Book review: Now that you are rich...

Book review: Now that you are rich.......
Hi,

I went on a book buying spree while in India. Alongwith other books, I bought this book named 'Now that you are rich, lets fall in love', by Maanvi Ahuja and Durjoy Datta. Now, I do not know what made me pick up the book in the first place. Maybe I thought that since Chetan Bhagat writes well, other Indian authors should be given a chance to be read.

And I really regret buying the book! I do not think I can tone down this feeling in any way. Before I start explaining my disgust and other related emotions in detail, let me first give you a background about the book.


The cover describes the book to be about four over achieving nerds who land themselves in job that pays at a higher rate that they could think about spending. Things are fine as they get along but……As they fall in love, sleep around with all the wrong people and recession threatens to take the company down, their bonds strain…till one day, the very reason that got them together tears them apart.Money. Hideous human resource managers picking on them, horny seniors looking down their cleavages, piles of workload, crazy shopping sprees, crates of beer and endless cups of coffee………Out from college and into the real world…how does it change them?


It sounded interesting, especially in recessionary times, which would have threatened or threatened to threaten (if you know what I mean) the best of us. So I started reading Now that you are rich......

Less than 30 pages into the book and I was already regretting buying it, mostly reading it! There were many reasons for it, yes, the story was definitely a key reason. But, 30 pages are not sufficient enough to judge a story, so there had to be some other reason.


Reason 1: the grammatical errors and typos. Oh God, there were so many. Initially, I started underlining these. Later, that got too much for me. I was in danger of changing my own fundamentals of English language!! The publishers have not bothered to proof read it, prior to publication. More importantly, the authors have definitely NOT read it again. Or maybe ever! Or maybe since there are two authors, as happens in most cases, one thought the other would proof read; and vice versa; the buck has been effectively passed on........to the poor reader.



Genders have been mixed up - "Arjun had changed her relationship status to single"; wherein the sentence actually means "Arjun had changed his relationship status to single" ; "He caught Karan in the parking lot kissing Ritika" (it was actually Garima who caught Karan.....and she has been described as a girly girl, so there should be no gender confusion right?).

Names of characters are miraculously changed in the very next sentence - "Abhi says he is okay with Riya....and calls Vartika" (Riya, poor girl, has been written as Vartika couple of times in the entire book)


The grammatical errors (any English teacher's nightmare) -

1. The apostrophes are all at wrong places: Arjuns's affluence, Garimas's behaviour, (and the best, the write up of the authors on the 1st page of the book) nations's fancy.
2. Other examples - "Makes my hair stands on end" ; "I will throw you out this house" ; "I will always knew" ; "Saurav at leasr learn something" (no this is not a typo made by me, least has been typed as leasr)


These are not stray instances, there are many. I did not want this blog to be dedicated as how to improve your English grammar, spot the mistakes! By the way, after writing this blog, I did spell check, and all the above mistakes came up, with auto correct options. Now, what can I say about the authors/publishers........ignorant about the spell check option (Mr. Gates pls note), lazy, complacent??


Reason 2: Okay, I could have ignored this (maybe, just maybe), if the story was anything worthwhile. Oh yes, the 4 'nerds' get into a high paying job and are about to get chucked out due to recession. Also, as a result of some defiance on their part, of the workaholic norms.

However, the characters of the story are weak, contradictory too. I mean, these 4 (Abhi, Saurav, Garima and Shruti) are the toppers in school and college. That is how they get the high paying job. However, both Garima and Shruti have boyfriends; Abhi and Saurav spend most of their time trying to get girlfriends. In fact, they are quite involved and in some cases, obssessed about this.


All of us have gone to school/college, known nerds and geeks. Do they really even think about such things? Or maybe they do, but do they make time for this?????? It does require time to plot, plan, spend time in shopping, on dates etc etc. These 4 are described at some point as being the ones to go back to their books after the last day of exam, to check what marks they would get. And that's the proper definition of a nerd/geek! Someone who is like that would place love as his/her top priority.


I remember the nerds/geeks in my school. They never had time for fun, they studied even in the 5-10 minutes it took for the next teacher to enter the classroom. One boy had even given me a lecture about the cons of reading Archie comics....wasting time he called it! (Imagine he felt so passionate about it, he left his books to improve my habits, even if for 5 mins!!!) :):) And here, IITian Saurav's friends urge him to have sex.....and he joins the gym (which IITian has time to breath, let alone joining the gym!!!!), and plots and plans for the same.



