Amazing: The Most Overused Word in 2011

Nothing strips a word of all its meaning like using it over and over.

Case in point, the word "amazing," which has gone from describing sheer astonishment to a simple affirmation of the slightly above-average. Which is exactly why Lake Superior State University wants to ban it.

Every year the Michigan university releases a list of 15 words that, after months of staggering overuse, have got to go. Other words and phrases that made the list: "occupy," "man cave" and "ginormous."

Most of the words are synonymous with a driving force derived from pop culture. Look no further than the cult-like obsession with Beyoncé's pregnancy for the reasoning behind "baby bump," or the self-explanatory "occupy."

According to Time magazine, "amazing" came out on top with more than 1,500 nominations from anglophones worldwide. Many people complained that the word went stale after being overexposed through reality TV.

“I blame Martha Stewart because to her, EVERYTHING is amazing!” one nominee wrote.

The plight to eradicate the word has even been taken to Facebook where a smattering of groups lament the word's ubiquity.

John Shibley, one of the people responsible for the Lake Superior list told NPR that the annual word collections are like "looking at snapshots of cultural movements back then, times gone by."

The inaugural list was born at a New Year's Eve party in 1975 when a college relations director bet that he could go home and write up five overused words and phrases. That list consists of timely gems such as "macho" ("seldom pronounced properly and therefore lacks meaningfulness") and "détente" ("invented by Henry Kissinger. Nobody else knows what it means, and now even Kissinger has forgotten").

"I personally don't want to see language squelched in any way or form because I think it's a living thing. It reflects us and it's always changing," Mr. Shibley says.

The Toronto photographer JJ Thompson compiled a similar list for the Toronto Standard, where he dreams of a future without "staycation" and "foodie." Public usage of the latter word, he writes, "is like whipping out your Razr."

Another blogger ranted about words that needed to be retired with a list topped by "adorkable," no doubt inspired by Zooey Deschanel's pervasive brand of saccharine whimsical.

Lake Superior State says it doesn't compile these lists to try to control our choice of words, but simply to start a conversation about language. Still, a world without the word "man cave?" That would be pretty amazing.

For The List of All Fifteen Words Prepared By Michigan University Click on the link given below.

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

Courtesy : The Globe And Mail

I am desperate to read a book: Shahrukh Khan

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan is an avid reader, but amid the promotions of his last release, `RA.One` and upcoming film `Don 2: The King Is Back`, he is missing the joy of catching up on books.

"Desperately seeking a good book to read. Kindle dried up...bookstores out of bounds...heading to Nagpur would have been nice if I had a book," Shah Rukh posted on Twitter.

The actor and his `Don 2` team are beginning their multi-city promotion tour for the film with Nagpur. He also recieved many suggestions for latest books, and asked his Nagpur fans to give him books during his stay.

"Thanks guys and girls keep the suggestions coming...need to immerse myself in books. Been a long time since I spent some time with myself. Enroute to Nagpur...the tour begins for the chase continues film. I really love meeting you all in the garb of film promotions. DON is ON...

"So if you are in Nagpur and have the time I would love it if you get me books...remember to write ur Twitter handle please on the book," added Shah Rukh.

'Supermodel' Tyra Banks turns bestselling author with 'Modelland'

Tyra Banks’ debut fiction book, Modelland, has reached number two on the New York Times bestsellers list and number one on the Barnes & Noble charts.

The achievement certainly marks the advent of a journey from being a super model to a super author for Banks.

In a candid interview with New York Daily News, Banks revealed that books are “a work of fiction that honours my love of books and fantasy, and also lets me poke fun at things I’ve seen in the real world… many of the characters will be inspired by some of the models I’ve known, both nice and ``ice’,” the Telegraph reported.

Rumours circulated last week that Tyra`s debut book was to be turned into a film.

Of the rumours of film adaptation the model-turned-author said that she “would love to open up the Modelland casting to the world. I’m looking for an ``everygirl`` to possibly play one of the characters in the story.”

Showcase: The making of an artist

                                                                                                                                By : Swati Daftuar

He is one of India’s best known cartoonists and social chroniclers. And now comes a book that shows us how he got there. The Life of Mario: 1951, published by Architecture Autonomous, is a graphic diary of images and cartoons from Mario Miranda’s life. More than 50 years old, it is a collection of his rib-tickling, tongue-in-cheek art work edited by Gerard Da Cunha. The year 1951 marked a turning point in Mario’s artistic development and in Goa’s own history.

