Book Review: The Madras Affair by Sundari Venkatraman

It was the catchy title of this book that made me check it out on Kindle Unlimited.

But, even before getting over 25% of the book, I was impressed by a very unlikely aspect of it: there were no typos or grammatical errors. I have spotted many mistakes in e-books even by well-known authors, and I wondered if the physical books too had them, or these errors were there only in the e-version, due to some technical issues. Kudos to the publishers, Readomania!

The book made very easy and good reading. The theme is a socially relevant one. Urban or rural, there are many families that give traditional customs precedence over individual comforts and happiness. "What will people say ... " often determines decisions. This book deals with it at different stages.

The story revolves around the life of Sangita. How much ever we are advanced in terms of money, education or technology, there are many 'Sangitas' around. They are trapped by the diktats of family elders who take false pride in adhering to some age-old customs, at the cost of the happiness and well-being of their own daughters or sisters. Some remain trapped for their entire lives; some manage to escape. The author has done well to not only focus on the life of a Sangita, but also give a positive spin to her story, and debunk a few myths.

The plot is well-structured and the story line generally flows well, though I thought at a few places the author could have detailed the scene a bit more, for emphasis. I shall refrain from mentioning those, lest it will be a spoiler.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Trump dream of mending a broken America

If you have been following Donald Trump's campaign speeches, you wouldn't find anything extraordinarily new in this book. However, the book elaborates on some of the pet themes of this realty mogul and reality star.

Trump's premise is that America resembles a Third World country. Everything is broken. But not beyond repair. And he alone can fix it.

His arguments are superficial; and often unidirectional. On the face of it, some of the things he talks about seem to make sense, but when you are talking of a huge, multicultural nation like the US, its Presidential aspirant can't have blinkers. He needs to have a holistic and a macro view of different aspects of the nation.

Somewhere towards the latter half of the book I began getting the feeling that he has just one solution: create more and more business opportunities for people. So create more and more hotels, resorts, malls etc etc. even if heritage structures or whatever have to be broken down.

That way, he will bring in more jobs, and prosperity. His route to fixing America is only via more and more dollars. Not surprising, because, he is basically a businessman. And, I doubt if he has any interest in or understanding of any other facet of a multicultural society.

At the same time, he says somewhere in the book, that getting rich is no guarantee to becoming happy. He talks of American values, which are not elaborated. And, there is somewhere a disconnect.

The book is more about his dreams, of mending a broken country. But the full, long road map isn't there. Just elect him as the next President of the US. That's all. Leave the rest to him.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars 

Book Review: Beyond Love Lines: Do You Know Jeevan Who Loved Nancy? by Krish

The disclaimer is that author, Krishna Raj, is my schoolmate. Last month, we had an alumni meet, and during the event, he got a few copies; and all of them were sold out among the alumni.

The book revolves around the life of Jeevan, who had a crush on his neighbour and childhood friend Nancy. But he reads too much into every action her or absence of it, and mistakes them as love. There are many other characters too who come into the story.

Half way into the book, I realised how apt the title of the book is. The story is not actually about the love/ infatuation of Jeevan and Nancy. It is all about the militant uprisings in Kashmir and how Jeevan as an officer in the Indian Army deals with it. The entire relationship issues of Jeevan and others are narrated as flashback.

The author has done well weave the plot and many subplots, the present and the past, without confusing the reader too much. Probably, at a few places, the flashback portion could have been separated with asterisks, as has been done in a few other places.

The story also juxtaposes the ironic difficulty of Jeevan to deal with emotional turmoils with the life-threatening situations in the valley to which he squares so boldly and effortlessly. The novel is truly all about love lines and what lies beyond them.

