American Son - A Netflix Movie

I just watched the movie American Son yesterday and was impressed with the simplicity and the execution.

It deals with racism in today's USA and how the human factor complicates it in every side of the issue.

One word of caution though: It is a pure drama almost a stage play made into a movie.

Edit: Oh I just googled for a link to add to the blog when I mention the name above and I was right with my guess or naive depending on how you see it - it was a Broadway play adapted into a movie so yes a "stage play"!

It is the likes of Man from Earth in the respect that it is simply about listening to the conversation occurring between the main characters.  I still believe Man from Earth is a better movie of course but it is a completely different subject matter and this one has all its weight in the content and discussion more than the storytelling.  So I guess in that case it is apples to oranges so not fair.

Definitely worth watching is all I want to say.  And well done to the people involved in making this movie.

Paeranbu (பேரன்பு) - A movie review

Of course spoilers ahead so in case you care to watch this movie please do not read further. 

This is a post I have had nagging the back of my mind for a while now since I watched the movie "Peranbu" a few months ago.

I was trying to find the right adjectives to express my criticism with, without descending to swearing and fuming.

The plot of the movie?

An estranged father tries to bond with and care for his teenage spastic child and discovers his love for her as well as, her, as a person, in the process.

That sounds great; certainly a recipe for a great movie to come.  At least I thought so.  Well, impress me they did!

They got so many things wrong and narrowed on possibly all the wrong things that they managed to create a disaster even out of such a plotline with potential to succeed (not referring box office collection here).

First of all:  Estranged father not because of unfortunate circumstances but because he knew he had a spastic child and did not care enough for her or his marriage so he left them to suffer alone - oh wait - in his family home with his side of the family there to torment them in the usual Indian mom-in-law, daughter-in-law circumstances which he himself finds loathsome later on in the movie when he faces it first hand even though he has the son privileges.

So why is there the “Oh I am so lonely, and lost, and a victim” attitude being potrayed for the father character coming from, I do not understand.

The man left his family.  And with full knowledge of his actions and an outline of the consequences if not more.  He made sure to send money, oh yes.  Fine whatever but his coming back and trying to repair damage means he needs to buck up and face it.  Like a man, as they remind us from time to time in the movie.

“Oh, he is a man, how will he manage to bring up a teengaed spastic daughter with special needs”?  Wait a second!  Spastic aside even otherwise that is a tough task.  Do you mean to tell the parents of the world that it would be a breeze if only it had been a spastic son?  Or a ‘normal’ child? Or if he had his wife with him?

I can only see the narrow-mindedness of the people who wrote and made this movie in every aspect!

1) Bringing up a child responsibly and with love (irrespective of the gender of the child) is tough and an everyday battle - every parent out there can attest.

2) If you are a single parent it is even harder  - irrespective of the gender of the child.

3) If you are a single parent and have the child of the opposite gender then yes, hands down is going to be even tougher.

4) Owing to social constructs and the average narrow mentality present around a male caregiver and a female child, even if it were her own father with no malicious intent, it is tough when, that said child, reaches puberty and upwards.

5) Every child when growing up goes through puberty, adolescence, hormones and self discovery.  Irrespective of the gender of the child. Irrespective of whether the parent(s) are together caring for the said child.

6) In Indian society, mostly, parents find this phase awkward and avoid any discussion let alone educational and supportive.

7) Once a child, grows into its teens and has "needs"  - that they so tout in the movie as they they are teaching the public that these things exist - they will inevitably find channels to express and satisfy those needs unless "chastened" into discipline through the various channels employed across the world - religion, taboo, guilt, terror, superstition and the rest - unless they are educated into expressing themselves safely and their general focus and energies diverted into other things (hobbies, activities and what not) which a lot of Indian families do with all the extra curricular activities and/or the additional tuition taken for competing on various exams that happen to coincide around the time they usually start this hormonal journey.

Sorry, I digressed.  Point is, this is normal for every child, spastic or "normal", boy or girl, single parented or otherwise.

