Blogging took a back seat all this week. But I am impelled to blog about my first tryst with Harry Potter - The Order of the Phoenix, the book that I read over this week. Yeah, I know you guys are laughing, so just go ahead doing that!

JK Rowling's Harry Potter kindled in me the feeling that I experienced when I read Lewis Caroll's Alice In WonderLand for the first time in middle school. Its one of the best books I have read to date. Harry Potter's magic world was nothing different from Alice's wonder land. There was a trace of Enid Blyton too in Ron, Harry and Harmoine's days at the Hogwarts fighting the bad guy Malfoy, sneaking out of school, fun in the common rooms and the Christmas dance.

We have grown up with fantasies imbibed from such fairy tales. Thats what makes reliving those feelings very special. I have watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as a movie. I found the movie very kiddish. But as always, books make better reading than viewing. I started the book with a cynical attitude but have ended up dedicating a post to it on my blog!

Books give our individual minds the room to imagine the scenes the way we want it. Consequently, we are thrilled. The mind's maze guides us through the pages of the book better than a movie camera, making the experience almost real, and at times surreal, but candidly enjoyable always.

Har Gadi Badhal Rahi Hai Roop Zindagi
Chaaon Hai Kabhi Kabhi Hai Dhoop Zindagi
Har Pal Yahaan Dil Bhar Jiyo
Jo Hai Samaa Kal Ho Na Ho ...

Kal Ho Na Ho - A melodramatic, typical Karan Johar drama with the usual works - romance, engagement rituals, handful of marriage songs, disco, a pinch of patriotism, well timed comedy, a flashback, foreign locales (NY this time), motherly sentiments and lots of sobs !

There was Shah Rukh in his usual sweet happy-go-lucky role playing the usual Hindi film logic - the entry/charisma/ideas of one person changing the lives of a dull family - a repeated but proven logic. Shah Rukh has the usual teary-eyed, quivering lips emotions and the usual dance numbers. Well, everything was As Usual ! And for those who are not yet bored with Shah Rukh's stereotyped roles and histrionics, this is a definite treat. For others, Saif Ali is good entertainment.

All the characters had enough room to sob their eyes out, evoking no sympathy whatsover from the audience (except for some girls next to me, who kept saying 'so-cute', 'how-sweet' every second minute), but driving them to sheer frustration as to when the movie would conclude. The movie could have easily been shortened by half an hour.

Btw, Maayajaal is a very good weekend hangout if you ignore the exhorbitant entry fee. Six theatres playing the latest movies, bowling alley, games arcade, tasty food from Arusuvai, pleasing drive to and fro on East Coast Road & radio FM made it a nice Saturday for us.

Authoring a novel is a difficult task. Authoring a novel that can make the reader visualise the narration effectively and make him/her feel like he's watching a science fiction movie is next to difficult. Thats exactly how I felt when I read Michael Crichton's 'Prey'. Crichton should have been a movie-maker. Heck, no then we wouldn't have such wonderful books. I was simply stunned at the sequence where the hoard of nano-particles arrange themselves outside the car window to reflect Mae's face. How can someone write that so well that you feel you are watching a movie ? Only a brilliant author can make a visual out of mere words. No wonder Jurassic Park, Lost World, Sphere were made into movies. In fact, I heard Sphere makes more splendid reading than viewing. I borrowed The 13th warrior from the library yesterday. Yeah, I am a newly turned Crichton fan. I was a Robin Cook fan before :).

The Kutchery buzz has started in Chennai with the focus having shifted from the Diwali Blockbusters to December Kutcherys. The December Kutcheri Season is now spread over nearly a month from the original fortnight that it used to be. This attraction unique to Chennai is looked forward to by seasoned performers, upcoming musicians and dancers, music critics, inquisitive NRI listeners and music lovers. An added attraction in the past few years has been the catering facilities at the prestigious sabhas.

I have always felt that it would be nice if the musician can announce the Raaga/Thaala/Composer at the end of each piece. This would help people like me who often break their heads over identifying the not-so-very-common raagas and turn to the internet the next day to figure it out. In a NithyaShree kutcheri some four years back, she rendered a krithi set to a rare raaga and the audience couldn't identify the raaga. At the end of the krithi, she announced the raaga - I dont recollect the name of that raaga - it was some variation of ReethiGowlai. Well, there should not be these handouts at the start of the kutchery as that destroys the suspense of what the next song would be. It almost tempts us to evaluate the performance even before it commences.

A complete calendar of the Sabha Schedules is available online for prior planning. I am sure most people agree with me that live carnatic concerts are more fun than music from those high wattage Sony speakers with the 'Hall' or 'Theater' effects on. Am planning to attend the concerts of Aruna Sayeeram and Neyveli Santhanagopalan at the Music Academy this season. Lets see if work permits me to do so.

A whole suite of Color Picker freeware available at Canada Graphics. You can mix and match colors and have the Color Picker generate the Hex codes for them. Cool. A serene blue would soon be the color theme of my weblog.

An impelling article at outsourcing-asia.com on how India as a country has developed a brand in outsourcing. A must read.