Dan Brown - The Ingenious Artist

It’s been a long day at work for me, and it was while I was capitulating to boredom, when I thought of doing something which I had long forgotten and which would bring me back on track from my partial hibernation to hyper-activity - Get to work on a new article for my blog!!

When such thought triggered me, I could think of nothing better than giving a vent of my feelings about my most profound pass-time which I lavishly afford myself, even amidst the most busiest days of my routine…that’s Novels !!

Talking of Novels, I cannot help thinking of my latest venture that I recently completed. That’s yet another great book(s) of Dan Brown. In fact, I happened to have completed all of his series starting with

*The Da Vinci Code
*Digital Fortress
*Deception Point
*Angels & Demons

in the chronological order of my access to the books.

After reading all his novels, my adoration for his man as a “Fiction Writer” got intensified, nevertheless, I must admit that this man bores you sometimes by deploying the same “stereotype” plots in all his books. The author seems to be blatantly ignorant in attempting to show any variety in the storyline to give uniqueness to each of his story .After reading all his novels, there is an unmistakable pattern emerging out of all his books, and which helps you to understand the author’s intention more quick. (See what impact Dan Brown has made on me, I have just completed 4 of his books, now I have already started looking for hidden patterns in his books….hehehehehe…what an influence from the author and his stories!!!)..Well here are the consistent patterns in his storyline.

*Always the Character in the upper echelon of the most powerful organization, on whose backdrop the story has been woven, WOULD be the ‘bad guy’. So next time, any one gets to read his book, once they identify who is the most powerful character in the story, can easily point out that person as the Antagonist. U don’t have to wait for Brown to break that identity J

*The Suspense Component of the Story will be revealed in the middle of the novel, one needn’t have to be biting their nails and wait expectantly till the end to know what that “Suspense” factor is. This saves your pulses from beating more than the normal as your involvement goes deeper and deeper into the book.

*The one and only the Main Character (be it Robert Langdon or Rachel Sexton) would be able to decipher the code/passwords, even if they are surrounded by person(s) more genius than them, leading to most gruesome truths when they’re on verge on witnessing the biggest catastrophe. (I am not surprised at this, after-all this should be trademark quality of a hero, isn’t it??)

Albeit these glitches in all his book, he still makes himself an interesting writer…because , as far as I have seen, Dan Brown doesn’t go for writing pages and pages of narration about incidents and characters involved in his novel. His entire anecdotes are adept and concise with small chapters and each chapter brings out different thrills and gruffness which causes more keenness for the reader to know about what is happening next.

While Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons were more of a scandalous religious fiction bringing out wild conceptions contradicting the conventional beliefs of spirituality, Deception Point and Digital Fortress touched Science and technology arena revealing how in the modern days, man’s unfathomable breakthrough invention’s darker side can infiltrate into the deepest impenetrable sources causing utmost pandemonium to mankind.

An effort to justify the cause of every such scandalous invention/controversies has been well handled by Dan Brown in all his books, with justifications which convince you, and that makes him a remarkable writer and his work acceptable. This has been the major cause of victory for the author, in spite of all the controversy that his books succumb to.

In Angels & Demons, It was all about an extinct deadly Secret Brotherhood called Illuminati, surfacing to earth to carry out its personal vendetta against the church for more than a decade, by executing grotesque murder of 4 Potential Popes and planting a powerful bomb inside the Vatican.

In Da Vinci Code, It was all about the cryptic clues and messages felt behind by a murdered man in a museum, leading to the evidences of the long hidden history of Jesus mortal life with Mary Magdalene and his bloodline.

In Digital Fortress, it was about the World powerful Secret Organization’s brain child’s inability to decode the unbreakable code leading way to security breach all across the world.

In Deception Point, it was about a stunning discovery of NASA’s Proof of extra-terrestrial on Earth, only to be later realized as a perfect plan of Deception.

The author has ingeniously handled each of those themes in all his novels with such artful writing, that one gets carried away with him and his speculations and facts. All his work seems to be the fruit for great efforts and researches that he has invested to take care in giving the minute detail involving any technology or history that has been quoted in the book, which has been so evident in each and every page of his books, for an example, the recreation of the universe, re-proving the Big Bang theory and the explanations about the anti-matter which has been dealt in the Angels & Demons, is a classic example of the in-depth research carried out by the author to make the ordinary reader ( like me!!) to understand the laws of nature and physics with more clarity (than before !!).

Through simple words and examples, the author has explained high level theories/technologies so that even a layman understands these concepts which are the backbones of his story, which when not clearly understood, leaves you behind.

Dan Brown has the potential of a great reader and his ability to arrest the thoughts of the reader’s, overpowering their mind with his mind and conviction is the success of his books. Having finished off his novel series, as a great fan of such a mind-blowing creator, am awaiting the release of his next book, which without any doubt would leave the same long-lasting impression and carving for more from this author.

Until then,

The memories of the ghastly events inside the Vatican in Angels & Demons…
The memories of the hidden messages from Da Vinci Paintings in Da Vinci Code…
The memories of the astounding Object underneath Artic Circle in Deception Point…
The memories of the Unbreakable Code in Digital Fortress…

would continue to haunt me until the memories of yet another unknown suspense component from yet another gripping story of Dan Brown hits the market and grips me, and overpowers my existing conflict of the characters and the stories living from the creation of Dan Brown from his so far best thrillers I have read.

