Book Review - Passion Flower: Seven Stories of Derangement by Cyrus Mistry

Passion Flower : Seven Stories of Derangement by Cyrus Mistry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vignettes from the lives of ‘ordinary’ people, not just Parsees for a change – although the Parsee stories are the juiciest – but a reflection of the wide spectrum of Indian society. These ‘ordinary’ souls and their humdrum lives turn out to be veritable psychiatric case files. There are cases of post-partum depression, paranoid delusions, psychotics, sociopaths, people dabbling in the black arts, eccentrics and the plain cussed.
Some stories have a rather inconclusive ending, hence the four stars.

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Book Review - Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A quaint yet hilarious tale of a wannabe ‘spy’ during the Cold War. His bumbling efforts at espionage evoke the castles in the air built by James Thurber’s Walter Mitty. The venal machinations of the Secret Service apparently inspired George Smiley's organization described by Le Carre, John.

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Book Review - Anon. by Bhavani Iyer

Anon. by Bhavani Iyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting yarn. However, the protagonists are rather implausible, seemingly inspired by Ayn Rand – not in the epic mould of Howard Roark or John Galt but equally idealistic and unreal. The females try to be mystical but end up quite vapid.

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Book Review - Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles

Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles: India through 50 Years of Advertising by Ambi Parameswaran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This alliteratively titled book is a rambunctious romp through the Indian advertising milieu from the fifties onwards.
There is nostalgia with the Nirma, Rasna and Amul girls; Karen Lunel steaming up the screens for Liril; wannabe soft drinks like Gold Spot, Thums Up, Limca etc that came up after George Fernandes’ surgical strike on the multinationals; the bike made famous though Rishi and Dimple’s Bobby etc etc. Gone are the days of the dowdy Ambassador car, Bajaj scooter, now we have access to the latest auto technology from around the world. Times change and the ads too change, reflecting the socio-economic evolution of a nation.

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Book Review - A Small Town in Germany by John le Carre

A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Revisited A Small Town in Germany

Bonn isn’t pre-war, or war, or even post-war. It’s just a small town in Germany. You can no more slice it up than you can the Rhine. It plods along, or whatever the song says. And the mist drains away the colours.

This is not strictly an espionage novel, more of a political treatise, ending up like something Leon Uris would write about the Nazi era. But it is worth reading for le Carre’s exquisite literary turn of the phrase

Mickie Crabbe, a ragged, leaky-eyed man permanently crippled by a hangover.‘Rather,’ Crabbe muttered. ‘Rather,’ and his voice trailed after him like the shreds of his own life. Only his hair had not aged; it grew dark and luxuriant on his little head, as if fertilised by alcohol.

An adoring wife rhapsodizing over her husband’s Anglophilia - echoes of Amithabh Bachchan

‘Karl-Heinz is fantastically strong for the English,’ the little doll said. ‘He eats English, he drinks English.’ She sighed as if the rest of his activities were rather English too. She ate a great deal, and some of it was still in her mouth as she spoke, and her tiny hands held other things that she would eat quite soon.

The Security Chief chortling over espionage euphemisms used by diplomats

He does research but you put him down as a technician. Your technicians on the other hand are all engaged in research.

Rather verbose at times and not a patch on The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and George Smiley's exploits.

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Ayo Gorkhali by Tim I. Gurung

Ayo Gorkhali: The True Story of the Gurkhas by Tim I. Gurung
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book started off with a lot of promise, intending to demystify the aura around the valiant Gurkhas. The questions remain answered to a large extent. Is it Gorkha or Gurkha? The author attributes the bravery of this rugged Himalayan community to strong filial ties and loyalty to the employer and a change of profession from farming to fighting; but then this is valid for any agricultural rural community – Sikhs, Jats etc.
There is no explanation about the religious choices the Gurkhas made – were they converted to Christianity on their own volition or offered inducements, like UK citizenship?
The mystique of the famed khukri remains a mystery; there is no explanation about the stylish slanting hats the Gurkha Regiment adopted; not a word about the potent drink rakshi.
Battle engagements could have been included at the end in an appendix - just a litany of numbers and places. In any case, there is a lot of repetition. What comes across clearly – and repeatedly – is the exploitation of the Gurkhas by Britain and Nepal.
The trivia at the end was the best part but sadly, rather brief.

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Book Review - Ashenden by Somerset Maugham

Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A lot of archaic terms like celerity, persiflage, bedizened, titivate, furbelows, contumely, acidulous, chaffered, perturbation, serviable, rhodomontade.
Whereas there are bits of lyrical prose...

was received with a politeness to which no exception could be taken, but with a frigidity that would have sent a little shiver down the spine of a polar bear.

...there are passages that would be ‘racist’ in the present day:

showed a fat-faced, swarthy man, with full lips and a fleshy nose; his hair was black, thick and straight, and his very large eyes even in the photograph were liquid and cow-like. He looked ill-at-ease in European clothes.
It was done by a native photographer in Calcutta and the surroundings were naïvely grotesque. Chandra Lal stood against a background on which had been painted a pensive palm tree and a view of the sea. One hand rested on a heavily carved table on which was a rubber-plant in a flower-pot.
"You wouldn't have thought there was anything very attractive in that greasy little nigger. God, how they run to fat."

I picked this up as it was one of the books that had inspired le Carre.

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