A walk to remember

"first you will smile, and then you will cry --- don't say that you haven't been warned."



I picked up this book while strolling past a book vendor in Cannaught Place. I had decided to buy this book some time back after reading very positive reviews about it on shelfari. And it was just by chance I happen to walk across it. I bought the book for a ridiculous price, a price not very synonymous while shopping with street hucksters. Now, all this should Ideally not be part of a book review, but you know, it's just to give a personal touch and set the tone.

This is what I'll call the most beautiful story I have ever chanced on. No book till date ever bring tears in my eyes. This book almost did, and the emotional fallout of this book was enormous.

This is a love story of a boy Landon Carter. A series of events led him fell in love with a girl named Jamie Sullivan when they both were seventeen and about to graduate from high school. Her father was a minister in the baptist church and the two families never shared a musical history. And the relationship was never cordial between Landon and her father, who had crossed fifty when Jamie was born. Of course he was a very old man when the story was told. Jamie, on the other hand was downright devoted to god. Everything in the world according to her was a part of " Lord's Plan". She lost her mother when she was born and carried her mother's bible all the time with her. She was very sweet with everyone, even animals and helped any, any soul, needy or not. She wasn't the kind of girl that would hang around with friends or chill out some on weekend night. She would rather prefer to spend her free time in an orphanage. Although this made her very popular with the aged population, she was never much liked by her fellow mates, especially boys in the school. Landon on the other hand was a totally normal boy, and tried to maintain distance with her. But events did happen and as they went by, and gradually they both fell in love with each other.

Those were the most beautiful days of their lives as they enjoyed their first love. But destiny takes a turn here. The love and happiness broke into dismay and sorrow. Their lives were about to be changed forever, and it is at this point that tears will start flooding your eyes till the very end of the story. I won't tell you what happened, and how their love finally shaped, but believe me, even if I tell you the entire story, it won't even matter. Because this book is not so much story driven as it is character driven and Nicholas Spark just miraculously weaves those characters and the lives that they live, so much so, that you almost starts to feel a part of them. You will laugh with those characters and cry with them. And even when you put down this book, they will remain within you for a very long time.

All I can say to conclude is that it is a very very beautiful book and no person should ever miss on it. And yes, As you read the book, you'll realize the there had been quite a few attempts back here in India to translate it through various medias, but I'll bet my youth if we could have gone anywhere even near to the emotional grasp of this story. It's just soooo beautiful.

Must Must read it !!

INTO THIN AIR

''Nothing has ever moved me more than this book did. I had nightmares after reading the book. This would be my best read ever. ''

I had been plagued by heat in the Cwm every time I'd traveled through it, and this trip was no exception. Climbing with Andy Harris at the front of the group, I continually stuffed snow under my hat and moved as fast as my legs and lungs would propel me, hoping to reach the shade of the tents before succumbing to the solar radiation. As the morning dragged on and the sun beat down, my head began to pound. My tongue swelled so much that it was difficult to breathe through my mouth, and I noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to think clearly.




Until a week ago, I had not even heard of this 'New York Times Bestseller', 'Times Book of the Year (1997)' and what not. I'm not a reading addict, but growing up in a culture advocating books and all, I have inherited some good habits too. Although, I don't have an entire database of publications at my fingertips, I'm atleast quite familiar with some nice titles out there on stands since recent few years. This book was an exception, however. What actually propelled me to buy this book was the apparent contradiction of my belief that Non fiction texts cannot appeal to patrons expecting adrenaline outbursts. For me, non-fiction was always about emotional encounters, revival stories, biographies, events and era documentation and in recent times, host of self-improvement and assessment guides. Putting it simply, for me it was nothing but boring and serious compilations targeting intellectuals in particular. So I kept a distance from these works and happily confined myself within fiction enclosures. Consequently, an adventurous bestseller based upon non-fiction content, came as a surprise to me. Eventually, it was the realization of the non-fictitious character of the book at every moment of the read, that made the story so enthralling.

Jon Krakauer, a full time writer and author of many non-fiction adventure bestsellers, was approached by the editors of the Outside magazine to climb up the Everest accompanying a commercial expedition. In mid ' 90s, it was realized among many that it was high time to throw some light on commercialization of Everest story. So Krakauer, set off to conquer the peak of the world in a trek led by Rob Hall, an elite in the mountaineering world. On May 10 1996, he reached the summit of Mount Everest alongwith a number of clients from different expeditions in a painstaking and enduring journey. At this point, a bank of clouds was taking shape on not so far horizon, an indication of the storm that was about to follow. In next few hours, this storm engulfed within it, lives of as many as 12 people, making 1996 as the deadliest year in history of mountain climbing.





