Sadness across India when Sridevi, one of the biggest names in Hindi/Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam/Kannada cinema passes away after an accidental drowning in a bathtub at her suite booked at Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai. This unpleasant event happened on 24 Feb 2018. In Dubai, she was attending her nephew's (Mohit Marwah) wedding. She arrived in Dubai two days earlier because she did some shopping for one of her daughter’s (Janhvi Kapoor) birthday to come. She was married to Indian movie … [Read more...]
A Fine Balance
I think that Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" is a book that can't be avoided if you want to read Indian fiction. It is extraordinary well written, it is present in any Top Books list about India, or just Bombay (even if I have recently found one by the British Guardian that listed "Family Matters" on an alleged Top 10 about Bombay, Mistry's 2002 third book). I have my own preferences about books on India, or on Bombay-Mumbai, but I haven't yet read all of the acclaimed books. What can I … [Read more...]
Shantaram, a Magnificent Novel
"Shantaram" is one of the best novels I have ever read, only that there are many novels I read and I liked a lot and considered of high quality. It is huge, but Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" is huger. They both are so "readable" that you regret every time you put any one of them down. "Shantaram" reminded me of "Papillon", or better said, "Banco", the second in Henry Charriere's series of adventures, but the only resemblance is that the heroes, the authors themselves, were convicts and have … [Read more...]
Midnight’s Children – The Movie
One of the most acclaimed novels of all times, Midnight's Children, by the highly controversial author, Salman Rushdie , has been put on screen by another Indian, who lives in Canada now, Deepa Mehta. I have read the book a few times, it's the best book ever written by Rushdie, and it's also the most awarded of his entire creation. He is partly famous because of a major controversy, created by his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, which provoked protests from Muslims in the whole world. Death … [Read more...]
“All Iz Well”
India is an amazing country, as I have already stated in the linked post. I have finally watched these days, a real Bollywood masterpiece, one that has broken the box office record outside India at the time of release, in 2009. Usually it is a matter of tastes regarding this musical tragedies, some of them are really entertaining, others are just boring and stereotypical. Not this one. 3 Idiots is a perfect mix between comedy (it is more of a comedy than a tragedy), drama and music. Actually it … [Read more...]
Awesome India
What is the connection between India and the following companies? BEA , MicroStrategy, Business Objects, Netegrity Inc., FAST, Oracle, FileNet, SAP, HP, Siemens, IBM, Sterling Commerce, Informatica, Sun Microsystems, Interwoven, TIBCO Software Inc., Mantas, Wavecom, Microsoft are only a few of the great IT corporations that work with the Indian Infosys. [source] In less than three years, 25% of world workers will be Indian. Half the world’s outsourced IT services come from India, … [Read more...]