Raindrops in her Heart by Indrani Bhattacharyya is a collection of 12 write-ups by the author about her real life, citing examples that are reflections on certain personal emotions which are quite common in everyday life to most urban people who have made a machine out of themselves. Yet that does not really deter Bhattacharyya from trying yet again and find those little incidents which in the process leave a deep mark and then help us to find ourselves.

The first of the write-ups Bridging the Unbridgeable is about a young girl of four years and her reflections on the birth of her little sisters. It talks about her thought processes on the arrival of a new guest and consequently someone who would command more attention than her in the family. Her thoughts are first bitter jealousy and then moves onto the more mature and sensitive attachment towards her sister. In the end we see both sisters turning out to be the best of friends.

The next anecdote is on the narrator’s mother and suitably named Time to Claim Your Luggage, Mamma. It describes the relationship of the author with her mother, which is like most mother-daughter relationships. Over the years it changed little, carrying the same essence, and in the end the author decides to reconcile with her mother due to her immense love which had accumulated in her over the years of their separation.

The next one, Roots Calling, is a sort of reality check for the author who writes only in English and is not too comfortable with her mother tongue Bengali. A meeting with a renowned author makes her realise this shortcoming and she makes amends by wielding her pen in Bengali too.

A multifaceted crystal Called Love is the tale of a couple who rediscover their moment of love after eight years, which was thought to have been lost amid the daily dreariness called life.

Some Likes and few Dislikes Make Life is a conversation of the narrator and the friend, in which the author comes to know that the little likes and the dislikes are parts and parcels of life. Nobody else had any command on them. They were judged by merely the consciences of the person.

It Happened Once is a very-close-to-the-heart conversation the author has with her sister. It underlines the fact that once a person’s trust is broken, she becomes entirely shaken up but still should have the courage to bring up the broken pieces to start over once again.

The piece with the title name Raindrops in her Heart explains the fact that how an entire lifetime is not enough to understand a person. The excitement and enthusiasm each day to rediscover the other person in a new manner is in itself exciting. A Day from a Grad Student’s Diary is the description of a day in the life of the author while doing her PhD. Her seemingly boring life in and out of her laboratory suddenly seems more cheerful on the discovery of the fact that how much she actually loved what she was doing.

But There was Light relates the author’s encounter with a little child whose innocent advice momentarily changed her thought processes and she was able to come out of her depressing shell. When We Met is a strange yet funny incident of the author’s first impression about her mother-in-law whom she had considered to be too strict and scary, which in the end turns out to be far from truth.

Inner Garden describes one incident that made the relationship between her and her husband was made strong.

All in all, Bhattacharyya comes up with combination of sweet and salty everyday tales which make her quite readable and the raindrops straight from the heart.

Learning to read and understand what we are reading is one of the necessary steps towards literacy. It is utterly important to get the meaning of what we are reading otherwise it would be meaningless. It will be like staring at words without knowing what it is about. Reading without comprehension is also like listening to a person talking to you without understanding what he or she actually wants to convey.

As early as possible, children should learn to read and understand what they are reading so that they will not find it difficult to learn various things in the future and throughout their life.

Here are some of the reasons why reading comprehension for 2nd grade and 3rd grade is important with what they are reading:

• Learning to comprehend what we are reading makes life easier.
• It gives children the foundation to future academic learning, not only in reading and writing but also in math, science, social studies, and other subjects as well. It also helps us enjoy the literary world.
• It will help increase their vocabulary knowledge which is strongly needed in reading comprehension thus, making them more confident in speaking and writing. It will also help them read effortlessly or more naturally.
• It will help them make predictions, arrange the sequence of the story, make clarifications on difficult or confusing parts of the texts.
• It will help them connect what they are reading to their life experiences and/or to their previous knowledge.

How can we attain this goal for our children? It’s not very easy but not very difficult either. We only need to expose our children to rich language and reading opportunities as early as possible. Their environment should be one that is supportive enough to the development of their reading skill. They should be given more chances to learn more vocabulary because many students fail to comprehend what they are reading due to poor vocabulary. As the children learn to read and understand what they are reading, they learn new information and develop new strategies to develop comprehension. It will help them explore the world of reading in a fun positive way.

How can we help improve the children’s vocabulary? Parents or teachers can help improve the children’s vocabulary, a gateway to reading comprehension for 3rd grade by reading the child a story for several times, explain some difficult words and review some regular words.

At the end of each reading, ask some questions that would test the children’s comprehension. In this way, we are teaching our students how to comprehend a story being read. As they grow older, they will then be able to adopt such strategy or tool unconsciously when reading.

