100 Books

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Instructions: Put an X next to the ones you've read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 1984 - George Orwell X

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X (and the sequels too!)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Duh! One is enough)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (Have read the one meant for kiddies, but not the original one)

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen X (This is PnP with different names;))

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (Did not attempt due to above reason)

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (Searching for a copy)

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X (All of them, thanks to a dear friend)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Kiddies version)

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X (Both. And loved them)

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (Kiddies version)

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (Kiddies version)

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X (The entire original collection, thanks to tai and S)

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute X

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X

And there are so many of them which do not feature in this list that I have read... BBC needs to get in touch with me!! ;)

Julie Andrews On Turning 69

To commemorate her 69th birthday, actress / vocalist, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP. One of the musical numbers she performed was "My Favorite Things" from the legendary movie "Sound Of Music".

Here are the lyrics she used:

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,

Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,

Bundles of magazines tied up in string,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, and hearing aids and glasses,

Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,

Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,

These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,

When the bones creak,

When the knees go bad,

I simply remember my favorite things,

And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,

No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,

Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin',

Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',

And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,

When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache,

When the hips break,

When the eyes grow dim,

Then I remember the great life I've had,

And then I don't feel so bad.

Ms. Andrews received a standing ovation from the crowd that lasted over four minutes and repeated encores.

Courtesy Bits and Pieces

The Laadli Week

I think it is a great idea to customise the western concept of celebrating commemorative days/weeks for a cause so very Indian in nature. However, compared to the other corporate-backed days/weeks that are recognised, I feel very little is being done on the PR front for the Laadli week. Please correct me if I am wrong, but there is not a single banner/poster in the entire city advertising the L. week. No newspaper has properly covered/followed the happenings of the L. week. Even the radio stations have failed to mass advertise this initiative. Infact, had it not been for MSN updates, I would have not known such a thing was happening in the country! (I do not watch much of TV!!)

Another point to be noted is that even though the funds are being raised now (funds were to be raised during the L. week which was sometime in March 2009) for the education of 600 girls in Sawai Madhopur, a village in Rajasthan; will the girls be able to attend school when the academic year starts after 3 months? Would it not have been better if the organisers had shown some patience and carried out this activity in the months of May-June when schools begin to re-open? Or even in July like those in Delhi?

But I am not complaining...a step has been taken towards realising a dream of mammoth dimensions! :)http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2929233

IPL

The IPL has had its fair share of attention even before the start of the actual event. Let it be the auctioning, the owners and part-owners, the venues, broadcasting rights - its all over the place. IPL never interested me as I am not a cricket fan (but interests me enough to blog about it ;-) ). But as an Indian and a world citizen, I have the following objections/queries, not necessarily in the order mentioned.

1. There is a difference when one plays for one's country and when one plays for a city, if you know what I mean. As far as my (tiny) knowledge about cricket goes, cricket's future as an inter-country game looks brighter than an intra-country game.
2. This brings me to the next point. The intra-country game. Though I am against pitching a group of 11 sportsmen against each other, the rest of India is for it. There is no doubt about that. And since IPL has been portrayed as an intra-country game, which it is, there is no point in conducting the event on another continent. The entire purpose of such a venture is defeated. Under these circumstances, is IPL still 'all about cricket' as has been advertised? May I remind that this is the INDIAN PL and not the INTERNATIONAL PL!
3. The venue issue leads to the next point. The inter-city competition. It is not a difficult task if the matches are held in India, as was last year. Are the sponsors expecting the same kind of enthusiasm this year?
4. Lalit Modi recently made a statement saying that continuity of the game was crucial than the profits! Are you serious Mr. Modi? If so, could you have not scheduled the event pre- or post-elections. Everybody knew that India was going to polls in 2009. Thanks to all the voters' registration advertisements post 26/11. Why not take a gap year instead? Raise a debt-note and return all money that exchanged hands during the auctions!
5. This brings me to the last point - auctioning of players - is it not like buying slaves? The difference is that the players get hefty amounts after every match. And international brand endorsements take care of the rest.

