Borgen: Season 1 by Adam Price – Review

Borgen is a Danish political drama written by Adam Price and produced by DR. After Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, finally I found a political series’ synopsis which could grab my attention but unlike the above mentioned series, Borgen is far from humour. It is translated as Government in several subtitle files though; the literal translation is just Castle and Borgen just happens to be the nickname of the Christiansborg Palace, the Danish Parliament (also includes the Prime Minister’s office and the Supreme Court).

With the elections being round the corner, the story concentrates on the Moderate Party a left oriented so called centrist party, a relatively small party led by Birgitte Nyborg Christensen. Birgitte is a middle aged woman, married and a mother of two. She is very strong on her principles and doesn’t go beyond them even if doing such an act can potentially make her a prime minister.

The other lead character in the story is Birgitte Nyborg’s spin doctor, Kasper Juul, extremely talented and effective, professionally but his personal life is a disaster, mainly because of his highly secretive nature, not many know much about his past. Giving a lead role to Kasper inevitably leads to Katrine Fønsmark, a journalist for TV1, becoming an important character. A workaholic journalist and more than that, Kasper’s ex-girlfriend, who had mainly split because of his nature but nevertheless, Katrine is still the only person who Kasper loves. 

Hanne Holm (Benedikte Hansen), Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), Bent Sejrø (Lars Knutzon) , Michael Laugesen (Peter Mygind), BIRGITTE NYBORG (Sidse Babett Knudsen), Kaspet Juul (Pilou Asbæk), Philip Christensen (Mikael Birkkjær), Torben Friis (Søren Malling) - Format: character name(actor/actress' name); from left to right.

Coming to the story, the all party debate on election eve ends up as a disaster for both, the incumbent Prime Minister Lars Hesselboe and also, the Leader of Opposition Michael Laugesen and their loss ends up as Birgitte Nyborg’s gain. Moderate party end up doubling their number of seats, paving way for Birgitte Nyborg to lead a coalition and become Denmark’s first female prime minister (incidentally, Denmark got its first woman for the job months after Birgitte Nyborg took office). The story concentrates on various issues, handles one issue per episode. It effectively focuses on how a prime minister changes after coming to power, the problems faced by her, both at the workplace and also at home.

I loved the way how the gradual change in Birgitte Nyborg’s personality was portrayed, as a woman so strong on ethics till she comes into power and gives them up the moment she comes into power. For instance, she sacked Kasper on the election eve for doing something what he was expressly told to not do and immediately after coming to power, she starts saying things like, ‘we can’t think of what is right or what is wrong when it comes to the question of survival  in the government’ and also, eventually even rehires Kasper. The story also had three dimensions to it, the political side of it, which is the crux of the drama but with it, there is also the other side, the media – with focus on Katrine Fønsmark and her colleagues at TV1 and the last dimension being the lives of the lead characters outside their profession. Moreover, the choice of events / issues were good, in the episode, all relevant and contemporary events, such as the Greenland problem, a state visit, surveillance on a politician, problems within the three party coalition among several others. 

On the other side, what I strongly felt was that Birgitte Nyborg, in any dire situation, somehow manages to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Yes, I do agree that in some cases, she did negotiate very well but, in several other cases, in an absolutely no hope situation, she gets some input with which she manages to suppress the ones who are attacking her. Only on very rare occasions, she was forced into decisions which she didn’t want to take. Effectively, she could’ve been given the title Saint Birgitte, since; even the most efficient and committed leaders have committed blunders during the tenure but I couldn’t observe anything so significant from Birgitte Nyborg. Besides Birgitte Nyborg, the extreme focus on Katrine Fønsmark’s personal life and her infatuations were extremely boring and was in fact, a hindrance to the flow. Besides that, I also wasn’t particularly pleased about the lack of continuity in the episodes and the author, decided to stick on to his unwritten rule of his one event per episode whereas I felt some of those were concluded in a rather abrupt manner and the author could’ve considered extending the same to the next episode.

 I found some of the aspects rather weird or even illogical. First, I’ve hardly seen anyone giving up power, especially political power after having tasted it, but, in Michael Laugesen’s case, after a cock up, he completely quit politics and became standard civilian, working for a newspaper. Moreover, in my country of residence, even if a sundry MP moves around, leave alone the Prime Minister, the entire traffic is blocked, with a minimum of eight police cars surrounding the politician’s car but in Borgen, the incumbent Prime Minister has no security personnel stationed around her place of residence nor does a police fleet keep her on guard wherever she goes. It does sound rather illogical but if that is the reality, then hats off to little Denmark.

Those who enjoy a politics, in my opinion, would surely enjoy Borgen. As far as the rating is concerned, for the concept and the choice of events, I’d give Borgen a seven and shall go no further, considering the negatives which can’t be ignored. The second season of Borgen would certainly be something to watch out for, and it’d be interesting to see if it manages to please me as much as the first, if not more.

Rating - 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Forbrydelsen (The Killing) - Season 2 by Søren Sveistrup – Review

This is the review of the second season of the Danish crime drama written by Søren Sveistrup, Forbrydelsen. If you haven't watched the first season, I recommend you to not continue any further and the review of the previous season is available here and whatever I’ve stated in my previous review regarding how I review a drama applies to this review as well. 

