Agatha Christie’s Poirot; After the Funeral and Death on the Nile Double review since it was audible book and the fast pace made me finish both the books in quick succession!
Audiobook
Part of BBC Dramatization with John Moffat as Poirot and a whole list of actors playing the different roles! Running length around 2 hours No spoilers here but I am sure many would have already read both the classica and if you have not then lucky you! You get to experience Agatha’s witting and Poirot’s charm for the first time!
While after the Funeral is a mystery of a family where you are planted a doubt of murder which isn’t which leads to more! In death on the Nile you are waiting for the murder by the obvious suspect only to see it happen in a strange way at least for the first time reader!
Both the novels especially the latter one has been extensively made into movies and series and remakes galore! In fact The Death on the Nile was a recent commercial block buster starring Gal Gadot!
In the first you can never guess the murderer while in the second you can never guess how the murderer pulled it off!
In murder mystery it is always the person who is having the least suspicion or above suspicioun who usually is the culprit! This is true for the first novel! While for the second, you really need to think out of the box!
In both after several twists and turns you have the typical Poirot group reveal!
And how he tells about the importance of his Grey matter! Read or listen to them even if you know the story by heart! It’s a different experience!
Part of BBC Dramatization with John Moffat as Poirot and a whole list of actors playing the different roles!
Running length around 1 hour
No spoilers here but I am sure many would have already read this classic and if you have not then lucky you! You get to experience Agatha’s witting and Poirot’s charm for the first time!
First of a set of 8 of Poirot’s finest stories!
As far as Agatha is concerned, I would have read almost all of her novels especially the ones with Poirot and my most favorite would always be Murder on the Orient express simply because it was an epic novel! A close second would be Curtain; Poirot’s last case.
After listening to another classic novel; To Kill a Mockingbird; I have got this strange urge to revisit all the novels I have read which are classics now in the viewpoint of an adult and not a teenager or young man!
This is the second step in that journey! Sometimes a new song is just the remix version of the old one so might as well check out the original!
Now the ABC murders are about a supposed serial killer who kills according to the letters of he alphabet and of course starts with A! After every kill he (or she!) leaves a book of ABC and moves on!
It is a virtual race against time and somehow Poirot reminds me of Lincoln Rhyme; the one who only needs his mind!
My favorite scene is when Captain Hastings (like John Watson!) asks Poirot (like Sherlock Holmes!) about the murderer after the latter inspects the first scene of the crime!
Poirot states, “he has this height and this weight with a patch in the eye and a limp when he walks!”
When everyone shockingly look at him
He adds with a twinkle, “I am not Sherlock Holmes!”
A hilarious dig from one legend to another!
The diction and narration is spot on and you can just visualize the inspectors and the other actors playing the part beautifully. It really helps if you have read the book before but I guess if you keep the speed of narration as normal then if concentrate then you can understand the story.
Since it is a whodunit it is difficult to not introduce everyone at least once so it may lose the charm sometimes and the revelation may not be as thrilling as reading it though it is quite dramatic!
Nevertheless, it is a classic and a classic narration which you can listen any day!
Apple Air Pods Pro Gen 2 Vs One Plus Buds Vs Samsung Buds
When the first generation of Air Pods were released I had decided that I would not be caught with that abysmal design! The Later designs were better while the Air Pods pro had a better design and curvature. So among these buds, one plus came with a similar design and improved on that. Those were the first buds I bought since one of my primary phones is One Plus and in spite of getting an iPhone, I have no plan of making that my primary phone! Of course that is a debate or comparison for another day!
Then the Samsung buds were an upgrade and I chiefly bought them for their uber cool design which was different from all the other ‘buds’ in the market. I can see that Bose Noise comfort also has a similar design and most websites give a great rating for that but since I do not have them, this does the work just fine!
After that brief introduction let’s start a comparison
LOOK
Hands if you look at the snap then you would realise that Samsung Buds (the official Bluetooth name is Samsung Buds Live) are one of the most beautiful buds ever to have been made! The box is like a powder puff box and the look is like a shiny jelly bean! An absolute delight! The one plus buds have a look similar to the first generation Air Pods though the stem is better and less awkward. Air Pods Pro has a smaller and more curved design and looks really nice especially when new but since it is white, it gets dirty soon enough. Samsung buds is the winner here hands down!
CONNECTIVITY
Here apple really shines, when it is either the watch or the phone or even the headphones, the moment you buy a new device; either the iPhone or the iPad immediately recognizes the new device and connects instantly! Every Apple device behaves as one unit which is most of the times good but many times a big headache especially when you are trying to do facetime and the iPad or your watch tries to connect! After connection, the device tests the fit and also the modes such as the noise cancellation and the seal! It is really cool when you do it the first time!
I was really impressed with Apple on the connectivity till I tried to pair my Samsung buds to my Samsung tab! Since I had initially paired it to my one plus phone, the instant connectivity option was not given but when it was Samsung tab then similar to Apple, a pop up menu came instantly and automatically and did the same steps as Apple for connection and software update and to test the air seal!
