A review on the book by Simon Scarrow. This book revolves around Roman History, about how slaves in Rome were treated in 61 B.C.
Marcus, a ten year old, is with his father, talking to him, when his servant comes and tells them that some people are arriving with weapons. Though Marcus and his father, Titus, survive the first attack, their servant and Titus are not able to survive the next and Marcus and his mother are taken into slavery. Marcus escapes, but his mother is not able to. Marcus has to find a way to reach Rome, to reach King Polienus, because KIng Poienus owns Titus his life.
Ten years ago,the Romans had a war with the slaves of Rome, in which the head was about to kill Polienus. If it would not have been for Titus the king would not have been alive that day.
He hides into a ship to reach Rome, but his food and drink supplies are over and he seriously needs something to drink and eat. He gets out of his hiding place, but is caught and comes into slavery again. Though, this slavery is different. Here the master teaches you to be a gladiator. A gladiator is a person who is a slave and learns how to fight others and when he completes his course, he has to fight in public to entertain them. Just like cowboys. Here he meets Brixus, who, he tells him, serves in the Slave war.
Marcus has a scar on his back. But, when Brixus sees it he knows its not a scar. Marcus had been branded by his mother when he was small, and the sign was that of the slaves in the Slave war. This meant only one thing to Brixus, that Marcus' mother is the wife of the leader of the slaves and Marcus, the son of the leader of the slaves. Now, Marcus has to fight with his enemy to entertain some people. Marcus wins and he is ordered to kill his opponent. Marcus does not agree to it and, because he denied his masters, he is said to fight the hungry wolves. During the fight a girl falls into the stadium and the wolves go after her. Marcus saves himself and the girl. He has some severe injuries and is taken to Polineus' room where he comes to know he is a bodygaurd to the girl he saved. In the end, Simon Scarrow tells that Marcus is confused that whom should he call father and the story ends here.
This is a very good book for some one interested in historical adventure. The story is woven around Roman history and provides some good insights into it. Anyone who is interested in history can get to know a lot about Roman History. On the whole, a good book for pre-teens and teens interested in thrills, swords and wars!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sky Hawk
A review on the book by Gill Lewis. This book is for nature lovers, who would give their life for nature and who know that nothing but nature can save them from all harm.
Callum and his friends, Rob and Euan, are there in Callum's garden. They see a girl, Iona, fishing. Rob and Euan make that girl go away, when it is going to rain. Callum doesnt like someone who comes to his park to go away like this. He takes Iona's things and goes after her. When he finds her, he gives her her things. In exchange, Iona tells him that she will tell Callum a secret on one condition that he will not go tell anybody about it. He promises and Iona asks him to meet her at the same place.
The next morning Callum comes there to find Iona already there. Iona shows Callum a nest, an osprey's eyrie. This Osprey will be looking for a mate. These people come everyday and watch the osprey searching for a mate. Finally, one day, the osprey finds a mate.
Unexpectedly, one day Iona comes and calls Callum to go see the ospreys. When they go see them, they find that the mate is hurt. They have no choice, but to go tell their father this thing. Callum's father has a friend who works in a zoo.
Ultimately, the family and Hamish come to know about the ospreys and Callum's father and brother make a treehouse there. Iona and Callum decide they will spend the night there. The next day, Callum comes to the treehouse but Iona is not there. Callum waits for some time but Iona doesnt show up and Callum starts worrying. He goes to Iona's house to find her down with a flu.
The next day, his mother informs Callum that Iona died last night. It was very sad as they both were very good friends. Then there was the funeral and all. As all the other birds, even ospreys migrate and Irie migrated before her mate and her child. They used to see her through a device which was fitted on her back on the day when Hamish came. Slowly, even Rob and Euan came to know about the ospreys. After some time Irie landed in Africa and she got lost there.
Callum got tensed and started worrying when Rob gave him an idea to send mails to everyone in Africa considering her position. After some time they recieve a mail from a girl called Jenny and she takes Irie into care and when Irie is strong to fly back, leaves her. Till now, Callum and Jenny become very good friends. Irie is seen flying back and has to fight against a cyclone brewing up in the North Atlantic. In the end, we see Irie, her mate and her child coming back to Scotland and Jenny flying there for the treatment of her legs as a truck had run over her legs. They had a party and stuff and in the end the whole world knows about Jenny as Callum and his friends collected all the money for her treatment and her flight. THe whole world even came to know about the Ospreys and there was a protective cover built out for the ospreys.
This book is very good for nature lovers and people who seek adventure. From the age of 10 anybody can read this book. It is a lovely book.
Callum and his friends, Rob and Euan, are there in Callum's garden. They see a girl, Iona, fishing. Rob and Euan make that girl go away, when it is going to rain. Callum doesnt like someone who comes to his park to go away like this. He takes Iona's things and goes after her. When he finds her, he gives her her things. In exchange, Iona tells him that she will tell Callum a secret on one condition that he will not go tell anybody about it. He promises and Iona asks him to meet her at the same place.
The next morning Callum comes there to find Iona already there. Iona shows Callum a nest, an osprey's eyrie. This Osprey will be looking for a mate. These people come everyday and watch the osprey searching for a mate. Finally, one day, the osprey finds a mate.
Unexpectedly, one day Iona comes and calls Callum to go see the ospreys. When they go see them, they find that the mate is hurt. They have no choice, but to go tell their father this thing. Callum's father has a friend who works in a zoo.
