The Witness - S L Bhyrappa

The drawback of not being able to read or write in my mother tongue has resulted in losing out on the some of the best, Sahitya Academy winning works of our authors. I have always wanted to read Bhyrappa's books, specially after it being highly recommended by both my granny and U. So as soon as I spotted the translated version of Saakshi on the Crossword bookshelf, I picked it up immediately. (This reminds me that i need to pick translated version of Kuvempu's Kanooru Heggaditi).
Although translated works rarely do justice to the original, this one isn't that bad either. Eventhough the flavour of Kannada is missing, because of the fact that I was able to relate to the whole set up I was able to still enjoy the book.
It traces the story of person who has never lied in his entire life and the one time he does he is so ashamed and guilty that he commits suicide. But Yama-the god of death wants him to go back and witness the consequences of his suicide and the result of his lie. The book questions the philosphy of truth and how it interpreted by each individual.
The entire story moves in one smooth flow and makes a wonderful leisure read.

Contemporary Indian Fiction

This collection of contemporary short stories has been edited by Khushwant Singh. Unlike most other short story collections that usually have a common theme through them, this one has a whole range of stories in one thin book. Ranging from folk tales to the futuristic sci-fi types. Not suprisingly, most of them are not even based in India nor are they based on Indians. I personally like both the sci-fi ones, although I hardly read that genre.
Like Mr Singh mentions in the introduction, we might not have produced great novelists or writers, but we sure have some really great short story writers.

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

A very well narrated story of Cucumber/Snot nose, perennially sinus infected Saleem Sinai who having born on the stroke of midnight, 15th Aug 1947.. yes the same time as our nation is gifted with (questionable) powers of being able to enter other's thoughts. In the process of which he comes across hundreds of children who happen to have been born around the same time and have all been gifted with some big or small miraculous power depending on how far from midnight they entered this world. They all end up forming the Midnight's children community and as with all groups end up with conflicts about how they could possible take over this world... aka X men style and slowly the community disintegrates.
And one fine day Saleem loses it all... his powers, his family, his country..even his memory and ends up in Bangladesh fighting for Pakistan. And when he is finally rescued back to India with all his powers gone, but with an ultra sensitive nose.. he meets Parvati, another midnight child.. He then gets sucked into the chaos of Emergency and manages to reunite the members of M.C.C.

Its a first person account of the events as narrated by Saleem to Padma, his caretaker/servant/lover... The references and the linking of various events is very well done and at no point does the book take the reader for granted...
Recommended - After all its won the booker of bookers prize.

God's little soldier - Kiran Nagarkar

Most of the reviews that I had read before actually buying the book had actually quite dismissed the book, mainly because of the language and the crass comparisons presented in the book. Very few of them had managed to talk about the actually story.... which by the way I am not going to either ;)
Well, it is quite different from all the other books of Nagarkar; Not that you could typecast his writing in any way. But unlike his other books, this one gives an impression that somewhere along the line he was trying to "impress" the reader and write according to their whims.
Its a story of religious fanatic Zia-Lucens-Tejas who considers himself the God's little soldier out to bring discipline, peace and what not to the existing chaotic world and like most fanatics, everything is just black or white... Zia lives in a world of extremes. On the other hand is his brother, Amanat a strange combination of a writer, architect and an asthamatic... The book traces their world of love-hate relationship.
Its surely does not live upto the expectations of a Kiran Nagarkar book, but its not one that could be dismissed easily either!

Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

This is one book whose title is as misleading as they can ever be. It traces a part of life of Dina Dalal, a widow, Omprakash and his nephew, tailors who work for Dina and Maneck, a student and a paying guest at Dina's place....all during the Emergency period. Each one of them have had a miserable life and are trying to find contentment in those spouts of happiness that they share with each other.
There is also a beggar without legs, his beg master and a strange guy who collects hair.
Going by the title, i had assumed that after having suffered so much in life they would be able to find some happiness thereby obtaining that fine balance.. but it just gets worst.
Omprakash loses his legs, his nephew gets castrated and Dina loses her livelihood... and finally Maneck commits suicide (Sorry abt the spoiler)....its a pretty sadistic story inspite of some memorable incidents.
Recommended - Don't know...can't say

February of books

I read a lot of books this last month and could have written individual reviews for each of them but then i realized that all my reviews sound the same. So instead of different posts for each book, here are my two lines on each of them

1. Cuckold - Kiran Nagarkar
Warning-Book cover is a bit embarrassing to carry around, specially around parents, So make sure u carry a paper to cover it up as soon as u buy it :)
It’s the story of a prince of Rajasthan during the time of the earlier invasions of the mughals. Very beautiful written. This one won the Sahitya Academy award for Nagarkar. Not only a must read, it’s a must have too.

