Sea of Poppies - Book Review (9/10)

The Sea of Poppies had a hype surrounding it, when it was released, obviously because it was the work of Amitav Ghosh, one of the most acclaimed writers of Indian English Literature. His other books that I read were simply superb. And I knew that I could trust Ghosh to deliver this time too. The Sea of Poppies was nominated for the Man Booker, but sadly it lost out to the White Tiger. The White Tiger is an equally captivating book, but the vastness of the Sea of Poppies, its language, the research that has gone into the book, the wide variety of characters, the story, the exciting moments all scream and shout that the Sea of Poppies deserved this award more.

The book, the first of the trilogy that Ghosh is working on, is set in India, in the first half of the 19th century, just around before the opium wars. It has an immensely interesting amalgam of extremely diverse characters from diverse backgrounds. Deeti: the runaway sati candidate and murderer of her mother-in-law, Zachary: the son of a freed slave, then a carpenter, now a sailor, Raja Neel Haldar: A rich linguist of a zameendar, now convicted of forgery, Bhairon singh: A primary evil antagonist and a bodyshopper, Captian Chillingworth: A controlled opium addict and Captain of the Ibis, Mr. Burnham, . These characters lay the foundation of the book. The story is fiercely interconnected, more than some of his earlier books, and can be said to be slightly complex. But yet, it does not fail to enthrall.

The story is divided into three books. Land, River, Sea. The divisions make sense, though they are primarily based on just a couple of characters, Kalua and Deeti (my opinion). The story, largely, is about a journey that many of the above mentioned characters take across the black waters (on the Ibis), something that was considered taboo and forbidden for the Indians in those days. Some because they want to, some because they are forced to, some because they have to. The amount of research that Ghosh has put into this book is astounding. Ships, sailors, the Laskar language & lingo, history, etc. etc.Phenomenol. It is very difficult to imagine how one person could write a book like this. Initially, I found the Laskar lingo very irritating, and there were many lines I chose to pass through, just because I couldn't decipher the language. It is a strange combination of English and Hindi. I know both languages, yet I found it tough. I wonder how people who do not know Hindi would manage. But then there are just a couple of characters who speak that way in the book. So not much of an issue. On the contrary it just adds to the spice.

The book is more like a story in progress and has no end. I guess it would be more like a three part novel than a trilogy. Something like the LOTR. Ghosh hasn't fixed the no. of volumes that he would write to complete the story. As of now it is 3. But this may turn out to be one of the biggest epics of modern Indian literature. Truly brilliant, this book deserves a 9/10.

Bone - The Graphic Novel Review - (7/10)

I first read about Bone in the newspaper, and was pretty impressed with the character that Jeff Smith had created. Fone bone was cute, and well drawn. The reviews for the book were good, and I decided that I would want to buy at least one of the books from the series. My online search for the book began within few hours, and soon I had some price quotes in front of me. But what caught my attention was a 1300 page full epic volume, that had all the 9 Bone books in one. I ordered, and it cost me Rs.1800.

The book is a story about three loony tunes type characters, who are out from boneville, a town where bonelike-creatures live. All three are of them are cousins, and resemble bones. They are thrown out of their town, because Phonevile Bone , a serial bungling cunning opportunist, messes up in town, and causes the people of Bonveville a lot of pain. Anyways, now they are on a journey in a valley filled with rat-creatures that are monsters that eat anything that moves. The story is has been inspired from the Lord of the Rings, for the adventure that then unfolds has all elements that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy had. But Jeff Smith has managed to infuse a lot of comic element into the series, for there are parts where I split my sides laughing. Jeff Smith himself said that his motive was to combine Bugs Bunny & the LOTR, and come up with something that is 'Bone'.

It took me a couple of days to go through 1300 pages and this itself is a testimony to the quality of the Graphic Novel. The adventure has many ups and downs, wonderful characters, supernatural tones, dollops of humour and some crappy fantasy concepts that put me off for a while. I soon downloaded the pirated color version on torrents, and am planning to buy the color version too. Overall, it was a very interesting book, something I would recommend you to go read. Ill give it a 7/10

Following are some random pages from Bone.

The White Tiger - Book Review (8/10)

I picked up "The White Tiger" at crosswords randomly off the shelf, months before it won, or even was nominated for the Booker. Honestly, the title of the book and the cover attracted me more than the plot summary at the back of it. I had no biases, as this was a debut novel of an unknown novelist, and no reviews. I usually search for the name of the author I am reading on the net, and try to learn some stuff about him. But Adiga had hardly any net presence. No pictures of him on the net too. Was I right in picking up this book, I asked myself diffidently.