I found the initial portions a bit slow and lumbering. The narrative is a very easy one, without heavy literary expressions or syntax. A good start for Krishna with his first book.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Review - 101 Amazing US Presidential Facts

This is the Presidential election season in the United States, and that's one reason I picked up this small book of trivia. Good fun reading lots of interesting things about all the US Presidents, right from George Washington to Barack Obama. This can be a good resource for people who are interested in quizzing. It talks of:

• The first President to actually live in the White House.
• Presidents who have died on Independence Day.
• The President who died within one month of being sworn in.
• The first President to wear a blue jeans to the Oval Office
• The President who got a speeding ticket because he drove the horse too fast
• The first President to use a telephone in the White House
• The first President to ride in an automobile. But more interesting is what was special about that journey
• The President who is related to 11 other presidents by blood or by marriage
• The first President to run a full marathon.
• The President who gets hair cut every week

And so and so forth...

101 Amazing Presidential Facts: Fun trivia about every American President from Washington to Obama! by Children's History Press
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I received an Amazon gift coupon for Rs 200 recently, and I began looking for a book to buy. I zeroed in on 'Between the World and Me' by Ta-Nehisi Coates for a few reasons.

One, the book deals with a subject (race) that is at the heart of contemporary social fabric of the US. We wish the country has moved on, but regularly we get to hear of issues and events that only point to the contrary.

Two, the author is a well-known journalist. He works for The Atlantic.

Three, this book, his second, is a very recent one, and the news of its publication is fresh in memory.

The book is in the form of a letter to his 14-year old son, about what it means to be black in the US. Apparently, the book came about after Coates asked his editor why no one wrote like James Baldwin (whose The Fire Next Time, is in the form of a letter), and the editor told him to give it a try.

Drawing a lot from his childhood in Baltimore and many other personal experiences, Coates brilliantly paints a haunting picture of violence. References to brutality are powerful enough to linger in our minds for long. He constantly refers to the body that is always under the threat of being harmed, his feelings of being in a country that has been built by whites with the labour of blacks.

I haven't been in the US long enough to know first hand how race relations play out in everyday lives. I have heard both versions: one, that the country has moved far, far ahead from where it was once; and two, there is still lot of racial ill-will among the whites for the Afro-Americans. Segregation may not legally exist, but in reality it does still, if not so much on the ground, definitely in the mind.

The book paints a very pessimistic picture: almost tells you there is just no hope of anything getting better. I got a feeling that he was going on and on. The bleak tenor was off-putting. One shouldn't be taking so much pains to explain and convince why something will not improve; it should be for the contrary, why there is still reason for hope.

Nevertheless, Coates's autobiographical accounts and his arguments on why he doesn't see much hope, is a good read, giving us a frame of reference to understand the complex topic of race relations in the US.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review: Life is What You Make It by Preeti Shenoy

This is the second book of Preeti Shenoy that I am reading. The first was "The One You Cannot Have". One of my friends suggested that I must read Life is What You Make It.

I am glad I read it.

It's a work of fiction, but it's very real. (Maybe because, as the author herself says, "... it's based on some real-life experiences".)

Ankita, the central character, could be any one of us. Many things that happen in her personal life -- as she moves from an undergraduate course in Kerala to a very coveted Management course in a Mumbai institute -- can happen to anyone of us, albeit in different forms, proportions and intensities.

The book tells us that successes and failures are ephemeral. It's the way we deal with them that finally matters. As the title aptly says: life is what you make it.

The book is inspirational: it is about a fight, not with people but with emotions, with intangible elements, difficult-to-understand perceptions and feelings. Physical scars and injuries are visible; but the hurt that is caused to one's emotions and mind are difficult to understand: not just for others but for the person who is suffering too.

Preeti has a very simple writing style. The story-telling form of narrative makes her work easy to read. The little twists and surprises keep the reader engrossed even while she delves deep into commonplace thought processes, simple as they may seem but could have very defining repercussions.

I won't introduce spoilers here. Pick up the book and read.

Life is What You Make It by Preeti Shenoy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
View all my reviews

Book Review - Connect The Dots by Rashmi Bansal

The book is a compilation of thumbnail sketches of 20 entrepreneurs who made it big though they didn't have MBAs or degrees from branded institutions. It also drives home the point that you don't need big degrees to make it big. All that you need is perseverance, hard work and commitment. It's inspirational, especially for people who are dreaming big and aiming high.

