Aadujeevitham

Directed by Blessy, the film is an adaptation of the Malayalam best-selling novel Aadujeevitham, penned by acclaimed writer Benyamin. The novel, based on real-life events was a bestseller in Kerala. It has been translated into many languages, including Tamil, and has gained a broad readership.

With the movie witnessing a grand release in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada in addition to Malayalam waiting for the verdict . The state has always accorded a warm reception to movies adapted from novels for the simple reason that it kindles the curiosity of people, especially the 'readers,' who would be eager to see how different the celluloid version is from the imageries reading has created in their mind's eye.

The expectations for Aadujeevitham are soaring as its music is scored by AR Rahman. Also, the sound design has been pulled off by  Academy Award winner Resul Pookutty along with Vijay Kumar.

Beautiful BGM, hearttouching songs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ls_bOueQW4

പെരിയോനെ എൻ റഹ്മാനേ

പെരിയോനെ റഹീം

അങ്ങകലെ അങ്ങകലെ 

മണ്ണിൽ പുതുമഴ വീഴണുണ്ടേ 

മണ്ണിൽ പുതുമഴ വീഴണുണ്ടേ 

അങ്ങകലെ അങ്ങകലെ 

മണ്ണിൽ പുതുമഴ വീഴണുണ്ടേ 

മണ്ണിൽ പുതുമഴ വീഴണുണ്ടേ 

Amazing Jitin and A.R. Rahman

This is just one song, other songs too are amazing.  But this gives me a feel that Malaree gave on release of Premam. 

Netizens were quick enough to draw parallels between the shots and angles to Dhanush starrer Maryan. Interestingly, Maryan do have some very similar shots too, but the movie is said to be based on a news paper article of three fishermen who faced similar issue while returning from Sudan. 

On viewing the movie many have commented that their father/grandfather had gone through similar phase.  The book is kept for sale outside some theaters too.

Wishing the makers all the very best and praying that this gets even the Oscar. Production companies were Visual Romance Image Makers, Jet Media Production, Alta Global Media, am sure they will not regret. 

Cast included Prithviraj Sukumaran as Najeeb Mohammed, Amala Paul as Sainu, Najeeb's wife, Jimmy Jean-Louis as Ibrahim Khadiri, Shobha Mohan as Ummah, Najeeb's mother, KR Gokul as Hakeem, Talib Al Balushi as Khafeel, Rik Aby as Jasser, Nazer Karutheni as Kunjikka. KR Gokul as Hakeem is the boy who grew up with the film, from 17 years to 24 years.

Right time of release, with Easter/Good friday and the look of Jesus, Ramzan fasting time and finally the long holidays. 

The Boy Who Loved to Read

 

From a young age, Jeff Bezos had an insatiable appetite for reading. His mother Jackie would often find him in his room, surrounded by piles of books, lost in faraway worlds. She encouraged his love of reading, taking him on frequent trips to the library. 

Books were Jeff's portal to knowledge and ideas. He devoured science fiction novels like "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, which sparked his imagination about technology and the future . Biographies of visionary leaders like Thomas Edison showed him the power of invention and perseverance.

Books Shape a Future Billionaire

As Jeff grew up, books continued to profoundly influence his thinking. After graduating from Princeton, he took a lucrative job on Wall Street. But he couldn't shake the entrepreneurial itch. Fascinated by the potential of the nascent internet, he made a bold decision in 1994 to quit his job and start an online bookstore called Amazon.

Why books? Jeff saw untapped opportunity in making the world's biggest selection of books easily available to anyone with an internet connection. More than that, books represented access to knowledge - and he wanted to spread knowledge far and wide.

Sharing His Love of Books 

As Amazon grew from a tiny startup operating out of Jeff's garage into a global behemoth, one thing remained constant: Jeff's passion for books. He shared his love of reading with his employees, even compiling a list of his favorite books that became known as "Jeff's Reading List" around the company . 

Titles like business classic "Built to Last" by Jim Collins and character-driven novel "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro were required reading for Amazon executives . By studying a wide range of books, Jeff believed his leadership team would shape more expansive mental models of the world.

Today, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet. But he never lost the sense of wonder for books he had as that curious young boy. In a very real sense, books made Jeff Bezos - and Jeff Bezos helped make books more accessible than ever before.

Three of Us

There are some movies that are like a breath of fresh air on a tiring not so happy summer day or they are like a tight warm hug during a cold winter gloomy night. “Three of us” is exactly that for you. It’s a heart warming story that snugs you, warms you and keeps you cosy n mushy even after it gets over. It is a brilliantly well told tale of Shailaja (impeccably played by Shefali Shah, no surprises there) who gets diagnosed with Dementia and is fast loosing her memory. There are good days and then there are bad days with her. One such good day, she decides to go back to the place of her origin, her “Udgam”. She wants to re-live her childhood before everything fades into oblivion for her. She requests her husband (played by Swanand kirkira, great actor again), who readily agrees to take her. 

Shailaja reaches her village in Konkan where memories of her childhood flood back, happy and unhappy both. She lives each moment, each emotion all over again. She also meets her childhood friend, Pradeep (flawlessly played by Jaydeep Ahlawat, no surprises there too) who still remembers her and carries the same emotions for her like he did when they were in school together. He loved her. He graciously takes her around to all the places she once belonged to and In the end, bids her goodbye saying, “tum nahin yaad rakh paogi to kya main yaad rakh loonga!” 

