Book Review: No Higher Honor by Condoleezza Rice

When I read about the launch of this book, it piqued my interest a bit. I'm not much of a biography or a memoir fan, but Condoleezza Rice's tenure as the American NSA and Secretary of State were one of the most tumultuous of my times. The Indo Pak Karil war, 9/11 , Israel Palestine War, Israel Syria war, Iraq war, Afghanistan war and 26/11 attacks,North Korean Nuclear tests, the worst recession ever and George.W.Bush!!!!!

The book reads like a compilation of world happenings in the first decade of 2000. You get some insight into the way American dealt with many issues that happened and how the discussions to resolve many a dispute played out.

It was an interesting book to read. However, it could have been a lot better if it had not been stuck in a loop about Israel and Iraq. 

These two entities make repeated appearances throughout the book that you almost start to believe that Condoleezza Rice did nothing else. This is partly due to the fact that she goes to great lengths to describe the logistics of each Israel - Palestine talks happen or her trips to Iraq. But when it comes to the incidents in the rest of the world, she rushes through the portions as though they were gossip news. I say this purely from observing how much space she devotes to the major incidents in the S.Asian region. Namely, the Lal Mosque siege in Pakistan, 26/11 and the Nuclear deal. These incidents were major ones and played out big time our news. Make no mistake, she has devoted chapters to two of the three items i have quoted here. But they are not described in the level of detail she describes for instance, her dinner with the Saudi King and her meeting with the Matriarch of the Royal family!

Despite all of this, this book is an interesting read in understanding how crucial the role of Secretary of State is. 

Book Review : Steve Job, A Biography by Walter Isaacson

Enough Has been written about Steve jobs and the biography. I'm going to just keep this short and brief.
The book is an awesome read for someone in the IT industry and especially if you are following the gadget world.
The book provides an insight into the working of the Jobsian mind.  What one discovers in the course of reading the book is that Steve Jobs, the man was a man obsessed with details even if its about something no one will notice. Here is a sample, how would you react if your CEO spends hours debating and deciding on the exact shade of gray, yes the shade of gray and not which color, to use on , hold your breath, the toilet sign in an Apple store. Yep, that was Steve Jobs and you won't be at fault to think that he was crazy, because he was!
His craziness is what made him obsessive and that obsession is what made him driven, his drive is what made him realize his obsessions and that's has made Apple what it is today.
He took on an approach where every product that had an Apple logo on his guard was his child. He had a say in the outcome of every piece of screw and glue that went into Apple products. He did not do so just to micro manage, he did so out of real passion in his beliefs that a true standard of a product is not just in how it is built on the outside, but on this inside as well.
As a human being, he probably will get ranked 0.5 on the scale of 10 with 10 being the best human being ever. He was a jerk and a good one at that. He made lives of his co-workers miserable, trash talked their work, claimed their ideas to be his, did board room wars(though I would not count this in the reasons) and drove people insane with his methods. The few who realized the positive of staying with him, survived the Jobsian ways and made their careers. The rest just left.
The mix of the  Jobs persona just tells you the don'ts of a human life and his obsession to delivering a quality products teaches the reader how driven one must be, if one must make a mark in the world.
The awesome mix of jobsian persona and his chequered career is finally what makes the book tick. This will definitely be one of the top ten of my fav books.
Addendum: My wife (a non techie) tried to read this and lost interest 10% into the book. She could not understand whats the big deal about Apple1 and LISA and yadda yadda. Thats a confirmation that this book is only for  gadget fans or for management students 

