Chalie and the Great Glass Elevator Book Review

Book Review: 

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Author: Roald Dahl

Verdict: 3.5/5

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is the second issue of the proposed Charlie Bucket Adventures Series written by beloved children’s novelist Roald Dahl.  His most famous works are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and Fantastic Mr Fox. His novels have been adapted to critically acclaimed films. He is considered one of the greatest children’s storyteller of all time.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator’s plot has two parts. It begins with Willy Wonka, who shows his improved Glass Elevator to the Bucket family. The Elevator shoots up into the orbit of the Earth in outer space where they encounter US Government’s latest creation, a Space Hotel. They Board the hotel where they encounter extra-terrestrial beings called the Vermicious Knids who are waiting for humans to come aboard the Space Hotel.

The second part involves Willy Wonka trying to make the grandparents more active so that they help him in running the factory by giving them a potion that makes them eighty years younger.  

The character of Willy Wonka again retains his sarcastic and humorous character, proving once again why he is such a beloved character. The most valuable character addition to the story are of the President Lancelot R. Gilligrass, Vice President Elvira Tibbs and those around them. The portrayal of the President and his yes-men give a sense of Deja-Vu considering the current affairs. Other fun characters were the three astronauts and the artistical portrayal of the Vermicious knids.

The plot is relatively set up very early in the novel and becomes interesting right from the beginning chapter. Dahl takes the bizarreness of the story to another level from the previous novel. Dahl’s novel can be enjoyed by both adults and children. Hence, I was surprised by the black-comedy Dahl played with (killing of 24 Space hotel staff). Another impressive feature is the social commentary talked in the novel which showed the perception people in and out of power have about each other. This is still relevant to this day. (Eg: A comment on the dancing styles of Native Americans).  However, the grandparents once again are the least interesting part of the novel. This was salt on wound considering the latter half was focused on them. Charlie and Grandpa Joe again play the second-fiddle to Willy Wonka satisfactorily. Needless to say, I had a difficult time following Willy Wonka to Minusland to find Grandma Georgina.

All in all, it was a very fun book.  Children will have a very good time as they are the focus demographic. This is the kind of paraphernalia children dream about. As for adults, this won’t be anything more than a suggestion to your younger siblings if they ever pop a concerned question.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

CHANGES AND CHOICES

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

The universe was created by a big bang billions of years ago. That incident created zillions of particles which over the years interacted with each other and after thousands of chemical and biological reactions created you. But did it create your soul or your thoughts? Frankly, I don’t have the answer to that, nobody does. It is one of those questions which don’t have an attestable answer.

Before beginning, I would like to draw your attention to a certain concept of dimensions and time. In the world of Physics we as of now have identified four dimensions of space. There are hypothesis of this dimensions adding up to a massive 23 dimensions (String Theory!). Frankly, it would matter very little at the microscopic level or in this case at the human level. The four dimensions that we are aware of can be considered as four coordinate axes namely, X, Y, Z and Time (T, say). Now I am not going into the deep scientific understanding of this axes or any other dimensions, for that you have Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar at your service, rather more philosophical and dutiful importance of this four dimensions that we know of today. 

‘Time once gone cannot be brought back’, is a phrase all of us must have heard at least once in our lifetime. Apparently, it’s true. Consider this, right now you are reading this article on your PC or your phone, you are reading this line or this word or this letter but you don’t realise that you are moving forward in time to read it i.e. you are moving forward in the coordinate axis T. Now you can never go back in time to stop from clicking the link of this article to read it. Maybe the movement in time is not that big in magnitude but drops fill an ocean. Now after reading this article, if you feel amused or have this idea stuck in your mind, then it is arguable that the movement was productive, a time well spent. But, if you feel this article was bullshit and worthless of your time you might consider twice next time to read anything that comes from me. Here on this junction, we come by an idea of CHOICE. Choices that we make at each moment plot the graph of our lives.

 I am here to talk about what happens subsequently when you make a choice, what happens after the graph ends and/or does it really end?

What if I told you that we are living in one of the most rational, safe and comfortable times for humans on this planet? See, no more mindless wars between kingdoms, easy access to health and education COMPARED to the medieval and ancient times, better infrastructure, lower death rate, more knowledge about science and less superstitions etc. For all we know this might be golden age for mankind. Happy hun?  Well you shouldn’t be. We all know that earth is dying and eventually we either have to die here suffocating or leave this planet to find a new home. But the changes as mentioned above are good right so where did we go wrong?

