Pride and Prejudice

One of my favourite VCD collections that i watch often is the Pride and Prejudice BBC series.
I have ofcourse read the book already , and have even studied an abridged version of the book in my school years. Jane Austen's writing is just amazing. I mean here is a piece of literature , that still sounds so relevant even after nearly 200 years after it was written. I have tried other Jane Austen's writings some of which are quite good but none in the same league as Pride and Prejudice.

What makes this book so enchanting ? probably the romance, and the lines , the dialogues , the letters echanged between the protagonists, and of course the scenic descriptions of the english contry side.

The BBC adaptation of the novel has made it even more memorable. BBC has made some remarkable adpatations of classic novels and this should surely rank amongst the best . ( the others I like being Sherlock Holmes and Great Expectations) Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth fit into the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy respectively just like pieces from a jigsaw puzzle. if their portrayal of the characters is near perfect so are the dialogues almost repeated verbatim from the book such that you never get the feeling that you are watching a condensed version.
The music is melodious too , dominated by the piano and violin orchestras lending a rich experience overall.


This Jane Austen's 18th century novel has remarkably withstood the tides of time and still seems to find new ways of expression. and I think even Bollywood has taken a fancy to it with Aishwarya Rai taking a dig at it. How is this for a list adaptations of the novel:

1. 2005: Kiera knightly's Pride and Prejudice the movie
2. 2004: Our desi Aishwarya Rai's Bride and Prejudice or if you prefer the ridiculously titled "Amritsar to LA , Balle Balle"
3. 1995: The BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , starring Jennifer Ehle and Collin Firth - by far the best.
4. 199X: Trishna - A Hindi TV serial adaptation of the same story - a decent effort.
5. 1813: The original : Pride and Prejudice , the book by Jane Austen

Trip to Taipei

Business brought me to taipei on a late october evening. Having visited the US and Europe I was not sure what to except but what was pleasantly surprised by how modern and developed this city was. The journey from Tao Youn international airport to our Hotel in the city took about an hour. The freeway system is very developed very much like US with controlled entries and exits and its a pleasure to travel by car.

The next day was a typical business day full of meetings. But in the evening , I had the chance to explore the night markets of Taipei. Taipei also has an efficient train system. we took the underground train to the Gagantan night market.

I forgot to mention that china airlines had already obliged me by by missing my baggage and it also turned out that it was because Indian airlines screwed which sounded like the usual thing to happen anyways :-) . But then as a consequence here i was buying some bare necessities. I could buy a couple of shirts for quite cheap may about a 1000 Indian rupees. The night markets are full of roadside eateries. Some thing told me that this assortment of eateries had contributions from various species of the animal kingdom including the amphibious and reptilian varieties. So I took in the aromas and colours and let it pass by. Fortunately there are plenty of MacDonalds all around Taipei so food is not too much of an issue. The night markets are literally teaming with people you can barely walk and usually you will get pushed from one end to the other. I was surprised to not find even a single indian anywhere in the night market - and then I suppoted one - in the Cell phone shop , checking out some latest models , India as you know is slowly becoming cell phone crazy.


Sunday was the only day which was some what free from work schedule so I made the most of it by visiting the famous land mark - Taipei 101. What can i say abou this marvellous structure !
You can spot it from almost any corner of the city and it has the most amazing view from the 89th floor where there is an observatory , the building is so tall that from the top floors you can actually spot a cloud or two floating below in the lower horizons.
You can read more about it in wikipedia.

The glittering taipei 101 in the evening .... :-))




Taiwan is good for shopping too and you can find a number of swanky malls to pick up the latest and happening stuff in fashion , electronic gizmos and the like. I found the prices to be slightly on the expensive side if you compare it with US or singapore, also beware that voltage in taiwan is usually 110 v so if you are buying a hi-fi system , you will need an appropriate volatage adapter.Never the less, after a considerable amount of window shopping, the only thing that i picked up was an I-Pod nano - need less to say its a sexy gizmo that I have fallen in love with ever since :-)

Nothing too much to write home about that sounds touristy but as i have a keen interest in automobiles , I could not help noticing the number of scooters in taipei the streets are full of them and seems like a fast and easy way to get around the city. There are loads of toyota corolla nd Nissan sentra taxis around. If you are some body in India who is eyeing to buy that "D-Segment" , "luxury car" Corolla , Keep this in mind. Ditto about the Nissan Sentra when it gets introduced in India. But then on the other side , I sa w plenty of Mercedes Benz taxis in Germany So probably my argument doesn't carry much weight after all.