Another Man's Wife - Manjulal Bajaj

Another Man's Wife
ISBN: 9789350094921 
First Published: 2012

Synopsis:
A collection of nine stories based mainly around rural India, with women as central characters

Genre:
Fiction, Drama

Language:
No profanity.

Favorite Quote:

When you are in the presence of a good story, it is the only possible story - no other stories exist in that moment. ("Marrying Nusrat")

Review:

In 2012, I had reviewed A Calendar Too Crowded, and I was so disappointed by the depiction of women as either defensive or sorry figures. It was, therefore, with mixed feelings, that I took up Another Man's Wife.

Bajaj's women are not defensive. They are defiant and strong, with shades of grey. They aren't always right or moral, and that's perfectly alright. I loved every minute and every story of it. The simplicity of the stories, set amongst the most varied of backgrounds and Indian history, made for a riveting read.

Take for example, the first story, "Ripe Mangoes", where the protaganist is sleeping with her daughter's tuition teacher. As the story progresses, we end up loving her, EVEN when she slaps her daughter and says "Stop Snivelling, you little bitch."

Or the story of Ulsha Minj in "the Birthmark", a slave turned wife, who decided not to abort her girl child. Tackling one of the biggest problems for Indian women, this story could have easily been preachy or condemning. It was neither, and much more importantly, the ending was quite unexpected.

Or the story of "Me and Sammy Fernandez", a story of a husband-murderer set amidst a beautiful jazz background in Goa. Again, it's not the story itself that is riveting. It is the way each element is played out - the father who opposes the love marriage initially and becomes the crusader of rights for inter-caste marriages; the man who changes after marriage, and the woman who keep giving herself excuses to stay in it. 

Or the story of "Marrying Nusrat" with it's thoughtful little touchers - be it a teenager getting a nickname when he mishears "PRA" as "Pyaare", the struggle of the shift from a village to a city ("To be a poor man in a big city is a terrible thing - the only bodily fluid you can discharge with dignity is sweat") or the background of old hindi songs playing on a transistor in a tea stall.

Or the story of "Under a moonlit sky", which shows the plight of houseboat owners in Srinagar during the terror attacks, something I have frankly not given much thought to (and if I had read this first, I would have been more generous with the "Shikara" owner in Dal lake). While the houseboats resort to desperate means to survive, the once honeymooners of the houseboat are desperate for completely different reasons.  

Verdict:

This book is not a sob story. It's the story of women who are fighters, women who have not given up, and are happy with taking their destiny in their own hands. This book is not just about strong women. It's the story of middle class and rural India, who have their own battles to fight. 
Its fairly obvious by now, that the book is strongly recommended for a read. At least one of the nine stories is going to resonate with you. 

Blogathon Post 11: The Dream Book Shelf

Most of us have a dream home - I have a dream book shelf. The shelf would be of rich solid dark wood,which would cover one side of the wall of the study room. There would be enough room for each book and each section to standout and to breathe. Needless to say, apart from the books and probably a chair or two to sit in and read, the room wouldn't have anything else. Something like this:

Obviously, the books will be categorized and organized into the following:

Romance:
Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind
Nora Roberts: All of hers

Thrillers-Nail Biting:
Sidney Sheldon: Tell Me your Dreams, If Tomorrow Comes, The Stars Shine Down
Michael Crichton: The Lost World
Stieg Larsson: Millenium Series
Arthur Hailey: Detective, Runway zero-eight

Thrillers - Languine and Intelligent:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes 
Edgar Allan Poe: Any of his
Agatha Christie: Hercule poirot series
Oscar Wilde: THe Picture of Dorian Gray

Fantasy Fiction:
Tolkien: LOTR Series
R.R.Martin: Game of Throne Series
J.K.Rowling: Harry Potter Series

Mythology/Historical Fiction:
Chitra Bannerjee Devakaruni: A Palace of Illusions
Amish Tripathi: Shiva Trilogy
Devdutt Patnaik: Sita
Christian Jacq: The TutanKhamun Affair
Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace

Beauty of written word:
Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas

Love for details:
Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace
Arthur Hailey: Hotel, Airport,  MoneyChangers, Wheels
Robin Cook: Any of his, especially Brain

Re-living childhood:
Enid Blyton: Famous Five Series
Enid Blyton: The Six Cousins

Shed a Tear or Two:
Daphne De Maurier: Rebecca and The Hungry Hill
Rohinton Mistry: A Fine Balance
Khaled Hosseini: The Thousand Splendid Suns, And the Mountains Echoed

Witty reads:
John Irving: The World According to Garp
Ken Kesey: One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Nora Roberts: Any of hers would do.
Santosh Desai: Mother Pious Lady
Steve Toltz: Fraction of the Whole
Bill Watterson: Calvin & Hobbes

I have read all of the above books more than once, and still can't get enough of them. 

