The book is about a mathematical problem that took over 300 years to solve. The ‘last theorem’ is intriguing in itself but what i have enjoyed most about the book so far is the story of Pythagoras and his love for numbers. There is so little I knew about the man who had put forward probably the single most famous theorem in mathematics.

It wasnt a surprise that Pythagoras was a philosopher. His choices and actions clearly identify with his ideology, some of which were bold and beyond that time. He even put forward a beautiful definition of the term Philosopher (Excerpt from the book):

While attending the Olympic Games, Leon, Prince of Phlius asked Pythagoras how he would describe himself. Pythagoras replied, ‘I am a Philosopher,’ but Leon had not heard the word befoer and asked him to explain.

Life, Prince Leon may well be compared with these public Games for in the vast crowd assembled here some are attracted by the acqusition of gain, others are led on the hopes and ambitions of fame and glory. But amoung them there are a few who have come to observe and to understand all that passes here.

It is the same with life. Some are influenced by the love of wealth while others are blindly led by the mad fever for pwer and domination, but the finest type of man gives himself up to discovering the meaning and purpose of life itself. He seeks to uncovers the secrets of nature. This is the man I call philosopher for although no man is completely wise in all respects, he can love wisdom as the key in natures’s secrets.

I hadn’t heard of the concept of Perfect Numbers till I read it in this book. The concept is pretty amazing and the search for perfect numbers almost an adventure in itself.

I will probably take my time with this book, even though the drive to keep turning the pages is pretty overwhelming.

- Quote from Sophie’s World

That has to be the most beautiful way to describe the relationship you, me and everyone on this planet has with the the Big Bang

Two questions that set you off on the path walked by Philosophical greats before us…

I have been reading Sophie’s World and the book is simply brilliant! So far reading the history of Philosophy has been a beautiful journey through the greatest minds that walked the planet!

I loved the movie when I watched it a long time back and when I saw the book I just had to read it… I am glad I picked it up
Contact the book is very different than Contact the movie… Actually there is just so much brilliant stuff in the book that the movie feels like it was made off a short story

The book beautifully captures the lives of people who dedicate their lives for SETI(Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and the repercussions of a possible contact from a civilization light years away from us. What would happen if they are far more advanced from us? What would their goals be? Their reasons for wanting to speak to us? All that encompassed in a gripping story.

Some of the arguments in the book were excellent and intriguing… Especially the ones that deal with God got me thinking about possibilities I have never fully thought about…

This book is a must read for every atheist… and every one who ever looked up at the sky and thought if there is someone looking back at them millions of miles away.

So here they are…

Blog

This year, blogging wise I continued my downward fall wrt posts made but that was made up by the fact that Google was very generous and indexed my site very well, which basically meant an increase in the no. of hits it received

Posts made Year wise (since the start of the blog)

Now a more broken down view… Posts made month wise this year.

Visitors in 2007 broken down month wise…

Could not manage to get stats from my Livejournal account. I was really interested in numbers wrt comments (by year and month).

Movies

Watched Loads of movies this year! Most of the list can be found here -> Movies Some of the reviews are here if you are interested.

Since I could not conjure up some math for this section, I will talk about the movies I enjoyed most.

Movies I really enjoyed watching this year - Johhny Gaddar, Ocean’s 13, Rocky Balboa, The Simpson’s Movie, Om Shanti Om & At World’s End

Movies that really surprised me - Awarapan(Watched it for the music…which was awesome btw. The dialogs were very lame but I really enjoyed the parallels it drew.) Unknown (One of the best conceptual movies this year. A must watch for thriller fans)

Music
(thanks to last.fm)
This section lists the songs I played on my comp over the year sorted by the top 5 in Artists, Albums and Songs

Artists:

1) Kishore Kumar 370
2) K.K. 232
3) Shaan 223
4) Soham 103
5) Mustafa Zahid 90
5) Goo Goo Dolls 90

I got a Huge Kishore Kumar collection half way thru the year and listening to that regularly pushed him to the my most listened artist. K.K and Shaan are my other favourite artists and the list clearly echos that.
In Dino from “Life in a… Metro” was one of my favourite song this year, making Soham a very frequently lisened to artist.
Mustafa Zahid’s brilliant vocals in Awarapan propelled him to the top.
Iris was one of my other favorite songs this year and it was right there on the top boosting “Goo Goo Dolls”.

The numbers arent very accurate as it does not consider songs with multiple artists as a count for each indivisual artist. Well the website is great and hopefully it will give more info next year.

Albums:

1 Goo Goo Dolls – Dizzy Up the Girl 90
2 Saawariya 81
3 Nelly Furtado – Loose 49
4 Shaan – Bhool Ja 48
5 Bryan Adams – Here I Am 32

Iris was a part of my morning excercise playlist for a couple of months and that got it right to the top. Saawariya with its wonderful music came in second, it left me wondering what if it had been released much earlier in the year would it have done much better(music on my chart ie… only god could have saved the movie)
“Say it right” was a part of my morning playlist too. Shaan and Bryan Adams were perfect to make a good day great.

