Monthly Archive for July, 2005

Half-Blood Prince

Published on July 19, 2005 in Harry Potter. 0 Comments

First of all, don’t worry… There are no spoilers.

I bought my copy of HBP on Saturday itself and read it 3 times (Can you believe?) over the weekend. I knew someone important would die, not that I wanted them to, but never thought that it would be X (Name not revealed).

I don’t know why. All the good people in HP series have become something like a family to me. I dream of being in the magical world, being in Hogwarts, being friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione, being in The Burrow getting the selfless love and care from Mrs. Weasley.

You won’t believe if I tell you that I have “tweaked” the story in such a way that it squeezes in a few more characters. I rewrote the prophecy with another important character in it. He is going to be the foundation for The Chosen One’s victory. He is sort of an alter ego of Harry, with his parents too killed by Voldemort. And he too survived Voldemort. Voldemort wanted him because he was the secret-keeper of some weapon which his parents had invented. They did some ancient magic so that the details cannot be known if you killed him. Voldemort tries using an unknown curse, but it backfires. His aunt (His mother’s twin) is accused of double-crossing his parents and is sent to Azkaban for a crime she didn’t do (like Sirius). But he is unlike Harry in several ways.
1. He got the love of parents from the Weasleys who adopt him.
2. He is not very keen on rule-breaking adventures, although he is very loyal and ready to sacrifice for his friends.
3. He is very intelligent, not a book-worm like Hermione, but has a lot of talent.
4. He possesses an ancient and rare power to do magic without using wand or even uttering anything. It comes involuntarily for him usually when he is angry. (The ministry has no way of tracking this magic :-) The result is he knows (although he can’t recall) many spells which are unknown to the wizarding world.

This story is only in my mind. I can’t pen it, because I am a horrible author. I’ll ruin the good story in my mind because my hands are not as fast as my mind.

Now, that’s what I call a stupefying reply

Published on July 11, 2005 in Harry Potter. 0 Comments

Courtesy – Forum of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Priyank,

Actually, you are right. Harry Potter is a ‘kids’ fiction/fact series.

Let me tell you what kind of kids (or rather who I classify as a ‘kid’). A kid is…

  1. …any being who enjoys forays into the world of fantasy. A home away from home, if you will. (What Hogwarts is to Harry)
  2. …any being with a mind and heart open enough to learn new things about things(/beings/objects/all & sundry) that may or may not exist. (Spirits do have Death Day parties)
  3. …any being who has the ability and the inclination to look beyond the ‘normal’ and the ‘routine’ to a world within. A world in which each individual (skeptic, muggle, witch/wizard, or squib) harbors tremendous potential within themselves. We just need to acknowledge that potential for it to bloom in to the most beautiful of flowers that has ever bloomed on the face of this universe.
  4. …any being intelligent enough to pose questions about things other than “does it come with rusty magic stick” (which BTW is called a wand). Questions like: does life after death exist? (The veil between life and death is thin…); do I absolutely have to do what people want me to do? (Mundungus Fletcher – he resells stolen cauldrons, not a very respectable thing to do…but he does that anyways! Dobby, the House Elf – he wants to be paid now and have one day a month to himself!); and last but not the least, what is the most important thing in life – courage & chivalry; ambition, cunning & slyness; intelligence, knowledge & wit; or loyalty, patience, hard work & justice?
  5. …any being seeking to be entertained and to be served fun with a slight sprinkling of interesting tidbits about the world we live in (or would like to live in).

The book serves a very good purpose of reminding us adults how exciting and entertaining good fiction can be and should be.

So, Priyank – YES, Harry Potter is a book for kids, and we are proud to be called thus.


Best Regards,
A Harry Potter die-hard.

