Ingenious, isn't it? I thought so too. And it also works so well as an ad for the dictionary concerned.
- Thank you, Shreya Shetty (Class of 2010), for the alert.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Infotainment at its best
Ingenious, isn't it? I thought so too. And it also works so well as an ad for the dictionary concerned.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
He is 25 — and in all his life he has read only one book
My Facebook status update today — and the reactions:
For
me, civilisation as I know it came to an end yesterday. I met a young
man who seemed to be unperturbed about that fact that in all his life —
he is 25 years old — he has read only one book, a biography of a
Southern film star that he received as a gift.
- Sruti Nayani, Debarati Deb, Sherry M Jacob-Phillips and 39 others like this.
Nazir Bhatri A matter of perspectives. I once met a person who had never seen a live cricket match at a stadium and felt the same !!!!!!
MOnica CHauhan So sad...today's generation don't have the love for books n don't know what they are missing out
Ankita Sengupta I guess he will be the only guy around who will not receive your e-mails on Reading Room posts then.
Tia Raina If it makes you feel better, I'm sure the number would rise if you considered magazines to come under the broad umbrella of books
Kishore Gubburi let it be..... some read books, some read life..... books are not life right? what say Ramesh Prabhu
Ramesh Prabhu Kishore Gubburi: http://bit.ly/PrabhuA116.
engageentertainenlighten.blogspot.com This blog is for students of Commits, a media college in Bangalore...See More- Kishore Gubburi How many books Dhirubhai Ambani read? He build the biggest business empire in corporate India..... Reading life is more important......yes, books give knowledge....but more important is knowing life, which comes through application, not necessarily just reading
Sushmita Chatterjee I think he is more of the kind who reads books only when gifted Why don't you give him a few to start with?
Poonam Parekh Chordia Sir, lucky you - you've met just one person so far!! Don't be surprised if you come across many more like him!
- Ramesh Prabhu Kishore Gubburi: Here is a relevant quote — words of wisdom: “It [further education] is most essential, otherwise I would not have educated my sons. I learnt the hard way. Maybe if I had some education my success and growth would have been quicker.” — Dhirubhai Ambani
- ALSO READ: "Why you must read".
Monday, March 17, 2014
How to avoid struggling to make conversation
Have you noticed how people warm up to you when you are able to strike up an interesting conversation with them? I know some youngsters, though, who find it difficult to make the first move. "We don't know how to begin," they tell me. "And we don't know what to say."
Gretchen Rubin understands your pain. And that is why the best-selling American author has compiled a menu of "small-talk" options for those who struggle to make conversation. Here are the points she makes:
Rubin elaborates on each point, with examples, here: "Do You Struggle to Make Conversation? A Menu of Options for Small Talk".
 |
| GRETCHEN RUBIN |
1. Comment on a topic common to both of you at the moment.
2. Comment on a topic of general interest.
3. Ask a question that people can answer as they please.
4. Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a single word.
5. If you do ask a question that can be answered in a single word, instead of just supplying your own information in response, ask a follow-up question.
6. Ask getting-to-know-you questions.
7. React to what a person says in the spirit in which that that comment was offered.
8. Be slightly inappropriate.
9. Watch out for the Oppositional Conversational Style.
10. Follow someone’s conversational lead.
Rubin elaborates on each point, with examples, here: "Do You Struggle to Make Conversation? A Menu of Options for Small Talk".
- ON A RELATED NOTE, legendary Paris Review editor George Plimpton shares his secrets of combating the fear of public speaking: "How to Overcome Stage Fright".
- ADDITIONAL READING: "I wonder if the lack of a reading habit also affects one's verbal skills".
Friday, March 14, 2014
What is an 'editorial'? How is an 'appraisal' different from a 'review'? What does 'op-ed column' mean?
Trust The New York Times, one of the world's great newspapers, to come to the rescue of readers who want to know how to distinguish the different sections in a newspaper. Check out its readers' guide here.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Why the writer should be considered the "hero" of a film, any film
An excerpt from a fascinating, penetrating, and rib-tickling interview with Billy Wilder ("The Art of Screenwriting", by James Linville, 1996):
THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH
THE BIG QUESTION
THE EXPLOSIVE ANSWER
And that's only the first three lines from Wilder's response, which is a few hundred words long. The interview itself takes all of 23 pages in a brilliant compilation, The Paris Review Interviews: Vol. 1. Each of the 16 interviews with creative geniuses ranging from Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway to Billy Wilder and Robert Gottlieb is worth the price of the book. Buy it now.
 |
| BILLY WILDER AND HIS SIX OSCARS. |
Billy Wilder, one of American cinema's premiere writer-directors, has always maintained that movies are "authored", and has always felt that much of a film's direction ideally should take place in the writing. Like many of the medium's great filmmakers, Wilder began his career as a writer, yet he is unique in the extent of his involvement in the development of the material he has directed. Indeed, he has cowritten all twenty-four of his films.
THE BIG QUESTION
The interviewer: Film really is considered a director's medium, isn't it?
THE EXPLOSIVE ANSWER
Billy Wilder: Film's thought of as a director's medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It's that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot — the telephone book?
And that's only the first three lines from Wilder's response, which is a few hundred words long. The interview itself takes all of 23 pages in a brilliant compilation, The Paris Review Interviews: Vol. 1. Each of the 16 interviews with creative geniuses ranging from Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway to Billy Wilder and Robert Gottlieb is worth the price of the book. Buy it now.
- Here are just a few of the 24 films Billy Wilder has directed (and co-written): The Front Page; Some Like It Hot; Sunset Boulevard; Double Indemnity; The Apartment. I have ordered the first two from Amazon — the DVDs should be arriving tomorrow, so that takes care of my weekend viewing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