I am picking up this draft again at this point after another few months have passed and still can understand why I was in so much rage when I saw the movie!

To continue...

They are trying to convey that even special needs children have their normal hormonal journey and we need to acknowledge and guide them through it. Noble enough as it sounds the attitude portrayed while making the movie to convey this message is appalling.

This estranged father has come back not of his own realisation but only because his “wife” who he has not even visited in the last few years has decided to leave him and the child to go have her own life with another man.

And they label that wife in the wrong and call her act selfish and portray the husband as though he is generous when he accepts the fact that he was as much not a husband to her as he was not a father to the girl.

That’s not generosity my friend!

And then there are some specific things focussed on in this movie. How one night he tries to be a sport and tries to cajole his daughter’s playfulness out by performing various tricks and antics. Then they show him defeated and crying to create sympathy but sorry all it evokes is surprise that you would expect this in just a few hours of trying to be friendly! 

And then there is his narrow mindedness in trying to keep his daughter away isolated and secluded with not an idea of trying to school or educate her or help in anyway except physically using a lady help or himself in the end.

And then he tries his home and hometown only to realise it’s not going to work in the society he lives in.

He moves to a town/city in the end and his idea of securing her better is to lock her up in a hotel room with food and drink and tv and go out to earn money.  Seriously?!

He then worries massively when he sees her go through a phase where she tries to kiss the tv screen to kiss her favourite actor like she has seen them do in the movies and videos she watches endlessly while he is out.  He also finds the hotel service men starting to take advantage of her innocence and need for social contact and panics.

He puts her in an asylum-school for special needs children based on someone’s advice only to realise that they use physical abuse to discipline them.

While all this is on he befriends a transgender lady only to misunderstand the care and affection she shows.

Then he tackles the issue of his daughter’s increasing sexual needs head on and goes in search of social welfare organisations and pleasure centres to fetch a Male prostitute that he could engage for his daughter’s sake! That is the “epitome of love” that they mean in the title of this movie! What nonsense. As the social welfare rightfully slaps the man that is what the director’s attitude needs too! She is a 14 year old little girl with special needs, no schooling, no parenting, no friends and no society to speak of! How does he intend to ensure that the Male prostitute will not take advantage of her, will show her healthy love and respect and will treat her right? How will he ensure his daughter enjoys it? How does he even know she wants that? Where and how would he find consent! And her age means it’s rape and illegal!!! I mean she wanted to kiss an actor and discovered how to pleasure herself! NOT THE SAME THING AS WANTING TO ENJOY TIME WITH A MALE PROSTITUTE! And she is 14!!! what is wrong with you guys?

He tries to do his research and finds out that all such children have needs and the parents or helpers or other significant people in their lives help them even in the front of satisfying their pleasures almost as routinely as giving them a bath-just a chore and they both know it.  He can’t handle anyway so he goes to his now separated wife who he realises is the wife of another man and mother to a brand new “normal” baby who wants nothing to do with him or his spastic daughter anymore.  

After this extreme awkwardness he gets his daughter the school uniform that she so covets to take her to a beach where he intends to quietly murder her by drowning her in the middle of the night while he himself commits suicide convincing himself that this is the only option left. Here we see the shade of the same man who left his family away only sending money from overseas. The same escapism. The same attitude with shunning responsibilities.  Incompetence and defeat of a man being portrayed as an object of sympathy! What a load of rubbish! 

There are so many things that are wrong in all these things. Would be such an idiot to just go get your daughter in the care of an asylum without understanding the terms? Would you be so naive as to even think you could leave her locked up.  One thing that strikes me though is - is this a reality I am unaware of? Is this a reality that people live everyday when they do not have the education or awareness? In that case may be I can acknowledge some of those things as plausible. But I can’t imagine that reality and that is where the movie fails for me or I fail to grasp it.

