What A Marriage Means in My Native
Warning: Reader’s discretion required. Please don’t read if you have a very happy image of marriages.
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It means return on investment done on bringing up the perfect groom.
It means loss of substantial portions, sometimes all, of the savings of bride’s family.
It means the perfect case study of money squandering for both parties on the excuse that the marriages are once in life time opportunity of celebrations.
It means that both sides more or less are in debt after the marriage for the next 1-2-3 years depending on the source of income. Even the dowry given to groom’s family is sometimes all used up to balance out their debt.
It means higher costs for everything. Literally everything. 10 Rs/kg of cauliflower will be bought for 100 Rs/kg even in Mandi. You’ll pay 30-35 Rs/ Km or more for the luxury vehicles. (Luxury vehicles will be an Indica or Indigo)
It means gifts given to every relative and extended relative of the groom and the hospitality will be valued on the basis of those gifts. Higher the costs of those gifts, the better the hospitality( even if you didn’t find anything to eat, anyone to tell this and came back cursing the arrangements)
It means to tolerate the problematic relatives who have the habit of creating their own chaos in already chaotic circumstances. No matter how much hospitality you show, there will still be some relatives who'll complain of being ignored at the marriage.
It means the perfect show off in the society to give everyone something to talk about the marriage.
It means the perfect show off of all that jewelleries which have been kept hidden in the trunks for generations and wear them all even if you look like a clown. The more grams of gold on your body, the more virtuous the family.
It means to show off how many people you can call for your Baarat (the procession with groom). The more no. of people in the Baarat, the more social and influential you are.
It means to show off how many people you can feed who came in the Baarat and who came from your side. The more the no of people, the more impactful the marriage you managed.
It means the show off of fire arms. The more fire arms you can flash, the more powerful you are in that area.
It means to show off how many cars, Jeeps, SUVs you can take to the Baarat. The more the no. of vehicles, the more your power and money.
PS: Though I have drawn a very grim picture of my native but unfortunately most of the points are true. Also, I have taken a certain section of society to depict the mindset and these points don’t generalize to each and every marriage in that area. It’s not that marriage celebrations don’t have any positives but my cynicism and derision for above points outweigh those positives.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Vapid, Void and Vulgar Vanity
'The Lost Symbol’- a review
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
The Lost Symbol is a typical Dan Brown novel, well researched and well compiled but it falls short of giving convincing reasons to believe in the novel, neither does it gives a good thriller. It looked like those pathetic and thoughtless movie sequels which are made after the success of a movie, just to encash the popularity.
Synopsis: A megalomaniac character Malak’ah wants to discover a secret highly guarded by Freemasons and which has potential to destroy the world. Robert Langdon, the Howard Symbologist, pitches in again to save the world. In the process, he’s helped by multitude of characters.
Review:
NOVEL: The Lost Symbol is extremely predictable, very repetitive, monotonous and boring especially for those who have already read Dan Brown’s previous four books. A lot of questions has been unanswered in the novel or rather were put their considering reader’s intellect as a big zero. Dan Brown has created few moments when one feel engrossed in the novel but those moments are too few. In the end you remain unsatiated.
The novel lacks the flow, it lacks the sharpness of a thriller and it is over dramatic to such extent that it downplays dramatic undertones. In order to create suspense, Brown made the plot so fuzzy that for the whole novel only the Antagonist (villain) was clear of what he was doing, why he was doing and how he was going to do it.
Moreover, at least three times you’ll feel that the torture ended and the story is over, but to your disappointment it doesn’t. No one leaves a novel after reading 350,400,450 pages out of 500 and you have to tolerate to finish the book.
With extremely lousy climax, The Lost Symbol is worst book written by Dan Brown.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Langdon: His character has been already explored in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code and is projected as extremely intelligent person having photographic memory but strangely enough his character is totally underplayed and overshadowed by other characters.
Sato Inoue: As the director of CIA, she has been projected as a tough and inhuman character but as novel makes its progress, for some strange reasons she becomes milder, vulnerable and human. The fluctuations in her character does nothing to add any value to the novel.
Malak’ah: Perhaps,the best character in the novel. It seems Dan Brown devoted most of his time developing this character but still he came out with very frivolous reasons to justify Malak’ah ‘s metamorphosis into a megalomaniac , power hungry antagonist from a Fun loving, Drug addict, Party Animal and Casanova character.
CIA : CIA is also an important character in the novel. It has been depicted as an agency run by a bunch of jokers . One time they will be highly advanced, omnipresent, omnipotent agency which turns into our very own Indian police when needed most.
-----------------------------------
Verdict: 'The Lost Symbol' is a novel which you will love to miss. You can do anything you hate but you better avoid this. Let the symbol be lost.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
The Lost Symbol is a typical Dan Brown novel, well researched and well compiled but it falls short of giving convincing reasons to believe in the novel, neither does it gives a good thriller. It looked like those pathetic and thoughtless movie sequels which are made after the success of a movie, just to encash the popularity.
Synopsis: A megalomaniac character Malak’ah wants to discover a secret highly guarded by Freemasons and which has potential to destroy the world. Robert Langdon, the Howard Symbologist, pitches in again to save the world. In the process, he’s helped by multitude of characters.
Review:
NOVEL: The Lost Symbol is extremely predictable, very repetitive, monotonous and boring especially for those who have already read Dan Brown’s previous four books. A lot of questions has been unanswered in the novel or rather were put their considering reader’s intellect as a big zero. Dan Brown has created few moments when one feel engrossed in the novel but those moments are too few. In the end you remain unsatiated.
The novel lacks the flow, it lacks the sharpness of a thriller and it is over dramatic to such extent that it downplays dramatic undertones. In order to create suspense, Brown made the plot so fuzzy that for the whole novel only the Antagonist (villain) was clear of what he was doing, why he was doing and how he was going to do it.
Moreover, at least three times you’ll feel that the torture ended and the story is over, but to your disappointment it doesn’t. No one leaves a novel after reading 350,400,450 pages out of 500 and you have to tolerate to finish the book.
With extremely lousy climax, The Lost Symbol is worst book written by Dan Brown.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Langdon: His character has been already explored in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code and is projected as extremely intelligent person having photographic memory but strangely enough his character is totally underplayed and overshadowed by other characters.
Sato Inoue: As the director of CIA, she has been projected as a tough and inhuman character but as novel makes its progress, for some strange reasons she becomes milder, vulnerable and human. The fluctuations in her character does nothing to add any value to the novel.
Malak’ah: Perhaps,the best character in the novel. It seems Dan Brown devoted most of his time developing this character but still he came out with very frivolous reasons to justify Malak’ah ‘s metamorphosis into a megalomaniac , power hungry antagonist from a Fun loving, Drug addict, Party Animal and Casanova character.
CIA : CIA is also an important character in the novel. It has been depicted as an agency run by a bunch of jokers . One time they will be highly advanced, omnipresent, omnipotent agency which turns into our very own Indian police when needed most.
-----------------------------------
Verdict: 'The Lost Symbol' is a novel which you will love to miss. You can do anything you hate but you better avoid this. Let the symbol be lost.
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