Ultimately, the family and Hamish come to know about the ospreys and Callum's father and brother make a treehouse there. Iona and Callum decide they will spend the night there. The next day, Callum comes to the treehouse but Iona is not there. Callum waits for some time but Iona doesnt show up and Callum starts worrying. He goes to Iona's house to find her down with a flu.
The next day, his mother informs Callum that Iona died last night. It was very sad as they both were very good friends. Then there was the funeral and all. As all the other birds, even ospreys migrate and Irie migrated before her mate and her child. They used to see her through a device which was fitted on her back on the day when Hamish came. Slowly, even Rob and Euan came to know about the ospreys. After some time Irie landed in Africa and she got lost there.
Callum got tensed and started worrying when Rob gave him an idea to send mails to everyone in Africa considering her position. After some time they recieve a mail from a girl called Jenny and she takes Irie into care and when Irie is strong to fly back, leaves her. Till now, Callum and Jenny become very good friends. Irie is seen flying back and has to fight against a cyclone brewing up in the North Atlantic. In the end, we see Irie, her mate and her child coming back to Scotland and Jenny flying there for the treatment of her legs as a truck had run over her legs. They had a party and stuff and in the end the whole world knows about Jenny as Callum and his friends collected all the money for her treatment and her flight. THe whole world even came to know about the Ospreys and there was a protective cover built out for the ospreys.
This book is very good for nature lovers and people who seek adventure. From the age of 10 anybody can read this book. It is a lovely book.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Olivia's First Term - Stage School
A review on a book by Lyn Gardener. Olivia's First Term is a book related to circus. It includes having courage,determination and trust.
Olivia, a twelve year old girl is with her father, Jack, and her sister, Eel. Her mother, Toni died in a plane crash. Jack used to run a circus and was a high - wire walker. He had stopped walking because he had encountered an accident which did not only break his six rib bones but also his spirit and determination. After that wherever they travelled crowds started to thin down and the people in the circus also left. Jack and his family were left with no money and they were going to Alicia Swan's home. Olivia's grandmother. When they reached there Olivia came to know that her gran runs a stage school and she hates stage schools. But, she is forced to stay there until her father dosent get some money to the family. She dosent like it there while her sister gets on very well.
As we all know, all schools have good students and bad students. It was the same here. There was a student called Katie Wilkes-Cox who was very rich. She didnt like the growing popularity for Olivia and she felt very jealous of her. To put Olivia down she used a girl Georgia's lie to bully her and make her do everything. Olivia asked Georgia to stand up to the truth. But, she realised that both she and Georgia were cowards who couldnt stand up to the truth.
Meanwhile, Eel was getting worried about Olivia's behaviour. Olivia was missing doing her high - wire walking and Eel noticed that. She finds a room which is not usually used and tells Olivia to practice there. Katie sees them and whenever OLivia is free she goes and practices there while Katie spies on her. One day, Tom, one of OLIvia's classmates saw her doing her practice and was impressed by her. He asked her to teach him. OLivia told yes on one condition that he go tell no one about this. Tom was picking up well and very soon Olivia asked him to do double take with him. they started practicing double take.
When Olivia's interest in the class did not vary, one of her teachers took her to see Romeo and Juliet. After the play, he asked her if she had enjoyed it and OLivia said that she had enjoyed the play just like high - wire walking, but in a different way. He also gave her the dialogues of the play. While going to her gran's flat, she tried acting a part and she looked beautiful.
Meanwhile, Olivia's marks were going down and she didnt want to be removed from the the Royal Spectacular Show and that is why she used Georgia to do all her work. Once, Katie passed in the exams nobody could remove her from the Show and exactly the same thing happened.
Olivia asked Tom to practice Romeo and Juliet on the high - wire with her and they did it. Seeing this, Katie got very frustrated and when Olivia and Tom had left, she went in and put in OLivia's bag hervearings studded with real rubies and diamonds because she thought that as there are so many robberies taking place, finding something robbed and that thing found in her bag would make her go out of the school. During a vocal classes, everybody kept their valuable things on the window sill, including Georgia who had got her mother's topaz ring with her. Katie acted as if she is putting her earrings there. During the break, everybody went down to drin some juices , but Olivia stayed back. When they came back, Katie shouted the alarm that her earrings were missing and the teacher told them to look every where.Katie looked into Olivia's bag and found the earrings there and even started telling that she was the one who stayed back in the class during the break. That time, a bird came and took away Georgia's topaz ring. Olivia immediately put the rope around and climbed and got all that what had gone missing. At that moment Miss Swan came in and saw what was going on. After that Katie confessed everything she had done from bullying Georgia to hiding the earrings on Olivia's bag. Miss Swan expeled Katie. Her father tried everything he could but afterwards he realised that everything cannot be done with money. After all that everybody saw Olivia and Tom doing high - wire walking and enacting Romeo and Juliet.
They were waiting for the auditions when Olivia came to know that her father is doing high - wire walking between two buildings which were far apart and the sea was in between them. Olivia somehow saved her father, her father got a lot of money after the act. Olivia and Tom went for the auditions and were chosen and the Queen loved their act.
