I believe my write-up on Traudl Junge would be incomplete without mentioning one more fact. I wrote in my note that non-Jewish population in Germany during the early days of the War were oblivious to Holocaust.  They were in fact living an increasingly comfortable life and for them Hitler had brought hope for the future and the belief that they could win the War. Of course, people like Hans Junge knew that something was wrong and one has to go beyond the shadows of Hitler in order to know the truth.  But aside these individual cases, there were largely two separate groups of people who felt the real truth. One group was that of those who witnessed the bloodshed…

“Now that I have let go my story, I can let go my life”   – Traudl (born Gertraud) Junge (née Humps), Feb 10 2002 These were the last words before death from the woman who otherwise lead an ordinary and secluded life, except for one thing  – she was the youngest and the last secretary to the man whom the world knows as Adolf Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler) . She was not only his last secretary but also was among the few people who were with the Führer until the very end and left Hitler’s bunker below the Reich Chancellery on the night of April 30th, 1945, the day Hitler killed…

This is the continuation of my write-up on the memoirs of Traudl Junge … From the very beginning of the writing, it becomes apparent that Hitler had become a fatherly like figure for Junge. This feeling of her’s was intensified by the fact that Junge had seen very little of her own father during her childhood (her mom and her dad were divorced when she was still very young). From early on and even later throughout the entire writing, you can see that this young little girl was so absorbed, thrilled and caught up by the fact that she was working for the head of the state that when Hitler asked her whether she would like…

Over the time, I have developed a strong liking for non-fictions that explores the darker and complex realities of human societies. When the going gets tough, its easy to complain about how wretched we are, in our circumstances and surroundings. These writings help us to realize that it could always have been worse and that in reality how well we are within our circumstances! Ondaatje who is a Canadian writer of South Asian origin writes about these complex social circumstances. Anil’s Ghost is no different. Unlike The English Patient which was completely based on fiction (except geographical facts like existence of the Cave of Swimmers and time/circumstances of its discovery),…

So, lots of people have asked this question again and again “Why did Gogol and Maxine break up?”. Most people have vilified Maxine’s character and blamed her for it. As a matter of fact, it was quite opposite. Here’s my answer that I posted to IMDB: Unfortunately, most people just seeing the movie comes up with the same conclusion. However, it was entirely opposite. Maxine really loved him and I believe, as per the novel, out of the three women that Gogol got involved with, Maxine was probably the best. Gogol always struggled with his Indian origin, his own identity and the cultural differences between how his parents were brought…

So many people have been wondering why I was reading the book "Nazism and War" … why such sudden interest in WWII? Well, I just finished the book while I was on my way back from Seattle. So, now, going back to this question … well, its a long story. First off, I was always fond of history. History never lies and gives us knowledge to go forward. They say, sometimes you need to look backwards in order to go forward. Then again, once, over a cup of coffee, Mayukh told me about this movie Schindler's List. When the movie had won the Oscar, I was in my middle teens.…

So sometimes around the middle of last week, I finished reading the book. It is the second novel I read written by an American-Asian writer. I was terribly disappointed by the movie “The Namesake” after reading the corresponding book. The former made too many compromises and never went deeper into exploring the characters well enough. It was a really bad dramatization of such an excellent work of literature. Every movie makes compromises when dramatizing a novel. However, how well they compromise the non-significant portions of the book that really matters. I think this movie did a relatively better job and consequently won the best picture Academy Award. The English Patient…

Gandhi (OSCAR 1983, best picture and another 7 wins and 3 nominations): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/ Yet another greatest movies of all times. Not sure how many times I have watched it, perhaps 14-15 times now. In India, they used to show this movie (with hindi dubbings) on 2nd October, the birthday of the Mahatma . Not sure what they do now. No matter how many times I see, it never fails to amaze me. Its our history, our tradition. I remember this movie as we, all Indians remember Gandhi – the father of our nation. There are several touching heartbreaking moments in this movie. I remember two. One, about the Jallianwalah Bagh…

So … I have been watching some of the best academy award winning movies over the past few weeks: 1. Titanic (1997, best picture)2. Babel (2006, best picture)3. A Beautiful Mind (2001, best picture)4. Schindler’s List (1993, best picture)5. Shakespeare in Love (1998, best picture)6. Sound of Music (1965, best picture)7. Master and Commander, The Far Side of The World, (2003, best cinematography)8. Silence of the Lambs (1991, best picture)9. Finding Neverland (2004, Best Original score) … and some other which I have already seen before. So, I wonder, if someone asks me which of these I liked most? It would be so difficult to choose .. like looking at…

Since blogger does not entertain password protected blogs, I havecreated a completely new blog only accessible by me – my private blogs(http://privateblogs.anirban.org). I am tired of these privacy issuesand stuff. Thus I hope, keeping personal blogs/logs/journal separatedfrom the rest of the world will hopefully make life easier. Thereshould be a concept of encrypted blogs or something. Something thatwould require my authorization to read. Why can't blogger implementsuch a feature?? Oh btw, I will definitely post my views/comments and thoughts about the novel “The Namesake” once I am done reading it.