Top 10 highest paid authors of 2011

When i saw this list in Forbes, i was little surprised because so far i have never read any one of these author's books,may be i could have watched some of these books movie version.I heard most of these authors specially John Grisham and Daniel Steel, in fact two or three times thought of buying their books but it never happened.Most of the best sellers are teen and adult fictions.Its pathetic to see that this list does not contain any Indian or Indian origin authors.I'm not sure whether Indians writers writing in regional language can earn this much.I think definitely no because of limited readers.We Indians are not allowing our kids or ourselves to choose and read in our mother tongue,we feel happy and boast ourselves about it.

Learning through mother tongue is the best way.That too in India which has great literature history.I learnt about my mother tongue literature bit late in my life, apart from school curriculum i did not know anything about literature. The world of literature opens to me four years before when i started reading Tamil books.Now im reading more Tamil books than the other language, it does not mean that i won't read other language books.But i feel the reading should starts from mother tongue.I read all the classical literature in all language.

No.	Author	Books	Earning
1.	James Patterson	Alex cross series,Maximum Ride series	84 million
2.	Danielle Steel	Jewels,Ghost,Matters of the heart	35 million
3.	Stephen King	Shining, Salem's lot, It	28 million
4.	Janet Evanovich	Stephenie Plum series	22 million
5.	Stephenie Meyer	Twilight series	21 million
6.	Rick Riordan	Percy Jackson and the Olympians series	21million
7.	Dean Koontz	Strangers,Demon seed	19 million
8.	John Grisham	The Firm,The pelican brief	18 million
9.	Jeff Kinney	Diary of a wimpy kid	17 million
10.	Nicholas Sparks	The Notebook,A walk to remember	16 million

THE PARADOX OF OUR TIMES- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I always feel humble and joy whenever i listen or watch HH Dalai Lama.After reading his biography i started admiring him even more.The relentless warrior of peace.Below is poetry titled "The paradox of our times". Beautifully written , touches everything in this world.After reading this i felt that we are learning to make living not enjoying life .

    The Paradox of  Our Times

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints

We spend more, but we have less

We have bigger houses, but smaller families

More conveniences, but less time

We have more degrees, but less sense

More knowledge, but less judgment

More experts, but more problems

More medicines, but less wellness

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often

We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life

We have added years to life, but not life to years

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour

We have conquered outer space, but not inner space

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul

We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice

We’ve higher incomes, but lower morals

We’ve become long on quantity but short on quality

These are the times of tall men, and short character

Steep profits, and shallow relationships

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces

Of fancier houses, but broken homes

It is a time when there is much in the show window

And nothing in the stockroom

A time when technology can bring this letter to you

And a time when you can choose

Either to make a difference.... or just hit, delete.  

Dreaming of Coffee

God's another great gift to mankind - Coffee

Couple of days back i dreamt about coffee.Like a video stream , i dreamt of myself drinking coffee in different places.Weird! The next morning i sat and thought of the all the places where i drank good coffee and my latest addiction to coffee.

My mom is a great cook.She cooks everything deliciously.I got the knack of identifying tasty food from her.She makes good tea.Morning coffee with Sunrise or Bru was not my liking.Most of the time when i was kid i drank  milk tea.Coffee mostly i did not like to drink anywhere in Pamban.

After joined in hostel in chennai , i started exploring drinking coffee.I liked my school hostel drinks specially morning coffee,my first real taste of coffee.Drinking coffee outside in hotels and restaurants were expansive for me.I was satisfied with my hostel coffee and the coffee taste remained in me till i joined college in Coimbatore.

Coffee in Coimbatore houses tastes far different from the one i tasted in my school and i liked this new taste.In Coimbatore they used grounded coffee beans and little milk.It taste rich and you won't feel  refreshing but you feel the taste and it remains in your tongue for a long time.In my college hostel we used to get coffee in the morning,everyday i was the first one to drink coffee as i was the first one to woke up.In fact most of the times i opened the gate for the milkman.

When we moved out of the hostel in my third,we stayed near a bakery. There very rarely we drank coffee.That bakery coffee was different from the household coffee and hostel coffee,they use less coffee powder and more milk(i knew you are all wondering how more milk!) as in all the coffee shop and bakeries in Tamilnadu milk was mixed with water(not water mixed with milk!).It tasted different and we all liked it.Coffee tastes nicer when we drinks with friends.

