Sense of Life

In one of the books of hers, Ayn Rand says - 

To the extent to which a man is mentally active, i.e., motivated by the desire to know, to understand, his mind works as the programmer of his emotional computer-and his sense of life develops into a bright counterpart of a rational philosophy. To the extent to which a man evades, the programming of his emotional computer is done by chance influences; by random impressions, associations, imitations, by undigested snatches of environmental bromides, by cultural osmosis. If evasion or lethargy is a man's predominant method of mental functioning, the result is a sense of life dominated by fear-a soul like a shapeless piece of clay stamped by footprints going in all directions. (In later years, such a man cries that he has lost his sense of identity; the fact is that he never acquired it.)

So True!

Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another nice read of the year - Persepolis!

It's a story of a girl who originally belonged to Iran. The protagonist narrates the story herself.  She describes the various phases she lived through. Before 1979, Iran had the culture of open minds. It was only 1979 when women there had to start wearing veils. And that's because of their government of that times. Then onwards, Iran's revolution reversed, against the will of many Iranians. What all we know about Taliban and his indoctrinations, were imposed in Iran then onwards. It's good to read this phase of transition.

This girl - Marjane Satrapi who was the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor, belonged to an open-minded, rich and well-educated family. They did the demonstrations against the government, but with no fruitful results. At the same time, Iraq attacked Iran and situation in Iran went even worse. Iran also started defending and the war started. Iranians were already not happy about the new government and its laws and then with the war they were completely devastated. When Marjane turned 14, her parents sent her to Austria to keep her away from all the devastation. Within those 4 years, Marjane witnessed many deaths including one of her martyr uncle and her close friend - neighbour.

Next part of the book talks about her life in Austria which was not so good. In spite of having lived in conservative country, she dissolved herself completely in the western culture. She couldn't stand in there more and hence returned to her home country at the age of 18.

Next, in last part of the book, Marjane talks about how she made the come back to life and tried to survive in Iran again. This part also gives the idea of her freedom amidst all the restrictions she was burdened by the new Islamic Revolution. This freedom was granted by her parents. She educated herself more, married, divorced and finally she left Iran again as it was not the place to live in peacefully. There were no wars, she was not a kid anymore, but still she left the country. There the book ends!

Overall, the book is riveting. The writer is a good narrator. She has illustrated her feelings perfectly through the text as well as the pictures. I forgot to mention that it's a graphical novel. The pictures around the text are perfectly detailed to give you the idea of her state of mind and how exactly she perceived things.


Few of the incidences, really touched. When Marjane was a kid, she imagined talking to God and the way she talked, it reminded me of my childhood. She talked to God as if he is her real father. She got angry with him, she fought with him. Not only this, she also imagined how God would look like. And to tell you frankly my God also looked like hers. Maybe, all kids have common fantasies.

Nice Read! I'll give it 4 stars.

After reading this book, now I feel, even if we don't think about money every moment, still paisa bolta hai! It's money that talks. It gives you freedom to take decisions, freedom to change your life. If Marjane's parents were not rich, could she have managed to get away of Iran's culture? It's said that with money, you can't buy everything; but really, you can buy the freedom at least.



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I'll do it my way

I'll Do It My Way: The Incredible Journey of Aamir Khan by Christina Daniels
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It talks about Behind Scenes. It has the interviews with the people around Aamir who made movies with him. It contains several stories happened during the shoots - few interesting, few knowledge boosting. It also tells how Aamir always thought innovatively. For example, QSQT was one of the rare, maybe the first film to have a negative ending where hero-heroine die, Raja Hindustani's second half started where most of the movies end, Rang De Basanti was the first movie of songs with no lipsing, Lagaan was entirely a different concept and so on..

In initial pages, I found it good and inspiring to know about Aamir's qualities, but later they were repeated; just from the mouth of different people. So this makes the book little dull. Book could have been smaller with no repetition of content. Instead of stating things in terms of interviews, if it'd have been written like a story, book could have been small yet better.

