Book Review #54: I am Malala - The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot By Taliban By Malala Yousafzai

I am quite sure that those of you who have heard or listened to this young girl’s story would be exclaiming in surprise “She is one tough teenager!” I am also one of them after reading her biography or rather her little story of how this assassination attempt by Taliban has brought this young girl to the outside world. Before I started to read this book, I was under the impression or rather you can say it as ignorance that, what this girl of age 15 has done to Pakistan that has garnered so much attention. And, this book has a simple answer to all those people who are waiting or expecting to know something about this girl’s fight for girl’s education.

Well this book speaks about length and breadth of the problems that any common Pakistani will face in a day to day life. Without giving much importance to the country’s rotten politics or army’s bad attitude or the constant terror threats and attacks, a regular Pakistani especially those who hail from this remote valley called Swat. She writes about her family and its background in the initial few chapters. She also goes on explaining about Swat and its people and how they are more connected to Afghanistan than Pakistan. She describes the cultural practices of a regular Pashtun household.

Speaking about her daring challenge to the terrorist outfits like Taliban who banned girl’s education in their valley, she was well prepared by her father Ziauddin Yousafzai. He is really a good father and a great human being I can say. He was the one who started the English type school in Swat valley at the very beginning. With regular threats from the local mullah’s and other influential hardcore Islamic people, he stood for what he is capable of and ran a school and became one of the respectable persons in and around the Swat valley and in Pakistan.

When it comes to Malala Yousafzai, she started her work towards the girls’ education rights at a tender age of 11. Like any teenager she was also enjoying her family time and all those happy moments with her family. She loved her little family that consists of her mother, father and her two little brothers Kushal and Atal. Ziauddin Yousafzai named his school after his elder son Kushal. It is one of the famous schools in Swat valley today. Malala started to get attention from the public because of her numerous speeches and interviews she was giving regularly. She often travelled across the Pakistan to spread the message of girl’s education.  

The turning point in her life came in when BBC Urdu was looking out of someone who can give firsthand information about the Swat region when it was under Taliban control. With a strong persuasion from her uncle, Malala started to write for BBC Urdu under the pen name “GUL MAKAY”. This has got some great attention from across the world and of course it also brought Malala under the radar of Taliban. Malala and her family used to receive threats and threat notes from unknown sources about their activities. They went ahead and threatened to bomb their school if they won’t stop the girl’s school. But she wasn't the type of quitters. She managed to do well in getting the attention of their government and was getting support from them to bring education to everyone especially girls.

She also wrote about many other details about the Taliban rule and how people initially supported the group by donating money to them. She writes about few dreaded people like Fazlullah, the radio mullah and other Taliban members. For sure, this book will give us a load of information regarding the Taliban regime.

One point which I thought was very unnecessary was her rant about India. She wrote on many occasions that, India is the greatest enemy of Pakistan and some rubbish details about India and Pakistan relationship. We can ignore this part and move on to read other stuffs.

The stirring details of how Malala was shot by Taliban guy in her school bus and the after incident of her treatment and she was flown to UK is a well-known phenomenon.  She thanked numerous doctors and caretakers from both the countries are a nice gesture. She was under induced coma for almost a week and her fighting spirits to get back on heels is a tremendous journey. She described her injuries and other details in great details which can be read in book.

There is a photography section in the book where she posted some of her pictures from her childhood and few pictures from the hospital where she was taking treatment. It’s a nice way to put all those things.

Overall a great attempt by Malala to write all these things. We all know that there are certain sections of the people who hate her and who love her. Leaving aside all those things, she stands as an inspiration for many young girls in Pakistan and around the world. Their family is living in UK now with a little or no plan of returning to Pakistan in future. May be, one day she would visit Pakistan as a politician which she aspired to become.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #53: Doora Saridaru By Dr. S. L. Bhyrappa

After all, when it comes to philosophy based books, I will not be able to put down that. This book "Doora Saridaru" of Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa sir is a bundle of philosophical thoughts. Each character that the author created is a mountain of philosophical thinking. This novel mainly explores the idea of marriage, or we can put it as inter caste marriage and it also explores the requirement of right thinking or we can say as bonding between a girl and a boy before getting married, how this will affect a marriage etc... We can call this book as philosophy of marriage or literally philosophy of life. 

 

I really liked the philosophical ideas that the author has imbibed in all the characters. “Doora Saridaru” will be translated to English as “Moved Away”. Yes, this novel speaks about the couples who are yet to be married, but they decided they would get married. However, some unfortunate events will make it not happen. Reasons look very trivial for a normal novel reader. For a philosophy student this novel looks like an absolute profound experience. The thought that runs between each protagonist and the dialogue exchange between him and her is an awesome thought process.

The plot of the novel seems like a regular college love story. Sachidananda a studious young man who was studying English (Hons) degree finds a girl called Vinithakumari from his class who was very good looking and like him; she was pursuing her interests in literature and poetry. Soon, they will find interest in one another and expresses their love interest and it goes on like regular love stories. 

In another parallel story, a student called Vasantha a philosophy pursuing graduate and senior to Sachidananda. This Vasantha is a very introverted person. However, when it comes to debates and argument about philosophical subjects there is no one in the college who can match him except for a girl called Uma. She is Vasantha’s junior in the philosophy degree course and she was the one who can match to the qualities of Vasantha. As expected, some favourable incidents will make Vasantha and Uma to be another couple in the college.

