Federer

Chris Bowers, John Blake Publications Ltd, 2013

After having read through glowing reviews about this biography, here is my take on it:

What should a book about your greatest role model be like? It should be able to have you riveted to the anecdotes and to the words and ideas of the mind behind the force you are so dependent on. Chris Bowers fails to impress. With the book being divided into five parts, of which one of them is called “Nadal the nemesis”, I was put off. For someone who has followed Federer’s life with as much adoration as I did, having Nadal feature in a substantial part of the book was irritating, to say the least. While Federer won titles, and worked on excelling upon the perfection of his game, I would have loved to know how he dealt with life off court, at practice and with his role as being IC President and the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and not only on how his matches against Nadal panned out; no thanks, I watched them Live.

It is unfortunate that Chris Bowers could not access more information. Indeed, this is a biography that has been written independently, as Federer turned down requests to contribute towards an authorised biography.

The good thing about the book is that it feels like an interesting article in a sports magazine. With quirky quotes picked from press conferences and sports magazines, the quilt made by Bowers about Roger is endearing. But, I’m willing to bet my last penny that Roger’s own account  will eb superb; especially those of his childhood, those days he spent blasting through opponents in the junior and the ATP level, when he courted the love of his life, when he injured himself, his work with Roger Federer Foundation and the epic battles at the Majors!

Being an ardent Roger Federer fan and someone who followed his career, I could keep up with the names thrown about in the book. Also, the book made me relive those days when I would scout the newspaper for an article and picture of him. Unfortunately, that is mostly all it does. It is neither earth shaking, nor quotable. This is a book for his fans. His fans will read it, and enjoy it while it lasts. I don’t see myself reading this one again. But I’ll keep it, simply because it probably is the best account of the tennis life of the man I have looked up to. I might even read it again, who knows; for, the title itself will make me.

Chris Bowers, if you’d chosen any other subject for a biography, you would not have sold.

Ebook friendly? I read the paperback. But the language is simple, so it should be okay.

3. Give it a read.

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
It's been a long time since a book truly creeped me out (the last one was Crooked House by Agatha Christie) but this book had me glancing over my shoulder every few minutes. Hyperbole aside, here's my review.
The story opens with a scene that could be straight from a Nicholas Sparks novel: Amy Elliot Dunne, the 'girl' from the book's title, is making crepes for her husband on the morning of their 5th anniversary. By noon, she has vanished. When evidence of violence is found, suspicion falls squarely on her husband, Nick, who apparently has the looks, charm and calm demeanor of a killer.
Information is dealt to the reader in bits and pieces, and each new tidbit made me (in armchair detective mode) change my theories about the case. While this was gripping for most of the book, I lost my patience with a twist that happens three quarters of the way in (spoiler: the psycho ex boyfriend is- guess what? - psycho). The book ends in a sort of insane dynamic equilibrium that was, to me, very unsatisfying.
Coincidentally, a movie has been made based on this book, and it's releasing on October 10, 2014 (tomorrow!) in India. A Google search tells me that it has been directed by David Fincher, who previously helmed Se7en and Fight Club, which are two of the best psychological thrillers made in the recent past, in my opinion. This kind of adaptation seems to be his specialty and I'm sure he won't disappoint. Looking forward to this one!
Rating: 3.5/5
eBook friendly: This book is a bit on the long side, around 450 pages. Read the hard copy if you can.

Pulping non-fiction: "I dare you, I double dare you!"

Here's a book that has not been read, for reasons that you will know and probably fail to understand, like I did. This is us, at booktulead, voicing our problem with banning scholarly books. The book we are discussing here is The Hindus - An Alternative History.

Wendy Doniger, an American Indologist (someone who studies India), is a Professor of History of Religions since 1978 in the University of Chicago. Doniger’s book The Hindus – An Alternative History was published in 2009 by Viking/Penguin. It was received well, in India as well as America, by topping the bestseller list in the non-fiction category in the week of October 15^th, 2009 in the Hindustan Times [1].

Doniger’s work, like every other work that challenges the religious fabric of India, was soon met with ‘crusaders’ of the religion who filed a lawsuit in a dingy Indian district court. The Indian Penal Code outlaws acts that “intend to outrage religious beliefs.” This was the premise for filing the case. The plaintiff is one Mr. Dinanath Batra (a retired school teacher at the helm of Siksha Bachao Andolan Samiti [2], he is an RSS pracharak – a member of the Hindu fundamentalist group).

The Ban Man, as he is known, Dinanath Batra, has at his disposal the cadre of RSS. This very force of people have allegedly threatened books into being pulped and are responsible for reducing the space for well-informed debate on culture, tradition, Hinduism. Upon his decree – he sends out legal notices to publishing houses to inform them of the ‘hurtful’ books that they are publishing – books deemed unfit for an Indian audience are taken off shelves. It speaks volumes about the disturbing reluctance of the said publishing house and the supposed guardians of Hinduism (who want to inculcate its values into young children via, hold your breath, books. Books penned down by the all-knowing scholar Batra himself. I can’t wait to review one of them) to admit anything in a religion that was meant to espouse, well, everything.

The anger towards publishing the book came out in the sagely belief of being the custodians of the faith. Their authority is not questioned by anyone seeking to have a debate that goes beyond vandalism and the threat of having one’s publishing house suffer from physical damage. Writers and publishers have been here, seen this, and have chosen to withdraw their efforts to stimulate intellectual debate and to truly appreciate freedom of expression as promised by the Land. India is the land in which they have seen freedom being taken away more often than being practiced.

Doniger’s work looks at India’s tryst with Hinduism and she tells this tale by looking at the ‘alternate’ practitioners and beings of the faith, namely, women, untouchables and animals. The Hindu reviewed it when it was released, and it was one that appreciated the scholarly work that has gone into writing it, although it does criticise it for being a little over-indulgent when it came to anecdotes and for being a tad bit too American. [3]

The lawsuit was settled out of court and the case never saw the light of day; in effect, it did not give the writer an opportunity to defend her work. She knew she'd face trouble with, in getting published in India, due to which she even changed some of the text in the book. The out of court settlement also did not give an opportunity to the knowledge and opinion starved folk (the mighty guardians of the faith, indeed) to learn something more than a prayer song or two, or a dozen nationalist (not to mention, loosely worded and offensive) slogans. 

Here is an excerpt from the book, one which you and I cannot read, because alas, it is blasphemous work (gasp!) in the pure ether of India. The excerpt acts as the scholar’s closing statement quite well.

To the accusation that I cited a part of the Hindu textual tradition that one Hindu "had never heard of," my reply is: Yes!, and it’s my intention to go on doing just that. The parts of his own tradition that he objected to are embraced by many other Hindus and are, in any case, historically part of the record.

The  Hindus - An Alternative History is available online. It is educative, provocative and most importantly, it gives you a different perspective of the Hindu faith. This charade of asking for it to be banned garnered a bigger audience to the book, much to the fundamentalist group’s chief's chagrin, I hope. Readers in India were curious, and rightly so, when this book was deemed NSFIndianAudience. Don’t we have the ability to read, understand and debate? Don’t we have the right to do so? If only the penguin had more spine and didn’t have cold feet, it needn’t have gone south.

References:

[1] The Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/books/top-authors-this-week/article1-465565.aspx

[2] http://deshkosh.org/S/Shiksha_Bachao_Andolan_Samiti.html

[3] The Hindu Centre http://www.thehinducentre.com/the-arena/article5779995.ece