See it makes sense for a jealous guy like Duryodhan to be the reason for the death of such a huge dynasty 5000 years ago but today a guy like that may win the war. Yeah this is the world today. In the words of Jim Gordon, “…Structures becoming shackles, letting the bad guy get ahead…”! Maybe our lifestyles have changed but we are not being “Good” human beings. That is the reason this age is called Kalyuga.

 

Graphically, Better lifestyle ∝ sly mind. That is how the plot of humans looks today! Enough said!

One of the major choices that we make in our lives is whether or not to believe in a deity. Sophisticately, a force that guides and binds everything together. Simply, God!

A still from Fargo

The other day I was watching Fargo, a beautiful TV show which surprisingly had religious overtones and undertones. (SPOILER ALERT!) The story was such that, there was a man who was deep in debts, he had to leave his country and his hometown and had to come to Minnesota with his wife and son running from all the snags in his life. On the way, without food or fuel he sits on the road helpless and prays to God to give him food and bed in exchange for his lifelong devotion. He immediately sees a hiding site of a bag full of cash and then goes on to make quite a name for himself. Long story short, he forgets about the help that God had pondered him with and thus had to lose his son to an accident. I was so stunned and touched by the scene when the man finds his son dead and cries looking up to the sky, that it was inspired me to talk about it.

I believe that God is not something supernatural but just a synonym to the idea of equilibrium or uh… Newton’s Third law of motion. It is science. God is Science. Honestly, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Just think about it. For example, If you study well then you get good grades, if you go to gym regularly AND work out well, you get abs, if you have high internet speed connection, you get better seeds on your torrent files. What goes around, comes around. These are simple day-to-day life examples. Let’s go up a notch, if you smoke, you get cancer! Our actions determine the relative reactions.

We know that the moon revolves around the earth and the earth around the sun, some of you may also know that the Sun itself is moving in space and so are we. This proves that at least two coordinates out of those 4 axes mentioned above change at each instance. Tomorrow morning when you wake up you would have been thousands of kilometers away from the position you slept hours ago.  Which brings me to my next question, are we ever the same? 

Let us look at  an interesting case about the life of Raj and Simran from DDLJ after their kerfuffle in the climax. After a few years Simran is now unhappy with her life with Raj. Let us analyse what might have been the problem. Simran thinks Raj is changed and is not the same as before whereas Raj has no such problem. Now why is Simran unhappy? As explained above, humans are changing at each instance so Raj and Simran must have inevitably changed in the last few years. This is quite apparent. In the beginning of DDLJ, Raj is a pervert and creep who Simran disgusts but eventually she chooses to hold his hand. So much change!! In the whole movie we see a lot of change in her views about Raj. Now here views are changed again as she is now bored with her marriage probably because Raj’s jokes are getting old or maybe Raj is getting old. Was it a surprise that Raj has changed?

 

Here are my three possible conclusions of the reason as to why this marriage is troubled.

       1. The changes in Simran are the reason of this boredom.

       2. The changes in Raj are the reason of this boredom.

       3. Both

You can’t argue to any of that because you don’t know what the problem is. There is a possibility that tomorrow Raj gifts her a diamond necklace and she is happy again. 

Friends, change is inevitable. Something or someone is going to change but I believe that change is in our hands. However big or small in magnitude a change can be, we have the power to mould it by our specifications. Now that shit takes knowledge and will power which all of us might not be aware of, but we have them within us. Our actions and our thoughts can change a lot.

The Pronunciation crisis

THE PRONUNCIATION CRISIS

At first, I thought of captioning this article as ‘THE PRONUCIATION WAR’ or ‘THE DYING KNOWLEDGE OF LITERATURE’ but I decide to write it as ‘THE PRUNOCIATION CRISIS’, pretty reasonable isn’t it?

Do you know why ‘English’ is accepted as the international dialect for exchange of ideas/information/ War plans (Nudge!!)?? It is because the language itself is derived from various languages of the world, the more important ones such as; Sanskrit, Arabic, Latin, Greek, French etc. It must be heart-breaking for many that English does not have its own root or origin because it is the heterogeneous combination of languages around the world. So those 1900s bureaucrats accepted it.

English words such as BROTHER, BAZAAR, DOZEN, AVATAR, SAMADHI, SHAMPOO (yes!) and 300 hundred other words come from this divine language. They were adopted from Hindi which itself is evolved from Sanskrit.

The very first notion of this idea came up to my mind was by a mental confrontation. It was when I was in Surat and was sent by my school to an inter-school debate competition. There a contestant was using Brit. English in American accent that too not perfectly. Such a deed is a depraved action for me where a person doesn't know to respect the language he speaks. This problem should be looked at a broader prospect.

