Footmarks of a traveller

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Fountainhead

I finished reading Fountainhead. It is a very interesting novel which underlines the theory of Objectivism brought up by Ayn Rand in her characters.

Howard Roark: An ideal man, an atheist, who lives life on his own terms and proclaims or rather the author, proclaims through him that self happiness bound by reason is the sole aim in life and no amount of charity can replace it. He is an aspiring architect who believes in creativity and does not give into the stale ideas of any second-hander.

Dominique Francon: I liked everything about her character but her marriage to Keating. Her moments with Howard are as precious as the drops of water in a desert.

Gail Wynand: A living example of rags-to-riches life; Wynand, a publisher of famous tabaloid Banner employs the likes of Dominique and Toohey. He represents power- power to dominate anyone and anything; to demean or make anyone or anything larger than life. Dominique also ends up in a married life with him for 7 years. He comes up as the one of the only few characters you like during the last hundred pages of the novel.

Ellsworth Toohey: A character whom you will like till very long in the novel until you understand what he is up to. He believes in mediocrity and works towards putting it in a golden frame. His character comes up as the main villain in the novel.

Peter Keating: A weak soul whose occupation represents expectation of his mother. He lives his life on what people describe as the best. He accepts defeat at last (rather from the very beginning in the novel)

I did not want my write-up to be a spoiler that is why I chose to write about the characters rather than the story. It was very nice to read the story coming to a happy end. Moreover this is not what i think about the characters; this is what i think the author thought about the characters...

Friday, March 24, 2006

Another gem from GnR- Since i don't have you

Guitar in this song makes me want to learn to play it...

I don't have plans and schemes,
And I don't have hopes and dreams.
I don't have anything,
Since I don't have you.

And I don't have fond desires,
and I don't have happy hours.
I don't have anything,
Since I don't have you.

I don't have love to share,
And I don't have one who cares.
I don't have anything,
Since I don't have you....

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

An old puzzle

I found this in a mail that was sent to me long ago...Njoy.

Dr. Frank N Stein is teaching a course in fuzzy logic this semester. The
eminent AI guru is notorious for his difficult tests, so the students
have begged him repeatedly for a multiple choice quiz. Finally, with a
devious smile, he agrees. On the next test, he asks the first question
in Swahili, which no one can read. However, the following answer choices
are in English.


a)All of the below
b)None of the below
c)All of the above
d)One of the above
e)None of the above
f)None of the above

Select the correct answer...

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

joga bonito

It was a nice Saturday evening…We won a football match against IISc. by 2-0. Actually it was 3-0 but the referee (their referee didn’t give us the third goal)… Football was followed by beer and discussion on the game.
Dear blog, we don’t always win. I sometimes don’t write about the games that we loose. No point remembering.

Monday, March 20, 2006

quick reviews

I watched 2 movies yesterday.

Zinda: There are lots of loopholes in the movie and it’s not practical. It's a weak plot. Sanjay Dutt has no equal in the industry though. His acting is marvelous. John again failed to fill any punch in the movie- Avoidable movie.

Malamal weekly: A Priyadarshan movie but it is also punctuated with loopholes. It can’t be called a comedy movie at all. Paresh Rawal and Om Puri carried their characters very well- Only a time pass movie.

rest in next...

Friday, March 17, 2006

3 in 1

Watched 3 movies last week: Taxi No. 9211, March of the Penguins and Bluffmaster.

All the movies are good. You will find a different story in Taxi No. 9211. It’s a delight to see Nana Patekar’s acting. This is a movie in which it looks for the first time that certain Mr. John Abraham can also act. This movie revolves more around Nana’s character than John’s. Priyanka Chopra has a guest appearance in the end.

March of the Penguins is a good documentary made into a movie. It depicts the sad or put it very difficult yet love-filled life of Penguins.

Bluffmaster: Another ‘Bunty aur Bubbly’ kind of a movie but frankly speaking I couldn’t guess the end of the story. The end makes it all worthwhile to watch once. Nana is superb yet again.


More to come....watch this space (as they say:)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Holi hai !

Holi: A festival of colors, a festival of brotherhood. I feel it is the only day when all and sundry, rich and poor and people of different faiths look the same.

I enjoy this festival the most but I haven’t played it for 7 years now. This is the only day when you forget everything and wish/color your friends and enemies with equal jest. That's the spirit of Holi!

Monday, March 13, 2006

Greatest ODI

It can be easily termed as the greatest ODI cricket match ever both from statistical as well as performance point of view.

12th march 2006- Johannesburg, South Africa

The last match of a 2-2 hung 5-match series; it was an important decider for Australia and South Africa. Australia made 434 runs in 50 overs crossing the highest ever ODI runs by a team setting a target of 435 for South Africa to chase. The score card of Kangaroos read something like this: Ponting 164 runs in 105 balls, Gilchrist 55 runs in 44 balls, 79 runs in 90 balls and Hussey 81 runs in 51 balls.

I never expected SA to even get close to this target so I stopped following the match. After some time, I was surfing the channels and I was struck to see South Africa at around 293 runs in almost 28 overs only at the loss of 4 wickets. Gibbs was at crease.
He went on to make 175 runs in 111 balls. Boucher stayed till the end to make 50 runs and Wath made 35 runs in 18 balls. SA chased on to win the match only on the second last ball of the last over by hitting the boundary.

26 sixes hit in a ODI match- maximum till todate; costliest over in ODI: 113 runs in 10 overs by Lewis of Australia.

Man of the match was shared by Gibbs and Ponting and Ponting didn’t mix any words and made it clear that SA deserved to win.

WOW! That’s cricket.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Of wisdom and its burden

She finally removed the stitches today. Her husband- I guess he is her husband- had extracted my tooth last Thursday. With all his might, he had held and tried to pull my tooth with a surgical instrument quite identical to a plier. His date with my sleeping wisdom tooth lasted an hour. He tried to cut it, drill it, pull it and did all that he could do to get it out. Till to date, I feel the repercussions. After all resistance possible, my tooth finally gave in after an hour’s struggle and the doctor literally raised his hands in air in jubilation. There is one more wisdom tooth that needs to be extracted on the other side. Oh Gosh!