People!

2012 is about to be quite a year; doomsday predictions notwithstanding.

With a star studded line-up of authors and titles to choose from, rest assured the literary roller-coaster at INDIAreads is not about to stop anytime soon.

Check out these gems that may be pre-ordered at INDIAreads shortly;

1. I’ve Got Your Number – Sophie Kinsella (Feb 2012): When Poppy loses her engagement ring and her mobile all in the same disastrous evening, it seems making use of a phone she finds by chance, abandoned in a hotel bin, is the obvious solution.

But inevitably her life becomes entangled with the real owner of the phone, a high-flying businessman called Sam who becomes increasingly irritated when Poppy can’t resist meddling in his affairs…

2. The Oath of The Vayuputras – Amish Tripathi (Oct 2012): Book Three in the hugely popular Shiva Trilogy – after ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ and ‘The Secret of The Nagas’ – keeps the feeding frenzy going.

3. Emerging India: Economics, Politics And Reforms  – Bimal Jalan (Jan 2012): A collection of essays written over 20 years, this is an essential read for anyone seriously interested in the history and future of India’s development as a nation.

4. Didi: A Political Biography – Monobina Gupta (Jan 2012): Gupta brings her experience as a journalist and commentator on the politics in West Bengal to paint a fascinating portrait of the woman who defeated the longest-serving communist government in the world; and is fast emerging as one of the most important political figures in India today.

5. When Loss is Gain – Pavan K Varma (Jan 2012): Action-packed yet contemplative, Pavan K. Varma’s first novel is a powerful story of love and loss, despair and hope, chance and destiny, and the true meaning of joy and sorrow in every human life.

6. Rahul – Jatin Gandhi & Veenu Sandhu (Jan 2012): .Who is Rahul Gandhi—the real man—beneath the hype and the hatchet jobs? What are the ideas and influences that propel him? Who are his advisers? And how will he tackle his new responsibilities as his mother, Sonia Gandhi, makes way for him? Two young journalists, Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu, trace the evolution of the Rahul brand and explore the fascinating relationship between modernity and dynasty in this incisive political biography.

7. Neglected Poems – Gulzar (Jan 2012): Neglected only in name, these poems represent Gulzar at his creative and imaginative best, as he meditates on nature, delves into human psychology, explores great cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and New York , and confronts the most telling moments of everyday life.

8. Micro – Michael Crichton (Jan 2012): An instant classic in the vein of Jurassic Park, this boundary-pushing novel has all the hallmarks of Michael Crichton s greatest adventures with its combination of pulse-pounding thrills, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research.

Three men are found dead in a locked second-floor office in Honolulu. There is no sign of struggle, though their bodies are covered in ultra-fine, razor sharp cuts. With no evidence, the police dismiss it as a bizarre suicide pact. But the murder weapon is still in the room, almost invisible to the human eye…

9. Smart Trust – Stephen M. R. Covey (Foreword by Indra Nooyi) (Jan 2012): Find out why trusted people are more likely to get hired or promoted, get the best projects and bigger budgets, and are last to be laid off. This book will forever shift your perspective as it reveals and validates once and for all the transformational power of trust. Reading Smart Trust will help you thrive in an increasingly unpredictable marketplace.

10. The Innocent – David Baldacci (Apr 2012): Freelance hitman Will Robie gets a job from the US government. Even as he expertly nails his target – a suspected enemy of the country – he sees something at the scene of crime which he suspects will have deadly consequences …

Does he need to change sides to save lives, including his own…?

11. Untitled Memoir – Salman Rushdie (Sep 2012): The memoir will cover Rushdie’s childhood, his family life – he has been married four times – and his time in exile.

12. The Limpopo Academy of Private Investigation – Alexander McCall Smith (Apr 2012): The new installment in the perpetually delightful and bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

Precious Ramotswe is back and, as usual, her plate is full.  She’s called in to tackle a mysterious disciplinary problem at her adopted daughter’s school. Her infinitely trustworthy assistant, Grace Makutsi, is having trouble adjusting to wedded bliss; a problem to test even the formidable talents of Mma Ramotswe. And the estimable Clovis Andersen, author of The Principles of Private Investigation – the No. 1 Ladies’ prized manual – has arrived, right there, in Botswana, on a case of his own. Bush tea, anyone?

13. Home – Toni Morrison (May 2012): The latest novel from Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. His home–and himself–may no longer be as he remembers it, but Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from; a place he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits childhood memories and the war, that leave him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding himself–and his home.

14. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel (May 2012): In this sequel to the Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall, Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn. From history’s darkroom, this novel offers a speaking picture to the modern world; a vision of Tudor England so recognizable it defies archaism. It is the work of one of our greatest writers at the peak of her powers.

15. Betrayal – Danielle Steel (Mar 2012): A renowned film director confronts an act of unimaginable treachery—and the first devastating blow will not be the last.

In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel reveals the dark side of fame and fortune. At the same time, she brilliantly captures a woman’s will to navigate a minefield of hurt and loss—towards a new beginning.

16. Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo (Feb 2012): In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book by the Pulitzer winner, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human; thanks in no small part to three years of uncompromising reporting.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

People !!!!

Now is the time to subscribe to INDIAreads.

We’re giving away a Free Bestseller with every purchase of an INDIAreads Smart/Bonanza Plan in 2012.

