MY SSB INTERVIEW @ JAN-04 FOR INDIAN ARMY..... [ PART- 2]
As I was standing near the door of my coach, my mind went back reeling to the words of my wisdom, the vision of my idol, My grandpa spoke ... Reminding me his words, never turn down, for who turn down is a loser and one who races through the troubles wins the race.. I've decided to run the race. Will i come back with cherishable memories, or will i come back the day it starts ??? it all was a mystery by that time. I went back to my seat and started to see the notes given by anandamurali. All the examples he had given. I knew it would be different. But the magnitude depends upon my fate i decided. And really enjoyed the travel that night... After the train went to the AP, a group of College guys from tibet gave company to me.. They were around 50-60 ppl. 6 of those guys were in my compartment. 4 of them were girls and 2 guys. we talked about the culture on each part and about their places of visit and about our professions too.. Luckily for me they too were happened to be engineers but from IT. And finally their destination arrived by the next morning around 10. We all exchanged our contacts...
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
This sunday @ Beach & my Guitar......
The first step is always the most difficult for anyone. Ask a child what is more difficult? Its first tottering step or the sprint it later got acclimatised to. I have for long been contemplating on this idea of learning the Guitar. But procrastination had always been one of my strong points. The point of action must come at some point of time. The sooner the better. My best friend gave me one of the best lines i keep musing over in the recent past. "Dirty your hands if you want to learn something". Atlast, i've started to learn guitar and can now play quite a few songs with it upto my level and presently mastering the first 3 strings in the first octaves...
Went to beach last night. This was the first time for me being in the beach at that late hours. Add to it with Murali driving all the way to the beach and back . Though we had a few close calls, we've managed to get back. I was overjoyed when i made all the way to the beach myself with my bike. Makes it all the more interesting. May be crazy if you know the way I drive. But then there are times for celebration. I wont call that exhilaration but a celebration all the same. Had been waiting for a long time for another such monumental moment to fall on me.
The first step is always the most difficult for anyone. Ask a child what is more difficult? Its first tottering step or the sprint it later got acclimatised to. I have for long been contemplating on this idea of learning the Guitar. But procrastination had always been one of my strong points. The point of action must come at some point of time. The sooner the better. My best friend gave me one of the best lines i keep musing over in the recent past. "Dirty your hands if you want to learn something". Atlast, i've started to learn guitar and can now play quite a few songs with it upto my level and presently mastering the first 3 strings in the first octaves...
Went to beach last night. This was the first time for me being in the beach at that late hours. Add to it with Murali driving all the way to the beach and back . Though we had a few close calls, we've managed to get back. I was overjoyed when i made all the way to the beach myself with my bike. Makes it all the more interesting. May be crazy if you know the way I drive. But then there are times for celebration. I wont call that exhilaration but a celebration all the same. Had been waiting for a long time for another such monumental moment to fall on me.
Getting back to the beach again but now a different location. Its near the Thiruvanmiyur .. Paalavakkam to be precise.. a really nice place to hang-out. We both went there about 6pm. Though few drops sent tremors, we've managed with our will and Enjoyed some moments together surfing along the shore . As i went for a bash standing bare footed with my trousers up, my mind began reeling up and down bringing the memories of past, Krishnaiyyer my grandpa whom i've been loving since my childhood... and then it got shifted again to SSB memories and how i've missed it and the moments that i missed in life.. and lot other.. as i was about to broke out, murali called me for a brisk walk as the night began to fall.... obviously he can't hold without colors within his vicinity particularly in darkness...
It all started by his idea of building a sand cone.. soon with my intrusion it got converted into a castle... And off we started collecting dry sands nearby and went on creating a castle with 3 storeys and we digged off about50mm for the puddle beneath and we built the bridge and constructed the walls around nicely... with murali's fine artwork, we also managed to carve man-hides and an final outer circle which altogether comes around a radius of about 1.5 meter... and atlast we've got a flag too to hoist @ the top of our castle.... after all that with hopes of photographing it, i switched on my mobile and found i could only c darkness around.. but we never gave up as murali brought his vehicle after great trouble and switched on his light to give illumination to the darkness around our castle... nope.. it never turned on even a single pixel in my camera.. ( later i regreted not trying in night mode.. :-[ ).. Atlast we decided to giveup. The fate did not stopped until we had to test our strengths by pushing his vehicle o'er the sand of time....... atlast we were back on road to home after a nice dinner @ sangeetha, we came back home.. another hell of a night started with tunes of my Guitar....
