Well, it has been a long time. I am not making excuses, but Class XI so far has been a draining experience. Anyway, time to comment on some wordly matters.
Manchester United are slowly gaining their stride. And it is quite clear. Fourth in the Premier League, just two points behind leaders Manchester City, and top in the Champions League group. And not to mention the clean sheets accumulated. They are on the right path, with the stand out performers, according to me, being Chris Smalling, David de Gea and Anthony Martial. What a buy Martial has been. To think that he and the club were being derided just a few months ago.

Coming to the entertainment section, Supernatural season 11 has been excellent so far. What with the Darkness running amok, and her complex relationship with Dean Winchester, and that bottled episode in the Impala, it has been one hell of a ride so far, quite literally. What do the visions Sam Winchester's being experiencing mean? I can't wait for the next episode. And while I am at it, there is a special Sherlock episode about to be aired, titled "The Abominable Bride", in the month of January, the 1st, to be precise. The trailer is good and I do hope that the episode is worth the hype.

Coming to the reading section, I happened to lay my hands on the Game of Thrones, the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Hats off, George RR Martin. I am embarrassed by the time it took me to discover this book. It is simply brilliant. There is a little coldness in the way Martin kills off his characters with ease, still, one of the best books I have ever read. A Clash of Kings is the next book, and I can say with some confidence that it will not disappoint me.

Last, but most certainly not the least, my deepest condolences to the families of the victims in the French bombings.These are troubled times that we are living in, and we must endeavour to find a way by which we can save the future from experiencing such horrible things. A voice needs to be raised, a a shout, so that we can stifle the whispers that are filling the corridors of light with darkness with ease.

Until now, most of my blogs have been dedicated to reviews on books, movies, TV shows. But today, I would like to write about something more, well, a more integral part of my life. Studies. I am in Class XI and being a science student, there is a lot of pressure to hit the ground running. Let me confess honestly here, I am not a science student. I never have been, I never will be. But before you form theories about my parents being dictators and forcing me into this stream, let me tell you another thing: I took this stream willingly. I took it willingly beacuse of the base it provides. My classmate said to me once, "Every student in the science stream (exluding the medical ones) ultimately dreams of IIT." And I became thoughtful, for never once had I dreamt of IIT. Engineering is not my cup of tea. But I want to do it, beacuse it will act as a cover while I prepare for my real aim: the civil services. And I think this is a viable plan. Had I chosen humanities, my options would have narrowed down. I am not at all against students following their dreams, but my suggestion is to always have a back up plan, in case, God forbid, something inevitable happens.

Well, again after a considerable hiatus, here I am. And in this post, I would like to write about "Horlicks". No, not the drink, but the competition, or rather, competitions. For the uninitiated, Horlicks Wizkids is an amalgamation of all things wonderful and noisy and exciting, and most of all it is about participating. Winning should not be the objective if you go to the Wizkids. It is about letting yourself loose, enjoying responsibly and supporting your school to the fullest. Conducted commendably by the effervescent Syed Sultan Ahmed, or Sultan sir, Horlicks has managed to capture within its grasp, the crux of entertaining while not crossing a given limit. I can only speak for the Delhi Wizkids, and I am only speaking for the Delhi Wizkids, and every year the school students eagerly wait for what is dubbed as the " South Asia's largest inter-school fiesta" and the refreshing amount of competitions that it eloquently serves up.  Horlicks has never, in my six years of participating in it, failed to deliver. Never. In fact, it has always managed to raise the bar to a higher level. Truly the best.

It has been a long, long time since I wrote in this blog. By that time,  innumerable things happened all over the world some highly debatable, some highly controversial. But I am not going to wander into realms that are not suited to me. So here are my views on the book 'The Shining' by Stephen King. Perhaps my first horror novel, and I could not have had a better start to my experience in this genre. Stephen King, rightly named the king of horror writing, subtly imbibes the psychology, while making us muse, perhaps a little unconsciously, how some things can influence, how some things can blunt, perhaps the sharpest thing in our body, the brain. The conflicts, the emotions, the feelings experienced by the Torrance family while living in the torrid Hotel Overlook, are craftily captured, and sometimes so cunningly plotted in the bylines of the story that you are tempted to just ignore it to just quickly reach the juicy bits. But let me warn you, you are doing this on your own risk. This is an excellent book. You will see that it stands proudly, its head risen among other novels in its genre.

