Site for a rainy day - http://nanodiaries.com/
Friday, August 16, 2013
The Sea Hunters - by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo
It's whispered that around midnight, when no trains are due to past, the plaintive wail of of a steam whistle can be heard approaching in the distance. Then comes the clank of a bell and the roar of steam exhaust. If conditions are just right and there is a rain falling, a light is seen coming down the grade from the west toward the creek. Upon reaching the bridge, the beam suddenly blinks out and the sounds of a locomotive melt into the night.
This is how Clive Cussler describes The Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek. No, no, this isn't a book about lost train engines that continue to haunt the countryside years after their accidents. This is a book about NUMA's search for ships that have gone down in the past. Before you can say 'Fascinating' aka Star Trek's Mr. Spock, a few things need to be kept in mind.
The team doesn't dive on the wrecks so this is no treasure hunt aka Titanic. It's simply an account of the efforts taken to locate the ships based on historical documents, and sometimes, eye-witness testimonies. Most of the times, a confirmation is sought from the instrument readings alone. So account of each search does contain fair amount of technical jargon - especially when it comes to description of the ship/submarine parts or instruments used for locating underwater things. After a while, it can get a bit overwhelming. Lastly, a large number of these ships/submarines are from those that were sunk during the US civil war. For the non-Americans, some of the references like Baton Rouge, Confederate troops, Vicksburg and Union fleet won't make much sense unless you are familiar with that part of the history.
Nevertheless, I found the book a good read because the author knows how to tell a good story. Each search operation is divided into two parts. The first part tells the reader about how the ship/submarine went down. This is fiction built on the basis of historical information. The second part details NUMA's (sometimes multiple) efforts to track the wreck. Among the worthies covered in this book are The Leopoldville - a Belgian troop transport ship that was lost on Christmas Eve of 1944, C.S.S. Hunley - the first submarine in the history to sink a warship and the German U-boat U-21 which sunk H.M.S. Pathfinder during first World War. My most favorite accounts are those of Lexington, U.S.S. Cumberland, C.S.S. Florida, and of course the The Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek.
So, if you are interested in knowing how some of these ships and submarines went down fighting, and don't mind a few technical details along the way, this book is definitely worth investing your time in.
P.S. Mr. Cussler, that remark about a movie based on Kipling's story (and filmed in India!) was totally uncalled-for. You got it right when you said that 'Different cultures, different tastes in films'. For the record, I agree with the Scots about Stephen King movies.
This is how Clive Cussler describes The Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek. No, no, this isn't a book about lost train engines that continue to haunt the countryside years after their accidents. This is a book about NUMA's search for ships that have gone down in the past. Before you can say 'Fascinating' aka Star Trek's Mr. Spock, a few things need to be kept in mind.
The team doesn't dive on the wrecks so this is no treasure hunt aka Titanic. It's simply an account of the efforts taken to locate the ships based on historical documents, and sometimes, eye-witness testimonies. Most of the times, a confirmation is sought from the instrument readings alone. So account of each search does contain fair amount of technical jargon - especially when it comes to description of the ship/submarine parts or instruments used for locating underwater things. After a while, it can get a bit overwhelming. Lastly, a large number of these ships/submarines are from those that were sunk during the US civil war. For the non-Americans, some of the references like Baton Rouge, Confederate troops, Vicksburg and Union fleet won't make much sense unless you are familiar with that part of the history.
Nevertheless, I found the book a good read because the author knows how to tell a good story. Each search operation is divided into two parts. The first part tells the reader about how the ship/submarine went down. This is fiction built on the basis of historical information. The second part details NUMA's (sometimes multiple) efforts to track the wreck. Among the worthies covered in this book are The Leopoldville - a Belgian troop transport ship that was lost on Christmas Eve of 1944, C.S.S. Hunley - the first submarine in the history to sink a warship and the German U-boat U-21 which sunk H.M.S. Pathfinder during first World War. My most favorite accounts are those of Lexington, U.S.S. Cumberland, C.S.S. Florida, and of course the The Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek.
So, if you are interested in knowing how some of these ships and submarines went down fighting, and don't mind a few technical details along the way, this book is definitely worth investing your time in.
P.S. Mr. Cussler, that remark about a movie based on Kipling's story (and filmed in India!) was totally uncalled-for. You got it right when you said that 'Different cultures, different tastes in films'. For the record, I agree with the Scots about Stephen King movies.
