Vantage Point : One review In between the 8 views

There is no such thing as reality, reality is what you perceive to be real. That is one thing that Vantage point pushes on to the viewer with a lot of impact. One incident looked on by different people differently, multiple views - each decoding the entire landscape of things happening at a place. No one has a complete view of everything and everyone contributes to the story from where they are. The premise of this movie is definitely challenging. Telling a story of how 15 mins worked for all its central characters showing different point of views of the same event and also moving the story ahead at the same time is difficult and I feel the director Pete Travis, has done a marvellous job in shooting it.

But even before starting to talk about movie I would go out of my way and appreciate the screen writer Barry Levy for writing such stuff. One of the tightest and best screenplay I have seen for a movie in recent times.

The Incident

The incident is not very complex. There is a summit in which president of USA Ashton (William hurt) is participating with the Spanish authorities for Anti-terrorism movement. There are mixed reactions from the people in Spain on this as he reaches the place for the summit. Once he finishes his speech, someone shoots him. This is followed by 2 bomb blasts one at the podium there and one outside somewhere.

Perspectives of the incident

This same incident is shown to the viewer with multiple perspectives of people who are reporting it - the media - represented by Sigourney Weaver as Rex. The other perspective is of the secret agents - Barnes and Kent (Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), they try and find who is the culprit, post the event. Then you have the perspective of President Ashton (William hurt) . Add to it a common man perspective - an American who is overwhelmed by the presence of American president in Spain. Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) is a simple man who puts his heart first, loves his family and is having a bad patch in life. His camera captures the most important cues that takes the movie forward. Then there is a view of a Spanish Cop Enrique (Eduardo) and his girlfriend Veronica (Ayelet Zurer) - how their acts make the whole incident move and end is interesting. Lastly and the most interestingly there is this terrorist's perspective with a beautifully acted role of Said Taghmaoui (Suarez) as a cool, smart and menacing terrorist, who is as he says smarter than Americans. He is assisted by a few of his allies.

Putting so many perspectives of an incident with complex causes and effects and developing the each of the character in 90 mins - making us understand what are the drives for each one of them seems like a mammoth task. And surely the screen writer has succeeded in making that happen along with the director. Every 10 minutes the movie reveals itself a little more. Its like story doing a striptease in a slow and entertaining fashion :).

The only thing that I thought spoiled the power packed action was the end. It was just too quick and too unbelievable to get everything at the same place co-incidentally. The end leaves you a little unsatisfied.

Actors have done fabulous job with Dennis Quaid and Said Taghmaoui leading the pack. The best part of the movie is that the actors did not have to command the screen, everyone had to underplay their characters as everyone was equally important and each of them have done perfectly well. Ayelet Zurer as confident independent Veronica impresses the viewer for sure.

A good screenplay assists the editor well. Stuart baird does fair in his job. At times though you feel that you are watching the same seen again, as he spends more time on the incident and less on characters. Atti Orvarsson's music too is adequate. Did not find it extraordinary. Same was the case with Cinematography by Amir Mokri which in parts was extraordinary but was average in some other parts.

Overall its a thin story line, with a dissatisfying ending but fabulously written, directed and acted. You need to watch it to make your own view. But for me it easily goes with a 3*.

I am an Atheist if ....

They say I am a Jain. They say it was our biggest festival yesterday. They say if I am a Jain I need to follow a few things as per what they say Jainism Says. They say, I follow. They say pray, I do. They say believe in not killing smaller animals, I do believe so. But who are "They"? They are no one but people like you and me who were told by someone else that they belong to a particular religion. The key here is "to belong" , we all do chores and follow our notions of religion "to belong".

Every person is unique not just because he looks so, but also because of the complexity of his thoughts. Everyone has a personal set of beliefs and everyone defines for himself what he wants out of life. We are all so different and then based on a set of belief we get together, we form a group of people following a particular belief structure - we say we follow a particular religion. I dont think that english word "Religion" completely translates the essence of "Dharma".

