Running Report for 2021

I got in my miles this year in Minnesota & Georgia this year. 

There are 14 miles in Jan-21 but it doesn't show up in the Garmin report. Garmin doesn't show mileage by calendar year. These 443 miles are less than 2020 mileage but in line with my past many years.

State park walks in Utah during Spring Break don't count as running; but it is part of my fitness report.

My only Minnesota race was the Plymouth 5K 2021. This one was very fun. My kid & few neighbor friends & few kids signed up. It was fun competing with each other and bets on winnng & losing among ourselves.

And my only Georgia race was in Oct - Alpharetta Women's Half Marathon 2021. Also my first one outside Minnesota.

My first time running in Georgia started in August-September. 

August is when we moved from MN to GA and for run mileage, there is a dip. Mileage picked up in Sep & Oct. The weather was definitely not cooler, humidity was noticeable. And it rained every few days, cooling the whole place down. The only thing to get used to was the steep inclines & declines. 

And then in Nov, when I stepped out one morning dressed up as usual, and got a shock of my life. Its was freaking cold. Shock is because I was lulled into warmth and imagined it never goes below 60 in GA ! High expectations yes. But it did and I took a few weeks to get used to it - mainly questioning my decision to move. Mileage picked up decently for holiday months. 

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !

2021 Round of Movies

 Sometime in 2020 and a lot this year, I have kept saying, "Hindi, English mein kuch nahi rakh-kha. " There were a whole slew to see in other languages.

Also this year, regional folks have come up with their own OTT like language channels came up few decades back. Katte for Kannada, Tulu, Konkani. OYO for Gujrati, Telugu ones, numerous for Bengali.

That is unaffordable for people like me who have interests across many a languages.

I can imagine its tough to keep them under one roof. Each language movies have slightly typical styles. Context switching between languages takes some getting used to. Malaylam movies package multiple, independent sub-plots with no links to each other or to the main story. Bengali has multiple incidents; all tying up; but still multiple. Kannada has the rowdy element in the most family movie of any level. But it has co-existed on Doordarshan, Netflix & Amazon Prime so far. So please let it continue.

KANNADA

Ikkat - good work; by new generation of makers & actors. Really good one. Captured a storyline through the first lockdown in India.

Ratnan Prapancha - New movie straight to OTT. Good watch. Good Kannada dialoges & drama, road trip & twists. Nothing dark.

Katha Sangama - Kannada anthology. Good one from RB Shetty.

MARATHI

Cycle - I can't think of a sweeter movie I have seen in recent times. Set in 50s maybe. Story set in a village. Evokes emotions reminiscent of Malgudi days.

MALAYALAM

Minnal Murali - First class. Mallu Super-hero movie. It had the familiarity of Kerala setting & people, along with Hollywood elements of super-hero origin movie. Background movie for every sequence was ah heart-beating one. Like all Kerala movie, filled with 100s of characters and each one more  interesting than the other. 

#Home - Such an endearing & engrossing movie. How social media has infiltrated simple life, the drama it creates and how to use it like a strength tool. Proper filmy ending for satisfaction.

Nizhal - Thriller. Comedy moments strike right. Twists go well. And everything tied well for ending.

Drishyam 2 - Only for the D1 viewers. Just to peak at what happened next. They presented it in thriller fashion. But there is only so much that happens next.

Aanum Pennum (Prime) - Set of 3 movies. Great locations. Lovely dynamics between the characters. 

BENGALI

Switzerland - Thank you for loading it on Prime after few years. Now wish they would do it for Durgeshgorer Guptodhan.

TAMIL

Nava Rasa - Tamil anthology. Loved it. All made with top production quality. All interesting & captivating . Huge variety. Moving through the standard Indian theatre range of emotions. Each in differnet moods. My fav is Roudhram (Raudra - Anger) & Inmai (Bhayaanaka - Fear).

TELUGU

Oh Baby - Remake of Korean. Works well to see different people and situations beyond the expected stereotype in every movie. Samantha & Lakshmi are great along with other actors.

HINDI

Mimi - Good movie & perfect acting by the cast. Kept us involved with comedy through the serious actions in the first 3/4 movie and the emotions in the last 1/4 movie gave me a huge headache which only a good emotional movie can give.

