Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Well.. first things first - Ignore the tags! Whatever they may say, this is NOT a book review. I will

never be big enough to write a review for any Harry Potter book. The entire series is a huge part of my life and indeed, it is something so huge that I can conveniently interchange 'life' and 'Harry Potter world'.

There is a friend in London and all I have spoken to him in weeks is about the play in the Palace Theatre and how I just need to see it. There was a puja (ritual) that we hold at our place every year; my dad wanted to have it today and I made him shift to the next week. I could barely sleep the last night - with so much excitement for the new book. Indeed, at a point, my mother actually shouted on me for being over obsessed with the book and forgetting everything for it. I just said her one thing - A life is well lived when we have a lot of dreams and we fulfill them. Otherwise, we are just breathing. To me, Harry Potter was that dream.

Despite all the above, I had a wonderful day!

This was the first book that I have obsessed over and got the first book from the bookstore. I was a fan even when the seventh book released but I was in school then. I had my dad buy it but I only read it when I came home from school. Hence, I loved today even more.

If I have to define my day in a checklist -

• Bug your friend in London with Harry Potter trivia - ✅Check

• Insanely wait for the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - ✅Check

• Cancel everything in the world for a week when the book was releasing - ✅Check

• Not sleeping waiting for the book to release - ✅Check

• Waiting outside the bookstore even before the books or the owner arrives - ✅Check

• Get the bookstore people to start quickly for me to buy the book - ✅Check

• Fuss with the bookstore people over not handling the Harry Potter books with enough consideration - ✅Check

• Buy the first book the bookstore sold - ✅Check

• Read the entire book - ✅Check

• Reread important scenes with Snape - ✅Check

• Fall in love with the magic all over again - ✅Check

Current status - waiting for Harry Potter Go App and to somehow disapparate to London to see the play

Coming to the story... I got a call in the evening from another Potterhead. He asked me one single sentence - As a reader, how did you like the book? (ofcourse, I loved it as a bigtime Potterhead :P) That is also the perspective I am going to put here.

SPOILER ALERT : I have tried to not include any spoiler but sorry if there is anything :S

The book looks really big but it is not. This is the only disappointment I have felt. The book is actually longer than any book and it looks pretty thick.. However, it is just 330 pages of text. Also, since the entire thing is a screenplay script, therefore, all dialogues! Thus, the actual story is even small. The story starts a little slow and with the scene where we left it - at the Kings Cross when Albus begins his first year at Hogwarts. Before you know it, Albus is going to start his fourth year. However, it is then, the things begin happening. And it is also when, you can not even think of putting the book down... not even for a second.

Being a screenplay, the book is divided into 2 parts and each part has 2 acts... 4 acts in total. Each act has couple of scenes. Initially, it is a little difficult to read a Harry Potter story like this but once you are in it... you are in it till the end!!

This is NOT a spin off!! The story has MOST OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES CHARACTERS. The book begins with Albus being unsure - what if he lands in Slytherin? Actually, he just feels that he is not at all like Harry - the boy who lived and now Albus is stuck with being Harry's kid. Someone, both the father and son, dont reach out to each other. Albus feels that Harry always is the Chosen One. And then, Albus takes it to himself to correct what he thinks his father does wrong.

During the journey, we see some back-stories - Draco, James-Lily, Ron-Hermione, and more. We see Professor McGonacall, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape - Do NOT get your hopes up. Yes, he is alive when he appears. No, he is STILL actually dead. I can't reveal more. The scene with Severus is really beautiful, though. Snape's reaction and all he does is amazing. However, let me tell you, dont get attached. We got some deaths that are equal in magnitude if not less, to the Prince's Tale.

The antagonist is weak. I mean, the suspense was already building and then the antagonist was revealed pretty early. Also, the antagonist did not stand up to the suspense built around it (wont reveal gender). The strong points were - we have lots of things from book 1, book 3, book 4 and book 5. Also, I love Scorpius. Albus and Scorpius are ultimate examples of - it is our choices that show us who we truly are, not our abilities ;)

I have not stopped beaming since I read the book. Indeed, I read Severus's part twice. My friend, also asked me that should this be made to a movie - this was something I was thinking about while reading. There is floo network, walking the wall at Kings Cross, apparation, transformation... I am not sure how all of this would fit in a Broadway... So, my first answer was YES! Most Certainly! And then... I realized.. We dont have Alan with us anymore and no way I am having anyone else play Snape. So, no, this can not be made into a movie.

If you check facebook or other social networking sites, there are so many people all over the planet reading this book and going crazy with joy. I have always been amazed at how some ink and paper has stirred the heart of millions and united them all. There have been pre-launch events and fans coming all together to celebrate a book. Jo, Happy Birthday.. and look, how words are so powerful to change everything!! Thank You for the eighth book. I strongly recommend all to read it.

If you still have not bought it... then buy it HERE. 

Happy Birthday Jo!

Happy Birthday Harry.

This one is truly for you Alan... We have lost Snape thrice now.

Dr. Cabbie : Movie Review

Okay... Firstly, if you have not heard about this, let me tell you. Dr. Cabbie is a movie. It is financed

bu Salman Khan and you might have heard about it because it stars Isabelle Kaif, Katrina's younger sister. I came across this movie a little differently. It stars Kunal Nayyar, Rajesh Koothrapalli of The Big Bang Theory. Initially, I thought that he was the protagonist but he is not. However, I am really glad that I got to know about the movie.