I have read somewhere Dharma is nothing but a way of living, also read somewhere that religion is to give a person ethics and teaches him the difference between the good and the bad. Combining both I think Dharma is an Ideal way of living which we think we should follow. Moreover, I strongly believe that existence is defined by purpose. The existence of Dharma should hence always be "to direct" - to direct us to the best and ideal way of living to justify our purpose of existence. Now the question is who defines this best and ideal way of living? I just wonder for my life, how would someone else define what I choose, based on my belief structure, I define MY DHARMA (I am getting microsoftised it seems) .

Hey wait ! so am I trying to say that everyone should have a different Dharma?

Bingo! yes I am trying to say just that.

But then, having a known number of religion today is making us divide into groups, making us fight with each other based on set of beliefs for each, wouldn't each person having different Dharma lead to Chaos then?

I think - No. Think of it, when we will appreciate that all of us are different, all of us have a set of their own beliefs (doesnot matter if it comes from Jainism, Buddhism, Hiduism, Islam or Christianity or all of them) , we will appreciate that each person has a different dharma, which comes to him not by his birth but by his own effort to find the purpose of his existence. This will in some way make all of us different, but as a race all of us will be homogenous. There will be no groups based on set of beliefs. Hence there will be no faction claiming that their set of beleifs are better than the other factions. We will respect everyone's views and the challenge will be not to try to convert someone else to our set of belief (call it dharm parivartan, but not in the connotation that it is used now). We will truly "belong" - belong to human race more than belonging to religious divides. We will be "Dharm Nirpeksh".

Oh! So Am I suggesting that I would leave Jainism and would prompt people to leave whatever religion they "belong" to get their Idea of Dharm?

No.
Different religions we have have come out of years of experience, trials, understanding of the society and it would be ridiculous to say that all of it doesnot matter. Infact everything does. If one is confused about certain issue regarding the morals and ethics and the directions required in life, there should be someone he can turn to. He needs to refer to these standard set of beliefs that we, as a society have created over years. He need to seek these answers in various forms, in various scriptures, in various religion. And he should choose what his individual intellect would say is the best. One should not be stopped to follow the beliefs of other religion just because he was born in another.

So, If believing in one religion is believing in god - I am an atheist.

But I believe in God and his definition cannot be something that someone else teaches me, it has to come from within. Just like everyone reinvents the wheel when he learns to walk - my experience of my childhood will not help my child to stand up and run, similarly everyone has to reinvent the wheel as far as finding his Dharma is considered.

So yesterday, while sitting in that group of people praying things that I dont understand, I think I could understand to an extent, that I need directions from the Ideal way to live and I need to define My Dharma. I need to define the belief of what would be my ideal way of living (defining cannot be a one time activity here, its a lifetime one). I hope I find MY DHARMA one day and I truly "Belong" to my own beliefs.

waiting for 5th September as Kashmir meets Mumbai onscreen

Am not sure how great will the next Friday be but I think it is going to be a different Friday. 2 unusual movies are going to get released on next Friday and the story they have to tell us looks simply amazing.

A Wednesday is a thriller centered around happening on a Wednesday in the city of Mumbai. It is about how a police commissioner confronts a difficult situation. It brings the two greats Anupam kher and Naseeruddin Shah together along with Jimmy Shergill. I doubt how good the movie would have been executed, but after a Mumbai meri Jaan I do expect decent stuff from UTV.

Tahaan on the other hand has a different hero. The hero is a young boy and the story is about his love for his donkey. Unusual story telling by all standards but that is not what we would be waiting for in this movie. The movie will give us a view of beautiful Kashmir valley from the best eye of camera in the present day Indian Cinema – Santosh Sivan. Starcast for this movie too is impressive – Rahul Bose, Anupam Kher, Victor Banerjee, Sarika and Rahul Khanna. To know more check this out : http://passionforcinema.com/tahaan-exclusive-look-and-theatrical-promo/

Mumbai Meri Jaan : Ek Cheez Ke Hai kai Naam yaha...

