The Invisible Guardian (Spanish : El guardián invisible (original title)

The Invisible Guardian (Spanish : El guardián invisible (original title) is a 2017 Spanish thriller in which a serial killer is on the loose. The atmosphere of the movie is wonderful and even creepy at times. The inspector who has to confront the present, stop the killer and tame the devils of her past is well played by Marta Etura.Amaia Salazar (Marta Etura), a police inspector in Pamplona, is directed by her superior to investigate a murder. The case concerns a teenage girl whose naked body was found at the side of a river close to Elizondo, Amaia’s birth town, a rainy village surrounded by forests and mounts, full of local myths and ancient superstitions.

Soon, it is found out that a serial killer is behind this ritualistic killing. The movie goes forward holding one’s interest till the end. You feel for Amaia Salazar’s character who had a troublesome childhood. Infact, her mother had almost tried to kill her then. It was a miracle that she had survived. This one ends up as one best serial killer genre movies. The major plus points are the locations in which this movie has been shot, the main mystery of the plot and the past and the present of lead character have been done well. Warning : The movie has adult content, which includes nude bodies.The major minus point is that this one is a slow burner and it takes time to unfold. Those who are expecting a fast paced thriller would be disappointed.My rating is 7.5/10. It is worth watching!

 

Roll No.13

Roll No.13
Two Sentence Story

Whenever the class teacher cried roll no.13 for marking attendance, two hands went up, one in the first bench and the other in last bench. The last bench boy had died in a road accident last year.

 

Never Knew

Never Knew
Two Sentence Story

He came out only during nights, being a total stranger in a place which he didn’t like much. He used to think what happened after death, now, he realized after he was buried like others in a coffin.

 

The Bus Conductor

The Bus Conductor
Two Sentence Story

‘Ticket! Ticket!’ The conductor came shouting towards him in almost empty bus filled with darkness. In the brief light from the vehicle passing from opposite direction, he saw the face of the conductor, and his heart skipped a beat as this conductor was killed along with every one when bus fell in to a deep gorge a few days back.

Cold Blood (Detective Erika Foster #5)

Erika Foster is one of my fav characters and this series is my second best. I liked this one. The insight into Erika’s past was good. I felt happy that she had rejected her promotion so that she could keep doing what keeps her ticking in life, solving murders and putting bad people behind. Also the series might not have continued if she had gone for that promotion. You start feeling for her and her choices in her life. She is alone and lonely…with not a bright future. The best things about this series is that the books are fast pacing and you can’t put them down until you complete them. Robert Bryndza has become one of the best crime thriller writers mainly for his consistency in writing one better book after another. This is book#5 and I am eagerly waiting for the next one to come.

This time around, we have a suitcase containing a body, that has washed ashore on the river Thames. The body has been badly beaten and dismembered which makes ID particularly difficult to achieve. When a further body is discovered a few weeks later in exactly the same manner, the investigation begins.

As usual, I loved the investigations and forensics in this book. My rating is 3.5/5

 

Broken Bones (D.I. Kim Stone, #7) By Angela Marsons

By now, D.I.Kim Stone has become my fav character along with Bryant and Angela Marsons one of my fav crime thriller writers. This book was a fast page turner and I completed it pretty fast. This is surely an outstanding series that I had come across sometime back. The best thing about this book is that Kim’s team is back together and they surely rock! The story is well written with nice twists and turns here and there to keep the reader guessing till the end. Broken Bones is the 7th book in the D.I Kim Stone series. I have read and loved them all and this one doesn’t disappoint a bit. The magic of Angela’s writing is such that once you start reading her books you’re hooked and you can’t keep the book down. the curiosity makes you to read further, even skipping your sleep. That’s what happened to me on this Sunday night…I kept reading and reading…just a little more…some more and by the time my eyes started to feel tired it was 4am. Now, I am waiting for the next book to come. My rating is 4.5/5.

 

 

The Toy Train Journey…

We reached the Coimbatore railway station almost half an hour late and had to catch a taxi to Mettupalyam, so that we don’t miss the toy train which would leave by 7.15 am or so. It proved to be the right decision, if we had come by bus then we would have certainly missed the toy train. We had enough time to have a hot cup of coffee in the railway station canteen.The train left the Mettupalyam station at 7.30 am. 