The movie started with Deepak (Vinay Virmani) who graduates as a doctor from Delhi. He then travels to Canada where his Uncle lives. He wants to help people as his father was a doctor and is now decreased. He and his mother travel there. Despite trying hard, he couldnot get a job. That is when he meets Tony (Kunal Nayyar) who is a Cabbie there. Tony suggests Deepak could become a Cabbie too. At first, Deepak is too adamant of trying to be a doctor only but when he is forced to work at his Uncle's restaurant, doing a lot of misdeeds.
Deepak finally calls Tony and agrees to be a Cabbie. Tony has a special friend Simone (Isabelle Kaif). When Deepak meets the cab contractor, he realizes that the man was ill and Deepak gives him some consultation. On his first day on the streets, he has a hard time finding the routes but he gives alot of useful advice to his first client.
Later that evening, a girl sits in his cab, whom he previously had seen in a Coffee Shop and had fallen in love with at first sight. However, he finds that the girl is pregnant. The three of them (Tony was also there) get stuck in a traffic jam while there is heavy rains outside. Tony and Deepak park the car somewhere side as Natalie (Adrianne Palicki - also, the one who played Jessie in Supernatural, which I just found out!) is going to deliver the baby. Deepak delivers the baby and Tony shoots the whole thing and puts it online. Natalie and Deepak become hit overnight. Deepak gets popular as Dr. Cabbie.

Deepak and Natalie grow close. On the other hand, Natalie was in a relationship with a rich guy who was a future prospect of the state mayor. His dad was a very powerful person who wanted to strong his son's candidature and thus forces him to reconcile with Natalie.
Deepak takes Natalie to his home and they both become close. One day, Deepak finds a muslim girl attempting suicide and he talks her out of it and gives her anti-depressants which were apparently banned in that country. The girl attempts suicide, later, using those anti-depressants. There is a case against Deepak which is fueled by Natalie's ex.
Natalie, who is a lawyer by profession but had to work as a waitress after getting pregnant, takes back to being a lawyer and takes Deepak as her first client. A lot of people come and tell that Deepak had been nothing but service to the community. He is finally announced as not-guilty for all other charges except giving illegal drugs. But then, Natalie marries Deepak, not for the visa but so that she can travel with him. The judge decides not to deport Deepak back. And then we have a happy ending!!

Okay, I was really eager to see this movie and quite honestly, I really loved it.

You see, it is such a simple and beautiful story. It is very imaginable. It is about something that you can really see happening to people and nothing superfluous.  Moreover, there is a scene where Deepak tells the court that he did all this because of the Oath which asks him to be true to his

profession regardless of anything.

For me the catch was definitely Kunal Nayyar. To see him in such a different avatar from his usual Rajesh, is a wonderful feeling. Here, he was a total devil-may-care person and was paired alongside Simone. He spoke bits of 'Hindi' and acted a total playboy. He even looked so different! 

Another great surprise for me was Adrianne. I thought I did know her but when I found out that she was in Supernatural... wow! Amazing feeling!

It is a very simple movie with very real life characters and still I would recommend that people should watch it!!

Kick : Movie Review

The best part about the movie - Wonderful songs! All of them… Each of them is so beautiful that I can keep

listening to each one of them like forever. And a bonus point is that Salman Khan has given his voice to all the songs. At points, he can sing really well but at others… well, he gets too flat. Nonetheless, because I so want to sing, I really appreciate him singing.

The second best thing about the movie - It is based on some real good thought! And I did a post about Salman Khan that someone who even thinks this good to make movies such as Kick and Jai Ho, needs to be good at heart. It is like that this particular person cannot leave his job and start social service but whatever he is good at -

acting, he is using that as his tool to spread a good message and make the world a better place. I loved his thought in Jai Ho, to help others and in this movie, I loved it that children are to be cared for beyond anything.

The third best thing about the movie - if you are a Salman Khan fan… you might just fall in love with certain bits of the movie. Salman's character plays two phases - Devi Lal Singh and Devil [SPOILER ALERT]… It is like they are both the same people with the gap of an year. The honest review will be that while playing Devil, Salman Khan has looked really old and  mature but in the bits where he played Devi Lal, he has looked quite young, almost as young as he looked in Bandhan…

and truthfully, he is looking quite good and hot. So, you might not want to miss that out. Also, he has sung the songs.

Now, for the things not SO good about the movie -

The other characters hardly had any role - Jacqueline Fernandez, Mithun Chakaravarty and Archana Puran Singh have so much potential but they were just not given much scenes or their roles hardly had any role! It was moreover a movie about Salman Khan, a little of Randeep Hooda, Salman Khan, bits of the insane villain portrayed by Nafassudin (sorry if his name is something else) and lots of Salman Khan.

Also, the attempts at the jokes are BAD. There is a very tiny Dabangg sequence which is totally out of place. There are jokes made by Devi Lal which are useless.

Quite honestly, I never even liked the concept of the 'Kick' what was tried to conveyed through the movie. I mean yes, people don’t get excited or don’t find something worth the effort but there are a thousand better ways to demonstrate that than what was chosen.

