Lens

Hey! Looks like you are a new visitor, you may want to subscribe to my Lens RSS feed. Or my shared links Convex RSSThanks for visiting!

Finished reading “Kane and Abel” - the first novel I have read of Jeffrey Archer.

Haven’t found a good review of the book, if you know, let me know. The search on Google throws up results about two musicians and their music.

My thoughts/comments :

Again enjoyed the initial story thoroughly. The struggles of Abel (Wladek) were thrilling to read. Even the business like smartness of Kane in his initial school years ( like collecting match box covers )  were detailed and interesting in the early pages. After he grows up that detail is missing.

Abel after became successful must have visited the lady who’d helped him in the train. There is no mention of it afterwards, though he visits embassy and all.

Though it was little distracting for me, liked the links and references to actual facts and history - like war, President elections, stock market crash etc. ( Though am not aware of Polish-German conflicts. ) And kept hoping/guessing this was a real story

The war efforts of both Kane and Abel almost looked like a forced distraction/deviation. It is so detached from the main story, looked like, from a meeting room they went out for a smoke and came back. Their meeting during the war, I thought would have some link/effect in their story later, but was disappointed, more disappointed that it didn’t even get a mention in the final letter.

Few sequences/passages I very much enjoyed are 1. the golf rounds Kane plays with Alan Lyold, 2. Zaphia meeting Abel surprisingly after he becomes successful 3. Kane’s sudden marriage in a foreign land.

As usual as these days, kept imagining how a particular sequence is realized on screen. Should watch this movie sometime.

I was expecting the feud to end earlier but it didn’t, and it seemed at the end as though it was getting elongated for no reason or with no happening. Also was disappointed that Kane got ill-treated though he was good and did right things - and he was a better human too - did not ditch his wife. It was also wrong that he lost the chairmanship - it would have been better if he had died before that.

For all the detailed smart moves of Kane, like hiring a detective who would be all knowing, Abel was too dumb. Was expecting Kane to buy out Abel’s hotels and give a slap back to Abel in his own business.

Why Kane’s friend had to die off abruptly like that - may be it was thought when the character is created itself coz his bank has to go to Kane but, for the reader it is abrupt. The unpredictability like this surfaces at many places right from Abel’s friend’s death to Kane’s losing chairmanship in his own bank to losing it finally in Lester’s to his death.

For me, the novel felt elongated after the affair of their children- which if at least had fueled/patched up their rivalry it would have been meaningful to invoke that plot. I dislike the plots which don’t necessarily add to the main story - which I thought was their rivalry because the cover pages & title suggested that - but for me it would have been perfectly fine to outline two characters and not have any connection - like in the early pages - thorough out the novel highlighting perhaps the similarities or the contrasts in their lives.

Wonder who the two anon people author mentions about/dedicates to in the first page and how they are related to the story.

For a novel, 550+ pages big, and for a novel that occupied my travel time for 15days or more, these comments/thoughts are less

Finished reading “To kill a mocking bird”. It was one of the few books which did not take off. For first few days again and again I was in initial pages and used to get lost in thoughts/ to go to sleep and I repeated same sentences. I knew not the reason, was it suddenly jumping into terminologies I did not understand. Or was it because it probably did not feel like the beginning itself. After hearing similar experience by SK, I was bit relieved. But I was determined to read this and it slowly picked up speed.

There were lot, a lot of things I wanted to note and make a mention in this post but I carried no marker while reading. There is an element of suspense through out and yet it did not make me impatient or hurry through the pages. I swallowed each and every sentence and moved slowly.

I liked the English. I liked the very small observations done, which could only be done by small children, from whose eyes the novel is seen. I think the writer maintained a diary and some things were picked up from that. The childhood stuff was good fun, at times a bit nostalgic too. How I wished it continued like that !

It gets complex and touches upon various aspects in a totally detailed way that I was doubting if it was on track (Same experience I am having now with Kane and Abel - the detailing part).

Mrs Dubose’s plot was moving.