Another thing that parents and teachers should do is to keep giving the children more materials to read in order to practice, practice, practice. The key to develop reading comprehension is to keep practicing. It will also help develop the children’s love to read as they understand what the author conveys.

Published under alternate titles like Vertigo and Dark Horse by publishing majors such as DC Comics and Marvel, most of them are suddenly finding a new life in the form of major Hollywood movies. To be read without prejudice against the seemingly innocent artwork, here is a list of some of the absolute must-reads for those new to the weird and wonderful world of graphic novels.

• Mausby Art Spiegelman: An iconic work by a second generation Jew immigrant, Maus is a poignant retelling of the Holocaust. The author took his real life struggle of trying to understand his father — a bitter Holocaust survivor, and portrayed it brilliantly in a comic book where an ageing Vladeck Spiegelman is narrating his life story to his son Art. The author tells the story of a complex and difficult man brilliantly and etches the father-son relation with brutal honesty. He chooses to cast the various races in his tale as animals: the Jews as mice (hence the name), the Germans as cats, the Americans as dogs, the French as frogs and the Polish as pigs to highlight the absurdity of race divisions. The simple black-and-white artwork hides in its folds a great human story and for its sheer emotion can rival any other work of literature. Regarded as a rare work of fiction as well as a piece of history, Maus is a tale that breaks all barriers.
• Watchmen by Alan Moore: The big daddy of the graphic novel genre, Moore gave his superhero stories a unique human twist and bought them down from the skies and closer to our hearts. Watchmen is a tale of our dark times, told by some of the darkest characters in storytelling , and like fine wine, it lingers on in your mind long after the last page has been read. Honored by the Time magazine as the only graphic novel in its list of 100 Greatest Novels, Moore’s work and his unique superheroes, especially the ink-faced Rorschach, are sure to find a place of pride in your bookcase. Final words: leave the masala-Hollywood movie alone and go buy your copy of perhaps the grittiest graphic novel ever written.
• Sandmanby Neil Gaiman: A delightful cocktail of history, literature and mythology, Sandman is a well read man’s dream come true. With a list of characters that range from the Norse God Loki to Shakespeare, and a canvas that extends from a mythical Baghdad to the horrific realms of hell, Gaiman’s work is one that is sure to delight the most discerning of readers. It is a story that is magical, real, sad and delightful at the same time and needs some serious bibliography to be fully appreciated. With some spin-offs of the series — especially the ones about Death (yes, she is a character!) and Lucifer — doing well, Sandman has attained a cult status that is hard to achieve in the fiercely combative world of literature.
• The Dark Knight by Frank Miller: Frank Miller is clearly the most “filmable” of authors with successful movies like Sin City, 300 & Daredevil based on his iconic graphic novels. Yet, it is his classic retelling of the story of the Gotham Knight which is still regarded as his best work. His reinvention of Batman (which also inspired Christopher Nolan’s movies) in his Dark Knight series is an amazing example of how a story about caped crusaders could be made as powerful and real as any other work of art. Frank Miller’s Batman is old, grey haired, tired and even a little puffy around the edges but is still the tallest of heroes. Whether or not you like the original Batman stories, this one is a must read for its sheer power and the dazzling display of what a simple comic book can become.
• V for Vendetta by Alan Moore: For the rebel in all of us. For every closet anarchist who wanted to change the way the world functions. And for every lunatic who believes that the actions of one can change the destiny of millions. The unnamed protagonist in Alan Moore’s epic story hides all of our secret faces behind his mask of Guy Fawkes and gives wings to our most rebellious of thoughts. The graphic novel can boast of perhaps the best storytelling arch in its genre, putting many a novel to shame and has won many accolades for its eccentric author. Read it for its sheer audacity and storytelling genius, books like V don’t come around very often.
• Fables by Bill Willingham: Bill Willingham’s work may seem very light when compared to the other, more broody books in this list but it is surely one of the most fun. Remember all the characters in the fairy tales you read as child — Snow White, Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, Mowgli and the likes? Well, put them in New York, give them a generous shot of strong whisky, add a dollop of twisted human psyche, throw in some memorable action sequences, stick on a ’18+ only’ sticker on the cover and wash it all down with some great art work and you get the heady concoction that is Fables. Read it and relish the favorite characters of your childhood relive their roles in a decidedly more adult world. Growing up was never so much fun!

