Digital Fortress

Title: Digital Fortress

www.danbrown.com

Author: Dan Brown

Main Characters: Susan Fletcher, David Becker, Ensei Tankado, Numataka, Greg Hale, Strathmore, Midge, Jabba, Soshi, Chad Binkerhoff, Leland Fontaine, Rocio, Phil Chartrukian, Hulohot and Megan

Description Of One Of The Main Characters: Phil Chartrukian is Sys-sec(system-security) in the NSA(Nation Security Agency) Crypto. He is very loyal to the director, Leland Fontaine, and loves his job dearly. When he figures out that there is a virus in the TRANSLTR, the code breaking machine of NSA Crypto, he gives up his life during the attempt to save it. He gets shot by Commander Strathmore.

Whom I Like And Why: I like Ensei Tankado very much. He is an extremely brilliant man with computers and codes. He creates the great Digital fortress- a code completely unbreakable even for the TRANSLTR! He is amazing. He was born disabled due to the bomb blast in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He raises three fingers, one of them bearing a ring with mysterious inscriptions, when he dies.

Whom I Dislike And Why: I hate Strathmore. He is a ruthless murderer and a heartless man. He doesn’t hesitate to kill anyone. He is the head of Crypto. He kills Phil and Greg Hale, and also kills himself in the end.

Setting/Theme Of The Story: Susan Fletcher is very happy until she receives two phone calls- one from her fiancé, David Becker, telling her that he is off to Spain as he has to do urgent, important things; and the second from her Commander, Strathmore, asking her to immediately come to the Crypto as there was an EMERGENCY.

Susan immediately goes to the Crypto, and Strathmore explains the situation to her. The TRANSLTR, the greatest code-breaking machine, has not been able to break the code of the late Ensei Tankado. The hightest time TRANSLTR had ever taken to break codes was three hours. But this code didn’t break even after eighteen hours of work by the TRANSLTR. Ensei Tankado was  declared to have died from a heart attack. Just as he breathed his final, Ensei Tankado had pushed three fingers into the air, one of them bearing a ring with mysterious letterings, to inform something to the public. The people had assumed it to be the ring and one of them had taken it off.

Meanwhile, in Spain, David, who was sent by Strathmore, goes in search of the Canadian who had taken the ring from Tankado. But the Canadian had given it off to a girl named Rocio. With the help of the Canadian’s description of Rocio, he finds the girl. But she had given it off to a young punk. Rocio describes her and hints to David as to where the young girl had gone. David sets about searching for the young punk, Megan.

But Strathmore has other greedy plans. He wants to marry Susan, and wants David dead. So, he sends a man named Hulohot to kill David. Hulohot kills all the people David meets to ask about the ring. He had killed Ensei Tankado, the Canadian and Rocio. He also kills Megan, the young punk from whom David gets the ring. David is unaware that he will be the next victim.

At the same time, Midge, the woman who checks the progress of TRANSLTR, gets alarmed when her data shows that TRANSLTR hadn’t been able to break a code for 18 hours! She informs Jabba, the head of Sys-Sec and also the director of NSA, Leland Fontaine. But they don’t believe her.

In the Crypto, Strathmore informs Susan that Tankado had partnered with a man named North Dakota and that North Dakota’s email ID was:

NDAKOTA@ARA.ANON.ORG

Susan finds out a wrong information that Greg Hale is North Dakota. When she tries to contact Strathmore, she suddenly hears a gun shot. Phil was dead. She assumes that Greg had shot Phil but in reality it had been Strathmore who had done it. She gets terrified and goes back to her terminal only to see Greg Hale dead too. Susan, soon, gets to know that Strathmore is the culprit. All this time, the TRANSLTR heats up to a dangerous extent.

Midge gets extremely tensed in the NSA main office and studies her data again. This time she calls Jabba to show that there was some kind of virus. It also meant that Strathmore had bypassed the Gauntlet, the safety filter of the TRANSLTR. Even worse, Jabba discovers  that it is a worm and not a virus. They fail to contact Strathmore.

