[Book Review] 'Fables from India', 'Memories of Ice' and 'Name of the Wind'

Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3)

TL/DR: If you have read fantasy before and you liked it, drop everything and read this series. Warning: these are big books and they suck time. Well worth it.

My review of Book 1 in the series, Gardens of the Moon, is available here. What should I add except that the series seems to get impossibly better with each book? The book revolves around the rise of the mysterious Pannion Domin and the several forces (literally multiple armies) that align against it. We get to know more about why some characters are what they are, and the author keeps that as interesting as any showdown this book has. The writing is quite good - not as great as some fantasy legends - but the plot(s), character development and how everything comes together - leagues ahead of anything else I've read.

Wars, Magic, Sentiment, Dragons, Humour, Honour (Itkovian! Onos Toolan!) ... this series is everything done right.

Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles #1)

TL/DR: I liked the book & the writing for the most part. I liked the world building, the sections at Kvothe's Inn, the sections at the University and the last 50 pages or so. Rest of the book was unfortunately boring.

I'd like to think I didn't like the book as much simply because of my high expectations from Rothfuss, thanks to every friend who reads fantasy quoting this as a favourite. Finally got around to reading it. The first 100 pages aren't terribly interesting (aka boring) because the author takes his time introducing readers to Kvothe, his world, his parents, his education etc. I see why he decided to do this - the guy's kind of a know it all - so the author wants to convey how he learned every damn thing so that the story's believable later on. But to someone reading without that context, it comes across as a bit boring.

Denna, the woman behind the story - or so we're told - is another person who sucks pages and pages without really telling us anything. Yes, I got it in the first two times that she's difficult to track, but it's repeated once every 10 pages.

Events surrounding the Waystone Inn, where the protagonist conveys his life's story to the Chronicler, are fun. Events at the University are even better. The last 50 pages or so are quite cool too. It's worth a read ( & I will read Book 2 soon), but if you don't like to skip paragraphs and pages, get ready for a fairly tedious ride to get to the good bits.

Fables from India - Uday Mane

TL/DR: Not fun for adults who already read other books. Fully in text. So may not be interesting to kids either. The stories themselves are well intentioned even if entirely predictable.

I got this book from Flipkart in exchange for an honest review. Here goes.

I like the general idea of new fables and was intrigued when I got the option to review the book, but was left disappointed with the quality of work that helped put this together. The author has come up with fairly decent stories - a straight up attempt to go the Tinkle / ACK route, but in plain text. This could have been better off as an illustrated version targeted at children. The stories, if you look at them from that point of view (that of children), don't disappoint. The book may not be interesting to adults.

List of things that could have done with some help: Writing, grammar and general structuring of the fables. All of which I lay at the feet of the editor rather than the author.

Book Review: Skyfire (2016), by Aroon Raman

TL/DR: 

The first Aroon Raman book I've read. Met expectations. I'm going to read the others he's written.

Review:
The book started off with two very different issues - child trafficking & weather manipulation - and managed to tie them up well. A well told story in all, with none of the characters resorting to superhuman stunts - keeping the action sequences believable. The plot & story direction was quite predictable from the initial chapters, but it was still fun to read. 

Despite the book being a part of a series involving the lead characters, the author has ensured that it's a fine standalone read on its own - which is great. Bringing in a character from the previous book (Shadow Throne), explaining who he is & not including him in the rest of the book was weird.

The occasional Hindi kept reminding me that this was a local novel. If not for some typos & incorrect phrasing, it'd have been a complete immersive experience. 


Spoiler: 
The standard ego of the villain that makes him explain all his plans to the heroes, and his absolute refusal to just kill them applies in this book too. Not a fan of that personally. The mentioned reasons didn't work for me. Just shoot them all down already.

Link to the review on GR here. Follow me there for future reviews. 
Buy the book on Amazon here.

PS:  I'm also thinking of blogging about my Quillr-building experience soon. Is there anything you want me to write about?

The Wanderer

Sticky feet 

Or sticky ground.

I cannot see.

I try to reason.

I need reason on my side.

I cannot see, of course.

It is dark. And cold.

No option to stop and check.

The darkness is such a place.

You keep walking. 

Or you don't get to.

I pray. That my feet be sticky.

Though I know where I am.

Exactly where I am.

I know the ground 

that sticks to one's feet.

