Its not about the bike- Lance Armstrong

Taking a complete 360 degree turn from my last read is the first of the autobiographies of Lance Armstrong. It is the first autobiography that i have successfully been able to finish reading and it deserves credit for it :)

Its a very soulful description of how Lance Armstrong goes in and out of his battle with testicular cancer.Being a victim of something as deadly as cancer is harsh enough for a normal person, but the whole journey of this through the eyes of an international athlete for whom his/her body has to be perfect composure is even more painful.

It starts of with one of the very striking elements of the book.Lance's relationship with his mother.He shares a very kind and a highly understanding relationship with his single and struggling mother.The series of descriptions that Lance provides on his mother gives you an insight of where the root of Lance's strength comes from- his Mother. It talks about his journey from being a local hero to breaking international borders and venturing into the tougher cycling worlds of Europe and fighting through the vicious grips of cancer.

Its a great book to understand what passion is all about.

He talks purely about his passion and describes the art of being a cyclist in a very retrospectal way.Honestly i must admit that i am no sports fan and the only thing i knew about Lance Armstrong was that he was a 'stud' when it came to Tour de France...but what it takes to be there and win it...came to my understanding after reading the book.I thoroughly respect him for being the professional that he is and he truly deserves every victory that has come by his way professionally.The way he talks about his practice sessions..his struggle through the total understanding of the competitive world around him is quite an int resting read.He doesn care to hide the fact that he was/is an arrogant person but i think that's what made him what he is now.

The other aspect of the book is his fight through Cancer and how he is determined to fight it out because he wants to 'ride' again.The book is very well compartmentalised to describe the various stages of cancer he goes through and in each chapter he describes each element earnestly.He has one chapter on chemo...one on survivorship...all are worth reading through Lance's eyes.After surviving testicular cancer he goes on to be a father.This is such an important thing for him especially since he doesn have a strong fatherly figure himself and he badly wants to complete the void by being one for his own kid.

After reading the book the only complaint i have is the title of the book...I think 'Its not about the Bike' is a little hypocritical if i must say....i think the whole book was about the bike and about whether or not he would be able to ride it again.Lance always says in his book that amongst the 2 most important things (fighting cancer v/s being able to ride again) he would have chosen to fight cancer but honestly i think both of them were kind of symbiotic for him....he fought cancer as he was determined to ride a bike...and he wanted to get back to riding as he was determined to fight cancer off..

Another observation i would like to make after reading this book is that Lance is extremely lucky as an individual to have had the people he had around him.Be it his mother, his closest friends, his team mates, his manager Bill, his then wife Kik.I mean he wouldn have had even half as strength as he had without such a rock solid support system around him.

The book is also quite an eye opener on human nature...it gives us such a beautiful insight on how it its to be a struggling single mother who successfully provides all the necessities to his son, its about how it is to be a victim and survivor of cancer, its about how receptive people are to the world of cancer, how it is to be a supportive friend and guide (his manager Bill) to an athlete who just comes out of cancer desperate to meet his financial crisis and get back to riding in note-worthy competitions again when the cycling world has lost hopes on what Lance is all about, its about being a totally patient and thoroughly understanding wife who supports the athlete to do whatever it takes to get his dream back-even if it means leading a spineless nomadic life...

Its a book describing how hard it is to be Lance Armstrong -the cyclist, Lance Armstrong -the cancer victim(i hate to use the term cancer patient) and the Lance Armstrong-determined to punch the face of people who called his career an end after cancer.I think whats most commendable of his insights is that the book never begs for the reader's pity...Its just talking about Lance without giving you a chance to opine...as a reader you just want to know what happens next in Lance's life (and i think its a great factor in making this autobiography such a hit).Another element which makes this a good read is that you never feel very pained reading this as an autobiography...Its very realistic description of what Lance goes through and in all the cases it doesn hide the basic arrogant nature of Lance as a professional and also as an individual.

As always i have my favourites from the book.

There are 2 things i totally loved which Lance writes-

1) He says that people talk about living life like there is no tomorrow when you know your fighting a lethal disease.But he totally rubbishes this theory as something which is made for narrow minded people.He gives a very int resting description of how selfish life would be if you were to live each day as though its your last day.

2)One of the last few lines in his book totally appealed to me- He says that 'I did not beat cancer, the medicines did..the chemo did..the efforts of his doctors did...I just survived the cancer'..it takes a lot to think this way and pen it down too..

It a book on survivorship,on will power, on being hopeful that every dark cloud does have a silver lining after all.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - so juvenile...so fiction :)

These past few weeks have been glorious as a reader for me...Everything i laid my eyes on turned out to be gold and such joyous reads that am happy that my strike rate with reading has gotten back to being usual...the best part about being a reader is that you get to audience such wide range of ideas and mindsets which i can very definitely say cannot be explored in any other form of media.

