Birds are not meant to be caged !

My youngest cousin "Nikhil" has also started writing poems, the below mentioned poem was shared with me today, which I found to be really impressive. Here's it:

http://www.poetry.com/poems/893353-Some-Birds-Are-Never-Meant-To-Be-Caged

You can like the poem on poetry.com where he posts his poems. I have also posted the poem text below for easy reference:

Some birds are never meant to be caged 
their feathers are just too bright 
just like the desperate hand 
unable to cease the grainy sand 
trying to catch them and get a hold of them 
well you just not might 
Some birds are never meant to be caged 
their feathers are just too bright 
Some birds SHOULD not be caged 
their beset leaves those standing way above enraged 
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” 
but I say,” Hell itself bows to the almighty alone!” 
Mock him and your life will be hanging on a precarious hook 
the whole ground bellow your feet will flip like pages of a book 
you might stay happy and joyous for one night 
but on another your whole life might turn into a plight 
Some birds are never meant to be caged 
their feathers are just too bright 
  
Some birds WE were never meant to cage 
their curses make even the fresh air seem stale 
You’d say to yourself,” Oh! Why oh! Why did I ever engage 
these Godly creatures, these wise divine sage 
‘cause now I can’t feel my soul nor see anything in this bloodstained haze! 
No matter how wide I open my eyes 
I just can’t perceive my gaze!” 
You’d beg them and say,” oh! Lord of Lords, oh! Mighty God! 
Forgive me! Forgive this wretched form of life 
Bring me back my sight. Bring me back my sight! 
For now I have learned; For now I have understood what’s right!” 
“Some birds WERE never meant to be caged, 
Their feathers WERE just too BRIGHT !!!” 

No Easy Day and Zero Dark Thirty: Review

Zero Dark Thirty is an inspiring and influential movie by Katheryn Bigelow. It goes through the interesting story of how Osama Bin Laden was captured by US. It shows a focused and diligent attempt by US in capturing Osama, abbreviated as UBL by American forces. 

The lady CIA officer has been recruited straight out of high school and her only assignment is to find UBL. She has gone through all the videos, materials, files related to UBL, is an expert on it and even stays in Pakistan and Afghanistan for long durations of time to work on this mission.

She observes the torture sessions of terrorists, and works intelligently towards her goal. She identifies that the Obama's courier guy is important, because Al Qaeda team is avoiding talking about that person.

Once she identifies the courier guy, she tracks the courier person in Pakistan and thus is able to find the hide out of Osama. She successfully tackles the bureaucracies, gets the work required to be done by other team members, pushes people around her and shows extreme confidence in her work.

Due to her focused effort, America is able to identify the hiding place of Osama and then assasinate Osama in a very perfect swoop. The movie has been filmed in a very accurate and realistic manner. The winner for this movie is the plot which is highly interesting and keeps the movie watchers engrossed.

It's another fantastic movie by Katheryn Bigelow after The Hurt Locker. Kudos to her to bring forward a movie like this. I especially like this movie, because it highlights the efforts of a woman in a high stress job and highlights her success.

As a wonderful co-incidence I had also read "No Easy Day" few days back, which is an account by a Navy Seal who was involved in the assasination operation on Osama. The book reminded me to watch the movie. The book and the movie are very much related, although book is from the angle of a military person focused on carrying out the operation and the movie focuses on the story of finding Osama.

In hindsight, I think the book actually reminded me to see this movie, which sort of completes, the knowledge about this topic, which I wanted to gain from well known sources ! 

Clifton Chronicles - Book Review

It's one of the latest series by Jeffrey Archer and is a series of fast moving thriller story as usual. The story goes through three books which have been published till now: Only Time will Tell, Sins of the Father and The Best Kept Secret. The book series is unputdownable and at the end of the third book, you are left waiting for the fourth book in the series.

It covers the story of two families Cliftons and Barringtons living in England at the time of World War. The  story chronicles the life of Harry Clifton, an industrious and resourceful guy who grows up to be a writer. He has a close association with Barrington family starting in his childhood, with Giles Barrington being his best friend in school. 

