2 States - Chetan Bhagat

This is pop-corn fiction, modelled on a bolly/kollywood movie. The book costs the usual Rs.95 ( so wouldn’t have to worry buying pirated copies ) for its 269 pages. It’s a quick read with a very simple plotline, with dollops of humour, mostly at the expense of Madrasis ( verbatim...as used in the book ). Not to cause much consternation, there is self-deprecating humour in the form of the so called over-the-top lifestyle of Punjabis :-)

The book apparently is inspired by Bhagat's real life and takes off from the time how the two protagonists ( Krish-the Punjabi thambi and Ananya Swaminathan-the Madrasi kudi ) meet at IIM-A's mess. Bhagat doesn’t spend too much real estate on developing the romance between Krish and Ananya, since the expected plot is how the two families are going to play a big role in this love saga. There is the usual muted profanity and some Un-Indian ( as claimed in the book ) behavioral pattern to remind us that our society is in the midst of a major westernization flux. Krish and Ananya land their dream jobs and the next step is to figure out how to convince their respective families.

The hero opts Chennai as his Citi posting in order to befriend the austere tam-brahm family of Ananya's. His IIT brains are put to test by the typical nerdy younger bro of the heroine, while the Tamil maami-mom is a budding carnatic singer. And of course, the dad is a devout Hindu reading "The Hindu" which he can’t do without. To complement this Tamil family caricature, Krish's side has a retired army officer for dad ( in his chauvinistic best ) and a loud blink-i-will-cry mom who loves food and is always on the lookout for more dowry and status show-offs. There are the usual Punjabi names and the mandatory family wedding and similar such predictable references. After all machinations, Krish does end up getting the consent of Ananya's family and soon after Ananya goes to Krish's house in Delhi for a week at HLL's expense. After some tear-jerker contest between the Krish's mom and Ananya, and one wonderful act of persuasive talk by Ananya at a Punjabi wedding, Ananya wins over Krish's mom.

Not to be satisfied, the lead pair decide to force the two families to like each other. Out comes the overbeaten rivalry between Northies Vs Southies, and one must say that this part could have been played down without the crude references. However, after much ado, the families try to reach a common ground by catering to each other's preferred lifestyles. The desi drama has a happy ending with lead pair getting married in Chennai in a deliberately chosen "Arulmigu Kapaleeswarar Karpagambal Thirumana Mandapam". C’mon, it’s that not difficult to pronounce...

What carries the book are some heavy doses of humour involving Krish's first tamil boss-Bala and the loud mouthed Rajji mama from Krish's family and some sensitive moments involving Krish's dad's sudden change of heart ( cant explain what caused it though ), and a short dip into philosophy with a Pondicherry saint. Chetan Bhagat says he doesnt want to be remembered as a paragon of high pedestal english literature and so he keeps the sentences simple, and the narration just flows through. One doesnt have to wrack his/her brains to keep up with the pace of the plot. Would rate this just below "5 point someone" and definitely way above "3 mistakes of my life".

My Friend Sancho - A quickie

Amit Varma's "My friend Sancho", short listed for the Man Asian Literary award is a very quick read. Published by Hatchette, the book costs 195 Rs and is around 220 pages. With a larger than life font size and ample spacing between short paragraphs, it is a fast food novel readable in an hour or so. This book was listed on the most selling list in Odyssey and Landmark, on each of my visits within the last month or so. I finally visited his blog www.indiauncut.com a few days back after hearing so much about the man and his blog. He apparently has received some kind of journalism award and he contributed to telegraph, HT etc over the years, in addition to serving on the editorial board of Cricinfo. After reading numerous coming of age, new age early 30s indian male drunk on booze and lost love, ABCDs type stories, I had become kind of tired. But the quick visit to his blog made me buy this book and give it a shot inspite my tight schedule. So I gave in and bought the book, with the usual guilt feeling.

The story is wafer thin. Abir Ganguly, the protagonist, is a bong who is on a crime beat with the Afternoon Mail. He is called upon by a typical police wala - Inspector Thombre, who wants his share of fame, to cover an arrest in one of the city's suburbs. A case of mistaken identity resulting in killing of Mohammed Iqbal is covered up by Abir in his article. The victim's daughter Muneeza ( named Sancho by her father who himself was Don Quixote ) enters Abir's life when Abir is directed by his superfluous boss to cover the life of Iqbal. Romance is in the air between the two and Abir gives a peek into his life led as a bachelor hard done by laziness and creative urge to cook up stories for his paper. Meanwhile, his new boss at work, Sandhya, gives him the veiled managerial talk to cover not just Iqbal, but also Thombre and leave the judgement to audience on who really is the culprit. Inspite of loathing Thombre, Abir does take the pains of getting to know his subject and in the due course empathizes with the police wala and his like. The chemistry between Abir and Muneeza is not evocative and is done in by Abir's revelation towards the end that he was witness to her dad's killing. As expected, she does flee from him and the book ends with Muneeza saying just a "hi" to him. I was left with, "what the heck" type feeling, but since I didnt waste too much time on the book, I came over the disappointment and went back to what I want to do best....snooze.

