Monday, February 22, 2010
The Happy Associate - free download
The Happy Associate (Tranquebar, Rs. 150) is the book we should scratch each other’s eye out to get our hands on. It’s vicious, hilarious take on Delhi and it’s hair-gelled, paneer sushi-munching denizens. Author Urja has taken an electric snapshot of middle-class Dilliwallas through the eyes of Kirti a.k.a. underdog(“When I first overhead it. I told myself that it sounded cool. Like an American rapper’s name.”). our hero is a “twenty-six-year-old dude, fair-skinned and slender” who is an associate in a Delhi accounting firm(“the kind of firm with expensive sculptures, girls in suit-boot, and tax deals in billions”). He’s a small-town guy with roots “in a bright bowl of north India where the holy tulsi grows” with big city aspirations. Kirti’s life is all about manoeuvring through office parties, games of Scrabble, speaking bad Hindi( “this makes them assume that I am so comfortable with English, that I am shaky with Hindi”) – and impressing Mandira Rastogi. Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho-meets-Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
Energy Efficiency And Climate Change - Book download
Let’s get energizedWith the fumes of Copenhagen Climate Change summit still in the air, quite a slew of books on environment have reached the bookshelves. This one looks at one of the key aspects of the debate on global warming: energy efficiency and its role in development and enhancing the environment.
What makes this book attractive is that it begins with the story of how it all began: the misuse and overuse of resources. It then moves on to tackling what can be done now to save whatever is left. There is also an ‘independent assessment” of the arguments and theories that are doing the rounds on climate change in terms of causes, outcomes, mitigation and policies.
For those who are new to this world buzzing with climate jargon and theories, read the first chapter. It dissects the issue of energy efficiency well. It’ll help new converts understand the basic issue of how energy efficiency links up with larger national goals such as poverty alleviation, environment degradation and green house gas emissions.
While the preference traces the beginnings of industrialisation and where the world went wrong, the following chapters take the readers through inter-relations among the environment, energy and economy, the climate, market-based measures as means to unfold climate change mitigation, commericalisation of clean technology and the role of institutions in promoting energy efficiency.
Since clean technologies is what everybody is talking about these days, the chapter on what it takes to commericalisegreen technologies will be of particular interest.
A handy book, the rather bladly titled Energy Efficiency And Climate Change has the strength to draw in a wider range of readers and not only get academics and policy wonks to nose their way through the chapters. Having said that, a line on the book cover: I am yet to fathom what the picture is all about. Couldn’t it have been made a little more interesting? After all, isn’t this the right time to get readers interested in – as some wag put it – hot air?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Menopausal Palestine by Suad Amiry
Suad Amiry, author of the Menopausal Palestine wrote her first book "Sharon and My Mother in Law" in her 50s. In her book Suad tells about her sroties of loss of Palestine through her characters., she also recall the social history of her country through the stories of unusual group called Committee of Ramallah Independent Menopausal enterprise (CRIME). The setting is a cafe and time is a day before hamsa sweeps the 2006 election in Gaza.
In some parts of the books author also mentiones about babies, wedding nights and eventually topics remains Hamas. Also opposing tto tha Fatwah of Hamsa for all womens to wear HIJAB (veil), Suad says if she's forced to wear hijab she will design the sexies hijab in the world.
As an overall review of the book, Suad used a styles of being singular and uses humour and everyday experinces of life in Palestine.
The Quarantine Papers - MUMBAI TERI JAAN-
CITY BLIGHTS The story of a plague, riots, the Oak family and a metropolis
If The Quarantine Papers by Kalpish Ratna has a major flaw, it’s this: it turns you into an anti-social element.
I foolishly began reading it on a Thursday evening. The next day, I deeply resented the need to go to the office, deeply resented having to go out for a drink, deeply resented everyone who phoned me, deeply resented everything that kept me away from the book.
