Naga's Ruminations and Reviews

Review of Lord of the flies by William Golding Rating 4.5/5 Genre: classic,horror,young adult A band of children are stranded on an island when their flight crashes. Their pilot is dead and they are left to take care of themselves without adult supervision. Ralph, Jack, Piggy(a really fat and myopic kid) are the three main important characters. Roger and Simon also play crucial roles in the plot. Initially Ralph becomes the chief/head of their group and with the help of Piggy(intelligent and forward thinking) establishes rules so that they could build shelters for staying,hunt for food and burn a fire to hail for rescue. Soon Jack challenges his authority and takes away a group of children with him. Things start becoming evil as Jack and his group brutally kill a mother sow(a female pig) and descreate its head. They hoist its head on a spike and leave its guts to be fed upon by the flies(a symbol for Lord of the flies/beezlebub). [This scene marks the transition from innocence in

Herodotus Story of Candaules, King of Lydia,Turkey Candaules was a king of Lydia, Turkey. He had a beautiful wife named Nyssia. He worshipped her beauty and often boasted of it with great pride. He had a bodyguard named Gyges. Candaules once tells Gyges that he is going to prove to him that there is no one comparable in beauty to his wife(maybe Gyges didnt believe his claims or the king just wanted to show off..). So the king puts together a plan and tells it to Gyges in confidence. He tells Gyges that every night the queen has a habit of getting undressed in their room before getting into bed. So he asks Gyges to stand near a door in their room and watch secretly her as she is undressing. Gyges stands near the door in darkness and waits for the queen to come into the room. Candaules pretends to be asleep and waits for the queen to come. So Nyssia comes into the room, goes to a desk and removing her clothes one by one puts them on the desk. Gyges gets mesmerized watching her n

The English Patient book by Michael Ondaatje review Rating 3.5/5 Genre: romance, drama, war It is the time of 1942-43. Italy and its allies are at war with Germany. The war is coming to an end and German forces are retreating from Italy. A pilot is flying a helicopter in a sandy desert and it catches fire. He hits the ground with a parachute but his skin is badly burnt and his nerves are so damaged he can barely move. The local tribal people rescue him and take care of him as long as he proves useful to them. He knows the maps of the desert by heart and can recognize different models of guns. They find this kind of information useful during the war. And when he is no longer useful, they abandon him at a hospital in Villa San Guirlamo in Florence. He remebers everything but doesnt know his name. No one knows who he is but from the way he talks think he is British. Hence he is referred to as the English Patient. As the war is coming to an end, the doctors plan to shift the hospital to

Review of Pratiroju pandage movie (2019) Rating 4/5  The hero's grandfather is diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer and the doctor gives an estimate of 5 weeks left for him. The old man's children are well established  business persons, software engineers in USA, Australia and India. They take a detached and practical view of his medical condition deciding to put money, jobs, work over their love for their father. But the hero flies from USA to stay with his grand father the minute he learns of his illness. He decides to make all the unfulfilled dreams of his grandfather come true and celebrate each day left till his death as a festival..hence the title 'pratiroju pandage'. How he was able to convince the other family members to prioritize relationships over money and to reevaluate their bond with their once beloved father is the essence of this movie.  Loaded with humor and dialogues that are reflective of the current prevailing mind set among people, this film is