Eggshell walk

Pretty are the eggshells

But they are still eggshells

Be careful when you walk around them

Coz you might break some and wish you hadn't

It all requires an intricate dance
To keep the world intact

It takes a hop and halt
For the sunny yellow egg
A quick ballet
For the gorgeous green one
A twist and turn
For the pretty pink one
But what move do you use
For the ruby red one?

That is a hard one
For it requires not only
A twist, a turn and a ballet
But also a triple point shoot
To make sure you go right thru
The basket called life!

Finally, some Indian cities!

I'm always interested in comparing how the costs would be for regular items and activities in different cities. So far, I've only come across apps that are US-centric. Finally, I found a website that includes pretty much all the big cities in India with reasonably accurate data. Check out Expatistan. This lead to some interesting discoveries. For example, did you know that Chennai was cheaper than Coimbatore and Bangalore cheaper than Chennai? It was funny to see that Big Mac meal (I'm assuming they mean the happy meals that you get in McDonalds) was costlier in India than in US. Talk about following the west at any cost, ha ha!

Quarter cutting and Boss A Baskaran

Recently I came across two movie trailers that had me expecting the movies themselves: Adhuvum, tamil movie... been a long time since that happened for comedy movies!

First, Quarter Cutting - looks interesting. I've already seen the Tamil Padam by the same team. And it was really good. So waiting for this one eagerly.
En favorite was "Naan Sura da" :D :D


Second, Boss (A) Baskaran - Most of Arya's movies that I've seen are serious ones. This is his first attempt at proper comedy (or atleast that is what the trailer shows).


Paapom epdi porathunu!

The Road Not Taken!

She plodded on,
Onward and Upward
Creating a new path
Despite the tumbles

"This hard work would help
The Voice would become better
There'd be a new path
That'd be my work"

She thought hard
She thought long
And took this path
The new, hard path.

She failed to realize
The Voice was failing
That this work sapped
Its remaining strength

For now, the Voice needed
Not tough love but touch love
Not needles but nourishment
Not revolutions but recuperation

A rejuvenation to its former self
A restoration to its former glory
A replenishment of its former strength
The strength that was the Voice's and its alone

She realized it midway,
And looked frantically to the elixir
She looked with disappointment
At the uncompleted new way

Though she was sure
About the new way's need
She wasn't sure (if)
Her work was to satisfy that need

Her loyalties to the Voice,
She searched for another path
That took her to the elixir
In time to save the Voice

She wandered about
Dragging the Voice along
In the deep dark jungle
That obscured all the paths

She stumbled upon a path
That pointed to the elixir
It strangely looked similar
To a forgotten erstwhile one

"Tis the same, take this one"
The Voice breathed a small whisper
Drew a sharp short breath
And fainted on her bare shoulders

With the weight on her thin shoulders
She thought hard but fast
Decided to take the familiar path
And leave the new one for another day

She wasn't sure if she'd return
Return to finish this work
But she knew she needed new tools
For the game of this path is different

She wasn't even sure (if)
This path took to the elixir
But knew this one (was)
Better than the new one.

What surprises Fate has
She has no idea
Nor does she understand
Why she had to create the new path

All she knows is
To keep the Voice alive
She needs to be here and now
And move onward and upward.

Lets wish her good luck
And Godspeed in her work
To reach the elixir soon
To get the Voice again!

August already!!

Phew! Time seems to have flown this summer with the last two months just whizzing by. On the first day of August, I was lying on my bed that morning when I thought "Today is Aug 1... and that means just 5 more months for 2010 to be OVER, like INFINITELY over". And that scared me because that means we have lesser time to make more memories this year. Does that ring a bell with any of you??

Now that we are in August, its time to do a resolution look back post on my book reading resolution that I set for myself. I should say that the librarian has become my new best friend. Also, starting now, I'm thinking of doing a point system for the books I read (something like IMDB). I have my personal rating system there as well (more on that in a later post) and thought it would be better to have a similar one for the books too, based on how likely I am to read that book again. Other factors in that rating would be how likely I'd recommend it, who would I recommend it to (just my friends, or my age group, or everyone in this world!) and how likely I'll own it (I have a stringent system for buying books. I don't buy a book unless I think I'll read and reread and reread and ....  you get the idea! This is the result of moving three times and I don't care about lugging books unless I really care about them. I'd rather have five books that I read and reread and depend on library for the rest to lugging a thousand books and not reading them - your idea of buying books might be different. So feel free to take this part of the rating with a pinch of salt). Here goes the rating system:

10 - This book would be with me always, in every place I live and would definitely own it. (Eg: Naintha Ullam, Anne of Green Gables)
9 - I would totally recommend this and would love to curl up with this one. Probably would own a copy. (Eg: Harry Potter books, Ponniyin Selvan)
8 - Really good, I'd recommend it for most people but not good enough for me to own it (Eg: Da Vinci Code)
7 - Good with a different perspective. Recommend it for certain people who I think can handle such perspectives. (Eg: Push)
6 - Ok for a one-time good read. Please don't buy it until you read it once and like that genre/author/story. (Eg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
5 - Ok... read it if you are looking for some book to read. Don't buy unless you really like the author/story (Eg: Plum books)
4 - Ok... if you are really wanting to read one and can't find a better one. I don't think people would own these books; they are more library-ish or lending library-ish.
3 - I wouldn't suggest it to anyone, but you can read it if you want to. You've been fairly warned!
2 - I'm thunking myself for wasting time reading this book. (Eg: some of the trash books I've read)
1 - Why, oh why, did the author waste his time, the publisher's time and countless readers' time in making this book? (Eg: frankly, I've not read any that hits this low... but I might surprise myself sometime!! So, this is the catch all bucket!!)

From my experience, most of the books would fall between 4 to 7 and I think it would take months for a book to join 9 and 10. I hope I don't ever hit 1 or 2 - might be because I read books that are recommended by family/friends or by popular sites. Lets see!

Disclaimer: I do realize that, unlike movies where you can get a common consensus about a movie, books are more personal and the reader's imagination and previous experiences play a huge part in making a book likable or not. But with the books list exploding, it's getting harder for me to remember the story line and the exact emotion the book stirred in me. For them to happen, I should give more time between two books to let a book settle on me. For, again unlike movies where you can immediately get an emotional response, books need to settle into daily lives to bring out an impact. With reading so many books, I don't let enough time go by between books to do full justice to them to settle down. But that said, with so much information bombarding us every day, it would be hard for anyone to give days to ponder on each and every book they read. Taking all these into account, this rating is very personalized to my views. Take this rating as a general review if you are thinking to read one of the books on the list but don't expect it to be the 'be all and end all' of book review ratings.

PS: I wish there was one stop shop for rating books. I do know that there are different services like GoodReads (this is by far the best I've liked), Shelfari, LibraryThing, etc. but I prefer something like the IMDB that combines books, the author infos, reviews and other interesting titbits. I'm sure people would switch to it, pronto! Is anyone out there listening?