Sherlock Holmes rules !!!

Some legends are unforgettable, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of them. These days I am virtually living at 221B, Baker Street, London. In school days, I read a translated Marathi version of Sherlock Holmes and used to tell those stories in class. But being a translation, it did not create an impact as such. After all, it's difficult to keep the same original level in a translation and it makes even more difficult when the original work is of someone like Sir Arthur. One thing is sure, Sherlock Holmes impresses every age group - from a school going kid to a retired old person. There is something in his character that creates such an influence that nobody forgets him. There are his ways of deductions, which seem so simple, yet so uncommon and productive.

I am about to finish the first volume ( Study in Scarlet), probably I am way too late, since some of my friends have already read the complete collection of stories. The language is not easy, certainly not like we normally speak, but it is written is such a way that we don't mind keeping dictionary besides us and understanding every difficult word that comes across. I am getting a severe headache because of my late night readings, and also these days I reach office at around 11, I never had such experience earlier, never ever I was so much into any book. Sherlock Holmes' narration is so perfect that as if we are seeing this great consulting detective working in front of us. I envy Dr. Watson who had a chance to see Holmes so closely and who observed his intellectual prowess . Sherlock Holmes rules the hearts of readers and I bet, world will never produce someone who will surpass the magic ( rather the deductive reasoning ) of Holmes. No wonders, people still write their cases at his address.

O.D. salutes you S.H. and pray, you live long in my heart ...

Time changes and so the interests

After a very long gap today I happened to see my Orkut scraps. There should have been a award called largest turnaround time ever or the laziest Orkut user on Earth, and I would be amongst the highly nominated candidates for it. Some of the scraps were 7-8 months old and still waiting for reply. I hate people who don't reply and that makes me most hated person. I don't remember if I replied to all of them but at least to those which sounded like "How are you?" because others were wishing me "Happy Holi", now God knows in which month Holi comes but I can't now reply them saying "Happy Holi to you too !"(assuming that I don't have a cron job that identifies Holi and keeps scrapping all of my friends each year)

When I was in college, (we are not talking about ancient times here, I am not that old) before around 2 years, Orkut and those social networking sites popped up like anything. There were other similar sites I was knowing but didn't try their taste. So someone from my friends sent me the invitation and it all started. I did not have internet connection at home in those days (neither do I have it today), so I remember sitting in my college's internet lab and scrapping like a crazy person. I had a good reason to tell and that was my BE project which kept me away from the bureaucracy of public internet cafe. Later people started me finding all the time in that cafe and some of my juniors started thinking me as the person who runs the lab. On a positive notes, some of them also started looking at me like a person deeply engrossed in his project work. As they say, overuse kills everything, I gradually lost interest in social networking. Today even FaceBook and their fancy applications doesn't attract my attention. When I joined my company, emails were my prime means of passing time. I used to forward almost all crap that I was receiving until I read about a serious article on network traffic and spams. That backed me off from forwards but I still like to send good emails, although they are rare these days ( or my interests are changing).

I have now found out other ways to use ( waste is the proper word ) my time. It's searching anything on Google, anything here means stuff that adds to your useless knowledge quota. I am glad that it's not that useless as you see on the link. And since the time I came to know about Wikipedia, I am again back in Orkut phase except this time it's Wikipedia. There are two more things I am enjoying after engineering - blogging and reading. I have a habit to read nice post or articles on internet. Today when I was looking through my 450+ Orkut friend's list, I was trying to find a Blogger Friend, someone whose blogs I can read ( with a little but practical hope that he / she keeps the blog updated), but I did not find one. I wish people should start blogging now. All of us have a life which is full of incidents, encounters and emotions. Shouldn't blog be the place to put those reactions or views?

But it rained ...

Sometimes you know that something is going to happen. You kind of have a premonition. Your good old friend had also seen the same days. But you have hopes. It's important for you since it's THE THING for which you do all this stuff. You try to prepare yourself for it. And suddenly the D - Day comes. You sit and listen. You listen to all the crap that the person in front of you is talking about. You suddenly "discover" things which are expected from you. Imagine, you are expected to know lot of things in a small time frame and you try for it. But poor you! the knowledge is so vast that your small information is hardly useful. Then what you do? You seek help. And there you are !!! You made a greatest mistake, you have done things which you are not supposed to do. You suddenly EAT UP other's precious time, so now the verdict is : face the music.

You have never felt so stupid before. You don't speak neither answer. You do have cards to play but someone with such a feeble brain is sitting in front of you that you take a step back. You don't shut yourself up completely, but again when you listen to the childish remarks from the other person, you feel awful. It's like you are talking to someone who knows it but tries to cut things in between, creates a scene in which he virtually BALANCES things. Really, your comments / opinions hardly matter in a predefined world. It's just an illusion that you see, which sometimes gives a feel that you are in control of things. You think, you WILL get what you have expected since you worked hard for it. But alas! some external factors make so much impact that your real efforts are not at all appreciated.