The version of one plus buds I have are the One Plus buds z and even here there was a pop up menu with seal testing and noise cancelation programming; but the advanced features are available only with the second generation version so I could not experience the same though the connection was seamless
All the three show the individual charge and also the battery capacity of the case! Apple and One Plus and even Samsung with it latest update also show location so that’s that! In effect as far as connection goes there can be no comparison and all the three are equally good! All the three come with manuals and quick tips and also update the firms regularly.
With the animated pop up menu here I would give this one to Apple though the other two were quite close; literally!
FITTING
One of the most important aspect of these buds are the way they sit in your ears. Now Apple, having learned from its previous mistakes has made provision for three silicone tips which make the fit more custom to your ear canal size. One plus was doing that anyways and with a bargain on price! It pays to be nice; while for any Apple Product you have to definitely pay to get nicer stuff! Like the best Air pods are these while the entry level ones have so many features missing and that’s not even basic! It is the same with iPhones also! The best phone with all the features would be iPhone Max Pro only! Any other iPhone would be lacking one thing or the other!
Anyway, it fits but just. The same with one plus buds, they are light and fit nicely enough! But the best fit is the Samsung bud! It just sits there in the nice cave within your ears and how! One of the nest ear hooks was the one with Samsung Level U headphones and I thought it cannot get better than that! I was proven wrong with Buds! The placement is a breeze and the fit is perfect! Now there can be variation in such a way that this particular placement is suited to my ear shape while Air or One plus pods are suited to you! For now the best fit is hands down Samsung buds!
For proper fit I do the T shirt test! All the above buds stay in place when you run (even though I keep checking and tucking them) but the best test is to wear them and try to remove a tight fitting T shirt over your head! If the ear buds fall then it is not tight fitting! My Samsung buds never fell! While both the Air pods and One plus buds bit the dust literally!
TOUCH CONTROLS
Both the One Plus buds and Samsung Buds have touch controls which works with tap like most buds or ear phones. It is of course simple and better to get used faster and the commands are simple like single or double or triple touch! The prolong touch also activates the noise cancellation in Samsung Buds while my One plus Z version does not have any noise cancellation. The response of Samsung buds is fluid and very swift although sometimes it senses my normal touch as command while sometimes the tap touch is not accepted! In one plus buds though the sensor is at the top which makes the sensitivity less but accidental touch is avoided. One thing which is also missing is that there is no volume control in both these which can be good or bad which I will explain shortly.
Now coming to Apple Pods the control is not touch but pinch. This is really good once you get used to it. The trick is to use your thumb and index finger and after a while it gets better so much so that you wonder others did not thing of this! You of course need two fingers for this but the good thing is that there is no accidental touch activation. Even the modes of noise cancellation and Transparency can be switched by using prolonged pinch which is really good when you are walking or sunning and meet someone you want to speak but do not want to remove your pods.
Another added feature is the volume control which is available only in Air Pods; Now even this takes a little time to get used to and frankly sometimes it works so well while most times it doesn’t! Maybe it will be fine tuned in the next update. The best touch volume adjust was in the Bose Frames but since that depended on Gravity or Horizontal axis tilt, I am guessing the same cannot be used for Pods which are not connected physically.
So as far as the controls are concerned the best is Air pods hands down while for people who are used to touch may like the other two buds.
ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION
Since One plus basic version is what I have which does not have any noise cancellation, it is unfair to compare the other two but then this comparison is only if you are interested in this feature. I was never a big fan of Noise Cancellation it was not a prerequisite for me since I like the open speaker where I can hear the ambient noise it was not a criteria for me. That is until I heard the amazing noise cancellation of Samsung buds and realized that we are surrounded by noise! Especially my present stay which is in Kuwait where I am constantly surrounded by the constant hum of the AC. When the sound gets blocked it is like inner peace! It is more pronounced with Air pods especially in its modes like transparency. There is an option to cancel the feature in both the pods and both are equally good. And I have finally realized that if you listen to music in low volume and with noise cancellation, it is better for your ears. Of course you must listen in low volume and take frequent breaks in between.
BATTERY LIFE
The best battery backup is for One plus which is most probably because it does not have any Active Noise Cancellation which is power hungry! The next is Samsung buds which is also pretty good and it shows since the buds are larger in size the battery will also be big and bigger capacity which shows. In spite of having so many features, I have never run out of battery since the official time is 6 hours or more and I have never listened for more than 20 minutes continuously.
Coming to Air pods, just like the iPhones; battery is always an issue since most iPhones would always have the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location and even the personal hotspot on all the time! That is the reason you would always find people with iPhones with chargers or battery pack! Of course now it is much better since my iPhone 13 and iPhone XR have good battery back up which is still not as good as one plus though which is an amazing phone and still my primary one as I mentioned before!