Sooryanvanshi -  Finally a fun theatre worthy film. Good watch. Different dialogues, newer Mumbai & people. Songs were good. Logic for everything was explained. Yet some were still let go from old habits. Why they couldn't grab the terrorist in front of everyone in hotel lobby instead of courteously waiting for him to reach the final stage ? Few more were like just an excuse to do shanpatti action. But action was lajawab. Akshay K was superb and appearance of Ranveer & Ajay D really added thrill. I loved seeing those Helicopters scene.

Meenakshi Sundareswar -  Perfect bridge of South India in Hindi movie. 
And all the Instagram thrashing for the SI depictions can be countered perfectly if they had actually seen the movie.

Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar - Very good thriller. In classic Dibakar Banerjee style.

Sherni -  Movie has lovely jungle views. After being exposed to the working of ad world, corporate worlds, it’s nice to see the details of forest department. It’s like Jurassic Park, just a real non-cgi version. Vidya’s role in the predictable movie tradition of naïve who will be punished like Newton. There is no other purpose than as a lesson for audiences for what not to do. But except frustration no other is shown for her. 

Radhe - The masala movie did obviously stand out as weird when it released in May 2021; given that there is an occean of other options around; each in every other style & merit. But it a proprer masala with lot of good part.

Unpaused - Anthology film on Prime. Great collection of stories. Anthologies had started to give me dread after the Netflix collections of new Hindi ones. This series - nothing like Netflix ones. This was interesting without the twisty endings or anything. 

Ankahi Kahaniya - compared to other Netflix Hindi anthologies, this one was again is high on decency scale. Varied short stories with no twisty or closed ending.

ENGLISH

No Time to Die - Bond movie so naturally in theatres. Neatly wrapped endings for all.

Eternals - only other movie in theatres this year. Unique way of super-heroes Marvel movie. 

Best of the Enemies - Very engrossing movie on race discussion set in 1971. 2 very powerful lead characters and engrossing course of events. Most impressive & non-mundane was where it leads to. Adding an aspect of financial class to race and where that changes the dynamics in current times.

Monument Men - Good one worth seeing. Ensemble movie, set in post-WW2 Europe and a great one to see some some classic art pieces & some stories tied to them.

My Yearly Movies List here.

Web Series of 2021

If anything, the Web Series have become a truly alternate version of entertainment in today's world. 

There are so many OTT and so many shows its so tough to pick anyone or all. And all episodes drop at one go. Binge-watching is so unhealthy - for time, our brains, our sleep.

Sad part of OTT is that it is no longer an age of communal viewing - not the theatre kind. But of same show being watched by all, at their home, at the same time of release. And then talk about it. The craze of a good show, episodes & their actors. Now even good shows get buried under the deluge of new shows because there are so many different OTT (like TV channels) and people can subscribe to only so many. So the viewership is split. This particular post has been written only for how impressive Special Ops 1.5 Himmat Story was. And Family Man of course. I guess same might have happened when private channels popped up and split DD viewership. Things settled after a few years and viewership craze still continues even if split.

Special Ops 1.5 Himmat Story - Great follow-up or rather prequel to the Special Ops series. At 4 episodes, this is one impressive Spy series. Great acting, narration & story sequence. Some of the action sequences in the last 2 episode had a bit of disbelief; but overall it's such a good series, everything is forgiven.

Cubicle (TVF 2019) - Such a nostalgia trip, to the first few years of new job after Engg college.

Mukesh Jasoos - Cute one, filled with naïve characters & interesting situations. It has also given us a slogan for our household - "Poha Khaoge ?".

Family Man S2 - As good as the hype & accolades have been. Every episode was interesting; no drag. 

Never Have I Ever S2 - So thrilled when it came out. Much awaited. I had seen S1 with my kids & we had decided to see the next one together. After watching the S2 trailer, I decided to stay away. And keep my kids away. And then I heard that my kids saw it with their neighborhood friends gang, in someones basement. Duh. What could I do ? Then I saw the whole S2. Glad coz it was GOOD. And a lot of my friends saw. And there were spirited discussion in every house-party between the Mom's & kids - different perspectives.

Best takeaway is the song - . Heat Waves performed by Glass Animals.

S-q-u-i-d Game - Argh. Yes it was as good as the craze has been. I watched in the dark solitude of my car on my device, while waiting. It was worth watching. Also because my kids saw it without me.