You heard us; our shelves runneth over.

Only for New Members, though.

Existing Subscribers will have to settle for our massive discounts and flawless service; it’s quite sad, really.

So please hurry and mooch off of us.

For a complete overview of all INDIAreads plans, please click here. (for Delhi/NCR)

or here. (for Other Metros)

and here. (for Rest of India)

NOTE: Offer valid only till midnight, January 2012.

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

- Christopher Hitchens  (13^th April 1949 – 15^th December 2011)

That was Hitchens for you. Writer. Orator. Contrarian.

But just how much of a non-conformist WAS Hitch..?

In his 2007 polemic ‘God is not Great’, he gave short shrift to the “insulting” suggestion that cancer might persuade him to change his position (he was a heavy smoker/drinker) where reason had not, arguing that to ditch principles “held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favour at the last minute” would be a “hucksterish choice”, and urging those who had taken it upon themselves to pray for him not to “trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries”.

Writing in his 2010 memoir ‘Hitch-22’, Hitchens said that he hoped and believed his “advancing age has not quite shamed my youth”, disavowing the “’simple’ ordinary propositions” of his younger days in favour of the maxim that “it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties”.

“One reason, then, that I would not relive my life,” he continued, “is that one cannot be born knowing such things, but must find them out, even when they then seem bloody obvious, for oneself.”

A die-hard atheist, Hitchens’ contempt for all things ‘religion’ may be gauged from the following excerpts;

” Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

“Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.”

“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”

“Religion looks forward to the destruction of the world…. Perhaps half aware that its unsupported arguments are not entirely persuasive, and perhaps uneasy about its own greedy accumulation of temporal power and wealth, religion has never ceased to proclaim the Apocalypse and the day of judgment.”

“The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.”

Buy the following Christopher Hitchens books at INDIAreads;

1. God is Not Great (2007)

“[A] pleasingly intemperate assault on organized religion…”  - Kirkus Reviews

“An intellectual willing to show his teeth in the cause of righteousness.” – The New Yorker

“Thank God for Christopher Hitchens.” - Esquire Magazine

One hell of a religious read.” – New York Post

2. Thomas Paine’S Rights Of Man – A Biography (2009)

“Hitchens is a political descendant of the great pamphleteer, “a Tom Paine for our troubled times.” - The Independent, London

“Christopher Hitchens at his characteristically incisive best” – The Times, London

3. Hitch-22 (2010)

‘If Hitchens didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be able to invent him.’ - Ian McEwan.

‘Christopher Hitchens is one of the great conversationalists of our age and his wit, style and erudition are brilliantly deployed in this glittering autobiography. Hitch-22 sparkles with funny stories, treasurable quotations, witty apercus and deft descriptions.’ - Sunday Times

4. Arguably (2011)

“Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened-possibly both-but in any case not to be missed….His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and altitude. He is as self-confident on the politics of Lebanon as on the ontology of the Harry Potter books….I still find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining we have, even when-perhaps especially when-he provokes.” (Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review )

Christmas Food – ‘People Will Eat Anything’

1. A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig, prepared with mustard.

2. At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks were sometimes served “endored”. This meant the flesh was painted with saffron dissolved in melted butter. In addition to their painted flesh, endored birds were served wrapped in their own skin and feathers, which had been removed and set aside prior to roasting.

3. Christmas crackers were invented almost by accident by Tom Smith in 1847 originally using sweets in a twist of paper. The tradition only stuck in the UK.

4. Candy canes began as straight white sticks of sugar candy used to decorate the Christmas trees. A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral decided have the ends bent to depict a shepherd’s crook, and he would pass them out to the children to keep them quiet during the services. It wasn’t until about the 20th century that candy canes acquired their red stripes.

5. In Victorian England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners. Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London. To get them to London, the turkeys were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather, and walked to the market. The boots protected their feet from the frozen mud of the road. Boots were not used for geese: instead, their feet were protected by a layer of tar.

6. One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured a giant 165-pound pie. The giant pie was nine feet in diameter. Its ingredients included 2 bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, 4 geese, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, 4 partridges, 2 neat’s’ tongues, 2 curlews, 6 pigeons, and 7 blackbirds.

7. It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction

8. The table for Christmas Eve dinner in the Ukraine is set with two tablecloths: one for the ancestors of the family, the other for the living members. In pagan times, ancestors were believed to be benevolent spirits who, when shown respect, brought good fortune.

9. There are twelve courses in the Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper. According to the Christian tradition, each course is dedicated to one of Christ’s apostles.

10. In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of fried fish, lettuce and spinach. The meal is traditionally eaten after the Christmas Eve service, in commemoration of the supper eaten by Mary on the evening before Christ’s birth.

11. It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.

Christmas Carols – What’s All the Singin’ About?

1. Christmas carolling began as an old English custom called Wassailing – toasting neighbours to a long and healthy life.

2. Silent Night was written in 1818 by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang “Stille Nacht” for the first time.

3. The popular Christmas song ‘Jingle Bells’ was composed for Thanksgiving in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called ‘One-Horse Open Sleigh’.