Till then, my longing for another novel quest will continue…

Digital Fortress - A Book Review

Digital Fortress is yet another book of Dan Brown that I completed reading recently and found it as astounding and as gripping as his first book that I read (The Da Vinci Code). Dan Brown has deployed the same strategy of story telling in this book too – revelation of the suspense element in the middle of the story, concise chapters with adept narrations, limited high level-headed characters, neck-to-neck chases and fast-paced storyline, which makes our heart skip its beat at every bend of the suspense and mesmerize us into his plot, thus making us feel part of the story and elicit expressions of wide ranges from excitement, panic, wrath to sorrow for every episode in the story. The author enchants us with his strong grip of realistic imagination.

Digital Fortress is twined with NSA (National Security Agency), as the backdrop. NSA is the Secret Security organization of US Intelligence, whose existence is hardly known to the world, and which possess TRANSLTR, it’s brainchild, with the creditability of a distinguished “Code-Breaker” decrypting any complex lengthy encryptions in no matter of time, thus invading all the communication system existent in this world. All goes well for NSA until one day NSA Commander Trevor Strathmore summons Susan Fletcher, the Head Cryptologist to decode an unbreakable code, which the TRANSLTR has not broken for more than 12 hours. The fact that TRANSLTR would become a failure, which will bring down the power of NSA to ashes, if it cannot break this unbreakable code, poses a big threat to the Organization and both Strathmore and Susan had to do something quick to stop NSA’s pitfall. Hell breaks loose, when they discover that the unbreakable code has been created by NSA former employee, Ensei Tankado, who threatens to bring the NSA to an end with his code, if NSA fails to publicly announce about TRANSLTR existence to the outside world, which if done, would cause major upheaval and upsurge of public rage for NSA's invasion into human’s basic rights of privacy. The only hope for TRANSLTR is the pass-key, possessed by Tankado, which is capable of decrypting the code, but which is non-obtainable due to the Tankado’s sudden death.

Strathmore sends David Becker, the Professor of Foreign Language and the lover of Susan to fetch the pass-key from the dead man’s belonging at the time of his death in Spain. What seemed to be a simple act of collecting a dead man’s ring, turns out to be a life threatening ordeal for David when his life gets into the threat of becoming a target for an assassin who is following him closely and killing everyone he encounters.

The realization of the unbreakable code’s camouflage is revealed too late to Strathmore and Susan from preventing TRANSLTR from its devastation. What was misinterpreted, as an 'Unbreakable Code' was actually a worm, which has already entered the NSA databank to breach its security system, thus going to sanction secured communications to the outside world. Before the worm hits its target, would NSA be able to save its databank from its new unstoppable invader? With very less time in hand and unable to decode the secret message of the pass-key, which yields the password to destroy the worm, would Susan and her team succeed in their efforts is the crux of the finale in the story.

The climax is very gripping and keeps us at the edge of our seats to know the outcome. One cannot take his mind off the book even after completing it. The vitality of characters is recorded in our minds and we tend to share with them, the impact of their experience within us too, even after putting the book down.

Digital Fortress is yet another code invented by Dan Brown, when opened, leads to infectious desire of reading more of his books and disseminates a fondness for Dan Brown for his legendary technique of captivating the readers with the ever-lasting memories of his books and its characters.

Range De Basanti - Movie Review

Range De Basanti starring Amir Khan, Alice Patten, Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni is a movie, which evokes the patriotic spirit in us. A movie dedicated to the Great Freedom Fighters of India, who have fought their lives to give us the “Freedom India”.

The movie has all the ingredients required to make it a commercial hit. The biggest of one being the star-cast. With Amir Khan in the lead, the director has not failed to utilize his acting talents and his comic senses and with all his vitality exhibited right from the start till the end, the movie has been justified as a typical Amir Khan movie. Another saving grace of the movie is the youthfulness of the characters (despite age showing up on Amir Khan face), their frivolous attitude and innocence, which adds more light to the narration and characterization.

Sue (Alice Patten), a foreigner, is inspired to make a documentary on Indian Freedom Fighters, comes to India to make her dream come true, after reading her Grandpa’s Diary and his encounters with the great fighters like Bhagat Singh, Azad etc, while he was serving the British during their regime in India.

Sue seeks the help of Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) for her venture and through her gets introduced to her four friends, D.J (Amir Khan), Karan (Siddharath), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Suki (Sharman Joshi), Whom Sue feels fit best for the characters of her documentary. Ajay Rathod (Madhavan) the lover of Sonia is a pilot and the only one in the gang who has some patriotic feelings and feels it’s one’s duty and responsibility to serve the nation and keeps emphasizing about serving the country to the gang. All the other guys have totally different life styles, priorities and virtues, far different and unmatched with the characters of the free-fighters portrayed by Sue and. For them, patriotism is something very alien. They are the carefree guys of today’s generation and have no responsibility towards their nation, whatsoever. Initially they show no interest to get involved into the movie and into their characters and make fun of everything about the movie. But things take a turn, and they actually start to realize the importance of those leaders and their sacrifices to this country once they start acting in the documentary. Gradually they start to see in them, what they have not seen so far – the spirit of Patriotism. The scenes of their enacting as the patriotic heroes are juxtaposed against the scenes of their current life of fun and frolic and at one point the past and the present merges. The death of Madhavan in an air crash and the manipulation done by the defense minister to cover-up his mistakes thus making Madhavan’s death a result of lack of his ability turns the table upside down and becomes the eye-opener for the boys to realize their responsibilities towards bringing out the justice from the dark. The cinematic characters that they enact become real within them and they take drastic steps to bring out justice for the death of their dear friend towards the climax.