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Karla again

Mistakes are like bad loves. More you learn from them, more you wish they should not have happened. - Karla from Shantaram

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शाळा

या वर्षातल पण केल्याप्रमाणे लगेच दुसरं पुस्तक उचललं. शाळा. नववीतल्या जोशीने वर्णन केलेल्या त्याच्या चालू वर्षातल्या घडामोडी. शाळेवर पुस्तक लिहायला अतिउत्तम वर्ष ते. त्या वर्षी शाळेत जे काही घडतं ते किंबहुना कुठल्याच इयत्तेत घडत नाही. लेखकाने अतिशय साध्या आणि स्वच्छ शब्दात संपूर्ण वर्ष रेखाटल आहे. पुस्तक वाचताना कितीतरी वेळा नकळत आपण हसत असतो. अर्थात, तुम्ही सुद्धा तशाच शाळेमध्ये गेला असाल तरच. माझी शाळा तर अगदी अशीच होती. शाळेत साजरे होणारे उत्सव, वक्तृत्व स्पर्धा, त्यात पुढे-पुढे करणारे विद्यार्थी, घोकंपट्टी करून पोपटपंची करणारे, शाळेच्या hall मध्ये होणारे कार्यक्रम, तिथे होणारी टिंगल टवाळी, त्यात एखादा तरी गाववाला असणं, ऑफ पिरेडला केलेली धम्माल, सिनेमांच्या भेंडया, सिनेमाची गाणी तोंडीपाठ असणं, एकमेकांना आडनावाने हाक मारणं, कॅम्प मधली मस्ती, मुलंमुलींनी एकमेकांशी न बोलणं, आणि सहलींमध्ये सर्वकाही विसरून एकदम खुलून गप्पा मारणं, मुलींनी स्वतःलाच हुशार समजणं आणि मुलांनी त्यांना बावळट, शिक्षकांकडून पट्ट्या खाणं, मुख्याध्यापकांची भाषणं सगळं काही अगदी जसंच्या तसं. बऱ्याचदा तर वाटलं आपल्याच वर्गातल्या कुणीतरी लिहलं असावं हे पुस्तक.

शाळेत असताना मी जोशीने म्हटल्याप्रमाणं भावमारू लोकांच्या किंवा त्या चिमण्या मुलींच्या category मध्ये मोडत होते. सरांनी प्रश्न विचारला की त्या चिमण्यासारखाच मी-मी करताना तेव्हा खूप उल्हास वाटायचा. आता ते आठवून खूप हसूही आलं आणि ओशाळल्यासारखंही वाटलं. किती वेडे असतो ना आपण!
पण मला बाकी सगळ्या category मधल्या मुलांचं जगही तितकंच शुद्ध दिसत होतं. फक्त त्या जगात वावरायची हिंमत आणि इच्छा दोन्ही नव्हती. इंजिनियरिंग कॉलेज मध्ये मात्र इच्छा आणि हिम्मत दोन्ही आल्यामुळे मी तेही जग अनुभवता आलं. अर्थात, प्रत्येक जगाचे फायदे-तोटे आणि गंमत वेगळीच असते.

खरं तर हे पुस्तक त्या छोट्याशा जोशी च्या प्रेमकहाणी भोवती घुमतं. पण त्यातही खूप मज्जा वाटते. त्या कोवळ्या, अज्ञान वयात प्रेम झालं म्हणून खूप मोठं झाल्यासारखं त्याचं वागणं पाहून गंमतच वाटते.
पुस्तक तुम्हाला जमिनीला खिळवून बसवत याला आणखी एक कारण म्हणजे त्यात सर्वांना त्यांना लावलेल्या विशेषणानीच संबोधलं आहे. त्यामुळे ते पुस्तक अगदी आपलंसं करून जातं.
पुस्तकाचा शेवटही अगदी योग्य आहे. मात्र तो वाचताना हलकासा चटका लागून गेल्याशिवाय राहत नाही.
जो कुणी मराठी शाळेत गेलाय त्याने एकदा तरी जे पुस्तक वाचून बघावं. बघावं, काही आठवतंय का ते!

The Atlas of Universe

There's a Sale going on in Landmark bookstore. I bought few books from there at nice discount. Most of the books are full of pictures which are usually expensive. One of them is "The Atlas of Universe". It has pictures and information about all heavenly bodies like planets, asteroids, comets, nebulas etc. Their pictures are mind-boggling.

At the start, the book describes the planets in our Solar System. Each planet represents something. For example, Mercury is the Messenger of Greek Gods, Neptune is of Water. I haven't read the book "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus". But from this Atlas, I know how that book's name must have come. Venus represents the Greek Goddess of Love whereas Mars represents the Greek God of Wars. The funnier part is that Venus is the hottest planet of our solar system. :D It's not that I completely agree with the name of the book "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus", but it's the general perception or rather, the perception generalized.

