A Case of Exploding Mangoes
I am not sure how i came to know about this book. For sure, it has got something to do with one of the google searches related to Pakistan, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact one.
This is quite an interesting book, mainly because of its satirical humor. (hmm…this made me realize why i am a regular reader of few Pakistani blogs :))
There is always a line or two which makes one laugh for every 2 pages. Although, at times, there seems to be an overdose of satires, it kept the reader stick to the book.
It would’ve been better, if the descriptions in few places weren’t so elaborate (ex, Ali explaining his dark cell in Fort) and also length of the book is slightly on the longer side at the end. Also, few instances were quite shocking, but this might not be a general issue as it would vary for different readers!
One point though, i would’ve preferred a slightly better happy ending because Baby-O character is really good!
Here is an article by the author which highly motivated me to read this book.
It has received good review from Amazon reviewers.
Also, this is one of the shortlists in Booker Longlists…well, yes, Booker prize announces a longlist first, followed by a shortlist :)
Here is an article from Guardian regarding this year’s longlist entries.
BTW, there are 3 Indian authors in this list (interestingly, i remember reading an article sometime back that eventhough Salman Rushdie was born in India, he currently holds a Pakistani passport and not an Indian one.)
Popularity: 1%
September 5, 2008 | Filed Under books | Comments Off
A deal worth what? - I (contd…)
Posted by a fan as Nuclear deal, india, usa
well, i was about to finalize and publish the second post explaining the 5 points, thanks to Ganesh’s birthday, it’s a holiday for us here :) (crap, guess i am getting influenced by these stupid news channels calling Lord Ganesha as “Ganesh”,”Ganesh”, as if he’s one of their friends. ;) )
But there is a great breaking news across all channels from 5.30pm regarding Nuke Deal and Mr.Anil Kakodkar has been summoned to Delhi and PM has convened an emergency meeting in his house!
All because of this secret revealed in washington post!
I remember reading in one of the siddharth varadarajan’s post, “In Diplomacy, timing is everything”. So taking that point into consideration, i think US might have concluded that NSG meeting tomm will go nowhere and hence maybe trying to set a direction to NSG.
Here is a good post with full details.
I fully prefer Scenario 2 mentioned in the post, but not sure whether NSG will prefer ;)
And the real nagging question is “Did the government, in particular our PM, knew about this in January itself or not?”
From the PMs call for an immediate meeting, looks like there is some surprise element!
I really hope this whole thing gets clarified by this week rather than waiting for Dr.Manmohan singh to retire from Political life and then wait for his autobiography explaining what they really knew!!!
But there is a great breaking news across all channels from 5.30pm regarding Nuke Deal and Mr.Anil Kakodkar has been summoned to Delhi and PM has convened an emergency meeting in his house!
All because of this secret revealed in washington post!
I remember reading in one of the siddharth varadarajan’s post, “In Diplomacy, timing is everything”. So taking that point into consideration, i think US might have concluded that NSG meeting tomm will go nowhere and hence maybe trying to set a direction to NSG.
Here is a good post with full details.
I fully prefer Scenario 2 mentioned in the post, but not sure whether NSG will prefer ;)
And the real nagging question is “Did the government, in particular our PM, knew about this in January itself or not?”
From the PMs call for an immediate meeting, looks like there is some surprise element!
I really hope this whole thing gets clarified by this week rather than waiting for Dr.Manmohan singh to retire from Political life and then wait for his autobiography explaining what they really knew!!!
Popularity: 2%
Quayle Moments :)
Posted by a fan as Uncategorized
Dan Quayle was the Vice President of USA from 1989-1993.
No, this blog post is not about his history :)
As usual, while grazing over the newspaper entries in google news regarding Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential nominee, i happened to read Sydney Herald. In this, it was mentioned,
“Democratic strategists believe that Senator McCain has chosen a “Dan Quayle” – a reference to the inexperienced and gaffe-prone number two selected by the first president Bush in an effort to enliven his own reputation.” (Link)
This made me wonder about Quayle.
Thanks to wikipedia, came to know that Quayle referred in newspaper is Dan Quayle, VP of USA.
And following is the turnaround referred on nomination of Dan Quayle.
“Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken before the convention, they received a significant boost that put them in the lead, which they did not relinquish for the rest of the campaign.”