Rest of the Read Books of 2021

My book list from first-half of the year is here. In the 2nd half of the year 2021, this is what I read.

We moved from MN to Georgia in middle of Summer. And I switched to the local library here. The new Library and their online system is same as in MN. That was great, so we could pick up from where we left off. 

God bless American library system. They are a blessing for nomads like me; who can't own & store books of their own. This huge treasure house gives us freedom to read books from far & wide. Heck, it gives us freedom to try & reject books too; without the regrets that come from ownership.

Other motivation for books is the device-usage-reduction & social-media-deaddiction. Self-control, discipline etc are no use. Millions of dollars & people are working on overcoming our self-discipline every single day. The onslaught is real. So the only solution for me is - cold turkey. Which can happen by replacing it with some other activity/addiction. 

Library Books are a decent replacements to phone. Especially when you don't have to worry about buying, storing, dusting, staring, moving & wondering what to do next with it. With libraries, all you need is to hear about a book or author or topic and then get sucked in by Recommendations. Like online shopping, online library system lets you put a Hold on any book & pickup when ready. Extensions are never-ending (quite literally in 2020 & FH-21).

So there, more peans to the beauty of American Libraries.

My count is almost 12 books this year. Makes me laugh about the #40in2020 & #20in2020 challenges I was tempted in the beginning. Ha ! Who got time for that ? Or emotion control for that - jumping in & out of book universe is lot tougher than TV shows.

Gold Finch by Donna Tratt

Since November 2020, I was wading through Gold Finch book by Donna Tratt. I am surprised I couldn't find any picture of it in my phone, given how long I held on to it.

It's a huge 771 page tome and I managed to finish it in June . It's wordy, but not heavy. It's heavy on the pain of the lead character. Main reason I am reading it, is to unravel the conspiracy theory that entered by mind, while watching the movie. I want to decode if it's true & if alluded to, even if subtle in the book.

The book is nearly only about grief. It's explained in many words and turns over the reoccurrence of that grief in different phases of life over & over & over. About grief without manipulating tears. Page 476 has lots of profound thoughts squeezed into it. A variant summary of my revelation - every thing we do here is to pass our time on the blue rock as it's quite a wait.

Book moved through so many worlds - museum, cold New York, hot Las Vegas, furniture antiques, underworld and Europe. It had more satisfying ending than that shown in the movie.

Gold Diggers (2021) by Sanjena Santhian

My review of this book was turning lengthy. So I published it in separate post here. 

Tintin - In The Land Of The Soviets

1st Book in Tintin series and I read it for the first time. Was a usual fun plot & situation-wise and smart-alec dialogues. But not sophisticated or refined like other books. 

Many plots points were used in later books, in elaborate & refined manner. I love this about the creative process. When an author reuses his plot points in future books. When music director reuses tunes form his bank. When a old movie or song is remade or recreated in a new decade or century. 

Tintin in America

Yet another Tintin I read for the first time. And I think I don't own it in my collection. And this kind of edition, medium sized, single story one, had other additions. First few pages with single page drawing of a character, with description & background on next page. For all characters. After the story ended, last many pages filled with real-life parallel events & people info; with more of Herge drawing.

Those Delicious Letters (2020) - by Sandeepa Datta Mukherjee 

(Bong Mom's Cookbook blogger)

 

Very fun read. The main story showcases life events & daily schedules of middle-class suburban NRI family. Something not shown in the Bollywood movies or pubbing partying showcases. And the plot involves events & suspense. Food ties it all. Recipe for each chapter as a bonus.

Grunt - by Mary Roach

Mary Roach is my favorite writer for past few years. Her humor is the wicked funny one. She is wicked clever describing people and coming back at someone's idiosyncrasies. Her non-fiction science books are more fun to read than any of the other author fiction created in the past many decades.

Chapter on sweat was epic. In page 189, I was hunting for the Like button, for Kini's comment on sweating. Doris Miller footnote took me on a wiki rabbit-hole. Wow.

Chapter on Diarrhea made me stop my fav songs playing on phone. I didn't want to mix the two images together. 

Every chapter has a cliff-hanger ending, with an element peek at the next chapter. It also ends with demanding respect for the people she made sporty-fun of, through the chapter & justifying the need for the research she made nudge-wink fun of.

Most traumatizing chapter was the submarine/underwater one.

