जनुअरी में हेरोयिन के साथ फोटो खिंचवाई,

फेब्रुअरी में शादी की पहली अन्नीवेरसारी मनाई,

मार्च में बनी नन्ही पारूल की मासी,

अप्रैल में पति बन गए पुणे से बंगलोर वासी,

मई में किया थीसिस गाइड को रज़ामंद,

जून में हो गई ग़लती से बाथरूम में बंद,

जुलाई में नौकरी से रिश्ता तोड़ा,

अगस्त में माँ-बाप का घर छोड़ा,

सितम्बर में एम. ई. की परीक्षा किया पास,

अक्टूबर में बंगलोर दर्शन किए ससुर-सास,

नवम्बर में फेमिना ने छापा मेरा नाम,

दिसम्बर में किया नॉवेल समालोचना का काम,

ये था हिसाब ऑफ़ मेरा बीता हुआ साल,

आप सब का २०१२ हो मस्त, स्वस्थ और खुशहाल

It is that time of the year when WordPress provides us with free blog post material Thank you wordpress..it is a boon for lazy and hibernating bloggers like me. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 150,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thank you to these people for being my 5 most active commenters, though I have been irregular in blogosphere. Only 17 posts in 2011

• 1 Bikram
• 2 Destination Infinity
• 3 scorpria
• 4 theSuda
• 5 Smita

I wish my dear readers, blogger friends and their families a happy, healthy. peaceful, loving and prosperous 2012. My resolution for 2012 – To get back to blogging, reading and commenting with full dedication as before

When my dear blogger-friend Roshmi suggested my name to read/blog-review an Indian author Douglas Misquita‘s debut action-thriller novel “Haunted”, I was excited. It was to be my first “review on request” post! Douglas contacted me and I received the book promptly to read and review. So here it goes…

About the book -

FBI Special Agent Kirk Ingram’s life is torn apart when his family is brutally murdered before his eyes. Devastated physically and psychologically, he vows to destroy organized crime in all forms.

In the Eastern bloc, a rogue dictator state is stockpiling Citex, a deadly nerve agent…

Across the globe, an international trade house funnels Balkan organized crime activities through its business channels and now hatches a plot to distribute Citex to major cities in the world, creating a nexus with terror that threatens to bring the world order to the point of anarchy.

And only one man stands in the way of global terror and paranoia. One man seeking redemption and waging a personal battle against the demons of his past.

My review -

Pros

# The plot consisting of terrorism, mercenaries, underwater action, hostage situation, FBI, CIA, LAPD, helicopter rides, locales, car chases, gunfire, shoot outs, shades of character, sex, emotions, human relations, loyalty, betrayal, corruption, suspense and revenge is well-paced, exciting, complex yet interesting, imaginative yet realistic and very well-written; especially for an Indian author if we compare it with other such action-thrillers written by the usual foreign authors. Quite unexpected actually!

# The novel seemed very well – researched, quite clear from the details provided in the writing.

# The language is quite lucid and very visual..a reader can just imagine the scenes in their minds while reading. The novel would surely make a great adaptation for a movie.

Cons

# The narrative feels too descriptive sometimes, distracting attention from the flow of the story. Some of it and the background stories could have been done away with to keep the narrative taut.

# The story seems more of an ensemble of several characters with some equally important and seems to be not that much about the protagonist Kirk Ingram who is anyway missing for a few chapters, coming into the picture towards the end.

# Though all the sub-plots, characters and events are brought together at the end, the reader has to read the novel in one go to enjoy the action-thriller fully because if he/she don’t have a good memory, he/she may need to backtrack once in a while which kind of spoils the fun.A smoother flow of the story would have been better.

# The editing of the book has missed out some errors, such as, a character is shot in the head but after few pages his body is mentioned to be found shot in the heart. Then there is “though” instead of “thought”, missing full-stop, i instead of I and unintentional ( as far as I think) incomplete sentences here and there with “-£” written at the end whose significance I didn’t understand.

