Book Review: Hover Car Racer

As mentioned in my previous blog my current fav writer is the handsome Matthew Reiiley ......Notice the two 'T''s in 'Matthew' in contrast with the more common 'mathew'.....something to do with getting lucky with numerology he?? Ha keeping my stupid observations aside the latest of his books that I finished reading ....yeah, finished it a min back sitting in the comfort of my desk @ office....come on yaar, sab kooch chaltha he...afterall its a Friday....TGIF!!!!!

The reason for writing this blog - apart from the fact that am jobless- is the story line of the book! All the books of Matthew Railley are all in some way or the other linked to archeology and each a thriller and a must read.But "Hover Car Racer" is pleasantly different......A completely new story line on 'Racing with Hover Cars'....whoa that's a big shift from Archeology to Car Racing and once again full credit to Matheew's Railley...... Homework perfectly done and a seamless story line!!! Read more about Hover Cars at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovercar.
Back to the book, it revolves around this young boy in a small desert in Australia who dreams to make it big in the world of Hover Car racing! As in his other books, the hero here is a genuinely nice person with no malice n how despite all kinds of pitfalls he makes it! The story is set in future - but the only futuristic thing about it is the technology. The liberal references and the perfect amalgam of all sports is so perfect that even somebody like me -who is completely ignorant of Car Racing -enjoyed the book thoroughly! Trust me there are a few literal 'Nail Biting' episodes here....... Another must read from Mathew Railley! The boojk makes u believe once again in the old saying "World does conspire to give u wht u desire"!
A few interesting anecdotes here.......

1. Seen the bollywood movie 'Ta ra rum pum' where Saif Ali khan is a car racer (ala our hero in 'Hover Car Racer') and a super duper one at that...well can our bollywood heros be anything but that? Everything goes fine till he meets with a nasty accident (a setup by his competitor) and then his confidence, finance, family everything hits a all time low till in again a typical bollywood isshtyle he regains his past glory!! As you may have already guessed there is a similar episode in this book too but minus all Indian senti values ! Ofcourse am not trying to suggest any pirated lifts here......cause if u try putting together the books\movies from where our bollywood directors take their 'inspirations' ,the list will be endless!!!
2. The other interesting similarity I figured out is the subtle similarity between 'Hover Car Racer' and 'Harry Potter'! Doesnt the team of Jason, Bug and Sally (the characters of our book) remind you of Harry Potter, Ron and Hermonie!!! Well must be again my imagination working over time.........

So now its time for me to ctrl + alt +del (for all non techies there - it means locking the comp) and say "ta-ta"," bye-bye", "Happy Weekend". BTW this weekend- what with this cold, gloomy weather-seems a perfect time to curl up with a book and for those of you who havent read Matthew Reiiley I would for sure suggest a dose of it!

Kajra re Kajra re......

Ha this blog has nothing to do with any flimi songs!! It is rather a dedication to my fav kohl "Shahnaz Hussain Kajal"...rather deceptive title he!!

An Indian girl's tryst with kohl\Kajal begins almost as she is born......all kids(gender no bar) in their infant days have kajal smeared all over them....yeah not restricted to just eyes.....it spreads over to eyebrows, cheeks, chin, palms of hands n legs...ha ha almost no part is spared he!! Even I was no exception.....those who have been lucky enuf to c my childhood pics can vouch 4 it! A point to mention here is in good old days I am told that u don't pick up the kohl\kajal from a shelf in the next door shop but was supposedly home made!!

So back to me...from this cute 'Maamati kuttiyamma' (an Malayalam child actress whose dress n hair cut were the in-thing in early 80's .....couldnt get a pic of hers) look i go onto become this lanky, tall awkward looking child-teenager-young lady! The last thing that would be on my mind is dressing up...was more of those stupid nerd kinds!! Thankfully all changed when I landed up in a job....started getting more 'beauty conscious'!!But no luck with kaajal....In no time would it smudge all over my face giving me a ghastly look :( N how can your shringaar be complete minus the kaajal!. The condition worsens after marriage what with u being expected to be the pretty bride n to add to the horrors was my always perfectly turned up MIL (sob sob)!!

