Book Review – Origin, Dan Brown

There is something special about the works of Dan Brown. One of the few authors whose works of fiction I devour with passion, Dan Brown has mastered the art of writing what I would call ‘encyclopedic thrillers’. Between those covers lie a huge trove of details about history, art, religion and science. Every time I finish reading a book by him, I end up adding at least 2-3 books to my to-read list. Such an awe-inspiring author he is. However, this book turns out to be one of his disappointing efforts.

Edmond Kirsch is a billionaire computer scientist and futurist who has discovered something that could end up disturbing the deeply-seated religious beliefs. Robert Langdon, one of his trusted friends, gets invited to the event in Guggenheim museum for the announcement of that discovery. In front of the entire audience, Edmond gets brutally murdered before he could announce his discovery. Robert Langdon, having prominently figured in his pre-presentation video, and Ambra Vidal, the charming director of the museum, who worked closely with Edmond to prepare for the event, are both left to run for their dear lives. Chased by what appears to be the conspiracy to eliminate every loose end, Robert and Ambra race through the architectural and historical monuments of Spain to find out Edmond’s discovery and let it be known to the world. Did they succeed? This book answers the question.

As I already said, Dan Brown is an author who weaves a lovely tapestry of tales, putting together facts from various faculties – science, history, art, architecture, religion and what-not! His ability to weave an intricate tale is never to be doubted. But somehow in this book, they are all starting to sound so routine and to some extent even hampering the flow. Brown seems to be settling into a pattern which is not good. What worked in Angels and Demons will not work always. Robert Langdon running for his dear life, trying to unravel the mysteries, accompanied by a female protagonist, giving us lessons on history and religion - it is all starting to sound so similar. Time to think of something different?

Again, neither the story nor the ending are what used to set apart Dan’s works. If you’re a fan of Hollywood movies, who also happens to read widely about science and technology, you get to predict the antagonist and the climax well in advance – at about 200 pages itself. Once the suspense is gone, what remains is another 250-odd pages of dull and uninspiring reading. Either Dan Brown has become predictable or I have gathered the uncanny knack of Sherlock Holmes in seeing beyond the obvious. To avoid sounding so boastful, I guess it is the former that is the case.

 
Routine, predictable and sluggish, this book reminds me of a work by Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing!

Book Review – Mahashweta, Sudha Murty

OK. Let me confess. I have this bitter prejudice towards ‘celebrity’ authors. But you will understand my prejudice if you look around the current literary scenario. These days any celebrity can lend their initials – literally – to the brainchild of somebody else and smugly enjoy all the accolades and royalties for someone else’s efforts. How else can you explain it, when a fast-bowler, known more for off-field antics than on-field heroics, one who cannot even write a proper tweet without making himself a butt of jokes, suddenly writes a ‘memoir’ (!) and rakes in the moolah?!

Sudha Murty was one author whose works I had shunned for so long due to this same prejudice. I thought of her as someone who was making hay as the sun shined – hogging limelight more for her being the spouse of Narayanamurty, the legendary founder of Infosys, than for her own literary prowess. This book proved me wrong completely. This book is a flowing tale of a female protagonist, who gets shunned by all and sundry, including the man who ‘loved’ and married her, for the only reason that she has started developing white patches on her skin.

Anupama is your quintessential Indian heroine, her beauty sans pareil, her intelligence of highest order, everything about her good and lovely. The only defect about her is her poverty. Anand is an equally charming, equally brilliant, but abundantly rich hero, who falls in love at first sight with our heroine. Then come the typical step-mother and the equally typically incapable father of Anupama. On Anand’s side are his mother, who is bent on flaunting her social status, and an arrogant sister. When Anand from high-society falls in love with Anupama, they get married without any trouble. While everything seems to be going in Anupama’s favor, she develops ‘leukoderma’, which results in her developing white patches on skin. As could be expected, she gets shunned by her in-laws, with her husband proving to be utterly uncaring. Returning to her maternal home, she gets ill-treated by her step-mother as could be expected. While on the verge of killing herself, she has her epiphany and decides to take charge of her life. Was she able to rebuild her life? Did she find the overcome the ‘stigma’ of skin deformity in a society obsessed with mere external beauty? The book answers these questions.