The buds hence have all the features active like the Noise cancellation and the Spatial audio and are power hungry. I charge my One plus case maybe once a month and the Samsung Case once a week on regular use but the Apple Case needs charging every three days or maybe twice a week. Great thing is how the iPhone or iPad with its Bluetooth always on feature reminds me when the battery in the case or other Bluetooth device like the Apple pencil (another amazing device but the Microsoft Surface pen is much better; a comparison for another day!) is having low charge which is really cool though intrusive when you think about privacy!
Also remember that Apple products belonging to you work as a single unit so the pods gets connected automatically to iPhone, iPads or even your Apple Watch! And you can control the track and volume from any of these devices which is really cool!
SOUND
Let me just save the time and tell you that the best sounding buds are the Samsung buds and this is with my non-technical brain with a fair grasp of music! One plus just do the job though they are better than ear phones and headphones and give good output in low notes in spite of not having any noise cancellation. I must say that One plus with it longer stem has the best microphone while in this Air pods come second. Even otherwise in calls it is always better to connect to the pods or the buds since then the calls are much clear. Apple also pulls in its monopoly here when the video and audio in facetime is much better than when you make the same call via WhatsApp! This my way is the best way attitude is really what irks me all the time!
Having said that the Spatial audio feature in Air pods are really good (this feature is now even available via an update in Samsung buds which is super cool!). Of course this is obvious only with new music since it needs a different audio recording. You feel as if the person is standing next to you and singing! It is a surreal experience and if I did not have this long standing Apple Ire inside me, I would have readily agreed that this is the best thing to have happened to pods!
VERDICT
Now all the three are really good but you do not have three set of ears! But for the price to performance, the award will go to Samsung buds without any doubts whatsoever!
If you have an iPhone then you can blindly go for the buds and remember that Apple is capitalist to the core so the best devices with the best features are the ones which are the costliest! So only Air pods pro second generation is the best pods till the next version next year!
If you have a one plus phone then you can still choose Samsung buds which is a better choice than One plus even if the One plus buds are there and there is a pro version which is in fact costlier than Samsung buds! If you are on a budget the One plus buds are a good start!
If you have a Samsung phone or any other android phone then go for the Galaxy buds without any doubt since they are simply super! As a primary android user I would suggest you to not take any low end Samsung phone since they are plagued by bloatware and Samsung is constantly pushing its own irritating apps! The lower end phones also have very delicate screens! So stick to the best android phone which is hands down One Plus!
Have fun listening and make sure you do that in low volumes and take constant breaks in between and also do not share the pods or buds with anyone. Always store them in the case since all have battery optimization now and constant charging is no longer an issue!
To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Audiobook Narrated by Sissy Spacek
Rating 5/5!
Fictional classic inspired by true events
What more can I say about this classic which hasn’t already been said! But this audiobook needs special mention simply because the narrator is mind blowing! Her old country English and accent immediately transports you to the US of those times! Which if you think about is not that long back!
Any serious English reader would have already read this one and most probably seen the classic movie starring Gregory Peck! In a true sense of nostalgia I was watching the movie in parallel!
The movie gives you goosebumps but the narration of the more elaborate events in the novel gives you elephant bumps!
Atticus Finch is probably one of the most perfect character ever written in a novel who would always try to maintain a balance! Who would always follow the law and who would risk his life to uphold the same!
He is a simple person who speaks only when spoken to and is shy of using the gun though it has been told how he is an expert marksman! He tries to solve problems with words and seriously believes pen is mightiest!
But the heart of the story is Jean Louis Finch or Scout and Jim! The events are told in such a simple manner that you do not realise their importance at the time!
Like when a mob sorrounded Finch, the mere hello and small talk by Jean with Mr Cunningham probably saved Atticus’s life! The classic depiction of mob mentality!
Of the classic often repeated dialogue on how you must walk in someone’s shoes! It was nostalgia galore!
An added fun is when you read a section and then go and watch that clip in you tube! The effect is double!
How Atticus implores to the all white Jury members to do the right thing in the name of God! And then they don’t!
How Scout says when the Jury comes back after making a decision and does not look at the accused, it means that they have made a decision of him being Guilty!
The whole court knows that the accused was not guilty but still they can’t do anything…yet!
That was the only thing pricking me and many others! The justice is denied to the Black man in spite of him being innocent!
Of course the end gives you some satisfaction! Still can’t believe Mayella and her frustrated accusations! The woman who feels she has been wronged or rejected is dangerous indeed! (This statement is only for the novel! Please don’t come to my house with pitch forks!). I would liked to know what happens to her after the trial though. Just for closure!
Then even if you don’t read the whole novel you can get to know the summary in three eyes of another! That’s a fresh perspective! A second or third point of view! Loved that part!
You can listen to the rendition just to listen to Sissy as Scout! Her country accent and her intonations make you want more! The little motherless girl who grows up in a year but still remains innocent in the manner of the world!