Abir's supervisor at work and few other bosses are caricatured along predictable lines. A talking jealous lizard from Abir's delusional mind is supposed to be his alter ego or rather his straight talking self-conscience. There are few really good laughable lines, such as the unique way of stating something outlandish towards the end of a very normal list of things, and then disclaiming that he didnt really mean the last sentence. I guess, those things and their essence cant be recreated in any review or blog. So if one is curious, please feel free to borrow it from me :-)

Its Not About The Bike - ( Lance Armstrong ) - A short take

This is what I would call a page turner. A close friend of mine got this book for me from Landmark and challenged me if I could read this book within 2 days. Sure I won the bet and I am entitled for another book now ;-)

Not many autobiographies are as engrossing as this one was, which mainly has to do with the language and prose of the book. The book is of 294 pages and is worth the Rs.376. At the very outset Lance lets the readers know that this book is not for the squeamish hearted since he chronicles his fight with cancer to a large extent. He comes across as a brash Texan to start with and these are the very qualities which has helped him overcome the cancer and also most of his cycling conquests. Sometimes athletes have that extra bit of aggressiveness ( not all are as passive as tendulkar or dravid, but we also have bhajji and ganguly to balance them ) which helps them conquer hardships, with otherwise might prove to be quite overwhelming. Armstrong is a shining example of one such athlete.

Throughout the book, he pays rich ode to his mom who single handedly brought him up inspite of all the hardships she faced in making ends meet. His wife came into picture much later, but she was equally instrumental in him getting back on the bicycle post his recovery. He talks about his mentors, the neighbourhood cycle shop owner who sponsored his first bicycle, his agent, his coach at the US national team and also the coach of USPS team ( for which he raced and won the Tour de France a record number of times ). He also lets us in on how corporates wrangle to sign stars when they are hot property, but wouldnt mind ditching the very same stars when they are down and out. It is quite moving to know how his perspective changed with regard to life, cancer victims, the sport he so loves so much...post his cancer. His cancer foundation, Livestrong, has since become a big movement. The inlaid pictures from his life help to add value to the words.

One gets to know a lot about competitive cycling - the preparation, the physical attributes required, the tactical strategies, ego clashes, doping and more. Its quite a non-melodramatic work, but has an underlying emotional quotient while conveying the values of faith, self-determination, and having an open mind in general. A must read.

Wings of Fire - APJ simplified

With a 3 day break from office work, I decided to catch up on the books which I had piled up with the expectation that I would read them ( and I bought into the fact that reading fiction is a waste of time, and now I see myself surrounded by non-fiction books, mostly dealing with globalization, flattening, roundening and all kinds...). First in line was the semi-autobiography of my alumni - the great APJ. Having bought the book back in August-08 at a book fair in my office, I had been reading this book in fits and starts. I graduated from the same institution from where APJ found his calling, and naturally I expected to get an insight into his college life from this memoir. This time I did end up finishing the book and was glad I started off with a simple, but powerful and informative piece of non-fiction.

"Wings of Fire" is very simple in what it covers :
His personal life - 20%
His professional life - 60%
His philosophical leanings - 10%
His managerial learnings - 10%

Unique features :
Haiku type poems, either quoted or self-scripted.
A summary of the inception and progress of Indian space and missile programs
Simplified way of building a team and motivating them


APJ pays ode to his parents, close family, his mentors at college and work, his colleagues and all. He traces his humble beginnings, and how that laid the foundation for his quest to achieve rarefied heights. However, he does make a brief mention about his colleagues who envied the success which he achieved in his work sphere, but with no vitriol. At times one might not be able to really feel his inner urge to reach out to the Almighty.

This book has a very Indianness feel in its writing, in the sense that there arent too many fancy words to confuse the non-literati ( if ever there is such a word ) ;-). However, it caters to definitely 3 groups of people :
Youth - It is a must read for the youth of this country, who would have the time on their side to implement or follow the learnings outlined by APJ
The Curious - Has a narrative running through the length of the book chronicling the development of the Indian space and missile programs
Managers and Leads - A distilled version of management mantra for building and fostering an ultra-productive team.