Aala Santhosh Reddy

13 August 2008 • 11:24 pm 0

Now Reading: The Interpretation of Murder

“The pleasure of satisfying a savage instinct
is incomparably more intense than satisfying a civilized one.”
- Sigmund Freud

Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld

An excerpt from the official website of the book.

The Interpretation of Murder leads readers from the salons of Gramercy Park, through secret passages, to Chinatown—even far below the currents of the East River where laborers are building the mammoth towers of the Manhattan Bridge. Even as Freud fends off a mysterious consipiracy to destroy him, it is Younger who is drawn into an equally thrilling adventure that takes him deep into intricacies, masks and subterfuges of the human mind.

Filed under: Books, People , America, Books, Interpretation of Murder, Jed Rubenfeld, Mind, Murder, reading, Sigmund Freud

23 July 2008 • 9:54 pm 2

Punctuation Problems

Happened to read the post Review of Eats, Shoots and Leaves on Daily Writing Tips and was reminded of my struggle with the usage of punctuation especially with the apostrophe. I was for a considerable time confused with when to use its and it’s until I read the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. It has been two years since I read the book and still remember a few simple examples from the book that clearly illustrated the correct usage of punctuation.

An example about the dangling expectations caused by incorrect pluralisation.

Cyclist’s only (his only what?)

A very well written book and a must read for people having problems with the usage of punctuation.

Filed under: Books, Reviews , Punctuation, Apostrophe, Book, Lynne Truss, Writing Tips

4 July 2008 • 9:30 am 5

Much Needed Break

I do not like staying at home being sick but I actually did that. For three full days. Though not sick, a quick visit to the doctor confirmed that it was more to do with me not taking care of my body. With the kind of work I have at office and at home, there was hardly any time which I could devote to myself in the last few weeks. While the trip to Vijayawada did bring in some respite, the jam packed schedule and the travelling took its toll on my body.

It all started on Tuesday morning when waking up I found that I was feeling very tired. With the magazine sent for printing I decided to take an off. It was a welcome break and I spent the whole day just lazing around and sleeping. Waking up on Wednesday morning I still felt tired, more tired than the previous day. Again acting on my impulse decided that it was worth taking rest and also pay a visit to the doctor.

Spent around one hour at the doctor’s clinic waiting for my turn and in between reading the book Accidents Like love and marriage. The doctor examined and concluded that lack of rest was the culprit. Advised me to take another day off and rest. It was the hectic work and lack of rest that did not allow me turn up to work for three days. Having rested for three days I am feeling much better and will ensure that I do not tire myself.

Wonder why knowingly we do not give our bodies and mind the rest they deserve. And when they respond it is curtains down for everything else.

Filed under: Books, Life, Rants , Body, Books, Doctor, Life, Mind, Office, Rest, Vijayawada, Work

24 March 2008 • 1:30 am 7

The Pregnant King

I look forward to weekends. Saturday to be more precise. This is the day I and Akhil often go out for lunch. We make it a point to eat at a different restaurant each time. However, the exciting part begins after the lunch. A visit to the Crossword book store and then a cup of coffee in Brio. The restaurant located in the store. Do check out their range of coffees. Personally I think they are much better and cheaper than the range one would get elsewhere.

As usual last Saturday we had lunch at Indijoe. Followed it up with a visit Crossword to and picked up some books. The only sore point was that we couldn’t get a cup of hot coffee. Bad luck. Of the three books we picked up, one book caught my attention – The Pregnant King.

Mahabharatha and Ramayana are my favourite epics. I particularly remember Mahabharatha quite well. This is where the story of Yuvanshva caught my attention as I never came across this character in Mahabharatha. To my delight I found this was the work of the author — a fictional story.

The Pregnant King

Publisher: Penguin Books India
Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Published in: February 2008
Price: Rs. 295
Classification: Fiction

Verdict: Interesting Read

Description:

Author Devdutt Pattanaik takes the liberty of using his imaganation and inspiration from folklores to sketch an impressive story. This is the story of a King who becomes a mother to become a father to become a king. A story of Vallabhi, a kingdom which yearns for the rightful king who never comes.

Set during the time of the Kurukshetra war, the story unfolds the desires and egos of the inhabitants of the royal palace of Vallabhi. It starts with the crowning of the new King of Vallabhi — Shilavati the widow queen (as a regent) as she carries the heir (Yuvanshva) to the kingdom in her womb. Then the struggle of Shilavati, a woman with the head of a king, to hand over the power to her childless son who has three wives. The son for whom things go awry. There is also the brahman couple who return as brahma rakshasas to seek revenge on him.

In brief the story is of Yuvanshva’s many questions for which he seeks answers. About his failure to produce children even with three wives, why his mother doesn’t crown him the king and finally the question of whether is a mother or a father.