As I started reading it, I found it to be awkward. The letters to the Chinese president seemed stupid, and the book was starkly different from other books I read, at least in the beginning. I never expected this book to be about a poor poor man from a rural rural village. It took me by surprise. But the story certainly did not disappoint me. It was indeed enjoyable. Especially for an Indian reader, who understands this country from living within its bowels, this book is a joyride. Adiga wonderfully manages to help the reader fall in love with a character, who has evident villainous traits and indulges in despicable doings. The cold steel-like calmness that Balram demonstrates, the insensate way in which he murders, without flinching even a flyspeck muscle, the lack of conscience that makes him immune to regret, are some of the few characteristics in the protagonist that Adiga has woven with great skill, considering this being his first novel. The book also manages to touch some really strong themes, especially that of the vast disparity that exists in the lifestyles of the Indians. The same India, where there are millionaires rolling in money on one side and debt ridden farmers committing suicide by the dozens on the other. Some of the metaphors that Adiga uses are brilliant. Overall I loved this book, and this would be one of the books I would look forward to reading again.

About the Booker that TWT won, after reading "the Sea of Poppies" , I felt it easily deserved the Booker more than "the White Tiger". Actually there was almost no comparison. I haven't read the other nominations, so I cant comment about them. But still, for a gripping tale, a theme usually avoided and a book well written, ill give "The White Tiger" an 8/10.

You are here - Book Review (5.5/10)

You are here, by Meenakshi reddy Madhvan is another book I completed alongside with "Sea of Poppies". (I guess I should be done with SOP by next weekend. I'm taking my time and relishing it ). This book, I think should be classified as modern chick-lit. Before telling you more about the book, let me tell you more about the author. Meenakshi Reddy Madhvan is a 25 something journalist, and also the author of the famous blog, "The Compulsive Confessor" (http://thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com/) Well, if you have read her blog, you will know what to expect of this book. I rarely drop books, specially the ones I have purchased. The only book that I have dropped till date is ignited minds, by Dr.Abdul Kalam. The book was an absolute pain. Though YAH started strongly with the wordclot fundas and stuff, I almost gave it a drop after reading through a few more pages. I felt like I was reading the Compulsive confessor blog at the beggining.

The story took too long to take off, and the protagonist kept spewing out thoughts of her own, thoughts that read good only on blogs. It got awfully boring after some time. But once the story started to pick up, there was something in it. Still at intervals, the author starts blabbering about her own thoughts on a subject. Sometimes it is nice, but many a times I was just put off.

But this was one book that was quite different from the others. It showed me the existence of a completely different world, a society, where girls behave like sluts and smoke and drink like they were adjusting their bra strap. The kind of life that the protagonist has, was completely immoral, derogatory and something conservatives like me would abhor. The language is ekdum 'aaj-ka-teen-gal-english' types in some conversations and few parts. This again put me off completely. Ofcourse, I couldnt expect less from a 'Chick-lit' novel. The overall writing style was good though.

I personally think that the author has written a heavily autobiographical story, with very shallow research (If any). I dont think she can write on varied themes and the chik-lit feel that her book gave, put me off enough to give her next book (if there is any) a miss. Im waiting to see whether she can write something completely different from her first book.

The bad part was the ending. I didnt personally like it. Found it flat. Overall the story was OK. There were some humorous moments though, that tickled my funny bone enough, to let me give this book a 5.5/10.

Keep of the Grass - Book review (4/10)

Lately, I have been picking up Indian fast reads, primarily because I can relate to them more (they are more like the life I live, the life that I have seen), and I can wrap them off in a day. So I try and slip in one quick book alongside with my regular novel, which takes more than a few weeks (considering I read just 25 pages a day). My Mdiv exams are on my head, and that’s really left me cramped with respect to hobby reading. Anyways, "Keep of the Grass" by Karan Bajaj, was one such quick read. This book got my attention, as it was compared to the other IIT & IIM novels in an article online.

Id call it a book of Joints, Grass, Sloshed students, marijuana, Soul Searching, IIM pressures, alchohol, confusion and a bit of India. Throughout the book, the protagonist (Ratan) & his close buddy are just pot-smoking themselves to their IIM graves. This story is about a young NRI bloke from Wall street, who is affected to such an extent by a remark by a one-night-stand-companion, that he decides to go back to India & do his MBA at the IIM. Actually, the remark just unplugs the deep pressure already existing within. Thus starts the tale of a IIM student. Nothing mentionable about the story. Its basically OK. Too much of grass actually spoilt it all. Decent writing style, considering the genre. The protagonist was way to confused and I was almost frustrated with this aspect of his character. The ending was OK again, and the storyline overall was again OK. There were some nice moments in the book, and the parts where Ratan & co. travel to parts of India are probably the Highs of the book for me. Also the title of the book becomes clear at the end of the book. Thats one part I liked. Overall the book didnt work for me that great. One of the books that I would not remember for too long. I'll give it a 4/10.