The story is so beautifully told that one struggles to find words to describe it. Cinematography is mind blowing. Such gorgeous frames, such stunning locations, just apt for the moods of each scene and of course a stellar cast. I don’t think anybody except for these two could have justified the characters of Shailaja and Pradeep. You got to see them to believe them. If the movie is written deeply then the characters played by these two are with deeper depth.

The Performance, Cinematography, Landscape, nostalgia, writing, bitter sweetness of life are all just uff...

Aattam

 

Again going with Sreeram's Review.  When Sreeram Sundaram has written a movie summary - am sure cannot write any better. 

Anand Ekarshi directs - "Aattam" - that recently concluded its theatrical run after earning accolades and awards at multiple film festivals. 

"Aattam" is about the 13 actors in a drama troupe called Arangu. The troupe completes a show to thunderous applause and inspired by their performance, a foreign couple invite the entire team to stay the night at a resort owned by them in the outskirts of Kochi. Loads of fun, eating, drinking and making merry follows and couple of days later, the sole female actor in the troupe - Anjali (Zarin Shihab, confidence personified) informs her co-actor and boyfriend Vinay (Vinay Forrt, Excellent as usual) that she was molested at the night in the resort by Hari (Kalabhavan Shajohn), the star of the troupe and the only movie actor in the troupe. 

Barring Anjali and Hari, the remaining 11 actors meet at Madan's residence to discuss the matter. As soon as the matter is introduced to the 11 actors, each of them start looking at it and interpreting it differently thereby revealing their prejudices, biases, patriarchal mindsets, opportunism and the like making the audience wonder as to how this group could perform together on the stage. Through their interactions, the audience realizes that the "aattam" that they put up on stage is nothing compared to the drama artists that they are in their real lives. 

After a lot of deliberations, hesitantly though, they come to a conclusion but a twist in the tale makes all of them rethink the decision that they took few moments back. Anjali is called into the meeting so that they can communicate their final decision to her but with additional twists thrown in by some actors in the group, the discussions go haywire and Anjali realizes that anyone of them could have been the culprit, had they landed an opportunity to grab her. 

This is one of the strongest statements in Malayalam cinema that talks about this issue from a woman's point of view and shows us how patriarchy is so deeply rooted in our mindsets that a woman who behaves normally with men, dresses up the way she likes and joins drinking session with the men is almost always looked down as easy prey and of loose character. For most of its running time, Anjali is not physically present on screen but her presence is felt throughout since she is being extensively discussed in the group. How some men try to hit back at others to feed their ego by compromising on the need of the hour is also expressed clearly through the verbal exchanges. 

This is a movie that leaves you questioning yourself as to what you could have done differently had you been one of those 11 men and therein lies its victory. The only hitch is the extensive talking in the movie that sometimes borders on excessive - not much focus is given to facial expressions or conveying emotions through silences. The writer - director's theater background could have been a reason for this but this is just a minor issue with an otherwise perfect script. 

All 13 actors perform well and Vinay Forrt and Kalabhavan Shajohn being known faces, score slightly better. The star of the enterprise though is Zarin Shihab who conveys multiple emotions - happiness, pain, love, shock, helplessness - with panache. 

Cinematography is non-intrusive and editing is sharp. All other technical departments are aligned with the vision of the filmmaker 

Blindness ~ Jose Saramago (21 of 24)

Blindness, the 1995 book by Portuguese author Jose Saramago, tells the story of a society that’s been struck by a virulent epidemic of blindness. This postmodern, apocalyptic novel was originally written in Portuguese, and was translated into English by Giovanni Pontiero with additional help from Margaret Jull Costa. When Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, Blindness was listed as one of his qualifying works.

This book reminded me of Covid times as much as the Political situation. 

The plot of Blindness follows the onset—and the fallout—of a highly contagious epidemic that causes people to go completely blind. The first chapter opens on a traffic jam caused by a man who’s gone suddenly blind. A Good Samaritan drives him home—the blind man is now totally dependent on others. When the first blind man’s wife gets home and sees her husband’s predicament, she schedules an appointment with an ophthalmologist. The two take a taxi to the appointment because the Good Samaritan was actually a car thief who stole their car. After an examination, the doctor tells the first blind man, whose vision has gone completely white, that his eyes are biologically fine.

The next portion of the plot follows the contagion of the disease. The blindness—known as the “white sickness”—spreads to many of those who the first blind man had contact with, including the car thief, a girl wearing dark glasses in the ophthalmologist’s waiting room, and the doctor himself. The doctor soon realizes he is at the center of an epidemic. He tries to report it to the government, which does not initially believe him. When patients start showing up at local hospitals exhibiting the same “dazzling white” blindness, people start to take him more seriously. The government works swiftly to transport all the “infected,” who are now completely blind, to a quarantine facility in an old, rundown insane asylum. They also decide to move anyone who has had contact with the infected, now known as the “contaminated,” into the same facility.

Those in quarantine experience worsening conditions, and the doctor’s wife, who is immune to the disease, pretends to be blind so she can join the doctor in quarantine. People sleep in the hallways among excrement, and dead bodies go unburied for days. The delivery of rations becomes more erratic until everyone is unsure of when the next one will be. Armed guards begin shooting those who try to escape, and a gang of hoodlums forms that prevents resources from getting to those inside. At first, the hoodlums demand trades of valuables for food, but people soon run out of items to trade. The hoodlums begin to use force and demand that women have sex with them to receive medicine and food. Initially, the internees resist, but when the hoodlums start starving everyone, the women volunteer to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, and a series a gang rapes becomes the norm.

