Ash Talks Books

I  read the next book on my TBR, Mr Vasudev Murthy’s ‘The Ramgarh Literary Festival.’ And what a ‘pick me up’ it turned out to be! Absolutely delightful! Slightly Wodehouseian and totally of interest to me ‘coz I love stories about the publishing world, and I’ve always loved Wodehouse. I loved when Mr Murthy referred to ‘Pupa’ publishers early in the book and made a remark about Sheelaa Dey in another part of the book. Sample a few dialogues from the book, which almost caused me incontinence at age 42: ‘Ticket to Ramgarh,’ I said arrogantly to the man behind the ticket counter, handing over the reservation form duly filled. ‘I am a key speaker at the Ramgarh Literary Festival.’ ‘You must be crazy, you old fool,’ said the rude person. In another place, this: “Dinner?” I inquired. He took off the lid off a large dish and I peeped in. Within was a small infant chappati. I asked about anything that might be sampled with the chapatti. He pointe...

# BookReview   # DontStartUp   # KarthikKumar   # Evam  I picked up Karthik Kumar’s ‘Don’t startup’ after seeing several promos on Linkedin. I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur. I’m not good with numbers at all, so I figured there was no need for me to read this book. My TBR is long enough as it is. But one day, I saw his Instagram post, which advertised his book with his autograph. I still am not sure what made me reach out to him to get the coupon code for the book. It arrived soon enough and I delved into it. A little backgrounder: I had a colleague in Aptech who was involved with Evam( way back when I worked with the company).I also met a couple of guys on a trek to Munnar who were involved with Evam. I have watched ‘The odd couple’ by Evam since I like plays. I have some old classmates( who I’m not in touch with) from my school who are friends with Karthik. I interned in RK Swamy with Suchitra Ramadurai( who I’m not in touch with) way before ...

# Review   of   # KnotForKeeps   The first few stories, 'Apportionments of love' by Sharanya Manivannan, 'Conjugular' by Chitra Viraraghavan and 'Heaven Forbid' by Krishna Shastri Devulapalli, almost made me want to abandon the book. In 'Conjugular', the author uses the phrase "if you take my meaning" multiple times. I'm not sure if she meant it as a stylistic device, but it really started grating on my nerves and detracted from the story. In 'Heaven Forbid', the author fat-shames   his friend's 90+ kg wife and also writes a dialogue shaming people with mental illnesses, "Why can't she get a mean, nasty sex offender or schizophrenic who charges less, da?" ( Referring to a person with schizophrenia as a schizophrenic is not the worst crime he has committed here. Putting that person in the class of mean, nasty sex-offenders is just atrocious.) Since I don't read Hindi poems, I skipped the...

Anuja Chandramouli’s ‘Ganga’ begins with a prelude— Pralaya or the great deluge. “Sleep continued to elude her as she watched over those who slept. It did not bother her in the least. Why rest when you can flow forever and ever?” Anuja tells the story of the daughters of Himavan and Mena— that of Ganga and Parvati. As a reader, I found the character sketch of Ganga endearing.   Parvati is described as a “quiet child who is perfectly content to be alone with her thoughts,” while Ganga’s “natural ebullience” makes her “spirited and headstrong.” The roles of the sisters in Lord Shiva’s life are etched out, and while Parvati is devout and serious, Ganga is playful and defiant in the way she relates to Him. Anuja tells the story of how Parvati becomes His consort while Ganga delivers the child born of Parvati’s and Lord Shiva’s union. Ganga finds a place in His tresses and is the “other mother” to Kartikeya and Ganesha. When Ganga tells Ganesha that she was the one who told Pa...

Book Review In hot blood: The Nanavati case that shook India by Bachi Karkaria, Juggernaut Books, 2017 The Nanavati Case was an event, which turned Bombay of the 1950s and 60s into a seething cauldron of intense emotions. A handsome Parsi war hero and naval commander Kawas Nanavati learns from his English wife Sylvia that she was having an affair with a Sindhi businessman and friend Prem Ahuja. On the afternoon of 27 April 1959, Nanavati storms into Ahuja’s bedroom and “meets, shoots and leaves” turning himself in to the law. When the cause celebre comes for trial, the legal eagles have a field day, the courts are turned into a circus, and the media frenzy is stoked by the flamboyant Russi Karanjia of ‘The Blitz’ sending the tabloid’s circulation soaring in that pre-television era. Coming to the party are a galaxy of political, naval and legal luminaries—Nehru, V.K.K Menon, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Katari and Nanda, Nani Palkivala, H.M. Seervai, Ram Jethmalani and others. ...

‘Stories at work: Unlock the secret to business storytelling’ by Indranil Chakraborty, Portfolio/Penguin, Gurgaon 2018. The boredom-killing stratagem of storytelling has become the new business in business communication and invaded boardrooms. CEOs are discovering the virtues of storytelling as the medium for their message in this age of information overload and attention deficiency. Storytelling has also provided a platform for the voices of Kalawatis and Sufiya Begums for larger causes. Indranil Chakraborty is one of the small tribe of business storytelling trainers in the world with the gift of the gab and with experience in large organisations. He has authored the book, which is halfway between a magazine article and a research paper, a la mode, to be a bedside companion for corporate czars and their cohorts. Stories can range in size from a six-word gut-wrenching terribly tiny tale by Ernest Hemingway to the monumental epic Mahabharata, which seeks to point the moral com...

I finished Zac O' Yeah's hashtag # book , 'A walk through Barygaza' on hashtag # amazonprime last night. Barygaza is the old name for Bharuch in Gujarat. I had first heard of the writer in 2014 when he was scheduled to attend a book event at Urban Solace, Bangalore. I had even bought his book 'Mr. Majestic' then, but could neither read the book nor attend the event. So when I saw this hashtag # travelogue by this hashtag # Swedish hashtag # writer who is settled in hashtag # Bangalore , I read it immediately. It was entertaining, written with positivity and humour and also strewn with facts he had unearthed through extensive research. I have read very few travelogues, but this one encourages me to read more of them.