First of all Physics of the Future is not a novel and Michio Kaku does not intend to weave stories by wrapping the scientific probables with palatable fictions. Rather he chooses to remain factual, very close to the hearts of science students to popularise puzzling concepts like life will have replicators.

Michio Kaku’s vivid and lucid narration of futuristic world that will enjoy the benefits of ground-breaking incubatory projects can be likened to Richard Dawkin’s monumental effort to demystify Selfish Genes or Stephens Hawkins’s all-time best A Brief History of Time. All examples of popularising science amongst common people.

Bizarre may it sound, but none of his narratives is unrealistic — nano sensors in brain might move objects with the strength of thoughts, Internet-powered contact lenses, self-driving and self-guided cars, vehicles floating in air-leveraging magnetism, all-cure molecular medicines for genetic diseases, billions of DNA sensors to safe-guard blood cells…

Space elevator will no longer be a fiction. It is an endless list of incubatory projects and possibilities like emotional robots, photographing dreams, creating new life-forms, expanding life-span.

The greatest challenge faced by scientific discoveries is “justifying the expenditure and ethics for experiments. But human mind will never cease to explore the unknown.

Despite budget constraints, NASA will be able at least discover extra-terrestrial intelligence in this Century, claims Kaku.

Global Warming will swallow glaciers at an alarming rate and the giant islands of metropolis will be shielded from the effects of green-house and giant sea-waves.

Scientific community toiling day and night to maintain the health of the earth and will succeed in convincing world-leaders to take all sorts of protective measures.

Kaku is the modern-day Jules Verne who is expanding the horizons of imagination and building enormous curiosity amongst students to build the technology for tomorrow. He makes it very clear that the human race will still remain slave to primitive instincts, but definitely would be able to overcome most of the negative sentiments.

Nothing would be able to completely replace the experience of watching movies in a theatre, or playing soccer in grounds, reading hardcopies of newspapers and magazines.

Finally, the book also touches upon the political and economic situations in 2100. He discusses the wide-spread emergence of a planetary culture. Kaku takes us on a whirlwind tour offering glimpses of automatic-disease detector toilets, portable MRI machines, clothes with emergency-sensors and many fascinating research areas.

Kaku is the modern day Jules Verne

Interesting topics like how easy accessibility and falling price of international travel fast erodes the misunderstandings between nations and promotes global fraternity, the speed at which breaking news spreads out across the world and makes it harder for autocrats and dictators to suppress the truth. Global movements for equality and freedom leveraging Internet will pick tremendous momentum and reach its zenith.

In fact Kaku immensely owes it to Marquis de Condorcet’s Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind. The most important point he makes is “But science by itself is morally neutral”. He highlights why the world leaders cannot help take immediate actions to protect environment. He spurs the debate on how to build an educated, informed electorate that will make proper use of the device called democracy that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve through Internet the so-called guardian of democratic freedoms.

Kaku urges us to envision how the heavily loaded train built by the “Physics of Future” barreling down headed our way and how it’s fuelling the ambitions of the young generations to board the train and drive their destiny.

As a departing note, he reminds us what we need to do now to ensure that future generations can enjoy such fruits of science. He quotes Stevens Post: “Our perfection lies not in gene advancement, but in the enhancement of character.”

Finally Michio Kaku pushes the button of his time-machine… 3… 2… 1.,. 0…

• Few hundred years from now imagine your great-great grandson is about to participate into a mission to save a megapolis from deluge…
• As he is approaching his home from space, he takes out an old worn-out book from back-pocket… by someone who envisioned the world free-of-violence…
• He glances through the last few lines of the book… a constant reminder how the world attained united planetary civilization by rendering the violent nations completely irrelevant…

The Root of Violence (by Mahatma Gandhi)

Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principle.

Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat. Pages 140

Chetan Bhagat’s fifth novel Revolution 2020 was released amid much hype and anticipation from every echelon of readers — from the bookworms to Internet addicts, who would otherwise never open a storybook. Bhagat’s sharp rebuttal to Infosys founder  N.R. Narayana Murthy’s comment about the quality of IIT graduates and the debate that followed was enough to ensure the book caught the eye of even the most uninitiated.

The pace of the story — one on love, corruption and ambition, as the book cover proclaims — is about as fast as that of the holy river which flows through the backdrop — Varanasi. Bhagat, as always, makes a powerful beginning, coercing the readers to turn the page and delve into the life story of Gopal, perhaps the youngest ever cirector of a college. But may be the author tries too hard to develop a universal appeal — the obvious intention perhaps to churn out a Bollywood blockbuster script once again — and in the process ends up distorting a compelling storyline by involving a pointless love story, clearly inspired from the insipid Bollywood flicks. And, and… well… who says no to a love story on offer!