Book Review:The Millenium Trilogy- Stieg Larsson

The Millenium Trilogy has become a cult classic of sorts hitting best seller lists all over and winning critical acclaim worldwide. So, when I picked up the first book in the trilogy, expectations were, naturally sky high.
Did the book measure up to the hype? Does it belong right there with the greatest of the great books? Is it one of the books that makes you want to read it over and over, again and again?
To begin with, i must find a nice log of wood, just squat and a feet long, to clobber the idiot who named the books. The names are so cliched that they might as well belong in a 80s chinese movie. That apart, they dont give a clue as to their place in the sequel. I ended up reading part 3 first.. . *gasp*.. I told ya. The worst is yet to come. I realized that only after I finished reading it. *gasp*.. i told ya already.. if that makes me an airhead, so be it. But I will stick to my complaint.. silly names for the book. They might have as well been named Millenium Trilogy -1,2 and 3. I hear that their swedish books have appropriate names.. Anyway.. lets move past names.
Stieg Larsson is a master writer and there is no doubt about it. To write a book that spans a 1000 pages over three volumes and write it in such detail that it might as well be used as a script in a movie and keep the reader glued to the three books and that too in a genre that is not Fantasy or War or High voltage spy games is a stupendous feat. Stieg Larsson has weaved a plot that must involve about hundred characters (i have not kept count) and all around just two central figures, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.  While all the three books involve the two central characters, they are episodic in nature. The first book has two stories. One about the missing prodigal daughter of the Vanger family. She's been missing for 40 years and Blomkvist is called upon to dig up the reasons behind her disappearence/murder. The second one is about a financial powerhouse run by Wennerstorm and how Blomkvist must attempt a second time to uncover the dirty scoundrels behind the empire.
The second and the third books (no, i wont name them.. you go figure that out yourself) are two parts of the same story. The history and future of Lisbeth Salander.
While the one line synopsis may not sound much to go on, Stieg Larsson builds the plot with a touch of a veteran writer (this was his debut and his only series before he died tragically). He weaves the characters in books to almost a life like form. Their raw nature keeps you intrigued till the very end. He does justice by keeping their characters true to their original form till the very end. In other words, a socially introverted and a untrusting woman as Salander is, suddenly does not become emotional or soft as the series closes.
So how does the books work? Part one is pure adventure and its easy to see how that works. The second and third part seem to work so well due to sheer realism. The opinion of realism is obviously subjective and is based one what one believes could happen and that one finds it too much to happen in reality. The plot is such that it could happen if one is willing to overlook a few fundamental flaws.
I cannot review this book without referring to its weakness, casual sex. The books are peppered with it. Nothing detailed or shedonesque. But just that Blomkvist takes women to bed more than he takes them out for coffee and they all seem to be ready to jump into his bed. Someone wrote that these books have drubbed an already drubbed Swedish society. I can see why. While I have no idea if Swedish culture is such, i can understand why it can be exasperating if its way out of line.
I'm not going to get into the plot summaries and reviews of prose on a translated book. I will just sum this up as a book everyone must read. This is like watching a good suspense thriller like.. say Se7en. If i open a genre in my collection for simple crime thrillers, these books go right at the top. These books will definitely figure in my top 10 recommendations for a young reader for they have message too, delivered in a dark package.
Please do give it a read. Remember, this a dark crime thriller.

Book Review: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

When I saw Shantaram on the bookshelves of a leisure store a few years back when it was launched, I did pickup the book and read the synopsis. It said.. "The story of a fugitive from Australia who sneaks into Mumbai and ends up in the slum and joins the mafia and goes on to fight with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan  against the Russians. "
I dismissed it as a yet another attempt to write a cliched book on India and its miseries. I never thought about the book again though the unusual name for the 900 + pages tome stuck in my mind. Fast forward 2011. When I chanced upon the book again. This time I did not read the synopsis. I already knew it. How strange! I opened and read the first page.
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.

In my case, it's a long story, and a crowded one. I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison. "

What a start! I was intrigued and I picked up the book. It took me a well interrupted 3 weeks to finish it and am not proud of it. But I must say this. The three weeks were perhaps one of the best three weeks of reading in my entire reading life. This book will go right up there as one of my top 10 favourites.

So what makes the book click? To start with there is the simple and yet astoundingly lovely prose. Personally I for one never give much thought to prose in books as long as they read nice. This book simply floored me with the simplicity of the lovely prose.

Then there are metaphors. We can perhaps compile a book of metaphors from Shantaram. That is the strength and the weakness of the book. GDR uses the to a great effect. 

"Kavita hugged me. It was the hug of a woman who trusts you completely. The hug of a woman who knows your heart belongs to another woman". 

The way GDR describes every aspect of every scene to its minute details in his powerful and simple prose literally transports the reader to the middle of the scene and inside the body of Linbaba a.k.a Lindsay a.k.a Shantaram a.k.a anonymous. The lead characters original name is never revealed through the book. Since the book has been written from a first hand perspective, one is led to believe that this is an autobiography of the author, which he claims it is not and has however said that it uses many incidents from his life.

