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  1. #4171
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag - Jim Corbett
    - first published in 1947
    - 50th edition published in 2017

    One of the first books that made me start to love books. Jim Corbett & Kenneth Anderson were two wildlife writers me & my friends would pounce upon during summer/winter holidays. Anderson’s Omnibus Series & Corbett’s Rudraprayag/Kumaon series were all-time favourites. This one starts off at Prayag, which is where Mandakini & Alakananda combine to form the Ganga. Rudraprayag is a pilgrim village between the religious points of Kedarnath and Badrinath. The influenza epidemic of 1918 wiped off a quarter of the forest inhabitants. The expense of cremation forced them to burn the bodies together atop a hill. The disposed half-burnt bodies were picked by a leopard. The end of the epidemic saw the end of mass-cremation which forces the leopard to come down the hill, and having started to love human flesh, goes on a man-hunting expedition of 8 years claiming & mauling a total of 125 lives. At first, the killings were attributed to the cannibalistic sadhus who visited the shrines. It was later deduced that it was the art-work of a man-eater, that too not the usual tiger but the more dangerous version of leopard. After many failed attempts that included British government officials, acclaimed marksmen/sportsmen, stunt-lovers… Corbett ashaan decides to take up the task. The thing about leopards is that, well-endowed in skills of sight & hearing they have no sense of smell. Leopards are the most beautiful, muscular & athletic beings on earth. The tracking, locating & stalking of them is an experience the end of which can result in one of two completely different satisfactions, press the button on a camera or press the trigger on a rifle. I have always wondered, what is it about this book & some other books too, that makes me go back to it/them once in every five or seven years. Was it some childhood broken nostalgia blah blah blah? Or is there some carnivore inside me wanting to bump off another carnivore? Or is it that the events & people described & their precise & accurate detailing that makes me wonder, is there even a single word in this 70 year old piece of art that is misplaced or misused. I don’t think so.

  2. #4172
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    Memories of a Father - Prof. T.V. Eachara Varier

    A first-person narrative that starts off on March 10, 1976 with Varier (Prof. Hindi Dept. Govt. Arts & Science College, Calicut) visiting the Mahmohan Palace, Trivandrum to meet then State Home Minister K. Karunakaran to inquire about his only son Rajan whom the Minister’s police had picked up on the morning of Feb 29 from the hostel premises of Calicut Regional Engineering College at Chathamangalam. Even without being asked Varier confirms to the HM that, while Maoist-Naxalite extremists attacked Kayanna police station & went off with a rifle, Rajan was at Farooke College, participating in the youth festival since it was reported that Rajan was taken to Kakkayam camp where officers under Crime Branch DIG Jayaram Padikkal were investigating the Kayanna event. It was one of Rajan’s friends who informed him about the arrest but Varier did not pass on the news to his mentally disturbed wife who loved Rajan the most in the family; instead he would instruct her every day to leave enough rice for their son who would come home any day soon. For forty days Varier knocked all doors without informing anyone in the family. Being a Communist, Varier took the matter to Cantonement House, to the Chief Minister Achutha Menon who were once hidden by members of Varier’s family from being captured by the police. Despite being CM of the state, Menon claimed he was helpless since the affairs of the State were being conducted by Central politics, Karunakaran & Padikkal under the pretext of Emergency rule. Varier realized that the staunch Communist leader considered to be the best CM that Kerala ever had, had now become a puppet in the hands of the Home Minister. Depressed by the proceedings, distanced by family & neighbours, Varier was about to lose all hope when AKG sends him a letter to assure him the support of the party & encourages him to keep fighting. With the Emergency being lifted, Varier, financially helped by many other Communists, & advised by Adv. Eeswara Iyer & Adv Ram Kumar, prepares affidavits signed off by 12 witnesses to raise a habeus corpus at the HC, resulting in the first writ after Emergency filed on February 25, 1977 Professor Eachara Varier vs the Govt. of Kerala, respondents being Home Minister Karunakaran, Home Secretary Narayana Swamy, IG V.N. Rajan, DIG Jayaram Padikkal & Calicut SI Lakshmana, Officer Pulikkodan Narayanan … thereby setting in motion a string of events from High Court to Supreme Court that would expose the police brutality of Emergency & shake the entire power politics of stiffled democracy.

