Variety is the spice of life

 I vaguely remember reading about this book a long while back but wasn't sure if i had finished. When i started reading again, i couldn't recollect any major situations or plot lines except for the fact that it was a medical thriller. After finishing the book, i realized why i hadn't bothered much!! Michael Crichton is one of my favorite author right next to Arthur Hailey. They both have penchant for doing deep dive into the respective genres which would put a PhD scholar to shame. There will be way too much information that would be bombarded on the reader, page after page, that at times it would feel as if you are reading a theory paper on the subject, albeit presented in an interesting manner! Wiki says Crichton was about 26 years old when he wrote this story, under the pseudonym of Jeffrey Hudson. May be he predicted his fame down the line and despite winning awards for this book, he knew the topic was at best controversial. The book deals with the big taboo in American...

A while back junior was asking which countries were at war in the ongoing conflict. We were listing down the number of countries and the next inevitable question came in - why so many are at war. A we continued on that topic, i was wondering how many are actually not at war!!  Couple of decades back, Africa would always be in the news solely for war related topic. Like Weather, International news, Business, Sports, if there was a section for war in news, it would most probably about some African country were conflicting ethnic tribes would be hell bent on clearing out the other, some army coup, dictator being thrown out and getting replaced with another equally if not more bad one. Locally, it would be some unrest or stone pelting or occasional infiltration/ gun fight in Kashmir, that would be hogging the headlines. It would be followed by number of soldiers martyred or army causalities. But in recent times, the news seems to have slightly changed. Yes there are warring nations, be...

Usually the love stories shown in movies have villains, who could be the very parents of the lead pair, or circumstances or their would be's, forced fiance/e so on and so forth. In this movie, if you literally had to put a finger on the villain, it has to be the very character or personality of the lead pair(s) involved!! Adhuvum, you might've seen triangular, even quadrangular love stories. This one is a tetrahedron love story to say the least!! Wonder how in the world, the director explained the story to the producer to get this project financed. The hero was in love with a girl during his school days, who was in love with his friend. His love story breaks up even before he could propose. The heroine is in love with her class mate and her story doesn't even take off due to lack of response from the guy side. Simplea thaana iruku. idhuku edhuku tertrahedron nu feel panreengala. Inimay thaan matter. The heroine and hero are set for a blind date by the hero's elder siste...

This book is the penultimate one in the William Warwick series, which culminates with End game, the first book i had read and posted about in this space, from the series. The story begins with a British national, a wealthy and well connected individual at that, who is assigned the task of mediating a defense contract for the British with the Saudi's. The contract has lot of competition in the form of French and Italian delegations. With British and French being the finalists, the responsibility of swaying the result towards Britain lies with that person who reaches out to a shady contact in Riyadh and before he could realize, he is arrested for a murder he didn't commit, but which happened in front of his eyes, as that of the Italian mediator, who gets killed by the son of the Saudi minister. Having been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, he realizes the murky world of politics is not for individuals like him, but for heavy weights who always have higher targets in mind...

I've been noticing this more recently, possibly because the pattern is repeating across almost every movie or drama series, but it seems to be only getting worse with every other release. The directors are hell bent in proving a point that they are not just making dark themed movies/series but literally want to stamp that message across every frame on screen. The species called light boy is long extinct i guess, for every shot and frame and screen time is filled with nothing but darkness!!! In fact, this approach comes with lot of advantages for the producer and director for they don't have to budge to any threats from actors. All they need to do is set the scene in some dark corner and have a body double perform the scene or just dub it out!! Another advantage is cost wise, there is no need to spend on any light and all those electricity and all the money (pittance actually) they may need to pay for light boys and their association. With more darkness, it forces the audience t...

There is a scene in "Abhiyum naanum" movie wherein, when Prakash raj enters the house, he will see a beggar sitting inside. Looking at his wife, he will playfully ask is that her relative for which she will glare at him angrily and storm away from that place asking him to check with his daughter. Apparently that kid would've brought that beggar "uncle" home for she would've felt bad at this state. Out of love for her, Prakash raj will allow that person to stay with them who literally becomes man friday for them. Innum andha extreme pogalainalum something similar happened sometime back. Junior's pickup van comes near a roundtana where there is an auto stand as well. One day he had asked his mother where is the uncle with 2 dogs who apparently had been missing for couple of days. Neither her nor me had even noted that there was a guy, leave alone having two dogs ( kandipa dogs pathirupen nenakren sheerly out of fear for them!! ). When he kept asking about ...