Mr Monk ... books 

Mr Monk is Open for Business

Mr Monk Helps Himself

Mr Monk gets Even

 

Read 3 of the books. These are great when the TV show episodes are not enough to fill. At first I felt like it was a drag; when compared to a TV show obviously, because they describe everything about the scene. Soon I gave in to speed reading, by ignoring dragging details of location or people descriptions. Focused more on the dialog said by each character. That solved it. 

Mr Monk novels are set after the show ended. All the show characters are there & talk exactly like in the show. Few new characters as well. There are 3-4 mysteries in each book & they get reslved around the same time in the last quarter of the book. There are some typos & some mis-naming; but overall interesting books.

Suduku

In other news, I finished 2 Suduku books - the regular Dollar-store variety; each with 76 Sudukos. Just another step towards device-deaddiction.

Older Reading lists: Entire Book list | 2021 (2) | 2021(1) | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Santhian

 Gold Diggers (2021) by Sanjena Santhian

This is called serendipity. My usual rounds of library involve dropping books in return bin and rushing to the on Hold section to pick up the reserved books. This time, I noticed a rack called "New Books". I browsed through the books and none looked interesting - as is my prejudice with new authors. One name stood out being Indian author and I picked it in a rush. It could join my huge list of half-read-and-returned books if its uninteresting.

Chapter one and turns out this is set in Georgia (yeah my new home state). In some Hammond Creek subdivision near Buckhead. Then adventures of high schoolers; children of Indian parents. Every dreary turn of view, for this particular dynamic finds its way in the Part One of this book. I have usual complaint about this style; but it's not to say the author doesn't know to write. She does write well. Plus it's one more place talking about Indian-American high-schooler. Someday someone might write it in a fashion of Never Ever Have I.

Now Gold is an essential experience of Indians in numerous ways. Sanjena has created/introduced another magic-realism aspect in her novel. It's hard for me to digest but I flow along. Other cultural stories of Gold also find its way here - California gold rush, Greek Midas gold touch, Chinese gold, etc.

Part Two takes the protagonist to the West coast. By now I see patterns of Great Expectations (Pip, Miss Havisham & Estella). And in part two, some of GoldFinch (impact of death on the survivors). There is femme-fatale / honeytrap level stuff; but thankfully it doesn't go that dramatic.

I was getting miffed at the passivity of Niel. Or that he just observes others, not participate. But then in real-life, everyday I see a bunch of high-schooler walk past my window, on a single street, from their bus-stop on one side to the end of the street to their houses. They are 8-10 kids. I have never seen them talk to each other. Ever. If this was India and those were Indian kids, no one would have peace from the raucous camaraderie back-slapping, shoulder hugging, non-stop talking those kids would have done. That's the system here - in every way, it discourages non-structed talking.

Then Niel talks or longs for belonging. Belonging or bonding is much more in recent immigrants as they come from similar background for similar employments. Those who came between 1965 & 1990s came by their own, made it on their own - that also made them very lonely and not part of something. They did form communities later and struggled it to keep it that way - credits to them for that; but it also involved power-struggles, not peaceful belonging. 

Language, food and old-friendships / family - those are pillars of belonging. Food is in control because home-cooking & restaurants are still strong in Indian community. Language is also extensive; but unlike India it is not public; its personal & limited to family. Language here is not a tool of bonding far & wide - English does that job. And about old friendships, that takes time and not enough reasons exists here given the amount of uprooting & unsurely that exists among immigrants & their offspring. Land & Gold ownerships are different in USA than outside it. 

 

Shetty's must have surely made it Georgia. Because they find a mention in this book. Not any main or reoccurring character. Just house-party guests. Also like Shah's & Patel's are staple mention in NRI stories.

The comment made by the lady on afternoon walk, in the last chapter, maybe the only funny line in the entire book. By then the tone is relaxed too in that chapter.

Overall I loved the book. It's full with multiple stories, and plots, no twists. And there is action, there is peace. There is happy ending. Thank god, this one did not go for any twisted or tragic ending.

Have to appreciate authors skill of weaving an engrossing tale, across 2 decades and stories from past centuries. I finished the book in a week - which is something. And I was definitely depressed for the rest of the day after finishing the last page.

