Watched the movie, Love Actually. Initially, I thought that this was just a British remake of the Hollywood move Valentine's Day. Very soon I found out that was not the case. This was a romantic comedy maybe back in 2003 by Richard Curtis. It portrays many stories in parallel; love stories. The humour  was different, very British, of course; but very fun and likable. The vision draws from the scene at the airport when you are witnessing an arrival: there is always so much happiness around. Something that I have witnessed and experienced! Really, we are really messed up creatures ;) Anyway, before I forget, I must mention that the last scene of the Hindi movie Jaane tu...Ya Jaane na was adapted from one of the scenes of this movie, when this little boy runs in the airport terminal to profess his love to his sweetheart.
One the whole, this is one of those feel good movies!

The Ring of Solomon

Have just finished reading the new book (relatively new, since it came out in 2010) by Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon. The title will tell a lot to those who have already read the Bartaemius trilogy: yes, its about the famous ring that Solomon had; which could apparently control so many ferocious demons.
You've already heard about this ring in the Trilogy when Bartaemius claims to have spoken with Solomon himself; but here in this book things get very nasty. But, brilliantly written: now in my opinion, has hugely surpassed Harry Potter.
I only that he goes on writing about other episodes from Bartaemius' life.
And a book of this goes much beyond what the story is supposed to tell. Invariably, to understand the settings better, I mess with the actual history of the story; and in the process get to know a whole lot of things. For example,
take the The lost army of Cambyses. I ended up looking up quite a bit of the Egyptian history. And with this book; I happened to do quite a lot of reading about the region around Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, Arabia and so on. This, reminds me how much I was interested in history. So many nations, so much culture, so much fighting! All very interesting.
Have ordered the Kindle. Will probably get it by the end of the week.
Before I completely forget, the last weekend was pretty nice. We went to Marine Drive, had ice-creams, actually rode on a horse-drawn cart in the Marine Drive; and had excellent pasta at Spaghetti Kitchen. Was definitely a day to remember.

Paul Sussman

After reading Umberto Eco, this person does deserve a mention. I finished reading the book, The lost army of Cambyses by Paul Sussman. It was a modern day novel but with tangible roots to the history and archaeology of Egypt. There is of course a lot of human element involved about finding a momentous discovery in the Great Sand Sea in Western Egypt. The historical background is pretty interesting. It was time of the great Persians, when they were having waves of expansion. The Persian ruler Cambyses had conquered Egypt; and had sent a great army of 50,000 men to defeat the Ammonians in what is now modern day Libya which started from Thebes, in Egypt. While on their way, the army was caught in a huge sandstorm and all of them perished. That's what happened, according to Herodotus. The book involves a finding of that lost army; and how the authorities use it to trap a notorious fundamentalist. Of course, for more drama, the entire army and the people who now know about it get lost and destroyed in another sandstorm. There is the main protagonist, Khalifa, who survives.
It has lot of learned remarks on history and archaeology; and inspired by it I actually dug out a translation of Herodotus' Inquiries. Interesting, hmmm! And it has to be; this person is an field archaeologist, so he manages to give a vivid description  to all the action that is going on there. Am reading the next book: The last secret of the Temple. Hope that this one's as interesting.

28 years after---

They have these horror movies 28 days later and 28 weeks later. Both horror movies. Maybe its time to make 28 years later; but this one is about cricket: the one in which we win the World Cup, obviously! Last Saturday was magnificient; watched the match with Lob in his guest house room; but the only regret that I will
evermore have is to have missed the biggest party in the world. So many people went to Marine Drive after the match ended. I wonder why it didn't come to our mind. The only interesting thing that I did is to go out with the folks next day to have brunch at Theobroma and watch a movie (Sucker Punch) after that.

But it was fun!

Anyway, have completed a first version of the synopsis, which I want to give Rajiv to read tomorrow. Writing this stuff destroyed two weeks of my time; much beyond my expectations. And I have to hurry; but I hurry too much then I have to leave TIFR soon as well keeping me straddled at some undecided place as a visitor. Creepy! And on top of that parents behaving like children; what a dismal thing it is. And today, dunno why, but spent a lot of time on YouTube watching a lot of romantic videos. Hell, they distract me; draw me to another world, full of risks, wonderful feelings, emotions, actions and what not!

Didn't want to make an abrupt end; but unfortunately can't go on much longer. But before I finish, let me mention this author Umberto Eco. After Swastik-da mentioned a book of his that he was reading, The name of the rose, I got hold of the e-copy; and it was so obsessive that I finished it in two days. The plot is historical thriller; and therefore a perfect match for my taste. A new book is going to come out, The Prague Cemetery. And thats when the kindle comes in.
After deliberating a lot, I think I should get an e-book reader. I mean, I keep on reading these e-copies shamelessly; I should try to protect my eyes. And I have my
whole contingency untouched! Well, well, we'll see.