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Emergency by COOMI KAPOOR

First some background information; Coomi is a journalist working in Indian Express… One of the few newspapers which did not accept the 20 point and censorship of the Madam and faces immense difficulty due to that.

Her husband was also one of the journalists arrested by putting a frivolous case by a high and mighty individual of the Coterie gang.(you would understand that quote when you read)

Her co brother is the famous Subramanian Swamy who was one of the heroes of Emergency protest!

In an adventure streak akin to a movie, he hoodwinked the entire emergency machinery to emerge a hero of sorts!…

So now we begin this retelling of one of the darkest hours of Indian democracy…some comparisons are even worse than the atrocities committed by the British….

So next time many of my blind friends comment that the situation now is like emergency I would sincerely advice them to at least go though this mind blowing personal detailing of the atrocities of the Madam and her son…..

The court judgement which started it all…how it was manipulated and made into a drama of sorts….

How even the best commission called the Shah Commission report was crushed and burnt..

How a movie depicting this was seized and burnt by the prodigal son..

How the son made mockery of democracy and started Maruti as his pet hobby and made sure everyone was arm twisted into investing in this….(more in the book…)

The absolute censorship of the media…. First two days the electrical and water supply to the media houses were cut!… Then only the Raj approved news were allowed!!…

How (and why!!) Pranab Mukherjee tried to white wash the emergency in his book….

How massive sterilization camps were done with numbers and targets with guns and force….one widower was forced to do it only to end up dead on the table….no one batted an eyelid in spite of these atrocities….

How opposition was crushed worsen than the quit India struggle.

JP…a well respected leader who was arrested healthy and released years later with diabetes and damaged kidneys…

Vajpayee…..was arrested again healthy then house arrested after unnecessary surgery for appendix, then septicemia then slipped disc….. Body and mind both broken….

So many other leaders were arrested and kept in solitary….or sharing room with other prisoners withn a small stinky room with a hole in the ground serving as toilet…..Beaten,bruised and CBI and income tax department used as their own personal errand boys..

The worst was when in a zeal to catch George F, his brother was picked up and tortured without arrest and when he asked for water the constable was told to URINATE IN HIS MOUTH!…. Yes you read it right….sad brutal Raj and nothing else…

The licence Raj, the commission, the curruption and the atrocities leading to many physical and mental trauma and many times death…..

Students not getting permission to write exams, wrong arrests, wrong evictions, illegal slum clearance, no bail, instant re-arrests…..if you have a crime by a government to the innocent you can make it here…..

This was emergency….the dictatorship of a power hungry few who have thought that ruling this country is their birthright…

Kudos to Coomi for getting the emotions right in this one….don’t ever give it a miss….don’t forget…ever…don’t forgive….ever……

A midsummer’s equation by Keigo Higashino….

A quiet little place in a dull country side, an old family run inn, an environmental protection team, an eccentric but genius scientist and detective and finally the most important….an accidental death!…or was it an accident!??..

So from being a routine run of the mill novel about some minor mix up, this turns out to be a twist and turn extravaganza as expected from Keigo!….

By now the only good point is that I have gotten used to the Japanese names and gender to a good degree!… And since this one is only around 300 pages long, it’s not very confusing!…

Like we have been taught in tonsillectomy that every dissection must yield result, you can be rest assured that every query or statement from the quirky Galileo is bound to mean something!…

So whilst a lot of time and pages are wasted in things not even close to the murder, you can still forgive the author in beating around the bush (to a certain extent of course!!)

Like his earlier novel especially the last one called Journey under the midnight sun, here also Keigo gives an important place and character to the young ones (mini spoiler!!)….. In fact at the very beginning it seemed like a John Grisham novel of the Theodre Boone series!… But that’s John and this is Keigo!…. It’s like Messi and Ronaldo!…. Both play their games in their own delightful ways!!…

This is the penultimate book by Keigo translated in english!… Only one more to go and I would have completed the whole set!… Of course a new translation called Newcomer is on the offing in August but we shall board the train when the time comes!…

For now read this to get a feel of Japanese country side, sea shore, tourism and of course the Japanese twister Keigo….

Journey under the midnight sun by Keigo Higashino…..

First things first…. Have a bone of contention to pick with the translator!!
When he translated the novel from Japanese why oh why couldn’t he change the names of the characters!…
When it was a smaller novel of around 200 pages it was easy to progress but this one is a 600 page behemoth with so many characters that you get so confused!..

