May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss

Arnab Ray


This is one of those books, that you happened to pick up because of the wacky cover, giggle, open, flip through and then not put down till you're incapacitated with laughter.
Quite the same scenario here.
This book is by a fellow blogger The Great Bong  and is really worth your time.


A breath of what might be hallucinogen induced air, this non fiction has all the components of our Bollywood pot boiler seeing how it is greatly influenced by one.
Expert deconstruction of the great Mithun Da starrer Gunda and other gems like Loha and Gupt make this book priceless.


Other Indian ready-to-eat mixes also tossed up are Management Institutes, SMS-ese, Soap operas, Reality Shows, News Channels, NRI's, The Great Indian Weddings, Call Centers and their praiseworthy flagellation.


The language is engaging; the writing is snide, witty and humorous and the content while having no apparent connection flows into each other. 


At no point is the book jarring, and the chapter about the Sexual Frustration is supremely imaginative.


One very singular point about this book is that it has been written entirely with the Indian Audience in mind, other nationalities won't really get the awesomity of the book simply because they wont understand it.
My personal opinion is that Arnab Ray probably didn't pause to think at all about the implications of narrowing his book down to a desi audience at all and I'm supremely glad he didn't. 
This might one day considered to be a work of art and we don't want it to be compromised due to the publishing and editing team's statistical crapola. And come on, he has 1/6 of the world population as his target audience and that is quite blinding!


You have to read it! 
(If you are an Indian, that is)


Rating 4.5/5


Vanilla Frappe!

A spot of bother

Mark Haddon.

Sometimes, you pine for books. You could spend years wanting them and never being in the financial league to acquire them. This is where we send up a loud cheer for second hand books :)

I found this one at a poky old sale. I'd been wanting it ever since the Curious Incident of the dog in the nighttime, and reading it has been immensely satisfying. First off, its not really in that league.But its nicely written, spectacularly funny sometimes and gives you a nice peek into someone else's head, which is what i believe every good book should do.

The book begins with George, an old married guy who finds a lesion on his hip. This sort of makes him wack-o and unhinges him progressively through the book. Its compounded with his daughter's impending wedding to a guy he doesn't exactly deem suitable, his gay son's boyfriend and his wife's affair with David. In the end, the book is about how all of these come to a head and how all the characters deal with their frustrations and anxieties.

A spot of bother is a good Sunday sort of read, where you don't expect Die Hard sort of action. and come away feeling satisfied. Its one of those relaxed reads, where you feel nice about the ending, cheer for the people and don't get pissed off at the guy for writing the book. Which is so much more than I can say for some of the crap I've been subjected to in the name of fiction.

Rating: 4/5

Vanilla Frappe :)

Chacha Chaudhry and Aflatoon

- Pran

Yes, He of the computer-esque brain :)

These hols have been long and generously peppered with maternal shrieks of "Clean the damn bookshelf". Now, cleaning the bookshelf takes superhuman efforts and Old testament levels of tolerance for minor dust storms.

Buried under tottering piles of books I'll never read again( old Gokulams, VC ASndrews, Maeve Binchy and her ilk), I found various mangy copies of Chacha Chaudhry, Billu and Pinky. The charm of these regulars in the class 4 days of youth still shines on. All the reasons for reading it in those days of yore, stand firm today. May pulpy tackiness and hideous grammar shine forever.

I read This one from cover-to-cover. the first page has that unflattering mug shot of Pran, a man I greatly respect for churning out infinite number of comics. The first story in this one has the truck Dag-Dag. I wont go into details of the other "plots", but needless to say, volcanoes did explode on Jupiter and there were many cries like "Hu-Huba"

The appeal of Chacha Chaudhary lies in his middle-class, common man image and the complete absence of any visible physical powers. Sabu (soap man!!!) shines in all the stories, his overwhelmingly huge, black Speedo-clad frame hogging the limelight. The usual elements remain,particularly dialogues like , " I go now", " Oh-ho. The hut fly" " Chacha-ji, you are an angle"

An angle he is, to the many people who rush to him for aid after being bullied/extorted/robbed/cheated/cursed/tortured. He helps them all out and gives us searing glimpses into his computer like brain.

We like. Tackiness is a fine art form, and I'm currently pleased to wallow in it :)

Rating:

Vanilla Frappe. Just because :) This is a giggle fiesta from the first panel.

Twenties Girl

Sophie Kinsella


Remember Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's? How she would do the most absurd things, live for pleasure, be delightfully self-centered and benign all at once and make you love her for all of it? 
Sadie, the co-protagonist of this wonderfully light book channels Holly's essence in the most endearing manner possible. 

Lara Lington, the 'heroine' of this novel is very like the other chicklit gals we have come to recognize. She is attractive, unlucky in love (till the 'hero' comes along), perpetually in foot-in-mouth situation and utterly confused.

Oh yeah, she can also talk to her great-aunt Sadie's ghost. Who, by the way, is not 105 - Sadie the ghost, is a 23, snooty fashionista belle with a wicked sense of humor. 


The story begins with the death of her 105 year old great-aunt Sadie. Lara, wallowing in self-cooked misery about her break up with boyfriend Josh is not exactly willing to go. Turns out, neither is the rest of the family.
At the funeral, only her family and her billionaire uncle, Bill Lington's family turns up (a sum total of 8 people including the vicar). The only glitch is Sadie is not quite ready to say goodbye. Not without her necklace, which somebody has stolen from her.


Thereby follows a pleasantly twisting plot; with Lara managing to halt the funeral under the cover of a murder story, Sadie, a handsome American hunk, Sadie, Sadie-Lara-american hunk's bizzare love triangle, hilarious patch up attempts with Josh, Sadie, a mystery involving the missing necklace and a painting, Sadie, occult powers and Sadie.


While Lara is the actual protagonist, it's Sadie who charms her way into your heart, with her unapologetic wit, unabashed sense of fun and a believable measure of tenderness. Also, quite risqué, this one! Leaves you in throes of giggles over flapper dresses, barney-mugging and her un-twenties ideas.


Charmingly written characters, a delicately balanced and touching insight into Sadies and Lara's friendship, and sprinkled with the twenties element (as Sadie belongs to the 1920's) Twenties Girl makes for an amazingly fun and enchanting read. 


Rating: 4/5  While most of the characters are predictable, the plot line is fresh and extremely entertaining. A book you will smile your way through and not put down till you are done with it. Those who will ban it outright for being chicklit, don't. It's that good a book. So, unless you are loaded with stubborn testosterone or are resolutely averse of the happy-bubbly feeling, you should definitely pick this one up.