My birthday and more...

Whoa!! I am still reeling under the fantastic birthday bash I had on Friday. I don’t usually celebrate birthdays; probably because they remind me of how closer I am to getting wrinkles, wearing bifocals, and growing gray hair! But this year, I cut three huge chocolate truffle cakes, got a dozen bear hugs and priceless books.

The day started with several calls and messages from friends and foes :). Yeah, anybody who calls me at 12 with the sole intention of waking me up gets segmented inside my brain as a foe automatically. My roomie included! But I did forgive her for the lovely bracelets she gave me.

I reached office to baby pink roses and a gazillion birthday wishes. I have never felt so pampered ever before. To top it all, I cut two surprise chocolate cakes and got my face plastered in chocolate syrup and slabs. All thanks to S’d and everyone else who chortled at the sight of me licking cake from my nose. The name on the cake was not very flattering I should say! One had a ‘Happy Birthday Geek” (I so hate Gau’mi) on it and the other one had a ‘Happy Birthday Pogo” (Apparently I look like a cartoon from the POGO channel. Some cheek!) . I also got a gorgeous green kurta and ‘Brick lane’ a book by Monica Ali. Thanks mates!

GP then called me up to say she wouldn’t be able to meet me today due to other engagements. I grumbled about it to Vamp, who suggested a visit to his new house to cheer me up. I readily agreed! All the way to his house, I kept a low profile, muttering vague things about getting ditched on a birthday.

When we finally waded through the impossible traffic, and reached his place, I opened the door to find GP, Kiki, Aks and most importantly another chocolate cake :). This time I am not even mentioning what was written on the cake! GP and her tricks. I always fall for them.

Vamp gave me the whole ‘Lord of the Rings’ collection. After a yummy dinner with 10 others, I crashed at Procky’s place. Me and Kiki encountered a cockroach that flew around the house. Kiki kept running from one corner to another with a broomstick in hand. The sight was so hilarious that I started laughing uncontrollably. The cockroach wiped my smile away by settling down inside my handbag. Later, with an Outlook and Baygon spray we finished the job.

I ran home next day morning, to find an unnamed package. ‘The Black Swan’, by Nissim Nicholas Taleb was inside it. Before I could go into the dreamland of some unnamed mysterious caped crusader, who would sweep me off my feet, by surprising me with unnamed packages, Mom asked me to check with Unz. When I did, I realized that it was indeed Unz who sent it. So much for my dream, but nevertheless, thanks a bunch for the brilliant book!

At the end of it all, I felt immensely lucky to have such friends. It takes a lot to organize surprises just to make my day special. After all, my friends are the best! :)

For this is what we do...

"For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on."
- Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts.

And thus ends Shantaram, undoubtedly one of the best books I have read. It is of the kind that grips you until the very end and makes you feel upset when it is over. It bubbles with enthusiasm, despairs in search of life, preaches philosophy, destructs conformist premises, dilutes beliefs, and finally ends in hope.

India, as one of my friends, D, said ‘is the only country foolish enough to glorify and cherish convicts". Shantaram pretty much proves that point.

Three Mistakes of My Life

What starts as an interesting story, ends rather abruptly in Chetan Bhagat's, 'Three mistakes of my life'.

The story line is quite similar to his previous writings. The blundering protagonist, his love-interest, friendship, sacrifice, blah and some more blah is what makes up his third book too.

One exception is that, the Godhra riots, Gujarat earthquake and the India-Australia series are interspersed with the story quite cleverly, with each of these events paving way for the protagonist to realize the mistakes he commits.

What ever happened to the trademark self-deprecatory humor, Chetan's books were famous for? Humor is almost non-existent in this book, which makes a few parts very yawnable and forgettable. Further the hero is projected as being too perfect in the first half of the book and too flawed in the second. The readers are fed an over-dose of cricket as well.

The book has its good moments too. All the scenes between Vidya and Govind are well-crafted and thoroughly enjoyable. Vidya's reaction to Govind's explanation of probability with greeting cards was exceptionally amusing.

"Let's say i take all your cards and put them in a sack. Then i pull one out. What is the probability the card is colored?"

"Why would you put them in a sack?", she said.

At the same time, a few scenes make me wonder if guys really do think the way Chetan explains or if it is exaggerated!!!For instance, there is one part where Vidya touches Govind's hand and he notices the fairness of her arms, long fingers, blue veins,nail polish, what not and that too in a few seconds. (Read: gag gag)

On the whole, it is definitely not a great book nor is it Chetan's best work. Three mistakes, is an entertainer, but that's about it.