And you know the worst thing? It hurts. It god damn hurts a lot!!! It takes out the zest / joy of doing things. Had it been the case that you didn't put in efforts, then it's OK. But what is painful is instead of your honest contribution, you never get counted. You never get what you deserved. You get bitter lessons from life that teaches you hell lot of things and bring you back on Earth. You are not perfect, there are certainly things to be worked on, but they are weighed in such a negative manner that it crosses over every good thing that you have done before. And you know, you are sick of being called as GOOD, you starve to be EXCELLENT and in pursuit of this excellence you give your 100% and in doing that you forget about the system for which you are doing it.

The result is , you think it will shine tomorrow but it rains !!!

Movies are all that I have

It has to be either books or movies or a cricket / football match. These things give me ecstatic feelings, that's why even after coming home at about 10 o'clock in night, I prefer watching movies or reading books before going to bed. Last few days I am enjoying movies on a regular basis, a daily ( and partially nightly dose you can say). Few of the ones that I saw were The Shawshank Redemption, Blood Diamond, Rendition, American Gangster, The Holiday, A Walk To Remember and some more.

The Shawshank Redemption is the best movie I have ever seen, in fact I have already seen it twice but watching Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in their perhaps best performances is a treat in itself. The specialty of this movie is the powerful storyline and splendid performances. It's ranked at 2nd / 3rd place in IMDB after Godfather, but I believe it deserves the top rank. A must watch movie.

Blood Diamond is a drama film inspired from a true story of a diamond smuggler and an African fisherman about their quest for two different things. Leonardo DiCaprio is in search of a diamond which is buried by Djimon Hounsou who wants to rescue his family from the rebels. After seeing this movie, I literally started hating the diamond makers and their advertisements.

Rendition accuses a controversial CIA practice called extraordinary rendition through which US has transferred suspected terrorists to countries which are known for harsh tortures and interrogation techniques. It's a story of a chemical engineer who has Egyptian origins, lives in states since about 20-30 years. He gets kidnapped by CIA under his suspicious links with the terrorist groups.

American Gangster is a typical Ridley Scott movie inspired from true life stories of Franc Lucas and Richie Roberts. The film is about bringing down a Franc Lucas's drug empire. Denzel Washington played a character of Franc Lucas who smuggles heroin directly from the makers in Vietnam and uses US military planes for the transport. Russel Crowe, a detective and a womanizer who has lost his family life exposes the racket and sends almost 150 criminals behind the bars. Again, must watch movie.

The Holiday is quite nice movie with a different storyline than typical romance comedies. Thing to enjoy are Kate Winslet's performance and lovely sound tracks. Jack Black's small but jolly role is also worth seeing. A Walk To Remember is a romantic movie between a popular but rebellious high school student and a daughter of a reverend. Mandy Moore's soundtracks are worth listening to.

Prabhakar Pustakalay - An eventful journey of 75 years

Last weekend I went to Nagar to see my parents and celebrate Gudhi-Padwa with them. In Hindu rituals, Gudhi Padwa is considered as one of the most auspicious occasions and as it is a beginning of Hindu New Year, it is chosen as the best day to start new things. 75 years back my friend Nikhil Dharmadhikari's grandfather chose the same occasion to start a book shop called Prabhakar Pustakalay. Today Prabhakar Pustakalay is considered as one of the oldest book stores in Nagar and known for giving an honest and transparent service to the customers and a place where you can find rare books.

I was invited to the Satyanarayan Pooja on Sunday. It is a small but nicely organized store proudly presenting the history of its birth. There was a small album with black and white old photos of my friend's family. One of the newspaper cutting was showing a small introduction of how things started in early days and how the founder struggled to make it happen. People came and congratulated Nikhil's father for carrying on the lamp ahead and I could clearly see a "feel of satisfaction" of Dharmadhikari Kaka's face. When they asked the question, who will be taking care of this store after you? He proudly said that it's his next generation. I didn't believe it as Nikhil and his brother both are software engineers and settled in their lives. I didn't expect they will carry on the tradition.

But when I asked Nikhil what he thinks, he said "We are going to do it. We will be bringing in latest technology and modernity in this shop. The day will come when Prabhakar Pustakalay will compete with other book publishers worldwide". I took it lightly and laughed at him but what I really appreciated was Nikhil's attitude. It's great to see our generation, even though technically, intellectually, economically and materialistically considered forward than their ancestors, still value the feelings and traditions. Not only he wants to keep the things going but also wants to change according to the time and that's really a good sign.

Nikhil and his brother will both be having a MBA degree in few years and I will not be surprised if they take their family business to a new horizon. And who knows this could be the first blog which introduced Prabhakar Pustakalay on internet :-)

Wish you all the best guys!!!