2. The Girl - Sonia Faleiro
A very different setup but very very depressing story

3. Pinging from Bangalore - K. R. Chandrashekar
Pre-requisites to enjoy the book
a. You must be software engineer
b. You got to be from bangalore.
The book is exactly how he calls it, a 'blog novel'. It does come across as a bit amateurish, especially in the language department. The language is simple and informative when he talks about general issues but when it comes to his life, the author; as Sumanth mentions seem to have thought in Kannada and translated it to english later. Still as a software engineer one tends to relate to a lot of things in the book. Recommended

4. Homespun - Nilita Vachani
Spanning across three generations starting around the earlier 1930s to 2000, its the story of the Mehta family as seen and heard through the eyes of Sweta. The humour is subtle and sequence of the story very engrossing, specially the way each character is introduced. Was an impulsive buy and absolutely no regrets

5. A million pieces - James Frey
A lot of controversy surrounding the book.... but didn't realize it until i had finished reading it. The cover page was what caught my attention. A lot of it apparently is all made up and the book no longer qualifies as non-fiction. But all said and done, its a story built with hope and human spirit and very inspiring.

6. Seven sixes are forty three - Kiran Nagarkar
Not qualified to comment on or review this book. Didn't understand much... had me totally mixed up.

7. Chapati or Chips - Nisha Minhas
TP kinds.. was a b'day gift. Can't say i appreciated it, nice for a breezy read

Clueless & Co - Pratik Basu

A nice tongue in cheek book by the ex Disney Chief. The book switches between a first person account of a guy's life in a pipe company and the misadventures of a Rahul Banerjee who is out to join as a partner in a dubious marketing reseach organization.
Although a bit of marketing jargon in the book might put-off the reader, the book does grow on you and u actually appreciate it in the end and the best part is that the book is that its funny throughout unlike in bits and pieces whether its the 'piss project' of Tapas Pan (Rahul's second partner) or the Big Brother incident.
Like Chetan Bhagat mentions, 'contemporary indian literature is evolving...' there are a lot of books, specially fiction that are being published by first time authors.. most of them make a light read and are very much enjoyable...

Kalki Selected Stories

In the past couple of months I have read some of the best short stories written by our authors and suprisingly (or maybe not) some of the best ones have been written during the freedom struggle, specially the early 1900s. I picked up Kalki's selected stories on an impulse and it was a revelation, specially the first story. Its the story of ladies school principal who would have lost the love of her life to illiteracy. The irony is the tail is simply marvelous.
Most of the stories have been picked from the immensely popular magazine started by Kalki and have been translated from Tamil by his grand-daughter. Simple language, very basic background but each with a charm of its own. Most of the plots in the later half of the book, you will realise have already been used in a lot of south indian movies and talk a lot of the authors inclination to the freedom struggle, more so of the non-violent types..
Although some parts of it might be little difficult to comprehend for non-tams like me, its still recommended....

False Impression - Jeffrey Archer

"Not a penny more, not a penny less" was the first Jeffrey Archer that i read and till date none of his book has been able to reach its level. Kane & Abel was good and successful, but then he started repeating the same old "Two rich guys fighting it out" story in every other book of his, including the last one, Sons of fortune (which by the way was crass).. So i guess one day out of the blue, he decides i will try to be a bit 'hatke'! and maybe during that time he was reading the sidney sheldon series and so Mr. Archer in the process of being different now has a female protogonist, but then he didn't want to be blamed of plagarism (after having already spent time in prison for perjury!), he decides to have make the villian a female too..
Well the story uses 9/11 as the background although the plot is not even remotely related to the incident, with Anna being fired by Fenston Finances for helping out one of their clients and she being the protogonist (meaning an extremely lucky woman....coz she always manages to escape the FBI and the professional killer!!!) manages to alert the client and save the one thing that Mr. Fenston is actually after.. the self potrait of Van Gogh... and not suprisingly ends up falling in love with the FBI agent.
Might make a good thriller movie but as a book... totally avoidable