And the worst of all - the villain is insane! I mean he is shown stupid. I mean, you know in a movie like this, if

the villain is not a strong character, the movie loses the charm. Remember Mogambo and Shakal… or even Gogo. Those were some of the legendary villains. People want them destroyed and lost. And, for instance, Mr. India was totally hypothetical that a common man who doesn’t even have things to eat finds a device to make him invisible and then he defeats a millionaire who has several connections and a team of evil genius scientists

working for him… but people wanted that to happen. People enjoyed seeing Mogambo's lair breaking to dust. But in this movie - the villain played hide and seek. First and foremost, he had a very weak built in front of Salman Khan and then he laughed in a stupid way. To make everything worse, he wont even fight like a man. I mean, could he be worse? What I think… the villain was more aptly a mixture of a variety of evils that exist in our society - negligence towards health… ministers involved in corruption… ill thinking for women… but you know metamorphism doesn’t work well for hindi movies, I believe.

See this movie review is different. I am not telling the story because I believe that it is already apparent from

the promos and everything. But for some reason I really wanted to write why I liked and disliked the movie and this is what I have made attempts at! Overall, you can see this movie once - at your home - when they show it on the television a few months later - without ads version. But I wouldn’t recommend you to spend your money unless you really want to. However, I would want you to try and look beyond the shortcomings and absorb the message from the movie. Like he said, we don’t really need heroes to bring a change… we are enough change if we bring it in ourselves!

Gravity

Anyone who thinks that this is a movie review - I am sorry to disappoint you… but "Itni aukat nahi hai meri ke itni mast movie ka review likhne ka soch sakun!!" i.e. "I am not a person worthy to even think of writing a review for a movie of such a calibre!!" IT IS ONE HELL OF A STORY!!

Still, there will be loads of SPOILERS!!

Well… so the movie is about a team of 5 - 6 people who go out in space for a space mission. 2 of them - Matt (short of Mathew) and Shariff, are roaming around in space while one Dr. Ryan Stone (a She) is installing the Hubble Telescope. And then they get a news that the Russians have fired a missile that has generated some chemical debris. As a chain reaction of this, one of their own space stations gets affected and there is a lot of space-station debris revolving there. They get the warning but a little too late for the three of them to get inside the main station.

When this metallic meteorites hit them, Ryan is drifted off far away and loses contact with everyone. Just when she gave up, she heard Mathew call out for her. He too was drifted away from the station. He comes to her and then they both make their way back to their station, which neither of them are able to communicate with.

On the way, they find the floating body of Shariff, a meteorite broke through his suit and right through his head, creating a hole where his nose and upper jaw should be. Then they discover that because the spacecraft was also damaged, everyone inside the spacecraft have died due to lack of oxygen.

Matt points to the International Space Station and he has some kind of device that helps him motor his way in space. Anyways, they both make their way towards the ISS. Matt ties Ryan to himself as she was low on oxygen and was also losing hope. Finally, they reach there and while Matt is able to stabilize himself from the impact of landing, Ryan isn't. However, she finally finds herself entangled in some wires. Matt, who comes to rescue her, finds the situations totally reversed. As Ryan is entangled in the wires, she is the one holding both their weights (remember, Matt is attached to Ryan). Ryan detaches himself and makes Ryan promise that she will return and not give up hope. Ryan tries to stop him from doing so but he drifts away. He keeps talking to her, to give her hope and strength to move on and then eventually fades away.

Ryan goes inside the space station and before drifting away, Matt had told her that there is a spacecraft but it is in no fit shape to take her back to Earth. However, it will do to take her to the nearby Chinese Space Station, where there is another spacecraft that can be used for landing.

Once Ryan is inside the space station, first she relaxes herself as the oxygen inside her suit had finished long back. She then tried to locate Matt but she can't make any communication and those she can see him as a white dot against the black endless space, she knows he is dead and decides to move as he wanted her to. Initially, she makes a lot of efforts to detach the spacecraft (and the metallic meteorite shower returns) from the space station and once she is able to do that, she realizes that there is no fuel to fly it to anywhere. Ryan accepts her fate that she was going to die. She thinks of her daughter, who died at the age of 4. Ryan switches off the engines and the oxygen in hope to slowly drift towards death, however, just then, she has a vision of Matt coming into the spacecraft who talks some sense into her and gives her the courage. She realizes that he was only a vision. But then, her illusion gave her a way to go to the Chinese Space Station. She does so and finally reaches there.

When she gets inside the Chinese Space Station, she sees that the metallic meteorite shower will be there within a few minutes. Also, because of the same, the Chinese Space Station was losing altitude and it would soon hit the Earth's atmosphere. Once inside, it takes her a little time to locate the spacecraft, as she was new to this model of the space station. When she finds it, its instructions were in Chinese but she recalls Matt telling her that it is a replica of the spacecraft of ISS. She makes some lucky choices and finally is able to launch the already descending spacecraft into landing. Several parts of the space station were already detaching because of the meteorite shower when the spacecraft detached itself from it. The space station broke into several pieces all of which made their way into the Earth's atmosphere at an incredible speed. The pieces caught fire and it grew extremely hot but Ryan continued.

