Book: Headhunter by Michael Slade

May 30, 2016 Rajesh Naik 1 Comment Category: Books, Updates Tags: book, book review, Canada, headhunter, Jay Clarke, michael slade, murder mystery, psychological thriller, rajesh naik, RCMP

Title	Headhunter
Author(s)	Michael Slade
Initially Published In	1984
Publisher	W H Allen & Co.
Formats Available	Paperback, Hardcover
Available At	Amazon.com, Amazon.in, and Flipkart.

Headhunter is a murder mystery, a psychological thriller, a whodunit and a horror story with plenty of details of police investigation procedures and methods. The novel is based in Vancouver, Canada in the 1980s and revolves around a set of grisly murders of young women, whose bodies are found headless. While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is investigating, more victims are discovered. Graphic violence, traumatized bodies, and perverted sex are all depicted with powerful imagery in this extremely well-written book.

I have read Headhunter three times, and each time I am gripped by the narrative and held spellbound even though I knew the ending.

“This is, beyond all doubt, a real chiller!”

— Robert Bloch, author of Psycho

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I'm Rajesh Naik, and this is my personal website If you are interested in contacting me professionally, I am available on LinkedIn and I will be glad to accept your invite. You may also check out my professional website, Alignmentor.com.

Movie: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983, Hindi, India)

May 26, 2016 Rajesh Naik 2 Comments Category: Movies, Updates Tags: Bhakti Barve, hindi movie, Indian movie, Kundan Shah, movie, movie review, Naseeruddin Shah, NFDC, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, rajesh naik, Ravi Baswani, Satish Shah

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, a 1983 film produced by NFDC and directed by Kundan Shah, is a dark satire on the the unshakable corrupt ways of Indian politicians, bureaucrats, and the media. It is set in Mumbai and has a pretty simple and outwardly hilarious (sometimes infantile) narrative. Released in 1983, it was not very successful at the box office at that time. Eventually, this movie won many awards, and has achieved a cult status. It generally figures in most Top-100 movies lists of Indian/ Hindi movies.

Directed by	Kundan Shah
Released in	1983
Genre	Dark Satire, Comic Political Thriller
Cast	Naseeruddin Shah as photographer Vinod Chopra Ravi Baswani as photographer Sudhir Mishra Om Puri as builder Ahuja Pankaj Kapoor as builder Tarneja Satish Shah as city commissioner D’Mello Bhakti Barve as newspaper editor Shobha Sen
Music by	Vanraj Bhatia
Produced by	National Film Development Corporation
Language	Hindi
Length	2 hours 12 minutes
Available At	Amazon.in, Amazon.com and Flipkart.

The Story

Vinod Chopra (Naseeruddin Shah) and Sudhir Mishra (Ravi Baswani) are young men starting off as professional photographers, who open a studio in a relatively upscale Bombay locality.

Struggling to get business, they fortunately get an assignment from the editor of an investigative journal Khabardar, Shobha Sen (Bhakti Barve). The assignment is to get evidence to expose a corrupt nexus between the city commissioner D’Mello (Satish Shah) and builder Tarneja (Pankaj Kapoor).

The fun starts when Vinod and Sudhir accidentally photograph a murder in action. The rest of the movie is an out-of-control, hilarious story, that sometimes feels like a skit, improvised by brilliant people in some kind of ‘zone’.
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Book: The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

May 22, 2016 Rajesh Naik 4 Comments Category: Books, Updates Tags: autism, book, book review, Elizabeth Moon, fiction, Lou Arrendale, psychological thriller, rajesh naik, science fiction, The Speed of Dark

Title	The Speed of Dark
Author(s)	Elizabeth Moon
Initially Published In	2002
Publisher	Orbit Books
Formats Available	Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover
Available At	Amazon.com, Amazon.in, and Flipkart.

The Speed of Dark is a near-future story about a young autistic man, Lou. Lou is computer analyst, who is also a good fencer. The novel is a combination of science fiction and a thriller, often narrated from the autistic man’s point of view.

“Every once in a while, you come across a book that is both an important literary achievement and a completely and utterly absorbing reading experience—a book with provocative ideas and an equally compelling story. Such a book is The Speed of Dark.”

— Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

The main character in The Speed of Dark has been inspired by the author’s own autistic son.