It was a myth. Was.

Not anymore.

I've heard about it.

I've read about it.

I look around. Nonchalantly.

I keep walking.

I see darkness. All around me.

What else do you see,

when you walk in the dark?

And yet, there! A glint.

One more. And one more!

To my left, behind me.

Darker than dark.

That shine the dark alone possesses.

A shrine to the One we don't speak of.

I pray I see two of them. Or four.

Yet three there were.

As was written.

Three giant sections,

shining examples of the night -

each much wider than a house.

each much taller than our city gates.

The gates of Azzen.

Each with the unchanging glint

That consumed darkness

and perfectly reflected it.

It was an impossibility. Was.

The rumours were true then.

Three there were!

Three they were.

I counted again.

My last count. Three.

I drop my prayers.

The ground is stickier.

As is its nature.

I was one slip away

from joining the darkness.

For eons, if not forever.

One mistake away. Just one.

That is all they wait for.

Three there were,

the eyes of the Spider.

The ever attentive, ever focussed

black eyes of the Lord himself.

Focussed on me.

Far removed from logic,

My brethren would say.

Yet here he was.

Lord Spider, Warrior of Darkness.

And I'd wandered into his web.

-

Inspired by this line in the first Malazan book, 'Gardens of the Moon' by Steven Erikson.

"Somewhere in this strange place
a spider waits
for my panicked flight ..."

Ajaya Book 1: Roll of the Dice, by Anand Neelakantan

When I got Book 1 of Ajaya from Leadstart for the review (thank you for that!), I thought it would take me forever to sit through the book. But no, I finished it one fine Saturday.

I am not too keen usually about books laced with religion, songs and pages of praise as dialogues. Especially most of them on Ramayana or Mahabharatha. I'm also not keen about books that change the storylines of epics to present alternate points of view.

This book is none of that. This one is different.

Anand Neelakantan manages to take all the superhuman, illogical & divine elements out of the storyline without affecting the storyline much, leaving us with the crux of the story. In Mahabharatha's case, that includes the strategic moves and dreams of the various players in the kingdom, and what they do about it.

The first book focuses more on the the Caste system of the time than anything else - and naturally, the main players in the scene are Duryodhana (Suyodhana, the author calls him - and there's a line of research that claims it was his actual name), Arjuna, Parashurama, Krishna, Shakuni, Vidhura, Bhishma, Jara and the Nagas, apart from two of the most inspirational stories from the epic - that of Ekalavya the talented and Karna, the King of Anga.

The storyline for Book:1 extends from the time the Kuru princes are children up until Shakuni's fateful dice game that more or less confirms the great war. The basic storyline doesn't really require any reviews, least of all from me. It's an epic that has stood the test of time, with its characters idolised in temples and pagodas across South & East Asia. That includes Duryodhana and Anand's work tries to explain the good in him and how even the best of men can err.

For he truly was, as has been my stand for quite some time now - despite his flaws. History has always belonged to the winners and the losers are demonized, deservedly or otherwise. What the Mahabharatha explains to the world is that conflicts are rarely between good and evil. They are always between two sides who wholeheartedly believe that they are on the right side. What the Mahabharatha has managed to spin off as a result is the endless number of interpretations of the various events in the story.

Anand presents the case of Duryodhana, his main character, and goes on to make him the 'hero'. As one cannot become the hero without there being a villain, the Pandavas and their supporters bear the brunt of being casteist. Book 2 and so on could present their side too, though I find it improbable that it is going to happen through the eyes of Duryodhana. The primary antagonist of the Mahabharatha is the hero who believes in righteousness, dislikes discrimination and fights for equality with whatever power he gains. To make him relate-able, the author has made him one of us, reacting to events rather than causing any of them. For example, Bhishma sends the Pandavas to Vanavrata here, not Duryodhana. Shakuni controls Purochana's building of the House of Lac here with no involvement of any Kauravas, because that would make them look bad.

I see how these are necessary deviations if the character needs to be portrayed as a hero, but did he have to be such a complete hero? I guess not. Readers can still relate to & root for someone less than a faultless hero. Only Karna has deserved that status across all interpretations of the epic, I think.

Anand has managed to win hearts with this interpretation, if the reviews I see are anything to go by. I believe he's done a fantastic job with this book overall, and he's managed to make Ajaya a better hero than Arjuna without deviating much from the original storyline, which is the major achievement for me.