Coming from an ordinary middle-class background with a retired schoolteacher father, Gopal has no choice but to be an engineer if he wants to have a fulfilling side-dish to the rotion the table, an adroit reflection of the Indian society where the son has to be either a doctor or an engineer if he wants to make his parents proud. He desperately needs to get into a consecrated institution for engineering, but has neither the money nor the merit requisite for that coveted spot. His childhood friend Raghav is Varanasi’s darling, a certainty to crack the JEE — the Holy Grail of examinations. Gopal falls in love with classmate Aarti, the beautiful and bubbly daughter of the District Magistrate, after a seemingly inopportune incident in Class V (Bollywood, huh!) and their friendship (from Aarti’s side) and love (from Gopal’s side) meanders over midnight phone calls and countless boat rides. All three of them have different aims — Gopal wants to be a rich man, Raghav wants to change the world and Aarti wants to be an airhostess. They are as same as chalk and cheese.

The plot thickens when Gopal not only fails to get a good rank in AIEE for the second time round, but he also loses Aarti, who falls in love with Raghav, who gets chance in a prestigious engineering college, but gets increasingly drawn towards journalism which allows him to bring to light the changes that are indispensable, and the revolution that is inevitable. Bhagat lets the readers’ rancour at the coaching system, which draws so many millions of students across little cities to leave their homes and try repeatedly for a course contrived for elimination of the weaklings.

And then comes the line — “Stupid people go to colleges. Smart people own them”. The remaining pages are dedicated to this recurrent stygian theme while the idea of the de facto revolution takes a backseat and is almost lost at times. Private education is the only way out for 4 million students who all dream of a secure future. There is a sobriety in the way Bhagat sets out to descry the inherent servile corruption in the Indian education system and the aberration of non-profit institutions and commercialisation of education, but the style of writing that had charmed millions via his previous books is desiderated.

As Gopal’s story gets more prominence, Raghav’s revolutionary zeal and ideologies recede into the background. It’s incomplete and diabolical as people are left wondering what the nature of the revolution will be, if it does take place. Bhagat fails to tie up the loose ends at the conclusion as the story comes to an end in a corny Bollywood fashion where the antagonist-protagonist has a change of heart and gives up his girl to seek refuge in drinking.

Bhagat, in an effort to recreate the innate youthful feel in his book, has let his language derogate to almost colloquial usage. Despite a novel starting, the book deteriorated as he tried to balance two plots at one go — the portrayal of the right and wrong, and the love triangle. But, apart from a fleeting reference in the end, Bhagat does not mete judgment and one is left to the luxury of choosing his own hero and villain — as, according to the capricious nature of fate, Gopal gives in to the system and Raghav tries to change that very system.

All in all, it’s a good read if one prefers light fiction for a long flight; but for it to gratify one’s literary senses? Almost certainly it will disappoint. It tries to be idealistic, but lacks any foundation; it mirrors the fate of millions of ordinary average Indian students and will definitely connect with the readers; but it lacks depth and research into the lurid world of politics and pre-emptive journalism.

And the less said about the language used the better.

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest — are in one word, EPIC. I had read them once, two years back, borrowing them from a colleague.

At that time, I read them in a state of utter panic — something that often grips me when I have something amazing in front of me and I can’t wait till I have finished them. I keep thinking that something might happen and I might die, and then be denied that experience!

It happens to me when I see amazing food, so I eat quickly, almost gulping down the morsels. And when it’s books, I read them through all my waking hours.

That’s exactly what I did when I got my hands on these three books — I gobbled them up as if there was no tomorrow. During my first read, I perhaps missed a lot of what the book was all about, but I discovered a heroine who managed to wow me.

A few months back, I saw promos on HBO saying that they are going to show the three movies. I realised that in order to watch the movies, I needed to revisit the books again (well, don’t ask me why, but I have this habit of reading up a book again if I plan to see a celluloid version).

Anyway, I bought the books on Flipkart (they came in a nice box) and started to read the first book where it all began. Although I had read the book before, I couldn’t but marvel at Larsson’s characterisation of Salander — a doll-like girl, almost child-like, but only in appearance, a rebel, an artist, a hacker, an investigator, a boxer, a schemer, an aggressor, a realist, with not a shred of romance in her bones.

This is the first book of the series where all the characters are introduced and the partnership between the hacker and the journalist begins.

