Mathilukal is a Malayalam novella by the veteran Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. Translated into English as The Walls, the story is about Basheer who spends a brief period of his life at the Travancore Jail.
As the story opens we see Basheer, the protagonist, as a man who is spending his life at the prison befriending other prisoners, planting roses, and frequently in conversation with other inmates. He is obviously not happy being in the prison but is rather very unhappy due to the indifference being shown to him. The prisoners who had come in after him also have left the prison, but not he. So he protests by growing roses in the prison and spending his time writing.
The prison is separated from the women’s prison by a high wall. In due course of time, we see Basheer falling in love with Narayani, a prisoner on the other side of the wall. Though they haven’t met, they exchange words and promises of love, standing on the opposite sides of the wall. There are quite a few romantic moments and dialogues involved.
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The book is an autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam, the Missile Man of India. It was written by Kalam and Arun Tiwari. Though autobiographical, I consider it as an inspirational, and positive book of a rare breed. One would really relish incidents quoted in the book, for a life time.
The co-author, Tiwari is also a former missile scientist who worked under Kalam and idolizes the him. The book was released in 1999 and made huge waves across the country and abroad. The extreme simplicity of the person, high thinking, and humility captures the minds of the people. No wonder you would simply admire Kalam after reading the book.
The story starts with the early life of Kalam, his family, education,
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The Da Vinci Code is a primarily a detective novel by Dan Brown. It is regarding the mystery surrounding the death of a curator. Robert Langdon, a symbologist sets out to find the murderer and the mystery involved. He is later joined by Sophie, who is the victim’s granddaughter. They unlock many secrets and codes to reach the final destination.
The story revolves around the concepts of the Holy Grail of Christianity, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, and the belief that Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and had a child with her. The curator, Jacques Saunière, is believed to possess the key to accessing the Holy Grail. The anti character in the novel gets him murdered to possess the key, but fails. The curator while dying, leaves behind clues, which he believes can only be solved by Robert and Sophie. The story actually shows us how they go about solving each puzzle. The puzzles are about the religion and the works of Da Vinci. Another reference to Da Vinci’s paintings are when the ‘hidden concepts’ of feminity are being detailed.
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Alfred Hitchcock was born to a poultry dealer in London on August 13 1899.
By the time he was done with life and cinema in 1980, he rewrote the rules of suspense in film making, and paved the way for directors like Manoj Night Shyamalan to start sneaking cameo appearances of themselves in their own films. Not bad for a guy who began by designing title cards for silent films!
From working with screenwriters — who permitted him to direct some scenes of the film that didn’t include actors — he then moved up the ladder to the post of an assistant director and then director.
The list of successes to his credit simply grew from there
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Set mostly in Calcutta and as the caption goes “this is a story of fevers, delirium,…”. No doubt, it is. The story is loosely based on the life of Sir Ronald Ross who discovered the female anopheles mosquito to be the carrier of Malaria.
The story is set in the past, present, and future. At times it is confusing as well. We see different characters in different settings. But each of them represent the a corresponding character in a different timeframe. The main character is Antar who keeps track of some information being loaded into the system. While analysing some
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This is a masterpiece by Charles Dickens. The story is told in a semi-autobiographical style and is the story of Philip Pirrip, referred to as Pip in the novel. We see Pip telling his story to us. And as the title goes, it is a story of expectations and life.
Pip is an orphan who lives with his older sister and husband, Joe. He works with Joe, who has a warm affection for Pip. Pip once gets food and rum for a convict who escaped from prison. The convict turns up again towards the end of the novel bringing about a considerable turn in the story. Other major characters in the story are Miss Havisham and Estella. Miss Havisham lives in a mansion and is an eccentric character. There are mysteries surrounding her like a big house and none else, a wedding gown,
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