And he's done this without pissing anyone off (surprising, given the portrayal of Krishna). That's quite something too.

Have you read it yet? I'm off to rate this on Goodreads now.

Reviving #3

It's been a very long time since I wrote anything here. So yea, Hi. How have you been?

Ever since I started working on the Immortal Game series, I stopped writing elsewhere - on football, music or anything else.

This is just an update-type-post, really.

I'm kinda done with the first book of the series now. Does it matter if I send it out to Publishers or not? I am personally not too happy with the output, so I might end up burying the book instead of getting shot down. I have sent a crude version out to a couple of them though.

Whatever, I am going to start writing normal stuff again. Here, that is.

Thinking of (re)starting with "#TheLaymanMusicReview", talking about AR Rahman's recent albums. Or maybe I will write about my experiences with quitting my last job, picking up my new one or the incredibly stress free hours I spent writing. Or maybe about the stress and the worries and the pizzas and the reducing account balance that dominated my non-writing hours.

If you want to figure out if you're a good writer, you should write a book. Articles and fun posts can only tell you so much about yourself.

Haven't told anyone yet, but I just started working on another (possibly) short story today - and no, it's not about either humour or madness. It's mostly a tribute of sorts to two of my favourite authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie. Will probably publish it here if it doesn't get much bigger than a short story.

I have started rambling about mobile games as well. I'll post on twitter when my first post gets published.

One pain point is that there is no money in any of this. #Sucks #SourceOfAllStress

In the short term, I'll probably listen to 'I' this week and talk about it here. Do you want to do this together? Let me know.

What do I do for work, you ask? That could be another post, but all you seven readers already know about it, don't you?

Stop Acid Attacks.

This friend of mine, Ganapathy Premkumar is riding his bicycle down from Bombay to Bangalore to raise awareness about the everyday issues of acid attack survivors. He's also trying to raise some funds for the NGOs working for them.

How bad is an acid attack, really?

Till I was 20 or so (despite clearing chemistry papers at school), I used to think that acid just damages someone's skin. That's the part of a survivor that is visible to us. I thought that the aim of an acid attack is to damage a person's looks because that's all it affects. It was something spurned ex-es and rejected villains did in the movies.

In reality though, skin damage is the least of the person's problems. It marks them permanently and possibly destroys the self confidence in weaker individuals, yes, but there are worse consequences. Acid attacks bore through the skin and affect the internal systems (respiratory, visual, auditory, digestive etc) based on what part of the person the acid was thrown at. The acid doesn't vanish once it damages the skin. It eats right through the person based on the strength / quantity.

So many women have died after short and long battles to survive an attack. So many others are fighting for their lives everyday. Homes have been uprooted and lives have been destroyed - and why? Domestic violence and spurned love are still the top reasons men resort to an attack. Read extensive details about the current scenario in our country at StopAcidAttacks and Chhanv.

I'd like to believe that not all the kids and the youth who go to this place where they think an acid attack is necessary to prove a point are psychopaths. I think some of them don't realise that they're ending someone's life. Awareness of the consequences of their actions is so essential to stopping the madness out there but is sadly not getting the push it deserves - and this is not just among the illiterate masses.

Before going any further, check out what StopAcidAttacks has to say about what can improve the situation in India.

The best thing you could do is donate to the above NGOs, through the link or through their sites. I'm not exactly sure how riding a bicycle helps, but it has certainly given me (and his other friends) this push to write about it or talk about it - and for this, I thank Ganapathy.

The next best thing you could do is to spread the news of the FB page & the donation link among your friends. The absolutely terrible odds & demons that the survivors / fighters face in life on a daily basis are overwhelming. The least we could do is make everyone aware of all the consequences of such an attack.

I don't know about you but I can never be as strong as these survivors. True fighters. I salute them all.

Have you heard this before?

So, I recently saw this video and felt it must be shared as much as possible. Some genius at work, this.

When I share this, instead of looking at what can be done with the relics of Technology, people start wondering if the Imperial March is 'really that simple'.

For you lot, I present this.

Didn't listen to it on Headphones? Tsk Tsk.

Charles Bukowski on writing

As I am fretting over why I don't seem to be writing all the time, I was looking up how actual writers write. Accidentally, I chanced upon someone sharing a note on Charles Bukowski where I saw this.