So, what is the story? the all important plot that is the lifeline of any work of fiction. I must say that there isn't one. Before you jump out of your seat. Let me add, that there isn't one story. There are many. The book begins with the arrival of Lindsay who is later rechristened as Linbaba by Prabhakar. Lin is intrigued at first by the happiness he sees in the many shanties in Mumbai. He begins touring Mumbai with the help of Prabhakar and is slowly swept into the cosmopolitan circle of Leopolds where he meets many expats who have settled down in Mumbai. Each one has a story of their own that they do not wish to share. Lin understands. Losing his money and other possessions in a theft, Lin is left with no choice but to shift to the slum Zhopadpatti. He is soon enamoured by the camaraderie and kinship of the entire society which leads a poor but principled life. Living peacefully in the slums, Lin soon meets with Kadher Khan, the good bad guy of Mumbai! and so the story goes, money, mafia wars, crime syndicates inter-vine with the personal ups and downs of lin . 

By now, the reader has barely touched 300 pages. The story is more of what Lin sees , does and experiences in his life in the sprawling city of Mumbai, his life as a criminal, his life as a Mujahideen, his life as a fugitive. 

The book is full of several interesting takes on religion, science, war and crime. Finally what makes this book an epic is its positive outlook on even the corrupt and negative aspects of Indian culture. I can go on and on, but its a book that must not be read. It must be experienced. If you have not read it, do yourself a favor pick it up and you'll definitely find some good in it.

Book Review: The secret of Nagas

I finally wrapped up Shantaram on Friday and finished the Secret of Nagas over the weekend. The book had better plot and is immensely readable. Amish has taken forward the debate on the concept of what is evil and how does one define it. The whole premise of the book is that 'Evil is in the eye of the beholder' and Amish has woven the whole plot around this basic concept and how Shiva, the man, literally crowned the Neelkanth for no reason other than his blue throat and given a status of a super hero, tries to help the kingdom Meluha, in its quest to vanquish its evil enemies. 

This quest carries him to the breadth of India and then on its length. Each battle is an eye opener and Shiva continues to discover the definition of evil is quite different from what one perceives. In this quest, he is assisted by a plethora of Kings, princes, princesses and others. The man, Shiva, who refuses to acknowledge his superhero status, wins people over by his deeds and deliverance of what he truly believes to be the contextual justice. Yet, at every step, he is surprised by the turn of events and the many faces of evil he discovers. Vasudevs, the clan of priests who advise him on his quest, direct him to seek the greatest of all evils and vanquish it, just like his predecessor, the great Rudra did. 

Strangely this what would be an epic journey throws his personal life and family in the direct line of fire and his constant struggle to make amends for his own failures and the pressure to keep his promises make up the drama portions of the story. 

The reader would find it interesting as a story given the spin that has been given to the traditional Hindu characters of Shiva, Sati, Daksha, Nandi, Veerabhadra and the rest. Readesr who are not familiar with Hindu mythology must be forewarned that the plot and the characters are just namesakes and have nothing to do with the actual Hindu mythology.

The two books , Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas are good books that are worthy reads given their fantasy genre and a healthy mix of masala. The points i have made about the earlier book holds good for this too. The prose is very average and the fantasy world has not been given too much focus like a Hogwarts or the Middle earth. Nevertheless, its a worthy read and more importantly will most likely make you want to read the third in the trilogy 'The oath of Vayuputras'.

