Book Review: Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban

In the only interest of earning profits, how a pharmaceutical company did ignore all the tests needed, falsified the data, tampered the records and fraudulently conducted its business is the story line of this book. Not all have compromised their integrity, some of the employees notice the misses and brings it to notice of the management of Ranbaxy but in vain. They leave the company. And one of them becomes a whistle blower and notifies FDA the drug regulating authority of US. From there begins the trial which runs over few years and then justice is provided, a sort of.

This book reveals lots of scary facts of how the generic drug making industry operates. While there is some regulation which is effective in the developed countries like US but in India there are no proper regulations or data needed to approve a drug and it is only the connections which will do the job. This kind of nexus between the regulatory bodies and the industry affects only one party - the patients. They don't know the drugs they are taking are properly tested or will it do the job it is intended to do or will it create any other issues. This shatters the belief in the system. Not all pharma companies are like Ranbaxy but cockroaches don't live alone. 

Now I look at Indian pharma companies and the generic drugs with complete suspicion. I wish and hope the regulator takes interest in citizen's live's and raise their standards in improving the quality of drugs made in India.

Book Review: The Anarchy by William Dalrymple

After reading this book, I felt this is how history should be told. This is not only the story about the rise of East India Company but a few hundred other stories too. This is the story of disintegration of Mughal kingdom. This is the story of Robert Clive taking bigger risks and luck favoring him. This is the story of how rashness ruined Bengal Nawab Siraj-ud Daula. This is the story of company losing many of the early battles but fighting back to win finally. This is the story how internal fights within Indian kingdoms gave advantage to European traders in becoming kingmakers. This is the story of Portugese and French companies inability to outsmart the English. This is the story of Tipu. This is the story of Maratha's. All happening in parallel and influencing each other.

William Dalrymple unravels the history of how a British company with initial aim of trading came to India and changed its history. He references lots of the works and weaves the story for us to understand the events in chronological order and the cause and effect with ease. He gets into the personality and mindset of the major people involved and how their approaches made or unmade the fortunes for them.

Once I began to read, I could not put it down. My understanding of history got lot enriched with this read. I would recommend this to all history lovers and also to those readers in general who want to understand how kingdoms are made and unmade.

Book Review: Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

As the book title denotes it is an account of lives of nine different beings whose lives are dedicated to spirituality and the religion they believe in. They are not fictional characters but the real one's living across across length and breadth of India.

The first biography is that of a Jain nun (The Nun's tale). It captures how an young girl, gets attracted to Jain religion practices and goes on to become a Jain Muni. She finds a companion with another Nun who has a similar background of her's. Together they spend couple of decades following the rituals and tradition of Jainism wandering around all the places in India. When her companion Nun leaves the world embracing 'Sallekhana' (a procedure through which one leaves the body by fasting in a gradual manner and giving up all the food items one by one and finally water too). After this Nun feels lonely and finds home at a Jain Ashram in Shravana Belagola, a south Indian town. While she narrates her life events, this author learns that she too has embraced 'Sallekhana'.

The second one (The Dancer of Kannur) is about dancers at 'Theyyan', a festival event in Kerala. These dancers belonging to Dalit community become gods by dressing up and dancing during Theyyan season for three months in a year. People from all religions respect these Gods in human form, offer prayers during the event. Some of these dances and performances are aimed at showing how Dalits are ill-treated by upper caste religions and these dancers see this event as an opportunity to seek reforms and social equality. After the season, these dancers take up jobs as well-diggers, work as labors and take up other menial jobs. This tradition has been going on for centuries but will the next generations continue this tradition needs to be seen.

Third one (The Daugher of Yellamma) has Rani Bai as protagonist. She is a Devadasi who lives with fellow Devadasi's near Belgaum in Karnataka. At the young age of 6, she was dedicated to Yellamma goddess. And her life's way forward was cast in stone. After puberty, she has to accept the oldest profession on this world but in the name of goddess. All of her clients are not going to be nice to her. But she has a community to support her. And the greatest danger is in the form of getting the diseases. Rani Bai has seen her fellow Devadasi's losing their lives to these diseases. She later loses two of her daughters to the same. While she has an aspiration to retire from this profession by buying agriculture land and buffalo's, this author learns that she has been tested HIV positive. Overall, this  chapter does more than telling a tale of a Devadasi. It offers research into how the poverty puts so many into this vicious cycle and how the lives of those involved in this is short lived. It also involves the tale of goddess of Yellamma and how Devadasi's find solace in her and draw energy from her life.

There are six more tales on the similar lines about sufi saints, singers of Rajasthan, a Tibetan Monk who fled to India and wanted to liberate his country taking gun into his hands and the Tantriks in West Bengal who live in the cremation ground.

Reading this book was an eye-opener for me as this unraveled lives of people whom we don't find in the regular neighborhood but of those who live intensely with the sole aim of realizing the God they believe in through their chosen paths.

Getting under the skin with help of Robert Greene

I have been reading and re-reading Robert Greene’s book ‘Power’ for couple of years. It has become a good reference book for me to understand the strategies adopted by those who wielded power – all kinds of dominating figures in the history ranging from dictators, military generals, political leaders to achieve what they wanted and keep a control on their subjects which we also can learn and put to use in our own circumstances.

