A CANARY'S DIARY: Indian Authors

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Where The World Is

“So what is that you are reading in that Madam?” he asked leaning over my seat. Bus journeys bring me a new kind of trepidation every time despite being a regular commuter of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation services, well for reasons known. I must confess that this time I was disturbed in the middle of reading a very intense book on life’s simple pleasures written by Ruskin Bond, well who else.

I looked up, and what I saw was wonderful. It sort of made my day.

The curiosity in his eyes, very childlike much against the obtuseness of the regular bus conductors I have come across. I do not blame them, but such is their peripatetic life.

“It’s a book” I replied with all the politeness I could and the inspiration I had gathered from Bond’s writings.

“It doesn’t look like one!” he giggled.

“Arey Saaar! It’s a big phone, I have seen this with many rich people these days, so how much does it cost Madam?” inquired an equally curious lady sitting behind me, munching on a handful of peanuts.

There is no right place or people or time for such engaging conversations here in India. If you give yourself a chance they are bound to happen, after all they aren’t of any harm, all these infectious chit chatter.

“It’s an Ebook reader, instead of carrying many books we can read in just one” I replied.

Their inquisitiveness was bound to increase, what followed were a twenty more questions. The journey turned out to be very interesting for me, the whole experience of making such naive people understand what Kindle and such gadgets are all about, thankfully they did not think of me as some great show off like people usually do.

“So how many books do you have in this?” he asked.

“Around five hundred…”

I replied and continued reading, and when I did that he was brimming with amazement or amusement of some kind, either of the two or both maybe, I am not very sure.

“MADAM ! So you have the whole world in your hands!”

He opined so with a smile and went about his duty of issuing tickets and checking the passes of fellow passengers. The lady was back to her peanuts.

And I was back to my Kindle His admittance was very subtle and nice indeed. I have read a hundred books last year for kicking a start. Reading is something I am willingly working on now. Be it the choice of books or the reading speed, there is always something beyond our horizons and I am realizing this over time, with every word, with every line and every book. The world is indeed in our hands while we are reading and by one of those happy coincidences I happened to come across these words from Bond himself:

-R.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

God Is A Gamer - Book Review

Picture Courtesy

“Burger and Vada Pav in my plate!”

Very amusingly my feeling was similar to this while reading the book ‘God Is A Gamer’ the first ever bitcoin thriller authored by Ravi Subramaniam,a story set against the backdrop of financial service industry. This was my first read of this author’s work after having received a copy from Blogadda under the Book Review Program. His other works- If God was a Banker (2007), Devil in Pinstripes (2009), The Incredible Banker (2011), The Bankster (2012) and Bankerupt (2013) are on my reading list now.

Looking at the titles of his previous works it is but obvious to expect some money and trade in the story. The author has ventured into deeper aspects of running gaming companies, corporate sectors, finance ministry, politics and personal issues. Multiple characters and situations run in parallel in the United States and India in this story. Assassination, deaths, ATM robbery, game launch, drugs, parties, affairs and many other intriguing things keep a reader glued to the suspense, so many incidents in different parts of the world happen simultaneously.

The ‘UNPUTDOWNABILITY’ of this book is due to the twists and turns, and probably the selection of readable words. Few aspects mentioned are well researched and interesting, like Socrates Death and the Misznay Schardin effect. That was some general knowledge gained. The first few pages are more like connect the dots, till you find your way through the maze with the short chapters. The tension is highly escalated through each page and the people in the story are portrayed with their own vulnerabilities, like any of the usual thrillers of today.

What puzzled me was the subtitle, while the book asks “Is Revenge A Crime?” I could only figure out the revenge element of the story in the epilogue which seems to be hurriedly written. As in what, why and how it happened is being summarized in a couple of pages, although for a moment in the end you know Varun is up to something at Tanya’s house, for me the plot was a give away at that point when he throws something in her cupboard. I wouldn’t be giving any spoilers in this review. As an Indian reader who is reading an Indian author the book left me hungry for more, maybe for an inspirational character or a memorable dialogue. I was a little disappointed about that, you know the kind of impression one gets when you read the last line of the book and close the cover” Tch! Just an another brave attempt at an Indian thriller!” plainly it was just that. Also there are a few grammatical and spelling errors in two or three places, I wish they were avoided. I did enjoy the book while travelling to work last week, and I do plan to read more of this author. If God is a gamer, we are his players indeed. If there are more books, they are worth reading indeed.

A few of my favorite lines from the book:

“Career longevity is more important than career enhancement…If you live, you get to fight your battle another day”

“Success is not always measured in terms of dollars earned or turnover. It is measured in terms of the difference you have made to the people around you.”

”The problem with theorizing on the basis of incomplete facts is that we end up twisting the facts to suit the theory. We should be doing it the other way round”

Last but not the least, one from Ravi himself:

KEEP WRITING AND SMILING YOU TOO ! :-)