Category: Uncategorized

The accidental prime minister…. By Sanjaya Baru..
Reading a non fiction takes time and patience…. I have little of both but still I couldn’t let this one down though that’s exactly what he had done according to the author!…..
A biography of sorts by an editor of repute who was the chief media advisor to the PM during the UPA1….. The frank narrative though having Rashomon like weakness…. It’s one point of view, though there are some common understanding.. 

 

-Any success will be credited to the owner while any failure will be given to the Singh…. 

-the Singh may be incorruptible but he will regularly turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the corruption, to the looting and to the injustice happening all around… 

-he will stand up for no one but the lady gaga though she can trample over him without any remorse… 

-he may be the prime man in the country but the decision is taken by the Queen bee of the palace… 

-apparently in a beehive even the workers under a bee king do not report to him but only to the queen!! 

-for all the talk about being a gentleman when it came to giving relief then it’s always politics and nothing else. So an ally bihari gets the aid while the opponent odissi gets the snub….. 

-all the work is done by the secretaries who are the backbone of the office but they are a complicated mixture of ego, attitude, Cadre and rarely talent

-the royal snub given to one of the best pm Rao is more dramatic than Ken Follet’s stories….. Which is quite sad.. 

-the left don’t have anything right and very soon they will be out of sight!!….. 

-anyone who makes big stories about the highly educated highly intelligent singh must read this to see how he can be used as a mattress and the whole exercise was just a seat warming one for the big boy blunder….!!!
All of the above are in codes…. But the intelligent will get it….so before making any politically correct statement it may be wise to consult this dictionary of UPA1….

Dan Brown… Origin……
The wait for a Dan Brown novel is long and it’s Chiefly because of the amount of research Dan does to give us a great amalgamation of fact and fiction. In his previous novels like the da Vinci code and angels and demons it was how he took on the Christian belief. Both were very engaging and a thrill ride. The last one namely inferno was about hell and Dante’s description of hell. When we know that the movie has come out is when we know that the next novel is near!….
In a Ken follet like treatment, Dan mixes facts and true events along with his fictional imaginations to give a gripping tale. Here I have a feeling that the source of inspiration are many. Much of the words of the billionaire nerd scientist are reminiscent of work of Yuval Noah Harari and his two block buster novels (Sapiens and humans duo). In case you have not read them then you are in the safe zone since you will not have any spoilers!….
The greatest problem though is that sick feeling if the secret or the biggest find mentioned in most of Dan’s novel will be mentioned or not!…. It’s agonizing to say the least to read four long chapters to witness the brutal assassination of the central character! Don’t worry this is not a spoiler!…. But who did it is a big big spoiler!….I have always said that people who kill are inhuman (that’s a big clue!!😀😀)….
Keep Google in hand so that real places, real discoveries​ and real descriptions can be researched instantly and you will enjoy the narrative by being more involved!…. Even the description of a famous museum entrance will make you do an image search and appreciate the description more…..
Prof Robert ( mentally I picture only Tom Hanks and no one else!) Returns for his fifth adventure and how….. But take my advice and start writing faster please!….I don’t think both of you have much time!…
So your usual great revelation, a grand murder, some very very interesting discoveries, a great escape, an even greater Chase!, a lady in distress, the person whom you thought was the villain is not (sorry!!) And finally the end where all will be revealed!…
I got the book yesterday and couldn’t stop reading till I got a closure so if you are planning to read make sure you have enough time cause unless you finish a Dan Brown novel then there’s no point starting it!!!!……
Read origin  (of life) while I make some soup (😉) using my microwave oven! (Spoiler spoiler!!)😀😀😀……