Author’s grip on historical facts, the ways to interpret them, ability to see through the masks people wear to conceal emotions and explaining to the readers lucidly how it can be internalized is really fascinating. I was drawn into this author. In the quest to understand this author better, I watched his interviews on Youtube, learnt about his past and how he puts things together. He only impressed me further. I bought another book of his - ‘Mastery’, which is about those people, not the rulers, but who mastered a particular subject or a skill and how they could clear past through other attractions in their lives and keep distractions away as well.

Recently came out his new piece of work – ‘The Laws of Human Nature’, it is an outstanding work on the subject of human psychology. I found it much more effective than my past experiences of reading the similar works by other authors. As it got under my skin, I was completely immersed into this book and read it feverishly, wasting no available time or opportunity I got to read this. As soon as I was done, I started reading this again for the second time. Most likely, I am likely to go back to it again as the concepts are so useful and the subject itself is so vast.

Though I attempted reading books by other authors and move on to a different subject, the urge to read this author again made me buy his book ‘War’. Though it is based on war strategies, they can be largely used in multiple situations in our daily lives too.

This author will wake up a different person lying deep inside you. As you understand yourself better, your ability to get under the skin of others will also deepen. You will begin to read their faces, body language, tones to get clues of what they are up to and you will begin to ignore the words – plain language they use to conceal their true intentions and there will be nothing hidden from you as you get better with your understanding of human psychology and the strategies people adopt to get what they want. You want to become a better person at human psychology or you want to outsmart those who are already good at this, Robert Green can be of great help in either cases.

If you are ambitious to build a kingdom (or a company or a small team or a name for yourself) and want to learn the tricks from people who built vast empires in the past and controlled them well, these are the books you should be putting your hands on. You are not ambitious but want to save yourself from those who want to manipulate you by getting to know their true intentions at the very early stage, again Robert Green is a must read for you.

Book Review: Portrait of a Serial Killer by Khushwant Singh

This is a collection of 58 short essays written by Khushwant Singh over many decades published in various newspapers and magazines but not in a book form before. This book is divided into four sections, grouping the essays by People, Places, Indian Way and Politics.

In the first section about people, author writes about his meetings with Lata Mangeshkar at her home and a dinner with Dev Anand. There is a chapter on author's perspectives on Nehru as a writer and in another chapter he describes the life Amir Khusrau had lived being a courtier and being close to a saint at the same time. Book’s title ‘Portrait of a serial killer’ is a chapter in this section where in author constructs the life story and looks into how the mind of a serial killer works based on the information available about him.

Second section is about places. Here author gives summary of his experiences in visiting the places across India and the fascinating stories behind them. It has an interesting story of sudden appearance of numerous snakes in a village and how they find what had caused it. This section has chapters on Hyderabad, Agra, Amritsar, Haridwar, Delhi and villages in Madhya Pradesh.

Third section is about the way Indians think and behave. And the last section is about the political dramas and the stories as seen by the author. Here author dons the role of a journalist and the language becomes critical and he suggests how we should see things differently and act.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first two sections of this book. This book was on my night stand for a week as a warm companion to relax and put me to good sleep.


Khushwant Singh had many hats to wear – that of author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. He read and wrote voraciously and has numerous books to his credit. He died in 1994 at the age of 99. This book was a compilation of his works by his daughter and was published in 2015 on the hundredth anniversary of author’s birth.

Book Review: Two Saints by Arun Shourie

This is about the incidents from the lives of two saints, that of Sri Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi. Both were acclaimed spiritual masters lived similar lives but with slightly different
approaches to self-realization. Both had gone through similar phases in life and have faced similar experiences. Drawing upon those incidents, the author looks at what the medical and psychological sciences say about them. Drawing heavily from the research and surveys information, he tries to see if the experiences of the saints were caused by hypnosis or placebo effect or any other psychological illusions and observe the differences.

This book gives detailed account of the personal lives of two saints as observed by those who lived with them. Sri Ramakrishna had chosen the path of Bhakti Yoga. Though he was ardent devotee of the mother goddess Kali, he is also seen worshiping Rama at one instance and Krishna another time and Allah and Jesus too. It is mesmerizing to know he could take the diseases from those common people who were visiting him and suffer from those ailments while his visitors got cured. Much of it cannot be explained by the science so they just remain part of the spiritual world. Similarly some of the teachings of Ramana Maharshi like the one in which he says ”it is the ego which takes rebirth” cannot be affirmed with science. At the end, author concludes it will not be possible for all of us to do what those Saints did but an effort towards it can better our lives.

Arun Shouri is a seasoned journalist and this is his 37th book.

Review of three not so easy to read books

These three books I read in the last two weeks were not an easy read for me. Two of them were already on my bookshelf for years. I had attempted reading them in the past but could not keep up my interest for long but now I am surprised at being able to read them now. Their styles were so different and unusual, plots did not have traces of what you see in common lives of the neighborhood so it was not easy for me to connect with the characters in these novels and they were all sad portraits of life. They drain lots of energy out of you but they would make you a seasoned human being. For an average reader, these books would not make much or any sense but if you are not an ordinary one (but have literary interests) and want to see different faces of humanity, they would not fail for sure.

