Monday, October 23, 2006
Book Review: The Afghan: Forsyth
This is one book which I had been waiting to lay my hands upon, and I finally did last month at Crossword. For a hefty 250 bucks.
And shooting from the hip, not worth that much. Forsyth is far from his best, and by his best I mean the awe inspiring research and breathtaking pace one sees in Fist of God and Ikon. His research, usually so voluminous, seem threadbare in this book. The plot, too, proceeds at snail's pace for most of the 450 odd pages.
The protagonist is SIS man Major Mike Martin, of the 'Fist of God' fame. He has to pose as an Afghan this time, and infiltrate Al Qaeda top brass. Worry not, I am not spilling any details. So that's the plot outline. The action, too, which is nail biting in many of his books, is laid back and non too exciting.
Summing up, I would give it a 2 and a half star. An average rating may be fine for any book, but I am saddened to hand out a mediocre rating to a Forsyth.
And shooting from the hip, not worth that much. Forsyth is far from his best, and by his best I mean the awe inspiring research and breathtaking pace one sees in Fist of God and Ikon. His research, usually so voluminous, seem threadbare in this book. The plot, too, proceeds at snail's pace for most of the 450 odd pages.
The protagonist is SIS man Major Mike Martin, of the 'Fist of God' fame. He has to pose as an Afghan this time, and infiltrate Al Qaeda top brass. Worry not, I am not spilling any details. So that's the plot outline. The action, too, which is nail biting in many of his books, is laid back and non too exciting.
Summing up, I would give it a 2 and a half star. An average rating may be fine for any book, but I am saddened to hand out a mediocre rating to a Forsyth.
Labels: Books
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Matheran: There and Back Again
The title is inspired by 'Hobbit'- which Tolkien also called 'There and Back Again'. My second trip to Maheran in 2 years happened last weekend. For those unacquainted with Matheran, it's a hill station about 60 km from Mumbai. A 2 hour train journey from Powai. It's not too much of a hill station in fact- it will be better described as a hillock station, or a mound station maybe. If you stand at the foothills, and cast an eye at the hill upon which matheran stands, you'll probably experience a felling si imilar to that felt by the discoverer of the Harrappa ruins. That guy with a spade in his hand saw this suspicious looking mound, said to his comrades,' Let's dig in !' (I, too, would react in a similar paranoid manner, if what I saw before me were a mountain of ice cream (preferably Baskin Robbins), and I had in my hand a spoon, in place of a spade. However, lets call a spade a spade, and continue) . This piece of oppurtunism ended up in them being the most celebrated excavators of their time.
What I intend to convey by means of the elaborate statement which I furnished above is that a climb up Matheran is not too much of an uphill task. It is uphill, of course, but not uphill in the figurative sense. Also, some intrepid person could say 'let's dig in', and then pull out the pickaxes and convert the words into action, and there's a good chance he might end up on top of relics of a bygone era. I hope someone does, after reading this entry in 'Blogic'. If the city does turn up, then well and good, you should give me a fair shame of the limelight. If not, well, I shall contribute lavishly to the ridicule that is hurled at you, and have a jolly good time doing so.
I shall stop rambling at this point, and elucidate further about my trip to Matheran. We set off at 6 AM, six brave souls, 60 minutes after the scheduled departure time - set off in the inky darkness, cutting through the morning mist- from the picture, we seem like the devil's men, setting off on some secret, evil task. ( See how we paid obesceinces to satan, by involving three 6's at the outset of the journey- may the devil protect us during our journey into the unknown !)
I fall into the rambling trap time and again. Fine, I clamp shut my digressing insticts. Caught the slow local at Kanjur Marg, alighted at Nerul. There, we split up- much like the Fellowhip did at the river. Two of us were too bleary eyed to trek, so they took the easy way out- took a cab to the top. While we courageous souls ploughed our way throught the bushes and thorny scrubs as we took on the 9 km trek. One could just walk along the road. But that's for those who have not the fire of adventure burnign in their blood. We cut across the forset, a much quicker and enjoyable climb. It was near noon by now, and the sun was what made the hike tiresome. Stopped for a while for some Amul Cool to replenish our sagging spirits. Energised, we surged forward- and soon arrived at our destination- Brightland Resorts. A quick lunch, followed by a much needed 'hitting the bed ceremony' lulled into the lamnd of dreams by the drone of Arun Lal on Set Max- yeah- Champions Trophy.
Evening we walked about in the Matheran market- got back for dinner- buffet . Decent fair- we lapped it up hungrily. Following dinner was a game of Bluff, in which yours truly didn't exactly impress. I was left with a zillion cards- which I clumsily held, and ended up being the last to finish. Sleep for a (measly) two hours. We bid goodbye to Brightland resort at 3:30 AM, annd took a taxi this time back to Nerul. We found ourselves at IIT at around 7. And faced with the imposing task of writing Fluid Mechanics journal in an hour. And I shall end here, for this is being written at home, and there are norms when it come to time for lunch and bath here , which my mom has been trying to impress upon me all the time i've been typing this.
What I intend to convey by means of the elaborate statement which I furnished above is that a climb up Matheran is not too much of an uphill task. It is uphill, of course, but not uphill in the figurative sense. Also, some intrepid person could say 'let's dig in', and then pull out the pickaxes and convert the words into action, and there's a good chance he might end up on top of relics of a bygone era. I hope someone does, after reading this entry in 'Blogic'. If the city does turn up, then well and good, you should give me a fair shame of the limelight. If not, well, I shall contribute lavishly to the ridicule that is hurled at you, and have a jolly good time doing so.
I shall stop rambling at this point, and elucidate further about my trip to Matheran. We set off at 6 AM, six brave souls, 60 minutes after the scheduled departure time - set off in the inky darkness, cutting through the morning mist- from the picture, we seem like the devil's men, setting off on some secret, evil task. ( See how we paid obesceinces to satan, by involving three 6's at the outset of the journey- may the devil protect us during our journey into the unknown !)
I fall into the rambling trap time and again. Fine, I clamp shut my digressing insticts. Caught the slow local at Kanjur Marg, alighted at Nerul. There, we split up- much like the Fellowhip did at the river. Two of us were too bleary eyed to trek, so they took the easy way out- took a cab to the top. While we courageous souls ploughed our way throught the bushes and thorny scrubs as we took on the 9 km trek. One could just walk along the road. But that's for those who have not the fire of adventure burnign in their blood. We cut across the forset, a much quicker and enjoyable climb. It was near noon by now, and the sun was what made the hike tiresome. Stopped for a while for some Amul Cool to replenish our sagging spirits. Energised, we surged forward- and soon arrived at our destination- Brightland Resorts. A quick lunch, followed by a much needed 'hitting the bed ceremony' lulled into the lamnd of dreams by the drone of Arun Lal on Set Max- yeah- Champions Trophy.
Evening we walked about in the Matheran market- got back for dinner- buffet . Decent fair- we lapped it up hungrily. Following dinner was a game of Bluff, in which yours truly didn't exactly impress. I was left with a zillion cards- which I clumsily held, and ended up being the last to finish. Sleep for a (measly) two hours. We bid goodbye to Brightland resort at 3:30 AM, annd took a taxi this time back to Nerul. We found ourselves at IIT at around 7. And faced with the imposing task of writing Fluid Mechanics journal in an hour. And I shall end here, for this is being written at home, and there are norms when it come to time for lunch and bath here , which my mom has been trying to impress upon me all the time i've been typing this.
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