...shoOOonya...

Book: RIP Author: Mukul Deva No. of Pages: 286 Genre: Thriller, Fiction Publisher: Westland Books The first book for review in 2013 comes once again from BlogAdda.com – RIP by Mukul Deva The title of the book is as catchy as it can get with a graphic cover page which attracts immediate attention while the back cover blob wants you to buy it on the spot (if you are looking at it in the store or reading it on an online eCommerce portal that is) While I waited for the book to arrive, I checked out what other books had the Author written since he is new for me. I have heard about him but not read his works till date. RIP has an explosive start with 3 high profile murders taking place across the country followed by a statement sent to major media agencies regarding the intent and objective of the group who is behind the murders. The message concludes the threat that if the demands are not met, more will die and as a token of this threat, 3 more will die in next 3 day...

After the Movies and Blogging graphs of 2012, its time for the third and final graph of 2012. The Reading Graph – a record of the number of stories (novels, novellas, short stories) that I read every month in 2012. You will see that the numbers were smaller in the beginning of the year and swelled as the year progressed. This was simply due to a larger number of short stories being read as the year progressed. What started at 10 in Jan went as high as 35 in October ...

Colgate has created a very ingenious advertising campaign to promote their dental floss Have a look at the advertisements below (and once you have done that, look once again ... carefully ... and then look hard) ... see if you catch on the 'subtle-ness' Alright, now that you had time to quietly observe the images, in the first one you will now notice that she has one finger too many in her hand, in the second one a phantom arm is floating there, and in the third one the man has only one ear...   The campaign attained its purpose, because it proved that food remaining on your teeth draw more attention than any physical defect...

Having posted the Blog post trend chart, i decided to post 2 more graphs. The first one is the graph of movies I have seen in movie halls across 2012. And here is the list of movies that I saw in 2012 ...  January 1 Sherlock Holmes – the Game of Shadows  February 1 Journey 2 – The Mystery Island (3D) March  2 London Paris New York  Kahaani   April  2 Houseful 2 Titanic (3D)  May   3 Vicky Donor Dangerous Ishq (3D)  Avengers (3D) June  2 MiB3  Prometheus  July  4 Bol Bachchan  Cocktail  The Dark Knight Rises Ice Age: Continental Drift  August  1 Ek Tha Tiger September 2 Barfi Oh My God ! October  2 English Vinglish Makkhi November 2 Skyfall Son of Sardar  December  6 Talaash Life of Pi (3D) Khiladi 786 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey...

Just noticed that I made exactly 144 posts last year … An average of 12 posts through each of the 12 months … an average of a Dozen across a Dozen months … The actual trend of blog posts across months looks like this …   The dip at the end of year reflects how busy I began to get due to work and work related travel.

  Kurkure has created an immense brand presence in India and part of it is due to the presence of the Juhi Chawla effervescence. She added a certain character to the Brand which has built the brand's image in Indian minds. We associated Juhi very strongly with the Kurkure brand. BUT …. The recent Kurkure ads which talk about the 'Indian Kurkure Family' don't feature Juhi. No doubt the family of full of interesting characters but the absence of Juhi is too startling and noticeable. What Juhi is to the Brand image cannot be replicated by anyone those members. I just hope Kurkure brand has not made the mistake of dropping Juhi from the Kurkure equation … If they have done it .. they will have to go through a heavy investment to recreate a different Kurkure brand image because the existing one cannot be sustained by the new cast of brand ambassadors. The new star cast simply cannot match up with the brand image created by Juhi ...

  I read a lot of novels in 2009-2010. In 2011, I decided to pick up some series to read throughout the year. I started with Sherlock Holmes, Three Investigators and Feluda.    During 2012, I also picked up some short story series/collections … and fell in love with them all over again. As my inclination towards them increase, I started reading more and more of short stories every month picking up several collections. I also found more of Sherlock Holmes stories (after exhausting the original Conan stories). I discovered short stories by Satyajit Ray and Philip K Dick too. So here is a round-up of all the different series I read in past 2 years ...     2011-2012 :: Series Reading Score                                     143 Feluda                         by Satyajit Ray                                    35 Three Investigators    by William Arden / M V Carrey           43 Sherlock Holmes         by Arthur Conan Doyle                 ...

From a reading perspective, the year that was 2012 proved to be a pretty fantastic year. With 33 Novels and more than 300 short stories and around 25 novellas … an awesome reading score of around 365 for the year … Short Story Collections (Approx. 305 Stories – including the 7 novellas): 1.       Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul at Work by Juhi, Mark & Victor (101 stories)  2.       Best of Satyajit Ray by Satyajit Ray (21 stories) 3.       The Mysterious Traveler Magazine (6 Editions – 36 stories) 4.       Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection (Remaining 16 Short Stories + 1 Novella) 5.       The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle & John Dickson Carr (12) 6.       The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes by Various Authors edited by Ellery Queen (33) 7.       S...

  Having put in the December reading account ... its times to look back at my reading of the entire year ... Lets begin with a glance at the most read authors of the year for me …   Short Stories   Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Homes, Dr. Challenger Novellas and other Short stories: 51 ) Philip K Dick (Sci-fi short stories & novella - 43 ) Satyajit Ray (Short Stories - 21 ) Adrian Doyle and John Carr (Sherlock Holmes stories - 12 ) M V Carrey, William Arden & Marc Brendel (Three Investigators series – 9, 6 & 3 resp. = 18 )   Novels   Robert Ludlum ( 3 novels) Steve Alten (Mayan Trilogy - 3)   So thats just about the most read authors of the year for me ...   Expect a few more reading related posts in coming days ...      

Continued from previous post …   7. PKD Shorts: Piper in the Woods by Philip K Dick   A small army unit located on a rather small asteroid is facing a threateningly interesting problem. Some of its brightest men have begun to behave very strangely, have given up work, begun basking in the sun 'literally' and consider themselves as 'TREES'. The problem gets increasingly serious the Army Psychiatrist, after examining several such cases, reaches the conclusion that it was not a case of delusions or novel-excuse-to-escape-work; but the individuals genuinely believed that they were Trees !! He decides to investigate it himself by visiting the asteroid … only to return a transformed person himself.   8. PKD Shorts: The Infinites by Philip K Dick   This one had quite a few twists. An exploratory spaceship encounters an unknown planet which seems perfect for habitation but has no visible habitation of any kind. Exploration of this space leads to ...

Author Rishi Vohra approached me directly in November with a request to review his novel 'Once upon the tracks of Mumbai' … I accepted and picked it up as the first read in December. Then things went into a whirlwind for me and I was unable to pick up any other novel in the month. I was travelling and was busy. Despite being a month with a lot of travel but it did not translate into reading as my travel time was encroached upon by work. It was a pretty busy month with my travel times being consumed by blackberry emails, calls and documentation reading. Suddenly all my fiction reading time vanished :( Besides the singular novel, I also enjoyed reading the last novella from the original Three Investigators series and 2 short stories by Dave Jinks. In 2013, I will continue reading the fan fiction and the crime-buster series of the 3 Investigators. I ended up reading only one novel (mentioned above) and amongst the short story regulars I read 8 by Philip K. Dick and 10 ...