Strathmore had signed a billion dollar deal with Numataka promising him to give the ring, but he cuts the deal off. At that point, Susan understands that NDAKOTA was a perfect anagram of TANKADO! She feels miserable.

Strathmore, too guilty to continue living, takes his own life. Susan manages out of the Crypto and goes to the NSA main office. She narrates everything there.

Becker is followed by Hulohot everywhere. Finally Hulohot shoots David and David falls. Assuming that David is dead, Hulohot goes off. But it is just a flesh wound and David recovers. He contacts Susan and they all try to figure out the passkey which would stop the attacking worm. Tankado had shown number three and the letterings in the ring said it was a prime number. Putting two and two together, Susan finds out that the passkey is number 3. They enter it and the worm stops. All the files in the databank gets recovered. They relax. But they all accept one thing- it had been a real DIGITAL  FORTRESS.

Numataka realizes that Tankado is his own son whom he abandoned, and feels guilty for doing so. 

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”

Title: “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”

Author: Richard. P. Feynman

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” is all about Feynman’s experiences and his Science career. This book contains many funny anecdotes. The fun Feynman had in MIT is wonderfully written down. The book also describes how he moved on from MIT to Princeton to Los Alamos and Cornell along with a ‘touch of Brazil’(as put forth by the author). The book ends with Feynman’s narration of his life as a Physicist.

In the book, there were many parts that I enjoyed. The part when Feynman creates his own symbols for sin θ, cos θ, and later realizes that he cannot create symbols on his own while he teaches one of his friends, as they were known only to him and were not universally accepted, is the one I love the most.  

Another part I liked was an incident which took place when Feynman was in MIT. There were two or three students who always kept studying and had double doors to their room to keep out noise. This seemed a little too much for the other students and one of them removed one of the doors and hid it. Considering this a nice idea, Feynman removed the other door and hid it in the basement. This created a ruckus, the next morning, and the three students were highly distressed at seeing both the doors missing. This issue was taken to the fraternity, and the guy who removed the first door was caught. Everybody immediately assumed that he had removed both the doors and asked him for the other door. Feynman, then, voluntarily accepted that he had removed the second door. But, nobody believed him. To the contrary, they asked him to keep quiet and told that it wasn’t the time to joke. Hence, Feynman concludes saying that, many times when truth was told people rarely believed.

But why is the book titled “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”? The answer is part of an anecdote in the book. In Princeton, Feynman had experienced a few embarrassing situations. The dean had invited all the freshers for tea. The dean’s wife had asked whether he would like lemon or cream in his tea, and Feynman had replied that he would like both! The dean’s wife had been very surprised and embarrassed, and had said, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” And that is the story behind the title.

I enjoyed reading this book very much.

When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time To Go Home

Cover via Amazon

Title: When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time To Go Home

Author: Erma Bombeck

“When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time To Go Home” is a book, full of funny instances and valuable advice on travelling.

Erma Bombeck narrates the funny incidents that take place during a vacation when their relatives stay at their place to reduce the total cost of their vacation. They lodge, dine, breakfast, and enjoying ultimate luxuries, all for free. She talks about how one of her relative leaves the children at her place and goes off shopping, and how the children bring the roof down. Erma also comments that when the relatives finally take leave, it was always a tearful parting. The relatives had tears as they had to shell out their money from then on, and Erma had tears of joy as the guests were finally prepared to vacate the house! This was my favourite part.

Erma says, in the book, that in Spain, the bus is driven by an Asian. And, in Asia, the bus is driven by a German. And, in Germany the bus is driven by a French. In France, if a bus is driven by a French, then, Erma guarantees that it is certainly the wrong bus! This way, she teases and comments upon the funny aspect of different nationalities doing different jobs in different nations.

