I have been reading, I have been playing Grand Theft Auto 3 every night until 1 AM. Vineet comes in pretty late from the office, and I have to stay awake to open the door when the bell rings. ( Abhishek is getting married, so he’s leaving. Vineet’s moving in with us ) Or maybe I just love the game too much. GTA2 rocked, but the view ( topside) was a bummer. GTA3 takes the same concept a little further. You’re a goon who has to rise up the crime ladder by working on “missions” for different gangs. The missions are wacky – supplying fresh (female) meat to a police ball, escorting a Mafia hitman as he goes about extracting protection money from laundry shops( and later, whacking laundry trucks, when they refuse to pay.) delivering a rival gang’s hitman to the car-crusher. I have completed 7 out of 75 missions, so a long, long way to go, pardner.
I have also discovered that Enter The Matrix: the game does not play on my system. It requires a graphics card. Wish-list updated accordingly. The latest Tomb Raider game makes Lara look real cute!!!!!
Finished reading Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens and Jamyang Norbu’s “The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes”. Both pretty much red-heat reads.
Good Omens: Really funny ( as the reviewer says “it reads like heaven, and you will laugh like hell ) Pokes fun at God, the Voice of God, the Antichrist, angels, assorted dukes of Hell, the four Horsemen of the apocalypse, publishing trends of the sixteenth century, witch-hunting, Atlanteans, Tibetans, and other strange species ( which includes “Americans”) The book is all about the End of the World, the big row on Meggido, only that the End comes from a small village in England named Lower Tadfield, where a boy named Adam Young lives with his family and a dog (very imaginatively) named Dog. The latter happens to be a hell-hound (who’s tempted from his duties by dogly desires, chief among them being chasing cats. ) And Adam, of course, is the Antichrist.
There are times when the humour gets repetitive, especially in the conversations among the kids, all precocious and William-like, something I thought went out of style in the 1950’s.
Mandala of Sherlock Holmes: Bought this quite sometime back, Vasu did a Mandala on it for 2 ( or was it 3?) months. ( note: To do a Mandala – To abscond with unread book for undefined period of time. ) Highpoints: faithful reinterpretation of Sigerson’s exploits in Thibet and India, ably narrated by Hurree Chatterjee, MA, FRCS, OBE. Quaint language, major attention to details, especially aspects of Tibetan history and mythology. Low points: 10 pages of the book were blank!!! Just when the story starts getting interesting…..something wrong with the publication. And yes, the climax requires you to stretch your imagination quite a bit.
Google is getting interesting, day by day. Led me here. Among other things ( ahem), this contains Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which I had been looking for in the first place. Couple of Umberto Eco books, Clifford Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg, and a number of assorted oddities. Worth a look.
Other good things: Darna Manaa Hai. Toy Story reprise. (Thanks, psasidhar). More stuff at Best Book Stall. Junoon. (the band, not the TV series, thanks.)
Led me here.
They have Frank Herbert’s Dune. I have been trying to get a copy of that bok for ages, but it is out of print, and I have not been able to lay my hands on a used one.
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True. The first book isn’t available anywhere, even though they have titles like Dune:House Harkonnen gathering dust everywhere in bookstores. I have also found the third book – Children of Dune in many second-hand bookshops, in Hyd, Pune and Bangalore.
Lucky you. I have been searching for them for ages.
If you ever come across a copy anywhere, could you pick it up for me?
The first three books, or just Children of Dune??
CoD is available even now. Want me to pick it up?
The first three books. I want to read them first. CoD is available here as well :-(
Will definitely look for them. Second-hand will do, right?
yes. I grew up reading second-hand books aquired from the pavement book-sellers between Flora Fountain & Churchgate (Bombay).
Btw, do you know of any good second-hand bookshops in Bangalore?
Blossom Book House.
Shop No G-16, Brigade Gardens, Church Street,
Bangalore – 01
Tel – 5066416
They charge a bit on the high side, but quite a good collection.
I didn’t know Dune was so rare. I have a copy of the first book, forgot where I picked it up from. My guess is Flora Fountain itself ;-)
Lucky you. I am now reading the soft copy I got from the site. But it is not the same. The feel of a good book is so great, so unique that nothing can compare to it.
Is it google or is it you?
Do they have a Nobel Prize for whatever it is you’re doing?
Re: Is it google or is it you?
s it google or is it you?
Don’t shoot me, Trinity, I’am just the messenger. :-P
hi. i noticed you added me to your friends list, so i added you back (your journal is quite entertaining).
i spent about 5 months in india in 1998 (mostly the north-kashmir, ladakh, himachal pradesh, and a lot of time in delhi and a few weeks in goa). i plan to definitely go back as soon as i can, which will probably be in may 2004.
where are you located?
also, how big is the game console market in india?
Hi there. Thanks for the kind words. I liked your journal quite a lot, too.
I am working in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, though I am originally from Assam.
Gaming consoles here are mostly confined to school-kids ( i have seen quite a few Playstation enthusiasts). People here ( at least, those I know) prefer gaming on PCs rather than consoles. I am a little technologically challenged – haven’t seen an X-box yet. :-)
be sure to drop in at Hyderabad next May.