City on fire

Wheneveer terrorism strikes India, I usually want to blog about it. Though I haven't blogged every time it did, the number of posts on terror seems to be on the increase. Now Terrorists invade Mumbai! Even in my wildest of dreams would I never have thought that what happened could actuall be done. What the terrorists did was something beyond my imagination, and I know that I have a wild imagination. What if I was at CST that rueful day? What if I was shot on the back of my head, and my face was blown out on the other side, and my family had to come find this faceless corpse of mine lying on a CST platform, next to 57 other corpses, faceless for them. How would my family take it? Worse, what if one of my near and dear ones would have received a bullet as a gift from those brainwashed diabolic radicals? How my blood would boil then. How my spirit would fume. Yet, however much I am infuriated by this attack, it is goober peas compared to the sorrow that the victims and their families go through. We, the unaffected would never understand, unless we are the affected.

I fold my hands in humble prayer, close my eyes and thank God for keeping me and my family safe on this vile day, the day that the devil danced a jig in front of the Taj. And I pray that the families of the victims would be comforted; their losses are too immense for comprehension. I pray that the politicians would stop waltzing with medusa, and pullup their slimy pants. That the scales would fall off the eyes of our blind leaders, and that the corruption that is eating to our country like an african-flesh-rot-bug would be axed at its neck. I pray that God would have mercy on all of us, because if there is someone who can save us now, it is him.

What poverty is in India...

Today, the Times of India carried an article titled "How poor is poor in city?" on the first page. On reading the article I discovered that a person earning above Rs.540 (i.e. approx 11 to $12) a month is tagged as not poor in Mumbai, and for rural India, it is just Rs.328 (approx $7). Can you even believe that! For $7,in America, you will only be able to buy a burger with fries and coke. That is one meal. And you expect someone to be considered above the poverty line because they are just earning this flimsy amount. If you aren't an Indian, then don't consider this to be a disparity in cost of living across the globe. This just shows how dumb the Indian government is, or maybe how low it can stoop, to manipulate number of poor persons in the country. I spend 500 bucks every time re-fuel my bike. I spend 500 bucks when I visit the mall/theatre etc. I spend much more than 500 bucks when I'm at a bookshop. And they call these people "Not poor"!! Like Captain Haddock would have said .. A bunch of Macrocephalic Two-Timing Tartar twsted baboons!!!

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Book Review (10/10)

After reading the Kite runner, I was impressed with Khaled Hosseini. His ability to churn out a tale of such depth and passion, driven by his love for his country enchanted me. Obviously, after every first novel, readers expectantly & impatiently wait for the second novel from the author with expectations that are high (obviously, if his first one is a good one). Many novelists fail to deliver the same quality in their second book for obvious reasons, one being that the first book was a story they wanted to tell, and the second one was a story the chose to tell. Chetan bhagat for example went hurtling down in the quality of his books. 'One night at the call center' miserably failed in comparision to his first book (not in terms of book sales, but in terms of book quality. His book sales were driven due to the success of his first book). I dont understand how his books manage to sell faster than hot pancakes. Coming back to Hosseini, I expected him to be a one book author. A doctor, writing part time, and writing about a subject close to his heart, Afghanistan. He already had told a tale about his home country in the first book. What more could he tell now. I thought to myself, if he chose to write a book on any other subject other than Afghanistan, the chances that his book would fail would be big.

But all of these doubts were put to rest when the book was out. "A Thousand Splendid Suns". I can easily say that this is one of the most emotionally moving stories I have ever read. I have never shed a tear over a book, but shed dozens over this one. Hosseini manages to pierce your heart with a thousand swords, and keeps twisting and yanking them throughout the story, and inflicts pain equivalent to what a lady would experience when giving birth to a thousand splendid sons ;). In case you don't feel the pain that the protagonists of the story feel, you certainly are a person with a heart as hard as a rock.

This is a story of two afghan women across generations who are from different backgrounds, but suffer a similar fate. The story of their pains, their sorrows, their friendship, their struggles, their country and their hope (or lack of it). Hosseini wonderfully starts with two separate stories, and then goes on to merge the stories together. It is a love story, between two lovers, and between two friends. The ability that Hosseini possesses to bring to life images in the readers mind is astounding. The resplendent image of old Afghanistan to the intimidating character of Rasheed ,the nuances of his mannerisms to fear he projects, the turmoil in Mariam to the determination in Laila. Everything is wonderfully woven, considering that the writing style of Hosseini is comparatively simpler. You almost feel that you yourself are present in the rooms in which the characters interact, and unfold the tale. The backdrop for the story is the History of Afghanistan. it flaunts itself like a large velvet curtain of vivid colours hanging behind an incredible performance on stage. When you are made aware of the horrors that the people of Afghanistan had to go through, you will certainly shudder. It is like a lesson in the History of Afghanistan, camouflaged with a story of profound strength.