During this time I happen to be in London and my SIL introduces me to Shahnaz Hussain Kajal......For once here is a kaajal which doesnt smudge!! Guess its more to do with the packing.....its packed like your regular lipstick.....turn the tube and there pops out the kaajal making it v convenient to apply!! N now is the big hunt to find it....My SIL tells me that this pack is bought a year back n on her subsequent trips to India hadnt found a similar pack and even wondered why they stopped producing it......at that moment my heart shattered! I had even devised plans to planned to steal it (of course my SIL did offer it to me but me being my humble self had refused it :( )!!

N then after few months back am in Shahnaz Hussain beauty parlour (in Raheja Arcade, B'lore) n guess what I c peeping out of their shelves!! Yeah gal (am sure no boys will ever read this) u got it...it was Shahnaz Hussain Kajal!!!! I triple checked with the sales girl there n she was lamost at her wits end!! I did everything short of Tappan Kutti (Teen Maar) and since then Shahnaz Hussain Kajal has been a regular in my daily routine!!!!

So the next time you waana do a a "Kajra Re Kajra Re" (Kohl-Lined Eyes) use Shahnaz Hussain Kajal !!!

Jab we met...part 2

Read part 1 of the story before reading this post

The part 1 of the story ends at the point where the lucky boy arrives for a traditional 'girl seeing' ceremony! Well as all of u accustomed to these ceremonies might know, these are generally gloomy, sad event wherein everybody sits around with a grim face and the girl is paraded and a no.of stupid questions asked to judge her musical, culinary, artistic skills......! But well in our story there is a welcome change here.......


As soon as the girl (of course all decked up) walks in the guy treats her with a 10K watt smile and a 'hi' n the potential bride reciprocates it with no second thots ....n now this is in complete contrast to a shy bride...ha didn't I tell u our heroine is smart!! But of course the parents treat the girl with threatening glares as if to say 'Behave yourself' ! N after the tea n snacks are all eaten up somebody had the good sense to suggest that might be the hero n heroine should be given a chance to talk in private! N both of them jump up, grab up the chance n start talking away to glory!!

So what do u expect a gal n boy meeting up to decide whether they should spend rest of their life together to talk?? Might be some imp issues like future plans, career interest and so on. But well our hero n heroine decide to talk abt the fav hotels they know, their fav actors n actress, share notes about novels, movies, hobbies n all!! N the icing on the cake is after this IMPORTANT conversation they agree to marry each other (Mind u they make up their minds in a matter of 2-3 hours on basis of this flimsy conversation)!!!!!!!! Two years have passed since then and like a perfect fairy tale ending .....they live happily ever after.......

Liked the story??