Coming to the bone (of contention that is!!); So I primary confusion is that the names of the characters are so similar!.. Just one or two words and it’s a complete different person (or was it a place!??)…
To add to the fact that most of the names are gender neutral!… Many times until the character gets a feminine tone I still don’t know whether it’s a gal or a guy!!..

Then there are big time warps!… one moment you are reading about the present and the next chapter is something which happens three or ten or even twenty years later! (Don’t worry it’s not a big spoiler!! But actually a helper!!)..

With so many characters, though the actual main ones are only the two dark love birds! (Major semi spoiler!!), It gets tedious to get the drift…

But good things do come so After around three hundred pages you get the story!… Then it’s a breeze and the pace is both tolerable and understandable!!…

Though he has been compared to Steig Larsson, the storyline reminds me of a Sidney Sheldon or Jeff Archer’s style!… This was when I found out that the story was actually written in series and finally put together as one piece!… Then it all made sense!…

Coming to the story as such, since it’s Keigo Higashino you can be rest assured that everything is not so direct or straightforward!… You can never tell the murderer (the first one of course!) At least in the first four hundred pages!…

Then when you start getting the dark dark picture you are literally thrown into an amalgamation of computer crimes, stabbings, sexual perversions, grim people with dark pasts!, Adultery galore!, And finally the two missing pieces beauty and the beast of the actual puzzle!….

The title though is so apt….kudos to Keigo for that…..

So if you have lots of time to kill and want to spend that time alone in the company of a book then this one is for you…

You can tell me Aarigato later!…or not!!

Salvation of a saint by Keigo Higashino…..

After that big Argentinian debacle you definitely need a salvation of sorts!… Of course Keigo doesn’t disappoint!…

So in the first novel you have a devotion to the killer and in the second you have pure Malice!; In this one I am sure the feeling will be mixed!!….

In any murder esp at home, the number one suspect (by hook or by crook!) Is almost always the spouse! (Or is it!??… Don’t want to spoil your reading!!)

It’s clear though that in Keigo Higashino’s work the murder and the killer are never the mystery!… The mysteries and the thrills and more importantly the bizarre twists is in the planning and the motive!….
The lengths to which someone would go to plan and execute a murder is a very uphill task indeed and not for the fickle minded if you get my drift!….

But even Keigo has pushed the limits in this one!….. The motive and the method is so surreal!…

Like in his previous novels, it is clear that if it wasn’t for the persistence of one or more of the detectives, the case would never have been solved!….I am sure in the real world this would have been an ardous task indeed!…. The pile of unsolved cases in any station is a testimony to this!…

All I couldn’t understand is the title!… Who’s the Saint and who got salvation!!?…. someone whose thoughts gets filtered!?…

Read it to get it!…. salvation that is!!….

Malice by Keigo Higashino….

First you have a narrator who narrates you of a simple murder….. Then you have a minor twist then you have a major twist then you have a ultra major twist and finally everything you read till now is actually the biggest twist!…

What a ride it is to read Keigo Higashino!… My only regret is that I don’t know Japanese!… So what we get to read is the translation!… Just imagine if the translation is so good then the original would have been dynamite!!…

Without giving spoilers I cannot even begin to review this masterpiece!… It reminds me of this Hindi movie (very underrated but extremely well made I would say!)….. Its about a couple on their holiday who are Pegged into a game which promises them riches but ruins their life!…. It was finally because they had ragged the rich guy’s son who had become mentally unstable because of that!… How this sets into the story is for you to read and realise!….

The devotion of suspect x is not a coincidence!….Keigo is not a one novel wonder!… He is the real deal and he is here to stay!….

The best part is that the author makes everyone intelligent!… The person who narrates, the murderer, the detective who investigates and most of all the reader!… This is a refreshing change and for someone like me who has been trying to complete a novel for years now the bar has been raised higher!…. Of course the best thing is to get inspired!….

The best part of the story is how the characterization of a particular person in the storyline is done by a single incident is just mind blowing to say the least!….. All of 190 pages you had this set impression about the murdered guy and in the last few pages it just gets a complete opposite turn!….

Also interesting is how so many plausible sub plots and novel ideas have been dealt with such aplomb!…. Each one could have become a best seller in proper hands (read Keigo!!)

Gearing up for the next one!….keep em coming Keigo!…. You rock big time!!…..

The devotion of suspect x by Keigo Higashino….

Once in a while you read a novel that literally takes your breath away and makes your raise the bar of expectations from other stories!!..