Imagine, What happens when your loved one gets a cut on her hand, what are you reactions? What happens if in place of a cut on finger it’s the finger or worse still the hand that gets chopped? It would hurt you, wouldn’t it? Now imagine if you knew you could do something to save this, if you knew that it is your carelessness and indifference that has lead to this? Wouldn’t you feel guilty? You surely will and post facto you feel that you would go to any extent to save your loved ones. But the hard reality is its post facto. A major event like aa 11th sept. or 11th July changes the lives of the people who are affected but for everyone else it is just a gruesome news. Would it require hundreds of blasts killing atleast someone loved for everyone to get us together? I think that is the core of the message that “Mumbai Meri Jaan” wants to pose. It’s a movie that makes an appeal. As the title credits passes on with the videos of our political history being played on the screen, I thought that the movie is going to be a docudrama on what happened during the serial Mumbai blasts in the train and how people tackled it and I almost believed that by intermission. But a movie that starts off with its cast, acting the crowd that we see every day in trains, in buses, on roads, in malls, in colleges, in offices, takes a sharp turn midway and goes on making many comments on the social consequences of an insensitive individualism that we are breeding.

We are the characters :

Mumbai Meri Jaan is about us. It is about things that drive us. Fear, Hatred, Necessities, fame, power, ambition, love and frustration at times. It focuses in the first 5 with its 5 characters Nikhil Agarwal (Madhvan), Suresh (Kay Kay), Tukaram Patil (Paresh Rawal), Rupali (Soha Ali Khan) and Thomas (Irrfan). There is a beautiful small role played by Vijay Maurya (as constable Kadam), who builds in a frustration of not doing what he must do. That small role shows the other aspect of these drives, frustration for not being able to do what one is supposed to do. The story is about how one event and its aftermath changes lives of these 5 characters.

Nikhil’s wife is expecting a child, he travels by train, he wants to do keep Mumbai safe and clean in his own small way. He is a believer that small efforts from everyone will count. He represents an Ideology that a small part of our young, literate, upwardly mobile young people likes. His life changes as he sees that anything could happen to anyone. He is scared for his family and for the society. He has an option of moving out of the country and but he chooses not to run away from the problems that his society is facing. The blast induces in him the fear of the thing happening again during his travels.

Suresh on the other hand builds hatred towards Muslims. He is an educated person, with work not coming his way. The blast builds up this hatred as he tries chasing Yousuf, whom he suspects has some connections with the Blast

Rupali represent that part of the society which is the source of information for everyone around. She represents the press that sensationalizes every issue and gets a story out of pain for their viewership. The blast gets her fiancé killed and the tables turn as she becomes the story herself.

Thomas, is the ignored, unimportant, underprivileged and suppressed part of our society. He is nothing to any body, and so is his family. The world he lives in has nothing for him apart from suffering, all pleasures are for the rich. The blast gives him a chance to become important. His stray phone call makes him feel important as he could see people panicking and police moving around with his one phone call.

Tukaram and Kadam are the mute spectators. Tukaram representing the major part of us who have adjusted to whatever is happening and though he knows what is right and what is not, he has no intentions even trying to correct the wrong, as he knows there are powers bigger than him which would not let him do that. Kadam on the other hand feels he is avoiding his duty by not doing what is right. Some of the most beautiful dialogues in the movie come through their interactions. Blasts changes their lives as they realize that they need to do their duty, however difficult it may be, they need to try getting out of the usual and do things differently. They represent the unequipped saviors that we have in our policemen.

One day...

The movie in place of showing a dark saddening consequence, which real life has, turns to a very optimist ending. Nikhil overcomes his fear, Suresh his hatred, Rupali her hypocrisy, Thomas his need for attention and power and Tukaram, his corrupt life. The movie has a lot to say as the lives of its characters move on. The movie ends with a note of hope for everyone.

Due Credits

I would absolutely and loudly like to appreciate the director Nishikant Kamath for not sticking to the real life situations that we face in the second half of the movie and giving a critical statement on society through his work. The second half of the movie moves the normal people he shows in the first part to their edge. It was a kind of storytelling post interval that I enjoy the most. I would have loved it even more if the director would have featured the why part of the movie well. There was no mention on the motives of the people who do this. They too are as much a part of us as the other characters are.