Padma Awards 2021 rightly called Peoples Padma

2021 Padma awardees list is so impressive.  #PadmaAwards2021  #PeoplesPadma

And everyone is talking about it. Numerous articles showing select few awardees. It’s showing up on FB feed of Mangalore, Karnataka, Northeast, Athletics based pages, PT Usha and so many more. It’s showing up in WhatsApp group - someone knows someone who knew them.  

It feels so much pride to see individual pictures of awardees accepting from President Kovind - and then reading about the stuff they did. They are not shining blazing stars - they are being awarded for a lifetime of hard-work. It’s amazing to see even in today’s jaded world people who worked for society. 

Past few decades I think, nations 4th, 3rd & 2nd Highest Civilian Honors hardly got media attention unless it was awarded to select Film personalities. Those are the only names that stuck out boldly.

This years list is huge. 102 personalities got Padma Shri. Lots of names are known as they received for known work. 

Padma Awards 2020, 2021: Full list of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri recipients.

Inspiring! The 2020 Padma Shri Awardees.

Salute these AMAZING Padma Shri Awardees - numerous folks are what is called unsung heroes. Their unsophisticated approach at the award ceremonies show they haven't spent their life being celebrated; instead they have been working throughout.

PIX: President Kovind confers Padma awards on 73.

 

Awardees from Karnataka

Meet Karnataka’s Padma awardees.

Padma awardees of Karnataka.

Padma Vibhushan honour for Pejawar seer’s visionary work.

‘Akshara Santa’ Harekala Hajabba receives Padma Shri award from President.

 

30000 trees and counting: 'Encyclopedia of Forest' Tulasi Gowda elated at receiving Padma Shri.

Transgender folk dancer Manjamma Jogati receives Padma Shri. She is dancer of Jogathi Nritya, a folk dance form of North Karnataka. In 2019, she became the first transwoman to head the Karnataka Janapada Academy, state's top institution for folk arts.

Dr Vijay Sankeshwar - VRL group.

#Respect: Meet the 11 TBI Heroes Who Won the Padma Awards This Year

Sports personalities who really shined past few years.

PIX: Padma Bhushan for Sindhu; Rani gets Padma Shri.

Watch: Neeraj Chopra, Mithali Raj and other athletes conferred the Khel Ratna award.

Many unsung heroes from North-east

Meet Padma Shri Lakhimi Baruah: Changing lives of hundreds in rural Assam.

 

 

Some unintentionally loved personalities by youngsters.

Internet celebrates as popular physicist, textbook author HC Verma conferred Padma Shri award.

Business leaders conferred Padma awards in 2021.

Alpharetta Women's Half Marathon 2021 - Race Recap

Training in Georgia climate & routes was great and made me ambitious about a race. Even overcome the cloud of pandemic fear and check out events around here. And much to my glad surprise, I found an upcoming race in my town. What better way to see my town by foot - but a supported run ? So I signed up for  Alpharetta Women's Half Marathon & 5K and landed here on the morning of 24-Oct-2021 Sunday at 6:15 am.

Early start at Avalon Mall, which is an open outdoor mall. Parking was in the usual mall places. It was still dark and could see the moon till it was bright after 8am. Being outdoor mall, there was perfect spacing among cliques of run-buddies. Once we squished together for the start time, out came numerous masks (including mine). Half a mile later, when the crowds thinned, it was easier to take the mask off. And no, mask did not hamper my half-mile performance in a race.

I signed up in September and usually an Oct-end race means tight clothing to match the almost 20F morning temps. That what I was dreading but was cautiously optimistic. Come race day, I dressed up like a usual summer morning run. Nothing to plan at all. Temps were between 50F to 70F. Unbelievable. 

The initial 6 mile route went around city roads, from Avalon mall to Northpoint mall. As promised, loads of inclines and then declines. Thankfully it was not as bad as it reads. 

At one point, we turned down to enter the Alpharetta Greenway. This decline was so steep, someone had actually chalked "Wheee" and the runners before me yelled the same :)

Kudos to those who wrote funny & motivational quotes throughout, I mean throughout, the 5-6 miles of Greenway. 

Last 2 miles were killers. The latch after Greenway exit, upwards till Web Road, then on Web Road with a left turn upwards to Avalon mall. Ahh such inclines in the last patch - such torture.