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  4. #4173
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    The Blind Lady's Descendents - Anees Salim
    - 2014 Raymond & Crossword Book Award for Best Fiction

    The Bungalow, once a pride of the sea-facing town, is crumbling under lots of pressures, monetary being just one of them. There is the blind Grandmother who is unaware of what is happening around her, still it requires only the slightest bit of info for her to correctly guess the rest. The Father, Hamsa, Grandma’s son-in-law, is the most quiet character in the story though what he finally says towards his end & the story's end sums up the whole plot. The Mother, Asma, the main character, is a myriad of emotions and idiosyncrasies. She is there in practically every misfortune that befalls the family which is ironic such that the book starts off with her having smashed four nails into the front door to ward off bad luck; like the author wonders, bad luck must have come in through the back door. Four children. Two girls, Jasira is a selfish spoilt brat while Sophiya is an angel who, unfortunately, gets called off early. Two boys, Akmal, the devout who believes the first sound Neil Armstrong heard on the moon was the muezzin’s Arabic call to prayer. The fourth other guy is the narrator, Amar, who goes about all the misfortunes that happen to their family in a comical manner. He finds the characters around him to be unfulfilled by nature. On top of that, he chances upon the suicide note of his deceased maternal uncle Javi with whom he shares an echo in both appearance and self-centric melancholia. The wry and ironical narration is a glaring statement of the almost-deadening monotony of his life. The blindness of the grandmother is a symbolic metaphor of the blindness her descendants share as they provoke each other into deeper miseries. Simply said, it is a highly unpleasant story told in the most pleasant manner possible to such an extent that a happy ending to this would be unforgiveable.
    Last edited by Perumthachan; 07-30-2017 at 09:15 PM.

  5. #4174
    FK Citizen maryland's Avatar
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    DC Books-il membership ulla aarenkilum undo..?

    innale poyi 5k rs-nulla kure pusthakam eduthu. oru friend-inte membership (golden) close cheyyaan koode poyathaa. 5000 rs-noke free books..

  6. #4175
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    The Radiance of Ashes – Cyrus Mistry
    - 2005 Crossword Book Award (Shortlisted)

    Bombay. 1970 to 90’s. The protagonist, if you can call him that, is a Parsi youngster who goes by the name of Jahangir ‘Jingo/Jimmy’ Moos. Dropout from college. Drop-out in life. Drifter. Dreamer. He prides himself in having bunked the rat-race, having rejected the ‘class’ privilege of owning a posh car or flush apartment like his school/college friends though he does attend parties hosted by them to gloat on free drinks & free food, chat & gaze at girls even as wallowing in the affirmation that his choice of lifestyle was the right thing to have done. He stays at a friend’s broken-down place free of rent, does a meagre job of conducting door-to-door questionnaire survey for household products all the while collecting notes & snippets about the different people he meets and their lives which he wishes to use to one day write his debut novel, atleast that is what he hopes and tells his concerned parents when he visits them occasionally asking for loans, while what he has actually been doing for the last 6 years is smoke a lot of pot, mingle with the lowest of the lowest classes of society, write a lot of thoughts & revisit his doomed love affair with Christina, the Christian girl who was so possessive about him that most of the times, it bordered on the fringes of doubt followed by cries & apologies & passionate love. We get insights into the lives of his parents, who having lost their first child, had high hopes on Jingo, all in vain to realise that their son might never want to go to work, might never want to marry, might never want to have a family, in short he might end up a disgrace to them. Jingo starts to realise he is never going to finish his novel, the writing was actually an attempt at escapism, from the mundane act of living. He is no arrogant lazy slob like the world makes him out to be, he is one with some strong principles that are a bit harshly romantic. Don’t think is a long, boring narrative, there is a plot which starts off with a Murphy Baby Photo Contest to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The ensuing Bombay riots coupled with the research Jingo has done about the metropolitan over the years makes him disturbed. There is also a civil liberty activist, a Tamilian helper-boy at a tea-stall, a Parsi spiritual Baba but above all of them, Jingo might be the most confused un-heroic loser of a hero which makes him & the narrative of this book one of the most brilliant works I have ever read. The characters have been beautifully moulded. The words that the author have used to distinguish between the rich, middle & poor of our society is sheer brilliance. The politics discussed is relevant as long as there are different religions in our country and as long as those religions have people in all economic strata. This will be one book I will return to for a more slow & encompassing read.
    Last edited by Perumthachan; 08-03-2017 at 04:50 PM.

