...shoOOonya...

This was the second one that came from Blog Adda for review this month. Reading this one was an interesting experience ... reminding me of 'similar' Robert Ludlum novels In many ways, 'The Edge of the Machete' by Abhisar Sharma was like a Robert Ludlum novel which has elements of CIA operatives, international espionage and touches of middle-eastern and Russian groups that are involved in international terrorism with a plot that has global implications. Abhisar's story is set against the backdrop of the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) region with characters belonging to several militant groups from the region as well as the protagonist coming in from the CIA. I could draw certain parallels with a story by Robert Ludlum. Besides the elements of Ludlum, Abhisar's writing style also has some Ludlum like characteristics. It felt like reading Ludlum and THAT I think is my biggest compliment for Abhisar. The story has brutal executions and horrible tortures de...

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz was a surprise find for me. It was delightful news to hear that someone 'officially' got the endorsement / permission to write a Sherlock Holmes novel. Now the thing to be seen is how well the new author has done his job of writing a full length gripping Sherlock Holmes novel keeping the original essence of Conan Doyle writing intact. Anthony has successfully retained the writing style of Conan and it was a pleasure reading it. I also realized that this is the only full length Sherlock Holmes novel since Conan Doyle only wrote 56 short stories and 4 long stories; never did he write a novel with Sherlock Holmes.  It was nice to see all the usual characters of Sherlock Holmes stories play a role in this novel. Usually, Conan stories did not involve too many of the regulars but Anthony was not restricted by the short story format so he was able to include all the characters – Sherlock Holmes and Watson (of course), their landlady, the Ba...

I somehow had the feeling that 'Son of Sardar' would be anytime better than 'Jab Tak Hain Jaan' … So with wife and 2 kids (not mine) in tow, we caught up a late night show of SOS.   SOS was my reaction during and after the movie. <SOS bole to 'save our souls' .. the ancient distress call by ships in peril> Forced and Confused Expressions pasted on Ajay Devgn's face … a very good and capable actor reduced to a clown (and not even an entertaining one). Same goes for Sanjay Dutt. Nothing much to be talked about the rest of the cast including Sonakshi. Easy to forget songs further made forgettable by worth remembering choreography. SOS was a sorry film. I blame the Director for the debacle. I advise you to keep away from the SOS screens to simply Save Your Souls

  A hatrick in cricket is a good thing. 3 wickets in a row are pretty awesome. Whenever there is something that occurs thrice in a row … we call it a hatrick … but then … it is not always good things that happen thrice in a row. A case in point being my being away from home on my birthday 3 times in row in 3 consecutive years. In 2010 … I had to travel 2 hours before the stroke of midnight … I was in mid-air when ordinarily I would have been wished 'happy birthday' In 2011 … I had travelled a few days earlier but nevertheless, on my birthday, I was not at home In 2012 … once again fate plays the same old joke on me making me travel on the day before my birthday forcing me to be away amidst strangers on my birthday This year, I am in Mundra (375 km away from Ahmedabad in Gujarat) on a client engagement I have not spent a single birthday with my wife yet … so u can imagine the anger / sadness / frustration and so many other emotions tha...

I read about the novel somewhere and the blurb sounded interesting. I wrote to Leadstart (the publisher) about 'Collision of Dimensions' and they were kind enough to send across a copy of the book for review. This 500+ pager novel has an interesting premise and the story develops in an interesting manner. The characters, the 'Force', the events woven into the plot were decent. There is something called 'character development' which is completely missing from the novel. The character which comes into possession of the Force is supposed to undergo character development due to the Force but nothing really happens. The powers that he begins to become aware of are not really great … a bit of premonition is not really powerful enough. Mumbai is the scene of action and I don't know why the author has got the geography of Mumbai wrong. There are several factual errors regarding locations within the city. Too much of geographical details of a place will seem ir...

Travelling to Vadodara versus travelling to office in Mumbai I recently went to Vadodara for a meeting. Travelled in the morning and was back after a meeting between 12 noon to 2 pm. Catching a flight at 3.45 PM, I was home before 6 PM in the evening. The flight time from Mumbai to Vadodara is less than an hour So I was wondering … every day I travel for about 75 minutes to reach office from my home … and the time of travel between Mumbai and Vadodara is less than 60 minutes. Isn't it strange? We need far superior local travel solutions that what we have today if not for anything else but to conserve the millions of man-hours we waste in inefficient travel …

Remove the James Bond element and Skyfall is a pretty good movie. But then, I am negatively biased towards Daniel Craig as Bond and so is my review for Skyfall. I somehow never liked Daniel Craig in the James Bond character. I have this Pierce Brosnan image of Bond – flair, womanizer, electronic gadgets, gadget loaded cars, car chases, high tech weapons and gadgetry of the villains, international espionage, global threats & conspiracies etc. Skyfall and Daniel Craig do not meet these expectations of mine and hence did not impress me.  The only car Daniel Craig manages to use is actually an old one ... not a techno wizardry of Q. Also, the villain in Skyfall seems to be a weak character who does not really wreck havoc although he is supposed to be more capable than Bond. The climax wasn't explosive enough (although full of explosions). The 'Q' wasn't impressive enough nor was his work. There were even things/events in the movie which seemed in...