Jon Krakauer, takes you step by step to the summit of the world in disclosure of his horrifying and chilling annals. He recounts all the pains he and the members of his team went through and the efforts of the Sherpa community in escorting these inexperienced climbers to the top. It's not just the rampancy up there at the altitudes, but the emotional drama that unfolds as a fallout which demands a skilled writer to jot down the turmoils as authentically as they happen. And they got Jon Krakauer, the right man in wrong place.This book is so well written that you can feel the horrors of breathlessness at 28000 feet, cold that lingers 150 degrees below zero and the quest for survival in the most harsh conditions nature has set-up. He narrates the story in most compelling and honest way. His survival guilt becomes evident at many instants. He passes over his own hardships and applauds the heroism of those who risked their lives to save the stranded members of the climbing parties. Ending the book openly, he leaves the readers to ponder over many questions, still left unanswered.


This is one of my best books ever. This book had a similar effect on me as Titanic had on my tender mind years ago. Well, I won't say more. If you are looking for some heart-pounding and thrilling read, stop your search here. I highly recommend this book.

The Secret Ancient Treasure

I confess here, that I always aspired to be a 'gaming freak'. I could never be one, though. But secretly, I still pursue that dream, inspite of knowing that I don't have within me, what all devotion it require. Change is my Middle name (Amit Change Kumar....hmmm). I cannot cling to any one thing for too long. My passions just keep on changing. Until last year, I was dead sure I had to serve mankind by gifting myself to Science (more appropriately to MIT). A year before that, I had full plans to form my own party and root out corruption from the country by invading into the battlefields of politics. But with the Genesis of Youth For Equality (YFE) and release of Rang De Basanti, I was assured that Youth of the country was now coming of age and will take good care of nation even in absence of my leadership. So I switched my interests to Physics, which I believed, was Depleting in values and logic and was in urgent need of bright scholars like me. Anyways, that time has passed and I have realized lately it's at a stage where only maniacs can serve to broadcast it's irresolute outcomes. As of Present, I have left myself free to choose my passions when time requires. It's a good feeling to feel free. I operate as per as my heart commands. So now in these Christmas Vacations ( or semester vacations...when would I grow up ?? ), I have revived my passion for Gaming !!


So now I'm going to present to you the secret treasures of gaming world. These game were not much popular in India, but they received significant admiration in more developed gaming societies. They received good acclaim from Indian critics too, but most of them went largely unnoticed by majority of Indian Gamers for whom the gaming world could not expand beyond the realms of Brian Lara Cricket, Age of Empires, Counter-Strike and a couple of similar titles including Road-Rash, which is still quite popular. So here I present to you some of these games...which apparently continue to be my all time favorites.


1. Serious Sam

This is a monster game. It created a big-fuzz when it was first out in 1999. It changed the entire outlook of FPS (First Person Shooters) forever. Never ever before, FPS players had encountered such big bosses. Not only that, the entire game is a Deathmatch in itself. It's like, nearly infinite ammo and infinite enemies. You will tire shooting but the enemies just won't stop. Talking about the enemies...they are in plenty, both in numbers and in variety. In no other game, you can expect such a massive body count. A few of the enemies are particularly scary. Consider for example,headless kamikaze..these headless creatures carry their screaming heads in their hands and will run at full speed into you to finally blast-off and causing serious damage to your (extremely vulnerable) health. Then there are werebulls whose mere contact can send you flying miles in the air ( and I mean it !! ) They'll charge you dozens at a time. There are countless such enemies too keep you busy till the bosses show up. I can assure you, you just CANNOT not face any bigger bosses in any FPS ever developed. Their mere sight will kick the soul out of your ass.



Oh yaa...I know I forgot to mention the plot. The strong story line is another positive to the game, besides a great gameplay and splendid graphics and sound experience. It's like this :
Aliens attack, all hope is lost, you fight good. You get sent back in time to stop the Aliens in ancient Egypt. So it has all the elements for a perfect and engrossing adventure - ancient worlds, aliens, dark magic, secret doorways, spine-tingling range of weapons, bosses and what not..??