Ulrik Strange (Mikael Birkkjær) and Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl)

Getting back to the review, the second season starts with the murder of a lawyer, Anne Dragsøhlm, who worked as a legal adviser to the Danish army. After Jan Meyer’s demise and the sacking of Lund from the homicide department, the chief Lennart Brix gets a new subordinate, Ulrik Strange. Meanwhile, Sarah Lund’s union with her boyfriend Bengt Rosling fails and she is back in Denmark, as part of the Passport police in Gedser, southern Denmark. Brix drafts Sarah back into the homicide department and from her side, although she was initially reluctant, she eventually overcomes her dilemma and decides to investigate the case along with Ulrik Strange. As the series progresses, the murders similar to that of Dragshølm keep taking place – a serial killer is on the run. 

Similar to the first season, there was also a political sub-plot – but from local politics, it moved on to national politics, with the newly appointed Justice Minister, Thomas Buch,  being the lead in the sub-plot, who is put in a situation which forces him to open a can of worms. Then there is Jens Peter Raben, a suspended military officer who is now in a psychiatric ward over mental issues and Raben, in some way has links to the murdered.

I don’t think I can give any further details on the plot without spoiling the same. Coming to the story, it was good, to say the least. Murders all over the place, and also, these murders also had political impact. Lund-Strange combination too, was really good, for a change, Lund could actually cooperate with somebody and if I have to say something good about Strange, I think he is the only one who was never annoyed by any of Lund’s antics and supported her throughout. Adding more on the characters, my favourite addition was the Justice Minister Thomas Buch – who, despite not being a lawyer, was doing a good job, did not care about losing his post for doing the right thing and also, his rhetoric was really good and though I don’t understand more than ten words in Danish, I loved the way in which he expressed himself and one the whole, Buch was by far the best addition to the series (only as a character). The story also added dimensions, military protocol, and the war in Afghanistan among several things. I love crime stories which are to the point, without much digressions or needless sub-plots and Season 2 of Forbrydelsen’s score certainly increases on my scoreline, for such reasons. 

From what I’ve read, season two is strongly criticised for several reasons; that Lund was loved because of the complex nature of her character, her workaholic personality, personal issues and problems at work but in season two, she didn’t have any personal or professional problems. Moreover, the next bone of contention was that the personal aspect of a murder was completely ignored, that is, there was no focus on the families of the bereaved. The last one was the size being halved, compared to the twenty episodes of the previous season.

However, I never understood the reason for such strong criticism. The first, regarding Sarah Lund being compromised, I felt that Lund was the same as before, ever so confident, ever so assertive and moreover, for me as a viewer, I enjoyed seeing Lund having someone as cooperative (unlike Jan Meyer) as Ulrik Strange as her partner.  The next being the personal aspects of a murder, that is a reasonable criticism although, it wouldn’t have been practically possible to do such a thing when the number of people murdered is so high in number. Instead, even the impact of Jens’ absence on the Raben family was portrayed quite well, which I think compensates for the lack of counterparts to the Birk Larsen family. Regarding the size, it was quite a relief – considering that the first season, beyond a certain point, was dragging on and on for no particular reason.

However, I’d not say that Season 2 of Forbrydelsen was perfect, far from it, with its own flaws. The first being, although I praised Thomas Buch, as a character in the story, I however felt that his presence and in fact, the entire political aspect of it to be quite redundant. The politicians were hardly a part of the whole police investigation and unlike Troels Hartmann, Thomas Buch meets Sarah Lund only once, that too for less than ten seconds and it was in not in any way connected with the investigation. The political side of the story was a plain repeat of the first series and Sveistrup unnecessarily followed a template, that is, write a crime story, and somehow link it to Danish politics. On a light note, Lund wearing her famous Faroese jumper in the deserts of Afghanistan completely went over the top. It is nearly impossible for a writer to cover up everything and there were loose ends, some blatant ones but much less, as compared to the first season.

I’d conclude this review by rating this series and for rating crime stories; I’ve a rough checklist which I shall be stating below. The story was good, satisfying the primary requirement, with minimal deviations and had a good set of characters, adding flavour to the story. Moreover, the more important aspects of a crime story are the interesting twists and turns, red-herrings which it definitely had and finally the most important of all, a fitting end, which Forbrydelsen’s second season didn’t lack, either. On the whole, I’d give this an eight on ten.

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian - Book Review

Publisher's write-up:

'Bankers build their careers on trust, or so everyone thinks, till a series of murders threaten to destroy the reputation that the Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) has built over the years. Who is behind these killings, and what is their motive? Is the banker at GB2 fast turning into a bankster? Or was he always one?

When Karan Panjabi, press reporter and ex-banker, digs deeper, he realizes that he has stumbled upon a global conspiracy with far-reaching ramifications – a secret that could not only destroy the bank, but also cast a shadow on the entire nation.