Now all those friends who have lent me some very nice moments to enjoy in the past couple of years are now were nowhere in sight of me....
Pedestrial as it may seem, it is the dawning of a new era in the life of so many guys. Guys who always thought their future was bleak now have their own space to breath. This feeling comes to everyone at some point of their life time or the other. The feeling that you are not a no-good. you too got something in you. For me personally it dawned some five years ago. There sure would have been some who would have enjoyed that moment today or atleast within the past month.
Hoping to continue soon. C u guys.....
Sunday, September 03, 2006
MS. Subbulaxmi - I still love her
An elegant simplicity
N. RAM
"MY sister died young, my mother died long ago, my brother is gone. Now my niece and nephew are no more. I have no family left," my grandaunt said, tears brimming in her voice. Usually a sympathetic listener to her tales of woe, this time I was stung into retorting, "How can you say that when every single one of us absolutely adores you?" Taken aback, grandaunt hugged me as she replied, "I know. I only meant my pirandaam (family of birth)."
Even in times of hardship, Kunjamma shared her husband's responsibility in extending financial support to clan members. When a sister-in-law pawned her gold bangles, Kunjamma was happy to give her own pair to the lady and made do with glass bangles. She loved glass bangles anyway, and wore them all her life, matching them to her saree of the day. Sharing was natural. She never put a string of flowers in her hair without checking if everyone had their bit.
Conservative to the core
Kunjamma enjoyed recounting details of how she brought up the four children, shielding them from hot-tempered Sadasivam's wrath. As you listened you could see that this was as important to her as her earlier career in the movies, or her life long commitment to music performance. Once when I asked her just what made her fall in love with Sadasivam, she blushed and said, "Those children wouldn't let me go!"
She was conservative to the core, convinced that a woman's place was in the home. She shook her head over "independent" girls, it was one of the few English words in her vocabulary. If you reminded her that she herself was a career woman on hectic professional tours, she would look puzzled and say, "I just did what your Thatha (grandfather) asked me to do. Besides, he was always with me."
I remember a hilarious conversation between M.S and a film star activist. "Shouldn't women stand on their own feet?" the young woman asked. "Of course," M.S replied. "I've never done anything against my husband's will." The star persisted, "But women must think for themselves." Grandma agreed, "In fact young women don't think before they act. That is why nowadays there are so many divorces."
The star mentioned women's rights. "The woman's dharma is to be meek, and listen to elders, not argue all the time. Look at television! What vulgarity! Times have changed, become so bad," M.S. shook her head.
Earliest memories
My earliest memory of Kunjamma is a dreamy vignette. Her fresh-washed hair is spread on a down-turned basket, drying through a mist of incense. I follow her down the staircase into the garden for the tulsi pooja, incessantly ringing the bell in my hand. She tells me, "Don't skip, walk softly. Ring the bell only when I tell you. Gently." Dressed in woven-to-order Kanchipuram silk after the oil-turmeric Friday bath, in a halo of abundant curls, eyes lined in home made mye, forehead aglow with kumkumam and vibhuti, diamonds sparkling on ear and nose, Kunjamma looks like a goddess herself. Even as a child I sense that her beauty is not just physical. It has to do with an inner serenity.
Precise
more casual persons like me, who joined her entourage in 1982. From suitcase packing to stage performance, every thing had its order and place.
Rehearsals were wonderful, not only because of the privilege of listening to M.S., but because you saw her in different lights and moods. Singing "Sri Dakshinamurte", she might talk about a great Sankarabharanam she heard from guru Semmangudi. A song in Saveri reminded her of another from childhood. "The day my mother taught me this song we had a visitor who played the veena, breaking the string in his attempts to show off his skills," she laughed.
More than any other famous person, she captured the hearts of people with her simplicity and humaneness. Every single thing she did, from serving food to tuning the tambura, was marked by elegance and charm. Long ago, when I read this poem of Byron for the first time, I immediately thought of Kunjamma:
She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes,
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies ...
And on that cheek, and over that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent
A mind at peace with all below,
Sitting beside Kunjamma after she had breathed her last, when a quiet midnight saw her in her last bed, covered by the shawl gifted to her by the Paramacharya of Kanchi whom she worshipped devoutly, was to recall tender moments of family life. It was also to remember her journey through pain, sorrow, loss and deprivation. Her music is filled with the tears of human grief, reaching out to the bliss beyond: a legacy of love.