Now Ladies and gentleman I take the pleasure to Introduce you to the young, dashing, handsome hero Pravin Menon(our hero) and his wife (the heroine) Meena Menon .....yeah thts meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! N Nov 22(tomorrow) is the day we first met and said yes!! N that I believe is the best ever decision I made in my life ( Touch Wood)......

~~~``"Marriage is ever made by destiny."

Jab we met..Part 1

At the outset lemme clarify that this is nothing to do with the bollywood movie starring Kareena N shahid Kapoor Of course except the title.......Any resemblance found is purely co-incidental! This story is about the cutest couple in the world n how they met........

There lives a small happy family of father, mother with their two darling daughters. The story starts as their girl gets of the eligible age (read as marriageable age) and the parents start a groom hunting process n the girl being a dutiful daughter agrees to marry any boy selected by her parents....Ho yes! Girls like that still exist!!

N suddenly there is a drastic shift in the family activities..... The books subscribed are invariably the ones with (only) matrimonial ads, the websites browsed are only 'keralamatrimony.com', The first sheet to be read in the newspaper is 'Matrimonial Classifieds', the phone book is filled with contact details of eligible grooms\parents, the conversations with relatives\ friends always end up with this topic! This goes on for a year with no luck and then a astrologer is promptly consulted who after having a look at the girl's horoscope exclaims "Dosha Jaadagam' (I.e a horoscope with liberal spread of doshas) and draws out a big list of poojas to be performed!! So the girl is packed off to do all these parishkaarams (poojas to nullify your doshaas). The parents now go a step ahead and place a ad in paper advertising abt their daughter and inviting genuine proposals (Like she is a commodity!!)

Ha in all this drama don't forget the heroine of the story...yeah yeah the girl to be married thou she hardly seem to have any role here! Now now don't u for a minute jump to any conclusion that she is an old maiden whose sole purpose in life is get married, have kids n blah blah blah! Our heroine happens to be a smart, chirpy, beautiful confident software engineer!(Ho yeah, the story is very much set in 21st century thou few of u not accustomed to Indian traditions will find it a bit difficult to digest) . A imp point to be added here is that the girl does make a few valiant attempts to marry a person of her choice (ala love marriage) but well after a few utter flops the girl coyly agrees and leaves the choice to her parents!

Now back to matrimonial hunt, from the N no of proposals received (after all she is an 'eligible spinster') the parents do the first round of filtering followed by yet another round by astrologer and at last a lucky few are shortlisted! So one fine day one of the shortlisted canditates arrive for the traditional 'girl seeing' ceremony .....

To be continued here

A trip to Ooty..... na na Masinagudi... Day 1

In the last post I stopped as we reached Masinagudi........We reach Bamboo banks with no further adventure!! But ha ha hold on.......the entrance gate to this place is quite interesting....it kinda looks like the gate that one would traditionally see in security check posts- a bar which lies put horizontally n which a guard pulls up (kinda get the idea. C the pic 4 to ur left 4 a better idea.....well after all a pic is worth thousand words...so who asked me to describe the gate in first place hey??) But ha ha again as there seems to be nobody manning this gate...so how do we get in -horn, shout or jump the rod? Well that is when we read this notice on the rod-c the pic to ur right (no wasting efforts on a futile desc again)! So u pull the rope and lo n behold the gate opens!! Well there is no magic behind this....it turns out that the rope is attached to a bucket and as u pull it, the bucket gets filled with water (from a drum placed high on a Bamboo tree) and as bucket gets heavier it comes down pulling the gate up....got it?? No worries if u don't.......

Ok now lemme at this point tell u something abt Bamboo banks....As u must hv already figured out its this kinda cute place located almost in periphery of Madhumalai forest! Thou I know our friend Mr.Binoy Joseph doesn't agree with my description- as per him its like any other home in his hometown kottayam - But well dont u let him bother u much; for city breds like me this place is a big welcome break from concrete jungles! So back to Bamboo Banks - its run by a Parsi family - or rather by this Parsi gentleman in the pic. This man is a character in himself ..... The adjectives used to describe him varying from 'interesting' , 'Snooty' (Courtesy: Binoy again), 'Unpatriotic' (Courtesy: Sabi) !!

Back to Bamboo banks ,(ha ha how i keep deviating from the subject) the place is quite good with a few good rooms. (The cottage we lived in is in the pic)Check //bamboobanks.in/ for further details.Before setting out we did a thorough study (supposedly) and zeroed upon Bamboo banks after reading the rave reviews and of course the good deal we got there - 2000 bucks per days - not a princely amount considering its 4 people! But its a comp diff story that at the end of 4 days we end up paying like 25k - in contrast to the original budget of 10k (courtesy: our ignorant husbands who didn't bother to find out the food tariff ... @#$#$%#^)!

But well the food there is really yummy....n the service v prompt!

So after a yummy lunch and quick game of UNO we decide to visit the Murugan temple located on a hill top! Now before u roll ur eyes n say temple lemme clarify that more than any religious value this place is visited for its scenic beauty! The drive up to the hilltop is itself a mini-adventure.....All your Altos, Santros, I10's wont stand a chance......its only the good old jeeps that will ake u there (something to do with the four wheel drive I am told)! For most of the drive there is nothing like a pucca road n ur jeep is almost going nose deep....n once u reach top the song that comes to mind is "AAj mein oophar, Aasmaan Neeche"..........