Naturally, this made my work and relationships hell for a while, but it did bring some sunshine into a couple of people’s lives. Namely Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, surgeons, writers and the two halves of the duo that comprise the pseudonymous writer, Kalpish Ratna. “It vindicates us as authors of the book,” says Sayed.
Why The Quarantine Papers should require vindication is beyond me. It is a gripping, highly textured, very solid novel that had drawn me wholesale into its world(s) and even now, three weeks since I finished the book, I hate being away from it.
Briefly, The Quarantine Papers glides smoothly between the Bombay of December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was torn and communal passions ran high, as lived by one Ratan Oak, a microbiologist, and the Bombay of 1896, when the plague swept through the city and intensified communal hatreds, as lived by Ratan’s great-grandfather, Ramratan Oak, a mortician. But so much is packed into the book that you could get quite breathless. For instance, Ratan Oak learns that he’s not only Ratan Oak. He’s also Ramratan Oak, his great-grandfather. And he’s part of a pact between people from several communities, a pact to stop hate.
Then there’s the brilliant sarcasm(ooh, it is lovely) that shows how colonial rule in India was not the happy Raj party that the British would have the world(and us) believe it was. There are fascinating passages on the development of medicine in India and the world. And there are relationships to sort out-between lovers, spouses, parents and children, and friends.
But where did the idea to tie the plague of 1896 with the communal tensions of 1992 come from? “Well, we’d always wanted to write on Bombay and on the history of medicine, and that’s what this is,” says Sayed. Adds Swaminathan: “When we researched a non-fiction book on the plague (Uncertain Life and Sure Death: Medicine and Mahamaari in Maritime Mumbai), and we came across so much rich material in the state archives, we knew we had our book.”
And a little help from a newspaper reporter who covered the communal carnage of December 1992, and you learn that the only truly fictional elements in The Quarantine Papers are Ratan and Ramratan Oak(But we’ve lived with them in our heads for years,” says Swaminathan) and the conversations between the characters, most of whom were real people.
The obvious theme of the book is communal hatred. That makes Kalpish Ratna very angry. “ Where is the anger of the common citizen,” wonders Sayed. “Have we haveless 9/11s in India than anywhere else? Why is what’s happening in our city happening? Who’s going to talk about this?”
But equally important for the writers is the need to change mindsets with regard to India and the world of the Whites. “Many aspects of history are so coloured with White no one gives a damn for the truth,” says Sayed.
“The voice of the native is always forgotten.”
“For instance,” explains Swaminathan, “Any standard medical text on cholera-including those that are taught in our colleges-will open with a map of shipping routes. It’d tell you there were seven pandemics of cholera in so many years, and it’d give you the number of mortalities in each. But no text would tell you that in the same period discussed in the text,23 million people died of cholera in India. The narrative of any disease has always been from a western prespective.”
But Kalpish Ratna aim to bring us these “forgotten Indian lives”. “It’s all there, all first person accounts, all archived,” says Swaminathan. When the sequel(s) to The Quarantine Papers are published (“We have 10 plots,” chukles Syed) hopefully, we’ll find ourselves. And hopefully, we’ll find ten more great books.
If The Quarantine Papers by Kalpish Ratna has a major flaw, it’s this: it turns you into an anti-social element.
I foolishly began reading it on a Thursday evening. The next day, I deeply resented the need to go to the office, deeply resented having to go out for a drink, deeply resented everyone who phoned me, deeply resented everything that kept me away from the book.
Naturally, this made my work and relationships hell for a while, but it did bring some sunshine into a couple of people’s lives. Namely Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, surgeons, writers and the two halves of the duo that comprise the pseudonymous writer, Kalpish Ratna. “It vindicates us as authors of the book,” says Sayed.
Why The Quarantine Papers should require vindication is beyond me. It is a gripping, highly textured, very solid novel that had drawn me wholesale into its world(s) and even now, three weeks since I finished the book, I hate being away from it.
