What People Might Do on Valentine's Day

 A bit early, but the day is not far away! So, imagine what the following would do, and where they would be on Valentine's Day.

Donald Trump- He would love to take over Greenland, Poland, any land where he can spread some love!

Putin- He believes in communism, and so loves all equally. Ukraine ho ya Afghanistan. Will try and prove it too.

Sherlock Holmes- he would go out in search of True Love- more difficult than all his other assignments put together. 

Hercule Poirot- he would just be his charming, old-world self. 

SRK- short for Shah Rukh Khan. He would love to sign autographs for his million admirers.

Salman- his search is unending, because he occasionally beats them up.. lovingly, of course.

Road Romeos- would be locked up in a safe place! With no Juliets in sight.

Film Review- A Haunting in Venice

 This is an Agatha Christie story starring Hercule Poirot. If you like mystery stories with twists and turns, this one is for you. It stars a new actor in the lead role, and the supporting star cast is pretty decent.

The story of the film is set in Venice, and has a back story of a girl who apparently has died by suicide. Poirot's author friend invites him - he is in Venice leading a retired life- to a party and a seance by an invited lady medium.

A couple of murders happen in the palazzio which needs a lot of repairs, and has an unreliable telephone line, and is supposedly haunted. The owner, the dead girl's mother, apparently wants to talk to the dead girl's spirit at the seance, but the 'medium' is exposed as a hoax by Poirot. But things get complicated, forcing Poirot to get cracking again, to the delight of his friend and the audience. It ends well.

Gripping, well-crafted.

Concepts and Characters I like From Books

 I like the idea of literally rolling in wealth, like Richie Rich did.. he had a room full of dollars. Also, having a butler- his was called Cadbury.

The concept of a magic potion used by Asterix, brewed by Druid Getafix- that's s great idea.

A mouse like Mickey, and a talking duck like Donald.. great imagination, Walt Disney!

Nero Wolfe, a gourmet AND a detective.

Hercule Poirot with his egg-shaped head, and little grey cells. Mon ami, Mon cher, whatever, ..pardon my French.. Oo la la!

Phantom's skull cave, with a waterfall covering its entrance, is a masterstroke, according to me. Mandrake's hypnotism too.

James Bond- I never read the books, but he rose from the books to become the colourful character everyone wanted to Bond with...

Of course, Sherlock Holmes, with his deductions based on observation. Market researchers could learn a few things from him.

All the Enid Blyton characters who were as different as chalk and cheese. Fatty, in particular. And Goon.

Thomson and Thompson.. and Captain Haddock..

Authors Create Characters

 Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond.. almost everyone in our circles (readers, film-goers) knows these characters. Some of us may be aware of Nero Wolfe, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, and a few others too. Cartoonists did that too. R.K. Laxman's Common Man, or Mario Miranda's Miss Fonseca are examples.

Creating a new character is not easy. You have to give him/her a personality like a real woman/man, and make some of their mannerisms or characteristics unique, like the egg-shaped head, the constant talk about "the little grey cells" and a few French words/phrases in the case of Hercule Poirot, so the reader starts visualising the character. 

In my brief writing journey, I am proud of having created two characters, at least. Two humans, that is, and a mosquito, Anopheles. She has views about us humans, and they are not always charitable. But we are friends, so I take these in my stride. Very intelligent conversationalist, she can talk about any topic. 

The two human characters were Lord Rocheskatchewn (pronounced Rooska-toon), 21^st Earl of Rocheskatchewn and an MBA student, Gurumurthy, who shows the Lord around the campus when he visits IIM Bangalore.

Airline Brands

Once upon a time, there were these brands of airlines-

Pan Am- an example of a failed American enterprise.
TWA- Another example.
Modiluft- one of the Modis and Lufthansa collaborated on this one.
East West- Came from the Middle East, and went nowhere.
Sahara- later besahara, and sold to Jet, it had a nice tagline, "Emotionally yours" . Its erstwhile promoter is now in jail.
Kingfisher- flashy and stylish while it lasted.
Kingfisher Red- was always in the red.
Jet Konnect- it was 'jettisoned' coz it had lost its connect with passengers.
Paramount- it's of paramount importance to find out what went wrong with it.
Sabena- despite its Arabian-sounding name, it was a Belgian carrier. Hercule Poirot would know.
Indian Airlines- My first flight ever was on this airline, from Dibrugarh to Calcutta (it was still that in 1983). Merged with Air India.



Other airlines I have flown (and did not necessarily cause to stop flying, except a couple) are Indigo, Go, Spicejet, Trujet, Thai, Malaysian, Singapore, Swiss, Eastern (US, domestic), US Air, Delta, Air Asia, Tiger, Air France, Lufthansa. I remember Air France had a good selection of wines.

An Indian Poirot- Vish Puri

That tag is given by one of the blurbs on this book- and that is what made me pick it up. Well, not quite Poirot, but very readable and interesting is this detective called Vish Puri, a denizen of Delhi. He likes chilli pakodas, and seekh kababs, like a true Punajbi, and employs staff with engaging nicknames, such as Facecream and Handbrake, and Tubelight. These people help him, more like Paul Drake and co. in Perry Mason stories, to dig up evidence that will exonerate his clients, or get them disentangled from unwanted matrimonial alliances.

The Case of the Missing Servant starts with a rich lawyer being accused of murdering his tribal maid-servant. After a lot of twists and turns, and another murder along the way, it gets resolved satisfactorily- the denouement happening as in a Poirot mystery, with an assembly of all the major characters in the house, with an inspector (like Japp) keeping an eye out for the surprise that Puri will spring.

The Delhi descriptions of people, places and character quirks is quite accurate, and seems first-hand authenticated. That adds to the narrative.

An engaging read, this author called Tarquin Hall. I will read some more of him for sure.

Two Agatha Christie Films

Last week I got a chance to watch two Agatha Christie films back to back. Both had Poirot being played by David Suchet, who does a great job of re-creating the detective with his appearance and mannerisms.

Lord Edgware Dies was the first, in which there is a cantankerous Lord who is refusing to divorce a wife who wants one. There is the usual cast of characters, with an actress involved in impersonating famous people (she does a Poirot in her act in his presence), and a few relatives in need of money, and so on.
I was able to guess the ending a couple of minutes earlier than the denouement, but it was still a very good film.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd happens in a supposedly quiet village, which you discover is not so quiet. There is a poisoning which is never discovered, a blackmail, and a man in a noble profession who isn't what he seems to be. The plot is involved, and tough to guess.

All in all, a double treat. I remembered earlier movies I had watched- Murder on the Orient Express (I think Peter Ustinov played Poirot there), and Murder on the Nile, both brilliant films.