Two stars because 1) There are words and long sentences in Hindi for which there are no translations. They look out of place. 2) For each person featured, the heading appears twice, one for the rather longish summary and then again for the biographical write-up. 3) Since these are real-life stories of real persons, the author could have added photographs of people and their establishments. That would have made it more more appealing.

Connect The Dots by Rashmi Bansal -- My rating: 2 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review -- Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank

An 'unputtdownable' biography. It's studded with lots of information, not surprising, considering the in-depth research Katherine Frank has done. The book starts with Motilal Nehru and ends with the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

The books gives a great insight into the person Indira Gandhi was -- as granddaughter of Motilal Nehru, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, husband of Feroze Gandhi, mother of Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, mother-in-law of Sonia and Maneka Gandhi, grandmother of Rahul, Priyanka and Varun; as a freedom fighter, unofficial hostess of many world leaders who came calling on India's first PM, as hardcore nationalist, a hard-to-beat politician, a go-getter Prime Minister and, as a teenager and a woman.

How much ever the members of the Gandhi family try, they are unable to break free of a centripetal force, as it were; and get sucked into the vortex of politics, and that too riding on a family name, ironically seeming to do more harm than good. Indira Gandhi too was a reluctant politician to begin with. She stuttered and was booed during her first time on a stage in England. She wanted to leave India and she had intensely contemplated buying a house in England. Unfortunately, for her, before she could finalize the deal, someone else had bought that house. The way the highly reluctant Rajiv and Sonia were forced to embrace politics is recent history.

Even though Indira Gandhi ruled the country for a long time, ushered in quite a few reformatory changes, and kept India's flag flying high on the global stage, she never had it easy. She wanted India to progress rapidly, and didn't like people putting spokes in her plans, citing one reason or the other. She didn't believe in dragging things over a period of time in search of a consensus. She would rather get things done without wasting much time. That gave the world an impression that she cared little for democracy, didn't consider divergent viewpoints, and didn't carry everyone along. Surrounded by men, it wasn't easy at all, governing the large, diverse, often riotous nation.

There was trouble from the moment she became the Prime Minister in 1966, to her last days in 1984. Even though the opposition parties in those days weren't so strong, many of her decisions were opposed. With the result, she had to adopt strong and often unpopular measures to push her decisions through. She often seemed to exude the oxymoronic image of a "benevolent dictator".

I liked the book for its every interesting narrative style and loads of information. Definitely worth reading, at least to know a person, a woman fighting all odds, who strode over India's political, economic, social and cultural landscape with a telling impact.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

The book tells you a lot about Big Data, the ubiquitous term nowadays.

There is so much of data being generated in the form of text, photos, and videos. Add to that the tons of personal data relating to whenever we do on our phone, like our location, what and how we are reading, listening, surfing the net, using different apps, etc.

Every minute detail of the way we use different apps are relayed back to the developers to get an understanding of the efficiency of the product. Everyone, not just Google, Amazon and the government are gathering data and analysing them, but everyone, including Goodreads.

Big Data is replacing the old cause-and-effect theory of 'if something is done in a particular way, it will have a particular effect", with correlation theory of "if most people are doing a particular thing in a particular way, then most others, if not everyone, are also likely to do that in the same way."

In the earlier era of small data, there was lot of importance to accuracy, but today, in the era of big data, there are more chances of inaccuracies, but that is compensated or nullified by the huge wealth of information that Big Data analyses provide.

The authors also rightly talk about the tyranny of data. Everything doesn't work according to numbers. There are many non-quantifiable and intangible, qualitative and contextual variables that affect analyses.

A good book, written in an easily understandable manner, especially for anyone who wants to know what Big Data is all about and how it's changing our lives.