An elegant simplicityN. RAM
Every single thing she did, from serving food to tuning the tambura, was marked by elegance and charm. More than any other famous person, she captured the hearts of people with her inherent goodness. GOWRI RAMNARAYAN recounts her personal equa tion with M.S. Subbulakshmi.
"MY sister died young, my mother died long ago, my brother is gone. Now my niece and nephew are no more. I have no family left," my grandaunt said, tears brimming in her voice. Usually a sympathetic listener to her tales of woe, this time I was stung into retorting, "How can you say that when every single one of us absolutely adores you?" Taken aback, grandaunt hugged me as she replied, "I know. I only meant my pirandaam (family of birth)."
Carnatic vocalist Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2004) was an international celebrity. But at home she was the ingenuous and unworldly Kunjamma. She had no sense of money. From the 1940s, Rs.10 remained her gift on festive occasions, until a nephew quipped that after 40 years, he needed an increment. During a temple visit, she distributed Rs.20 notes to the teeming beggars, mistaking that currency for the two-rupee note bundle given to her for that purpose.
Her family feeling was very strong. Husband Sadasivam had two daughters, an orphaned nephew (my father) and niece. A dog-eared postcard written by their dying mother, leaving her children to Sadasivam's care, was a treasured possession in Kunjamma's cupboard.
Even in times of hardship, Kunjamma shared her husband's responsibility in extending financial support to clan members. When a sister-in-law pawned her gold bangles, Kunjamma was happy to give her own pair to the lady and made do with glass bangles. She loved glass bangles anyway, and wore them all her life, matching them to her saree of the day. Sharing was natural. She never put a string of flowers in her hair without checking if everyone had their bit.
Conservative to the core
Kunjamma enjoyed recounting details of how she brought up the four children, shielding them from hot-tempered Sadasivam's wrath. As you listened you could see that this was as important to her as her earlier career in the movies, or her life long commitment to music performance. Once when I asked her just what made her fall in love with Sadasivam, she blushed and said, "Those children wouldn't let me go!"
She was conservative to the core, convinced that a woman's place was in the home. She shook her head over "independent" girls, it was one of the few English words in her vocabulary. If you reminded her that she herself was a career woman on hectic professional tours, she would look puzzled and say, "I just did what your Thatha (grandfather) asked me to do. Besides, he was always with me."
I remember a hilarious conversation between M.S and a film star activist. "Shouldn't women stand on their own feet?" the young woman asked. "Of course," M.S replied. "I've never done anything against my husband's will." The star persisted, "But women must think for themselves." Grandma agreed, "In fact young women don't think before they act. That is why nowadays there are so many divorces."
The star mentioned women's rights. "The woman's dharma is to be meek, and listen to elders, not argue all the time. Look at television! What vulgarity! Times have changed, become so bad," M.S. shook her head.
Earliest memories
Precision ruled her life. Very irksome for
Precise
more casual persons like me, who joined her entourage in 1982. From suitcase packing to stage performance, every thing had its order and place.
When I found myself her sole vocal accompanist for the first time and said, "I don't have the skill," she replied, "You will learn." I learnt many things in those years of closeness. Her tact was inborn, so was her empathy with people, especially those not rich and famous. On a train journey, when a woman came up to M.S. hesitantly and said that she had learnt a slokam from an M.S. cassette, the real M.S. asked the lady to join her in singing the same song there and then on the moving train. The Sadasivams preferred train travel with their whole troupe, and meeting friends who brought fresh food in huge tiffin carriers in stations along the way. On the rare occasions when they flew, they took their own food with them, enough to share with the flight crew. Pilots would come to thank M.S for idli and sarkarai pongal. When an airhostess admired her nose ring, M.S touched my ringless nose and said triumphantly, "So stylish she is, lipstick and all, but see how she likes my mookkuthi! Old ways are the best."
Rehearsals
Rehearsals were wonderful, not only because of the privilege of listening to M.S., but because you saw her in different lights and moods. Singing "Sri Dakshinamurte", she might talk about a great Sankarabharanam she heard from guru Semmangudi. A song in Saveri reminded her of another from childhood. "The day my mother taught me this song we had a visitor who played the veena, breaking the string in his attempts to show off his skills," she laughed.