Finally, she was below the clouds and the parachute opened. She landed on a water body which immediately drowned the vessel as soon as the door bolted open. Ryan swam out of the vessel and then to the top to the surface, emerging as not only the lone survivor of their mission but also as a new person altogether!!

--

You know, seriously, I have tried my best to mention every small bit that I loved in the movie but trust me, I still havent done complete justice. The movie is way too good. And in case you havent seen it, go now and see it!!

Right from Shariff's 'Mera Joota Hai Japani' to the hole through the centre of his face… from the floating teardrops to the billions of stars… from the sunrise-i-would-give-anything-to-watch to the back-stories of the characters - amazing! I loved each and every bit of it. How even in emergency they talked according to their code of conduct… How the pieces of the Chinese Space Station kept flowing away… Everything was brilliant. Well, I honestly don't know what it is like to be space or the technicalities were upto the mark or not… but I know that in a total sci-fi movie where every 5 minutes you have something to make you hold your chair more tightly, telling the back-stories of the characters, in such a deep in beautiful way, can only be accomplished by the best of the director and writer, working together! And not only they, but I believe it takes the entire team to be brilliant and perfect to pull off something like this. Sandra Bullocks was just too good. Right from the first scene, I thought it was her but I could never be sure until she took off her suit… I couldn’t believe she performed so amazingly!

Very honestly, hats off!!

Totally Amazing!!

Ek Villain : Movie Review

This is truly and definitely one of the most beautiful scripts to be made into a movie. I know there would be several people who would term this movie as 'idealistic' - something that is never likely to occur in real life but, for this very reason, hats off to the story writer and the creators. People like 'Aisha' (Shraddha Kapoor's character name) are definitely too few. One thing that I know for sure, someone who created a character such as Aisha and who believed that someone like Guru (Siddharth Malhotra's character name) could change so drastically, is definitely keeping the goodness alive. So for that very thing, for the very idea, the goodness behind the movie, I thank the entire team of the movie.

SPOILER ALERT!!                                          

This movie has been in a lot of talks and discussions since a long time, primarily due to its songs - which let me tell you, are amazing. Moreover, it has the new B-Town hottest favourite - Siddharth Malhotra and definitely a pretty face we are going to keep seeing - Sharaddha Kapoor, which just gave the fans some more to add on to the ongoing talks.

Anyways… I just finished watching the movie and it is one heck of a movie. Indeed it is so beautiful, that my comeback post had to be about it.
For some time, I have known that I havent blogged and it was because of exams and other stuff going on in college but now that I am free, I know that I should blog. I was even working on some posts but none of the other topics gave me so much to write as this one.

If you have heard the songs - It isn't very difficult to find out the chronological order of the love story. Initially, a rugged life handsome hunk, Guru, meets Aisha, who is very lively and cheerful - that is when 'Banjara' comes into play… "…Jeena mujhe phir se wohh sikha raha…" and quite like the lyrics, Guru gets addicted to Aisha's lively nature and helps her fulfil her dreams which are just to make her happy and which she tells Guru are her last wishes as she was terminally ill. Guru has some horrors of his past and to take revenge he is set on the path of crime. When Aisha sees him, she decides that she needs to save him - save a life! And so she starts following him to make him agree to help her kidnap someone. Finally, when he agrees to, he was asked to kidnap an elderly man from Old Age Home. Chhotu, the elderly man, is forced there by his family and actually he wishes to marry his long lost love. Aisha gets them married. Guru tells that he never felt this peace since his parents died (the horror of his past) and not even revenge got him the sleep this marriage did.
For some unknown reason, Guru insists on helping Aisha fulfil her other dreams. He takes her to see the butterflies, the peacocks, he makes it snow for her, he takes her to underwater diving and many more. In a way he becomes a part of all her dreams and she becomes his dreams.
Knowingly or Unknowingly, the two of them fall in love… which is quite obvious. But because this story is from Guru's perspective, we only know that he is in love. And that is when 'Galliyan' comes in. "… Yeh lamhe, lamhe ye resham se… kho jaaye, kho na jaaye humse…" … Guru knows that Aisha is terminally ill but he just couldn’t help fall more and more in love with her. He spends every moment of his time making her dreams come true. He doesn’t still smile but there is a drastic change from what he was when Aisha first saw him and what he became. Somewhere, he decides that he is going to lead his life her way.
But when Aisha realizes that she is in love with Guru, she knows that even if they unite, one day, she will die and so she plans to leave the city. But then, Guru comes to the station and he expresses his love in the best possible manner that his characteristics permit him to. Finally, Aisha gives in and that is when they get married and we get the song 'Hamdard'…
Both of them are shown to be a really cute couple. Ofcourse, they have their own place which is obviously decorated in accordance to Aisha. Some real cute moments such as flying paper planes into the city and just roaming about… shopping and the smiles that would never stop! Also, Aisha gets treated. Those scenes are very emotional as both Aisha and Guru are going through tough times. Aisha wants the life and Guru wants her to be fine. In a way, they both stand by each other in the difficult times. "… Pal do pal ki kyun hai zindagi… Iss Pyaar ko hai Sadiyaan kaafi nahi…"!! Guru leaves his old life behind for Aisha.
Like any obvious Bollywood Movie, Aisha gets fine. The two of them spend a happy life. Guru finally has found peace and decides to move on. Aisha gets him to apply for jobs. He has gone for an interview and Aisha is at home. He calls her to tell her that he got the job and that is when he hears her scream for help. Someone was attacking her in the house. Also, quite a HIMYM twist - this scene - the killing scene is the first scene of the movie. Aisha dies and the entire story behind their love story, leading to this very moment, was shown in flashback with Guru thinking over how he spent the last two years of his life with Aisha. Even the Policemen are scared that they must bring Aisha's killer behind bars or else if Guru decides on taking revenge, he is going to kill a lot of people.
Rakesh (Riteish Deshmukh's character) is a psychologically ill person. He loves his wife Sulochana (played by Aamna Shariff) but because they are not well off and Rakesh doesn’t stand up for himself much, Sulochana is always criticizing him. Everytime he gets frustrated with her talks, he kills any lady who tells him even a rude word. That is his way of taking out his frustration over someone else and keep loving his wife. In turn, he takes someone of the person he killed as a gift for his wife. After killing Aisha, he took her chain and one paper fan for his son.
Guru sees that fan and recognizes it immediately. He starts following Rakesh, stopping him from attacking others and in turn beating the life out of him, yet keeping him alive.
Later Guru gets to know that Aisha was pregnant when she was murdered. He gets even more furious. He beats Rakesh again and tells that his wife was pregnant when Rakesh killed her.
Rakesh uses it to identify whose relative Guru is and then kills Aisha's father. He then tricks Guru into coming to Guru's own place where Rakesh was hiding. Apparently, Sulochana was being troubled by the Police because of her husband's wrong doings and she gave an interview on television saying that her husband was a very nice person and he can't have done anything like this and that she loved him. This was the only thing Rakesh needed - to hear from his wife that she loved him. Finally, when she says it on national television, he knows that he has a chance to die hero for his family or else someday, they will get to know the truth.
He tricks Guru into coming and then asks Guru to kill him, so that Guru is framed as the villain. But at that very moment, Guru's former alliance go to Rakesh's place and kill Soluchana. Rakesh is left devastated and both of them fight, and finally Rakesh dies but out of his own misdeeds and Guru, as he promised, didn't kill anyone. He goes to Rakesh's house and finds Rakesh's son hiding under the bed, facing the same he had when he was a kid. He gives his hand to the child - a symbolic of bringing him into light, just like Aisha had done to his life.
Last scene shows that Guru is fulfilling the other wishes of Aisha, like he had promised her with Rakesh's son.