The doctor’s wife, who has found a pair of scissors in her belongings, decides to take matters into her own hands. She silently joins the next group of women, and as the men start raping them, she sneaks up behind the leader and slits his throat. Unfortunately, the hoodlums do not dissolve—instead, a “naturally” blind man seizes power and doubles down on their tyrannical rule. When an internee uprising against the hoodlums fails, all seems lost until one blind woman takes the initiative. She returns to the hoodlum’s ward, which they have barricaded off with mattresses. She pulls out her cigarette lighter and sets the mattresses on fire, which not only kills the hoodlums but manages to burn the asylum down in the process. Some of the blind escape, including most of the first ward. When they make it out of the building, they realize that there are no soldiers guarding the perimeter, and they make their escape.

The doctor’s wife leads her group into town to try and find supplies and shelter. All institutions are in ruins. Families have been separated and cannot find each other. The breakdown of society is almost complete. The group eventually settles into the doctor’s apartment, which seems to be one of the last clean spaces in the city. Unfortunately, the group’s supplies start to run out. The doctor’s wife, who has become the de facto leader of the group, decides to return to a supermarket she looted when the group first entered town. When she arrives at the supermarket with the doctor, there is no food left: In fact, all that the doctor’s wife finds are piles of dead bodies. The horror makes her ill, and her husband helps her to a church to recover, which is also filled with blind people. While there, she remarks that all the statues have their eyes covered with cloth, which causes a panic; people to flee the building. She and her husband scavenge leftover supplies, but they realize they will soon have to leave the city for the country if they hope to survive.

When they return to the flat that night, the doctor’s wife starts reading a story to everyone. The first blind man, who is lying down with his eyes shut, suddenly has his vision go from stark white to complete blackness. He cries out, “I am blind” , only to open his eyes and find his vision returned. The doctor hypothesizes that the disease has run its course, which is supported as other members of the group recover their vision. The doctor’s wife breaks down in relief, especially as the streets become filled with others who have recovered. The novel concludes with the doctor’s wife standing on her balcony, overlooking the city as the epidemic lifts. 

Throughout his novel, Saramago has skillfully woven the concepts of blindness and sight in such a way as to suggest that these two conditions metaphorically constitute the general situation of humanity, which is always vulnerable to a deadening moral blindness as well as capable of tremendous moral lucidity. The final words of the Doctor’s Wife indicate just this when she tells her husband that the people of the city were blind and not sightless—blind people who can see but choose not to do so. Her glance at an empty, white sky at the end of the novel, which gives her the momentary impression that she, too, may be affl icted by blindness, encourages her to return her eyes to the happy sight of the revitalized city that has survived its dark journey.

The connection Saramago makes between blindness and humanity’s deference to holy images specifically speaks to conditions in his home country of Portugal under the long dictatorship (1932–68) of António de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970). Salazar, a fervently religious ruler, was committed to putting into action the social principles expressed by the Catholic Church under Pope Leo XIII. But on a more universal level, Saramago’s narrative is a parable of good and evil. While he subjects his characters to a series of dispiriting ordeals stemming from an essentially pessimistic premise, the author also suggests that humanity’s capacity for intelligence, hope, compassion, and moral strength can defeat the forces of blindness in any given society.

Anjaam Pathiraa

 Anjaam Pathiraa written and directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas and produced by Ashiq Usman, has scenes inspired from real events, for example the Psycho Simon element was inspired from the Nanthancode Massacre, which happened in 2017, where a psychopathic son killed his entire family.

Kunchacko Boban as Dr. Anwar Hussain is a psychologist who works as a consulting criminologist in Kochi City Police on the special recommendation of his friend ACP Anil Madhavan. One night, DYSP Abraham Koshi is abducted and his corpse is left in a gypsum field with eyes and heart eviscerated. The investigation is headed by DCP Catherine. The autopsy report shows zolpidem presence in the body, but no signs of coercion. In a few days, a second police officer goes missing, his body is found in the backyard of the police station, along with a Lady Justice figurine.

Anwar finds a similar artefact in the previous crime scene from the forensic photos. Autopsy results are the same as previous. The station's CCTV footage has been tampered, indicating the killer is also a security hacker. Anwar employs hacker Andrew for cyber investigation. Catherine implements a plan to lure the killer in which two officers should pair and patrol the night at 100-meter distance. During duty, Catherine's driver Paulson is kidnapped, where his scooter's camera footage shows a wolf-masked man and another man's voice, indicating they work as a team. Paulson's body is delivered to Anwar's house in a refrigerator box.

The fingerprint of a cocaine dealer named Shameer is found. They track him to a cottage where they find his mummified corpse. It was a decoy. Anwar accidentally discovers a signature imprinted on the figurine, which turns out to be that of its sculptor, Sudhakar Devalokam. On questioning, Sudhakar explains that he made five such figurines for two men, who blinded him after he delivered it. From that, Anwar deduces there will be two more murders. On another day, CI Sharathchandran is abducted after a struggle at his home, where in addition to the figurine, they also find a fidget spinner. His body is dropped in a Kochi Metro train by a woman. With that, Catherine is replaced with ACP Prakash Seetharam.