As the story further progresses, there is a regular parental opposition to this marriage, there is disappointment, there are resentments etc... However, what I really liked about the novel is the after effects of the incident where their respective parents will oppose to these marriages. Vinitha’s mother rejected Sachindananda and Vinitha was not strong enough to oppose her mother. Sachidananda tried to convince Vinitha for a registered marriage. Even here, Vinitha was not strong enough to make a decision. She believed in philosophy of pain. She often told Sachidananda about how her suffering and pain will help to change her mother’s mind. Dejected by Vinitha’s decisions, Sachidananda will become a maniac, he loses his interest in life, he wanted to become a hermit, so, he leaves his house and goes to some hill station and tries to find solace for his burning soul. There he meets a sage or a person who renounced his life. This person has an important story in later stages of the novel. There he learns something better and decides to stay strong and he heads back to his home and concentrates more on his studies.

In another parallel story, Vasantha and Uma will participate in a debate about philosophy of truth and philosophy of marriage. There in one occasion, Uma humiliated Vasantha. She made his every argument very trivial and stupid. Vasantha decides immediately that this idea will not work in his life. He tries to convince Uma that, she would never argue with him once they get married. For which, Uma slowly said that, it is not possible but she will try her best. Therefore, Vasantha decides to postpone their marriage for about a year.

The real magic of the novel appears now, the huge philosophical thoughts of each protagonist comes into picture. Sachidananda decides to study like there is no tomorrow. He starts to pursue his master’s degree. Whereas Vinithakumari decides to drop out of college and she starts to work as a schoolteacher. Vasantha decides to pursue his PhD and Uma decides to work for an NGO. Will these couples get married or what role the fate will play in these lives? I stop at this point and let the readers go through the book and find out the answer! 

I recommend this book to everyone and for those who are students of philosophy or interested in learning about philosophy. It is a classic attempt by my favourite author. 

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #52: Puppeteers of Palem By Sharath Komarraju

Pic Courtesy: Internet

I read a completely new style of paranormal action based novel. The sheer brilliance of the author Sharath Komarraju is exceptional. I believe this book "Puppeteers of Palem" is a class apart. It carries all those spookiness, creepiness, horrifying scenes, mad people, dreaded killers and what not. Certainly, this novel is a much needed break for the readers who are reading the same old love stories, or some kind of regular thrillers.

Right from the beginning of the book, the story takes the grip of its readers making them not to put down the book. The plot of the novel is what makes it as a must read.

5 friends that grown up in the same village, Rudrakshapalem, in short called as Palem will head back to their village after receiving a mysterious letter. What makes more interesting is all 5 of them receive similar letters, but, they will realize it when they met each other in the village.

The story takes its twist in the opening scene of the novel. There is a murder in the village. The victim is one of the 5 friends that came back to village. The Police were investigating the case and soon the police will realize that, 2 crippled boys with wounds and bruises were somehow responsible for this assault on the dead man. By questioning the local villagers about these boys, the police will take these boys into their custody for little verification. A news reporter cum journalist called Sonali was covering this murder incident. She questions every person in the village, she also questions the parents and guardians of the victims and also she questions those 2 boys about this murder incident. Sonali feels something is not going right in this investigation and she decides to stay in the village for some more time to cover this in greater details.

The author introduces us to the younger days of these 5 friends that grew up in this village. There is an old man in that village who was narrating stories to the kids almost every evening. Expectedly, these 5 kids are regular attendants of this story sessions. Here, the author introduces us to a very important story through the old man’s narration. This story is a true incident happened in their village few years ago.

One day, this old man narrates a story of a woman or we can call as a mad woman, Lacchi and her drunkard husband Sangadu. He described the story in greater detail, to which, all the kids listened to him in great intent. He concluded the story saying, the woman had murdered her husband with a stone. And, she kept her husband’s dead body on her lap throughout the night singing a chilling song. The old man also told the kids that, she is still living in the outskirts of the village, near the shivalayam (Shiva Temple). 

The kids who grew up listening to this story was curious enough to check out this old temple, so all these 5 friends will head out to this temple one day and decides to spend the night there. Once they returned to their homes, they were not the same, something has happened to them and nobody knew what it was. They were feeling strange throughout the week and felt someone is watching them from behind. After few years, they left their village for their higher studies and soon forgot this temple and the madwoman story.

This point sets the stage for the novel. As the book progresses further, these 5 friends that returned to their village Palem will find it very difficult to come to terms. They will behave as if each other have written the letters to each other asking them to come to village. Slowly one after the other will die in a suspicious way. Nobody knew who had killed the other one. This has brought the rift among them. Who is the puppet here? Who is the puppeteer here? Who has written those letters to them asking them to come back to village? Was the old man responsible for all these miseries? Was he the actual puppeteer? What might be the conclusion to this killing spree? Was the mad woman Lacchi that killed her husband is taking any revenge by taking the form of a ghost? These are the questions that pop up regularly as we read through the novel.

As we approach the climax to the novel. There is only 1 friend left among the 5 friends. Of course, the old man is still alive. And the journalist cum reporter Sonali who stayed back in the village is still in the village. She wrote too many notes in her diary addressing her sister Shilpi. She explained everything that was happening in this sleepy village. But she never posted those notes neither she was aware of writing those notes. So, was Sonali responsible for these murders? Did Lacchi has crept into Sonali’s mind and making all these things? The million dollar answer lies in the book. One must read this book to understand who the puppet is and who the puppeteer is.