This line summarises the feel, ‘That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. ‘Your father’s right,’ she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy…but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Five minutes past Midnight in Bhopal; By Dominique Lapeirre
Rating- 4/5 for the narration and ease of reading a story from the eyes of a journalist who is reporting a story in a paper! 3/5 for the lack of Indian touch and no matter how much care Dominique would have taken to maintain authenticity of the customs there will always be something amiss when it comes from someone who is not Indian! 5/5 for the effort and the subsequent relief efforts done by him and his organisation for the betterment of the people affected from the tragedy.
Non fiction depiction of the tragedy of Bhopal which directly and indirectly killed or affected thousands of people many of whom are still yet to receive any aid or relief from the government or the company. The owner Anderson is still in hiding and escaped for good and never made to appear in any court for his role in the tragedy and given a safe passage though the novel narration of this event is a little biased towards him. The factory which at the time was a hallmark of pride and efficiency is now an abandoned ruin with old signs ironically stating “Safety first”
It is sad that it took an international author to sit up and realise that Bhopal Gas accident was the actual tragedy of Monumental mismanagement and wrote about it giving full justice to the events leading to one of the saddest tragedies though there are so many books on this and without reading them I cannot give a comparative analysis.
In a typical narration mirroring a calm before the storm, Dominique narrates the simple story of a tribal family who migrate to Bhopal in search of better pastures. In a parallel narration, he talks about how pests such as aphids and locust are the scourge and the biggest problem in the agricultural industry and how DDT was a blessing (at least at first!). Then he tells about how further research leads to a better alternative to DDT called Sevin! The plant in Bhopal was the factory to manufacture Sevin! The essential ingredients were the Super dangerous Methyl Isocyanite and Phosgene! The most delicate and dangerous chemicals ever! In fact the way they get delivered into the company and the ideal scrutiny or security measures in case of leak has been described so well.
Once the scene is set he goes on to demonstrate the Indian Red Tape and the Beurocracy and Indira Gandhi assassination and couple of minor accidents to lead to the final tragedy. Almost 70 percent of the book is not about the tragedy but an analysis of the factors leading up to it!
It is the same old story of starting with a Bang and ending in a whimper! The plant was opened with lots of positive predictions and hope and at the start it was managed very well. But as with most things in the world, maintenance is a big issue! Once the profits reduced and the management apathy started; it was downhill from the word go!
Even when there were warning signs and even couple of accidents as seen and reported! On the d day just as Dominos fall, one bad decision leads to another and that caused a massive leak of one of the most poisonous mixture of gases whose composition even to this day is not cent percent clear which further made the management and investigation an uphill task! Just like Chernobyl; here also the senior management doesn’t even recognise at first that there is a problem and when they finally get up and smell the coffee (or in this case; boiled cabbage!) it is too late! The people then are severely under qualified to do anything!
You can almost feel when it comes, and then it comes; it happens so fast and this is where Dominique shines! I can almost see traces of his magnum opus Freedom at midnight and also the City of Joy!
How tragedy makes people behave. Some become so selfish and greedy when it is told how compensation will be allotted to people and people then start grabbing dead bodies! Or when they show the humane side, like how everyone helped everyone else. The story of the tent person who donated the tent for the field camp and incidentally was the the recipient of their care! The person who donated food for the entire population in trouble! And so many more examples including the sadhu baba who with his breathing skills of a yogi was the only one who survived in his area! How many who stayed were saved, how many who left were saved! The separation and then the reunion; albeit tragic for some. The doctors and medical students who put their own lives at stake and helped one and all and suffered from the after affects of the poisoning for ages to come! How the station masters and the coolies helped save more lives. It is a tsunami of emotions and gas!
A sea of human emotions which if had to be described by words then Dominique is the guy for you.
Then come the vultures, the politicians and the lawyers and the middle men! Ones who even make dead, their business.
All in all a very touching novel with a story which must be read and made into a manual to next time make sure what to do and more importantly what not to do!
I picked this up when I was doing a sketch of Dominique as a dedication when he passed away some days back. A great man and he will be missed.
Read this one for sure and make sure you pass it on…this tragedy must not be forgotten or forgiven…
Official Sequel to ‘The Whistler’ but this is also a stand alone book; it would help you relate more to the lead character though if you finish The Whistler first which is also a great read!
Fictional thriller genre Rating- 3.5/5 as a stand alone 4/5 in comparison to The Whistler In his Jake series, John was pretty good in the first one but I felt he faltered with the second! then he regained his touch with the third though I am still not a big fan of the open ended climax!
In Camino series, the first was the best and it is downhill as far as I am concerned!; the same with Theodore Boone!
Luckily this one is almost as good or even better than the first in some aspects except maybe the ending which may not be digestible for those who seek closure!
Do not worry; No spoilers here!
If you have read “The Whistler’ you would know that Lara is a part of a team which investigates complaints against judges and after her first case it was a big thing! So it is easy to guess that this novel is also a compliant against a Judge filed initially by an anonymous source who later becomes a very important character and in the cross fire much as the ‘Whistle blower’ in ‘The Whistler’!
In typical Grisham characterisation of people in his novels, he always portrays lawyers as extremes! Either they are very rich or very poor! It was refreshing thus to see Lara who may soon get a big payday from her earlier case doing good financially! Though the office where she works is still in ruins and facing budget cuts!