The last part of the story, or BOOK IV, is a part that moves without the turmoil present throughout the book. But this is the part that made me cry the most. Read it, and you will know why.

There many areas about the book that I would like to write about, but that would spoil the fun for you, in case you haven't read the book. This is one of those books that you cant even think of not missing. A book that will help you love your near and dear ones better. A book that will essentially teach you or show you how fortunate you are to be living in a place with almost no turmoil or sorrow. For the brilliance of Hosseini's story telling, for his ability to create a storm of emotions in the reader, for his projection of the History of his country so well and for many other reasons that has made this book a best seller, I give it a score of 10/10.

Letter to Ravi Subramanium, author -If God was a Banker

I just read the book "If God was a Banker" on Sunday. It was one of the few 250 page + books that I completed in one day. Today, I visited Ravi Subramaniums website, and posted him a message. Surprisingly, I got response from him today itself. Below is the letter I wrote to him, and under that is his reply.

Hi Ravi,

I just finished reading your book 'If God was a Banker' yesterday, and couldn't put it down till I finished the whole thing. Congratulations to you on a well written book. I picked up the book in the morning and was through by the end of the day. You have managed to weave a very interesting story and one refreshingly different. Since the previous books I read were "The Calcutta Chromosome" & "A thousand splendid Suns", I initially felt that the book had no writing style, and was too plain Jane. That was a bit difficult to adjust to at first. But once I was into the book, I got used to the style. And the story made up for that area that it lacked in.

In addition, I wished that the cover design for the book would have been better. The cover design was far by the worst I had seen yet. There is a great improvement in the cover design of your new book. I feel an attractive cover design can attract potential readers.

Regarding the plot, there are a couple of points that already have been mentioned in your blog. For eg. Sundeep did not force any woman into an illicit relationship. Nor did he indulge in any kind of sexual harassment. Thus he should not have been held responsible for those acts (though they were morally wrong) as the female partner was equally at fault here. She choose to sacrifice character for material gains.

Also I didn't understand why Aditya helped Swami in establishment of BOCA in the BPO business. It would be obvious that BOCA would be a competitor of Adityas enterprise. You have mentioned that Aditya helped Swami generate business by using senior contacts at NYB etc. It was like aditya is taking a pie out of his own share and giving it to Swami. Would anyone really do that. You also mentioned that BOCA comes out as on of the top BPO firms. And then at the end of the book, even adityas firm comes out as one of the top. I found it slightly hard to digest how aditya could bring both his and Swamis firm to the top, when they were competing entities.

Just small areas that I found not clicking. But that doesn't take away any credit from the storyline or from the book. Good job on your first novel! Looking forward to reading your next one. And all the best for your third one!

Cheers,
Alistair

Following is the response that I received from him. It only shows on his timeliness, and how he values his fans. Hats off to him. He just won a fan for life.

Hi Alistair

Thanks for writing in with your thoughts. I am really glad that you liked the book. Yes you indeed have raised some valid thoughts. Do read my next one and write in with your thoughts.

My third book, Devil in Pinstripes should be hitting the stands in Q2 2009.

cheers

Ravi

I will soon be putting up a review on this. But if you plan to visit a bookstore before that, don't forget to catch your copy of "If God was a Banker".

Trojans from Hell

Damn it! Im rewriting this post again because of the reason I am writing this post in the first place. What an irony! My damned PC seems to restart on its own without warning me, and the stupid blogger autosave feature did not kick in! Writing 2 paragraphs, and having to rewrite that again immediately is irritating, and that would still be an understatement. Is it a virus? Is it a hardware malfunction? is it a phantom playing tricks or is it one of my split personalities who kicks in for a second, hits the restart button and vanishes.

Around a year ago, my lappy was plagued with an army disgusting demented viruses and trojan horses (If I ever lay my hand on a virus writer...), all of different shapes, sizes, functions and names. They did not attack all together, but eventually. How they sneaked upon me, even I cant say, but they sure took me by surprise. It started off with little annoying problems like my cursor suddenly running about the screen uncontrollably, a couple of IE windows opening etc. Then the symptoms slowly started growing in magnitude. OS hanging, sudden restarts, not saving files when I save them, disabling certain softwares, making me, the admin user a guest user without any authority. All the other attacks, I bore silently. But taking away my admin rights was just too much. I had to fight back. But the trojan army was always one step ahead.