On the flip side, the authors, in their attempt to explain different aspects of Big Data, tend to get too repetitive.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - Kashmir: The Unwritten History by Christopher Snedden

I have for long been wanting to read this book, since Kashmir issue has intrigued me.

While many divisive problems around the world have either been resolved or are slowly inching towards a solution, this has defied one. Every time someone makes an attempt, ironically, it only seems to get worse.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is not sure of what the Kashmir problem is all about, especially its genesis.

The author, an Australian politico-socio researcher, provides an alternative history of the region.

For example, what is popularly known in India and Pakistan is that it's the raid of Kashmir by Pashtoon tribesmen from Pakistan, immediately after Independence, that forced the Maharaja to join India. But Snedden, with extensive documentation, says there was already widespread discontent in Poonch and Mirpur against the Maharaja.

He also talks about the communal polarisation in areas like Jammu and Poonch.

Besides the anti-British struggle for India's Independence, there was a parallel anti-Maharaja agitation for Kashmir's independence spurred by the sense of Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri pride).

Add to these, the creation of Azad Kashmir.

Given these and many other complex ground realities across the province (a lot of them, not widely known, which the author elucidates very clearly and elaborately), the decision for the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority province (to join India or Pakistan) wasn't an easy one. He dithered and dithered; until he had to take a decision, to join India, in October 1947.

This book probably has the most number of appendixes: the entire second half of the book.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

An afternoon of food, books and friends

I am part of a Facebook group of bibliophiles. When I saw a post a week ago, about plans for a get together, I had mixed thoughts running through my mind.

Images of striking up conversations with, and getting to know people with whom I had interacted only online, began flashing. That's exciting for me. Moreover, I have always felt that bonding with people having common interests is easier, than randomly saying Hi to a stranger and striking up a conversation.

But another thought seemed to be weighing me down. After all, they are strangers. Nowhere it's said bibliophiles are also the most affable human beings on earth. (In fact, I know some with airs of huge diameter around them, and attitudes that poke you everywhere.)

Fighting off skepticism, and with fingers crossed, I replied to the post, telling the organizer to count me in.

On the appointed day, yesterday; a few minutes after the appointed hour of 12.30 pm, I landed up at Toit, a popular joint on 100 ft Road in Indiranagar. As I reached the 2nd floor, I was guided to the far corner, where tables had been booked.

I was neither the first to arrive nor the last. But the body language of the few who were already seated seemed to convey the impression that they knew me or recognized me (obviously via the FB profile photo.) Broad smiles, shake of hands, and self-introductions. As everyone else trouped in, the protocol carried on for a few more minutes.

We took out the books we had brought for either exchange or giveaway, and spread them on the table. The focus quickly shifted to that as each one of us lounged forward to pick them up, flipped pages and exchanged notes. Ice had broken even before we realised. Comments about how possessive we are about our books ... jokes and banter ...

Before landing up there, I had thought no one would find me interesting to talk to, and I would myself be struggling to make conversations with strangers. (My social skills are pretty bad.) I was completely wrong. We found many topics (besides books) to talk about. In fact, I was talking so much, I wasn't eating; so had to shut up and focus on food.

The best part, some of them were friends of my friends -- two of them are good friends of my ex-colleague; and the cousin of another is married to my schoolmate and family friend. What a pleasant surprise!

As the drinks arrived - from water to cocktails to beer - the conversation centred around how Indian and western cultures look at drinks... And, when the food - broccoli, pasta, pizza, burger etc - started landing up, the focus shifted to vegetarian vs non-vegetarian. How beef is Kerala's "favorite food", and what would happen if it were banned in Kerala.

Meanwhile, I realised quite late that it had been raining cats and dogs. A gentle reminder was the few drops, which found the gaps in the ceiling, falling on me. O, by the way, toit in French is roof.

At the end of it all, around 4 pm, the most remarkable takeaway was the bonhomie: I didn't feel anyone was a stranger. The only flipside, if there was one, was that the seating arrangement at the corner didn't make it quite comfortable for all of us to move around and mingle with one another as much as we would have wanted to. But we all had resolved to catch up, and keep in touch.