Another important thing to mention before I forget is - We see PRACHI DESAI doing an item number. It is not the item number that is disturbing, because quite truthfully, it is more of a sad song with girls wearing minimum clothes, rather than an item number. Anyways, the shocking thing was seeing Prachi transform from the Kasam Se's Bani to the roop she had when she came on screen. I took a moment, pausing the movie to look again. I wouldn't say that she looked nice, because I didn’t think so, but yes, very different.

I am not crying…. Well that is mostly because of the reason that I have some inherent dislike towards Shraddha, don’t know why and moreover, it is a Balaji movie and I can't still digest how can Ekta do something so heart touching and I always think on the same lines but never thought about it much. Truthfully, I am a little envious; but mostly, I am glad that such a nice movie was made and that I saw it.


All in all…. It is totally worth your money so go to the nearest multiplex near you and see the movie!!

Introduction to Databases : Online Stanford Course

Its been a real long time and I know that this particular post should have come out long back, but well, its better late than never ;)

I don’t always promote or endorse studies but this is one thing that I really wanted to.

A friend of mine told me that Stanford University offers courses that can be taken online without any payment and there is so much that we can learn from them. I immediately checked the website and it was true. Thank you Sudheesh.

Anyways, I took up a course of networking but I really didn’t continue it seriously. Later, I left that particular course. Then in my vacations, I found a course that required no second thought - Introduction to Databases. The moment I knew that this course was being offered, I knew that this is one course that I would enroll into and also sincerely complete. Therefore, I took this course.

I know DBMS is not exactly the subject to interest everyone and it is definitely one of the major subjects of CS / IT branches, which requires a lot of efforts from our side. If it matters, even I would tell you that, yes, this course will take some input from your side but it is one course that will not bore you. You would enjoy it thoroughly and complete it honestly.

The best thing about the course is the teacher - Jennifer Widom, and she is just fabulous. Her way to

explaining each and everything is simple and makes even difficult topics sound real easy. Yes, for non-english speaking people you might feel that her pace of speaking is quite fast but to overcome that we have subtitles or if you choose to see the lecture in vlc player, there is the slow playback speed option (which I am sure will be in other players as well), that proved quite helpful.

I am not here to provide any answers (sorry, if you were looking) but if you need any help, feel free to leave a comment or drop in a mail… In this post, I sincerely recommend this course to all the students and professionals in the CS / IT sector. I know that this course is a little long (10 weeks) but this is useful worth of a lifetime. You can always save the videos (like I have) for future use and references.

The format of the course is pretty simple. There is a weekly syllabus which needs to be read before a specified deadline. Weekly tests and other assignments need to be submitted before their deadlines in order to earn some marks. There is a mid-term exam at the end of 5 weeks and a final exam, at the end of 10 weeks. For all the tests, assignments and exams, you get more than one attempt but only limited number of attempts… therefore, I advise you to seriously you to seriously study the content before you attempt any of the papers.

