BOOK REVIEW
Book: Prisoner of Birth
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Danny Cartwright vs. Craig Spencer. The former, a backstreet mechanic, school dropout, a simple but determined guy. The latter, a hotshot criminal lawyer, cunning as a fox, and following a meteoric rise in his career. Their fates get intertwined in a back alley of a pub, a drunken brawl ensues and Daniel Cartwright is implicated of the murder of his best friend with Spencer being the witness. What follows is another masterpiece in the series by Archer. A tale full of lies and deception, trust and love, beginnings and ends. The author very skillfully renders out an amazing story of how a guy with his back to the wall and everything to loose seeks redemption and justice for himself and his loved ones. Our protagonist is spectacularly guided by Sir Nicolas Moncrieff, a character so splendidly crafted that one almost senses a great loss when he meets an unexpected end in the midst of the story. But the author being the master of modern day fiction makes this unexpected turn in the story appear as a silver lining for Cartwright. A case of identity switch follows, which the author successfully manages to pull off to an extent that actually makes the reader start becoming a bit anxious with the feeling of what is to follow next. Craig Spencer is portrayed as a shady and deceitful character who on the zenith of his career can be toppled in a abyss by a single truth, a truth Daniel knows, and a truth which Craig and his friends must protect at all cost from coming out in the open. Another major character in the story is played by Alex Redmayne, defendant for Cartwright in the court. Shown as hard working and honest lawyer, his character is exactly in sync with the fast pace of the story. What sets the story apart is the way the author has brought out emotions at various important junctures of the story, the reader doesn’t fail to empathize with Cartwright or Alex when they lose their appeal in the court against a life sentence, and actually one ends up managing a smile when a resurrected Cartwright returns to actually destroy all his tormentors in front of the entire society. The author provides a vivid picture of the struggle Daniel has to go through to fight back, giving intricacies of the feelings of a prisoner just let out struggling to find a hold in the fast paced world, and overcoming all odds of pretending to be someone else. The book keeps moving at a steady pace and none of the sub plots appear to be a drag at any time. For those to whom volume as well as content is important, the author has provided a perfect blend. At the end of the story, the reader can’t help but think how we all end up being prisoners of our birth…
Anuj Kumar (ECE, Semester 5)
Brand Conscious
MALLS AND MARKETS:RAJOURI GARDEN
For all you brand conscious people out there, and even those who’re not that brand conscious yet, but would like to be. A great place to go shopping for clothes in west delhi is the market of Rajouri Garden (a.k.a. Rajouri).
The easiest way to reach is by the Delhi metro. For the branded goods there are three great malls in Rajouri, namely: City Square, TDI and West Gate. City Square is a medium sized mall located in the Shivaji District Centre next to the Rajouri metro station. The main feature is the Lifestyle Departmental Store, which is good for ethnic wear. The other brands available are United Colors Of Benetton, Uni Style Image for t-shirts and Nike for sportswear. The TDI Mall, near the Vishal Cineplex is spacious and has outlets of Penny Lane, Pluss and Wills Lifestyle. The Woodland outlet is the place to go for footwear. The Westside Store has all kinds of clothes and at good prices too. The West Gate Mall is the place which boasts of high-end fashion brands like Marks & Spencer, Puma, Next, FCUK, Reebok Classic, Kazo and many more. Girls searching for good heels must check-out this mall. Not only the malls, the main market of Rajouri Garden is the destination for traditional wear. Novelty is a well-known store for suits. Even brands like Fabindia and Biba can be found there. Rajouri Garden, with its versatility, offers you a mix of both western and traditional wear, can easily be awarded the title for the best shopping place in this area.
Manisha Suhag,2nd yr,EE | Aarushi Kumar,2nd yr,EE
SALSA
The Spanish word ‘Salsa’ literally means sauce or flavor. Take the literal meaning and add it to a dance form and you have Salsa– saucy, flavored and great fun! Salsa is danced to music with a recurring eight-beat pattern; that is, two bars of four beats. Salsa patterns typically use three steps during each four beats, one beat being skipped. However, this skipped beat is often marked by a tap, a kick, a flick, or the like. Typically the music involves complicated percussion rhythms and is fast, with around 180 beats per minute. The good news about Salsa is that you are not travoltzing all over the floor like in Foxtrot or Samba. This is a spot dance, where you occupy a fixed area on the dance floor.
Many clubs specialize in salsa music and most towns offer classes in salsa dancing. While not the easiest dance form, because of its high tempo, is it not particularly difficult, and dancers of all skill levels should be able to gain proficiency within a matter of months. The very simplicity underlies its extreme flexibility; the sheer amount of personal choice. Just as you can walk in any direction you choose, so you can dance salsa on the spot, in straight lines, or in turning paces. The remaining beat can be highlighted with a tap, kick or pause.
A step is when you put your foot down and move your weight onto it (foot placement with weight transfer), a tap is when you put your foot down but don’t move your weight onto it (foot placement without weight). In many Latin countries, couples even choose which beat they would like to dance on, and it need not necessarily be the first beat.