I never type in the morning. I don’t get up in the morning. I drink at night. I try to stay in bed until twelve o’clock, that’s noon. Usually, if I have to get up earlier, I don’t feel good all day. I look, if it says twelve, then I get up and my day begins. I eat something, and then I usually run right up to the race track after I wake up. I bet the horses, then I come back and Linda cooks something and we talk awhile, we eat, and we have a few drinks, and then I go upstairs with a couple of bottles and I type — starting around nine-thirty and going until one-thirty, to, two-thirty at night. And that’s it.

- Charles Bukowski

I feel better already, though it's Chocolate or Chips instead of bottles and Candy Crush and Clash of Clans instead of horse races.

I also landed on this awesome work.

"...
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was."
- Charles Bukowski, From "So you want to be a writer".

True Story.
Cheers.

Guardiola is Rajinikanth

Why, How, What?

Here's your proof.

Prerequisite: Are you a Thamizh, Football fan?

Guardiola receiving award for inventing Chitti.

Guardiola saying "Andha Aandavane namma pakkam irukaan..."

Guardiola saying "Ulle Po" To Manu.

Guardiola trying Padayappa Salute

Jose saying "Enna Sivaji ipdi panitanga..."

Guardiola saying "Idhu Kuluvaali" and asking for route to Kallipatti

Guardiola and Sammer singing "Kaatu Kuyilu Manasukkula"

Guardiola goes "Ooo Kick Yeruthe..."

Guardiola goes "Ma'am. Just a minute" #Padayappa

Guardiola tries "Pera kettavudane chumma athiruthilla!"and fails.

Guardiola says to Ribery "Naan Oru thadava sonna..."

Malai da.  Annamalai.

From 5 minutes and One Google search. I'm guessing we could map every famous Rajini quote if we delve further. 

Of Google Scholars and Wiki Wizards

Art by Retronator at Deviant

'Wait. Really?'

Peter Tharoll opened google in a new tab and typed 'Amit Rover involvement in murder'. He skimmed through the top two links, one about some hearing about it that happened two weeks earlier and another was a random blog that seemed very anti-political. All major politicians were linked to something or the other in that blog.

He went back to the facebook discussion where people were arguing for and against the fellow. His first googling showed him his manifesto and it looked good. He had mentioned development, roads and schools. So, Tharoll put in a statement supporting Rover for the elections that were coming up. Some random guy named Ajay Pradhan showed up and said, 'but he is being investigated for murder!'

Tharoll didn't have a clue. He told himself that he should have refrained from putting that comment on his friend's post. Now, everyone would know that he didn't know anything.

The case was still being heard. 'Ha, there's a point I can use', he thought to himself.

He went back to the post and started typing out the comment, 'I knew some guy would show up and pin it on Mr. Rover and here is @Ajay. The case is still being heard. Who are you to...' he went back to Google and looked up the top two links about Mr. Rover's major opponent in his constituency, the sitting MLA. He found lots of complaints about how the constituency became worse than it was five years ago. 'Brilliant', he thought to himself.

He started retyping the comment. He was determined to make the other guy look stupid. 'Mr. Rover is a national icon and a possible ministerial candidate. That'd bring a lot of focus to the constituency and development will be forced to happen. Also, the case you're mentioning is still being heard in the courts. Accusing him of that reeks of stupidity and disregard for the Law. Do the words Innocent until proven Guilty mean anything to you?'

Two edits later, he published the comment.

-

Ajay Pradhan saw his notification.

'What? The case is still going on? But I read on that blog...' "Damn it", he shouted at the empty room around him.

He went back to googling Mr. Rover and his opponent. He thought he found something against Mr. Rover when he saw that blog. Now, his comment just looked stupid. He found how the sitting MLA had zero cases against him (score!) and researched more about the case and Mr. Rover in general. He found some accusations about local goondas being protected by him. 'Awesome, I can make something out of this', he thought. He found a random blog post where a lady complained about eve teasing on the roads in one of the arterial roads in the area.

'Mr. Rover's election will only embolden the Goondas in the area to become more shameless and fearless. Read this link about how a lady was harassed by Goondas backed by him. And you want citations for that, I suppose? Read this news from a local media channel. You mentioned that the case was still being heard. Did you see that all the guys who are in police custody are goons working for this rowdy Bajan Raj? There is little doubt who did it, but the law is being arm twisted to protect Rover.