For starters they disabled all my anti virus software. They left me like an AIDS patient, without any immune system. My WBCs had been hijacked. I decided I wont give up, and gave up my PC to an expert. He started using his special anti-virus programs, his special tools etc. Some of them were terminated, but others still lurked. Some bold and defiant got detected, but could not be removed. Others craft and sly, lurked undetected (we realized this later). After my friend Richie toiled over my lappy, after hours of formatting and reformatting, he managed to clean up my laptop of all its crap. But in the bargain, I lost my genuine windows installation.

Now the ugly head of this black army seems to be slowly rising again. I did some virus scans, and updated my anti-virus. But the restarting problem still exists. Sometimes I wonder whether it is a hardware problem I'm dealing with here. Initially I absolutely had no clue about why may laptop used to go kapoot. But a couple of weeks ago, I found the trigger. Or at least I think I found it.

Whenever I press the arrow keys or the backspace keys in rapid succession, my lappy just goes out cold. Strange. I noticed this while playing Dink Smallwood (a postworthy game thats gonna get a post of its own soon). Whenever Dink had to slay a bonca or a slayer (considered to be dangerous enemies atleast early on in the game), he had to run about and make quick turns. That meant hitting the arrow keys in rapid alternating succession. Plonk! Out cold. This happened so many times that I stopped playing Dink for now. But the problem still persists. And as long as it does, I cannot play Dink! Damn!!

Anyways, Keep checking back to see what happened in the war between me & this unknown enemy of mine.

Subconcious Plagiarism - Cryptomnesia

A few months ago, my sis Annette & and her friend Jennifer, were working on a pop-up greeting card. Both of them were doing a course in Early Childhood care (& now are Kindergarten {sounds better than K.G. ;) } teachers at schools), and this card was part of their assignment. Ann & Jen showed me the semi-complete card, and asked me how it was. The card had a drawing of a small chick hatching out of an egg, with pieces of eggshell flying all over. Something like the hatching of a superchick shot using a split-second-camera. I liked the idea, but technically, the drawing was wrong. The chick was standing in the shards of the hatched egg, one leg in one half and the other one in the other half. And above the chick were some more fragments of the cracked egg. If one tried a logical reconstruction, one would come up with an egg and a half. I pointed this out to them, to which they said, the drawing was copied from a book. I criticized the quality of the books they were referring. But this wasn't enough, I had to give them some advise on how they could improve the drawing. I personally love cartooning, and by habit pay attention to the little nuances of cartooning. I would let myself down, if I wouldn't be able to come up with some original ideas to better the drawing.

After a minute of thought, I was lecturing both of them about how the drawing would look much better, if a piece of the eggshell would rest on the head of the chick, like a cap. It would give it the appearance of an Anne Geddes baby. I knew it was a small suggestion, nonetheless I was proud of it. My sis smiled at me, and then said, "Well I know where you got this from". I was surprised. I told her it was a completely original idea. She insisted that she knew where I got this from. I told her that I probably would have come across something of this sort in a cartoon show or something along the way. She still said, she knew exactly where I had got this idea from. Then she pulled out one of her journals (the kind she shows all of her family after completion). She flipped the pages, and turned the journal to show me one page. It was exactly the image I suggested a few minutes ago. I was shocked. It was the exact image I had picturised in mind a few minutes ago.

I could bet my life on the fact that I thought my idea was kinda original. Atleast not the carbon copy of something that I had seen a few months ago. But the evidence was against me here. This was the first time I realized how powerful the subconscious is.

My point is that this happens, and it doesnt take an expert to know that it does. Along the way, as we keep picking up ideas and concepts developed by other, snowballing down the hill of information, we lose quite a bit of what comes at us, but a lot of it gets tightly packed into that huge snowball of data. Somewhere deep inside in that vast sea of experiences, it gets hidden under some more important concepts/ideas/skills that the brain has to remember. But it still is there waiting for its time. When a trigger of some sort goes off, this thought is pulled out by the subconscious, now hazier than before, it easily gets thrown out by the brain, which deceives itself into making the person believe that the idea is original.

As I was googling for "Subconcious Plagarism", I came across the following-

Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human

Friedrich had been accused of plagiarism, when the book that he wrote,
I couldn't agree less that this is obviously more than true. But the above statement in isolation may not be complete, especially when discussing SP. If your memory is too good, it would be conscious plagiarism. For it to be subconscious, the memory needs to pass out from the conscious zone into the subconscious zone.

The first time the term "Subconscious Plagiarism" came to me, It came to me in thought, as an original idea. I had never ever before read the word anywhere, anytime. But I know that to have an original Idea today is extremely difficult. Somewhere, somebody has already thought about it. And something as obvious as Subconscious plagiarism could never go unnoticed. So I decided to find out using Google. When I Googled it, there were some vague mentions of Subconscious Plagiarism, but no concrete definition of the same was found. In highest probability, In fact I was almost sure that this phenomenon/habbit/behaviour/whatever it is, must be documented somewhere in some Psychology book of some kind. Then I came across Cryptomnesia.