With only thirty-six hours at his disposal, he must fight the clock and trust no one if he is to stay alive and trust no one if he is to stay alive and uncover the truth.

Spinning an intricate web of lies, deceit and treachery, best selling author Ravi Subramanian, a master storyteller of financial crime and winner of 2008 Golden Quill Readers' Choice Award, returns with his most gripping thriller yet.'

The story begins in Angola where a covert CIA agent supplies arms to rebels, with the help of DR Congo and is paid in diamonds, in exchange. The author then, takes us immediately to Kerala in southern India, where an elderly man, who lost his son and daughter-in-law during the Chernobyl disaster, is leading a protest against the Trikakulam Nuclear Power Project (based on the ongoing Koodankulam protest). The author then takes us to Mumbai, which could be said as the main plot, where a foreign bank in India, Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2), many of whose officials are losing their lives – murdered, in fact. Why these officials, that too from these particular bank? Karan Panjabi, a journalist and a former employee of GB2, investigates the case, leading him to drastic findings, which could absolutely destroy the bank's reputation.

I judged a book by the summary written in the back of the book by the publisher, considering the global nature of this book, with the author taking the reader to Angola, Kerala, Mumbai, Vienna and Tel-Aviv; and also dealing with a white-collar crime, I decided that I'm certainly going to like this book. Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed. It was a fast moving story – a story with three parallel plots and I liked the way in which the author brought out how actually works, supposed to serve the customers, but instead, how the employees are desperate only to achieve their targets for personal gains and in order to achieve such targets, how the coerce the customers into their devious schemes. The book would be best enjoyed if read in 2012 or 13 mainly because you could easily relate to the events happening around you. The author also maintained the suspense till the very end with twists and several red-herring characters (could have been better if 'solve before the detective' had been possible, in my opinion, even if you happen to guess things right, you can only thank your instinct). As a light note, I also loved the chapter where he imitated Arnab Goswami and his Newshour Debate.

But coming to the other side of it, I didn't like the overuse of Hindi in conversation. Words like chai being tea are known to most Indians but there were whole sentences were in transliterated Hindi; which isn't a problem for someone who knows the language but would certainly be a problem for the huge non-Hindi speaking population who read English novels. Perhaps the author justifies it as recreating the exact Mumbai atmosphere but that is something that could have certainly been avoided. Another thing about this book is the poor character building and also, there is no character to whom a reader can attach herself / himself to while reading the book; although we know that Karan is the protagonist (if you've read the publisher's write-up), still, at the outset, it seemed as though the Retail head of GB2, Vikram was going to be the main character and then the attention shifted to Nikhil, the cluster head, and then, Anand, the manager of the branch in Bandra, Mumbai and then it seemed like a battle between the two relationship managers of the Bandra branch, Harshita and Zinaida and after that Raymond, a manager of the compliance department of the bank gained prominence and finally, only around the 200^th page (in a novel of 358 pages), Karan was actually involved in a conversation.

It certainly would be a page-turner for those love to read any form of thrillers. My important benchmarks for being a good thriller, the plot, the pace and a fitting end, were all met in this book which allows me to award this book a seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Bridge – Season 1 by Björn Stein – Review

Product description (Amazon UK):

'The body of a woman is found in the middle of the Øresund Bridge. Half of it belongs to a Swedish politician, the other half to a Danish prostitute. Trapped in the middle of the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, a bi-national investigatory team is put together to solve the crime. Laid-back Danish family man, Martin, and Swedish single woman, Saga, have to work together to stop the horrific staged murders before the terrorist wins over public opinion with his anti-corruption agenda.'

The Bridge (Danish – Broen, Swedish – Bron) is a Danish / Swedish TV series written by Björn Stein and created by Hans Rosenfeldt. Similar to my previous review of Forbrydelsen – Season 1, I shall review it as a story, and not as a drama, since I haven't the faintest idea on how to judge acting or screenplay.

I had been reading a lot about the combined metropolitan area of Copenhagen-Malmö and that too, integrating so rapidly ever since the construction of the Øresund Bridge. So, while reading about them, I stumbled upon this TV series while reading about Copenhagen-Malmö and I found the concept to be rather different and really interesting – and I couldn't avoid my temptation, despite my usual aversion towards stories narrated through a visual medium.

The power supply is to the Øresundbron is cut off, for a very brief period and within that span of time, a body of a woman is found, exactly in the Denmark – Sweden border. The member of the Malmö CID, Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) takes the lead, initially because the woman is Swedish but it is found out that it is the body of two different women, with the top half belonging to a Swede and the bottom half, a Dane. This brings Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) into the investigation, a member of the Copenhagen police and a Swedish-Danish collaboration begins, in order to solve the case.

