Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Ajith had tagged me to ponder on the world of books.And there is a slice of my life associated with each of the books.This is my first tag & here it goes...


1) One book that has changed my life

I never came across any drastic life altering books. But I remember reading ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ when I was 13. The diary is 13 year old Anne’s account of her life , when forced to go into hiding during the World War 2 , at the time when Hitler started his anti Jewish decrees. The Jewish girl whose young dreams withered away in the ghastly Nazi concentration camp.


After her death, her diary was recovered by her father & published. I too wanted to be like Anne; bold, ambitious and a real life heroine. That was the time when I started writing diaries. In those swashbuckling teenage years, I day dreamt of being famous through my diaries..heehehee.. It is so funny now to even think of it , let alone read through the diary entries of those times. That year, I wrote a review of this book in my school magazine




2) One book that you have read more than once.

It’s the ‘Mahabharatha ’ stories. The intricate plots & human emotions depicted in it has always captured my imagination . My mother used to tell me stories of Krishna, when I was a kid .Once when I was hardly 3 years, she narrated me how Krishna as a child put sand into his mouth , and when his angry mother made him open his mouth she nearly fainted on seeing all the 3 worlds there. The very next day, I discreetly went & scrapped off some sand , managed to put a wholesome amount in my mouth & ran excitedly to my mother. My mother almost fainted seeing the stones , debris & a poor dead beetle there..That incident marked the death knell of the story telling sessions…


3) One book that you would want on a deserted Island

Maybe a copy of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ will guide me on how to survive in an uninhabited island, how to build a fire, make a tree house, hunt down beasts, collect wild berries & manage to stay alive fighting off any cannibal attacks

4) One book that made you laugh

I have not read many rib tickling books lately .The only humorous tales I read recently are the ones from ‘Tinkle Digest’

5) One book that made me cry

I cant think of any book that made me shed a few tears.. But there are some heart rending incidents in books like ‘Les Miserables’-Victor Hugo

6) One book you wish had been written
Compilation of the works of a Flaway Mind.. hehehee :)


7) One book you wish had not been written

The whole of M& B series!!!! I have always been tempted to read them at the wrong times.It always happened during my study holidays. Though I knew it’s all mushy & crap, I was never able to resist the temptation.. I think I outgrew those books now. I am no longer tempted by them, maybe because exams are not there any more :)

8) One book that you are currently reading

“Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”- Ruskin Bond. I am a big time fan of Ruskin Bond. No other Indian writer has enchanted the world more. His stories spun around the Himalayan foothill, fascinate us with its simple, down to earth characters and the magical aura of Himalayan flora & fauna. His stories are closely interwoven with nature. The stories set against the backdrop of pine ,deodar trees, chirping of magpie robin , the gurgling streams & brooks set our imagination on wings

9) One book that you have been meaning to read

Catch 22 - Joseph Keller

I pass on this tag to Calvin, my buddy who recently ventured on a brand new blog.

Five Point Someone- Chetan Bhagat:- A book review
[A national best seller by an ex-IITian on campus life @ IIT.The book tells you what NOT to do @ IIT]
My Rating:good[not excellent]

Since a long time, I had wanted to read this book. It is not often that one get to peek into the life & thoughts of the most elite & superior of our race - the IITians. I was dying to read about these Einsteins who in my wild imagination:
- were drowned in a tsunami of tech books;
- barely had time to breathe down , having to live at the cutting edge of technology & cutthroat competition;
- hardly ever spoke & opened their mouths only to mumble in technical jargon, unintelligible to the rest of the world.

Now the book had my imagination tumbling down. It goes on to tell the story of 3 friends Ryan, Alok & Hari. They are the five point somebody’s of IIT; somebody who scored a *GPA of 5 point something , which is below average according to IIT super standards. The story tells about the simple joys of campus life, right from ragging days to the convocation day. It makes a potpourri with all the right ingredients –intellect, friendship, romance & plots.

RYAN: He is smart, stylish, sporty & can be rightly termed as a daredevil and spoilt brat. He is the one who look at things in a different perspective. He comes up with innovative ideas like how to make boring classes interesting, what to gift Hari’s girlfriend, how to sneak out the question paper right under HOD’s nose etc etc…

ALOK: He is the sentimentalist amongst the three & dreams of making it high. He has a traumatized family background, with a father who is paralysed & a family looking forward to the day he gets campus selection. His character is exactly opposite to Ryan

HARI : He is the quite one,a passive onlooker. He is the one who gets all tongue tied during viva voce & the one who dances to all of Ryan’s whims & fancies. He balances the conflicting ideas of Alok & Ryan. But how he transforms into an entirely opposite character, when in company of his girlfriend Neha is really mind boggling.

They are the 3 protagonists of the story.The book comes down heavily on the relative grading system of IIT, that reduced an individual’s identity down to his/her GPA. The system with its overloaded schedules(exams,assignments & surprise quizzes), crams up the students’s lives & leave no space for open ideas or innovations

The narrative which is humorous, witty & hilarious , provides for light reading. But sometimes we wonder whether humour is a bit over done, especially when there are situations that call for atleast a grain of seriousness. Maybe that is why it is regarded as a book version of dil chahta hai.





*GPA- Grade Point Average

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