Cryptomnesia is the actual scientific word for Subconcious Plagarism. Following is the Wiki definition of Cryptomnesia:

Cryptomnesia, or inadvertent plagiarism, is a memory bias whereby a person falsely recalls generating a thought, an idea, a song, or a joke, when the thought was actually generated by someone else. In these cases, the person is not deliberately engaging in plagiarism, but is rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.

Read the whole article on wiki. Worth reading!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomnesia

To sum it up, everybody sometime, somewhere may experience bouts of Cryptiomnesia. Human beings are wired up that way, to use past experience to better future experience. But if we are aware of this behavior that the Human brain exhibits, we will be more cautious the next time that "Original" idea pops up in our mind.

The Calcutta Chromosome - A novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery - Book Review

As I keep reading more of Amitav Ghosh, the more I am in awe of his intelligence and ability to weave a story so intricately, yet with such gargantuan coverage of the chosen subject. Yes, ghosh always selects a particular subject, mostly in (colonial) history, and his novel ends up with half the history ever known about it. The kind of research that he puts into his books is flabbergasting. The Calcutta Chromosome is one of his older books, and probably one that isn't so popular, in the sense that he wasn't as famous as he was when the "Sea Of Poppies" was released. So the chances that you will see this book at Crossword or some other bookstore is comparatively less.

I was on my usual book-stroll (in the Lamour book store.I usually book-stroll with the intention of finding a steal of a deal in second hand book shops.) one evening, when my eyes caught the words "The Calcutta Chromosome", well camouflaged in a messy pile of vibrant faded paperbacks. I latched upon it, yanked it out of the pile with glee, and found a Hardcover version of the book staring back at me with a blank expression. My fingers, without awaiting pulse signals from my mind, flipped open the cover and my eyes working in tandem, searched for the price marked with graphite on the Title page. (Second hand books usually have their prices written on the title page in pencil.) Rs.180! A steal of a deal!! In moments I was away, with the book tucked safely into a polythene bag, my heart bobbing and my lips singing, as I biked my way home.

You would wonder why I chose to rave about how I purchased this book. But for a chronic bibliophile (like me), everything from the sperm to the germ in the life cycle of the relationship one has with the book is of utter importance. If you are one, you would infer my reasoning.

Getting to the review, the book starts somewhere in the unmentioned future (probably 2020), from where the core of the story is (1995). Antar, an aging programmer, put on a no-consequence job, to get him through to his retirement seems like a drab protagonist to have for a book with an intriguing name like this. No, he isnt a false protagonist either. He is just one of the many who would bear a lot of importance to the tale. Antars deals with a futuristic computer called 'Ava', who flashes him with images of objects, which Antar has to identify, and teach Ava how to identify in the future. It is when he comes across an I-card of an old acquaintance (Murugan a.k.a. Morgan), who has been missing for the past couple of decades, that he is tempted into digging more into the matter and finding out what happened to him. And then the fun begins.

The story starts unfolding in parallel threads, in different time zones, with a range of over a century. The history of malarial research, life of Ronald Ross, strange Laveran rods (in context of the time), supposedly false conjectures on malaria, path-breaking discoveries, dodgy indian bearer-boys, undercover secret groups, haunting cerebral syphilis, parallel intelligence, its all in there. The research that Ghosh has put into the book is exquisite and extensive, like always. He has dissolved the borders that exist between real history and the fiction of his tale, at least in my mind. Sometimes there are pages of unconventional history woven into the tale, and rather than making the book boring, for me it made it wildly interesting. I did a bit of my own research on Ronald Ross (after I completed the book), searching for similar views as that Ghosh has expressed on Ross, but was unable to find any (on the net). The negative hoick that he has given to the otherwise untarnished image of Ronnie Ross, had my mind in knots and to some extent still does.

The title cover says "A novel of Fevers, delirium & Discovery". And the book surely lives upto the title. Indeed, the fevers and the delirium will really give you the spooks. Some places it almost runs through like a horror story. This book had me scared. It has something ancient, something of the past, something like a ghost, totally unknown, strong, without form moving behind the curtains of the story line and making a strange and haunting signals at the reader. Even as I write this blog entry late in the night, thinking about certain parts of the book gives me the shivers.

To talk about some dicey areas in the book, the book may not qualify as pure science fiction. The science explained is somewhat stretched and fictional in parts. But entertaining enough. Also the story is like a rubik cube. Almost everybody is connected to everybody. Its like a small world with people bumping into the same people everywhere. This may appear somewhat filmy, but then thats what the whole book is about. If you read through the whole thing, you will know just why everybody knows almost everybody.