In 1951, Mario De Miranda had just finished university in Mumbai and was on a sabbatical. Born in 1926 in the Portuguese enclave of Daman, Mario belonged to a Goan Roman Catholic family of Saraswat Brahmin origin. His father was the Administrator of Daman and his family a part of the local aristocracy. Consequently, Mario managed to imbibe the best of both Portuguese as well as Goan cultures. This multi-cultural understanding and empathy is clearly manifested in his work.

It is impossible to have read newspapers and magazines in India and not come across examples of Mario’s works. His influences are everywhere, in books, poetry and social commentary. But this book provides us with a peek into his personal life. Included in this volume are scenes from his daily life, which he was in the habit of drawing.

There are gossiping aunties, solemn priests, dances and birthday parties, favourite bars that allowed credit; everything from those years of Mario’s life that would later chart out the path towards his career. These images also show the cartoonist’s trademark style taking shape; the exaggerated line of the bosom and the rosy noses, the strut and bug eyes that would later become his signature style. Flipping through the pages of Mario’s life, you see the artist evolve and find himself within his own work.

All of 25 and free spirited, Mario’s sabbatical in Goa was filled with old friends and cousins out to have fun. They organised clandestine parties and picnics, visited their favourite haunts and hardly had a dull moment. Mario recreates this world, introducing us to hoards of charming and lovable characters.

A keen observer of village politics and human nature, he transforms this book, with his notes, dialogues and vignettes that pepper the images, from a simple chronicle of his life to a richly humorous social satire.

Many have wondered how Mario, with no formal training in art, could draw so spontaneously. Manohar Malgaonkar, whose book Goa was illustrated by Mario, seemed to have hit upon the answer when he said that Mario ‘did not become a cartoonist. He was born a cartoonist.’

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Book Review : 'Sita's Ramayana' by Samhita Arni & Moyna Chitrakar

The docile and soft Sita of Ramayana may not be a role model for most women today, however, author Samhita Arni in a new graphic novel has brought out the bolder colours of the epic character.

"Sita's Ramayana," a vivid book which retells the ancient Indian epic through illustrations in Bengal's folk art form of Patua, has Sita voicing out her turbulent life, her anger on Rama and various such emotions that have been underplayed in most of the 'sanitised' depictions of the Ramayana.

Arni, who found international acclaim at the age of 12 with her book "The Mahabharatha: A Child's View," collaborated with Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar to portray a Sita that the current generation could identify with. "The book came with the feeling that the kind of Ramayana that I grew up with is where Ram and Sita are like ideal characters, can't really identify with them but are held up as role models superficially.

"Sita's Ramayana comes from folk stories and versions which were sidelined and where we saw a very different Sita, one who has a strong voice, a voice articulating the kind of tragedy that befalls on her," says Arni.

The author was in the capital for the fourth edition of "Bookaroo" book festival which was held in Delhi from November 25 to 27.

Arni's interest in mythology began at a tender age of four with her grandmother s tales and grew further with time spent in Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand. Her exposure to different cultures also gave her an insight into the varying forms of Ramayana across the world.

"There's a wonderful poem that's written on a wall of a Thai temple where Ravana confesses his love to Sita and how he knows his love will kill and destroy him and yet he loves her. I think it s quite beautiful and creates a different image of these characters and also different image of love," she says.

The 27-year-old writer disagrees with Delhi University's decision to withdraw A K Ramanujan's essay on Ramayana from the history syllabus.

"You should not hinder knowledge and should not blinker yourself. Education is for the sake of expanding knowledge. I don't think we should restrict or prohibit it in anyway because that becomes censorship.

"Obviously, you can disagree with Ramanujan's essay, you can have a conversation about it, you might not like it but that should not stop it from being out there. Different versions of Ramayan are part of our heritage, we should celebrate it rather than push it under the carpet," she says.

Arni, whose book has made it to the New York s best seller, featured in the fourth "Bookaroo" book festival that was held in the national capital from November 25 to 27. Speaking of her experience at the festival, Arni says, "Although my session at the festival was for 12-16 years of age group, children as young as 8 years old had joined. The book is not restricted to any age group or language due to the visual treatment of the subject." Her next book, she says would also be based on the Ramayan but in the setting of 21st century and as a fictional thriller.

Stephen King, Haruki Murakami nominated for 'Bad Sex in Fiction'

Stephen King: Ouch!

