Book Review #63: Title Is Untitled By Santosh Avvannavar and others

Title: Title is Untitled

Authors: Santosh Avvannavar, Kundan Srivasatava, Rajashree Ghosh and others

Publishers: CreateSpace Independent publishing platform

Genre: Non-Fiction/Social Awareness

Pages: 120 odd pages

Source: Review Copy by Author

Finally I’ve read a book that kept me thinking for a while. The book made me to realize what is right is not always deemed to be right. This book covers the most important aspects of the modern Indian society and its flaws. It is more accurate to say it as flaws, since, this book covers some of the most serious happenings in our society, and be it on the male or female populace. The atrocities, the crimes, the extortions, abductions, scams, etc… has been covered in a greater detail in a conversational type. Yes, this may be a work of fiction, but, only the characters are made to be fiction, but, the story is simply straight forward.

This book "Title is Untitled" is on the category of “Social Adult Book” because it covers majorly the aspects that are mostly related to the problems that are faced by the adults. At the same time, the readers have to be reminded that, these kind of criminal offense are happening against children too. There are 11 stories that the authors have written in this novel, while each story has covered a topic, mainly, child marriages, sexual fantasies, marital rapes, suicides among men, domestic violence, prostitution, abduction, blackmailing, abuse of power, retirement scams, education scams etc… It is a serious book and it gives the readers a chance to ponder over few things. The title of the book “Title is Untitled” is very apt for this book.

Each story in the book speaks of a social evil, and the victim may be either men or women. Authors have not shied away from speaking their mind about some of the topics which are considered way too taboo in a conservative society like India. For instance, a particular story speaks about a man, who gets abducted by a group of thugs and abused him and forced him to a marriage that he was not at all consented with. This is popularly known as Groom abduction and it is quite rampant in various parts of India.

In another chapter they talk about a woman who has abused the domestic violence laws and made it as a business. Her sole purpose is to marry a gullible man and force him for divorce citing some unacceptable reasons and get alimony from him and search for a new victim.  

Another story speaks about a person who is not at all qualified for even a degree finds an institute that offers Ph.D. degrees for negotiable fees. This institute is not a legit and not even government approved. This person pay a hefty amount of money for his degree and without even doing a zilch of research of his subjects, he ended up getting his Ph.D. This particular story tells us that there are scams at even higher education level.

One more story is of a sexual fantasy of a young woman, who is all but cared for her unusual expectations when it comes to love making, which actually resulted in a more serious damage mentally and physically. And, like this, there are many stories from the book, that each speaks about a certain social evil. There are little facts at the end of every chapter that gives us the statistics about the problem that they’ve discussed in the chapter.

The writing style is a commendable job. They’ve avoided too much adult content and focused more on the issue. Grammatical aspects are quite satisfying. Content wise, it is rich and as I said it before, it is pure message oriented. In this age of money making race, several other authors try to write some garbage to make some quick money, but, these authors are an exception to that case. They have focused more on the content, more on educating the society and less on the money front.

I am highly impressed with the designing part of the book. The front cover image looks stunning and appropriate fonts helps the readers to read the book comfortably.

Towards the end of the book, you can read little profile of all the authors, through which we will come to know that, they’re working towards a better society, motivating people towards a better living and educating them.

Rating this book is a little tedious job. You don’t get to see this kind of book often. It’s short, crisp and contains a bundle of information and facts that can be used widely to teach the masses. A must read book at any cost. I highly recommend it.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.

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My Rating:
5/5

Book Review #48: 1984 (Nineteen-Eighty Four) By George Orwell

“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY AND IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”!!

Probably this is one of the most disturbing books that I've ever read in recent times. I had no idea what was happening but I was sure that, I was feeling all those creepiness, all those dreaded ways of torturing people, and most of which, the way an existing government treats its workers for the sole purpose of staying in power.

At the same time, this is one of the classics ever written on socio-political grounds. George Orwell has mastered at the character creation, that it almost felt like the events described in this book might have happened for real. The Dystopia that Orwell had expressed in this novel is quite an amazing thing. Written in 1948, but for the people of 1984 is what makes this book as a unique and class apart.

Winston Smith, the protagonist of our novel, who happened to be an inner party worker. He always hated his government for their way of treating its people. Their totalitarian way of handling things and events resulted in more hatred from among its workers than the normal citizen. Winston was working in Ministry of Truth, a government organization whose purpose is to distort the dates and events and recreate those things as never happened or happened at the behest of the wishes of government. He was often wondering why things are like this and why their government is behaving like this. Their government went a step ahead and created a new kind of dictionary called “NEWSPEAK" that eliminated almost every word that can be used to describe the hatred against their government. This dictionary always uses words such that, there is no way that anyone can write against government, because, those words didn't exist in the NEWSPEAK dictionary.

