Interpreter Of Maladies

It’s a collection of nine short stories and as the cover mentions “from Boston, Bengal and beyond”. The stories are short simple and very human. But all of them have a strong Bengali base; maybe coz Jhumpa has a Bengali parentage.

The book starts with a story of a couple who have lost their child and with it their marriage too and ends with a story of man who has spent his life in three different continents finally settling in America. Each story is very different from the other but all have an “Indianess” to them. But the best of all is the Interpreter of maladies. It’s got good movie material, and Om puri would make a fine Mr Kapasi.

But what surprised me was although all the stories were plesant none of them was what you call brilliant given that the book had won The Pulitzer’s prize. Looking forward to reading “The Namesake”…

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

A good combination of humor and sci-fi. Humour I can take, Sci-Fi, not my genre. I have always felt that you need a much more intellectual and imaginative mind to appreciate sci-fi. I had read a couple of “Doctor Who” series during my college days and wasn’t able to appreciate it even a wee-bit. “But hitchhikers..” was a different thing altogether. Maybe the humor was what got me thru.

Its basically a story of how Arthur, an earthman is saved by his friend Ford Prefect, an out-of-work actor from Betelgeuse, just seconds before earth is completely destroyed..

I did not understand the initial part of the book, but the ideas presented later on are really good. Consider this, there is a long lost planet called Margartha, and the main occupation of the citizens was to create custom made planets and Earth was one of them, custom made for the mice. The humans have always assumed that they were the ones experimenting on the mice, but actually it was the other way round ;-P!! Earth was basically created in an attempt to find the ultimate Q to the ultimate answer (answer: forty two !!!!!?????), but unfortunately it was just destroyed by the Vogons couple of seconds before the calculations were complete.
Arthur then meet Zaphod, Ford’ cousin who has stolen the “Heart of Gold” which is a space ship that runs on improbability, the greater the improbability, more the power!! And so on…


The book ends pretty abruptly making way for a sequel and I am told there four more books in the series. Although I personally did not enjoy the book I would recommend it for people who enjoy sci-fi… others can give it a try!!

Delhi - A Novel

Three important suggestions before we start

1. Never let anybody know u have read the book... (an exception as i am writing the review ;-D )
2. If it is borrowed from someone, never reveal the person's name..people generally tend to be very judgemental!!
3. Do not judge the book on your first read... analyze it a little longer.

Okay here we go...

Delhi, um hm by Khushwanth Singh. Its a book that chronicles the *glorious* past of Delhi, since the time it was invaded by the mughals to the time Indira Gandhi was assasinated.. The protogonist is a sardar currently having a passionate affair with..aahh.. a hijda. Each phase of delhi is put across as a autobio of the ruler of that time and after each phase the story returns to the present and back to Bhagmati(u know who)...

There is a common thread to each story, Each of which talks about a ruler who basically wanted to conquer delhi, spread Islam to the whole world(u know how ;-D ), and consider himself the best around... Nothing great ha?? But what's different from your normal history text book is that it talks a lot about each rulers sexual preferences and has a lot of dirty stuff involved in it.. Its really suprising to know that such things actually had a lot of impact (no pun intended) on what happened then and how it affected Delhi..

The book basically leaves a disgusting feeling once u read through it( I am sure some might not even want to complete the book after a couple of chapters), but the proper history part is really interesting. I mean common history in school was never put across in such an interesting manner, was it? I studied about shivaji and his great achievement all through my school life, but only when i visited daulatabad in 12th did i realize that the guy had nine wives!!! Nothing great though, but wouldn't it have added a bit of spice to history in school ;-).

Recommended ... ya maybe

The Great Indian Novel –by Shashi Tharoor

A book that truly and totally lives up to its name. One of the best books of fiction I have read. As the review says, “It’s a book that reinvents India with a dazzling marriage of Hindu myth and modern history”. The threads of the greatest Hindu myth “The Mahabharata” are so well woven into the Indian freedom struggle, just like a beautiful Kashmiri carpet!!Check this; the great Bhisma (Gangaji in the book) is equated to Gandhi and Indira Gandhi is Priya Duryodhani, the only daughter of Dhritirashtra equivalent to 100 sons!!! It’s an amazing book, with just the right amount of humor. As the financial times review mentions it “A real tour de force only an Indian could write”. A must read…

Piece of Cake – Swati Kaushal

It’s a story of a 29 year old MBA graduate working for International Foods. It would make an ideal theme for ‘Star Bestsellers’. It’s more like somebody’s blog. The beginning is really good, but it becomes a little predictable towards the end. A decent effort for a first timer.
First book that I finished in one sitting. Recommended for people who prefer something light…

Holy Cow - An Indian experience

Interesting title and even more interesting cover page!! It's supposed to be a travel book (or rather I found it in the travel section in landmark!!) but it just recounts Sarah's experiences of India, a country that she hated and vowed never to return too. But return she does and slowly starts to love it for it's all its extremities, its diversity and much more. Leaving behind her own budding career, she spends her sabbatical traveling around the country: attending a Vipassana meditation course, seeking out a Sikh Ayurvedic "miracle healer", bathing in the Ganges during Kumbh Mela, studying Buddhism in Dharamsala, dabbling in Judaism with Israeli tourists, experiencing horror at Parsi practices of vultures feeding on the dead, visiting Sai Baba and Mata Amritananda, attending a Christian festival in Velankani and singing with Sufis. Most of which i have never done inspite of living here for 23 long years!!

