Naga's Ruminations and Reviews

I picked The girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson 10 days ago cause it showed on my Goodreads under 'to-read' tag and i was craving for a thriller. 10% into the book, I realize that not only did i read this before but i also watched the movie starring Rooney Mara and that guy from the James Bond series. Well, the girl is pretty electrifying. She is a technical genius, best hacker in the country, could decode login passwords to any computer within seconds, load pages of material into her head with a brief glance at the page with her photographic memory. She is also extremely anti-social, anarchistic, prefers isolation and vengeful to the point of killing an opponent. Ask her to dig for information about someone and she gathers stuff anything worth learning including material that perhaps only those closest to the person know.She joins forces with a journalist who is falsely framed by a major swedish corporation and is convicted for libel(defamation) by the company. What

What is a fairy that cannot fly? It's wings are its source of power,pride and freedom. So it is for Maleficent, a small girl fairy born in a kingdom of magic called the Moors. Surrounded by strange but good creatures who trusted one another and never failed to uphold it, she started growing up quite innocent and naive. In the neighboring kingdom, cruel and hardhearted men ruled by an ambitious king plotted and dreamed to take over the Moors. One day a boy who works for the k ing happens to enter the Moors and steal a jewel from the lake. He gets caught by the guards. Maleficent releases him and makes him her friend. As years pass by, their affection for each other grows and she falls in love with him. She also emerges to becoming the protector of the Moors and the most powerful of all fairies. Her trust for the boy she fell in love with soon turns into bitterness through circumstances as he betrays her trust and steals her wings. Innocence shattered, heart broken and trus

I call myself an avid reader of all kinds of books and mostly enjoy reading thriller and mystery novels. It is one thing to read of the games between life and death in books and another to come across it in real life. One such story which my father narrated a few minutes ago left my jaw hanging for a while. And my thoughts stopped for a few minutes trying to grasp the seriousness and implications of what it meant to the helpless and naive people in our state. This is an incident that took place in a hospital in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and I urge everyone read it and spread awareness so that innocent lives are not lost in vain. One day an old farmer is brought to the hospital in Nellore by his wife as he had entered into a comatose state. The doctor assigned to the case declares the man brain dead. He tells the wife that it is a lost case and he might never recover. The husband being the sole bread earner of the family, the wife expresses despair and starts crying in front of

I think this book is highly underrated and some parts/moments of it could only be understood by someone with highly evolved consciousness. I am surprised at the explanation of what soul's desires mean and what it means to be in a state of complete peace with oneself. Aaron is a flutist who walks through life without goal wanting to explore and not be tied to something. His friend and mentor, Lilly is in the same boat but unlike Aaron who is clueless as to how to deal with his lost soul, Lilly has some pretty convincing solutions. Aaron, a married man for over a decade walks away from his wife and four children because married life isn't cutting him any more interest. And he was in a constant battle with his wife for who is the superior between the two. So he makes a journey through London, Milan and Florence making aquaintances, having flings with some exceptional women. All through, he couldn't feel to let himself loose or share himself with another without restraint. He

John wick(2014) Rating: 3/5[a liberal reviewer] I watched a trailer for John Wick-3 on Youtube and it said the best trilogy ever to be made. With interest piqued, I asked a couple of friends who watched it how it was. While one of them said it is a binge for action movie lovers the other hated the thin plot line. Well, i wanted to assess for myself how it felt and so here is my review.. John Wick is a legend of a sort in the crime underworld.He is touted as "a nightmare to boogeymen". Someone who is sent out to take care of such menaces as an assassin. He has killed three people only with a pencil. He has a reputation for never failing on a mission. We can see him in action through the movie as he goes killing his victims while looking them in the eye - savoring each drop of fear he is taking in. He is more effective wielding a weapon like gun or a knife than bare hand combat. They almost take him down twice. But his long time partner whom the villain engages to kill Joh

Maharshi film Starring Mahesh babu and allari Naresh Watching 'Maharshi' movie in theater. While a blockbuster like Baahubali grossed a total of around 5 crores on day 1, Maharshi went on to earn 6 crores. The team and the technicians celebrated the victory richly under media glory. I am wondering if the viewer interest for the first day was fueled by much hype and little substance. The hall is more than half empty and by the time of intermission, the feeling is when will the slow roasting end. This film should be tagged unde r 'fantastic than fantasy'. It is hard to believe this to be reality. A little into the story.. Rishi Kumar is born with a premonition that he is going to become the CEO to a company with footprint in over 70 countries around the world. While his father Prakash Raj leads a modest life as a clerk, his son Mahesh Babu, quite detached from him on financial and intellectual level, lives with the same attitude as when he becomes a CEO at a