In the cover it is mentioned, the author still maintains it was “a simple love story”. For most of the initial part I kept looking for that thread - was it between Scout and Dill ? Or was it b/n Scout and the hidden boy next door ?  But now after reading the novel, I am disappointed. Not that I was looking for a love story but I was misguided. Don’t tell me that it was about a “love for human kind” in general, I am not immature not to get that but that certainly does not deserve the claim that it was a “simple love story”.

There were some surprisingly thrilling moments like when the daughter sends back the people who had come to attack her father.

Tom Robinson’s death was totally unexpected and I felt the void suddenly.

After having gone into so much detail, perhaps it required a better treatment. And after the death, the plot moves irritatingly slow.

Since I knew this was made into a movie, I kept thinking how would a particular scene appear in the movie. Must watch it sometime.

In this post you will find my thoughts/opinions or just the things that cross my mind when I recall about the books I have read last few weeks. If you have read any of these, you could share your thoughts !

Kaadina Kathegalu:

#Read 3 parts of Kaadina Kathegalu, translated series by K P Poorna Chandra Tejaswi. It is about the experiences of hunting of man-eater tiger/cheetah by South Indian Jim Corbett - “Kenneth Anderson“

# Bellandoorina Narabhakshaka (1), Peddacheruvina Rakshasa (2), Jaalahaliyya Kurka (3).

# Quite thrilling stories. Totally enjoyed reading during the travel in office-cab. Did not feel like keeping down the book but unfortunately had to break several times as I had to get down to go to office or to home.

# Each experience is different but the basic philosophy is same and I think I can lay a successful trap to a man-eater now :). But unfortunately, now, let alone man-eaters, there are hardly any tigers in South Indian forests - as the author mentions. Instead of hunting them down, we are even struggling to preserve them.

#I wonder how the author did not get confused between various stories/incidents as there were so many of them and were somewhat similar !

# The ‘intelligence’ of tigers, the conditions in which they become man-eaters, their behaviour after killing a man etc are descriptively explained.

# The endurance required to hunt down is demonstrated well. The reasons of certain decisions that were taken get proved or the reason for backfiring is noted.

# Accounts are not exaggerated. The author treats the horror stories as impersonal as his own victories.  

# Downloaded a pdf of another set of experiences by Kenneth Anderson.

Chidambara Rahasya by K P Poorna Chandra Tejaswi:

# This is a famous novel in Kannada almost a classic and one of the best by Tejaswi, according to pundits.

# There are many faces to the novel - one is on slightly intellectual/philosophical level. The one where some characters are experimenting - they let a story-writer to extra-polate the natural incidents and test whether that is the truth. And they keep getting evidences in the way they search. The incident they have taken up is what I thought was actually the “rahasya”, but I am not sure that it is. Anyways the incident is quite serious and hence the experiment gets serious too.

# From one point of view, it is a quite simple but short love story - and this briefness and simplicity was what I enjoyed. There are, at many places, description of what goes in boys’ mind about girls, and their fear for losing respect in front of girls are all small bits I enjoyed separately.

# It also includes a revolt - there is the above mentioned group of students who want to change something, they want to revolt - for the sake of revolt.

# In other faces, there are more serious issues like religion, corruption, cheating, exploitation and even devils. It is a pot boiler in the actual sense - boiling too many ingredients. But it never loses track, nor it becomes more than necessary.

# I was waiting for the “rahasya” to be something and was expecting some questions to be answered. But it looks like it ended with open question. I have to read some reviews or probably my mind set to seek some answer, to seek some surprise ending was at fault. I thought this was an investigative novel, was not completely right.

# The best part about the narrative is that it just flows - fearlessly, thoughtfully with a mix of very light humour.

The Google Story:

# Has details about the pre-start, and initial phases the company went through. Covers in detail the growth pangs of one of the most important companies today.

# Was completely unaware about some facts about the company which is covered in initial chapters. But after a few chapters, it felt like reading the current affairs in news paper - I knew most of the things and it was connecting the dots in between.