Famous British journal the 'Literary Review' has nominated certain eminent authors like  Haruki Murakami; master of horror, Stephen King and the twice Booker nominated and Sebastian Barry for its yearly Bad Sex Award, the prize awarded to the worst literary depictions of sexual acts.The Bad Sex Award, now in its 19th year. We bring for our readers certain quotes from those authors books who have been nominated for this year's bad sex awards

Choicest quotes

11.22.63 by Stephen King  (“Her head bonked on the door. ‘Ouch,’I said. ‘Are you all right?’”)

The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey (“Every part of my body sang some song I had never heard.”)

The Great Night by Chris Adrian. (“His lady lifted to the stars on his impossibly stiff, impossibly elegant cock.”)

On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (“We got rid of our damned clothes, and clung, and he was in me then.”)

Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas  (“My tongue furiously worked the craters.”)

Parallel Stories  by Péter Nádas (“They hit gracefully on this exceedingly advantageous position.”)

Ed King by David Guterson (“At the moment of their mutual climax, Ed made sure Diane was on top.”)

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M Auel (“It surged up, unti, with volcanic release, it engulfed them.”)

The Affair by Lee Child (“Then faster and harder. Then we were panting. faster, harder, faster, harder.”)

Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller (“We’re part of the same organism: some outrageous sea creature.”)

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy  (“Henry reached up her thighs … as though quietly imploring.)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami  (“A freshly made ear and a freshly made vagina look very much alike.”)

And also : "[Her breasts] seemed to be virtually uninfluenced by the force of gravity, the nipples turned beautifully upward, like a vine's new tendrils seeking sunlight."

And also: “I’m still erect now, and it shows no sign of subsiding. Neither Sonny and Cher nor three-digit multiplication nor complex mathematics had managed to bring it down.”

'Chapter Eleven', the corporate tale that wasn't

(IANS) Chapter 11, which in legal terms means filing for bankruptcy, is the central theme of this supposed peek-a-boo into the corporate world. The title is apt and justified as it won`t even take you 11 chapters to figure out that the book is a result of clear bankruptcy of ideas.

For starters, it could have done with some sharp editing and generous chopping of the tech lingo, which though simplified still manages to sound like gibberish.

The plot is a done-to-death Bollywood cliché. Virendra Vikram Singh or VVS is your typical small town boy dreaming of making it big one day. The dreams of VVS, a Rajput from Udaipur with exceptional intellect, come true when he lands a job with a Fortune 500 company in Gurgaon with the help of a sleazy college senior who`s now a strings-pulling "fixer" office senior.

The Blackberrys, laptops, corporate suits and king-size breakfasts make for a glamorous entry but soon lose sheen when the company files for Chapter 11.

Heads roll, VVS does a `what-am-I-doing-here` act but the "fixer" senior comes to his rescue, time and again.

Meanwhile, our protagonist naively manages to get into a soup by doing a hacking job for a blue-blooded Rajput from his hometown, finds a place to stay with two women - one of them beautiful with a bell-like voice - and discovers the virtues of Facebooking and coffee guzzling to kill office time.

In between, we`re also subjected to ill-timed flashbacks where VVS is still a student in Delhi University. We`re told, more than once, that he was IIM (Indian Institute of Management) material but the "god-like" influence of the sleazy senior changes the course of his life and puts him on the path of Navy Cuts and Old Monks.

Back to the present, VVS expectedly falls for the girl with the bell-like voice despite a sarcastic wife back home who keeps calling to check if he`s been asking "how was it" there too -- a reference to a question he used to ask her after their passionate act.

In office, he`s been christened "thakur" and is just beginning to make an impression on seniors with acronyms like his when tragedy 1 strikes. A marketing campaign is leaked and all fingers point towards him. Under the impression that he`s innocent, VVS gets the shock of his life when he finds out that he`s been stabbed in the back by the bell-like voice. Tragedy number 2.

Losing all sense of faith and sanity, VVS bursts out with an impromptu, supposedly-brave speech in the office whose customary purpose is to make the protagonist appear like a coming-of-age hero. Unfortunately, it is neither heroic nor does it move, it`s just a never-ending rant.

Contemporary in its voice and setting, what drowns ‘Chapter Eleven’ is the oft-trodden path it takes.

What could have been an insightful, vivid journey of the corporate industry is reduced to an underwhelming and unintelligent drama with one-dimensional characters, uninspiring writing and a storyline that can be predicted just by turning the book over and going through the blurb.