Our sitting MLA has enough problems protecting the likes of you and me from monsters like Rover. And he has zero cases against him. It is appalling to see how you could support such antisocial elements.'

That looked good. He was getting prepared for a long debate on that thread.

-

PS: Unedited version. Thought of putting this up on the stories blog, but this didn't feel so much like fiction.

Mythos - Update

Going on slowly. Word count for the day is at an embarrassing 300, but did a lot of research today on things that are not even that important for the book. Spent most of the day researching Egyptian & Slavic Gods.

Running into roadblocks here and there. But moving forward with each of them.

From a Croatian folk song on Perun - an old Slavic God - that's been running again and again in my head.

"...He grabbed three golden apples
And threw them high into the sky...
...Three lightning bolts burst from the sky,
One struck at two young grooms,
Another struck at pasha on a horse,
The third one struck six hundred wedding guests,
Not an eyewitness left
Not even to say how they died."

Modifying Griffith's legendary translated words used to refer to his Hindu version,
"He, Oh men, is Perun."

Another one on Amun:
"The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in a moment; none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy..May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen again."

I must add that I am so tempted to make it a book of poetry rather than a novel.
Some of the these poems I come across physically affect me!

I'm Back

In the last few weeks, I had been deeply disappointed with myself.

When I looked into the mirror, I saw a depressed workaholic with no regrets, not sure about what he was doing or what he wanted to do. He was always looking to eat something or the other like the Panda. Was I upset? This was not the Aswin I'd known for the last two decades.

So, as I take the break to write (or at least start writing) my book, I am scared. I find it difficult to write - enjoyable, but difficult - after eight months of excel sheets. I looked at my edited story line and I didn't like to myself. I was not going to write that.

I missed the old me who would have no difficulties whatsoever when it came to writing. MS Word and Songs in the background were all I needed to live my life. Some food now and then, yes, but it was hardly a necessary condition.

So, when today, after packing bags,  calling cab and everything for my trip to a friend's wedding, when I decided to call it off at the last minute to make it to a meet tomorrow, I realised that I was once again the old, indecisive, go-with-the-flow me, not the 'but this is not supported by data' me. All this after I'd shaved after a zillion days and pressed the shirts for probably the first time since my parents left to visit my brother.

I'm back.


PS: The two friends who are getting married in the next two days might kill me on seeing this post. Neither read blogs, so I should be okay. Others who know them, sssshhh!

Medieval Dreams.

Around 1995, I used to imagine that things would go back to medieval times - and people would fight with swords and shields again - that I would rule an ever expanding kingdom - with a couple of friends ruling neighbouring kingdoms - that every honest citizen of my kingdom would be happy - that I would have this majestic white horse, Chetak, the very image of which would bring hope to friends and fear to enemies - that I would have this uber awesome Queen by my side and we would rule most of the country some day. You know, every hero on screen had a girlfriend, or ended up with one. 

It was my Destiny. I was sure.

Around 1998, I thought I would be the person who would end up inventing the Light Saber. No one else seemed to care much about the infinite potential that the single invention would have. First, I had to create the laser guns used in the movies and then, the Light Saber would be a necessary defence mechanism and the Jedi way a necessary way of life. It amazes me to think how I believed that I would actually change the way the world worked.

I was destined to change the world. I knew that much.

Around 2002, I started filling school notebooks with stories. Stories that would happen in my dreams, that I would see on the streets that no one else cared to observe, that would be exaggerated a little to add that thrill or drama, that usually involved a bad ass villain, an honest hero and how one of the two overcomes the other. It wasn't necessary that the good guys won. I was a Darth Vader fan and I gave an equal chance to the villain. I controlled what I wrote.

I'd decided I'd settle for an Agatha Christie-like popularity instead of riding to war on Chetak. Sounded safer and a lot more peaceful.

These old thoughts, I think they were pushed to some unused area within my brain. There are loads of such areas, by the way. When I fell upon the facebook profile of the Commander of my Infantry units from 1995, it all came rushing back to me.

The Human Brain has infinite capacity for data and...hope. 

It's a shame we all prefer to get a monthly salary instead.

Unbreakable.

Yea, yea, I have not blogged for a really long time now.