Sharathchandran had regularly taken a prescription drug named Tenormin. Anwar theorises that the killers inject hypnotic drug Zolpidem in victim's body somehow before kidnapping and hypnotize them for taking away; Tenormin is a counter-drug against Zolpidem, so Sharathchandran's hypnosis was unsuccessful, hence the struggle. Anwar recalls seeing a photo of a similar spinner in the police file for a homicidal psychopath and hacker named Simon. While Simon is recorded dead during an explosion in prison, Anwar is not convinced. Andrew recognises Simon as the one who cross-dressed as the woman on the train.

Anwar reports his findings but is informed that Simon and his crime partner Aravindan's bodies were found that morning with a suicide note confessing to the murders left along with the last figurine. Anwar is unconvinced and believes it is a decoy to stop the investigation. Anwar is called by Sudhakar after a man comes to his workshop for a sixth figurine. He has made a facial composite. Anwar identifies him as psychologist Dr Benjamin Louis since he always recommends his psychology books for referring when he goes to be a guest lecturer to psychology colleges. From Benjamin's foster parent Sudhevan, Anwar learns that when Benjamin was a teenager, his sister Rebecca was impregnated by a priest named Bennet Franko.

When their father Louis reported the crime, SI Anil and Constable Sharathchandran framed him for assaulting his daughter after taking a bribe from Father Bennet. Rebecca was placed in a distant convent, and their father committed suicide in prison. Later, Benjamin went to the United States for higher studies and came back. Anwar deduces that the first three murders were random and the actual targets are Sharathchandran and Anil. He goes to warn Anil but finds only his deserted car. From a nearby quadcopter, Anwar finds footage of Benjamin's van, Andrew traces it to a pig farm.

Anwar and two officers intercepts Benjamin before he can kill Anil. Benjamin knocks them down and chokes Anwar, but is saved by Catherine and Benjamin is arrested. On questioning, Benjamin does not disclose his motive. Anwar deduces that the burned corpse misidentified in prison as Simon's was actually Bennet's. While in transit for presenting him in court, his escort officers kills Benjamin in a fake encounter. At the same time, a girl visits Anil at his apartment. Anwar enters when she leaves and finds Anil dead. He realises that the girl killed him. Through the window, Anwar calls her Rebecca, to which she turns back, looks at him and moves.

World Poetry Day : Indispensable Man

 Happy World Poetry Day this 21st of March. World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, "with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard".

Who is your favorite Poet? Which is your favorite Poetry?

Indispensable Man

Sometime when you’re feeling important;

Sometime when your ego ‘s in bloom;

Sometime when you take it for granted,

You’re the best qualified in the room:

Sometime when you feel that your going,

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions,

And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,

Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore,

But stop, and you’ll find that in no time,

It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,

Is to do just the best that you can,

Be proud of yourself but remember,

There’s no indispensable man.

-by Saxon White Kessinger

#WPD #Poetry

International Day Of Happiness

 

The General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 66/281 of 12 July 2012 proclaimed 20 March the International Day of Happiness, recognizing the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives. It also recognized the need for a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes sustainable development, poverty eradication, happiness and the well-being of all peoples.

The resolution was initiated by Bhutan, a country which recognized the value of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product. It also hosted a High Level Meeting on "Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm" during the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

World Happiness Report 2024 lands on 20 March, to mark the UN’s International Day of Happiness.

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One day you will realized that happiness was never about finishing your degree, finding a job with high salary, or being in a relationship with someone you can consider as your other half. Happiness was never about exceeding all the expectations on you and following the footprints of your family when it comes to a certain career. It was never being someone that you idolized and it's not all about fame and popularity. Soon, you will realized that true happiness lies within the boundaries of your heart, when you follow your passion, when you live your life based on your own terms without following the orders of someone, when you step outside your comfort zone and discover things that you're not aware that you're capable of. It's all about embracing your progress without criticizing your productivity, It's all about your unexpected smile when you watch the sunsets. It's all about embracing the real you rather than imitating and comparing yourself to other people. You will understand it one day that you can be happy alone, happiness comes from within and you cannot find it on other people. True happiness lies within the boundaries of your heart, it will happen and you will not even notice it.

Manyi Kevin

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HOW TO BE ALWAYS HAPPY IN LIFE.

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1. Always remember that there is nobody on this earth that does not have problems. You are not the only one that has problems.

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2. Challenges are part of life. It is only a dead man who has no challenges.

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3. no problem has no solution. There are solutions to the pains you are going through.

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4. The way you picture yourself in your mind can affect your happiness. Picture yourself as a valuable and beautiful person. Avoid low self-esteem and inferiority complex.

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5. Do not mind about what people say about you. Some people are sadists. They can just say something just to make you feel sad.

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6. Make friends with reasonable people who make you happy. Do not make friends with people who make jest of you or laugh at you over your challenges.

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7. In your leisure time, keep yourself busy with your favourite hobbies like sports, games, watching movies, surfing the internet, playing computer games, etc.

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8. Do not allow anyone to intimidate you with money and material things. A poor man today can become rich tomorrow. Change is constant.

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9. No matter what you are going through today, do not give up. As long as there is life, there is hope.

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10. Be very prayerful. Pray without ceasing. Prayer is a catalyst that can speed up your blessings to come to you on time.

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11. Be courageous to go for what you want. Life is all about risk. If you don't take a risk, you will not get the desires of your heart.

Never change your originality for the sake of others. Because no one can play your role better than you.

You are the best. So be yourself...

The International Read To Me Day

The International Read To Me Day was first initiated by the Child Writes Foundation in order to stimulate the literacy rate among children. It is also an opportunity to recognize the efforts of writers and promote literacy and education worldwide.

Today 19th March is International Read to Me day. 