  7. #4176
    FK Shayar baadshahmian's Avatar
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    to kill the president by sam bourne....

    the president has many similarities with trump.... ....many of the situations in the book reminds you of current india....bashing of liberals...etc.... overall a gripping plot well written....first time reading sam bourne....think i will keep him in my list
    Uske Kathl par mein bhi chup tha meri baari ab aayi
    Mere Kathl par aap bhi chup ho Agla number AApka hein....

  8. #4177
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    Six Suspects – Vikas Swarup

    Vivek ‘Vicky’ Rai is a rich spoilt brat. Owner of an industrial group. Son of UP Home Minister. At 17, in a drunken stupor, he ran his BWM over pavement dwellers killing them. Acquitted for lack of eye-witness. At 21, he poached black bucks in a wildlife sanctuary. Acquitted on basis of forest officer’s retracted statement. Wow! This guy sounds familiar. Then at 26, he pops two at a waitress over the counter for refusing him a drink after the bar is closed. Ah! Its not who I thought it was! Acquitted on basis of ballistics report claiming shots were from different guns & the murder weapon having disappeared from the strong room. To celebrate he hosts a party at his farm-house... where he is shot dead point-blank range. Six suspects attending the party and having guns in their possession are pulled up. The first is the former Chief Secretary of UP whose reputation for corruption & womanising is unparalleled in IAS. The next is a model-turned-actress who following the marriage of Ash has climbed up to 4th spot behind Kareena, Katrina & Priyanka. The third is a dim-witted American claiming to be a Hollywood producer. The fourth happens to be an unemployed graduate who makes a living by stealing mobile phones. The fifth is a tribal from a Jharkhand village. And last & sixth is the father of the victim himself, the Home Minister. A wily & cunning journalist takes up the reporting. It seems all six seem to have clear motives to kill Vicky. And there is evidence against all six of them. Only one confession is possible though. So who is it? The bureaucrat or the bimbo? The foreigner or the tribal? The big fish or the small fry? Or is it the journalist who too, seems to have a solid motive. The Indian English literary scenario has been bubbling with a multitude of talents. Sadly, none of them seem to be bothered about the good old thriller pulp. Coming after Q&A (which was filmed into Slumdog Millionaire), this one is, if nothing else, a page-turner definitely.

  9. #4178
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    ISRO – A Personal History – R Aravamudan with Gita Aravamudan

    Written with the help of his journalist wife this is the autobiography of R Aravamudan, one of the starting members of ISRO. He is mentioned by APJ Abdul Kalam in his ‘Wings of Fire.’ It all starts with Vikram Sarabhai’s belief that, solutions for all of man’s problems can be found in space. Late 50’s, Sarabhai’s student Dr. EV Chitnis finds Thumba in Trivandrum as a spot close to Earth’s magnetic equator and calls out for volunteers. Aravamudan goes for the call throwing away his job at DAE. TERLS is built in Thumba. From there starts India’s journey into space. We sent our trainees to NASA, we accept global scientists to conduct their experiments in Thumba, we allow them to launch their rockets from our launch pads, then we sent indigenous scientific payloads in their rockets, after which we built our own sounding rockers with our scientific payloads which could cover low earth orbit heights; we shift to ASLV which penetrates the orbit bringing acclaim to Project Director Kamal, we then shift to PSLV which brings acclaim to Project Director G Madhavan Nair, finally we go ahead with GSLV to enter geosynchronous orbits. Meanwhile we also make enormous strides in terms of satellite launches. From using foreign help to launch our first satellite Aryabhatta to the recent launching of a 100 nano satellites, we have come a long way in terms of telecommunications, broadcasting, weather studies & meteorological studies. Then ofcourse, our pride projects, the Chandrayaan & Mangalyaan. Next up is sending our first man into space in our launch vehicle. The thing about all our achievements is that, they had to overcome lots of failures at the onset. Vikram Sarabhai the man the inventor the visionary & Russian help amidst American hurdles in us achieving our dreams are two topics discussed in detail in this book.