Briefly, The Quarantine Papers glides smoothly between the Bombay of December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was torn and communal passions ran high, as lived by one Ratan Oak, a microbiologist, and the Bombay of 1896, when the plague swept through the city and intensified communal hatreds, as lived by Ratan’s great-grandfather, Ramratan Oak, a mortician. But so much is packed into the book that you could get quite breathless. For instance, Ratan Oak learns that he’s not only Ratan Oak. He’s also Ramratan Oak, his great-grandfather. And he’s part of a pact between people from several communities, a pact to stop hate.
Then there’s the brilliant sarcasm(ooh, it is lovely) that shows how colonial rule in India was not the happy Raj party that the British would have the world(and us) believe it was. There are fascinating passages on the development of medicine in India and the world. And there are relationships to sort out-between lovers, spouses, parents and children, and friends.
But where did the idea to tie the plague of 1896 with the communal tensions of 1992 come from? “Well, we’d always wanted to write on Bombay and on the history of medicine, and that’s what this is,” says Sayed. Adds Swaminathan: “When we researched a non-fiction book on the plague (Uncertain Life and Sure Death: Medicine and Mahamaari in Maritime Mumbai), and we came across so much rich material in the state archives, we knew we had our book.”
And a little help from a newspaper reporter who covered the communal carnage of December 1992, and you learn that the only truly fictional elements in The Quarantine Papers are Ratan and Ramratan Oak(But we’ve lived with them in our heads for years,” says Swaminathan) and the conversations between the characters, most of whom were real people.
The obvious theme of the book is communal hatred. That makes Kalpish Ratna very angry. “ Where is the anger of the common citizen,” wonders Sayed. “Have we haveless 9/11s in India than anywhere else? Why is what’s happening in our city happening? Who’s going to talk about this?”
But equally important for the writers is the need to change mindsets with regard to India and the world of the Whites. “Many aspects of history are so coloured with White no one gives a damn for the truth,” says Sayed.
“The voice of the native is always forgotten.”
“For instance,” explains Swaminathan, “Any standard medical text on cholera-including those that are taught in our colleges-will open with a map of shipping routes. It’d tell you there were seven pandemics of cholera in so many years, and it’d give you the number of mortalities in each. But no text would tell you that in the same period discussed in the text,23 million people died of cholera in India. The narrative of any disease has always been from a western prespective.”
But Kalpish Ratna aim to bring us these “forgotten Indian lives”. “It’s all there, all first person accounts, all archived,” says Swaminathan. When the sequel(s) to The Quarantine Papers are published (“We have 10 plots,” chukles Syed) hopefully, we’ll find ourselves. And hopefully, we’ll find ten more great books.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
FreeFall by Joseph Stiglitz
Freefall is a book on finanical crisis which whole world is facing now. Writeen by nobel proze winner Joseph Stiglitz, this is a book I'll definitely recommend to all. Freefall is a book on the crash of the global markets which was led by bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
BookSneeze - Get free book for review
Yes BookSneeze.com is a site that offers free books in return of a honest review of the book. Just sign up there are start reading book for free. This site seems to be a godsend for booklovers who want to build their collection but don't have the financial means to do so.
So start your collection now!!!
So start your collection now!!!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Museum on Innocence
The Museum on Innocence
This ws the first book writeen by Orhan Pamuk after he on nobel prize. The book starts with a love making scene narrated purely in Pamuk style. The book is about a wealthy businessman's attempt to immortalise a doomed affair with a lower class girl bu collecting memorabilia junk. This being book by Orhan, you must have mood lingering while reading the book.
This ws the first book writeen by Orhan Pamuk after he on nobel prize. The book starts with a love making scene narrated purely in Pamuk style. The book is about a wealthy businessman's attempt to immortalise a doomed affair with a lower class girl bu collecting memorabilia junk. This being book by Orhan, you must have mood lingering while reading the book.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Five point someone - What not to do at IIT
This was the novel that made Chetan Bhagat IIT Delhi graduate who is also alumunus of IIM Ahmedabad a big name in the filed of literture. Five point someone - what not to do at IIT was the first novel writeen by Chetan Bhagat and its the highest selling Indian novel written in English and bestseller of 2007.