So if database is something you need to look at or you are looking for an online course - take my word, this is one course you wouldn’t wanna miss.

To join the course - Current (2014) session

and if the course is over, you can look at the Stanford Online Courses, to find the schedule of the next session.

Enjoy learning!!

The Monk who sold his Ferrari : Book Review

There is a beautiful line in the veteran actor Rajesh Khanna starrer movie Anand - 'Its very simple to be happy but very difficult to be simple'.

Even before having read the book, I was really wanting to write an entry with the same topic, but now

having read the book, I just think I have couple more points and I could really write this article right now.

Firstly, lets talk a little about the book. Honestly, who am I to talk about the international bestseller, that has moved people all over the world?

It’s a very simple and short story which just teaches us two things - 'common sense is not all that common' and 'walk your talk'. These are mainly the two things that the society is really lacking at this moment and if any human being just followed these principles, maybe not to the extent as in the book or as the sages of Sivana, but life is definitely bound to improve.

Also there was another thing that I really liked in the book - The real things that make our lives worth living are no amount of money or wealth. Yes, I agree with the author that if you work hard enough, the material things are few rewards that you earn and there is nothing wrong with that. But imagine having millions and eating just bread, like Julian described. Or having to live each day thinking of the lost daughter. These are some pains that you can say are harsh but the one who bears can only know.

Like I said its easy to 'talk the talk' but very difficult to 'walk the talk'…

Often, people don’t themselves follow what they preach and there can be nothing worse than this. How can you ask someone else to be honest if you are yourself lying to them?

You see, there are several books and even more people saying the same things over and over again… its just that people are so busy in their lives that it is true, there is not a single minute when a person halts and ponders over where he is headed to. Instead, one thinks that the minute would be wasted and make him behind in the race.

Yes, right from the time a child is born he is made the part of a race - who is the cutest baby? Who has the best name? who starts the education first? Who comes first? And goes knows to what… If you are reading this, please take a precious moment of your time and effort and just let me know that where exactly is the race headed towards? - who dies first?

People have just stopped seeing life as the gift it is. I am no sage and therefore I wont ask you to do yoga or vigrously exercise or even be a vegan. What I truly believe is that even meat is created by God… and once he blessed you to be a part of his exquisite creation, you really ought to cherish everything there is offered. If in any sense you are eluded of some pleasures the world offers, your life is not fully lived.

I do agree that there are hundreds or even more things that the Lord created and how can one ever cherish each one of them. Well this is where the book comes in. The book clearly states that life without achievement is live not lived well. Therefore, set your goals. Have some dreams and if you dare dream, you also have the power within to unleash the dream into reality. Harness that power!

Someone really close once quoted to me - "A miserable soul can only make others miserable"… Well yes, I am one of those persons who really get tensed quickly. I am always having something or the other to bother me and usually it keeps me on my toes till it is done. But this is one thing I have learned. No matter how hard the situation is or how tensed you are… whenever you talk to others, share some light thoughts. Talk to people to relax yourself. If you talk to people and talk about your worries, you just get more worried. Instead, if you have a bad day, take out a few minutes and a find a person who can spend his/her few minutes. Talk to the person, share some jokes or relive some good memories. Share a story or ask him/her to do so.

There is nothing better relaxing to a human mind like this. Not only talking to a friend and laughing, freshens up your mind and mood, but in a way you just strengthened your bond with a person.

Imagine, with the amount of worries we have, if you apply this with different people every time, how many good friends will we have?

Coming back to the sentence I quoted from the movie… a person can be happy for any number of reasons. You bought a chocolate, your could be happy. From buying a Rs. 5 chocolate to buying a crore Rs. Flat, anything can make you happy. But now you have to decide what is the happiness that lasts forever…

On the other hand, if we live a content and peaceful life, we are bound to stay happy for most of the part. Being content is not being un-ambitious. I mean not being greedy. Its mainly greed that forces a man to take part in the race we have been discussing… greed for money… greed to be at the top… great to be famous… or simply greed to outlive the other. Whatever it might be, but greed is definitely a strong link to the major negative thoughts prevailing in the world. Once you open your mind to one, the others will all be welcomed.

About the book, it was a good book… and rather a book that everyone must read and reread in the different stages of their lives. It has a hidden wisdom for all the ages and all the kinds of people of the society. There are very few, or maybe even less such books that you must definitely have in your library, for once you have read them, they act as your guide whenever you think you need a little motivation or you need a friend.

However, the book must have done great overseas, but being an Indian, there were bits that were presented too dramatically but are not all that dramatic. I enjoyed it and I am moved but I am not all that thrilled as it was I heard about the book.

Nonetheless, I cant ever end without saying that I felt really great when they wrote all the good about India and its rich culture. I felt really proud. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder what if it wasn’t a tale… atleast not all of it. What if Robin was Julian or he knew Julian? I mean a book is an amazing way to live upto your promise to Yogi Raman. Who knows? If you do, please let me know… for if there is Sivana, I would really want to visit there atleast once in my lifetime.

Till then…

Happy Reading...

The Lucky One : Movie Review

It's officially official now - Movies based on Books are really BAD!