Vanity Bagh by Anees Salim

The story begins with the protagonist of the novel, Imran Jabbari, entering a jail being sentenced for being involved in a serial blasts case. He begins to tell his memoirs looking at blank pages in the book binding room of the jail. There was nothing close to his heart than Vanity Bagh, a mohulla of Muslim residents where his family lived. He along with his friends from the neighborhood form a group and give it unusual name ‘5-1/2 men’. They get involved in petty fights but little they knew that they would become part of far bigger crime. While some of the observations of author reflect the opinions of Muslim community but that does not make this novel communal. The strength of plot lies in how the main character reveals his past life to the readers and being surprisingly honest with it. And the style of this novel is so unique, I cannot compare with anything else I have read in the past.

The author Anees Salim, wrote two more novels to get over the pain of rejection of his first work and now he is an award winning author. He does not promote his work but expects his books to do the talking and not him. Well that is a hallmark of a genius writer and I expect lot more good work coming out of him.



The illicit happiness of other people by Manu Joseph

This is a psychological thriller. A poor family living the middle of well to do neighbors goes through an unfortunate incident. Their elder son, who was in his teens and a great comic artist, commits suicide and the reasons are not known. Then begins the journey of his father, a journalist by profession, to find out what would have led to his son to give up his life. Though he meets all of his friends and talks to them, he does not get anything satisfactory out of it. After a gap a few years, he receives the comic strip his son intended to send to someone else just before his death but it being returned. Father begins the efforts again trying to decipher what the comic was revealing. One thing leads to another. The mystery beings to unravel but the reason behind suicide was not a simple one. The boy had gone through very serious psychological explorations and the reasons for such a situation were many. The journalist learns very unusual facts of the psychological issues many people face and finally understand the reasoning with that ends the novel.

Manu Joseph is a journalist and author and his works have won him many literary awards.





This house of clay and water by Faiqa Mansab

The story is set in Lahore and revolves around three characters. One that of a housewife, Nida, married into a upper class family but tortured in life with loss of her mother, her one year old kid and seeing no true love in her life. The second character, Sasha, a woman who has an ordinary husband who cannot earn enough to fulfil her wants of luxurious goods so strays beyond her marriage to satisfy her needs. The third character is that of a Hijra (neither a male nor female) named Bhanggi, who spends most of his time in the vicinity of a dargah (shrine of a Muslim saint) and is deeply pained for the reason he was not born normal and cannot live life like others. All these characters get to know each other at dargah. They have a common thread among them. All of them are lonely and tortured in their lives. For them life is not short but a long suffering. Sasha changes her attitude of not being loyal to husband after her minor daughter goes through rape. Nida who does not have much option in her life and no one to comfort her, gets closer to Bhanggi. Nida’s husband does not approve this and gets the hijra killed. Pained further by this development, Nida leaves her family life to become a hijra and occupies the place of Bhanggi.

This novel is the debut work of Faiqa Mansab.

Book Review: Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

This is the tale of an introvert. This mini-novel (124 pages long) is written in first person. The author introduces himself and his family of father, mother, uncle, sister and later his wife in the dedicated chapters for each member of the family.

The plot begins with the story of a typical middle-class family who count every penny they spend and the hardships they go through. It takes a slower turn as the novel progresses. As the family’s income begins to improve, their lifestyle also gets better and they move out to a better house from the small house with little privacy where-in author’s mother had to battle with ants on a regular basis.

Author gets married and then things begin to change in their family. Anita, author’s wife asks tougher questions seeking the darker truths of the family. Until then, all of the family members did not question each other’s motives and remained selectively deaf and blind. That had created a bonding in the family. But the daughter-in-law questions the belief system of the family and shows that they were indeed all selfish for their own reasons.

When Anita, wife of the author, is out of town, the family gets together and the casual conversation develops among them and the old bonding feels like coming back into the family in her absence. But the conversations turn into how and why people get killed and how one could easily walk out of that mess without legally binding into it. That indicates morale of family is beginning to compromise.

After that discussion, author becomes uncomfortable. He gets out of the house and goes to a coffee bar which he regularly visits. Sitting there, he contemplates whether his wife will reach home back safely or does she get killed on the way. As that thought comes to him, he gets tensed and breaks the glass he was holding and that will injure him and he sees his own blood.

This is a classic work and gets into the minute details of how our sub-conscious thinks, adjusts and changes with the external factors. The language of this book makes it more interesting than the plot. This book is not meant for the young readers but those in the middle-age would appreciate this as the trauma of the protagonist of this book would be theirs too.

This book was originally written in Kannada but it got widely known after its translation into English. Though I would have preferred to read it in Kannada, I came across the English translation first and it became my last weekend’s read.

Book Review: Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand by Vijay Kumar

This book beats a thriller movie in its speed, narration of events and providing a visualization of the details that went through the years spent in nabbing Veerappan. This is not just the biography of the sandalwood smuggler but that of the author and many more police officials who were part of STF, who had a single mission in their lives that of putting an end to the saga of the bandit.