This girl is the hero of the three books — she is the woman who makes you turn every page of the books in breathless anticipation. She doesn’t fail the reader at any step; she has the right attitude and the strength to beat the shit out of any man who wrongs her.

Sometimes, as I read her story in Larsson’s words, I wonder if she exists somewhere, she doesn’t seem like fiction to me anymore. However, she is someone who I would like to see on Indian TV more — imagine what a break it would be from the monotonous saas-bahu sagas that we watch on screen.

Okay, before I deviate, the Millennium Series is also about a journalist, Michael Blomkvist, who is very much like many reporters that I have seen — dogged in his pursuit of a story, complete devotion to his profession, sometimes even a hedonistic streak of doing the right thing even if it means jail term.

Above everything else, so unlike our modern-day reel heroes, he has his shades of grey — he has no compunctions about sleeping with his best friend who is also his much married editor-in-chief.

He also doesn’t mind playing the authorities when he is backing a dear friend and he sometimes doesn’t mind breaking the law. He is not handsome, but has a way with women. He, along with the staff at Millennium, which is also the name of the magazine that he works for and co-owns deal with investigative journalism which forms the crux of the three stories.

Salander on her part is an antithesis of all that we perceive as a heroine — she has tattoos all over her body, she has piercings, she is violent and aggressive, an anti-social, she hates to fall in love, she doesn’t mind sleeping with a woman, just to avoid the unnecessary baggage that comes with men and above everything else, she looks like a child woman who you wouldn’t look at twice.

What is very refreshing in all three stories that form the Millennium Series is the fact that there is no attempt at any romance between the characters — what comes through are true relationships based on trust and loyalty. It’s about true grit, of a woman against the world, who finds friends when she most needed them.

Salander by far, beats the heroines that I hold in high esteem in English literature so far, by sheer strength of character — Scarlett O Hara (Gone with the Wind), Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice) Emma (Emma), Molly Bloom (Ulysses), Miss Havisham (I loved her obsession in Great Expectations), all fade in my mind, as I read Larsson’s characterisation of his wronged woman.

The book is a story of love and life written in 1934. Decades later, the philosophy behind the book still holds true.

It’s the age-old theme about life and love. What is virtue and what sin – there are nothing but just labels which our society has created.

The novel Chitralekha takes its name from own of the characters, a courtesan, but the actual story revolves mainly around five characters – two friends who pass out of the same gurukul, two men under whose care the students are placed by the guru and Chitralekha herself.

And though the story is set in the times of Chandragupta Maurya, it is the central idea and philosophy that makes the novel as contemporary as our today’s society. I am surprised not to find any English translation of this novel though it has been translated into multiple vernacular languages.

The story starts in a ‘gurukul’ of the great sage Ratnambar, where the guru tells his pupils, Shwetank and Vishaldev, that “there is no such sin and virtue” — the usual sin committed by human beings is nothing and they merely become the victims and slave of circumstances.

The starting point of the conversation is the two young men’s inquisitiveness about the true nature of sin. Instead of giving them direct answers, the teacher asks them to get some real life experience and learn the answer themselves. So after finishing off their studies, one is sent to a young rich lord in the Chandragupta Maurya’s court, Bijgupta, enjoying the pleasures of life and another one is sent to a yogi, Kumargiri, who has given up all pleasures for the spiritual world. The students will serve their masters for one year and come back with their version of answers.

Bijgupta is enamoured with Chitralekha, the beautiful, charming court dancer. As luck would have it, the ascetic Kumargiri also falls in love with her. A though Chitralekha loves the young lord, she teaches Kumargiri the true meaning of detachment. As events unfold in the life of the trio, the two friends Shwetank and Vishaldev become wise in the ways of human nature.

The novel starts on a good note, promising an intellectual journey of realization of the true nature of sin, and it carries on the till the end. Where it falters is perhaps in developing the characters, which is expected from a fiction highly regarded to be a masterpiece. Somehow, I felt the characters lack the soul to carry the story forward.

Chitralekha, the film was made in 1964 and starred Meena Kumari in the lead.

But then, this novel probably isn’t written to exploit the ‘fictional’ characters to make an excellent story but was meant to be an intellectual discussion and the characters just play a role in putting author’s version of philosophy in front of readers. Different characters reflect different streams of philosophy and every reader will connect well with at least one of them.

In the end, when Shwetank and Vishaldev give different answers to the question asked in the beginning, Guru Ratnambar says thus: “We neither commit a sin nor do we commit a good deed. We do what we have to do in that context.”

