Random Meme

Nova first tagged me for this meme. Ashish also tagged me for this today.

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Race. It was not worthwhile.

2. What book are you reading?
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisburger

3. Favorite board game?
Scrabble

4. Favorite magazine?
Ok…Outlook and that’s the only magazine I subscribe in lieu of free gifts as travel guides and travel pouches. I am though also guilty of reading all sorts of vain magazines like Femina, First City, Cosmopolitan and so on.

5. Favorite smells?
This is no place to list my favorite perfumes. But a rose itra works for me. Smell of dahi/lassi/mattha with roasted zeera powder is a big appetizer for me.

6. Favorite sounds?
Green Day music

7. Worst feeling in the world?
Not getting a fair deal from the loved ones

Movie Quirks: Meme

Nita has tagged me to write 10 movie quirks about me.

1. I first went inside a movie theater when I was 16. Too late, wasn’t it? My first movie was Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya. I was mesmerised with sheer experience of watching a movie in theater. 🙂 Since then Kajol has been my favorite actress. No matter what she did, I have liked her.

2. When I was younger, I used to like SRK because he could emote so well with eyes. It was also a time when I could not decide whom I liked better: George Clooney or Brad Pitt. I am no longer a ardent admirer of any actor (if you discount my wee bit soft corner for Kajol). With every performance, my opinion about the actors changes. But I must admit, have liked most of the male actors at one point or the other.

3. The movie-watching activity is completely captivating experience for me. I prefer to watch with rapt attention, without any interruptions. I don’t even need a popcorn. I do not even pay attention to a crying baby or a talking couple unless they are too loud.

Book Meme – Recall What You Read

I came across this book meme on blogosphere longtime back.

One book that changed your life

My answer is cliché.

The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

It gave me an important message about life. The thing we are looking for in our life is actually somewhere nearby us. We have to look hard for it.

Another book would be Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather. Read it, it would be quite revealing about yourself.

One book that you’ve read more than once

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

No, I am not that big fan of Watson and Holmes duo. And usually no matter how much I love a book, I do not read it again. But there was a period in my life when there was a scarcity of books to read. I had read up all the books from my mother’s school library. I was out of school and there was no local library. I re-read the little books I had to kill time.

One book you’d want on a desert island

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Desert If there is a book like that. 😛

One book that made you laugh

A guide to Naughty Girl’s Life – This book is hilarious. It has some teeny weeny advice to naughty girls on various aspects of life. I will try to put up a suitable sample of comic some humorous excerpt from the book if I get time.

One book that made you cry

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This personal blog post will tell you how intimately this book moved me.

One book that you wish had been written

How to Calm an Impatient Soul

I need ultimate guide to curb patience. Impatience is a killing malaise in my life. 😦

One book that you wish had never been written

It would be unfair to pick on one. There are dozens, especially if you look at the later works of a famous, successful writer.

After writing one or two good books, some of these celebrity authors write nonsense monologues. Their books seem self-obsessed with their prose. These books seem as if they have been hastily written to meet a publisher’s deadline. I feel such books should be banned as we readers end up wasting our hard-earned money on their silly, conceited books.

Two books you’re currently reading

Complete works of Rudyard Kipling

Don’t worry I am lying. 🙂 I have not even begun to read this book because the font size is not to my liking. Have you ever abandoned a book because you do not like the small, uninteresting font it has? Or is it just me?

Hey, but I am reading The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru. Started this morning.

One book you’ve been meaning to read

Some vain books like Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 🙂

The Lord of the Rings series. I am looking for a free book with nice fonts. If you have the book, feel free to lend it to me. 🙂

If you feel like doing this meme, consider yourself tagged. 🙂

Another Book Meme:
How many books have you read?

Therapy Meme

I have been tagged by Ashish.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?

None, there were weepy soaps on television and sad, scary articles in books, news papers, and magazines I was reading. 😦

2. What were you doing at 0800?

Traveling to work in a metro train

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?

Slogging at work

4. What happened to you in 2006?

Don’t remember what happened to me yesterday, so to remember about 2006 is nothing less than small miracle!

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?

May I go home?

6. How many beverages did you have today?

Only water. Oh, perhaps cardamom tea as well.