Then there is the transgender friend who obviously rescues them, gives him a new life and meaning by becoming his wife and willingly caring for the child as though her own and we see him reaching at his work desk while his “wife” takes the onus!  So all he needed from beginning to end was a wife who would work her back off to care for him and his special needs child while he could escape the reality into a man’s job everyday!  

How come no one in the movie set saw the faults!!?  And the part where the daughter pleasures herself. It’s great that a Tamil movie is bold enough to show something like this. But with the previous scenes showing the limits of her hand coordination and the neglect portrayed his her long uncut and dirty finger I shudder to think what mutilation rather than pleasure she would have effected on herself if this character was not fictional!

For dealing with a difficult subject well done. 

For attempting to convey a social message well done.

For the message itself - think hard and rephrase!

For the characters attitude and mindset - really?

For the movie as a whole - I am sad that so many people supported it let alone celebrated it.

We need to think things through as a society and just because someone deals with a difficult subject does not mean it is automatically laudable!

Peranbu is definitely not the kind of Anbu I want in my life or anyone’s I know.  This is what is wrong with all the abusive and hateful relationships that we see around us!  

Love as the intention does not excuse the faults in the expression of it!!

Sapiens: A brief history of Human Kind, a book by Yuval Noah Harari.....Has earned another fan

Let me just start with my conclusion - it is a great book and a must read for anyone remotely interested in History, Prehistory, Anthropology, Genetics, Natural Sciences, Philosophy, Human Rights, Animal Rights, Meta Physicists etc..,

Theologians or more specifically the religious, please keep away from it if you are fanatics.  Or should I say, you definitely should give it a read with an open mind (relatively) ?

Yes, that's how many fields it covers in its Venn diagram, showing the intersection of all these fields, comprising us, our lives, the bigger and more difficult questions from time immemorial.

As part of the conclusion let me also warn you that if you are seeking answers for these big Life questions (or even the small ones), no you will not find them there.  But that is the point!

This book charismatically states the whole of "Human" history and that of the world around us, from our perspective, with all its intricacies and shows us how everything is so interconnected. 
Although this is something most of us educated in the modern (western as Yuval might like to point out) education system, are vaguely aware of, even if we do not completely grasp the depth of it, is what this book gives us...the depth and perception that is required to see the Big Picture of Life as we know it.

It asks all the basic Big questions, What and who are we? Why are we? Where are we (less addressed in the physical sense and more in the 'timeline of life' sense)? Where would we go, what would be, and why?  And most disconcertingly, for us sometimes, the why not's

I felt transported back in time, to the days when I discovered that I was not crazy or dumb to be asking certain questions that I was.  Yes, it's true that 'partially educated' and 'inquisitive' are usually not a good combination, but that is how most of us "normal" folks  run most of our lives.

Such as, the time when I first read about Higgs Boson; I was probably 19 years old.  This was a time I was going through a frenzy to learn the chart of particle physics by heart.  Or rather, I was making a chart of all the "known" (or theorised should I say) particles in the known universe.  Not that my volatile memory held it for long or my poor & almost dysfunctional mathematical comprehension helped me understand the nuances.  But can't say I did not try!  Well, back to Boson, I was shocked to learn that my teenage question - what distinguishes Matter and Energy - that was dismissed or (ambiguously) not explained, was not, just a stupid question arising out of a brain ill suited to understanding.  But rather a question still puzzling the human kind and (like all questions ever are) VALID.

This time Yuval gave me a pat on the back and said, "see, you are not crazy nor alone to be suffering doubts and questions" such as
1)  about one's identities and nationalities in an increasingly global civilisation,
2) the conflict between passion and pride for a native language while repulsed by caste system although both are rooted in cultural identities,
3) the "agnostic"ism towards religion, spiritual and paranormal curiosities
are all not because I am not "FULLY"formed.  But are rather natural and healthy and already being discussed in full swing for many years now among "scholars". 
As a gene-obeying, evolution-complying, social "Human", yes this did comfort me, the fact that I am not alone (both literally and figuratively).