The World

The Speed of Dark is a futuristic story, where the world has found treatments to manage the condition of autism. This treatment is administered in very early childhood.

In this scenario, autistic children born before the treatment was available try to live ‘normally’ with their condition, and also work hard to be useful members of the society.

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Movie: District 9 (2009, English)

March 30, 2016 Rajesh Naik 1 Comment Category: Movies, Updates Tags: action, aliens, English movie, Johannesburg, movie, movie review, Neill Blomkamp, rajesh naik, sci-fi, science fiction, SF, Sharlto Copley, South Africa

Directed by	Neill Blomkamp
Released in	2009
Genre	Science FIction
Cast	Sharlto Copley as Wikus van de Merwe
Music by	Clinton Shorter
Produced by	Peter Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham
Language	English
Length	1 hour 52 mins
Available at	Amazon.in, Amazon.com, and Flipkart.

District 9 is a 2009 gritty, grimy, science fiction thriller placed in South Africa. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, the movie uses relatively unknown actors – Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James and adapts a pseudo-documentary style (at least at the start). District 9 was inspired by events during the apartheid era in District Six, Cape Town. The film won many awards and nominations. With a relatively low budget of 30 million US$, it was a box office hit with a collection of over 210 million US$.

“Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.”

– Rotten Tomatoes

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Don’t Just Sit: Stand, Walk, Move!

March 28, 2016 Rajesh Naik 7 Comments Category: Musings, Updates Tags: movement at work, musings, rajesh naik, sitting at work, standing at work

Many of us who work in offices sit for more than 8-10 hours a day. We sit for our breakfast, we sit during our commute, we sit for long stretches at our desks, we sit with our coffee/ tea during the breaks, we sit for our lunch, we sit in meetings, we sit on our way back home, we sit during dinner and watch TV while sitting. And many times we sit continuously for more than 2 hours without getting up.

Being able to sit is also a status symbol that displays higher education and higher income / wealth. People who are more educated typically have jobs that require them to be on desks; richer people do not walk to bus stops and train stations, nor do they walk to shopping centers or coffee shops.

Over the last few years there has been a concerted movement in some countries (like Australia) to encourage people to sit for lesser time during the day, reduce continuous sitting, and increase time standing and moving. However, this movement has not yet picked up any steam in India.

Summary of the Findings

Prolonged sitting has been linked with multiple health concerns like obesity, increased blood pressure, high blood-sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. It also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Sitting more than 6 hours a day may be as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes every day.

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Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

March 18, 2016 Rajesh Naik 2 Comments Category: Books, Updates Tags: book, book review, Ender's game, military science fiction, Orson Scott Card, rajesh naik, science fiction

Title	Ender’s Game
Author(s)	Orson Scott Card
Initially Published In	1985
Publisher	Tor
Formats Available	Paperback, Kindle
Available At	Amazon.com, Amazon.in, and Flipkart.com.

Ender’s Game brought immense fame and recognition to its author, Orson Scott Card. It is a science fiction book, set in the future with a ‘military’ theme.

“Superb! This is Card at the height of his very considerable powers–a major SF novel by any reasonable standard.”

— Booklist

The novel won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1985, and the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986. Ender’s Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986.

The World

Ender’s Game is situated far ahead in the future, where human beings have left the confines of the earth and started expansion to other planetary systems. During this expansion, humans encounter another species on a similar expansion drive. This results in two wars between the two species. At the end of these wars, both species retreat to locations near their mother/ home planets. There is no communication between the humans and the alien species, who are officially called ‘formics’ and unofficially called ‘buggers’ (because they look like insects) by the humans.

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Movie: Delhi Belly (2011, Hindi-English-Hinglish, India)

March 2, 2016 Rajesh Naik 2 Comments Category: Movies, Updates Tags: Aamir Khan, Bollywood movie, comedy, dark comedy, hindi movie, Hinglish, Imran Khan, Indian English movie, Indian movie, Kunaal Roy Kapur, movie, movie review, Poorna Jagannathan, rajesh naik, Shenaz Treasurywala, shit happens, thriller, Vijay Raaz, Vir Das

Delhi Belly, produced by Aamir Khan, is a rib-tickling, dark comedy with a thriller narrative. It is set in Delhi and uses of a lot of profane language (it was given an ‘A’ certificate). Released in 2011, it received great response from critics as well as movie goers. The movie was later remade in Tamil with the title Settai.