There are some books that provide you entertainment,some that provide you food for thought but there are books that provide you both, while making you curse yourself for not having such an extraordinary book much earlier. The Name of the Rose, or rather, in its true form, Il Nomma della Rosa, by Umberto Eco, is such an underrated classic. It is written in Italian, but the translated work is excellent. You may even call Umberto Eco, the author, as an inspiration to Dan Brown.  It serves as a veiled paradigm to authors such as Brown and Ashwin Sanghi, who thrive under the genre of semiotics. The story follows William of Baskerville through the eyes of young Adso of Melk, as they visit a monastery in Italy to investigate the death of a young monk. William is depicted as a medieval Sherlock Holmes, for the story is set in the 1300s , and it is clear that Eco has based his protagonist after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character. Adso of Melk serves as William's Watson, and the book follows the thought process of those times, which are unorthodox to say the least, and sometimes operates on a such a high level of spirituality, religion, which when combined with the language that Eco uses, masterfully capture the reader's imagination. After some time some of the interest that the book set by its fast pace may wane off, as the speed decreases substantially as the novel progresses, as both William and Adso learn several things about philosophy, spirituality, and religion. This is a classic, but not for those who seek Arnold Schwarzenegger style entertainment in books

These days, English TV shows are gaining more and more popularity. I have a shrewd suspicion that I have started this blog a little too bluntly, but the shift is subtle, yet can be felt. I don't whether to be happy, or to feel unfortunate to have been part of the same wave. But it is happening, and for now, my decision seems good. The fact with these shows are that they seem so different from each other. I am a huge fan of Sherlock, the Jeremy Brett one, as evident from one of my earlier posts. And in the same post, I also professed my liking for his modern day successor, Benedict Cumberbatch. His acting prowess are out of this world and he seems to bask under the pressures surmounted over him, for he is playing one of the greatest literary characters of all time. Not to mention the high standards set by his predecessor, Jeremy Brett. Martin Freeman also oozes class while playing Watson. Perhaps the best actor to play the doctor. There is something so sophisticated, no, not sophisticated, but a polished air  about the show. An excellent TV show, with actors who make you watch them again and again. Another show worth watching is Psych. James Roday is the fake psychic Shawn, who along with his friend, Gus, played by an effective Dule Hill, help solve crimes in the Santa Barbara district. The show is comical, nonsensical, but it is difficult not to love it. Juliet and Lassiter act as an encouraging supporting cast, and it is probably the best comedy TV show I have seen till now after Friends. These two shows are worth your time. People may have heard of Sherlock, but Psych is just as brilliant. Hats off.

Well, after, I think, a month's hiatus, which saw me ride the waves of Class XI while doing the juggling act of meeting the expectations of over expectant relatives and the ravings of under expectant friends, I can finally dedicate some time again to my blog. First of all, congratulations to Manchester United for qualifying for the Champions League. Yes, a playoff may still be under the wings, but Louis van Gaal has the talent, the quality, to become the wind under these wings, to take the club back to its soaring heights. And, hearty welcome to Memphis Depay to the club. What a talent. If he continues in the same vein, he will become a legend in no time. And, since we are on the topic, wishes to Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, rivals though they were, but they were Premier League legends and deserve a standing ovation.

Even though these are the summer holidays, for Class XI students such things are almost non existent. So when my mother expressed her surprise when I told her that I had read the latest Anthony Horowitz novel, House of Silk, it was justified. But then, these books are to me what money is to a pauper, though my mother was hardly pacified. It is another story.

The House of Silk, in its complete form, is a very good book. Anthony Horowitz has tried to bring back the magic of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by recreating his most famous protagonist, The Great Detective, or for  people who have just woken up, Sherlock Holmes. Undoubtedly, a tough task. And he has done appreciably well. At first, and this is my thinking, I thought that some of the reasons Holmes gave for his deductions, were a little far fetched, but I don't think this weighs against Horowitz's cause. This man must be praised for trying. He even had the courage to bring back some of the older characters which I found interesting. It was during the climax, or rather, it was the climax that I found a little too cold, a little horrifying. But then, this is Holmes. This is Horowitz. A must read,even if you are not a Holmes fan.