Quite interesting…but i think the main difference between 1989 and 2008 is Iraq War.
Anyway, the thing which prompted to write this post is not the above point. Below are the ones, (all taken from wikipedia entry)… :)
“Mr. Quayle seemed at times rattled, at other times uncertain or evasive as he tried to handle the questions”
“There was much criticism of Quayle after the campaign’s televised vice-presidential debate, in which he compared his amount of Congressional experience to that of John F. Kennedy when he was running for president. Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen said in rebuttal, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” to which a noticeably surprised and unprepared Quayle replied, “That was really uncalled for, Senator,” as both applause and boos were heard from the debate audience. Bentsen replied that it was Quayle who had made the initial comparison. Quayle’s reaction to Bentsen’s comment was played and replayed by the Democrats in their subsequent television ads as an announcer intoned: “Quayle: just a heartbeat away.” Comedians exploited the exchange, and an increasing number of editorial cartoons depicted Quayle as an infant or child. “
“Quayle received the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for “demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education” in 1991.”
“Contributing greatly to the perception of Quayle’s incompetence was his tendency to make public statements which were either self-contradictory (“We don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward”), logically redundant (“The future will be better tomorrow”), obvious (“For NASA, space is still a high priority”), geographically wrong (“I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix.”), fallacious (“It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system”), or painfully confused and inappropriate, as when he addressed the United Negro College Fund, whose slogan is “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”, Quayle said “You take the United Negro College Fund model that what a waste it is to lose one’s mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”“
“Quayle was asked his thoughts on sending humans to Mars. His response was stunning for the number of errors he made in just a few short sentences. “Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as earth]….Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.”“
“His most famous blunder occurred when he corrected a student’s correct spelling of “potato” to “potatoe” at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 15, 1992.”
No, this blog post is not about his history :)
As usual, while grazing over the newspaper entries in google news regarding Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential nominee, i happened to read Sydney Herald. In this, it was mentioned,
“Democratic strategists believe that Senator McCain has chosen a “Dan Quayle” – a reference to the inexperienced and gaffe-prone number two selected by the first president Bush in an effort to enliven his own reputation.” (Link)
This made me wonder about Quayle.
Thanks to wikipedia, came to know that Quayle referred in newspaper is Dan Quayle, VP of USA.
And following is the turnaround referred on nomination of Dan Quayle.
“Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken before the convention, they received a significant boost that put them in the lead, which they did not relinquish for the rest of the campaign.”
Quite interesting…but i think the main difference between 1989 and 2008 is Iraq War.
Anyway, the thing which prompted to write this post is not the above point. Below are the ones, (all taken from wikipedia entry)… :)
“Mr. Quayle seemed at times rattled, at other times uncertain or evasive as he tried to handle the questions”
“There was much criticism of Quayle after the campaign’s televised vice-presidential debate, in which he compared his amount of Congressional experience to that of John F. Kennedy when he was running for president. Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen said in rebuttal, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” to which a noticeably surprised and unprepared Quayle replied, “That was really uncalled for, Senator,” as both applause and boos were heard from the debate audience. Bentsen replied that it was Quayle who had made the initial comparison. Quayle’s reaction to Bentsen’s comment was played and replayed by the Democrats in their subsequent television ads as an announcer intoned: “Quayle: just a heartbeat away.” Comedians exploited the exchange, and an increasing number of editorial cartoons depicted Quayle as an infant or child. “
“Quayle received the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for “demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education” in 1991.”
“Contributing greatly to the perception of Quayle’s incompetence was his tendency to make public statements which were either self-contradictory (“We don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward”), logically redundant (“The future will be better tomorrow”), obvious (“For NASA, space is still a high priority”), geographically wrong (“I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix.”), fallacious (“It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system”), or painfully confused and inappropriate, as when he addressed the United Negro College Fund, whose slogan is “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”, Quayle said “You take the United Negro College Fund model that what a waste it is to lose one’s mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”“
“Quayle was asked his thoughts on sending humans to Mars. His response was stunning for the number of errors he made in just a few short sentences. “Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as earth]….Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.”“
“His most famous blunder occurred when he corrected a student’s correct spelling of “potato” to “potatoe” at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 15, 1992.”