All this might sound like rhythmic anarchy and it would be, were it not for one vital constraint. Salsa music and its progenitors has always been music for dancing. Its cooperative heritage has engendered a belief, in Latin America at least, that everyone else has an equal right to enjoyment on the dance floor. This alone prevents outbreaks of destructive mayhem. Instead this attitude (especially towards one’s partner) welds the forces of spontaneity, individuality and musicality together to form the atmosphere that Latin music is renowned for. The way salsa is danced varies significantly depending where you’re from and how you’ve learnt it. In the main, salseros from different backgrounds can still dance with each other, at least at a basic level. British salsa is primarily anchored around the back basically, turns are executed on the second beat after a “wind-up” movement on beat one and are biased anticlockwise. North American salsa is built around the latin basic and many early combinations contain turns to the right. Salsa from the Caribbean and Latin America is presented more commonly as a walk, resulting in a much more circular in movement and the turns being slower. Within this are the main stereotypes of the Cuban and Colombian style that is, having an action that digs deeper into the floor or one that travels lighter above it respectively. When a couple takes to the dance floor, both partners cannot initiate at the same time, neither can they both comply. Therefore one partner initiates and the other complies. This is known as leading and following respectively. Traditionally the lead role has been assumed by men andthe following by women, although this has begun to change: where women are forced to lead due to a dearth of men, and because the social roles of both genders are being redefined.
The lead (known as la marca meaning “the mark” in Argentine Tango) for a move can take a variety of forms, usually presenting itself as a change in pressure (increase/decrease) at the points of partner contact, or in the body position of the leader relative to the follower. The most elegant leads are clear and considerate to the follower without being obvious to the casual on-looker. The challenge to the follower, in choosing to comply with the signal, is in finding ways of self-expression whilst dancing within its constraints Consequently salsa demands the abilities of lead and follow of its dancers in order for it to be executed on our latterday club floors in a social context.
Show off to your friends:
1. If a dancer begins salsa dancing on the first beat of the phrase (left-right-left-pause), the style is known as on one.
2. If the dancers begin their movement on the second beat of the phrase (pause-left-right-left), the style is known as on two. While proponents of a certain style have reasons for believing one is better than the other, ultimately it comes down to a matter of personal preference.
3. In addition to the basic stylistic variations of on one and on two, there are a number of major schools of salsa dancing style. The main on one styles are LA style, Colombian style and Cuban style. The main on two styles are ballroom mamba, en clave and palladium two. Eddie Torres style combines the on one and on two styles by using the starting and pausing points of on one style, but having the body switch position where it would normally switch in the on two styles.
THE gREEN EFFECT
We live in a world made up of filth, dirt and dust not only over the layers of the earth’s crust but all throughout the troposphere. We stopped breathing long back, all we do now is infiltrate our body’s defense mechanisms with the so-called “air” that is available to us. It’s analogous to an agent right out of a matrix movie trying to take over our lifeline for good. All we do is watch the action of destruction and extinction. Since when did we stop caring about the climate changing... is the question I pose to you. Climate change is no long a hobby or a routine job for the meteorologist and oceanographers anymore; it’s becoming a global issue concerning not just the elite but all classes of the living societies including laymen, peasants sans “I-don’t-care-what-comes-may” morons. It’s high time we take a stance and make a firm decision as in which side we are on.
BRIEFING:“What exactly is happening to our mother earth?”Apparently this is a billion dollar question to a section of our society who still believes “ignorance is bliss”. To be totally frank there can’t be anyone who could claim that he has no answer to this question, if there’s any, then he is inexistent.
We feel the air around us changing. The sensory framework of our human anatomy sends signals of change and potential peril but we simply refuse to acknowledge it. The limits of carbon dioxide in air have been pushed far too much. We breathe more and more of this toxic biohazard each day, as easy as swallowing the finest butter and the best part is that we don’t even notice it.
The carbon level mitigation is the first step towards keeping this bio-menace within limits of containment and from augmenting this misanthropic phenomenon any further. There could be a few thousands of environment laws and protocols signed between the countries to adopt effective strategies to mitigate CO2 emissions but ultimately it comes down to personal initiatives at the individual level in schools, universities, offices, etc.
Do we ever think at least once (let alone twice) before throwing a used Pepsi fountain cup on the road never caring to look back? Do we care about the plastic sheets being utilized to wrap the sandwich we buy from the Mech cafeteria at least half as much we care for the sandwich? Do we use a bus to come to college (if practical) or we take our Euro-3 emission control car just for a “sinner” for a comfortable drive to the university? No offence but I am flagrantly placing the facts like a blackjack dealer, to the extent of horizon of my understanding pertaining to this issue.Quintessentially, I would like to rope in this thought for your better understanding which might facilitate you to fathom this quest of finding a conclusive solution to this problem. Experts are grappling in this regard and find this task arduous. When the solution to this problem lies within us and when we could take matters into our own hands, I feel there is no need to panic or frantically look for new adoptive measures. All it takes is a little of our attention and some good amount of conscious effort to make our first step towards our objective.
Shall we make an effort to “GO GREEN”?
Arjun Mahalingam, 3rd year, ME