For all this while, I was waiting for something interesting to happen in my life. Given I spend most of my time at office or working outside office (from home, coimbatore and the like), there was nothing to blog about.

Wait. I am not sure if I am allowed to blog about work, but then, I'd not be interested in doing that anyway.

So what happened today, you ask?

Yet another accident from which I escaped with little to no spilt blood. The autorickshaw in which I was travelling was not as lucky.

A cab rammed into us from behind and I was thrown forward to the driver's seat - the driver hit his head on the front glass and the autorickshaw crashed into the median, shattering the glass. The vehicle, of course, is no longer fit to be driven.

I am mildly surprised that my laptop and phone are still working. 

Manage-able 'Spinus Painus' for now, but relispray would take care of it, no?

What the World needs...

...is a little more inspiration.

I've decided to get inspired from anything I can take an inspiration from.

No, no, I am not talking about lifting music off another album and calling it an inspiration. I'm talking about discovering and re-discovering the endless possibilities ahead of us to make this the awesom-est time to stay alive.

Get Inspired. Stay Inspired.

Here's to fun.

Weekend-ing

After like three months, my mind has started rejecting the notion of working through weekends.

In fact, as we speak, it's refusing to look at the numbers I generate on the screen.
Not good news for the guy who wants to stick to a job.

'No, Sir', says my mind. 'Go Read a Book. Or better, write one'.

Still wondering if I should control my thoughts or let it control me. Also, I am not sure if these are actually two different things.

Conflicts. Choices. Decisions. Life.

Normal and Beautiful

To know what it was, he had to know what it wasn’t.

It wasn’t magical. It wasn’t the once in a lifetime event that would serve as the spark for the rest of his life. It wasn’t the story for the classics section, or for any other section in that huge bookstore he knew. It wasn’t a story to even be written, for alas, no one else might find it engrossing enough. It wasn’t the fairy tale he had imagined it would turn out to be. It was just normal.

He had talked to her a few hours back. He had planned every word he would have to speak to impress her, carefully considered answers to every possible reply she could come up with and all that, but had slid into that beautiful ride called spontaneity. He couldn’t care less about the actual content of the conversation, though it could have entailed a long, slow, lone death, several years from then. He couldn’t care about what she would think of him either. 

For when he was around her, he could care only about her.

He had always wondered what a perfect life would have. Inclined perfectly for comfort in that corner of his apartment’s terrace back in the coastal city, he would get lost among the stars and merge into the past, the future or the imaginary. He was particular about having that griffin and that wolf for pets. He thought nothing could be cooler. He wanted the weather to always remain what it was at sunrise, with that cool breeze, wondering if the solar energy would be enough to grow all the fruits he wanted in his own garden. He wanted magic to be real, with spells, telepathy and telekinesis just some more subjects to study in primary school. He loved silence and thought no sound can be better. He wanted life to have a melodious but rich theme in the background, to which he could dance whenever he wanted. He wanted people to all be the same, all being kind and courteous to others in word and mind.

In that one conversation with her, his idea of what the perfect world should be changed entirely. He thought it really didn’t matter what the world had. What mattered was what the world would feel like. Right then, he felt as content as he would if he had all of those wishes from childhood and more. All that his world needed was her smile – and everything else just became perfect.

It was just another conversation, a conversation he could have had with anyone else. It wasn’t about love. It wasn't about how they would live happily ever after in infinite care and unbelievable understanding for each other. It was talk that lasted more than a few seconds and less than a few minutes. He didn’t even remember what he had talked about. All he knew was that she enjoyed talking to him as much as he did talking to her. He knew it. He felt it. That was all that mattered to him.

He could not bring himself to believe that he had lived in this world all along. He was sure everything had changed. Suddenly, reality was more beautiful than every world he had ever imagined.

Chess Writing

I know this is a bloody weird area for me to write on - because I am an average writer and quite an average chess player.

Meh, who cares? Catch me on Sportskeeda, writing about chess - mostly for the advanced beginners.

http://www.sportskeeda.com/author/aswinsam/

I am also planning to start playing the game again. Only this time, I am actually going to learn stuff.

Velayutham Review - Pattaasu!

In two words, Mass Entertainer.

On seeing the trailer, I was a li'l bit scared. I was scared if this was gonna be another thirupaachi (who am I kidding? I didn't like that movie) - but no, this one was good! In fact, I was quite happy at the end of the movie. It's a must for Vijay fans and fans of the masala movie genre (yes it is one now!) - it's a decent watch for the rest.

