3 Iron

I am hardly short of words, but this movie with whatever few dialogues it had has made me search for words to articulate my thoughts about it. There was silence and I still hear it. There was love and I still feel it. There was madness: though subtle, it was beautiful and its effect on me was quite profound.

Crow Zero 1 & 2

It's a VERY dark movie. No, I'm not talking about the theme of the movie but the cinematography and the set. From the uniform of Suzuran All-Boys High School to the messy and dull classrooms to the terrace where Serizawa(the head of the school gangs) hangs out to Genji's (wannabe head) father's den - everything was gloomy.

Japan Habba 2014

If you have been reading my blog, you should know very well that I am a Japanophile (perhaps not BIG TIME still I like Japanese culture enough to write this post and attend Japan Habba). It started with Manga, Anime, Dramas & Movies in the year 2008, and it's still going strong.

By the way, my love for Japan and Japan related things is not restricted to the media. I studied LEAN OPERATIONS at college and also did a 3 months internship at Toyota Motors. If you know anything about LEAN then you will understand why I love the Japanese way of doing things so much.

Also, I am a HUGE fan of Jun Matsumoto.

Japan Habba 2014 was a tenth year anniversary - a festival to celebrate the presence of and enthusiasm for Japanese culture in Bangalore. Though I have been living in Bangalore all my life, this year's fest was my first time. I even coordinated one of the events/shows - Origami and Kirigami (Japanese paper art). All in all, it was a learning experience, even FUN.

And well...this year's theme was Daruma doll. 

As far as events are concerned, both Japanese and localites did put a good show for the audience assembled at Mt Carmel College. Japanese people recited chorus music, performed drums, danced to bollywood music, while Bangaloreans played many skits in Japanese and entertained us equally.

There were many stalls outside the auditorium where they sold used books, manga and magazines that was imported from Japan, and various other handmade Japanese accessories. They also taught few enthusiasts how to write (a few letters) both Kanji and Katakana. There was another stall where students could learn about university exchange programs and other courses that Japan offered to Indians.

At one corner of this exhibition, we could try Kimino and I did so.

I even got my name written in Japanese - both Kanji and Katakana. 

I also bought two Japanese novels. I cannot read yet, but I hope to learn this year (also Korean).

Here's my handmade Japanese purse.

A Japanese girl writing my name in Katakana.

There's another thing that should be definitely mentioned when we speak about Japan Habba and that is Bangalore Anime Club cosplaying characters from Naruto and Bleach.

If you missed it this year, just remember there's always a next time, and make sure you don't miss it again.

The Krishna Key

All of us, at some point of time, must have wondered whether God exists or not. We have heard thousand tales about him, know him by thousand names and take his name at least thousand times. Ashwin Sanghi’s latest book ‘The Krishna Key’ deals with the same question and it is apparent that the author has exhaustively researched on Indian Mythology and its origin. The facts about Krishna, Shiva and Indian mythology itself that he has brought up in the book had my undivided interest; however, the plot was clichéd, at least to those who have read Dan Brown and know Robert Langdon too well. Not just Ravi Mohan Saini’s love for history and mythology but the symbols that Tarak Vakil leaves on his victims’ bodies point towards Robert Langdon and his adventures.

The devotion of suspect X

Wikipedia says Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and anything Japanese and one who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. For the Japanophile I am, I had to read the book ‘The devotion of suspect X’ written by Keigo Higashino. It was a must read to me and I’m glad that I decided to read it.

The land of the wilted rose

Are you an Indian? Did your granny ever narrate the story of firangis who ruled us for over two centuries and made us live like outsiders in our own country? My granny did. She was around ten during the time India got its independence and she still remembers how much she feared the British men who had camped outside her village. Her father never let her go anywhere unattended as he feared that those men would do something to her, such was the fear that these firangis had for them in Indians’ hearts. Everytime I recall this story, my blood boils. It is quite normal to get angry, isn’t it?

We still hear about how British treat Indians, don’t we? They call us thieves while they have our Kohinoor diamond in their museum. They don’t like doing business with us when it was them who captured our country after we let them do business here. Why such double standards? I wonder.

Luwan of Brida by Sarang Mahajan

Have you read J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’? Have you read Christopher Paolini’s ‘Inheritance Cycle’? I have read them and liked them a great deal. Being a sucker for fantasy genre books, I had assumed that I have read most of the books under “fantasy” tag but a friend made me realize that I haven’t read much. There are George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, Robert Jordan’s ‘The Wheel of Time’, Ursula Le Guin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ and Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower Series’ that I am yet to read.

The stories of witches and wizards, dragons and other fantastic creatures, and perilous journeys taken by the protagonist of the book, while the villains across the globe chase him/her…even thinking about such things give me goosebumps. I declare again that I just love reading fantasy fictions.

The Devil

Image courtesy: desktopnexus

No, he hasn’t given up yet and he would never give up. How could he when she meant everything to him? But he also knew that he could never be with her, as she was too good for him. He was a devil, who punished the bad and she was an angel, who always gave love to everyone. He knew that even she liked him and she would bring sunshine into his life, if he gave himself a chance, but that would be asking for too much. In his opinion, he didn’t deserve a chance after everything that he had done until then. Or did he? He knew not. Nevertheless, he was ready to accept whatever came his way but only after he had finished what he had started.