Overall, I find this book very interesting and refreshing. It is certainly a break from the regular thriller. Combined with the paranormal activity and keeping the village as a backdrop makes this book even more awesome. The cover image of the book looks very promising and at the same time brings that curiousness among the readers. I recommend this book to everyone. You won't regret reading it. You’ll enjoy each and every page of it.

I said there is a chilling song that Lacchi sings holding her husband’s dead body. What is that song is all about? Well, read it in the book.

My Rating:

5/5

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Book Review #51: Gruhabhanga By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

A book that is full of tragic events. A book that is full of emotions. A book that is full of family problems. A book that is full of foul language. Yet, this is a book that speaks about a woman. This is a book that speaks about the hurdles overcome by a strong woman. This is a book that speaks about what it takes to live life. Finally, this is a book that speaks about strong will.

Gruhabhanga is a stirring, emotional and tragic novel from my favorite author Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa. The title “Gruhabhanga” can be fairly translated to English as “Destruction of a house”. Well, this is a literal translation. The real meaning or the crux of the novel speaks about a household. It speaks about various people from this household and their little stories. This is one of the epitomes of Indian Novels. This novel has been made into a daily serial or popularly called as sitcoms. It was such a huge hit at that time and even today this book marks as the only few books that got translated into all Indian official languages. This novel was originally published in Kannada language.

The entire story of the novel takes place in somewhere between 1920’s till 1950’s spanning close to 30 to 35 years. Due to the backdrop of village in this story, this novel strikes a chord with its readers. The main theme of the novel can be considered as a mere family story. But, the stirring images of each and every character are what make it as a class apart.

The main protagonist of the novel is a woman called Nanjavva.  She was fairly educated girl and her father Kanthijoyeesa is a well learned Brahman. In one of the unfortunate events, Nanjavva will get married to a person called Chennigaraya. Chennigaraya had a mother Gangavva (A widow) and a younger brother Appannayya. Chennigaraya was a village revenue collector. His job was to collect the revenue from the farmers, counting the number of acres that each farmer is cultivating, and type of the crop they are cultivating and amount of the crops that they grow each year. He has to sum up all these calculations from across 40 other villages and should submit these records to a nearby government office. He will be given commission based on this records collection.

During Nanjavva’s initial marriage days, everything was going smooth and happy. In just few months, her mother-in-law Gangavva, a bad mouthed woman will unnecessarily interfere with the affairs of Nanajvva and Chennigaraya. This intrusion has become worse day by day as such, one day, Chennigaraya who is a momma’s boy, will start beating Nanjavva and he even stopped going to revenue collection. This was the turning point in this novel.

Having learnt all these things, Nanjavva decides to take care of her family. Now she is a mother of 3 children. She begins herself to go for revenue collection and she starts to write all the records and only she would get the signature from her husband. Few learned members from the village will be aiding Nanjavva in her quest towards raising her children. During all these years, Gangavva, the mother-in-law of Nanjavva will be badmouthing her and often tries to link up illicit relationship with other men in the village. These events made Chennigaraya to abandon Nanjavva forever.

Later part of the novel is simply mind blowing. Author SLB has made this Nanjavva a role model for all the working women out there. Nanajvva slowly build her identity in the village. She often begged for few days in order to feed her children. She stayed in racks of an old abandoned house and making leaf plates to make the meets end. By this time, her elder son Ramanna was about to finish his school and his elder daughter is the age of marriage. Due to the help of few kind hearted villagers, Nanjavva was able to conduct her daughter’s marriage in a simple ceremony to a school teacher Surya Narayana. Surya Narayana, who is a school teacher in a neighbor village, will inform Nanjavva that, he will find a house and then he will take his wife there. Till that time, Nanjavva’s elder daughter will stay at her mother’s house.

Here, the fate plays an unfortunate incident in Nanjavva’s life thorough the author’s imagination. The entire village was attacked by plague epidemic starting with her house. Unfortunately, both her elder son and elder daughter passed away on the same day in a span of 3 hours who was suffering from plague. This incident made Nanjavva to lose faith in god. Fearing the same death for her younger son, she sends him off to her brother’s house and starts to live alone.

Nanjavva had always dreamt of her own house in the village. She works very hard to save the required amount of money and buys an old house and she starts to reconstruct the house. But fate was planning something else for her. As soon as she finished the construction of her house, there was another tragedy that struck in this household through the death of Nanjavva herself. She was attacked by the same plague epidemic and now the entire novel takes it turn towards climax.

In all these events, Chennigaraya the good for nothing husband of Nanjavva was seen with no emotions at all. Brainwashed by his mom, he expresses no grief over the death of his wife or children. He didn’t even bother to check on his younger son who is staying at Nanjavva’s borther’s house. He ended up visiting prostitutes on a daily basis.

What happened to Nanjavva’s younger son? Was he living peacefully in his uncle’s house? To know the answer, one must read the book. I think there was no better climax given to this book than this.

The above synopsis seems very simple. But, the vivid story described in this book will make anyone weep while reading this novel. The choice of words seems very daring. Since, no other novelist was dared enough to write such foul language in any novel. These words include Bastard, Son of a Bitch, Fuck You; Fuck your mom, Slut, etc... Etc… as I said, this is a village backdrop story, hence, the foul words is an apt choice of expressing one’s anger or resentment.

Overall, I feel this novel will stand tall as one of the greatest novel ever written in the history of Indian literature. At the same time, this novel will make the readers understand about the cultural practices, traditions, caste systems of a 1930’s India. I recommend this book to be read by everyone. It’s like a once in a lifetime.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #50: One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Pic Courtesy (Internet)

I actually read this book an year back without understanding initially. I re-read this book last week and was completely blown away. Every time I read it, I get a new meaning altogether. That’s the magic it brings to the readers. I am still reeling under the magic or whatever people liked to call it. The sheer brilliance of the author is out of the world. I wonder how he prepared himself while writing this book. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a true magician, has written a great piece of art, which stands as an epitome of classics in literary fiction.