As the evening gave way to night, my Facebook notification pings wouldn't stop buzzing, with friend requests, posts and comments in the group.

So long. ... The buzz now is that the next meet-up will be a potluck party.

Book Review - How Google Works by Eric Schmidt

Just in case you think this book is all about geeky software jargon on how Google works, it's not.

The book by Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman, and Jonathan Rosenberg, the adviser to CEO Larry Page, is a gripping, well-structured, description of the core principles that underline the work ethics of the company. The authors were CEO and senior vice president during Google's formative years.

Don't expect an objective assessment of Google as a company, because the authors are still employees!

The book is about the legendary transformation of a startup to a mega multinational. After reading it, I am not surprised that Google is what it is: one of the most successful and employee-friendly IT companies.

The book talks about what type of workers the company employs, how some of the most acclaimed products were born, how major crises were resolved, etc.

Google must be one of the unique places to work in: where almost everything is done differently -- order and perfection are looked at with worry and disappointment, chaos is welcomed, failure is not frowned upon, the dress code is: 'wear something', employees can work on bizarre ideas that they come up with during their off-duty hours, they can continue to pursue a project even if the bosses have rubbished it, the usefulness of a new product to the customer takes precedence over any discussion about the money it will bring to the company, etc.

It's a book worth reading, at least to know that there are ways of working, different from the ones practised by most firms, and such unconventional methods can also be successful.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - Saville - The Beast: The Inside Story of the Greatest Scandal in TV History by John McShane

I grew up listening to the BBC. I still do. Don't exactly remember Jimmy Saville's shows, though I have heard recordings later. But I do remember those of Dave Lee Travis. I was a regular listener of his A Jolly Good Show.

Jimmy Savile was a famous radio host, largehearted philanthropist, and well connected to big names. But the seedy side of his personality, remained hidden all through his life. Only after his death hundreds of women, now in 50s and 60s have come out in the open recalling how Uncle Jimmy molested or actually sexually assaulted them.

One aspect is the horrendous crime. But the intriguing aspect is, how Savile and many others got away with it for so many years. In fact, it looks like he had to die for his victims to even make anonymous claims. And all that took place on the most revered BBC premises.

The book would have made better reading if the accounts of victims were interspersed with better insights into the social mores prevailing in those days, and what held back so many hundreds of victims from speaking out. Also, some more details on BBC of those days, which didn't do anything, though many people there knew about it.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - 2014: The Election That Changed India by Rajdeep Sardesai

If you need an introduction to the recent political history of India, then read this book. Good reportage by Rajdeep. Easy read. No heavy political analyses.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review - Steve Jobs: an Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs: an Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson is a well-researched life history of a rare icon of the software industry. The author has interviewed hundreds of people -- ranging from Jobs' relatives and friends, to colleagues and competitors -- for this book, and not surprisingly the book has lots of details about Jobs: the person and entrepreneur.

My knowledge of Jobs was all picked up at random from articles on him, especially a surfeit of them that appeared when he passed away four years ago. But nothing to beat this book in terms of the depth of details.

The book is worth reading because of the innumerable anecdotes and quotes that reveal who the real Steve Jobs was.

I found Jobs a paradox. Because, he had traits that were quite conflicting. He had plenty of negative habits in his personality, that we all associate with sure disaster. But probably because of the strength of his positives, Jobs was able to not only get away with all that, but even reach commanding levels of success.

In many ways, Jobs isn't the typical role model. Rarely showered, and had a strange belief that if you are a vegetarian the body kept itself clean. He had erratic food habits -- sometimes he starved himself, sometimes he indulged in a few chosen food which he abandoned altogether later.

He had a fiery and unpredictable temper; and was very bad at managing people. Very often he was curt and rude. He could easily make people dislike him rather than like him. He curtly rejected new ideas for no rhyme or reason, but accepted them later when it came from someone else. Worse, he sometimes appropriated as his own, some ideas of others.