Blogathon Post 8: And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini

I haven't written a book review in a year, and ever since I read this book, I knew I wanted to re-start writing with this.

I wrote multiple versions of the review, and deleting all of them, since

• Hosseini is my favorite author.
• No words can do justice to his writing.

Here is my attempt to at least chronicle the experience of reading one of his works.

 

And the Mountains Echoed
ISBN: 9382951008
First Published in: 2013

Synopsis:

The third book by Khaled Hosseini is set in Afganistan, and revolves around the story of a brother-sister duo, which later branches out to introduce multiple characters of the plot.

Category:
Simple-Wordy, Serious

Genre:

Fiction, Drama

Language:
No Profanity at all.

Favorite Quote:

Kabul is a thousand tragedies per square mile.

Review:

The book starts with a father telling their children a fairy tale. While one would expect a "and they lived happily ever after' at the end of it, being Hosseini's work, this tale moved me to tears, and set the mood for the rest of the book..

The essential core of the story is the relationship between Abdullah and Pari, where the latter is sold off to a rich and childless couple Mr.Wahdati and Nila, through the siblings’ uncle, Nabi. The parting of the siblings, while not described in detail, is explained by their step-mother, Parwana, in just a few words:

“It had to be her. I am sorry, Abdullah. She had to be the one.” The finger cut, to save the hand.

Worse yet is how the story pans out. While Abdullah, the doting brother, does not have it in his capacity to forget her, Pari, quickly moves on owing to her age and a new exciting life. For her, Abdullah is a dim memory, which would strike her again in full force in her old age.

Hosseini takes periodic diversions to include the fringe characters (which don't seem like fringe once you are done with the chapter, at least until one starts reading the next one). Thus, we get to know about their mother Parwana, and her insecurities with her sister Masooma; the insecurity with started during birth:

(Masooma) was merrily passed around, from cousin to aunt to uncle. Bounced on this lap, balanced on that knee. Many hands tickled her soft belly. Many noses rubbed against hers. They rocked with laughter when she playfully grabbed Mullah Shekib’s beard. They marveled at her easy, sociable demeanor. They lifted her up and admired the pink flush of her cheeks, her sapphire blue eyes, the graceful curve of her brow, harbingers of the startling beauty that would mark her in a few years’ time. As Masooma performed, Parwana watched quietly as though slightly bewildered, the one member of an otherwise adoring audience who didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Every now and then, her mother looked down at her, and reached to squeeze her tiny foot softly, almost apologetically.

The insecurity, in time, had ghastly consequences – the events penned down in such a way that you end up feeling sorry for both of them, and their loss of innocence.

We are mystified over Mr.Wahdati's marriage with Nila (Pari's adoptive parents), until we understand the meaning of Nila’s mysterious statement: "It was always you Nabi".

We find out about Mr.Wahdati's neighbours Idris and TImur and their visit to Afganistan where they meet Roshi, a victim of a bad accident. While we believe one to be worse over the other for his show of exhibitionism, we are made to realise that it is this poorly judged character that actually ends up doing a good deed. The concerned one, who starts making excuses for his lack of inaction justifies it such: 

Roshi has become something abstract to him, like a character in a play. Their connection has frayed. The unexpected intimacy he had stumbled upon in that hospital, so urgent and acute, has eroded into something dull. The experience has lost its power. He recognizes the fierce determination that had seized him for what it really was, an illusion, a mirage. He had fallen under the influence of something like a drug. The distance between him and the girl feels vast now. It feels infinite, insurmountable, and his promise to her misguided, a reckless mistake, a terrible misreading of the measures of his own powers and will and character. Something best forgotten. He isn’t capable of it. It is that simple. 