Popularity: 2%
September 2, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Maruti ad
One of my favourite Maruti ads…
Here is a blog entry with Maruti company release regarding the ad theme and creation.
There is also an ad regarding Fuel efficiency of Maruti, in which a kid keeps on driving his toy car everywhere and when his father asks him to stop it, he replies that the petrol is not getting over :)
A real classic one. (somewhat like A.R.Rehman’s music… one has to
Popularity: 2%
September 1, 2008 | Filed Under ads | Comments Off
A deal worth what? - I
Posted by a fan as Nuclear deal, india, usa
In this world of google times, one of the main problems is, we have become only news consumers. On top of that, a person like me, who takes any news articles by any journalist with a pinch of salt, it’s quite difficult to understand the truth of almost anything…
Indo- US nuclear deal is one such thing.
I hate being an armchair analyst.But i am going to leave this point aside and write a few
Popularity: 2%
An intermediate result!
Posted by a fan as Uncategorized
There are days or maybe moments when one feels so elated and suddenly everything seems possible/achievable in this world. One is really bubbling with confidence and happiness. One feels really light, smiles to himself/herself. Infact this is also quite infectious.
I just had one such evening today :)
For quite a different reason though!
I remember, once when i was talking to my friend, i was
Popularity: 2%
August 26, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
National Anthem
Posted by a fan as Uncategorized
Atlast, India has an Olympic Gold medal winner in an individual event!
Suddenly it looks like quite an achievement by all of us, although the complete credit goes to an individual and his family :) :)
Stayed awake till midnight to watch the repeat telecast of the Shooting Finals and Award ceremony. And frankly I never thought i will become so emotional about this. But when the Indian National
Popularity: 1%
August 14, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Fav ad
I keep wondering why i like this ad so much…is it because of the violin music or because of the guy in the ad? :)
Still remember the day when my friend was forced to watch this ad amidst my exclaimed explanation. All she was interested, was in the violin music and the violin…after all, she was(or is?) an emerging violin player ;)
Anyway, when many ads are trying to drown the viewers with so many words, this is one exceptional example!
hmm…while thinking about words, I am reminded of the song in Notting Hill, “You say it best, when you say nothing at all” :) (i wonder whether the song writer wrote it in a real sense or with a hope that his girlfriend might follow it ;) )
Still remember the day when my friend was forced to watch this ad amidst my exclaimed explanation. All she was interested, was in the violin music and the violin…after all, she was(or is?) an emerging violin player ;)
Anyway, when many ads are trying to drown the viewers with so many words, this is one exceptional example!
hmm…while thinking about words, I am reminded of the song in Notting Hill, “You say it best, when you say nothing at all” :) (i wonder whether the song writer wrote it in a real sense or with a hope that his girlfriend might follow it ;) )
Popularity: 1%
August 10, 2008 | Filed Under ads | Comments Off
Are we really secular?
Posted by a fan as Uncategorized
note: This is not a Polemic post. (thanks to one of my dear friend questioning me previously regarding “Polemic” posts, i am mentioning this upfront)
I had been really pondering over this question for the last few weeks, mainly after i started reading about Pakistan and happenings there…
Are we really secular or are we acting as if we are secular or are we trying to become secular by overlooking many factors and appeasing all the minorities?
Was Jinnah right when he said that One nation will lead India to destruction?
I think i am quite convinced of the answer now.
Today, i see the debates raging over the Jammu & Kashmir issue in different news channel. It was very saddening to see the altercation between Sajjad Lone and Ashok Pandit in CNN-IBN.
But what really hurt me the most was the arguments between Arun Joshi and Muzamil Jaleel in “The Nation Tonight” in CNBC. Atleast in the former case, the argument might be heavily influenced by individual experiences as one was a politician and other was a kashmiri pandit, the community which has faced the worst form of violence almost equivalent to Genocide in Kashmir. In the latter case, one was a Hindustan Times reporter from Jammu and other was an award winning Indian Express reporter from Kashmir. But the way they put forth their points, it was as if they were talking to their specific communities. It was really very depressing for 2 reasons.
1. Does this showcase a deep sense of distrust between the communities in that region?
2. If these journalists can get influenced based on the region from which they are reporting and their surrounding experiences, where are we, normal citizens, who get almost 99% of news from a second hand source?