What we do to others, we do to ourself. Or what we do to ourself, we inevitably and inadvertently do to others. Like someone who adulates a person when he is successful and demeans, criticizes when not - will do the same to himself. He is bound to suffer from a nagging feeling that he is not good enough with whatever he has done in life and this could lead to some nasty depression, terrible sense of inferiority. Change of thinking, perspective is necessary to lead a peaceful life. I always think success or failure are direct products of Krishna(god)'s judgement and one's own karma..plus karmic necessity. Imagine a society torn with strife and threatened with violence of war, what would be the thing of highest importance to those people? They live in a perpetual state of fear and anxiety if they will live to see a tomorrow and be able to have their dear ones near. Their definition of success is different and hence is their definition of failure. If someone fails, it is not a

The Manchurian Candidate by    Richard Condon Finished reading The Manchurian Candidate book - took me almost a week. I started reading it on a flight with nothing to choose from and no idea of what the story line/genre is. It has turned out to be a shocker. I have been following the election news cycle in the US very intently of late and its amazing that the story revolves around various aspects of the life of a man whose mother is consumed with passion for political power and step father is a putty in her hands. He is also an amazing actor in the political arena - a very notorious senator whose brand is anti-democracy, pro-autocracy and divisive on many levels similar to current prevalent atmosphere. His enemies fear him and his friends revere him in awe - for he holds their reputation and lives in his head smeared with dirty secrets. A man is brainwashed/trained to become the perfect assassin. Someone who can take orders and implement them to the T. He can kill and forget who o

Immortals of Meluha - Amish Tripathi - Review by Naga For the content that has actually been fit into the story, this is an agonizingly long read. The concept is novel with characters pulled from the Indian religious mythologies of Lord Ram and Lord Shiva but the characterizations fall short in matching expectations. For example, the narrative is supposed to belong to the times when human lived in tribes, were ruled by kings  and sort of had a not very modern life style. But the main characters, especially Shiva who is a barbarian confounds  medical experts talking science, uses slang as seen in modern India.  Few concepts have cavities very deep to make for unfixable teeth. Children are taken into government protection at birth and are classified into 4 castes based on qualifications at age of 15(is this Harry Potter? Are the castes four houses in Hogwarts?) - the presumption being all children brought up the same and hence given the same conditions for growth. Do they forg

Your life begins far back before your birth, before your mother's impregnation, further back in your past life's end. That end is the beginning of this life. They can be divided into two categories: one consists of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They believe in only one life. The other category consists of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. They believe in the theory of reincarnation. One is born again and again, eternally—unless one becomes enlightened, and then the wheel stops. Wherever we make permanent relationships, strife is bound to be, for the mind is most impermanent and relationships very permanent. But I think there is no possibility for people to understand each other  except through meditation, because meditation gives you the qualities of silence, awareness, a patient listening, a capacity to put yourself in the other's position. Two persons living together in love should make it a point that their relationship is continuously growing, bringing more f

Disclaimer: the source of this thought is The hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo which is a work of fiction, hence not sure if I can fully attest to the authenticity of the following claims. I have read that when men in past needed a way to communicate their thoughts and ideas, they built monuments. The structure and decorative symbols carved onto the edifices are supposed to convey deep meanings to a careful observer and reader. But it is hard to retain the monument in it's original form through eternity because of climatic impacts, impact of time and attacks from invaders. So slowly men started jotting down their thoughts on leaves, papers and books which held them for posterity in their original form. Also with the abundance of thoughts(books in current world), wouldn't we have run out of space on Earth if each thought is built into a monument? The author therefore argues that the emergence of publishing (books) has proven to be the diminution in interest towards arc

Most of the souls are perpetually in the process of breaking apart and remaking without really being aware of it. The pieces that make up the fabric of the soul fracture when it is subjected to traumatic experiences. Parts of consciousness shuts down as they have no capability of dealing with the experience. These typically come in the form of a shock. The soul being in it's undisturbed and unruffled state wasn't expecting it. Could be something someone  said at random, attempted to violate their beliefs  in someway, subjected them to public humiliation and disgrace, a woman abused and forced to feel helpless against forces more powerful than herself. Each soul has its own distinct flavor for  what constitutes trauma to it. What hurts me may not hurt another. They could brush it off smiling. But what I take for granted might rile them up and trigger them bad. So when these things happen, the soul naturally tries to splinter and pieces of it escape. Float away to somewhere el