Not to be left behind, we are given a glimpse of life in the siblings' village, through the eyes of the Adel, son of a wealthy landlord who attains the lands through unethical means, and how Adel ends up adjusting to the truth.

The part of him that over time would gradually, almost imperceptibly, accept this new identity that at present prickled like a wet wool sweater. Adel saw that, in the end, he would probably accept things as his mother had. Adel had been angry with her at first; he was more forgiving now. Perhaps she had accepted out of fear of her husband. Or as a bargain for the life of luxury she led. Mostly, Adel suspected, she had accepted for the same reason he would: because she had to. What choice was there?

Hosseini has used different forms of narratives in this book. There is first and third person narrative, letter-writing and interviews to bring the pieces of the puzzle together. The novel is completely different from his previous two due to the broader focus. While The Kite Runner was essentially about children and The Thousand Splendid Suns, about Women in Afganistan, And The Mountains Echoed lacks a central character theme. It could have been set up in any country in any part of the world. There are stories of every character, which, though tied together by some common threads, could make for an independent reading as well.

None of this dilutes the fact that it is impossible to read the book without getting emotional, at one story or another. And that like his previous books, you can never get your mind off it, even months after reading it.

Verdict:

It would be a cardinal sin for anyone to not read it.

Blogathon Post 6: Top 15 Book-ish Moments

The simplest of  books can pack a very impactful moment or two. While the book as a whole may have been forgotten (or moth eaten), a single line, para or scene remains etched in our memories forever. 

My personal top 15 such scenes include:
1. Gone with the wind: 
Scarlett O'Hara tearing the curtain to make her dress.
In the very first scene, Scarlett sitting with the twins in the sunlight.

2. Rebecca:
Maxim patting his wife's head absent-mindedly (like one would pat a puppy).

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns: 
The ceasarean birth of the protaganist's son without an Anaesthetic

4. Kite Runner:
The protaganist finally finding the boy in ghonngroo n dancing.

5. And The Mountains echoed: 
The separation of the brother and the sister.
The final scene - Alzheimer's is my worst fear, second only to paralysis.

6. The Lord Of The Rings: 
Legolas seeing the Balrog for the first time ("Ui! Ui! A Balrog!").
The Ent's song.

7. Game of Thrones:
Jaime's multiple utterances of "Things I do for love", each having a different context and meaning.
The death of Tywin Lannister.
Cersei's walk of shame, and the final scene between Petyr, Sansa and Lysa in Ice & Fire

8. Tell me your dreams:
The realisation by the investigators that that all the three are actually... the same. 

9. The Satanic verses:
Eating the fish - bones and all.
The "Taka Tun Taka Tun" Song by Gabriel as he falls.

10.A Fine Balance:
The worm in the stomach, it's extradition and the final weight gain. (For a long time, I believed I had the same issue)

11. The Picture of Dorian Grey:
The disposal of the body so that no trace of it remained - I thought it was a creative leap by the author, until "Breaking Bad" happened.

12. Twilight:
The first time Bella saw Edward - Nowhere close to my love story, but in a parallel world, I can imagine being that smitten by Ashwin since he is like the epitome of my dream man.

13. One hundred years of solitude:
The trail of blood - Such a fantastical (and creepy) notion.

14. The Six Cousins:
Rodderick's shoe cleaning obsession - I have a similar obsession, so can imagine why Roddy enjoyed it so much!

15. The world according to Garp:
The car accident - I just couldn't get over it, close second to the Thousand Splendid Suns scene which gave me a lot of sleepless nights.

Are there any that stand out in your memory?

Blogathon Post 3: The New Resolution

Every year, I make the same resolutions that I had made the year before, and diligently break them in the first few days. This year I decided to do something different, and make do-able resolutions which does not require a complete 180.

So my 2014 resolution is (Much fanfare)

Stop multi-tasking.

Yes, no typo there. I end up wanting to do so many things at the same time, that I get tired and do nothing at all. 


So, this year, I am going to focus on one thing at a time. It started with the new year's eve, and then, followed up with not even researching on all the courses that I want to do and the treks that I want to go to. There are a couple of big things happening this month, and they will be having all my attention~ (What! I couldn't bring that number down to one - then I would go crazy!).