Once, as we practised Papanasam Sivan's "Kartikeya gangeya", M.S. recalled two inimitable compositions he had taught her in Kambodi (Sikkil meviya and Kadirkaama) and proceeded to sing them with all the enjoyment of showing off their beauties. As you swayed in rapture, she would break off to ask, "What did you make for lunch today?" If you answered "Koottu and rasam," she would say, "Bad combination. A dry curry, say plantain or yam, goes well with rasam."
M.S.'s method of teaching was to repeat each line until you got it right. Every swara had to be pitched accurately. She didn't use technical terms like sthaana suddham but said, "Take that note higher, higher!" No theoretician, she sang out the fine differences between first cousins Nayaki and Darbar. What she learnt from others, she preserved intact. One day she asked me if I had attended D.K. Jayaraman's concert. How did she know? "That sangati you sang in `Talli ninnu' belongs to their school," was the answer.
More than any other famous person, she captured the hearts of people with her simplicity and humaneness. Every single thing she did, from serving food to tuning the tambura, was marked by elegance and charm. Long ago, when I read this poem of Byron for the first time, I immediately thought of Kunjamma:
She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes,
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies ...
And on that cheek, and over that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent
A mind at peace with all below,
Sitting beside Kunjamma after she had breathed her last, when a quiet midnight saw her in her last bed, covered by the shawl gifted to her by the Paramacharya of Kanchi whom she worshipped devoutly, was to recall tender moments of family life. It was also to remember her journey through pain, sorrow, loss and deprivation. Her music is filled with the tears of human grief, reaching out to the bliss beyond: a legacy of love.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
BEHIND THE POVERTY LINES........
I turned the meter, ready to run,
It was a fierce bargain, the customer had won.
For all I get from Parry's to Guindy,
Is a paltry Rupees sixty.
I drive an Auto, which is not mine,
I start early morning and not rest until nine,
All I earn through this job of mine,
Still keeps my family below poverty line.
A major share goes to the owner's call,
Another for petrol, service and all,
what is left is just enough,
to keep my wife and kids alive.
Yet the rich people haggle skillfully,
Afterall there are many like me, which makes their job easy,
If I refuse to attend their call,
My family gets a harder fall.
I turned the meter, ready to run,
It was a fierce bargain, the customer had won.
For all I get from Parry's to Guindy,
Is a paltry Rupees sixty.
I drive an Auto, which is not mine,
I start early morning and not rest until nine,
All I earn through this job of mine,
Still keeps my family below poverty line.
A major share goes to the owner's call,
Another for petrol, service and all,
what is left is just enough,
to keep my wife and kids alive.
Yet the rich people haggle skillfully,
Afterall there are many like me, which makes their job easy,
If I refuse to attend their call,
My family gets a harder fall.
MY SSB INTERVIEW @ JAN-04 FOR INDIAN ARMY..... [ PART- 1]
That was not a day dream but a reality which before i realised i've had missed it so close that one would not wish he should ever in his life. Sometimes wonder had I done enough to attain the goal of my life. Or even as if anyone would've missed his/her goal so close.... I had to agree there are. But the fact that it was me hurt me and stabbed on my back made me relax for the life time. Naaaah i will rise and will bounce back, this life is hell for i 
will be there oneday @ my heaven guarding my angel ...
The moment i've got the call letter for the SSB interview for the indian army, i started preparing for it. Not even the fact that i was a bit fat by that time worried me ( Much obesse now). Somewhere around my heart it said as if i was born to be there someday. I started running around 5kms a day slowly gaining the criteria given in the call letter which i discovered later is required only when reporting to the training. I was in a state of operational readiness when my parents intercepted me worriying as if im going straightaway for kargil. God finally i convinced them that i had to go . Though i missed the edge by not being in NCC or NSS, I was ready for my mission And to die for it, as the whole country would cherish and relish their democracy.
