The Blog of Small Things

Name : Game Changer Authors : Shahid Afridi     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Autobiography , Cricket     Rating : ** (2 stars out of 5) A unique autobiography in which the author is unsure of his own age and , going by a confession during the book launch, the author has not even read his own "autobiography" properly . Afridi's proposition that cricket can mend broken fences between India and Pakistan is welcome but his condescending tone towards India as if he hails from a model peace-loving country is downright laughable. The book is typical Afridi - no innings-building, no concentration, no patience but a sixer over long-off here, a sixer over third Man there and the flashy innings comes to an end. What else to expect from Boom Boom ?

Name : The Verdict - Decoding India's elections Authors : Prannoy Roy and Dorab R.Sopariwala     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics, Elections      Rating : **** (4 stars out of 5) The tome is a labour of love by two passionate election enthusiasts. The authors combine anecdotes with number-crunching to provide an analytical history of all Indian elections since 1947. Ideas like "Uniform swing"and  "Index of opposition unity" show how psephology is no crystal-ball gazing but science grounded in statistics. The authors wax eloquent about different types of opinion polls (phone,internet,whatnot) but do not answer the crucial question : "Why opinion polls? What is the point of it all?". A book that secures a landslide win with zero propaganda and all passion. 

Name : Didi : The Untold Mamata Banerjee Authors : Shutapa Paul     Year of Publication : 2018     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics, Biography      Rating : ** (2 stars out of 5) A straightforward and sympathetic biography of Mamata Banerjee, the fiery street-fighter cum Chief Minister.  For any student of Indian politics, knowing Mamata is mandatory as she breached a nearly 40 years-old Red bastion single-handedly and currently rules one of the last forts yet to be breached by the Modi-Shah juggernaut. But as the 2019 results show, the Modi-Shah electoral behemoth is already knocking on (nay,breaking down) the doors of Bengal and 2021 is here soon. Mamata's story gets more interesting from now and sadly,a biography has limitations in writing about the future.

Name : India positive : New essays and selected columns Authors : Chetan Bhagat     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics, Contemporary India      Rating : * (1 stars out of 5) In one essay ,the author writes "If we didn't have caste-based reservations,caste wouldn't be so relevant on campus.It would soon become a non-issue." It takes guts to publish a book of essays on Indian society and politics without any idea about society or politics. In a way, the author's novels are better : they are merely trash while his non-fiction is unadulterated poison.

Name : The Age of Awakening Authors : Amit Kapoor, Chirag Yadav     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics, Economics     Rating : ** ^(2.5 stars out of 5) The authors are ambitious in trying to condense 70 years of Indian political economy into 280 odd pages. The book is remarkably objective in evaluating the early Nehru years and rightly lays responsibility for our (then) statist economy at the doors of Indira's regime. The quotes of Nehru used in the book are first class and makes one go back to his books/letters/speeches later. Sadly,  all objectivity is lost in the last chapters while evaluating the contemporary years. They go soft on Modi and reserve a mere paragraph on demonetisation. A brilliant 90 odd fast runs spoiled by a limp in the last lap and the authors get clean bowled short of a century.

Name : Every Vote Counts Authors : Navin Chawla     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics, Elections     Rating : ** (2 stars out of 5) The author ,a former Chief Election Commissioner, fuses the genres of memoir and history to produce an academically useful book on the great carnival of Indian elections. Despite the pedestrian prose, some portions are really inspiring because  the hard-work put in by officials shines through. One major irritant is that the author uses a significant portion of the book to settle scores with his predecessor N.Gopalswamy who recommended Chawla's removal. Independence of other election commissioners is definitely important but the author inexplicably places it at the top of all electoral reforms merely because he was personally affected.

Name : India Unmade  Authors : Yashwant Sinha ,Aditya Sinha     Year of Publication : 2018     Genre : Non-Fiction, Economics, Contemporary India     Rating : **^ (2.5 stars out of 5) The author ,a former Finance Minister , pens a sharp critique of the present government's management of the economy . He dons the cap of an economics teacher and patiently explains to us basics like "what is fiscal deficit?","what is NPA?" etc thus making it clear that his target audience comprises casual readers too .His experiences as a minister will interest the policy-makers who read this tome. It has to be said that the entire book is a series of criticisms alone thus spoiling the book's credibility. In one paragraph, the author goes on about how rains had failed in a year ruining agricultural prospects. I half-expected him to blame Modi for that too.