वाचन

वाचन पुन्हा एकदा सुरु झालं. जुनी कवितांची वही बाहेर आली. पूर्वी कविता कधी तोंडीपाठ व्हायच्या ते कळायचं सुद्धा नाही. कंटाळा आला की वही काढायची आणि मोठ्याने कविता वाचायच्या, असा छंदच होता.. चंद्रशेखर गोखल्यांच्या चारोळ्या तर जशा रक्तात मुरलेल्या. पाडगावकरांच्या कवितासुद्धा कितीतरी लक्षात होत्या. त्यावेळी साहित्याचे स्त्रोत फारच मर्यादित होते तरी सुद्धा वही भरलेली असायची. आणि आज अथांग महासागर डोळ्यासमोर असताना सुद्धा वही कोरीच आहे. खरं तर, वही अस्तित्वातच नाहीये. पुरे झालं दुर्लक्ष! आता मात्र लिहायचं.. कितीतरी विषय खूप सुंदर असतात, वाचलेही जातात थोडेफार. पण बुद्धी फार तीक्ष्ण नसल्याने काही मनाच्या कोपऱ्यात विसावतात, काही थांगपत्ता लागू न देता भुरकन उडून जातात. आता मात्र लिखाणास पुन्हा सुरुवात करायची.चला तर मग.. आरंभ करू..
- प्रेरणा मिळाली कालच्या पुण्यातल्या FM वरच्या व्यक्ती आणि अभिव्यक्ती कार्यक्रमातल्या कवी किशोर कदम उर्फ सौमित्र यांच्या बोलण्याने!

My Journey of Books

I remember my childhood. I remember those summer vacations when I used to get bored. I would wait for my exams to get over so eagerly and in a day or two I'd get bored. I would ask my mother what I should do. She would tell me to play something, I'd play and then come back and ask her the same. Even she didn't understand what to tell me more. Now I wish she had had an idea of giving me books to read. I'd have read many books. Atleast I'd have started reading. When I was in 9th standard, my Marathi teacher told me to read some books. I had read few small Marathi books like Vyakti Ani Valli, Batatyachi Chaal by Pu.La. Deshpande. And the other science teacher told me to read Mrutyunjay. That was the first huge book I had started reading. I had almost finished it. But then because of hype of S.S.C and H.S.C, I was supposed to concentrate more on regular studies. So the book reading stopped again. Then during engineering, it started reading again. But then I read only few books. Still I was not so fond of books. I had liked few of the Sidney Sheldon's books. Then I read “One night at call center” which I had liked a lot! I was amazed by the story. Who knew that there are still more a lot better books?

Then when I entered Amdocs, I met Sharan. I knew him as a geek and a purely techie guy. I had an impression that he might not have read even a single page besides his techie stuff. And just to tease him and to show him that I do something more than him, I told him that I read so and so book by Chetan Bhagat and that was awesome. He must have laughed inside at my stupidity and show off! :D Anyway, then after commenting on the poverty of the book, he told and later gave me to read The Kite Runner. I took 2-3 months to read that book. But when I had completed it, I understood what the good novel is! Later I came to know about this blog. And when I went through all the blog posts I was sunk into shocks, surprises, wonders, amazement, and what not! I loved the blog. It was the great source of information about books, reading. There I questioned about my existence till now. Like, I had just born then and wondered which world I was in till then. I feel ashamed sometimes! :(

Later, I started visiting book stores. I would pick up any book and buy as I didn’t know which is good and which is not. This way, I bought quite a good number of books to inspire myself. Whatever books I read after that, I have already blogged about them.

Few months back, I started reading Shantaram. I have never read such a huge book! The book doesn't have very difficult language. But while reading it, I realized that if I know meaning of all the words, then I'll enjoy it more. Meanwhile I was reading another Marathi book. I can understand Marathi very well and even if I don't know the word, I can figure out its meaning by its roots, prefix and suffix. And I enjoy it more. Hence, I decided to take a halt. My English vocabulary is very poor. My reading speed is pathetic. And because of this, I take a lot of time to read which doesn’t allow me to concentrate for long. I found people on goodread read 2-3 books in a week. Then getting inspired I decided to work on my vocabulary and speed of reading. I bought few books for it like - Word Power Made Easy, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, How to Read Better and Faster, All about Words.