More significantly, I have finally merged all my blogs into one. I am so proud of my book reviews (like insanely obsessively proud, even if no one reads them!), and happy with the documentation of the cooking, but don't see the need to have different space and different time allocations for the same. So, all the posts have been merged into this blog, and you can check them out individually on the top tab of this blog's home page!

I feel clear-headed already!

A Cupboard full of coats - Yvette Edwards

A Cupboard full of coats
ISBN:1851687971
First Published in: 2011
 

Synopsis:
A first-person narrative of a 30-year old woman who revisits her mother’s murder fourteen years ago through flashbacks and confessions.

Category:
Simple-Wordy,Serious

Genre:

Fiction

Language:
Not exactly profane, but does involve some graphic descriptions.

Favorite Quote:
None.

Review:
Before delving into the review, I have to admit I was very taken with the title of the book, and more importantly, the relevance of it with the plot. Seldom does one see an appropriately named book. (One flew over the cuckoo’s nest is the other one that immediately comes to mind).

This book tells the story of the murder of a woman about fourteen years back. It is seen through the eyes of her daughter, Jinx, in a series of flashbacks evoked through her conversations with Lemon, one of the three involved in the murder. Living alone, hardened and bitter, these conversations between her and Lemon help bring perspective and eventually a closure to her traumatised past.

First and foremost, this book can make you hungry. Lemon, part-lover and part-father figure, in an effort to unwind Jinx, ends up in the kitchen creating one amazing dish after another. I could taste the pumpkin soup, the millet, the sorrel and the Guinness punch. I could feel myself loosening, and could only nod my head as Jinx articulated what I was thinking:

For a moment, my longing for the breakfast Lemon was cooking so intense, I actually felt afraid.

This book can make you angry - at Jinx for her attitude towards her son; at Lemon for the part he played in the murder; at Barris, the jealous lover of her mother, for his violence and disregard for everyone else; and most of all, at Jinx’s mother, for being so gullible and blind to her daughter’s feelings.

However, the ruling emotion for me after reading this book was an overwhelming sadness. In what I am sure was just meant to be a passing narrative, I found the interaction between Jinx and her son, Ben as the most arresting. It may have something to do with my being a (relatively) new mother; I could strangely empathise with Jinx. But that did not prevent me from getting teary-eyed imagining what Ben must have been going through. All through the narration, I struggled to keep the rejected boy out of my mind.

I am sure that this book will evoke different emotions in different readers. A mother with a healthy relationship with her son will be shocked at Jinx for her damaging attitude towards her son. A daughter who loves her mother could only nod her way through Jinx’s confessions about feeling left out and being angry at the latter’s apparent callousness. But I am sure that everyone would, at least once while reading, want to stop-midway, go to the kitchen and make something delicious.

If the book falls short (and it does, though slightly), it is because of its writing style. I think the author wanted to strike a balance between a simple narration and some dramatic revelations. Yvette Edwards is brilliant as a simple narrator. However, the dramatic revelations, like the names of the protagonist and her mother (which is revealed only in the last chapter and there wasn’t enough punch to warrant that) seemed a tad unnecessary to me.  Then there is the description of emotions, which followed a standard template almost throughout (and sometimes, annoyingly, multiple times in a page):

Cause: Description of the event in one paragraph.

Effect: Description of the resulting emotion in one line.

For instance:

It had been the first time since he’d moved in that she’d spent any time with me on my own, two or three hours on one occasion in nearly two months, that’s all.
 And he was jealous.

Somehow, these one-apparently-loaded line-endings to a paragraph seemed forced, and broke the simple, almost clinical narrative of the book.

Verdict:

The only drawback of the book is so minor that I feel guilty mentioning it here. Indeed, considering the narrative style, the power-packed plot and the delicious cooking, this flaw seems negligible. Though not exactly a fast read, it is a very engrossing one, and can be finished in a couple of sittings. Very strongly recommended for everyone.

Two Fates - Judy Balan

Synopsis:

Two Fates
ISBN: 9381626006
First Published In: 2011

A parody of “Two States", this book takes us through an unexpected and funny struggle of a couple to get a divorce.

Category:
Words-Wordy, Witty

Genre: 

Fiction

Language:

Profane.

Favorite Quote:
Sometimes we both cared more for the institute of marriage than we did for each other.

