One Amazing Thing

'Palace of Illusions' was a highly recommended book to me by the same author and I intended to pick that up. Alas, the book was out of stock but there was her latest output and I decided to read that one. So that's how 'One Amazing Thing' came to land in my lap.

I must admit that I was very intrigued by the cover summary of a group of people stuck in a near death situation reciting stories to each other to pass the time. And when it said that each story was about one amazing thing that had happened in their lives, I was hooked.

'One Amazing Thing' is a book about a group of people at the basement visa office of an Indian consulate all waiting for their interview. Each one of them has their own reasons to go to India and in essence that forms a core of the story. Why would a bitter middle aged American couple (Mrs and Mr. Pritchett), a Muslim American of Indian origin angry with the new America (Tariq), an African American (Cameron), a Chinese old woman (Jiang) with her grand daughter (Lily) want to go to India? The book is written from the perspective of a young Indian girl (Uma) who is returning to India to visit her parents. And then there is the Visa Officer (Mangalam) and the clerk (Malathi) on the verge of an extra-marital affair.

The author throws these interesting bunch of people in an earthquake hit basement, each with a secret of their own. Faced with the fact that they have no idea if they will be rescued or will die they start off on an aggressive note almost at each other's throat till Uma suggests that they tell each other a story to pass the time. The story should center around one amazing thing that happened in their lives. That forms the beginning of the thread.

'One Amazing Thing' could actually have been published as a collection of short stories. But by giving it a setting and a common view the author has very intelligently turned it into a small novel. Each story brings to life a facet of the human nature although not all stories are understandable or clearly bring out THE amazing thing in the story teller's life.

Mrs. Pritchett had tried to commit suicide when she comes up against a realisation that her married life does not have a kind of love that she wants - this after more than a decade of childless marriage. Really? Suicide? Wouldn't divorce be simpler? She wants to go to India to escape from her husband and be free!

Mr. Pritchett's life is about non-love. His mother was too tired from work and life to love him enough. His one love in life was a kitten that dies, maybe due to his carelessness. His only love is for numbers and maths and he is a successful accountant. He wants to go to India to bring the spark back in his wife's eyes and regain what was lost when she tried to commit suicide.

Tariq is upset with the new US where his father is taken away for no reason by the authorities after 9/11. Although he returns safely the trauma is too great and he suffers a stroke. Tariq is bitter and angry that he cannot call his own country - US - his own any more. His only silver lining is a girl who had come from India to spend a semester with them and has returned to India. He wants to go to India to meet her and maybe understand if he actually can relate to India. But he also has formed friendship with a group of people in US who are 'almost as close as brothers'. Are they terrorists? Will Tariq come back and become a terrorist? The author just leaves a morsel for us there.

Cameron is a failed example of his high ambitions. He wanted to escape the drudgery of his race and become a doctor. He was a very successful student and on track till he got waylaid by the love for a beautiful girl. She has small ambitions of working in a supermarket all her life and she thinks so does Cameron. When she gets pregnant Cameron asks her to get an abortion and is unable to sidetrack his original plans. He leaves her to join college but fate and karma have different things in store for him. He never becomes a doctor and while he becomes a soldier he is haunted by the loss of his 'unborn son' who he 'killed'. He adopts a girl in far flung India and hopes that by giving her a life, he will be absolved of his guilt. He wants to go to India in search of peace from his demons.

Mangalam is the result of living his life to fulfill the burden of high expectations. He manipulates his life to get married to a rich girl thinking that will solve his family's expectations of him but finds himself in a loveless marriage where he is a slave to his wife's desires. Lily's story is the most haunting one of talent, genius and living up to the high standards set by a sibling.

But the best stories of the lot are from Jiang and Malathi. Jiang's story is about grit and determination and finding love in the most impossible places. It is a story of a woman having to make her life in a man's world sometimes submissive, sometimes leading but always thinking beyond the horizon. In the hands of an Irving Wallace it would be a novel by itself. Malathi's story is more about courage and believing in something. She lives life by her set notions and dreams and does things to fulfill those dreams.

Uma, the protagonist, never gets to complete her story and we only get snippets into her life. The unfortunate part is that these pieces seem so disconnected that it feels as if it cannot belong to one person. There are many unanswered questions in the author's dealings with Uma and you feel as if she did not know which way to take Uma's story. In the end the most frustrating part is that all these questions are left unanswered. To me it felt as if one day the author could not write any further and just decided to end the book. It feels as if you have walked across a mountain to reach a beautiful place but you find yourself at the edge of a precipice with no land in sight.

