Deception Point

The keywords were all there - NASA, meteorites, NRO, Ice shelf and finally White House. I must confess these were solely responsible for me picking up this book by Dan Brown. And I am glad I did. Though a lot of stuff like snow and desert rifles - kind of an on-the-spot ammunition - clearly seemed futuristic at best, I aint complaining :-) Just loved every minute of reading it!

The Wikipedia mentions an interesting nugget about the code that is found at the end of the book. Do check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Point

Oh and BTW though the book just passingly mentions the ghost of Abraham Lincoln haunting the White House, it amused me no end that Winston Churchill was among those who actually cited the ghost!

Miracles do happen!

I read about the case of a girl called Lakshmi born in a village in the Indian state of Bihar with a partially formed twin - thus giving her four arms and four legs. As usually happens in such cases, the villagers flocked to her home to have a look at the "re-incarnation" of Goddess Lakshmi. One can argue that the Hindu Goddess in question has 4 arms but not 4 legs. However, superstition and logic don't go hand in hand, do they? Lakshmi though was lucky to have parents sane enough to know that their daughter needed medical treatment.

A team of specialists with the Sparsh Hospital at Bangalore operated on her for 27 hours. Lakshmi was separated from her twin and is on her way to a complete recovery now.

I never believe in Ganesha idols drinking milk or sea water turning sweet or statues weeping tears of blood but news such as this makes me think that if ever there was a miracle this is one!

I finished reading Frederick Forsyth’s “Double Deal” and the emphasis in this sentence is on the word “finished”. The thought that “since I have started this book I must finish it” was what drove me to read up to the last page. I have read Forsyth’s “The Odessa file” as well as “Day of the Jackal” and loved both books. But I could not deal with “Double Deal”! :-))

It started on an inauspicious note anyways. I started reading it and then got very busy so there was a gap of good 5-6 days before I finally picked it up again. By then I had forgotten the plot and the names of the leading characters. Add to that the different kinds of German designations in SS along with a heavy dose of Sergeants, Lieutenants and Majors and I was totally lost.

Though the book wasn’t directly about the human suffering brought about by Hitler I kept thinking about the saying that goes something like - All that is needed for evil to become powerful is for good men to do NOTHING!

Are all the good men doing all that they can now so that the evil doesn't rise again?

I recently read that Shahrukh Khan has said that he doesn’t understand why he is so popular. Well Shahrukh, you are not alone, some of us have been wondering about it for years – especially when Shahrukh is Shahrukh is Shahrukh – whether he is playing Don, Devdas or Samrat Ashoka!

Sometimes I have wondered if the people who make all these documentaries on NatGeo and Discovery are mortals. They make such impossible documentaries.

Last weekend I was watching a program on caves on Discovery. A small animal was shown which can be found only in 2 caves on earth. And there was a species of white crab which can be found in only one cave. And I could clearly see both animals as if they were crawling on the armrest of my chair.

I agree that there are zoom lenses and cameras set up for auto-shoot and some more advanced kind of photography. But still the end product is just plain amazing! And the patience required must be monumental. Hats off to you guys! Just love your shows!