I happen to be one of those who cannot tolerate too much blood on screen - real or fake. So I was pretty apprehensive about watching the program on the functioning of Medicity's ER. I couldn't watch the Monday episode. But fortunately for me, there was no blood involved in the cases shown in Tuesday's episode. One was a lady in her late 50s who experienced a sudden numbness in her limbs and passed out on her way to hospital. She was lucky to have arrived when she did because according to the doctors, if she had got delayed by even 5 minutes, she would have been dead by the time she reached. Though she was in coma for a considerable length of time, no damage to her brain could be detected when she regained consciousness. The causes, I believe, were diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.
The other case was of a doctor working in the same hospital who had some blockage in his heart and had to be operated upon as soon as he started complaining about chest pain. Makes you wonder - if the doctors who are trained in body functions and what all can go wrong with it cannot detect these things, there's no wonder that people who are not doctors don't realize that they have a heart problem.
It's true that the key to good health is right eating, exercise, stress control and routine checkup.
The other case was of a doctor working in the same hospital who had some blockage in his heart and had to be operated upon as soon as he started complaining about chest pain. Makes you wonder - if the doctors who are trained in body functions and what all can go wrong with it cannot detect these things, there's no wonder that people who are not doctors don't realize that they have a heart problem.
It's true that the key to good health is right eating, exercise, stress control and routine checkup.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Sometimes, I am not surprised that Indian politicians are forever seen traveling in cars with flashing red lights on top. With both their feet perennially in their mouths, they must be simply unable to walk on ground.
Sample a few of their pearls of wisdom:
1. Even today in Mumbai city, I can have a full meal at Rs 12. No no not bada paav. So much of rice, daal saambhar and with that some vegetables are also mixed
-- Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar
2. Poverty is just a state of mind
-- Rahul Gandhi
3. Sarkar isee tarha chalti hai, agar koi adhikari galti karta hai to saza milti hai
-- Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav
4. Why are you asking me these CPM political questions put on your mouth? This is wrong
-- West Bengal CM on Sharadha Scam
5. Jawans (soldiers) are born to be martyred. Why else do people join Army and the police force?
-- Bihar's Rural Works Department Minister Bhim Singh
Sample a few of their pearls of wisdom:
1. Even today in Mumbai city, I can have a full meal at Rs 12. No no not bada paav. So much of rice, daal saambhar and with that some vegetables are also mixed
-- Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar
2. Poverty is just a state of mind
-- Rahul Gandhi
3. Sarkar isee tarha chalti hai, agar koi adhikari galti karta hai to saza milti hai
-- Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav
4. Why are you asking me these CPM political questions put on your mouth? This is wrong
-- West Bengal CM on Sharadha Scam
5. Jawans (soldiers) are born to be martyred. Why else do people join Army and the police force?
-- Bihar's Rural Works Department Minister Bhim Singh
Govind Nihalani's Tamas to be aired on History TV 18 from today onwards
Tamas, the 80s TV series directed by Govind Nihalani is going to be aired on History TV 18 from today onwards at 9pm. It was based on Bhishm Sahani's Hindi novel of the same name and dealt with the migration of Hindu and Sikh families to India during its partition.
If the information on the net is to be believed, it is going to be aired without any cuts.
If the information on the net is to be believed, it is going to be aired without any cuts.
The Conjuring
Things that go bump in the night and almost give you a heart attack - well, I am fascinated by and scared of them at the same time. That's why I decided to go watch 'The Conjuring'. Of course, the fact that it had a rating of 8.0 on IMDB helped me make my decision as well.
There is nothing new about the story. Sometime in the 70s, a couple moves into a lakeside property along with their 5 daughters. They have bought the property in bank auction and so have no idea about the previous owners. As is the case with most of the stories in supernatural show 'The Haunting', they have poured all their savings into the house purchase. And the father is the only breadwinner of the family. Now, the family also has a dog which, predictably, starts howling and refuses to get into the house on the moving day. I guess there were no horror movies or shows during that time so the family doesn't think much of it.
