Nepali Blog, Blog on Nepali News, Literature and Politics: July 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

Review of "Words of Freedom: Ideas of A Nation" - Collection of Speeches by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

I mentioned in my previous post that I am reading “Words of Freedom: Ideas of A Nation” by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s First Prime minister till 1964, until his death. I have just finished reading that book. Here is my close review on that.

The Book is a very small one, having only around 100 pages and the size of paper itself is so small that a regular reader can read it within few hours.
The Book is published by Penguin Books India and you can find the details here:

You can buy book from this link:

I had finished reading this book within few sittings many days earlier but because of the lack of time, I could write only now.

You are aware that this book is a collection of Punditji’s speeches during the independence of India and after that when matters were being deliberated in ‘Constituent Assembly’. As the time from where the speeches are taken, it gives us a kind of symbol that the speeches collected here are among the best. I am sure the publishers picked up those speeches which tried to spread the ideas of a united nation and after reading this book, every citizen should feel proud, and motivated.

However, the speeches contained in the book did not sound so inspiring to me. They were not that much able to generate thoughts and ideas and I doubt, if reading them, if anyone gets so much inspired. The book at the end, in my view, fails to evoke thoughts on readers and nor is able to picture the situation and history of India at that time. On this way, book fails to do justice to the title and to the readers.

May be we have seen many wars, terrorism, and violence that we need to hear or read stronger words to get inspired. I am sure people must have obviously got inspired at those days when they read these words and definitely when Punditji delivered these words but in the absence of Punditji’s voice today, only the words cannot comfort us. I felt we needed stronger words, more appeals and more closeness to get inspired. Therefore, the book does not figure in my best.

It is not Punditji’s fault that he cannot evoke or deliver message to our generation from his words which were uttered by him in that great time when the landscape of India was changing; when the most sought freedom were given to us by those heard and unheard martyr’s hard works and when Punditji along with Ambedkar and Rajendra Prasad were busy to institutionalize the most cherished freedom and democracy. Definitely, it cannot be Punditji’s fault. There is something wrong with us. Must be!

But, there is one fault that I find fault with the publishers is that there is virtually no background against which the speeches were delivered except a small one or two paragraphs. That is not enough. The book is not a big historical document analyzing the time. It is definitely targeted to our Macdonald’s and SMS and MMS generation which no nothing about our glorious history which was built by those great fighters. If that is the intention, then, there was a strong need of giving backgrounds to events that Punditji was narrating.

There, I see the fault of not having an editor. Punditji refers to so many world events that we are completely unaware of. Many times, I tried to relate and guess some events that I thought might be referred by the orator. Therefore, in the absence of such historical backgrounds, sometimes readers cannot fully grasp with the ideas that Punditji is trying to deliver. Here, I see the fault of Publishers. I think that the book could be more informative having an editor who gives in detail the background of the historical events and make readers aware about the various incidents referred by Punditji. This could have been done a commentary before or after each speech or by way of footnotes, but I would not have preferred lengthy footnotes.

Overall, the book is just Okay, much less than my expectation. You can read once and pay homage to Punditji. I am sure next edition will be an improved one.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Review of The Associate - Novel by John Grisham

Yesterday, I had written a short post about what you are reading and had requested you to share with us whatever you might be reading. In that small post, I had informed you that I am currently reading two books; one is Gohn Grisham’s Novel ‘The Associate’ and the other one is Words of Freedom: Ideas of a nation by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s First Prime minister till 1964, until his death. The second book by Nehru is a collection of his famous speeches from 1920 till 1950s and I have just started. I think I will be taking little more time to read this book, though it is a small one, going little slow this time.

The first Book John Grisham’s Novel, ‘The Associate’, I have just managed to finish it. It is a little bulky book, of course not that big, but almost of 400 pages. It is about a lawyer, who has just passed from, rather graduated from Yale School of Law, who has been trapped by some dangerous elements of our society by blackmailing the lawyer with the threat that his past will be exposed in case he does not co-operate with the dickheads.

The Cover page of the Novel writes, “It’s a deadly game of blackmail. And, they are making him play.” The whole book is about how they make him play and how he manages to escape from there. Though the book is very intriguing and fascinating, I found its ending a rather dull and boring and our curiosity fades without giving us any answers about our excitement. The book is interesting to start and continue, but in the end, leads us nowhere and ends with dull climax. After reading the book, you feel quite dissatisfied at the ending and it feels as if John Grisham suddenly feels lazy to write.

