Lord of the Rings: Been there and back again

Finally I have been able to read the cult classic LOTR (acronym for Lord of the rings). Having already seen the movie (all the 3 installments: the fellowship of the ring, the two towers and the return of the king) a couple of times and getting hooked by it, I had been craving to read it too. And let me tell you it met all of my expectations.

LOTR is a work of fiction created by JRR Tolkien. It traces the life of a hobbit, Frodo, as he comes into possession of the One ring (the Ring of Power, which was forged by Sauron, the Dark Lord) and his struggle to destroy it. He is aided by 8 companions in his journey: - Aragorn-a man, Gandalf-the grey, Boromir-a man, Legolas-an elf, Gimli-a dwarf and 3 hobbits-Sam, Merry and Pippin. There are many more interesting and important characters in the book like Gollum, Faramir, Arwen, Eowyn, Elrond, Galadriel, etc. You gotta read the book or watch the movie to learn more.

Whenever I am reading a book, I tend to visualize each of the characters present in the book. I read about the character’s physical and psychological description and place someone (mostly an actor) in his/her place and imagine them going forward. This is one thing I really like ( / dislike :)) while reading a book.. u need to rely so much on your imagination.... But for LOTR I didn’t have to go through this activity.. having already seen the movie (and loving it), images of all the characters were already before my eyes. I just had to place them in all the scenes. After seeing the movie I had become a great fan of Viggo Mortensen a.k.a Aragorn (have watched quite a few of his movies since then.. got a tiny-winy crush on him.. what a handsome guy.. :) with a multi-faceted personality) and after reading the book I have another favorite: Faramir (brother of Boromir, enacted on screen by David Wenham). I had also loved the character of Sam Gamgee (played by Sean Astin) in the movie and after reading the book, this love was just re-affirmed. If not for him Frodo would have been lost for ever.. can’t help but admire his courage, optimism and loyalty, above everything else. Just goes to show that “Things are never quite as scary when you've got a friend.”

The language of the book is just Wonderful. The English is awesome. There are many small & big poems in between and though it may seem boring, they kind of just fit-in perfectly. Here’s one of my fav quote, in reference to Aragorn:

"All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king. "

Here’s another classic:
“Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”
There are some real good and thought-invoking phrases in the book. Lines which would make you ponder & debate on the issue. Its in a beautiful poetic language.. got that old world charm about it.

The book exceeded some of my expectations.. After watching the movie, I was quite sad for Eowyn (lady of Rohan) since she seemed to have lost out to Arwen while vying for Aragorn’s love. (Since I preferred Miranda Otto to Liz Tyler.. I cudn’t fathom this ;-) ).. But the book healed this sadness a.k.a wound (For more information read the chapters around “House of healing”).

There are quite a few interesting incidents which have not been included in the movie version…. Especially some involving Faramir… have heard its present in the extended version DVD of the movie.. I am currently looking out for it.. :) Either as a movie or a book, LOTR is definitely worth collecting.

Chivalry - Slow Death?

An incident on the bus today made me think of my take on the issue.
It was 1pm on a Wednesday. And I was tuned into RadioMirchi (93.3FM which kicked off its operations in Bangalore a few days back, giving competition to RadioCity & a choice to bangalorians) & reading a book( have just started it.. "Stepping Out" by Mrinal Pande.. it talks about life of rural Indian women) while commuting to office through the office bus. After picking up fellow colleagues from a lot of places, the bus reached BTM layout at around 1-1.10. There stood a hoard of people waiting to get into the bus and all the seats got filled up in no time. Around 15 or so persons had to stand & commute. In those 15 people, there were a couple of gals. Watching them standing on the bus, I couldn’t help yearning for the good old times when guys used to take it as their holy duty to be courteous to women, and offering them their seats on a bus was the least they could do.