It was interesting, and had an altogether different kind of mass murderer who maintains contact with a journalist, using him as a medium to communicate his message and eventually got himself named the 'Truth Terrorist'. I found this similar to Ian Rankin's crime novels, where social issues / current state of the society are brought out through a crime novel (I also found a lot of similarities between this story and Rankin's first Rebus novel Knots & Crosses which is something I shall be writing about, soon). Moreover, the Martin – Saga combination was really interesting, two totally different characters; Martin is married whereas Saga is single; Martin understands emotions whereas Saga shows no sort of emotions, and occasionally ends up saying something comical and also, Saga is too strict about rules and procedures whereas Martin doesn't mind a breach so long is it benefits the police. Like in the case of any GOOD crime story, there were a lot of twists and turns, keeping things going for 10 hours and also one can expect a lot of red-herrings. Some say that the impact of the murder in the family of the deceased wasn't touched at all in this series but that is something that I appreciate, unlike the case of Forbrydelsen Season 1 where the scenes involving the Birk Larsens began to get too boring beyond a point. What was really disappointing was the way the character of Stefan Lindberg, the social worker based in Malmö was ignored subsequently and if the writers were going to do that, there was no need to emphasise on him so much, in the beginning.

There is a second season scheduled but I really wonder how they're going to do it, considering the title, the scope seems too narrow and if Saga and Martin are to collaborate again, it could only be possible in case the case of an old wine in a new bottle scenario but it'd be interesting to see how the writers manage it. I also learnt a lot more about Scandinavia from Broen than I could from Forbrydelsen or Borgen.

Considering the investigations, the way in which they were carried out, the story, and of course, what I believe to be the most important aspect in any crime story, that is the end, which was more than satisfactory and considering all this, I'd award this a rating of seven.

Rating – 7 / 10

Have a nice day,

Andy

A Well Deserved Award

I know that this is a delayed reaction of mine but after reading a lot of negative responses from several people, including the former Polish president Lech Walesa, who had won the prize in 1983 and after such responses, I couldn't refrain myself from not expressing an opinion on this decision. In fact I felt that Lech Walesa's whole argument of people in the EU getting paid to do the job to be meaningless – that is the case with most Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Some might dismiss this article as 'an article from an ill informed young and naïve foreigner' and for all you know, you may be right in doing so.

I was aghast, back in 2009 when the Norwegian committee decided to award the prestigious prize to the US President Barack Obama, only because he was the president of the United States, who had been in office only for ten months, back then and had hardly achieved anything and the only thing he had done till then was that he made a lot of empty promises. At that juncture, it made me wonder about the other potential individuals / organisations who could have been given the prize and there was one very obvious candidate – European Union, an organisation who have been promoting peace in Europe for several decades, unlike Obama's ten month tenure.

I shall not discuss too much of EU's history but today, after six decades of tireless effort, Europe is largely united with the exception of some Eastern European and non-Baltic former soviet nations. EU is almost like a federal country, with 27 states (28 in another nine months with Croatia joining the union). It has most features of a sovereign state such as a common currency(in 17 countries),

visa free access, a broad legal framework with minor differences in individual member states (similar to the United States), even acts as an observer for several similar regional unions and also many other aspects but for a common military.

Europe could've been the epicentre of another world war yet again owing to its proximity to the Warsaw Pact countries but since the fall of the iron curtain, the former communist nations were welcomed with open arms and today, countries like Poland, Estonia among several others to the east of the iron curtain are an integral part of the European Union.

There are several such regional / continental organisations and to take an example regarding such a union, I'd take SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), which has eight member states, with a significantly higher combined territory than that of European Union. However, SAARC, or for that matter, any other organisations haven't achieved even close to what EU has achieved and going back to the SAARC example, it is probably the most insignificant union – all countries have different currencies and it is nearly unimaginable for a national of one member state to acquire a visa of another member state, leave alone free access. This is sadly the case with nearly every other supposed regional union as well.

So, to the question, whether European Union has promoted peace and democracy, the answer is obviously yes. When the Union was formed, it was less than a decade since France and Germany had been on different sides during the WW 2 but today, it is nearly unimaginable to even think about the possibility of the two nations waging a war against each other. The fact that the pre-requisite to join the Union is to fulfil the conditions of Copenhagen criteria would imply that there are certain codes in the country which uphold the values such as democracy and freedom – and many countries have done that in order to reap the benefits of being a part of the Union – a direct indication that EU has promoted peace. But for that, the Schengen agreement along with several other treaties and agreements has ensured free movement of labour, resources and capital within the Union. But for that, there are obviously several other aspects which the EU has achieved and it may not be appropriate to state them all in this article; moreover, these are the two most obvious things visible to an outsider like myself.

This decision by the Nobel committee has attracted criticism mainly because of the timing of the award – at a time when Greece, Spain and some more countries are facing an economic turmoil but what people must keep in mind before making such remarks is that EU hasn't received a prize for economics, it was for peace and it is evident that they've achieved peace, over these six decades. However, to live up to its expectations on receiving this award, there must be an end to this crisis- after all, no economic crisis lasts forever; even the Great Depression was overcome, and incidentally, one of the worst-hit nations (Germany) of that depression is today a member of the Union. This is certainly a challenge for EU which is bound to be met.

In future, I'd like to see the EU becoming a much larger union and perhaps, this may even sound Utopian, but I'd like to see the Union amassing the entire Council of Europe under one banner. It'd certainly take time and effort but it is worth doing so. I've always been an admirer of Europeans and their culture – for they've been the pioneers of most revolutionary ideas and EU is another one such idea, which has set an example for the world.

