अक्षय गाणें

गानकोकिळा, भारतरत्न लता मंगेशकर यांच्याबद्दल अनेक पुस्तकें लिहिली गेली आहेत. विशेषतः राजू भारतन आणि हरिष भिमाणी यांनी लता दिदींच्या सांगीतिक कारकिर्दीचा सखोल आढावा घेतला आहे. परंतु लताजींच्या व्यक्तिगत जीवनाबद्दल, त्यांच्या घरगुती वावराबद्दल फारसे ज्ञात नाही. त्यांची जिवलग मैत्रीण आणि साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार विजेत्या लेखिका पद्मा सचदेव यांचे पुस्तक ही उणीव भरून काढते. "ऐसा कहांसे लाऊं" या मूळ हिंदी चरित्राचा जयश्री देसाई यांनी "अक्षय गाणें" या नावाचा अतिशय सरस अनुवाद केला आहे. 

पुस्तक काहीसे डायरी पद्धतीने लिहिलेले आहे. त्यातुन केवळ लताजीच नव्हे तर संपुर्ण मंगेशकर कुटुंबातील व्यक्ती -- माई मंगेशकर ते आदिनाथ मंगेशकर -- आपल्या अनेक पैलूंनिशी सामोरे येतात. महत्त्वाचे म्हणजे यात जवळपास 50 दुर्मीळ फोटो आहेत, जे बहुतांश तरी मी यापूर्वी पाहिले नव्हते, उदाहरणार्थ, लताजींनी काढलेले फोटो आणि अप्रतिम पेंटिंग्ज.
हिंदी चित्रपट संगीताच्या सुवर्ण काळाबद्दल रुची असणाऱ्या आणि मंगेशकर कुटुंबातील अलौकिक गात्या गळ्यांवर प्रेम करणाऱ्या प्रत्येकाने आवर्जून वाचावे असेच हे पुस्तक आहे.

Breaking Bad

When the seventh season of Game of Thrones ended, I began to hunt for a new TV series. GoT had raised the bar so high that anything I tried started to seem dull and tedious. A search on Quora revealed one name to be common in all the lists of must-watch TV series: Breaking Bad.

So, one weekend, I got its two seasons, and after watching them immediately regretted my decision.... I should have brought ALL the seasons! I couldn't wait to know what happened next!
Breaking Bad revolves around Walter White; a Chemistry teacher, his family, his partner-in-crime (literally!), his 'colleagues' and his foes. It depicts the rise of a mild-mannered, family-focussed man into a terrifying drug kingpin, his efforts to get out of the mess and his inevitable fall.
The plot may seem simple and predictable enough, but what really takes the series to great heights is... Phenomenal performances all around: Not just the lead actors, but pick any character, however minor, and you would be hard-pressed to find any fault in them. A tight script and well-executed screenplay: The series is full of goosebump moments and diaogues that have become part of the TV folklore. A
fast-paced narrative: After building the major characters in the first season, the series picks up pace and leaves you breathless from sheer excitement of it all. It reaches a crescendo in the fifth and final season, and as you finish the very last episode, I guarantee you... You will feel emptiness that the series ended, but at the same time, a satisfaction that it ended at its logical culmination, a fine balance that many other series have not been able to achieve.
If you love quality acting, well-developed characters, and subtle play of moves and countermoves, pick this up.

The Art of Thinking Clearly - Rolf Dobelli

Ever since the blogs and books of Tim Harford introduced me to the intriguing world of Behavioural Economics, I have been on the lookout for more stuff on this subject. "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Rolf Dobelli is another excellent book in this series.

The book has 99 chapters, each precisly 2 and half pages long. Each chapter begins with a real-world example (sometimes companies offer us free gifts like free sachets of shampoo), the economic principle behind the action (Reciprocity) and why they do it (accepting a free gift subsconsciously makes us feel bound to purchase whatever the company wants to sell later). In a few cases, the author also provides 
advice as to how to avoid the pitfalls (don't accept anything for free). The book makes for a very informative reading and opens our eyes to how the world around us operates. 
A must-read for everyone, but especially so for those who interact with other people on a regular basis.

Mission Control: Unsung heroes of Apollo

When we think of Apollo missions to the Moon, the first image that comes to our mind is that of astronauts. Doubtlessly, they were the public face of the mammoth project, but there was another group of people that was equally vital to the success of their flight: The Mission Control Center, Houston.

Conceptualized by Chris Kraft, the mission control was nerve center of each space flight. Flight controllers guide the rocket and spacecraft, monitor the onboard systems and instruct the astronauts. They analyze the vast streams of data pouring into their consoles and sometimes have to make split-second decisions that can save or destroy the billion-dollar spacecraft as well as invaluable lives onboard. In the case of Apollo-13, it was the team at Mission Control that devised procedures and workarounds to keep the three astronauts alive and bring them back safely to Earth.
This is the story of these people. We get to meet tough and competent Flight Directors like Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, bright and sharp flight controllers like John Aaron, Steve Bales, and Sy Liebergot.
It is inspiring to see what these men, almost all of them from humble beginnings, could achieve within a decade, and it is equally humbling to realize that when they created history, the average age of team at mission control was... 30 years.
If the words NASA and Apollo turn you on, then skipping this documentary is not an option.

25 years of Jurassic Park

Silver Jubilee anniversary of the release of Jurassic Park movie was a trip down the memory lane. At a time when we didn't easily get permission to watch English movies, this movie was an exception, perhaps because it didn't have much of a... ahem, romance... And yet it was a complete package with action, drama, suspense and humour. The friendly Dr Alan Grant, fatherly
billionaire John Hammond, chatterbox mathematician Ian Malcolm, fat Nedry, the two cute kids, sweet-n-smiling Dr. Ellie Sattler... and of course the dinosaurs. They were the best. 

Even today, 25 years later, whenever I see ripples in a glass of water, my first thought is... Is there a T Rex around?

Raazi and Parmanu

After a long time -- in fact after more than 2 years -- I watched Hindi movies in a theater, after being persuaded (euphemism for 'dragged') by Arti.
Raazi is a story of an Indian spy that lived in Pakistan and collected valuable inside information pertaining to the impending Bangladesh war. A fast-paced script, tight editing, and a focused, linear plot ensured that there wasn't a single dull moment. Impressive performances by Alia Bhatt and supportiing cast take this movie to an another level. "Finding Sehmat", the book on which this movie is based,
would surely make for a superb reading.
Parmanu narrates the fantabulous job that our scientists and engineers did in successful detonation of a series of atomic bombs and a hydrogen bomb in Pokhran in 1998. It shows the initial aborted attempts, the revival of the team and the need to work in intense secrecy due to constant surveillance by American spy satellites. A few real-world TV clippings, featuring Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif interwoven in the plot bring back memories of those days.
It's a good movie, and it could have been even
better if it had also shown some technical aspects, such as how the components were transported, how the bombs were assembled,
and what the tests attempted to measure, at least to the extent of whatever information is available in the public domain. Instead, it places too much focus on human interactions. Nevertheless, John Abraham deserves kudos for taking up a history-science subject and making a movie for the masses.

All in all, both the movies deserve their ticket money. We need more such stuff.