I hate stories that do not tie their loose ends and this novel belongs to that category. Do they survive? Do they die? Is there a link between all of them? Do they learn anything from each other? No answers!

In the end it is a breezy read. I would recommend it for a short journey. You won't remember most of the stories after a few days but maybe what will stay with you is to make you remember if you have had an amazing experience in your life.

I rate this 3/5. Borrow and read it but maybe don't buy it!

The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest

Lisbeth Salander looks you straight in the eye from the cover of 'The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest' - the final chapter of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy and that sums up the book, in a way. The final chapter is Lisbeth's story of redemption and justice for all that she has been through. Interestingly the covers of the three books tell their own story.

At the end of the second part we left Lisbeth having crawled out of her own grave where she was buried with bullet wounds in her shoulder, hip and head. She has just struck her mortal enemy, her father with an axe with an intent to kill and has just survived the attack from her half-brother the massive no-pain feeling giant with a pea brain. What a family! The final chapter picks up there with the murder charges being dropped against Lisbeth but she is now charged with intent to murder while she is increasingly upset that her father has survived. And this is where the intrigue begins.

Stieg Larsson builds an interesting story of drama, suspense and intrigue on a secret organisation within the Swedish Secret Police - The Section - who have conspired against Lisbeth with a psychiatrist so as to save their most valuable asset, the Russian defector Zalachenko. Stieg's intent is very clear in the book and you do know that by the end Lisbeth will walk free but he keeps you engrossed on the path to the obvious end.

This is a book more about Lisbeth's friends and their coming together to save her rather than Lisbeth's own antics and superwoman capabilities that we are used to. It is about the quintessential story of Good forces represented by Lisbeth's well wishers - Mikael Blomkvist and Armansky with some members of the police force, the Constitutional Protection force in Sapo and even the Prime Minister - against the Evil forces of The Section responsible for Zalachenko who have for years ensured that Lisbeth is silenced under the garb of socially incompetent status and hence relegated to the fringe of society and never taken seriously. Will good triumph over evil? Does Blomkvist's sister who agreed to be Lisbeth's attorney have any experience in civil justice cases to save her? Does she know how to?

The book has the undercurrent of how society ignores those who need our help the most, how society is afraid of the people that it does not understand and how society bases its knowledge on the words of a few people who appear to be experts. It is also a story of how corruption has the potential to spoil a person's entire life.

While it makes for great reading and Stieg intelligently introduces characters there are certain parts of the book that are completely redundant and were not needed. Removing them would have no impact on the pace of the book and just tend to end up adding unnecessary pages to an already long book - Erika's section about the Poison Pen, for instance. In that sense Larsson does fail in this book. The interesting bits are well woven but the pace is slower and the intrigue that you expect to be there does not come through completely. The court case is rudimentary and does not come till almost page 442 of the 600 page book and then too finishes pretty fast. One would expect some interesting intrigue and court room drama but that is missing. Stieg also seems to want to close all loop ends and focusses the last part of the book on Lisbeth's life after she wins the case. Frankly the interest level from the reader is low after the case is won and Lisbeth is free. At the end it leaves you wanting more.

The final part is a good story on how Lisbeth gets her due from society and how the system recognises its flaws. How individuals can make the system work for them to the detriment of others. How friends can do so much for you. It is a fitting end to the series.

I rate it 4/5 even though I would have wanted to see some more action, intrigue, drama and Lisbeth in the final part.

The Girl who Played with Fire

In the words of Randy Jackson from American Idol " Yo! Yo! Yo! Listen up y'all. Give it up for Lisbeth Salander". Those are the words that typically come to your mind as you read through the second edition of the Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy - The Girl who played with Fire.

Larsson tries to make this a stand alone book so that readers who have not read the first part can still enjoy the book. He takes his sweet time to re-establish the characters and give them some background. If you've read the first part it takes some patience to get through the first 215 pages of this book. You learn and re-learn some of the characters and get to know what has happened in their lives since the last one - mainly the two important ones, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Both have gone their separate ways - Blomkvist with his publishing job & Salander with her millions that she's expertly siphoned off from Wenestrom.

The Girl who Played with Fire is at its core a prequel of who Salander is and why she is the way she is. Sex trade and the illegal smuggling of prostitutes from the erstwhile Russian states to Sweden and beyond forms the basis for the story. Millennium magazine is about to publish the works of the couple Dag Svensson & Mia Johansson. Mia is a doctorate student who has researched and written a thesis on the sex trade. Dag takes the thesis and develops it into a book that he wants Millennium to publish. Dag and Mia's research will clearly expose a whole slew of officials from the Swedish Police force to Security Police to Judges and the lot.