# Digital library will be my most favorite project - mail and all is ok, great but not that couldn’t have been done without google. Whatever Google does, which it can only do, for the public good, will be the ones that will reflect on the good-will of the super rich and super talented founders.

Wings of Fire:

# Famous auto-biographical account by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

# Inspirational. He achieved extra-ordinary results not by being a gifted genius but by hard work, dedication, constant learning and vision. Just did the best to what came his way. Was somewhat lucky that good things came his way, though.

# Was disheartened by failure but did not let it affect his future. Instead took future projects as challenges.

# At times, the book gets little dragging, but overall it is fine.

Ignited Minds by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam:

# Illustrates real-life examples (not necessarily his own life’s) and inspires young minds to involve in achieving greater things for self and thus for the nation.

# I am old. He he!

Finally I decided to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was another huge novel after Shantaram. I took nearly 2 months to finish reading. I was tempted to skip sentences/paragraphs many a time but resisted it. Every possible analysis about the book might have been said and written by now. A single novel to include different aspects - like philosophy, suspence, romance, emotion, fiction, politics - itself was pretty exciting.
I kept hearing “Who is John Galt ?” during my other activities too. I read speech on Money and John Galt’s speech few more times after I finished the novel.
This is John Galt Speaking :

Money:

If I had made notes while reading the book itself, there were many points I would have liked to make. There were dialogues and instances which I saw coming (like guy talking to Eddie was J) and others which I did not, which surprised me( Taggart’s speech on radio, her barging into John’s world, Rearden’s reaction after hearing radio speech, the suicide of james’ wife), which I liked(when Taggart is in trouble she tries to do one thing at once and next the other, to keep working and not having time to feel - I like this approach and I am following it these days) and which I disliked ( I did not like it when Taggart falls for Rearden and later when she falls for Galt again I was feeling strange!, felt bad for Eddie, Fris, Rearden ) . There were so many other points I would have liked to make a note and ramble about it. But actually, all that can ever be said/written must have been done already!
I may not face red-tapism but there is something that hits strongly, something that can be applied to my/our life.
My favorite chapters are The Sanction of the Victim,Atlantis,The John Galt Line
Would like to read other novels by the same author.

Ha..if the movie is made, Jolie would play Dagny!! I kept thinking of Kate Winslet while reading.

**
When I am reading a book, I do it passionately¹. I mean, there were times I went late to office only because I kept reading, I came early from office whenever possible, I used to sleep late and I keep talking about the book with whom ever I meet. The story absorbs me. Even to stop to post a blog seems waste of time and a delay causing element. Same with browsing, doing something else on computer, watching movies or watching TV. And when it ends I laze away time like anything. Havent picked up another book seriously so far. I oversleep, I browse a lot etc. This book travelled with me many times to and fro Blore-Chennai, it also travelled to Goa.

1. I think I do almost everything passionately - I dont know if the word is right. I chat with complete interest, I talk with complete interest, I listen with complete interest, I work with complete interest, I write mails with vigour, I plan with zeal, I perform many activities as if there is nothing else to do but for that. Few exceptions are perhaps talking on phone - while I am seeing something on computer,”eating”, reading for exams [back]

Metamorphosis is a story about a person who is overnight transformed into an huge insect. How he copes with that, how it affects his family members is the crux of the book. The story is a light read. The book I read had many other essays discussing the story and its inner meaning. It seems some feelings of the protagonist are close to real life of the author. The analysis section also pointed out the few fallacies and justifications, meanings to various sentences in the story. The essays occupied more space than the story itself in the book and thus I have possibly read every opinion possible and some of them resembled to what I had in mind.
Again I feel I should have made some notes during reading. One thing I liked in the real life of Kafka is that he was possessed by writing. He often felt “his life” itself was a distraction to his writing. He used to write almost whole of his night (its 3 am as I write this) and used to work in the day. Someday I would like to do something as possessively as that, if there was a reason for my birth, my existence, it should be for me to perform that. I dont know what it is and I do not know if that will happen, till then I will keep talking big things like this