Directed by	Abhinay Deo
Released in	2011
Genre	Dark Comedy, Thriller, Action
Cast	Imran Khan as Tashi (Young man-1) Kunaal Roy Kapur as Nitin (Young man-2) Vir Das as Arup (Young man-3) Shenaz Treasurywala as Sonia (Tashi’s first girlfriend) Poorna Jagannathan as Menaka (Tashi’s later girlfriend) Vijay Raaz as Somayajulu (Gangster)
Music by	Ram Sampath
Produced by	Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Ronnie Screwvala, Jim Furgele
Language	Hindi, English, Hinglish
Length	1 hour 40 minutes
Available At	Amazon.in (Hindi version), Amazon.com (English version).

The Story

Three young men working in the media/ communication industry in Delhi share a dark, dirty, and dingy apartment in a crumbling building in a crowded area. Tashi (Imran Khan) is a journalist, Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur) is a photographer, and Arup (Vir Das) is a cartoonist.

The fun starts when Tashi’s birdbrained and pretty-looking girlfriend, air-hostess Sonia (Shenaz Treasurywalla) unknowingly carries smuggled diamonds hidden in a multi-layered doll. Sonia passes on the doll to Tashi for delivery, who delegates the delivery to Nitin. Nitin gets diarrhea (Delhi-belly) and he passes the doll to Arup along with his stool sample. Arup exchanges the two packets and the stool sample is delivered to the smuggler-gangsters, who are led by Somayajulu (Vijay Raaz).

The rest of the movie is a hilarious, non-stop, roller-coaster ride. At first, the young men try to recover the diamonds and hand them over to the smugglers. Then they try to encash the diamonds for themselves; and finally they decide to take the matter into their own hands, have a showdown with the gangsters, and finish the whole thing once and for all.
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Book: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

February 29, 2016 Rajesh Naik Leave a comment Category: Books, Updates Tags: book, book review, detective, murder, mystery, rajesh naik, The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

Title	The Name of the Rose (originally published in Italian under the name ‘Il Nome Della Rosa‘)
Author(s)	Umberto Eco
Translator	William Weaver
Initially Published In	1980 (Italian) 1983 (English)
Publisher	Multiple – Bompiani; Martin Secker& Warburg; Harcourt; Vintage Digital; Everyman’s Library; Mariner Books
Formats Available	Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio
Available At	Amazon.com, Amazon.in, and Flipkart.com.

I was planning to re-read and post the review of this book after a few months. However, when I heard of the death of Umberto Eco (the author) on 19th February 2016, I decided to pick it up ahead of my original schedule.

The Name of the Rose (Italian: Il Nome Della Rosa, 1980), is the first novel by the Italian author Umberto Eco. It is an intellectual murder mystery set in an Italian monastery, in the year 1327. It combines semiotics, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. It was translated into English in 1983 by William Weaver.

“The most intelligent and at the same time the most amusing book in years”

— Der Spiegel

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Cartoon: Slaves to Measurement

February 20, 2016 Rajesh Naik 2 Comments Category: Cartoons, Musings, Updates Tags: cartoon, measurement, pedometer, rajesh naik, slave

Cartoon: Slaves to Measurement

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Movie: The Shawshank Redemption (1994, English, US)

February 18, 2016 Rajesh Naik 5 Comments Category: Movies, Updates Tags: classic, English movie, Frank Darabont, Hollywood movie, Morgan Freeman, movie, movie review, rajesh naik, the shawshank redemption, Tim Robbins

Directed by	Frank Darabont
Released in	1994
Genre	Prison Drama
Cast	Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding Bob Gunton as Warden Samuel Norton
Music by	Thomas Newman
Produced by	Niki Marvin
Language	English
Based On	Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption – A 100 page novella by Stephen King
Length	2 hours 22 mins
Available at	Amazon.in, Amazon.com, and Flipkart.

The Plot, the Setting

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and Bob Gunton. It is about a financial wizard a serving a life sentence for a double murder. The protagonist Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), lives his days and years in prison, through good, bad, and nasty times, while he maintains the hope that one day he will be free.
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