Review

The review has a very high potential to be biased since I am a diligent follower of the author, Judy Balan’s blog. In fact, I came to know about the book through one of her posts; which is as well, for the cover of the book is nothing to write home about. Though I like minimalism/caricatures/ cartoons, this was borderline immature, and not in a good way. The designer seems to have lost interest midway through the rope-loop drawings. The fact that the book is still doing well “despite” a bad cover is a testimonial in itself.

I was however, surprised to find that most reviewers have mis-read(!) the book so thoroughly. Looks like Balan was too, as her post suggests. 

To summarise: The book is about an IIM-couple Deepika, a Tamilian and Rishabh, a Punjabi. Their families seem to have overcome their basic differences and are bonding well, much to the chagrin of the couple who want to have a divorce. Through London, Scotland, Chennai and Punjab, this incompatible-yet-wanting to be together couple stumble through relatives and various issues leading to a lot of situational comedies and emotional drama.

The book is primarily a parody of the Chetan Bhagat novel, Two States. I can imagine the author rolling her eyes at its corniness, and deciding to write Two Fates just to bring it out in sharp relief. Hence, as a parody, it is bang on. There are a lot of tongue-in-cheek references – to the original book as well to the author. For instance, Balan has coined the term “Gandhi complex” for the male protagonist, defining it as “a delusional condition that the future of the nation rests squarely on his shoulders”. – A not too subtle nod to the lofty ambitions of Bhagat himself.

The coup-de-grace was this exchange between Deepika and Rish:

“Winning is about strategy as much as it is about choice of words”, he gloated. 

“And that’s precisely why I think you’re not meant to be a writer”, I said. He remained silent. 

To me, writing was an art form. It was as much about beauty, form and style as it was about content. But Rish could never get that. For him, the story was everything. 

“If the story is good and the language simple, people will read”, he often said. 

But my point wasn’t about people reading as much as it was creating art. He argued that if I wanted to create art I should paint or write poetry, making me want to shoot him down for landing on my turf and lecturing me on what I was obviously better equipped to do. 

“I am going to make India read” He finally announced getting up from him seat with a dreamy look, as if he were the Mahatma and he had just made up him mind about ahimsa. 

“Drama King”, I said, “You’d do so much better in Bollywood”. 

“Yes maybe, I should make a movie about the fateful day I married you” he said, taking his seat again. 

“You could call it Two Idiots”, I grinned.

Interestingly, though Balan has also done the North-South stereotyping, she has fared much better. While Bhagat could barely conceal his annoyance and bias, Balan worked at creating stereotypes only to contradict them later – be it in repeatedly showing how “simple” South Indians are, only to be followed by the groom’s (south-Indian) mother happily accepting a Honda City, or to Rish and Deepika’s argument on who was more obnoxious - The balance seems equal, and hence, funny.

However, as a standalone book, it did have its drawbacks. The flow was unsure and shaky initially, which progressively improved with the story. The initial attempts at funny one-liners and interesting comebacks seemed a tad disjoint and broke the narration. Admittedly, no fault can be found with the language, which was witty, intelligent and slightly wordy with sporadic doses of swear words.  There were poetic lines like these:

Conning the audience was the aim and the client was the unsuspecting fat cow about to be milked like nobody’s business. So, come hell, high waters, weekends or lunch time – ours was not to reason why; ours was but to write clever headlines and lie.

Or funny ones like these:

Sure, we can’t give our lives for the country, perform open-heart surgery or help prevent global warming. But we know how to make people buy things they don’t want to buy. And that makes us way cooler than everyone else.

There are ample doses of dry humor in these pages, which are guaranteed to bring out a chuckle or two from the reader. Though it shows a lot of promise, for a non-TwoStates reader, I don’t think it is enough to hold fort.

Verdict:

The book is strongly recommended for those who have already read “Two States”. As a parody, it is remarkably funny. As a standalone book though, it fell a bit short. 

Two States, The story of my marriage - Chetan Bhagat

Book Title Two States
ISBN: 8129115301
First Published: 2009

Synopsis:
The story of a North Indian boy falling for a South Indian girl and his struggles in convincing both sides of the family into accepting this relationship.

Category:
Simple, Funny

Genre:
Romance, Drama

Language:

The couples live-in together and have sex before marriage. The language, however, is not very profane.