As the story further progresses, Winston was slogging every day to his work though he hated it. So, he purchased a diary from local market and started to write his hatred against the government in that diary. He had to keep this activity so secret that, his every move, his every step has been watched very closely by his government and Big Brother. Wherever he used to sit, at his home, at office, on the street, there will be special telescreens that will spy on him and often he gets reminders from the same screen whenever they encounter some unusual activities. Not only was him, almost everyone undergoing this surveillance. They are not even allowed to think against their government, otherwise, this will get booked under the act “Thought Crime”. There are few cases like people were booked under “Thought Crimes” and there are “Thought Police” everywhere in the city to keep an eye on these people.

During these events, he meets a female co-worker Julia from his office that expresses her interest towards Winston. Initially he was skeptical that, she might be an inside informant who is spying on him. Later, he comes to know that, even she hated the government. So he accepts her proposal. They usually go to the woods to spend some romantic time together, since, couples who are going together and are not married is a crime according to the government. So, Winston rents an apartment in the 2^nd floor of an antique artefacts seller.

One fine day Winston meets O'Brien, a colleague of him that pretends to hate their government and Big Brother. He befriends him and reveals all his details and his love affair with Julia. Initially, O'Brien acts as if he is the member of secret group and hands over a book of secret group to Winston to study. He collects all the information from Winston and pretends that they can work together and bring down this government. Winston believes in all these things and along with Julia will head back to their apartment and begins to study that book. This is the longest section from the novel where Winston reads and understands everything about their government and the secret group. In all these events, both Winston and Julia were certain of one thing, they believed that they will get caught sooner or later by their government or people from Big Brother and will be executed. During this phase, their apartment door will be kicked open and both of them will be arrested. The owner of the apartment Mr. Charrington, who pretended to be a normal person, is actually one of the “Thought Police”.

So, both Winston and Julia will be arrested and will be put in separate prisons. This section of the novel is the disturbing section. Winston will be tortured like anything and made to accept to all the crimes that he has committed or not. The twist in the novel appears now, O’Brien, who happened to be a member of the secret group is actually a spy working from outside the party and working for Big Brother. He confronts Winston and reveals his true face and explains Winston about all his spying activities. He tortures Winston in all possible ways and forces him to confess everything. O’Brien transfer Winston to Cell 101, a dreaded torture room specifically designed to torture people in the cruelest way and will be made to confess almost anything that they wanted, even though they never committed in the first place. According to O’Brien, Winston and Julia have committed Adultery, they committed thought crime, they are traitors, they worked against the government, etc… But, all O’Brien wanted from Winston was to forget Julia. He tortures Winston and brainwashes him in such a way that, Winston almost nods for everything and even he accepts 2+2=5!!

Finally, O’Brien was able to brainwash Winston successfully. His final resort of torturing Winston by allowing the rats to eat Winston’s face in a closed box proved to be successful. Winston who often gets dreams of eaten by rats was actually coming true. He decides to confess to his final crime and says to O’Brien that he can torture Julia instead of him. This is the final answer that O’Brien was expecting from Winston. Finally, Winston will be released and was allowed to live like normal Proles. Winston encounters Julia in later days after his release, but, he will realize that, he don’t have any feelings left for Julia.

Overall Winston’s journey is completely filled with torture. He realizes that, one alone cannot do anything against the government. The realization from “I hate Big Brother” to “I Love Big Brother” is a complete brainwashed phenomenon.

I recommend this book to be read by everyone. This book is truly a masterpiece and covers the post war details of the country Oceania in greater details. Though it’s a fiction, but, nobody will come to a conclusion that this novel is purely fictional tale oriented!! The 3 sentences from the novel will be reverberated in your head even after finished reading it. “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY AND IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”!!

My Rating:

5/5

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Book Review #5 - Dongri to Dubai - S. Hussain Zaidi

Dongri to Dubai

This one book where you never want to put down at any cost. Written with a great eloquency with a massive amount of research. And I read it completely in one sitting throughout a day.

The author S. Hussain Zaidi a veteran crime reporter and a journalist, and being mentored by the famour crime journalist Jyotirmoy_Dey who had covered Mumbai Mafia for more than 2 decades and conducted what is known to be the last interview of the Mumabi Underworld Don and now a fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

Zaidi's book, Dongri to Dubai, presents an authentic and exemplifying account of the history of Mumbai Mafia spanning for more than 60 years from the post independent days of 1950's till 2000's, in a staggering 60 chapters and 300 odd pages.

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the world's most wanted man, is a son of a Mumbai police personnel Ibrahim Kaskar who was known for his integrity and loyalty towards country and he has served honestly throughout his entire tenure as a policemen.