Pokemon

There are some things,that, even while you get older and wiser and everything else,  remains close to your heart. These are childish things, many may even think that these things are embarrassing as one gets older, but that is nonsense. You ought to have such things in life, only if to remind oneself of one's childhood. In my life, though I am not that old, Pokemon is such a thing. Yes, Pokemon. I am not ashamed to say that perhaps I am one of the biggest fans and followers of the TV series. The world of Ash and Pikachu do not cease to amaze me. And if one goes into the deeper layers of the series, there is a thinly veiled yet masterfully masqueraded school, which teaches us the practical teachings of life, the true value of loyalty, the sweet fruit of hardwork,  simple yet elegant worth of friendship, the real meaning of sacrifice, and the advantages of a never say never attitude. People may think that I am exaggerating, and perhaps I am, but I owe, yes, I owe many things to Pokemon. My first true tutors, apart from my parents, were Ash, Pikachu and Brock. One may even go to the extent to say that I am addicted to Pokemon, but I am glad that I watched Pokemon. I was three when I got introduced to it, and now I am sixteen, and even now, whenever I have the time, I watch the show in my computer or in the TV. It relaxes my mind, and sometimes refreshes the fact that there is more to life than studies, that one has got to cherish life with your friends, and enjoy it to the fullest.

Well, first of all, congratulations to Arsenal for beating Liverpool 4-1. Sorry Liverpool fans, I have no enmity with any of you, but as a Manchester United fan, this is good news for me. Now Manchester United will only have to beat Aston Villa, to strengthen their Champions League spots.
As I have already written, I am a keen follower of football, but not everybody is. As far as playing is concerned, cricket, obviously, is played more than football in this country. So, during these holidays, I was determined to improve my physical fitness. This, and I write this quite sheepishly, was easier said than done.  I had started out like a man on a mission, but that mission, when I saw the distance of the ground from my house, that mission seemed to have been automatically aborted in my mind. Desperate to keep my word, for I had boasted to everyone that I was going to return to school fit, I trudged down the path,  and that's when I realised, even before reaching the ground, how woefully lazy I had become. I huffed and puffed and at last reached the ground, where fielding became a nightmare. And that's when I realised the importance of physical exercise and how seriously I was lacking in that front. In a glance people would call me thin, but a keen observer could immediately guess how poor my health was going to be in a short span of time.
This may seem like an age old topic, but I can assure you, by my personal experience, how important this topic is. I am not against playing video games, why, I do that myself quite a lot, but there is a time and place for everything. You have to see what are your priorities. An half an hour walk is not going to snatch your games away from you. If you think you are getting lazy, or you are getting bored, even while studying, devote ten minutes to physical exercise. It will help in the long run.  

I was introduced to Feluda quite early, when my mother brought it from the school library. At that time I had no idea that Feluda was one of our very own, partly because I had no knowledge of who the great Satyajit Ray was. Later I managed to dig deep in the matter, if you call searching Wikipedia digging deep, and then realised the scarcity of fictitious home produced detectives in India. The best thing about Feluda is that you don't realise how ridiculously simple it is, in content and in language. But the story, in whole, strikes the heart deeply. Of course, then there  is Tapesh, who serves as the Watson to Feluda, whose full name, by the way, is Pradosh Chandra Mitter, and narrates the story in a charming yet simple manner. Without that type of narration I do not think Feluda could have reached the heights he has, atleast in Bengal. But one of the best characters is Lalmohan Ganguli, whose innocent humour is deliciously meaningless in the context of the plot, but still leaves us smiling everytime we read it. The most amazing is that Satyajit Ray took time from his busy schedule to write such novels, which while refraining from touching upon stuff such as gore and other such things, and yet manages to engage us till the last word.
One other detective I have found that India has truly created, is Byomkesh Bakshi. I have managed to read only one book of the Bakshi series, but I had the pleasure to watch all the episodes that Doordarshan produced, I think, two or three decades ago. It starred Rajit Kapur as Bakshi, the great Satyanweshi (seeker of truth) and K.K.Raina as his loyal friend Ajit Bandyopadhyay. The series was excellent. Some people might call it too simple, but that's what, according to me, added to its charm.