Today English has been incorporated in our mother tongue so deeply in daily usage that we don’t even know what a particular word means in Hindi or in your mother tongue. The condition deteriorates when today an Indian doesn't know to follow English also. An Indian is supposed to use British English. A few of years ago when I accomplished fluency in ‘BRITISH’ English, I hear this candidate in an inter-school debate use the slang American pronunciation with its equally atrocious American accent. Few appreciated, but I didn't feel it right. You can’t violate even your English also after virtually destroying the dignity of your mother tongue, Come on!

Do you now know which particular English you speak? Is it British, North American, Australian, South African? No, right? Microsoft, Facebook etc. provide 8 types English language including INDIAN. In terms of accent, either you believe it or not, Indian accent is one of the most demanded accent in the whole world. Giant companies dig Indian accent and pay huge sum of money to hire it. It is because it is the most clear and accurate accent in terms of pronunciation. Thanks to INDIAN languages.

Let me take the example of one of the veteran actors whom I respect dearly, Michael Caine. I like him because he played Alfred in ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ and I am huge of fan of these films. Let me ask you this,

How do you pronounce the word ‘EITHER’?

a)I-ther      b) ee-ther

Those individuals who want to flaunt their porous English knowledge and sophistication will choose option b) in a flash. If you are not one of those, then let us pray for them.

Oxford had organised dozens of seminar to clear the doubts of a few other words. It was too late, many people had been affected It is said that even an Eagle has to fly away when the snake eats its eggs. An idea is like a virus. It is tough to eradicate it.

 

I would like you to read the following unknown facts:

1.  .. Robert Downey Jr. follows Hinduism.
2. No twins have born in USA since 2008.
3. Neil Armstrong was forcefully asked to walk first on Moon, as NASA was    unsure if the land was strong enough to hold him or would he fly away in space. He did it because NASA promised to pay his debt.
4. Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas was born in today’s New Zealand.
5. The first liver transplant was done in India in 1842.
6. Akbar was only five feet tall.
7. The story of the movie Titanic(1997) was found to be coincidentally true in 2006.

Shocked right? There are several other startling facts unknown to us. If you want to know more such facts, go to this URL directly

www.modernespionage.org/worldy_facts/shockers_of_universe/unknown_facts.jpeg_801_UXS_request_ok155

Why did I tell you these facts? That must be the thought in your mind. It is because I did a lot of research to prove that they are of course, not true. Yes, you have been tricked. I am sure 8/10 people would believe it to be true because I conveyed it to you with so much confidence. Do you get where I am going at?

Ladies and gentlemen, today we are surrounded in an environment full of people who have little knowledge but have lot to say. English, the centre of this article is not a commodity that can be used in whichever way one wants it. It has certain rules and principles. It should be used with sincerity.

I have seen people speaking English with a bag full of confidence but an ink pot full of knowledge. I am not saying that I am an expert, of course not. I just believe that we should commit some activities the way they are meant to be done.

About pronunciation, we always have couple of self-proclaimed pandits who deliberately change the pronunciation of words, every damn (informal!!) words just to stand alone in the crowd and be hailed. Sorry, not going to happen!

The reason for bringing my dear Michael Caine in this debate is because I admire his British accent and pronunciation. They are perfect dot-to-dot. It is just like a sculpture. Being over 80 years old, he still hasn't been harmed or damaged in his mother tongue and continuous to use it ‘the way it is meant to be’.

The following are a sub-set of examples of words damaged by the attempt of some people to stand alone in the crowd.

 Word                         Damaged Pronunciation           Proper pronunciation

·   DIVERSITY                 Dee-versity                          Dy-versity

·   SPECIES                     Spe-kees                             Spe-sheez/Spe-seez       

·   INDICES                     In-dee-cees                         In-dy-cees

·   OFTEN                       Of-tuhn                               Of-uhn

·   MUSCAT                    Muh-skatt(‘skatt’ as ‘cut’)      Muh-scat(‘scat’ like ‘skull’)

After words, lets come to some phrases. I am not saying that the following phrases should be banned, but they are becoming a terrible nuisance and probably People’s Republic of China will consider their usage as treason(wink!).

• ‘You know’—Using this phrase in between sentences. Usually people use it when they are confused while speaking English, due to lack of knowledge. Sadly, people have picked it up as a trend.
•  It’s like/Just like/ You see it’s like/ something something like’— Terrible, should be included in informal English section right away.
• LOL—Lots Of Laugh/Love/Luck/Loss of hair whatever….) It is such a genocide of social interaction. It is a positive sign that its usage is coming down.