4. ‘You better watch out, You better not cry,

You better not pout, I’m telling you why,

Santa Claus is tapping, Your phone…

He’s buggin your room, He’s readin your mail,

He’s keeping a file And runn-ing a tail

Santa Claus is tapping, Your phone…’

-  written for and sung at a U.S. Department of Justice (Office of Legal Counsel) Christmas party during the Carter Administration.), by Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law)

Christmas – ‘Literary Oddities’

1. After “A Christmas Carol,” which he wrote in just 6 weeks, Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories; one each year, but none as successful as the original.

2. Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in ‘A Christmas Carol’, three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.

3. Charles Dickens‘ initial choice for Scrooge’s statement “Bah! Humbug!”, was “Bah! Christmas!”

4. The poem commonly referred to as ‘The Night before Christmas’ was originally titled ‘A Visit from Saint Nicholas’. This poem was written by Clement Moore for his children and some guests, one of whom anonymously sent the poem to a New York newspaper for publication.

5. When Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, died on December 4, 1894, he willed his November 13 birthday to a friend who disliked her own Christmas birthday.

The Christmas Tree – ‘Unraveling Our Trunks’

1. Germany made the first artificial Christmas trees. They were made of goose feathers, and dyed green.

2. America’s official national Christmas tree is located in King’s Canyon National Park in California (see images). The tree, a giant sequoia called ‘General Grant Tree’, is over 300 feet (90 meters) high. It was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.

3. An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.

4. Christmas trees are known to have been popular in Germany as far back as the sixteenth century. In England, they became popular after Queen Victoria’s husband Albert, who came from Germany, made a tree part of the celebrations at Windsor Castle. In the United States, the earliest known mention of a Christmas tree is in the diary of a German who settled in Pennsylvania.

5. Cultured Christmas trees must be shaped as they grow to produce fuller foliage. To slow the upward growth and to encourage branching, they are hand-clipped  each spring. Trees grown in the wild have sparser branches, and are known in the industry as “Charlie Brown” trees.

6. Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using them came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles.

7. The best selling Christmas trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine.

Different Cultures, Different Celebrations;

1. “Hot cockles” was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times (see image). It was a game in which players took turns striking a blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. It was a popular Christmas pastime late into the Victorian era.

2. At Christmas, Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal. A family’s youngest child (representing Child Jesus) watches through the window for the evening star to appear – a signal that the feast may begin.

3. Christmas Day in the Ukraine may be celebrated on December 25, in faithful alliance with the Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar, or on January 7, which is the church holy day for the Orthodox or Eastern Rite (Julian calendar)

4. Christmas is not widely celebrated in Scotland. Some historians believe that Christmas is downplayed in Scotland because of the influence of the Presbyterian Church (or Kirk), which considered Christmas a “Papist,” or Catholic event. As a result, Christmas in Scotland tends to be sombre.

5. Christmas was once a moveable feast celebrated at different times during the year. The choice of December 25 was made by Pope Julius I in the 4th century A.D., because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.

6. Greeks do not use Christmas trees or give presents at Christmas. A priest may throw a little cross into the village water to drive the ’kallikantzaroi’ (gremlin-like spirits) away. To keep them from hiding in dark, dusty corners, he goes from house to house sprinkling holy water.

7. In Finland and Sweden an old tradition prevails, where the twelve days of Christmas are declared to be a time of civil peace by law. It used to be that a person committing crimes during this time would be liable to a stiffer sentence than normal.

8. In France, Christmas is called Noel. This is derived from the French phrase “les bonnes nouvelles,” which literally means “the good news”, and refers to the gospel.

9. In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts, however, use shoes. Dutch children set out shoes to receive gifts any time between mid-November and December 5, St. Nicholas’ birthday.

10. In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by one of the Wise Men’s camels. The gift-giving camel is said to have been the smallest one in the Wise Men’s caravan.

11. In Norway on Christmas Eve, visitors should know that after the family’s big dinner and the opening of presents, all the brooms in the house are hidden. The Norwegians long ago believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding.

12. In the British armed forces it is traditional that officers wait on the men and serve them their Christmas dinner. This dates back to a custom from the Middle Ages.

13. The actual gift givers in various countries are:

England: Father Christmas

France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas)

Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus). She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles.

Holland: St Nicholas.

Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch)

Spain and South America: The Three Kings

Russia: In some parts - Babouschka (a grandmotherly figure) in other parts it is Grandfather Frost.

Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse.

Celebrate the spirit of Christmas with these warm and cuddly reads @ INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore

A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel

Discover the old fashioned joys of a frontier Christmas with A Wilderness Christmas

Maybe this Christmas

Merry Christmas Geronimo!

Christmas.

Holiday season, and a time to relax.

A time to laugh, think, celebrate, and shake one’s tailfeather; a time to throw caution (and the staid tenor of this blog) to the wind.

Therefore, Christmas is, presently, a time when;

1. Sheep wish you ‘Season’s Bleetings’
2. Santa’s little Elvis makes Christmas toys as he sings ‘Love Me Tender’
3. A bald man is gifted a comb and never parts with it.
4. And the fear of getting stuck in chimneys is called ‘Santaclaustrophobia’.

Ha Ha.

Now that we have that out of the way, let us rewind and take a look at some of the lesser known facts about Christmas; categorized and made idiot-proof for your reading pleasure.

