...shoOOonya...

I decided some time ago that while I read mystery and thrillers, I would also like to read the classics that we used to read in childhood. Alice in Wonderland is the first one I picked up. I also saw the movie last year and felt like reading the simple story all over again. It was fun. I started this and read this while having lunch at office every day. BUt then something happened and i sudenly got bored. Was it too childish for me?? Dunno! So it rests in peace for now. I abandoned it after about 25% and will pick it up maybe later this year or maybe next year or may never...

I have been Dubai for almost 24 months now (16 months in 2008/2009 and 8 months of 2010/2011) and have visited The Dubai Mall (TDM) several times. On every occasion, I have tried NOT to miss the Musical Dubai Fountains. There are 10 minutes musical shows every half hour starting from about 7 PM. So I have seen them so many times and they are fun and often exhilarating to watch. There is a nice instrumental music and the 100’s of water jets dance to the tunes. It is almost a soothing feeling and the Dubai Fountains are amazing crowd pullers. I have always loved them.   Watching them is a Bliss BUT Today … it was NOT. Today … It was amusing. Hilarious. And downright comic. (Disclaimer: There are absolutely my personal thoughts and I won’t be surprised if no one chooses to agree with me :) … But the fact is the moment I heard the first note of music, a smile formed in my head (yes .. that is possible). The second note of music (which came after a few seconds pause) m...

In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment." She was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. They were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day. In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower ma...

I am sure you might have seen the following image (a cartoon) ... sometimes used with the caption of 'Team Work' !! But I am sure you haven't seen this one .... The REAL one ...

Came across an article published in DNA authored by FakingNews.com fame Rahul Roushan It made for some interesting satirical reading on the state of terrorism in India and how Mumbai Spirit becomes a keyword for any and every news item after a terrorist influenced tragedy strikes the city (or for that matter any other city) Although, personally I feel the Government can't do much to prevent terrorism strikes and bomb blasts since it is simply not possible / feasible to monitor and check each and every person & vehicle visiting each and every part of the city / country. Such a task will require a police force which would be 10% of the country population. PEOPLE in general will have to play police and even then it might not be possible to pin point and stop a guy from visiting an individual from entering a crowded place with a bomb in his bag/vehicle in a peak hour and leave it there. All the articles which criticize the government for not taking adequate measures to stop ...

  The following is the introduction to a short piece of fiction spanning about 125 small pages. Read it and you might understand why I am sharing this.   This is not a Dilbert book. It contains no humor. I call it a 132-page thought experiment wrapped in a fictional story. I'll explain the thought experiment part later. God's Debris doesn't fit into normal publishing cubbyholes. There is even disagreement about whether the material is fiction or nonfiction. I contend that it is fiction because the characters don't exist. Some people contend that it is nonfiction because the opinions and philosophies of the characters might have lasting impact on the reader. The story contains no violence, no sexual content, and no offensive language. But the ideas expressed by the characters are inappropriate for young minds. People under the age of fourteen should not read it. The target audience for God's Debris is people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their...

  A flight journey (was home for a week J ), waiting at the airport and a once a week travel in a cab to a distant place (min. 30 min cab ride) increased my reading time in June. Helped me read more J Also, I read something other than the regular mystery stuff   1. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom I had read a Mitch Albom last year and had liked it. It was emotional stuff which sets your heart thinking about the most important aspect of our life, which we tend to ignore - people. Five People was no less. It turned out to be another emotional read … often making me stop and think about my own life and people around, people who came and went away, who stayed in touch and those who broke all contact, people with whom I have been in touch all my life and also those with whom I had a chance encounter and they are set permanently in my memory with hardly any change to meet again (although hope is hopelessly optimistic emotion … the hope to see them again, meet th...

Movie seen in the first half of this year … Jan to Mar – None at all … a dismal quarter without any movie theatre visit ! April broke the spell with Dum Maro Dum and Scream 4 (Premiere) which were seen in Sharjah and Dubai theatres respectively May was Hanna (Premiere) while June was Cars 2 in 3D (Premiere). All these premiere shows were seen in Reel Cinemas at The Dubai Mall. Tickets won in the Facebook contest. I also saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (in 3D) during my Mumbai visit in May-June. So all in all … 5 movies in the past quarter ! Cars2 was the best of the lot with PoTC as second best (although I was personally disappointed with the movie). The other movies were average.