The first of such glorious reads of mine was this outrageously funny animated journal of an insensitive and highly annoying kid called 'Greg' which is very aptly titled 'The Diary of a Wimpy Kid'. When i heard the name i thought that its probably one of those 'comic kiddish attempts' but when i took my first look at the cover of the book i knew its gonna be one hell of a laugh riot...and true to my pre-conceived notion it didn disappoint me one bit....or rather it made putting down the book such a daunting task that i can very proudly say i got 'hooked' on to it..

When you google the book down you would see that it falls into a very funny category called 'juvenile fiction' and trust me it very strictly adheres to it. Very fiction and strictly 'Juvenile'.Its a simple journal entry of a self-centered kid called Greg and his everyday portrayal of events as he sees them happen around.He is queer kid who for his age is highly selfish and far far away from being any kind of role model to any kid reading such a book, but the satire and timing in the emotion of this silly kid makes this book such an amazing read that you would like to over-look all his defaced behaviours.He is one of those kids who cares very little for the outcomes of his actions/thoughts and cares lesser for the world around him...all he really cares is about 'HIM'. He is one of those who doesnt care much about emotions that run out of actions.

The whole book is a thoroughly light read...you ca just finish it off in one go..and let me warn you...you will not put it down once you start reading it.I dont want to give out spoilers here but i just cant stop raving about the life Greg lives.There are some magically funny incidents of how hard it is to 'grow up' when you are just a kid :) Here its about how Greg goes through middle school with its share of challenges...to be cool,to be popular,to be noticeable..He has a side kick for a friend called 'Rowley' who is quite a normal kid but Greg doesn actually deserve anybody better for a friend.He doesn really care much for Rowley as long as he is occupied being around him...be it the Halloween party or the time when he doesn stand up for "Rowley's" mistaken identity which costs him his friendship with Rowley...There are some incidents which are a laugh riot like the comic strip competition where he and Rowley start of initially together but Greg is soo engrossed in his 'I am the coolest person and my idea's are the best' arrogance that he gives up on his idea -'Zoo wee mama' , which eventually becomes an instant hit in the school magazine...But my favourite journal entry is the one in which Greg secretly wishes for a Barbie dream house and he gets a Barbie doll from his equally queer uncle which gets his parents get into a nervous wreck....:)

Whats the single most commendable element of such a book is that it describes everyday affairs of a kid in such a humorous way with such brilliant illustrations that it leaves you wishing you had read it while you were growing up like Greg.There are some books which if you read while you are a kid instills the love for reading and am sure if i were a kid and read this i would have also felt the urge to continue reading from books.I distinctly remember my first concrete book that got me into the habit of reading...It was called 'The Kid who ran for the President' and after i completed the book i realised what a joy it is to just simply read. :)

So kudos to the author Jeff Kenney (who has been nominated as one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine) to be able to put together the juvenile thoughts in such a highly respectable cartoon format...Am just waiting when i can laymy hands on the next 3 books :)

The curious case of Benjamin Button

Its been a real long time since i ve watched an intresting Biogrophical english movie....:)

So after a really long hiatus from good english movie watching..here comes the saviour 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'....It was an amazing movie...judging by the fact that i was silent most of the times while watching it at the cinemas :)...concentrating on every frame of the movie...The true winner of the movie is definetly the curiosity element if the story.Its a story about this child born in an unsual circumstance-he s born old and grows younger.After every scene there is this curiosity woven on how would Benjamin look or what would Benjamin do next? Its just amazing how cinema and art can define and redefine creative and artistic boundaries and pull out a story which is soo definetly improbable yet soo well weaved and blended.Brilliant make up and some extraordinary performances define the 13 Oscar nominations worthiness of this movie.Some really soulful moments on how to look at life .I think one amazing dialogue of the movie that really hit me hard was "You have to lose people in your life to realise how much you love them"- ....or that beatiful scene where Benjamin takes his dad to the pier to show him the horizon and helps him "let go" of his guilt...These are the moments that define the sheer brilliance of this movie.Its not about any particular character that blends this movie soo well its more about the plot and the after thought you get while seeing the movie.

Imagine putting yourself in the shoes of Benjamin Button and living life in the reverse..growing young by the day..turning the clock backwards.Its such a scary thing!!!!!Growing young!!!!...imagine growing younger without fighting with your siblings for candies..but instead....worrying about arthiritis....!!!!!yikes...its just too weird...

But this movie deserves to be respected for its creativity and thought put into the script , and its potrayal of life and death in such a brilliant and meaningful way.It gives you soo much food for thought over how one makes the journey and how one meets his destination.