Olivia, a twelve year old girl is with her father, Jack, and her sister, Eel. Her mother, Toni died in a plane crash. Jack used to run a circus and was a high - wire walker. He had stopped walking because he had encountered an accident which did not only break his six rib bones but also his spirit and determination. After that wherever they travelled crowds started to thin down and the people in the circus also left. Jack and his family were left with no money and they were going to Alicia Swan's home. Olivia's grandmother. When they reached there Olivia came to know that her gran runs a stage school and she hates stage schools. But, she is forced to stay there until her father dosent get some money to the family. She dosent like it there while her sister gets on very well.
As we all know, all schools have good students and bad students. It was the same here. There was a student called Katie Wilkes-Cox who was very rich. She didnt like the growing popularity for Olivia and she felt very jealous of her. To put Olivia down she used a girl Georgia's lie to bully her and make her do everything. Olivia asked Georgia to stand up to the truth. But, she realised that both she and Georgia were cowards who couldnt stand up to the truth.
Meanwhile, Eel was getting worried about Olivia's behaviour. Olivia was missing doing her high - wire walking and Eel noticed that. She finds a room which is not usually used and tells Olivia to practice there. Katie sees them and whenever OLivia is free she goes and practices there while Katie spies on her. One day, Tom, one of OLIvia's classmates saw her doing her practice and was impressed by her. He asked her to teach him. OLivia told yes on one condition that he go tell no one about this. Tom was picking up well and very soon Olivia asked him to do double take with him. they started practicing double take.
When Olivia's interest in the class did not vary, one of her teachers took her to see Romeo and Juliet. After the play, he asked her if she had enjoyed it and OLivia said that she had enjoyed the play just like high - wire walking, but in a different way. He also gave her the dialogues of the play. While going to her gran's flat, she tried acting a part and she looked beautiful.
Meanwhile, Olivia's marks were going down and she didnt want to be removed from the the Royal Spectacular Show and that is why she used Georgia to do all her work. Once, Katie passed in the exams nobody could remove her from the Show and exactly the same thing happened.
Olivia asked Tom to practice Romeo and Juliet on the high - wire with her and they did it. Seeing this, Katie got very frustrated and when Olivia and Tom had left, she went in and put in OLivia's bag hervearings studded with real rubies and diamonds because she thought that as there are so many robberies taking place, finding something robbed and that thing found in her bag would make her go out of the school. During a vocal classes, everybody kept their valuable things on the window sill, including Georgia who had got her mother's topaz ring with her. Katie acted as if she is putting her earrings there. During the break, everybody went down to drin some juices , but Olivia stayed back. When they came back, Katie shouted the alarm that her earrings were missing and the teacher told them to look every where.Katie looked into Olivia's bag and found the earrings there and even started telling that she was the one who stayed back in the class during the break. That time, a bird came and took away Georgia's topaz ring. Olivia immediately put the rope around and climbed and got all that what had gone missing. At that moment Miss Swan came in and saw what was going on. After that Katie confessed everything she had done from bullying Georgia to hiding the earrings on Olivia's bag. Miss Swan expeled Katie. Her father tried everything he could but afterwards he realised that everything cannot be done with money. After all that everybody saw Olivia and Tom doing high - wire walking and enacting Romeo and Juliet.
They were waiting for the auditions when Olivia came to know that her father is doing high - wire walking between two buildings which were far apart and the sea was in between them. Olivia somehow saved her father, her father got a lot of money after the act. Olivia and Tom went for the auditions and were chosen and the Queen loved their act.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Ra.One
A movie just released in India whose superhero is Shah Rukh Khan. I am sure many of you would have already seen the movie.
I went to the movie and it was superbly awesome. I didn't know that a sci-fic movie done by Indians could be so good. It starts with showing the main star and ends with showing him again.
Shekhar Subramanyam is a Tamilian who has married a Punjabi girl, lives in London and works in a gaming company. He gives his son many video games which he makes. His son tells him that he likes villans more than heroes and asks him to make a video game in which the villan is powerful. His son's name is Pratik and his wife's name is Sonia.
Pratik's birthday is near and Shekhar decides to make such a game for his birthday. He decides the name of the villan as Ra.one[Random Acssess version One] and the hero's name as G.one[The Good One].
Ra.one is pronounced as Raavan, who is the 'villan' of the Hindu epic Ramayan and G.one is pronounced as Jeevan which means life in Hindi.
This company puts some technology in Ra.one which is called Artificial Intelligence. With this technology Ra.one could learn everything by himself.
Seeing all the computers Ra.one comes to know how to get out of the gaming screen. While testing the video game Ra.one gives so many examples. For instance, Akashi, a colleague of Shekhar, was testing Ra.one's hand wearing a special devise. After testing it, he takes the coffee cup in the same hand and starts drinking it . After the first sip, the cup breaks and there is electricity passing through his hand. He takes out the main plug and then removes the device. Here, Ra.one proceeds to another step to come out of the game. On the day of the release of the game Akashi shows a demo of how to play this game. Though, he loses, he can feel the blow of the punch of Ra.one in real life, which should not happen. Akashi starts suspecting that there is something wrong in the system of Ra.one. Pratik wants to play the game and Shekhar sends him with Akashi. He will be playing while there would be a party in the hall downstairs. When the party gets over Pratik finishes level two and is about to go to level three, when Akashi tells him they have to go. Ra.one tries to stop him but Pratik does not stop.
Ra.one wants to kill Pratik and, so, comes out of the game. He goes and asks Akashi if he is Lucifer (Pratik's gaming name is Lucifer). Akashi says no and Ra.one kills him. Meanwhile, Shekhar is getting home trying to warn Sonia and Pratik about the danger. Ra.one drops in front of his car and asks him the same question. Shekhar tells him that he is Lucifer, Shekhar makes a sacrifice for his son, but Ra.one comes to know his true identity and kills him.