Nevertheless, these are minor issues and “Haunted” succeeds as a racy, interesting, graphic, cogent, unputdownable international action-thriller début novel which is a delight to read. Take a bow, Douglas Misquita. Waiting for your next novel!

Book Details :-

ISBN: 978-93-80154-95-4

Publisher: Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd (2011)

Price: Rs 350

Filed under: Book Reviews Tagged: action thrillers, book reviews, Douglas Misquita, haunted ]]> http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/book-review-haunted/feed/ 9 Reema hauntedcover http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/my-random-thoughts-2-0/ http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/my-random-thoughts-2-0/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:00:40 +0000 Reema http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/?p=5118 ]]> As my readers may remember, I have moved to Bangalore or Bengaluru. It has been 3 months now. I haven’t started working yet and in-laws are here since two months…new place, new life, new routines were responsible for the blogging break. So, here are some random updates, thoughts and comments from the last three months of my blogging break. Hence the title… a new “My Random Thoughts” BREAK KE BAAD

# My M.E. results were declared at last…scored 73.5% aggregate. Yeyyyy!!!

# When I had asked on twitter the translation of “I am back” in Kannada for my last post, a twitter user had suggested “I AM BAKKAA” This attaching an “aa” at the end of words kind of grows on you! Cab driver says leftaa? I say “yes, leftaa” or “rightaa”. But jokes apart, it has been hard dealing with language problem and especially when people get irritated or laugh at you when you say “No Kannada”. FIL and D had a really tough time at the LPG gas connection and RTO offices not to mention problems while travelling and shopping. When Bengaluru has become such a melting pot for people from so many regions and countries, I feel any person wanting to do business (be it autowala or shopkeeper) must keep up in terms of communications. I too have bought two books “Hindi-Kannada” and “English-Kannada”!! But as you know, taali ek haath se nahi bajti!

# Hubby bought a new two wheeler, TVS Wego as an anniversary present in advance First thing I learned was that the rule of overtaking from left ( readers comment made me realise – I mean my left) doesn’t exist in Bangalore traffic which by the way is way too much!! Now have to learn my patent dialogues in Kannada. Someone please translate and tell me!

# Panipuri lovers BEWARE! Discovered a new sort of panipuri here..one which in available in stalls and served with some sort of curry. Tastes horrible! After two mishaps, discovered that the ones we eat are served by sellers having portable cane stands.

# Had another door experience. FIL and MIL were strolling outside in the corridor and I went out to give them mobile. The wind (too much of it here by the way) slammed the door shut from behind. Thankfully we had mobile outside. Called D to come from office and rescue us with the spare key. Looks like I have a jinx with doors here.

# Saw Aarakshan. You know the college shown is my alma mater Saw my Chairman, his family too..Also saw my beloved Bada Taal of Bhopal. Made me nostalgic! But the movie was as if Prakash Jha had two scripts and thought “who will two movies? let us combine both in one – first half one script and second half another”

# Watched Real Steel. Cool movie and hot Hugh Jackman. Liked it. Must watch for action lovers but on big screen.

# Watched Ra.One in 3D. Sigh!! Sad to see SRK stoop to such low levels of comedy by including so much of crotch obsessed humor and adult jokes. How on earth did the movie get U rating? No exciting story and too long for a movie with such a storyline.

# Watched ZNMD. Good movie! Again a must watch! Can’t stand that Kalki though.

# Went on a lot of sight-seeing trips around Bangalore and Mysore. Posts to follow.

# Had a great time pandal hopping during our first Durga Pujo here in Bangalore. Post to follow – as a guide for people searching on Internet for Pujo pandal locations in Bangalore.

# Did a lot of cooking and tried some new stuff (new for me that is)….lets see if I put up posts on those too.

# Did a lot of mall hopping. In my opinion, Royal Meenakshi Mall is the best but its food court sucks. Wasn’t impressed that much with Forum and Garuda. The food court of Central Mall at Mantri Junction is the best.