Tales from Firozsha Baag - Rohinton Mistry

Since the time i watched Pestonjee, i have been fascinated by the Parsi community. My father was of the opinion that there are only two kinds on Parsis, either they are phenominally brillant or they are totally dumb. And the only parsi i knew in my life.. the late Dr. Bharucha (my uncle's friend) , one of the most interesting person i have met in my life belonged the former catergory.
So it was this desire to know more about them that made me pick up Tales of Firozsha baag. The book contains about 10 short stories all revolving around the three apartment blocks of Firozsha baag and each with a reference to the other.
All the stories revolve around human emotions, be it lost love or someone trying to adjust to life in Canada. Each character is unique, be it Najamai or Rustomji or Nariman, but Kersi and Jehangir are the two that are most interesting.
Recommended........

Best Indian Short Stories - Vol I and II

Each one picked by Khuswant Singh, most of which he received during his stint with Illustrated weekly.
As he mentions in the introduction, that the art of short stories is thankfully still intact in India, whereas in most other places, they try to squeeze a novel into a couple of pages and pass it off as a short story.
The ones listed in these two books range from supernatural to mystic, from subjects dealing with human emotions to natural disasters etc. Notable among these are the ones by Qurratulain Hyder, P.L. Desphande, R.K. Laxman and Khuswant Singh. I specially liked Honour by Q.Hyder and the KS game from Khuswant Singh..
Most of these are translated from Urdu, punjabi and hindi and I guess they would have sounded better reading them in the language in which they were written coz somewhere along the line, the translated story loses its flavour..But a must have nonetheless..

English August - Upamanyu Chatterjee

The 80's cult book.. It captures the uncertainties and obscureness in the life of Agastya Sen, an IAS fresh recruite posted in the dead-town of Madna and how he finally decides that IAS is so not for him. Its cynical, sarcastic and of course funny.. specially in places where Agastya or August explains the history and the significance of his name.
Like Gulzar mentions in BnB... its all about "Khali bore dupehron se" and how the almost always high on mariajuana August manages to survive it all.
Well it must have all stemed from Upamanyu's personal experience in the services.
The book certainly makes a good read but being too cynical in places.. you wouldn't want to go back it again.
Now that it is made into a movie (as the cover page mentions in big bold letters)... hoping to catch sometime in the near future.

Kardamom Kisses - Shinie Antony

Super... after a long time! The last equally good one that i read was Ravan n Eddie. It is realistic as most Indian novels tend to be but the narration and the way it is presented is interesting. The initial part of the narration is through Drupa, the second daughter of Mangala, a keralite and Kedar, a punjabi singer. The cultural and intellectual differences have lead to their separation and the kids are initially living with their mom in a small town in Kerala and the second half is begins with Kedar taking the children off to Delhi. The humor is very good, specially when the author describes both the cultures, the attitude of the people around etc although i feel she has been a bit partial to the Keralite part of drupa's family :).
Here is what she has she say about her book (as quoted in a newspaper):

(it is)actually a plethora of numbers - single mothers, two sisters, triplet
aunts and a person with four breasts. This novel is more mathematical than
familial

Whats noteworthy is that both Chetan and Shinie thank each other in their respective novels, but both the novels are so diametrically different from one another!!!

Recommended....

One night @ the call centre - Chetan Bhagat

A let down after the hugely popular 'Five point someone', this book isn't as engrossing as the first one. It starts off well, but seems dragged a bit in between and gets very predictable at the end. One very visible difference between the two books being that while FPS was very much autobiographical, One night... seems to be a researched book and the effort becomes very evident.
The story revolves around Shyam, Priyanka, Vroom, Esha, Radhika and Military uncle and their one frustrating night at the call centre. The male bonding (the USP of the first book) works again and the humour between Shyam and Vroom is enjoyable, but the girls could have been presented better. Military uncle in hardly in the picture...
Could have been better....