From: Priyank Jain
Posted At: Friday, June 17, 2005 9:43 AM
Posted To: HJW Leisure
Conversation: FWW-The Harry Potter Fan Club: T-Shirt for 16 July! (Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus)
Subject: RE: FWW-The Harry Potter Fan Club

Does it come with a rusty magic stick too?
I’d be great fun to see 25 yr olds running around Infy with HP t-shirts and a matching wand to go with it. LoL
Seriously though isn’t all this stuff just for kids, it is a kids book/movie after all.

Priyank Jain

The metamorphosis of life

Published on July 5, 2005 in Life etc. and Weird things. 0 Comments

I change my blog theme very often, right?? It’s not thematic to be exact. It’s not diverse either. I guess it is piece-wise thematic (Tech guys, Please bear with my PJ. Others never mind). I wrote this because I created this particular blog to add some more to my college memories which has been my latest theme.

Well here goes!

My daily routine while I was in school.

  • Wake up at 8 am
  • Finish all the morning chores by 8.30
  • Breakfast at 8.30
  • Go to school by bicycle at 8.45
  • Be a good boy at school, study hard.
  • Come back immediately after school.
  • No going out, no hanging out with friends, absolutely inside home in the evening, watching TV or reading books or studying or playing carroms all alone.

My daily routine while I was in college (NITC)

  • Wake up at 9.30 am (Classes start at 8 )
  • Go to Mamachan’s, the one hotel for breakfast.
  • Go to periods 3 and 4. (10.15 to 12.15)
  • Take lunch at Chechi’s.
  • Go back to hostel and sleep. Skip afternoon classes unless it’s a lab hour.
  • Go to play Tennis or Basketball at evening.
  • Come back, have a bath, and go for dinner at Chinese Corner, Lovely Foods etc.
  • Roam around the hostel blocks visiting buddies and almost killing them with my blah blah which is like a car without a brake.
  • Return to my room around 11 pm. Start my computer and start playing UT or Age of Empires in the LAN we set up.
  • Play till 1 pm.
  • Go and have a tea at Vinu’s. Friends have a smoke too.
  • Come back, play again.
  • Go to sleep at around 3 pm.

My daily routine now

  • Wake up at 7 am
  • Cook some breakfast at home
  • Go to office at 8.30 am
  • Work, work and work till evening.
  • Come back exhausted.
  • But still find energy to prepare some dinner. There’s nothing like good home-made food.
  • See some movie at 9. (HBO, Star Movies, or some Tamil/Malayalam channel)
  • Sleep at 12 am.

Back to the college

Published on July 1, 2005 in Memoirs. 3 Comments

Can’t help remembering these stuff. It’s been more than 1 year since I left college. I still miss it although most of my pals are staying nearby.

The ramp said, “This is the place where you rested your head on a girl’s lap and the head of the department (HOD) came and took away your identity card.”

The seminar room said, “Don’t you remember the last series exam of your college life? You brought an alarm and fired it 15 minutes after the exam started. Later the alarm was confiscated by the professor. Did you get it back?”

The college bus said, “Ha ha ha, I still remember you sitting on the seat next to the door. I know the reason. She usually get inside the bus through that door and you wanted to help her by holding her bag for her no? What happened to that crush?”

The canteen said, “Eight guys fighting for a single cutlet bought using the money from some one else. You guys still do that?”

The class room whispered, “There was a strike that day and some fight was going on outside the classroom. In order to see that you left the class whilst the professor was teaching. No one has ever done that.
Before or after”

The corridor said, “I remember you putting a 100 rupees bet for taking 100 push-ups and failed miserably at 47 itself. It took two weeks for you to get well from the body pain right?”

The concrete bench said, “Its here that you gave a red rose to a lady, which was bought by someone else, on a valentines day which she didn’t accept and apparently your crush saw that and both the things ended up in a mess.”

When I heard all these from them, a laughter erupted in my lips. It turned its way to a nostalgic smile.
And then I was thinking. In the fight for a career, for a life, I’m missing a world. A world created by such small mischievous things. In this hectic life, if I would have gotten enough time at least to remember those beautiful moments… I was still thinking…