Pinished It!!!

After almost two months since I opened it, I managed to finish 'Great Indian Novel' by Shashi Tharoor yesterday! It was due to my slightly busy schedule and shoddy reading habits that I took such long time and nothing to do with the quality of the book. If anything, I must rate the book higher than what I had expected it to be. For those of us who missed the 'happening' times of late 19th century to the time of independece and then till 1980s, with its own happening times of Emergency et al, this book gives a tantalizing glimpse of what happened behind the curtains. And the best part of the whole thing is that the characters in the book are named after the legendary characters of Mahabharat, for eg., Gandhiji (named Gangaji) is Bhishma, Nehru is Dritarashtra and Indira Gandhi (named Priya Duryodhani) is Duryodhana! Each person is named after the character after his/her notable characteristics, though not always to your taste. All in all, a good read.

Shashi Tharoor's humour is sarcastic and often on the risque side! Here is an excerpt on Indian diplomacy, attributed to a Russian official (quoting offhand and so may not match verbatim):

It (Indian diplomacy) is like love-making of an Indian elephant. It takes place at a very high level and is often accompanied by much bellowing. And it takes three years to give a result!

There is one more passage comparing Indian Elections to Cricket (both of which are currently in the limelight). It is too long to remember and since I do not have the book with me now, will post it later.

Btw, did you see the way Indians fought yesterday. Wasn't it simply terrific? I just loved it! Just goes to show that the lark's on the wing, snail's on the song, God is in His Heaven and all's right with the world!