Amir Khan as D.J. is full of life and fun. He plays a boy of Punjabi origin, and his mother played by Kiran Kher, has suited herself best in her role. The mother-son confrontations and dialogues look very natural and bring out good humor. Amir Khan has made the audience roar with laughter’s at many scenes with his spontaneous humor particularly when he introduces Sue to his mother as her would be daughter-in-law without realizing she understands Hindi and his subsequent reaction when he sees her talking fluent Hindi. This movie is one more feather to his cap of his outstanding performance. Amir has proved himself once again as a potential actor.

Siddharath (Of Boys fame) as Karan is a silent boy (of the gang) and suffers a strained relationship with his father (Anupem Kher) and who wants to leave the country for his higher studies. Siddharath has shown more maturity and has exposed his acting talents impressively in this movie, particularly towards the climax scene he is the one who actually steals the show. He makes an impression about himself in the minds of the audience. He deserves a pat for his performance.

Kunal Kapoor as Aslam, the handsome guy of the four, has exhibited good acting. He plays a role of Muslim belonging to a very conservative family disliking his acquaintance with Amir and his gang due to their nepotism for racism, but who rebels with his family and sees religion at a different angle.

Sharman Joshi as Suki is very lively in nature and brings out the best of humor next to Amir Khan. He does not have much of serious act in the movie. Wherever he is present in the movie, audiences are not deprived of good laugh.

Soha Ali Khan as Sonia looks stunning throughout the movie. She seems to do everything fine except acting. Just few scenes of jokes, teasing the boys, dancing a bit and romancing with Madhavan alone doesn’t prove her acting potential. In the scenes where she is supposed to elicit sorrows, she miserably fails, particularly when she hears of Madhavan’s death. She could have emoted better. Except her looks and sketch, she doesn’t seem to impress any other way.

Madhavan as Ajay has understood his role and done justification to that, though he is seen only for very few scenes in the movie. He is very impressive.

Alice Patten as Sue has shown some good acting. Her Hindi fluency does not suite her face and seems little out of place.

Though there are many positive elements to make this movie more interesting, one cannot ponder over the prominent flaws, which the director has not taken care to address. The movie for most of its part toggles between the contemporary India and the modern India. When showing the incidents from the past, there is no coherence between the scenes. It looks like bits and pieces of each freedom fighter life has been attached with the story, without evidently reasoning out their cause to fight against the British, because of which the complete history of their vital role for the freedom movement is not clearly understood. The most unacceptable and unrealistic aspect of the movie is the climax, which destroys the charm and the impression of the movie all-together.

The youths at the prime age of their lives, loosing their life just to bring justice to the dead man (Madhavan) is too far-fetched practicality. An act of killing the defense minister also makes no sense in the movie, one really tend to ask, if killing the unjust is the only solution to bring justice, wouldn't it would bring out more violence in the real life than what exist now? Karan killing his own father is too much of unreality to bear. These kinds of big leaks in the story, makes the movie realistically unacceptable and collapses the naturalness carried in the story from the beginning. The end could have been conceived little different and more pragmatic, without so much of bloodshed. However one has to appreciate the comic sense of the heroes even at the time of their deaths, which adds up to their performance and make us remorse for their deaths even after the movie is over.

Rang De Basanti is surely a movie, coloring the patriotic spirit in us.

The Da Vinci Code – A Loud Talk

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a mystery thriller intertwined with religious beliefs and its controversies, bringing out ancient and forgotten histories out of the shadows onto the surface.

When I started to read this book, I was expecting it to be like any other suspense thriller, with the usual gambit of a murder scene followed by some leads left behind by the adversaries which the main characters start investigating and finally end with a happy note with enemies destroyed and the hero-heroine joining hands…nevertheless, the story started with the similar mystery plot that I anticipated (Thanks to Dan Brown for not disappointing me!!!). The initial few pages of suspense and mystery caught my attention and I was enthralled with the suspense-knot, which in this story was cryptic clues, anagrams and symbols, which gave that “not-so-easy-to-decipher” impression about the hidden and encoded communications, which when only correctly decoded, offers solutions to the mystery, within the arena of the main plot. But then, as I went deeper and deeper into the story, I realized this book is going to be different from all the other books that I have read before, though it deploys the same usual mystery strategies. Courtesy: - The interesting claims and facts that I stumbled upon in the story. Beyond these suspense’s, there was something so unique about the book like the extraordinary narration style, tidbits of interesting information at appropriate places which was acting as a vitamin to augment the character’s justifications to incidents and events happening unexpectedly throughout the storyline, representations of archeological excavation of truths and mysteries, which in my opinion made this book more distinguished and left a long-lasting impression in my heart.

This story touched me in a very special way, as if pulling me towards some magnetic force erupting from part of the narration which made me travel with the story, beyond my caste and religion, and into the pitch filled with energy - the energies of the characters and the energies of the force generated at the nucleus of reality emerging out of the creativity of the author, which made me a part of the characters and provoked me to panic with them when they were in danger, bewilder with them when they came up with unexpected truths , alarm with them when they were in distress and what not. For this very reason, I felt I am obliged to express my thoughts the way I felt about the Story and how ingeniously the author has succeeded his creative venture by mesmerizing my mind and ruling it with his thoughts, undertaking his code of conviction by overlooking my code of disbelief.

