The pleasure of finding things out

I just finished reading "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill, and what a book it is. Don't miss it if you want some real life excitement. It's a living example of how necessity is the mother of invention. The ideas in the book are truly inspiring!

That aside, the wifey has been gone for 2 weeks, and is back tomorrow. Just can't wait :) The rains are yet to begin in Pune, and I can think of various small trips that are worth making in the monsoons. I truly want to chase the monsoons this time around :)

Currently ready "Go Kiss the World" by Subroto Bagchi and also "No Fullstops in India" by Mark Tully.

I will soon post a review of The Great Escape.

I've been running down the road trying to losen my load I have seven women on my mind... [okay just the lyrics going through my head from Eagle's Take it easy, the title of this post].

Today was a long day, and tiring inspite of being not too tiring. Work is good and rewarding, but quite hectic these days. Hopefully I'll get used to it soon.

That aside, not much happening. I have a multitude of plans in my head, of what I want to do, but I'm waiting for Shruti to come back before I can execute them! :) Catch 22, huh?

All said and done, things are going well. More tomorrow!

What I'm trying to do here is to put down a mental dump of what I'm thinking of writing about. The idea is to freeblog, without taking a lot of time to compose/thoughts/sentences/subjects for this post.

I was just looking at some photos on Chromasia and it got me thinking. Why could I not take pictures like that, especially when I can! I think I'm just lazy to get off my but, grab my Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D and shoot away! I do intend to rectify that very soon.

That then brings me to the topic of rectifying things! I have been planning to blog more, take more photos, read more, post more reviews, yada yada yada but I don't seem to have done any of them!!

Is it the lack of time? I think not. Is it the lack of motivation? Maybe. I simply think it is the lack of lacking nothing. I just don't want to do things.. why??? I have no idea as of now.

I do think I will get back into some of these things, and drop others.

I just finished reading "I too had a love story" by Ravinder Singh from Burla, Orissa and thoroughly enjoyed it. I cried as I read the ending, and it so made me miss my wife I wanted to just travel 2000 kms to be with her...

I also finished reading "The old man and his god" which is by Sudha Murty, and was quite interesting too. I skipped a story or two, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

I am currently reading two magazines, Businessworld and MoneyLife, and intend to start reading a news paper religiously too. Best of luck to me for that!!

I started freeblogging today because I saw a similar concept in the movie Finding Forrester where Sean Connery teaches the protagonist to write, and says that the best way to begin is to simply type whatever comes to mind.

I intend to do that for a few days to get me writing in earnest. Then the focus will come on writing about books, travel, etc.. and I will surely then be interested in taking and posting pictures of various things :)

Sometimes life just serves you a freaking lemon.. for times like those:

and

Title: Dateline Islamabad
Author: Amit Barua
Publisher: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. (2007)
Pages: 296 (softcover)
Rating: 3 out of 5

Amit Barua was The Hindu's foreign correspondent in Pakistan between it's tumultous years of 1997 and 2000.

He was one of only 2 Indian journalists stationed in the country during those times. His writing style is quite fluent, and lacks taking sides for the most part. It's mostly facts and figures, without the "he said, she said" drama and mudslinging.

The book is worth a read to understand the social and political atmosphere in Pakistan in the times of Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf, as well as the intricate (yet openly flaunted) workings of various terrorist outfits.

Barua also covers the Kandahar kidnapping (using phones only, as he wasn't allowed out of Pakistan and into Afghanistan due to his 3 entry, 3 exit visa that only covered Islamabad and Karachi).

The fact that every day of his three years in Islamabad were filled with an ISI agent following him around as an espionage suspect only add to the whole atmosphere that he recreates using words.

I gave it a 3 out of 5 as I'm not a political enthusiast. But the book makes good reading if you want to understand what Musharraf and his cohorts are all about, and how he came into being the President of Pakistan.

Huwie this is up your alley, music at it's best!! I really loved this piece.

Here is the write up I found for the song:

If this video doesn't bring a tear to your eyes and makes you smile for the rest of the day, you are a cold hearted bastard. Watch it from beginning to end—you won't regret it.