The Perfect World

I haven’t read too many motivational or inspirational books or anything other than fictions and of course, my course books. To be honest, I hadn’t read any motivational book at all but thanks to Priya Kumar’s “The Perfect World”, now I can claim that I have read one such book too. 

“The perfect world” was not just a motivational book but Priya has taken help of a fiction to tell readers whatever she intended to tell them, and that’s what makes the book interesting.

Prey by the Ganges

Like every other Indian, I have watched the movie, Sholay, more than once. Not that I liked the movie so much that I wanted to watch it repeatedly but when we were still stuck in Doordarshan era, you wanted it or not, you had to watch the movies that they played during weekends on television because everyone watched it. I watched it too. It was a funny movie; the Thakur, the Gabbar and his Samba-everything about Sholay was funny.

The book “Prey by the Ganges” written by Hemant Kumar got two Thakur- one, who plays the Gabbar & another, his victim-in it. It also got a Thankurain, glamour, gore, men driven by emotions, lust and power.

Dear, I love you

Who doesn’t want to love and be loved? If you say that you don’t then you are just lying, not just to others but to yourself too. Have you read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series? Initially, I found Edward to be very charming. I didn’t mind having a powerful boyfriend who had eyes only for me but Bella and Edward’s love overdose sickened me and my liking for him ended up as abhorrence. Alright, let’s talk about Arun Sabtharishi’s book named “Dear, I love you” now. To be honest, the protogonist Goutham and his love left even twilight series behind. The book had nothing but Goutham, his girlfriend Anu and their love.

The Ancient Book

I don’t remember my mother reading me to sleep but I read my niece to sleep sometimes. She likes stories of dragon, witches, monsters and what not. And “The Ancient Book” is one such book that I can read to her. The story of King Zius and his daughter Sara narrated by Parikshit Rane narrates the victory of good over evil. The pace of the book is good too. You remember the flashbacks in the movies where everything goes black and white or too colorful and the narrator starts sharing his story of the past? The writing style adopted by the Parikshit Rane is somewhat similar. At least, that is what I felt. Apart from few editorial and proofreading errors here and there, I should appreciate author’s narrative skills.

Chanakya's Chant

Chanakya; I assume that there isn’t an Indian who wouldn’t recognize the name. After all, he’s the mastermind behind the glory of Chandragupta, who fought Alexander, the great. 

What comes to your mind when you hear the words “Indian Politics” rather who comes to your mind? Oh, no! I’m not talking about modern politics or politicians. I wasn’t hinting about Sonia Gandhi or her Amul-baby Rahul at all. I’m talking about politics as a big picture. According to me, Sri Krishna, Shakuni and Chanakya are the three people who were good at politics, and also exploiting opportunities and other’s weaknesses as well. They were the greatest strategist of all times in my opinion and I’m sure most of you would agree with me. However, I love reading books or watching animes, where the protagonists are extremely intelligent. For example: Code Geass is one of my favorite animes and whoever has watched it knows how good a strategist Lelouch vi Britannia was. Hence, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ashwin Sanghi’s Chanakya’s Chant.

Love on the rocks

I haven’t read many Indian authors though I’m a voracious reader. It’s not like I don’t like reading books written by Indian authors but I am more into fantasy fictions and Indians haven’t contributed much to the genre but I hope I will get to read many fantasy fictions written by Indians, soon. Now, when I started reading “love on the rocks”, to be honest, I didn’t expect much. The title made me think that it would be another love story with a girl and a boy running around trees, playing mind games. Well, that’s how Indian love stories will be, right? Pardon my prejudice…

I’m not familiar with either the life on the sea or the Malayalis’ life which seems so different from the life at Bangalore. Anyway, that’s not the point here. What I wanted to tell is that the plot of the book surrounds a ship named Sea Hyena and a Malayali protagonist, Sancha.

K's and J's

Choi Si Won-oppa

I have been very active on twitter these days and whoever follows me there knows because I always spam their time-lines with my tweets about animes, Korean and Japanese dramas, movies, books and my rants about other mundane things. I didn’t even spare my Facebook wall. I wonder how many people have blocked my feeds, though they were polite enough not to unfriend me or ask me to stop spamming their walls with mushy status updates and pictures of anime characters and Korean celebrities.

Pottermania

Tom Marvolo Riddle to Lord Voldemort

 Image courtesy: boocherhix

Oh yea, I am another Harry Potter maniac alright and I have read the entire series at least 7 times. Everytime I read the book, it feels like I’m reading it for the first time because there’s so much to imagine; so many new and fascinating things, fantastic beasts, nerve wracking adventures and then, the magic itself. The book always keeps me interested to the very last word because of the detailed description of everything and every moment that the author has got into until the end.

An animated world

Zero and CC from Code Geass

 Image Courtesy: Hiino

“What in the world should I write about?” this question was haunting me since last few days. No, it’s not writer’s block. It’s just that I had too many things on my mind. Firstly, MBA admissions and then other otiose things. However, I was never busy when it came to watching Animes (Japanese toons) and reading Mangas (Japanese comics). I have watched almost all the anime series that my friends recommended yet the list of animes that I want to watch shows no sign of exhaustion. Though, I don’t understand Japanese and watch either English subbed or dubbed version of the anime, I still love watching them. I have also learnt few Japanese words and I do not find Japanese names hard-to-pronounce anymore.