The Angel Of God by Jyothi Menon – Book review
March 29, 2009 § 17 Comments
Picture from the Author’s site(link at the end).
A pretty ‘warm’ book and a lovely story. Something about it makes you feel comfortable,maybe becuase we Indians already have heard about people,whom she has created . This book would have welcomed more superlative appraisal from me, if not for a few places where the ‘ HR ‘ sticks out.
The story has three main characters , the first one being a underworld don called Moosa . The character is someone who you would like to encounter in real life,in fact you do wonder where are such good , kind hearted people, but then you realize that something is not right and well he is ‘ bastardised by the circumstances’ – his childhood in the world famous Dharawi and the various illegal things he gets into make him into a black sheep,but a sheep never the less.
The second is a character called Bhaskaran who is from an ancient family in Kerala. He grows in a place a close to Dharawi where he happens to meet Moosa during a row. He later goes on to achieve ,thanks to Moosa Bhai’s help.
The third is a orphan called Abubacker,in Khozikode,who , with the help of Moosa become a ‘Muthalali’. The book has vivid descriptions of the illegal businesses both in Kerala and Mumbai. Moosa helps in the making of two men,both different- one educated in MIT(Bhaskaran) and the other educated by experience in the underworld. The book also moves a lot – Kerala,Chennai,Mumbai, Libya,Middle East ,Nagpur etc.
As I said,the book seemed to have bit too much of the HR angel. This being fiction, every paragraph helps in molding the story and the reader being a person who picks up this book from the best seller stand,is bound be at loss,when he is faced with description of running a business,it catches you out ,when at about 1 0r 2 in the morning between a nice story someone talks about business.Also if it were so simple,then everyone would be a entrepenuer . But maybe that is the cynic in me,rather maybe it is a reaction to the fact that a particular part towards the end , seemed to add a certain degree of reality to it and rob it of the ‘cho cho sweet why can’t this be a feel good movie/ wah wah a fairy tale at last’.
I never like to reveal the story,except maybe the main characters,because my belief is that,reading a detailed review,takes away a bit of the charm of reading a book. I would say,read this book,if you want a something light and feel good(there are a few bits of harsh reality,which seeing other stories now days,would make into a fairy tale anyway) .It also gives you an insight into a few places and ways of living(ya well I guess it is better than travel and living). Though I just criticised the HR part,there are a few messages which have been put in with a bit of euphamism which we all can use,when we deal with people( Okay, I am not know for my patience when dealing with certain type of people,so yes,maybe I should learn). I might be over rating this book,but anyway..
Rating – 8/10. Makes a nice little quick read.
A fairy tale
March 27, 2009 § 14 Comments
In my dreams I do believe,
One day I will achieve.
Fairy tales begin with ‘once upon a time’ and so does this one. Once upon a time, in a world far far away from ‘reality’ there was a little boy in a big city. He dreamed of reaching the stars which he saw and thought that if he could keep improving his paper plane design, he could build a craft and finally go and see the stars closer.
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| From photoshopped |
He was a good old chatterbox,non-stop super-sense if not to others ,to himself. But what was more shocking was the way he could observe people and things. Though people around made fun of him,he loved the stars and told himself, he would go up away from this world and see them some day , some how. But at that he didn’t know one thing-that when people decide your dream is ridiculous they try to make sure you can never reach it.
And so the time came when the kid entered first standard and the bright lad, now hated school,because the teachers some how didn’t like him.The smart boy he had been in kindergarten was now gone. He realized he liked a certain girl ,who was popular,got good marks and whom everyone wanted to talk to-things he wasn’t. Oh! he and marks – Some how,they never seemed to matter to him,yet they seemed to give people a reason to say why he can’t go to the ‘space’ and visit the universe ,he wasn’t getting enough marks!
But that didn’t stop him,he was a determined kid.In his mind,he could see himself peeping out of the window at the stars and enjoying the serene silence. Where ever he thought of that,he felt on top of that world,below him called earth,how those people tried to tell him he can’t fly,but he was little bird wasn’t he?
In his dreams ,he achieved plenty more. He lead a life,away from the reality. And as life would have it,he was never popular in school, though he wished he was , but that gave him plenty of time,to live in his own little world of ideas and ideals. But his marks saw a bit of daylight and slowly started going up for a while.
By the time he entered his teens,he still thought of his stars but he now understood,what the world would do-he was old enough to understand people and their ways. So one day he sat and told himself,no matter what life throws at him,he would get there.