In 3500 B.C., public performances were held by those who knew how to read and write. Later, in the 4th century B.C., books originated in Rome, but they were rare and expensive. Only a select few had access to them.

However, with the advancement of printing presses in the 15th century, books became more accessible to the people. This led to a rise in the literacy rate. In the 1920s, literacy rates reached 70% in some parts of the U.S.

International Read to Me Day 2024: Significance

The purpose of International Read To Me Day is to create a close bond between children and books. It is also to encourage parents to read books to their children frequently. This simple act can have a profound impact on their literacy and communication skills.

If you start reading new books to children from a young age, then it will create a strong bond and teach them the importance of reading.

International Read to Me Day 2024: Celebration Ideas

To celebrate International Read To Me Day, you can arrange a book reading event in a library or at home. You can also share some interesting facts and tips about the importance of reading books to children on social media.

Here are a few interesting ways you can try to observe International Read to Me Day this year:

Conduct a Book Reading Session: Gather all the children at one place and host a book reading session. Encourage them to participate and read one of their favourite books to others. This will not only increase their knowledge but also help to socialise.

Read to Your Child: You can observe International Read to Me Day by reading a book to your child. Choose one of their favourite books or authors and read it before going to sleep.

Spread Information: Encourage others to read books to the children around them. Ask them to organise reading sessions or classes where children will be motivated to read their favourite stories. Spread awareness about the day to those who are finding the concept new.

How To Read a Book ~ Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren (21 of 2024)

 How do you read a book?

Look at the cover, probably glance at the blurb; run your eye down the table of contents, perhaps; possibly rifle through the book... then plunge right in into Chapter One.

Right?

Wrong! According to Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, the authors of How to Read a Book.

According to them, this is only the first level of reading, called “Elementary” reading: and this is the only level the majority of readers in this world have reached. They posit three more levels: “Inspectional”, “Analytical” and “Syntopic”, each one more advanced than the previous. The major portion of the book is devoted to analytic reading, followed by brief exposition on the syntopic. It is the aim of the authors to make each reader of this tome into an analytic reader at least, if not a syntopic one: it is my opinion that they only succeed partially, but let’s go into that after analysing each of the levels as defined by the authors.

Elementary reading we have already seen. In inspectional reading, you first skim the book as a whole; give it a “once-over”, as it is. The authors, ever practical, suggest six steps to do this – most of them self-evident and what any serious reader usually does with an expository book (this book is mostly about reading expository material and of limited value in reading literature and poetry, but more about that later). The steps are:

1. Read the title and the preface

2. Study the table of contents

3. Check the index

4. Read the blurb

5. Look at the main chapters

6. Skim the book, reading it here and there

Next, read the book through fast, without getting stuck at the difficult places. If the book deserves our serious attention, we can come back to those difficult places in our next reading. The advantage of this “rapid-fire” approach is that we do not waste time on a book which deserves only a superficial reading. In the authors’ own words: “Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.”

Analytical Reading

The next level, analytical reading, requires the reader to be demanding: the more you demand, the more you can extract out of a book. To do this, one has to ask four questions:

1. What is the book about, as a whole?

2. What is being said in detail, and how?

3. Is the book true, in whole or part?

4. What of it?

How ask these four questions is explained in detail, in the remaining part of the book.

Analytical reading has three stages. The first one is mainly concerned with classifying the book, and understanding its aim and structure. To do this, the authors suggest four rules.

1. You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read.

2. State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences (a short paragraph).

3. Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organised into a whole, by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole.

4. Find out what the author’s problems were.

The first rule classifies (“pigeonholes”) the book, by affixing it to a category, genre, etc.: the second is used to create a précis: the third expands the précis into an outline, thus revealing the underlying structure (“X-Raying” the book, as the authors name it) and the fourth defines the purpose of the book. The author presumably wrote it for a reason: he had some questions at the beginning, which he has presumably tried to answer through the book. The reader has to find out what these questions are.

If the first stage of analytical reading is related to the what , the second is related to the how ; how has the author attempted to solve the problem with which he started out. For this stage also, Adler and Van Doren proposes four rules.

1. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.

2. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.

3. Know the author’s arguments by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.

4. Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not: and as to the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.

The argument here that any author, putting forth an argument, will use certain key words and terms (for example “natural selection” and “evolution” by Darwin in The Origin of Species). It is the reader’s duty to come to terms with the author, so that he does not misinterpret the author’s intentions by misreading the terms. Then on, it is an exercise in logic by understanding the propositions and arguments. This is not as difficult as it looks: in fact, we do it all the time, even though the exact logical terms may be unfamiliar to us. A proposition is nothing but the meaning contained within a declarative sentence: and arguments what the author uses to prove the truth of the proposition.

The fourth step is a little more difficult for the lay reader, and it will only come through practice. One needs to find out which of the problems presented the author had been able to solve: and if he had been unable to solve some, whether he knew he had failed or not. At this point of time, it is not important whether the reader agrees with the author. That comes later. Here, we are talking about the author’s own internal logic, and how far he has been able to present his arguments consistently in light of it, and how far he has been in successfully concluding his arguments.

In the third stage of analytical reading, the reader, for the first time, starts to apply his critical senses and begins to agree or disagree with the author. Here according to the authors of the current book, the reader has to follow certain etiquette, captured in the following three rules:

1. Do not begin criticism until one has completed the outline (first stage) and interpretation (second stage). Then one can agree, disagree or suspend judgement.

2. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously. Or in plain words, unless one can present factual evidence acceptable at least to oneself, disagreement with an author based on emotional prejudice should be avoided (easier said than done!).

3. Demonstrate that one knows the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement one makes.

The authors also provide special criteria for criticism: (1) show where the author is uninformed, (2) show where he is misinformed, (3) show where his illogical and (4) show where his analysis is incomplete.

Syntopic Reading

This is the fourth (and most advanced) level of reading, according to Adler and Van Doren – though I’d perhaps disagree. Here, the reader is engaged in researching books about one basic idea. For example, if you want to read up on, say evolution, you must first understand what the significant books are on the subject: then you must proceed to read them, and summarise the arguments, both pro and con, preferably remaining objective throughout. Phew! Not a very easy task.

Don’t worry, the authors give step-by-step instructions for this level also. First, create a bibliography of the subject and inspect all of the books to ascertain which are the relevant ones: then, do the following:

1. Do inspectional reading of the selected book to choose the passages which are most relevant to the subject at hand;

2. Establish a neutral terminology which is applicable to all the authors, so that all of them can be brought to the same terms;

3. Establish a set of neutral propositions, by framing a set of questions which all the authors can be seen as answering;

4. Range the answers on both sides of the issue. The issue may not always explicitly exist, and may have to be constructed by interpretation of the authors’ views (for example, in the case of evolutionary theory, “Intelligent Design” is a form of creationism even though the trappings of evolutionary theory are used);

5. Analyse the discussion by ordering the issues to throw maximum light on the subject.

The authors stress the need for dialectical objectivity throughout; that is, the reader is only expected to arrange and present the arguments so as to present an ordered discussion without taking sides. So the aim of syntopical reading is to “clear away the deadwood and prepare the way for an original thinker to make a breakthrough”.

***

Whoever has read through this review so far would be asking (him/her)self: “But that’s applicable to expository books, where the main aim is the dissemination of information? What about fiction? What about poetry? What about drama?” Well, the authors extend their methodology to all kinds of books, but according to me, it falls flat. All said and done, the methodology works only for expository works. And that is its main problem.

This book is not about literary theory or criticism: nor is it about literature appreciation. It is a self-help book on the lines of those on time management, attending interviews, etc. It outlines a methodology, the diligent following of which will guarantee results, according to its authors. It well may, for the major part of the book devoted to analytical reading gave me some insights on how to tackle books on difficult subjects like philosophy and political theory (the two stars are for that). But the book is extremely boring, and the authors’ insistence on applying their favourite methodology to all sorts of books was stretching things a bit (moreover, it takes all the fun out of reading!). And syntopic reading may make sense to an undergraduate preparing a dissertation, but is of little use to anybody else.

If anyone wants to read this book, I would recommend an inspectional reading concentrating mainly on the methodology of analytical reading only. The other parts are not worth the time spent on it.

I purchased a copy, but the book seems to be available free on the net (no idea about copyright issues!), so go ahead and try it if you want. Statutory warning: Boredom ahead.

Sheena Bora & Indrani Mukerjea

 Indrani Mukerjea is facing murder charges for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. Her former husbands Peter Mukerjea, Sanjiv Khanna, and driver Shyamvar Rai are also co-accused in the case.

In the early years of her marriage with Peter Mukerjea, Indrani used to claim that Sheena was her sister, not her daughter. Mukerjea has been accused of kidnapping, killing, and burning the corpse of Sheena Bora, in an alleged property dispute and internal familial differences.

Earlier, Indrani Mukerjea had told the court that she had reason to believe that Bora is alive as a policewoman had told her in Byculla prison that she had seen her in Srinagar in 2021 but CBI had refused to believe Indrani’s claim.

Over a decade after Sheena Bora’s murder took place, the prime accused in the case, Indrani Mukerjea, has claimed that Bora is still alive and she was spotted at the Guwahati Airport. Mukerjea, who is Bora’s mother, also submitted an application to the court.

Indrani Mukerjea was born in Guwahati, Assam into a Assamese family to Upendra Kumar Bora and Durga Rani Bora. She was named Pori Bora at birth and spent her childhood in Guwahati. While as per records she is born in the year 1972 however as per Siddhartha Das, former husband of Indrani Mukherjee her real age should be more than 7 years than what is stated in the records. After completing school there, she moved to Shillong to pursue higher education at Lady Keane College. In 1986 she met Siddhartha Das with whom she had a daughter, Sheena, in February 1987 and a son, Mikhail, in September 1988. In 1990 Indrani left the children under the care of her parents in Guwahati and moved to Kolkata. There she studied computers and stayed as a paying guest.A few months after her move to Kolkata, she met Sanjeev Khanna.They got married in 1993 and had a daughter named Vidhie in 1997. In 2001 they moved to Mumbai.

In 2002, Indrani met Peter Mukerjea and moved in with him while awaiting her divorce from Sanjeev Khanna. In November 2002, Indrani married Peter Mukerjea. After this marriage Vidhie Khanna moved in with the Mukerjeas and took the Mukerjea name. In 2005 Indrani introduced her children, Sheena Bora and Mikhail Bora, to Peter as her younger siblings. In 2006 Sheena Bora also moved in with the Mukerjeas. After April 2012, Sheena was not seen again.

Around 2012 Indrani acquired United Kingdom citizenship based on marriage to Peter Mukerjea, himself a United Kingdom citizen.  From 2012 until 2015, the Mukerjeas divided their time between residences in Worli, Mumbai, Bristol, UK and Marbella, Spain.