Chitralekha is a documentary on love and life. While trying to find the true meaning of sin, each character is exposed love, lust, asceticism and duty in human lives. Perhaps written in another time and another place – and perhaps not the pre-Independence India — and perhaps with another setting as the backdrop, it would have been a bestseller.

Coming just on the back of widespread protests over land acquisitions in all parts of the country, particularly the significant Supreme Court judgments in the Greater Noida land acquisition cases, Last Man in Tower puts the spotlight on the raging debate — land is required for development, but development at what cost? To grab the cash being offered or cling to one’s roots?

The background couldn’t get simpler — a typical middle class building in an area that used to be suburbs and now a hotspot of construction in Mumbai — Vakola. If the residents of Vishram Society — a curious mix of service class and retired people — pride themselves on anything, it’s their pucca way of life. Respectable residents of a respectable building, the pink colour of the building giving way to a “rainwater-stained, fungus-licked grey”, where the roof leaks every time it rains, where water supply is limited — two hours a day — where the neighbour can hear every time you flush… Yet our respectable residents are a happy community, bound by their middle-class sentiments and middle-class way of life.

In comes the coughing, wheezing, conniving builder Dharmen Shah and his “left hand man” Shanmugham, and all hell breaks loose. In true Godfather style, Shah makes an offer which no one can refuse — Rs 19,000 per square foot — and the story really takes off from there. Not everyone wants to leave — some of them have stayed there for years and for people like the blind Mrs Pinto, the society is like her eyes and ears.

Yet, none can benefit till all agree to vacate. As one by one all residents fall for Shah’s offer, later enticements, and much later the threats, the last man standing is Yogesh A. Murthy aka Masterji, a former schoolteacher and a widower, the most respected man in the building, who clings to the memory of his wife and daughter, and refuses to give up his flat and his rights.

It is precisely here Adiga justifies all the praise and honours heaped on him. Instead of a plain black and white story of an evil builder and aggrieved residents — the author beautifully portrays the various shades of human nature, as the same residents who for years stood by each other in times of crisis and shared each other’s happiness start baying for each other’s blood. A classic case of what money does to people. With the dreams of a new life about to become a reality, their petty jealousies and grievances win over their basic human niceties — even stooping to the levels of going through each other’s trash cans.

So, Sangeeta Puri, who wouldn’t mind keeping a mango bought for her darling Down’s Syndrome-afflicted son Ramu to give to the widower old Masterji, one whom she calls an English gentleman for standing by his friends, the Pintos, when the old couple initially refuse to sell their flat, doesn’t hesitate to call the same Masterji an evil, selfish, morally corrupt man after a couple of months.

The creepy, conniving Ajwani is a typical property dealer who doesn’t mind doing anything for an extra cut — to the point of actually assisting Shanmugham in threatening his fellow flatmates… The helpless society secretary Kothari is as helpless as they can get… his pettiness often hinted at but never proved… until the end… Poor Ibrahim Kudwa who doesn’t want to take any decisions and wants to please everyone finally finds himself taking every decision he knows is wrong in his heart… The Communist “battsleship” Mrs Rego with her sad past and torn between her beliefs and her struggle as a single mother…

Adiga brilliantly manages to bring to life every character. Even Shah is not a heartless bastard — he is a decent man, makes a decent offer, far better than what his rivals would do, he even admonishes Shanmugham the first time the latter threatens Masterji. Shah is a man with a vision, a man who wants to construct just once more, every time, to change the face of Mumbai — to put it on a path of progress — that is the way he sees it.

He is not really a money shark. He gets a pleasure in dealing fair. In fact, when he first makes his offer to Vishram residents, Shanmugham privately protests saying the offer is too high — at least Rs 9,000 higher than the going rate of Rs 10,000 per square foot. Shah replies that he has saved Rs 1,000 per square foot. How? Since people were expecting Rs 10,000, they would be overwhelmed by an offer of double that amount. Yet, Rs 19,000 is Rs 1,000 less than Rs 20,000. Funny logic. But Shah gives a glimpse into his heart here — heart of a man trying to be fair, trying to compensate people whose shelter he would be taking away.

On the other hand, Masterji is no hero. He is initially guided by his solidarity with the old Pintos, but increasingly it’s his ego, his frustration regarding his failure to fight his brothers-in-law when his wife was alive is what comes into play. The cops are not a typical villainous lot out of Bollywood movies. The inspector is respectful with Masterji and promises to help. True to his words, the constable visits the society and takes statements from the Pintos when they are threatened. There is the intriguing Parekh and Associates — the oh-so-typical lawyers spewing legalese and fighting for human rights — “Masterji… say to yourself, Mofa, Mofa, and close your eyes. You sleep with the law by your side,” always ready to make the best settlement possible, whether the clients want it or not.