Another person who I think should be given as much credit as Nishikant for the movie is Yogesh Vinayak Joshi. He is the one behind the screenplay, story, dialogues and lyrics. Screenplay is very tight and leaves you spell bound. I thought there were few artistic masterpieces that he brought in as the story moved. Few of the scenes will leave a long impact. A few of my favourites were :

• One where Irrfan as he gets down from his cycle, buys a 2 rs. Parle-G biscuit to have as food with a cup of tea looks over a rich brat, smoking a 100rs. Cigarette and throwing his mobile worth a few thousands on road in anger, crushing it. Beautiful.
• Other scenes were the ones like Madhvan watching the potholes thinking of the taxes he pays and the government, a small sequence where the reporters making story out of Rupali, walks over the reflection of hers on the tiles of her house, also the one where Irrfan Khan spreads his arm and feels powerful after the phone calls, One where Kadam tries to kill himself and the one where Madhvan watches India and then America in the google earth depicting the difference. All these without a single dialogue will leave you with a lot of food for thought and few tears in your eyes.
• Surprisingly the person who wrote these beautiful scenes also wrote the beautiful dialogues in the movie, with most of the Kadam – Tukaram dialogues written with great panache. “Dil ke theatre mein picture ko chalne dene ka, par act nahi karna” , “ hum kab se yahi kar rahe hai… kisi ko to kuch alag karna padega, agar tu mujhe dhakka mare aur mein tujhe nahi maru to ?” “Sir insaan ko hevaan banne mein sirf 2 minute lagti hai” “ Ye Log Piyenge nahi to Mumbai mein Spirit Kaha se ayega” … and so on.

Cinematography by Sanjay Jadhav captures the life of mumbaikars in the office, in the trains, in the chawl and in the small shoddy hotels very well. Editing by Amit Pawar fits the narration best. A special mention I think should be given to the visual effects by Rajiv Raghunathan as the blast scenes are absolutely moving. They jolt you in your seat and make you feel the pain of the victims.

Irrfan Khan and KayKay I thought were the real winners amongst the actors. Beautiful expressions, bringing life to even those scenes that hardly had any dialogues. Paresh Rawal shines as was expected from him and so does Vijay Maurya. Soha Ali Khan apart from a few jittery dialogues does very well in a few of the scenes. Madhavan I thought was a perfect casting in the role he played.

One department that I thought could have been better was music and the back ground score (Sameer Phaterpekar). Barring this and the fact the movie left a stone or two untouched, not getting in to a territory that could lead in to a cluttered story line or the fact the movie gets into the preaching mode at times, the movie has a little to get criticized about. Ofcourse, the technical parts of the movie making have been far better in many other movies, but storytelling, which is the most important of it, has been beautiful in the movie.

With a bias for the fact that the second part of the story telling was more towards my liking I would like to go with a 4* for this movie.

Vonamor Quizzing : Started On the Rocks

You know not what a kick of alcohol could mean unless you taste it. Same it seems is true for most of the feeling of elation in life. I never used to understand why would Abha feel too happy on giving an answer on stage, I knew it must be thrilling, but “Thrill” cannot be defined but can be felt. It was Tata Crucibles Corporate Quiz Pune Round Yesterday.

Firstly, for everyone I have not been a full time quizzer and quizzing came to me in my dowry. Thanks to my wife, she has introduced me to quizzing, which I find enjoyable.

Sunday evening event I am sure anywhere with the right ingredients could be a real good crowd puller and in this city of college students, quizzing it seems is a very famous sport. The crowd yesterday at the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel in Pune was huge and amazing. People poured in slowly but by the time the quiz started it was a packed house.

Tata Crucibles event is divided in to 2 tracks : A tata track for tata companies and a non tata track for all the others “who could yet not make it to tata” (as Giri Balasubramanian, pick brain says).

In Tata Track My wife Abha was representing TCS along with Soumya , who came down all the way from Mumbai for the quiz. Along came very cute Antara, her daughter. Soumya’s husband Arnab and his partner Arka represented the TIFR team. In non Tata Track, I had participated with Sandeep Singh.