Its more like an atheistic's spiritual journey! A song that fits the essence of the book very well is Rabbi's "Bulla Ki Jaana Mai Kaun"

Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh

Its different from all the books i have read till date. It very Indian and makes a very smooth read. It tells the story of Piyali and Kanai and their journey through the tide country of sunderbans, of Nirmal and nilima and their idealisms, of Fokir, Moyna, Kusum and Horen and their struggle for existence, of the myth of BonBibi, ShahJongli, DakhshinRai and Dukkhey and much more.
Its about each of them finding their place in the world. The history of the place, mainly Sir Hamilton's dream, the stories of the local deities, cetological details, the back stories for each character makes the book more interesting page after page.
Recommended, special when one is on a vacation or when one has lot of time to actually relish(for loss of any other word) the book!!

Five point someone...

Was intrigued by this book after reading Chaitra's blog....This is a book by an indian author..and so the identification-with-the-characters is a defenite reality unlike most of the books that claim to be... This was one of the books where the characters have this coming-to-age experience... I for one was completely enamoured by this book..It basically dealt with how things can go wrong, when you are " not thinking straight"... Hari, Alok and Ryan have got into IIT, and things take a nose-dive after their initial jubiliation at making it into one of the premier Educational institutes in India.. They are frustrated at the onus on assignments, tests and basically being burdened with work...they yearn to be free, but are scared to go against the system..Until Ryan comes up with his ideas, and this is where they let him take over their lives and begin to enjoy their life..They have a lot of good times and their friendship goes through many hardships...They have a whale of a time and are content mostly because they have lost the drive to get good grades...The book has a lot of emotions, ranging from comic drunk scenes, to ones of love blossoming and bearing fruits...and veering off towards tragedy and guilt ridden nights... This book must be a Bollywood producer's dream...and it is no wonder that the 70mm version is going to be out pretty soon..I am not sure if i am going to watch this on the big screen..for I already have a vision of this book, and have been able to identify with a lot of the parts here.. The movie is going to be a projection of the director's view and I do not want to be imposed upon by that view...On the othr hand it might be a good idea to watch it..if only for the sole reason as to see how much this book could impact people...I am sure that there are going to be alot of mixed reactions based on their own college experiences... I can identify with these guys..because I was never ine to be buried in books..I was always doing these last-minute thingies..and somehow managed to do well... i did not want to lose out on some of the best years of my life..Luckily I knew where to draw the line..and was careful not to go overboard... That is actually what I guess the author wants to put across..that fine line between veering off into oblivion or having the best of both worlds.. The boundaries for each of us lies completely in our hands and we ourselves are solely reponsible for what we do...This book has actually inspired me to start off on my writing once again...Hopefully I get to do some soon..as I expect to have a lot of free time on my hands..

Ladies Coupe..

Karthik told me about this book and i was all gung-ho about reading it..The urge to read this was heightened after Chaitra said that the story was scary..not in the spooky kind..but scared her a bit about life..The book is a very depressing book if not scary..it speaks of the anguish that women go through in their lives..there were hardly any silver linings and if they were there it was over-shadowed by all whole brooding way the novel went on... But if it had been written any other way, i don't think the message ccould have been put across.. The whole book was all about taking charge of your own life and leading it in a way that you deserve to...This was brought about with Akhila who is 45 years old and has never done anything for herself as she has been working her butt off to support her father-less family.. She has been so busy that she had no time to even contemplate marriage.. When finally she does like a guy, she finds him too young for her..Her life takes a turn when she decides to take a break..alone..and finds herself travelling in this Ladies Coupe..All the experiences of her travel mates changes the way she thinks and she sheds her old self and transforms into a new confident person..The main premise seemed to be the fact that a woman needs company..but not with all the strings attached..which is perfectly alright..she needs her freedom too.. It talks about all the things we normally consider as taboo but actually they already exist in Society..though wrapped under layers of tradition.. that's when we get to see the Hypocrisy of society..Most of the incidents in the book are ones we have come across.. but here it is more of in-your-face stuff and you cannot escape the details..which makes you more sensitive to the subject..It is very well written in this aspect..The ending i am sure will bring about a different reaction from every reader..there are bound to be differences of opinion here..As far as I am concerned.Akhila got what she deserved.. She has taken charge of her life and gets what she has been missing out..it shows you that in life it is never too late for taking charge of things.. So maybe here is the silver lining after all..

Ravan & Eddie

This was one awesome book by "Kiran Nagarkar".. Man was this book funny or was this funny.. the book had me in splits upto the last page..Nagarkar has his way with words..he has an acute sense of humour and writes with such ease and detailing that you can actually picture what he is writing..many times I had to actually keep the book aside, finish my laughter and then get back to the book, just to break into laughter again.. this book would have been perfect for a 70 mm version if not for the erotic parts interspersed with all the fun bits.. the Indian Censor board would definitely blow their top and then some...The story is about Ravan, a hindu, and Eddie, a catholic, who are growing up in the CWD chawl in Mumbai. It begins with Ravan( who was Ram at birth) "murdering" Eddie's dad. The first few pages introduce you to Nagrakar's style in no mean words. It is one heady experience, and you just can't getting hooked on to it. We all go through Ravan and Eddies's turmoils as the grow up. The premise of the story is basically that they both sem to be leading parallel lives and the ways they discover life in their own way. The scenes where the Father Angello is trying to mend Eddie's way are just priceless. Ravan's realisation of power is also note-worthy, once he discovers his role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi( yes you read that right!).Saying anything more about the book would be injustice, as I would be imposing my thoughts. It is something that is something for the reader to savour and enjoy the after taste for a long time.One piece of advice though. Questions of your sanity would definitely arise if you happen to be reading this around some people who have not read this. So, if your sanity is already under question, do read this when you are alone. No point in confirming other's doubts..whattsay?