Ravi Subramaniam…. In the name of God….
He is known as the John Grisham of banking though at the rate he is writing JG may soon be called the Ravi Sub of lawyers!…. Only Arthur Hailey before this would weave so much inner workings in his novels that you would feel like living that particular profession….. If you want to know about the hotel business then hotel was the novel to read, ditto for pathology and final diagnosis or electrical generation and over load….. His book on banking called the money changers was also such similar venture with so many accuracies on the working of a bank…
Ravi Subramaniam’s books on banking and bitcoins were very similar in premise to Arthur’s….. The last venture was a disappointment though and it’s nice to see him back with a bang (literally!!)…
The fictional connecting of dots is very important in any novel…. A good example was the first Clifton Chronicles by Jeffery Archer where the novel describes the same incident through three different characters. It was a good start but then the rest of the novels were utter chaos!…Who am I to comment on the workings of the Royal prisoner of his Majesty’s prison though!!….
Ravi Subramaniam’s connecting the characters and a great climax has always been very good and here also he doesn’t falter much… Some unanswered questions remain but I guess it’s better to let the sleeping dogs lie!….
Old and famous temple with underground treasures and so many conspiracy theories and I am amazed that the Sri Padmanbha temple has not been utilized by mystery writers much!…. Better late that never though the novel starts with a vivid discription of the temple and at the end of it all departs with more questions probably because the author wouldn’t want to ruffle feathers!!….
If you are eagerly waiting for the episode 3 of season 7 of game of thrones on Monday then this is a good way of passing time till then and a good change of pace from the gore!…..
Everything is anyway in the Name of God…..!!…

This is a sequel to The Kingsbridge series which had started with Tom Builder which was mainly about Gothic and Roman architecture interlaced with ..church and King and monastery and what not!….. It was continued with world without end which I must say was more thrilling to read!… Here also the chief protagonist was a builder (architect or designer to be accurate) and here the story gets mixed with witch craft, nuns, the hundred years war and the great plague!… That was a ride!….
If you haven’t read these two then read them first if you want to go in a chronological order… 
This latest book in the series has no continuity to the other two and no builder though it makes sense to read the earlier two books to get a feel of what’s​ to come…. Anyhow if you have read the world trilogy then you will get the idea…. Only Ken can take random fictional characters and mix them up with true ones to make a great story to remember!……
In this novel he takes on the British and scots and the French in the 15th to 16th century and though the story is mostly fiction, the depiction of true events has the same feel as they happen. Never knew that even amongst Christians there’s a huge difference when it comes to Catholics and Protestants!…. Though I knew that it was a broad division I never realized that it was a literal linear split!….

Only Ken can make the description so vivid that we can imagine how religion can be divine and can divide….. When Catholics are in power how they suppress Protestants and vice versa to a certain extent…..

How politicians and people can decide who will be the king (or queen!)….. The battle of Pope and queen of England and the queen of Scotland and the king of France!!… Religion, politics and greed…. The three never dying aspects of any kingdom or nation….

… And at least now we know what the big deal is all about!!….make some minute changes an it can be 20th century!…. Not much has changed in the world!….
Close to 750 pages of small print may slow down your speed though much as the English Navy slowed down the Scot!…
For people recovering from Jeff Archer’s Clifton Chronicles this is nectar!… Go for it!…..

Can you kill someone who is already dead?…
There’s this old movie called the Kohraa (fog)…..it was of course inspired by an English movie called Rebecca which was based on a novel called Rebecca! (Whew!!)…so the story is of a widower who remarries and gets his new wife to big mansion. There the new wife is often compared to the old perfect wife!!….the twist in the story is when the husband reveals that the first wife was actually adulterous and the whole perfect act was just a facade….. In fact at one point he lost it and killed her in an act of passion!… In the Hindi version though the ending is supposed to be the best!… Spoiler alert!!… In this the maid or governess who had taken care of the wife confesses that she was extremely dissatisfied with her behavior and actually poisoned her!…so the wife who was killed by the husband was already dead!!…no punishment for that then!!

There’s another old movie called Resham ki Dori which is considered an big ode to the brother sister relation!…(most famous though in that context is hare Krishna hare ram! But that discussion is for another day, maybe Raksha bandhan!!..)….. In this movie also Dharmendra is accused of killing a man who apparently was already dead!…. No punishment there too!….
In recent times (2003!! Calling it recent to make myself feel less old!!)….there was a movie called Teen Deewarein…… In that also in one single stroke Jackie was acquitted of his murder charge when Naseer confessed that the wife he killed was already dead!…. This particular scene was lifted from another classic (and my favorite!!) Shawshank redemption!…… Here also the husband kills and believes that he had killed his wife when in fact she was already dead!…..

Coming to the answer of the question….can we really kill someone who is already dead and get away with it??….. apparently you can but make sure that before you kill; he or she is already and finally dead!!