However, the questions remain to be answered.  The big picture is interesting, intriguing, fascinating, depressing all in various measures.  But that does not mean, we are doomed. The message is clearly optimisitic, with almost a hint of doubt, for the benefit of hindsight. 

The one thing that I did wish he had explained better was, that though climate change has happened all the time, and that we like all our predecessor natural beings are only contributing to it (albeit too fast and too destructive in our case), although we may yet survive and do something to help heal the world, we are STILL NOT out of the danger zone!  But this message, that he DOES leave, I felt, was not explicit enough.

My thoughts are hence, thus:

1) Yuval says, Climate change is not a problem in itself, it has always happened. True!

2) My thoughts on the lines of what he too said:

Ecological destruction is the main key issue but that too is probably "natural" in the evolutionary process, this time intensified by the fact of evolution having created a naturally selfish and destructive being, us.  Or may be all species are if you think about it, the selfish part atleast.

3) When I say evolution, I am taking the view that cultural and cognitive evolution which before Sapiens were not too great which are new in this age old process but still a "natural" factor although the end products of this may not be - such as missiles and factory emissions.

4) The problem with climate change and destruction is that, becase Humans are trying to retain the world as they knew it ('know it' would not be true for we have already lost some contemporories of ours, in the evolution speak - lookup the extinct specis from the not too distant past).  But from an evolutionary point of view this will never be true.  By this, I mean the world staying the same in someone's context!

5) Accelerated destruction and eco imbalance are a menace because, even if Sapiens -with our enlarged brains and extensive cognitive abilities- may yet come up with great advancements that would give us new source and let us construct a Noah's Arc to provide sanctuary to all the beings of the world, we still are in the danger of "YET". 

To put it simple, It may not happen before the events are set in motion! 

And that is probably the worst fear of all.

6) Evolution in itself might be changing (point 3).  From only genetic and organic, came cognitive and resultantly, (agri)cultural, industrial and now technological (r)evolutions!

This might be why we are changing from beings of US to beings of ME.  Whether or not it is a good thing, Yuval says - much like a musing elder - only time will tell.

7) All in all it is an exciting time to be living in.  I might even consider proliferation(!!!) to make sure my genes get to experience the changes of the FANTASTIC (not necessarily good) changes!!!
OR NOT, for precisely that reason!!?  What is after all My genome and My (extant) experience?

Well, in all, it was an excellent and enlightening book that keeps you hooked.  Not sure if listening to the audiobook somehow made it even more awesomatic!

Thanks to a friend (Sanjay, if you are reading this) for sharing his "read" on goodreads and thus introducing it to me!

Thanks for the book Yuval!  I am almost at once wanting to read Duedus and not... for what you might choose to tell us (or not?). 

Will I be similarly enthralled or disappointed?!  I suppose Time will tell?!! :)

Thank you for reading.  I would much appreciate, comments and conversations here, than on my FB post even if you found this through my post there.  Cheers!

Musings on FANDOM and the much expected journey...

My recent visit to Hobbiton- the icing on the cake of the little visits to LOTR book and movie places of NZ- prompted some thoughts... 

Hobbiton is obviously a "the destination" once in NZ if one is an LOTR fan.

And so it was, for us too.  LOTR was introduced to me by my brother when I was 15 when a bunch of us went to watch the movie "Fellowship of the Ring".  Of course I fell in love with Aragorn (and Viggo Mortensen) and he was the definition of "the man of my life" for my 15 year old self (and I fought over him with two other cousins of my age at the time).  I did not like Viggo Mortensen as anything outside of the role/looks of Aragorn, not even as himself when I googled him. :( oh and Gollum! I used to (still do sometimes) imitate/enact Gollum.  When Suresh gifted me the One Ring, I surprised and even spooked him with a "my precious... Gollum gollum" in Gollum vocals... :D a quite plump Gollum that made me though, he he!

The book is a different story for me... The first time I tried reading it was a #fail; not being able to go past the first 100 pages! This was back in 2007 and I was still in university.

I read it again much later, probably in the heights of joblessness of 2008 June - Sept break.