My watch said I finished at 3:10 hours. Official race results says 3 more minutes. The route had 0.20 miles more than the watch. Either way, I did not meet the goal of sub-3. But I guess I have to accept it now. Good thing the race had a 4 hour cut-off. It was not lonely at the finish line. There were 75 more finishers after me. Which means the finish line food & timer stayed for me - them being dismantled is my worst anxiety. 

Thanks to the Water support volunteers for the frequent water & Gatorade (watermelon flavor). Guides at almost every turn. The MC announcer with powerful voice. Starting point warm-up. Perfect parking spots. Spacious spread-out waiting areas.

 

I missed my Minnesota run buddies, familiar faces & places and crowds. Yet so lovely to get back to the actual race atmosphere. This is what makes us do things, we do not think we can do.

Gorgeous Georgia

 We dilly-dallied, researched, analyzed, talked, debated, slept-over and finally in June decided to hurry & move to Georgia. We made it on-time to start school in first week of August.

The first week flew by. By second week, I was cursing the narrow roads and the greenery.
"Why does it have to be so thick green everywhere ? I can hardly see the upcoming traffic signal or any curve up ahead. So much greenery."
"Why do they have to landscape every single road island ? Couldn't they use that part to expand the road. Its like being in Mahabaleshwar - atleast the 90s one"
I would excuse those cribs as backed by home-sickness - of missing Minnesota, you know. Because it's really Gorgeous in Georgia. Yes. Don't need hoodies. People are nice. Diverse, really diverse people and all fairly nice.

Plants are on steroids. My money plant/Pothos, which grew leaf by leaf in Minnesota. Pothos node sprouting a branch was a yearly event. Those same money plants are growing in volume like bush-fire. I haven't done anything to the soil or even watered them. Its like they are soaking things from air itself.

Traffic pattern is definitely very scientifically designed everywhere. 
Right turns are without pause or Stop; not even a Yield. Yeah, Brilliant !!!
Multiple lanes in most roads. Except in some interior places, where it's single lane. So it's go-big-or-nothing attitude. 

Cars get a car-wash every night. Condensation is such that every morning cars are drenched in dew. Hence always clean. And in daytime, WE are drenched and smelly. I have been sweating from pores I did not know existed. Yet you will see walkers everywhere, all day long. The 90F in Georgia is different from 90F in Minnesota.

There are a million schools in my county alone. But there is only one trail that I know of. Alpharetta Greenway. To be fair, there are multiple entry points; hence car parking spots. But it's just one trail and with small distance on each branch too. First few weekends, I did back & forth repeatedly to meet my mileage. This weekend, the closed part showed open and I kept on going. Was so thrilled to get my long-run in one go of to-and-back.

The Greenway in itself is epic. Wide, cement trail. Creek running by the side, throughout. And covered in tree canopy throughout the stretch. Even on a humid morning, its air-conditioned. Absolutely don't need a cap, if running within the trail.

Speaking of trails, Spiderwebs are epic. EPIC. As thick as textile material. The comedy scenes of TV - where someone runs into the webs and run blind swiping at the webs, is a real life happening here.

Books read in 2021 so far

I see a pattern emerging. I have been ordering books from Library, after watching the movie or the show or trailer. My current set is pretty much that. 

Except Father Brown, I haven't been disappointed so far. With Father Brown book, I gave up after starting the first book. Father Brown doesn't appear & even speak until after 100 pages, it felt like. The book was also old & musty hence didn't help with patience. But that is because it was created a century back (maybe). So the styles are going to be unimpressive compared to modern styles.

Almost all others have been interesting books as much, if not more than their movie/show counterpart.

No Filter - Inside Story of Instagram - By Sarah Frier

The book is laid out like a modern drama, with lead characters being founders of Instagram, FB & Twitter and their first employees & more. Very intimate look at how everything worked, the startup, the deals in between. It's good to see the priorities of modern life in a book form - as if this new world and its complexities are worth acknowedging. Only old is not gold.

I love history and modern history (90s & 80s) but documenting the internet changes of 2010s is something else. Phrases & Terms which were born in that decade and many which finished/ended in this decade as well.

The characters of this books are like living manifestations of the apps they created. Twitter, Instagram, FB, Snapchat & more apps have noticeable and well-known personalities - and same is assigned to their founders.