The language is trademark Adiga — lucid and free flowing, marked by his characteristic sharp wit. Last Man in Tower is not about one good and one evil, not about one group versus the other. It is grim yet not dark like Adiga’s previous creations. Starkly political, yet with a universal appeal, Last Man in Tower is about the contradictions and the burning issues in our current society, the various shades of human nature present in each one of us.

It's a dog's life: Marley & Me is the story of love, friendship and companionship.

If you are a dog lover, this one is for you. And if you are not, then too. For John Grogan’s Marley & Me is a delightful and unforgettable true story about a crazy and certified un-trainable dog who teaches a young couple, and later in life the growing family, what life is all about – “living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart… appreciate simple things… And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity”.

Inspired by Grogan’s columns in Philadelphia Inquirer, the book traces the 13 years in the life of the journalist and his wife, Jenny, from the adoption of Marley — the World’s Worst Dog — to his eventual death from gastric dilation volvulus (a stomach torsion condition).

The book follows the landscape of the young couple’s lives as they traverse through regular financial problems, Jenny’s first miscarriage, a problematic delivery of the next child, hectic lifestyles as the journalist couple tries to adjust work hours, new jobs and relocations — and tells a story of companionship and love that they find in Marley.

The book, made into a major motion picture starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, in 2008, is written in a first person narrative and is a humorous yet moving tale of what exactly a good dog shouldn’t do and of course Marley did — Marley chewed couches, shredded mattresses, slashed screens, tipped and rummaged trash cans, sniffed guests between the legs, dripped drool all over, pulled at the chain while on walks, was scared of thunder… “the only dog known to get expelled from obedience school”!

Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is adopted by John and Jenny 15 months after their marriage as they decide to get a pet to practice “nurturing” something before going the family way. And life is never the same for them again. Despite the careful pedigree checking, the Grogans soon realise that Marley, as they name the pup after singer Bob Marley, is neurotic, unmanageable and has a mortal fear of thunder — he literally chews through doors and walls.

The couple tries every possible solution, dog psychiatrists to training schools (from where he is promptly turned out because he refuses to behave) to finally neutering him to reduce his exuberance. On the positive side, Marley makes a two-minute appearance in the movie The Last Home Run (filmed in 1996 and released in 1998), where he surprisingly rises up to the occasion and behaves himself.

But his escapades at home continue: “I bought a flowering shrub… and Marley pulled it by the roots the same day and chewed it into mulch.”

“I finally got around to replacing the ripped porch screen, and Marley, by now quite accustomed to his self-made doggie door, promptly dove through it again.”

“He escaped one day, and when he finally returned, he had a pair of woman’s panties in his teeth. I didn’t want to know.”

Once the Grogans go to an open air restaurant and chain Marley to the iron table. He promptly gets up and starts chasing another dog, dragging the metal table after him, unmindful of the racket he is causing. Needless to say the family never takes him out for dinner again. Left alone at home, he eats up speaker woofers, tears through sofa covers and even gulps Jenny’s gold ring, which Grogan retrieves after days of shoveling through dog poo.

A film poster of the 2008 film, Marley & Me.

But his heart is at the right place. When Jenny comes back home after the first miscarriage, weak and mentally shattered, Marley somehow understands the crisis — “he gently rested his blocky head in her lap and just whimpered”. Or later, when the little Grogans arrive, he takes care of them, zealously guards them and shows great ferocity to a stranger who merely tries to hold one of the children. His love and devotion is above question. As he grows old, arthritis sets in, he has difficulty in moving, climbing the stairs gets difficult, so is crossing the yard for his daily routine, his eyes become fuzzy and hearing half gone. But he would still dip into trash cans or steal from the kitchen… “till his final years, when he mostly sleeps.”

Page after page of the book lists hilarious misdeeds of this loony dog. Yet when he dies, we feel Grogan’s sorrow in his final words: “I thought back over his 13 years — the destroyed furniture and goofy antics; the sloppy kisses and utter devotion… I did not want him to leave this world believing all his bad press.”

The touching, honest story was a bestseller from the beginning, even before Grogan wrote it. As he says, the eulogy he wrote in his newspaper following Marley’s death received more responses than any other column he had written in his professional life up until that point.

Marley’s story has also been adapted for children. Marley: A Dog Like No Other is for younger readers who would enjoy reading about Marley’s story without the sexual content in the original. Bad Dog, Marley! and A Very Marley Christmas are picture books for even lower grade readers.

