"It's a magical world!!"

I have just finished reading my nth Calvin & Hobbes strip. What makes Calvin & Hobbes(C&H) so brilliant is it's not just a comic strip that makes you smile..it lingers on your mind for hours even if you have read it in the morning alongside your su-doku over the coffee.

The strip drawn by Bill Watterson has been immensely successful ever since it started in 1985.Watterson often used the strip as a medium to comment on the growing decadence of the society.Calivn is said to be modelled on the thelogian john Calvin while Hobbes on Thomas Hobbes, a famous philosopher of the, then times. Read more about them here.Watterson stopped drawing C&H after 31st December, 1995.He even requested the Universal Press Syndicate to not to forward him any fan mail.It is said Bill was bothered by all the public attention he had gathered as a result of the success of C&H.

C&H went onto become so popular that by the time Watterson drew the last strip it was printed simultaneously in 240 newspapers across the world.Even Charles Schulz, has said "It is fun to look at and, that is what has made Bill's work such an admirable success."

So, "Let's go exploring!"

Happy Birthday Tagore!!

I stand mesmerized,
wondering how you sing
your notes hold the world spellbound -
the light of your music
lights up my universe.







(song 22 of Bengali Gitanjali, song 3 in the English.)

Travel.No Lonely Planet.

The best travel tales are...

The Penguin book of Indian Journeys

This brings together travel peices by the best. From Mark Tully's journey to Kumbh at Allahabad to R K Narayan's leisurely tour of Karnataka. The anthology brings together interesting travel tales from Vikram Seth to Khushwant singh and many others take you to places as familiar or remote as Jaipur and Ladakh.

Maximum City:Bombay Lost and found

Suketu does not call this city Mumbai.

This doesn't strictly fall into the category of travelogues but takes on Mumbai by interviewing dominant personalities of Mumbai. The book moves smoothly from the remote chawls of Mumbai to tours of Bollywood studios and stars an entir pantheon of politicans , bar-dancers, gangsters and even an engineer who gave up his lucrative career to become a poet.

Long Way Round:Chasing shadows across the world

If you are an ardent biker you will love this book though, even otherwise you will. Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel the world around on their bikes.The book hilarious at times is a description of their take on the different cultures of the world they come across as they bike around. The book is full of pictures and maps.The journey has also been canned into a TV series and is aired on Discovery T&L on Sunday nights.

The Age of Kali:Indian Travels & Encounters

This is Dalrymple's take on the issues affecting the subcontinent.The Age of Kali symbolises dark times of lawless violence and political corruption.The book is dark as the theme suggests and includes his encounters with the LTTE in Sri Lanka and politicans in Bihar as he travles the sub-continent.

Road Fever

This one is for all adventure travel freaks.The exuberent and author of many-a-travel-books, Tim Cahill drives in a car from one end of the world to the other.The book concentrates more on the Americas and also details on the preaparation plans made by him for achieving this Guiness feat. On the hindsight, the book lacks in pictures and maps.

And then there are books by Bill Bryson and books that do not exactly fall into a category of travelogues but the city the story is set in plays an imprtant role and moves with the story like Khushwant Singh's Delhi and Pankaj Mishra's The Romantics.

And who can forget the magnificent Kerouac's On The Road and Guvera's Motorcycles Diaries.

Stand up for what is Right

CRY has just donned a new role and has become Child Rights and You.

"We are not about temporary relief, or buying sympathy, sweets, blankets, however well intentioned. For 27 years of working with and for children, their families and communities across India, we’ve learnt that permanent change in the lives of children is only possible when we tackle the root causes that continue to keep our children uneducated, hungry and vulnerable. We believe that all children are equal, with equal rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution of India. We are about people coming together from all walks of life who believe in the rights of children.We are about Child Rights."

And going beyond the cliched ways of passing the information, they have launched a new TV commerical and a blog too.

Explore their website here and do take the CRY pledge.

How Kavya Got In, Got Caught and Got off the Shelf!!

Chicklit Nightmare!! Kavya Vishwanatha's debut has fallen flat on her face. What is worse is the so called euphemesised "internalisation" has led to her books being withdrawn by Penguin across the shelfs here.

We all owe our creative influences to soemone or the other but this kind of hideous plagirism does not stand Kavya in a good position. what is interesting to note is, McCafferty's books which have been "internalised" and Kavya's novel both share the same author. And that also reminds of how once someone had told me how most of the books floating in the market are ghost-written.In fact, there are questions even on how Kavya actually broke into Harvard.

TOI was quick as usual to put the entire scoop on their front page andi remember very well it was TOI again which had borken the story of Kavya's jackpot on their front page again.

What is there to be watched out now is if Little Brown will ensue with its contract to publish Kavya's second book.

The Harvard Crimson was the first to break the news about two weeks back.

There are more interesting takes on this here by Gladwell and here by kitabkhana.

PS:HOMGKGWGL is at number eleven on the Amazon's bestsellers list and at the numero uno position in the Crossoword's bestsellers chart.