Farewell, My Lovely By Raymond Chandler Miss Levin had a beautiful face, lovely complexion, captivating smile and reckless youth to complement. A rich old man proud to hold such a treasure in his possession puts a ring on it. He goes to great lengths to conceal her shady and not so approvable past through money and influence. What was so horrible in a past if she was only born poor? Or she made a living as a singer in bar rooms and such dingy places?  One should not forget that there could be jewels born in the rough. One could come across valuable objects groping in the dirt. But is she one of them? As the story unravels, we learn to what lengths ruthless ambition and survival need takes a girl to. The story starts with Philip Marlowe, a private detective on an errand of restoring a missing husband to his wife. He encounters a man Moose Malloy looking for his old love Velma. He had a relationship with her before he was sent to prison. Released after 8 years, he comes back in searc

                    Saturn the Old Man Saturn is the old man of the zodiac. He is the old devil and draws impregnable fences around everything he touches in a birth chart. He will not allow for those energies to out grow his boundaries bearing a strict hand of control. He is a teacher of self control, suppression of desires, emotions and feelings. He makes it clear that one is not as desirable as one would like. That one doesn't deserve happiness as one would want . Plunging us into Waters of perpetual depression and melancholy, he feasts on the hard work that is done to keep the structure of society going. He cringes and shuns at the thought of change even if it means improvement. He is an old man bent down on his scythe through ages and ages of bearing burden. Not just his own but that of his family and all his neighbors. He got nothing in return but condescension, rebuke and criticism for the work of such profound self sacrifice from his neighbors. In everything he does, there

'Us' movie by Jordan Peele Discover Card by SNL Rating: 3/5  I usually spend most of my Sundays trying to catch up some of the  funny skits on YouTube put out by Saturday Night Live(SNL). Today going over the videos from last night one after the other, I bumped into a skit made on discover card. It was deeply unsettling and I couldn't really follow the script. We see a young couple(perhaps recently married) seated at a breakfast table on a sunny morning(could be Sunday). The husband is busy going through his Facebook feeds on his iPad. He is a black man with a friendly face wearing horn rimmed glasses, a thin line of mustache over his upper lip and along his jawline. He is a bit stout and stocky in frame. His wife sitting next to him is a thin, tall woman with shot cut curls parted midways on her head. She was browsing her credit card account history and noticing something odd with her recent transactions, makes a call to the Discover Card customer service. As the hu

The Godfather  by Mario Puzo   Rating; 3/5   Hailed as one of the highest rated and best selling thriller with a cult following for both the novel and the movie, this book has left me conflicted with mixed feelings. There were moments when i cringed in disgust as the author explains in detail the numerous distorted sexual alliances between rich men in their sixties, seventies and young girls who are barely over twelve years old. What a perverted world it must be when money and fame creates a void to be filled with booze, drugs and incessant sexual fantasies and escapades. Even if what he has described about movie stars from Hollywood happens to be remotely true, it is a depraved and degraded world that no amount of money should convince one to be a part of. The enjoyable aspect is the adrenaline rush experienced with the twists in the narrative where it is  hard to anticipate much less predict who has betrayed our major players in the game and what is to come next.It is usually a

Bad Blood : The secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley Start-Up by John Carreyrou An idea can change the world - but this idea(thought) has to be changed first. An idea put into effect can change the world. Not the idea in itself. Or by itself. The woman 'CEO out for blood' had a vision for the future of medical industry but didn't translate it to the company she set up. She had plenty of charm and vulnerability which made others not want to hurt her but that didn't stop the ruthlessness she showed towards them. Having watched a few YouTube videos on Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, I almost developed a kind of obsession in wanting to know more about what went down with the company. How the brilliant entrepreneur managed to cox millions of dollars from numerous high profiled investors and set up a company that valued at 9 billion dollars with nothing more than a smoke screen of a technology. This led me into getting the tell-all book 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Li

What I plan to post on this blog? - Reviews to books I read - Insights into Evolutionary astrology as i journey through my own learning - Musings of my own on Krishna and events from Hindu Mythology - Interesting ideas on current politics and political system

'Man and Wife'  by Wilkie Collins Rating: 4/5 Goodreads I have started reading this book on March 10th, 2019 and it has taken me awhile to get through. There were times while reading it when I thought I would never make it to the end - perhaps leave the book unfinished and take up another. I have done this sort of a thing in the past. I actually did read another book in between 'Bad Blood' by John Carreyrou which I will review in a separate post. Instead of leaving this book off, I resolved to pick it up and finish it by any means necessary. So there I was on the eve of a weekend on March 22nd, feeling lazy to walk downstairs and cook myself some food,wrapped up in a comforter enclosed in a warm and cozy room, reading off from where I left the story last time - 50%.  This day is remarkable for several other reasons like it marks the culmination of a much followed, much hyped, much anticipated investigation into the crimes of a notable figure in American political