Reason 3: Sex is the over riding factor.......where in Chetan Bhagat's book it has been dealt with in a mature manner, this book makes it totally crass. Maybe the authors were trying to emulate Shobha De's style......but let us face it people, she is unique and even if she writes crap, she has clout.

Abhi is hinted as having buttered up the professors and hence improved his grades - "Abhi had been too busy with books. Professors' dicks. Sucking is a difficult job to do" The same Abhi who did this for his grades in college, does not understand at all when Shruti does the same with her boss, to save her job. And she really needs the money. He screams and shouts at her etc. I can understand this, if the authors had pointed out Abhi having double standards. But no, there is no reference to Abhi's earlier behaviour. It has been quickly forgotten!


The book ends in each getting what they wanted......however, the message conveyed is that the 2 characters from an ordinary financial background, get what they wanted - Abhi gets his rich girlfriend (but hang on, his earlier crush was not rich, so the criteria is not consistent).....and Shruti gets her super rich industrialist boyfriend (and hang on pls again, earlier she was in LOVE with a shop owner's son....so what happened now??). And the other 2? Hmmmmmm......they already had the money.....father's money! They needed LOVE :):)


The book has absolutely no message to give.......it is totally meaningless. I have read many meaningless books also.....my staple diet is MBs (Mills and Boons for the ignorant). However, MBs at least help pass time......and they do not irritate me endlessly with childish typos and grammatical errors. They also transport me into a romantic world....but that is reserved for a future post :):) It is not important that it should give a message, it should at least prove to be enjoyable, at a very basic motivation level.


Durjoy Datta is pursuing his MBA from MDI Gurgaon and I really did not think MDI had such a high threshold for poor English. I used to hold the school in great esteem (also because I did not make it there, but now I am glad).


Maanvi Ahuja, luckily did not decide to pursue MBA. I mean how many aberrations can there be for someone with such poor English. She has graduated from SRCC, which i thought would have taught the Indian income tax structure to its students. A 30 lakh salary does not mean 3 lakh in hand per month (as quoted on the back cover) Firstly it is a grave calculation error! (36 lakhs would be 3 lakh per month right? See, the book has shaken my Maths fundas also!!!!). In the story, it says 2.5 lakh per month. (which is gross, net should be much lesser, so do not know how the 4 smarties were counting on getting that much).
Tissot watches, Jimmy Choo pumps (are they even available in India??), cruises on the Caribbean....hmmmm....would require some saving right?? This is what the back cover says........there are of course no mentions of such a lifestyle in the story. Yes, this also means that the back cover has no sync with the inside.......and brings to my mind a saying "You cannot judge a book by its cover" :):):)


I also do not know which graduate gets 30 lakh salaries.......I seriously do not know. Maybe they get also, but then, why should so many students each year, especially toppers, slog for CAT?? But all these are minor issues.

The book cover says it has been on the best selling charts for 17 straight weeks (as per India Today)!!!!! What defines the best selling chart?? Are we starved for Indian authors so much that we put ANY Indian on the best selling charts?? Or is it defined by idiots like me, who buy the book in the first place. India Today really lost it's credibility in my eyes at least, with this book.


Okay, now for the main last question......the book is priced at Rs. 100.......Rs. 5 above what Chetan Bhagat's books are priced!!!!! WHY?????

If any of you can justify this Rs. 5 ....pls let me know...it has really shaken by Maths, Economics and book reading fundas.

Ciao

Chicken!

Yesterday I made chicken curry, and I have dedicated this blog to that curry, as I very rarely make chicken at home. This is mainly because my husband is a vegetarian (though he eats egg) and my son did not display much interest in eating it, till yesterday. And, how much can poor me eat? Hence, eating chicken is confined to restaurants or at mom's house. This is what probably makes it special for me......and if I do not have it every now and then, I shall probably go into chicken shock!!! :):)

This will surely put off many vegetarian friends (probably after reading the title, they won't venture into this space)! I have heard and read many arguments in favour of becoming a vegetarian, but I have never seen myself being that. I know being a non vegetarian means someone who is party to killing innocent animals and actually relishing in it (I know it sounds gross!)....but this does not touch me at all. I just think "Whatever, its very tasty; and just because plants cannot cry out, its not as if it doesnt hurt them when they are pulled out"!

