.

Go home!

Day 16 : The Tales of Beedle The Bard - Book Review

It has been over two years I've reread the Harry Potter books in its entirety. There are time when I pick one of them up when I passingly see a bit of the movies or overhear that awesome soundtrack somewhere. It is like some sort of strange bond that we of the Harry Potter generation have with these books. We grew up with the magical trio, were of the same age when the first book was published and, read the few books together right in step with Harry himself. So in a big way JKR and her creations have been a part of our lives in a big way.

The conclusion of the books, and movies was, honestly, a bit too shocking for us. It was like the end of an era. Like the demise of somebody that we have known most of our young lives. And just a mere sentence in the end of the book saying 'All was well..' in the wizarding world wasn't enough for us. We wanted to be sure that Harry and Ron and Hermoine, even little Albus were doing well. It was very important for us to know that, to live our own lives guilt free.

So I guess by her infinite generosity JKR puts out a few hints and tidbits of what is happening over at the Wizarding world every once in a while. Just keep our HP fix going. These collection of books are one such acts of generosity by her. More so now, because all the funds from this collection of books from Hogwarts Library is donated to Lumos, a charitable trust for impoverished children.

Now onto the book itself.

First off, it is a beautiful book. With brilliant illustrations and gorgeous artwork. I loved it.

It is like what a real wizard or witch would read to their children at bedtime. The stories have their own share of magical intrigue and wonder, like the fairy tales of the muggle world. Some of the stories by Beedle does feel like it would have a counterpart in the one of the many stories that you yourself might have read/heard somewhere when you were a kid. For example, the story of "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" is very much like a story I'd read in a collection of Russian fairy tales that I had when I was a kid. That book was filled with so much heart and love. It worked in that book, and it works just as well in this one.

The stories are very sweet and filled with innocent imagination, as any fairy tale is supposed to be. I found even the "Warlock's Hairy Heart" was something that you could very well read to your kid during bed time. Would very well do them good to teach the  how to be a better human being - wizard or otherwise.

Book is said to be from the Hogwart's library itself, translated from the ancient runes by Hermoince Granger and contains notes by Albus Dumbledore at the end of each tale where he lists his own observations about the history of lore and of the importance the tale had in Beedle's and in the morality of much of the wizarding world. The notes do shed a light on what was going on within the Professor's mind during the months before the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. The latest of the notes is supposed to be at least eighteen months before the tragic incident, even the slightest recollection of which still sort of pains a little.

There is mention of horcruxes, animagi, Elder Wand, Transfiguration, love potions and all the other wonderful spells and magical items we all love and adore. This is such a beautiful trip back down memory lane. More so, because I know all my favorite characters are still hale and hearty when Albus's writing his notes.

The thought of just  that does make me smile. All is well in Hogwarts.