I’ve uploaded 13 new photographs of me, few taken when I went to France and some random photographs ones. You can view all of them here.

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One word - Boring.

The first half of the movie was totally boring with lots of unimportant parts in it and removing good parts. And to add to the boredom, we had an idiot sitting right behind us explaining the movie to his friend all throughout the movie. In three quarters of the movie, only certain parts were slightly funny, and others were quite insipid. They concentrated too much on the main storyline elements to ensure that newcomers understood the story and in the process, let out on a whole lot of amusing and interesting moments. I felt that they could’ve devoted a little less time to few elements in favour for some action. Even a few seconds would’ve been enough to keep the pace going.

Unfortunately, the movie people thought otherwise and right upto the final fight of the movie, I remained quite bored. I would’ve slept if it had not been for the occasional joke which we cracked and Tonks, who was one of the main reasons for remaining in the theatre. The movie version deviated largely from the book, infact there’s a whole article describing the differences which can be read here.

The final 20 minutes of the movie was in 3D, it was pretty good but could have certainly been better. Sirius death was well characterised, but the other fights were just above par. One point I noticed was that Luna uses ‘Levicorpus’ against a death-eater but the spell had been discovered only in the 6th book. A lot of the major parts of the fight were cut out, and instead an unnecessary part about Voldemort occupying Harry’s body and Harry fighting him had been shown in great detail. The movie gets over before you realise it.

I was only mildly impressed with the movie. The 3D effect were average. It most certainly was not worth Rs.180. It gets 6.5/10.

Before the start of the movie, we were given a free bottle of ‘Thumbs-Up’ each but without a bottle opener and therefore, we left them under the chairs. It was good in a way since the movie didn’t have an interval much to our and out bladders dismay. If we had opened the bottles, there’s a good chance that we would’ve missed a part of the movie, but I wouldn’t have cared anyway, unless Tonks was there.

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I know I told everyone yesterday that I would read the book at my own leisure yesterday since I’d already known the ending but once I started reading, I thought I might as well finish it.

The book is completely action except for a few small lulls here and there. The only other book which was so jam packed would probably be the 3rd book. The book wasn’t too big either unlike the 6th book which was unnecessarily long and boring. The whole book was to the point and brisk which made it a lot more interesting. And since there weren’t any major pauses in the book, there wasn’t much of a chance for me to put the book down.

J.K.Rowling’s gone on a killing spree on this book killing more than 10 major characters in the book. Most of the deaths are not portrayed very clearly which leads the reader to think its not very important until after sometime. Personally, I didn’t feel much remorse at any of the deaths except for the death of a certain creature. The death of that particular creature really moved me more than the others because there was a small pause after the death allowing the readers to feel for it.

All the occurrences throughout the book, have some kind of importance at the event towards the end. All of them are well scripted and described with detail. Together with the search for the remaining horcruxes, Rowling has inserted another plot thereby minimising the chance for the reader to get bored. Both the plots remain unsolved until the very end of the book which ensures suspense and twists for the reader.

The final showdown is a slight letdown though. Not much details are revealed about the others during the battle and concentrates on Harry only. The much anticipated fight between Harry and Voldemort is finished quite quickly. The results of the fight would be slightly confusing to the common reader at first but will become clear soon. I expected more out of it but I guess Rowling decided to end it differently.

Any Harry Potter Fan will definately read the book to know the ending, regardless of the fact whether it is good or bad. I liked it too, it was certainly the best of all the books but not extraordinarily good. I suppose it is a good ending to the Harry Potter saga. It gets 8.5/10

Read about my experience of buying the book here. A detailed story of the book can be found here.

And here is a hilarious video of the book being spoiled for several eager fans right before the release.

Post about your experience with the book in the comments.

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I got up at 5:30 in the morning to get the 7th and final Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A few of us had decided to go to the store at 6:30 AM, since thats when the store opens. Bear in mind that we did not go there because we are die hard Harry Potter fans but rather because we had nothing else to do.