The book takes it regular explosive turn when Dag and Mia are brutally murdered in their apartment. The gun used for the killing is discovered with Lisbeth's fingerprints on it and she becomes the main suspect. But when a few days later the body of her guardian Nils Bjurman is also discovered murdered in a similar manner, Lisbeth Salander becomes the most wanted criminal across Sweden. Its easy to implicate her as well given her history of psychotic illness and documented declaration of incompetence by authorities. The book wanders through the next 150 pages as the police try to locate Lisbeth is what is an open-and-shut case. But we all know how difficult that would be.

When Lisbeth comes to the scene again, the books pace picks up considerably and becomes a page turner. But from here the book does become a bit predictable. Like every crime thriller there is a ghostly figure of a Godfather, in this case a figure called Zala that does not exist in any database but is feared by the sex trade punters and the exploited prostitutes as well. Then there is a 300-pound gorilla who is Zala's feet-on-the-street and who does not feel any pain. Larsson then takes the book on four parallel investigations - Lisbeth, who obviously wants to prove her innocence while running from the authorities; Mikael, who believes that Lisbeth is innocent and wants to find out who murdered his friends; Armansky, Lisbeth's employer who also believes in Lisbeth's innocence and of course the Police who want to apprehend Lisbeth and close the case. What the Police believe is a simple open-and-shut case becomes more and more complex as the investigation proceeds and the truth of Lisbeth emerges.

Larsson's writing is interesting as he moves from one investigation to another and links the story together. Unlike the first book, however, this one takes on a bit of liberty with the characters, especially that of Lisbeth. Larsson's inability seems to be to tie the climax together. If 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' had a climax that seemed to be hastily written, this book's climax almost makes Lisbeth superhuman. She takes a bullet to her shoulder and head, gets buried alive and still comes out to vanquish the villians. It is a bit too much to take and does come as a shocker. One wonders why Larsson needs to go into a super-hero mode for Lisbeth when he has already established her as an intelligent, smart thinking person. Then, of course, is the Star-Wars-Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker takeoff on Lisbeth and Zala.

The second edition does not tie in easily with the first one. Maybe that was the intent to make this a stand alone book while at the same time tenuously connected to the first one. Its a great crime thriller to read even if you haven't read the first one.

I rate it 4/5.

By now Lisbeth Salander is a spunky, small built, intelligent, psychotic, socially incompetent, computer hacker extraordinaire, super human heroine of the series. What is in store for Book 3?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Rarely do you come across a book - a crime fiction one at that - which you want to read cover to cover in one sitting, not caring if its 1am and you've just got off a drinking session with friends. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' comes very close to being one such book.

Written by Stieg Larsson, its Part 1 of the Millennium trilogy and unfortunately the only set of books that he wrote before he passed away in 2004. We will never know if he was a writing genius who could have written even more gripping novels and history will judge his author abilities based on just three books.

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' has a good combination of flawed characters that keep you engrossed in the storyline. At its core its a closed-door-kind murder mystery when Henrik Vanger, the aged former CEO of Vanger Corporation invites Mikael Bolmkvist, the recently disgraced libel-losing investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine, to re-investigate the sudden disappearance of his great-niece Harriet Vanger some 40 years earlier when she was 16 from the island where he lives. The only bridge connecting the island to the mainland was closed that day due to an accident. Henrik has been tormented by the fact that he does not know what happened to his favorite niece while at the same time suspecting that one of his family member committed the murder of Harriet. The police investigations have been closed and there is nothing that can be done.

In the first half, parallel to this story runs the story of socially outcast, psychotic but extremely intelligent hacker with a photographic memory - Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is legally incompetent and is under the care of guardians instituted by the government. Lisbeth's character is the most exciting character in this book mainly because it is so flawed that you immediately want to protect her while at the same time are extremely scared of her. One episode where she deals with her sexually abusive legal guardian makes your hair stand while you root for her and for the treatment she metes out to him.

The book is slow to pick up as you read the first part of it. Larsson takes his own sweet time to explain all the myriad characters that constitute the Vanger family and there are too many of them. Of course Henrik Vanger does not like any of them and compares them to thieves, robbers and incompetent idiots. The investigation proceeds at a leisurely pace till Lisbeth and Mikael start collaborating. The story explodes at this point and moves at an exciting pace which makes you turn the pages. When a slaughtered cat is left on the doorstep of Mikael and he is shot at, they realise that they may be on the right track to actually solving the mystery after 40 years.