Inaccuracies were a lot more in Albums and Songs. Awarapan, Life in a… Metro, Om Shanti Om and other albums got pushed below coz I had not tagged the music correctly… My music is much better tagged now.

Songs:

1 Soham – In Dino 103
2 Goo Goo Dolls – Iris 90
3 K.K. – Alvida 88
4 Kishore Kumar – Yeh Naina Yeh Kajaal 81
5 Shankar Mahadevan – Jhoom 69
6 K.K. – Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai 60

Every song in this list was a part of my morning playlist and that meant that they were clearly heard many times more than other songs

Books

2007 was a bad year for me to read books. I managed only a couple (compared to half a dozen last year) but here is the list

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Books currently reading:
The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
Contact - Carl Segan

Considering that I have bought a couple of books and have been gifted one wonderful one, I better improve my reading speed in 2008

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Where do I start!!! (I will skip all the small ones ) Quit my job(first ever job so yeah it was the first time I did that) and started my very own startup with my friends , Bungee jumped! , Read a couple of books I have been waiting for years to read and Wrote something important to me

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yep I did and will do again

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope but think a few friends might become mommies next year

4. Did anyone close to you die?
-

5. What countries did you visit?
nope but hope to this year

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Lot more traveling(It died down towards the end of 2007), maybe being a bit more social(relationships?), lot more sports

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?
28th June 23:45 pm(give or take 2 minutes)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Drone keeping in mind my future… The Sculptor’s Statue keeping in mind my past

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failure… hmmm I believe in “What does not kill you only makes you stronger…” so cant term anything a ‘failure’ but yes have had a few tough lessons

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
The regular cold, throat infection and viral fever

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Bike and my Laptop!!!! There is one more planned purchase before Jan 1st (will talk about that later)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Indian Cricket team in the T20 World Cup!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Nope, nothing to fit this category

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bike and Laptop

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Start of the F1 championship (bit of a melodrama this year) Waiting for my Bike and laptop to be delivered and most definitely the Final of the T20 world championships!

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2007?
Saawariya… The closest thing to a good musical

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder?
Sadder actually but I know its just the calm before the storm.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
The same… still underweight

iii. Richer or poorer?
Probably poorer Well I did buy a couple of large gifts for myself

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More reading and writing… My personal journal was very neglected this year and I wrote just one story this year and wrote 2 plays(short ones)

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Obsessing over irrelevant incidents… Its something I just need to get out of my system

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at Work… But I will be making up for it big time in a few months time

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Well I believed I did… am too confused to be sure Fall out of love yep once

22. How many one night stands in this last year?
None

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Psych, totally am in love with the lightness of the show I continued watching all my favorite shows from previous years though.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
lol nope… become fonder of a few ppl though

25. What was the best book you read?
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That I can listen to Kishore Kumar and Mohd. Rafi all day and everyday!!!

27. What did you want and get?
Opportunities

28. What did you want and not get?
A Surprise. Its been a long time since someone did something/bought something for me that truly surprised me.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Ooh tough one… Johnny Gaddaar & Rocky Balboa

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23 and I ran around all day!

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A cup of coffee with *****

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Lol, well it was ‘Just Haas’

33. What kept you sane?
Theater and writing

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most?
SRK I think, was very impressed with the way he handled things around him. Vijay Mallya too(for Force India ofcourse)

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Karnataka’s politics… thought it was like a bad play

36. Who did you miss?
All my friends that decided to live on the other side of the globe

37. Who was the best new person you met?
If you have read *every* post I made in the last month or so… then you already know

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
“Most often than not we have no idea what we actually want and what is good for us”

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Here we are - we’ve just begun
And after all this time - our time has come
Ya here we are - still goin’ strong
Right here in the place where we belong

- Here I Am by Bryan Adams

My cousin is a huge fan of the Harry Potter Series… During a recent conversation she told me that in a little spare time in her class they had tried to write every character name and spell from the books on the board of the class! I asked her to pass me the pics they took after they were done. I have uploaded the pic and what can I say… It had me speech less.

This supposedly one of the intermediate stages of the process, I will post the pictures when I get the rest of them

Till then you can tell me the names they have missed… “Hermione Granger” was the most common one they forgot!

For reasons I wont go into I made myself wait for this long before I picked up Fight Club. People who have read my blog for a while know how much I love the movie.

Anyway I had promised myself that I would read the book only if someone bought it for me as a gift or when a specific improbable incident occurred… I seriously thought that I would have got that book as a gift a very very long time back… It never happened

All things said and done the improbable event occurred three years later, I would have put my money down for twenty years down the line actually … Well even if it had taken that long I probably would have waited

80 pages into the book and its worth all the waiting!

Lets just dive into my review of the book

The book ends finally the 7 year journey of Harry Potter through school, friends and foes, memories, victories, defeats, freedom and the hunt for the killer of his parents. Parts of the book were brilliantly engrossing… The conversations and the fights were very well portrayed and were well above my expectations. The Darkness in the book was terribly depressing… I had a few smiles, a fewer laughs and unfortunately a bit more gasps than the other books.

