Sherlock Holmes

It has been a long time since I have written in this space. Time is a constraint which prevented me from doing so. Another issue is a topic I am interested in. Let me update you the things which happened in my life since my last post.

The biggest story is that I am now an earning member of my family. I am now able to support my dad in running the family. Though he doesn't ask me for anything, I am now capable and will be helping him in any circumstances. Me becoming an earning member itself is a story. I am greatly indebtful to a friend of mine without whom, I would have still been sitting at home thinking what to do next. Thanks to him, I am now one among the 303,000 strong workforce of a 126 year old German automotive giant who has overall revenues running in the order of 50 million Euros in the last fiscal and has presence in nearly 60 countries worldwide, through more than 350 subsidiaries.

Now, that I am earning, I am now starting to realize my many dreams. One such dream was to own The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Though I had read almost all the adventures, I am a big fan of the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I never had a copy of it by myself. I always read the copies owned by my friends, who were kind enough to lend me their copies to savour the mystery solving adventures of one of the most famous, and the only “consulting detective”. Now, I am a proud owner of an imported hardcover, published by Vintage Books in 2009, commemorating the 150^th birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Buy the book in flipkart or amazon). In fact, I am going to tell about his adventures, the way I perceived it and enjoyed it.

I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes by my maternal grandfather. In my childhood, he subscribed to a summer library program by The Trivandrum Publications. They send us a set of books by post at the beginning of every summer. I used to eagerly wait for their books as it started in me a great eagerness to read. They contained many small books, easy enough for kid of that age to handle. Moreover, it was in my mother tongue which made it easy for me to understand the stories easily. The books include 1001 Nights, the Arabian fables, books on English grammar, and many more. That’s all what I could remember.

Of all the books, I was interested in Sherlock Holmes the most. They had one or two short stories at a time and I would finish the book in a single sitting and eagerly waited for the next. Though it was a little bit difficult to sink into the Victorian setup, being a Keralite young boy, the stories were far beyond the crutches of such limitations. It was the mystery and suspense that intrigued me. In the evenings, I used to sip the hot glass of Complan (yes!! I was a Complan boy! Still, I didn’t get that height and physique as the ads say) and read the stories. I re read all the Holmes stories available to me umpteen number of times. Some stories were even by heart to me at those times. After I read “The Dancing Men” (First appeared in The Strand magazine in 1903), I even prepared my own version of the code and tried to teach it myself and my sister, which met with great failure.

Now, years after that, I was reading the recently acquired book, sipping a hot glass of Complan (yes, still I am a Complan boy, waiting for the ads to become true!!!!) which aroused the old memories in me regarding the Sherlock Holmes.

A year ago, I happened to come across a modern take on Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock, which came as a TV series in BBC One in 2010. What I felt is that the creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Grattis had done a beautiful job of recreating the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the 21^st century. The telegraphs are replaced by SMS and the diary of Dr Watson is replaced by his blog. It is simply great. They have already aired 2 seasons of three episodes each. Another 3-episode season is about to start its production in January, 2013 and airing date is not yet announced. It is very sad that they only air 3 episodes per season. Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as his trusty compliance have done their job exceptionally well. Cumberbatch is a delight to watch as Sherlock with all the eccentricities and intelligence neatly portrayed by him.

CBS, have started their version of modern Sherlock, with a small twist. In Elementary, they have made a makeover for the trusted companion of Sherlock. Dr Watson is no longer a “he”. Dr. Joan Watson (played by Lucy Liu) comes to live with Sherlock Holmes (played by Jonny Lee Miller), who has moved to New York as a part of drug rehabilitation. Watson is employed by Holmes’ father to help Holmes in rehabilitation. I have not yet seen any of the episodes of this, but I am looking forward to see the episodes.

My Observations on Romance

Note: All the characters in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to those who are dead or living is purely coincidental.

Initially, I thought of publishing this as a Valentine's Day special. But what to do.. Work pressure made me wait till now to finish this one up.

Well, I don’t know how or where to start from. It has been quite a long time since I got time to write something. This time, I am writing about an incident which took place in my life quite recently. Before I continue, let me re-iterate the fact that the situations and characters are fictitious. This is just an imaginary take from my side on the situation.

About two months ago, one of my very old friends called me up. She said she is getting engaged. I felt happy for her. She is a very nice good looking girl. In my opinion, not less than an actress. Her character also is very good. She is like an angel. To be frank, if our age, caste and horoscopes were compatible, I would definitely marry her. She was such a lovely girl.

And, she had a small problem with the engagement. One thing is that she wanted to do at least a year or two in her research. The reason seemed legitimate to me. It is quite natural for a person of her intellectual excellence to have a keen interest in academics, which she gives predominant importance than any other things. She might have felt being a family woman might affect her research work badly. Quite meaningful concern she has, but it will start being a problem when she starts a family. With proper understanding between the couple, this problem ceases to be a matter of concern. I succeeded in talking this sense into her, which, luckily, she agreed and understood.

