So coming to the book, Amrita’s Broken News reminds me vaguely of Bridget Jones’ Diary which I had read long back, mainly because both of them talk about thirty something single women, and in some way, have a similarity in their tones too. But then, while Bridget is obsessed with her love life, Amrita’s character M is not much involved in a relationship and talks about life in general, focusing on the work part of it.

While the book starts quite casually, and has a ‘bitchy’ tone in the beginning chapters, it gets more serious as the life of the character, M, gets more complicated and her problems start outgrowing her. She starts with the small trouble around her in the office and gets on to more difficult things, even murder/suicide which make things difficult to cope with.

And then, there are some interesting things too. I mean, apart from the main text of the book. Like before every chapter there is a ‘What We Learn’ where u get three lessons from the chapter. For example, the first chapter starts with

• We all sit in judgement
• Post-colonial angst’s still alive and kicking
• Gods no longer smile.

Well, I think I have told you enough about the book and if it’s difficult to continue without a spoiler. Hence I will stop here. To summarize, I would say that Broken News is not a path-breaking story but if you want to see the Television News Industry from a been-there-done-that girl’s eye, it’s certainly not bad. A good debut.

Biddu was a name that I had read a lot of times, on a lot of tracks that I loved during the Indipop revolution of mid to late ’90s. And so, somehow without even knowing him much, he was a hero for me. At that time, all I knew about Biddu was that he was a guy who didn’t know much Hindi (that was my reason that he didn’t sing himself and didn’t take out his own album) and most probably he lived outside India. That he was a south Indian was my common sense because he didn’t know Hindi.

Now when I suddenly saw his autobiography in Crossword, it was an instant pick for me that I started reading right away, finishing 30+ pages in the first time itself. Before this I didn’t even know how he looked so this was certainly interesting for me. Yes, this is my bad that I had searched little about a person who had once been my hero at a time when I could.

So finally I started reading the book and the first very first sentence of his first chapter was lovable. Biddu says, “I was born at a time when man had learnt to walk upright.” The childhood days of Biddu are interesting and his journey from Bangalore to Calcutta, Mumbai, and Middle East, finally ending in London, is something worth reading. Once he earns success, things start to get a bit boring but thankfully his sense of humor adds a lot to the book and keeps the reader interested even when things are not so interesting.

His back to India parts might not be that good for a patriotic Indian (like me?) as one might have wanted them to be since he doesn’t write much about his association with Indipop of ’90s and summarizes it pretty fast, or so I felt as my knowledge about Biddu started and ended in that part itself. Though there was a part of Biddu’s tryst with India that I had no idea about – his filmmaking. Yes, in case you don’t know, Biddu produced an Indian film (a Hindi film to be more precise), Star. And Biddu has written quite some stories about that.

Overall, I loved the autobiography of a musician who has not only been my hero once but has also made his country proud, outside and inside the country. Read it if you are an Indian and/or into music, and would like to dive deeper into the earlier life of a musician.

For the first time in my life I had heard the name of Booker prize due to this book. Arundhati Roy had made us all proud when she won the Man Booker Prize for her God of Small Things. Though I still don’t know how a woman got a ‘Man’ Booker Prize, I committed all the three names (prize, lady and book) to my memory which helped me solve at least one question in all the general knowledge quizzes for the next one year, and sometimes even after that.

And then, during my second year of Engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology, I got a chance to read the sacred work. But I committed the blasphemy of leaving the book at some thirty-two pages when this novice reader lost his patience, and after some time I lost the book to my hostel.

After a gap of some three years, during which I had read more than twenty books, I decided to give the book a retry during my training at TCS Trivandrum. This time I started from twenties after some skimming (I couldn’t read all those pages again) and crossed the fifty page mark (Yesss!!!) before reaching the conclusion that:

The book was too good for my standards and I was not yet capable of reading such good literature AND I had learnt nothing in literature in those three years.

OR

The Book and the Booker Prize are over-hyped.

Since I do believe in conspiracy theories and could not think of Booker Prize as over-hyped (though I now think that Nobel Peace Prize IS over-hyped), I decided that it was me who needed to improve. Though, in the meantime I decided not to buy ANY book that was awarded/nominated for a Booker Prize. That is my way of respecting the Booker Winners with the additional benefit of not hurting my self-respect. Believe it or not, I haven’t read a word of The Inheritance of Loss or The White Tiger. Though I hope one day I’ll be good enough to read, understand, and at the same time, enjoy these books.

