Categorized as a superhero fiction, a part of speculative fiction by the author; the story narrated by the author often blurs boundary. A part “social satire”, a part “super-villain” story, a part study of human evolution; The Legend of Yuck-Man begins as a story of exploitation and displacement fostered by greed and augmented by capitalism; however, it soon descends in
Read moreI picked this book up at the Bombay airport a few years ago and read it on my journey to Delhi. At that point, I just remembered Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron as the movie that had that timelessly funny Mahabharat scene, which as college students we would watch on loop sometimes, on Youtube. The rest of the movie was a blurry
Read moreThe second book of the Hastinapur duology, The Rise of Hastinapur, concentrates on the second and the third generation of the Kuru clan, mainly the Queens. This book revolves around Amba who was wronged by Bhishma’s actions and whose daughter eventually led to Bhishma’s death; Gandhari, the queen of Gandhar, who was later married to Dritarashtra, the grandson of King
Read moreThere has been a dearth of good readable Indian history books and The Ivory Throne helps fill that void. (Other eminently readable and lesser known Indian history books: 1857 by Vishnu Bhatt, Do and Die by Manini Chatterjee). Manu S. Pillai’s Ivory Throne is a fantastic book that chronicles the history of the kingdom of Travancore. To be frank, I only picked the book
Read moreThis virtually unknown book came to my attention as I was trawling Amazon’s book pages during one of their umpteen ‘Dhamaka’ sales. Filled with anecdotes that went on behind the scenes during the making of ‘Sholay’, I found the book a terrifically fun read. ‘Sholay’ started off as a four sentence story idea that Salim and Javed had about a
Read moreWhen I took up the book for reading expecting some run of the mill stuff with perhaps a touch of suspense laced in to a romantic story… just to catch the fancy of the casual reader! ! But let me tell you… I was in for a pleasant surprise. Love Kills is unique.. it is not what you would look
Read moreThis was the first Jhumpa Lahiri book I read and from the get go, I was enchanted by the poetry of Lahiri’s prose. It is a little difficult for people who have grown up reading Jeffrey Archer’s short stories – people like me who expect every story to have a beginning, a premise and an end – to fully appreciate
Read moreSyed Hussain Zaidi’s Byculla to Bangkok is touted as the sequel to Dongri to Dubai but it fails miserably, leaving very few traces of coherence in chronology. It is the first time in my life that I have been disappointed by a Hussain Zaidi book; even Rahul Bhatt’s sob story, Headley & I (co-authored with Zaidi), was far more tolerable.
Read more‘Being an avid reader of crime fiction myself, I have always harbored an ambition to make my own humble contribution to this genre,’ said writer Sourabh Mukherjee in an interview. ‘The story, of course, had its germs in my own interests in human psychology and in the complexities of human relationships, especially in these times of changing social order.’ ‘Also,
Read moreTo me, ‘God of Small Things‘ has always been the gold standard for the kind of book that should win a Booker. Booker winning book after book since has disappointed me sorely. The Booker Prize it seems, is more about the one eyed amongst the blind and not really the best book of the year. That said, ‘The White Tiger‘
Read moreI normally like to read the blurb and the prologue before selecting a book as I believe some synopsis do not do justice in getting the right feel of the story. The blurb of this one highlighted a very different kind of a subject and that made me pick it up at the very first instance. Naina and Manish are
Read moreWarning: Mild Spoiler Alert Let us assume that you have no idea who Amrapali was and what the various re-tellings of her story have been. Let us assume that you have not seen the movie starring Vyjayanthimala, read Acharya Chatursen’s Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu, seen Hema Malini’s TV series. Lets just take this book as a piece of fiction loosely based
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