I'd conclude with the words of the Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo - 'this choice shows that the European project continues to inspire the world today. The European Union was originally the dream of people and politicians in search of peace and prosperity for all citizens. It has become a strong symbol of cooperation and progress. Europe, a continent that was torn by terrible wars, thanks to the European Union is an example for the world of peaceful dialogue and conflict prevention.'

Have a nice day,

Andy

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach - Book Review

Publisher's write-up:

'For most seagulls, life consists simply of eating and surviving. Flying is just a means of finding food. However, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. For him, flying is life itself. Against the conventions of seagull society, he seeks to find a higher purpose and become the best at doing what he loves.

This is a fable about the importance of making the most of our lives, even if our goals run contrary to the norms of our flock, tribe or neighbourhood. Through the metaphor of flight, Jonathan's story shows us that, if we follow our dreams, we too can soar.'

I started reading this book for two main reasons: one – I'm badly lagging behind in the Goodreads reading challenge and this book being just 87 pages (of which, half of them are pictures), could help my chances of completing the target; two – the author, Richard Bach, is an American. I haven't reviewed a book written by an American author in this blog, so far. I would have definitely liked the first to be a much bigger and a far more mature novel but it is good to start this with something as simple as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: a story.

I did mention two reasons, but I'd also heard about this novel several times, as a highly inspirational story and you start looking at your life from a different perspective after reading this novel. Over my four years experience, I've learnt to have my expectations low for something that is frequently praised by others since more often than not, such works of fiction have always disappointed me. But, this was rather different and I like the way it started, Jonathan Livingston, a seagull trying to break free from the chains of command of the seagull flock and follow his passion. Unlike the other seagulls for whom flight was a mere tool acquiring food, Jonathan wanted to excel in flying for that was his passion.

But for the start, the story was simply bad, on all the other aspects. When I arrived at this conclusion, I wondered, at the outset whether I was the only one who was unable to appreciate this work but I was glad when I realised after reading some reviews at goodreads that most people who've read this book shared my opinion. When this was tagged as 'motivational', I expected how Jonathan would fight against the norms of the flock and in turn excel in flying overcoming the societal constraints. Instead, the author just went on describing how Jonathan flew at '190 miles per hour' which in no way was interesting and wasn't anywhere close to being inspirational.

Besides that, I'm shocked to find this book stacked in the shelf 'Literature' in various bookstores and libraries whereas I'd say that this is nothing more than a standard fairy tale – the seagull is oppressed but two 'angels' take him to another world where all birds are like him, returns happily to earth and starts training like-minded seagulls. Moreover, I found it odd to give seagulls a surname – Livingston, Lynd, etcetera. I've nothing to say beyond this; a four paragraphs review is more than sufficient for a forty page novel.  

I didn't get any inspiration out of this story and I'm sure most people who read this book would feel the same. It is definitely one of the most overrated books I've read so far.

Rating – 2/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Love, Peace and Happiness: What more can you want by Rituraj Verma - Book Review

Publisher's write-up

'Stories surround us. Stories about people like us who make difficult and often complex choices that sometimes astound us. You must have come across some people in your own life who closely resemble the characters in these stories. Maybe you have gone through trying moments in your life too.

For instance, have you ever been bugged enough with your partner to want to leave? Have you ever had to choose between love and money? Have you even had to compete with your partner? Have you ever felt that your family weighs you down when it comes to choosing your partner?

At times like these, haven't you wished that things happened differently that you could change how they ended?

Now you will control how the stories in this book end.

Each story centres on the life of an urban middle class character caught in a set of circumstances beyond his or her control. A Hindu girl living in with a Muslim boy is suddenly in the glare of global media in a reality TV show, a divorced cynical man faces the prospect of committing himself to a prostitute, a highly talented small town girl must choose between life and death. All must resolve the conflicts within their beliefs.

Read the way the stories end in the book, but if you don't agree with the ending, visit the website for alternate endings.

If you don't like the way the stories end there either, write your own, and if your ending is selected, see it in the next print run with your name in the acknowledgements.

Hoping to change the word, one story at a time...'

'Love, Peace and Happiness: What more can you want?' is a collection of short stories written by Rituraj Verma. All these short stories are centred around people who are seeking the three aforesaid aspects of life, that is, love, peace and happiness and are having to encounter a set of problems during the course of the journey.

This book has certainly introduced a very new concept; it is easy to ruin any good story with an inappropriate ending. Hence, the author gives you two choices here – if you aren't satisfied with the ending in the book, you can go to his website and read the alternate endings. If you aren't satisfied with that either, you can submit your own, which would appear in the next edition, if approved.

The stories covered the various marriage related issues in its nine stories – a simple arranged marriage owing to parental pressure, inter-caste marriage, live-in relationships, love between people from different religions among others. I also liked the way how, although it is a collection of short stories, the stories aren't independent and most characters appear in more than one story and if not appear, at least mentioned (except for Sneha, a character from the first story, A high, like heaven, or so I believe).