Prelim I thought was tough. But it was absolutely wonderful. Unlike the quizzes where you answer the crammed questions this was more of working out the answers / Knowing current affairs. There were in total 25 questions and cutoff for both tata and non tata track, I assume would have been around 11. (Questions at the end of the Blog)

Then came the Tata finals with 6 teams on the stage. Abha and Soumya, Arnab and Arka, all made it to the stage with other teams from (pardon me if I get the names wrong , TACO, TAL, Tata Motors, TIFR, TCS and CRL). The first round was a direct question round and it looked like a warm up round for the teams. The teams got pumped up with the next buzzer rounds. TAL had been leading confidently with the rounds and were playing safe. TIFR and TCS were close enough to get them in any round. The questions at times were absolutely very difficult and at times it felt that yes this can be done. Last round was a buzzer round with possibility of scoring 10 points on each question, TAL leaded TCS with 10 points. In came a question, “ whom have Ranbaxy tied up with for distributing the free samples of their drug at a public place?” I knew Abha knows this answer and was sure with this answer they will tie with TAL. Tata Motors (who had by then given many wrong answers and had scored good negative scores) were in a hurry to score and come back, they went for the buzzer and gave a wrong answer again (they said Daiichi Sankyo, whereas the answer was PVR cinema for the drug Revital), Abha lost it on that question and they came second. But the improvement in quizzing that I have seen in Abha over last 2 years is simply fantastic. I could have never imagined my wife cracking a question on Football. She stumped me with an answer to a question “Which Football club has Tata Tea tied up with for …? “ … bang ! came her answer “Arsenal”. Amazing quizzing and amazing fight for a seat to the national finals. Congratulations TAL. Beautiful Effort Abha and Saumya.

Post the Tata track final came the non Tata Track round, I was hopeful and could get through on to the stage with Sandeep Singh. We were all pumped up with first question of the quiz directed to us “which company, incorporated in 1950 produces Trademark brands Zebra, Eastern Star and Army at their Sonepat Factory?” And I knew how difficult it would be for us to perform well :), (the answer was Atlas cycle which none of us got correctly). The first round passed on with BMC software team of Harish and Subhadip and Kotak’s team of Asit and Samrat being the 2 teams that scored. Then was a round on Tata, we gave a wrong answer and a right one(Sandeep Singh Cracked one on Tata Communications), which brought us again to zero. Third round was of connect and we had to guess the connect form the multiple clues. This was a difficult one. We cracked a passed question in this round. It had a song played “Chura ke dil mera”, “had a colourful ad as a second clue” “A flag with black yellow and white horizontal stripes” and a “Mascot with Mcdowells logo” … Shilpa Shetty features in Romanov Ads for Vonamor, I see her in newspapers all the time , how could we go wrong … First 10 points.

The penultimate round was of code busters identifying logos and guessing the answer. 3 questions passed, I knew answers for most of it, people were fast on buzzer could not get a single one on my plate. Sandeep was not ok with it, he wanted me to be aggressive, the last 2 questions he pressed the buzzer even before we could see the logos :), and thanks to my training from Abha I could crack both. We were the underdogs with just 5 points away from the second position. I think we were tense and we messed up with a wrong answer in the last round. But still ours was a performance that was absolutely unexpected.

One more thing about human psychology that I learned was, Audience love underdogs till the time a winner emerges. We as audience wants to see a good fight, we want to see comeback stories, we want the unexpected. Being an underdog feels good those times, but winners are the one who deserves it the most . Kotak Mahindra Team was fantastic and they won the quiz with a good lead at the end. Harish and Subhaeep too, I thought, truly deserved the second prize. Congratulations to both the teams..

For me, I discovered another enjoyable hobby for myself which gave me that Kick:).

Vonamor Quizzing.