I just saw the movie adaptation of the book I mentioned - The Lucky One. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, the book was good but it was definitely not to the mark with the other Nicholas Sparks books. Its not that I didn’t enjoy the book but I cant deny that it wasn’t a match to the rest of the Nicholas Sparks books…

And then when I started watching the movie, it wasn’t adhering to the book right from the first scene. As in the main crux of the movie is same as that of the book - Logan is traumatized after coming from Iraq. He has a photo of a girl that has kept him alive. He sets out to find the girl and thank her. He works in the Kennel, both of them fall in love with each other. Keith, Ben's father is a constant source of trouble… and then Ben falls into the creek and Keith dies while Logan survives.

But as in apart from these 5 lines, I doubt there is anything common in the two.

Right from the first scene of the movie, where Logan finds the photo NOT in a desert in Kuwait, but after his

troops has swapped a building. While Logan goes to pick up a shiny thing which as soon as he sees is the photograph, a bomb blows off right where he had been and all the people, but him, die.

The poor traumatized baby returns to his sister finding the war to have made him unfit to stay with people. He finally recalls Victor's words that he must go and thank the girl of the photograph. By the way, Victor is killed in a tank after having said these words by some sort of attack and not in a lake. Poor chap, didn’t even get to marry in the movie!

Well, Logan does that. He reaches Hampton without any encounter with Keith on the way. Logan enquires about Beth and is led to the kennel directly. He walks up and its Beth who assumes that he needs a job.

The worst part of the movie was - Beth. No offense, but the actress hasn’t done any justice to the role. Beth was a person who was made serious because of her mistakes and responsibilities, otherwise, eventhough she was a person of little words, but had a very open heart. She wanted to enjoy every bit of life.

However in the movie, Beth was this little miserable person who didn’t even let others speak. She was not at all in flow and made others loose their flow as well.

Zack didn’t do a very nice with Logan either. However he got better as the story progressed. Beth got worse.

Especially what was with the director? Beth going and confronting Keith… if Beth's character was so chivalric, why would Ben ever freak out in the climax? And Ben… I just cant say enough. Ben was supposed to be that silent kid who is burdened with the expectations of his father and tired of doing what others want him to do. Rather, the movie-Ben is very happy helping his dad and enjoys with Keith more than he enjoys with Logan. The worst of all - where Zeus? I mean yes there is a dog trailing Logan everywhere but apart from that, there is no more to Zeus. Whereas, in the book, you would just fall in love with Zeus!

Having written what all I disliked, there are two things that I really loved about the movie which were not there in the movie.

Firstly, I liked to see Judge Clayton. I mean in the book there was Judge Clayton, in bits; but he was such a part that was most liked to get edited while making the movie. Rather there was more Judge Clayton than in the book. Especially in the last scene, when Keith dies, I really was overwhelmed to see Judge Clayton there. It kind of added more roots to the movie.

The other thing that I totally loved was the boat. There wasn’t so much told about Beth's parents. As in again it was the kind of thing that would get edit. But showing the boat and how Logan worked the boat - it was all wonderful.

Back to the things I hated - the intense scenes between Logan and Beth - HELLO!! I appreciate how they didn’t show the two falling in love the very instance and how it made sense for Keith to intervene constantly than trying to scare the guy off but there was a very important thing that the two didn’t want to show Ben that they were dating and so making out broadly in the house was LAME!

Lastly, not the least, I imagined Nana to be somewhat as she was portrayed, just a little more healthy. Nana was exactly the Godmother to Beth and at the same time she was wise to judge about Logan and also childish enough. I simply loved Nana both in the book as well in the movie.

Reading the review, I find that I have just written everything in small points. I guess throughout the movie, I was just taking notes mentally as to what I felt or what each scene reflected to me. Maybe this happens when you see a movie after you have read the book it is based on.

However, I wont imagine how bad it would be to not read the book. I would have ended up hating the story if I just seen the movie. Books definitely provide the director within us to  let our imagination fly high and decide the small, finer details ourselves. Most of the times these details are already presented to us in the movie by the director and in accordance to the director's point of view. Thereby it is very much possible that if we don’t like the director's perspective, we are bound to not enjoy the movie.

A book, however, is different. Like a read recently, reading a book is like being in discussion with the author. You learn his/her perspective and there is a simple attempt to show the reader the author's world. But it is to the reader how exactly do we take it.

I guess, I am headed off onto a total different direction in the article now. So let me just conclude with - if you havent seen the movie, and havent read the novel (important prerequisite), do see it. Its not a classic Romeo-Juliet, but it is a nice and decent love story.

Why should one read Dan Brown? - Part II

Like I promised in my previous post that I will be back with the remaining books of Dan Brown…

To everyone who hadnt read the first piece itself, you will find it here.

Anyways, I will definitely give a quick review of what I said in that article.

Dan Brown books can be broadly classified into two categories.

The first category is the more conversial kind; usually aiming at defaming some very strong beliefs of the world regarding religion. These include Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code and The Lost Symbol.

However, I have already mentioned in detail about the three books and this category, so not being repetitive, let me move further.

Also I have already mentioned that this post is NOT about what Dan Brown is but I already love and adore the man's work… so this is just why I feel the way I do. Ofcourse, for I love his work, my judgement may be very much biased and there will be little or maybe none fall shorts… However, if ever you decide to look through my eyes, you will have some good points for as to why love the books!