On books:
Not reading much these days. But here is a small update.
After a long long time, I finished reading A Man who knew infinity, a biography on Ramanujan. A well researched book and a nice narrative - some explanations like the eating on a banana leaf etc (I now forgot, there were many such descriptive narrations) were examples of visualizations brought by language. Some buildups are too nicely done. I was shocked to know that Ramanujan had attempted suicide. Among many factors that drove him, like - English weather, lonliness, lack of good food, one surprising and major contributor was “family tension”. Damn, even a genius could not escape from the wrath of pitiable human quarrles of saas-bahu, I just felt “yuck”.

Toofan Mail by Jayant Kaykini:
A good collection of short stories. Some very abstract, some very abrupt. Could not understand the intent of some stories.
Abachurina Post office by K P Poornachandra Tejaswi
Another collection of stories in almost above lines. Was curious to know how the “story” was of Tabarana Kathe that was adapted to big screen and got awards. That time, kid I was then, for me, Tabarana Kathe had formed a benchmark for art cinema and to win National Awards and to be telecast on DD. And it was the synonym for boring films. I dont remember the details of it now, but story was also not any descriptive/ narrative compared to few other stories in the book. I wonder if Tabarana Kathe had got that treatment, many ohter stories from this book can get much better ! It is a collection of stories written over many eyears and the last story is very very difficult to comprehend.(Just like the foreword).

But both the books were rich/lucid in language, descriptive, and opened up (for me) a new world of alternate way of stories. Now I feel, why do we still come across run of the mill story telling when such alternate paths have already been treaded long ago!

Well…its been much time since I finished reading Shantaram and this is just an effort to organise the thoughts I had written that time. There will be lot of discontinuity (proper bulleting should be imagined) and lack of flow (which has become common with any thing I do these days). Lot of spoilers and also might not make sense if you have not read the novel.

When I read Shantaram, I had thought it was all real-story (word to word) as the cover page claims, but it was much later did I come to know that it was a dramatisation of the real events. It means that the characters were real, the events were more real but there was lot of decoration as well. Nothing wrong with it, infact is very necessary and is completely given as “creative freedom” of a writer but my not knowing it meant that I did not consider the things “with a pinch of salt”.

So here goes sequentially the thoughts as I procedeed reading. Arranging this formally was a monstrous task and which explains the delay. Even if you don’t read first 2 parts, do read the third one. That is the one written after the finishing of the novel and makes more sense than the others and is kind of total summary.
****************************************************************************
Read the rest of this entry »

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”

This is a biographical book on famous physicist and nobel prize winner Dr. Richard P Feynman.
His Lectures on physics (3 volumes) are popular books. Any low day, browsing through few pages of that would resurrect the mood in me.During one program on BBC, a interview of his friends revealed some insights about the person.
But this book show many facets that one can hardly imagine.Highly inquisitive Feynman nursed a great love for Physics, but book covers his many other eye-popping experiments and experiences. Be it about safecracking,drumming,drawing or learning languages, or at various responsibilities, this man did so much in his life will make any reader envious and dreaming about it. He lived so many lives.
His honesty is another point to be appreciated. I would love to have the freedom with which he could make choices, the way he could live and work!
Except for the last chapter (Cargo cult science ) which is out of place, the whole book is entertaining read. Apart from death of his wife and re-marriages of which there are just passing references, most of it are detailed and I enjoyed them. Safe cracking, drumming, painting chapters I just kept asking myself - ” did that actually happen? Wish I experience something close to it.”
Only places I feel sad for the man was when he came in interaction with the work that involved government and all his work goes down the drain - that of
selecting textbooks. It exposes many layers of corruption, irresponsibility and negligence that are applicable even today to various Government undertakings. 13 signature may look blunt and silly from outside but it re-inforces two points - One, about red tapism. Second, How stubborn Feynman could actually get and how committed was he to his words. In honesty and this stubbornness, the book reminded me of Gandhi’s autobio.
I particularily like the entire chapter on safecracker, an incident where his father walks upto a midreader and gets to know his tricks by flattering him(hey–I too try such stuff ; will tell you some other time), the incident where Feynman finds the vulnerable outlet by fluke, his experiences in Brazil, the Nobel episode (imagine a person saying “Yeah..but I am sleeping; why don’t you call me up in the morning” when he was informed that he had won Nobel prize), lucky numbers, attending biology/philosophy classes, learning other languages…oh too many to list.
Miracles, which often happened, I feel, tried to match his genius and mischiefs. At the end, it is a life LIVED, lived to fullest and in colour.