Having always been a fantasy fan, it was no surprise that I liked LOTR.  But I was not a fan in the traditional sense.  I never was - for anything - for that matter. 

I realised it when discussing Harry Potter books - which I read over and over again - with a dear friend (Lakshmi Ponnuswamy) and realised what a "fan" means.  I decided I would never be a "fan" of anything in that traditional sense where you remember and recall every minutiae of a book/movie.

But that is not to say I can't remember the events, characters and details quite well.  I just don't bother to remember them all and do not think it a sin if I forget something.

Fantasy and especially such a detailed and multi-layered epic such as the LOTR family of books, holds a very special place in my heart.  I too have had, no less than Elven dreams, trying to speak the tongues, (of course also trying to invent my own) when I was still smitten with the first read.

Visiting the WETA, (the studio that created many favourites such as LOTR, Avatar, District 9), the statues of the Kings, Gollum and Smog at WELLINGTON Airport.
Visiting some of the places where various scenes from The Hobbit were shot were quite an experience in that it would probably take another post to, if not for each spot. Oh and Avatar!  Can't wait for sequel(s)...!

Coming back to my experience in and at Hobbiton, it reminded me of..... how I was not a FAN. So many fans were feeling special just by being in the place that created Hobbiton for everyone, almost as well as how JRR would have wanted it envisioned.  For me though... it made me feel sad. 

Let me explain here, it is one thing to look at Mount Doom up close or go to the WETA studio and look at the gear or the graphic aids used, to look at the life size replica of your favourite characters.  It brings just JOY.  

But HOBBITON is just different (Atleast for me).  It's this perfect, peaceful and beautiful place, filled with happy people.  It's not hard to imagine but the movie did good by expanding on that dream with wonderful details and capturing the essence of it all.  And to go to the actual place to see where they brought it to life is a memory I will cherish, an experience I will remember. 

But that being said, here I was, looking at Bag End with no backend!!
Nothing except the door and the frame really.  That sort of killed me.  I could, in that moment, empathise with those kids that go through their "Santa is your mom" moment.  It was this bunch of highly skilled people working in a dedicated team effort and mounds of creativity, imagination; and I am sure immense FANDOM, that created this absolutely brilliant place that was only in the imagination of all those LOTR Fans and JRR's epic words till then.

And there, for me, was hard physical evidence of the fact that it was all NOT REAL.  It was NOT TRUE.   Of course I knew it all before.  But in that moment to actually see it all as a SET and be explained the details of how they painstakingly put together the magnificent piece of work-art, was this feeling of sadness that dampened and dripped on the feathers of the wings of joy and made it just float half heartedly instead of soar into the sky.

On the one hand, I was there, with one part of me being excited about being here at HOBBITON!  And the other half of me quietly withdrawing within myself into a deep corner with accusing teenager eyes. 

So instead of writing a piece of review on TripAdvisor - I am sure there are gazillion reviews already so one less is not going to affect people's decision if they already are looking for "reviews" to decide to go to Hobbiton - here I am lamenting a slight fraying in my dream fabric.  A must see if you are strong (fan) hearted unlike me.

Nayanthara Mattrum Samantha

I am not big on movie reviews and probably have written not more than one.  And technically this is not a movie review but rather a discussion of certain movies or certain aspects of Tamil cinema that I have enjoyed recently.

Dark humour has been around in Tamil cinema for quite a long time though it used to be far apart and  far less frequent.

I think it started with the Venkat Prabhu and Co., that Tamil Cinema welcomed this genre back into its folds once again leaving the audience pleased and heavily entertained.

Chennai 28, Goa, Saroja - etc from this crew especially - I believe trained us well enough to be able to appreciate new comer spectaculars such as Soothu Kauvvum, Neram, Jigardanda, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanam.

I love this new category of Tamil Cinema with its fresh bunch of actors, musicians and artists of all cadre.

Now add to this list the recent Naanum Rowdy Than.  Let me stop you right there if you started to object that this is not to be compared in terms of script or plot strength to the other ones listed above.  I totally agree on that.