“I should probably end this discussion here on a high note believing my message is conveyed to you. Hope these viruses spreads.”

If u get it, der r 4 grmmaticl mistks in d abv quotd lines.

Thank You.

 

 

TDK Trilogy: Part 1

THE ADDICTION OF

THE DARK KNOGHT TRILOGY

PART 1

 

Witness the journey of a hero who became more than just a man in this amazing voyage of the acclaimed director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S   'Caped Crusader' . This Oscar winning film trilogy is considered the best by many and has even been quoted superior to the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Toy Story and The Godfather trilogies.

 

 

I have been a Bale-Nolan Batman fan for over an year and the craze increases each time I see any of these movies. So how many times have I watched these three film? If we sum up all the three together it reached up to 40-50 times. So by this immense expenditure of my time for Batman, I have learnt each and every line of the screenplay, each and every string of the soundtrack, each every action of the characters and each and every face that has registered itself in these three films.  

 

You must be thinking I am going to review each and every film and going to tell how well the cast and crew performed. No, I am not going to  review it but I am going to write about the impact of this trilogy to me and the society. This will include of the incidents that lead Warner Bros. to make this trilogy and the ones caused by it.

 

As we are going to talk about a trilogy. I have divide this article into three parts: the Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige.

 

So lets get started by the Pledge: This part would be a beginning and will give you an idea of the Batman trend, fad enthusiasm or obsession whichever you may choose.....

 

In my recent trip to London, I visited the BFI IMAX, one of the finest IMAX screens in the world. When I was buying the tickets for Pacific Rim I saw a poster.

This was the Poster, read it completely:

 

Even I was shocked then surprises then overjoyed and when I saw the date I was devastated.

 

So the total length of the movie will be 458 minutes(141+152+165)?!?!?! This made me ask the cashier if people did come to see this 8 hour show. What he replied can be understood by the fact that I asked him this question on 16th August 2013 and the tickets were already booked by 13th August 2013.

"So what is the point of keeping this poster if it is houseful", I joked to him, nervously.

 

This is the craze guys!!

This is the craze cum love cum respect cum addiction to The Dark Knight Trilogy!!!

 

This was the reason why "The Dark Knight Rises", the conclusion of this trilogy was the most pirated main stream movie of 2012 followed by The Avengers and 21 Jump Street.

Nearly 8.2 Million downloads were recorded by TorrentFreak. Many experts considered this the reason for the loss of another $500mn which would have made this movie third highest grossing movie after Avatar and Titanic.

You may be surprised by the fact that when the Christopher Nolan Indian fans heard about the above, an oath-taking ceremony was held at Bangalore where they pledged never to download illegally any film. Even I was shocked to hear this from my friend.

Christopher Nolan fans are highly mad and crazy. They are plenty too. They relate themselves to his character which is highly illogical given the movies Nolan has made. They live with his movies. So a trend was started by the people and if someone did something unique, something strange and thrilling, they called it Nolanisation.

Another example of the irrationalism of the fans can be understood by the fact that murder threatens were given to the critics who gave a negative verdict to The Dark Knight Rises.

Even I am a crazy Christopher Nolan fan and his movies.
Currently I have a self-made sketch of The Joker (Villain in The Dark Knight)  and Bane (Villain in The Dark Knight Rises) and a lucky charm of the bat emblem given below.

 

 

 "ITS NOT WHO I AM UNDERNEATH, BUT WHAT I DO DEFINES ME"

 

Mars Orbit Mission (My views)

IS MANGALYAAN A WORTHWHILE MISSION?



 

On 5^th November '13, India celebrated its Diwali by successfully launching  the PSLV rocket  C25 carrying the Mars Orbit Mission(MOM).

 

                                           

 

MOM which is labelled as Mangalyaan is surely huge a leap for ISRO(if successful) for becoming a future Space Power. If it achieves success, ISRO would join the Elite club of Roscosmos, NASA and ESA for successfully executing a Martian mission. If ISRO continues its success by also executing the Venus mission( May 2015) and ADITYA-1 for sun(2015-16) then who knows even future Bollywood Sci-fi movies will also feature ISRO dealing with Aliens speaking HINDI. 

If this mission is successful and if MOM reaches Mars on 25^th September, 2014, THEN India would be the first Asian country to do this after failed attempts by JAPAN(1998) and CHINA(2011).

