The Blog of Small Things

  Name : Thaaragai Author : Tamilmagan     Year of Publication : 2016     Genre : Fiction, Novel     Rating : ** 1/2 ( 2 and a half stars out of 5) Sujatha, the heart-throb Tamil writer of an entire generation, passed away in 2008. Tamilmagan is an author who tries to evoke the haal of a Sujatha work through wit and pace. This novel is based in the glitzy Tamil film industry and traces the life journey of an aspirant actress. The regular tropes of casting couch, political ambitions, travails at a shooting spot etc are present. In "Kanavu Thozhirchalai", a classic Kollywood based novel, Sujatha evokes the absurdities and chaos of the film industry in a cathartic way. Tamilmagan falls short of mastering the third key Sujatha element ( Wit and pace, being the first two) : Emotion.

Name : Indira Gandhi and the years that transformed India Author : Srinath Raghavan     Year of Publication : 2025     Genre : Non-fiction, Politics, Biography, History     Rating : *** ( 3 stars out of 5) Srinath Raghavan, the erudite scholar who has previously written valuable works on Nehru and  Bangladesh war (among others)  pens a semi-biographical, semi-political portrait of the "Long 1970s" through the travails and decisions of the fragile yet indestructible "Durga"- Indira Gandhi. While the research material is new and the context setting is thorough (understanding local economic decisions through the lens of global crises), the author is in a hurry to pack in too much material in limited space. In a book with large ambitions, epiphanies are expected but the book stops short. The biggest decision in Indira Gandhi's career was to withdraw Emergency when she was at the peak of her political legitimacy.  Ramachandra Guha's "India after G...