Questions for the Prelims :
1. Which fairly big international brand produces cricket bats under the brand names “Ballistic stealth, velocity, and Atomic”? Puma
2. Which arms company, recently in news which started as Volcanic Repeators by Tom Kins was in news in India recently? It thought of chaning its name to SW at some point in time ? Smith and Wessel
3. There was a print ad, with a man looking down on a small opening in the ground and “he had dropped something” what is it? Lenovo Slim Laptop
4. Mark twain is supposed to have used this word in 1871 for the first time in the his work “roughing it”, it later went on to become name of a magazine. They tried Trademarking it, but being a common English word, it could not be patented. What? Hello
5. Which Famous Novelist appears on the notes of Scotland? Sir James Walter Scott
6. Owned by Random house which publication house is famous for “Borzoi”? Options were Mcmillan / Penguin / Alfred Knoff : Answer Alfred Knoff(I guess I have got the spelling wrong)
7. Which beer brand is made in (a set of places were given, goa, shivalik in Rajasthan….)…. There is a book written on this beer brand ? Cobra
8. JSW + Terapin came up with a set of 6 books for environment consciousness targeted towards children. Who is behind it ? TERI
9. In the world of Online Search what did Yahoo named its technique recently ? Datamine / Gluepage/ undertaker …. The answer was Gluepage
10. Airtel is having a JV with IFFCO to change the face of agriculture, who has now joined them ? Kishan sangh
11. Photo of YC Deveshwar
12. Which Indian Cricketer (with a link being fast) is going to endorse the Fly Brand of Mobiles? Ishant Sharma
13. Which Fames Jeans maker is going to produce OYO (On your Own) brand of kids wear? Spykar Jeans
14. Who was the sponsor for Fairplay award for IPL? Kingfisher
15. A logo was shown. Which famous brand in Rural Area? Avon Cycles
16. Dabur has come up with its health and beauty store. It is a new concept for you consumers. What is its name? Nu u
17. Which famous beverage company has come up with an idea of getting in to a totally different luxury segment with hotels called “The Serai”? The places which makes their beverage are being turned in to holiday spots? CCD
18. Which company has test marketed its brand Probase entirely in Pune. It is known more for its brands “genesis” and “Basics”. Name comes across as a kids company? Hasbro
19. In 1956 Time Magazine called this publication “A short lived Plup”. They say “True to our name we are ________” who? MAD
20. Hearst Corporation , Daily Inc owned Syndication company, one of the largest distributer of comics and text features in newspaper? Kingfeatures / Reuters / Peanuts ? Ans. Was King features.
21. “Nightingale” brand of diaries are made by whom at the beginning of every year? Srinivas Fine Arts
22. N Rangarao, who started this company producing this house hold commodity . what brand. It was in troubles for its name during election time? Cycle Agarbatti
23. Which Hollywood Studio gets its name from a famous landmark in Vancover? Lions Gate Productions
24. Ad of Camlin Markers (one where the husband comes back to life after death when wife’s bindi could not be removed)
25. Ad of SBI life (one where all very old ladies are going for wishing their younger brother chhotu , another elderly gentleman for his birthday)

After long long time ....

Last I wrote a post on my blog was 30th April, 4 months have passed after that, 4 long month when I had many things to say and express. Bigflix membership, Cricket matches, My 2nd marriage anniversary and my wife's birthday, A promotion and a little frustration at work, pay hikes, a new season beggining for singing competitions, Ranbaxy is sold, Jane tu ya jane na, A quiz from sakaal times and another from landmark, a few visits from our parents, a broken leg for my brother in law, marriage of 2 of my best friends (with each other).... a lot went into these months which I had to write but could not. Finally, I am back. I really missed writing in my space for all these days. Hope I will be able to catch up with my backlog soon and well.

God's Debris : from the mind that made Dilbert

Few are the times when something that you have thought of gets reflected in someone else's creation. The coincidence of views bring a unique kind of happiness. I had written a blog on Reincarnation and science (click here), where I tried to understand what reincarnation is from a scientific logical thinking, well the book that I read today was absolutely entirely viewing everything in a similar light.

God's Debris comes from the man who I think has given one of the best management books of our times - The Dilbert Principle. His style of writing is as simple as the way he has written the Dilbert . This book too like Dilbert tries to cover everything in its entirety. The book gives a solid philosophical point of view, that might interest the reader as he keeps on moving from one page to other. The book has been written in the form of dialogues, which reminds me of nothing else but Plato and Aristotle.

Scott Adams comes up with a philosophical piece that in its content, as is noticed by critics, has been strongly influenced by the Hindu scirputres, vedantas and the concepts of Karma, Avtaar etc. are seen throughout the book. Making a philosophical note, based on culturally different scriptures, and making it concise and understandable for everyone is no small feat. The book precisely achieves that and more.