Japan's craft suffered lack of fuel and the spacecraft was lost in space which under the circumstances as obvious. China's craft (Yinghuo-1,wierd names!!)  was supposed to be destroyed by a fuel fire and it was also misplaced in space.

This yaan carries five scientific instruments for scientific experiment to indirectly also display India's scientific abilities in scientific field by scientific people (LOL).

 

THE LAUNCH SEQUENCE

 

The craft contains five scientific instruments for study of the MartianThe launch, on 5 November 2013, placed the Mars Orbiter Mission into Earth orbit. Six orbit raising operations will be conducted on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16, by using the craft's on-board propulsion system, which is a derivative of the system used on India's communications satellites. These manoeuvres will raise the orbit to one with an apogee of 23,000 km (14,000 mi) and perigee of 238 km (148 mi),where it will remain for about 25 days. A final firing on 30 November 2013 will send MOM onto an interplanetary trajectory. Mars orbit insertion is planned for 21 September 2014,and would allow the spacecraft to enter a highly elliptical orbit with a period of 76.72 hours around Mars.

ABOUT THE SPACECRAFT

The spacecraft's dry mass is 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), and it carries 850 kilograms (1,870 lb) of fuel and oxidiser. The main engine uses the bipropellant combination monomethylhydrazine an

dinitrogen tetroxide for orbit insertion and other manoeuvres. The probe is expected to arrive in Mars orbit in September 2014 approximately at the same time as NASA's MAVEN orbiter.

So the above was just some gyan  regarding MOM, but that is not the focus for this article.

The primary objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission according to ISRO is to showcase India's rocket launch systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities. The objective include:

• Design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to perform Earth bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars.
• Deep space communication(really?), navigation, mission planning and management.
• Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.

I don't recognise these objectives as the primary reasons for these missions. There was a report released by NASA by its first successful orbiter that there is a certain amount of ice formed at the south-pole of Mars, so water is present on Mars!! Also it is believed that these fast-track project of 15 months to build this MO may have been stimulated by:

Some Sound waves emitted by Mars raising suspicions about LIFE over there. Yes, I believe that life can be present over there. Even some of the photographs sent by the "CURIOSITY" rover of NASA show similar light spots mainly believed to be UFO's. NDTV India broadcasted one show on which one scientist said that though not presently but life may have lived there in though not an intelligent one.

When I was in 8th grade, the first lesson in my science book was "L-1 OUR UNIVERSE". In that lesson there was a statement saying that there is a possibility that bacteria are present in space.

So what I feel is that if bacteria can live in space without any atmosphere, biosphere and stable temperature then they can easily live on Mars.

 

This photo is an imaginary Mars some hundred or

thousand years ago.

Also, as we know that bacteria need the least possible condition to survive then they can be present on any planet, asteroid, meteor and even SUN!!!

Even now some believed after 45 years that NASA sent Neil Armstrong to Lunar surface to examine a  crashed spacecraft of an Alien life-form!!!! The tragedy  is that no-one would believe it after watching Michael Bay's awful Transformers 3.

So these were my conclusions on what can be the reason of ISRO's hurried announcement, rapid production ad immediate execution.

 

 

So, is this project worthwhile??

Now let us ponder on these facts

1. 0.35% of GDP used for space research and enhancement.
2. 8% of this money spent in Mangalyaan.
3. INR 4.5 billion is the total cost
4. Mangalyaan costs each citizen of India approximately INR 3.6.
5. If a person earns INR 27/day, he/she is on the poverty line.

Why do I consider this project worthwhile?

1. It is important to show the world that India is more like spectrometer on Mars' circle like orbit and not like cows on the circle like CHOWK.
2. It is even more important to convey NASA, CNSA, ESA and ROSCOSMOS that ISRO has the ability and will become a SPACE super power.
3. The attempts of NASA and ESA to increase their tie-ups with ISRO as it can achieve big goals with least cost possible. INDIANS!
4. I can state to any FIRANGI that my country will soon be no less then yours probably more in SPACE science.
5. From 5 to 7 are the points given in the primary objectives of ISRO above.

The only reason why this can't be worthwhile is that, if it fails to reach the orbit, then INR 4.5 billion rupees would be squandered and all this buzz would terminate for nothing. It would be extremely tragic for the ISRO  scientists to start from a scratch.

All I can say is that ISRO has successfully launched Magalyaan and if it performs its total duty of 20 months, then "ISRO ka sub kuchh MANGAL MANGAL hua".