This train journey covered about 46 kms in about 5 hours journey passing through Hilligrove, Coonoor, Wellington, Aravankadu, Keeti, Lovedale stations and finally ends at Udagamandalam or Ooty at about 12 noon. 

The train had passed through jungle…some elephants crossed the track. We were lucky to take the picture of a langur.

The climate became cooler as the train started to ascend the mountains. The strange thing was that the train was pushing the carriages from behind. It was wonderful to witness the train passing through the dark tunnels. We even saw some small waterfalls on the way. We even witnessed a peacock dance, spreading its feathers.

People used to shout in joy whenever the train went through the dark tunnel.

Steam engine was stopping after every one hour of journey to take water in small stations during its journey of 19Km up to Coonoor. At Coonoor steam engine was replaced with a diesel engine for the last part of the journey ending at Ooty.

We saw the tea gardens; valleys with pine trees through open window of the compartments.

During five hours of journey the train has passed through 16 tunnels and 250 bridges.

I would like to mention that this is once in life time experience…one should experience it once to cherish the joy for a life time.

One should note that the compartments of this train doesn’t have any toilets.

The train tickets can be booked well in advance through IRCTC website.

 

Indian Railway Station Codes

METUPALAIYAM – MTP

UDAGAMANDALAM – UAM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord Rama and the Squirrel

Lord Rama and the Squirrel

Tales from Indian Mythology

Retold by Vasu Gangapalli

It was long, long ago, when Lord Rama wanted to cross the sea to reach Lanka, so that he could save Sita from Ravana’s clutches. Lord Rama sat down before the sea and prayed to the sea God, Samudra.

The sea God got impressed by his prayer, arose from the depths of the sea, and stood before Lord Rama and said,

‘O Rama! I’m impressed by your prayer. Please tell me, what could I do for you?’

‘O Samudra dev,’Lord Rama addressed him, ‘We would like to go to Lanka as we have to rescue and bring back Sita. Please provide us the way.’

‘Alright, I suggest you to build a bridge to cross the sea. I would ensure that it stays intact till you go and bring back Sita.’ Samudra replied.

‘Thank you, O Samudra dev,’Lord Rama replied, ‘I would now start building the bridge with the help of my people.’

Samudra vanished into the depths of the sea. The waves of the sea receded in the middle. Lord Rama and Lakshman shot arrows into the sea; they formed two lines and separated waves of the sea. Rama’s army of monkeys got busy building the bridge by placing boulders, rocks and stones in the sea. While they were busy doing this, a tiny squirrel who was having his nap, got disturbed. He peeked outside his tiny borrow in a large banyan tree near the sea shore. He kept staring at the proceedings for a while and he realized what they were doing. He climbed down his tree, deciding to help Rama.

He began picking sand and scattered twigs and scurried back and forth from the shore to the sea. Little by little, the tiny squirrel was able to gather an entire heap.

Lord Rama, who was watching the tiny squirrel in action, was really impressed by his dedication. Also the squirrel saw him watching him. Lord Rama smiled at the squirrel. The squirrel bowed his little head, bringing his two hands together in respect before the Load. Lord Rama bent down on his knees, picked by the tiny squirrel on his palm.

‘My dear friend,’ Lord Rama addressed the squirrel, ‘You may be small, but you are not insignificant!’

Then Lord Rama gently stroked the squirrel with his three fingers. Thus three lines were formed on his back. Lord Rama placed the squirrel back on the ground. The squirrel dashed back towards his tree. His friends and family were really impressed by his new look and admired him for helping Lord Rama. They too wished to be blessed by Lord Rama. On his advice, they too did the same thing what he had done.

The squirrel again went to Lord Rama and pleaded with folded hands.

‘O Rama, kindly bless my family and friends too. Let them too have your imprints on their backs!’

Lord Rama smiled at him, and had a glance at the other squirrels, who were waiting eagerly for his response.

Lord Rama picked up the squirrel on his palm, and stroked his back with his fingers once again. Immediately, three lines were formed on each and every squirrel over there.  They all bowed before the Lord in respect, before disappearing into their tiny dwellings.

Since then, it is believed that squirrels have three lines on their body.

JP Park, Mathikere, Bangalore

The Jayaprakash Narayan Park (JP Park) is located at the junction of Jalahalli and Mathikere. Developed at a cost of Rs 8.5 crore, the park boasts of 20,000 varieties of plant species, 60,000 flowering plants and shrubs and 5,000 medicinal herbs. Just like Lalbagh, a nursery would be functional soon. There is a rock garden in the park modelled after the one in Almatti. A musical fountain will be functional shortly.