The author also managed to successfully downplay the importance of money as being the panacea to all problems and how the above three things mentioned in the title could not be obtained by these.

From what I could interpret from these stories, the author is to be appreciated for being forward thinking, something that is desperately needed in a country where the majority of people are conservative fundamentalists.

This book would have been better had the characters had also been from different backgrounds – most of them were similar to that of the author himself, that is, they went to India's premier institute (for engineering), IIT and the only story where the setting was totally different was The practitioner of austerity, as story I thoroughly enjoyed. At times, I also felt that the ending was rather abrupt but regarding that, I've been given a choice to change it myself (which I shall not, since I'm a little conventional when it comes to books, retain it as it is).

The main problem with this review is the person who has reviewed the book and in this case, it is I. The author had sent a book review request via e-mail a month ago but I think the author would have decided otherwise had he known a little more about me. My answers to all the questions mentioned by the publisher is unfortunately, 'no'. I'm certainly not meant to be the book's target as I'm still a teenager and I was unable to relate myself to the characters and the issues and could probably understood better by people who are in the age group of 25 and above and because of this limitation of mine, I don't think I'd be able to give a proper rating to this book.

Given the option of reading the alternate endings or submitting your own, I don't think I'd do either of them, I'm willing to accept the book as it is, as aforementioned. However, I felt that all the Hanif – related stories, that is, The intimacy of space, The victim of many loves and The Facebook stalker could have been merged into a single story but I only have a control over the endings and this has its own pros and cons – you needn't have to turn the pages and there'd be a sort of continuity but at the same time, that would change the structure of the novel as such and short stories have their own merits too.

I'd end my review here and readers who came here expecting a very comprehensive review, I'd just have to apologise.

Have a nice day,

Andy

Age of Hiblisk: A Story with a Soul by Sumukh Naik – Book Review

Publisher's write-up:

'”Age of Hiblisk: A Story with a Soul” is the journey of Prince William and Princess Sara, the protagonists , through the magical and spiritual worlds of Pantolis, Hiblisk, and Ikra. As their voyage unfolds, they realize the true motive behind the terror employed by the forces of Dushtt to claim supremacy over the lands of Pantolis and beyond. Every new revelation brings to light the methodical madness employed by the dark forces and secrets of Mother Nature, which have been safely guarded for ages by the various civilizations of the secret worlds.

Their journey also introduces them to the divine forces that monitor the functions of the world and gives them access to legendary, mystical weapons and advanced spiritual knowledge which illuminates the flow of their understanding actions towards various aspects of life. They use the knowledge gained, to try and bring peace to their war ravaged lands and fight the ever growing might and influence of the mysterious dark forces that haunt their kingdoms.

Will the light of all that is divine, fighting under the banner of Prince William and Princess Sara, flicker away into oblivion against the might of the dark forces under Dushtt, or will they survive? … Only time in her womb holds the answer, potent enough to change the outlook of the very world we live in.'

Age of Hiblish: A Story with a Soul is a novel written by the Sumukh Naik, a HR professional turned author. This is his first novel although it might come as a surprise to some who have read the book without knowing that as the book hardly showed any characteristics similar to that of one written by a callow author.

To say something about this book in a few words is, it is nearly a standard fantasy novel with a good mix of adventure and philosophy, a prince and princess fighting against an evil plot threatening the very existence of their world, well written along with nicely constructed dialogues.

The story revolves around three worlds; Pantolis, Hiblisk and Ikra with Pantolis being the land inhabited by normal humans but for a few shamans and members of the order who ensure the smooth functioning of Pantolis whereas Hiblisk is a world of diverse magical creatures with unknown secrets and several unexplored lands and Ikra is an illusionary world.

The story begins in the world of Pantolis where in the border of the two quarrelling kingdoms of Jaguar and Ivory, weird incidents are taking place, trees turning black, a plague spreading and houses along with the people in it vanishing without a trace. The matter is brought to the prince of Jaguar, William who decides to help the village but in turn, gets trapped by the forces of Ivory while evacuating the villagers and gets forced into an unconditional surrender.

It was found out by the Eleventh Master, the chief of the Order that the person who was helping the Kingdom of Ivory was in fact, Dushtt, the son of his close friend Ratraa, the lord of the underworld. The Eleventh Master helps the prince escape the dungeons of Ivory along with his subjects and also, Princess Sara, the princess of the Kingdom of Ivory, a member of the Ivorian royalty against the conflict on Jaguar.

The Eleventh Master understands that William and Sara are two people with a pure heart and noble intentions and are people whom he can trust and blesses them with magical powers for their battle against the evil forces of Dushtt and sends them to the world of Hiblisk, in order to prepare them for the battle which would decide the future of Pantolis.