This is an Ilayathalapathy movie and we know he is not going to be killed or anything and that the good guy will beat the hell out of the bad guys in the end. But then, the movie itself was handled quite well and there was something in the movie for A, B and C markets, and last I checked, only thalaivar movies had the guts to try that.

I was eagerly looking forward to the next scene all the time. The village sequences were funny, Santhanam was mostly brilliant, very talented people like Soori (parota guy), Pandiarajan and Sayaji Shinde had only a small role to play (Manivannan was there, wasn't he?) and do I even need to say this? Vijay was awesome. Darling Genelia was also awesome (as usual). Given this is my blog, I guess that goes without saying. It was awesome that she had a fair share of the screen time - something that's (in general) not very common in mass movies these days. Hansika's role was an example for the stereotypical heroine portrayal so that made it easy for me to compare as well. Saranya Mohan redid Mallika's Thirupachi part but thankfully, it wasn't as useless as it was in the other movie - she did have a role to play as the sister who keeps her brother from going out of the way to help people.

*Spoiler paragraph*

The story as such was cool. A superhero is created by a journalist (Genelia) to create some sort of fear in terrorists, ministerial accomplices and goons - and Vijay happens to have the same name. On reaching the city from his village, his trysts with Santhanam get him involved with some of the superhero moments. On finding his name to be Velayudham, people believe he is the superhero. He saves Genelia when she gets mixed up with the gang and she explains everything to him. "Will he stay and fight powerful people or Will he mind his own job?" forms the rest of the plot. Predictable, yes. And #wellofcourse, it ends with the 'You shouldn't wait for a hero to emerge. Everyone's a hero.' dialogue.

*End of Spoiler para*

Particularly liked the unintentional superhero storyline (Vijay - Santhanam sequences). There was a lot (a LOT) of action, a lot of comedy, less senti, less punch dialogues, only a couple of mokka comedy attempts (kenathukulla thangam type) but even that appealed to some people in the theatre so I can't complain. I guess that kind was for the kids - but decapitation and stuff don't go hand in hand with that, I think. The Assassin's creed stunt sequences were kinda cool - the guy next to me (a fan of the game, he says) said that some stunts were exactly as it was in the game. Dozens of trained thugs and terrorists were no match for a happy go lucky guy from a village - but that's the way it is in mass movies everywhere and this is no different. In one scene, Vijay just walks in and beats the hell out of some thugs in their hideout. I felt some dialogues totally did not go with the scene (hire me!) - and Vijay should do SOMETHING about those caped dresses in song sequences. Talking about songs, the songs were much better on screen than they were while listening to it, though in all, only average they qualify only as 'much better than average' (repeated listening, you see). (except the brilliant Mayam Seidhayo). Chillax was worth tapping a foot to and again, Maayam Seidhayo was without a doubt the pick of the lot (if you take out the embarrassing Chennai tour part).

Umm, what else? Yea I was so expecting some 'trademark punch line' from the movie - you know, the kind that repeats itself a few times - but that wasn't to be. Sureshot hit in cities. B and C markets would be all over the movie, what with a village resident teaching stuff to city dwellers. In all, I might sound critical of the movie because I expect superior movies from Vijay.

The Mangatha song in the tea stall was kinda nice, without taking any digs at Ajith (especially because of that). I don't want Ajith or Vijay digs in the comments section too, keeping in line with the movie's sentiment. If you insist on being an idiot, please find another blog.

So yea, how was it, you ask? Thumbs up. Yohan can't release soon enough!
(I don't really care about 3 idiots)

Mythos has begun.

That's the code name for something I've started working on. For the past couple of months, I had been struggling with two book ideas. The struggle was about deciding which book to start working on.

One is a book on changing the world. Another is a book on transforming it.
One is about what we can do in the future. Another is about understanding the past.

Chetan Bhagat's R2020 seems to mildly tread (actually, stomp hard) on the 'changing world' and 'future' parts - including a character name, how about that! So, I have decided to start working on the other one. While I am thankful to CB for making my decision easier, I am not sure whether I should be happy or sad that he thought on the same lines; well, will know for sure if and after I read his book.

When you see me here after, ask me where Mythos is heading. Would help me spend more time on it.