Cup of coffee...

There was a hotel in near our room , there  coffee was so much tasty  in fact one of the best i ever drank.I forgot the hotel name.But the coffee was costly.My lecturer(Kapil sir) used to buy for us.In one of my friend's(Suresh) home we used to drink 'Nescafe' coffee - a luxurious one, but i forgot the taste of it.Another friend of mine Surya whose father prepares wonderful coffee and tea.While doing project in TCS,chennai , i got chances to drink machine made coffee for almost 5 months.The machine coffee did not taste as good as the hostel one or coimbatore coffee, but i noticed the employees drinking it many times a day.I did not liked it. I drank that coffee twice or thrice to save money.

When i stayed in Bangalore very rarely i drank coffee, i remember the coffee i drank at the small coffee shop in Koramagala , very sugary but tasty.In Hyderabad 'Iranian chai' is far more better than coffee.Twice or thrice i drank coffee at Kamat hotel,there less milk and more coffee powder, the aroma was good and you feel the coffee for a long time.Couple of times drank coffee at "Coffee day " cafe , tried mocha and espresso but i did not like it much.Once i drank espresso at Apollo hospital coffee shop in Chennai ,one of the best espresso i ever had, it was only 8 rupees that time.

My favorite coffee shop at Tampines round market

First one year in Singapore i drank more coffee.My aunty used to make good coffee and i liked the way she prepares it.I still likes to drink coffee there.I drank different varieties of coffee at 'Starbucks' ,'Coffee Beans' and other international outlets but none of them satisfied my taste.In fact most of the time most people drinks coffee in those outlet just for sake of the brand(i have asked many of my colleagues and friends).Singapore coffee with its condensed milk has its own unique taste.One of my favorite coffee shop in Singapore is "Coffee Toast" outlets.I liked the taste, a real coffee,the aroma and the freshness.Another shop where i liked to drink coffee every weekend is located at Tampines round market.

My new coffee/espresso

In home i have tried many different brands of coffee powder, we have not finished most of them.At last found a good coffee(espresso) at Carrefour , i never heard of this brand before, just bought because its cheap and smelt good.  Last 2 days i drank coffee made with this powder, i liked it and it tastes good , aroma is good and refreshing.In office im drinking 3 in 1 Nescafe which is good.

My office coffee: 3 in 1 Nescafe

I will continue to explore more of coffee in coming years.A cup of coffee will make a great difference in your work specially when your tired and stressed out.Its time for me to have my evening coffee.

Ala Modalaindi

Started...!!

A breezy and romantic urban entertainer.Its been sometime since i watched movies like this in telugu cinema. I think last one was "Bommarrillu". Many good movies came in the period between 'Bommarrillu' and 'Ala Modalaindi' but no movie was as breezy and as good as this one.A beautiful romantic comedy.

The story is about Gowtham and Nitya and their love.I have seen many movies with similar story but i still felt that this one was also one of the best.Whenever any one of them trying to propose to other they feel that someone is there in his/her life.So they drag and drag until they separate.

Gowtham is a easy going guy and Nitya too easy going and lively character.Gowtham started loving her slowly as they Nitya spent time in Hyderabad. Nitya on the other hand is in relationship with another guy and soon to be engaged.Gowtham is fully supported by his mother and his sister.Nitya's parents always fight specially  regards to Nitya's marriage.

When Gowtham realizes that Nitya is in love with a guy, he is heartbroken(what else, asusual!!) but he soon involves in relation with Kaavya ,a Tamil girl.What to expect! When these two starts talking about their relation to Kaavy's family, things started going badly and they get separated as 'friends'.Same thing happens to Nitya and her fiancee.

The remaining story tells how these two get together and marry.The story  starts with kidnap of Gowtham  by a hitman. He narrates his whole love story to him.The dialogues between Gowtham and the hitman were simply superb. The facial expressions and timing comedy were perfect.

Nani as Gowtham was a perfect choice for this story.He has the look of 'guy next door' and he did a fairly good job. This was my first movie of him.Nitya Menon as Nitya was  bubbly,cheeky and lovely. she looks beautiful. Her performance  was similar to Genelia in Bommarillu. She has justified her role and her selection. For me the two outstanding performance was by Rohini as Gowtham's mother and Ashish Vidyarthi as a hitman.Rohini is spontaneous.Vidyarthi is simply stunning.Great performance.