So you know that the person who will be investigated is a judge but then as Grisham puts in the end; what crime can a judge do which will make the multi million dollar corruption of his previous novel seem like child’s play! Guess that and then up the ante to one more level! In fact the crime is one of the top ones and boy does that shock you in series!
With precision and planning and like a smooth criminal, the judge is a character who will disturb you for long! Patience is a virtue even for criminals and memory, however small is important! Of course there is a list and even that’s not complete im every sense!
Without revealing too much, you must grab this one with both hands especially if you have finished The Whistler and longing for more! Be prepared for an unconventional ending though since it’s not a fairly take!
Of course take heart to the fact that it’s not every day that you get to Judge the judge!
Sanjeev Kumar by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, Uday jariwala Narrated by Jasleen Bhalla Audiobook
Non Fiction Biography
Rating- Overall 3/5 and 3/5 for the story and 4/5 for the narration
This book was a guilty pleasure and a break from serious novels which I am presently reading and listening to such as A Pale Blue dot by Carl Sagan and Judges list by John Grisham!
Of course once you start listening to filmy gossip even if it is a gossip you already know, you obviously cannot stop It is understood that this is a biography not an autobiography so it means that what you listen is not the truth or direct depiction but only a point of view and this is the biggest drawback of any biography! It is simply not from the Horses’ mouth! This is however a very honest effort by the people involved to bring out the story of one of the best actors ever! The one who could pull of any role with ease and how! Even now Angoor and Pati Patni gives me a smile after watching umpteen number of times just like how Viday Balan mentions in the epilogue. He is the only one who can play any role! In fact he was the hero to Jaya B in Koshish, Father in Parichay and Father in law in Sholay! Sanjeev Kumar or Harihar Jethalal Jariwala was a typical Gujarati in his childhood and how he became Sanjeev Kumar is the story.
Starts with a brief introduction of his father and mainly his mother and his big family and how he lost his father in his childhood and the responsibility of managing the whole family was on his shoulders. How he did not complete his school and took up acting instead and how he struggled in plays and small roles for years before he made it big. Since the story is narrative from the point of view of many dear and near; it loses steam when the people who are narrating the story subconsciously put the central character as themselves and the I in the team comes into play which makes it a little skewed to say the least!
No spoilers since in the beginning itself his death and his mothers death (the two major incidents in his life) have been described rather emotionally and this is was the best part of the narration since this has to be by the third person!
The novel thus explores the relations of his friends and family including his brothers and their wife and their sons and daughters and how they interacted with him. Most of the stories and interaction have a consistent fact that Hari Bhai (as he was known) was a major addict of Smoking and Drinking and a glutton to the core! It is always said that you must never meet your hero; you must add that you must not know too much about him or her. That would make you realize that he or she is just a mere mortal and the pedestal you have placed them upon may seem shaky as it did to me!
So you have famous personalities such as Shatrughan Sinha, Gulzar, Ranjita, Parikshit Sahni, Tanuja, Sachin, Daughter of Sippy, and many others who state their interaction and relationship with him. His love and respect for his mother was mentioned by all though it seems odd that he loved and respected her so much but still use to do things which she would have felt bad like eating non veg and drinking and smoking without any control whatsoever! That is of course something personal between a mother and her son and no business of others.
Though some stories of his getting the roles of Nayi din nayi raat and Khilona has been mentioned; it could have been more elaborate since everyone likes Sanjeev Kumar the actor and not Hari Bhai; the man.
The most juicy part of the whole book of course are his affairs including and not restricted to Nutan, Hema and others. This section however reveals so many new things about how he was not a heart broken person and the affairs were not the reason for his attacks! You can listen to the whole book simply for this section! So many misconceptions and rumours will be laid to rest at least for some actresses with whom he had some links. Some though are kept under wraps with only a hint!
The author and narrators though many times are confused; they makes statements of one kind and we are presented with a story which shows something else! On one side it is told that Hari Bhai never cared about any thing and then they tell the story of how he could not tolerate anyone having the same car as he! They would tell how he was a simple man and then they would talk about his rare and costly cigarettes and his different cars! They would talk about how he was simple and uncomplicated in his room and then you would get a story of how he had a cupboard having more than 500 perfumes!
That is the problem with biography; when we ourselves don’t know what we are thinking, how can we try to think what the other person is thinking and that too when one of the authors has not even met the person!
There is also a note by his doctor who tells how modern medicine has progressed which is really sad since it gives a false sense of comfort! As a doctor I can frankly tell that however progressed medicine is; you have to first take care of your body and only then the medications would work! You cannot have a medication which will allow to drink and smoke till you drop and expect no harm would come to you!