Till that time, Pratik comes to know that Ra.one has come out of the game. He tries to get G.one out of the game and Shekhar's colleague Genie helps him. Pratik asks Ra.one, who has the form of Akashi, about what happened that night. Ra.one telss him that he did'nt see anything abnormal. He, then, asks Pratik "who is Lucifer?" Pratik replies that he is Lucifer and that is his gaming name. Ra.one comes to the office and Pratik goes out with Sonia so that they can reach home. But, Ra.one catches them in the middle and tries to kill Pratik. They go to a garage and Ra.one is there also. Ra.one tries to kill them but he couldnt because G.one was there. G.one kills Ra.one for the time being and takes his hart (it is a device with which one of them, the villan or the superhero, will be killed it is their strength and their weakness).They fly to India and start living there. This is when the song Chammak Challo and Dildara comes in. Meanwhile, in London,Ra.one takes the form of Arjun Rampal from an advertising board. He somehow comes to know that they know live in India and flies to India. Here, he finds Sonia and kidnaps her. Ra.one, then, takes her form and starts controlling her brain. He sends Sonia who is now in the sinister mood in a local train to drive it, stopping at no station and increasing the speed as she goes by every station.
Ra.one,who is now in the party in the form of Sonia, takes Pratik and goes from the party. This is the best part of the movie, I'll tell it to you in Direct Speech. Pratik asks, "Why didnt G.one come with us?" Sonia(Ra.one) replies,"Looks like G.one felt scared of Ra.one. Till I dont get my hart back I am not going to anything to you. Child." This part there are some expressions which I cant describe.
G.one stops the train and goes and fights Ra.one. Pratik breaks free and wears the suit with wich we can control G.one. He wins the two levels and proceeds to the third level. This is where Ra.one will do his mistake. He will make ten Ra.ones and G.one will get confused. Then Pratik would ask G.one to read last saying of Shekhar. The word Shadow comes in the saying. G.one reads and Pratik knows which Ra.one were they supposed to hit: the one with the shadow. G.one wins the game and goes back into the gaming world leaving the hart behind. Six months after this Pratik activates G.one's hart and gets him back into their world and before that Sonia and Pratik move back to London.
I went to the movie and it was superbly awesome. I didn't know that a sci-fic movie done by Indians could be so good. It starts with showing the main star and ends with showing him again.
Shekhar Subramanyam is a Tamilian who has married a Punjabi girl, lives in London and works in a gaming company. He gives his son many video games which he makes. His son tells him that he likes villans more than heroes and asks him to make a video game in which the villan is powerful. His son's name is Pratik and his wife's name is Sonia.
Pratik's birthday is near and Shekhar decides to make such a game for his birthday. He decides the name of the villan as Ra.one[Random Acssess version One] and the hero's name as G.one[The Good One].
Ra.one is pronounced as Raavan, who is the 'villan' of the Hindu epic Ramayan and G.one is pronounced as Jeevan which means life in Hindi.
This company puts some technology in Ra.one which is called Artificial Intelligence. With this technology Ra.one could learn everything by himself.
Seeing all the computers Ra.one comes to know how to get out of the gaming screen. While testing the video game Ra.one gives so many examples. For instance, Akashi, a colleague of Shekhar, was testing Ra.one's hand wearing a special devise. After testing it, he takes the coffee cup in the same hand and starts drinking it . After the first sip, the cup breaks and there is electricity passing through his hand. He takes out the main plug and then removes the device. Here, Ra.one proceeds to another step to come out of the game. On the day of the release of the game Akashi shows a demo of how to play this game. Though, he loses, he can feel the blow of the punch of Ra.one in real life, which should not happen. Akashi starts suspecting that there is something wrong in the system of Ra.one. Pratik wants to play the game and Shekhar sends him with Akashi. He will be playing while there would be a party in the hall downstairs. When the party gets over Pratik finishes level two and is about to go to level three, when Akashi tells him they have to go. Ra.one tries to stop him but Pratik does not stop.
Ra.one wants to kill Pratik and, so, comes out of the game. He goes and asks Akashi if he is Lucifer (Pratik's gaming name is Lucifer). Akashi says no and Ra.one kills him. Meanwhile, Shekhar is getting home trying to warn Sonia and Pratik about the danger. Ra.one drops in front of his car and asks him the same question. Shekhar tells him that he is Lucifer, Shekhar makes a sacrifice for his son, but Ra.one comes to know his true identity and kills him.
Till that time, Pratik comes to know that Ra.one has come out of the game. He tries to get G.one out of the game and Shekhar's colleague Genie helps him. Pratik asks Ra.one, who has the form of Akashi, about what happened that night. Ra.one telss him that he did'nt see anything abnormal. He, then, asks Pratik "who is Lucifer?" Pratik replies that he is Lucifer and that is his gaming name. Ra.one comes to the office and Pratik goes out with Sonia so that they can reach home. But, Ra.one catches them in the middle and tries to kill Pratik. They go to a garage and Ra.one is there also. Ra.one tries to kill them but he couldnt because G.one was there. G.one kills Ra.one for the time being and takes his hart (it is a device with which one of them, the villan or the superhero, will be killed it is their strength and their weakness).They fly to India and start living there. This is when the song Chammak Challo and Dildara comes in. Meanwhile, in London,Ra.one takes the form of Arjun Rampal from an advertising board. He somehow comes to know that they know live in India and flies to India. Here, he finds Sonia and kidnaps her. Ra.one, then, takes her form and starts controlling her brain. He sends Sonia who is now in the sinister mood in a local train to drive it, stopping at no station and increasing the speed as she goes by every station.