It is not that I am against IPL. Its just that it has blown cricket out of proportion. Cricket isn't cricket any more. Its more of glamour and less of sport. Forget cricket entering the Olympics!

But heyy...big deal! Watch the match, enjoy the game and forget it. At least Pak players are excluded this year!!

Phew

This is what happened today morning.
I was introduced to a guy (he was more of an Ape-ish looking uncle...as though he had excess bone growth!) by a common acquaintance. This new guy came to me and said, "I am told u had gone at UK to study. If you are OK, I want to ask few questions." (Note the wierd English). I told him I had no problems answering his questions. Once the questions started, I knew I had made a big mistake! Our conversation went as follows:
['AU' stands for ape-ish uncle. And everything in italics is what I say in my mind.]
*****
AU: How is everybody there?
M: (umm...what a question!! Are u referring to the Queen's pets or the sweeper who cleaned my apartment weekly?) Umm...is this relating to the universities or living or working? (I get no answer to this question.)
AU: I will get job? I have work permit of Saudi. So I can work in London?
M: (Do you really think you are allowed to work in the UK with a Saudi work permit??!!) I cannot say if you will get a job there. And definitely not during these times!!
AU: I can ask for work permit?
M: (May be he means apply for work permit) If a company interviews and selects you, then its the company's responsibility to get a work permit for you. Nobody can apply individually for a work permit as one applies for a visa.
AU: OK. But I will get good job?
M: (Right!! Now he is not happy with just a job. He wants a 'good' job.) I am sorry, but I really can say nothing about getting jobs.
AU: I also want favour. (Do you have no self respect??) My cousin is also there. He has hard problems with money. There is no bank account and he has cheque. So if you have known friends there, he can stay with them...(WHAT DOES THAT BLOODY MEAN???)
M: I think the International Students' Association at your cousin's University will be able to help better.
AU: Where is International Students' Association?
M: At your cousin's University!
AU: My cousin is not in University, he is in college. (OMG OMG OMG Help me !! HELP !!!)
M: (talking VERY SLOWLY and PATIENTLY) You see, there is a "department" in all colleges and universities to help and support international students. So may be your cousin can go to this department and they will help him!
AU: OK. 6 months before, I talked to a man called Mr. *** and he sent me letter about admission. In letter, he had wrote the start date of course and money to paid. Now last week again I talked with him and he is not there. Nodoby is there for long?
M: (NOBODY IS THERE FOR LONG ??? All humans are mortal, if thats what you mean!! And isn't there a possibility that he may have got a better job?!) Umm...he may have changed his job!! (What is the whole point of asking me this question anyway????)
AU: OK. Last week, there was another man (There you go....so there IS somebody else to answer your questions!!) He again send me same letter, only with date refreshed.
M: (Refreshed???) OK. So whats the problem?
AU: In letter he says to pay full amount. What if I have no admission and I waste money?
M: No University will ask for full payment of tution fees! Read the letter again. It must be 'processing fees for application'.
AU: OK. Processing fees for admission?
M: APPLICATION. (But let it be admission if it pleases you!)
AU: OK. What cost it will take to travel 2 hours there by road?
M: (Complete silence. I was literally stunned!) Umm...sorry?
AU: My cousin is 2 hours away by road from my University. I can say him to go and see the problem.
M: Ohhhh.....(I suddenly felt enlightened like the Buddha) I see....Well...I cannot say how much it will cost you. It depends on how far you need to travel and whether you travel by train or coach.
AU: My cousin stays 2 hours from University. Not very far. So it will take how much money?
M: (Poor guy was trying to put everything in simple words. Speed = Distance/Time. Where does cost feature in this?) I cannot say anything about the travelling costs. Really I cannot.
AU: (Still being stubborn) But you must have travel here and there for 2 hours?
M: (Trying not to laugh because it never occured to me to travel 'here and there' aimlessly for just 2 hours so that somebody 3 years later could have the benefit of my aimless wanderings!) Travelling costs don't depend upon the travelling time, well, at least not directly. If you reserve a seat well in advance, you can get it at half the price! Or you may even need to pay twice the amount.
AU: In Saudi, (You are not in Saudi!!) there is 1.5 km. Everywhere travelling will be same cost. Travelling rises 1.5 km, then money rises. (By this time I had serious doubts about his clearing his IELTS) So in London (note: Its London now. Not UK) how much money is needed?
M: (Very patiently again) I think the fares for train and coach must be determined in a different way in the UK. (Hello...of course!!)
AU: All travelling is based upon the cost of oil and petrol. So if you tell me, I can imagine cost.
M: I did not have a car when I was studying there. So I have no clue what was the oil and petrol cost 3 years back.
AU: May be you read paper. Paper always has all costs.
M: (F*** off !!! You expect me to remember fuel prices ??? I wonder if an Arab oil sheikh remembers them!!) NO.
*****
Phew....That was how my day started! And ended with me typing the conversation and re-living it! :)