But what I loved about this movie is - I never thought I would say that but - Nayanthara's acting!  I think I started enjoying her "style" from "Boss engira baskaran" but it was mild and barely there.

I did not like her - may be the script's particularly the dialogue's fault - in Raja Rani.

But in NRD, she has definitely done a commendable job.  Again there are script hiccups in this one too.

Despite being yet another DUMB HEROINE FALLS IN LOVE routine with the only character strength being her deafness, I think the movie is enjoying its success hugely thanks to Nayanthara's acting and dialogue delivery - not sure if she has used her voice in any movies before but it suited the role perfectly.

Moving away from Dark Humour and going to a what's called a MASS ENTERTAINER which I have nothing good to say about most times, is the movie "10 ennrathukulla".

Nothing great about the movie at all, if you were expecting me to say such things...   It was as awful as you would have guessed.  Once again SAMANTHA here has pulled off the DUMB HEROINE character very well.  For a change I was not watching just Vikram in a Vikram movie which is saying a lot for me.  And you could clearly see the variety if you compared this to her own another DUMB HEROINE performance in anjaan!!

*SPOILER ALERT*  I must say I did NOT enjoy her transformation and "mannerism" for her role 2 in this movie.

So, just wanted to say, good job ladies...!

Disclaimer: Given that I do not follow movies or actors/artists closely enough, I may miss details or other good works of theirs, please forgive me if you are a hard core fan or enthusiast.   This is purely based on my observations limited to the movies I have watched and enjoyed.

OneNote and EverNote

Evernote clearly states that you can't edit an attached file on a phone.  

Could use a clear statement like that from OneNote too!  

#cantOneNote2013  

Ennayum arasiyal vaadi aakkitteengale!

 

Ennayum IT blog eluda vechiteengale!

 

As I have stated many a times before, I am no geek nor a tech wiz of formidable experience or knowledge!

 

But I am forced to continue expressing review-like-opinions due to my experience trying to work with a few popular apps on my iPhone 5 with iOS 7.

 

It was a simple task of trying to open a text file attachment on my mail (app) and editing it or at least even 'selecting all' and pasting into my blogger app.

 

To make the long story short:

 

1. Evernote would only accept the file from the Open In action on my mail box (or even from browser mail) and keep it as is - an attached text file into one of its notes.

 

Thankfully though I found Apple confessing this limitation(?) explicitly on many of their forums or help topics.

 

2. OneNote 2013 mobile app though kept it more of a left to interpretation and common sense may be as some of you Wiz's might call.

 

Alas! I am not a power user and I am a mere mortal that is usually a READ ONLY user.

 

Anyway, it was not clear that until I wasted a lot of time searching around and checking various forums before my accepted that my TEXT file was suffering Unrequited and even Unacknowledged love towards OneNote 2013 mobile app.

 

An early indicator was that (made sense too), it said it needs an underlying app that can work with these attached/embedded files to work with them.

 

3. After several futile attempts it was apparent there were not many simple (free apps) that would do this job though this seems quite basic for a smart phone to handle.

 

I am aware that I can convert it to different file formats that work better and then use it with various free apps such as PDF, DOC etc..,

 

But my "precious" is a 16 GB lightweight and while experimenting I conscious of the space that each of these apps claim.

 

4. Another nasty surprise came from another close to my heart - the very "friendly" Google!

 

Yes, Google drive accepted my TEXT file graciously into its folds but did not let me Select All the lengthy content of my text file either to do a simple COPY!

 

Neither would it interface with Google Docs and let me open try opening it there.

 

5. The work around was to open drive in WEB mode from Safari and then open the TXT file.  Then I could send it to Evernote, not as an attachment this time but a friendly Note, with all of the TXT file contents laid bare for me to Select All and Copy.

 

  6)    The easiest route thus far though is to Simply Drop Box and use it on my Phone where I don't need another "Editor" but rather can open, Select All and Copy then and there on my phone's Drop Box!