Fatik, Dushyant and I decided to go to Walden while Isha, Krutika and Sambhav went to Odyssey. The crowd at Walden was much more than we expected, we stood at the end of the line. While waiting for the store to open, Fatik spotted the boxes being unloaded at the back of the shop. Security was quite lax, infact we could’ve picked one up and ran away without being caught. Anyways, the shop opened soon and cheers could be heard from the front of the line. The line moved quite fast, in my opinion and within 15 minutes, we were able to get the books in our hands. TV Channels were doing interviews of the eager buyers, we wanted to shout the spoilers out loud but refrained from it although we kept saying ‘Snape dies’ whenever we could. We got free Mint-O s with the books and also managed to get a free Red Bull each from the lady who was promoting it. The entire line finished quite quickly and once we got our books, we drove over to Odyssey.

At Odyssey, we saw a huge line which was more than twice the size of the one a Walden. The line was moving quite slowly and we took immense pleasure in waving our books at the people in the line. We met the others soon, and we spent some time talking with each other and the people in the lines. Fatik, Dushyant and I were quite glad that we had made the smart decision of going to Walden where the crowd was lesser and therefore, we were able to get our hands on the books sooner than others.

After that, we went for a nice breakfast and spent some time at a friend’s house reading the book together. Some of my friends should be able to finish the book by today, but I, on the other hand, am not too eager to read it, so I’ll take my own time and read it and a slow pace.

You can view all the pictures of today over here.

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Today is 20/07/2007, the 18th birthday of a friend of 9 years, Fatik Khan. Its quite hard to realise that I’ve known him for half his life. We’ve had lots of good times together, in school and outside. Life would’ve been different without him, school wouldn’t have been the same…And today, he turns 18. I hope that we continue to remain friends in the future and that our friendship will withstand the test of time……

You can read an online PDF of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows here.

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I finally finished the Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy today after more than a week of continuous reading. I finished ‘Hannibal’ in 2 days and ‘Hannibal Rising’ in a day. Special thanks to Fatik for getting me ‘Hannibal Rising’ for my birthday.

‘Hannibal’ was more fast paced than the previous two books. The story was concentrated mostly on Hannibal and how he eludes death successfully. We also learn more ‘Clarice Starling’ who appeared in the previous book and the relationship she shares with Hannibal. The story is filled with lots of tense moments and many twists right upto the ending. I felt that it was the best among all of the books, it gets 9.25/10

‘Hannibal Rising’ depicts the childhood life of Hannibal Lecter and how he evolved into the most evil literary character of all time. Its quite an interesting book as it gives the readers an insight into Hannibal’s mind and his upbringing. It describes his first murder and also the reasons for his consequent crimes. Definitely a must read for any Hannibal fan. It gets 8.5/10

I hope Thomas Harris writes a couple of more Hannibal books which will connect the time period between ‘Hannibal Rising’ and ‘Red Dragon’. So far we’ve only read about his early life and his life during prison and after that but nothing in between.

And to all those die-hard Harry Potter fans, here is the ending to the 7th book with all the spoliers. The above link sends you directly to a page where a person claims that he has managed to get a copy of the 7th book and has even included photographs of the book as evidence. Its upto to you to decide whether its real or not. As for my opinion, I didn’t even visit the page, just to be on the safe side.

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…on this very day, I was born at around lunchtime. And July 15th 1990 was a Sunday, just like today. Today also happens 104th birth anniversary of a great Indian , Kamaraj, who helped India achieve freedom and was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously.

Last birthday was certainly more eventful as much more of my friends were in town. This time, I had a quiet and simple lunch with a few friends, not very exciting but it was certainly good. Thanks to everyone who came, and special thanks to those who got me a present.

I’m no more ’sweet 16′, I regret it, only because school life is over. I eagerly look forward to life after school, a year older, and hopefully, more fun.

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I’ve been reading some novels latetly.  I finished ‘Red Dragon’ in about 2 days and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in 2 -3 days. Both of them were spectacular books. The whole business about murders and the FBI/Police investigating them is something that has always been a favourite. Both the books started off slow at first but once they picked up pace, I couldnt put them down. They both get 9/10. I’ve started reading ‘Hannibal’ and once I finish all the books, I plan on watching the movies.