The novel is set in IIT Delhi(1991 to 1995) and is about the life of three mechanical engineering students(and people around them). Three students are:
Hari Kumar (the narrator)
Ryan Oberoi
Alok Gupta
All three fail to cope up with the cruel grading system of the IITs where teacher ask them to go for markes not for creativty. The friends were known as five pointers due to their perennially low 5.something GPA's.
The whole story is narrated by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. Along with the three firends fling to make IIT Delhi the best college in engineering novel also features Hari's love affair with Neha who daughter of Prof. Cherian, HOD, Mechanical Engineering Department.
Novel five point something was adapted into a play by the theatre group Madras Players and a bollywood movie named 3 Idiots also made on the novel.
The novel is set in IIT Delhi(1991 to 1995) and is about the life of three mechanical engineering students(and people around them). Three students are:
Hari Kumar (the narrator)
Ryan Oberoi
Alok Gupta
All three fail to cope up with the cruel grading system of the IITs where teacher ask them to go for markes not for creativty. The friends were known as five pointers due to their perennially low 5.something GPA's.
The whole story is narrated by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. Along with the three firends fling to make IIT Delhi the best college in engineering novel also features Hari's love affair with Neha who daughter of Prof. Cherian, HOD, Mechanical Engineering Department.
Novel five point something was adapted into a play by the theatre group Madras Players and a bollywood movie named 3 Idiots also made on the novel.
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Magic And The Madness - Michael Jackson Biography
Micheal Jackson was the real king of the pop and no one will be able to repeat the sucess he had in his life. He left us on June this year however his craze was still at his best as the famous concert he was goin to do for his comback has all the tickets sold well in advance.
I recently got to read biography of great Micheal Jackson and this book by J. Randy Taraborrelli is a perfect one to read for any MJ fan.
About the book:
Title: Michael Jackson (The Magic And The Madness)
Publishers: Pan Macmillan Ltd
Author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
The first few chapters of the book covered childhood and Motown years of Michael Jackson are not only wel written but also things that have not been publsihed by hundreds of MJ biographies published so far. Book is thoroughly researched and well written. It reflects Michael's relationships with his fans, friends and family accurately. I found his interaction with with his father fascinating. The 700 pages book brings into light various aspects of MJ's life like his company, romantic life etc. Thus book is not really about music and lifestyle of a famous rich man its more than that and trust me anyone who thinks that wealth leads to happiness will surely realise that life is not like that.
I recently got to read biography of great Micheal Jackson and this book by J. Randy Taraborrelli is a perfect one to read for any MJ fan.
About the book:
Title: Michael Jackson (The Magic And The Madness)
Publishers: Pan Macmillan Ltd
Author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
The first few chapters of the book covered childhood and Motown years of Michael Jackson are not only wel written but also things that have not been publsihed by hundreds of MJ biographies published so far. Book is thoroughly researched and well written. It reflects Michael's relationships with his fans, friends and family accurately. I found his interaction with with his father fascinating. The 700 pages book brings into light various aspects of MJ's life like his company, romantic life etc. Thus book is not really about music and lifestyle of a famous rich man its more than that and trust me anyone who thinks that wealth leads to happiness will surely realise that life is not like that.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Fiction books worth reading
Do you love fiction, here are some top fiction books I'd like to recommend you to read in 2010:
House rules
The Shakespeare Curse
Accused
Altar of Eden
Of Love and Politics
Cambridge Company
Though I've posted the list only I will do post later reviews of these novels.
Wish you a very happy new year 2010.
House rules
The Shakespeare Curse
Accused
Altar of Eden
Of Love and Politics
Cambridge Company
Though I've posted the list only I will do post later reviews of these novels.
Wish you a very happy new year 2010.
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