But within a while,all changed and his dreams seemed to have gone away.Someone seemed to have stamped the little paper plane -he hated it,he never was a earthling,earth was meant for creatures who wanted safety,not for heroes like him.Then suddenly,a thread stuck from the sky and he started to climb towards the stars. One the way up,he knocked on God’s door and give him his best smile.
But suddenly everything came crashing,some human was pulling him down, this shouldn’t happen,to the little boy,the young man told himself , would this be the end of the road for his dream. Then something struck him, there is another path, to his dream,not one of climbing up a thread, but one which he had to discover and on the way he would learn more about humans and the way they act . He told himself that he would make it , he felt the warmth of the dreams .
During the day,he observed the race he was left in and tried to figure out why people were people and why they might be so. Then they called him a idealist. He hated it as much as he hated the way people behaved. But he knew,if he ever was going to go to the stars, he needed to tell these people , it was they who showed him , his ideas and ideals , they who showed him how to build a paper plane and it was they who crushed it and pulled the ropes. This was not helplessness . If he wanted he knew, there were other ways, there were people , who would love to have him(or so he believed) but he despised helplessness , if not this, than that , the stars kept calling.
Year after year,he tried; Then one night,he wept,the man did weep, he wanted his little paper plane , so he took a paper and made such a plane and as things would have it,in the plane he saw what he had missed , he knew that all the while he had made the choices towards love ,he knew that got him here. But he also knew, in the heart of every child,there lives a star and if you remain that kid,no one can steal the dream in your head. So he lay dreaming…..Yup, this was the path of love…
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
A fairy tale should have a good or a positive ending , will this end is such a way? I leave it you to write what happens to the young man…
this is 25.
March 18, 2009 § 20 Comments
Reema tagged me to write 25 random things,so well this is 25!
1) I wrote this post on the eve of my economics exam,now I have forgotten what I had thought out
2) I like to try to do everything with my left. In this respect I now prefer to use my left in footie and am almost as good with my left as I am with my right in Table tennis.The only thing tough is writing with my left.
3) I dream a lot. And I have in my dreams been in movies,become a top biz man ,played for all the top football clubs and published a hell a lot of books and been the hero.It is worth mentioning all these things till date have remained as dreams. Oh! and talking of dreams,this post crosses my mind.
4) I love to try and make inanimate things alive.Some how it seems nice to have something which is not prejudiced to talk to.
5) I can be in a dream land for a long time, in this case the real world and that world almost merge.I sort of float around and to many people around start acting in a very attached,detached way…
6) I hate to read anything twice. And so I never study for my exams.I just start sleeping or well start doing something else,like blogging 
7) I am a true cancerian,while I can take any amount of nonsense,some times,I get damn emotional.
8) For me the things which I feel are virtues,are something I will not give up,no matter what.You can call me tenacious or arrogant.
9) If I respect someone,I genuinely respect them.If I don’t ,I don’t really care who they are and if I have little tolerance towards certain people…
10) I love to watch football,especially flowing,attacking football.
11) It doesn’t matter what people tell me,I believe everything in this world is connected,that is why we have so called miracles,things act a certain way because they are all linked and there have been enough incidents to prove me right.
12) YU! means a lot to me. But not many of its members seem to care. I try to tell myself not to conclude ,that people will be people but I am tempted to.( If you do really care,wake up! Don’t tell me you can’t find anything to write or comment!! ) { strictly meant for YU! members,but then most of them don’t read my blog anyway 
}
13) Someone pointed out a while back,that this blog has more women/girl readers.And I have always wondered why
14) I can be very very irritating and well my class mates and friends can vouch for it .
15) Sometimes I become a 5 year old.And when I am in that state,like in my dreams,the world seems all fine and azure.
16) I cried in front of my whole class in 10th,I was that sensitive.But then that was the year a lot changed for me. I started writing poetry ,it was a turning point in my life.
17) It really doesn’t matter who you are and what you do,all that matters is that you use your senses and enjoy the world.I hate the world for making things complicated.
18) When I am damn happy or damn sad,I ask myself ” What the hell are you doing here anyway? ” and also ” what is all this? “
19) I like to be special to people. And there are lot of people who are special to me.But some how many of them don’t seem stick around.
20) I have seen a ghost as a kid and no I was not dreaming ,I still remember it.
21) I hate smokers . And I don’t care what the cost is,I either walk out or tell the person not to smoke around me.
22) Till date I have showed all those people who belittled me what I am made up of but it is not yet done,I wish and I hope and I will.
23) I have been blogging for almost 3 years now.Many have come and many have went but I learnt the differences between people and I have also noticed how people who blog have changed.