I start my review with this small poem dedicated to the author…

O, Great Magician! 
Show your magic, show your skills
People are waiting, waiting in a daze
Show them voodoo, muddle in a maze
Show your wonder, show your power

This book is a story of a family. A weird family I would say. One Hundred Years of Solitude focuses on the creation and development of this particular family. The headman of the family or we can say the starting person of this bizarre family is Jose Arcadio Buendia. This family is a peculiar, with vastly different set of people, some crack heads and some sane fellows and some normal persons, but all will feel more human and real. There is not one particular protagonist from this novel.

This novel covers an entire 7 generations with most of the names repeated for every new generation character. That sort of makes it more confusing. I did go back to re-read who is who and continue to read to be in aware of the character that I am reading. There is no witchcraft or wizard stuff in this novel, yet, there are magic moments every now and then which will make the reader go in awe. One such thing is, a girl who is on her deathbed, slowly rises upwards and goes into the sky and suddenly vanishes. The other family members who are watching this gape for some time and carry on with their regular chores. There are also few characters that will die and wanders in and out of the house as ghosts harming no one. There is also a girl character where she eats the earth and wall paint as her food, etc… these are just few glimpses from this book. There are lots to witness in this magical book as we skim through the pages.

The first family person from this novel is Jose Arcadio Buendia along with his wife Ursula Igurian leaves their hometown in search of a new place/village. Buendia finds the village Mocondo and establishes himself in this village. In this village their entire family flourishes. Buendia’s two sons Aureliano Buendia and Arcadio Buendia and a daughter Amaranta starts their childhood like any other children. The events that change their whole life and the impact it propagates to the next generations after generations is a pure magical creation of the author. One kid ends up as a Colonel while the other becomes just a criminal. The daughter takes up the lifelong celibacy.

This story goes on forever till the 7^th generation of Buendia’s family. While each generation will have their own set of ideologies and beliefs, but, none of the members in their family will find out any reason for their weirdness. They just accepted everything as it was and moved on with their life. The surprising stuff from the novel is, each and every character lives for almost 100 or more years. They witness their kids and grandchildren growth. And they also gets reminded of this strange solitude that everyone in their family had to go through, even though their house is full of people.

The hardest part of reading this novel is there are too many characters with the same name. Grandparents, parents and grandchildren were almost had similar names and there are lot of illegitimate children born to this family members. For ex: Jose Arcadio Buendia (Grandfather), Aureliano Buendia (Son), Aureliano Segundo (grandson or great-grandson) and 17 other Aureliano’s born to Aureliano Buendia as illegitimate children. As you can see, there are hell load of characters with the same name. Not only the sons, even their daughters, granddaughters had repeating names. For ex: Amaranta (daughter), Remedios (Daughter-in-law), Remanta (daughter-in-law), Remedios the beauty (granddaughter), Amaranta-Ursula (great-granddaughter) and so on. These names are enough to confuse the readers to go back now and again to see who we are reading now!!

Overall, I can see that this book has stood as one of the best books that were ever written in the history. I vouch every word of it. I didn’t post the review of the plot here, since, there is no such thing as plot in this novel. Every character has a new story to reveal and each and every incident marks as a new event. I recommend this book for everyone.

My Rating:

5/5

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Book Review #49: Half Girlfriend By Chetan Bhagat

Half Girlfriend (Pic Courtesy: Internet)

Probably one of the dullest books I’ve read in recent times. This book of Chetan Bhagat’s came after a long gap of not so success Revolution 2020. Everybody said it right; Bhagat has after all come out as a Bollywood writer and nothing else. What if I told you this book “Half Girlfriend” doesn’t even comparable to his earlier novels. It is too predictable and most of the story is either copied from his predecessors or from earlier Hindi movies.

What was more astonishing is he dared to publish this book, though he knew that it is a mere movie script!! There is nothing that one can expect while reading a book, leave alone term it as a novel, sorry, a romantic novel! There are absolutely no surprises, no aha moments or anything of that sort. It’s a mere story of 2 college kids, a Bihari boy and a Delhi girl. And, there is regular love story, college classes, placements, love story, sex, break ups, family problems, etc… these things you might have already read in his previous 2 States, 3 Mistakes of My Life, Five Point Someone, etc…

The plot of the novel is as dry as Sahara desert. A Bihari boy or rather a Bihari prince Madhav Jha who is a state level basketball player gets admission in one of the high profile institute in Delhi, St. Stephen’s through sports quota and took up sociology as his major. His only drawback is he can’t speak the English like the city dwellers. During the admission day he comes across a beautiful girl Riya Somani who is also a basketball player that joined St. Stephen’s for English Honors degree.  There you go, bingo!! He instantly connects with this girl and within next 25 pages of the book; he befriends Riya and pretends as Sharukh Khan. Riya (read as Kajol) is not a serious student; rather, she wants to be just friends with Madhav.

As usual book goes into the 2 States mode instantly, Madhav Jha who is now desperate enough to fall in love with Riya tries all his might to get this chic (Riya). But every time he comes up with a brilliant idea, this will get snubbed by Riya. Later Riya clarifies Madhav that, she is just friends with him and pronounces herself as his HALF-GIRLFRIEND. Whoa!!(Slow claps).