A really good thing that I liked about the way in which the author presented the story was that it was to the point, with hardly any digressions from the main plot although there was a lot of scope for it, such as, although there was a prince and princess carrying on a task together, no pages or chapters were wasted on romance, something for which the author ought to be appreciated. Elaborating on my other point about the perfect mix, there was an adventure, like in the case of any fantasy novel but with it, philosophy was also involved, and on several occasions, the author sounded like a philosopher more than a story teller, very interesting philosophies on nature and the balance between good and evil, on women, the duties of good people, etcetera, indeed making it a story with a soul; although, personally I may not agree with some of them regarding the limits which science shouldn't cross but it would be best if I refrain from bringing in my personal beliefs into a review. The history of Pantolis and Hiblisk was also well narrated and to help the reader to keep track of the places, the publisher has so generously provided the maps of both Hiblisk and Pantolis and not to mention, the most important aspect of any book, the plot or the story too, was really good, although some might feel that the philosophical element to it was rather boring, I felt it was very much necessary (though I hardly felt that it was boring). A good plot when it is written well would be add more flavour to it and that is the case with this book, barring a few errors some of them caused due to oversight and some inexcusable phrases such as using few with the meaning of some and without using an article and also, very frequent usage of the phrase 'comprises of'. It was also rather different, rather than focussing on the conventional battles of 'goodies vs baddies', it approached the whole task in a different manner with a lot of twists and turns; certainly a combination which any reader would look forward to.

The author constantly reiterates that the good aspects and evil aspects go hand in hand although the degree may vary and that happens to be the case even in the real world, including his book. To start off, the names were weird, really weird. Probably, at first the author planned a global audience for the book initially and the initial names were all sounding European (Pantolis sounded Greek to me) and if not, not Indian, to say the least, with names such as William, Sara, Pedro, Philip, Aaron, etcetera but eventually, distances were being measured in yojanas (ancient Indian unit of measuring distance, approximately equal to 5-8 miles) and suddenly a 'Captain Sharma' popping in and after around the 50^th page, most names appearing were Indian. However, there is nothing so negative about this as it doesn't affect the story in anyway and after all, what is in a name? The end too was rather abrupt but the way in which ended, I could only assume that the author is probably only planning a sequel. Another problem is, personally, I'm unable to categorise the novel, although I'm not sure whether it is because of my incompetence or by virtue of its nature since I'd certainly not say that it would appeal to all the young adults because of the excessive amount philosophy involved although it wouldn't be seen as a hindrance to anyone who is interested in it or looks forward to learning such things and at the same time, being a fantasy, I'm not sure how this could be termed as a fully adult novel but if I've to choose one, I'd go for the former.

I think I can close this review here with the comment that it was really an enjoyable experience reading it and with all eyes being on the Shiva Trilogy right now in India for fantasy, I feel this too, deserves some attention. Since I felt that this book was really more than just good, I'd gladly award a rating of eight.

Rating: 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Forbrydelsen (The Killing): Season 1 by Søren Sveistrup - Review

Product Description in Amazon (UK):

'Who Killed Nanna Birk Larsen? Head of investigations, Sarah Lund, is about to emigrate to Sweden, but as the tied-up body of a missing girl is found her plans are put on hold. In the course of 20 gripping episodes, each chronicling a day in the investigation, Copenhagen's secrets, corruption and power struggles emerge as the hunt for the killer intensifies and the truth becomes ever harder to find. This riveting Emmy-nominated thriller is one of the finest murder investigation series ever produced.'

This is the first TV series that I shall be reviewing and before I go on, I have to mention certain things. I'm no big fan of watching videos on computer and I seldom watch a series, in fact, Forbrydelsen is only the third I've watched, the other two being Yes Minister and Borgen and in fact, I stumbled upon Forbrydelsen when I read that Borgen was broadcast in the UK following the success of Forbrydelsen which was also done by the same producer (DR). So, my review would not be like the conventional sitcom reviews, since till date, I don't know what exactly is 'good acting'. I can pick out if an actor's performance is bad but I've never been able to pick out the good performer. Besides that, some talk good editing, screenplay, etcetera but I have never understood what the film critics exactly mean by that. So, this won't be any different from my other reviews, I shall not say a word about the technical aspects of a film, such as acting but treat this as any other crime story as though it were a book (I've felt that Forbrydelsen would have been much better had it been a book).

Coming to the review, Forbrydelsen, translates to 'The Crime' in Danish; though it is known as 'The Killing' in the English speaking world (I shall be referring to the series only as Forbrydelsen throughout my review since I don't see any reason to anglicise the title). It is a Danish TV series, with 20 episodes of one hour each, starring Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund and Søren Malling as Jan Meyer and the story takes place in Copenhagen.

Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund

Sarah Lund is a Detective Inspector and is about to move to Sweden with her boyfriend Bengt Rosling. However, on her last day in Denmark, Nanna Birk Larsen, a nineteen year old student is murdered. Her body was found inside the boot of a car which was taken out from a canal near the woods. Incidentally, the car belonged to Troels Hartmann, a local politician, running for the mayor post and elections were just three weeks away. The case thus had a severe impact on the election campaign and also on the Birk Larsen family. Sarah Lund's departure to Sweden is postponed by a week since her chief didn't want this case to be her replacement, Jan Meyer's first case and Lund, throughout the case, is assisted by Meyer.