The mystery part of the story is about Jacques Sauniere, the curator of Louvre Museum, Paris, who is found murdered inside the museum’s Grand Gallery. Investigation on his murder, leads the Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (DCPJ) Captain Bezu Fache, to summon the eminent Professor of Religious Symbology from Harvard University, Robert Langdon, onto the scenes of the murder seeking his help to decode the cryptic clues and symbols which Jacquese had left on his body and beside him during his final minutes before his death and which the police believed, were the clues to identify the murderer. Langdon faces true shock when he inconspicuously discovers through Sophie Neveu, the DCPJ Cryptologist (and the granddaughter of the dead man), that police suspects him of the murder, as Jacques had scribbled his name at the scene of his attack before his death. Robert had to defend himself from the police as they had every evidence pointing against him as the potential target, the worse of one being a scheduled meeting of Langdon and Jacques at the time of Jacques murder. With help of Sophie, they both escape from the museum (by creating an alibi), diverting the police out of their sight they go back to the gallery investigating the cryptic clues which leads to one event after the another, and with the help of Sir Leigh Teabing, a religious historian, approach the horrifying truth behind Jacques murder and his murderers. As a “wanted” fugitives they both have very less time to go to the root of the investigation and open the can full of worms leading to shocking revelations and finally unearth the most devastating and cunning truth that had been suppressed for centuries, the truth when exposed could crush the world harmony to pieces. At this point comes the twist in the tale.

The author deserves a round of applause for his excellence in his narrative style and for his skillful writing through which he has given life to all the characters in the story. Everything about the book looks very natural. It looks that the author seem to have taken special care about not prolonging the chapters for pages, each chapter is very precise with specific events and narrations and when the suspense is reached at one scene, the author skillfully jumps to another scene, making the readers wait with impatience and anticipation to know the outcome of the suspense and keeping them hooked up with the book looking forward to the subsequent narration. One could easily fall for the author’s charismatic literary bait.

As for the special appreciation to the characters, besides Langdon and Sophie, who have existed all through the story as living characters and touches our hearts with love and concern for their lives, there is one more character in the story, who has nothing physical about him, yet lures you through his past life and present reminders of his existence, that’s Leonardo Da Vinci. Though a dead person, he comes out alive in each and every chapter of the story, against whom the entire plot of the revelations in the story has been attributed. Unraveling many hidden secrets and messages about Da Vinci and his various frescos like Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, The Last Supper etc, lead the main characters closer to the hub of the suspense component.

I wondered while reading the book, how much of Da Vinci, who has been an embodiment of Artistic Legendary, do I know? All that came to my mind was that he is the creator of the everlasting work of art “Mona Lisa” which still lives evergreen and eternal in this world and reminds us about this prodigy of Art. But to encounter the facts and speculation about this genius and his world acclaimed creation “Mona Lisa”, I was quite stumped. The first shock came through me, when I learnt through this book that Da Vinci is homosexual (Somewhat I thought this fact about him might demean his impression). This information cleanly took me off-guard. If I was struck by a thunderbolt, even before I could come out of the impact, Imagine what would be my plight if I was struck with another thunderbolt much massive than this and which put me in deep state of unfathomable disbelief ? I learnt through this book that, Da Vinci’s biggest of creation, which has been a subject of his creative mastery for which he is remembered and adored for ageless times - Mona Lisa - is neither a male nor female. Mona Lisa is a message of androgyny. It’s fusing of both. The secret behind the smile on her face, is deliberate and meant as a tricky prank played by Da Vinci to exemplify that Mona Lisa is aware of her true nature and the smile lets out her consciousness about her own being. Next time I look at Mona Lisa, I think her smile wouldn't be captivating anymore, now that I have learnt the truth about her.

And for the most attracting part of the entire story and the main focal point of controversies that it aroused is the Holy Grail. I understand that Holy Grail is the holy cup from which Jesus had his drink, during his last supper, before he was crucified. Looking at Christianity from outside the religion, this is what at least I perceived out of that term. The allegation in this book quoted by Dan Brown, claims that Jesus Christ is not a God, but a human being and Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene (misconceived as the prostitute to the world of Christians) and that Mary carried the bloodline of Jesus in her womb, which later evolved as a Merovingian bloodline – descendents of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, who are still existent in this world centuries after centuries. All the hue and cry about the Holy Grail has a hideous message shouting unheard to the outside world, that the Grail is none other than Lady Mary Magdalene herself and telling that she is so holy by nature and so close to Jesus at heart and Soul. The enlightenment of such claims is very crushing to the spiritual believers of Christianity. It’s like their centuries of belief about God, one fine day, is stumbling down and mocking at them saying “What you have been believing all these days was not God, but actually a man, flesh and blood, who had a family and children. The mortality of a man had been illusioned and many manipulations done, including the existence of his family buried live into the grave to give him the stature what he has presently owned”. If I try to understand the sensitivity of the manipulation projected in the book in order to make Jesus Christ as what he is now, I realize it would hurt anyone as deep as how a vital blow on the head would do, because the supreme reality is the only realization widely believed and accepted across various racial communities. When the origin of supreme reality is questioned, it shatters the fundamental beliefs of mankind about their aspect of devotion and their containment in God.