All of us know the criminal activities Veerappan was involved into and how many people he had killed in the process and his kidnaps for ransom too. But we would not know in detail that he was a master strategist coupled with knacks for detailed tactics that gave him an upper hand in all the confrontations with the police of three states. Every time he had emerged winner in those 20 years span. Though the author thinks Veerappan was lucky, I suppose it was Veerappan’s intelligence, knowledge of territory, ability to quickly identify the dangers and knowing when to flee the battlefield were keys to his success.

After failing to capture him (or shoot him) for two decades, STF adopted different ways. Until then, they were successful in reducing his team’s size and they could only eliminate those who were not as agile as Veerappan but the main target always had managed to slip away, right under their nose. So they changed their tactics and begin to mimic what Veerappan did, like moving in small teams and choosing the advantageous place to meet. Some of the plans failed but one bait finally hooked up the bandit. And Veerappan’s eye was bothering him beyond tolerance. They could bring him out of the forest cover in the pretense of getting his eye operated but that was all planned in detail by STF and the ambulance too was driven by one of them. As the vehicle carried Veerappan and his mates into a pre-decided spot, STF turned on the fire and killed those in the van.

Victor writes the history. Vijay Kumar, author of this book and the head of STF, could do what his predecessors did not see success at, though they came very close several times. So you get to hear the story straight from the person who outsmarted the bandit. Of course, it was a team effort and all of them have their own valid versions. This one could be the best version.

This book is edited well and makes the read very interesting and captures the readers throughout. I took three days, six sittings to read this 250 pages book. My experience was wonderful and better than watching a thriller movie.

Book Review: The Gene

As the sub-title of this book describes, it is an intimate history of development of biological science with focus on genomics which is now getting prominence for its potential benefits to mankind.

The book begins with a prologue in which author (who originates from West Bengal, now resides in US) describes about three persons in his family over two generations diagnosed for mental disorders and could not lead normal lives. It is believed that genes carried these defects or the disease causing mechanism making it a hereditary disease. The blood of parents is not lost in you. However, defects may not come to surface in every member but yet it would use them as vehicles to come to life again in the next generation.

Then the next few chapters explore the efforts of scientists like Gregor Mendel to Charles Darwin (and many other scientists) in understanding the process of evolution and natural selection. These chapters are a fascinating read as the book touches most of the literature, theories developed and experiments devised over a period of few centuries and it establishes how this stream got developed into a full-fledged science and how each scientist built on the foundation laid by their predecessors.

Then the detailed study of genes follows through. Efforts to understand why they are sequenced in a particular way and how each is influencing the characteristics, be it in plant, animals or human beings. There is explanation of how the evolution played a role and how the nature nurtures this mechanism of passing the genes to their off-springs. If and how genes can be engineered to get the desired results and similar discussions form the rest of this book, which cannot be summarized in a blog post and I believe it requires reading full 500+ pages of this book. If this subject interests you, get it on your study table soon (if not done already).

Though this is a science non-fiction, this book uses a simple language and keeps the readers interested, thanks to the literary skills of the author cum scientist Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. He won the Pulitzer award for his previous book on the study of cancer. This book in an extended study of his previous book and would become one of the foundations pillars in the historical study of genes.

Book Review: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

History has created a villain in Adolf Hitler, but he was a hero for the community he represented. After going through volumes of books on second world war and watching the movie ‘Schindler’s List’ several times (and some more movies on Holocaust too), I had stayed away from reading much about Hitler. So this book bought out of curiosity stayed in my book rack for years untouched. Now I believe History is perspectives of who wrote it, so I did put my hands on this autobiographical work of Adolf Hitler to get to know his perspectives and to understand the personality which made him a leader with an influence significant enough to cause a world war.

He was a student of Fine Arts. Along with painting, he spent considerable time in studying ‘German nationalist ideas’. From there you can find the traces of how his dis-likening towards the Jews gradually turned into hatred. He got transformed from a less talkative as a student into an effective orator who can hold on masses and impress them with his thinking and arguments. He was just a soldier in the First World War but became powerful enough to cause the Second World War.

Except in the first two chapters, there is not much info on his personal life and the rest of the book is about his ideas on Politics, German Nationalism and so on. So instead of an autobiography, this appeared to me like a textbook of Political Science. This book was published in 1925 much before significant political events happened. But this still serves an important purpose of deciphering how his thinking shaped him into what he became later. Many of his observations about history, psychology of masses, role of media, and importance of arms were so sharp which you don’t find them often in other political leaders of his time though they were deeply opinionated and skewed towards the welfare of German Society at the expense of other races. His knowledge and oratory skills were so good, he invoked pride in Germans in all his speeches and he was on the path to leading them as the book ends.

Hitler mentions in this book that the majority of population lacks ability to think and they believe whatever media or history books say is true, but there are few who have ability to critically analyze and they are outnumbered by the majority. Since the majority chooses their leader or Govt. the outcome may not be intelligent choice always. He also believed that degeneration of German society was due to the grip of Jews on that society as traders and he wanted to put an end to it. His similar arguments made him a natural leader of Germans and his rise in the political career began.