Courage v/s Motherhood...this is what Surrogacy is all about

I was just reading an article on surrogacy in Sunday Times today which made me think.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Surrogacy_stays_within_the_great_Indian_family/rssarticleshow/3932684.cms

Motherhood is such an important phase of a woman's life.Every woman dreams of this miracle to happen to her at some point in her life.The gift of life being passed on is something inexplainable.The patience to go through pain and joy for a good 9 months is something soo hard to think of .
And then for women who are in-conceivable it must be a real hell to imagine that they cannot enjoy the gift every woman has in her. The pain to realise that you cannot have a biological child by yourself. Am sure its soo much of a void for such a woman, emotionally and psychologically hard for her to accept that she is incapable of having a biological child of her own.And then in the times of such desperation to have surrogacy into consideration is such a brave act.As far as i am aware, Surrogacy could mean sharing your womb , giving birth to a child whom you are going to relinquish to a childless couple.And i also know that there are different types of surrogacy.Where the biological mother becomes a surrogate to relinquish her child to someone else or could be a woman who gives birth to a child using IVF (conceiving through the eggs/sperms of donors). This practice has been quite controversial around the world and there are no clear legal rules applying around surrogacy, but i am not intending to go there.

The article that i read today made me realise that it takes a lot of courage for both the childless couple and the surrogate to get into this partnership(sorry for the use of such a word). For the couple its more of an acceptance issue-that the child was not biologically theirs...their genetic lineage going haphazard and the issues related to identity of the child.It takes a lot of courage to look beyond this road-block for a couple and accept their child with all their love.Its truly respectable to break the social norms related to a child's biological identity and fingerprint and open doors to a wider perspective.And for the surrogate mother to go through the ritual of motherhood, shower all the care and kindness over a child she wont be able to call her own, is again courage defined at a different level.Yet again the reasons for entering surrogacy could be anything from helping a family member to monetary reasons.But whatever they may be , it takes a lot of will power and determination to give away a child you nurtured for soo long.To fight this conflict needs a lot of emotional and physical strength.

Whether people around the world or rather the section which we term 'society' accepts surrogacy, attempts to make it legitimate or not, i really salute the 2 parties who go forward into this act.Especially the surrogate mother who breaks the barriers surrounding her to bring joy and hope into the barren life of a childless couple.Ultimately it all boils down to will power and sheer courage to get into surrogacy.

Personally i don't think i will have the courage to go through a surrogate to bring up a child of mine(if it might be a case for me) but definitely appreciate couples who choose this.

'Not-Comfortably' Numb

All of us come face to face with different emotions...Some easy to handle some really hard to describe..I am writing about one such emotion i am going through right now which is so strong that it hasn't left me from the past couple of days...And that is the feeling of being 'numb'... Feeling a sense of hollowness and numbness after following all that s happening in our nation,our city, our Mumbai.

I have never been to Mumbai before...never really had the chance to travel...but honestly i have never felt closer to Mumbai than now. After seeing what literally is 'War in Mumbai', following it for 4 days in and out...i feel like i am in Mumbai though am far far far away from it. I ve never followed an act of terrorism soo closely like how i have done in the past 4 days.My God 4 days is such a long time...4 days of gun-fire...4 days of innocent killings...4 days of bloodshed...4 days of anxiety(for the loved ones)...4 days of ghastly activity...charring lives...monuments....and most importantly memories...
I have always read about terrorism...heard about it on television...watched it being faked on movies in terms of entertainment...but never really watched it closely to feel the pain that goes through it....

My first real encounter with the after-effects of such gruesome acts was during Sept 11th this year when i was travelling from New York to my New Jersey office..I could see people paying homage to the victims...crying for the loss of their innocent loved ones...saw the angry slogans of organisations against the brutality...the least i could do then was feel sorry and count my blessings that such an act of terror will never happen to us in future...


Well i guess i was wrong then- while i see the gruesome acts on Mumbai...devastating our financial captial...bringing it down to its knees for 4 days...makes me realise that terrorism is indeed a world-wide phenomena...anybody could be a victim of it...even as i write maybe somewhere my fate is being cornered...or maybe not...We ve all played games when we were kids...i wish i can play games with God today...wish for an Aladdin lamp...rub a genie out of it...ask for just '1' wish....to take these 4 days back in history...make it such that these 4 days never happened in our lives...get all the innocent victims back to life...bring our brave martyrs back to life...