Every sane individual is aware that there might be a high probability of political hand involvement in this blowup of the issue or why even creation of the issue in the first place…still, every single spark like this might really end up deepening the distrust among individuals.
Below are couple of articles i happened read today.
Somehow, i am not convinced with this author. I fully agree with the topic, but the content is the issue.
Appeasement is never good for a nation.
This is one of the saddest articles i have read in recent times. These are the remainders that we really have a long way to go, as a nation.
My lost country - Kashmir
Now, i really wonder what is happening on the North East region…
I had been really pondering over this question for the last few weeks, mainly after i started reading about Pakistan and happenings there…
Are we really secular or are we acting as if we are secular or are we trying to become secular by overlooking many factors and appeasing all the minorities?
Was Jinnah right when he said that One nation will lead India to destruction?
I think i am quite convinced of the answer now.
Today, i see the debates raging over the Jammu & Kashmir issue in different news channel. It was very saddening to see the altercation between Sajjad Lone and Ashok Pandit in CNN-IBN.
But what really hurt me the most was the arguments between Arun Joshi and Muzamil Jaleel in “The Nation Tonight” in CNBC. Atleast in the former case, the argument might be heavily influenced by individual experiences as one was a politician and other was a kashmiri pandit, the community which has faced the worst form of violence almost equivalent to Genocide in Kashmir. In the latter case, one was a Hindustan Times reporter from Jammu and other was an award winning Indian Express reporter from Kashmir. But the way they put forth their points, it was as if they were talking to their specific communities. It was really very depressing for 2 reasons.
1. Does this showcase a deep sense of distrust between the communities in that region?
2. If these journalists can get influenced based on the region from which they are reporting and their surrounding experiences, where are we, normal citizens, who get almost 99% of news from a second hand source?
Every sane individual is aware that there might be a high probability of political hand involvement in this blowup of the issue or why even creation of the issue in the first place…still, every single spark like this might really end up deepening the distrust among individuals.
Below are couple of articles i happened read today.
Somehow, i am not convinced with this author. I fully agree with the topic, but the content is the issue.
Appeasement is never good for a nation.
This is one of the saddest articles i have read in recent times. These are the remainders that we really have a long way to go, as a nation.
My lost country - Kashmir
Now, i really wonder what is happening on the North East region…
Popularity: 2%
August 6, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Expectation
Posted by a fan as Uncategorized
There are many questions for which eventhough there is an answer, we can never really answer it because the answer is just not the way things work in a society. Now, it also doesn’t mean that one is willing to accept the way things work!
Friend: Tell me one thing. Why is it that a mother expects her daughter-in-law to cook all the favorites of her son and serve him? Imagine, if my mother also feels in the similar way. What if my mother goes to her son-in-law and tells,”My daughter likes this food item a lot. Can you please prepare and serve for her?” ? Will he prepare and serve his wife?
Well, obviously he should! But, I didn’t answer anything when she asked. I started wondering as how come she thought like this! It also shows how much she was affected by the first question.
Maybe, her mother was wise enough to avoid asking such question so that her daughter’s favorite will always remain as a favorite ;)
I remembered one thing though…My Math professor mentioned once,”As a woman, we are always compromising in many indirect ways. So never compromise on your own”. I never understood this in my college years…Now, after a few years down the lane, i think i am slowly understanding what she really meant.
Friend: Tell me one thing. Why is it that a mother expects her daughter-in-law to cook all the favorites of her son and serve him? Imagine, if my mother also feels in the similar way. What if my mother goes to her son-in-law and tells,”My daughter likes this food item a lot. Can you please prepare and serve for her?” ? Will he prepare and serve his wife?
Well, obviously he should! But, I didn’t answer anything when she asked. I started wondering as how come she thought like this! It also shows how much she was affected by the first question.
Maybe, her mother was wise enough to avoid asking such question so that her daughter’s favorite will always remain as a favorite ;)
I remembered one thing though…My Math professor mentioned once,”As a woman, we are always compromising in many indirect ways. So never compromise on your own”. I never understood this in my college years…Now, after a few years down the lane, i think i am slowly understanding what she really meant.
Popularity: 2%
August 5, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
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