Graham Greene - The Human Factor

There was a time a month or two ago, when I yearned to read something by Graham Greene.  My pocket being on the slender side, my budget for books is not much.  Hence, such wishes are not followed necessarily by an order on Flipkart.

I can redress that by joining the State Library.  I am also lazy, and forget to just walk into the library and get myself a membership.

I did remember to walk into the sprawling second hand book market that we have in Chandigarh in Sector 15, right next to the Lajpat Rai Bhawan.  This time round I managed to find myself quite a treasure.  Among my second hand loot, was a book by Graham Greene, The Human Factor.

The books starts elegantly, languidly, describing a routine day in the life of Maurice Castle, a secret service employee.  Along with his colleague Arthur Davis, he mans the Africa desk at the embassy.  Their job is not glamorous or of any earth shaking importance.  Their mundane existence is shaken by a sudden scrutiny of their lives by a new security officer.  Being an old hand Castle knows exactly what that means.  There is a breach in the security and he is a suspect, along with Davis.

Castle has had an unblemished service.  He did have a spot of trouble with apartheid when he was posted in South Africa and fell in love with a black woman of the Bantu tribe, Sarah.  He managed to get her out of there and married her, and had a son.  Ever since he has settled in the suburbs, and lives a dull domesticated life.  His conduct is exemplary and he has nothing to fear.

On the other hand, Davis was caught taking official papers out with him.  He drinks too much, gambles and womanizes. The needle of suspicion is likely to point to him, but he is not guilty, Castle knows.

Colonel Daintry, Hargreaves and Doctor Percival are some of the people conducting the inquiry into the leak.  Despite their jolly and bluff manner, Hargreaves and Dr. Percival are not as harmless as they seem.  Despite his blustering ways, Colonel Daintry is not as threatening as he looks.  The secrets, once they start tumbling out the closet do not cease, until we learn the entire sad truth at the very end.

The book starts slow, the pace is unhurried, as I mentioned earlier, languid.  But readers of fiction of this sort know that the calm is merely that on the surface of the hill just before the volcano erupts.  The story picks up pace, and takes us through rapid climaxes to the end.

It is a story about love, and what people do for love.  It is also about politics of our world,  just what we expect a Graham Greene novel to be about.  It is as incisive as Graham Greene novels are, and we wind up feeling sad for the state our world is in, and the way it uses ordinary people as grist to its mill.

To quote a blurb at the back of the book:

"To the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the Secret Service, Graham Greene brings his brilliance and perception, laying bare a machine that sometimes overlooks the subtle and secret motivations that impel us all."

Anne Tyler - A Slipping-Down Life

I love Anne Tyler's books, and rarely let one go by unread.  Considering that, it is strange that I have written a review of only one book of hers, Breathing Lessons.  I found the book captivating.  It won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1989.  The first Anne Tyler book I read was Searching for Caleb.  I have been hooked to her ever since.

Coming back to A Slipping-Down Life, the novel opens with Evie Decker a fat, unpopular teenager in Pulqua, North Carolina. She has one friend in school, Violet.  At home-between the busy housekeeper Clotelia and her father Sam Decker, who keeps to himself-Evie finds herself lonesome.  She listens to the radio a lot.  That is how she learns about Bertram Drumsticks Casey, who is a rock and roll singer who plays at the local nightclub, Unicorn.

Fat and frumpy Evie has no chance of catching the attention of Casey.  On an impulse, after a performance of his, she cuts his name upon her forehead.  Casey's drummer and manager David thinks her little caper can win the fledgling band some publicity.  Things are looking up for all of them.  Evie is happy to be close to Casey, despite his discomfort at her presence.  David is happy things are working out for his band.  They soon get an offer to play in another fancy club a little way away.  Evie feels she should break with Casey now, as he refused to soften up to her.

Those were the only times they met face to face.  They were the only times Evie lost the feeling that she was tugging at Drum's sleeve while he stood with his back to her, gazing outwards toward something she couldn't see.

 Just when Evie wants to give up on Casey, he fails.  He is kicked out of the new nightclub because he flirted with the owner's daughter.  His father wants nothing to do with him, and his mother is also angry with him.  Evie finds him on her porch, beaten and tired with nowhere else to go.  She finds her heart melting for him once again.

...when he suddenly tightened his arms around her, pulling her close, it came as a surprise.

 "Don't fret, I'm here," he said.

 But such promises are rarely kept.  A slipping-down life takes a look at two teenagers, both losers in their own way, as they try to make a life together.