7. What color is your hairbrush?

No hairbrush, only a blue comb

8. What was the last thing you paid for?

Paid the delivery guy for the burgers from Mc Donalds

9. Where were you last night?

Of course, sleeping alone at home.

10. What color is your front door?

Front door of house…unimaginative brown

11. Where do you keep your change?

In a piggybank that my maternal grandma (nani) gifted me when I was 5

12. What’s the weather like today?

Cold!!

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?

Chocolate and Butterscotch

14. What excites you?

A possibility of watching a good movie, play or a dance show

15. Do you want to cut your hair?

Nah!

16. Are you over the age of 25?

Nah!

17. Do you talk a lot?

Sometimes! And sometimes it is hard to make me speak.

18. Do you watch the O.C.?

What’s that?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?

Nah!

20. Do you make up your own words?

Sometimes when I feel passionately about some issue

21. Are you a jealous person?

Not really!

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.

Aditya!

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.

I knew a girl called Karishma longtime back.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?

My sister!

25. What does the last text message you received say?

Personal loan without papers from ICICI. Call today at…

26. Do you chew on your straw?

Rarely, but do it absent-mindedly

27. Do you have curly hair?

Nah! Only straight hair

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?

Home! I am at work, remember!

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?

One and only one..but I would not name him for he can be very sweet too.

30. What was the last thing you ate?

Mc Donald’s Veggie burger with cheese

31. Will you get married in the future?

Let me think about it for another few years.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?

Izazat

33. Is there anyone you like right now?

Hmmm..I will sleep over it.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?

Last night..only two dishes..if you count that.

35. Are you currently depressed?

Not at all!

36. Did you cry today?

Nah, not a chance!

37. Why did you answer and post this?

Because Ashish tagged me!

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.

lazy Dev (he has not blogged for a while now)

energetic Nova

busy Nishu

Angry Falcon

happy Dinsan (he just celebrated his first love anniversary)

How Many Books Have You Read?

I am not reading books these days as much as I would like to. I came across this book meme in some of the blogs, I decided to do it to track my reading progress. I have kept the basic instructions same, though I have changed the book list.

Here are the instructions to do the meme:

Bold the ones you’ve read in the list. Italicize the ones you want to read or those you are reading. Leave blank the ones you aren’t interested in. And remember movies don’t count. 🙂

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
3. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
5. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
7. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
8. Who Moved My Cheese? (Spencer Johnson)
9. The Inscrutable Americans (Anurag Mathur)
10. Falconer (John Cheever)
11. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
12. A House for Mr. Biswas (V. S. Naipaul)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Painted House (John Grisham)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. India in Slow Motion (Mark Tully)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. Transmission (Hari Kunzru)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. 1984 (George Orwell)
34. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
35. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
36. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
37. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
38. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
39. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
40. Shalimar the Clown (Salman Rushdie)
41. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
42. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
43. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
44. The Bible
45. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
46. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
47. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
48. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
49. Bleak House (Charles Dickens)
50. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
51. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
52. Girls of Riyadh (Rajaa Alsanea)
53. Great Expectations (Dickens)
54. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
55. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
56. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
57. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
58. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
59. In Xanadu (William Dalrymple)
60. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
61. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
62. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
63. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
64. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
65. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
66. This World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)
67. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
68. Les Miserables (Hugo)
69. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
70. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
71. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
72. Beloved (Toni Morrison)
73. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
74. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
75. The Summer Tree (Guy Gravriel Kay)
76. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
77. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
78. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
79. Notes to Myself (Hugh Prather)
80. Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)
81. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
82. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
83. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
84. Emma (Jane Austen)
85. The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins)
86. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
87. From Russia, With Love (Ian Fleming)
88. Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
89. Kane and Able (Jeffrey Archer)
90. Animal Farm (George Orwell)
91. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
92. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
93. Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence)
94. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
95. A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth)
96. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
97. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
98. Matilda (Roald Dahl)
99. Ulysses (James Joyce)
100. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

I have read only 36 books out of 100. So much for calling myself a voracious reader. 😦 There are actually some books I had not heard of before reading this list. And some of the books I had read years back. But there are some books that I look forward to read. Hope I get back to reading soon.

Books I am currently reading:
Best of Tehelka Part 2
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
Seagull by Anton Chekov