The Pranab Mukherjee Trilogy

Buy The Turbulent Years: 1980 - 1996 Book Online at Low Prices in India | The Turbulent Years: 1980 - 1996 Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in

Buy The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years Book Online at Low Prices in India | The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in

Buy The Coalition Years Book Online at Low Prices in India | The Coalition Years Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in



Name : The Dramatic Decade, The Turbulent Years, The Coalition Years
Author : Pranab Mukherjee
Year of Publication : 2015,2016,2017
Genre : Non-fiction,Memoir,Politics
Rating : * 1/2( One and a half stars out of 5)

Pranab Mukherjee, a seasoned politician who has seen it all from Indira Gandhi to Narendra Modi, recollects his forty years in politics through a trilogy of sincere but boring books. His habit of maintaining diaries has ensured that no significant political or economic event is left untouched in these books but the transformation of those personal diaries and notings into readable tomes has not quite happened. He goes overboard in reproducing every formal speech made on different occasions verbatim . Despite the voluminous material, he conveniently does not go into the excesses of emergency or the cash-for-votes scam or the rampant corruption which derailed UPA-2. The trilogy feels like a sincere homework assignment submitted by a student but which general reader will want to read such an assignment ? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Man's search for meaning

Image
Name : Man's Search for Meaning Author : Viktor E. Frankl     Year of Publication : 1946     Genre : Non - Fiction, History , Philosophy     Rating : *****  (5 stars out of 5) The author combines experience with erudition to churn out a classic which has impacted lives since its publication in 1946. Anyone who is coming to terms with trouble in life can take lessons from the author who faced death in a Nazi concentration camp and survived by choosing to be "worthy of his suffering". The second part of the book is a masterclass on Logotherapy, the therapeutic doctrine propounded by Frankl. To write and breathe positivity after going through hell is remarkable but as the author says " Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however,he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer on his lips".
Read more

Goat Days

Image
Name : Goat Days Author : Benyamin     Year of Publication : 2008     Genre : Fiction, Novel     Rating : ***  (3 stars out of 5) The Gulf dream gives way to some harsh realities as Najeeb gets trapped in a desert and lives a goat's life for years. Based on real incidents, the author forsakes hyperbole and sticks to a simple first person narrative which recounts events faithfully. The author need not do anything more as the events themselves are heavily loaded and anything more would have been adding a torchlight's brightness to the harsh sun of the desert. The novel is good but one wishes that Najeeb had escaped on the first day itself. In such a case, the novel (and this short review) would not have been written but Najeeb would have been with Sainu and that is all that matters.  
Read more

The Little Prince

Image
  Name : The Little Prince Author : Antoine De Saint Exupery     Year of Publication : 1945     Genre : Fiction, Novel     Rating : *****  (5 stars out of 5) A pilot stranded in a desert meets a little prince from another planet who talks with foxes, snakes and flowers. The plot sounds like it is a children's tale but the author's dedication at the beginning underlines his deception : "All grown-ups were once children - although few of them remember it". The book has the power of transforming relationships (and lives) through its profound lines. A person from the world of grown-ups with less attention span may miss the beauty of this classic but such a person may have to read this line again : "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye."
Read more