This multi award winning novel (with even a movie) was in my reading list for ages!… The original was in Japanese though and the English translation is good too!!…

Ever since I saw the Malayalam movie Drishyam (one of my favourites ever!) And read about this novel in the Wikipedia page I was earnestly waiting to read this one!…. But it took three years to finally get to it!…. Better late than never!!…

This is no longer the era of whodunit or a simple murder!… You have a victim and you have a murderer!….. But this is the age of twists and being twisted!….a simple momentary lapse of emotion leads to a murder and the whole plot shifts from that to the brilliant mathematician (mild spoiler alert!) Who finally just controls the various outcomes of the investigations just like a mathematical equation!!…..

It’s just mind blowing how every aspect of investigation is being contoured and tinted in the direction which has been pushed without any effort by the protagonist!….

At the end of it all everything is just logic and calculations without emotion though the whole set up was in fact the result of a big emotional deluge!!…

So we have a single parent divorced mother who gets threatened by her ex husband and one thing leads to another and you have a murder…… Just like Dhrishyam, the lead tries to make rock solid alibis and remotely controls every aspect of the investigation….

The best part here is that he even manages to Change the date of murder!!….(don’t worry that’s not a big spoiler!!)….in the movie the suspects stood the investigation team with firmness since they had actually done the things they were describing, like watching movie or having a particular food in a particular restaurant!… Only thing they had to remember that the date was different!..

But in the novel by a big twist the suspects just had to narrate everyone what they did without any date change!…how he managed to do that is the biggest spoiler!….

Many though would ask why to spend so much time and resources in finding the killer of a wastrel who probably deserved it when there were so many bigger cases to solve!…..

So what you think as a Geometric pattern is actually algebra apparently!!…

Don’t miss this for the world!!…

The coalition years…by Pranab Mukherjee

This was in quick succession!…I had just finished the dramatic decade by him which was like a decade but not much drama!!…

This one follows that book with no change either in the narrative or in the outcome!…no secrets revealed, no controversy stated and being neutral is the in thing apparently!!!…

The book almost follows a set pattern of reprinting the diary of anyone who has penned down what he or she did that day!… sometimes you may get some deviations but that’s rare and not important!….At this rate the next book may even look into his dietary schedule!!

Lots of jobs have been done by Pranab Da as defence minister and then the finance minister and it has been tabled in kind in the book…..it goes without saying that those were jobs well done but that’s something expected from someone of the stature of Pranab Mukherjee…it’s like the Pilot announcing the he or she will be cruising at some speed and landing soon!…. and we in the plane are thinking, “whatever works buddy!… Just do your job and land the plane without crashing!!”

I guess after more than six decades of working and being with a single party and being the faithful worker it goes without saying that some recognition was due….in fact this is late… But then in our country it’s always better late than never…

The most interesting part of the book however (according to me of course!) Was the discussion involving GST, MNRGEA, the Lokpal Bill, ADHAR and the nuclear testing and NPT…..just to get the gist of these important events you can read the whole book!…

Of course it ends with his becoming the President and I am guessing since he is relatively free now, another book may be inthe pipeline!….and I fervently hope that it will not just be another Dear Diary of sorts…

The fight with Mam di was not even a Mole Hill!…..started with not even a bang and ended just as silently!….. barking canines analogy holds good here!….

A better book was the accidental prime minister!…if you have not read it then don’t read it yet!…. finish this first and then you can read that one to get the real picture!!…

What a coalition it was!….

Pranab Mukherjee….the dramatic decade….

This semi autobiography and semi biography of Indira Gandhi can be summarised as a silent ode to Indira…

Beginning from the pre independent era, touching up his birth, couple of snippets about his father, then a good build up to the formation of Bangladesh and then the actual heart of the matter which is the Indira Gandhi years!.

I must say though that the description and formation of Bangladesh has been dealt with a semi neutral mindset and the book is a must read till then!…

The moment the focus shifts to Indira the narrative is almost devotional and partial to the T!…..Even to the extent that he has penned down three chapters sugar coating the need for Emergency!….
At the end of which I guess even Pranab Da realized his folly and concluded that it was unnecessary!….

Then again the book written by Margaret Alva had similar thoughts about Indira and Sanjay Gandhi and Emergency but it was more honest in appeal and more away from putting the sheep clothing over the wolf!…

Of course like many biographies, this one too has lots of self moments and point of view which would of course be antagonistic to the other’s viewpoint or in many cases the truth!….

The justification of political manipulations is something very consistent even to seasoned politicians!….
So while the opposition and ruling party alternate in the assembly, the general public suffers!!….the same old story!!….

