Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

What do I say about a book that has been the Number 1 New York Time's best sellers. I guess everyone who is reading this blog already know about this book. But still, let me share some of the things that I felt about this book.

I tried reading this book about 3 years back when one of my TCS-ILP mates told me that its a fantastic book. But back then I had an eerie feeling on such kind of heavy tomes. So after reading the first few pages I left it.

An year after that I opened the book again and gave it a shot. This time I read the first few chapters, not just pages. Though I found it quite interesting, for some reason I gave it up again.

Finally, the third time, I made it a point that I'll finish this book at any cost. And yes, I did it.

After finishing the book I understood that I made a big mistake the two times I left the book without finishing it.

OMG! this book is mind blowing. What an amazing writer Dan Brown is.

The idea of using a character called Robert Langdon and his profession as Symbologist (I haven't even heard about such a profession until I read this book) and the way Dan explains about every small thing in religions (especially about Christianity) through him is just superb.

Starting with a detailed description of the famous Louvre museum in Paris and continuing the same way to reveal the secret behind the smile of Monalisa, decoding the hidden secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings with an interesting way of using ancient mathematical logic like Fibonacci Series, the universal constant Phi and so on Dan Brown brought out the most thrilling and mystery story.

His facts about religion and the significance of various symbols of Christianity that reveal the secrets of the religion (not sure whether they are true or not) made the story more and more interesting.

Every single chapter in this book is just awesome.

I am quite eager to share more of my opinions on the subject of this book (Christianity)

but I guess I will take it in my next blog when I start reading this book again.

Mumbai makes me nostalgic

On one side all that I mentioned in my previous blog makes me sad. On the other side those same things make me nostalgic when I think about the days that I spent in Mumbai 3 years back (before I left for US). Those mid night walks on the roads of Borivali, the yummy road side pav bhaji near the station, the hot vada pavs at the chat wala, the tasty tea of the chai wala under the tree on Kulupwadi marg, the dosa wala at the gate of Raheja park, the window side shopping at Inorbit mall (ofcourse the actual reason was to gape at the beautiful girls who come there), those funny visits to band stand to stare at the couples making love, trying to guess what they are actually doing and hoping that some day we will also achieve the same (I mean to say that some day we will also get a girl friend) and ofcourse all those hindi movies which we never used to

miss.

Well, those days have gone now. Even though everyone says it is the most happening place in India, Mumbai has become dreary now. Life seems to be mundane these days. May be because I've become alone now. Everyone has moved on. And I am yet to find out where I am supposed to move, what is my next target, am I heading in the right direction. I just hope that some change would occur in my life too and would answers all these questions and make my life as enjoyable as it was before.

Back to Mumbai Nagariya

Mumbai - a place to make your dreams come true, a city that never sleeps, the financial capital of India, the fashion face of India, the busiest city of India....the list is endless. There is so much to say about this place. One can go on and on talking about this place but you'll never get bored.

After a long stint of 2 yrs and 9 months in US I came back to the same place where I started my career, Mumbai. It was a bit tough to adapt myself to the sudden change. But finally with little struggle I settled down. I thought India might have changed a lot by now, given the recent economic growth and development that it made according to those colourful business magazines. But to my surprise I still find everything to be the same as they were back in 2005. The same muddy roads on which you can hardly find any space to place your foot whenever there is a slightest possible rain. The same local stations where your hands stick to your nose trying to close your nostrils as tight as possible to avoid a projectile vomiting. The same auto rickshaws whose drivers feel as if they are racing in formula 1 with Micheal Schumacher, with a least concern to the pedestrians and other vehicles on the road. The same local trains where you never have to struggle yourself to either board or unboard it (All you have to do is stand near the door and the rest is taken care by the public around you). And last but not the least, the people who keep running non-stop as if the world is going to end in the next minute and least bothered about what is going on with the rest of the world except themselves.

Made me feel sad.

So, let me end this blog narrating a funny incident that I encountered shortly after I came to Mumbai.

On the 3rd day after I came back to Mumbai I was standing near Andheri Station searching for an internet cafe. Not knowing how to cross the station to go on to the East side, I thought I'd ask the Policeman who was standing near the station.

Me: Sir, station ke east side jaane ke liye overbridge kahan pe hain ?

Policeman: Yeh hain na, yeh bridge pe chale jao (showing me the over bridge that is right on top of the station)

Me: Sir, yeh bridge lene ke liye mujhe platform ticket khareedna padega. Bina ticket ke kaise jaa sakta hoon ? (For all those who haven't been to Mumbai atleast once, there will be 2 overbridges at every local station. One right on top of the station to change platforms and another one at the far end of the station for normal public to cross the station)

Policeman: Arey kuch nahin hoga, "koi nahin pakdega", chale jao.

Here is an Indian cop who tells you that there is nothing wrong in crossing the station without a platform ticket. For a minute, I was just staring at the policeman trying to understand what he just told me.

And then I told myself...Welcome back to India.

Finally, after searching for some more time I found the pedestrian over bridge at the far end of the station and walked all the way to that bridge.

No wonder why India is still called a "developing" country.

Back to Blogspot...

After a long gap I have decided to make a comeback to my blog. Well, ofcourse there were a lot of reasons for this long gap, laziness being at the top of the list. Yet, I will try my best not to bring those back. And for all those friends who asked me to continue blogging - Yes guys, this time I will try to keep it going.