By hook or by cook…. Robin gets another book!!😀….. Charlatan by Robin Cook….
Medical novels are close to me for obvious reasons and only a doctor can ever get this right. Don’t get me wrong since I have thoroughly enjoyed Arthur Hailey’s final diagnosis or even Eric Seagal’s Doctor. Both were very close but still there was something missing. Cook’s novels though not that literally great still feels close because he has felt the experience. Like how in the current novel he describes the pre operative and operative incidents. There’s a certain amount of knowledge​ and the fact that you have experienced it first hand which is very important. 
You can see this in novels written even by Micaheal Crichton who was a doctor by profession or even A J Cronin’s works (the author of Hatter’s castle and doctor Zivago)… The latest was Paul Kalnithy when breath becomes air which was more of a human side of a doctor….
The first novel I had read and the most famous was the Coma which was interesting and I followed it up with the year of the intern which was another good depiction of the internal musings of what happens in those four walls of the hospital and operation theatre….
But at the end of it all Cook has a pattern, first it was some crazy nut job intent on killing the terminally ill or the villain at the end of the story is always the other girl! Or like his last few novels everyone dies!…. In one novel he even went the Dan Brown way and treated Neuroblastoma with miracle!…. There was one novel about alien invasion and another about India to add to variety though the basic premise remains the same…!!
Though to be fair he keeps updated with the latest in the field of medicine. Be it concierge practice or the latest iPhone app which decides to kill terminally ill or nanotechnology​ or even taking on the quacks …… All in the previous novel though and not in this one though….
Here he gives us an insight into the amount of knowledge available in the net and how this can be used to even practice !….. Not giving much here but it was an eye opener in many ways. How important is the social media has been dealt here with a Gray’s Anatomy style of narrative…… Though at the end of it all it’s all money and politics…..
Read it in between the very heavy on the grey matter Homo Deus!(which is still only halfway done!!)…..
Light Reading medical thriller is what this is…….. Try it if that’s what you want!

….

Next time you are upset that your dinner is the same old rice and dal think about the rat eaters of Bihar. This is one mountain of a movie but very very underrated. As you see the big mountain becoming smaller and smaller every passing year you can see the determination of an insane (not many will agree!!) man and literally you can visualize how love can move mountains. The movie moves in a non linear phase but that gives the viewer a well deserved change from the mellow mood which is felt throughout the movie. The backdrop of caste politics, rich poor divide, the corrupt Babus, the inconsiderate politicians interspersed with the fun that even the poorest of the poor enjoy in spite of having a mountain of troubles is really an eye opener. Nawazuddeen (the spelling is not important I do not think anyone will get confused with someone else!!) is no longer the poor man’s Irfan khan (who himself has become the poor mans SRK!!); he is here to stay and break more mountains on the way. In many of the scenes you would literally feel like grabbing a big hammer and just join Dasarath in his crazy(not really now!!) quest. To see this movie disappear into oblivion is mighty sad indeed but then as Dasarth would say Shandaar zabarzast zindabad!!…

Shanjahan take a hike; Manjhi take a bow…..

Once in a while you get to see a movie (or in this case also a book) which shakes you to the very core…… This movie about three brilliant Afro-Americans just explodes with sensitive and brilliance…

I know it’s a fairly old movie but I am sure many would have given this a miss….
Imagine for the gals they have to undergo discrimination for everything!… Being a girl, being black and trying to take on a  man’s (typical) job….
The levels of discrimination is shown with such a casual manner that it shakes you……
The setting is a race by the US and the Russians to put the first person in space and on the moon though that is not the central theme of the story….
It’s surprising that this is happening in a developed country like the US and in one of the advanced work place that is the NASA….Of course the setting is not present times so don’t pick up the arms yet!…. but the scene where Katherine had to walk one mile with her high heels and files just to use the ‘colored’ rest room says a lot about those times……
The period is not so long ago though….
 But what wins is the determination and intelligence of these three beautiful ladies who will bring out the best in you (if not then there’s no hope for you!!😀😀)..

Heard of the Turing’s test??..
In 1950s Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician invented this test. In fact it was Turing’s works on computers that forms the basis of modern computing.

The test in simple terms determines whether the screen you are communicating with opposite to you is a human or a computer!…..He recommended that if a computer can fool a human even 33% then the computer is said to have passed the test!!….

