BRAToSPHERE

Category: Books

  • Revolution 2020 – Book Review

    Chetan Bhagat is still the rockstar of Indian writing, and his fifth book just reaffirms the same. A modest story set in a small town, with typical elements of love, Ambition, Corruption, system and YOUTH, laden with a liberal dose of sex. A total potboiler.

    The setting is again in a college, though in a different way this time. With a slogan like “Love. Corruption. Ambition.” , and a title like “Revolution 2020”, there was a fear that Chetan would tread the preachy path and come up with a boring book. But no, this book is a very much chetan bhagat book, full of masala.

    Of course, this time over, there is a subtle message intertwined in the book. The best part of chetan’s writing is the reflection of the keen observer that he is. Like, “ A girl replies back with a 🙂 🙂 🙂 when she has nothing better to text”. There are many girlies like this in the book, making it quite insightful into the psyche.

    The story of revolution 2020 is set in the small town of Varanasi, and it does strike a chord with the semi-urban aspirations and ambitions. It could be any similar town in India, and the story would not have changed much. Of course, Chetan does manage to internalize the town as much as possible to make the character building more strong.

    The book is about a poor boy called Gopal, who struggles all his life with money, family and the brutal entrance education system that we have in india. IIT, AIEEE, KOTA Coaching factory, he goes through everything making him what he eventualy becomes.

    It is about Raghav, Gopal’s friend and classmate who is a good friend till he cracks the JEE, and the distances start appearing.

    It is about a sweet girl called Aarti, who is torn between the two. A totally confused girl, who wants to fly.

    So is this is a story about the entrance exams? No? is it a love story? To an extent yes, but not completely. It is more a story about corruption and the system which forces you to do what you do. The expose of the corrupt education system and the archaic laws that exist in the country are very well highlighted, and it completely shows Chetan’s research on the subject.

    Though chetan was recently lashing out at Narayana Murthy for saying that coaching classes have led to the deterioration of the quality of IIT- and IIM-produced students, his book suggests exactly the same thing. The whole industry in kota is mocked at and is very well described.

    In Spite of  the book was filled with clichés, the ending was a decent surprise, and completes the whole drama very well. ( As they say, “agar sab theek nahi hai.. to picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!”).

    I hope this book is read by parents as much as it is read by the youth, to show the parents that getting an engineering degree is not the final respite to everything.

    Overall, I liked reading Revolution 2020 – an interesting and an easy read, and a page turner. Once I started reading the book at about 11:30PM last night, could not sleep till I was completely done with it.

    Note: To avoid being a spoil sport, i would like to withhold the story details

  • The Secret of the Nagas – Book Review

    It has been after a long hiatus that I am back to blogging. I have now shifted to Mumbai, from Bangalore, and shifting is one pain in the ass and time consuming.

     The last week was an extended long weekend of holidays, with Wednesday, Thursday being a holiday and again Saturday and Sunday. The smarter ones planned trips for the whole week, and vanished. The dumber ones like me preferred to sit at home and read.

    I spent the entire Wednesday and part of Thursday in completing Amish Tripathi’s new book – The secret of the Nagas. (Of course, I did manage to catch up with bodyguard too on Wednesday).

    After reading The immortals of meluha, and even suggesting it one of my executives sometime last year, I was quite enthusiastically waiting for this sequel.

    If Chetan Bhagat paved the way for indian writing for the masses, Amish has taken it forward and paved the way for imaginative writing among the new crop of Indian writers. He has very cleverly combined mythology and modern day emotions to tell a story of which not much has been spoken or known.

    The legend.. picks up from where the Immortals left. While the events in book-1 took place in Meluha, detailing the war and the way of life of the suryavanshis and the chandravanshis, and ended in Swadweep, events in book-2 unfold in Swadweep, details the the different perspectives of life, and ends in Dandak Forest – the Naga territory.

    I particularly like the way Amish manages to convince that there are no good or evil ways of life – there are just different ways of life. In the first book, the chandravanshis were tarnished, and the suryavanshi way of living was convinced as THE way of living, having lord Ram’s approval.

    In the second book, Amish did manage to convince us that Chandravanshis are not evil, but have a different way of living – mixing pleasure. I would not like to give out more details fearing that I may ed up ruining the reading experience.

    The primary forte of Amish seems to be in detailing the fight sequences, and the war scenes in words, that the reader is completely shifted to a parallel world.

    The book opens quite well, and raises quite high expectations but does not manage to live up to it completely. A wonderful thought process, it somewhere fails in execution. There is so much scope for adventure and comparison of different philosophies of life but it does not deliver completely.

    The climax of the book, and the detailed description of the dandak forest (where the nagas live) does get irritating, and the end does look abrupt with one yearning for more. The way in which the book has developed I fear the third book does not fall into predictable lines and spoil the fun.

    All said and done, The secret.. is not a bad book, and the plot holds your attention completely and the urge to keep reading it is alive throughout.