Manchester United, as far as I am concerned, is the best club in the world. My only pity,as far as football is concerned, is that I did not get hooked to it earlier. Like most of the people in this country, I was a fervent follower of cricket, until something made me see a match between Manchester United vs West Ham which ended in a 5-5 draw. That, as most of  the ardent football followers would know, happened to be Sir Alex Ferguson's last match. This was my introduction to football. Later, I managed to read Sir Alex's autobiography, "My Autobiography", and I was irresistibly drawn into the world of football, away from the realms of cricket. But this does not mean that I am averse to cricket. Not at all. When it comes to India vs Pakistan matches, I am as mad as any other person in this cricket loving country. But my allegiance has turned towards football.
Manchester United, as many may know, are in one of those transitional phases from which many a team has passed and from which many a team has fallen into a darker abyss, seen by many, but helped by none. It was a known fact that following the footsteps of Sir Alex would be no mean job, but David Moyes started his job wonderfully. Indeed, perhaps his is the first name to be remembered when one thinks of his former club Everton, where he has done a magnificent job. Yes, it is true, his Manchester United reign was less than successful, but that does not hide away his ability. He is doing an excellent job in Real Sociedad, having even beaten F.C.Barcelona. Perhaps had he continued his reign at Manchester United for some time, he may have succeeded. But I am not going to go into that.
Louis van Gaal is his successor, and he has done quite a good job in reconstructing this team. His credentials back him, his stats back him, and he has a bucket load of trophies and man management skills to back them up. The next match against Aston Villa, will be a crucial one. Manchester United were top notch against Tottenham and Liverpool, and need to carry that form against Villa. As far as the Angel di Maria conundrum is concerned, let the man be. His class is already proven. He has immense talent. His lob of the ball for Juan Mata's second goal against Liverpool was exquisite. He just needs time and support to prove his worth to his team. Louis van Gaal's style has benefitted players like Chris Smalling, Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini. Angel di Maria will hopefully benefit as well.

Holmes through generations

It was quite a busy week. After my mother's continued persistance, I have decided to start this blog. As with blog, I will write my thoughts, and share them with you.
It was a couple of months ago, that I managed to stumble upon the Granada TV Series on Sherlock Holmes. It starred Jeremy Brett as the Great Detective himself, with David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as his Watson. David Burke starred in the first couple of seasons, then Edward Hardwicke took over. But be it Burke or Hardwicke, the series is perhaps the best made on Holmes, even eclipsing the critically and commercially acclaimed "Sherlock" starring Benedict Cumberbatch and the two films starring Robert Downey Jr. I saw the Cumberbatch series first, and like everyone, was astounded, to say the least, by his acting skills. He was well complimented by Martin Freeman, and the series was a joy to watch. But after the Brett series, it is easy to see from where Cumberbatch has found his inspiration. I have no doubt over his acting skills, but is difficult to imagine that he acted as Holmes without seeing the Brett series at least once. When the world lost Brett, the world lost the man who first introduced the Great Detective to the silver screen, the way he just moulded into Holmes, his eccentricities made me watch the series again and again. When I first recommended the series to a couple of my friends, who to were avid fans of the Cumberbatch series they were delighted to hear about it. But when I told them that the series had been made a couple of decades ago, their faces crumbled. It's not like that. The performances were legendary. Set in typical London of that times, it is hard to envisage, for me, to think of Holmes without thinking of both Brett and Cumberbatch (sorry Robert Downey Jr.) and after seeing the Brett series, not to place Brett just a notch higher than Cumberbatch.
Watson, portrayed, first by Burke and then by Hardwicke are exceptional. They were underrated in a series dripping with the acting prowess of Brett, but they hold their own place. Burke portrays Watson as a cheerful and expressive fellow, whereas Hardwicke brought more seriousness to the role, portraying Watson as attentive, but prone to sarcastic bursts. But both are excellent.
I have had the pleasure to watch this series, and I recommend that you watch it as well.