Amen.

PS: The only exception to my rule of Not reading Booker winner/nominated books was ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid. A wonderful book that I did enjoy.

Last year, that is 2008, was first such year when I had done some thorough reading. And as a result I finished 25 books in 2008. And then, on the eve of new year, I decided to read 50 books in 2009, a resolution which is still far from complete in November, but I’ve been successful in finishing a big number, 36 till date, which is my biggest number in a year, even though I’m 14 books away from my target. The books that I have finished in this year are listed here.

1. Perfect strangers – Robyn Sysman: My first book of this year. Was an OK book.

2. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Liked by many, disliked by some. I finished this book while I had been unable to finish it when I started it for the first time somewhere in 2005-06. Liked the book.

3. The Gift – My second book of Cecelia Ahern after P. S. I love you. Loved the book. Ends wonderfully even though nothing great in the beginning there.

4. Swami – Sharatchandra (H): One of the two Hindi novels I finished this year. Nothing very great from the standards of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Don’t remember a lot.

5. Men of Steel – Vir Sanghvi: A collection of interviews of Industrialists not in the form of interviews. Inspiring. Worth a read. Value for money.

6. United States of Europe: A wonderful insight by T R Reid into the power of Europe as a combined power, or rather superpower. Got to know quite a number of new things. Could be a good read if you are into such type of things. Something like ‘The World is Flat’ though the writer doesn’t look surprised here.

7. True Believer: Nicholas Sparks’ worst book yet. Doesn’t really make a very good read.

8. The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone: Shashi Tharoor’s well recognized and popular book on India. Balanced, and a good read. And though I found a better work on the same subject later, I think it always is worth a read.

9. Inscrutable Americans: The little, wonderful saga of a traditional, God-fearing Indian student who actually is a momma’s boy before leaving for USA for his studies. Worth a read any day. Even a re-read.

10. HT leadership summit: India: the next global superpower?: A book that I finished sitting in my company library during my free time. Has the collection of speeches and questions & answers of HT Leadership Summit.

11. Life on a Refrigerator Door: Alice Coopers’ wonderful book that I finished in one reading while sitting in the Landmark’s book store. A wonderful story of a single mother and a daughter who don’t get time to talk and hence talk only through small notes put on refrigerator. Absolutely wonderful.

12. The Wedding: Nicholas Sparks at his best, again. Worth a read for Sparks fans, and for all those who like the romantic, touchy-feely sort novels.

13. Above Average: Amitabh Bagchi tries to explain what life at IIT is for those who are not five point someones. But Above Average. Above Average I’d say.

14. Apne Apne Ajnabi – Agyeya (H): A small novel by Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan ‘Agyeya’, where he talks of life, death and more via two people caught in a home below snow. Liked it.

15. Families at Home – Reeti Gadekar: A not so great novel by Reeti Gadekar where she explains some characters around us in good detail but fails with the story, especially with its end.

16. The Bridge Across Forever: The story of finding a soulmate and its importance, as explained by Richard Bach. Nothing great as Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Okay. Read if you want to. Cause he’s always different.

17. The Time Machine (abridged): Since I don’t have enough patience to read a classic, I do it my own way sometimes. Found an abridged version of H G Wells’ wonderful book Time Machine. Loved it.

18. Nehru: A bipgraphy by Shashi Tharoor that brought quite a change in my perspective of Nehru. A book worth a read by the First Prime Minister of our country. By the current Minister of State for External Affairs.

19. Illusions: Richard Bach again. Shorter and better than Bridge Across Forever.

20. It’s my life: A collection of her memories by Sangeeta Shenoy, my Orkut friend who happens to be much above the average Orkut users in age as well as enthusiasm.

21. The Lost Boy: The second book of Dave Pelzer’s trilogy of books where he tells about his rescue from his mother who used to torture him. A wonderful book that tells a lot about child abuse and the best of the three books in series.

22. Message in a Bottle: Nicholas Sparks’ story of a man who threw messages into the sea in bottle and the girl who finds them. Good.

23. A Child Called ‘it’: The first book in the Dave Pelzer trilogy. Heart breaking account of his mothers’ tortures.

24. In spite of the Gods: A superb, wonderful book on today’s India, by Edward Luce, former Bureau Chief, Financial Times for the South Asia. The book, In Spite of the Gods: Strange Rise of Modern India is one of the best and most impartial account of current India by anybody I have read. Must read if you are into non-fiction.

