Mary had a little lamb and she loved it :)

My one year old daughter has developed a new liking – English Rhymes. And she can listen to them anywhere, any time and while doing anything – eating, playing et all and still enjoys them. I downloaded the longest video I could find from the Youtube which stands roughly at an hour and half and has possibly all the rhymes that I have ever known. My daughter makes me and my wife sing them for her if we hide the iPad away from her.

Anyways having heard so many rhymes over the past few days what struck me was the amount of violence there is in something meant for babies and toddlers. Mind you I am not joking, I have heard all types of violent stuff possible. From people falling (Jack fell down and broke his crown) to monuments crumbling (London bridge is falling down); they have everything. They don’t even spare old men (I met an old man, who wouldn’t say his prayers, I took him by the leftleg and threw him down the stairs) and even animals, even the differently abled ones.  In a rhyme about 3 blind mice they have their tails cut off with a carving knife by a farmer’s wife J

Six Feet Under Chinatown

Manorama six feet under was on TV a couple of days back and I once again got glued. By the time the movie finished, it was already 1 am in the morning. Every time I watch this movie, the same thing repeats itself. I find it a fascinating, gripping tale that is equally fresh and enchanting every time. After finishing I just drifted to IMDB to check if others thought and felt about the movie the same way as I did. And indeed most people had rated it above 8 out of 10 but for one particular gentleman who had given it a one star calling it a blatant copy of the Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown'. So, I ended up watching 'Chinatown' with Jack Nicholson in blazing form.

This is one benefit of keeping an open mind, you often get introduced to extremely polarizing, yet mind and eye opening point of views and exactly why I love to do it, it helps me keep my 'world view' broad and avoid some of the common subconscious mistakes that we commit.

Anyways, without drifting from the topic, because of the above said review I consciously kept looking for similarities. What parts have been copied? What part of the plot lifted? So is it a copy? You decide! I will list my observations J (Spoiler Alert: You may want to stop here if not looking for spoilersJ)

Review : Book - The Immortals of Meluha

I had heard a lot about the ‘Shiva Trilogy’ by Amish Tripathi so when I knew I had a 30 hour journey ahead of me ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ was the first thing I laid my hands on. It’s decent size (around 400 pages) ensured that I would have enough to keep me occupied in between the movies, sleep and the flight transfers. But there was another challenge – would it hold my interest long enough for me to consider finishing it?

The book has a nice premise. It treats Siva not as a god but a normal person who over the three part series achieves enough greatness and respect through his actions to be considered a God. How well the author succeeds can only be determined by reading the entire series. The first part though manages somewhat to keep the promise.

Visiting Pune - Impressions from a drive to Mulshi

Since the day I landed in Pune, it has given me an impression of a have been hill station now mauled by ugly hoardings and new constructions. Mosoons seem to add to the misery with all the mud and traffic jams.

Today gave me a chance to break away from the concrete jungle and experience the beauty of the Pune monsoons that I had heard about. Below are some snaps of our drive to Mulshi.