Later part of the novel becomes too predictable. One unfortunate incident makes our Sharukh and Kajol gets separated. One and half years later, she comes to college just to drop out. She invites Madhav to her wedding. That’s it. One part of the story ends here. 2^nd part is a regular movie tamasha; Hero Madhav who is now broken out of his love, concentrates more on his career. He studies like there is no tomorrow. He goes to his placements interview and declines a lucrative HSBC offer citing the reason ‘he wants to go back to Bihar and take over the school that his mother runs and build this school as one of the best schools in Bihar’.

Here, Bhagat plays an 80’s movie director role. Madhav, who is the head of his school, gets an appointment with Bill Gates through Gates-Melinda foundation and gets a grant for his school. During one of these meetings in a hotel, he accidently (really??) meets Riya and they decide to reconcile again. She describes all her unfortunate incidents after college, her divorce with her husband, etc… Madhav also explain everything about his life after college. He takes Riya to his home to meet his mother. There is a slight twist here, like all other regular movies, this should be the end. But, here Bhagat plays an “I am smarter than you” type. Madhav’s mother learns that Riya a divorcee and she scolds Riya and warns her to stay out of Madhav’s life. OMG, What a pity??

So, Riya decides to move out of Madhav’s life for 2^nd time. She cooks up a drama that she is suffering from cancer. She leaves a note to Madhav and leaves India. But, our Sharukh is not a quitter (Yeah!!). He starts his hunt for his Kajol despite the protest from his mother. He goes to New York as an UN delegate and stays at his friend’s house for about 3 months. He knew that, Riya wanted to be a singer and she informed him in her college days that, her ambition in life is to play music at a Bar in New York (Duh!!). Rest of the story is kind of guesswork. Bhagat again plays “I am cooler than you” type. Till last day of Madhav’s stay in US, he is unable to locate Riya. On last day, he visits a bar where she is performing and they see each other and then they lived happily ever after.

Conclusion:

First time Chetan Bhagat readers finds this book with full of surprises. Whereas, his regular readers finds this as a same stuff packaged in a new book. Overall, can be read onetime and can forget that instant.   

My Rating:

2.5/5

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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 #47: Bhitti - An Autobiography by Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

I was not at all ready to write up a review for this book. This book, Bhitti is the autobiography of Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa, the ace novelist, the philosopher and a great human being. Bhitti is a Kannada language word. It can be translated to English as a WALL or a PORTRAIT, where one can post their picture. Evidently, this is an apt title for this book. He has written his life story as a picture on the wall. It is so thrilling and one will feel profound whilst reading this book. I am quite inspired by this book, at the same time; I was saddened by reading his life journey. For sure, Bhitti is a masterpiece narration and it stands as a lesson for those who are writing their autobiographies.

What made it more special about this book? It was the sheer brilliance of SLB sir and the way he narrated his account of life in this book. He has not crossed the limits of boundaries while describing events and not derided anyone who directly or indirectly was the cause of sabotaging his earlier childhood and his teen years.

He started his book by describing his childhood when he was aged 4. He went on describing the social status, surroundings, events, the neighbors, his family members, his relatives and most importantly his mother who played a crucial role in bringing up him in the righteous way. He also writes about his father who was good for nothing and describes him as an aloof. His father was directly responsible for all his miseries that he went through as a child. His mother was the sole responsible person in his family who was taking care of the daily needs of all the family members. He has grown up in a situation where there were not even proper meals to eat. His family often slept without eating anything except for his father who happened to be the revenue collector from the farmers around the village and he used to spend most of his earnings for his amusements like eating in hotels, travelling for days, etc…

He has written in detail about his early childhood, his teen years and his college days and till his retirement age that spanning over 70 years. He tells us a riveting story.  His great shock came in when his elder brother and sister who died on the same day in a span of 3 hours due to plague epidemic. This was literally a shock to young SLB. After this incident, his mother sent him to his brother’s house so that he can get a proper education. SLB describes his stay at his uncle’s house as one of the devastating years of his life. He literally became a slave for his uncle doing cattle work, temple cleaning during the day with little or no food till noon. Even here, life was cruel to him, he received a message from one of his villagers that, his mother too died of plague. He was barely 11 years old at that time.

He has given an account of his childhood and his young teen years in 2 of his novels “Grihabhanga” and “Anveshana”. The stirring images and characters from both of these novels is a true incident happened in the life of SLB. He had faced some of the brutal tortures by his uncle, his aunt and importantly from his father. So, he decides to run away from home and goes to a different town where he literally begged every day for food. In those times there was a concept called “VAARANNA” that means “WEEKLY FOOD”. This concept is not existed in recent times. But, this is a concept where a student that begs in each house will come to an agreement with them that, he will be given a day’s food. Like this, he arranged in 7 different houses that agreed him to provide food.

He was not agreeing with himself for begging during his teen years. So he does odd jobs during his school breaks to make the ends meet. He works in a small hotel as a cleaner and waiter, he sells incense sticks during evening, he even worked as a gatekeeper for a cinema hall, and he went to every village as a story teller and amuses the villagers by his story and accepts whatever the gifts the villagers will offer. By all this means he manages to complete his schooling. While describing these events, SLB never forgets to remember all those kind hearted teachers that helped him a lot in his education.

SLB has struggled in every walk of his life by managing to keep him alive and educated. With a “vagabond” father, his life should’ve been finished long ago. But, some divine force was keeping him alive all these years so that he can win the hearts of millions of people that he has won today.