24) I don’t really care what “people” think about what I write. My poetry is my way of telling myself things.I post it here,because I feel there are people out there,who may like to read it.
25) And my blog means a lot to me.If not for poetry and this place,I don’t know,where my self confidence and belief would be.Thank you all!
And for once I am not tagging anyone 
P.S:- Sorry for making this so serious. I want to play the joker ,I so badly want to!
drunken 2.0 addict,board exams,womens day sales and how not to(cartoons)
March 9, 2009 § 13 Comments
The mirror shone…
March 8, 2009 § 12 Comments
And the mirror shone,with the image,
There stood the love,
There was the symbol within.
The sight was beyond might,
And the will of man,was his own.
He did belong to himself and Earth,
And those who see no face in the mirror,
Are the once who are in darkness.
Switch on the lights he did want to tell,
Yet how to address that which has no face?
That which rots will always rot,
That which grows shall always,
For you cannot be discriminated
Unless you your self choose so.
If the sky looks dull and glut,
Then the spirit shall be alight,
If it does choose to see the light within.
If the tools of men failed be perceived,
Then shall darkness have a victory,
Let the spark of solitude and the society’s
Misnomers do isolate ,in fear of itself.
That ,that curse is a gift,
That not to belong leads to a search,
And the identity that which is googled,
Will be found,in love,in what we value.
To that we walk,we parade,
Those whose spirit is in integrity,
Who refuse to lie down
And to all that,bow,
For the sweetest rebellion
Is victorious when it seeks not to avenge
Itself in the name of revenge.
To rebel is to accept yourself
And that the face you do see,
Is not meant to be bound but free.
For in freedom alone dwells love,
For a bundle of life is in projection,
To seek the stars and greater levitation.
In dreams love does haunt
To seek the greatness so perceived,
Accidents lead to discoveries,
And so love to solution of mysteries.
Love to be alive,
And to abide to your light.
Humanity is at par with destruction when
In comparison of virtue-
Beyond that lie a very very few.
Sin is sinister and love is not a dagger,
Yet to preserve itself,shall it spill blood?
Is ale spoiling the unspoiled to give
Negation a victory and to rejoice,
The death of our kind? Or is it the spirit
Of invention,to the man who drank it
As an unknown poison and found heaven?
Or neither but a state of natural invention,
Just so to place the mind a while away
And ultimately free from the bound day?
A metaphor to freedom?
Why is man bound?
And alone his love,with wings,
Always to be flown?
Why is it that we seek solace,
Even though we know out own face?
Now do we bind words into form
And say a noise is right,
The others utter and see your rite?
What sense of order do we see,
And beyond that what do we perceive?
Is disunity,A state of mere callous
Misinterpretation ,a stray mutation,
For us to marginalize our life?
But finally does come a day,
When we do breach innosence
And climb the ladder and pass the grey,
And into the clouds we do pass,
This a metaphoric heaven,
We seek not bliss,
But mere sense of equality-
Be valued as you are and not
What you are meant to be.
If earth was to be such,
Than a beggar will not be a king,
But to do so,must learn the arts
To raise and in character appraise,
The minds of those who fought past
The fiends,those many armed monsters,
The cruel nature of human disunity,
A stark stray-hail! OH! Hail,the society!
In spirit,realize the curiosity!
Love is such,turn on your light,
And in it you shall see the face of life,
Be bold and smile,for what you see
Is what you perceive,illusion or not,
It is a de reguier reality!
In the light of truth,
One will lead,not mere instict
But that which speaks logically,
A known or unknown tongue,
Hear it and learn to be,
Yourself and in that free!
Love yourself and forget disunity,
The world will be what it wants to be.
In scarifies and sacrilege and absurdity,
It sees joy; Then,love to be,
Be not tamed but be free to set free
the wisdom of freedom,
To the rocks,they might wake,
To restore the order of insanity.
Love is that we lend ourselves value,
And that is the end we seek,
Truth is not the end but means to an end.
The light shines the brightest
Pink Panther 2 movie review
February 27, 2009 § 20 Comments
Image from here.
Note:- The following review is by my 11 year old sister.I myself haven’t watched the movie yet,but from what I hear from her it pretty good(ya ya “boards”).
Pink panther was exciting , hmm.. you can say a little bit romantic , full of comedy and a movie for all to watch. The movie is about the famous pink panther diamond which was stolen from a museum in France by an international thief in disguise , Tornado. The crime was to be solved by a dream team consisting people from all over the world. (five members and two assistants.) The leader Clouseau does his best to make his opinion heard but everyone else considers him to be batty and stubborn and do not bother about him. After two embarassing incidents he was kicked out of the team. But in the end he was smart enough to solve the crime!!! Tornado was………not telling! watch the movie to know.