This is an ultimate FPS experience..and as you must have guessed by now...I just can't explain in words what all it can do to your life. Go play it..and have one hell of an experience.


click here to download the demo of the game

2. Tropico

Tropico, in my thesis, is one the most developed games ever forged by gamesmiths. It's not, in any sense, like any other strategy game ever devised. One thing that make it different from other games is the politics that finds itself in the center of all the action. For the first time, developers had seriously focussed their attention to homogenize jugglery into the games. Besides a monumental display of prodigious Artificial Intelligence, the game has enough heart, soul, humor, and humanity to make it unique.


So it goes like this, you are a newly installed boss in the Banana Republic in Caribbean - 'Tropico'. Your people are empowered with the right to vote and hopefully, the right to enjoy a good standard of living. You can start as a leader by choosing your attributes from a wide expanse of qualities and flaws available. For example, if you have a financial background, that would reflect in your industrial outputs. If you were a radical scholar, the communists and intellectuals would be pre-disposed to support you or if you were lodged in by, say CIA, you'll gloat over the patronage of Uncle Sam. Anyways, you start with a handful of building and couple of dozen of your citizens. You start by erecting buildings which are then constructed by laborers. Remember, that you don't have a direct control over your people. They would do their work by own, more or less, on time but besides farming, transportation, building and doing host of other professional activities, they also need to take rest, go shopping, seek entertainment, medical care, rejuvenate themselves with religion and sometimes just strolls around the island. All your people belong to one or more factions : military, religion, communists, capitalists, intellectuals and even environmentalists with varying degree of commitment. Now its upto you to keep them content...capitalists and communists..intellectual and religious..all of them together. And if the internal politics wasn't sufficient, consider this : you try to flourish in an era of cold-war !! You need to keep cordial relations with both US and USSR to garner good deposits without which your entire empire can go flat within moments ( you can actually see the rebels roaming when this happen). And did I tell you, You need to conduct elections every then and now and possibly in a fair way because US, UN and intellectuals would be keeping a close watch to ensure transparency and honesty. ...So you need to keep your people happy...build a large economy...and if possible, shape up a small fortune for yourself in Swiss bank by being a just little bit naughty (read corrupt) !!




I can assure you one thing...you'll enjoy every minute of Tropico, especially if you are a strategy or city-builder game fan. This game involves intense thinking and strategy-building , but will still not overload your mind. The music is amazing and the latin soundtracks set up the mood. You can hear them millions of time without ever growing bored. The graphics are awesome and the interface immensely simple. All the game can be played with your left mouse button. The only improvement i can think in the game is a better ending with a more spectacular end to our decades long regime. Anyway, this is a fantastic game sure to be a hallmark in the era of strategy games. So rub suntan all over your body...and get ready to be the KING of somewhere HOT !!!






click here to download the demo of this game


3. Commandos

Now this is a strategy game. It's all about strategy..and nothing about anything else. The series has, till present, came up with 3 titles, each being a major improvement upon it's predecessor. The buildup of the game is centered around realistic missions in World War II. The First title includes about 20 missions, each different and dynamic with burgeoning difficulty. The 2-D maps are all beautiful and realistic, highly detailed, shrouded with enemy barracks, tanks, electric fences, armor and artillery and German soldiers at guard with absolute resoluteness.

Every time, in order to complete a mission, you are provided the control over a group of commandos, from the pack of total 6 that you have. These commandos are all unique in their appearance and character. Like the Green Beret, is all that powerful and strong, marine can swim underwater and row boats and the spy can be much useful if you can arrange a German uniform for him.



Commandos is a stupendous game, not because of it's relatively simple interface or looks, but because it makes you think. It's different from other games in the genre because it's not like starting from scratch everytime you start a new game. There is no fog of war and every information about the scenario is at your disposal. You just need to complete a given task, like destroying a radio station or a dam or switch off the power supply to Radars, like the real missions of war. To succeed, you must have a brilliant co-ordination between your troops. You need to make split second decisions, and act even fast. Plus, you need to be careful that while eliminating the enemy one by one, the other guards don't even get a hint that the foe has intruded into their camp. One of the best thing about such a trade is that you'll get a lot of room to be a little ingenious. Although, there is always a best possible way to get the job done, it can be done in so many ways with using different traits of your different units. And that's the reason you'll like to play the missions more than once.





I'll leave you with that. If you think that you have got some brains and are a fan of strategy games, this game will test you to extreme.

GO PLAY IT !!


Click here to download the demo of the game