Those who write history ensure it favors them, so it is one sided. It is important to hear the other side of the story too. You like Hitler or not, it is important to hear his version of story. As I have already mentioned, this was written twenty years before the Second World War in which life of Hitler came to an end. This book do not have details of war or personal life of Hitler but is more about political ideology. If you like history or politics, this book is for you and Hitler will impress you like how he had impressed his people as an orator.

Book Review: The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse

The Glass Bead Game is no simple game but a rigorous study and practice of culmination of many subjects such as Mathematics, Music and Philosophy. It is the synthesis of all the sciences and arts existed on this world. It is taught to a chosen few in the elite school of Castalia.

Joseph Knecht, protagonist of this novel, is selected by the The Music Master for his talents in music to study at the elite school. His passion and commitment to the study of the Glass Bead Game attracts the attention of the management who runs the elite school of Castalia. After his studies, he joins the service of The Order as part of management in the same school he studied. He goes on an assignment to another institution to advocate them on the game and the success he receives there catapults him into the hierarchical top position known as Magister Ludi in his home institution. Though he has risen to top position, he thinks the foundation of school he serves are not strong as he thought them to be and The Order having political inclinations would not suit well for the development of glass bead game or the culture of their school. He has some driving force to leave behind all this to go to the external world. He has a friend who came as guest student into the elite school when Knecht was a student. After long and painful thought process, Knecht decides to leave Castalia and go to his friend to tutor his son. After reaching there, his life comes to a swift end as he drowns in a brief swimming race with his student.

As the novel ends, there begins the posthumous works of Knecht. A set of poems and three short stories (or biographies) which Knecht wrote based on his imagination of what he was in his previous lives. These three stories under “Three Lives” titled Rainmaker, Father Confessor and Indian Life are good reads than the main novel itself. They have strong reflection psychic functions and are capable of changing one’s perspective (like the author’s earlier novel Siddhartha). They can enhance one’s understanding of spiritual life and how the transformation takes place. Rainmaker is about the tragic end of the person who predicts rain to help his community to begin their agricultural activities. Father Confessor is about the discussions between two Christian hermits on understanding of their role in life. In Indian Life author explains the concept of Maya in the form of a life story.

For those who have read Herman Hesse’s works Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, this book would appear to be continuation of his writing mold, but more philosophical.

Herman Hesse was born in Germany in 1877 but moved to Switzerland during the First World War, the times during which arts and literature were oppressed. This novel symbolically represents that with the protagonist moving away from where he belonged protesting the change in culture.

All of Hesse’s novels have spiritual inclinations and author dissects the process of spiritual transformation with a lens of psycho-analysis. He was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

Book Review: Traitors in the Shadows (Empire of the Moghul series by Alex Rutherford)

This is the sixth book in the series focusing on the sixth Moghul emperor Aurangzeb.

Probably due to troubled childhood of losing his mother Mumtaz at a young age and neglected by his father Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb grew up to be a complex person. He was neither a drunkard nor a womanizer, and his courage in the battlefield and skills in striking the enemy at his weakness were no less than his great grand father Akbar. So under his rule, Mughal Empire expanded consistently. Even after his sixties, he actively led the wars, annexed Golkhonda and Bijapur which were not ruled by Mughals until then.

Aurangzeb was clever and cruel. People either respected him or feared him. He had put most of his enemies to merciless deaths. His main enemy Shivaji died a natural death but his son Sambhaji was killed by Aurangzeb after subjecting him to sever physical torture. He crushed all the rebels including those from his sons. He ruled for five decades until his late eighties. He was in control of his empire till his last day.

Aurangzeb trusted no one completely but he had the finest ability to get into the minds of his enemies. He could guess their moves early and counter them effectively. He lost no war and compromised with no one. After all, he had become emperor after killing his own brothers and putting his ruling father into a confinement. He ruled with an iron bar. His strength came for his beliefs in religion. Being a strict follower of his religion, and turning a blind eye towards other religions and their followers had attracted much enmity. Rajputs, who were long time associates of Mughals from the times of Akbar, turned against Aurangzeb. Jats, Sikhs, Marathas opposed his rule. But Aurangzeb paid no attention to anyone’s advice; he just brushed away the suggestions from his sister not to go against Hindus. He was determined to put his thoughts into action which he believed is good for his kingdom and he even thought that is moral too.

But when death was nearing him, Aurangzeb got into a melancholy. After hearing deaths of his sisters, two sons and a daughter, he realizes that his father would have been in the same situation after failing to win the confidence of his own sons. To avoid the fight among his surviving three sons for his empire, he decides to split the kingdom among them. He dies of old age and ill health far away from his capital, preparing to hear the judgement of the God he believed in.

Getting into the heart of a complex person is not any easy task. But this novel brings the history alive. Unlike the previous books in this series, this book has more details on the preparations for war conquests, strategies, using spies and messengers etc. rather than characteristic details of the protagonist but yet gives no less shape to the person Aurangzeb was.

Alex Rutherford is the pen name of two writers, Diana Preston and her husband Michael Preston. This couple have spent considerable time of their lives into the study, research and getting this series of six books on the Moghul kingdom. And they have shown to the literature world how a historical fiction should be written.

