Random thoughts for November

Vijay TV has started with a new tele serial called "Kaadhalikka Neramillai". I am not calling it mega serial because Vijay TV doesn't run serials for years like other channels. It features popular TV anchor Prajin with Chandra Lakshmanan(who I read is from Kolangal). I am not sure how good is the serial but I am watching it for I feel its fresh and much better than loads of crap running in prime time in other channels.By the way, the serial has a very good and well shot title song.

Listen to it at: http://vijay.indya.com/serials/kni/index.html

Watch a promo video below:

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The Jodi No. 1 season 2 is over after a lot of drama and dance. The final was a day of award as anyone and everyone except audience got awards. This is too much of diplomacy I would say!!! Yet another episode of Simbu's polambalgal. If he comes to small screen, he can give a run for money to all those crying mega serial heroines. :P

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Read 3 books in past 2 weeks. First one was "5 point someone" of Chetan Bhagat, a book that needs no introduction. Simple narration, realistic and a very good experience. I loved it.

Next was "12 Red Herrings" of Jeffrey Archer. It is a collection of 12 short stories by the novelist. I would say all stories were not excellent but atleast I felt good reading them. All of them had that crispy racy narration that I find in every Archer's book. The first and last stories were the one I loved the most. Especially, the last one, was too good.

It is about a young man, ending up accidentally in a unplanned date in a theater with an unknown girl. The story builds up like the girl sells an extra ticket at the counter as the person who was supposed to come did not turn up. Our hero grabs the ticket, sits near her and builds up a conversation with her in the interval between the acts.
The story is stopped at a point when they come out of the theater and our hero asks her out for dinner. From here, Archer gives 4 endings to the story, each of which is thrilling and enjoyable. The best thing is 3 of these 4 endings have the same conversation with same dialogs, but each of them said in a different context. And each ending is based on who that "other person" is, whose ticket was sold in theater. :)

The final one is "The Prodigal Daughter" by.. Archer once again. I don't know if I have a good taste of reading but somehow I like these novels because they seem to be a realistic fiction, has a lot of emotions in it, the narrative style as good as I can visualize the scenes and above all, its very understandable English. :D

This is the story of a daughter of an immigrant in US who becomes the President of the country after a lot of struggles. I got so very attached to the story that I was even in tears at one or two instances :D Romba feelings aaiduchu.. enna panna!! :P

Back to Books!!

I was staying away from books for a long time due to some kind of laziness towards reading and a feeling that I cannot comprehend English as fast as I could do Tamil text.

Recently, I got two books one out of my own interest and other, my friend's recommendation. I started reading them and I should say that I thoroughly enjoyed them. I like books that has a good narrative writing, in a way that I can imagine or visualize each and every scene written. Both the books had this quality and that is what impressed me the most.

The first one was my friend's recommendation, "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by Mark Haddon. A simple story that beautifully brings out the complicated feelings of a spastic boy, Christopher, and how he unwraps the murder mystery of a dog in his neighborhood, told from the view point of the special child. During the investigation, he discovers a number of truths about himself and his own family. There is an element of suspense and what-next that the author maintains till the last chapter. Talking about the chapters, they are numbered as 2,3,5,7,11... Yes, as prime numbers. And the book talks about lots of maths, science and puzzles, as Christopher is damn intelligent. :-)

The next one was "The Guide" by R.K.Narayan, quite an old book, but I wanted to read for a long time. I have seen the movie once but don't remember much of it, though I was told that it was a complete drift away from the book. For those who don't know, its about Raju, a simple guy, who changes shades from an innocent boy to a school drop out, to a shop keeper, then a tourist guide who tactically takes away a dancer Rosie from her boring husband, does all gimmicks to make her a dancer and earn money through her, gets caught for a document forgery and finally lands up in jail. Upon his release, without his own will, people make him a saint and what follows up is narrated with humor.

Had a good time pass for past few days with books once again. After all, my English comprehension is not as bad as I thought it to be :P