The tale is written in a simple, flowing, interesting manner. But nothing about the book feels original. The events all remind you of those sad Indian movies of 1950s and 60s. The end is, again, not much convincing or, as modern-day ‘feminists’ might say, ‘ground-breaking’. Also the claim that there is a similar novel with the same name, written by Marathi author Sumati Kshetramade, leaves a not-so-pleasant taste in the mouth.

This book is a nice read, but nothing much can be taken from this.

Mahashweta – mixed emotions!

Book Review – Anthem, Ayn Rand

Birth and Death are both topics that have always fascinated the human mind. So are the desires for noble birth and dignified death, namely eugenics and euthanasia. Eugenics is a slightly perverted form of Evolution, the process by which Nature nurtures and culls, letting the ‘fittest survive’ and the weaklings perish. We humans have always wanted healthy children of excellent pedigree, no matter how often we are taught that we humans are and will remain imperfect and in such imperfection lies our beauty. This inability to understand made even great minds like Plato talk in glowing terms about eugenics. This inability to understand made lesser minds like Hitler and Churchill treat their fellow humans with cruelty and contempt. But luckily, this book from Ayn is not the product of such misunderstanding.

‘Anthem’ is a novella by Ayn Rand, so brief a book that you can finish reading it in a single sitting. In this dystopian work set in future, a man named Equality 7-2521, born in one of the breeding halls, instead of as a normal child to normal parents, is assigned the vocation of a street sweeper. But his heart wills otherwise, pushing him to become a scholar, seeking all that there is to learn and explore. But in the world where humans have all lost their individualities and treated as one single mass organism, his desire matters nothing to the Council, the all-powerful governing body that determines the fate of each and every human born.

Soon, our protagonist discovers two things that change his perceptions and push him on a different path – Love and an equally ‘enlightening’ discovery. But will the Council, which allows interaction between genders only as a controlled exercise for the sole purpose of breeding more humans, permit his heart’s desire to marry his ‘Golden One’? Will the World Council of Scholars accept him as one of their own when they become aware of his unapproved quests of knowledge? Will humanity ever regain its individuality, instead of behaving like one amorphous mass? Read the book and find for yourself.

This is the first work of Ayn that I am reading and I am impressed. Written in simple language and flowing style, the book is a pleasant read. In an age where people are increasingly being misled by opportunistic politicians, media magnates and corporate houses, to unquestionably believe in everything they are told, to accept lies as truths and fanaticism as normalcy, this book is a gentle nudge to any thinker worth his salt to start using the mind more and take pride in one’s individuality.

Anthem – an ever-relevant clarion call!

Book Review (!) - The Day The Crayons Quit, Drew Daywalt

OK, first of all, there is no rule that forbids grown-ups from reading children’s fiction. Second, there is no rule that prevents one from reading a book that was bought as a gift for one’s nieces either. So, as I had bought this book for my lovable little niece, after reading the recommendation from a dear friend, I decided to flip through the pages casually. But to confess, I ended up reading through the book with rapt attention. What a cute little tale to tell one’s little ones!

Little Duncan opens his crayon box one day, only to find a bunch of letters from all the colors that have decided to quit helping him color his pictures. Reason? They feel the ‘injustice’ of either not being used enough or being used to the point of ‘exhaustion’. The colors have all decided to leave letters to Duncan expressing their ‘grievances’. How poor little Duncan cleared their resentment by way of a creative – literally – solution is what all this book is about.

The book lasted hardly through a cup of green tea, but it will definitely stay on in the heart a lot longer. Once in a while, it feels very nice to shed all the pretenses of being a grown-up and indulge in such cute little books. So, if you are looking for a funny little read, not even long enough to be the preface of one of your serious big books, pick this up. You’re sure to forget yourself and relish a chuckle or two reading through the crayons’ complaints. Happy reading!

Madhaniya - A Song For All Music Lovers

Neha Bhasin! 💓

One of the magical voices out there. She can sing deep, soulful melodies that bring to mind the rustic damsel, roaming the vast farmlands of Punjab, searching for her estranged beloved. Or, foot-tapping naughty numbers of fun and frolic. She is as good at singing the native songs of Punjab as she is at rendering vamp-like croons.

Here she is singing one such a soulful melody. This song is of a girl taking leave from her parents' house after getting married. Every married woman can clearly recall the pain she felt during that moment of both pleasure and pain. Dedicated to all the married women here, who know what it feels like, to leave one house to make another. 