Then came the next problem. A flashback. She in the first year of undergraduate studies and he in his final year, in the same institution. Naturally, she being a natural beauty, attracted everyone’s attention, including his. He proposed to her, which she graciously denied stating the reason of her family being a conservative one and they don’t like her to fall in love and marry someone that way. She thought that would be the end of it. Now, five years later, he has come through “proper channel”!! She feared that her refusal would spark an angry man in him. The truth is that he loved her sincerely. That is the reason why he is now at your doorstep asking for you. Five years has not done any degradation in his love for her. That is the power of love.

Speaking of the power of love, I recently met a couple, who became a couple quite recently. At one point of time, they used to tease me for crying over the 200 SMS cap laid by TRAI as I was not able to send messages and thereby talk freely to my girl-friend. Why SMS?? What is the use of it?? You can call and convey a message, then why SMS. Once they started seeing each other, they started messaging and started recharging for message offers. They were so adamant about me sending SMSs but these people, after their ordeal, started to do the same.

Earlier, they hated romantic movies and stories. Now, they have started liking it. Last day, they had asked me for some romantic movie from the south. They even started liking romantic movies which they don’t even know the language!! Love changes things in you a lot. Some changes are for good and some.. I don’t know.

As an observer, I am always fascinated to see a couple in love. It enhances the good qualities in you. The power of love tries to eliminate the evil traits in you. I have personally seen that in myself and in my friends. Somebody has Love makes people not only blind, but sometimes deaf and dumb too. In my opinion, this is half true. A person in love, seizes to care about what is happening to others and there ends the comparison. In my experience, love makes people more responsible. It brings out the caretaker in you. It identifies the soft-corners in you. Even the toughest man will be having a soft-corner and his soul partner can easily recognize it. Love brings out the human in you. At this point, I would like to quote from a Malayalam movie which released recently. This is a rough translation.

The sun rose and set daily. It has also rained before. But, those were not mine. Those were not for me. Because, I did not know what love is till yesterday. The love which sparkled in me made me notice that the rains had her fragrance. The rays of the sun were she embracing me. Love is that emotion which makes a sixty year old man feels himself sixteen, which makes even the most unromantic guy on earth dream like anything. When one starts speaking the language of love, he wishes to start each day earlier and not let the day end ever. It is the language that any living being on earth can easily understand. The biggest prayer. “I LOVE YOU”.

Being in love means, there would be differences in opinion between the couple. Its quite natural to have differences in opinion between two persons. No two people in this world have an exactly same opinion in every single aspect. In my opinion, these differences are good only. This helps to know them very well. There is a saying in Malayalam, "Quarrels are there, only when love is there". It is simply true. These quarrels will make them realise how much they love each other. A famous song in Malayalam has lines saying "O quarrels, without you, we would never recognise the love in us ". So dear couples who frequently quarrel each other, its not because you both are not compatible, its because you both love each other very well.
Now, we have seen the after effects or the effects of being in love. The twists and turns of the character of those who are in love. What about other persons who are associated with the couple? Friends, relatives, colleagues...
The most affected people are the best friends of the people in love. They used to be hanging out together and now, all of a sudden, the couple has to be given their personal world of romance. It will be hard for such people to get adjusted to such an environment. To me, it was very tough in the beginning.. During my undergraduate days, I even used to cry alone in my room when all of my friends went out and enjoyed with their girlfriends. I still remember a rainy day when we all went out for lunch to a premier restaurant outside the campus. While returning, the couples (there were 2 pairs) planned to go for boating. And one of the couples didn't have an umbrella. I gave them mine and walked back drenching in rain. I was glad it was raining. Nobody could see the tears rolling down my eyes. I spent that entire afternoon crying in my room.
Well, there are another group of people who tend to get annoyed or annoy other people. Generally, these people might have had a very bitter experience with girls. Most of them would have been rejected once or multiple times by their "prospective girlfriends". A popular song which released recently has given them a nice name - "soup boys". They should be on the watch list. "Even that dumbf**k got a girlfriend. Why not me??". They tend to recruit more and more people to their group and enhance their strength. Since such people are a majority here, they will find no difficulty in finding people of similar character.
So, in short, falling in love is not at all a crime. Its a human emotion that overflows at some points of time. And those people are lucky enough to have someone at the receiving end and somebody to give it to them. And for others, it is not at all a reason to worry. There is a better person waiting for you somewhere in the world. And to all those people who are the rejectees - Soup Boys and Soup Girls, you people lost a person who doesn't love you at all. But they lost a person who loves them from bottom of the heart.

Dedicating this to all my friends who are in love, who are searching for love and to those who know what love is.