Ra.one,who is now in the party in the form of Sonia, takes Pratik and goes from the party. This is the best part of the movie, I'll tell it to you in Direct Speech. Pratik asks, "Why didnt G.one come with us?" Sonia(Ra.one) replies,"Looks like G.one felt scared of Ra.one. Till I dont get my hart back I am not going to anything to you. Child." This part there are some expressions which I cant describe.
G.one stops the train and goes and fights Ra.one. Pratik breaks free and wears the suit with wich we can control G.one. He wins the two levels and proceeds to the third level. This is where Ra.one will do his mistake. He will make ten Ra.ones and G.one will get confused. Then Pratik would ask G.one to read last saying of Shekhar. The word Shadow comes in the saying. G.one reads and Pratik knows which Ra.one were they supposed to hit: the one with the shadow. G.one wins the game and goes back into the gaming world leaving the hart behind. Six months after this Pratik activates G.one's hart and gets him back into their world and before that Sonia and Pratik move back to London.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
A Trip to Hyderabad
Historic Hyderabad, now over 400 years old, is a curious combination of the ancient and modern. The two religions, Hinduism and Islam, have coexisted in harmony, producing a unique culture, the Deccan that has survived to this day.
Hyderabad was founded by Quli Qutb Shah after he defeated the reigning Bahmani rulers in 1512 and made the fortress, Golconda, the seat of his administration. To accommodate the population he set up a new city, Hyderabad, a few miles off Golconda. The iconic Charminar or ‘Four Minarets', the most famous landmark of Hyderabad became the centre of this flourishing city, with four roads lined with stone – faced arcades leading off it.
Hyderabad’s strategic location in the Deccan plateau and its prosperity and wealth (mainly from the famous Golconda diamond mines) had attracted the evil eye of many a marauders. The chief of these, the powerful Mughal Aurangzeb, laid siege to the citadel and, in 1687, after a long and bloody battle, the Qutb Shahis accepted defeat. The Mughal Viceroys, the Asaf Jahis were to rule Hyderabad until 1948, when Princely India was merged into a new society, the Indian Union.
HISTORY
Quli Qutb Shah’s city was first known as Bhagnagar after his Hindu paramour Bhagmati, and later Hyderabad after she was rechristened Hyder Mahal.The history of Hyderabad is linked with the rise and fall of various kingdoms which flourished in the Deccan plateau during medieval times. It was Quli Qutb Shah’s rule that opened a glorious chapter in the annals of Hyderabad.
During the early part of his reign, Golconda became famous gor its diamonds, steel and hand – printed cloth. Commerce drew merchants from Asia and Europe. Hyderabad’s fame, strategic location and the legendary wealth of Golconda attracted the Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb, who captured Golconda after a long drawn siege in 1687, making it a part of the sprawling Mughal Empire, with Asaf Jah as the Viceroy of the Deccan. But with the gradual disintegration of the Mughal Empire, Asaf Jah proclaimed himself master of the Deccan.
The state and the dynasty so founded by Asaf Jah I witnessed many interesting events in the evolution of the Hyderabad state. Asaf Jah I also initiated the tile of ‘Nizam’ which became the dynastic nomenclature of successive rulers of this state under whose reign the city reached its zenith in terms of size and power.
The Asaf Jahis ruled Hyderabad until the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1948.
THE VISIT
CHARMINAR
The iconic Charminar – a monument of four minarets – is the architectural gift of the powerful Quli Qutb Shah to the people of Hyderabad. Built in 1591, the edifice is a 20 metre square. It has 11 metre wide arches and four storied minarets rising 20 metre from the roof. Before we went there we had to meet someone and one hour went there. After that, we had our lunch and we reached Charminar around half past five when the Charminar was being closed. We were very disappointed, we took some pictures from outside and we went to one more place. (I’ll tell you about the other place in the next paragraph). So, in all we saw two places on the second day. (We arrived at some half past eight or fifteen minutes past eight).
LUMBINI PARK
The Lumbini Park is famous for its laser shows. We took a package there which involved the laser show, the Lumbini Park and the boating which took us through the Hussain Sagar lake and then to the statue of Buddha. First of all, we went to the laser show. It started with the original laser show, the lights gleaming in the water showing this shape and that. After that they started with the Big Bang followed by the history of Hyderabad, which I didn’t understand, followed by the now historical places and the modern Hyderabad secondly, they took us through Hyderabadi cinema and had a song sung in Telgu named ‘Welcome to Hyderabad’. I had a great time clicking pictures and photographing videos there.
We, then, went for the boating. We had a fun time sitting in the boat and having fun, taking in the fresh breeze. We were dropped onto the platform where the statue of the Buddha, which was an 18 metre tall granite statue. We had some fifteen minutes to ourselves there and it was fun, enjoying the fresh breeze, much fresher than that we had on the boat, which seemed to come out of nowhere. We went back after some time and got into the park. The park was not like a park, though I realised that it was the park after we had come out, there were rides all over and we enjoyed quite a few. We went back in the hotel room and were so happy to have dinner that I was ordering half of the things which were on the menu. My father said that I was ordering too much and behaved like a person who didn’t get much to eat. I replied that I was feeling like that and I was starving because I had not eaten anything after lunch.