Favorite Quote:

Forgiving doesn’t make the person who hurt you feel better, it makes you feel better.

Review:

Two States is the story of a Punjabi boy and a Tamilian girl falling in love, and instead of taking the usual route of eloping to get married, believe in convincing their parents for their union. The book is funny in a simple sort of a way and packs some lessons too – like being Indian instead of being North or South Indian and the importance of forgiving.

The book can be divided into three sections, and these sections evoked different emotions from me: Tolerant, Incredulous and Annoyed.

Tolerant:

The language is juvenile. That in itself is not a reason to dislike a book – I loved the writing style of Twilight, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. I was not expecting a Salman Rushdie from a Chetan Bhagat. However, when a juvenile style of writing is combined with cheesy lines and shallow emotions, more than losing its edge, the book becomes a caricature of bad writing. Consider, for example, the dedications page:

This may be the first time in the history of books, but here goes: 

Dedicated to My In-Laws.* 

*Which does not mean I am henpecked, under her thumb or not man enough.

Ever since the movie Lives of Others, I give a lot of importance to the Dedications page. Considering that this book is inspired from his own marriage, and also that the book makes ample fun of the in-laws (to be), whose positive traits have been conveniently ignored, I found this page to be a very poor joke.

Or maybe not. I am a Tamilian, and as Bhagat mentions in his book:

The Tamil sense of humor, if any, is really an acquired taste.

Incredulous:

The book is full of stereotypes. Punjabi and Tamilian stereotypes to be precise. Of course, Bhagat has added this disclaimer in the beginning:

I would also like to tell all South Indians I love them. My better half will vouch for that. I have taken the liberty to have some fun with you just like I have with Punjabis – only because I see you as my own. You only make digs at people you care for.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the stereotypes now:

Punjabi:

• Primarily concerned about food.
• Usually on the heavy side.
• Overdressed and with a preference for bling and gaudy jewellery.
• Love showing off their wealth.
• Usually outspoken, loud and dramatic.
• Believe South Indians have a complexion complex.
• Love to shop.
• Education is not exactly a priority, especially for a girl.

Tamilians:

• Love the IIT tag and foreign degrees.
• Eat only Idlis.
• Almost all of them are black (not dark), and most of them use generous doses of talcum powder.
• Listen to horrible Carnatic music.
• Docile, repressed and the only sign of rebellion is talking in Tamil to non-Tamilians.
• Tamilian men usually have thick glasses and oiled hair, and since they cannot get girlfriends themselves, prefer arranged marriages.
• Tamilians don’t like to have fun and like to follow the rules. Fun, for them, is usually associated with guilt.
• They like reading The Hindu, and are comfortable with silences. The dinner is a quiet affair with everyone exchanging dead looks.

To sum it up:

Marble flooring is to a Punjabi what a foreign degree is to a Tamilian. 

When people land at Chennai airport, they exchange smiles and proceed gently to the car park. At Delhi, there is traffic jam of people trying to hug each other to death.

In the beginning of the book, Bhagat through the protagonist Krish, mentions the following reason for wanting to be a writer:

Someone who tells stories that are fun but bring about change too.

Now, what does the author do to serve the bigger cause – vis-à-vis, make inter - state marriages acceptable?

• Does he finally understand the city and its people or his girlfriend (or vice versa)? No.
• Does he show the positives of the stereotyped parents and South-Indian (and North-Indian) bosses? No.
• Does he show some exceptions to the stereotypes – like an educated Punjabi girl, a non-blingy Punjabi parent, a non-gossipy relative, a cool south Indian friend, a drinking and meat-eating Tamilian? No.
• Does he lie his way through to the girl’s parents' hearts? Yes.
• Does he expect the girl to lie to his parents and do the household work to impress his mother? Yes.
• Does he manipulate the brother, the girl’s parents and his mother into accepting for the marriage? Yes.
• Despite the lofty talks of wanting to bring about change, and constantly putting down a multinational bank like Citi, does he, in the end, resort to the traditional method of flattery to get his job done? Yes.

After all, in his own words:

No matter how accomplished people get, they don’t stop fishing for compliments.