Book Review: Day’s End Stories (Anthology)

Life after sun set is quite different in small-towns from the metros and big towns. And for a diverse nation of India, each small-town has unique identity of its own. Those who lived in these towns but migrated to larger towns in later part of their lives tell their experiences those small towns offered them. This book is an anthology of ten essays by different authors. The small towns featured here are Patna, Gaya, Aligarh, Shillong, Mc Leod Ganj, Bikaner, Ahmedabad, Siliguri, Puducherry and Mananthavady. They cover the entire geography of India and each essay observes the vivid culture and social practices these small towns are made of. Some of them are light read and funny and few are dark and terrorizing.

I enjoyed the essay “Monsieur, Keen on Rajnikanth?” which is set in Pondicherry. It is written by a Bengali author who relocates to this small town and observes the cultural differences between Ashramiites and rest of the residents spending their nights in the bars and the growing differences between the economically high profile residents of Auroville and rest of the society. Another essay “Bihari Nights” set in Patna and the villages of Bihar was entertaining read too where-in author interviews childhood friends of Bollywood actor, Manoj Bajpai. In the essay “The bigness of small towns” author wonders about the prospects for a person choosing to be a full time writer. “Crossing Lines” is about the divide between two religions in the town of Ahmedabad. “Seeking the spirit of night” explores how the town of Shillong came into existence.

Authors of all these essays had lived some part of their life in the towns they wrote about but also elsewhere so they could clearly bring out the distinct qualities these small towns possess. Since these authors have literary inclinations too, these essays become long lasting as well. If you want to experience the night tours across the small towns of India sitting at the comfort of your home, get this book on your table.

Book Review: My Gita by Devdutt Pattnaik

The great epic Mahabharata has many versions to it. It has been told and retold throughout the history of mankind. Similarly, decoding Bhagavadgita too has been attempted by a numerous people. It was told by Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield. Sanjay through his divine sight told what he saw to Dritharashtra. Since this is part of Mahabharata, Vyasa told this to all. Or Lord Ganesha put it in written format as he heard from Vyasa. This can go on but what is important is the message of the Gita. The circumstance was the highly skilled warrior Arjuna had got into a dilemma in the middle of the battlefield. Krishna succeeded in convincing him to pursue the war through his message which became a foundation stone for survival and revival of the Hindu religion since time unknown. From Adi Shankara to Swami Vivekananda have their own interpretations of the Gita. So is author of this book too, so he names this book “My Gita”. This is not a verse to verse translation or commentary like the majority of the books handle the subject but to explain the underlying themes to modern audience who do not have a deeper understanding of Hinduism and Vedanta or similar subject lines.

It has eighteen chapters to cover, each explaining a theme in a simple language with lots of charts, figures, decision tree, and flow diagrams etc. which help the reader to get the concept and logic right. I am giving the names of the first five chapters here which would help the reader to understand how it is arranged.

Chapters:

• You and I do not have to judge
• You and I have been here before
• You and I experience life differently
• You and I seek meaning
• You and I have to face consequences

So goes the flow. There are enough examples (mostly taken from Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purana) to explain each theme in detail. For those who agree with the Gita, it can offer a great relief from mental trauma. Since we do not have to judge, and cannot control the outcome of our actions, we are neither the cause or the source of grief. We are responsible only for our actions but not the results. It also restricts from taking the wrong path too. Since it says we have to face the consequences of our actions in this life or next (though we may not remember of our previous life in the next birth), one needs to acquire good Karma through their actions to earn a better life. Until the soul is cleansed clean, birth-death cycle continues. It can be viewed either as a great philosophy or as a nice brain wash. I am not sure if this is a message of the God or creation of a human intellect, but I see great efforts in putting this together in explaining the whole life and things beyond it, in a logical way. Hindu’s believe this the rock bed of their religion and for right reasons. Earlier I was thinking it does not matter if you have read Gita or not but not anymore. Now I believe and suggest everyone to read Gita, irrespective of whether they are Hindu’s or Indians. This is meant for those seeking the meaning of the life. Gita would answer most (or all) of your questions and take away the burden of emotional stress, if you had any. You neither brought any thing to this world nor take it away. You can make cosmetic changes in this world but the spiritual aspects would never alter and is not affected by time. So the message of the Gita had remained same from time immemorial and would remain so forever, though interpretations may acquire different forms.

Devdutt Pattnaik is a popular author and a columnist. He demystifies mythology and brings forward the message hidden in them in an appreciable manner. I have been reading his columns for many years and reading this book of his did really help to improve my understanding of the Gita. Now I believe synthesis of two great epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata along with the Gita would open the doors to the spiritual world. They are the essence of all Veda and Upanishads but in the form of stories.

Book Review: The Monk as Man by Sankar

It was more than 100 years ago in the state of Bengal. A young man who had a BA degree was on the lookout for a job but was failing miserably to get one. His father was dead; his siblings were too young to go work. His family had to fight many lawsuits with their relatives and they were at the risk of losing the house they were living in. Seeing there is not enough food in the house, he would inform his mother that a friend has invited him for lunch and leave the house so that others get a better share. And he would go hungry. He got a job to teach at a college but the management did not like him so he lost it in three months. Again he was jobless, hungry and desperate. But his willpower was tremendous. Before he got another job he had decided to become a monk. His mother called him ‘Bilu’ while his given name was ‘Narendra’. For the rest of the world he is known as ‘Swami Vivekananda’.