Copyright - Gizmodo

Title: 90 minutes at Entebbe
Author: William Stevenson
Publisher: Bantam Books (1976)
Pages: 216 (softcover)
Rating: 3 out of 5

This book encapsulates the true story of the hijacking of an Air France flight 139 having over a 100 Jews, on 27th June 1976. The flight was commandeered to Uganda via Libya and the hostages were secured in the old terminal building at Entebbe under the guardianship of the terrorists with full support from Idi Amin (self proclaimed president of Uganda).

The terrorists had links to the PLO, and wanted Israel to release various high profile terrorists in exchange for the Jews from the flight.

Israel deliberated whether to release hostages and do an exchange (Plan A) or to go in and get the hostages via a long range rescue mission (Plan B). A bit of luck along with lots of excellent planning and some gutsy decisions by the men and women in charge led to a successful execution of plan B with just 1 military casualty.

The story covers not only what ensued after the hijacking, but also captures in depth the workings, machinations, conscience and response of the Israeli government and individuals for the situation they were in.

The only reason I gave this book a 3 on 5 is because the writing style is pathetic. William Stevenson does his research well, but his presentation has a lot lacking. I had to keep forcing myself to finish the book as the writing in many places was almost unbearable.

(You can read more about the operation at Operation Entebbe page at wikipedia.org.)

With Shruti away to see my grandmom, I ended up doing nothing at all on the weekend. I pretty much sat at home, fixed a couple of things and watch tons of TV. Extremely boring, if you ask me.

I did finish reading Ishmael Beah's book titled 'a long way gone'. Worth my time.

I have also begun on another book, 'dateline islamabad' by amit baruah. It's the true story/diary of an indian journalist who was one of two India reporters stationed in Pakistan between 1997 and 2000 during a tumoultous time in Pakistan's history.

I'm off to get some work done, but watch this space. I'm back :D

Title: a long way gone (memoirs of a boy soldier)
Author: ishmael beah
Publisher: harper perennial
Pages: 229 (softcover)
Rating: 5 out of 5

Ishmael Beah's story of surviving war torn Sierra Leone isn't heart-wrenching, but heart-warming. It is the story of a boy who passes through stages in life unheard of to most of us: it starts with innocence, moves on to fright and fear for dear life, on to fight for life and country (he is recruited as child soldier into the army) and finally salvation through rehabilitation.

There is the main story told in chronological order, which talks about his childhood and how it is torn apart by the war (the army versus the Revelutionary United Front (RUF)). His introduction to the war begins by running away from the RUF, and ends with him working side by side with the army in attacking and clearing RUF bases at the tender age of 13.

Most of the soldiers in these wars are children, recruited for their speed, small size and easy conversion to inhumane killing machines. These children run guns and other dangerous weapons and do a variety of drugs while killing people (innocent or otherwise).

As the story progresses he intersperses the main story line with stories from his childhood, culture, and tribe, told in flashback. He is lucky to escape the war when UNICEF forces arrive to select child soldiers for rehabilitation and life away from war.

The book details out not only the war and Ishmael's part in it, but also how many deep mental scars a war leaves behind. Rehabilitation for these kids is not as easy as it sounds, and takes months (maybe even years) of slow and careful love and attention, both for the physical and mental aspects of their well being. Trust is a big issue, as these children have been through so much that they refuse to trust another human being.

Ishmeal is one of the lucky few who makes it out of the war. Today he is a human rights activist and works for the rights of people in war torn regions of the world. He lives with his mother Laura in New York, whom he met when he went to the US in 1996 to talk at a UN conference.

(According to this wikipedia article, some facets of Beah's story have undergone scrutiny for their veracity. Read the page on Ishmael Beah at wikipedia for more information.)

I am adding this book to Orbis Terrarum challenge. The author was born in Sierra Leone. (Thank you Violet for introducing me to this challenge through your last post).

House is a TV serial I watch religiously (says a lot about my beliefs doesn't it?).

Here are some interesting quotes (will keep adding to them):

- Be a do-er, not a me-too-er!
- Time changes everything. It's what people say, it's not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were.