The Extras - Kiran Nagarkar

Considering that we get maximum hits for Ravan and Eddie on this blog, it is only fair that we write about the sequel. The extras picks up from where the first one left off. Ravan is in love with Peita and Eddie has Belle and everything is well.. until their respective mothers decide that they don't deserve another free meal and throw them out of the house. Their musical aspirations take a nose dive and Ravan becomes a taxi driver and Eddie does a Praveen Babi from Khuddar. But as they say you just can't escape your destiny however glorious or dubious it might be.. so we have our R & E twisting with Helen and reaching out to Aasman and ultimately achieving what they have always known to be theirs.
It isn't as atrociously wicked as the first book.. but it has its moments whether it is notes on bus conductors making it big or the prohibition or the education system. Of course nothing yet beats the one on Afghan snow or "Mazee heart halt zale"

The Pregnant King - Dr Devadutt Patanaik

Today.. when section 377 causes so much of an uproar...where political parties feel threatened by gender equality, homosexuality and quota for women...where female infanticide is as much a reality as child marriage...its interesting to find something like the pregnant kind hardly being discussed in the media or otherwise.. not that the book is extraordinary..but considering the fact that "The white tiger" wins awards..this one atleast deserves a good mention.. Apart from Jai.. I have hardly come across any references ..

The story is set around the Mahabharata and its merges both the fiction and mythological parts...although too many references of gender confusion tends to make it a bit too forceful.

We tend to summarize the Mahabharata solely on the Kurukshetra and the war that these short stories build around it which probably are much more interesting and relevant are missed out..And these are exactly the kind of stories that reflect the hypocrisy of the society that we have landed ourself in...also evident from the fact that we have converted both the Ramayana and Mahabharata into a preachy textbook rather than just a documentation of the civilization that we lived in.

Blind Faith - Sagarika Ghosh

Well... Why did I pick this book? Mainly because it was written by Sagarika Ghosh of the IBN fame and she does have some decent posts up her blog.
So... was I disappointed.. not entirely. It didn't start off well.. it jerked between a novel and a news report.. but it did pick itself up somewhere in between.. but then again the end was a bit of a damper.
Although the characters are pretty intruiging, there are a lot of unnecessary explanations given to certain events whereas certain interesting ones just breeze through. It comes out more like a first time novel.. although I think she has already published atleast one that I know of.
But I must add that the Indi is one of the best character sketches I have read so far.
A decent one...but could have been a lot better.

Home Products - Amitava Kumar

So what did I like about the book...umm..
-The title
-The cover
-The minor details that show keen observation on part of the author...like the one about the relationship between Bua and Parshuram where he describes Parshuram wiping his glasses with Bua's saree pallu.

Although the book is pretty engrossing... its pretty ordinary in the sense that it does not have you thinking about it later. The narration is pretty smooth and make a for a leisure read.

Links for follow-up:
Jabberwock in conversation with Amitava
Reviews of the book
Amitava's Blog

Side note: A lot of recent writers have well-read blogs which kind of make them more real as compared to say a Naipaul or Rushdie..and it not helps in marketing the book to a certain extent but also brings in a lot of healthy discussion about the book which adds that little extra to the whole experience of the book.

Pic courtesy: Author's homepage