That is the summary of the first of chapter of this book – ‘The Monk as Man; The unknown life of Swami Vivekananda’. As the title suggests, it is about the human side of the great monk. His thinking was legendary but he was struggling to have an earning to keep up with the needs of daily life for his family. He became a monk but did not cut-off his relationship with his mother. He was a loyal son to his mother his entire life. His mother outlived him. When Swami Vivekananda knew his end was nearing, he had asked a disciple to take care of his mother.

He was fond of many animals and birds in his Ashram, with which he conversed and had a special relationship. Most of them died soon after Swami Vivekananda passed away. His fame got spread all over the world as he aged but his health deteriorated. He suffered from diabetes which had made his right eye blind. Asthma was not giving him a proper sleep. He was growing impatient in his last years and was not nice to all the people around him. He had told people close to him that he would be gone before he was forty. And he kept his word. He had thought time was ripe to leave the body and a heart attack was just a reason to bid a bye.

He told that the spiritual momentum set in the Ashram will be alive for next 1,500 years. He said he was not imagining but seeing it. Hundread years have passed on since then and we witness that Sri Ramakrishna Ashram is doing fine in spreading the message of the great monk.

This book is the biographical account of Swami Vivekananda without getting into his teachings or spiritual aspects. A monk is a human being too. This book provides the account of the great human being India has seen in its history.

Book Review: Tell me a story by Rupa Bazwa

Rani, a young woman, lives with her father, elder brother, brother’s wife and son. Their’s is a very small house in Amritsar which is not repaired for many decades. Whatever their family earns is not sufficient enough for a decent living so they have to lead a compromised life. Rani has to borrow the umbrella from neighbor when it rains, such is their lifestyle. Rani stopped going to school when she was in Ninth standard. She works at a Beauty parlor, making the customers look prettier. The things she like most in her life is telling the stories at bed time to Bittu, her nephew, a school going kid. These stories begin somewhere but do not end as Bittu goes to sleep before they are complete. Rani has an obsession for the movie star Shah Rukh Khan and she is secretly making an album from clippings of his pictures in the Filmfare magazine which she is allowed to bring home from parlor after it has become two-three months old and has lost its gloss.

The peace in their family comes to an end when Rani’s father lends his life savings to a known person but it does not come back. Financial worries become worrisome more than ever. Rani’s father loses his health and dies soon after that. For Rani, who loved her father, this loss becomes painful. When she overhears the talk between her brother and his wife on how burdensome it would be to marry-off Rani, she takes a decision to leave home. A colleague in the parlor she works, informs Rani about a person requiring a home-maid in Delhi.

Rani makes it to Delhi. She finds that house owner is recovering from an accident and that she is a writer. Rani finds that life is better here but she suffers from the pain of living away from Bittu, who was not just an intent listener of her stories but a joy in her life. She goes through emotional highs with the ways the money being is spent in the new place. A sum which is spent on a party would have saved a family from all their troubles back home. The disagreements lead to arguments in the house and the house owner who is going through a writer’s block sees Rani’s point of view and their relationship gets better. This writer discovers the story telling skills of Rani and they both help each other to get through their trauma.

Meanwhile, Rani’s brother dies from depression. Rani is told that Bittu would not cry or talk. Pained by the development, she goes to Amritsar and begs to meet Bittu but she is not allowed to get even a glimpse of Bittu as his mother denies it. Rani comes to know she is no more the same person she used to be. She has to come to terms with what life has in store for her. She returns to Delhi and finds a job in a beauty parlor with the hope that she will get to meet Bittu one day.

Rupa Bazwa is based in Amritsar and has two novels to her credit. Her first novel ‘Sari Shop’ brought her recognition with many awards including the ‘Sahitya Akademi’ award. This is her second novel where-in she constructs the life in the poor families realistically and most of the characters have their own stories to tell. So this appeared to me like a dozen short stories stitched together around the protagonist Rani. Though this novel is based in Amritsar and Delhi, I guess it would have happened anywhere in India and the characters would not have behaved any differently. This novel is a fine read and portrays how human beings care more for the strength in their relationships than materialistic richness or poorness in their lives.

Book Review: The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy

If a novel written in a refined language and style appeals to you, this book is the next one you must read. It also has a nice background setting of a Himalayan village too.

Maya, a young widow, leaves her town of Hyderabad to Ranikhet, a sleeping village in the foothills of Himalaya. Her husband, Michael, a trekking fanatic, had died during his expedition to Roopkund and is cremated at Ranikhet. She had married against the wishes of her loving parents, so she does not go back to her former home.

She finds a job as a teacher in a Christian missionary run school in Ranikhet and a cottage on rent to live in. Course of life completely changes for her as she is drawn to beautiful setting of Ranikhet and many eccentric personalities it houses. Her landlord, Diwan Sahib, is a grand old man. He has an unaccomplished task of writing the biography of the famous hunter of the mountains - Jim Corbett. Helping Diwan Sahib in that task becomes part of daily routine of Maya’s life. There are rumors that Diwan Sahib has in possession of the letters written by Nehru to Edwina. So he is much sought after person for many journalists.