Despite undergoing such hardships in his life, his quench for reading never stopped. He was reading almost anything. By the time he reached his 20’s, he might have read at least 200 odd books. That’s what made him a good story teller. With all the blessings from every good person that he met in his life, he went on to complete his M.A (Honors) in Philosophy and managed to stand out as a gold medalist in his final years. He has written his first novel Bheemakaaya when was just 18 years old!!

Very early in life he realizes the correctness of defeating an opposing view by logical and knowledgeable argument rather that brow beating it by raising the voice. This comes through in his books which are very well researched. We see his views on religion and rituals evolving, his philosophy of life taking root and the awakening and evolution of his creative genius. Tips for new writers are strewn throughout the book.

SLB has seen life from very close quarters and is very well travelled. He has travelled all across the globe (may be 3 times overall) not to mention large swathes of India. SLB writes as he preaches with a detached air but is forthright. He never hesitates in calling a spade a spade; we see this in him even as a young boy.  He has always stood up for truth and justice and is a fighter and a survivor. A survivor because all the bitterness, the pain and betrayal he has seen  would have broken the spirit of an ordinary human being but it has not made SLB cynical. He has internalized it all to reach great heights. The success and heights that SLB has attained is testimony to the triumph of the human spirit. The autobiography is written in a linear chronological manner. The language is succinct and the book gripping and not able to put it back.

What I feel is the childhood and his student days of SLB sir’s autobiography must be made mandatory for all the new generation kids for reading. They will realize the importance of education. They will get a new perspective in life and will develop a respect for their life, their education.

I feel very underage to judge the autobiography of a great human being. At the same time, I made a point clear in my mind that, whatever happens in life, I will fight it till the end. The silver lining is a birth right of every human being on this planet. I recommend this book to be read by everyone. I prostrate my head at the feet of SLB sir for giving me a lifetime treasure of books. What one can only imagine in their life is a fact from SLB sir’s books.  

My Rating:

5/5

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Book Review #46: Playing It My Way: My Autobiography By Sachin Tendulkar

Writing review to the well known facts is a bit overdoing the task!! But, let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Paaji’s autobiography. With help of Boria Majumdar, Sachin has written excellently and given us a walkthrough of his life from the age of 11 till his retirement at the age of 41.

I don’t go over describing the events that unfolded in his life as a cricketer. We all know it better over the years by watching him play. What might be the takeaway from the book? Well, his determination. That’s all I can say. Having succumbed to hell lot of injuries, Sachin managed to play an illustrious career of 24 years. Started as a novice, ended as a Bharat Ratna!! Not an easy task to become the favorite of most of the Indians that loves cricket. Having born in the 80’s, he was my hero in my childhood and surprisingly my first bat that I was gifted by my dad had MRF sticker on it!!!

If we speak about the book, it speaks less about his childhood and more about his statistics. It has to be, doesn’t it? Started to play cricket at the age of 11 and within 5 years ended up in the national team is not an easy achievement. He never looked back from then on. He carried on with the same zeal in his entire career. Of course, there are some ups and downs, hiccups, disappointment, resentment, etc…but, nothing has stopped him going on.

He did mentioned some of the gray patches of his career and expressed his disappointments over few events that happened in his career as a player and as a member of team India. Particularly Greg Chapel being appointed as the coach of team India that made our team looks weaker than Bangladesh or even Kenya. He had openly criticized in his book about Greg and his cunning motives. On one occasion, where Greg meets Sachin in his house and asks him to take over the captainship from Rahul and even goes on telling him that, they both can rule the Indian team in the coming years. Having sensed all this, Sachin declined it out rightly and asked Greg to not bring this topic anymore. We will come to know many such stories of Greg and his “Hatke…” style of coaching India that resulted in damaging the team’s morale and spirit.

Sachin also mentions about few events where he wished things could’ve been little better. One such thing was Kapil Dev being appointed as the team’s coach that made no sense to him!! In one of the particular test match where he was not out on 194 short of 6 runs to his double hundred, that’s when Rahul had declared our innings!! This decision of Rahul had made Sachin furious for few days and even he stopped talking to Rahul for few days!! When Rahul tried to explain to him that, “It’s in the interest of team” Sachin was reluctant to listen to him and instead he made his point clear that “You could’ve have waited for 6 more runs”!!

He goes on explaining each and every tour he had made in his carrier and expressed his wish of becoming the world champion. Remember, Sachin has played in 5 world cup events since 1992 and couldn’t able to be on the triumphant side. He had to wait for his 6^th world cup to witness this moment. Anyways, he had written in great care about all these events.

He carefully dodged few things regarding his captaincy, match fixing scandals, IPL spot fixing. He managed to brush few lines on these events. That’s expected according to me. He even avoided why his friendship with Vinod Kambli had taken turns in the years down the lane. He just managed to write few lines about his and signed it off saying; he is still friends with him.

He has written that he was super agitated when it came to his 100^th international 100. This one particular hundred took almost a year and half to come into the fore. As a fan, I was disappointed that it came against Bangladesh!! :)

Enough said about his autobiography. It is certainly a must read book. Even though you are not a fan of Sachin (Duh!!), you will certainly witness few funny, sad, heated epic moments from his life as a Sachin – A Good Student of Cricket, Sachin - The Cricketer, Sachin – The Foodie, Sachin – The Shy Guy, Sachin – The Patriot, Sachin – The Proud Father, Sachin – A Responsible Son, Sachin – The Friendly Guy, Sachin – The Well Behaved Gentleman, Sachin – A Philanthropist and finally Sachin – The Epitome of Indian Cricket.