Random Thoughts

I need to pen down my thoughts regularly if I have to do some serious blogging. Or else why waste cyber space?
Can cyber space be really wasted? The amount of data uploaded (or should it be 'scattered' since it is space?) online is un-imaginable. So where does this new space come from?
Talking about space, why do scientists look for life in the outer space? Isn't it a complete waste of time considering the situation we are now facing on Earth? True, I am not going to live long enough to experience the 100% melt-down of all the ice on the North and South poles, and true I don't care much about future generations when I yet have to achieve so many things in life, but I still feel that dealing with the situation at hand will be beneficial than looking for life or suitable living conditions for Homo sapien sapien in outer space!
"मैत्रेयी" "ऋचा" "आदिती" Look ताई, my devnagri fonts are working !! So happy :) Let me write ससा for you :)

Office-Office

Me and my cousin used to enjoy playing 'office-office' when we were kids. Even when we played भातुकली,
most of our time was spent in the office. We were bosses then! My cousin is fortunate that she is respected by her seniors and her word counts in her office and she is seen as a future boss; but that has not been the case as far as my career is concerned.
About a month ago, we (read the company I am working for) were on the verge of getting a good project. We 'were' and we did not because it do not work out for various reasons. One of the reasons was a failed attempt at maintaining public relations on part of my seniors. Another colleague is an expert at screwing projects...not that he gets too many of them, but our clients say that they are bored of explaining things to him!! So imagine the quality and quantity of his work. Another senior colleague hardly spends any time in the office. If other employees spend 8 hours sitting in office (note: just sitting, not working!), the time he spends can be counted in minutes. And yet another colleague yaps, yaps and yaps. Again, zero output! A member of our creative team had created a very good looking patient education pamphlet but its creativity was destroyed because the boss did not like it. We finally sent a boring looking pamphlet to our client with zero aesthetic value. A few days back, a meeting was called to suggest a catchy, funky name to one of our campaigns. I suggested S.P.E.P. pronounced as 'spep'. Boss suggested a 'value addition' of the letter 'T' since it was the first alphabet of the brand name. He suggested P2SET or SPEPT or P-SEPT.
And I have to listen to n-number of cynical remarks about me having fixed an appointment with a client on some day of the week and forgetting that its a bank holiday, something that I have NEVER done. Finally, I told my boss, "Look here, I am just sincere. Not boring."
Bloody, its not my company. I am not the one pocketing the profits, if any. And the campaigns and pamphlets are not going to have my name flashing on it. Its going to be the client's name. So if somebody is working for you without getting much in return and not complaining, the least you can do is GET OUT OF THE WAY and let me do my work.
Sometimes I wonder if they want the company to make profits or want to create perfect settings to file for bankruptcy!!