Wednesday, February 22, 2006

We the Living

Yes, I did it at last ! I finished reading an Ayn Rand book !!

As some of my friends might remember, i used to mention that i have reserved the works of Ayn Rand for my post-retirement life. My opinion on Ayn Rand changed(as though i had some initial opinion on her principles ;) ) when i met one of my school friends. He literally forced me to read the works of Ayn Rand earlier in life, as he felt that it would definetely make a big impact on young minds. After a serious thought, i decided to have a go at it, i chose "We the Living" just because of its volume (or the lack of :) ). Well, after 465 pages and 3.5 days, i realized that size doesn't matter!

The first thing that came to mind after reading this book was Orwell's Animal Farm. One can easily make out that even though both the writers have taken different routes, they have reached the same destination. Orwell takes a comical, jocular approach in his Animal Farm using Pigs and other farm animals as the main characters, while Ayn Rand uses a serious approach to narrate the travails of citizens of erstwhile Soviet Russia. Both the writers conclude why Communism wont last long. I would say i liked "We the Living" more when compared to "Animal Farm", probably because of the powerful story line and the emotional intensity. This is a truly remarkable book, considering the fact that Ayn Rand was only 25 when she wrote this book!

Ok, here is a small connect , connect Dilip D Souza and Torino Winter Olympics.


Monday, February 20, 2006

Street Cricket

Just as i am writing this entry, the Indian cricket team would have returned home, after defeating their arch rivals at their home turf! I guess after a long long time, Indian cricket team has "thrashed" a decent opponent ( for a change, it wasn't one among Zimbabwe, Kenya or Bangladesh). Though some of my non-Bong friends conclude that absence of dada did the trick, i feel Yuvraj and Dhoni literally broke the back of Pakis!
Here is a wiki entry that talks about a much popular form of cricket down south, especially in the streets of Chennai. This used to be popular 7-8 years back,when budding sachin's and dravid's play cricket in terrace/ streets with tennis ball or rubber ball. Sometimes, to better utilize the leisure hours in school, some blokes prepare a makeshift ball out of papers, plastic cover and rubber band(borrowed from some girl of course !). For some reason Maths classwork would be used as cricket bat (Length and breadth factor??). Thanks Veva for the link !