An interesting segment of the fact that I came across in this book is the Priory of Sion. Priory of Sion is a Secret Organization founded by the descendents of this Jesus-Mary bloodline whose sole purpose was to protect the Holy Grail. They are believed to have some parchments containing the proof of the true identity of Mary and also her mummy, which has been preserved for centuries by the descendents of the Jesus and Mary bloodline and has been hidden deep down the earth (as in this book, currently in Paris). Sleeping with her is the truth about her destruction and her misconceptualization. Interestingly, Great men like Isaac Newton, Da Vinci and many more were the Grand Masters (leaders) of this Priory of Sion. No wonder, Da Vinci creations had shades of feminism, which were contributed to his belief about Mary and his secret way of telling the world about her existence.

The millions of Christian’s belief about their religion has been rocked by the author’s yet another speculation that the Christians most holy book – the Bible, is not actually what it is all about. His speculations fake the truth behind this holy book. At least that’s what it aims at. This is the conspiracy capable of erupting the biggest of religion mayhem and insurrection as it falsifies beliefs about Christianity as the whole.

One needs to have the audacity to write about such things jeopardizing the sole belief of an entire human race of community of spirituality, by claiming such unthinkable conceptions. Dan Brown seems to be a man of one. The credibility of this falsification is definitely questionable, however any person reading it (unless he is not a hard-core fanatic) cannot truly eliminate the stories out of their mind as absurd owing to the vehement proofs supporting the author’s theory to make it very authentic. One definitely ponders over the incidents and the (alleged) facts and gives it a thought. (At least I did that, not on any offensive motive though, just got curious about all the cock and bull stories projected, which are still lingering in my mind).

To Sum up, Da Vinci Code – Is a Code when decoded is capable of powerful destruction of human’s harmony with one another, by rupturing the most sensitive truth laid on every human’s mind.

The Truth about spirituality….

The Truth about Worship….

The Truth about their core beliefs on God….

Looking at Da Vinci Code as a Spiritual book, it is not an advisable read. But looking at the book on the lighter vein, as an entertainer to keep you occupied with gripping events and incidents, it’s definitely an advisable read. After all, the purpose of any creator is to put his imagination to fullest exploitation, with his rights to express his mind coupled with his creative expertise. Any creations should be scrutinized on a fantasy note with an optimistic observation and bring out the positive ness in the messages or the storyboard to make the reading worthy of it. As the author’s effort lies in fully realizing the capability of his creation for entertainment, the reader’s effort lies in fully understanding the book’s core objective for entertainment.

In my view, The Da Vinci Code is the Key, which opens up the door of Entertainment and not of Controversy.

Conspiracy - A Book Review

Judith Tramayne’s Conspiracy is a splendid novel comprised of mystery and thriller, filled with adept narration and characterization. The story revolves around a high-level conspiracy involving IRS, FBI and Congress. The suspense in the story is breathtaking and keeps the reader at the edge of their seat until the finale.

Breanna, the protagonist of the story, is blessed with supernatural powers which she has possessed and secretly maintained after she was struck by thunderbolt at the age of thirteen, which helps her to identify any defective documents by laying her left hand on them, and the fallacious disposition of a person by placing her right hand on their signature. She can even unlock any locked doors by placing both her hands on them.

During college she finds a part-time job at Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Seattle as an auditor to analyzes the tax returns and identify the authenticity of returns submitted, which she could do with tremenderous speed and spellbound accuracy using her special powers. Becoming an asset to IRS, she also becomes a close friend to Andrea Hamilton-Black, her superior, owing to their commonality – Andrea’s physic powers. Life is so smooth and Breanna enjoys her job and Andrea’s nepotism until on a meeting with Andrea on the Thanksgiving Day, where she finds out from her, about the conspiracy at the upper echelon of IRS on the misconduct of tax enforcement.

Soon after Andrea reveals the conspiracy to Breanna, she and her newly wed husband Scott were found dead in a hotel while honeymooning. Breanna determined to punish the killers of her best friend-mentor, starts her investigation to find the murderers and soon supported by Alex, Andrea’s son and an active columnist of the Washington-Post and Stone Reeves, an FBI agent, but actually a mole for the Justice Department, with whom she falls in love, in her pursuit. An attempt on Breanna life is also made. Someone wants to eliminate her desperately. Before it is too late, they had to get closer to the killer.

With danger surrounding them all around, the trio takes help of Adrienne, the lover of Alex who put them under the charge of her uncle, Jake, an antagonist of the government and wanting a revolutionary changes to the current constitution. All of them with Jack’s supporters join hands together to expose the high-level conspiracy, with their enemies hot on their tracks to find them and stop them before Alex exposes the conspiracy to the outer-world through his power of media.

The Climax is about whether their mission to put and end to the conspiracy and reform the government is accomplished, and all their attempts to safeguard themselves from their adversaries are successful.

Conspiracy is truly a gripping novel, enchanting the readers with its skillful recitation of actions.

Sardhar at his Best !!

One of the Best Sardharji Jokes I have enjoyed to the maximum.