The History of Christmas – ‘What’s All the Fuss About..?’

1. The word Christmas is Old English, a contraction of Christ’s Mass.

2. Jesus Christ, son of Mary, was born in a cave, not in a wooden stable. Caves were used to keep animals in because of the intense heat. A large church is now built over the cave, and people may go down inside it. The carpenters of Jesus’ day were really stone cutters. Wood was not used as widely as it is today. So whenever you see a Christmas nativity scene with a wooden stable — that’s the “American” version, not the Biblical one.

3. Historians have traced some of the current traditions surrounding Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, back to ancient Celtic roots. Father Christmas’s elves are the modernization of the ‘Nature folk’ of the Pagan religions; his reindeer are associated with the ‘Horned God’, a Pagan deity.

4. Mistletoe, a traditional Christmas symbol, was once revered by the early Britons. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with a golden sickle.

5. The modern Christmas custom of displaying a wreath on the front door of one’s house is borrowed from ancient Rome’s New Year’s celebrations. Romans wished each other “good health” by exchanging branches of evergreens. They called these gifts ‘strenae’, after Strenia, the Goddess of Health. It became customary to bend these branches into a ring and display them on doorways.

6. The tradition of Christmas lights dates back to when Christians were persecuted for saying Mass. A simple candle in the window meant that Mass would be celebrated there that night.

7. Clearing up a common misconception, in Greek, X (representing the Greek letter chi) means Christ. That is where the word ‘X-Mas’ comes from. Not because someone took the Christ out of Christmas.

8. The real St. Nicholas lived in Turkey, where he was bishop of the town of Myra, in the early 4th century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus.

9. Santa’s Reindeers are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

10. In Britain, the Holy Days and Fasting Days Act of 1551, which has not yet been repealed, states that every citizen must attend a Christian church service on Christmas Day, and must not use any kind of vehicle to get to the service.

11. In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by the Puritan leader Oliver Crowell, for he deemed feasting and revelry to be immoral, on what was supposed to be a holy day. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.

12. In 1752, 11 days were dropped from the year when the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar was made. The December 25, date was effectively moved 11 days backwards. Some Christian church sects, called old calendarists, still celebrate Christmas on January 7 (previously December 25 of the Julian calendar).

13. The first Christmas card was created in England on December 9, 1842 by a man named John Calcott Horsley, who lived in Italy. He was hired by Sir Henry Cole in an effort to depict the desolate living conditions of the poor. The idea was to raise awareness and encourage people to help those in need. Ironically, the result was a card portraying a happy family, including a child sipping wine. (see image)

14. In the Thomas Nast cartoon that first depicted Santa Claus with a sleigh and reindeer, he was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the U.S. Civil War. The cartoon, entitled ‘Santa Claus in Camp’, appeared in Harper’s Weekly on January 3, 1863. (see image)

15. Christmas became a national holiday in America on June, 26, 1870.

16. Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company

17. Rudolph was actually created by Montgomery Ward in 1939 for a holiday promotion (see image). The rest is history.

18. In 1937, the first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria (see image).

19. The first charity Christmas card was produced by UNICEF in 1949 (see image). The picture chosen for the card was painted not by a professional artist but by a seven-year-old girl. The girl was Jitka Samkova of Rudolfo, a small town in the former nation of Czechoslovakia. The town received UNICEF assistance after World War II, inspiring Jitka to paint some children dancing around a maypole. She said her picture represented “joy going round and round.”

Notable Quotes on Christmas – ‘Who said that…?’

1. Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. – Dave Barry

2. Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered. What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. –  Phyllis Diller

3. Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we’ll be seeing six or seven. – W.C. Fields

4. I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighbourhood after dark. – Dick Gregory

5. Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair; must be a pacifist. And what’s in that pipe he smokes..? – Arlo Guthrie

6. Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas. – Johnny Carson

7. I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, ‘Toys Not Included’. – Bernard Manning

8. Dear Lord, I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us… a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird… a social being… capable of actual affection… nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion. Anyway, it’s dead and we’re gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family… – Berkeley Breathed

9. I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. – Shirley Temple

10. Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people once a year. – Victor Borge

11. Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. – Larry Wilde

12. Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer… Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? – Bill Watterson in ‘Calvin & Hobbes’

Check out the following great Christmas reads and more at INDIAreads;

1. Christmas – Selected Holiday Stories and Poems (by Louisa May Alcott)
2. A Christmas Carol (by Charles Dickens)
3. Horrible Harry and The Christmas Surprise (by Suzy Kline)
4. Mystery for Christmas (by Various)
5. Heartwarming Christmas Stories – A Cozy Collection of Fiction for The Holidays (by Various)

In an article in Reader’s Digest (February 2001) titled ‘Beyond 2001’, Sir Arthur C Clarke outlined a series of predictions for the next 100 years. And asked to be checked for accuracy on 31^st December, 2100; tongue firmly in cheek.

Retrospect is always enlightening. So while some of these predictions may seem far-fetched (even laughable) in 2011, not all of them, incidentally, are entirely inaccurate.

As we approach Clarke’s birthday on December 16, let us take a peek at what (Clarke believes) may lie in store for us…

2001 Cassini space probe (launched 1997) begins exploration of Saturn’s moons and rings. Galileo probe (launched 1989) continues surveying Jupiter and its moons. Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of one moon, Europa, appears likely.

