Seasons Greetings!!!

Currently Reading: 1000 Dollars and an Idea

Illuminating Memoir
I am currently reading this interesting memoir of Sam Wyly an American billionaire. The book traces the author's journey from a little nondescript town Delhi, Louisiana to the Dallas, where he starts his career with IBM and then breaks out to become an entrepreneur and subsequently a billionaire.
I am quite impressed by the way he has drawn lessons from seemingly inconspicuous incidents in his life. Events as mundane as a weekly visit to the barber shop, building mock portfolios for a class project, conversations with his mother, etc have all been recounted with an emphasis on the life lessons if offers.
I feel that this book is a must read for all those who wish to become entrepreneurs. Those who don't nurture aspirations of becoming entrepreneurs could well learn about how to develop their personalities and achieve financial independence through smart investment decisions.

Movie Review: Mata

Sandalwood regaining glory

During my teenage years I avoided Kannada movies like plague. There were several reasons for that including the fact that I bought into the popular notion that not watching Kannada movies was cool. Moreover the quality of Kannada flics were quite pathetic and had more or less the same storyline, same old faces, too much drama, unrealistic and badly executed action sequences. All this seems to have changed during the past few years. I have noticed that a new genre of Kannada movies starring actors like Ganesh, Puneet Rajkumar, Sudeep, Ramesh Arvind, Jaggesh, and an entire army of new actors and actresses are comparable with the best in any other regional film industry.

Recently I watched the movie Mata starring Jaggesh and effectively supported by a team of supporting actors such as Mandya Ramesh, Tabla Nani, Shashidhar Bhat, and others. The movie tells the story of a religious institution that cares for handicapped children. The chief swamiji of the institution is also responsible for these children. One fine day the swamiji falls in love and leaves his position to become a householder. This puts the institution in a quandary, the trustee decides to place an advertisement in the local newspaper and recruit the right candidate for the position. Something unheard of in the country.

The candidates who get selected to undergo the rigorous training to qualify to become a Swami are the heroes of this movie. I mentin Heroes because everyone has an equal role in the plot and Jaggesh is the only popular face so one tends to think that he is the hero. The rest of the movie is about the training that the applicants receive and which one becomes the swamiji.

The best part of the movie is its message and of course the liberal dose of comedy that is thrown in. Definitely worth watching and I would give it a 4 star rating.

Book Spotlight: Muslim Mafia

I saw this book in the library screaming the headline Muslim Mafia on its cover. I picked it up and read the writing on the sleeve and about the author. Apparently the book is written by an ex-US military counter terrorism fighter. I am pretty sure it is quite accurate and the concerns expressed in the book are real considering the recent terror attacks on the US.

Book Review: Society the Basics

Text Book makes an interesting read
I had to read this book by John Macionis because it was the prescribed textbook. As I progressed through the pages of this large format volume the exciting content made me anticipate reading this as much as any other book.

Book Review : The Routes of Man

A unique travelogue!!!
The Routes of Man I first heard about this book on the local NPR station KERA. The author Ted Conover was being quizzed about the book's content and his experiences while compiling the book. I felt interested when I heard that the author had traveled to almost every significant nook and corner of the globe to get the data, pictures, and information about the roads he was writing about.

This is a travelogue of an individual who loves the road and explores the culture, society, economy and other aspects that make or mar the road. I am still reading it... in fact I just started and have completed the first few chapters of the 333 page volume.

Initially along I haven't liked facet of his writing, he refers to Native American tribes as Indians, which in my opinion is grossly wrong. I promptly wrote a protest note to the author and he responded in a cheeky manner that these people referred to themselves as "Indians" and that he didn't want to correct them. I don't see the reclaiming Indian identity as his duty but in my opinion he owes the world in general and particularly people from India that much that his words should not reflect that the Native American Tribes are Indians. He could quote some member of a Native American tribe as saying "We are Indians..." or whatever... but him writing... simply not done...

Will post something more once I complete the book pretty soon I guess, because it is an easy and interesting read.

Movie Review: Cop Out

Finally an action movie with laughter
We had an opportunity to watch this move absolutely FREE, thanks to the largess of the dollar theater employees. We were late for the show at the theater and the box office was closed, instead of retracing our steps we went in and asked if we could get any tickets for any movie. The lady out there said just walk-in and watch any movie we wished. Thanking her profusely we walked in and sat for Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, and others and directed by Kevin Smith.

The way I associate Bruce Willis movies are with violence, lots of blood, destruction of public property, and related stuff. Surprisingly this movie is quite different, there is very little blood, lots of humor and little destruction. The role Bruce Willis plays is quite similar to his other movies, he is a cop, divorced from his wife. His daughter is getting married and he wants to pay for the wedding. His only asset is a valuable baseball card that gets stolen and sold to a drug dealer.

Willis and his partner Morgan catch the thief but the card is with the dealer who cuts a deal. He wants to find a stolen car which has something in it... a live girl... The rest of the movie is some car chases, few shoot outs and ends in the baseball card getting shot through. So finally Willis can't pay for the wedding after all.

In my rating I would say worth watching once.

Movie Review: Tooth Fairy

For lack of nothing else to do on Friday evening we decided to go to a movie at the dollar theater in Plano. The intent was to watch a Jackie Chan movie, but there was none playing at a night show. So we decided to watch The Tooth Fairy instead. This is a fairly entertaining kids movie... apart from a few minutes of fantastic ice skating and a some comedy frames there is nothing much worth watching in this movie.