Being a Project Manager at work, I can't resist but think throughout the book, that so much of politics & heartaches would have been saved, if they followed proper Project Management & Quality processes atleast the corporate side. I acknowledge that the tech deliveries would need the faster Agile model. But being unstructured and loosely bonded like some mom-pop store, is going to cause the political fallouts that happen.

My Salinger Year - Joanna Raoff

Got to know of this book after the movie trailer was out. Time reference-wise, the look in the trailer is ambiguous. Even the publishing date on the book was hard to make out. Until page 50, it was suspense on which year the story is based in? Even the decade - 40s, 50s. Then it's reveled, its 1993 life. The pre-digital era, right on the cusp.

Salinger is the selling point. But core of the story is the life & travails of young adult after passing out of college. Sad little salads or sandwich packages as expensive meals bought for lunch. Counting and trying to keep the daily meals count within $10 / Rs 500. Sudden load of bill payments, it's impact on everything. Changed dynamics with college BFF in this new working life.

Things like 5-minutes of vacation in hotel bathroom. Assessing other same age people in business suits & assessing their money & security, realm of currency & privilege. 

This kind of poverty might not be the dramatic political-power kind. But it exists & is utterly painful part of a new adult life. Total influence of it is rarely acknowledged in pop culture, as much as say teenage angst. 

All praises on the back-cover were worth it & perfect explanation of the book.

The Man in the High Castle - Philip Dick

The Season 1 of TV was oh so impressive. I signed out in S2 beginning, when I figured this is going the alternate-timeline-&-merging way. Oh the dread of messing a good series with timeline mishandling. But this show made me curious about the book and after a wait, I got it from my library.

Rather thin book compared to the heavy-duty show and various other books around. Not too much action, rather wordy. It proceeds with each chapter dedicated to a specific character and that's how the story moves ahead. Most of the main show characters are in the book. Rather all of the book characters are in the show. And then the show has more - Smith & Inspector Kido mainly and then a lot more are not in the book. I didn't reach the point of Man in show, so I don't know if he is similar to the book, but from the pics I have seen, I don't think he is. I didn't understand what Oracle was in the show, but it was explained so well in the book.

Kudos to the show creators - how they have transformed the book to such a multi-dimensional universe. 

Rosie Result - by Graeme Simsion

I finished the last of The Rosie Project & The Rosie Effect trilogy in almost 2 days. I finished 238 pages during the roadtrip drive back home.

Going with the pattern, I anticipated him landing in a huge mess & watching him get out of it in a complicated way. I never thought I would go for it esp after George Monkey. But with Don Tillman it works. This trilogy provides comfort on a variety social-interaction problems. 

This book goes through a multitude of problem scenarios of the big-cast of characters and resolves them in a jiffy before landing in next. It was different & alright.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002) by Alexander McCall Smith

4th book in the "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"series. So soothing, gently plodding forward.

Since November, I am wading through Gold Finch book by Donna Tratt. Its huge 771 page and I am at 438 . Its wordy, but not heavy. Its heavy on the pain of the lead character. I don't know how I will finish the rest of 300 odd pages. Its like another book in itself. Main reason I am reading it to unravel the conspiracy theory that entered by mind, while watching the movie. I want to decode if it's true & if alluded to, even if subtle in the book.

Update: Rest of the 2021 Books in this link.

Older Reading lists: Entire Book list | 2021 (2) | 2021(1) | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |

Roadtrip 2021 - Utah - 3 - Canyonland & scenic exit

Spring Break Road Trip 2021: Nebraska -> Colorado Springs -> Utah (Dead Horse) -> Utah (Arches) -> Utah (Canyonlands)

Saved the last day for a much relaxed sightseeing day. We entered the Canyonland from the farther end to cover the Arches we didn't cover the previous day.

Newspaper Rock

Wooden shoe Arch

Needles

 

 

Green River Overlook

Cows

Fun to see the Cow warning boards. Thats the first I saw. We are more used to seeing Deer warning board in MN.

Messa Arch - Sunset

We have like 100 photos & videos of this sunset. Quite an adventure story of hunting for the right spot to watch the sunset, as time was running out. Every member of the car had different opinion, so we moved 20 different spots in this half hour. It was worth it.

Exiting Moab:

 was via SR-128 East going towardsI-70 East. Such a scenic route. Straight vertical rocks for climbing on the right. Colorado river on the left. Noticeable ranches for future cabin stay: Red cliff lodge & Sorrel River Ranch.