    As a final verdict, no doubt book – 1 was better than book – 2, but without any qualms, I can clearly declare that Amish has shown a way for a different kind of writing, catering to a wide audience in indian writing.

  • Chanakya’s Chant – Book Review (rating : 7/10)

    On a rainy evening here in Bangalore, me and Naveen were sipping beer and having chicken tikka at the oasis mall, when we realized that we need to rush. I had a bus to catch at 8:30, and it was already 7:45. It would take me more than half an hour to get to the bus stand.

    In spite of the rush, I could not resist getting into Shankar’s book store in the mall, for a magazine to aid while travelling. My eyes fell upon a golden color interesting looking book, and I could not help but buy it in a hurry and rush out to the bus station.

    CHANAKYA’S CHANT – ASHWIN SANGHI

    Very well researched. Creative. And catching.

    The book runs alternatively between 2300 years ago and the present day. One chapter speaks about the legend chanakya who helped unify India and bring in the golden rule of Chandra Gupta Maurya as the emperor of India, while the other is the present day account about GangaSagar Mishra, Chanakya’s modern avatar, with the same narrative, where his protégé is the oxford educated slum child Chandini, who becomes the eventual prime minister of india.

    The book narrates excellently the parallel stories of both Chanakya and Gangasagar, who with their cunning intellects, and manipulative techniques, twist their respective surroundings and political environments without an iota of self doubt or remorse.

    The writing style of the author ( Ashwin Sanghi, his first book the Rozabal line now commands a read!) is captivating,  especially the frequent use of proverbs, and quotations. The protagonist’s observations, and the dialogues are witty and sharp. Also, each of the episodes seems well planned out and executed to be fitting in the overall scheme of things.

    There are times when you feel that it is Chanakya (or gangaSagar) running the show, and their respective proteges are mere puppets in their hands. But I guess, this much was important to highlight the character of the shrewdest Brahmin india has known.

    Sanghi demonstrates very convincingly that the core of politics and strategy has not changed much with time, and the basics still apply. Information is still wealth. The parallels drawn between the two eras are also quite interesting – Chankya’s Vishkanyas versus Gangasagar dancer-whores and B-grade film starlets, Chanakya’s tantric versus the present day pavement astrologer.

    Twisting the facts, gossip, blackmail and removing of obstacles are all part and parcel of this dirty job, and very well depicted here. The book shows us that politics is not about only pulling each other’s hair, but involves much more and requires the understand of a lot of varied fields. Also the present day story hints at the present day happenings around us and gets the reader thinking.

    For example, R & S is shown as a business house bestowed by political favours. It is shown that the two partners display a public fight just to attract more political favours, and expedite their business growth. ( Ambani’s anyone?)

    In the last chapter, it is written that the husband dies in an air crash suspiciously. ( Sanjay Gandhi anyone?)

    The book fails on predictability, with the ending being anyone’s guess.  But the way to go about it is quite interesting. The book manages to keep the reader engaged and compelled to read through to the very end. Overall, this should be a must read book in your shelf this summer.

    Rating: 7/10

  • Train to Pakistan – Book Review

    Train to Pakistan
    Train to Pakistan

    In my quest of reading books of all kinds I recently stumbled upon Train to Pakistan – a historical novel by Khushwant Singh published in 1956. I had bought this book a long time back, but never had the time or intent to read it. It just got lost in the middle of the other bigger volume books I guess. A week back I started reading it, and could not put it down till finishing it. It is a small book(about 200 pages), and is over 50 years old, but still feels so fresh and new. It recounts the Partition of India in August 1947.

    Instead of depicting the Partition in terms of only the political events surrounding it, Mr. Singh digs into a deep local focus, providing a human dimension which brings to the event a sense of reality, horror, and believability.

    Truth meets fiction in this very well written episode of one of the most violent times in our history. Mr. Singh must have himself been witness to this mass gory, and it shows in the writing. The trauma and tragedy of partition have very well been captured through the characters and their simple stories. Indeed, the book has been scripted in blood.

    Story

    It is the summer of 1947. But Partition does not mean much to the Sikhs and Muslims of Mano Majra, a village on the border of India and Pakistan. Then, a local money-lender is murdered, and suspicion falls upon Juggut Singh, the village gangster who is in love with a Muslim girl. When a train arrives, carrying the bodies of dead Sikhs, the village is transformed into a battlefield, and neither the magistrate nor the police are able to stem the rising tide of violence. Amidst conflicting loyalties, it is left to Juggut Singh to redeem himself and reclaim peace for his village. Is he able to?

    Partition has left many scars in the hearts of several Indians and those tragic  days still haunt the new India, the memories of that tragic period still makes people shiver, and being a sindhi and hearing these stories from my grandma, I completely relate to it.

    Imagine being ousted from your house, friends, family, everyone and packed off to some distant land, like a courier package. All this, only because you are circumcised, or you are not!

    A must read for any one, who wants to get a first hand feel on the happenings of those times. A big message from the book would be that this kind of holocaust should never ever again happen anywhere, and the pain and torture is simply irreversible.