ramadocblog

Everyday I get up and rush to drop my kids. I have to nudge my son to get up and go to school and he will retort with dispair that he just went to school yesterday!!…..
I then have to tell him that he has to do that almost everyday till he can get old and get a job!!…then he has to get up and go to work!…to be responsible and to get into the rat race!…. Then I guess he will realize that going to school was the best thing!….
Who can forget the chats and gossips before the prayer, during the prayer, the rhythmic wishing of teacher, those homeworks and projects!!….. Those class tests and examinations with the small board!!…..and those awesome vacations!!…
Being a doctor then is probably one of the few jobs where you actually want to go to work!…. You want to make a difference to someone else’s life!….give them relief…make them happy!…learn new things everyday and be pleased with yourself!…..When you fail to give relief even then with every failure comes a lesson which will only make you stronger and more informed to face the next challenge……
Everyone in the world says this, just because one crazy person from a religion bursts a bomb we don’t blame Everyone from that religion right!??….then why you break this universal rule for doctors!??..
You would have to search pillar to Post to get a honest politician but we vote for them over and over again!…even politicians who have criminal cases piling up against them get votes!….if you convert black to white money of many of the politicians you can be rest assured that they will have more money that even Bill Gates!!… But a tenth failure illiterate criminal politician can make money by whatever means but a doctor should not make money even if he or she is doing his or her job properly!!
Then there are government babus to whom you will heartily give your ‘GREEN’ token of appreciation to get your rightful work done!…..but a doctor asking for his or her routine charge will make you green with envy or shock!!
In any type of case going on in the court you know that one of the party is wrong!… That means one of the lawyer is knowingly fighting for the rights of a criminal!….and he or she will get paid so much that you will have a hard time in counting the money!!….even if there’s deficiency of the service of the lawyer he or she still gets paid. All these we tolerate but we don’t​ tolerate any deficiency from a doctor. 
Probably because the mental reference point to evaluate a doctor has been set high….or probably there are some who are plain envious or probably sadistic or most likely disturbed…..in the recent times the most important reason though is a lack of trust……
So at this point I would like to assert to all my odd 600 FB friends that I am reaffirming that being a doctor is not a job for me…. it’s my passion, my life and believe me that I would never leave my principles or misuse my knowledge or skill for causing harm…..
All those who supported us during the recent agitation I am eternally grateful…all those who didn’t I just hope that you will in future….
I just hope you all keep an open mind that’s all…..
Hope also that in the future the shortest fiction story I had written about a happy doctor in Karnataka will be reclassified as non fiction!……
Hope my son gets a job he would love to go in the morning…..
Hope….

Years back when we saw Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in the bone collector it was a revelation of sorts!…. Though in the hindsight it may seem that the movie made the subsequent books famous but I have been hooked to Jeff after I had read the novel called THE BLUE NOWHERE…. It was another matter that I had bought the novel in a second’s sale and I thought it was written by Jeffery Archer!!!….. And how the tables have turned!…

I grab Jeffery Deaver books by both hands while I am scared to touch Jeffery Archer books after the Clifton Chronicles debacle!!….
So Lincoln rhyme returns!….. The amount of work his remarkable brain does is just super cool though in this one he is restrained, retired and represented by an intern!!…. Too much info nevertheless!!…
That’s also another great thing about Jeff novels is that he gives equal or sometimes more importance to lady or women characters, doesn’t waste time in mundane emotions and gives a watertight story…..
Gone are the days where people kill in a routine way…. These are the sad and devious days of serial killers!… Jeff also has this uncanny ability to be abreast of The latest technology in murder business!…. Just imagine a software bug can crash an smart car or burn a kitchen or open the shaft of an elevator!… Making all these killing machines of the future!…. Now read to digest all these!….
In any case you will get a closure so don’t worry and the apparent moral of this story is that you must update your softwares regularly!
In this case get the hard copy though!….👍

Tell Tale…..by Jeffery Archer…..
This is where he belongs…. The master of short stories!….I had always enjoyed Jeffery Archer’s awesome collection of short stories… Twist in the tale and quiver full of arrows and many more…. Felt that he had lost track with the horrible Clifton Chronicles which can only be a bad idea of a rejected screenplay of a third grade soap!!!….
But with this series Jeff is back in the race!   His familiar territory and his forte!…. Best is of course the first though I liked many of the short stories in the middle!…. Since they are all short you would be compelled to finish it in one go and once you start a story it would be blasphemous to leave it unfinished!!…
Many of the stories are about con jobs with a couple thrown in about people nearing retirement which may be clue of some sort or maybe I am reading too much deep!!…. 
Three of them about con jobs, two of stories about war and romance, a couple about realities of life and a couple of stories Which are just 99 words long!…..
Like his earlier novels of short stories Jeff makes sure that the ending is sudden, different and many times leaves a lot for imagination which is a good push!!…
Fourteen short and sweet (??) Stories with some of them inspired by real incidents will keep you wanting for more!…..
In one story Jeff gets one step ahead and gives the readers three different endings!…. Way to go!…. Keep doing this and we can almost forgive you for the Clifton Chronicles!!…..
No one can tell short stories like Jeffery Archer (also Jeffrey Deaver’s collection of short stories are also cool….) So grab your copy and go for it shortly!!…..👍