And any idea when you have to stop travelling? Erma Bombeck provides you with an answer. Somebody tells you that you are in front of a great, famous museum, and you sit inside the car and ask the person to describe it to you. This is when you necessarily have to stop travelling(as per Erma).

And finally, when Erma wants to fly back home, she comes to the airport to board her flight. A man in the airport sees her passport and comments that she is looking exactly as she looks in the photo, and here comes the title of the book, “When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time To Go Home”.

I love this book. It is very humorous.

Three Men On The Bummel

Title: Three Men On The Bummel

Author: Jerome. K. Jerome

Main Characters: Jerome, Harris, George

Setting/Theme Of The Story: Jerome, Harris and George, after their “eventful” trip on the river Thames along with their fox-terrier Montmorency, want to take a break again and want a nice change this time. Harris, who always loves water, suggests to go cruising in the sea. But unfortunately, for Harris, both Jerome and George are against it. Finally, they decide to go on an exciting cycling tour through the Black Forests of Germany. They hire and carry their bicycles on a train. They learn a lot of new things on their trip. They mess about crossing roads and realize that they don’t know to do an activity as simple as that. But they conclude that crossing roads was, after all, a very difficult task. They purchase different things such as cushions as they continue their “Bummel”- cycling tour. They learn about the German culture and people.  The book is filled with amazing incidents and hilarious anecdotes. They get into a lot of trouble and mess. Finally, they return home all shaken up and they decide that it had been quite a complete “change” that they had wanted. Harris comments that it had been a good “Bummel” and George questions him as to what a Bummel is. Here is Jerome’s answer to that:

“A Bummel,” Jerome explains, “I should describe as a journey, long or short, without an end; the only thing regulating it being the necessity of getting back within a given time to the point from which one started. Sometimes, it is through busy streets, and sometimes through the fields and lanes; sometimes we can spare a few hours, and sometimes a few days. But, long or short, here or there, our thoughts are ever on the running. We nod and smile to many as we pass; with some we stop and talk awhile; and with a few we walk a little way.”

Part I Enjoyed The Most: I loved the part when Jerome tries to convince his wife on allowing him on this trip. Usually, when he commented that he wasn’t feeling well, his wife would declare that what he needed was complete rest and a change of scene from the monotony of life and he would retort saying that all that was nonsense. So, this time he goes to his wife and tells her the same thing. To his great disappointment, she immediately tells him that what he needed was complete rest at HOME. Finally, he confronts her directly and tells her that he wants a long break. He even flatters her saying that if he left her for sometime, he would realize the value of her to greater extent to which his wife gladly consents. This part was very humorous and extremely interesting.

What Einstein Told His Barber

www.goodreads.com 

Title: What Einstein Told His Barber

Author: Robert L. Wolke

'What Einstein Told His Barber' is not a book of what Einstein told his Barber! It's just the title to arouse our curiosity. The book is very interesting and highly enjoyable. It answers the many questions in our minds about Science. Here are some information that I have learnt from this book and that I enjoyed very much.

1. Why while pouring water from one glass to another container, the water comes along with the glass and then pours down- this is because of a special tendency of liquids to stick to the container in which they are stored. While transferring from the glass, we are able to see this tendency of liquids visibly.

2. When a cup of coffee is spilt, we see a brown ring and almost no stain in the centre part- this is because coffee, even though we see it as a dark brown liquid, is just a mixture of brown coffee particles and water. so, when spilt the water pushes all the particles outward and retains itself in the centre. Soon the water evaporates leaving only the dark brown particles that it pushed outwards. This looks like a dark brown ring with almost no stain inside.

3. If we travel at a speed more then the speed of sound, would we hear the radio near us(suppose we are travelling in a car)- yes, we would hear the radio as the radio is also travelling along with us in the same car, at the same speed. But if the radio was at the back of the car, we most probably would not hear it(This would most probably be due to the wind roaring against us!)