Will all the hopes and dreams of getting into the Army, i got onto the train (Ganga-Kaveri exp.) to be precise. With my DAD waving off to me i really felt proud being born to him as a son especially on that ocassion. For he has done so much to me and for what i've done to him is just to quarrel with him. He was telling me the pains he had suffered during his adulthood and the gains he got out of it. I knew i admire him, i love him. But all that i could express to him is anger. I really owe him a lot. But still he wanted me to stay positive and then he waved me off as the train started TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was standing by the gate cherishing every moment and praying god to make this happen...
will be there oneday @ my heaven guarding my angel ...Will all the hopes and dreams of getting into the Army, i got onto the train (Ganga-Kaveri exp.) to be precise. With my DAD waving off to me i really felt proud being born to him as a son especially on that ocassion. For he has done so much to me and for what i've done to him is just to quarrel with him. He was telling me the pains he had suffered during his adulthood and the gains he got out of it. I knew i admire him, i love him. But all that i could express to him is anger. I really owe him a lot. But still he wanted me to stay positive and then he waved me off as the train started TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was standing by the gate cherishing every moment and praying god to make this happen...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
குடோனில் டிவி நடிகையின் ‘அஜால் குஜால்’
*** This is a test for finding how many ppl actually visit this page. I request the regular readers of my blog not to misinterpret the intent of this blog. I gurarentee you for the quality of my post still remain the same.For im running a tracking program on my website... This article is appeared in google labs most visited page...Thanks for visiting. Wish you best of luck to find what you searched for :-) ***
சென்னை: ஜவுளிக் கடை குடோனில், குடிபோதையில், பிரபல டிவி நடிகை வாலிபர் ஒருவருடன் படு ஆபாசமான கோலத்தில் இன்பம் அனுபவிப்பதைப் போன்ற செல்போன் வீடியோ காட்சி காவல்துறை அதிகாரியின் செல்போனுக்கு வந்து பரபரப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது.
சென்னை தென் மண்டல குற்றப் பிரிவு சப் இன்ஸ்பெக்டரின் செல்போனுக்கு ஒரு எம்எம்எஸ் வீடியோ கிளிப்பிங் வந்துள்ளது. டிவி ஸ்டார் ஃபார் யூ என்ற தலைப்பில் வந்த அந்த வீடியோ கிளிப்பிங்கைப் பார்த்த சப் இன்ஸ்பெக்டர் ஆடிப் போய் விட்டார்.
பிரபலமான டிவி நடிகை ஒருவர், வாலிபர் ஒருவருடன் ஜவுளிக் கடை குடோனில், யாருக்கும் தெரியாத இடத்தில் படு ஜாலியாக உல்லாசம் அனுபவிக்கும் காட்சியும், நடிகையின் ‘ஸ்டிரிப்டீஸ்’ காட்சியும் அதில் இடம் பெற்றுள்ளது.
அந்த வீடியோ கிளிப்பில் இடம் பெற்றுள்ள காட்சிகளின் விவரம்:
அந்த நடிகை சன் டிவியில் ஒளிபரப்பாகும் கோலங்கள் தொடரில் முக்கிய வேடத்தில் நடித்துள்ளார். ஒரு வாலிபருடன் அந்த நடிகை வருகிறார்
அவர்கள் இருக்கும் இடத்தில் நிறைய உடைகள் அடுக்கி வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. எனவே ஏதாவது ஒரு ஜவுளிக் கடையின் குடோனாகத்தான் அது இருக்கும் எனத் தெரிகிறது.
சேலையில் உள்ள அந்த நடிகை, குடிபோதையில் இருக்கிறார். தன்னை மறந்து சிரித்தபடி அந்த வாலிபருடன் வரும் நடிகையை, கேமராவுக்கு முன்பு அந்த வாலிபர் நிறுத்துகிறார். பின்னர் கீழே உட்கார்ந்து கொள்கிறார்.
பிறகு டிவி நடிகை தனது சேலையை கழற்றுகிறார், பிறகு ஒவ்வொரு உடையாக கழற்றி எறிகிறார். பின்னர் படு ஜாலியாக அந்த வாலிபருடன் உல்லாசத்தில் மூழ்குகிறார்.
அவ்வப்போது நடிகை கேமராவை விட்டு விலகும்போது, அந்த நபர் நடிகையை சரியாக கொண்டு வந்து கேமரா முன் நிறுத்தி ஜாலியைத் தொடருகிறார். நடிகைக்குத் தெரியாமல் ரகசிய இடத்தில் கேமரா வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கக் கூடும் என்று தெரிகிறது.
