Tuesday, March 27, 2012

You call that a game?

Watched "The Hunger Games" this weekend.

Would have never watched it at home or after reading about its plot, but went ahead to watch it, as friends planned it just 30 mins before the movie & I couldn't even have a glimpse of its wiki, though after the movie, as it turned out, it was okayish & not as bad as I had expected it.

Not a really good concept, Hunger Games, which are played or rather fought between 12 different districts, with 2 representatives from each - a girl & a boy where at the end, there is just 1 winner after the rest 23 are killed! The worst part being they are all just 16 year olds!

Till the Interval, things looked okay as the plot carried on with the emotions of how the selected tributes as they were called, felt as they traveled for the games arena & their complete, being treated real good before being sacrificed & all. Was hoping things to turn real bad after the interval, but the movie was directed really well, taking care of the weak-hearted too.

In some way it represented the cut-throat competition (literally in this case), when the games actually started. How one's courage & confidence can defy the norms & can even make the organizers bend a rule or makes a winner even after he/she had been deprived of the facilities the more favored districts had from the beginning.

Infact, really appreciate the quote by the autocratic ruler of the game - where he says how Hope is more powerful than fear, when he was referring to why they have 1 winner at all - something like that.
My Take - Watch it once

My original post Here

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Just Read!

It seems like I am on an Indian-Authors-Only reading spree. Almost finishing "Chankya's Chant" & knowing about him I can now say, I belong not only to the land of great mathematicians & senseless rule-makers but also to the land of a great Strategic Consultant!!

The book beautifully toggles between two eras.The first one being centered around 240 BC talking about the story of the actual Chankya, how his initial sufferings which led to a motive of revenge & his immense intelligence led him to do the then impossible task of uniting Bharat. The other being in the current era, where not just another man, but supposedly a re-birth of Chankya, Pandit Gangasagar, plays in the modern politics, thinking steps ahead, makes a Prime Minister out of a mere slum girl.

Perfect read, as it combines & clearly shows the aspect of the working politics! & at the same time, throws a much-deserving light on an important chapter of our history, which we hardly remember about. A gripping 2nd novel by Ashwin Sanghi, who wrote his 1st novel The Rozabel Line, a fiction about the not so-confirmed time when Jesus lived in India under his pseudonym Shawn Haiginis.

Somehow this combo of Indian Author + fiction around a known religious myth/history, seems to take some good place in the Bestseller list.Good time to be an author, specially if you are a top B-School alum, atleast as per the latest trend, all started by our very own Chetan Bhagat. And the boom of e-bookstores in India is definitely helping your case.

P.S As my status changes from Waiting for Results to Wait-Listed for Results, & work takes a front-seat by not only ruining weekdays, but extending its presence over to the weekend (so much for boasting about my No-Work Status all along :|) I guess it is time to get the book-worm in me back to action.