At the end of it I fail to understand how someone so intelligent or strong can just give in to nepotism and the Raj!….
Also I fail to understand how Rajya Sabha which is an important body is having people who have lost faith of the people!
Is the membership to this prime body not by merit!??…. Only appeasement works as even concurred by Margaret!…

This attempt is a safe venture steering clear of any of the misdeeds of either Emergency or Indira or Sanjay!…don’t expect any great revelations or scoops!…..read it to get a overview and move on…..

Expectating more fireworks in his next book!!…..

The Golden Keel by Desmond Bagley……

This nagging feeling which comes whenever you read a book which is about a hidden treasure is that whether they would get it in the end!…. Almost all treasure search or heist would always end up in going kaput or most of the contenders dying or losing the treasure or the treasure being a dud!….. What essentially I mean is that most of these treasure hunt stories usually end in heartbreak!….

Spoiler alert!…. This is one of them!… Which one you read to find it though!.. But for a change there’s some salvation….you do get some rewards in the end!…

The whole treatment though reminds me of those classic war stories written by Alister MacLean !….. The build up to story then the planning then the execution then the maintenance of suspence!… In fact when they reached the treasure I was assuming the the novel would end!… Was pleasantly surprised to see that it was only halfway there!….

The story is apparently inspired by a true event and also the chief protagonist is based on the author’s real life…. The building up of characters was too good and the final twists in the last chapter was the icing on the mystery cake!…..throw in some War stories with Germans and Italians for good measure!!….. And you have an engaging read!…….

It’s a pretty old novel though so read it for nostalgia or the golden oldies if you catch my drift!…..

So what’s a golden keel you ponder!??… Well it’s something to prevent you from sinking in troubled waters!!….. That’s the most I can mention without revealing the plot!!…

Let the treasure hunt begin!….

City of joy by Dominique Lapierrre…..

A little slow to finish with small print and close to 550 pages!….in normal print am sure it would have crossed a thousand!.…

This is an old novel written way back in the year 1985 originally in French…. Then translated in english….. Everyone of course will remember the movie starring Patrick Swayze…..

I am guessing that most would have read this one long back!… Think of this as a revision review then!

Coming to the book and the city of Joy….Calcutta….I sometimes feel Calcutta of the poor and downtrodden doesn’t change for ages even though the condition described in the novel has drastically changed with I guess newer problems and stories……the poor though will remain poor while the rich may get more richer!!… No one cares about what happens to the middle class though!…

The glorification of Indian poverty is a fertile ground for foreign garden of sorts!… With all the advancements and education we still are slumdog millionaires!!….it takes time folks…. Such an admixture of language culture and religion in such huge numbers makes it a mammoth task!… Please be patient!!

Don’t get me wrong; the way the situation in slums is presented by the author with vivid description is just mind boggling!….it’s akin to watching the toilet leak and clogging scene in the trailer of the movie Sanju!….true and bare!….

To put that in multiple stories and weave it into the day to day life in the slum is just amazing….. In fact the positivity in this was the response this novel generated around the world!…so much so that close to two million dollars have been given as donation just for the rehabilitation of the poor in India alone!….

In fact so many stories and narratives go parallel to each other so much so that each character story could have been made into a separate novel in itself!…. Thus this work is like an amalgamation of a myriad of stories interlocked in the setting of the city of joy…. The joy mostly remains in your thoughts and dreams only though…..

The description of Leper colonies and their treatment reminded me of our community medicine tour to a similar colony though this time the conditions were much much better….. another disease described was TB…. Both these are now well addressed though still a challange….

Baby steps is the only way considering the size of our population!!……
But in all this cesspool of poverty and drains you have such kind hearted people who are trying their best to make a difference!…. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, all it takes is an effort however small and it will definitely make a huge difference…..

If freedom at midnight was a joint effort and an epic, this one is pure Dominique and another epic!….. If you have ever been to Kolkata you will immediately connect with the novel while for everyone else it’s an eye opener of sorts…..

Kudos to the author for having managed such a big feat and making a difference…..

The author himself has added that the situation is much much better now which was quite positive…..

So amidst the clogged drains, the diseases, the rickshaw pullers who literally are pulling their life, the poor but kind neighbours and many many more characters who are at the nadir of poverty and life, the author and live still gives them hope, happiness and healers…. In that order…..

Hopefully one day this will actually become the city of joy….. In any case when nothing else remains…. Hope does….

What say big brother!!?…..