 

The reason I chose the other routes initially were because I use these Apps already for other purposes and it was natural for me to go there and try given all the world singing praise for Evernote and OneNote for much more advanced things than copying All content of a mere TXT file attachment.

 

Well, guess I lost a little bit of my "dumb" through this exercise and it was definitely worth it for I learnt about a few of these below:

 

1. IFTTT -- https://ifttt.com/ --- I am going to try this out this weekend and see if I can overcome my disappointment of finding Google Drive not being able to talk to Blogger or Google Docs directly sharing files across (talking about all of them iPhone apps here specifically). 

 

Google family iOS (phone) apps needs to be a little more sharing and caring!

 

But it's not limited to just that, you can apparently set up rules for various Apps and Sites to interact.  Worth checking out if nothing else.  Worth skipping a Sunday afternoon nap… :)

 

   2)    Plain Text (free and basic) and other editors (paid and rich ;)) from Drop Box!  Or their many rivals in the paid apps world of course.

 

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/49557/how-to-open-and-read-txt-files-using-iphone

 

   3)   Wonders of OneNote 2013 and Evernote.  Yes they do a lot of cool stuff unlike the boring and dumb - open a TXT file attached without an underlying text editor app!!

 

   4)   Little tips and tricks with each of the apps' settings on my phone and some of them lying in disuse (if not use, at least remove them).

 

  5)   Got me started with drop box - an app that I didn't care to use much before.  I know!!

 

Glad I hit a problem and spent some time waking up my common sense and bringing in some absent "app-sense"… :)

 

 

 

 

 

What pad??

I do not remember how I got introduced to this new friend but I did.

And we have been thin and thick over time... WATTPAD

I am pretty sure there are scores of Apps out there that does the same thing, may be some better and some worse.

This one does enough for me... For now.. Thought I should write about it before I tire and move on to something else...

It's been both good and bad. Bad being I don't read or finish the 'hard' books anymore and I get quite distracted with this when I am supposed to be doing other things... Like work for a living...

But well...even with 'hard' books I did that so this is only making it easier to do... The frequency of the crime is the only thing increasing not the crime or the gravity of it ;)

Now going for the good things:

I am usually slow in exploring things say an app. I don't just go in and try every feature on the day 1, just because...

My enthusiasm to explore is usually overtaken with a fascinating feature and there it stops till something bores me of it or if I feel like taking a break.

So the point is if you are looking for a review of the App and all its features then  I'm sorry this will be a disappointment.

Now there, that said...

WATTPAD has scores of people like you and me writing on it.  Anything and everything they feel like, stories, poems, shorties of any sort, series, read soaps where they publish the story in parts every week or every two days or any which way they prefer.

And then people like you and me read them, rate, 'fan' as the wattpadians call, even comment at any point in the story giving it good and bad feedback then and there!  

When you think about it, it's quite the same formula.  Writer's and readers social media.  Really.

You post, we read, follow, comment, vote etc.., But the opportunity like never before for budding writers to get live feedback, giving them a chance to change things to suit the mood.  And for established writers to gauge the reaction of the crowd.

Yes in a way I was debating with myself if this was truly good.  If you think about that was the beauty of writing, you write what you imagined and people either accept or reject. That makes you a true competitor or candidate.  Not knowing the judges preferences even as you are competing.  Oh well, I know, I am an idealist sometimes!!!

But what I noticed is all these 12 and 14 year olders writing! I just absolutely love that idea. A platform for children to cultivate an interest in writing.  

I've read several books on this App, the good, the bad and the ugly.

As far as I've checked the writing part of the app seems to be quite basic but again I have not really forayed into this yet.

This is more from me as a reader...

I think there could be more work on the writing part as well as privacy settings.

An app that is certainly keeping me more than just company! :)

P.S:

I almost forgot that it also allows other languages apart from English to be written in and read in.  I couldn't find any written in Tamil yet though.

Oh and it has loads of free ebooks and classics available too!