25. The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini’s masterpiece which I had borrowed from Library, finished sitting at the bus stop in front of the library, and still wasn’t sure if I should return the book or keep it and start all over again.

26. A Man named Dave: The third book in the Dave Pelzer trilogy, where he tells how he became a US Air Force Pilot from a Foster child.

27. Delhi is Not Far: Ruskin Bond’s novella about a fictional town somewhere near Meerut. One word: Masterpiece.

28. By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: Another strange book by Paulo Coelho. Didn’t like it a lot, though, like always there are quotes worth remembering in life there.

29. Thanks for the Memories: Cecelia Ahern’s book about two divorced people who happen to have some common memories due to blood infusion. Predictable, but a good read.

30. Of course I Love You… Till I Find Someone Better: Another novel inspired by the success of Chetan Bhagat. An interesting read for those who like to read the stories of Indian college-goers and all, running in the market right now. Trash for ‘class’ readers.

31. Nights in Rodanthe: Nicholas Sparks’ beautiful story about a lady who tells her life’s secret to her devastated daughter in order to keep her life going.

32. 2 States: The story of My Marriage: Another Chetan Bhagat book. And his second based on his own life. Absolutely loved the book. But getting mixed reviews from people.

33. Rusty: Ruskin Bond’s journey into his own childhood.  Rusty is lovable, likable, readable.

34. To catch a Butterfly: A collection of ‘short’ stories, some even 4 pages long (which is really short considering page size and font) by Vivek Agarwal, a Hartcourt Butler alumni. The stories are good, bad and ugly, and quite diverse. In fact some stories leave a lasting impression. A small, good read.

35. Dilli to Pagal hai: Collection of Delhi Times columnist Shivjeet Khullar’s small, biweekly pieces. It’s funny, punny, and full of laughter. Though a few things get repetitive in the book, it gives you a good laugh, if you have been to Delhi. Even better if you belong there.

36. Keep Off the Grass: Karan Bajaj’s interesting account of a Yale alumnus son of Indian parents, who leaves the wall street investment banking job to join the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and finds himself smoking grass while making his presentations at the same time. An interesting read.

So here is a brief detail about the books I read yet in 2009. And though it’s just a month and a week remaining, I still hope to reach my target of fifty. Maybe there is some miracle. Wish me luck.

I do not know if it’s exactly a book review, but now that I have almost finished the book and even the story of how-I-got-this-piece-on-my-hands, it’s very normal that I tell you how I liked the book, or am liking it as there are still 20 pages remaining.

Well, had it been a novel or something, I would wait for those 20 pages to finish too. But the book happens to be a collection of one and half page (of the book, of course) articles that are quite similar in nature and after reading almost 90% of them, I am good enough to write a review, until there is a surprise at the end, which, in utmost probability would not be there. In case it happens to be there, I can always append the post and tell you what’s new or write a whole new post named part 2, the way producers run their hit movies nowadays.

OK. So this book is about Delhi. Delhi and Delhites. And Punjabis. Because Delhi is a city full of Punjabis and at the same time Punjabis generally are a variety many writers and joke-makers earn their bread through. So the book starts with an ABC of D(elhi) where the author Shivjeet Kullar (should have been Khullar as per my experience but then a misplaced H can make a clay-tea-cup pf yours, so maybe the guy changed it) has written a lot of daily-usage dialogues and intended, unintended and pretended puns about the Delhites. The book has a number of things many non-Delhites take their lives to understand and hence the book can be used as a guide to Delhi for lesser-knowers.

Getting into review mode, I’d say the book is quite interesting in the start and makes you laugh time and again. But then, things start getting repetitive and finally there is a time when you wait for something new and good to come, or for the book to end.

As far as the matter is concerned, the book has portrayed the daily habits of typical Delhites from a different view and the selection of words makes you think and laugh. Though there are certain subjects that go overboard as the writer keeps tracing his pen on the same topics repeatedly. For example, there are at least five articles on Page 3 alone that makes you feel strange, especially when almost all of them appear together.

Still, overall the book is a worth read. Especially for those who have been in Delhi and seen it closely, it is going to be a good experience. Try the book, you will surely laugh at first. Leave it if you start getting bored beyond limit. My limit hasn’t come yet though.