Ironically, Giles Barrington's father Hugo Barrington is responsible for the untimely demise of Harry Clifton's father in a shipping accident

The story revolves around how Clifton grows up to be an intelligent and successful person, even while having a humble background, with his widowed mother bringing him up. The paternity of Harry Clifton is also in question and leads to lot of trouble in the book series.

When Harry Clifton grows up, he also lands up in american prison because of mistaken identity. His enterprising wife Emma Barrington comes to America to save him. Harry Clifton ends up writing his prison experiences as Prison Diaries, which end up being bestseller, thus establishing Harry Clinton as a formidable author.

Jeffrey Archer is a master story teller and this series also shows his eloquent craftmanship. The story is written in the times, when women were not given seats in colleges or company boards easily.

I am wondering, why Ekta Kapoor doesn't take inspiration from this book series and launch a soap opera. The series has all the requisite elements of a long television series: Long Story, Sacrificial Mother, Prodigal Illegitimate Son, Two Family Trees, Lot of Wealth and Accidental Scenarios binding all of them together.

Dan Brown's Inferno

Inferno's a book written in characteristic Dan Brown style. Still it's slightly different and will be one of my personal Dan Brown favorites. It features Robert Langdon again, trying to solve a world wide biological warfare crisis out of the city of Florence.

The clues this time are derived from Dante's painting Inferno. The story starts where Robert Langdon wakes out of sleep with amnesia and unaware of what happened in last two days and how he landed in Florence.

The story progresses at a thrilling pace and goes through various Florence monuments while trying to solve the puzzle clue by clue. The story also deals with the concept of how to define evil. It discusses, how perception of "What's evil" can change on the basis of a person's perspective and even if something seems a valid solution, is it still ethical ?

The story breaks new ground where it explores, whether in future, it will be ethical to carry out genetic modification of human beings to enhance them. The climax deals with two interesting themes, one of Robert Langdon discovering that he has been subjected to a created scenario by others which seemed perfectly real to him. It's like he had been through a virtual reality scenario and how he finds it difficult to come to terms with it.

The other unexpected ending is how the biological change might have already happened, and how humans should deal it. Overall, it's a quite interesting read and certainly recommended.

Pointers on how to give a presentation !

As a part of my job, we are involved in presenting to multiple stakeholders, so kindly find below what all I think I have learned as a part of my job, about how to give presentations.

 
1) Know your content.
2) Be comfortable with your slides.
3) Be accurate.
4) Be confident.
5) Rehearse your content.
6) Be well dressed.
7) Have fun !
8) Try to be interactive.
9) Involve your audience.
10) Always customize your content as per your audience.
11) Be comfortable with the environment in which you are going to present.
12) Always believe that you know something share-able, that's why you are presenting.
13) Be enthusiastic and passionate.
14) Describe and tell stories and examples.
15) Use pictures and animations and videos.
16) Don't move around much.
17) Don't use too many gestures and hand movements.
18) Use voice modulation to generate interest.

Mumbai DownTown !

Mumbai downtown is really beautiful and has lot to offer to the visitors. Old buildings belonging to British Rule, Art Galleries, Museums, Cafes and fountains provide a well rounded experience.

Visit : Baroda City Palace

Palace and musuem in Baroda are amazing and have lot of european art and sculpture. I recently visited again, this time with my husband and my parents.
Audio tour guide provided during the visit is also quite descriptive. There are lot of paintings by Raja Ravi Verma.

Author Review: Lauren Weisberger

I have been an old fan of Lauren Weisberger and have read all her books.
My favorite is Chasing Harry Winston and second favorite is Everyone Worth Knowing. She gained fame with Devil Wears Prada.
All her books fit into chic lit genre.
Her books provide an overview of aspirational lifestyle with fashionable clothes, parties and food.
The books show lovely female bonding and cover the journey of women aspiring to have a great career and amazing relationships.

Reading these books generally feels like eating frothy ice creams. The books also emphasize and sort of promote women to be more of their natural selves and help them be less fashion conscious and still feel comfortable.