Riot - Shashi Tharoor

The characters in this book are all as two dimensional as the paper that riot is printed on. The divorced non Indian couple, the foreign social worker who has an affair with the Indian, the smart south Indian, his repressed wife and aiyo, the hindu communalist, the muslim who forces his children on his wife, the hard drinking swearing surd well you get the picture. The telling of the story from various point of views is also not that innovative, well not really the same story since each point of view progresses the story rather than looking at the same item from a different point of view. The story is also told in a slightly non linear fashion with two timelines being followed. What saves this book however is that the writing is quite good and full of some memorable quotes (A large percentage from Oscar Wilde) and has a lot of themes regarding India that the author will return to in his later writing, notably in India from Midnight to the Millennium
It concerns the pointless death of a foreign woman social worker killed during a Hindu Muslim Riot during the Ram Janmabhoomi foolishness. And her parents journey to find out more about the circumstances in which their daughter died and the work she was doing. Adding to this cast of characters is the IAS officer the woman is having an affair with , his wife and daughter, his Punjabi Police Inspector friend -whose English abuses seem out of place. Would any self respecting sardar say sisterloving or ban****?
And other sundry characters involved in the riot.
Tharoor also tries to highlight the complex issues that India faced and still faces over the babri masjid issue. But people like me who have already formed their opinions about this matter are unlikely to change their opinions (the people of both communities who participated in the reprehensible acts are a bunch of fools and bastards. At least the politicians had an excuse they did it for votes.)
Tharoor can’t resist mentioning to of his pet topics, the greatness of St Stephens college (which of course cant compare to St Stanislaus even though the latter is just a school) and The Great Indian Novel.
Tharoors writing is of course quite good and that makes this book a worthwhile read

Bookless in Baghdad - Shashi Tharoor

"Show me a writer without an ego , and Ill show you a good actor" - Shashi Tharoor
While reading this book , Tharoors writings on various topics connected with book's , you can definitely tell that the writer has an ego and a big one at that. However this does not take away from the fact that most of the essays are eminently readable, witty in part, preachy in others.
A lot of the space is dedicated to tharoor's own work , which in my opinion is a good thing. I have always been fascinated by the thought process that an author goes through and the reasons for writing things in the way he has. On the other hand its amusing when Tharoor begins an essay on Rushdie, quotes his words on India and then proceeds for the next 10 pages to dicsuss India and his motiviations for The Great Indian Novel. In fact the Great Indian Novel almost always finds its way into Tharoors essays. I think the author hasn't gotten over the fact that he had hit upon a brilliant idea and feels the need to explain it at every instance.
But you do nuggets of information (like why the Jalianwala Bagh massacre was renamed the bibigarh massacre). The snappy comebacks (like the one's for Shobha de when she disparaged Show Business).
Its also nice to note that while young Tharoor and I read mainly the same books and had the same tastes and its only later that you choice of books seem to have diverged.
But a person who is so fond of P.G. Wodehouse cant be all that bad.

Nehru - The Invention of India - Shashi Tharoor

The title of the book is misleading. It brings visions of a book that is about to denounce Nehru's policies and generally show that Nehru isn't what we thought him to be.
This however is not the case. The book is a biography of sorts tracing Jawaharlal Nehru's life and views from an undistinguished teenager to the undisputed Leader of Free India.
My only exposure to Nehru is through the reading of The Discovery of India. A book that went more or less over my head, but had the unmistakable stamp of a person who loved India and identified with its people.
This book is not great. But it is a book about a great person and some of the attributes do rub of on the book. As the author himself puts it , its a book by a layperson for laypeople. Its not comprehensive, the author only brings out incidents and quotes he wants to dwell on. It is however distinguished by its last chapter, where the author looks at Nehur's policies and what they have meant to India with of course the benefit of Hindsight. The four main policies of Nehru
a. Democratic Institution Building
b. Secularism
c. Socialist economic policies
d. Non alignment
There is no doubt in the author's mind (or mine) that the first two were ..indeed are .. necessary for India to survive. It is the third and fourth policies which the author believes are partly responsible for India's poverty and corruption. While i do not know enough of the Socialist economic policies and their impact, I am certain that the policy of Non Alignment was the right one to follow. It is only today that people can smugly predict that India should have stood with the USA in the cold war instead of being part of a Non Aligned Movement. Taking sides in the cold war would undoubtedly have been wrong.
The book has some of the more memorable quips by Nehru which makes we want to search for the full text on the Internet or read some more on Nehru's speeches and perhaps on that front alone this book has served its purpose