# Due to the language problem,we hired a Hindi-understanding Nepali maid who went on leave without informing for 3 days just 5 days after joining work!! Had to fire her and hire another one (her aunt only). Now the second one is asking a raise of 200 bucks just after working for two months!! God!! Why I fell into this vicious circle of maids! Soon there will be posts on Maid Troubles on this blog too!

# Experienced a 10 hours long powercut.

# And yes I admit, the weather here is really wonderful on most days of the week.

And lastly

It was my blog’s fourth anniversary on 30th Oct 2011.  Now after 4 years “My Random Thoughts” stands at 584,177 hits (and counting ) 280 posts and 227 subscribers on Google Reader and 67 via email.

May millions of lamps illuminate your life
with endless joy, prosperity, good health and peace forever
Wishing you and your family a very
“HAPPY DIWALI”

I know nobody missed me in this blogosphere. In fact my comeback got delayed day after day because of this reason also. No one mentioned my absence or rather that of my regular comments, no one asked about my whereabouts / well-being and I did not get any motivation to resume blogging, reading and commenting as usual Sigh! Out of comment space, out of mind…

More updates to follow in next post!!

And will be attacking your blogs with comments soon. Really scared to open the Google reader!!

What is coming to an end, hopefully, is my tryst with studies. In spite of my insincerity and lack of concentration, I have managed to come a long way on this path (credit to my sister, my intelligence, memory and luck. Here are some memories from each step of the long ladder I have climbed till now :-

# Kindergarten – “Ye Kahan Aa Gaye Hum”. Called a boy “Motu” and got punished for it.

# Class 1 – Realized the meaning of coming first in tests and exams. God knows how…Started coming first in every unit test, half yearly and yearly exam! At the end came to know that we get prizes for that too! Got my first Russian folktale book.

# Class 2 – Got scared like hell when the class teacher came to my house after annual exam ! [ Didi used to scare me saying she will complain my naughtiness at home to my teacher. At school I was like butter won't melt in my mouth types ] Thankfully she had come to collect my notes as I was her best student

# Class 3 – Had a totally crazy woman as the class teacher!

# Class 4 – Got the specs! Sigh First few weeks were really tough with boys teasing and calling me “Chasmish” among other names. Simply out of jealousy. Didi’s encouragement helped me survive that phase.

# Class 5 – Started writing with ink pen!! Messy affair! Scored 100/100 in Social Studies

# Class 6 – Learned cycling!! Started realizing I suck at Hindi. Arch rival came into picture.

# Class 7 – Learned one of the first lessons in life. The population of so called friends dwindled after I came second for the first time.

# Class 8 – Fell severely ill for the first time. For the first time studied sincerely and seriously as city board exams were there. Came 5th among all schools in hometown and got my first watch as prize.

# High school – Chemistry practicals, Biology dissections, long assembly time, new friends, Board exams, Competitive exams, Medical or Engineering, tuitions…

# College – Where do I begin? Hostel life, friends, foes, ragging, funny moments, memorable moments, movies, picnics, late night talks, Maggi, water shortage, food shortage, girl politics, crushes, love stories, gossips, thieves, best friends forever, heart breaks, fights, illness, …it is endless!

# 1st M.E. – Morning classes, rushing to work, being not only the youngest but also the only female in class, first solo viva-voce!

# 2nd M.E – Due to promotion related rules, I had to enroll for a Master’s degree in relevant branch and thus started my 2nd M.E studies, causing some people to be shocked, some to be amazed, some to worry and some to falsely believe I’m a very studious person. Whereas the joke was on me. The first day in class was a torture! Then as days went by, it became harder as I was working and studying.

Got married last year and yet stayed at hometown till now to complete the degree. Kudos to D for being so understanding and considerate.

And now finally, day after tomorrow, my M.E. final thesis viva-voce is due. Phew!!

Wish me luck people!!

p.s. sadly, for further rise in the career have to do PhD too. But I don’t want to study anymore! Booo Hooo!