Amazon.com saves the day

Last week, I visited 2 of my favourite bookstores in Chennai. Connexions and Landmark. While I was at both places I was sorely tempted to buy Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", currently a raging bestseller. Having heard so much about the book from ICF I decided to skim through the cover story at the back. And what do you know......it was catchy. The book's synopsis sent down a minor tingling through my spine. I haven't been this interested in a book merely by reading its cover story ever since I picked up a copy of Robin Cook's "Toxin" way back in 98. And that had started my memorable tryst with Cook's books.

I vacillated for quite a while at both places with the copy of the book in my hand. Should I go ahead or not? The synopsis at the back of the book and ICF's recommendations kept urging me strongly to take the plunge. But I was hesitant to violate my golden rule when it came to buying books or renting movies, which was to check online reviews of the product before deciding to go ahead with it. In case of books it was amazon.com and in movies it was imdb.com.

I can't tell you how many times these 2 sites have saved me from making bad choices. And they have helped me make an equal number of good choices as well. The battle raged in me for a while and finally amazon.com won.A week later when I checked up on reviews about the bestseller, the site had a surprise in store for me.

The total number of reviews for the book numbered more than 1000, but going through the first 20 or so of them I was disappointed. Most reviewers had trashed the book and the author. It was their opinion that the book was over-hyped, overrated, short on character development and reading it was just a foray into escapism without much substance. These were exactly the sort of things I didn't want in a book. And most reviewers agreed that the trend was conspicuous in all the books by the same author. So finally I've decided to remove Dan Brown from my list as of now.

All hail amazon.com!

Driving on Chennai Highways

Why does driving on the Chennai highways fills me with trepidation everytime?

I had my answer while driving on the NH 45A (ECR) last week. To begin with I was driving at night which made it doubly worse. I am not a fast driver by any means. The maximum I touch is a little over 80kmph even on the desolate ECR which is the favourite haunt for daredevil drivers and riders. Almost every one is intent on breaking the land speed record while driving on ECR regardless of the road worthiness of their vehicles. And the most daredevil of all vehicles are the luxury buses. I am amazed by the fact that these drivers are able to push such giant vehicles at speeds upto 100+kmph on this road.

I happened to be driving a Hyundai Santro with a lousy pickup. Though the highway was free from traffic for most of the time, I was subjected to the sound of luxury buses and cars whipping past me every now and then. The biggest problem while driving on these highways is that the vehicles coming from the opposite direction seldom dim their headlights. It is perenially on high beam making it impossible to see the road ahead.

Most drivers dont seem to have the common courtesy to dip their headlights when approaching vehicles from the opposite side. And when a lorry or a trailer approaches, the driver moves so far into your side of the road that you are forced to get down on the shoulder for safety. Also when vehicles are overtaking each other while coming from the opposite side, even when they see you approaching nobody gives way and you are forced to almost drive off the edge.

Driving on Indian highways requires an iron constitution and endless patience!