It was soo horrifying to watch all that happened these couple of days...to watch people being killed indiscriminately..being a hostage to a carnage they dont deserve to be a part of...losing their valuable lives in a way they dont deserve to...The impact on their kin is soo strong...that i feel soo small in comparison to the people who braved it out of the act..I definetely cant say that i can feel what it would be like going through an event so horrendous...but i can definetely say that i could feel the horror...the pain(of a spectator to this event) and more importantly feel the anger boil through me....the anger on how can one value life so little and create such a massacre...
Day 1(or rather Night 1 , the 26th)- i thought it would just be something like the previous few attacks on the city which will not have a huge impact
Day 2(27 th) I read , i see , i hear the terror unfold...hear about the loss of the 3 high end cops being shot point-blank during the attack...feel horrified at the turn of events..I really wished i could have visited the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai before all this happened...wished i had seen how it is to be in a crowded CST station...wished i had seen what the place Nariman Point is all about..wished this terror would stop


Day 3(28 th) I feel totally numb...unable to concentrate at work...unable to keep my eyes of the browser opened onto the latest news...hoping..praying..wishing the carnage has come to an end...
Day 4(29th)numbness continues but with a sigh that the people responsible to this act have perished and met a similar death like those whom they had victimised.I just wish they got tortured before meeting their death.

I knew i could do very little to what was happening in Mumbai but very strangely following news,reading about the incident by the minute, listening to interviews about hostages who managed to escape free,listening to the brave acts of the employees of the Hotels(Taj and Oberoi) and constantly keeping myself learned about the situation was like my contribution to protest and detest such an act.I wish i could do more...but am glad i could pray with the entire nation and stand united.

The Prestige

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts.

The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't.

The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back.

That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

There are some movies which you can watch many times and each time you do, you notice something new and appreciate the movie one notch more. Prestige is one of those kinds for me. Each time I see it I realize I missed out on something , and this realization keeps me grounded on to every scene as though I am seeing it for the first time.

The first time I watched it, I was at the edge of my seat trying to follow the superb plot.

The next time I watched it, I knew the plot well but while I was running the plot in my head, I realized how fine and extra ordinary the performances given by each actor were. Like, when you watch closely you realize the difference in acting of the 2 ‘different’ characters portrayed by Christan Bale which is a brilliant feat. But what really tricks the audience into not noticing these finer and significant things in this movie is the magic of the movie itself-its plot. Its got its pledge, turn and prestige in the right places and happening at the right time. Being the complex movie that it is, the execution of the movie is soo good that you don’t feel lost between characters, situations, time and the performances.

Set in the nineteenth century in London when the magicians formed the crux of the entertainment industry. Its about the 2 central characters-

One a maverick(Alfred Borden)- who wants to break free from the traditional reams of the magic world and try tricks which are never tried, one who doesn’t shy away from experimenting on his ideas. The other a quintessential go-getter (Robert Robert) who wants to play dirty after he loses his wife in the middle of a magic act gone horribly wrong due to Alfred.

The entire movie is the never ending war between these 2 characters to prove their vengeance on each other, to prove the better magician in each of them, the self sacrifices each made to get the other down.

My favorite element of the movie apart from the plot itself is the narrative or the screenplay. Most of the movie is shown from Robert Robert ‘s point of view , but its not one sided though. Justice was done to bring out the good and bad shades in each character without being partial to portray it as how Robert see’s it. It’s generally very difficult a task to achieve something like this when the plot moves back and forth between time and between the prejudices of the characters at that particular point in time. You really can’t point your finger and say- yes I think Robert was right or Alfred was right, the director never gives you a chance to empathize with one particular character at any point in time. You know that each can go any lengths to get better than the other-so no one’s right and no ones wrong. So who then is the protagonist of the entire movie-again it falls down to the brilliant plot.

Good dialogues can really change the movie and this one has quite a number of them. Some of them want you to find out the real trick in the movie but you wont be able to figure it out soon, because you are not watching(or rather hearing) closely ;)

A mention must be made on the superb cast of the movie- Christan Bale is one gem of an actor and portrays the character soo earnestly that not once would you doubt the twin element involved in the entire movie ,till the last 5 minutes when the noose is let free .Hugh Jackman is superb in his quest to put Alfred down and take revenge and be proven as the better magician amongst the two. I would probably call this character foolish but without him the movie wouldn be any exciting as it turns out to be.

Enjoying this movie really boils down to this – ‘Are you watching closely?’ :)

what kind of F.R.I.E.N.D am I?

Which "Friend" Are You?

My Result: Monica

Mon! You're the normal one, honey, in the best way possible. You're caring, you're responsible, you look to the future—what a gem. Wait a second, did you just start editing for grammar mistakes in the middle of reading your own compliments? Ok, so you like things, well, the way you like them. But even when you're smiling through clenched teeth, waiting for everyone else to get with the program, deep down, you're really still smiling. You're just waiting for that impatient moment to pass.

When it comes right down to it, you are thoughtful, meticulous, and good at what you do. As for romance, you can be a little picky and want things to be just-so. We wouldn't expect anything less. And like the original Monica, if you can avoid rushing into things, you'll find the right match and all the happiness your sweet, finicky, heart deserves.

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