Top 10 books that come to my mind ...

I got tagged on Facebook to put down a list of top 10 books. Without thinking too much ... in random order ... here goes ...

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (Agatha Christie)

I've read practically all the murder mysteries by Agatha Christie featuring Hercule Poirot. But the book that takes the cake according to me is this collection of short stories which don't feature any of her popular protagonists. Each of the mysteries are solved by the eponymous Mr Quin simply by analyzing the facts of the case and prodding his constant companion / audience Mr. Satterthwaite in the right direction. What's special is that some of the mysteries are solved several decades after the crime is committed.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (J. K. Rowling)

This book is the turning point of the series. With several crucial moments and the tragic twist at the end it sets up the stage for the finale. I read this book in pdf format the day it was released in one shot while stuck alone in a lab (due to lack of cubicles) at my internship in Samsung. Yes I can say that openly now :)

Mahabharata (Veda Vyasa)

No I didn't steal this one from Shruti's list. It's impossible to not have this one on a top 10 list. The epic is so vast that I still have loads to learn and absorb besides what has been televised or discussed in the abridged editions that are usually found on book shelves. I don't think there are many people in the world who have read all the volumes from the original Sanskrit text or a translation.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I consider this as the best Sherlock Holmes short story! A great introduction to code breaking and analytical puzzles for the novice reader. When I read this in grade school I was completely bowled over and truly fascinated.

Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)

The book was a tad longer than it should have been but Yossarian's antics and the dry humor ensures that it holds the reader's attention. I was in splits several times. Haven't seen the movie but I've heard it doesn't do justice to the novel.

Animal Farm (George Orwell)

This story in metaphors starts off in a lighter vein but leaves you with such a hard hitting statement that you can't help think and ponder over the current state of affairs in the world and draw parallels. I read this book well after graduate school. I don't think I would have appreciated it, had I read it as a teenager.

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

This book is so brilliantly written that the author hasn't been able to live up to his own standards in any of his following works. The clever fusion of fact and fiction, the thrill, the questions and the end leaves you spellbound. This book will probably never make it to a top 100 list, but it was an out-and-out entertainer.

India after Gandhi (Ramachandra Guha)

Regardless of political beliefs and the author's so-called bias, we can't ignore the fact that we simply don't know much about India's recent history. Our text books conveniently stop at Independence and a lot has happened since 1947 that every Indian should know about. This book filled in that void and I'm better off having read it than not.

Lord of the Rings : Return of the King (J. R. R. Tolkien)

The third book of the series is the best one, so much so that there was very little that Peter Jackson could skip when he made the movie. It has all the ingredients of an epic and in some ways the movie makes you want to go read the book again just to see if there are any other interesting tidbits that were left out of the extended edition. I tried really hard to keep this book out of my list and see if I could nominate some other book here, but that wouldn't do it any justice.

Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)

My sixth grade school teacher (to whom I attribute my love for reading and writing), used to read out chapters from this book for us. Those who grew interested were absolutely enthralled to hear the story and although the humor had to be explained to us at times, it was so awesome. One of the regrets I have is we had to switch back the state board English curriculum eventually and definitely suffered as far as language was concerned. I no longer remember enough of this story ... It's almost time to read this book again :)

I'm sure there are more and if I really sat down and thought about this for a long time I could come up with more interesting names ... but in the spirit of the challenge I think this is a pretty decent list!

The Reflection

"Cut!!! It's a wrap!", shrieked the director, bringing to an end the last day of the final schedule of the movie. The entire unit of 30 odd people had been shooting tirelessly for the last 30 days in a remote location at the outskirts of a village 50 kilometers outside Jodhpur.

"Finally, its over!", thought Madhavi as she stared at herself in the mirror. The relief was visible.

She had lost count of the number of people who had advised her against this movie.

"Too many variables", they had warned her - absence of a influential production house, tight budget, a brand new crew, relatively new actors, sync sound and the 3D camera. "The director is a nutcase. His penchant for perfection will give you a nervous breakdown!", they cried. "No decent financier is going to back this project ... don't you know what sheer duds his last two movies turned out to be at the box office?", they reasoned. "A Horror movie so early in your career is a one-way ticket to failure!", they almost pleaded with her to not sign across the dotted line.

Madhavi had fought hard to suppress these voices. The director was half-mad yes, but he was a genius. She knew that if the movie worked, there was nothing stopping her from signing films with the big banners.  She had decided to take the risk and give her 200% to the movie.

And so she had tolerated the whims of the director, agreed to the numerous re-takes with a smiling face, rehearsed her lines like crazy, and even cooked for the crew on the sets! The summer heat made her dizzy. She had passed out on a couple of occasions right here on the set. The doctors attributed it to dehydration and she found it very embarrassing. What had really been pushing her close to the edge of sanity though was the string of eerie "disappearances".

The events of the last four weeks had nearly threatened to shelve the movie. Her hairdresser, her language coach and her choreographer's assistant had all disappeared mysteriously. Local police were not of much help given the rural nature of the "realistic" location and the so-called experts from Mumbai hadn't fared much better. They had questioned everyone. And if the heat hadn't been enough, their questions drained whatever little energy was left within her. Rumor was that they suspected the gypsy tribes in the area but the extra layer of security they added around the set had proved to be futile.

The filmmakers couldn't have found a worse location for shooting! A dilapidated mansion of a feudal lord long since forgotten. The caretakers of the estate were overjoyed when the crew approached them for renting out the premises for their film. The building had fallen to ruin over the last few decades when most people living around it had moved to the city in search for "lucrative employment", they said. The art director and his team had salvaged a lot of furniture from the ruins which they had used in the film. The grandfather clock, the timber chest, the full length wide mirror, several pictures and a carpet miraculously untouched by rats.

The one thing that kept her sane was her co-star Sanjay. He too. like her, was a newcomer and they had hit it off from day one. In fact, she was quite sure that their chemistry was not just artificial.  She was glad the shooting was done. All she wanted now was to get out of this godforsaken place and onto the plane with him. Back home, away from this miserable heat!

Most of the crew was out packing and there he was now, calling out to her. She could feel the energy sapping out of her once more. Her head felt light and she knew she was passing out again. Was it mere coincidence that these "disappearances" always happened after pack up and at the same time when she had lost consciousness before?

As Sanjay walked in, the last thing she remembered thinking was, "What a bizarre movie plot this was! A cursed mirror ... home to a vengeful spirit ... that possessed a person to commit murder if he or she stared at it for too long!"