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.