Another beautiful little novella by Anne Tyler, just 154 pages long, about life in a small town, with its limited choices, that makes its inhabitants behave in an odd fashion at times.  Anne Tyler has a knack of making commonplace look so attractive.  Her books are almost always winners, and so is this one.

Cooking pasta - the simple way

I am a huge fan of simple and quick cooking.  A working woman needs handy tools and quick results.

Take a packed of Delmonte pasta, some Delmonte corn and some Delmonte pasta sauce.  Chop up a large cup of vegetables like carrots, peas, cabbage.

On one burner, boil the pasta till it is just el dente, strain and keep aside.  On another burner, drizzle some Delmonte Olive oil in a pan and put in the vegetables.  Garnish with a little salt, pepper, oregano and chilli flakes. Cover the pan and let cook on low flame for a few minutes till the vegetables are almost done.  Add the cooked pasta to the vegetables and toss together with some Delmonte sauce.  Serve with some grated cheese.

Finger licking Good!

P.G. Bhaskar - Jack Patel's Dubai Dreams

Excellent!

This was my reaction when I shut the book after reading it.  Of course I was captivated by the book right from the start, but I have often read books that are great in the first few chapters and then wimp out after the fourth of fifth.  That was not the case here, this book held my attention from the start to finish.

Jaikishen Patel's Dubai dreams start when he sends in his CV to a prestigious investment banking firm Myers York.  He is called in for an interview and learns that he will be required in the company's Dubai office to tap their Indian market.

Jai's father had been forced to leave Uganda after Idi Amin deported Indians.  He tried to settle down in Gujarat, but was not able to.  He moved to Chennai and found success in Garments business.  Jai refused to join the family business and followed his passion for finance by getting a degree in Business Management from IIM Bangalore.

This led him to Dubai, working for Myers York.  At his company the amount of business the Financial Advisors brought in was marked on a blackboard.  Jai, now renamed Jack Patel, wants to reach the top of the board! That is his Dubai dream.

We get to know, in a very entertaining manner, how Jack Patel brings in clients and how he deals with them.  His mentor, Mr. Kapoor, helps him nab a lot of clients.  He even goes over to Africa often to snag clients among rich Gujarati businessmen settled there who are looking to expanding their fortunes.

A whole array of lively characters pepper the book, from Jack's colleagues, Kitch (the vegetarian, straight laced Tamilian), his boss Peggy, Melissa, Rachel - who used to pole dance before she got into finance, Emma and Baby Jacob - the handyman who also made delicious ginger tea for them.  His client, Sunny Singh who had coined the phrase 'Singh is King' before Akshay took it for his movie.

He falls in love with Mina, the beautiful daughter of a client of his in Kenya.  At this stage in his life, everything seems to be going his way.  He has money and he has love.  Everything he touches turns to gold. Jack Patel's Dubai dream is realized finally,  he is the star achiever of his company, he is at the top of the blackboard finally!

All is fine until the crash of the banks in USA brings the financial world down with it.   So Jack Patel, who is at the top of his game, suddenly finds his fortunes plummeting fast.  His clients are losing money rapidly, and he is blamed roundly and abused. Mina's father also loses a good amount of money, and no longer wants Jack around his daughter.

How will Jack cope with the crisis?  Will he claw his way back out of this mess or will he go under?  This is what the book is about.

P G Bhaskar keeps the tone of the book light and funny.  At no time does the narrative lose its momentum.  There is always something going on, some tidbit of a funny happening that keeps you glued to the book.

This is another in the series of Metro Reads produced by Penguin books.  It is surely one of the best books in the category. 

Bharat Wakhlu - Close call in Kashmir

This book by Bharat Wakhlu is another offering from Metro Reads by Penguin books.  It is intended to be a light read, something that will hold your attention during the boring metro journeys.

The author uses the backdrop of unrest in Kashmir to create a mystery thriller.  The militants are planning to kidnap an Indian Scientist so they may be able to secure the release of some of their mates in jail.  On the other hand, there is a group of highly placed people who want to make money by selling ancient artifacts of Kashmir.

Against this backdrop, the head priest of Aishmuqam shrine, Shamsuddin Bandey makes a trip to Delhi to visit an old friend Professor Noor.  What he has to tell is explosive, there is some treasure dated from Dara Shukoh's time that is in the safekeeping of the priests of Aishmuqam.  The secret passes from father to son and survived many generations.  Now Shamsuddin is not sure he can preserve the integrity of the amanat much longer.

Mike Zutshi gets a frantic call from India when his 'rakhi' sister is abducted by the militants.  He is also asked by the CBI to assist them in a mission to locate an international gang of artifact smuggler that are being aided and abetted by an Unknown Enemy in Srinagar.