Finally it is safe to say that it is a very interesting ride indeed and you would really like it with some breaks! You can accept his smoking like an addict since that is personal, you can also accept his drinking to a point when he is stuporous (he apparently used to become quiet and then Tanuja narrates how he knocked on her door one night in an inebriated state! Confusion thy name is biography!). We can also accept his fondness of food even if it means he eats like a glutton like there is no tomorrow and expect your body to survive! We can also accept that he had history of heart disease in the family and his time was short so he lived life kingsize!
One thing which no one should accept is his absolute lack of respect to punctuality! In fact there was a story told by Shatrughan Sinha (another in the same category; unpunctual that is!) of how they both would be sitting and smoking in their house with no work to do while the whole team and unit would be waiting for them. He would make the whole set, actresses and many directors wait and would not feel an ounce of remorse as stated by many of them in the book. You may be the greatest actor in the world but if you do not give respect to the most precious thing in the world that is time then please do not be shocked or have misbelief when time shows you your place. All the book managed to do was make me more sad and lose respect for the person in this biography; it may not be the one in his autobiography which of course we will not get to compare.
A time for mercy by John Grisham Book review with no spoilers Courtroom thriller
Rating 4/5 alone and 3/5 in comparison to ‘A time to kill’ Fictional thriller genre
An unofficial sequel to A time to kill and Sycamore Row and many characters which we have come to like and recognise are present! Jack of course is the lead and just like his previous two cases, is a sucker for cases no one wants and is on the verge of poverty!
A time to kill was the first Grisham novel and it was like an unofficial ode to ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ though a comparative analysis of both can be another blog or even a stand alone novel!
Sycamore Row was a passing case and nothing much to write home about
This sequel is stand alone but if you read the first two then a feeling of familiarity comes and you can also compare which is the best thing!
No spoiler here but if you have not read a ‘time to kill’ and do not know the final court scene ‘Now close your eyes and imagine she is white!’ Then stop reading and read the book or even watch the amazing movie simply for the gripping climax!
So while this is a standalone book, it is inevitable that it’ll be compared to a time To kill. So while the downtrodden or oppressed or the accused was a black father who killed his daughter’a rapist; here it is a teen who is accused of killing the abusive boyfriend of his mother.
Don’t worry that’s not the spoiler since it is the opening scene of the novel. The young shy boy finds his mother unconscious and unresponsive and shoots her boyfriend. The issue here is that the boyfriend is a cop and a good cop according to his colleagues! And there lies the conundrum!
Would you support a cop killer? Come Jack to the scene and then it’s a roller coaster ride! Just like Sycamore Row; here also the case is thrust upon him though he gets lots of support from the judge. Of course he gets less of that from the cops but then you get some…
Some irregularities creep in though since initially Jack was not into the job and finally he ends up getting so involved so much so that it feels a little too much! Being a doctor or lawyer; the first thing you must do is to maintain a boundary if you want to have a life of your own. Jack gets so much sucked into the personal life of his client you will be shocked! Especially the end which may seem fairy tale but in real life it’s not!
Just like Time to kill; the court scenes are the best and there is a similar zing in the climax (double zing actually!) but the biggest let down is status quo! Can’t reveal that without spoiler so let’s leave it at that!
There was a strange sense of Déjà vu because of the recently released movie Dhrishyam and its sequel! Especially when the cops try to protect their own!
As far as continuity is concerned; even John states that he was too lazy to read his own previous books so he has just written as he remembered!
All in all a very good read and I am shocked at the rate which John writes novels like a factory! Already there are three novels after this pending to be read starting with The Judges list which is a sequel to his amazing The Whistler!
John slow down! Lemme catch up with you! Have mercy!
Rating- 4/5 for the attention grab 3/5 for everything else!
Long post alert!
While listening to the pale blue dot and trying to search something about evolution; I chanced upon this article on how this ecologist and Environmentalist called Ellis Silver states that humans are not from this planet! And how his book elaborates on this! The interesting fact is that this is the second corrected and more researched edition! So even though the claim sounds crazy it made me think how the claim that its not the sun but it is the earth which moves around would have sounded to the general public and the scientific community thousands of years back!
So these are some snippets on what you can expect from the book!
Our body’s natural (circadian) rhythm doesn’t match the Earth’s 24-hour clock. This is simple enough to prove: you just deprive people of external stimuli, such as daylight and clocks, and let them wake and sleep and turn the lights on and off whenever they like. After about two weeks they’ll settle into their body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, completely out of step with the outside world, where each day lasts around 25 hours. We aren’t usually deprived of external stimuli, of course, and our biological clocks reset each morning as soon as the daylight hits our eyes. But as we’re an hour short, we feel pretty rotten when this happens. Many of us feel a massive resistance when it’s time to get up in the morning!
He says that there are only three violent animals in the world. These animals behave violently even if it’s not for food or self-defense! That means they will fight and torture other species without any rhyme or reason! The species are Chimpanzees, Dolphins (big surprise for me too!) And the top; humans! (No surprises there!). In fact humans are born with the instinct of violence which they control their whole life! The author states that this may be why the aliens of our original planet would have transported us to this prison Earth!