And to everyone who came to play Wii today, thanks a lot, I had a great time!

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I finally watched the most anticipated Indian movie of the year today - Sivaji : The Boss. Although I had wanted to watch it in its original Tamil version, I settled for the dubbed Telugu version.

The movie had two plots, one is of Rajni’s business life and the problems he faces and the other about his love life trying to get a girl. Most of the intended comedy is in the latter part but if you have a good sense of humour, the serious parts will be just as funny.

The story of the movie is just like a typical tamil movie with the Rajni touch to it. This was unusual since all of Rajnikanth’s previous movies had an unique storyline and were interesting. This movie was good too, I agree, but it could have been better.

The main attraction in the movie was all the ‘bling-bling’. It had the base story of ‘boy falls in love with girl, then her parents oppose, etc’ with a lot of fancy additions to make it stand out and give the ‘Rajni-effect’.The songs were good. It must have cost a fortune for the sets but I suppose they were worth it since I’m sure many people would have gone to watch the movie after seeing the songs on TV.

The business story of the movie is pretty awkward. After returning from US, he decides to help the poor people and wants to build schools, hospitals, etc to benefit the public. He bribes hundreds of officials to get the job done but still needs to bribe more. He even sells his house and car but in vain. Until this point, the story is acceptable. Soon, he gets inspiration from a one rupee coin and manages to convert the illegal money left with the politicians into legal money through what sounds like a complex process but is just a load of crap. Somehow, he manages to get his plan working and a whole lot of things continue the plot, which includes things like coming back alive after being declared dead, a voice-activated laptop which can only be opened by him, and finally, all of these factors come together in the final fight sequence whose style is new and fresh and resembles ‘Matrix’ and ‘300′ combined together. Obviously, he wins the fight and the movie ends there. 

Coming to the love story, it starts off with a search for the perfect bride for him, homely yet sophisticated. They spot the perfect girl at a temple and stalk approach her. She naturally refuses at first sight but after a few forced meetings, romance sprouts. The majority of the comedy parts occur while trying to impress her, like Sivaji trying to turn fair with a variety of methods and so on. A couple of songs are also throw in during this time to add to the effect. He ends up marrying her but she isnt too confident about the marriage due to the ill predictions of a soothsayer. A few unfortunate incidents lead her to believe that she should have listened to the soothsayer but as in all movies, the matter gets fixed up and they live happily ever after.

Both the stories are kept seperate in the beginning but towards the ending, the cross each other a few times and contribute to the final outcome of the story.I enjoyed the movie, but I would have enjoyed it more had the story been unique. It gets 7.5/10.

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The Hyderabad Photography Club met again yesterday at the Nehru Zoological Park, commonly known as ‘joo park’. I met 2 other friends at first, the others had already gone inside before we had arrived. We first met the tortoise, then the monkeys who gave us some interesting poses, a couple of them even did it, we then met the white tigers, they were quite playful and we spent atleast half an hour there. Then we saw many more cats (leopard, puma, etc) but they were all in cages so it was tough to get good photographs. We spent some time sitting down to take rest and took photographs of white pelicans which were quite close to the benches. We then went and saw the flightless birds but they were quite boring and caged too, so we only took few photos. We proceeded to watch the elephants but they were far away so no interesting pictures there. We sat down at the lawns and had a simple lunch.

After the meal, we met up with the rest of our group and continued to see the lions. The lions didn’t move much but they looked majestic so we spent some time there. A kingfisher at a pond attracted all our attention, two of us spent a lot of time waiting for it to fly and they were able to get good photographs. I didn’t have enough patience to wait so much time so I went and saw the rhinoceros. We wanted to take more photographs of the birds there but the rain forced us to take shelter. The rain seemed to let off for a while, so we took photographs of the horn-bills, there were more birds but it started to pour and we decided to call it a day. We spent almost the whole day there and if it wasn’t for the rain, we would have certainly taken more photographs. You can view all the photographs from the trip here.
On a different note, I’m quite pleased that the Taj Mahal has made it to the list of the New Seven Wonders of the World. I had expected a different list but whats done is done, you can view the list of all the wonders here.

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