Rajiv: Zail Singhji, How is your MBA preparation?
Zail Singh: Everything is fine, but I could not understand Logic.
Rajiv : Logic is very easy.
Zail Singh: Can you give me an example, so that I can understand?
Rajiv: OK. Do you have fish pot in your house?
Zail : YES.
Rajiv: Logically, there will be water in it.
Zail : YES.
Rajiv: Logically, there will be fish in it.
Zail : YES.
Rajiv: Logically, someone will be feeding the fish.
Zail: YES.
Rajiv: I take a guess that your wife will be feeding the fish.
Zail : YES.
Rajiv: So, Logically, you are married.
Zail: YES.
Rajiv : So, that means you are a heterosexual.

Zail Singh was very glad and he understood logic. Next day he meets Buta Singh who was also preparing for his MBA exams.

Zail: How is your MBA preparation?
Buta : Everything is fine except for the logic.
Zail : Oh,logic is easy.
Buta : Can you please explain it to me?
Zail : Do you have a fish pot in your house?
Buta : NO, I don't.
Zail : Saala HOMO!!!

The 11:11 Syndrome

Lately the 11:11 syndrome has struck me deeply! The name might suggest a disease, but it’s not…. it’s rather a silly experience which I am calling it a Syndrome, for a very simple reason that, I am frequently experiencing the symptoms of it.

Now what is this 11:11 syndrome??? – It is simply nothing but too much of a time coincidence…
Whenever I glance at my system-clock, wall-clock, or any kind of timepiece, I don’t miss to see the time 11:11 during the day (even when writing this article, when I glanced at the clock – I was looking at 11:11). Seeing that, it appears to me that time has come to a standstill at this particular time frame and has become eternal.

Is my brain programmed to subconsciously look at the clock whenever it strikes 11:11? An instinct tells me “Hey, look at the time now”, and when I see it, there it is…. 11:11 All around me!! The other times when I don’t see this number on the clock, I don’t fail to see numbers like 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 1:11, 8:08, 9:09, 10:10 etc regularly…To extrapolate, they seem to be unique single digit numbers most of the times.

Every time I look at single-digit numbers like this, I just raise my brows. Initially what started to be a look of amusement turned out to be a feel of obsession as the experience of seeing them happened almost everyday, I couldn’t shrug it off as a mere coincidence anymore. The benefit of my obsession was owed to the increasing regularity of the 11:11 occurrence.

Every time I saw such unique timings, I got excited and called my husband (if he is near-by) and point out with pride to him, “see the time now is 11:11”, “see the time now is 5:55” etc. As though I have done a major discovery of the modern times. Initially what he saw in me as a kiddish excitement got over his nerves as a constant nuisance, mulling over the same senseless finding again and again…. finally he was confirmed that I have gone nuts! Nevertheless, I was undeterred to find out more about it (instincts provoked me again!!) and maybe to do some little investigation on it.

Couple of days back, as curiosity got the better off me, just like that I tried testing the encyclopedic knowledge of Google and simply typed 11:11 and clicked on Search…. Out came a response giving some tip-off to several related information to 11:11…. The result caught me by surprise, more to say, by happiness. If I had considered myself as a nut, I just realized, I was not alone…there were lots of others (nuts) to accompany me. So many like me had similar experiences and have shared their feelings on these brain-teasing numbers on the net…. going through each one of them, made the entire “syndrome” (I won’t cease to call it a syndrome, as I am now assured that, I would be seeing them more often in the future too) very authentic and rational (at least to me!!).

Now having got some insight about the topic, 11:11 to put it in very simple terms, it’s a blessing from Guardian Angels (Legend has it that there were 1,111 angels guarding mankind, but now it’s believed that the numbers seems to have increased), These Guardian Angels pick-up few persons (their parameter of choosing is not mentioned though) and their method of telling whom they pick that they’re guarding them is through this 11:11 symptom (or any such unique single digit number symptom). When asked for any wishes during this revelation time, it is granted by those angels, is the belief behind this 11:11 syndrome. I am not a superstitious person to believe in guardian angels, nonetheless, to chance upon something, which favors some benefits and gives optimistic grants, so to say, about what I see, made me feel good and coax me to believe about these angels (If I had read anything negative about it, I would have discarded that page as a junk, that’s a different story).

With unbelievable belief about what I read, I have decided to feel good whenever I see 11:11 on my clock again (or any other single digit number). When I shared what I read with my husband, his feelings about me only grew stronger…But am satisfied and convinced that I have some relevance and references to what seemed like uncomprehending coincidences that's been racking my brains for sometime now.

So, if you’re a believer of “11:11 syndrome” and you’re superstitious, know that you have angels blessing you and make a wish whenever you encounter this syndrome and feel good about experiencing it. For those who are not superstitious, just feel good about experiencing the syndrome (forget about the angels and blessing part), for feeling good makes you cheerful and happy, immaterial of what caused that feeling…. That itself is a blessing for you, isn’t that good enough?

Finally, If you’re a non-believer of such syndrome and when you experience it, whether the theory behind it comes to your mind or not, you will definitely think of me. Isn’t that the biggest of all the blessings you got in your life…
Hehehehehehe..............

The Battle

Dr. Vishawanath could not ask for more happiness in his life. When Atul broke the news of his passing the MBBS Exam, his joy knew no bounds. His 25 years of dreams and ambitions is going to come true atlas with his son stepping into his own profession as a Doctor. Being a neuro-surgeon himself, having one more from his own kin, gave him a sense of unexplainable joy and achievement. Atul is on his way to meet him now and Viswanath was waiting expectantly to hug his son and rejoice with him, over his success.