  10. #4179
    FK Citizen Perumthachan's Avatar
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    A Spoke In The Wheel – Amita Kanekar

    Brilliant! The first chapter takes place in Kapilavastu 563BC where Shakya tribal clan warrior chief Shudhoddhana is concerned about the future of his new-born son. His mother died during childbirth. Astrologers claim he will one day rule the world. A mass yagna is being prepared for him. The Gana Samiti republic is plotting an uprising amidst volatile political situations. The ambitions of the south-based Kosala empire is widening. The new-born child is named Siddhartha... who would later, contrary to expectations, grow up to denounce his wealth & fame to become known by his more famous name, Buddha. The second chapter shifts to the Magadha kingdom of Mahismati 250BC where we find that, the first chapter was indeed the first chapter written by the Sangha Buddhist monk Upali, the first person to chronicle the life of the Buddha as commissioned by Samrat Asoka, 2-3 years after the Kalinga war & contrary to expectations, the Samrat’s own denouncement of wealth & fame. Upali finds it amusing that Asoka is documenting everything in writing while he still nurses bruises of his dear ones killed in the Kalinga massacre. Why did Asoka denounce everything? Why did Siddhartha denounce everything? From there the book travels by chapters to decode the Siddhartha before the Buddha & the Asoka after the Kalinga. What was 'it' actually? Renunciation? Individual moksha from rebirths? Universal love & compassion? The book just blew my brains away. Sad that this gem of a work gets smothered under all those commercial puppyfed Amish Tripathi trilogy & Ashok Banker sevenology bullshits. Amita Kanekar is a faculty of Univ. of Mumbai on comparative mythology (no wonder!). This is her first & only book. 8 years of research writing & it does show. The words used & the pace used make us imagine the characters, events & the waves are explained so overwhelmingly that we wonder whether the author was really there and is this how all of it happened back then.

  11. #4180
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perumthachan View Post
    The Blind Lady's Descendents - Anees Salim
    - 2014 Raymond & Crossword Book Award for Best Fiction

    The Bungalow, once a pride of the sea-facing town, is crumbling under lots of pressures, monetary being just one of them. There is the blind Grandmother who is unaware of what is happening around her, still it requires only the slightest bit of info for her to correctly guess the rest. The Father, Hamsa, Grandma’s son-in-law, is the most quiet character in the story though what he finally says towards his end & the story's end sums up the whole plot. The Mother, Asma, the main character, is a myriad of emotions and idiosyncrasies. She is there in practically every misfortune that befalls the family which is ironic such that the book starts off with her having smashed four nails into the front door to ward off bad luck; like the author wonders, bad luck must have come in through the back door. Four children. Two girls, Jasira is a selfish spoilt brat while Sophiya is an angel who, unfortunately, gets called off early. Two boys, Akmal, the devout who believes the first sound Neil Armstrong heard on the moon was the muezzin’s Arabic call to prayer. The fourth other guy is the narrator, Amar, who goes about all the misfortunes that happen to their family in a comical manner. He finds the characters around him to be unfulfilled by nature. On top of that, he chances upon the suicide note of his deceased maternal uncle Javi with whom he shares an echo in both appearance and self-centric melancholia. The wry and ironical narration is a glaring statement of the almost-deadening monotony of his life. The blindness of the grandmother is a symbolic metaphor of the blindness her descendants share as they provoke each other into deeper miseries. Simply said, it is a highly unpleasant story told in the most pleasant manner possible to such an extent that a happy ending to this would be unforgiveable.
    Anees saliminte vanity bagh vayichitundu,didn't like it,pinne ingerde onnum vayikkan thoniyittilla...bhai nalla review itta sthithikku ithenthayalum try cheythekkam.
    കടന്നു പോയവര്* നമുക്കിടയില്തന്നെയുണ്ട്* ,തീക്ഷ്ണമായി ആഗ്രഹിച്ചാല്* നമുക്കവരെ കാണാന്* കഴിയും പകലില്* നക്ഷത്രങ്ങളെ പോലെ

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