In the courtyard of the crumbling mansion there are mud huts and there lives Charu, a village girl along with her grandmother and uncle. The school where Maya teaches is headed by Miss Wilson. Mr. Chauhan is a newcomer in the town who is determined to turn Ranikhet into a tourist spot to boost the business for Aspen Lodge, a hotel chain for which he is the manager. In his hotel, there is a cook Kundan Singh, who becomes the lover of Charu.

It is Veer, a relative of Diwan Sahib, who was a visitor to the mansion, shifts his base to the house. He too is a mountaineer, a professional one and runs an organization to guide the trekkers. A relationship develops between him and Maya.

In the course of events, Kundan Singh leaves to Delhi and Charu leaves Ranikhet to join him. Diwan Sahib dies of old age and ill health. He leaves behind a will. Maya discovers a strange truth that Veer did know about her husband’s death. The novel ends with her response to stark realizations.

Though the whole story is told through Maya’s eyes, all the characters find equal opportunities to express themselves. With a nice blend of wildlife, changing political scenario in the hills, conflicts in religions do find mention in the novel.

This is the second novel of Anuradha Roy. All three of her works have been well received by the readers and critics. Her latest book ‘Sleeping on Jupiter’ was shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.

She is a publisher turned Author, knows the importance of a finely written novel. She rewrites her work to almost perfection, so it leaves fine taste in the readers and lasts long. 

She lives with her publisher husband at Ranikhet where this novel is set.

Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies

This is a collection of nine stories. These are mostly about lives of Indians living abroad. I was impressed by two stories but was not excited by others the same way, so I will summarize what I liked.

‘A Temporary Matter’ is story of a couple in distress. Their child is born dead. Wife cannot come to terms with husband because he was not present at the sad moment. She has planned to go separate and is preparing the communication around it. Their apartment is served with a notice of power cut. In the darkness, the couple begins to talk again, and they share the secrets between them each night. At last, wife says she is prepared to leave and husband breaks open the secret of his presence at the sad time of their lives together and of holding their dead baby. Their relationship gets renewed.

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ is story of an Indian family living abroad, on a trip back in India for a vacation. They go on to visit the Konarak temple along with the assistance of a guide. The couple learns that their guide has another odd job of an interpreter between a doctor and patients. The guide generates interests in them and he too is drawn to Mrs. Das. And that lets her share a secret with the guide. For one of her children, her husband is not the biological parent but no one knows about it. She seeks Guide’s help with matter. Guide asks whether it is pain or guilt troubling her. But the circumstances bring the tour to an end and the secret remains a secret.

This is the debut work of Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri and won her Pulitzer Prize in the year 2000. Her others works are ‘The Namesake’, ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ and ‘The Lowland’ which was nominated for ‘Man Booker Prize’ during 2013.

Book Review: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

David Lurie is a Professor in a University at Cape Town, South Africa. He is married twice, divorced twice. He lives alone. His sexual desire is not calmed down. It was fine when he was buying it. But he takes the risk of seducing a student of his. When the young girl (Melanie) comes to know that old David is not interested in committed relationship, she breaks it. News spreads and a scandal breaks out. David accepts his faults before an inquiry committee, resigns from the job and leaves the place to visit his daughter, Lucy.

Lucy lives in the countryside, runs a farm with the help of Petrus, a local Negro. She earns a living by selling the farm produce. When George comes down, he finds life calm and quiet there. He helps his daughter in small things and thinks of beginning to write an academic book he had in mind. But a disaster strikes his family. Three strangers attack the house, loot the valuables, put George on fire, rapes his daughter, shoot the dogs and escape in George’s car.

Both George and Lucy recover physically but are completely shaken psychologically. There is not much to do for the white westerners in a foreign land outnumbered by the locals with their own set of regulations. When the incident had happened, Petrus who guarded the farm was away. It creates a suspicion in George. Petrus comes back soon after. Petrus throws a party on the farm for his relatives and there in the party, George identifies one of the three attackers. He checks with Petrus and learns that he is a relative of Petrus but nothing can be done. Laws do not help to put the young wrongdoers behind bars. They (George & Lucy) either have to leave the place or tolerate their misdoings. And maintain the silence.

Lucy advises to George to leave the place as he is not unable to come to terms. What George did to a young student, in a way happens to his own daughter. Both incidents were disgraceful. On the way back, he goes on to visit the parents of Melanie (the student he had affair with). But the development in the life of his daughter brings him back to Lucy soon.

Lucy has become pregnant. Petrus offers to marry her but George disapproves. Efforts of George to convince his daughter to move away fail again. He finds another place to live by near to his daughter and begins to assist a white veterinary doctor who treats injured animals. There George giving up the effort to lengthen a dog’s life by another week reflects his changed mindset.

This novel was published 1999 and won the Booker Prize for the author, South African novelist, J.M. Coetzee.  In 2003, author was awarded Nobel Prize for his contributions to literature.