If you hog into internet and search for this man, Dawood Ibrahim, you will find a plethora of information on this underworld don. But you hardly get a complete detailed picture of this man and his stories. This is the book that fills that gap, Dongri to Dubai. Apart from this book, the author Hussain Zaidi has written a number of other books on the same genre, mainly, Black Friday, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Headley and I and the latest one Byculla to Bangkok.

The book begins with a period of 1950's to 60 - the early days of Mumbai Mafia and gradually moves on to the era of smugglers like Haji Mastan, Vardarajan Mudaliar (VARDA Bhai) and the meance of PATHAN gang who are migrated from Afghanistan and Peshawar post independence. And also the short history of dreadful gangster Manya Surve. It gained power and cult between the 3 people 2 Tamilians and 1 PATHAN. It was Haji Mastan's connections, Varda's shrewedness and Karim Lala's muscle power that made mumbai underworld what it is today. Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudliar are from Tamil Nadu whereas Karim Lala is from Peshawar who moved to Bombay in 1930's. While Mastan worked as coolie Mazagoan docks to make ends meet and Varda tried to make a living by working as a porter at the landmark of victoria terminus. Karim Lala established a gambling den and later moved on to money laundering. The stepped up into the world of crime by smuggling goods across the Bombay port's, extortion, producing country liquor, which was banned at that time.

Dawood:
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, born as a second son to the respectable police constable, who entered into the world of Bombay crime in late 1970's. The very first crime that dawood committed was a robbery. Later he was also involved in Money Extortions and thefts across Bombay ports. Later he was elevated as a Bombay Don when Bombay police used him as a PAWN, in the fight against the PATHAN gang and thus started his journey towards becoming the number one don in Mumbai.

By late 1970's, Dawood along with his brother Sabir, Anees and his manager Khalid ventured into smuggling market in the middle eastern countries, especially Dubai, for Radio Transistors, Watches and later to Golds. He was continuing his dream run, until his brother Sabir was killed by Pathan gang in a petrol bunk, shot at point blank range. This incident has led into the events, that what we can call as a gang war. Dawood partnerships with Bada Rajan and Chota Rajan and an erruption of gang war resulted in the deaths of Pathan Amir, Bada Rajan, Abdul Kunju, Samad Khan, etc.. This event leads Dawood to escape from Bombay in 1986 and he seeks an asylum in Dubai.

In Dubai, Dawood built an empire itself with the help of his close aides, mainly Chota Rajan and Chota Shakeel. It is where the term D-Company came into existence. From there, Dawood controlled the Bombay Mafia. Though Dawood migrated to Dubai, the gang wars in Bombay was never ceased to stop. It was continued with lot of killings and personal vengence. The worst happened for Dawood was the Mumbai Serial Blasts in 1993. Dawood's name was the first name that came to the picture of Bomaby Police, and he was the one who masterminded it according to the police sources. This was followed by the fallout of friendship with Chotta Rajan who surrendered to Bombay Police, but never agreed to return to India, without the promise of a proper trial of him in court. Later, Chotta Rajan migrated to many places including Malaysia, Europe and Thialand.

During these times, entry of Abu Salem into D-Company was a much talked issue. Abu Salem involvement in Bollywood film making made much worse for the then top actors. Almost every actor in Bollywood was being interrogated about Abu Salem links with the movie industry. There was also few incidents like attack on Hrithik Roshan's father Rakesh Roshan. One more incident being, the movie "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" starring Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, etc.. being funded by Mumbai Underworld people, mainly Abu Salem. Later police brought a stay on that movie from getting released into theatres. Then Abu Salem was arrested along with his Girl Friend Monica Bedi, etc.. This book leaves no leads behind. Author has classified everything according to the incidents in chronological order.

All these incidents leading the then Indian government pressurizing Dubai government for the handover of Dawood to India. This led Dawood to forcefully seek asylum in Pakistan. That is his current headquarteres of D-Company according to this book.

The next few incidents after Dawood relocated to Pakistan. Getting married his daughter to Pakistan's ex cricketer Javed Miandad's Son. The lavish party that he threw on this occasion. And, some of the popular Bollywood faces attending this party, etc..

Overall, Zaidi's cinematic narration and numerous Hindi Dailogues in this book which could have done without makes it an apt choice for movie adoptions. Without much surprise, parts of this book has already been made into movies. Especially, Shootout at Wadala, Shootout at Lokhandwala, D-Day, etc..

Although this book promises the readers give them insights into the origins of Mumbai Underworld, it progresses to become a lousy attempt of the writer to paint a humble human face of Dawood portraying him as a mere pawn which used him at large. And, this leaves the reader with an impression that, Dawood might be an innocent and not a criminal, who just stood there gazing at the incidents happen through his name.

However, this book is still recommended for anyone, who wants to understand the evolution of Bombay underworld and in general Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

My Rating: 4/5