Book Review: Immortals of Meluha by Amish

What if Shiva was a man as human as anyone can be thrust with an enormous burden of responsibility to fight for good and vanquish evil, thrust with a stature of god for reasons he cannot come to terms with, and not a worker of miracles like the lore says?
What a brilliant premise for a work of fiction? Amish does not disappoint. He has woven a fine work of classic Indian masala with a stage of all too familiar mythological names with a good dose of magic, bravery, brotherhood, romance and social issues into a story that often teeters to the grade of a B grade flick. But it is gripping nevertheless.
A self doubting , grounded and flawed man that Shiva is , instantly wins the reader's affection as a good hearted leader of a neighborhood youth brigade. Amish portrays Shiva as a people's leader who detests being bestowed any titular position and constantly reminds others that he is their friend and not a Lord as they often call him.
He has been lured out of his homeland at the base of the great Himalayas into the all too ideal land of  Meluha that is the land of Suryavanshis, the descendants of Lord Ram! He has been sought out and crowned as Neelkanth who is prophesied to be the saviour of all that stands for good. Like any grounded man, Shiva is at first baffled at this coronation. Soon and very soon, he finds himself in the midst of terrorist attacks and finds himself successfully defending the soon to be his sweet heart Sati from the hands of a powerful Naga (evil deformed monsters) who are after Sati, thereby further influencing the Meluhan's conviction that he is the Mahadev.
Soon, Shiva finds himself leading a battle against the Chandravanshis who are blamed for the repeated terrorist attacks on the Suryavanshi villages. The book weaves the plot leading up to the grand battle scene that stirs the reader's imaginations with its detailed formations and fights.
Amish does a fine job developing the characters in the book. Many of them are stellar personalities worth admiring. Parvateshwar the general is a worthy mention for his stern and yet fair demeanour towards Shiva. Needless to say, Shiva himself admires Parvateshwar for his righteousness.
Sati is another fine character Amish weaves into the book. The sparring between Shiva and Sati during the initial stages of the book is endearing for its brilliant dichotomy in the behavior of the two characters. Shiva his unabashedly brazen advances to be close with Sati while Sati herself a dignity personified flame that refuses to be disturbed by the winds that Shiva is, trying to swirl around and win her heart.
Where Amish Falters, is in his imagination and creativity. His imagination of Meluha is all to familiar modern day City but placed in the BC 1900s. It does not interest a reader that a 1900BC city actually has water taps or under ground drains. What has been squandered away is an opportunity to do a J.K.Rowling on this mythical and yet ideal city of Meluha.  Likewise the concept of Ayodhya being an uncouth society full of citizens every ready to indulge their desires of flesh is all too unimaginative and belongs in a B-Grade Hollywood flick some Chennai Based former Tennis aces would have produced out of Hollywood.
It has been said before and I repeat it, the conversations and phrases used are sometimes too American and seems tailored to the American audience than to the originality of character. "Is that the best line you can come up with " , "Is she spoken for".. are modern day usages that seem rather out of place in a book that is placed so far before Christ. Thankfully we don't have any characters using 'Holy Christ'.
Having pointed out the flaws, they can be forgiven for the sake of the overall story which is gripping and engaging to the last line. Hopefully Amish has saved enough delicacies to last two more books of the trilogy. The second part, the Secret of Nagas due in a month hopefully would be as interesting if not better than the first one.
Go for it, you may find yourself sneering in the beginning, but its a good book towards the end. The characters have been introduced, traps laid, let the story unfold Amish.
One more thing. While the characters are all too familiar mythological Hindu gods and their aides, the story itself has little to do with their mythology. Its important that young readers do not confuse the story to be the real story of Shiva. It is not.

Gandhi was bisexual?

Controversial book on Gandhi banned. Apparently a new book says that Gandhi was bisexual and so India has banned the book and sic is even contemplating a blasphemy law appropos Gandhi. Does not make sense to me. If this is all that is 'controversial' in the book. I say 'controversial' because .. i do not understand what is controversial about someone being bisexual. For heavens sake. half of the world's saints were thugs, womanizers before they became saints or were anointed one.

If all of Gandhi's sins were being bisexual or drinking or eating meat before he changed himself to  become a Mahatma, i say fine! He was all of that and none of it matters to an Indian than what he achieved for India. 

For example, Churchill was a complete bigot and yet he is regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the empire for his leadership during world war 2. Everyone accepts Churchill's duality of character.

Does the book say that he did nothing for Indian independence, ban it. But not for this. Get over it India. so what if our great Mahatma was bisexual or drank wine or was an avid racist in his earlier life?   Remember? he was not born a Mahatma. So we have to make allowances for the  'coming of age' period of his life. It was what he did in his later life is what made him a Mahatma and that is what we must be proud of. All of this even without a shred of proof of whether he was one or was not one. I just do not care.

I say sue the author for libel if we are so sure. Even then I do not know how calling one a bisexual becomes libel. If not, lets not give it more publicity than it would merit otherwise. Lets just get back to cricket.