What I liked about the movie was that small details which add humor to a movie were not left out. The music was also good as it changed according to the scene. What was slightly irritating was that the French accent was a little too much.
The star cast is Emily Mortimer as Nicole Nuveau, Aishwarya Rai as Sonia Solandres,Jeremy Irons as Alonso Avellaneda,Jean Reno as Gendarme Gilbert Ponton,Molly Sims as Marguerite,John Cleese as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus , Alfred Molina as Chief Inspector Randall Pepperidge the British genius, Andy García as Inspector Vicenzo Brancaleone the Italian hero, Yuki Matsuzaki as Kenji Mazuto the Japanese whiz kid and Steve Martin as Inspector Jacques Clouseau the French idiot. I liked Steve’s acting and Ashi’s was good too.
Rating:- 9.9/10
P.S :- This is the first Hollywood movie which does not have too much of kissing in it.
P.S:- Ya now she is going to get it from for watching such a movie without me. Also I should say her english is damn good,I was nowhere near this when I was 11.Guess I will let her do all the reviewing from now on,what do you say? P.P.S:- See her blog also
sketches…
February 24, 2009 § 19 Comments
So I managed to do a few sketches,they of course help me cool and relax between all the madness of not studying( ya joking,I am so bugged of people asking me,how are you studying,blah blah,that the second anyone asks that question,I start screaming like an American actress..).
Of course,I still don’t have a camera(March 21st ,march 21st!) but this time I guess the pics are better as managed to have enough sunlight while taking the photos( mobile cameras without flash work damn well in natural light,they suck otherwise)..So here goes…
This one was actually done in school,a while back…I think it was English or economics and was doodling while trying to go to sleep stay awake…
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| From mobile photos! |
The next 5 are pretty recent …
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| From mobile photos! |
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| From mobile photos! |
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| From mobile photos! |
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| From mobile photos! |
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| From mobile photos! |
I don’t like the last one that much,but still decided to put here,it was alright till I went slightly over board…my fav is the last but second one,I don’t usually do that much detailing but decided to try something different…
And well I found another old one,not exactly compete,but still….
7)
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| From mobile photos! |
Again please forgive the poor photo quality What do you think,I have improved? And which one do you think is the pick of the lot?
P.S: See this link ,I have decided to set shop Once my boards are over,I intend to scan my sketches(the ones which look good) and use them there,for now,just went with my photoshop images and a couple of photos(don’t have time to work on it )
A 5 question interview
February 20, 2009 § 13 Comments
So Apar has given these questions to answer.This isn’t a proper tag,so the title isn’t “tagged”.So let me get the rules out of the way(they explain why this isn’t a proper tag {and I am not breaking the rules this time,at least not yet} [ ] )
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Now the wonderful questions
1. What do you mean by your tag line “the light shines the brightest”?
So someone asks me at last! I will try to keep this simple…
Even when you are in absolute darkness,you can see..now that is becuase there is light and it “shines”. Anywhere and everywhere in the universe,there is light(ya well the black holes,too need light to prove their presence). The brightest light is what we will be able to see(of course the brightest will be relative). And also light is what we all derive our food from. And light is the true omnipresent in the world. In a more personal level,we all are guided by the inner voice or self or light. This is what prompts us to act and question and interpret the world.I can call this pure instinct but the reason why I call this the light is becuase for a lot of reasons..And also where there is light there is a source…What do think about it? I would need a “loooooong post” to write about this anyway what do think “the light shines the brightest” can mean?
) In case it is a ( ) then in means I think that is got a touch of humor and I agree with you And of course the 
. I like to use smileys becuase when you see it,at least within you start smiling No actually I like to call myself crazy(and so my email Id would tell you). After all insanity is the heat of mankind.Almost everyone whom I meet tells me I am weird/crazy , a few understand what I really am,A few don’t.Being crazy doesn’t mean you have to be locked up,what it means is that you are capable of things which others aren’t. } Ya well I started YU! And I prefer to study during the night.What I supposed to do,lock myself ? I am not that sort of a person,I cannot see life as something where we torture ourselves,I like to enjoy life,if i don’t enjoy something,I can’t do it….so I try to enjoy studies as well… Hmm..on Mt.Everest Seriously speaking no clue,I will turn up one day,just wait (someone please I like to ask questions ) Just leave a comment and I will send you your questions 