அந்த வாலிபர் இந்தியில் பேசுகிறார், ஆனால் நடிகையோ மலையாளத்தில் பதில் தருகிறார். பேச்சை விட உல்லாச உணர்வுகளைத்தான் நடிகை அதிகம் பிரதிபலித்திருக்கிறார். கிட்டத்தட்ட மூன்றரை நிமிடம் வரை இந்த ஆபாச காட்சி ஓடுகிறது.
இந்தக் காட்சியைப் பார்த்து அதிர்ந்து போன சப் இன்ஸ்பெக்டர் படத்தை அனுப்பிய செல்போன் எண்ணைப் பார்த்து அதற்கு போன் செய்துள்ளார். மறு முனையில் பேசிய நபர், தான் ஒரு கல்லூரி மாணவர் என்றும், தனது நண்பருக்கு அனுப்பிய காட்சி தவறுதலாக உங்களுக்கு வந்து விட்டது என்றும் கூறியுள்ளார்.
டிகையின் ஆபாச காட்சியை படமாக்கியது யார், எந்த ஜவுளிக் கடை, யார் இதை செல்போன்களுக்கு அனுப்பி வைப்பது என்பது குறித்த விசாரணையை போலீஸார் முடுக்கி விட்டுள்ளனர்.
வீடியோ கிளிப்பிங்கில் இருப்பது நடிகையின் டூப் அல்ல ஒரிஜினல் என்பதால், வேண்டும் என்றே அவர் ஆபாசமாக நடித்திருப்பதாக தெரிய வந்தால் அவர் மீதும் நடவடிக்கை பாயும் என்று காவல்துறை வட்டாரத்தில் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
ஏற்கனவே சொர்ணமால்யாவின் ஆபாசக் காட்சி செல்போன்களில் வலம் வந்தது. இது ஒரிஜினல் படம்தான் என்று போலீஸ் விசாரணையில் தெரியவந்தது. இருப்பினும் எந்த நடவடிக்கையும் எடுக்கப்படாமல் விஷயம் கமுக்கமாக மறைந்து போனது. இந்த நிலையில் பிரபல தொடரில் நடித்துள்ள நடிகையின் கசமுசா படம் வெளியாகியிருப்பது பரபரப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது.
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Endless Road Of Misery
Standing all by myselfI stare at the infinite sky
Watching my entire lifejust passing me by
Too scared to leave,too frightened to stay
How do I get throughone more cloudy day
This is not at all the lifeI had planned
Mapped out with directions,compass in hand
InsteadI am on the road that has no end
Miserable inside,yet I go on and pretend
Since you have been gone,I am trapped in this pain
Misery keeps following me again and again
Trying to realizewhere have I gone wrong
Who was I onceand what I have become
This book of sorrowis stuck on one page
No matter how hard I run,I breathe in the same cage
Sometimes it seemsas million years have passed meby
Waiting like a lonely moonand crying with the infinite sky
Emptiness wondershow much more can I take
Don't know what is aheadbut its one more mistake
But through it allI still keep walking on Following me,
the Darkness keeps stalking onChasing your shadow,
I keep walkingon this endless road
Loneliness ahead,emptiness behind
how long can I go on?
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It may be the last mystery left about "The Da Vinci Code" -- how did a work by a near unknown author and sneered at by some of literature's leading lights become one of the best-selling novels of all time?
With well over 40 million copies sold worldwide and the film version of the novel set to open the prestigious Cannes film festival Wed
nesday, it is a question that scores of authors and would-be ones would love an answer to.
To hear some people tell it, author Dan Brown stumbled on the literary equivalent of turning lead into gold.
They say his was a formula that mixed clumsy, forgettable sentences with breakneck pacing, lectures on art, history and religion, sinister conspiracies, evil villains, puzzles and cliffhanger chapter endings to produce literary gold.
While some like novelist Salman Rushdie called the book "typewriting" and others, like critic Laura Miller, called it "cheesy," book industry professionals refuse to sneer, saying this was far from a case of good things happening to a bad book.
It was instead a case, they said, of all a reader's wants appearing to be conveniently located in a single book, especially the desire to learn something.
In this case, the teaching was about a highly debatable thesis that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants continue through the present day.
Nick Owchar, deputy editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, said:
"My theory is that non-fiction sells better than fiction and this book has a heavy concentration of history and purported facts that people have taken to. It doesn't read well as a novel but it reads well as an encyclopedia.
"The book challenges the familiar story of Jesus's life but it is also challenges ideas that for a vast number of Americans are a familiar part of their faith and people enjoy toying with things that are subversive."