All in all, I am a die-hard AG fan now, and that will surely bias the way I rate this book. I would love to rate this book higher than I have, but I guess ill have to settle with a 8/10. So if you haven't read it, go get a copy now.

The book-mongering ways of a bibliophile - Systematic Book Purchase

I have this habit of walking into Crosswords(the book store) , the moment the yellow signboard catches my eyes. I just cant seem to resist. The soft amber light that emanates from within, the silent music from between the pages, the smell of new paper and prints, the illustrious flood of colors that surrounds me when I walk between the shelves, the smooth feel of a new paperback and the weight of the credit cards in my wallet, that establish in me a capacity to own almost whatever title I want, (ignoring the bills that will follow later) all hypnotize me beyond the realms of my will and suck me into that shop of well-woven tales.

I agree that the books out here are pretty expensive. Initially, I never thought twice before purchasing a book from here. But lately, I have developed a systematic method of getting to my books. Read on for some subjectively worthful gyan on Bibliophilegiri.

Step 1: Decide what book you want to read
The first step is deciding what book to buy. Rather than impulsively picking up books from the shelf after judging it buy its cover (something I still occasionally indulge in), I prefer to research and close in on books that are worth reading. I try to search for books across genres, rather than sticking to one popular genre. You obviously will find lists made up by people on blogs and elsewhere on the net, suggesting the top 10/100/1000/ etc. books one must read. I prefer avoiding following such lists, though I don't avoid glancing through them. If I see a book popping up time and again on multiple lists, I give heed to it. First, I research it on Wikipedia etc., read about the book, (not the Plot), about the author, about other books the author has written, reviews, so on and so forth. And in the process, I learn about similar/related authors, with similar/related books, and then I research them and enter a never ending cycle of literary information. While i am reading through all this stuff, I pick up books that I would want to read. And then its time to move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Get price quotes
Getting price quotes can sometimes be tricky, if you aren't using the right sources. I have a specific process that I follow to get my prices. If you know of someplace where I could get my books cheaper, please comment. Anyway, I start out with getting a quote from Indiaplaza.in. Next I get a quote from Landmarkonthenet.com. Usually, the prices in both of these sites are matched evenly, the difference not being much. But landmark is slightly more expensive, when it comes to shipping. The clubbing-of-multiple-orders feature kinda sucks on this site. But you have a wider range to choose from on Landmark. Landmark is a site that specializes only in books. Indiaplaza is a general shopping site, with a strong section on books.

I usually know how much to expect a book to be priced (developed from years of buying). So I know whether the book is overpriced on any/both of the sites. I say this because some of the books out there are priced right through the roof. For eg. a book that costing for Rs.400 in crossword, may cost Rs.700 online. Now why, I don't know. But this is something I have experienced in the past. If I find the online cost cheap (dfyob -{go figure}) , i buy right away, else I visit crossword. At crossword, if I find the book, I mostly find it costlier than it was online. But there are times when the books may turn out cheaper (Plus you get to indulge in on-the-spot-random-buying) .

If I find the book expensive at crossword too, its time to hop to the Lamour Library. Well, Lamour is a Library (as already mentioned before) that doubles up as a second-hand book store. So if I find a book too expensive to purchase from my primary sources, this is where I go.
The downside is that I may not get the book immediately or may not get it at all. This library will usually have all the popular books, but not the rarer ones, that you may find considerably easily online or in crossword. The upside is, you will get books almost as good as new at sometimes rip-away prices and othertimes quite decent prices.


Step 3: Buy the book
This is the kinda easier step for me :) . Credit/debit card, zindabaad. (Dont take me for a rich brat who can lavishly spend on his reading addictions. This is hard earned money we are talking about here.)

Step 4: Read the book
The most exciting part! The best part! Read it! This part can get tough sometimes, considering the rate of arrival being greater than the rate of reading. But I take it as a challenge to finish reading all the books I can read.

For those who want to read, but don't want to spend:
For those who have a reading budget of a church mouse, and dont have a desire to own a library themselves, join a library and ignore this post.

I guess this post makes it cockclear that I belong to the 'other' group of individuals.

The Diwali Blast...

13 more blasts in Assam! Seems like Diwali will never end. The fireworks have been on throughout the year. The Muslims have this perennial problem with religion-bred-terrorism. There are a majority who are peace loving muslims. But because of a certain section of demented extremists, it is diwali for India every day. You dont know where the next blast is, maybe just around the corner. You don't know whether you will make it back home in your office clothes, or in a polythene bag, with your clothes.

