I can comment on authors, I pay to buy their books!

After another long gap, I thought I'll put up something here so you can kill time waiting for someone familiar to show up so you can chat with them. You could thank a college festival and Anne Rice for the delay. The fest was fantastic,with me and my chums having a blast all the time along, with a lot of hard work put in. On my fest, another time..

Here I am, to criticize a novel I am yet to finish reading. Now, I am not being judgmental. My focus now is going to be on the writing style. The book in question is The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. I had tried reading another one of her works, the Vampire Lestat, before this. And an honest confession, its one of the few books which I have put down without completely reading. I found it very long, dragging and dull. But since I haven't read it properly, not making comments on it.

The Witching Hour started off on a similar note. With four stories running parallel to one another, in the first four chapters itself, I was left dazed and confused as to what was going on. And thanks to my lately developed patience, I did manage to read further than that. The strategy is good, but its dragging and confusing to someone who isn't used to the style. So back to the book, I continued on and on. By open windows during the day and the bright fluorescent white light at night, I managed to get over my confusion and discovered the underlying brilliant plot. My opinion here is, one could easily just cast the books aside, and never reach the point where it gets interesting.

Secondly, her characters are all very complex. And Rice's way of explaining her characters is by going deep into their history, veryrich in details, many irrelevant to the plot. This makes it wearisome for the reader. It thus becomes like a poor man, out of desperation, continuously removing muck from a hug pile, for a copper coin hidden somewhere. Is it worth it?

Lastly, her characters seem to be very passionate. Her language brings in a lot of sensuality to the story. The words are captivating and give pleasure when one reads them. And in this context, unless one is completely immune to the attraction these hold, its easy to get swept away by the charisma of the silky words. This, I presume, is what keeps the readers hooked on to the plot. My complaint is, that if the steamy scenes were to be removed, the book might be a little more than half its current size. Also, I found it unnecessary, the highlights on the physical passion of the characters. It forms a source of distraction against the main plot.

And with around a few of chapters left, I can even predict the end, which isn't good for an author whose climax is a suspense, is it?

All in all, I give her writing a 2.5/5, for the creative plot and brilliant imagination. Ratings are cut down because of lengthy details and unnecessary physical descriptions.

During hols, Sunday afternoons are spent watching TV or hooked to the internet.But for the rest of the major part of the year, I'm busy completing assignments. I often have the company of my fluctuating friend, the Radio. On one such busy Sunday afternoon, I called upon my friend, praying that I would hear something nice. Browsing through the channels, my already troubled mind was almost fed up, when I stopped at a channel I barely listen to during the day - AIR. They played their channel's theme which sounded a little funny so I thought to give this channel a try too. And what followed was an amazing 6 minutes!

The song playing began with some thundering and showering, following soothing Guitar and the words. Surprising me, the words were English and the voice seemed vaguely familiar. Before I could win the battle to find out who he was, there came this classical part. So calm, so serene. The song further progressed, with the fusion of Blues and Classical, with a variety of musical instruments used. The words ere very earnest. The whole song created this dreamy ambiance around me as I was swept away by the simple beauty of the song. The song ended, I was eagerly waiting for the RJ to tell me the name of the song. It turned out to be Indian Rain by Colonial Cousins. A beautiful song, with great music and vocals!

Here's the song: Check it out! And if you don't like it, please don't tell me!

The Warrior Brave

~Gaia is the Earth Goddess. ~

I looked upon the Warrior brave,
Resting in Her earthly cave.
With a tear, to leave us in Her death,
The Warrior was breathing her final breath.

She was beautiful, full of grace,
With the most compassionate face.
'Mother', I said, 'Do not desert us so,
Your realm is falling, do not let go!'

'Child', said She, 'I will always be here,
But my realm is only falling, I fear,
Lest all mortals perish, tell your kind to heed
To the wise words once spoken, leaving behind their greed.'

Thus rests Gaia, the Warrior brave,
Bearing the pain in Her earthly grave.
Save the Warrior who gave us birth,
Before fire diminishes at the hearth.



~~ This is for mankind. In our haste to progress, we must not forget that we might one day be responsible for the destruction of this planet. Else, the prophecy told about earth's destruction will come to pass very soon. ~~

My country, my culture

Ever heard words like, "Hindi movies!!! Oh man! I rather prefer watching none".. or "Indian Classical?? Only western rock is what rocks!!" Well, I have, and it pains my heart to see that the people who speak this are none other than my own mates, my pals.. I find it rather scary to hear such stuff coming from an Indian, more so, a youngster.
Our country is a beautiful place. Every country has two sides to its coin. Perhaps we choose to overlook the positive side in our coin? Such great diversity and merger of so many cultures, languages, arts, people. We all seem to accept it now, maybe. But what about our ethics and values?? Old habits which hinder progress should of course be put to a stop. But what about those, which make us unique? Those, which give us our identity? Those, which today seem to be old and forgotten and restricted??
Our life is greatly influenced by Western life, thanks to the media. But how much are we going to let it affect us? The matter now is not just restricted to dressing sense, which needs to change with time. I mean to point out the more influential and deciding factor, our mind. Most of us blindly appreciate the West but never give a thought to our own motherland. Why, even in T.V. serials, we see women wearing saris in the ultimate way it isn’t supposed to be worn! What is that is making us this way? Is it our dislike for ourselves, or the very little confidence we have in ourselves???? Time changes behaviour, thinking, lifestyle and more... but by how much??
And why is it that we refuse to see the other side of the west? Why is it that we expect our parents to take care of us like Indian parents even when we cross twenty but refuse to let them know what happens in our life like the Americans? Why don’t we earn our living like they do when they are barely teenagers? Why is it that we refuse to acknowledge the good qualities they have adapted in themselves?
There are so many of us who readily follow the West? But how many of us follow punctuality?
How many of us respect others rights? How many of us follow laws laid down for us? How many of us are hard working people who love their work? How many of us accept their responsibilities and fulfill them?? When will we quit being lazy? When will we learn to respect what is ours and how much it has given us??
While the West is now turning their attention towards the Indian culture and is awed by it, we ourselves wish to become even more western than the West!!
So this is a pleading request to all the youngsters to respect their own country first and then look at others. Because if we want our country to be a Superpower, it’s up to us to make India shine around the globe by loving and nurturing it, and not by following the unimportant values of others.