He informs us about cognitive dissonance which is the psychological discomfort of trying to hold two opposing views at the same time. One such view is Panspermia; which is the theory that life exists throughout the universe and is carried to other worlds by comets and meteorites and so on. The specific part of panspermia that interests scientists here is exogenesis – the theory that life originated elsewhere in the universe and was brought to Earth. This theory was first proposed in 1871 and, although it remains on the fringes of science, it’s highly plausible. Francis Crick, one of the co-dis-coverers of DNA, was a keen supporter!
He mentions a set of out-of-place artifacts such as the anomalous maps like the Piri Reis map which was created in Istan-bul, Turkey in 1513 and rediscovered in 1929. It shows the coastlines of Africa and South America with almost perfect accuracy. That level of accuracy shouldn’t have been possible at that time. We couldn’t measure longitude properly until accurate marine chronographs were invented in the 1790s. The map also shows the coastline of Queen Maud’s Land, Antarctica, including sections that have been under two miles of ice for the last two million years. And it shows mountain ranges that were only discovered in 1952. As far as we’re aware, no humans even saw Antarctica until 1820!
There are signs of ancient nuclear explosions in Rajasthan, near Jodhpur and in the Sahara Desert in and around Libya. Several sites in northern India are also contaminated by radiation. The radioactive contamination in Rajasthan has been dated to about 12,000 years ago, but it could be older. It appears to have been caused by an atomic bomb, equivalent in size to those the Us dropped on Japan during World War II. But the radiation level there today is around fifty times higher than at the Japanese sites. This cannot be explained by the current evolutionary biologists!
The appendix was thought to be the diminished remnant of the long caecum, which herbivores have to help digest cellulose. Now we’re herbivores at heart, but we don’t need to digest cellulose, so the appendix was considered redundant in us. But researchers have discovered that it stores beneficial gut bacteria. Diseases such as cholera and dysentery can kill off these bacteria in the main digestive/fecal stream, but those in the appendix are safely out of harm’s way. And that means they can repopulate the digestive system once the pathogen has passed! We can survive perfectly well without an appendix, but those who have had theirs removed may suffer an increased risk of conditions such as colitis.
In another note by Ellis Silver, he mentions how most animals wake up when they are exposed to increased levels of carbon dioxide. Now This is a useful response as it allows them to flee from things like forest fires! But Carbon dioxide has opposite effect on us, it either sends to sleep or puts us into a deeper sleep! This Could be one of the worst possible responses which kills millions of people, especially before the advent of smoke alarms! Thousands of people owe their life to the pets such as dogs and cats for waking them up when their house caught on fire!
Just as we can’t safely eat raw meat, we also can’t drink from impure water sources, even though they present no problems to any other species. Dogs, for example, come to no harm whatsoever if they drink from puddles, muddy streams and rivulets, gutters in the street, or even toilets! We have to boil, filter or chemically treat our drinking water to make it safe. The consequences of not doing so are dire! Dogs have the physiology of meat-eaters, and one of the main benefits of that is having stomach acid twenty times stronger than ours. This could be one reason why they can drink straight out of the toilet while we can’t (though I am sure no one is longing for that!)
The other reasons range from humans suffering from bad backs – which he suggests is because we evolved in a world with lower gravity – to getting too easily sunburned and having difficulty giving birth. Dr Ellis says that while the planet meets humans’ needs for the most part, it does not perhaps serve the species’ interests as well as the aliens who dropped us off imagined. Dr Ellis would be surprised if one could find a single person who is 100 per cent healthy and not suffering from some perhaps hidden or unstated condition or disorder and this might be because our body clocks have evolved to expects a 25 hour day, as proven by sleep researchers! He suggests that Neanderthals such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species, perhaps from Alpha Centauri!
You would think that even World-class athletes such as Usain Bolt must surely be physically perfect and totally free from chronic conditions right? But it’s not the case. Usain Bolt was born with scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and also has hyperactive disorder according to this book by Ellis Silver called Humans are not from earth! There are thousands of chronic, hidden (or mostly hidden) ailments, disabilities or afflictions that affect us. In fact, there is no person in the world who is hundred percent healthy both mental and physical! He or she will have some ailment or the other ranging from trivial issues (for classification sake only since it may not be trivial to the person!) like anxiety to major problems like anemia or allergy!
Scientists have also found structural differences between black and white skin! Dark skin is thicker and dermis is more compact this provides protection against skin cancer and explains what people with dark skin typically get fewer wrinkles than those with light skin. Even so, if you compare the thickness of dark skin with that of bear skin and mammals, such as an elephant or rhino human skin is much thinner! Interestingly, elephants are pretty much immune to cancer! Geneticists have found that they have 20 copies of the cancer suppressing Gene while humans have only one! This gene p53 (TP53) churns out copies of the p53 protein if it detected that a cell has suffered DNA damage or it kills the cell if the damage is too severe! So cancer does not have a chance to develop! p53 gives freedom from cancer
He talks about different animals, about lactose intolerance and so many things in favor of his theory!