In 1996 Indrani founded INX Services Private Limited as a recruitment company in Kolkata. In 2001 Indrani moved to Mumbai, where her recruitment firm considered Reliance Industries as her most important client. The firm also handled recruitment for STAR India. In 2005, the firm formed a partnership with Switzerland-based global executive search specialist, IMD International Search Group, which appointed Indrani as its regional director, Asia Pacific.

In December 2006 Peter and Indrani Mukerjea became promoters of the INX Group, which consisted of human resources companies INX Services and INX Executive Search, and media companies INX Media and INX News. Indrani was appointed chairperson of INX Group Peter and Indrani Mukerjea held a 50% stake in INX Media. The other half was held by private equity firms for a total funding of $170 million (₹750 crore according to the exchange rate at the time).

In August 2015, Peter was questioned by Mumbai Police in connection with the alleged murder of Sheena Bora, his step daughter. He submitted a written statement to the police that was prepared in conjunction with his lawyer. He claimed that his passport was evidence that he was in Rome at the time of the murder in April, 2012.

Sheena Bora, an executive working for Mumbai Metro One (Reliance Infrastructure) based in Mumbai, went missing on 24 April 2012. In August 2015, Mumbai Police arrested her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her step-father Peter Mukerjea, and her mother's driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, for allegedly abducting and killing her and subsequently burning her corpse. Peter Mukerjea, Rai, and Indrani's ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna confessed to the crime, while Indrani Mukerjea has said that Sheena Bora is living in the United States.

On 24 April 2012, Sheena took a leave of absence. On the same day, Rahul Mukerjea (Sheena's step-brother who she was dating) received a breakup SMS from Sheena's phone. Her mother, Indrani, said that Sheena had gone to the United States for higher studies and hence a missing First Information Report (FIR) was never filed. Sheena was never seen after 24 April 2012.

On Rahul's insistence, Mumbai Police visited Indrani's Worli residence where they were informed by the staff that Indrani was out of India. Upon her return, Indrani visited the Worli police station and informed the officers that Rahul was trying to stalk Sheena and that was why Sheena had moved to the US without informing him.

Four months before Indrani's arrest, Mumbai Police started surveilling her. The surveillance was initiated after a tip-off. Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, Indrani's driver, was arrested on 21 August 2015 for possession of illegal weapons and it was alleged that, during his interrogation, he revealed details of Sheena's murder. On 26 August 2015, Sheena's brother Mikhail revealed that she was Indrani's daughter rather than a sister.

Quoting the First Information Report filed by Mumbai Police, the Hindustan Times reported that Rai had given a detailed account of the murder to the police. Rai alleged that Indrani had planned it and had discussed it with her ex-husband, Sanjeev Khanna. He alleged that Indrani had surveyed a likely area to dump the body the evening before the murder. On 24 April 2012, Khanna had flown to Mumbai and checked into the Hotel Hilltop at Worli. Rai alleged that Indrani had rented an Opel Corsa to facilitate the abduction of Sheena and for disposal of her body. Indrani, he claimed, had earlier asked Sheena to meet her on the evening of 24 April 2012 and, though reluctant, she had agreed. At about 06:00 PM on 24 April 2012, he went on, Indrani was joined by her ex-husband at his hotel in Worli. An hour later, when Sheena was dropped off by Rahul Mukerjea near National College on Linking Road in Bandra, Indrani, Khanna, and driver Rai were there to meet her. Rai's account continued, alleging that Indrani sat next to him while Sheena was in the rear seat with Khanna. He said they took her to one of the by-lanes in Bandra and Khanna strangled her.

The police claimed that, after the murder, Sheena's body was taken to Indrani's house at Worli where it was put in a bag and stuffed in the trunk of the car.

Rai alleged that Khanna later left for his hotel while Indrani stayed home and Rai slept inside the car with the body in the trunk. In the early hours of 25 April 2012, he said, the three accused drove to the village of Gagode in Pen tehsil, Raigad. Concerned about the possibility of police checks, they propped Sheena's body up between Indrani and Khanna on the rear seat, as if asleep, rather than putting it in the boot.

At 04:00 AM on 25 April 2012, police alleged, they dragged the body out of the car in an isolated spot in the forest, stuffed it back into the bag, poured petrol over it, and set it ablaze. After the body was completely burnt, the accused returned to Mumbai. Khanna left Mumbai later that day.

Aarushi-Hemraj : Talwar/Talvar

 

13-year-old girl Aarushi Talwar and 45-year-old man Hemraj Banjade, a live-in domestic worker employed by her family. The two were killed on the night of 15–16 May 2008 at Aarushi's home in Noida. The dentist couple, Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar with their daughter and domestic help lived in an apartment in Sector 25 (Jalvayu Vihar) of Noida - UP.  The case aroused public interest as a whodunit story. The sensational media coverage, which included salacious allegations against Aarushi and the suspects, was criticised by many as a trial by media.

