Twenty-ninth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Read as an accompaniment to Beyond the last blue mountain by R.M. Lala. The family history of the Tatas has been deeply entwined with the history of an industrial India ever since Jamsetji Tata started out as an entrepreneur. That means the history is of almost 130 years! It’s obviously quite difficult to cover almost 130 years of Industrial presence in just about as many pages. So, this isn’t a book that covers the history in great […]
Sappy pulp fiction
Twenty-seventh book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. A one line review for this book would be – He could have done so much better! Shashi Tharoor is a seasoned diplomat and is very well-known for his astute observations about India. Especially his for his deep insight into the politics of religion in India and the complex web of cultures, mythology and traditions that make India. So, it is natural to assume that when someone like him, who doesn’t hold back while talking about something, […]
This Author’s Note is the Twistiest of Twist Endings, Mind Blown
I finished this book this morning, got to the end and thought, sure, I’ll read the author’s note, and therein I found out that this story–about life and death and poverty and corruption and justice and injustice and good luck and bad luck in a Mumbai slum–is totally, COMPLETELY TRUE. It blew my mind, you guys, because it reads like fiction: the characters are so well-documented in their thoughts and dreams (and sometimes even in the listed cause of death in official records and police […]
Trigger Warning: Life can be tragic
Last month, the New York Times, and subsequently other major news outlets, covered the controversy over trigger warnings in academia, i.e., a growing movement on US college campuses to have professors provide warnings in advance of potentially disturbing topics covered in their syllabi (rape, racism, suicide, etc.). When I saw some of the books listed as requiring trigger warnings (Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, Things Fall Apart), I was deeply disturbed and I generally agree with those who have spoken out against warnings. And does […]
Manmohan Singh: The man who rode the tiger
Twenty-fourth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. I loved this book! Of course, a lot of people might want to disagree; calling this book biased, controversial, flagrant, irrelevant, pompous, simplistic or even plain stupid. Yet, they will have to agree that this is a charming tale about a reticent man. A man who accidentally became the leader of the world’s largest democracy and somehow proved himself worthy of that accident. And we would never be able to know about his secret life within […]
An evocative road-trip through 1800’s India.
The Strangler Vine is an interesting novel – part road-trip, part examination of British-Indian relations in the 1800’s and part detective story starring an opium addicted poet, a by-the-book soldier, a shady mercenary and a bloodthirsty cult. If all that sounds like a bit much to take in, it’s not as Tarantino as described! It’s a carefully plotted novel, slowly dropping plot-points like breadcrumbs along the road at regular intervals. The story follows the mismatched duo of William Avery, a self-important junior officer in the East […]
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