Worm hole and warp drives! Yes you get a good description! Really interesting to read! And one of the most interesting chapters for a science fiction fan like me!
He mentions about how chemists have carried out experiments that simulated the atmospheric chemistry of the early Earth and then added electricity to simulate lightning strikes. The best known of these (the Miller-Urey experiment) was performed in the early 1950s by Stanley Miller at the University of Chi-cago. His chemical mix of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor was slightly off, but it produced amino acids – the building blocks of proteins. Repeating Miller’s experiment with this chemical mix of rock at that time also produces amino acids. Another experiment found that a type of pre-RNA could have formed spontaneously when molecules of barbituric acid and melamine combined!
Another “Alien” thing he mentioned (though throughout the book he mentioned many!); The Antikythera mechanism which is the first-known analog computer – is thought to date from about 205 BC. But it incorporates technologies that were previously unknown until the 14th century AD. It was found in 1902 among objects recovered from a shipwreck off one of the Greek islands. It may have been designed for calculating astronomical and astrological positions, or as a navigational tool, but the latest theory is that it was probably a teaching aid for philosophers. But how did it come to exist 1,500 years before we developed any comparable technology? Now, there are so many unanswered questions even in science or mathematics but not everyone or everything needs to be answered!
He debunks known evolutionary biologists by poking holes in their theories all supplemented by references! He does not spare creationists either!
He gives a list of Alien landings and also Alien tech (including so many techs we use today!). On top of all this he also gives a timeline of the actual deposition of humans on Earth and the evolution according to him!
Still not astonished!? Well, he also mentions in passing about Alien treaty with US president and how may have seen Aliens and the icing; how he has met two of them!
A very interesting book which kept my attention till the last page and I was almost sad to see it end!
The last five percent of the whole book is the reference which has been classified and pointed out on the lines of a scientific discussion! The only way you can read the book is to be open minded and listen to all the arguments with an open mind! A true scientific mind does not accept and more importantly reject anything without proof!
All in all a fresh perspective on evolution when I am in ocean of books by Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan!
Rating 3/5 for the characters, 4/5 for the war scenes and description 3.5/5 overall
Simple straightforward grammar which doesn’t tax your brain and a familiar story makes it easy to read and enjoy!
I am a big critic of remix and hate them to the core so a remix of Ramayana is difficult to digest even otherwise! But then like the sapta Swaras; Ramayana is a story which can be inspirational to many stories now and in the future so if you read this story as an original retelling then you can tolerate it like me!
This of course is not the first retelling of the epic since the popular Asura by Anand Nilketan is also there among others. Anand had written his story in the perspective of Ravan and lost himself and the story and the point he was making in another character!
Now coming to this final (I am assuming this since there is a conclusion and the story is not left midway like the other books in the series!); the treatment of Ravan and especially Indrajeet and Kumbhakarna is better and more humane! So much so that you almost feel bad for them when they meet their fate! ( This is of course not a spoiler since any retelling of Ramayan has to have these fixed end points!)
An additional story of Ravan and Vedavati which has been explored even in some other Ramayans and in Anand’s book has been extended here. This is the lateral story which gives the reader a modern twist to the whole Ravan and Sita conflict.
There are lots of side stories and mentions of Vishnu and Rudra which could be the seeds for new stories in the future!
There is also the famous rivalry of Vishwamitra and Vasishta which has been done to the zenith! And then some!
The building of Ram Setu was a good idea and the involvement of a new character who is totally not involved in the war may raise some eyebrows but it’s a good effort indeed!
Then what could have been the highlight of the novel; the Pushpak Viman and the adventure of getting the Sanjeevini started with a big only to end in a very sudden side note! That was anti climactic! I thought that I have skipped a few pages there!
The one prickly thorn in the novel is the treatment of two younger brothers; namely Sugreev and Vibheeshan who both went against their cruel elder brothers and chose the right path. But somehow Amit has not personally liked this! So while Sugreev story in the book has been relegated to nothing, Vibheeshan is shown to be cunning and selfish and having no love for his brother! This cannot be more farther from truth! In fact he is so good that he is Chiranjeevi! When you base your story on this epic you can play around with the characters but you cannot change their basic operating system so to speak!
Then another issue about these retelling is extra space given to non essentials in the original like the warrior Akampana and one more lady warrior who has been shown to be in love with Hanuman! That’s just not done! Believe me, you have lots of area to play around with characters without making alterations in ur basic tenet of the epic!
This of course is only my personal opinion and may be the general population may still like this treatment!
The other famous stories like of the burning of lanka and the ashok Vatika visit by hanuman has been completely revamped into something new and difficult to digest (for me only! You may still like the imagination!)
Even though the story is known, it is definitely not the same! In spite of all the reservations you may have, once you start then it is an interesting read! You really turn the pages in anticipation and enjoy the novel especially the battle and escape scenes!
All in all a good effort which is more mature than the Shiva trilogy though I still prefer that because it was new and fresh!
Definitely read if you have read the first three books and get your closure ( for now at least!)
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