The Blog of Small Things

Name : Malevolent Republic : A short history of the New India Author : K.S.Komireddi     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction , Politics, History     Rating : ***** (5 stars out of 5) This short debut work is a hard-hitting recap of the Indian story and warns us of the dangerous turns our republic is taking today. The author's classy turn of phrase makes the book a must read. (Example : "The future of the state was mortgaged to the presumption that Indians would continue to respond to history's unresolved knots with the same self-possession as the republic's founders"). The book chronologically documents the dismemberment of the republic by it's leaders since independence with special focus on the present Prime Minister. The author's warnings regarding a temple in Ayodhya and Article 370 have already come true since the book was published. The book is a Indian version of Orwell's "1984" except that Komi...

Name : Thottiyin Magan Author : Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (Translation by Sundara Ramasamy)     Year of Publication : 2000     Genre : Fiction , Novel     Rating : **** (4 stars out of 5) Sundara Ramasamy's brilliant translation work of Thakazhi's novel on the lives of manual scavengers in Alleppey during the early decades of 20th century. The novel is striking in it's explicit language which makes privileged upper class readers (like me) squirm. Every character -be it Sudalaimuthu or Sundaram or Pichandi- leaves you with unforgettable pain. The novel also underlines the roots of communist politics in post-Independence Kerala. It has been decades since this novel was written but what was relevant in Kerala then is still relevant in other parts of our country showing how good literature transcends time and geography.

Name :  Flood and fury Author : Viju B     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Environment       Rating : *** (3 stars out of 5)               The book's release coincided with the first anniversary of the catastrophic 2018 Kerala floods . The book's "success" lies in the fact that it keeps arguing that the 2018 floods is not an one-off event and sadly,the book's release was greeted with the second bout of floods and landslides in consecutive years.  The author travels across the entire stretch of Western Ghats ( with special attention on Kerala) and comes up with a panoramic view of how human interventions have led to such ecological damage. He intersperses painful stories of disaster with positive anecdotes of local communities and NGOs striving to rejuvenate the Mother Earth. The book is poorly edited with lots of typos and repetitions but that is mere nitpicking. T...