The complete adventures of Feluda…by Satyajeet Ray…
Ask any true blue Bengali who is outta town about who is his favorite detective and he or she would tell you Byomkesh bakshi!!…. Everyone knows about Byomkesh!…. Even in big bang theory, Raj called him the Sherlock Holmes of India!!…. But for younger lot (now older!!) And for people still in Bengal, the greatest detective is Pradosh Mitter or Feluda!….
If Byomkesh was inspired by Sherlock then Feluda is an amalgamation of Sherlock, Poirot and lots of Tintin thrown in for good measure!!…..
So while Byomkesh stories follow a linear pattern with more brainwork, Feluda stories are more to do with legwork!…. Byomkesh gets married, gets old and has a kid while Feluda remains the same!…
I guess since Satyajeet Ray was a Smoker, he has made Feluda one too!.. In fact when Satyajeet directed a Byomkesh mystery called Chiriyakana starring Uttam da then in a big departure from the original storyline he made him smoking to his heart’s pleasure!… The risk paid of and that was apparently the best Byomkesh adaptation yet!….
Till Satyajeet Ray was alive there’s been no adaptation of Feluda stories. But over the last decade or so they have been movies, series and also an animation venture. There have been so many other adaptations like one web series which was why I started reading this seriously!!…
Coming to this collection, it’s about sixteen of his stories piled together in a big volume!….. Since I was finding it difficult to carry it everywhere I was inclined to buy the ebook too!…
Since they are individual short stories with no link to each other there was no haste in finishing it in one go!… In fact just like me you could finish Dan Brown’s latest Origin, John Grisham’s last novel Rooster bar and Robin Cook’s Charlatans and come Back to this!!….. Also note this is only the first volume and the second is in the pipeline!…
If the stories were given a touch of the hands of Remi or Herge (the creator of Tintin) and Goscinny and Uderzo (creators of Asterix) then it would have been a best selling comic book!…
All the stories have a vivid description of the places esp historical ones, so much so that the description of hotel Clark’s in Shimla just hit the nail since we were just there a couple of months back!!…. Ditto for other places like Banaras, Lucknow, Bihar , Calcutta and others…. There’s so much comedy with a character called Jatayu who is a mixture of Captain and Calculus!!😁😁…..we have the narrator Watson who is like Tintin but ends up like the sidekick!…. The then we have the multi talented (except for the smoking!) Feluda!…..
Though originally written in bengali, this translation is true to the core……
So grab this one with both you hands and get set go….Feluda!!…

The rooster bar by John Grisham….
Just one month back I had finished John’s last and latest Camino Island and he comes up with another novel!… That and the Theodore Boone series I am amazed at what a prolific writer he is!….
Just imagine that Dan Brown’s last novel was four years back! And John Grisham’s last novel was couple of months back!…. During the past year he had so also written a couple of Theodore Boone novels then there was the forgettable gray mountain and mildly interesting Whistler!….. Not to forget the street lawyer!…. You go John!…
This one too is just surreal!…. Close on the heals of a similar novel by Robin Cook called the Charlatans​!…..(spoiler!!)….
Three young law under grads studying less and struggling to pay their back breaking loan with no prospects of job or repayment and you add a close Personal tragedy and you can almost feel them jumping from the edge of the precipice….or is that how it goes!!??….
Though dark and gloomy this is John returning to his elements!…. The man who gave us the incredible Firm and the absolute epic The Runaway Jury!!….
Although there’s fiction in the narrative, you do faced with some bare (or bar!!) Facts….. And it’s comforting (!! That’s sadistic though!!) To note that even in USA the status of court and judgement is so similar……
It’s a thrill ride with never a dull moment and many of the situations are so relatable that it’s scary……
Welcome back John!… You did good….. Just continue the good work….
Regular Grisham readers just wrap it up and the others go for it….

Freedom at midnight….. By Dominic Lapierre and Larry Collins….

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…..

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!…..