Word Power is a good start when you want to work on your English vocabulary. One can read a session from it every day and get happiness. It is an excellent book to boost your efforts. Every day was awesome when I was reading this book. But I know I'm still an indigent.  The ocean is too large. I just need to keep swimming, keep swimming! All about Words is not my cup of tea yet. But I found some nice tips of reading there. The dictionary I bought is also good. You can just open it whenever you want, you'll get more than a dull way to learn words (puzzles, tips, concepts etc). It also has a CD which has software. If you are really hungry for words, you'll get much from it. How to read better and faster has nice tips of reading and some exercises too. That'll definitely help. If you want to be an avid, voracious reader then go for this book.

Then, other than books, I have got few applications installed on my iPod. These applications are nothing but word games, word tests. Search for tests for GRE/SAT. Search for any vocabulary application. There are lots of them. These games are helpful whenever I find free minutes. Playing with words is also a nice way to learn. Other than games, we can also find some podcasts about vocabulary. I found certain 2 minutes episodes, where each episode concentrates on a word or two and discusses about their meaning, their usage etc. Good when you are travelling in bus and can't read books.

The other source of words is watching English movies, soaps.

Some of the best tips to learn new words -

1) Read as much as you can and whenever you encounter new words, search for its meaning, check the pronunciation, speak up the word, and try to use it wherever possible.

2) Read anything, anywhere. Voracious readers don't leave even the food coupons and bus/train tickets.

3) Avoid making mistakes when you write/pronounce the words.

If I had known these tips few years ago, I'd have been definitely a lot better person. I don't want anyone to be deprived of knowledge just because he didn't find anyone to guide, like I hadn’t. And therefore this blog post!

Next, I want to improve also my writing. My writing is pathetic. I gave a friend a blog of another friend to read. He thought it was mine and exclaimed - "tu itna achchha kabse likhne lagi!" That was not my blog. :( That tells me I have a lot of scope to improve.

Quotes from Shantaram

Friend is anyone you don't despise.

If fate doesn't get you a laugh then you just don't get the joke.

reading

Reading touchy books must be same as drinking. After going through both, we lose the consciousness, we remember deeply hidden memories, we think or talk to ourselves about it and we look mad. We are no more practical. We don't think of benefits. And from some heaven we get the strength of bearing. I never drank. This can be only imagination. Who knows? Let's go back to reading; to get unconscious. ;)

On "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


1st Comment - (22nd September 2010)

I have read first 2 parts of it. Both of them were thought provoking; both in their own respect. Mariam's was of sacrifice whereas Laila's was of independence. Hakim's thoughts appeared acceptable to me. I also liked the quote/sentence -
"Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly."

There's a lot in the book. People told me this book is not as good as The Kite Runner is. But I think both are incomparable. Both have different subject altogether. They both show you a different world.

*****

2nd Comment - (25th September 2010)

I read more of the book. In the third part, at most places I found that I needed time to digest the things going on. It is not like any mysterious book where you can't wait and you go on reading until it finishes. For this book, at certain places you need to wait, take a breath, and accept what you read, come to reality and then start it again.
People, who haven't read the book should skip the rest of the post, read the book first and then read the whole post.
The book is not at all to refresh you. It tells everything that happened in Afghanistan at some point of time. The incidents when Mariam goes to see her father in Herat, when she loses her mother, when she marries Rasheed – a man of three times age of her age or rather when Rasheed marries her (woman does nothing in Afghanistan, what she does is forced), when Laila faces the bomb blast, when Rasheed marries Laila, when Laila gets caught when she tries to run away along with her daughter and Mariam from Rasheed and how he punishes them, when Laila gives birth to her second child - Zalmai, when Mariam comes to know about her father's death (this was so touchy that I have no words.); all incidents talk about Afghanistan’s culture, but they also show you one form of human mind. Laila's smartness and strength is appreciable. It is hard to digest how at such a small age she can understand and handle such difficult situations. What Khaled Hosseini has said is correct - "There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood."
The rules that Taliban had imposed; we only had read them and felt disgusting. But it is more horrible to see how they can affect the people specially women. The incidence when Laila gives birth to Zalmai is disgustingly horrifying.
I still have pages to read. And I'm sure there will still be more to talk then.

3rd Comment: (8th October 2010)
I completed reading the book. In the last part of the book, Tariq (Laila's friend, love) comes back to her. Rasheed's anger for Tariq's coming back, for Laila's meeting him and for talking to him, his beating Laila to death, Mariam's dare to kill Rasheed; all is explained wonderfully. Not a single detail has been missed. Laila goes away with Tariq along with her children. Mariam stays back to face Taliban. The paragraph which talks about her execution by Taliban keeps you still. Her courage touches the heart. I thought about my last moment in this world. Will I know that I'd be dying? Will I get a moment to think of my whole life and to make myself content about whatever I will have lived? I want to get it. I want to live my last moment knowing that this was my last moment.