So for the last fifty years no computer had passed this test!…. This was achieved by a Russian bot in 2014!…. Just imagine that it took so many years for man to make a computer which can pass of like human.
In the coming years this will be a reality….We will have computers or robots who will act or behave like human…. Unfortunately we have had humans who behave like robots without emotion or humanity for ages……
Now coming to my story…..
So there used to be this patient who had vague complaints like nose block which was just occasional…..Since he was persistent I advised him to go for the nasal surgery if he is symptomatic….. This was always his intention he told because he had taken insurance two years back and now wanted to claim it!…So after explaining all the procedure involved I asked him if he had any questions??…
With a straight face he asked how the insurance money would be credited…

By cash or by cheque??….
I was surprised at this question but nevertheless told him that it would be credited to the hospital directly….
The patient was then shocked! What he told later was the real shocker though!
He had lots of expenses coming up and his understanding was that he could go for this surgery and he would be paid the insurance money for his ‘sacrifice!!’ of doing the surgery!!!…..
I had a tough time explaining to him that it was not like selling you kidney (that’s crude but no other way to say it!!). He couldn’t just get a surgery done and claim the money for personal use!…
He apparently had plans of going for a tonsil surgery the next year with the same intention!….
Though I was surprised at his ignorance I was also amazed that he was willing to cut himself up for no apparent reason just to make ends meet for his family…..
And no I did not operate on him..I did tell him to work harder and get other jobs to make the income more and I did tell him to not try to sell his body like this…
Don’t know what happened later since I shifted my city but have never forgotten his innocent face when he earnestly asked when he would get paid….

So my pearl of wisdom for the day is that let’s not pay much attention to make robots behave like humans which will anyway happen in the near future but let’s try to make humans behave like humans……

I should have read this masterpiece very much earlier…… Better late than never…. Close to 700 pages of fine print!…… Every Indian must read this one….. This is a neutral attempt by French journalist on the partition of India….. Attempt because I guess no one can be neutral…… Understood so many things…..Spoiler alert though these are things everyone must know…..

#Inspiration ….Mountbatten never wanted to be the last viceroy of India…. He has been shown to be a cool costumer…. The lead actor of this drama so to speak….. The whole view point is through his eyes…. It is thus understood that no gossip regarding the missus will be discussed!!…….

#Personal….. Only one person truly wanted partition….Jinnah….A pork and wine loving clean shaven Muslim whose grand father was a Hindu!!….. That’s the first shock…. He was originally opposed to a Muslim nation till he was sidelined by Congress (old habits!!) Which made him stronger….. That’s the second hit….. During the talks he discovered that he had lung cancer in the advanced stage…. Known only to him and a dedicated and integral Hindu doctor (professional hazards!!)… If only anyone else knew then the whole partition would have been averted….. The third and final blow…..

#confused …… Nehru…. Want partition…. Don’t want…. Can’t stand up to Jinnah…. Lost the lead during 1942 due to half baked attempt at quit India movement which was called off midway… Too much dependance on Gandhi, Mountbatten and Patel…… Trusted China who attacked us…. Never recovered from that…..

#respect……Gandhi was the only one according to the authors who was vehemently opposed to partition…. He even offered Jinnah the seat of the first pm of India much to the Chagrin of Nehru (the latter much to the dismay of the former refused….)….. Towards the end of his life he was treated merely as a prop to keep the masses silent…… While the whole world burnt after partition, Calcutta was quiet (relatively of course…) Only because of the efforts of one man…. But even saints get carried away….. Finding his new strategy of success he set out more complex goals…..Fast till the money owed to pak is returned…..(Nehru and Patel argued that they will use it only to strengthen their army but it fell on deaf ears…..)…. He also wanted Hindus to go Back to relief camps, not resort to hate and to give all the better accommodation to the Muslims……. He was above the normal feelings of human beings and I guess he expected others to be like that only……(though many vices he had been described in the book were a little too hard to digest……)…… The saddest part is that the father of the nation couldn’t be a good father (according to his son….).. To his own kids……

#angry …. Kashmir….. The king Hari Singh indecisiveness started this tsunami which is eating both our countries even now……

#sad…. The partition created zombies… No two ways about it…. The stories told so vividly makes your whole body shiver….. According to the authors it all started in Lahore….. The Hindu colony water and power supply was cut and anyone venturing out for these would be literally cut…. And then the see saw affect……. Each episode more sad and terrifying than the other…. The burning of babies, the raping, forced conversions, train carrying only chopped dead bodies…. The horror just goes on and on….. The saddest story was kept to the end… About Bhoota Singh….. Read and weep….

The book says it all about India…. The superstition, the pollution, the spoilt rich Kings with their crazy ways and orgies, the discipline of defence and the mob….I am guessing not much has changed….. One line sums up the feel…… It was the costliest divorce in the history…… The book however is affordable so get your copy…… And read…..