The fact that JKR brought back so many of the items, people and situations from the previous six books back into focus was brilliant. They fitted in like the perfect pieces of a puzzle but sadly that meant that there were sacrifices elsewhere I shall visit them one by one…

Great:
* Dobby… I love that elf *sniff*
* Kretcher’s story of RAB… Had me totally engrossed!
* The Price’s Tale… The story of the man everyone had learnt to hate
* Harry and Ginny… The chemistry was brilliant. Even in words it was awesomely shown!
* Neville Longbottom finally got his due…
* The finale between Harry and Voldemort was spectacular… The moment Harry called him ‘Tom’ Adrenaline just flooded my body

Good:

* Bellatrix’s parts… They stood up and took notice for some reason. I was like ’something is gonna happen for sure now… She is in this part of the book’
* Ron and Hermoine… Blimey that was awesome
* The Hallows themselves were an amazing direction for the story
* Dumbeldore-Snape understanding was well put.
* Subtle comedy in Fred and George, PotterWatch and few Ron based smart cracks… Neville added to the fun

Acceptable:

* King’s Cross… For a sec I was the wtf but then it all just slowly made sense
* The whole Elder Wand business… Felt it was being pushed down our throats… But the finale made up for all the Wand talk.

Bad:

* Dumbeldore’s past… I wanted to know about the man but half a book on it!!! I felt most parts were a drag in the first half
* Hedwig’s death… Extra luggage! lets get rid of the pet first.
* Lupin and Tonk’s death… This was almost sidelined like they were nobody… I would not have minded Cho/Patil sisters/Dean or someone knocked off like that but not these two

JKR how could you…

* Write an Epilogue like that! That was IMHO the worst chapter you have penned in the seven books!

In the end this book was probably worth all the hoopla I still feel 6th was my most favorite but considering that this was the last of the series, it served its purpose.

There have been loads of spoilers and rumors on the web and i have been fortunate enuf not to have been exposed much to them. Someone recently told ‘Did you hear the internet rumors about HP are true…’ and I went ‘Oh cool… I would have been upset if I knew what the rumors were ‘

Anyway had planned this post about the most important moments which would have impacts in Deathly Hollows in books 1-6 but what the heck… nobody will read it coz they dont want even semi spoilers

So heres hoping to have a brilliant Harry Potter weekend…

Ps: I think Ginny is a horocrux

Last weekend I had been to my uncle’s place and after lunch he proudly took me to his library(he called it that ). Thre were around 40 books and I picked up a few(I had never heard of before) and went through the back cover to see what they were about. My uncle was kind enough to explain to me what some of the books were about.

After a while he told me his prized collection was that of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series and that he had bought the whole collection. He even showed me the prize tag which hung at around $11 a piece. I then asked the most common question any regular reader(I know) would ask, “Why, didnt you get this in roadside(pirated) shop?”. His answer made me think…

He said “I do buy from the road side shops but if I plan to use the ideas in a book, then I go ahead and buy the original copy as a thanks to guy who wrote it.” I actually agree with him at the point but how would you know before reading a book that it would help you? I actually look at the price of a book in a bookshop before deciding if I should go ahead and purchase it. If I find the book priced too high I dont feel bad picking up the lower priced unofficial copy.

For eg. I bought the book iCon last week. It was priced at Rs. 1200/- when it was launched and that was coz it was the US edition. I bought the Indian(non-pirated) edition for Rs. 395/-. The pirated one would have been anywhere between 50-100 bucks(which is a clear bargain).

I hv bought a lot of books lately and there is an inclination to go for pirated books, the reason being that I hardly ever read a book more than once. The book then becomes a one time investment and knowing that I would rather buy it a lower price and pick up more books instead of spending so much on one.

I noticed an intresting pattern in the books I have at home. Most of the books I truly loved I had actually paid full price and bought it at a decent bookshop. Maybe I hv a phycological drive to love books I hv paid more for or just that I dont think twice about the price when I think I will like reading the book.

Whatever the case I guess I wont be stopping my habit of picking up books without thinking twice about it being pirated or not.

Cryptography has been always been the one subject I could not get enough of and ever since I heard the name of this book I knew it was worth a read. Preethi’s review of the book only made me more excited as I finally got hold of the book.

Simon Singh directs the ride through history, innovation and technology to perfection. His explanations of the simple ciphers to the Enigma and to finally the latest of ciphers are brilliant and yet simple. He saves us all the complex math and explains in turn as a form of stories which keep you glued to the book.

I personally loved the book and even though it took me a long time to finish it(could not spare as much time for it as I wanted), I dont think its that heavy. The only boring part in the book according to me was the RSA but only because I had read about it in college and knew most of the stuff in that chapter.

I hv suddenly developed a lot of intrest in Quantum physics. The last chapter of the book deals with it and after I was done, all I wanted was a good Quantum physics book to get started again .

Final verdict: If you like cryptography and puzzels plz read this book it totally for you.