Listening to:
Ghazals by two brilliant singers - legends...

Mausam ko isharo se kyo bula nahi lete
Jagjit Singh

Dhua bana ke fiza me udaa diya mujhko
Lata Mangeshkar An amazing ghazal

Fedora Core 1 is not allowing installation of packges directly out of the CDs using the add/delete software feature.
Got the 3rd CD yesterday through my copy of Linux For You. They had a great promo ad campaign for the mag (first of its kind focussed on Open source and Linux in Asia) - a superb punchline :

FOR EVERY WINDOW THAT CLOSES THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY.

OPEN IT

(Pun ?)


The Da Vinci Code



is a speeding thriller with insightful historical facts(fiction) thrown in
The writing has an inherent crackling speed, is a natural page turner, but it seems the language gets insipid sometimes meaning he (Dan Brown) does not express the emotions of his characters apart from fear and uncertainity.
The writing has very little real literary depth, only in patches - the portion before the death of Silas and the ending, family reunion is subtly handled . Sometimes the story felt almost childish reading - very funny you may say, but thats what I felt.

Anyway overall 3/5 should be my score for the novel. Merging history with the fiction in the novel is done well - almost flawless. And the description of the places and locales also short yet vivid. He has kept the novel equally fast paced throughout. The incidents are believable and thoughsometimes seem like a concoction since he has thrown in actual historical monuments and current european facts everywhere to keep the reader involved(fooled). The twist of events before the end leave you stunned. The ending was as usual in such novels, inconclusive - 'A conspiracy theory never has any conclusions'.

A book that I long wanted to read, but it was simply overpriced when released initially - Some 500+ buck; finally got it from Rick.


Ustad Vilayat Khan - the sitar maestro passed away. This sitarist a contemporary of Pandit Ravishankar, is said to be a more brilliant performer than the latter. But Ravishankar used better marketing techniques to get more famous and popular world wide. Not that Ravishankar is a lesser musician but he used gimmicks such as shifting base to the US, teaching Beatles members and his more recent infamous relation with Norah Jones - apparently she is his daughter. May be he has a more world wide outlook and made Indian music more familiar in the west ? But purely based on sheer excellence, I have heard and read in many places that Vilayat Khan was always a notch higher.