Review of "The Fountainhead" - Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand in this book potrays man as a " heroic being". The philosophy which is the basis of this novel is Objectivism which she feels offers man a rational philosophy for living on earth by means of which he can achieve the best within him. Frankly the methods followed by Howard Roark (The protagonist) seem ridiculous at times. Ayn sees the world only as a Yes/No thing... but practically the world as we (rather I) know it is made up majorly by the "inbetweens". Well most of her stuff is bizarre and from what I could make out...

>> Accept reality and forego the presence of God!!! ... well this will tend to scandalize purists...but what she means is that we must stop thinking that God controls our destiny or that he makes things happen in our life. Frankly speaking I have seen many things with my own eyes (including miracles ...if they may be called so) to say that Ayn is 100% correct. Another argument is that reason is the instrument of knowledge / progress....true and accepted but still a bit reluctant on the God front

>> Live for own self...be a sort of selfish concieted individual...well i thot it was crap but then its beautifully expressed at the trial when Roark defends his "blasting"...still dont go with it fully. Also man should be an exponent of the free world. He should have no limits whatsoever. That I have a slightly tangent argument...and tht is "that such kinds of freedom have been misused thruout history and will be done again."

well for more on the philosophy visit this link

As for the book....
Message - - -> Not so clear .... not in the league of the common man...and can be easily misunderstood....However some parts are real good.(They will make up another post) 4/10.
Understanding - - -> Difficult..but then its philosophy and not my cuppa tea. 3/10
Readability - - -> well its not a thriller if you thot that and the plot goes haywire somewhere down the middle. (I had to glance off many pages to avoid boredom) 4/10

O/A id say its a 4-5/10...(The higher than normal is for her brand value ;-)!!!

Disclaimer: The views are personal and my own and should not influence you to think that I am from some anti-rand squad. I feel that the book contains good and bad concepts. Choose for thou art a rational being and reason shall be your guide...He He Rand style!!!

Preps for CAT 2004

After a long haitus and defragmentation of the brain I decided the time is right to start the prepararions for CAT 2004. Have got with me "Quantitative Aptitude" by RS Aggarwal and notes from IMS. Plan to xchange material with willing people. So those of you willing mail me at gordon_dsouza [at] imap [dot] cc.

Also enrolled for the TIME AIMCATs at Andheri. Nxt sunday is the first AIMCAT so looking forward for another bout of CATMania.

Review of "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho

Read The Alchemist bought on the bylanes of Matunga for 50 bucks (when the printed price suggested 150 bucks and the vendor 80 bucks...good bargain!!!). All in all a fable with many truths quoted...Something like "Who moved my cheese". It tells the story of a young shepherd who goes out to pursue his dreams and finally find treasure. All along the way he picks up pearls of wisdom. Some of the ones that touched me:

"Do something not because it'll help you accomplish other things but bcoz u really want to do it"

"The entire world falls silent when ur soul falls silent"

"Not evryone can see his dreams come true in the same way"

"Evry blessing ignored becomes a curse"

"Evryone has his/her own way of learning things"

"Love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny.If he abandons that pursuit then it wasn't true love"

"Fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself"

The ratings...
Message 9/10 ---- Clear cut message...
Ease of understanding 8/10 --- Very easy to interpret however some parables I dint quite understand. Easy language.

O/A a 8/10. A good book no doubt. Easy to read due to large fonts and can be finished in 2 hrs max. Definately a must read...Inspiring to say the least...

Who the Hell is PseudoForce???

Many ppl actaully ask me who is PseudoForce and what the Hell it means...Couldn't help it being a Mechie and not use some erudite mechie terms...Actually Pseudo means something whise effect is felt but whose origins are unknown...And tht is my final goal...of influencing ppl without they feeling it... Sumthing like not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing...He He He...actually quite serious abt it...

The First Post

Well...Actually never thot that I wuld one day have a blog coz I already have a WebSite...but since Im an amatuer at WebSites and updating them takes a lot of my time...so I thot the Blog way would be better especially when I have to air my thots creating web pages is not so easy (Atleast for me)...

So here goes ... the first post!!!