Though I understand less than even a smattering of Punjab, her voice conveys all that melancholy without even the need for words. After all, isn't music a thrill that transcends all the barriers made by humans?! 💓

Watch the video on Youtube

Book Review – Masterpieces of Indian Art, Dr. Alka Pande

The literary world has almost always looked down with disdain at the so-called ‘coffee-table books’. These books are considered as a not-so-serious-dabbling into their subjects, there only to serve the purpose of decoration and casual browsing. Though not all coffee-table books deserve such treatment, this one lacks the merit to be a work worthy of respect.

While I bought this, I was so glad at having added another book of art history to my collection. But this book has more flaws than merits. Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and even a glaring factual error make for uneasy reading. Just imagine the level of carelessness in preparing and editing the work, when it calls John Ruskin as the ‘ninth century art critic’, instead of ‘nineteenth century’. Another annoying aspect is that there are many photographs of artworks that are not discussed in detail and there are discussions on art pieces for which there is no photograph presented. This book thus fails to fulfill the role of an encyclopedic tome too.

The writing is not much inspiring either. If you have already gone through ‘The Wonder That Was India’, by A.L. Basham, then you can simply skip this book, unless and of course you want to own a nice-looking coffee-table decorative piece. This is a book that could have been and should have been better, considering the richness of the topic it is dealing with and the number of awards the author has won. But, alas, this book simply stirs up a passion for Indian art and leaves it unquenched.

A masterpiece this isn’t meant to be!

Book Review – Two, Gulzar

Expectations are the bane of mankind. From hermits that expect to attain salvation through penances to lesser mortals trying to reap the benefits of hard work, we are all driven by expectations of one kind or the other. No wonder then that we readers have our own expectations too – to see every book that we read leave upon us a lasting impression or a meaningful lesson. Especially if the book happens to be from our favorite authors or on our favorite topics, our expectations soar high. But, like most, a reader’s expectations too fail, at least once in a while. 'Two' is one such a disappointment. This being the work of Gulzar, a man with the knack of conveying so much in so few words, I opened it with a lot of expectations, but only to be disappointed.

Gulzar is one of those innumerable victims of the India-Pakistan partition. Being a famous writer, he has time and again recounted in his works the horrors of that blood-soaked period of modern Indian history. Like many people who had their roots on either side of the border ripped out, he too nurtures within his heart a desire to see both countries get united. Or, at least, stop quibbling like 'school boys', to borrow his words. He has always tried to heal the wounds of partition through his poems and short stories. This time, he has attempted to do the same through a new format - the novella.

This novella by Gulzar, details the calm lives of the people of Campbellpur, in that part of the country that was to become Pakistan, the chaos preceding partition, the turmoil that befell them during partition and the horrors that awaited them even during the much more civilized, modern, later days. A school teacher and his simple family, an ageing courtesan, a rich landowner forced to abandon all his wealth, truck-drivers, dhaba owners, men of narrow ideas and great ideals all form the ensemble in this emotional work. Many of them leave 'Pakistan' by foot, while a bunch of them leave by truck. But even after coming to the other side of the border, they don't find solace. They remain refugees at an emotional level, with memories of their ancestral land haunting them. Then there are the conflicts that kept happening well within and outside their country of refuge - India-Pakistan war, rise of Bangladesh, Kargil war on the outside, and the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms on the inside. Thus, like 'the dry leaves falling from the trees', they are left unhinged, thrown here and there at the whims of the political winds.

The book is brilliant in parts, be it the formation of characters, depiction of events or flow within chapters. One can feel Gulzar's indignation and deep pain at the turn of events that cleaved the great nation into two. But seen as a whole the book isn't what you'd expect from someone like Gulzar. The book simply feels like a bunch of emotional events melodramatically cobbled together, using the thread of Partition. Of course, the book is said to be based upon real events, recounted by the families that went through the pain of partition, but somehow, it doesn't all stick together as a whole. May be, Gulzar was involved in this work more as a victim, dealing with it more at an emotional level, than as an author.

A nice, simple read, from an author renowned for painting vivid pictures with his words. The book can also serve as a reminder or as an introduction to that gory part of our collective past. But as a work of literary quality, it simply doesn't count for much.

'Two' is a good book, but the parts here simply don't add up to form a perfect whole!