A Menace Ended!!!!

“VEERAPPAN” does this name ring a familiar bell? Oh yeah loud enough i guess, after all who can forget this bandit with his trademark moustache n mysterious ways. A guy for whose capture, the police offered a reward of 20 million rupees in India, wherein with each passing year, the reward amount kept increasing but no sign of any success of his capture.
From a young age I’d been hearing about his terror tactics, from his connection with more than 100 murders, holding the famous film star Rajkumar hostage, to his notorious ivory poaching and sandlewood smuggling for millions of dollars and kept wondering why it was so difficult getting this guy behind bars....Well I knew soon enough!

Veerappan’s domain was a vast area of forest, bordering the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The police tried adopting various strategies to capture this fugitive; the ultimate attempt made by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka’s combined task force of nearly 2,000 police officers who literally combed through the forests.. (2000 police men to capture one man!!!!) unfortunate outcome- they failed to pin down this elusive bandit!Their failure each time was probably because of his excellent information network, which enabled him to stay one step ahead of law enforcers. I’d once heard that villagers in the area kept silent about his movements because of the terror tactics of his gang members, who would kill anybody suspected of being an informer. Besides it was claimed he had powerful political backing and connections which helped him all along.

His supporters liked to project him as a kind of Robin Hood figure. In my opinion he was far fetched from being Robin Hood! Veerappan - whose name translates as "brave", was nothing close to being brave either, killing close to 2,000 elephants (maybe more) with the help of a gang of similarly heartless, deranged people.... murdering innocent people....Besides, how anyone can kill animals to make a living, that too for a long long time, I could never fathom n don’t think I ever will. His ‘career’ graph went on from elephant poaching, graduating to illegal sandalwood smuggling, kidnapping, murder – the works!

He was no doubt the country's most ruthless and daring outlaw and his reign of terror continued for many decades until recently I read, the police received a tip-off that he was hiding near the village of Paparapatti in the Dharmapuri region, where they moved in large numbers. The 20-minute gun battle, ended in a hail of bullets where Veerappan was killed with three of his associates.
Knowing how notorious he was, I’d just hope he doesn’t have any successor to follow in his footsteps. Hopefully, with his death a legend is now put to rest....FOREVER!

The Da Vinci Code

Yipee! I've finished reading ‘The Da Vinci Code’..and about time too!

Seein almost every 2nd person on the tube with their head buried, engrossed in this familiar paperback n inspite of continuously bein goaded to read this one.., I kept putting it off for a while until my curiosity got the better of me. Little did I realise, I’d get hooked to this book, good n proper. Havin read the book(courtesy a colleague lending it to me) I now know what all the hype was abt n y this is so popular. I wont elaborate on raving about The Da Vinci Code since a lot has already been said abt it..not to mention its also recieved loads of accolades.. so well I wont make this long, will just add my two pence worth :)

Hmm so as I was saying..Dan Brown has done an excellent task in making the characters believable and the fiction intriguing. I have to say that as far as facts go, there are definitely things I've learnt n known, I had no idea about. The inquisitive bug that I am, i've run some checks a few times on a few items to know more n must say that’s made this an even more interesting read.
Well I’m no pro at any of this. Have always known very little about the lives, times of famous artists n secret societies (yeah barring Brown’s reference to ‘Hieros Gamos’ which was something I’d earlier read) but information portrayed here, just makes one to want to delve deeper. The more I read I realised, since this is a controversial subject wrapped in a thrilling garb, goes without sayin, it might just provoke debate in the circles of religious societies.

Aah, yea from the critique point of view, the plot at some stages strains credibility but fortunately Dan Brown's pacing doesn’t leave too much time for questions.
On the whole, hats off to Dan Brown for all the research he may have put in to make this thriller a success. I've also heard there might be plans for a movie in the making! If true, that would definately be worth seeing!

Hmm, I have 3 more books to go, which i reckon i should start readin soon - ; Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress, ‘necessarily’ in that order. (Not sure if any would match up to this one tho!)
Eitherway, watch this space for my wee bit of input in due course of time.