I know it’s the era of the so called emancipated women. We are screaming our lungs out to show that we can compete with guys anywhere and everywhere. We can’t just lecture about the need for equal opportunities and then expect guys to offer us seats on an over crowded bus. Shouldn’t we also stand & commute and realize what guys go through? If women are asking for equality that is what they shall get. Agreed that all the above counter-arguments put forward by guys are correct. But then there are some things which are above being just right or wrong. Don’t you think so too? Being polite and a bit chivalrous wouldn’t do anyone any harm. And I am not saying that men should be the only one doing this. It’s for everyone. Even for women. Offering your seat to a woman, an elderly person, a sick person, helping someone who looks as if he/she is in need even if they are not asking for the same. These are some things that can be followed by anyone & should be followed by everyone. Wouldn’t it just make things so much more beautiful? And don’t do this expecting gratitude. Even if the other person acted like a complete moron and didn’t appreciate your gesture, rest assured someone else will. As they say a good deed never goes unnoticed.

While I was musing over chivalry, my friend Neeraj (who was sitting beside me) got up & vacated his seat for a lady :) . And oh boy!! Wasn’t that impressive? I don’t know whether it mattered or not but I made sure he knew how much I appreciated it.

Time and again

After searching heaven and hell, I have finally zoomed on a topic about which I can scribble something and maybe people would be interested in reading through it too. It’s an experience I have had time & again. And every time it happens, I tell myself I am not going to go through it again; enough is ENOUGH, at least not by my own free will. I do have a right to do what I want to do. Don’t I? After all we live in the second largest democracy in the world. Don’t we?

I am talking about exam time. Rings a bell doesn’t it? A big, loud, resounding bell.. I am sure most of you will identify with the nerve wrenching, gut slashing feeling one experiences while taking an exam… any exam. After all an exam is an exam. PERIOD.

During my engineering days, I (like so many other techies-to-be) used to suffer from the last-minute/exam-eve-preparation syndrome. I always used to start preparing for the exam the day before or rather the night before. Used to stay awake till wee hours (thank god the exams were generally held in the afternoon), tried to cram up a whole semester in just a few hours, write the paper and then pray, pray & pray.

And after each & every exam I used to make a resolution to myself. No more last minute studying.. I’ll start being attentive in the class, stop passing chits & gossiping while a lecture is going on. I’ll do my assignments diligently, get my doubts cleared at the start so that they don’t pile up like Mt. Etna and then erupt one day. The bottom-line was to be prepared. But alas this resolution remained a resolution and remains so till this date.

Memories of my engineering days came rushing back to me when I had to appear for a domain certification this Saturday. It was nothing like I had it was a mandatory certification or so. I just applied for it on an impulse. Got a mail from our PM asking for nominations and I just raised my hands in response. Little did I know that domain certification is very different from engineering exams? Engineering used to be fun. Being back benchers in the class, attending funny lectures & even funnier lecturers, bunking classes, putting proxy attendance for friends, copying assignments( guess the original assignment was done by some guy way back in '80s or something), doing combined group study where the output followed the 80-20 principle. Even after studying for 80% of the day, we couldn’t even effectively cover 20% of the syllabus. Engineering was the sum total of all these mutually exclusive but still totally dependent activities. This all used to make even the last day preparation rewarding. Concentration was higher and hence the result was better. Those were tension free days. Not like now when I need to worry abt a lot of things including rent, electricity/water bill, traffic, appraisal, onsite opportunities and to top it all WORK!!

Those were some days.. Sigh. On second thoughts.. no.. no second thoughts.. would not trade those days for the world. If I had to relive those days, I know I’ll do the same things in the exact similar way. Heard a saying..? It goes something like this – “Be what you are & do what you feel. If GOD had wanted you otherwise, HE would have created you otherwise.”
I’ll sign-off on that note. Have fun!! ;-)

Add-to-the-decibels

This is my first ever blog. A lot of hue & cry is being made regarding blogs now-a-days. So I thought lets add to the decibels. :)

Had tried my hands in maintaining a journal when I was a kid but could never make regular entries into it. Soon it took a backseat and then one fine day the idea just kinda vanished into thin air. Lets see how long I can maintain its new-age avataar.

Haven't got any clue as to what all I'll be writing in the blogs though. My life is just as ordinary as that of any ordinary software professional. Working in one of those BIG software companies. Forced to strive 24/7 to prove that the attitude reflected by "Rome was not/(could not be) built in a day" is soooooo wrong. Wish my boss was the architect/planner, she would have easily made sure that it was indeed built in a day with time spared for review & rework. ;-)