One, Two Buckle My Shoe – Agatha Christie
Even the great detective Hercule Poirot harboured a deep and abiding fear of the dentist, so it was with some trepidation that he arrived at the celebrated Dr. Morley’s surgery for a dental examination. But what neither of them knew was that only hours later Poirot would be back to examine the dentist, found dead in his own surgery.
Turning to the other patients for answers, Poirot finds other, darker questions…..
Three Act Tragedy – Agatha Christie Continue reading
A Walk Across the Sun – Corban Addison
When a tsunami rages through their coastal town in India, 17-year-old Ahalya and Ghai and her 15-year-old sister Sita are left orphaned and homeless. As they struggle to make sense of the wreckage of their lives, they are abducted by human traffickers and thrust into a hidden world of sexual violence and illicit commerce, where the most valuable prize is the innocence of a child.
Halfway across the world, in Washington D.C., an attorney Thomas Clarke faces his own personal and professional crises. Haunted by the tragic death of his infant daughter and estranged from his wife, he pursues a pro bono sabbatical in India with an NGO that targets the sub-continent’s human traffickers. In Mumbai his conscience awakens as he sees firsthand the horrors of the sex trade and the corrupt judicial system that fosters it. When he learns the fate of Ahalya and Sita, Clarke makes it his personal mission to rescue them, setting the stage for a deadly showdown with an international network of ruthless criminals.
Just saw the movie PK. An amazing movie, very different from the run-of-the-mill hindi film!
The movie in short – P.K. is an Alien who comes to earth to find life as people on his planet also thinks that there is life on earth. He lands in Rajasthan completely naked and as innocent as a new born babe and immediately somebody steals the pendant which he wears as a necklace and which he needs to contact his spaceship to return home. He starts his search and in the process meets Jaggu aka Jagat Janani (Anushka Sharma), a TV reporter who lives apart from her family due to a failed relationship with a Pakistani grad student Sarfaraz (Sushant Rajput) in Belgium plus her disbelief in the god man Tapasviji (Saurabh Shukla) her family believes in.
PK’s experiences in earth are to put it mildly hilarious and the premise of the movie – on how these god men use their charisma and our need for an anchor in god as an excuse to make money out of us, will make you think deeply and perhaps start questioning organised religion.
The climax was superb and the questions raised by PK throughout the movie are pertinent and spot-on!
Boman Irani as Anushka’s boss and Sanjay Dutt as PK’s Rajasthani were excellent. Ranbir Kapoor as the next alien who comes for more research perhaps hinted at a sequel, one that i will definitely go see!
The theatre was not full but we could see people laughing aloud many times. We saw this film as a multi-generational family – me, my kids, my mum and helper and every single person enjoyed it. In short a poora paisa vasool movie! So go and see it!!
I type this as I wait for the year to end, 2013 to give way to 2014 and think back on the year that was and the promise of a new year.
2013 has been a year of ups and downs and my prayer for 2014 is to have a more stable year, with more ups than downs and a gentler trajectory to the year than 203 was.
2013 for me started badly. I was depressed and despondent, having been out of a job for about a year then. I had rashly left my previous position, thinking it would not be so difficult to get a new one. I was so wrong, so by the time 2013 rolled, I was reaching the depths of my despondency, thinking I won’t get another position. Then came the interview call for my current position. I didn’t have anything better to do that day and went for the interview anyway. I was not too hung up on the position as it
was a contract one, and I was looking for a full time one. But they liked me so much that for the first time in my life, I was in a superior position during an interview. So I accepted and this started my year at this MNC. It’s been a good year so far, colleagues and my boss have been good. After a long time, I have been appreciated for what I’ve been doing. Sometimes wonder how certain people reach positions of being other people’s bosses when they clearly have no idea on how to motivate and retain talent! Guess all those out there may you glad for people like my current reporting manager. My yearly appraisal is coming up soon, so we’ll know exactly how we’ll I’ve done, but if I my half year appraisal is the benchmark, then I should not do too badly 🙂
The children also have had a mixed year. The girl did fairly well, even getting a decent score in her most dreaded subject, Hindi, while the boy continued his failing streak! They were streamed at the end of this year, with the boy going to the third best class (he would have made it to the second best if he had just passed Hindi) and the girl to the fourth best. Hope they both do better in 2014 than in 2013. I’ve started them on private tuitions for Maths and maybe Science, let’s see if this makes any difference to their scores in P5
My personal goals for this year are all health-based ones. I hope this is the year that I finally turn around my life. I’ve been overweight all my life, except for a short time when I was at my optimal weight. So this year I plan on walking 30 minutes daily, and starting from week 1, will run for a minute and increase that by 1 minute every week. That week around week 30 (just around august I think) I should be running all 30 mins. Once I can do that for a month consistently, I’ll increase that by 3-5 mins every week. Hopefully in the next few years I can run my first marathon 🙂
Other health related goals will include taking care of my diet and more care about my skin….
I also want to start making time for my interests and hobbies, one of which is writing (both this blog plus other writing). I guess I won’t be able to do much until the children complete their PSLE, but baby steps…
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and hoping 2014 will be brilliant for you!!