The children get busy playing hide-and-seek inside the house and one of them stumbles in a corner - only to accidentally tear down a heavily barred entrance to a basement. Now all of us who have watched a horror show or two know that dark basements and attics festooned with thick cobwebs are favorite haunting places of ghouls, spirits and all sorts of ancient demons. But the 70s family is so blissfully unaware that they are delighted to have some extra storage space and possibly, a few antiques that could fetch a good price.
It's only a matter of time before things start getting spooky. The mother has some inexplicable bruises when she gets up in the morning. The eldest daughter complains that she could smell something bad in her room in the night. And the dog that was tied outside all through the night is found dead by one of the children. No surprises there! Soon all the four children are packed off to school, hubby dearest leaves for office and Mommy and the youngest child are left all alone in the house. It's the game of hide-and-seek again! Mommy soon realizes that all is not well in this place. But the husband would hear none of it.
Desperate for help, the wife ropes in a husband-wife pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine. By then, the husband has seen a thing or two that convinces him that the place is haunted. The investigators begin their work and the dark secrets of the house by the lake start tumbling out one after another.
As I said, the story has been told before in many horror shows and movies. The characters are the same - the 'there are no such things as ghosts' husband, the wife that believes, the local cop who doesn't believe in anything that can't be seen and the investigators that try to provoke the spirit into 'letting them know that it's there'. What's different is how it all is executed. In this day and age, when the horror shows are a dime a dozen on any channel worth its salt, it is very difficult to scare people. There are so many cliches in the horror genre that, more often than not, people end up rolling on the floor laughing when they see a ghoul pounce on an unsuspecting character. But this movie really manages to scare audience out of their skins on more than one occasion. I particularly remember a scene in which one of the children is dragged off her bed at night and bends down to see if there is anything hiding under her bed. A couple of college girls were sitting behind me. One of them kept asking 'is there anything under the bed?'. And I wished that someone would answer because I had my eyes shut tight :-)
So if you want a good scare or two, go watch 'The Conjuring'.
There is nothing new about the story. Sometime in the 70s, a couple moves into a lakeside property along with their 5 daughters. They have bought the property in bank auction and so have no idea about the previous owners. As is the case with most of the stories in supernatural show 'The Haunting', they have poured all their savings into the house purchase. And the father is the only breadwinner of the family. Now, the family also has a dog which, predictably, starts howling and refuses to get into the house on the moving day. I guess there were no horror movies or shows during that time so the family doesn't think much of it.
The children get busy playing hide-and-seek inside the house and one of them stumbles in a corner - only to accidentally tear down a heavily barred entrance to a basement. Now all of us who have watched a horror show or two know that dark basements and attics festooned with thick cobwebs are favorite haunting places of ghouls, spirits and all sorts of ancient demons. But the 70s family is so blissfully unaware that they are delighted to have some extra storage space and possibly, a few antiques that could fetch a good price.
It's only a matter of time before things start getting spooky. The mother has some inexplicable bruises when she gets up in the morning. The eldest daughter complains that she could smell something bad in her room in the night. And the dog that was tied outside all through the night is found dead by one of the children. No surprises there! Soon all the four children are packed off to school, hubby dearest leaves for office and Mommy and the youngest child are left all alone in the house. It's the game of hide-and-seek again! Mommy soon realizes that all is not well in this place. But the husband would hear none of it.
Desperate for help, the wife ropes in a husband-wife pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine. By then, the husband has seen a thing or two that convinces him that the place is haunted. The investigators begin their work and the dark secrets of the house by the lake start tumbling out one after another.
As I said, the story has been told before in many horror shows and movies. The characters are the same - the 'there are no such things as ghosts' husband, the wife that believes, the local cop who doesn't believe in anything that can't be seen and the investigators that try to provoke the spirit into 'letting them know that it's there'. What's different is how it all is executed. In this day and age, when the horror shows are a dime a dozen on any channel worth its salt, it is very difficult to scare people. There are so many cliches in the horror genre that, more often than not, people end up rolling on the floor laughing when they see a ghoul pounce on an unsuspecting character. But this movie really manages to scare audience out of their skins on more than one occasion. I particularly remember a scene in which one of the children is dragged off her bed at night and bends down to see if there is anything hiding under her bed. A couple of college girls were sitting behind me. One of them kept asking 'is there anything under the bed?'. And I wished that someone would answer because I had my eyes shut tight :-)
So if you want a good scare or two, go watch 'The Conjuring'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