Rest assured while they manage to solve the mystery, the climax of the book is cliched and expected.It does not live up to the expectation of the pace of the book and strangely like a Hindi movie Larsson extends the book with an un-required investigation into the businessman who brought Mikael down in the first place. I found it unnecessary unless this is linked to the second book.

The disturbing part of the book is that it makes you perceive that Swedish men abuse and hurt the women as if its a natural thing to do. The solving of Harriet's disappearance does not leave a sweet taste in your mouth.

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is slow in the start, fast paced and exciting in the middle with an anti-climax at the end. It does keep you engrossed and I am looking forward to reading the second part of the trilogy.

I rate it 4/5.

And Thereby Hangs a Tale

The last line at the back cover of the book says (and I quote) "Some of these stories will make you laugh. Others will bring you to tears. And, once again, every one of them will keep you spellbound". Unfortunately none of that happened during the course of reading this book - neither the tears nor the laughter although some managed to keep me spellbound. You expect a lot more from a Jeffrey Archer book was my immediate feeling as I finished reading this motley collection of short stories from him.

Archer says that he collected these stories from across the world during his travels. Of the 15 stories in the book, 10 are based on true incidents. The stories are good but more inclined towards a story-telling-around-the-fireplace kind of manner. Some of them are cute which Archer desperately tries to garnish with his writing style to make them more presentable and read-worthy. The issue is that in each of the stories Archer tries to build up the story towards one 'Wow' moment at the end of the narration not realising that his readers are intelligent and in some cases will guess the ending. Not every story needs to have a 'twist' at the end. Some of them can just be a good story.

My categorisation of the stories are such:

• Predictable Endings: Blind Date, Members Only, Politically Correct, Caste Off.
• Fairly Interesting: The Queen's Birthday Telegram, Where There's a Will, Double-Cross, I will Survive, The Luck of the Irish.
• Better of the Lot: Stuck on You, High Heels, The Undiplomatic Diplomat, Better the Devil you know.
• Err....What?: A Good Eye, No Room at the Inn.
  

Pick this up if you have a few hours to kill at the airport or on a long flight. I expected better.

I rate this 2/5.

Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen

Let's play a game. I'll say a word and you tell me the name of the first organisation that comes to mind. Innovation, and I'm sure a lot of you out there said 'Apple' or maybe 3M, Google or Sony. How about an Indian organisation? And did you just say 'Tata Nano'? Any more names? Scratching your head?

What if I told you that organisations such as Dainik Bhaskar, Aravind Eye Hospital, Shantha Bio Tech, CavinKare, SuKam, Bosch India, ITC-IBD, Titan, Chola Vehicle Finance, Trichy Police and Surat Municipal Corporation are all perfect examples of Innovation in India? I'm sure you are rolling your eyes and wondering if I've lost my marbles.

When I saw the cover of this book I thought that here is another one of those 'Innovation' books that will talk about global examples. But what caught my eye was the byliner which said - How 11 Indians pulled off the impossible. India has always been known as the country of 'jugaad'. Send us your product and we will reverse engineer it and tell you quick fixes for it. Even if we do have innovations we seem to be shy to tell the world about these. In this scenario it is important that books like these present Innovations that have stemmed from India.

Porus Munshi and his team did extensive research over six years to present these 11 cases to us. Examples of 11 Indian organisations that have led with innovation and brought fantastic results to the country and their industry. Innovation is not just about a great idea but also about effective execution of that idea. This entails Setting a challenge to the team, Enrolling members to that challenge and making sure that the overall challenge and goals don't get diluted in the long run. Porus divides the book into these parts and takes examples of how Indian organisations executed their ideas along these lines.

The writing style is very interesting and is like a biography of the idea. Each story starts with how the idea was born, how it was cultivated, what challenges did the main players face in the journey, how it finally saw the light of day and what were the results. This ensures that you are hooked to the story and want to know what happens next. Porus also intersperses the story with questions that you should be asking yourself and your organisation. This makes you think about the idea in discussion and if you can apply this to your organisation or your team. What is also interesting is that the book takes examples from across industries - manufacturing, publishing, social, healthcare and government. As you read these stories it is difficult to compartmentalise them into an industry and say that this cannot work in mine. Each innovation and Porus' writing style makes you think about your processes and organisation.

Porus introduces a concept of an 'orbit-shifting challenge or idea'. This is not shifting status quo by a marginal delta but setting a challenge at first your scoff at and then get intrigued by and finally commit yourself to doing because it will enrich your life.