Maybe it's a result of having a hard core fish eater for a mother, and a father, who cannot believe that vegetarian food can be part of eating out! Or maybe a result of going with Dad every Sunday to buy meat/chicken, during my childhood; seeing the shop guys catching the chicken, the chicken crying out, and soon delivered as a potential tasty dish (in a black polythene)! Hmmmm, maybe since they exposed me to all this so early in life, I have become immune to it (like a doctor :):))

Now, many friends try to put me off non veg food (oh I forgot, for me, non veg means Hindu non veg = chicken, mutton, sea fish), I come across PETA arguments. I always think of my husband whenever I face this. He is probably the most understanding person, oh sorry, most understanding 'vegetarian' person. He has till date, never asked me to stop eating non vegetarian food (maybe he really fears the alimony or my already under weight structure. He never makes faces when I eat non veg with him, and we eat food at the same table.

He is quicker than me to suggest I have chicken when we visit any restaurant! Though if by chance I do not order, he almost falls off the table!!! And not only this, but he also makes tandoori chicken for me, at home; he himself marinades the chicken and grills it! (see, not bad for a veggie). He also has never discouraged me from giving chicken to our son. In fact, since he does not like it much, I never used to give to him (insult of chicken I felt!). But, my husband always asks that I should give it to him.

So, if he is not anti chicken, why does he not eat? Would this not be better for me at least :):) He is not at all religious, so that cannot be the obvious reason. Maybe its conditioning, something he has been taught since childhood, thats it wrong to eat non veg. Maybe he seriously believes that killing innocent animals to satisfy your taste palettes is wrong; and does not want to force this belief on me. (hope he isn't waiting for self discovery!). Or maybe he actually does not like the taste (he has tasted it once)

Whatever the reason be, I am very happy he believes my stomach is mine and my conscience is mine too.

Meanwhile, my recipe for the chicken curry that lead to this post:

1 chicken
4-5 onions, pureed
4-5 tomatoes, pureed
Ginger garlic paste
2-3 bay leaves (tej patta)
3-4 whole peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
2-3 cinnamon sticks (dalchini)
3-4 cloves (laung)
4-5 cardomoms (elaichi)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
2 tbsps coriander powder (dhaniya powder)
2 tbsps Cummin powder (jeera powder)

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, when oil is heated, put the ginger garlic paste
Once the ginger garlic paste turns slightly brown, put all the spices (bay leaves, whole peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardomoms)
Saute for sometime
Then put the pureed onions and cook till onions become brownish
Then cook the tomato puree till this leaves oil
Post this, put turmeric powder, coriander powder and cummin powder and cook more
After that, mix the cooked chicken in this.
Put water and boil it nicely for sometime.
You can garnish with coriander leaves.

And my apologies for not putting a picture of this yummy chicken, could not wait till then :):)

Happy eating

Reviewing MNIK with a difference :)

I watched My Name is Khan yesterday in the theatre. This was the 1st movie I watched in a theatre in Lagos.....why...I think SRK movies deserve to be watched in theatres :) I do not want to review this movie in this blog, I wanted to share something totally different on the same.

The movie is about SRK (of course), who is autistic (he has asperger's syndrome, which I guess in simple language means autism). Now being autistic, besides the standard learning disabilities, SRK's Rizwan, cannot express his emotions as 'non autistic' people do. He also repeats what he overhears, without knowing whether it is legal/politically/morally correct. (like he repeats abuses about Hindus, that he overhears his neighbours saying)

As an adult, Rizwan repeats only the routine stuff he hears, such as benefits of beauty products, history of the city, negatives of mobile phone usage, medical etc. For other things, he has a simple yardstick, good or bad, white and black......there are no grey areas in his mind. So, someone who wants to kill others....is bad; and innocent in trouble.....is of course good! Simple right?

It's this yardstick that makes him a such good at heart person, a wonderful friend to his step son, a loving husband, makes him famous......makes him meet the President. AND, he gives the message, that there are only 2 demarcations....good and bad. When innocent lives are at stake, either being killed or being trained to kill, its most definitely in the 'black area'. (he does this without being able to express emotions normally)

In Rizwan's mind, there are no grey areas, which make one recount the past victimization, humiliation and pain suffered; the reasons for the current state of living etc.....and hence, justify it as 'white'. There should actually be no scope for such a grey area, when it comes to killing innocent lives!

I wondered how come this autistic guy learnt such an important demarcation and applied it to such a life changing situation. This got me back to the start of the movie, where Rizwan's mother teaches him that there are just good or bad people....who are irrespective of religion. Given that Rizwan would have taken time and effort to learn anything, she could have chosen not to teach him this; I am also sure it would not have been as easy as depicted in the movie. But she did make that effort and was successful.