The series had a perfect mix, politics and crime and the person did a good job in focussing the story from all the three angles, the police and sometimes, the personal life of Lund and Meyer, Troels Hartmann and his associates and also the Birk Larsen family. Also, the investigations were brilliant along with the twists and turns; the viewer can't really trust anyone and nearly every suspect has some reason to hide certain information from the police and especially after the 5^th or 6^th episode, I became a little desperate to know who did it and the interest remained till the end. Another good thing was that the attention was mostly only on the Nanna case and even the sub-plot, that is the upcoming election, is related to to the story as the case has a say on the outcome of the election, with Hartmann being one of the suspects. However, I felt that the scenes involving the Birk Larsen family were at times boring and I felt that the police too, harassed the people involved in the case including the family suffering from bereavement and occasionally they were also being a little stupid. Not just that, several deaths of the people related to the case, during the course of the story, was rather unnecessary and I think it was done just to prolong the series.

Ignoring those rather insignificant details, I was really disappointed with one aspect of it, the end. I've always said in my previous reviews that a crime novel, regardless of the quality of the investigations and the interest it generates, without a proper end, the whole thing is rather meaningless. So, that would apply to any other crime story as well and unfortunately, Forbrydelsen too falls a victim to that. It is the best crime story that I've witnessed so far, although, only till the 19^th episode and the last one just took a lousy turn of events leaving not just a few, but too many questions unanswered leading to loose ends, which isn't something too positive, especially for a crime story.

Despite the disappointment, I shan't refuse the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it (till the 19^th episode as aforesaid). The reason why I don't watch too many sitcoms or films on my computer is because I've always felt that there are several better things to do in a computer and even when I've tried watching some films, I cut it short and to complete the story, I just read the Wikipedia plot summary. Despite this personal constraint, Forbrydelsen managed to defeat my personality, keeping me interested in the show, every minute of it and after the end of each episode, I was really desperate to know what happens in the next episode. In fact, I watched the last seven episodes almost at a stretch, approximately amounting to six and a half hours. The ending was unfortunate and I really have high hopes for the second season which I shall soon be watching.

So far, in no review of mine have I rated a crime novel without a fitting end above four but in consideration for Forbrydelsen having everything else except a proper end, I'd give it a five.

Rating: 5/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Book Review ?

Publisher's write-up:

'Translated in the year 1910, this scholarly edition of Dr. Lionel Giles is considered to be the best translation of the work till date.

Originally written in the Chinese language by Sun Tzu in the 6^th century BC, this is the most successful and the oldest Chinese military treatise in the world. The contents of the book are based on Sun Tzu's own experience in different campaigns. The essence of the book is that positioning in war strategy is crucial.

Apart from being essential for the military, the book is useful for all those who want to pursue success in life, and for all those who aim at leadership. The ultimate goal in one's life, as the book proclaims, should be to strive for success, always with the “enemy at the next door” alertness. In this contemporary battlefield of corporate competency, this book no doubt will have an edge over other such books.'

The Art of War is a guide for military generals written by an ancient Chinese general, Sun Tzu, nearly 2500 years ago and translated into English nearly a century ago by the British historian, Dr. Lionel Giles.

For starters, I'd say that Maple Press, the publishers, have written a very misleading write-up at the back of the book. While it said that they were from the author's 'own experience', I expected an autobiographical work with Sun Tzu narrating a battle which he led and what he learnt from that experience. Instead this was like an instruction manual, with numbered points in each chapter. Despite that, I thought that there tips given by this general would be useful for anyone but they were all too 'war specific' and some of his points were totally outdated, such as all his points regarding cities with fortified walls, whereas you hardly have such cities these days. Besides, I found some of his points to be contradictory, although not blatantly so, but in such a way that the two can never get along together such as, he talks about how a good general should treat his subordinates like his own sons and later he says how he must make all his subordinates fear when he is in their vicinity. My very strong opinion is that if you make your son fear you, then you aren't a good father and that applies to the general too. 

Initially in the book, I was extremely annoyed when the I read an extremely vague simile and the translator, in his commentary says that there is no exact explanation for that in English. Another frustrating thing about this was the high usage of allusions, a device that I detest. However, the translator agrees that the ancient Chinese version available right now may not exactly be what Sun Tzu might have left behind and several pages might have been added / deleted. However, to say something positive about this, I found some of his thoughts to be rather interesting / strange. Being someone who lived during the B.C years, I expected him to advocate war ethics and I was in for a shock when he talked about deception and the use of spies being a necessity, ending the book saying, 'an army without spies is like a man with ears or eyes.'.

The punctuation mark in the heading is not a typographical error and I used it only because I'm really not sure on whether what I've written is a review and that is up to you, the reader, to decide. Despite all these negative comments, I shall not dismiss the book completely as I strongly feel that I am not the correct person to judge this book. What he says might really be useful even for the present day generals and the people who are leading a team and being the carefree student that I'm, right now, I'm certainly not a member of the target group and I might probably find this work a little more meaningful later on in life. Regarding the rating, I've already mentioned that I'm not the right person to do so and hence I refuse. 

Have a nice day,

Andy