Show Business - Shashi Tharoor

Ok so I expected a Great Indian Novel.
It didn't help that the lead character is Ashok Banjara(AB ahem) is married to Maya (J) acts in a movie starring both his wife and the actress he is having an affair(Rekha?) with (Silsila) where the story of the movie resembles Abhiman, who has a disastrous stint in politics and who suffers a life threatening accident while filming (Coolie). In typical tongue in cheek manner Neetas Natter (Stardust) becomes Cheetahs Chatter.
The book follows the life of Ashok Banjara but that is only an excuse to look at the world of Bollywood. The story is told through multiple perspectives, that of Ashok, Pranay (the villain , I wonder if its Pran), Ashwin(Ashok's brother - Ajitabh?), Mehnaz (Rekha).
The book has flashes of brilliance like the Hindi movie script interludes describing Ashok's movie. Because like it or not you are laughing at yourself. Who among us hasn't liked Amitabh's movie, but reading them in detail like this, i have to marvel at the things we tolerate in the movies we see.
The book has sharp commentary as well. As the guruji notes Topless Nudity which is still part of India's rural truth is banned in our movies, But violence etc which is illegal is cheerfully glorified

So why was I disappointed on the whole with the book ? Oh its still worth reading But it lacked something. Perhaps the fact that I didn't identify with the characters or maybe I didn't want to do. I still want to remember Amitabh as the hungry ..Sorry angry young man. And to see him as a flawed human being somehow subtracts from the movies that I have fond memories of.
Perhaps it was the fact that the ending is weak. Perhaps because most of the things you get to read in this book are cliched. True but cliched. You have heard it so many times before.

The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor

No epic, No work of art is sacred by itself. If it does not have meaning for me now, It is nothing it is dead. - P. Lal The Mahabharata of Vyasa
The above quote,from the book itself, illustrates quite adequately what the author -Shashi Tharoor has attempted to achieve in his book The Great(Maha) Indian(Bharat) Novel. He has retold the Mahabharta using the context of India's freedom struggle upto The Emergency. The Author has created an amalgam of characters from the Mahabharata and India's politicians.
So we have a Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as Dhritirashtra. Since Nehru was so concerned with modernizing India that he was blind to the fact that the India's poor were exactly where they were before Independence. We have Gandhi as Gangaji Or Bhisma Pitamaha , he of the terrible vows , the patriach of the clans. Some characters represent Organisations like Bhim is the Army , The Strong Man who considers his duty to his brothers (in the infamous gambling scene in this case The Emergency) more important than the duty to his wife (Democracy)

This is a very clever book-almost smug sometimes - It is also a sharp commentary of Indian Politics, Indian Politicians but as importantly this book will make you laugh. It is essential before reading this book to have some understanding of the Mahabharata(If you watched the serial on doordarshan it should be enough) and of some of the events in Indian History if you wish to truly enjoy (or understand) this book. Its not often that i spend my time on the Internet trying to look up Indian Politicians to match them and events with the events depicted in this book. For this alone the author has my thanks.

Spoilers
An attempt to identify the characters and events in the book. (with thanks to jitsi who began this)

People
Gangaji (Ganga Dutta, Bhishma) – M. K. Gandhi.
Dhritarashtra – J. Nehru
Pandu – Subash Chandra Bose
Vidur – Sardar Vallabhai Patel
Gandhari – Kamala Nehru
Priya Duryodhani – Indira Priyadarshani Gandhi
Kunti - ?
Madri - ?
Karna – M. A. Jinnah
Yudhistir – Morarji Desai
Bhim – The Army
Arjun – The Indian Media.
Nakula – the Diplomatic service
Sahadev – the IAS
Drona – Jayaprakash Narayan
Krishna - ?
Kanika Menon- Krishna Menon. In the book he is the defence minister of India and is the one who is sacrificed when China Invades India.
Drewpad – Lord Mountbatten
Draupadi Mokrasi– Democracy
Ashwathaman - ?
Eklavya - VV Giri was the rebel candidate that Indira gandhi made president but F A Ahmed the president who signed the emergency
Ved Vyasji- I think it could be Rajagopalachari. But he may have died before the emergency so the time lines dont match. But he was known as Gandhi's conscience and is reputed to have written the best translation of the Mahabharata. Ved Vyas is also India's first Governor General in the book
Mohammed Rafi = Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad
Vyabichar Singh = Maharaja Hari Singh
Sheikh Azharuddin = Sheikh Abdullah
Lord Richard =
Heaslop =
Shishu Pal = Lal Bahadur Shashtri
Shakuni Shankar Dey = Siddartha Shankar Ray
Shikhandin = Nathuram Godse
Ganapathy = The Author himself? But Looking at the author's views on Ganapathi (in From midnight to millenium) I doubt it.