2002 The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding the end of the Fossil Fuel Age.

2003 The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning engines with the new energy device. The same year, NASA’s robot Mars Surveyor is launched.

2004 First (publicly admitted) human clone.

2005 First sample sent back to Earth by Mars Surveyor.

2006 Last coal mine closed.

2008 A city is devastated by the accidental detonation of an atomic bomb in its country’s own armoury. After a brief debate in the United Nations, all nuclear weapons are destroyed.

2009 The first quantum generators (tapping space energy) are developed. Available in portable and household units, from a few kilowatts upwards, they can produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close down: the age of pylons ends.

Electronic monitoring virtually phases out professional criminals.

2011 Largest living animal filmed: a 76-metre octopus in the Mariana Trench. Even larger creatures are discovered when the first robot probes drill through the ice of Europa.

2012 Aerospace-planes enter commercial service.

2013 Prince Harry becomes the first member of the British royal family to fly in space.

2014 Construction of the Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins by converting the giant shuttle tanks previously allowed to fall back to Earth.

2015 An inevitable by-product of the quantum generator is complete control of matter at the atomic level. Within a few years, lead and copper cost twice as much as gold as they become immensely more useful.

2016 Existing currencies are abolished. The “mega-watt-hour” becomes the universal unit of exchange.

2017 December 16, on his hundredth birthday, Sir Arthur C. Clarke is one of the first guests in the Hilton Orbiter.

2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the north polar ice cap. The resulting tsunamis cause considerable damage along the coasts of Greeland and Canada. The long-discussed “Project Spaceguard,” to identify and deflect potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is finally activated.

2020 Artificial Intelligence reaches human level. Now, there are two ‘intelligent’ species on Earth.

2021 The first humans land on Mars.

2023 Dinosaur facsimiles are cloned from computer-generated DNA.

2024 Infrared signals are detected coming from the centre of the Galaxy, obviously the product of a technologically advanced civilisation. All attempts to decipher them fail.

2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all the senses, and direct input becomes possible, bypassing ears, eyes, skin, etc. The result is the metal “Braincap.” Anyone wearing this close-fitting helmet can enter a whole universe of experience; real or imaginary.

The Braincap is a boon to doctors, who may now experience their patients’ symptoms (suitably attenuated). It also revolutionises the legal profession, as deliberate lying becomes impossible.

2040 The “Universal Replicator,” based on nanotechnology, is perfected; any object, however complex, may be created – given the necessary raw materials. Diamonds and gourmet meals alike may literally be manufactured from dirt.

Resultantly, agriculture and industry are phased out, taking conventional notions of ‘work’ with them. There is an explosion in spheres of art, entertainment and education. Hunter-gatherer societies are deliberately recreated, and huge swathes of the planet are allowed to revert to their natural state.

2045 The completely self-sustainable mobile home (envisaged almost a century ago by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any additional carbon needed for food synthesis is obtained by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2050 Bored in this era, millions decide to use cryonic suspension to emigrate into the future in search of adventure.

2057 On October 4, the centenary of Sputnik 1, the dawn of the space age is celebrated by humans on Earth, the Moon, Mars, Europa, Ganymede and Titan, and in orbit around Venus, Neptune and Pluto.

2061 Halley’s Comet returns. First landing on the comet by humans, and the sensational discovery of both dormant and active life forms; vindicating Wickramasinghe and Hoyle’s century-old hypothesis that life exists through space.

2090 Burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace carbon dioxide ‘mined’ from the air, and to try to postpone the next Ice Age by promoting global warming.

2095 The development of “Space Drive” – a propulsion system harnessing the structure of space-time itself – makes the rocket obsolete and permits velocities close to that of light. Human explorers set off to nearby star systems.

2100 History begins…

You may Buy OR Rent the following books by Sir Arthur C Clarke, EXCLUSIVELY at INDIAreads;

2001 – A Space Odyssey : Change the way you look at the stars. And at yourself.

“ Dazzling. Wrenching. Eerie. A true mind bender.”  -  TIME

2010 – Odyssey Two : Cosmic in sweep. Filled with the romance of Space. Eloquent in its depiction of Man’s place in the Universe.

“A daring romp through the solar system and a worthy successor to 2001.”  -  Carl Sagan

2061 – Odyssey Three : For Scientists and Metaphysicists alike.

“[Clarke] remains a master at describing the wonders of the material universe in sentences that combine a respect for scientific accuracy with an often startling lyricism.”  -  The New York Times

3001 – The Final Odyssey : Scientifically accurate. Yet startlingly lyrical.

“[Clarke] is . . . the poet laureate of the Space Age.”   -  Los Angeles Times

This Children’s Day celebrate the spirit of writing…share your thoughts and opinions and win prizes, not just for yourself but for your school as well!!!!

INDIAreads, the country’s premier Online Library cum Bookstore announces the ‘INDIAreads Inter-School Creative Writing Competition, 2011’.

The Contest:

To inculcate healthy reading and writing habits amongst students, and to pique their curiosity about the wonderful world of literature, INDIAreads is organizing a Creative Writing Competition among select schools in Noida. This contest will be held across 3 categories: Junior, Middlers and Senior. Two prizes will be announced in each category.

