Alice in Wonderland

SOme stills from Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Love the pictures, but Johnny Depp is so not the Mad Hatter!

Bill killed himself

David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel. Sadly, Bill did not die because of the 5-point-palm-heart-exploding-technique. RIP.

This is how politicians abuse taxpayer money

This is really absurd. Make an ailing ex-MP's wife a Minister of State so that the old man can get free medical care?! As if they are distributing their ancestral wealth instead of taxpayer money! When most of the country cannot even afford proper medical care, why should we pay for a politician who has probably lined his arteries with the fat of the land? If Pranab wanted to help Munshi, he should have paid the hospital bill himself! Its appalling, the way the so called 'clean' PM has also agreed to this. He is just as corrupt as the rest!

Fabulous

The new Star Trek movie is great. Review soon.

Kamala Das - RIP

Until I found you,
I wrote verse, drew pictures,
And, went out with friends
For walks…
Now that I love you,
Curled like an old mongrel
My life lies, content,
In you...

I never understood that emotion when I first read these lines. When I did, I appreciated them even more.

Hubble flies again

The Hubble space telescope is flying alone again, after its fifth and final repair. Hope the Hubble lasts for as long as possible, and continues to dazzles us with its brilliant glimpses into the universe! Sampler:

Places

I've always wanted to travel, and the hubbysaurus has made it possible to travel more often. He loves travelling as much (if not more), and we've been to some nice places including Goa, Kerala, Thailand and Singapore. I will try and post some pictures and experiences later. Still, Peru remains on top of my wish list - if markets continue to improve, maybe next year! In the meantime, a spa vacation sounds like a good idea, don't you think?

Look what's happening to me

I seem to be able to find no time to do some thing that I used to really enjoy - I don't blog, I hardly listen to music, I don't read books at the same pace and definitely not with the same excitement levels, and worst of all, I think about work all the time. Damn it, I have turned into a workaholic!

Blue

I need books

Came across the BBC Top 100 books in the UK (2003). I’ve read only 45 :(.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (Read)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Read)
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (Read)
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (Read)
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (Read)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (Read)
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (Read)
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (Read)
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (Read)
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (Read)
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger (Read)
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (Read)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (Read)
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (Read)
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling (Read)
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling (Read)
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling (Read)
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck (Read)
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (Read)
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (Read)
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (Read)
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (Read)
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert (Read)
40. Emma, Jane Austen (Read)
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (Read)
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (Read)
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh (Read)
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell (Read)
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell (Read)
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Read)
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (Read)
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (Read)
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough (Read)
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (Read)
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding (Read)
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind (Read)
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce (Read)
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy (Read)
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (Read)
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac (Read)
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo (Read)
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (Read)
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer (Read)
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (Read)
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie (Read)

A unique experience

I am not too fond of Carnatic music - I've always assumed that it is too staid, rigid, and to top it all, usually sung in a language that I don't understand. Being a music and lyrics person, I've always been baffled by the lyrics (or lack thereof) in this ancient art form. So, I went to watch Margazhi Raagam - a movie that was simply a 2-hour Carnatic concert (by Bombay Jayshree and T.M. Krishna) - simply out of curiosity.

To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I 'd heard Bombay Jayshree before, and it was lovely watching her sing- the sight of those straining vocal chords is still fresh in my memory. T.M. Krishna, on the other hand, was a revelation! If Jayshree was Gilmour - perfect, serious, and solemn, Krishna was Freddie Mercury - vibrant, joyful, a rock star. I enjoyed every moment of his performance - the audible gasps of appreciation for his musicians, the self satisfied sighs of approval for his own performance - this man was having a blast and it showed! I would have never thought that a Carnatic musician could be so mesmerizing!

That said, I still cant relate to Carnatic music like I do to rock, primarily because the lyrics still baffle me. I need to be able to connect to the song, and while Carnatic can be comforting, it is still only vaguely so. Ju, sing me some good lyrics, will you?

Song for the day

Ban the monkey virus!

Scientists have now found a way to infect monkeys with HIV so that they can test anti-HIV vaccines on them. Reminds me of this movie where monkeys are taught to operate flight simulators while they are exposed to extreme radiation. Reality can be worse than life. Killing animals is one thing, but is human life so valuable that other life forms have to be tortured so that we can have a better place to live in?

Nice strategy

This is hilarious. So is Amit's reaction - At least some relief will come.

Public memory

NDTV's attempt to silence a lone blogger has united bloggers against the channel and Ms. Dutt. The blogosphere is buzzing with protests, and bloggers much more prolific and worthy than I have written extensively about it. I'd just like to ask one thing - how long before we forget this Mr. Kunte The same time it took us to forget 26/11, or the train blasts before that, or the Satyam scandal? The thing with public memory is that it is very short lived. Sooner or later, the rest of us will return to our normal lives. What happens to the ones who were actually affected by the issue?