"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell - Review

Blink - The power of thinking without thinking as the name itself indicates, explores the hidden powers of out capability to make the right decisions and judgments at the spur of the moment without ones realization to it.

He illustrates as to how this whole power of snap judgments actually work. Not only that, considering the fact that the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow pieces of incidents( thin slicing as Malcolm calls it) is automated, he also enlightens us on how there can be a way to master over this unconscious act. The book motivates us to go by our gut feeling but also it is highlighted that there can be dangers in doing so as our capacity to make snap judgments may not be always perfect. This is due to various factors that adds to the environment. I have always loved all Malcolm Gladwell's concepts. His ideas seem downright warranted and can be implemented pragmatically. He has supported his thesis with a number of researches as always but this time around, I personally felt that his study ranged on varied topics that were so numerous that the book lost its centre of gravity. The essence is hay wired eventually and one would end up feeling as having read only researches after researches. The point gets so extra highlighted that newness of his idea is ruined! The later part of the book where the author talks about mind reading also gets a little too elaborate. That is that, but it also gets a lot more technical when he speaks about the combination of face muscles to define certain moods which would have otherwise been sufficient to the readers had he not spoken about it the way he did to get the idea of what he was trying to convey. In the end yes, it gets a little monotonous to be precise. Nonetheless his ideas are fresh and that’s very much appreciative.

"The Winner Stands Alone" by Paulo Coelho - Review

Yet another philosophy by Paulo Coelho. Gives an insight into the reality behind all the Glitz and Glamour which provokes us to think about the materialistic world we live in. At few points, it mocks at us as regards to our hunger for money and power encapsulating us into slavery. However, as regards to Igor, his character is too hard to understand. On one side he is a wise man knowing what is valuable and on the other hand acts insensible. Is that what the author is trying to convey that even the wisest is deviated from the right? That's left on the readers to decide. Also the whole idea of him escaping in the end in his private jet seemed too abrupt without facing any consequences to his brutality done. All in all, perhaps a good read and keeps the reader intrigued throughout.

This is it.

This has been haunting my head for quite sometime lately. There's something very illuminting that I had come across and it's worth preserving it in our minds. I wanna paraphrase it from the best of my memory resources.

" Your hardwork and struggle would seem like a prison and burden your shoulders if you do not have a MEANING to it. Once it has, you would want to do more it. "

Lived The Life Of The Past,,, Musically !!!

I do not know how long it has been that I last blogged but it definitely feels good bringing myself here again, doing this. I should have been here way before, when a lot of things happened making my life look stupored. Life has its ending episodes for the new ones to start. Yes, I have had my new episodes begun and I am trying hard to make them look a lot more fruitful when looked back at, in future. Yet again, each chapter of an episode has its own flavour and aura, the essence of which cannot be so easily forgotten. This brings us to live the life of the past. Last night was one of those instances to me. Thanks to my tuning into the Red Fm, Big FM, Radio Ctiy, Rainbow... I realized I had special memories attached to every song ( am sure most of us do) and the radio stations had got it right, playing them all. What an ambivalent moment that was..
To start with, it was Britney Spears with "Hit me Baby one more time" which sure did hit me hard with time when I was about 14, that I religiously started listening to English hits with she being my favourite. There was also " Show me meaning of being lonely" by the Backstreet Boys, the song that also appeared on the album of their greatest hits, the cassette of which I still preserve. Next was Michael Jackson's "They don't really care about us"- my Bro and I went crazy listening to it as kids. It was amazing as to how every song playing reeled all those memories. Moving along, I came across Shania Twain's " I am Alive" which did make me feel a lot like it. I went over to borrow the album from my friend and we would be singing her songs- Ka ching, Forever and for always, I am gonna getcha good, etc.. all the way in class and trips. My tuning never ended as I explored more and more tagging along every chapter of my adolesence. I stumbled at Hotel California by "Eagles" . I remember how hard I wanted to learn it to play on my guitar and till date have'nt perfected! As a matter of fact, never perfected playing my guitar per se! lol. And then came "bhool Ja" by Shaan, the song that always played in stuck up santro and the way we could never get enough of cursing him, of course that "him" would switch from shaan to the player and Vice Versa .The song that did not play unfortunately was " Ooooo Oooo Oooo baby" Talk about it.! The best times singing it. Some of the few ones that fortunately did not play were the lame Hindi songs whose names I thankfully do not remember that were constantly sung by "My" so called Lata Mangeshkars. And to bring back the colour was " Pehli nazar mein" transporting me to Goa and its mind boggling beaches. . Some of my favourites too had to be in this, Flo Rida's "Low", Akon's "Right Now" and some others that palyed in cars creating cacophony.And tinge of something more colourful was "Teri ore" , a beautiful track shared with some of my beautiful friends at a beautiful occassion. "Desi Girl", " Justin timberlake" played were the ones played during workouts at the gym. There were songs, some dedicated to me and some dedicated by me.. and the whole list of the songs with so many instances attached to them seems just never ending. I relish each and every bit of those and continue doing so. Sometimes, You do not have to pay for things that can bring a sense of pleasure and serenity to you and this, I think, is one of the best things about life.
For now, I feel so Exhaustive of my memory as I had been for so long recollecting songs that played.. only if I had them penned down.
Stopping here abruptly, I hope to come back. My blog has been owner deprived and I bear the feeling of guilt for it.
....5:30 P.m. , I am longing for a cup of coffee.

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Pooja Radia.

THINGS TO BE LEARNT FROM "MR.BEAN"

• You are born to make others laugh

• If you are funny? never mind.. people will like you anyway.

• Be as creative as possible.

• Love yourself.

• You are downright unique and thereby absolutely irreplaceable.

• Never feel the blues, life is too short for it.

• Always learn to make yourself happy.

• Give yourself all those tiny pleasures and enjoy your heart out.

• Be impervious to what people say or think about you.

• Be expressive in what ever you do.

• Show enthusiasm (just look at his eyes all welled up with it!)

• Despite acting stupid, you never know! you are actually smarter than you think.

• Love your companions.( He loves his teddy)

• Your innocence will always pay off.