And there are other characters like his son who finds the story behind his birth unbelievable. The second queen who rejects Yuvanshva as a husband. Arjuna and his story of how he felt being like a woman. The ugly-looking yaksha, Sthunakarna who spends his life as a woman and a man helping characters like Shikandi and Somvat. The book ends with Yuvanshva finding the reasons for his confusing existence and events that happened in his life. Overall a good book to read once.

And do head to Goodreads. This is yet another online service that helps us see what our friends are reading. We can also keep track of books read and organize them into shelves.

Filed under: Books, Food, Hyderabad, Life, Nature, People, Reviews , Books, Indian Authors, Ramayana, Crossword Book Store, Cup of Coffee, Brio, Indijoe, The Pregnant King, Mahabharatha, Penguin Books India, Devdutt Pattanaik, Folklores, Kurukshetra, Arjuna

17 February 2008 • 3:12 pm 2

The Week That Passed By …

It has been a strange and tiring week. For the first time I have been troubled by a rather strange and persistent cough and cold that are relentlessly trying to get me down for the past two weeks. Strange, as I recover quite quickly. My doctor informs that this is due to some new bacteria or virus and people say this is due to global warming (I do not know why they choose global warming!). Interestingly scientists are using cow dung to know the changes in climatic patterns.

Strange as it seems, we did get to see some unexpected rainfall in February in on two days in the last week. The already overflowing traffic in Hyderabad choked at every nook and corner on two days when it rained. A few centimetres of rain showed what it could do to a fast growing city like Hyderabad if the necessary infrastructure is not put in place. It is high time that the government and citizens understand the need for robust draining facilities and some much needed traffic sense.

And while the stock markets in India keep playing the game of rise and fall, a prominent politician Rajnath Singh of the BJP feels that Terrorists have something to do with this. Supporting his views are that FII’s have close ot 40% of the investments in India and also Mr. M K Narayanan the National Security Advisory who expressed his apprehensions one year ago that Terrorists might use the FII route to manipulate the stock markets. Well this was a different take all together on the Indian stock markets that have been quite volatile in the last few weeks. We have already seen two major IPOs being withdrawn and share prices of Reliance Power tumbling with some heavy selling on its counter.

Down Under in Adeliade Oval, India missed another wonderful opportunity to place itself in a strong position in the 7th ODI of the ongoing Commonwealth Bank 2007-08 triseries. Bowling out the world champions for a measly 203 India failed to capitalise on the advantage and lost to Australia by 50 runs. The young Indian brigade did put up a decent show but that was not enough to defeat the unrelenting Australians

On anther note Pepsi feels that the youngsters of the present Inidan Cricket team can give more to its brand. With a host of options to choose from, it has replaced Ganguly and Dravid in favour of the young and upcoming Ishant and Rohit Sharma for its new ad campaign “Yeh hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan“. The new ad campaign intends to ride on the promise and appeal of the young Indian cricket and film stars to position itself as a youth brand to garner a good market share in India. I am sure this saves them some money. Pepsi can save some money on the sharmas.

I often look foward to weekends to catch up on reading books. But with my health not co-operating, I have been unable to make any progress in the last week. The Lazybug also has been struggling a bit but at least is making some progress – some Conventional Wisdom here. The list of books that I have to finish has been slowly growing, something which I dislike.

Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
Unrational Leadership by Charles Fleetham
The Fifth Discipline by Peter M Senge
Inevitable Ilusions by Piatelli Palmarini
Being Indian by Pavan K Varma
The Dogs of Justice by Nina Sibal

Finishing them off will add to my list of books I have read and bring me close to the half century mark (My current count of books I have read stands at 43).

All in all this was a strange week for me and I was really feeling it. With some signs of me recovering soon and hopes of finishing my personal and official assignments well within time I look forward to a great week and also the marriage of my close friend the next sunday.

Filed under: Blog, Books, Cricket, Hyderabad, India, Life, People, Rants, Technology , Adeliade Oval, Climatic Patterns, Commonwealth Bank 2007-08 triseries, Cough and cold, Ganguly and Dravid, Global Warming, Hyderabad, Infrastructure, Ishant Sharma, M K Narayanan, Measuring the World, Pepsi's new ad campaign "Yeh hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan", Rajnath Singh, Rohit Sharma, Stock Markets in India, The Fifth Discipline

17 January 2008 • 3:11 pm 6

Books, Reading And Me

Reading is something I have been loving from my childhood. I used to read anything and everything that I could find. Starting with the usual self motivation books I slowly graduated to books on management and now to books on a variety of topics.

I was quite lucky that where ever I went books were in abundance. My school, college and my first employer probably had the biggest collection of books. As luck would have it and to my liking, the first job I had required me to read a lot.

I am just trying to recollect how many books I might have read by now. Hopefully, I can also include a brief about them sometime soon. So here I go: