As the race is on ....!!!

"I took a speed reading course and read ‘War and Peace’ in twenty minutes. It involves Russia" -Woody Allen

And I found the needle !!

Google Helps you do it ...that is helps u find the needle...from the haystack of information out there....but you need to know what u are looking for...Some times you may know exactly what you are looking for and you may not find it...And then there are days when out of the blue the needle presents itself even when you dont have much of an idea about what it looks like....

Today out the blue I had two such experiences that has just made my day!!!

First of which was this haunting number "" the epic Franz Schubert's Avie Marie (Well I didnt know that till i found this video) .
Last night I was watching U.S sitcom "The Modern Family" (just realized my view of the Western world is completely based on th few American sitcoms I watch here in India...but thats going off tangent...hopefully another post some day),where in Cameron sings this haunting piece at a funeral..the entire sequence was interspersed with scenes of his partner struggling with a intruding bird at home....all in slow motion.

Well I may not be a connosier of music ,but I do get it when I hear a extraordinarie piece.And this is one...Apart from the fact that this is a haunting piece ,was the sense of dejavu I was feeling when I heard it.Also I could almost envision myself using this in any movie I was directing preferably in a gangsta shootout or mob assassination scene shot in slow motion.Every thing fit perfectly except for the simple fact that I had no idea what the song was.

Once the scene was done the only thing I remembered from the song was the intial two words "Ave Mariya" and I started trying my luck with various combination of these two to finally end up with the link above.Didnt have to struggle much as this seems to be famous composition.

And soon enough I realized the reason for "Deja vu" I was feeling.The song was used in the background score in the recently released movie "Hitman".So much for using the theme music in my movie now .


The second in the series was this one .
I heard this song being used in one of the programs in the indian music channel [V].
I had one round of hunt for this song previously and when I couldn't make much headway, as i didnt know what language the song was in, I had almost concluded that the song was a in house composition of channel [V] and left it at that.

Of late there has been a spurt in the number of dubbed South Indian movies in Hindi  based movie channels.Though not a fan,I do often make a pit stop at these channels when these movies are running ,as translation often make dialogues really hilarious and corny in Hindi.
This afternoon as i was laughing at one of these dubbed translations ,as is the case with most masala movies now,an item no started with strikingly similar tune.Though the song had lost all its charm once converted to hindi,I know knew exactly where to check for this song.

This time I fed "youtube Arya 2 ringa ringa" to lord google and the got the link above in return.
i spend the next hour first enjoying the song and the enjoying the new model. I bet she will soon be seen as rival to "Munni" and "Sheild" in the days to come  ...:) .And btw damn ..Allu Arjun can dance ??

PS:For those who are wondering the dancer in the second video is Erina and she is not of Indian origin.

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The books are mocking me..... !!!

Remember this scene from Two and half man where Alan has a breakdown in a bookstore.This is exactly the feeling i undergo every time I visit a book store.The result:Impulsive Buys ending up in One big pending list.
It was in such a set up that I came upon “Bauer, Susan Wise - The Well-Educated Mind, A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had ”  and also The Guardian's '1000 books to read before you die'.

I realized I would never be able to complete the new list without first completing the list I have accumulated on my own discretion just to avoid leaving behind as Alan says "a shelf of unread books" 

And so I set up a online shelf  (and inadvertently ended up spamming everyone I ever sent mail to.Thanks Shelfari !!), and started through the list one after the other.

First book I picked up was Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers. And it turned out to be good decision. A fast and interesting read ,it set up to 2 more books to be completed within a span of 1 month (The Legends of Khasak and Piccadilly Jim).

One month down I feel the its still going strong and I plan to clear of the rest within the next one year.

Documenting the pending list :

A Potrait of Young Man as an Artist
Dubliners
The so called "ultimate classic" Ulysses
Short story collection -O Henry
Greatest works of Oscar Wilde (of which I plan to read at least Dorian Gray and Importance
of being Earnest)
Code of Woosters
A few books on current affairs from Amratya Sen /Chidambaram/Gurcharan das and Arun Shourie
Helen Keller's Catch 22
George Orwell's 1984
Complete works of Kafka and Shakespeare
+
A an uncountable number of ebooks i have in my computer.

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And then i read =>The legends of Khasak.

The book is the translation of one of the foremost classics of Malayalam language.

A different experience in reading as it was a story of a fictional Keralite village of the 1960s.

Didn’t find the English obstructing  narrative much even though there are many cultural references which would have been much easier in Malayalam.

I didn’t see a plot per se in this novel ,think it has got more to do with the serialised form the novel had initially come out.

There are some real interesting characters like Appu kili ,Sivaraman Nair,Kuppu Acchan.

There is an undertone of satire that comes up from time to time. And some interesting sub plots.

It is said that the book has magical realism like in Gabrial Gracia Mrarques books.But since I don’t understand the term ,I haven’t found any.

update:

The experience of reading this translation has led me to order for couple of more transaltions of Malayalam legends.

I have already purchased "The Writings of M.T.Vasudevan Nair from Orient Black Swan and O.V.Vijayan's Selected Fiction from Penguin publication.

In the wishlist is 2 out of stock books from penquin publiction MTV's Demon Seed and other stories and Mukundan's Gods mischeif.

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