A SCAM?
Journalist Peter Boyer, who analyzed in this week's New Yorker how Hollywood carefully handled the marketing of the movie, said that at the heart of the book is a thesis that: "Christianity as we know it is history's greatest scam, perpetrated by a malignant, misogynist, and, when necessary, murderous Catholic Church."
Boyer said Brown tapped into a hunger not just for spirituality but for alternate constructs of faith -- similar to the public interest in the Gnostic gospels and even the Gospel according to St. Judas.
Beyond that, the novel was also boosted by an innovative marketing campaign that helped it hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list within a week of publication, something unheard of for a book by a little known author.
Stephen Rubin, the publisher of Doubleday Books, a division of Random House, said that he and his staff knew they had something exceptional the minute they received the first 120 pages of the book.
They sent out 10,000 advance copies of the book to booksellers, critics, media and advertising people -- a gigantic number for such an undertaking.
Soon, as Publishers Weekly senior editor Charlotte Abbott noted, they had enlisted the nation's booksellers as fans of the book, ready to sell it for all they were worth.
The first reviews were ecstatic -- the New York Times reviewer summed up her feeling in one word: "Wow," and compared it to Harry Potter for adults.
Doubleday even ran a teaser ad in the New York Times on day one of publication. In a corner of many pages of the newspaper, it ran a tiny box ad that showed the Mona Lisa and asked why this person was smiling.
A puzzle still to be solved for authors dreaming of writing the next "Da Vinci Code."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It may be the last mystery left about "The Da Vinci Code" -- how did a work by a near unknown author and sneered at by some of literature's leading lights become one of the best-selling novels of all time?
With well over 40 million copies sold worldwide and the film version of the novel set to open the prestigious Cannes film festival Wed
nesday, it is a question that scores of authors and would-be ones would love an answer to.
To hear some people tell it, author Dan Brown stumbled on the literary equivalent of turning lead into gold.
They say his was a formula that mixed clumsy, forgettable sentences with breakneck pacing, lectures on art, history and religion, sinister conspiracies, evil villains, puzzles and cliffhanger chapter endings to produce literary gold.
While some like novelist Salman Rushdie called the book "typewriting" and others, like critic Laura Miller, called it "cheesy," book industry professionals refuse to sneer, saying this was far from a case of good things happening to a bad book.
It was instead a case, they said, of all a reader's wants appearing to be conveniently located in a single book, especially the desire to learn something.
In this case, the teaching was about a highly debatable thesis that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants continue through the present day.
Nick Owchar, deputy editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, said:
"My theory is that non-fiction sells better than fiction and this book has a heavy concentration of history and purported facts that people have taken to. It doesn't read well as a novel but it reads well as an encyclopedia.
"The book challenges the familiar story of Jesus's life but it is also challenges ideas that for a vast number of Americans are a familiar part of their faith and people enjoy toying with things that are subversive."
A SCAM?
Journalist Peter Boyer, who analyzed in this week's New Yorker how Hollywood carefully handled the marketing of the movie, said that at the heart of the book is a thesis that: "Christianity as we know it is history's greatest scam, perpetrated by a malignant, misogynist, and, when necessary, murderous Catholic Church."
Boyer said Brown tapped into a hunger not just for spirituality but for alternate constructs of faith -- similar to the public interest in the Gnostic gospels and even the Gospel according to St. Judas.
Beyond that, the novel was also boosted by an innovative marketing campaign that helped it hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list within a week of publication, something unheard of for a book by a little known author.
Stephen Rubin, the publisher of Doubleday Books, a division of Random House, said that he and his staff knew they had something exceptional the minute they received the first 120 pages of the book.
They sent out 10,000 advance copies of the book to booksellers, critics, media and advertising people -- a gigantic number for such an undertaking.
Soon, as Publishers Weekly senior editor Charlotte Abbott noted, they had enlisted the nation's booksellers as fans of the book, ready to sell it for all they were worth.
The first reviews were ecstatic -- the New York Times reviewer summed up her feeling in one word: "Wow," and compared it to Harry Potter for adults.
Doubleday even ran a teaser ad in the New York Times on day one of publication. In a corner of many pages of the newspaper, it ran a tiny box ad that showed the Mona Lisa and asked why this person was smiling.
A puzzle still to be solved for authors dreaming of writing the next "Da Vinci Code."
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