The park has three grooves called Pavithra Vana, which will have mini grooves called Nakshatra vana, Rashi Vana and Navagraha Vana. Apparently, each star in the zodiac constellation has a particular plant/tree ascribed to it. The groove would have plants of every star, rashi, planted.

The park also has a 4.5-km jogging track, bamboo garden, palm garden, and play area for kids. 

There are also a few acres devoted to a football court, volleyball ground, kabaddi ground and a 1,000-seater amphitheatre, though most of them are still in the making.

Main attractions in the park are the two water bodies of 15 and nine acres each. 

The bigger lake has already attracted migratory birds like pond heron, coot hen, little cormorant, moorhen, pelicans etc. I had sighted one bird in this place.

The Musical fountain or the light show is the best one after Brindavan Graden.

At present, the park is open to the public freely. But a minimal entry charge might be levied later based on the maintenance costs.

Yes, there’s a separate parking area to accommodate 200 cars and 400 two-wheelers. And the entire park is a no smoking zone. Also eatables are not allowed inside the park. Timings: 5 am to 8.30 am and 5 pm to 8.30 pm.

Route Map  :-
From MG Road, take a right turn on any of the intersections and arrive at Cubbon Road which is parallel to MG Road
Continue on Cubbon Road past the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium, Minsk Square (Yeah, the one with the Flight prototye), General Post Office, and Hotel Capitol
Continue on Raj Bhavan road past the Governor’s mansion
At the intersection, take a right turn onto Palace Road
At the intersection of the Highground Police station, turn left onto Sankey Road / Chowdaiah Road
Continue on Sankey Road / Chowdaiah Road past Golf Course, Le Meridien, Windsor Manor and Cauvery Theatre
Immediately after Cauvery Theatre, turn left onto Sankey Road
Continue on Sankey Road past Sankey tank and Chowdaiah Memorial Hall
At circle, continue on CV Raman Road and pass Indian Institute of Science.
Turn left onto MS Ramaiah Road towards Jalahalli / MS Ramaiah College / Mathikere
Arrive at Mathikere Bus-stop and follow the directions from Mathikere Bus stop below.

From Mathikere Bus stop
Ask anyone where JP Park is, and follow their instructions.
If after 5 minutes you have not found JP Park, Ask someone else, and follow their directions for the next five minutes.
Follow the above steps till you reach JP Park

From Mathikere Bus stop (Alternative set of instructions)
Going towards Gokula / BEL / Jalahalli on MS Ramaiah Road, immediately after passing Mathikere Bus stop, take a left turn onto Mohankumar Road.
After around 2 minutes, there is an intersection with a bus stop on the right side of the road.
Take a right turn at the intersection onto Srinivas Murthy Road
The Jayaprakash Narayan Park will be on your left.

 

 

An evening with Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond had been one of my favourite writers since my childhood days. He was the inspiration for me to write. Last year, I wrote a story “The Bond”, which was my dedication to him. This story has been published in the book “Only men please” this year.

As a child, I loved reading his short stories; which magically took me to those misty mountains and places of nature. I wished to meet him some day, even if it meant I had to travel as far as Missouri. It was my dream like Tom Hanks had in the movie “The Terminal”.

I never thought that by becoming a member in the Crossword Book Shop, this dream would come true. I was surprised to see an email in my inbox saying “You are invited to meet Ruskin Bond on 21st Jan, at Crossword, Frazer Town, Bangalore”. I couldn’t believe what my eyes saw…I re-read again and felt very happy that finally my dream to meet my favourite writer in coming true!

I told my wife about it and she was pleased to hear this too. We both reached the Crossword one hour before the book launch of “The Adventures of Rusty”. I bought four books of Mr.Bond. I wanted to take his autograph in one of these books.

He finally arrived at 7 PM. The crowd stood up to give him a warm welcome. Two kids read poems written by him. He unveiled his book and also read some part of the book. It was the story “Monkey Trouble”. After that, he took some questions from the audience and answered them mixed with humour.

Later, he started signing autographs for his fans. We stood in a long queue. When my turn came, I wanted to say something to him and I said, “You are my inspiration to write.”

He smiled and replied “Thank You” and signed on my book.

This was one of the most memorable evenings of my life!