While day dreaming in his cabin about Atul and his career, his thoughts were broken by a voice. “Doctor! An emergency has come up”…It was nurse Sheila, who was standing between the door gasping for her breath, it was obvious that she had been running around floors to attend to something very critical.

Years of practice and experience has taught Viswanath, not to waste time in asking for briefs at his desk when emergencies come up and having worked under Viswanath for quite some time, Sheila knew his pulse. He immediately left the room with her and headed for emergency ward, when she briefed him the case. Two youths have been summoned to hospital one dead and the other under very critical condition with severe head injury and bleeding. The case looks apparently that of a mighty-clash in a college. One guy had struck the other a deadly blow on the head, which had killed him instantly, and the other was hit by a speeding truck, when in an attempt of escape, had madly run across the road.

Viswanath, briefly checked on the medicinal proceeding that were carried out to the guy in critical condition before ordering to set up the operation theatre ready for an immediate surgery, while he wanted to check into the dead guy. Paying personal homage to the dead was deemed to be very humanitarian and of the foremost duty to a doctor, in his view.

When Viswanath entered the room and pulled down the covered sheet of the deceased, he felt as if he received a big blow. The reality of what he saw, struck him hard and unexpected and he almost chocked to death. Seeing Atul under the sheets was last thing Viswanath anticipated and with his son dead, he felt himself half-dead. Viswanath was staggering to his feet, as his legs became weak and shaky.

The news of Viswanath’s son’s death spread across the hospital like a wild-fire, Viswanath came to know sooner that the clash had started between him and his classmate Pradeep, the son of a powerful minister, over a girl, whom Atul wanted to shield from Pradeep’s clutches of misbehavior, which led to verbal war and later to physical attack. In a moment of fury, Pradeep had hit Atul on his head with a crowbar lying nearby which had caused him instant death. Now with the hospital management confronted by ministers, pressure was mounting on the management to make over the murder of Atul, look like an accident.

The entire hospital was waiting expectantly to see Viswanath’s reaction for the operation on Pradeep, who was purportedly to perform the operation being the best neuro-surgeon on call.

*****

Viswanath was in his cabin silently debating over his son’s life and his duty that he was supposed to perform. Since the time he knew, the hospital was his world and doctor profession was his life. In all his years of service, Viswanath was known of valuing his principles and human life and had not breached the trust of his patients, under any circumstances. He recalled the doctor oath he had taken committing his life for his patients, and now he felt that his commitment has been put to challenge.

Atul was such a wondering darling and had been his only inspiration to live, after his wife latha passed away giving birth to him. Viswanath had been a mother and father to him and more a friend in supporting him in all his way to growth. He was everything to Atul, who wanted to become a doctor and follow his father in his footsteps. With all the hopes and dreams of both turning into reality, Atul’s separation from his life now, struck Viswanath like tsunami, unexpected, washing away all this hopes, dreams, ambitions, and left him with a big void in his life.

Viswanath’s fatherly vendetta against Pradeep was battling with his doctor’s duty consciousness towards Pradeep. He had a difficult battle to fight and didn’t know which one he wanted to win at the end.

After what seemed to be ageless hours of thinking, finally Vishwanath got up from his chair, went to the room where his son’s body was kept, looked over it for a long moment and sighed and exited the room.

Finally, the doctor in him won the father in him.

*****

Viswanathan turned and went into the operation theatre dressed up for the surgery. Meanwhile, Atul’s murder was hooked up as accident and necessary documents prepared, to avoid any political scandal.

After struggling hard for 4 hours to save the life of the boy who had killed his son, Viswanath emerged from the operation theatre announcing that the operation was successful. However Pradeep was comatosed, due to the severe impact of the head injury and had to be kept in ICU till he recovered, but Viswanath assured the father of Pradeep that he would come out of coma soon.

Viswanathan’s final cord of control snapped when he saw the death certificate of his son stated as an accident. He knew that Atul wont rest in peace for the injustice committed to him and blamed himself for being so helpless and handicapped, unable to fight against the unjust done to him. His urge to avenge Pradeep for the death of his son was blazing like a fire in him.

*****

It was 10th day after Atul’s passing away and just when Viswanath was completing all the rituals that had to be conducted for his son with his family and friends, he got the call from the hospital with the news of Pradeep gaining conscious. His heart was in a state of volcanic eruption, which erupted more and more guilt with every passing day for saving pradeep, and nothing could bring it under control except one thought, which Viswanath was well aware of and was unable to come to terms with.

Viswanath paid regular visits to Pradeep, as he was under his care at the hospital, though he was performing his duties as a doctor sincerely towards him, the vengeance he had culminated against him kept increasing every time he looked at him. Inwardly, Viswanathan was working towards bringing the battle to and end and cooling the fire.

A month had passed by…

*****

Today is the last day for Pradeep at the hospital. He was getting ready to be discharged.

Viswanath’s fatherly vengeance winning over his doctorly commitment was possible only today. He had finally made up his mind. He opened the cupboard of his desk and took out the little vial out and injected its contents into the syringe and headed for Pradeep’s room.