What made him successful in spite of all these, was his sharp focus and determination to achieve his goals. He wanted his creations to be different, and he was obsessed with details, with a sharp eye for design.

He was a shrewd businessman, and knew which side of the bread was buttered. He was fiercely protective of his products which he wanted to look good as much as efficient. He had near contempt for anything other than Apple. He wanted the users of his products to get everything from the Apple ecosystem. He hated to let anyone else in to the Apple Store.

Jobs differed with Microsoft's route of licensing Windows. He also had contempt and strong hatred for Google's philosophy of open source. That in fact laid the groundwork for one of the most intensely fought software battles. The world is divided on those lines: to be open and accessible to everyone, or be protective, exclusive and privileged.

The book also deals at length with Jobs's struggle with cancer. Even while he was losing the battle there was only one thing that brought a sparkle in his eyes: Apple.

Jobs was a completely complex personality. Definitely one of a kind. He knew often he wasn't being fair in the way he was dealing with people but he didn't know any other way to deal with people.

But at the end of it all, he created products that achieved cult status, products that dramatically changed the way people read books, listened to music, communicated with each other.

Isn't that a great legacy?

Book Review - Adultery by Paulo Coelho

The book is about Linda, a 20-something journalist, who is extremely successful in her career. She has a loving and caring husband and two children. But deep within her, she has a very unsettling void. The fissure is filled by images of a steamy relationship in college days. She goes chasing those images, which only drives her crazy, forces her to do weird, immoral and at times illegal things.

The theme is indeed adultery, and the narrative has a few graphic descriptions of sexual encounters. But it's not just about that. It's also about peace, love, happiness and contentment. Or, rather the lack of them. She is on a journey trying to find out why she is feeling let down by herself.

This is the second book of Coelho I am reading. The first one being the much-acclaimed Alchemist. This doesn't fall in that league at all. This easy-read book is not a classic either. It's all about Linda's introspective conversations, and her interactions with friend and her husband. The book captures a widespread reality. But only Linda's emotions are described in great detail. So you get a feeling that it's all from her perspective. I felt that the book fell just short of making an emotional impact.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Fun book order!

Good Afternoon!
When I had a beta reader go through Project US she suggested 'Eats, shoots & Leaves' by Lynne Truss to help me with punctuation. I went on Amazon and picked up a couple of other books while I was at it. If I want to keep writing, learning new skills is a smart idea. I want to get better with grammar, and you can never stop learning more in life. I want to pick up new skills. Editors are great, but I also want to be able to catch more mistakes myself. Plus it is pretty ignorant of a writer to just say that's the editor's job. No, they are to help polish your book, but they shouldn't be there to need a blow torch to find the work. One of my editors likes Grammar Girl, and it was on sale so I figured why not. Plus with some of the grammar books, I can bring into my classroom whenever I get one as well. Yes, I will be that social studies teacher that makes the students write. As I go through them I'll share my opinion on them.

Now, you might be reading this and be like, "Those are cookies on that one cover, you're not fooling anyone that, that is a grammar book". I know it is a cookbook. I'm excited! My goal is to eventually move out into my own place, so I'm slowly going to start collecting cookbooks before hand. This one is called "Sally's Baking Addiction". It is from the mind of Sally McKenney, a blogger who I found a couple of years ago and is currently most of the cooking tabs saved in my folder on my computer. You should check out her block here, I'm hoping to try a few recipes out over the summer. She has a several sections in the book which include breads & muffins, breakfast, brownies & bars, cakes, pies, & crisps, candy & sweet snacks, cookies, cupcakes, and healthier choices. I'm sure my parents are not going to be so happy with all the sugar since someone is always on some form of a diet. That and she has easy step by step directions and tips which someone like me appreciates! If I cook any I'll be sure to share how it goes. Heads up, when I cook things don't always look like the pictures.