The book has all the ingredients of a great mystery thriller.  There are credible characters like Namrata, Mike Zutshi, Minnie, Ashok, Shamsuddin Bandey, Professor Noor.  The backdrop of Srinagar, Kashmir is very attractive too.  The author knows his subject well, and is able to write about it with authority.  These are all the pluses of the book.  It is very well written and well edited too.

So what is the problem, you may ask.  The writer needs to bring some more excitement into his work, one needs to feel the emotions the characters are going through.  We need some more passion in the characters.
The scenes need to develop properly so we can really get involved in them. The chapters are so short that just as you have begum to grasp what is going on, the action moves to another scene.  Even though a lot of things are happening here, it does not really get you to the edge of the seat.

However, the author plans to write many more books.  I am hoping he sticks to Srinagar background, I loved it.  Maybe Mike Zutshi will return with another mystery to solve, and this time things will be more zingy.

Jhoomur Bose - Confessionally Yours - Recalcitrance - Anurag Mathur

A few months back while researching on the tale of Gulfam and Sabz pari, I found the story belonged to a ballet created during the time of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah.  He was a colourful character and surely worth reading up.  The wiki page linked a book called Recalcitrance which was supposed to be about Wajid Ali Shah.

I followed the link and was led to the twitter page of the author of the book, Anurag Kumar.  A bit of a dialogue (the book was not available online or in bookshops) led him into sending me a copy of his book.  It was extremely kind of him.  Thank you Anurag.

I am quoting from the blurbs here: "Anurag is a freelance journalist.  He belongs to a very old family of Lucknow which witnessed the events of 1857.  Ever since childhood he was fascinated by the Great Uprising"

1857 was indeed a very tumultuous time and there were surely some great stories that can be written on that period.  My favorite is Ruskin Bond's "A flight of pigeons".

Recalcitrance follows the lives of two friends Chote Bhaiyya and Narinderlal who happen to witness the events that take place in Lucknow at close quarters.  Chote Bhaiyya finds himself smitten by a muslim girl, but cannot find the courage to act in time to get close to her.

The problem with the book - despite a story that should practically tell itself, after all the events were happening so rapidly at the time - is that it gives out a very disjointed feel.  It proceeds from one event to another without any apparent link. There is no attempt to bring together the events at any later chapter either. Several characters are not named  but referred to ambiguously like, "a holy man", a "general" etc.  I got the feeling that the author is trying to point to some important historical figures of the time, but I failed to place them.

This incoherence spoils the story and I wish the author had worked harder on it, because it is apparent that the subject is very close to his heart.

Confessionally Yours by Jhoomar Bose is a fresh release and I was recommended it by Samit Basu via a tweet.  Not personally of course, it was a general tweet and I picked it up.  The book starts like a typical pulp fiction with a blogpost of a woman who recounts her first sexual experience.  From then on, the story moves to a very amusing account of a typical day in a newpaper office, starting with a staff meeting, with the editor, called Ed, swearing after every two words. Polly Sharma, our heroine, is a new recruit in this newspaper called, well, Tabloid.  Her boss, Leena, the features editor is not the easiest boss to work with.  Her penchant for being a grammar nazi has given her a nickname Comma.

As is the case, the tabloid (or Tabloid) is always on the lookout for racy stories to help the sales. Polly, who has been following the blog of a woman who has been very confessional about her sex life in her blog, wants to profile the blog.  Her boss agrees.

So far so good.

Then comes a peek into Polly's own life.  Her husband has been aloof for quite a while, and Polly has been excusing him for it, thinking he is busy with his office work and should be given space.  In the meantime, she has to adjust with her mother-in-law, aptly named Dragon, who pops in for visits ever so often.

Her maid Mini is facing domestic violence and Polly tries to help her out.  In the meantime, she learns that her husband had a torrid affair with a girl before he got married to her, and she finds herself trying to match up to the woman who was once the love of her husband's life.

The story starts on a simple note, with Polly trying to get a grip on her work.  Her early chapters are full of funny details about her work life.  But the humour peters out soon, and story takes a rather serious turn; serious and even sleazy at times.

I liked the early chapters a lot, and although its nice to read a book where a lot is happening, I wish SO much didn't happen.

The best part about the book is that it is very well written.  Indian fiction is not always well edited, but that is a fault this book does not, thank god, suffer from.

The book is classified as a 'Metro Read'. On a few trips on the metro in Delhi, I have seen girls reading books.   So I suppose, given the category, the book is pretty good.