Time Mag's All time top 100 English Novels...

... Read it here

link via indianwriting

Mistress - Anita Nair

Well, its typical Anita Nair book and i have just read ladies coupe apart from this, but still i feel most of her books would be like this. Its a good book, very true to life... So true that it can be very depressing. Its the story of Radha, Shyam, Chris and Koman. Its set in the backdrop of kerala and uses Kathakali as its basis. Each chapter begins with a beautiful explanation of one of the navrasaas and she provides an analogy from nature for each of the nine expressions. The story in itself is very depressing (not cynical, just depressing!) and whatever hope emerges is when she writes about Kathakali. Like when she explains about 'Bhayaanakam' or Fear, she says all the other eight feelings can be pretended, but when it comes to fear, it always gives the person away.

Now that i have read quite a few indian authors, i must say that they tend to generally write very depressing stuff... not all but majority of them. In such cases these IIM, IIT ones bring in those light moments and i guess thats why they sell more that others :)

An Equal Music - Vikram Seth

For some strange reason, this book keeps reminding me of Before Sunset. Maybe because of the references to Vienna and Venice or that the protagonist girl friend is called Julia. At certain places, i could even visualize Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy!
An Equal Music is about Michael, a violinist who plays with a string quatert name Maggiore and the love of his life, Julia a piano player. The story flows like a calm river and you are just content with sitting on its shores and letting it take its course. Its spans 10 years of Michael life, 10 years in which he regrets having to leave Julia, is elated when they meet again only to realize that she is deaf and will never be able to play music with him again and his subsequent breakdown.
The book is filled with references to classical music and a person with certain basic knowledge might be able to appreciate it better.
Its not exactly a light read, neither is it philosophically like Shantaram. Its not even a feel-good kind of book, but surely worth a read.

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Truth they say is stranger than fiction and this book is a true testimony to that. The escape from prison in Australia, the arrival in Bombay, the clinic in the slum, the stint with bollywood, the fight along with the Mujaheddins in Afghanistan and just the presence of this book is so extraordinary that it’s hard to believe the truth behind it all.

Shantaram is the true story of Gregory David Roberts, a convict who escapes from a prison in Australia and ends up in Bombay where he spends 8 long years before his re-capture in Germany and the extradition back to his home country.

The book is very interesting and one on the very few ones which I have truly cherished each and every word. Just the way he has put across things is so interesting and different that it makes you think and want to re-read the whole thing again and again. And there are these pieces of wisdom in the book that I have been using on my friends, like the one that says “News is what people do and gossip is how much they enjoyed doing it” or the one where Karla says “Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting” and every single person I have mentioned it to have nodded their head in agreement.

A fascinating book and every bit worth reading.

Rage

An apt title to the novel by Balaji Venkateswaran. It chronicles the life of Lakshmi, a beautiful danseuse and her journey to fame and the dizzy world of politics and how she loses each and every one of her loved ones to the demonic rage within her.. her mom, her grandmother, her best friend, her daughter and finally her ownself.
The story is narrated through Vasuki, her childhood friend and her prospective groom at one time.She is projected as a self-centric, manipulative and stubborn person who has always led her life on her terms. She is a totally enigma to people around here, a little like Jayalalitha. And i did read somewhere that this was based on her life.
The book does get a tad bit boring sometime in between, but among those "life at IIT, IIM" kind of books, this truely is etched out better and worth a read.

Mediocre, But Arrogant..

..in short MBA. Its a new book by Abhijit Bhaduri. Its on the same lines as Chetan Bhagat's Five point someone. Its based in Management Institute of Jamshedpur or MI-Jampot as Abbey, the protogonist calls it. Just like Five point, the protogonist in this one too is the average but likeable guy, someone who can't decide which among the three girls he actually loves and inspite of such huge complications in life has to somehow clear his exams and stay afloat :).
The humor though is much better compared to Five point, specially the oxymorons that Rascal Rusty, Abbey's friend, mentor, saviour etc has a hobby of collecting. Some examples being: civil-engineers, learning on the job, military intelligence, strategic planning etc.. The references to "Alps and her healthy lungs" etc etc brings out the the common indian 'male' student's lingo very well.

A total time pass paisa vasool kind of book.