GOLCONDA FORT
Dating back to 1143AD, , the Golconda fort was built by the Kakatiya kings of Warangal. When Quli Qutb Shah defeated the Bahmanis in 1512, he made Golconda his capital. Golconda became the centre of the international diamond trade after reserves were discovered near the Krishna River. When I went there, the whole place was in ruins and there was not much of interest to see there, though, if we had a guide, we would have been cleared of what we think about the place. Though there is one thing which will amuse the reader(s). There was a telephone on the entrance of the castle. It was a dome, where when one clapped the person in the darbar could hear it. The historians think that this place would’ve been guarded with soldiers. When one soldier or the other saw that someone was approaching them and they clapped, so, the king knew that he was expecting a guest or an enemy. The strange thing is that, the noise of the clap could be heard at many places – one the darbar, second all the places kept a watch from the top of the palace. This is all about the Golconda Fort.
RAMOJI FILM CITY
Ramoji Film City was good, though we didn’t go inside as there was no shooting taking place and the charges were a bit too high only for the rides and so we clicked some pictures and came back.
NEHRU ZOOLOGICAL PARK
There was nothing of the most important there only animals which we see in each and every Zoo. A toy Train giving you a short ride of the things in the zoo was the only other thing and other animals which were different from other parks were lions, jackals, wolves, emus, ostriches and giraffes.
This is about Hyderabad which we enjoyed. I know there would be many other things apart from this to see. How much ever we had seen, we had a wonderful time there. If you want to visit Hyderabad, it will be the best time of your lives, if the holidays are long to see whole of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
(Parts of the text have been copied from the book ‘Inside Hyderabad’ by Ramesh Reddy).
Hyderabad was founded by Quli Qutb Shah after he defeated the reigning Bahmani rulers in 1512 and made the fortress, Golconda, the seat of his administration. To accommodate the population he set up a new city, Hyderabad, a few miles off Golconda. The iconic Charminar or ‘Four Minarets', the most famous landmark of Hyderabad became the centre of this flourishing city, with four roads lined with stone – faced arcades leading off it.
Hyderabad’s strategic location in the Deccan plateau and its prosperity and wealth (mainly from the famous Golconda diamond mines) had attracted the evil eye of many a marauders. The chief of these, the powerful Mughal Aurangzeb, laid siege to the citadel and, in 1687, after a long and bloody battle, the Qutb Shahis accepted defeat. The Mughal Viceroys, the Asaf Jahis were to rule Hyderabad until 1948, when Princely India was merged into a new society, the Indian Union.
HISTORY
Quli Qutb Shah’s city was first known as Bhagnagar after his Hindu paramour Bhagmati, and later Hyderabad after she was rechristened Hyder Mahal.The history of Hyderabad is linked with the rise and fall of various kingdoms which flourished in the Deccan plateau during medieval times. It was Quli Qutb Shah’s rule that opened a glorious chapter in the annals of Hyderabad.
During the early part of his reign, Golconda became famous gor its diamonds, steel and hand – printed cloth. Commerce drew merchants from Asia and Europe. Hyderabad’s fame, strategic location and the legendary wealth of Golconda attracted the Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb, who captured Golconda after a long drawn siege in 1687, making it a part of the sprawling Mughal Empire, with Asaf Jah as the Viceroy of the Deccan. But with the gradual disintegration of the Mughal Empire, Asaf Jah proclaimed himself master of the Deccan.
The state and the dynasty so founded by Asaf Jah I witnessed many interesting events in the evolution of the Hyderabad state. Asaf Jah I also initiated the tile of ‘Nizam’ which became the dynastic nomenclature of successive rulers of this state under whose reign the city reached its zenith in terms of size and power.
The Asaf Jahis ruled Hyderabad until the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1948.
THE VISIT
CHARMINAR
The iconic Charminar – a monument of four minarets – is the architectural gift of the powerful Quli Qutb Shah to the people of Hyderabad. Built in 1591, the edifice is a 20 metre square. It has 11 metre wide arches and four storied minarets rising 20 metre from the roof. Before we went there we had to meet someone and one hour went there. After that, we had our lunch and we reached Charminar around half past five when the Charminar was being closed. We were very disappointed, we took some pictures from outside and we went to one more place. (I’ll tell you about the other place in the next paragraph). So, in all we saw two places on the second day. (We arrived at some half past eight or fifteen minutes past eight).
LUMBINI PARK
The Lumbini Park is famous for its laser shows. We took a package there which involved the laser show, the Lumbini Park and the boating which took us through the Hussain Sagar lake and then to the statue of Buddha. First of all, we went to the laser show. It started with the original laser show, the lights gleaming in the water showing this shape and that. After that they started with the Big Bang followed by the history of Hyderabad, which I didn’t understand, followed by the now historical places and the modern Hyderabad secondly, they took us through Hyderabadi cinema and had a song sung in Telgu named ‘Welcome to Hyderabad’. I had a great time clicking pictures and photographing videos there.