1.      1st Prize: Certificate of Merit plus One Year INDIAreads Membership worth Rs. 1,550 for the winning student; Books worth Rs. 10,000 for the School Library.
2.      2nd Prize: Certificate of Merit plus Six Month INDIAreads Membership worth Rs. 800 for the winning student, Books worth Rs. 5,000 for the School Library.

The candidates shall be judged by an eminent panel of judges comprising authors, prominent policy makers and book lovers.

The Categories:

Junior Writer: Classes VI-VIII
Topics:
The Festival I Enjoy Most
A Must Watch Television show
The One Person I would like to meet
My Favourite book

Middlers: Classes IX-X
Topics:
The Politician who Inspires me most
The Tech Company I adore
My favourite Historical Figure
This world would not be the same without…

The Professional: Classes XI-XII
Topics:
Price Rise: Global Crisis or Domestic Blunder
Anna Hazare: Boon or Bane of Indian Democracy
The Arab Spring: Dawn of a New Era?
Rewriting History: If I could change one event, it would be…

Contest Rules

Candidates may choose to write on any one of the topics in their category. Only one entry per candidate is permitted. However, there is no limit to the number of entries per school.
Entries may neither be less than 500 words nor exceed 3,000words. There can be only one entry per student.
Students need to submit original pieces of work. 
Registered INDIAreads users (Registration is free – http://www.indiareads.com/user/register) may submit their entries via email to m.mishra@indiareads.com; while others may post the same on the INDIAreads Blog as a comment to this post.
The last date for entries is 26th January 2012. Entries received after 10 pm on January 26th 2012 shall not be accepted.
Students should mention their Full name, Contact number, Email id, School name and class on their entries. Incomplete submissions will not be accepted.

We’re waiting!

New releases

1. Non Stop India – Mark Tully: Jugaar may loosely be translated as ‘muddling through’, or making
do. This quintessentially Indian ability has seen India through numerous crises which would have
easily dispirited a less resilient people—four wars, for instance. But while jugaar can be said to
have served India well in the past, it has a downside.

It has led to a dangerous complacency: the belief that since India has managed to ‘muddle through so many times before, there isn’t much need for a sense of urgency in tackling the problems it faces. In Non Stop India veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on his unmatched knowledge of India, garnered from thirty years of living in, and reporting from, the country to examine how this approach impacts her much-touted prospects of becoming an economic super-power. From Maoist conflicts to huge industrial houses; from the Tiger project to farmer suicides; from the Ramayana to the remote valleys of the north-east, Tully examines India’s myriad negotiations with modernity and her prospects for the nextcentury and beyond.

2. Get To The Top – The Ten Rules For Social Success by Suhel Seth: When it comes to getting
ahead in life, who we know is as important as what we do.How do you draw people to you?
Impress the powerful? Make an impact and extend your circle of acquaintances? Cultivate
influential friends?

Suhel Seth, a man who knows almost everyone there is to know in the country, brings you the
ultimate guide to social success. From the secret to throwing a successful party to the benefits
of befriending the less important half of a couple, he gives you canny advice and strategies to
become a successful networker.

Inspiring, provocative, and wise, Get to the Top is the ultimate book about wielding soft power.

About The Author :

Suhel Seth is the Managing Partner of Counselage India, the only strategic brand management
and marketing consultancy in the country advising chairpersons and CEOs on branding and
marketing.

His clients include R.K. Krishna Kumar of the House of Tata, S. Ramadorai of TCS, Analjit Singh of
Max Hospitals, Pawan Munjal of Hero Honda, Sanjiv Goenka of the RPG Group, and Prannoy Roy
of NDTV.

Suhel writes columns in The Financial Times, Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, and The Indian
Express on current affairs and has co-authored two books on Calcutta with Khushwant Singh and
R.K. Laxman.

3. Classic Saratchandra Volume I – By Saratchandra Chattopadhyay – Translated By Malobika Chaudhuri & Sunanda Krishnamurty: One of the greatest Indian novelists of the early twentieth century, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay is unputdownable even seven decades after his death. His canvas of human relationships is rooted in the everyday lives of families in turn-of-the-century Bengal. Saratchandra’s carefully crafted stories, brimming withemotion, and his sharply etched characters, are unforgettable. This omnibus that brings together eight of his novels in translation is a collection to be cherished.

Biraj Bou, Parineeta (A Married Woman), Palli Samaj (The Village Life), Arakkhaniya (The Unprotected), Srikanta, Devdas, Swami (Husband), Grihadaha (House of Cinders)

4. Secrets – by Ruskin Bond: This brilliant new collection of stories by one of India’s best-loved storytellers richly evokes Dehradun of the 1940s, with its quaint cinema halls and crumbling villas, its modest chaat-shops and ubiquitous tongas. But, as young Ruskin—the narrator in these interconnected tales—soon discovers, not all is as it seems in this sleepy town. Behind the tranquil facade, Dehra is home to a cast of colourful characters: from plucky old women to possible murderers.