Director Nandini Reddy

Director Nandini Reddy had done a great job.Its her first movie and she hits the bulls eye.Music by Kalyan Malik is good ,like 2 songs.Good cinematography. Overall a good movie.

Kalmaram(கல்மரம்) -The Stone Tree

This is my first book of G.Thilakavathy.Written in very simple language and the story is crystal clear.This book portrays the state of construction worker in India through a family.

The story is about Adhilakshmi and her children - Kaasi her only son, Kanniamma elder daughter and Kauvery the last of all.Adhilakshmi's husband died of accident at the construction site and she alone brought up these three children.She never allowed Kaasi to work as construction worker or any work in construction site.Kaniamma was married and is pregnant,Kauvery is in home.

Adilakshmi arranges marriage for Kaasi,though he is not working they lied and married him to Raagini who was brought up in a good environment.The story takes a turn when Kaasi and Raagini was given a job at a construction site whose owner is RMM.They were secure and started earning more than they expected.Initially everything looked good for them.But as building rises up ,Raagini understands the sacrifices and the suffering of the construction workers.

RMM , the owner is a typical capitalist who never respects the feeling of the workers.He gets anger for delay in the construction and he never minds the injuries and other health problems of the workers.At one point  the workers decided to join the union and they oppose RMM in regards to pending wages. The rest of the stories how these workers came to realize their power when the united. There are two other character's life run side by side with these workers story .One is of Kanniamma and her struggle with her husband and in-laws and other of Sushila the social worker who educates the workers.

As i mentioned earlier very simple story but the way the author brings the emotion and make the reader to feel for the plight of these workers -a victory for the author.She brings the construction workers' unique language beautifully.The episode of Kamsalai's injury is happening everywhere in India and kudos to author for bringing it beautifully.

Hands that build our houses don't have a shelter.. 

Everyday i see many construction workers working near my place for me its tough to imagine to be in their shoes. But as far as i have seen in Singapore ,everywhere safety comes first and the government have strict rules and regulations at the construction site.Its pathetic to see the living conditions of construction workers in India.They do not have a permanent home and proper sanitation and more importantly they are not educated about their rights.As the construction business booms in India, i hope government will protect these hands who build shelter for us.

G.Thilakavathy IPS-Author

Nice to read a book about the forgotten people who built our houses.A realistic portrayal.This book won the 2005 Sahitya Academy award.

Valkyire

This movie is based 20 July plot in 1944 on Hitler's life by Claus Von Stauffenberg ,the German army colonel and  German Resistance.Stauffenberg was a replacement to Major Hans Oster who was searched by Gestapo for his role in previous attempt on Hitler. Their first attempt to kill murder by blasting Hitler's personal flight was a failure.The Resistance movement  was in desperate state to kill Hitler.

Colonel Stauffenberg  devised a plan to kill Hitler and subsequently take the control of the country by alerting the  Army reserves.It was really a good plan ,everything was planned perfectly.They have to detonate a bomb inside the room where Hitler and his generals will have meeting.Everyone involved agreed for that plan and they proceeded.

The plotters .. Resistance movement..

The story was told in a thriller novel style.Very intriguing and pacy.Stauffenberg succeed in detonating the bomb but it failed to kill Hitler.Without knowing state of Hitler, the Resistance movement started to implement Operation Valkyire.Once the army came to know that Hitler was alive, things started going wrong for the Resistance movement men. They were all murdered one by one. After exactly 9 months Berlin was captured by allied troops and Hitler committed suicide.

Tom Cruise as Stuffenberg was awesome.I think this was one of his best performance.Jamie Parker as Lieutenant Werner who helped Suffenberg  in arranging the explosives and was with him throughout the plot had done wonderful job.His confused expression when the bag with explosives was missing ,one sample of his acting skill.Others were also done their role as required.

Director Bryan Singer had done a good job.Composer John Ottman's scores were perfect for this history based movie.This was the last attempt to assassinate Hitler.

About Stauffenberg
Bendlerblock - The German Ministry of Defence
More about July 20 plot
Other attempts on Hitler's life

Illegal Mining in Karnataka

Shame on the local and central government for making this scandal happened.I was heart felt  to the see the resources of our land being misused and illegally used by the rich and power.The scale of corruption in this illegal  mining is again mind boggling.As im typing this, in TIMES-NOW channel the flash news is "Corruption in Common Wealth Games lights procurement -Sheila Dixit involved?".