Philosophical Questions that the book discusses

In a very simple manner, Adams has depicted a dialogue between an Old man and a young to list down and talk of those hunderds of things that we keep thinking of. who are we? who is god? does god exist or is it just a concept? what controls our mind? what is soul? who governs our actions? Do we have a free will? Are we more important then rocks, rivers, plants as living beings? how should one's life be? what is awareness? The list of questions that he has asked and that he has answered in his own way is definitely interesting.

The concept behind the book was something that impressed me the most.

What Adams say in one of the most important chapters of the book is, what / who is God?

• God is the at a very tiny level the dust that makes all of us, the very fundamental elemenatary piece of being and
• God is also the probablity that governs the world

At the very first glance considering god as nothing but dust and probability sounds absolutely absurd but a detailed dialogue on it makes us think in a line that we might not have thought before. Its the very improbable situation of getting hit by a lightening for example that keeps our life running. It is the high probability of living. There are odds and the way we need to live the life is to support the odds that goes for common good.

Concept of God's Debris

For an Omnipresent, Omnipotent God, who knows the future and the past, who knows his decisions and the aftermath of his actions, who knows everything that is there to know, who can do anything that he wishes to, who can create, who can change, there are no major challenges.

The only curiousity / challenge that he could have is to know what would his creation be if he is not there. It is this self destruction that god has imposed on himself creating the universe with his fragment (an idea of big bang). In that sense we are all God's Debris. And it is this debris that is coming together to form him again and hence the motto of our life should be to live a life that aids the creation of GOD.

Concept of Awareness

At the end of the book, Adams tries to put forward a concept of Awareness that could help us deal with the philosophical and worldly issues in a better manner.

The basic idea for the book is that the mind creates delusion, delusion to tackle the things unknown. Delusion to explain the unexplained. We consider most of the information that comes to us as true as it comes from sources which we believe are factually correct. we never question our assumptions. These assumptions that our minds construe creates delusion. Our minds hence is nothing but a delusion generator. Delusions help in simplifying things and understand the practicality, hence they are important and useful. Only important thing about awareness is hence to know the delusions for the way they are.

He hence divides people into 5 levels of awareness : From the very basic level of just being aware about our existence to the Avtaar level where we figure out our delusion generating machine correctly. And it is the Avtaar level where the main purpose of being is to serve. One can be equally useful being in each level and there is no inherent superiority of a layer on the other. Lower level brings happiness and higher level brings disenchantment.

Based on these above concepts the book discusses various social issues and understanding of these issues. Some of the things discussed with the above concepts and coming to logically understand the concepts are Free will and the concept of its existence, Science as we know it, the concept of soul, mind and ideas that we have, Reincarnation UFOs and GOD -all are but a concept, God's motivation, God's debris and its physics, Skeptics disease - irrational thinking, Understanding the concepts of light, concept of ESP, will power, Understanding actions required in living life the way it has to be lived and so on.

Criticism

A book that tries to cover everything definitely would have flaws that are evident. There were a few things that I noticed and thought could have been written better in the book :

• The later part of the book, especially the last 3-4 chapters seems to be unconnected to the things that Adams discsses in the earlier chapter. The social usefulness of awareness is defined and discsussed well, but its connection to God's Debris is not entirely explained.
• At few times the sentences explaining the concepts become too long and complex to understand.
• Lastly, It would have been great if Adams would have kept a dialogue on how can we with our understanding of probability and God's existence make a difference. The concept of fear, knowledge, rationalism, Goodness all could have been discussed in a little more detail.

Overall, the book comes out to be simply fantastic and it according to me is must read for any one who wants to delve a little in developing his own philosophy. The book will question you, move you make you think and wonder, make you rejoice in appreciating something you knew. It makes a great read which does not drag and keeps the point up in less than 150 pages. A definte 3.5* for the book from my side.

Free E-Book: To download the free E-book of "God's debris" please click here. I am not sure which site it is and whether or not it is a legally free copy but it does have a PDF for the book.