Overall a fantastic journey I must say. I was so engrossed while reading it; I finished reading it in flat 2 days :). There are nice photographs from his childhood, his trips, his marriage, etc… At the end of the book, you can see his complete career statistics, his runs, his hundreds, against which team, home and away runs etc…

Towards the end of the book, you can read his last speech that he gave at wankhede stadium thanking every single person that played a crucial role in building up his career, starting with his family members, his wife Anjali, importantly his childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar, his best friends, his significant others in the team like Sourav, Rahul, Laxman etc...He finished his book in style thanking his fans for all the support that they have given him in his career and mentioned that he will never forget the “SACHIN… SACHIN…” chant of his fans till his last breath!

My Rating:

5/5

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Book Review #45: Anveshana By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This book is a sequel to SL Bhyrappa’s highly acclaimed novel Grihabhanga. The story starts from the point where Grihabhanga has been left off. It is such a nice attempt of SLB sir in this novel that, we can easily remember all the stories, characters from the novel Grihabhanga.

For those who haven’t read Grihabhanga, let me tell you the crux of this novel. So that, readers can actually relate to this novel Anveshana. A small fictitious village in Tumkur and a poor farmer family was living in that village. Nanjamma the main protagonist in the novel Grihabhanga was married to a loaf called Chennigaraya. She faces many hurdles and difficulties in her life throughout the novel. She loses two of her children who were suffering from plague. Her husband is a good for nothing man, who wanders day and night around the village doing nothing and spends the money eating in hotels and other illegal activities. So, it was Nanjamma who takes care of her family and starts earning money so that she can build a home of her own. The only surviving child of her, Vishwanatha, who grew up with a monk leaves the village once his mother dies. Vishwanatha has a maternal grandfather called Kanthi Joyisa who stays in the outskirts of the village doing black magic and other stuffs.

In Anveshana, the story picks up from the phase where the grandfather Kanthi Joyisa who became terminally ill, wanted to see his grandson Vishwanatha for one last time. He wanted to leave his belongings, money and other stuff to his grandson. So he sets out on a journey in search of his grandson. This epic journey is called as Anveshana.

Kanthi Joyisa wanders many neighbor villages, town and other cities to know the whereabouts of his grandson. He meets many acquaintances of Vishwanatha and follows the route information that he gets from them. On his final voyage he meets a childhood friend of Vishwanatha. He is a tailor in a small village. He informs Kanthi Joyisa that, the last time he saw Vishwanatha was near a movie theatre, where Vishwanatha was working as a ticket collector. And the journey of Kanthi Joyisa continues.

Here author introduces the character Vishwanatha and his life journey in subsequent chapters. Vishwanatha who leaves his village settles down in a town and works as a hotel waiter for some time. Later, he moves to the house of a lawyer and works as a cook for some time. He leaves that place and travels to Mumbai and works as a Tonga Walla for some more time. And he continues his journey leaving no trace of him for his friends or relatives.

The magic of the novel is in its immense detailed explanation of Vishwanatha and his way of living life. Author introduces us to a phase where Kanthi Joyisa, the grandfather of Vishwanatha loses all his hopes of finding his grandson. He informs the tailor friend of Vishwanatha and goes back to his village and dies in isolation. This scene closes the curtain to the character Kanthi Joyisa.

Author introduces us to various traits of Vishwanatha throughout the novel. His love interests, his marriage, his college life etc… the vivid description of Vishwanatha’s love life, married life and college life and renunciation is a treat to read from the book. From this novel, we will come to know that, Vishwanatha has a habit of writing diary. As he leaves his final destination to the renunciation life, the school teacher of Vishwanatha discovers this diary and starts to read it and tries to understand the character Vishwanatha in a better way. This marks the end of the novel.

The striking gesture in this novel is the character Vishwanatha never appears in this novel as a first character person. He was often remembered, described, referenced but never in any way appears as the main protagonist of the novel, yet, he is the hero of this novel. All credits to the magical writer SLB sir. He has marveled in each of his novels. I have no words to explain more about this novel.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #44: The Mahabharata Secret By Christopher C. Doyle

King Magadha had a power, a gift from the Kauravas which could have changed the course of the epic battle of Kurukshetra. Anything could've happened if this secret gone to an evil hand.

After 2300 years, the great king, Ashoka discovered this secret buried deep within the laps of earth, a secret of Mahabharata’s time, the weapon of mass destruction. This particular technology has never been made public, though, the Mahabharata has all “PARVA’S”. This particular secret has been documented in the VIMANA PARVA. So, Asoka decides to keep this guarded forever even after his time. He appoints a group of people and makes them to take an oath. A secret oath of not disclosing this secret, whatever the situation may come. He called this group of people as “Nine”.

On present day, a nuclear scientist Vikram Singh is murdered in mysterious way. Before he was murdered, he leaves set of emails as a clue to his nephew Vijay Singh, who was staying abroad. The events unfold once Vijay Singh returns back to India.

This is the overall summary of this book. It is a very well written book. Author Christopher C. Doyle, had made exhaustive research before penning this novel. But, what I understood from this book is, this book is a complete collection of Dan Brown series. Entire novel keep reminds us of reading The Davinci Code, Angels and Demons, The Last Symbol and Digital Fortress.