Annoyed:

When the parents of the boy and the girl finally meet, the protagonist tells the girl to make her parents buy a lot of gifts for his mother and not let him pay or do any work. He convinces his mother that the girl will be docile and submissive after marriage. The boy’s only defense is that he was lying and trying to get both the sides to like each other. Of course, how a girl's side will like a boy or his mother for forcing them to buy "gifts" is debatable.

Forget the feminist angle, but this looks like a life full of lies and a lot more gifts from the girl’s parents just to let the parents get along. Again, the ever eloquent author, provides this conversation between the boy and a girl as a gist of the issue: 

Girl: “No I want to marry where my parents are treated as equals”
Boy: “You should have been born a boy”.
Girl: “That’s so sexist, I would have hung up if I didn’t care for you”.

To be fair, the girl ought to be smacked too. She assents to marry the guy who didn’t like her wearing shorts, asked her parents to buy gifts and thinks that only a boy can demand equal rights for parents.  

This is not the first book with a manipulative or a non-likeable protagonist. There is Gone with the wind with a raunchy heroine and Fifty Shades of Grey with a sex-starved lead, not to mention all the unreliable narrators. The reason why this was as glaring as it is was because of the promise that the book is about change. If the change in inter-state marriages can be achieved only through lies and manipulations, then the marriage is not worth it.

Verdict:

It is an easy read - the language is simple and easy to follow. Of course, it is light on the pockets. But please read the book with minimal expectations. Bhagat does not disappoint, at least in terms of mediocre writing and shallowness that is expected out of him.

The Fifty Shades Trilogy - E.L.James

Book Title: Fifty Shades Trilogy

ISBN: 0099580578

First Published in: May 2011, September 2011 and 

January 2012 respectively

Synopsis:A fictional insight into a highly successful man’s leanings towards Bondage, Dominance, Sadism and Masochism (BDSM) relationships will all his female counterparts.

Category:
Serious, Witty

Genre:
Romance, Drama

Language:

Very adult language.

Favorite Quote:
Fair Point well Made, Ms.Steele.

(Not one of the best lines, but it was used so many times that I couldn’t get it off my head!)

Review

Fifty Shades of Grey is a three-part book into the enigmatic personality of a business tycoon Christian Grey through the eyes of a college graduate, Anastasia Steele. The initially stifling dominant characteristics of Grey are slowly unravelled to show their more turbulent roots. Steele embarks on an unlikely and unexpected journey to discover, and unintentionally, heal him.

There are many drawbacks in the writing, but one cannot fault the story line – it is dark, disturbing and frankly, unforgettable. Depending on one’s perspectives, there are three way of reviewing this book:

• Twilight fan book
• BDSM
• Language.

The Twilight Fan-Book Perspective

As most of the readers know, the story initially started off as a twilight fan fiction, and later spun off to form a standalone series. For those who didn’t (like me), the connection was not difficult to make. I was incredulous while reading it, and was planning on shouting “plagiarised” before I did a Google.

Take this line from "Fifty Shades of Grey" for example:

“…last to be picked for basketball or volleyball – but I understood that – running and doing something else at the same time like bouncing or throwing a ball is not my thing. I am a serious liability in any sporting field. Romantically, though, I’ve never put myself out there, ever. A lifetime of insecurity – I’m too pale, too skinny, too scruffy, uncoordinated, my long list of faults goes on.”

Compare that with this line from Twilight:

“Instead, I was ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine. I had always been slender, but soft somehow, obviously not an athlete; I didn't have the necessary hand-eye coordination to play sports without humiliating myself — and harming both myself and anyone else who stood too close.”

This is just one example – of one character. To summarise:

Character Comparison - Fifty Shades Trilogy and Twilight Series

Source: ReadingAftermath 

I believe it is a crime to copy “characters” from another book and use similar names (Come on lady, don’t be so lazy!). This is even more disturbing than usual because of the first-person narrative.  

However, by the second and third book, Ana has been given more character. more spunk and definitely, more weaknesses ( She is nagging to the point of being irritating). She is witty, strong-minded, independent and career-focussed, while Bella remained monochromatic – Paranoid and obsessed with Edward.  To put it in perspective, Ana grew while Bella wanted to be “17 forever”.

The BDSM perspective

I didn’t find the book bold, shocking or more erotic than a normal Sidney Sheldon novel. It may have to do with the fact that I skipped a few of the descriptions –when 70% of the first book is on sex, it gets boring – be it for pleasure, for punishment or for teaching.