We, then, went for the boating. We had a fun time sitting in the boat and having fun, taking in the fresh breeze. We were dropped onto the platform where the statue of the Buddha, which was an 18 metre tall granite statue. We had some fifteen minutes to ourselves there and it was fun, enjoying the fresh breeze, much fresher than that we had on the boat, which seemed to come out of nowhere. We went back after some time and got into the park. The park was not like a park, though I realised that it was the park after we had come out, there were rides all over and we enjoyed quite a few. We went back in the hotel room and were so happy to have dinner that I was ordering half of the things which were on the menu. My father said that I was ordering too much and behaved like a person who didn’t get much to eat. I replied that I was feeling like that and I was starving because I had not eaten anything after lunch.
GOLCONDA FORT
Dating back to 1143AD, , the Golconda fort was built by the Kakatiya kings of Warangal. When Quli Qutb Shah defeated the Bahmanis in 1512, he made Golconda his capital. Golconda became the centre of the international diamond trade after reserves were discovered near the Krishna River. When I went there, the whole place was in ruins and there was not much of interest to see there, though, if we had a guide, we would have been cleared of what we think about the place. Though there is one thing which will amuse the reader(s). There was a telephone on the entrance of the castle. It was a dome, where when one clapped the person in the darbar could hear it. The historians think that this place would’ve been guarded with soldiers. When one soldier or the other saw that someone was approaching them and they clapped, so, the king knew that he was expecting a guest or an enemy. The strange thing is that, the noise of the clap could be heard at many places – one the darbar, second all the places kept a watch from the top of the palace. This is all about the Golconda Fort.
RAMOJI FILM CITY
Ramoji Film City was good, though we didn’t go inside as there was no shooting taking place and the charges were a bit too high only for the rides and so we clicked some pictures and came back.
NEHRU ZOOLOGICAL PARK
There was nothing of the most important there only animals which we see in each and every Zoo. A toy Train giving you a short ride of the things in the zoo was the only other thing and other animals which were different from other parks were lions, jackals, wolves, emus, ostriches and giraffes.
This is about Hyderabad which we enjoyed. I know there would be many other things apart from this to see. How much ever we had seen, we had a wonderful time there. If you want to visit Hyderabad, it will be the best time of your lives, if the holidays are long to see whole of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
(Parts of the text have been copied from the book ‘Inside Hyderabad’ by Ramesh Reddy).
Sunday, August 7, 2011
My Experience Making Badam Chocolate Biscotti
Yesterday I made something called Hazelnut Chocolate Biscotti. But, we dont get Hazelnuts here so I put Badam in them. I would like to tell you my experience making these Biscotti.
Our cook was also working in the kitchen as it was lunch time. I had to roast the badam and so my mother told the cook to roast it. After roasting it I covered it into a cloth and let it become cold. I started to break the badam. I had to process chocolate and sugar, so how much ever chocolate was needed I took it out and it was a big piece. I started processing it and after some five minutes I stopped it. I opened the container and saw the big piece of chocolate. I asked my mother that why is the chocolate piece remaining? My mother told me that such a big piece of chocolate will not be processes cut it and process it again. I did it and I left the mixture where it was. I put the oven and preheated it.
I started sifting the cocoa powder, flour, coffee powder, baking soda and salt. While sifting all this stuff, so much fell down that when the biscotti was being baked, I had to clean up everything. I couldnt even sit down! Well, we'll come to that part later.After I had sifted everything, with my hand mixer I started mixing the eggs and the vanilla essence while I was putting the badam the chocolate/sugar powder and the sifted things. When this was done, the batter was so hard! I couldnt make the logs out of it. But, I had seen in the video that the batter was so hard, so I called my Mom and told her to make the logs. I'll show you one picture:
She made the logs for me like this, four of them. I put them to bake and I started cleaning the Kitchen. After the kitchen was cleaned I sat down, so happy to relax. When the baking was done, I took it out and let it cool down. Then I put it on the cutting board and started cutting like this:
After I had cut all the four logs, I again started to bake them for ten ten minutes each. It came out to be very well. In the end, it all looked like this:
Our cook was also working in the kitchen as it was lunch time. I had to roast the badam and so my mother told the cook to roast it. After roasting it I covered it into a cloth and let it become cold. I started to break the badam. I had to process chocolate and sugar, so how much ever chocolate was needed I took it out and it was a big piece. I started processing it and after some five minutes I stopped it. I opened the container and saw the big piece of chocolate. I asked my mother that why is the chocolate piece remaining? My mother told me that such a big piece of chocolate will not be processes cut it and process it again. I did it and I left the mixture where it was. I put the oven and preheated it.
I started sifting the cocoa powder, flour, coffee powder, baking soda and salt. While sifting all this stuff, so much fell down that when the biscotti was being baked, I had to clean up everything. I couldnt even sit down! Well, we'll come to that part later.After I had sifted everything, with my hand mixer I started mixing the eggs and the vanilla essence while I was putting the badam the chocolate/sugar powder and the sifted things. When this was done, the batter was so hard! I couldnt make the logs out of it. But, I had seen in the video that the batter was so hard, so I called my Mom and told her to make the logs. I'll show you one picture:
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Baking
Baking is fun from my point of view. You get to learn more and more recipies and have the fun of dirting your hands or your clothes. I like doing all this while baking. There are many recipies I have made while learning to bake and I've got so many books also at home. The many recipies i have learnt are Chocolate Cheesecake, Lemon Bars, Chocolate brownies, Chocolate Fudge, Black Forest, COffee Mousse, etc. You should never eat the cakes made outside because half of it is sugar syrup and nothing else. I should say, whenever you are making a cake at home and you dont have what you need a lot of money is spent. As it happened with me when I wanted to make the Chocolate Cheesecake. We had to go from here to there to buy this and that and i dont think it would be of any use now. Though I am not going to make some recipies for the time bieng, I will be in touch with them. I am not making any morew recipies for the time bieng because I have already wasted a lot of money on the Cheesecake. I think I am going to put upnrecipies on my blog too, so that whoever sees my blog could at least save twice the money we spend on cakes made outside. And I hope that everybody who sees my blog can also get the same interest in baking that I have.