The other day when returning home, I stopped at the red light of the Inorbit signal at malad. Just in front of me stood a bike, with its bearded rider. The back of the bike had a sticker of the trademark Shiv Sena tiger, all growling and wild. Suddenly, this guy in front of me yanked out the side-stand, left the bike leaning on it, and walked away. Just imagine leaving a bike just like that in a busy junction. He walked towards a few bhel-puri stalls on the pavement and disappeared into the crowd. I was bewildered. In many of the blasts that had happened all over India, the bombs were planted on bikes and cycles that could be easily abandoned in a busy place, without anybody even getting a whiff of what was conspiring in the shadows. The engine serial nos/registration nos. can be easily filed off to prevent detection and tracking. I looked at the bike and the small carrier box that it had fixed below the pillion seat, and considered possibilities of what all it could carry. Bomb kept coming back to my mind, like I was stuck in a loop! Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. The Shive Sena sticker on the bike and the beard on the man made me even more uncomfortable. Maybe it was a muslim extremist who was out to frame Shiv sainiks in what would be known as the Inorbit Signal blasts. Maybe the Shivsainiks had finally decided to retaliate by entering the blasts business themselves. Whatever it was, it kinda scared me.

After a few anxious moments of craning my neck to see whether I could spot the alleged bomber, I saw the man re-appear, emerging from the crowd like a water in a Sahara desert tap. I was relieved. He probably had gone to the loo for a leak, and had inadvertently scared the crap out of a genuine alert citizen ;) of this country.

Jokes apart, many people today would have reacted to this situation in the same manner. This just goes to show the subtly developing fear psychosis in our people. In a country where we could just go about anywhere, without even thinking twice, we now live in constant fear of the next blast. When would it happen, where would it happen, who would die etc.

What are the rulers of this country doing? Where is the security? After the 7/11 tragedy in the US, could anyone even burst a single Lavangi within the country? If they could do it, then so can we. If not immediately, eventually. But there has to be some positive movement toward that eventuality. That positive movement, my friend, is what I never get to see in this country of mine. I may sound like a synic, but believe me, this is optimism.

Beat the Bhaiya movement - Dirty Politics

The hottest news that you find the so called News channels airing these days is pretty obvious. There is no news as hot as 'Beat the bhaiya' news. I dont blame the news channels for focusing on the Raj v/s Bihar altercation. The whole issue is absolutely ridiculous. How in the world could not the Marathi Manoos see the selfish politics that Raj is playing out here.

Just the other day I read about a group of maharashtrians beating up a group of North Indians. One of the North-indians died. The whole episode was absolutely shocking. The same local trains, where everybody travels like Jalapeños pickled in a Jar of Sweat, without thinking twice about the native state of the person standing right in front of you, stepping on your feet. You 'adjust' and carry on. That is what the Spirit of Mumbai is all about. Reminds me of that underwear VIP underwear ad, ('adjust maadi' on youtube, which perfectly captures not only the Spirit of Mumbai, but the Spirit of India. Tolerance has been one of the outstanding factors of Indian Society, and one of the fast deteriorating factors too. Where is Gandhian philosophy (actually a lot of which is borrowed from the Bible) vanishing? People were raving about Gandhigiri some time ago, when the Munnabhai series of movies were being screened. We must ask the same people, where is the Gandhigiri now? Is this all a facade?

Raj Thackeray when arrested, refused to defecate in an Indian Style latrine. He said he was not used to it. He preferred to constipate himself and pollute the court air, with political gaseous emissions and his hard headedness. Why doesn't he squat like his fellow Marathi manoos does. He would if he really cared. But he doesn't give a damn. Id rather call him a smart politician. He knows best what he is doing out here. If anyone would know better, it would be Raj Thackeray who knows that he is in the wrong. But this is all a game, this is politics. Do you think that the Cheif minister does not know what is happening? He surely does. Don't you think that congress, the ruling party in the state is actually allowing this to happen. Yes, they want Shivsena to be split into two equal halves, not one big party, and another small band of losers. They want Raj to get popular, so that guys from Shiv Sena cross over to MNS. How else could they stop the otherwise formidable-in-maharashtra Shiv Sena.

This tactic works in a reverse way also. It keeps Mayawati and Laloo Prasad out of Maharashtra. And who suffers in the bargain. The poor north Indian Bhaiya, who is here just to make a buck and feed his family back home.

There is this issue of overcrowding in Mumbai, but then that is the incompetence of the government that is the root problem. I wont rave about what the Government should do, as I am in no position to. But there have been other countries who have handled the situation much better, and have been able to actually get their countries/cities out of a mess.

The solution lies much deeper. At the roots of our system. In our hearts. We need to improve at an individual level and change our attitude towards what we call our Nation. We need to spread the message of love, and work hard together to get solutions to the problems. Our protests must be against corruption and the decay in society, rather than the release of Raj from jail. Our protest must be against the corrupt politicians, rather than against poor bhaiyas.

Give the North Indians a Break, stop the "beat the bhaiya movement" for God's sake!!