So, these are a few that was very interesting to read. We get to learn a lot of things in general about Science. It's a lovely book and I especially like the title What Einstein Told His Barber.

Trip to Pandarpur and Bombay

I had my December holidays. So, we went on a trip to Pandarpur and Bombay. We stayed at Pandarpur for three days and then went to Bombay. I loved it.

In Pandarpur, we had the darshan of Vittal and Rukmini. It was very pleasant and nice to roam about the town. We went to a place called 'Kaikadi Maharaj' and the place was amazing. We saw all the sculptures depicting scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabarata, the stories of bakthas who worshipped Vittal and Rukmini and even scenes from the Indian freedom struggle from the British. It was very good. 

Then we moved on to Bombay. Here is an account of what we did for three days in Bombay.

Day 1

We left our hotel by ten in the morning and proceeded to Siddhivinayak temple. After having darshan of Lord Ganesh, we moved on to Mahalakshmi temple. There was a large crowd in the temple but we still had a good darshan. After that we went to High Street Phoenix Mall in the Phoenix Mills Compound. By this time our tummies were growling since it was lunch time. We hunted the mall for a 100% vegetarian restaurant. One of them in the mall directed us to a restaurant named Punjabi Grills. My father sent my brother to confirm if it was 100% vegetarian and my brother inquired in the adjacent restaurant. Incidentally, that also was a vegetarian restaurant. Only after we were welcomed cordially and all the plates were arranged before us did we realise that it was Rajdhani's Rasovara and not Punjabi Grills. Anyway, the food was very good and we had a good lunch. After lunch we drove over to Worli Sea Phase and took a long walk along the sea. Finally we got back into our car and enjoyed the drive on the sea-link road. This was all we did in day one. Day 2 was more enjoyable and interesting.

Day 2 

On the second day of our trip to Bobmay, we visited one of our relative's house in Versova and spent our time there until lunch. As a parting gift, me and my brother were given some book allowance. From there we went to Churchgate in our car. At Churchgate, we started walking. We saw many second hand and new books stacked and sold by vendors. After a lot of bargaining, I bought 'Life Of Pi' and 'Hard Luck' from the Wimpy Kid series. From there we walked to Jahangir Art Gallery and saw all the paintings, photographs and artefacts. Then we went to a shop named BARGAIN BOOK HUT. And this shop made us buy insanely. We got a lot of books(mostly classics), a few crossword books and I got a present for one of my friends. On the whole, Bargain Book Hut is a lovely shop that gives books at 'insane prices' and 'outrageous discounts'. I loved the shop. Finally, we got out of the shop and made our way to the Gateway Of India. On the way, I saw traffic signals which showed how many seconds a person has, or has to wait, to cross the road. I have seen it often at many places for vehicles but never for pedestrians. That was an interesting point that I wanted to share. At Gateway Of India, I saw many small and big, ferry and motor boats. We dined at a small but fantastic restaurant named Crystal on the marine drive. We saw the Queen's Necklace and drove back to our hotel in Malad in one hour. This was very surprising to all of us as it had taken us a tiring three hours to Churchgate from Versova. 

Day 3

We didn't do anything in the morning of the third day. We ate lunch in Malgudi in the Infiniti Mall opposite to our hotel. We went to take a long walk along Carter's road after spending some time in Matunga and visiting a few temples. At the end of the walk I head an Ultimate Chocolate Truffle in Costa Cafe. We then visited my uncle's place in Vile parle. There we had nice homemade 'rava upma' and 'thayir saadham' and drove back to our hotel.

The next day we visited another relative's place in Navi Mumbai and then came to Chatrapathi Shivaji Termianal (CST) to board the Chennai Express back to Chennai. We had a good journey.

On the whole I enjoyed the trip very much. I learnt a lot of things on this trip such as how to keep an account of money being spent each day(I tried to do it but didn't do a good job) and how to stuff all kinds of things into one bag. My first experience in Bombay was very enjoyable and pleasant.

Navaratri 2013