‘The Canal’ is a joyful tribute to adolescent mischief and adult resolve, in which a group of roguish boys must face the consequences of antagonizing the much-feared Miss Gamla. ‘Over the Wall’ celebrates the resilience and hard-won dignity of a man ravaged by leprosy as he struggles to come to terms with his malady. The dashing young army captain in ‘At Green’s Hotel’ might be the perfect gentleman—or a murderer. And in ‘The Skeleton in the Cupboard’, an old scandal is revived following a chance discovery, leading to wholly unexpected results.

By turns charming and poignant, witty and exhilarating, Secrets is vintage Bond.

5. The Mahabharata Volume 4 – Translated by Bibek Debroy: The Mahabharata is one of the
greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the
epic than the dispute between Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It
has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions, and
it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets.
This magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition
compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

The fourth volume of the Mahabharata includes Virata Parva and almost all of Udyoga Parva. It
describes the Pandavas’ thirteenth year of exile which they spend in disguise in King Virata’s court.
When, during their stay, the Kouravas and Trigartas invade Matsya to rob Virata of his cattle, the
Pandavas defeat them in battle. With the period of banishment over, the Pandavas ask to be returned
their share of the kingdom. This is refused and Udyoga Parva recounts the preparations for the
inevitable war.

Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to
hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes
the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers.

6. Lucknow Boy – A Memoir by Vinod Mehta: Sharp, insightful, shocking, delightful. In this
sparkling memoir, Vinod Mehta, India’s most independent, principled – and irreverent – editor
finally tells his own story.

And by any reckoning, it is an extraordinary story. Mehta grew up as an insouciant army brat from a Punjabi refugee family, in the syncretic culture of Lucknow of the 1950s—an experience that turned him into an unflagging ‘pseudo secularist’. Leaving home with a BA third class degree, he experimented with a string of jobs, including that of a factory hand in suburban Britain, before accepting an offer to edit Debonair, a journal best known for featuring naked women. With the eclecticism and flair that were to become his hallmark, he turned it into an intelligent, lively magazine, while managing to keep fans of its centrespreads happy. The next three decades saw Vinod Mehta becoming one of India’s most widely- read and influential editors, as he launched a number of successful new publications, from the now legendary Sunday Observer to the weekly newsmagazine, Outlook.

This remarkably candid memoir, with its ringside view of many of the major events of our times, brims over with wit, wisdom, scandal and gossip. Mehta recounts with zest how he was wooed and then summarily sacked by sundry media proprietors when their much-vaunted respect for editorial freedom broke down in the face of political pressures. There are riveting accounts of his encounters with personalities from the worlds of politics, business, films and the media. There are masterly pen portraits of personalities ranging from Shobhaa De to V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Sonia Gandhi. ( And ofcourse, Mehta’s dog Editor who now, like his master, gets quantities of fan and hate mail.) There are the stories behind the scoops Mehta has brought before a fascinated public, from the alleged mole in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, to the cricket match-fixing scandal, to the Radia Tapes.

Embedded within these racy tales are thoughtful insights on Indian politics and society. There are valuable lessons, too, in Mehta’s inside stories of his successful media launches, in his tips for aspiring journalists, and in his struggles for editorial independence through his nearly four-decade-long tryst with Indian journalism.

COMING SOON

1. Diary of A Wimpy Kid – Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney: The sixth book about the comic adventures
of Greg Heffley and family. The funniest books you’ll ever read!

Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent. Or at least sort of. The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for
the holidays?

2. God Save the Dork – The Incredible International Adventures of Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese by Sidin Vadukut: Maestro management consultant and strategy guru Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese has been dispatched to London to the Lederman account. Things in the mother country are not all tally-ho as Einstein must make do with convoluted remuneration, temperamental digestion and a comely coworker who revels in mixed signals—not to mention a bizarre conspiracy by museums all over the city to frustrate his every attempt to imbibe in high culture.

Things are not all that much better with his love life. Gouri insists that he go to Madame Tussaud’s and take a photo with the Shah Rukh Khan statue. But who will pay for the entry ticket? Gouri’s father is not the proprietor no? Then? Just when things look like they can’t get any worse, Lederman threatens to shut down the project. Panic ensues. Once again Dufresne Partners turns to their most resourceful, inventive, original, strategic, out-of-the-box-thinking employee.

‘India’s Dilbert.’    – DNA
‘Nothing else skewers corporate India’s assorted silliness so accurately. Or so funnily.’   —Outlook
‘Unputdownable.’   —The Hindu
‘[Dork] will have you in splits.’   —The Asian Age
‘Hysterically funny.’    – Hindustan Times

‘I want to put a dent in the universe.’

These words best describe the tenacity and vision of Stevie Jobs; the man who turned a drab technology
company into a pop-culture phenomenon.

I never personally interacted with Stevie (rrreally, you might ask as you roll your eyes), and yet I do it —
we all do it —every day when picking up an iPod or working on a macbook. These devices aren’t dumb
terminals. Each one has a story, both in creation and execution.

So while he may not be with us anymore, he has still managed to leave a lasting impression in our
minds, our hands, and our ears. Let us get to know our friend a little better.

1. “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences,” he once said. “So they don’t
have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions.” Billy Gates, he suggested,
would be “a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger”.

2. “I don’t wear the right kind of pants to run this company,” he told a small gathering of Apple
employees before he left in1985, according to a member of the original Macintosh development team.
He was barefoot as he spoke, and wearing blue jeans.