As I said in the beginning, King Asoka created a secret group of “Nine”, which can be easily juxtaposed against Da Vinci Code’s “Secret Society”. These groups of nine were guarding the “Secret Weapon” which is similar to Da Vinci Code’s “Holy Grail” safekeeping. The group of nine was continued year after year passing the baton to the next generation for the safekeeping of the secret. In this novel, it was Vikram Singh, who was still part of the NINE, which is same as “Secret Society” in Da Vinci Code where Sofia’s grandfather was still an active member.

The journey of Vijay Singh and his companions to discover the mystery by following the clues left by his uncle is same as Da Vinci’s Code. In the Da Vinci code, the secret codes, messages, clues are all part of different churches. In this novel, the clues and hints were depicted in the Edicts, Stupas, and Chaitya’s of King Asoka, who installed these monuments across the country.

The novel also has few double agents. King Bheem Singh, the descendent of Rajvirgarh dynasty has cunning motives to discover this secret and thereby wanted to control the world through his men. He has partnered with some of the world’s notorious criminals and terrorist organizations such as LeT and Al-Qaeda. At the same time, he befriends Vijay Singh and pretends to help Vijay in his search for the discovery of secret of weapon. Like Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Last Symbol.

The secret weapon is known to be developed from the technologies described in the VIMANA PARVA of Mahabharata that was never made public. Only the group of nine knew what this technology is all about. The later part of the novel reveals that, this technology is particularly based on the optical physics and illusions that can make anything invisible. Therefore, the planes manufactured using this technology can not only miss the radar, but also capable of going invisible, which cannot be recognized with bare eyes. As we speak of Optical Physics and Nuclear technology in this novel, this is again the same style of narration that followed in Digital Fortress of Dan Brown.

Overall, I cannot out rightly say it as a Dan Brown’s carbon copy. This novel has got its own flavor and thrilling moments. It’s a good book to read and not an epic though. If you haven’t read Dan Brown, then, you are going to get surprised.

There are few chapters which could've been easily avoided. Vijay’s love story is totally irrelevant to the novel which could've been avoided. The Al-Qaeda commander character Farooq is depicted too weak, who leaves clues deliberately. The IB chief officer Imran’s character is kind of superhero, but he fails to make an impression.

At last, the realization that dawn upon Vijay is same as Robert Langdon revealing Sofia that she is indeed the “Holy Grail”!! You might have guessed it already; Vikram Singh has passed the baton to Vijay Singh as the next person in the group of "Nine" to safeguard “THE MAHABHARATA SECRET”. :D


My Rating:
4.5/5

Book Review #43: The Fountainhead By Ayn Rand

There are books that are hard to read. There are also few books that are hard to review. And, there are books, which fall under both of these categories. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is one of such important books to the mankind. I may be exaggerating a bit here, but, let’s give it to the author for writing this magnum opus. It is a treat to read this book. It can be easily declared as a must read book before you die!!

The summary as given in the back page of the book goes like this:

“This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.”

What I really liked about this book? Is it the philosophical thoughts? Or is it the fight of a relentless stubborn architect? Or is it the unusual romance between the protagonists? Or is it the life lessons? It is extremely difficult to come up with the answers. I liked all these thoughts that bundled up in this book. It seems very difficult to understand it at the beginning, but, as the book flows through the pages, it is overwhelmingly awesome. It covers everything. The Architect, The Press, The Love story, The betrayals, The deceiving characters, The forgiving characters, etc…

At times you may feel like you are not able to continue to read. But, reading this book requires a lot of patience according to me. It takes at least 2 weeks to finish reading it, if you are reading few pages a day.

The book mainly talks about 4 main characters. Peter Keating (A confused Architect), Ellsworth M. Toohey (Guy who wants to control everything but wants to remain as a shadow), Gail Waynand (A conglomerate tycoon) and our hero of the novel Howard Roark. 

The book starts very slowly and takes time to sync in the readers mind. Slowly it occupies your mind and crumbles up into your dreams when you read it. The ideology presented in this book requires a great deal of concentration to read it and understand it. Each dialogue, each prose, each verse is heavily loaded with philosophical thoughts. Every character seems like a mountain of philosophical aspects.

The Fountainhead is written with great eloquence. It is lucid and engaging. It is loaded with the power of wisdom. It you can read it carefully, you will slowly realize the meaning of the all those 4 different characters, developing them with the intense clarity, so much so that, you are left feeling pity for everyone but the hero.

Howard Roark is an unbelievable character. His ruthless yet calm nature fascinates anyone. His tranquilizing demeanor and the aura which he carries around himself is seldom unnoticed. Even after fighting for his existence, he never allowed himself to be robbed by anyone intellectually. He constantly reminds us of the nature “My way or Highway”. He is adamant, fickle minded yet he is a hero. He takes his fight against the world that is still not out of conservative orthodox thinking. When the whole world is against his modern viewpoints, he stood for his convictions and proved what he is capable off. It is such a joy to read the dialogues of Howard Roark. He reminds every one of us on how to live life on own terms. If we all look back into our lives, we lived all of our life living for others, working for others, satisfying others. Howard Roark conveys his message clearly that, live your life that way you want it to be. “Those who mind, don't matter and those who matter, don't mind” kind of attitude is the take away from the book.

Overall, The Fountainhead speaks of one main thing throughout the novel. It is “Individualism”. No matter what happens tomorrow, if you can prove your individualism then it’s the greatest achievement one can achieve in his lifetime. I recommend this book to everyone. It is once in a life time opportunity to get lost in the philosophical thoughts. You would certainly enjoy each page.

Rating this book is beyond my abilities. Anyways, 

My Rating:

5/5