Is India becoming the land of corruption? Everywhere corruption.

Check out the scale of illegal mining:

Year	Permitted	Exported
2003-2004	25,27,001	45,76,964
2004-2005	64,51,665	1,16,91,183
2005-2006	92,99,600	1,14,71,092
2006-2007	60,55,833	1,08,00,478
2007-2008	89,73,490	1,47,34,538
2008-2009	76,64,125	1,10,60,251
2009-2010	60,71,482	1,31,99,419

In all these 8-9 years , almost they mined double the permitted amount with licence fee for permitted quantity.Loss of crores of rupees to the state as well as to central government.Loss not only to government but to the people of India.

*Thanks to Tehelka for the above data.

Fire in Babylon

I heard and read lots about late 70's and 80's West Indies cricket team but this documentary will rank high up in my list.Fire in Babylon is one of the best sport's documentary or film i have seen.I was and I am a big fan of West Indies cricket ,so for me this documentary - is a treasure.

The film  starts with the West Indies tour of Australia in 1975-76.Dennis Lilee and Jeff Thomson were at their menacing best.Windies were beaten very badly.Lots of players were got injured and they were nick named "Calypso Cricketers". The scoreboard looked pathetic as it stood 5-1 at the end of the series.Bruised and vexed they returned home.

1970's-80's West Indies team 

Search for leader

 The man who was much older than the rest of the team players was chosen as a captain to lead. He commanded great respect and love from players as well as the public. He was the great Clive Lloyd. He understood that to become a winning team they need fearsome bowlers who bowls fast and accurate same like Lilee and Thomson.He went around caribbean in search of the young talents.His effort paid off  as he formed the bowling line consists of  Michael Holding,Colin Croft ,Andy Roberts and Joel Garner.

Fearsome Four! Andy Roberts,
Holding, Collin Croft and Jeol Garner

The new looked team's first match was against India.They routed India and won the series hands down.After some other series , came the real test - series against the mighty Australia.What a performance by the windies, the rocked the Australians on their own field.This time it was the aussies who were injured and vexed.The series was won by the Windies 2-0.It was the starting of the Windies domination of world cricket for next 15 years.

The jewel in the crown for that Windies team was the series victory against their colonial power England.

There were lots of acquisition against Windies team that they were too fast!! They were called " terrorist"!! and so much more.They wanted to restrict the windies off the field. But the spirit of windies overcame all those obstacles.

The great Viv Richards in action..

Then the story of division in windies players whom played in South Africa.The great things happened in politics due to the victories of this great team.Blacks were allowed to sit inside the grounds and they started receiving equal salary.They brought the whole caribbean together and they gave joy to millions of people.People poured in where ever they played.That team not only won 2 consecutive world cup , they beat every testing playing country.

For 15 years they never lost any test series home or away.What an incredible record.Viv Richards carried on from Clive Lloyd and they were one of the best team ever world has seen in team sports.Hats off to director Stevan Riley for his wonderful work.

Deivathirumagal

After watching this movie i thought this was one of the best performance by Vikram and after "Anjali" this was the best by any child artist,hats off to Sarah.Couple of days latter I watched "I am Sam" except the story theme and 2 or 3 scenes both films are entirely different.

Vikram altogether in a different zone in this movie,great acting ,did not overdo anything.Anushka,Amala Paul,Santhanam and Nasser had done their role neatly.Cinematography by Nirav Shah was simply awesome. I do not fully agree with the idea of a girl growing with someone else other than parents even though the parents in this case father is mentally under developed or retarded. We in India do not have legal system to take care of both the child and father in this situation(I may not know Indian Law regarding this).So better court can allow the child to stay with the father and ask government or any institution to look after them. In "I am Sam " , the child can not stay with the father as the federal law does not allow it. The climax of "I am Sam" is perfect since all party agreed to work together for the benefit of the child.

The major similarity is the acting of the lead character. Both Sean Penn and Vikram were awesome.Music played very important role in both these movies and the composers done justice to their role.

Vikram and Sarah

Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning

Watch these two wonderful movies... get ready for  a emotional roller-coaster !