3. When asked what market research went into the iPad, he replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job
to know what they want.”

4. He was the ultimate arbiter of Apple products, and his standards were exacting. Over the course of
a year he tossed out two iPhone prototypes before approving the third, and began shipping it in June
2007.

5. As an eighth grader, after discovering that a crucial part was missing from a frequency counter he was
assembling, he telephoned William Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett spoke with the
boy for 20 minutes, prepared a bag of parts for him to pick up and offered him a job as a summer intern.

6. In 1971, he collaborated with Steve Wozniak on designing, building, and selling blue boxes: devices
that were widely used for making free – and illegal – phone calls. They raised a total of $6,000 from the
effort.

7. In 1980, he lured John Sculley to Apple to be its chief executive. A former Pepsi-Cola chief executive,
Sculley was impressed by Stevie’s pitch: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared
water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

8. In September 1985, after leaving Apple, he started NeXT Inc, with the intention of building a
workstation computer for the higher education market. Although NeXT never became a significant
computer industry player, it had a huge impact: a young programmer, Tim Berners-Lee, used a NeXT
machine to develop the first version of the World Wide Web at the Swiss physics research center CERN
in 1990.

9. If he had a motto, it may have come from “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which he said had deeply

influenced him as a young man. The book, he said in his commencement address at Stanford in 2005,
ends with the admonition “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

10. Stevie was a stickler for design details. Bruce Tognazzini, a former user-interface expert at
Apple who joined the company in 1978, once said that Jobs was adamant that the keyboard not
include “up,” “down,” “right,” and “left” keys that allow users to move the cursor around their computer
screens.

11. His pursuit of aesthetics sometimes bordered on the extreme. George Crow, an Apple engineer in
the 1980s and again from 1998 to2005, recalls how Stevie wanted to make even the inside of computers
attractive. On the original Macintosh PC, Crow says Jobs wanted the internal wiring to be in the colors of
Apple’s early rainbow logo. Crow says he persuaded Jobs it was an unnecessary expense.

12. Within months of taking control at Apple once again in May 1998, Stevie flexed his power on Apple’s
Cupertino, Calif., campus. He replaced four of the five top executives with former NeXT underlings. He
issued emails forbidding employees to bring pets to the office or to smoke, even in parking lots. He
threatened to fire anyone caught leaking company documents.

13. Stevie was typically hands-on in the creation of the iPhone. People familiar with the matter say
the former CEO was the one who made a decision to change the screen of the iPhone from plastic to
glass after he unveiled the product at the Macworld trade show in 2007. The iPhone team scrambled
to procure glass that would meet his standards, so the devices could be manufactured in time for the
launch.

14. Those who knew Stevie say one reason why he was able to keep innovating was because he didn’t
dwell on past accomplishments and demanded that employees do the same. Hitoshi Hokamura, a
former Apple employee, recalls how an old Apple I that was displayed by the company cafeteria quietly
disappeared after Jobs returned in the late 1990s.

15. He insisted that the first Macintosh should have no internal cooling fan, so that it would be silent – putting user needs above engineering convenience. He called an engineer at Google one weekend with an urgent request: the colour of one letter of Google’s on-screen logo on the iPhone was not quite the right shade of yellow. He often wrote or rewrote the text of Apple’s advertisements himself.

16. Stevie was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit a “reality distortion field”, such
were his powers of persuasion.

17. When Jobs and Wozniak were designing the first Macintosh computer, he remembered the
calligraphy lessons he had taken after dropping out of college in 1972. He decided to incorporate the
fonts he had learned into the Mac. “It was the first computer with beautiful typography,” said Jobs.
Windows would later use these fonts as models.

18. A significant thing about Stevie’s public performance and interviews was his use of the
pronoun “We”. Almost every time Jobs spoke, he never said “I”, and said “We” instead. During an
interview at D5, Walt Mossberg curiously asked him, “Who’s ‘we’?” Jobs replied, “Well, ME!”

19. Stevie had been a dedicated vegan ever since his teenage years. At the age of 19, in Reed College, he
explored strange diets which, according to him, would let him get rid of all mucus and hence the need to
shower.

20. A title of one of the press articles written about Stevie’s difficult character was “The Trouble
with Steve Jobs.”According to Robert Sutton, Stanford management science professor and author of
best-seller “The No Asshole Rule,” “The degree to which people in Silicon Valley are afraid of Jobs is
unbelievable. He made people feel terrible; he made people cry.”

21. Stevie studied Zen Buddhism in his youth. He used to say that he wanted to become a monk in a
monastery in Japan instead of starting Apple. But his guru Kobun Chino Otogowa later made him think
otherwise.

22. Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of News Corp.’s Fox Filmed Entertainment, recalls an incident. “He
came into a meeting one day and said, ‘Hey, you want to see something cool?’ And he reached into
his jacket and pulled out the first prototype of the iPhone,” Gianopulos said.”It was like someone had
shown you the first rocket ship.”

One could go on. But one shall not. For one is free.

One could, however, direct you to http://www.indiareads.com/book/steve-jobs-exclusive-biography :
where you may buy or rent (for a frraction of the price) Stevie’s exclusive biography written by Walter
Issacson; Harvard Graduate, Rhodes Scholar, and long time Stevie confidante.