Marley & Me
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price: Rs 250
Pages: 335

“I am an Argentinian, Cuban, and also Bolivian. I belong nowhere, but everywhere.” — Che Guevara.

No other words describe the legendary revolutionary better than his own. Over 40 years after his death, his controversial yet heroic life continues to fascinate people across the world. From East to West, North to South, cutting across political boundaries, Che Guevara is a symbol of rebellion, courage and determination.

Illustrated by Chie Shimano in Japan’s traditional manga (comics) style and storyline by Kiyoshi Konno, Che Guevara: A Manga Biography, is a laudable attempt to present the life history of the greatest revolutionary of all time in a simple, illustrated, graphic form. And why so is evident from the first page itself — when the authors introduce a group of youth wearing Che’s face on T-shirts. On questioning who the man is, however, they are clueless. Upon further probing, one replies that he is wearing it because, well, the man looks cool.

In the following pages, it is this “coolness” — almost of a rockstar cult — that the authors decide to probe, and reveal the flesh and blood version of the man behind the iconic images on T-shirts and posters.

A word of advice in the very beginning: do not attempt to find new, meaningful revelations in this book. It borrows heavily from Guevara’s own diaries ^{(1, 2, 3)} and already published biographies on him. It is just a simple attempt to retell the story of the brave man, who lived his life according to his beliefs always and fought and died for others. There have been numerous books and movies on Che Guevara’s life and struggles, including Che and The Motorcycle Diaries. Therefore, this book is by no means an attempt to better any of those, more so because of its limited scope in its illustrated form.

The book starts in 1928 with birth of Ernesto Guevara De La Sarna. It doesn’t delve much into his childhood other than the fact that he was asthmatic and didn’t give into authoritarian set ups easily, even in school. As a young adult, it talks of his intention of studying medicine and a tour of the South Americas he went on with his rugby coach and close friend Alberto Granados. It is said this seven-month journey changed his whole perception about life. He came back, finished his studies and left home and family within 25 days of graduating. As the book says, except for a one-day trip eight years later, Guevara never landed on Argentinian soil again.

The rest of the book talks of his much-talked-about and well-known encounter with Fidel Castro in Guatemala, how the duo developed a bonding that would last life long, at least for Guevara, and how Castro and his handful of 81 followers crossed the sea in a broken-down cabin cruiser to land in Cuba. From here, it chronicles how the rebels overthrew the Batista regime. It delves briefly into the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missiles crisis and the political crises of the time before talking about his restlessness (and disenchantment?) with his life in Cuba and his final journey to Bolivia where he was killed trying to instigate a revolution to overthrow the US-backed regime.

The book could be criticised for being totally one-sided or not detailed enough. It could also be said it doesn’t delve enough into the so-called inconsistencies into Che Guevara’s own beliefs. But again, it is not a political commentary of the times, neither does it pretend to be so.

But what is perhaps frustrating is how these historically significant and interesting periods and events have been crunched into one or two pages instead of detailing. It is a similar case with Guevara’s life. While pages have been spent on less insignificant incidents like Guevara meeting his family in disguise, it doesn’t do justice to many things like his relationship with his parents or his first wife Hilda. While in the end of the first chapter he tells Granados that he would go back to Argentina to finish his study in medicine because he had promised his mother, it doesn’t explain then why he leaves home suddenly, and even though he does to find his calling, why he doesn’t keep in touch with his parents, especially his mother, who is shown to have doted on him. Or why would he write to his parents “…I have loved you very much… and I think that sometimes you did not understand me.” His sudden falling out of love with his first wife Hilda is also abrupt. So is his leaving Cuba finally.

What is also irritating is the sudden background lessons in history, without any attempt to weave it into the story and then again sudden reappearance of the characters as the story picks up pace. Add to that the sketchy character designs, heavy talking scenes and some drawings looking very similar to the Pokemon characters on Cartoon Network. If the attempt is to woo the uninitiated readers, these could be quite a drawback.

That said, it is perhaps still an easy read, devoid of the dogmas surrounding the man who has been named by the Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century and whose photograph of Alberto Korda entitled Guerrillero Heroico  declared as “the most famous photograph in the world”.

And I knew the authors had succeeded when I saw my seven-and-half-year-old son picking up the book and actually reading it cover to cover.

Che Guevara: A Manga Biography
By Chie Shimano and Kiyoshi Konno
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs. 499
Buy it on: Flipkart, Amazon