When Aarushi's body was discovered in her bedroom on 16 May, Hemraj was missing at the time, and was considered the main suspect. Dr. Nupur tried calling him on the 16th morning, the phone rang and immediately got switched off. Then it was not reachable. Aarushi's phone too was missing, but was found after couple of months. The next day, Hemraj's partially decomposed body was discovered on the terrace. The police were heavily criticized for failing to secure the crime scene immediately. After ruling out former domestic servants of the family, the police treated Aarushi's parents—Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar—as the prime suspects. The police suspected that Rajesh had murdered the victims after finding them in an "objectionable" position, or because Rajesh's alleged extra-marital affair had led to his blackmail by Hemraj and a confrontation with Aarushi. The Talwars' family and friends accused the police of framing the Talwars in order to cover up the botched-up investigation. The case was then transferred to the CBI, which exonerated the parents and suspected the Talwars' assistant Krishna Thadarai and two domestic servants—Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. Based on the 'narco' interrogation conducted on the three men, the CBI assumed that they had killed Aarushi after an attempted sexual assault, and Hemraj for being a witness. The CBI was accused of using dubious methods to extract a confession, and all the three men were released for lack of evidence.

During a press-conference on 11 July 2008, Arun Kumar stated that the case was still unsolved. He stated that no evidence had been found against Rajesh Talwar, but also added that the CBI had not given him a "clean chit". He stated that Thadarai, Rajkumar and Mandal seemed to be the prime suspects, based on the narco tests, but the CBI had not found any corroborative evidence against them. The  story around the mysterious murder  ranged from so-called wife swapping parties thrown by the dentist couple to 14-year-old Aarushi having an affair with the middle-aged cook (yes, honour killing was the reason given by one senior police officer) and having an affair with classmate Amit Agrawal. Not one of these theories was backed by any evidence at all. The CBI team under Kumar had concluded that the 14-year-old girl and domestic help Hemraj were murdered by Krishna Thadarai - help at Talwar's clinic, his friend Rajkumar-- a domestic servant with Praful and Anita Durrani who were Talwars' friends, and Vijay Mandal, driver of Talwars' neighbour. The Allahabad High Court had on Thursday cancelled the life sentence handed out to the Talwars by a lower court that had convicted them based on circumstantial evidence. The couple then went to Nupur Talwar's parents' home in Jal Vayu Vihar.

In 2008, Balaji Telefilms decided to depict an "inspired" version of the murder case on their soap opera Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. Nupur Talwar requested the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to stop Balaji Telefilms from airing the show, saying that the production house was trying to earn TRPs by exploiting a tragedy. However, the production house refused to change the script.. The 2015 film Rahasya (mystery) was inspired by the twin murders. Talvar, another 2015 film, written by Vishal Bhardwaj and directed by Meghna Gulzar, is also based on the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.Talvar depicts three contradictory accounts of the case, including the parents' version. The 2017 Tamil language movie Nibunan features a plot in which a young girl and a family servant are murdered by the girl's parents for having an affair. This story is seemingly inspired by Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. In October 2017, a four-part investigative documentary series Aarushi - Beyond Reasonable Doubt, which explores the arguments and circumstances of the case, its investigations, and the remaining unresolved questions, premiered on Channel NewsAsia. Commissioned by Channel NewsAsia, it was produced by StoryTeller Films. In November 2017 a Star World original production in association with HBO Asia released a crime documentary mini series called The Talwars: Behind Closed Doors.

This real life tragic story of the death of a girl entering her teens in her house, when parents were around, is still in the list of unsolved murders. Heart wrenching indeed.

Novartis

 Novartis was accused of hosting tens of thousands of speaker programmes and social events that were supposedly to provide educational content but were actually deemed to be a means of bribing doctors.

These events took place over a period of 10 years. Many were allegedly little more than dinners at pricey restaurants with minimal talk about healthcare, and others never even took place.

It was a decade ago when federal prosecutors first targeted Novartis in two investigations over alleged kickbacks to doctors and Medicare-related charity donation fraud. Now, the Swiss drugmaker can finally put those charges behind it—by paying hundreds of millions of dollars.

Novartis agreed to pay $729 million to settle allegations that it offered kickbacks to doctors and illegal copayment support to Medicare patients to boost its drugs’ sales. The dollar amount matches what the company last year said it had set aside for potential settlement.

In a statement in 2020, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan labeled the settlements as “an important milestone on our journey to build trust with society,” stressing that it’s a different company now “with new leadership, a stronger culture, and a more comprehensive commitment to ethics embedded at the heart of our company.”

Back in 2017, South Korea fined Novartis $50 million and temporarily suspended reimbursement of Exelon and Zometa, accusing the company of using medical journals to offer kickbacks to doctors. A scandal alleging Novartis paid Greek government officials to earn favorable pricing status also dragged on for years. And the 2018 revelation of a $1.2 million payment to President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen served as a watershed moment that prompted Narasimhan to launch an ethics and compliance shakeup.

Earlier there were other cases too:

The Supreme Court decided that the substance that Novartis sought to patent was indeed a modification of a known drug (the raw form of imatinib, which was publicly disclosed in the 1993 patent application and in scientific articles), that Novartis did not present evidence of a difference in therapeutic efficacy between the final form of Gleevec and the raw form of imatinib, and that therefore the patent application was properly rejected by the patent office and lower courts.

Upheld the rejection of the patent application (1602/MAS/1998) filed by Novartis AG for Glivec in 1998 before the Indian Patent Office.

In Novartis v. Union of India & Others the decision was made on 1st April 2012. Application for patent by appellant denied by Assistant Controller of Patents and Designs on 25 January 2006; Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) partially reversed the decision by the Assistant Controller but still denied patent on 26 June 2009.

The New York Times quoted Chip Davis, the executive vice president of advocacy at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group: "It really is in our view another example of what I would characterize as a deteriorating innovation environment in India. The Indian government and the Indian courts have come down on the side that doesn’t recognize the value of innovation and the value of strong intellectual property, which we believe is essential."