Well, about the other category - this one is a little less controversy-creator for it is mostly scientific. Unlike in the first category, several things in these books are NOT known for beliefs or religious - facts. Rather, we have to deal with some scientific data.

Because of the scientific background, the characters are very intelligent and witty. They are more or less scientists and innovators who are determined to accomplish something…

There are three books in this category - Inferno, Deception Point, Digital Fortress

Inferno…

I chose to write about this book the very first is because this is the latest book out in the market and also that this book is seen as several critics as a repetition of previous works by the author and lacking anything new. To all those people, I dedicate the words I will write about this book!

Like I always say, Dan Brown books teach the way or the art of living… atleast to me, they do. Yes, even I do agree that moreover there is a single plot on which all the books are based on but there is something good each book has to teach us.

I started reading Inferno and honestly I was very excited about it before its release… I ordered a copy first day eventhough I was in hostel and couldn’t have read it then… As soon as I came home, I wanted to see it and wanted to read it right away but as I started reading it, even I was disappointed. Though it is a Robert Langdon series, but it is a lot different from the first three books.

The book starts with a confused and muffled Professor Langdon waking up in a hospital. He has no memory of the past few days and he also has a bullet shot in his head. While Langdon tries to figure out what is he doing in Florence and why is he injured, with the help of the young Doctor Sienna Brooks, Langdon finds himself as the target of certain people hunting him all across the city. He is in possession of a small projector depicting the Dante's map of Hell in some random manner. Now Langdon has a vision of death of several people and a lady urging him to help before its too late.

The poor professor, everytime he finds a new lead, he figures out that he had already ventured by him and there is some secrets that he had discovered which he now no longer remembers and he needs to find out again.

I really don’t want it to be a spoiler alert or a review on the book so I will not spill the beans, but yes I must say that in the 400 page long adventure, the first 250 pages are definitely NOT like the usual Robert Langdon books. They are all about how the poor professor is roaming all around and trying to connect the dots but the mystery unfolds in the next 100 pages where we actually find that there is no villain at all. The biggest enemy of human kind is another human itself. Yes, it is NOT about any religious controversy. Rather there are things based on scientific facts.

Honestly, this is Brown's first attempt to raise a social cause and alert people about what will be the consequences of our actions in a very thriller and mysterious way. You know it is like if Amitabh Bachchan will ask the people to go fishing, the number will be in crores who go fishing… Similarly, when there is a bestseller series book telling you something, there is a huge number of people who will be listening.

Not really stretching it so long, I want to add a little note for everyone who disliked the book and found it not upto the mark. I myself didn’t like the book based on the fiction thriller level but just think about it once people, who really spends an international bestselling book series to emphasis on such a relevant topic of overpopulation. I don’t want to go on about it, especially not in this article, but the truth is that whatever bad things happen around us are primarily due to the reason that there are too many people in the world and there arent enough resources for everyone. If we don’t check it, there will be some real problem for all of us. And therefore, on this serious note, I salute Dan Brown for his such a selfless act! Hats off sir!!

Digital Fortress…

Well this is not one of the Robert Langdon series and therefore not known to much people… infact if you say Dan Brown, people only recall The DaVinci Code. This and the latter are two of his lesser known books but none the less if you just read them, you will know that they are no less. Yes, being the first few ones is reflected in these books (just like it is in Angels and Demons) but if you just focus with the story, you are sure to like them.

Anyways, Digital Fortress is about some computer genius and how he sees the world. It doesn’t always require a Harvard professor you see and not always the villain is a lunatic. Here, a guy really suffered and lets say suffered in the worst possible ways and for no fault of his. And then he decides to take out his anger on anyone that he blames.

Okay, I read it once and that too a long time back so I don’t remember very well and not to the minutest of the details, but I remember enough to cherish it as one of the good books that I have read till date. And I remember it enough that I could tell you that you read it once and you will definitely have a good, maybe not the best, book in your collection.

Deception Point…

This is the sole book, apart from occasional dialogue by Robert Langdon, that makes me call Dan Brown's

writing as witty! At first this book comes out as some scientific journal sort of thing but eventually it takes a sharp turn into the political view. And from there we see how dirty at times politics can get and one way to survive in such kinds of politics.

Not wanting to really deviate from the topic but hey Politics is always dirty! And there is nothing wrong about fighting to win… rather, it’s the only way to win - fighting. And at times the cost or the resources of these fights are too high. However, I am totally against the kinds of fights where the costs are paid by the innocent like the people of the country.

Anyways, s'well, there are certain things the book states so bluntly that I had to reread those portions to be sure that I was correct. And in the end when the plot is revealed… to be frank, I didn’t really like it for it had 'fake' written all over it… no one in the real world would do that… but the imagination and the presentation were so gripping that it took just the climax of one book to make Dan Brown my most favorite author!

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With this, I think I have done some justice, if not enough, to the great man and his greater writings. By this article, I just hope that you have a new perspective in your mind as and when you make your own view about Dan Brown books and even if a single person saw what I did; there is nothing more I would ask for!

And even if you didn’t like the books, I just say that reading is a wonderful thing to do… read them yourselves so you are the one who tells what you didn’t like about them. Even that would make me happy.

Happy Reading!