Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows

July 21, 6.30 am...Like all Potter-maniacs, Sowmya and me joined the long queue in front of Strand Book Stall to collect our pre-ordered copies of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows. It felt like waiting at the gateway of King Cross station, waiting to cross the barrier and enter the platform 9 3/4, out of the Muggle world, into the magical world. It was a good 15 minute wait before we laid our hands on our copies. We quickly got out of the store, and on the way back, I read out the first chapter for both of us. We had breakfast together, discussing the first chapter and what might be in store for us in the book. We parted promising to message (but no spoilers) when we finish the book. I couldn't spend much time reading that day. Decided to spend the night with Harry ;-)

Finally finished it at six in the morning on Sunday. Sowmya and me had the following discussions...

Me:
Great...
Book is a little disappointing in-between...esp when they are hiding....and some questions are unanswered...also not too much humor in the book...

Sowmya:
Till around page 400 or so, I was really disappointed in Harry. Always
thinking of something else instead of the task in hand.. he says the name
'Voldemort' because of which Dobby ends up being killed. Neither harry nor
JKR seems to have noted that point..

I was thinking that he isn't anything special then, Hermione did most of
the work.. this guy didn't really do much. Only after Xeno tells them about
the horcruxes does harry actually start acting. I was impressed with the
deduction about the ring and all that from there on.

The end was a little typical that all the magical creatures are finally in
Hogwarts finally fighting one side or the other.

Rowling shows a liking for the big stage here. When the castle calls war
with Voldemort it was likely that somebody would die. I didn't like Fred
dying. Actually Harry dying would have made things nicer. We all would have
hated it but the book would have been nicer :). And the end where they are
all old and married to who they wanted to get married to was very
Bollywood-ish.

There are a few things unclear still. About the connection between wands
and then the fact that Harry says to Voldemort in the end that he died to
save the people in the castle and that's why Voldemort was not able to
effectively put a spell on anyone.. if just dying for somebody would do the
task and protect people again Voldemort, then Dumbledore could have done
that himself instead of asking Snape to kill him, that way he would have
protected the people...

I liked the first 3 books on the first read. The other 4 I didn't know what
I felt after the first read, only after reading 2 times did I appreciate
them.

Me:
I actually liked that Hermione did all the thinking...it
justifies that she is the cleverest witch...all the other books JKR kept
claiming that but HG didn't have anything to do....
I agree with u for the last chapter...I don't think it was needed...
I would have liked more coverage on Snape...there was so much on him in HBP
and he just comes a bit in the beginning and in the end to die!!!
I'm a little confused with the explaination that Dumbledore gives Harry as
to y he survives (the love thing)...my deduction is he survives because at
that time he owned all the hallows with him...so death can't take him. I
agree with that protection thing that Harry gives..
I felt that too much of Dumbledore's past was a little
unnecessary.....there are 4/5 different versions of it...
and instead of thinking about the horcrux....Harry keeps thinking about
Dumbledore's past....

Ya, even I'm going to read it again maybe some of my doubts will be
cleared...

Sowmya:
Yeah I felt that too about the insight to Dumbledores past. Till now we
have always thought of him as this extraordinary old man, they did much to
show that he was only a normal man with extraordinary powers.

Snape too was a little suprising. The fact that Dumbledore tells him to
kill him if Draco fails and that Snape's cool with the idea, and actually
executes the task.

Harry says in the end that the wand was taken by Draco. Did he pick it up
when Dumbledore fell? Then who put the other wand in his hand in the grave?
Then don't say that.

And this diadem thing. Voldemort thought that only he knew about the room
of requirements. When harry had gone in the first time to this room, many
books back, rowling had indicated that this room held the artifacts of
thousands of people who used the room to hide some stuff. When voldemort
hid the diadem there he would have seen all these things too. Didn't it
occur to him that there were other people using the room?

My brother had said when the 6th book was out that harry was a horcrux. I
scoffed at the idea. Thought it was interesting but still scoffed. God save
me when he reads that part and starts gloating. He'll keep saying 'see I
was right' for days..

Me:
Arvindh had already guessed about Snape...so same here...when he finishes the
book, he'll start gloating...
About Snape...I don't think Snape was cool abt killing Dumbledore...I think
he understood...Dumbledore was anyway dying of the poison from the
ring...by killing him Snape would become close to Voldermort and also
fulfill his Unbreakable vow...
I re-read HBP ending...didn't find anywhere that Draco had taken
Dumbledore's wand when he disarms him...
Also the ending reminded me of Lord of the rings...where all creatures come
together...

And Happy Birthday Harry Potter & JKR...

SIRI 777

The build up to the event was amazing. There was a positive buzz, an enthusiasm bug had suddenly bitten all (almost all) Sirians. One of the side effects of the bite made the creative side of our brain work overtime. There were thought provoking slogans, fascinating logos, absorbing poster designs and intriguing T-shirts. The whole office resembled like a college during its annual fest.

On the the-day, we arrived at Club Cabana by 10am. After welcome drink and group meetings, we finally started dodge ball by 10.45pm. The first game was between us (Ravens) and Hawks. There was some confusion regarding the rules and this lead to one of those arguments where no one knows whats the right thing to do. Finally we agreed on a 1 min rematch after the Bathawks and Falcons game. JS made sure that there was no confusion in the rules and Falcons won that game. In the 1 min rematch, we won easily thanks to the strategy by Mahesh and Radhakrishna. In the final, the Falcons steamrolled us.

Then came the Stock Market. By the end of it, there were more people with sore throats than partners. We headed straight for lunch. After lunch, all teams were engrossed in last minute rehearsals for their presentations. The presentations were the most amazing part of the day. There is such immense hidden talent in the company!! All of us were good, but the Bathawks were a class apart or should I say society apart. They were just too amazing. You could easily mistake them to be pros.

Then came the points distribution. By the end, all teams except for Hawks, were tied. Hawks were a point behind the rest. So the final event, Tug-of-war would decide the winner of the day. Raven lost to the Hawks and Bathawks to Falcons. The final between Hawks and Falcons ended when it had started becoming interesting. The Hawks proving too good for the Falcons. Their slogan Born to win, justified.

Parting notes, hope we have many more events like this.

Here are a couple of lines I wrote...

A day most awaited, a buzz in Siri,
For fun, frolic and merry.

Hawks, Bathawks, Ravens and Falcons,
Logos, T shirts, posters and slogans.

Will complete it sometime...