The Blog of Small Things

                                                            Name : 2019 : How Modi won India Author : Rajdeep Sardesai     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-Fiction, Politics     Rating : ** (2 stars out of 5) Rajdeep's strengths are his access to leaders and reportage. That,combined with a page-turning narrative, makes this book a topical read for followers of Indian politics. The drawback, as in other Rajdeep's books, is that his capacity to debate and analyse ideas is nowhere near to his flair for describing events. Also, he writes this on Amit Shah : "The truth, as often is the case, could lie somewhere in between deifying him as the ultimate election guru and demonizing him as a roguish villain". Not being able to take a clear stance on someone as polarizing as...

Name : Ants among elephants Author : Sujatha Gidla     Year of Publication : 2017     Genre : Non-Fiction, Caste, Memoir     Rating : **** (4 stars out of 5) The author's poignant retelling of her own family story serves as a primer on how the timeless scourge of caste has been eating into the soul of modern India. Sujatha spares us from theory as she knows that the life stories involved are fodder enough to make an arresting narrative. The early promise which Communism held in the heady post-1947 days and the irony of how enthusiastic youngsters who dreamt of revolution backed out when called for guerrilla warfare are both beautifully captured. One can tell a country's story by telling the story of all it's people but here by telling the story of a single family, the author aims to tell India's story. An elephant of a book among so many ants being published.