The lawyer, who is a very brilliant one passes from Yale law School and is also an editor of Yale Law Journal decides in life that he serves the humanity being a paralegal and devotes his time in community work. His father, also a lawyer by profession from a small town, feels immensely proud when his son conveys his plan about future after graduating from law school. The father lawyer does not like Wall Street corporate lawyers who work for hours billing heavily to clients and giving up their all personal lives. He wants his son to have a busy but a practice of his own where he can decide when to work and when to rest. This is the plan but what happen afterwards, is more chilling at times and very interesting.

The boy, as he is a boy, has a colorful life in his school and colleges in addition to his good academics. Boozing, fagging, and sleeping with some hot girls are not that unusual at that time. Now, there is a special girl, with whom he has slept many times and has done everything a man and woman can do which is humanely possible. She has been described as a hot woman loving sex at anytime and in any place and many people, of course her classmates/students have slept with her is not a secret.

As so happens, one day, there is a party in this particular boy’s flat and the hot lady comes, smooches some boys, drinks, smokes and the process continues. Some boys/her classmates ride over her and she passes after the influence of alcohol. Some two boys have sex and this all will be recorded by some mobile camera by someone where our main protagonist, the lawyer is seen drinking but no clue about whether he had sex with that hot lady. Next day, the lady alleges rape and police starts investigation, but soon the matter is closed as the allegations do not hold much water. In the novel, the rape scene and allegations have been described as tale of five years back, and everyone forgets.

But, these people, who try to camouflage as FBI Agents do not forget this. After five years, the boy is forced to join a biggest law firm of New York City, and his job is try to steal the confidential information relating to one client and pass to the framers. If the boy does not cooperate, then, they threaten him that the case will resurface again, videos will be on net and the lady will be encouraged to freshly reconsider the rape charges. It may so happen that the boy will be exonerated by court but after strenuous media trial, bad publicity and may be rendered jobless even after holding him innocent. To keep that video secret, he agrees all the terms and conditions imposed on him, and start working. From here, the story is all about his meeting with these rogue elements frequently and finally the young lawyer takes FBI help to nab these miscreants. But, FBI fails and without any clue about who and why these elements were trying to trap this boy has no answer.

As I said earlier, though the story passes slowly and interestingly, at the last, it fails to meet readers’ expectations about the lead of these people. Keeping that part aside, the book overall is good and makes an average read.

You can visit to Grisham's Website Here
Read Time's Review which agrees with me.
John Grisham's Charming Novel About Nothing

Guardian's Review

Want to Buy, Visit Amazon.com

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Reading something???

R U reading something? I am asking this question so that you can share something here in my blog. Like, I am reading two old books. One is Novel by John Grisham - The Associate. I am about to finish them. There are only 50-70 pages left. I think I can finish it tonight. Story is interesting in this Novel. It is about trapping a young lawyer and trying to steal secret information from a law firm in New York through this Associate. How is the ending? I do not know. After I finish reading it tonight, I will be doing a complete review of it from my perspectives though I am sure that many people have already written on it despite it not being any master piece and just a pulp fiction.

Another book I will be reading from today is about and written by Jawaharlal Neharu, Independent India's First PM. It's something about freedom in India - independence from British Colony way back in 1947 AD and Neharu's take on freedom struggle and Independence. More will be here, once I complete reading them.

Have you recently read something? How did you find? Let us know.

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Published in SEO

This one is called ViraLink (great name!) and was masterminded by Andy Coates. Got it from A Day In The Life. Be sure to read the post about it over at his blog, as you may not understand it at first, but I assure you this could be a nice little link builder here. Instructions below:

1.) Copy and paste the entire matrix of “ViralTags” below.

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “ViralTags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice containing your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a maximum of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “ViralTags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “ViralTags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

==== Copy and Paste below this line ====

Host Tag: THE INNOVATIVE IDEAS OF OUR TIME

Important: Once I get a ping back from you, I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have from your anchor text. If everybody who copies and pastes from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. Remember, the sooner you participate, the more links you will receive!

==== Copy and Paste above this line ====

Rules
No Porn Sites
Only 1 link per person (i.e don’t hog the viralink!)
Please don’t tamper with other peoples url’s