When he slowly opened the door to Pradeep’s room, he found him with his father. Viswanathan could see Pradeep’s father’s face luminated with happiness for his son’s recovery, which he knew he cannot have for rest of his life. He was over the phone giving instructions to his family to prepare the household to welcome Pradeep after his ordeal; after all, it’s Pradeep’s second life after fighting death.

Going near Pradeep, Viswanath thought of his son Atul and closed his eye for a moment and slowly took out the injection from his coat pocket and injected it into his veins, this was the final injection to Pradeep, when he injected the syringe into his body, he felt a feel of soothing and the eruption in him slowly dying…he knew now the battle has come to an end. He has won!

When he was about to leave, Pradeep unexpectedly bent down, held his legs tight and started to cry hysterically. Pradeep in all his days of admittance in the hospital and during numerous encounters with Viswanath for his treatment has never spoken a word to him. But today, when he knew he would not be seeing Viswanath any more, he couldn’t control himself any longer. All these days his guilt had made him feel too small in front of Viswanath, who appeared like god to him, saving his life, despite he taking the life of his son. His father’s money and power gave him freedom and had saved him from imprisonment, but he felt himself imprisoned by his consciousness and that could be freed only through Viswanath pardoning him for the sin he had committed.

Viswanath didn’t expect this outcry from Pradeep, all along he looked upon him has a criminal and inhumane having no heart to realize the brutality of his deed, but when he saw Pradeep’s guilty looks and his desperate cry seeking pardon, he felt a change of feelings for him. Have I committed a great sin now, the shocked Viswanath thought to himself?

*****

Viswanath was looking outside his room window and downstairs he saw Pradeep leaving the hospital with his father hand in hand and waving at him. Viswanath waved back with a smile on his face and after he lost sight of Pradeep’s car, came back to his desk and sat down and looked at Atul’s photograph for a long moment.

Killing Pradeep would not bring Atul back to life. The moment he saw the happiness on Pradeep’s father’s face when he entered his room, Viswanath remembered he himself was a father to a son, and killing Pradeep would be more debasing than Pradeep killing Atul and when Pradeep touched his feet asking for forgiveness, he felt the volcanic eruption within him cooling down and slowly fading away and thought he deserve to be alive, for he has realized his mistake. Forgiveness is the best punishment he could give to pradeep at that moment.

With an impulse of vengeance, he didn’t want Pradeep father to go through what he is going through now - The pain of life without his son. No father in this world deserves that kind of a punishment.

Atul is always alive in his memories; Viswanath has decided to lead rest of his life with the fond memories of his son.

He took the syringe filled with the fluid that was meant to end Pradeep’s life from his coat pocket, which he had not used at all and threw it into the dustbin.

Finally, The father in him won the doctor in him.

The Avatar

Chennai, Saturday, Morning 6:00 A.M

In the early morning hours of Saturday, the temple was thronged with huge crowd varying from children to elderly people, standing in the long queue, pushing against each other to see, through the chain of protection laid across the threshold of the Krishna temple, the fateful sight.

On the previous evening at the same Krishna temple, the majority of the same crowd had gathered with deepest enthusiasm and devotion for a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of the temple and to see the glitter of the golden statue of Lord Krishna, decked up with priceless precious stones. In the place where the effulgent Krishna stood the previous night, is now filled with vacant place. After the temple was locked, some anti-social activist group had found their way inside and had stolen the Lord and his jewels. Now the place in and around the temple is bustling with police and trained dogs going from pillar-to-post to catch any trace of the culprits and investigating for any clue. All check-post has been alerted and every place in the city were sealed with tight security and watched meticulously for identification of any possible suspects. There is no way the gang could escape.

Chennai, Sunday, Morning 6:00 A.M

The dark and stout figure dressed in dirty attire patched up to cover the torn, with a fishing net and sack in hand, started the motorboat into the sea, with his fellow-mates boarding into it. They looked unmistakenably like fishermen starting their day into the deep sea to catch something big for the day. There were other fisherman’s around too, getting ready to start their boats into the blue sea for a good catch. When the motorboat had traveled miles into the calm sea and was within the safety zone away from the sea patrol, everyone on board relaxed and the leader of the gang opened the secret compartment, by pulling the small hook-like protrusion from the lower corner of the boat, which looked like an unfixed nail, calling for no attention.

Lo and behold! Out came the sparkle, which made everyone’s eyes shrink and nictitate. Behind the sparkle lay the dazzling sight of the idol of Lord Krishna with his precious jewels. The entire gang roared with laughter seeing the idol and shared a bottle of Champaign to celebrate their successful mission. The robbery was planned so well and executed with extreme caution and care that they left behind no clue and now they are heading towards safety and freedom. With the boat steering towards Srilanka, where arrangements has been made for their escape and travel to foreign country with their loot, the gang was priding about their fortune. The leader of the gang holding the idol of Lord Krishna in hand criticized loudly, “Hey Krishna! People believe you’re a destroyer of evil, they say you cannot stand atrocities by wrongdoers. What are you going to do to us now? Going to create any new avatar to split the sea into two to destroy us???” he let out a menacing laugh. The entire gang joined him with their ominous laughs and taunts, enjoying the plight of the helpless god in their mercy.

The gang is unaware that a new avatar has already been created deep down the sea, which has split the sea into two and it’s on its way to destroy them soon.

The new avatar is called Tsunami and it is savagely heading towards the boat from a very far-away distance.

The day is the morning of December 26th, 2004.