The book is borderline clinical in the descriptions and James took an interesting approach to introduce the concept novel to most of us – through a detailed agreement document.  Though I couldn't garner enough interest to google some of the terminologies, I found the approach different and informative! 

The language Perspective:

If you can get past the twilight-similarity (and that can ONLY happen if you haven’t read Twilight before) and the BDSM over-load, the language could be a potential deal breaker. James literally ran short of phrases and ended up using the same ones again.. and again. The few I found particularly irritating have been listed below, with the frequency of their usage in all three books (absolute numbers):

Common phrases Used in Fifty Shades Trilogy              

Source: ReadingAftermath

There were many more, but these were all that I could remember of the top of my head.

The language did have a redeeming quality: an almost effortless flow. Though it is no way on par with the breezy style of twilight and Percy Jackson series (I refer only to the style of writing), and though I wish Ana Steele’s vocabulary was not so limited, the punch lines and dialogue deliveries were smooth.

Verdict:

Little credit has been given to the story which packs a solid punch. That is the only way that a novel with so many sex scenes, plagiarised characters and an average style of writing could have such a deep impact. For every reader who is either OK with BDSM or is willing to skip a few pages, this book is strongly recommended.

Playboy's College Fiction - Edited by Alice .K.Turner

Synopsis:

A collection of 21 years of Playboy’s College Fiction writers, these short stories span from 1986 to 2006.

Category:
Simple, Serious

Genre:
Fiction

Language:

It Is a Playboy Contest – what do you expect?

Favorite Quote:

None

Review:

Every one of us has a short-story writer inside us. It is, after all, an easy task – we have one episode, few characters and good language to make it work. There are numerous personal blogs dedicated to such stories. Despite the overload , very few stay in mind. Off the top of my head, I can think of the classics like The Lady or the Tiger, The gift of Magi and The Most Dangerous Game, and  the recent ones like Creative Writing published in New Yorker. The line demarcating a standard short story from an unforgettable one is a right mix of innovation and intrigue.

I was not aware that the Playboy Magazine published clean and critically acclaimed fictional stories. I was even more surprised to know that writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Woody Allen have been featured in the magazine at least once. So, when I chanced upon a collection of College fiction Collection, I was very excited and couldn't wait to start. 

The forward of the book reads thus:

Writing a great short story is like telling a good joke at a bar. You have to get in and get out with perfect timing. The least hesitation or nuance in the tone of voice can make the whole thing fall flat, especially if the joke sucks in the first place. There is little room for languorous description in a short story. There is no time for lengthy exposition, no place for detailed background information and digression. The characters may be compelling enough to carry a novel, but in the rigors of the story form the protagonist must be involved in only one perfect, complete episode.

I cannot agree more with that, but I t hink the author missed one word here – One perfect, complete and interesting episode. You can find no fault in the language, sentence formations or even the style of writing – in fact, it is impeccable. One can see that this book houses a set of innovative writers – however, story tellers, they are not.

I could not help but wonder why I could not like the stories, which were, after all, Contest Winners – selected out of 1000 entries. I came up with some theories on that.

• There were four stories (out of the published twenty-one) which were marginally interesting (“Que Linda Takes the Rite Aid”, “1%”, “Fishboy” and “Gerald’s Monkey”) and all of them are post-1990 entries. It made me wonder if there was a disconnect because the rest were before my time. If that is indeed the case, I will go out on a limb to say that if a story is going to affect only the current generation, then it is not much of a story at all. I am sure that Kalki and Edgar Allan Poe will be read (and re-read) by generations after ours.
• Being published by Playboy, it may have catered to the guy’s mentality more. Again, I can only scoff at the idea, for though all the stories were filled with testosterone (guns and girls and general stupidity), they were way too flat (for lack of a better term).
• The final assumption is that considering the contents of the book, the non-exciting and dull narration would have been a welcome change.

The last theory seems plausible, and I can definitely live with that. By all means,  these critically acclaimed stories may make for a good read while leafing through the contents of an adult magazine. As a standalone collection of short stories, however, they are woefully inadequate.

Verdict:

The story lines are innovative and the language is impressive, but the stories themselves are neither interesting nor intriguing.