I can tell you from where I take my recipies. There is a site called joyofbaking.com. This site is simply superb. It has all the recipies for everyday life and even for special occassions. There are books like Cooking with kids from Tarla Dalal, Essential guide to cake decorating from Alex Barker and the Big Book Of Baking. All these books help me a lot to persue my hobby.
So enjoy baking fro m each and every book and website you get!
I can tell you from where I take my recipies. There is a site called joyofbaking.com. This site is simply superb. It has all the recipies for everyday life and even for special occassions. There are books like Cooking with kids from Tarla Dalal, Essential guide to cake decorating from Alex Barker and the Big Book Of Baking. All these books help me a lot to persue my hobby.
So enjoy baking fro m each and every book and website you get!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Masti with Friends
Yesterday, my friend, Ayesha, came to my house for sleepover. She came on Saturday when my sister and I were in Theatre class. When we came home, she was already there, waiting for us. We had lunch and we went down in the garden where the association had put a big screen for the cricket match finals India vs Sri Lanka. The match was won by India. The man of the match was MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, and the man of the tournament was Yuvraj Singh. All the players will be getting one crore each. We saw the match till around 11 pm in the night. When we came home, we all changed and went to sleep.
Ayesha got up first in the morning, then was my sister and the last but not the least I got up (I have a habit of getting up late in the morning during the holidays!). We got up and did Yoga for some time; we made our own breakfast which was French toast. We went and bathed. We had lunch and we started playing a game called Pictionary. This game is played with two dices, one the normal die and the other a special one. The special die denotes how we are supposed to draw. There was that you had to draw normally, or with your eyes closed, or you had to switch hands meaning if you are a right handed person you will have to draw with your left hand. You will have to draw your picture without lifting up your pencil was the one line draw. We had to move the number of spaces indicated on the normal die and on the space you land there will be a colour; you have to pick up a card and draw the picture of the thing highlighted in that colour. Last but not the least; we went to British Council Library. Ayesha read a lot of books there, though she doesn’t have the habit of reading books; and she read very thin books. I borrowed books like Tunnels whose authors are Rodorick Gordon and Brian Hilliams, Living in Space and Neil Armstrong by Heinemann respectively. At last, we went and left Ayesha at her house.
We had a lot of fun with her. I hope I can go to her house the next time.
Ayesha got up first in the morning, then was my sister and the last but not the least I got up (I have a habit of getting up late in the morning during the holidays!). We got up and did Yoga for some time; we made our own breakfast which was French toast. We went and bathed. We had lunch and we started playing a game called Pictionary. This game is played with two dices, one the normal die and the other a special one. The special die denotes how we are supposed to draw. There was that you had to draw normally, or with your eyes closed, or you had to switch hands meaning if you are a right handed person you will have to draw with your left hand. You will have to draw your picture without lifting up your pencil was the one line draw. We had to move the number of spaces indicated on the normal die and on the space you land there will be a colour; you have to pick up a card and draw the picture of the thing highlighted in that colour. Last but not the least; we went to British Council Library. Ayesha read a lot of books there, though she doesn’t have the habit of reading books; and she read very thin books. I borrowed books like Tunnels whose authors are Rodorick Gordon and Brian Hilliams, Living in Space and Neil Armstrong by Heinemann respectively. At last, we went and left Ayesha at her house.
We had a lot of fun with her. I hope I can go to her house the next time.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Why I Like or Dont like Going to School
School is our second home. The school provides us with a lot of knowledge. We also get to meet new friends and interact with them.We come to know a lot of things about them.
I like going to school and I dont like to go to school too. I like talking to my friends in the free periods and I like studying when the teacher tries to explain something to us. My friends and I also have names for each other. We have so many groups. If we have songs we will inact them in such a way that we all will start laughing before we start the song! All these factors make me like school.
I dont like school during the exam time. Infact, I dont even like staying at home during the exam time. We cant talk to each other and the silent room shouts in my ears. We cant even go to meet our friends! It makes us all so clumsy. We keep on thinking when the exams will get over or I am going to fail in these exams. All these factors make me dislike school
Whatever the matter is, I will always like school for the maximum days in a year and I will keep liking it.
I like going to school and I dont like to go to school too. I like talking to my friends in the free periods and I like studying when the teacher tries to explain something to us. My friends and I also have names for each other. We have so many groups. If we have songs we will inact them in such a way that we all will start laughing before we start the song! All these factors make me like school.
I dont like school during the exam time. Infact, I dont even like staying at home during the exam time. We cant talk to each other and the silent room shouts in my ears. We cant even go to meet our friends! It makes us all so clumsy. We keep on thinking when the exams will get over or I am going to fail in these exams. All these factors make me dislike school
Whatever the matter is, I will always like school for the maximum days in a year and I will keep liking it.
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