Back to the book: Laila's start of teaching and becoming the need of Afghanistan was the best end of the book. There can't be any other end. I learned what hope is. Same way I had learnt when I watched “The Shawshank Redemption”. And of course the last line - "...if it's a girl, Laila has already named her." Lovely!



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A Thousand Splendid Suns

I'm reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns". It's not complete yet. But I'd like to write something about it.

I have completed 2 parts of it where first part focussed on a character named Mariam who was an unwanted child. Her life was of small restricted world and of sacrifice. She was short of all love that a child gets. And what she assumed to be the love was the betrayal. Her marriage to an old person threatens first, then relaxes and then again goes weird.

The second part talks about Laila, her childhood, her independent world, her friendship, her freedom of education for which the only reason was her educated parents and her maturity when she rejects her boyfriend's proposal.. It also talks about Afganistan's political situation of those times. Interference of Laila's mother into political discussions was little surprising but it showed that there was education freedom for at least some girls. It was a relief to see that there was no exception to "Exceptions' here too.

Now next part seems to have the climax where Laila and Mariam both are focussed. I'll post about it once read.

Enjoying reading and writing after long time.. :)

books

Books teach you a lot, books show you different world, books give you knowledge, books keep you being human, books make you understands thoughts in depth, books are friends, books can replace anything. To me, books also tell that I'm not the only person who did those foolish mistakes and that is so relaxing... :) I believe I'm an ordinary human who is no inferior to the world around me.

Many Lives Many Masters

Probably, you will like to read the book before reading this post. I couldn’t stop myself writing about it. I’ll recommend you to read the book first.

Just for a break, I read some other book than Harry Potter’s. And it is “Many Lives, Many Masters” - A different book. It reminded me of "The Secret". I have heard it, not read! ;) I watched movie. The Secret says that there is someone around us who hears our wishes and fulfills them for us. There is always a Gennie given to everyone. But The Secret has only one aspect – To be what we want to be, to have what we want to have.
But this book – Many Lives Many Masters has tried to cover all the aspects of life. Or say – Lives. :)

It starts with the problems of an ordinary girl. Then it goes to reincarnation. Then it goes to reincarnations. (We can’t forget the plurality of reincarnations in the last sentence.) Yes. There are many lives described. Then this book moves to life after death. Floating in the air, watching the bright light, gaining energy, learning from passed life, summarizing the lessons we learnt from this life and then finally, the Master comes in this life after death. The Master who helps the spirit to learn what it has to. This Master helps it to renew itself. This master finally shows this spirit the direction to move, to move into a different body. All spirits don’t have necessarily the same master. There are many such. And also, the same spirit doesn’t have to have the same master in all the lives after deaths. In fact, in every life you learn some different aspect. And we can say that every master is given one aspect to teach it to us. And there are guardians too. They are around us when we are alive i.e. when we are in physical state. And they are the ones who give you dreams, intuitions. Everyone should listen to these guardians. “Oh shit! I had thought this would happen. I don’t know why but I had thought it. I should have believed my thought.” This kind of sentences, some or other time, we keep saying. These are intuitions; given by guardians. We should not ignore them. They are for us.

One more thing that I want to mention which is given importance in this book is – "Learning". We are here to learn; to progress. We keep progressing. Even if we are sitting quiet, our mind, brain never stops. It progresses. Sometimes while sitting empty, we recollect things that happened in the past. With that we prepare insight for that thing. And thus learn it thoroughly.

By getting more and more knowledge we can go closer to God. This is the only way. Also, if we have knowledge, we have fewer fears. With knowledge one can overcome all his problems. Isn’t it true? If we compare this to our daily life issues, for example, if we are lost at some place; if we have knowledge about some geography of that place we can find out the way to know the place we are at. By getting more and more knowledge we become god-like. We become master. Masters are also spirits like us. But they are grown up; fully learnt.

This is all written in the book. I’m not sure whether one can really remember of his past lives. But I believe that we reincarnate. Whatever stuff is given in the book, if we accept once, we will keep accepting. If we don’t want to accept the concept of reincarnation, then also we can read at least the messages by the masters. I think everyone should read it. Just to show you different aspect of life, death and the state between them. I have written much about book here. If someone, after reading this feels why I opened the inner story of book, then read the first line of this post. But still, read the book. It is written in a nicely.