Can you enter a market or geography as No 1 each time you launch? Dainik Bhaskar did it and still does.
Can you marry processes in fast food joints like McDonalds to intricate healthcare and surgery? Aravind Eye hospital did that and fundamentally changed the way eye surgeries are done in the world.
Can you launch into a category owned by big brands and give them a run for their money with your limited budgets and reach? CavinKare did that and still does.
Can you fundamentally blow up a business model and turn your division from a small nondescript division to one of the primary revenue earners? ITC's IBD (International Business Division) did that and gave established organisations such as Cargill and ConAgra a run for their money.
Can your division make a product innovation that your parent company adopts and changes the way the industry operates? Bosch India did it and changed the costing of the Diesel engine for automobiles.
Can your company take on a challenge for your industry that the best haven't been able to do and deliver? Titan did with its slimmest water resistent watch in the world. Something that the Swiss said cannot be done. This execution probably got Ratan Tata to think about the 1 Lac car.

The book also introduces you to people like J.K.Tripathy who took over as Commissioner of Police of Trichy and single handedly dropped the crime rate reporting from 11,000+ in 1999 to just 7,000 in 2004 and increased the proactive reporting of crime by public from 78% to 98%. And S.R.Rao who took over as Municipal Commissioner of Surat when it was known as the dirtiest city in the country to one of the cleanest. During his tenure Surat's malaria cases dropped from 22,000 in 1994 to 496 in 1997 - just three years. How did these two people in the most bureaucratic of organisations effect a change that was so dramatic?

This book is a MUST READ for all professionals in India. I promise you that reading this book will not only give you immense knowledge and ideas on how you can effect change in your organisation or team but also instill great pride in the country.

I rate this book a 5/5 and a MUST READ!

The Immortals of Meluha

The three pillars of Hindu religion are Brahma (giver of life); Vishnu (creator) & Mahesh (destroyer of evil). There are multiple stories of these three Gods with Vishnu being the center of most of them in terms of his avatars balanced by Brahma and Mahesh. As Indians we have lived on these stories and revel in the knowledge that they impart. We pray to them and seek their blessings at all times. We revere Brahma, we learn from Vishnu and we fear the wrath of Mahesh or Lord Shiva.

But what if they were not Gods but men like us who on account of their deeds and qualities became legends and as the stories passed from generation to generation they acquired the status of Gods.

Among all three Gods the most closest to human flaws has to be Lord Shiva. He dances, he smokes pot, he sings, his temper is well known and he strikes the right balance between being a God and being human.

Amish Tripathi takes that as a concept - what if Lord Shiva was not a God but a man like us who became a God - and develops it into one of the best Indian books to come out in a long time. This is the story of how a Tibetan tribal leader became the most revered, respected, feared, loved and admired legend and who became Lord Shiva - Mahadev and destroyer of evil. It deals beautifully with the myths surrounding the legend and gives it credibility in the story.

An advice as you start reading this book. Keep and open mind and absorb the play that Amish has written. Don't get bogged down by trying to explain the myth and linking it to the story. At the same time remember the myth so that you are astounded by the simple explanations that Amish provides for it and weaves it fantastically into the fabric of the story.

By using everyday English that we speak Amish manages to bring the larger-than-life figure of Lord Shiva into the human realm and you start associating with this man called Shiva. The story is fast paced with interesting nuggets in intervals that keep you turning the pages wanting more. It has all the ingredients of a love story, accepting destiny, earning respect, making friends and asking questions. Amish manages to bring in interesting characters in the book and moving these along at just the right pace. The book hardly slacks and keeps you engrossed. The best part of the book is that it makes almost all the God legends into possible human beings who achieved greatness and contributed so much to society and its upbringing that story tellers made them Gods.

Who is Brahma? What did Lord Ram establish as governance? How did Lord Shiva become a Neelkanth? Did he invent the Trishul and how? How did Lord Shiva also become the dancing God Narataja? Where did the cry of 'Har Har Mahadev' when referring to Lord Shiva come from? Who is Nandi, the bull?

Close your eyes and think of Lord Shiva! 'The Immortals of Meluha' explains how Lord Shiva got Nandi, a blue throat and the Trishul. I am eagerly waiting for Amish's next two books and his view of how Lord Shiva got Ganga tied up in his hair, the cobra around his neck, the fearsome third eye and birth of God Ganesha. Come to think of it the fact that God Ganesha wrote The Ramayana as dictated by Ved Vyas is possible!

The only fallacy of the book is that you might start believing that this is possible and start looking at all our myths through the eyes of a human being rather than a devout!

I rate it 5/5 and encourage everyone to please read this book!