The Blog of Small Things

  Name :   To hell and back : Humans of COVID Author : Barkha Dutt Year of Publication : 2022 Genre : Non-fiction, Contemporary India Rating : ** 1/2(Two and a half stars out of 5) Barkha Dutt, the peripatetic journalist who travelled the length of the country during the pandemic times, condenses her disparate experiences into a book. From the migrant exodus to the plight of health workers, oxygen crisis to vaccine manufacturing, she covers lots of ground. Unfortunately, good journalism does not exactly translate into a great book and the author is on a mission to pack in so many touching stories into little space thus ensuring none of the stories (except the UP teachers who were forced to walk to death by doing election duty) stick. Despite flaws, the book is still recommended for reading because in a decaying society, only some people give hope and they cannot be dismissed for frivolous reasons like not writing a classic book.

  Name :  1232 km Author : Vinod Kapri Year of Publication : 2022.  Genre : Non-fiction, Contemporary India Rating : *** (Three stars out of 5) While the privileged India defeated the ennui of the 2020 COVID lockdown by scrolling down Social Media feeds with a half-eaten Swiggy-delivered Pizza in hand, there was another India on the roads running (or walking or cycling) away from the apathy of the Indian state to the temporary solace of their villages in the hinterlands of India. The author travels with one such group of seven migrant workers for over a week as they cycle from Ghaziabad, Delhi NCR to Saharsa, Bihar covering 1232 kilometres and more. The book is a poignant record of what happens when the entire State machinery goes missing in action. Deadly viruses and inefficient Governments are both equally damaging.

  Name :  Editor Missing Author : Ruben Banerjee Year of Publication : 2022 Genre : Non-fiction, Journalism Rating : ** (Two stars out of 5) The author has smartly used his fifteen minutes of fame to capitalise on his sacking from the Outlook group to write a semi-memoir on the state of Indian media today. While it is true that the Indian media is hopelessly polarised, centrist editors like Ruben also add fuel to the fire by giving platform to venom in the name of objectivity. The brand of journalism which Ruben practises can be summed up as follows : Godse should also be given a platform to voice his rationale on why he killed M.K.Gandhi as after all,isn't that objectivity ? Instead of being cynical, Ruben can open his eyes to see a vista of alternate journalism avenues like Caravan, Scroll, Wire etc but unfortunately, in the exalted altar of Ruben's judgement, Siddharth Varadarajan is as polarising as Arnab Goswami. Crookedness of bad people is tough to handle but the stupid...