The story traces the life of an aging ice hockey star who is named the tooth fairy because he knocks out teeth of his opponents. His girlfriend has two kids, the daughter just loses one of her teeth and the mother tells the story of tooth fairy. The protagonist tries to tell her the truth in a rude manner to the chagrin of the mother. The son doesn't like this guy because he is rude, and sarcastic.

The story moves on to fairyland when the player gets called to do some community service and then after some seriously boring drama and some funny scenes the movie ends with a soulful transformation of the protagonist. I definitely wouldn't pay the regular theater ticket to watch this movie....

Book Review: Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Guide towards enhancing self-awareness

I picked up this book at the library and started reading it out of curiosity. As I delved deeper into the book I realized that it is indeed a fantastic resource. It gives useful tips on how to become self aware, monitor our emotions and control our reactions.

Chapters in the book deal with steps and measures to identify our emotional triggers even before they take over and guide our response. The author warns however that readers should not expect overnight changes in their life or actions. This book is only a guide for those interested to become more aware of their emotions. By following steps given in the book it would be possible to control our futures.

Movie Review: Charley Varrick

Fantastic Thriller without the usual Bang Bang!!!

Direction: Don Siegel
Cast: Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon
Story: Based on novel The Looters by John H. Reese

This is the story of a small time bank robber and his gang. Charley Varrick played by Matthau is a crop duster by profession but his main occupation is pulling off small bank heists in rural America. During one bank heist they run into trouble and his wife and a gang member gets killed. Surprisingly the heist yields an unusually large sum of money $750,000 and the bank declares a loss of only $1,500.

The money actually belongs to the mob and is on its way out of the country. The mob sets people on Charley and the other surviving gang member's tails. Charley is too smart to fall prey to the mob. The rest of the movie shows how Charley uses his ingenuity to get out of the spot he is in.

This is one of those family movies that has something for every member. There is drama, thrill, some violence, action, stunts, and great dialogues. If you can get hold of this 1973 film do watch it.

Movie Review: Curse of the Golden Flower

Incest, Deceit, Rivalry, and Family Disputes
This is one Chinese martial arts movie I didn't quite like. Simple reason there is far too many sub-plots for a successful story. There is a king whose second wife is having an affair with his first wife's son... rather her stepson. Then there is the son of the second wife who is totally loyal to his father who switches loyalties at the end and in the process perishes. The king knows his wife's affair with his son and wants to punish only his wife, believing that she is the cause. He poisons her slowly, a small vial everyday... the plot is revealed to the queen and she continues to go ahead and continue to take the medicine.

Then there is a twist to the plot. The prince has another lover, one of his step-mother's attendants. Quite expectedly his original lover is not happy. That girl is none other than the King's first wife's daughter, and the prince's half-sister. As if this were not enough the first wife of the king is married to his own doctor and he doesn't know it for several years. True to its name the move is accursed and ends on a sad note.

The only saving grace of this movie if any is the beautifully executed fast action, martial art stunts. Had these not been there the movie would have been a complete disaster... greater than what it is now.

Movie Review: My Mom's New Boyfriend

No Logic, Weak Story & Mediocre Performances

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks, Selma Blair and others
Director: George Gallo

This movie probably attracted audiences because of its impressive star-cast. I had heard a lot about this movie but was too lazy to go and watch the movie in the theaters. For sometime I was even wondering whether I was missing something, but after watching the movie I am more than convinced that it was not a bad decision at all.

The story line of the movie is something like this: Meg Ryan plays the role of an obese, drunken single mother whose son goes out of the house to get trained as a FBI agent. When he returns he sees a completely transformed Meg Ryan. A slim, svelte and sexy woman, she has a set of boyfriends that include a college dropout and a drunk Italian chef.

Quite naturally the son Henry (Colin Hanks) is worried about this mother's wayward life. The worries multiply when she bumps into Tommy (Antonio Banderas) in the market and starts dating him. Things get even charged up for Henry when he has to spy on Tommy, he has to bug his own home, and follow his mother. What happens thereafter and how things get sorted out forms the rest of the movie.

The screenplay is honestly quite pathetic. Other than the impressive star cast there is nothing in the movie. If you haven't watched it don't bother, if you have the opportunity to watch it free and don't have anything better to do, it would be a better option.

Movie Review: It All Started in Naples

Child Custody Battle leads to Romance

Starring: Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, etc.
Director: Melville Shavelson

Consider a successful American lawyer who has lost his wayward brother in an automobile accident, a beautiful Italian nightclub singer who holds custody of the departed brother's only son, in a tourist setting. The result is a war of wits and mettle over custody of the little boy and in the process the adults fall in love and take over joint custody of the boy. This in effect is the story of this movie.

What makes it worth watching for 120 odd minutes is the stellar performances by top stars Clark Gable (American lawyer Michael Hamilton) and Sophia Loren (Italian nightclub singer Lucia Curcio) which makes you laugh throughout the movie. Director Michael Shavelson has extracted great performances from both the stars and especially the young boy who plays Nandos.

The movie starts off with Michael arriving in Naples to take care of the estate of his brother who was killed in an automobile accident. The brother, who has borrowed $14,000 from Michael and squandered it away, so in effect there is not much money left. There is his young son Nandos, who at 8 doesn't go to school but smokes and drinks. Lucia, Nando's mother's unmarried sister has claimed him as her own and both are very attached to each other.

Michael is not happy with the way the boy is growing up and wants to give him a good education in an American school. Lucia is naturally not willing to give up custody and this leads to some courtship and finally to a court battle over custody. What happens at the end is quite predictable but how it happens is what you will have to discover by watching the movie.