Related Links

Finally I have finished reading Da vinci code. Here are my views/thoughts.
I can clearly split the book into 3 distinct areas:
1)Christianity and other faiths
2)Cryptography/Vinci/Newton
3)Language/plot/flow

Completely ignorant about the Christian religion and other faiths related to it, I am not eligible to comment on the first. The novel hasnt certainly increased my knowledge, but has certainly made me curious/confused.

Cryptography had always been my favourite subject. The use of “language” as against to numbers made it all the more interesting and at the same time gave flexibility to the author in the name of double entendre. Da vinci’s painting have been used superbly for the cause.

Bewildering plot with changes and excitement in each chapter, it is clearly a pot-boiler stuff. Despite the required flashback, the pace is uniform. The language precise.

No wonder it is a best seller and am obviously looking forward for the 70mm version.

After a great deal of research, I stumbled upon a neat book on quotes.

Oxymoronica , a word coined by Dr Mardy Grothe , a psychologist, author of “Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you” , has come up with a book of same name, containing paradoxical wit and wisdom from greatest wordsmiths.

Oxymoronica is a superset and mixture of paradox, oxymoron, chiasmus, as author says. I felt it also encapsulates irony, sarcasm and many other things. Author goes on to define oxymoronicas to convey deeper meaning than they mean superficially. Before I began to read, I wondered about the existence of so many quotes to fill the fat book. But after finishing I now will have to search for normal quotes.

Paradox – A statement that looks false but is nonetheless true(Less is more OR The more the things change the more they remain same-Alphonse Karr)
Oxymoron – Two contradicting terms (pretty ugly)..Oxymoronica is not just contradicting terms, but contradicting ideas (Free love is too expensive-Delvin)
Chiasmus – Reversing the order of words.
First I dream my painting , then I paint my dream –Vincent van Gough

Infact may of all our favorite quotes (and e-mail signatures) could be categorized into one of these groups. Or they are our favorite only because they are oxymoronicas.

Neatly broken into 14 chapters depending on interesting basis like “ancient oxymoronica�?(The half is greater than the whole-Greek poet Hesiod) , “political oxymoronica�?(“Your greatest enemy is your greatest friend) “oxymoronic advice�?(Never take anybody’s advice- George Bernard Shaw), “oxymoronic insults(and few praises)�?(she never was really charming till she died-Terence), “oxymoronica on stage�? (I just want to be normally insane) and the ultimate “inadvertent oxymoronica�?(oxymoronic quotes by accident). Inadvertent oxymoronica, where most of Bush’s quotes are found, is an ideal last chapter of the book. And I stil have my reserves about author’s decision to place many quotes in chapters other than “inadvertent oxymoronica�? and vice –versa.

Most often , his definition of oxymoronica – any variety of tantalizing self-contradictory statements or observations that on the surface appear false /silly / illogical, but at a deeper level are true, often profoundly true – fits the quotes.

As suggested on the cover “as addictive as a bowl of peanuts�?, it made a fast read. If sometimes I would just laugh loudly at the quotes, other times I would take a break to understand and absorb the inner meaning.

If in an effort to find the oxymoronica meaning in normal quotes, if one succeeds, purpose served is only less (Because “less is more�?).

All my best thoughts were stolen by ancients- Emerson