After this adventure we return all pepped to bamboo banks n relax with a cup of hot tea, Whisky\Wine, snacks n a biggg dinner.........So thats day 1 for you...a perfect start to what a perfect holiday!

Walking down the memmory lane with daddy....One of my first memmories

Was casually browsing thru a few blogs by other bloggers n a post that really had me hooked was one where a girl recollects all her childhood memories (unfortunately I have lost the link of that blog)....n this inspired me to write a post of my own childhood days.....

Well I hardly remember anything till I am 5 or so thou a few of them are etched in my memory thanx to my cousins who still have a whale of time repeating it every time we meet up.....they(i.e. the stories n cousins) will be another post!

The first memory I have is of the time when I must have been like 3 or 4 years and in my kindergarten. N in those days it was my daddy who would do all my shopping (down to the smallest things...funny hey esp considering that it went on till I was in my late teens!!!). So daddy picks up this hair clip for me (do not really remember if it was he who bought it!) which resembles a flower (Blue\pink??) One fine day I get ready to school with this hair clip n all.....n as soon as daddy sees me in it, he exclaims "Ho! it looks so beautiful....almost like u have a real rose in your hair!!!" N thou now I think its silly but then I was so happy n thrilled (that I remember it to this day)........

In a way this incident encompasses my entire childhood as I remember it.....a v sweet n loving daddy who was always there for me like a pillar, who would play the fool to cheer me up, who would pamper me silly, who would support me despite all my mistakes, who patiently taught me math n to whom i owe my love for reading n writing, who would drink up my milk for me (to save me from mummy's wrath), who would get me chocolates everyday (even after i was all grown up n working), who would wait up for me till late in the nights (even on those days when I return from work at 2 or 3 in the night)...But as they say u do not realize the worth of a person till he is around!! N now when my daddy is gone, I miss him like mad...miss the warmth, comfort n the confidence that was always taken for granted!!! Love u daddy.........

A trip to Ooty..... na na Masinagudi.........

The travel freaks that I n my hubbs are , the itch of travelling keeps surfacing quite often (The catalyst in itching process being our new friends - 'Sabi N Binoy')! But considering the dire status of our bank accounts these travels have been restricted to weekend getaways....
The latest destination in our travel itinerary was Masingaudi (We were supposed to reach Ooty but landed up in Masingaudi) accompanied by yet another crazy couple...the same ones mentioned earlier in the blog! Masingaudi is a small hamlet in the Madhumalai forest range (More commonly known as 'Bandipur Forest Range' to bangalooru folks and as Veerapan's hideout to the rest... Madhumalai is the extension of the 'Bandipur' forest into Tamil Nadu state).

We hit the road early in morning - 6 is real early as per my standards; The first stop was for breakfast at Kamat....... A nice cosy place situated bang on the highway! The idlis there is unlike any I have had.......they are steamed in bannana leaf!! After this filling breakfast we hit the road in full speed till we reached the bandipur forest range.

As you enter the forest area u encounter all kind of sign boards "Do not Horn". "Silence Please", "No Photography". "Do not stop your vehicles in forest range", "Drive slowly. Wild Animals have right of way" ( But we being Indians hardly pay heed to them) and suddenly the entire mood becomes eerie as u keep your fingers crossed and hope some wild animals Cross your way!Well for starters we were lucky...beginners luck I guess!! We encounter an wild elephant trio....mother, father and the baby.......The baby so well sandwiched between the parents that until u look closely u don't even see it!!! Soon we cross over to the Tamil Nadu side of forest....where we had an (mis)adventure for keeps when we ladies decide to answer the call of nature by hiding ourselves behind this huge tree!!! I know its sounds scandalous....but kya kare control nahi hotha!!! Huh huh wait wait...the adventure isn't even started yet! We being the thankful souls that we are decide to get ourselves photographed in front of our saviour tree (proof is the pic to ur right)n suddenly in a fraction of second two people (in khaki) come running at us , snatch our camera n ask us to follow them!! Its only after few seconds do we realize that they were policemen and were taking us to Forest Range Police Station.....whaa whaaa :(. Our crime??? Remeber the sign boards I mentioned before..."No Photography", "Do not stop your vehicles in forest range"!!!!! Well luckily for us at that moment a senior officer lands there n in all tht hungama we are forgotten n are packed off with a stern warning!!

After all this excitement we at last reach Masingagudi ready for more .....Hey Masinagudi...here we come!!!!
To be continued.......

Book review: Anything for you ma'm

"Anything for yoy ma'm"...Happened to pick up this book from my colleague! Hadnt heard any review about this book till then (N considering tht even my hubbs hadnt hear of it -u c he is one hell of a reader- the expectation from the book was not really high! N well the book lived upto its expectation!!

The revolves around the love story of a IITian.... the obstacles faced by the hero to meet his girl is the theme of the story! The fiascos with proffesors as few small things shoot up to become big obstacle (ala "Five point someone" by Chetan Bhagat), the ever helping 'jugaad' friends, the sweet-n-sour indian family are the ingredients of the story......

As you read the book, you feel the strong influence of Chean bhagat in the author's writing style! But the area where the book fails is the 'utterly butterly' descriptions (which almost puts u to sleep)....a more crispy approach would have made the book palatable ! The best part in the book was the fast paced , feel good climax....

But all said n done the book is not a v bad concotion considering that this is the first work from a college going IITian (Tarun Raheja)!!