That's when I started thinking that yes, actually a mother can achieve a lot, by teaching good values at a younger age. I mean, if someone who is autistic can learn this so well, and bring about a change, there should be no problem at all for 'not autistic' children .

At a different point of time, I remember having told my son, that Britishers used to torture Indians a lot, they took away our money, kept us in jails and all that. After many days, when he heard the word Britisher, he immediately repeated (Rizwan style)......"Britishers are very chi chi (bad) people, they used to torture Indians a lot".....and (not in Rizwan style)...."If I meet Britishers, I will kick them hard!!!!"

I realized that I could fester this thought in my son, till he started to hate them, plot revenge on them (sounds like a Hindi movie right?).....or at least have racist feelings. But, I chose to tell him all the good things Britishers had done for us, like the Railways, governing style, education etc. And, tell him that all these things happened in the past, with different people, by different people.

Imagine, if all mothers taught their children what Rizwan's mother taught him? What we could all achieve?

Ciao

Ex pat life

To me, the word 'ex pat' gave rise to connotations of being rich, leading a luxurious and pampered life, spending days in sheer laziness......

When I came to Lagos, I realized what being an ex pat actually meant. Oh of course, it meant the above; but went beyond that. As an ex pat one gets a lot of 'help' - driver, full time nanny, cleaner, security guard etc. When you are about to sit in the car, the security holds the door open for you, closes the door also for you. If it rains, the driver gets wet, gets the umbrella (not bought, instead provided by the company!) out of the boot and holds it above your head. Reminds you of the landlords in the hey days right? :)

The full time nanny is the general dogsbody. She does million small things and few big things - cuts and chops all the veggies, is expected to learn how to cook and differentiate between hundreds of Indian spices, make the perfect dough, lay the table, wash clothes etc etc etc. Also, she is expected to help the child with homework! I mean, if she was so qualified, why would she be a nanny? We are talking about Lagos and not England (that Mary Poppins times).

So, one would assume that the lady of the house would lead a peaceful and calm existence, be able to pursue her hobbies, be totally stressfree. Does that happen? NO! The lady of the house is seen screaming her lungs out for every small thing (“I told you to come at 7 am, why are you late, its now 7.05 am!; why did you not make XYZ do the homework; how can you forget!!!!!”)

The guard - "Why are you not at the gate!" (Ma'am, nature call)

And not only at home - "Driver, take me to that place where we had gone yesterday.....you do not remember!" (but Ma'am, you went to 5 places yesterday, which one are you talking about)
"You don't know this place in Lagos.......how come? You are not from Lagos" (but Ma'am, in Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore/Chennai, do you know ALL the places???? and why will I know all the roads and shops in an Indian locality by heart?)

So, is this typical of her behaviour in India also? Or was she different? Of course she was! Can she dare shout and scream at the maid in India.......she would leave instantly, leaving her salary behind, abusing the lady and her entire household. She dare not raise her voice there.

What happens when the same woman comes to Lagos (or any country which has ex pats)? I think it is a function of her having power....or the perception of power. And of course racism. yes, racism.

The Indian knows that he/she is superior to the Africans, I mean thats the reason he has been recruited in the first place, with a high salary in dollars. His wife basks in the reflected glory and feels, if her husband is 'getting work done' from the locals in office; the same needs to be done with them at home.

It also has something to do with the security she gets that the 'help' will not leave (like the Indian maid), after all, they need the employment and the money 'we' provide. She takes great pride in screaming, thats the only way to get them to toe the line. By this, she is actually doing them a service in making them conscientious in their work; thereby charting their path towards development.

Yes, the locals are lazy, need to be disciplined and need the money. But they are also humans. They deserve to be treated like humans. They belong to a race that we believe is inferior to us, but are we not all from the same larger race? Can we not rest our lungs and limit our tongue when we are driving them on the path to betterment?

Most companies have locals MDs. Does she stop to think what if her husband gets treated like this by his boss? I guess not!

Ciao

Women power

hi,
today had gone for a friend's bday....basically she had called us for brunch type of celebration. it felt really nice....everyone had dressed up nicely, got a gift and had food and of course some light gossip :)

i realized that after marriage and esp after kids, the connotations of bday celebration really change. after marriage, esp in the first few years, its about celebrating as a couple, romantic dinner etc. later, maybe it becomes a celebration with friends, but mainly with couple friends . when kid/s arrive, the cake is cut with the child, or mainly the child cuts the cake! (so is it her bday??)

in all this, we forget the bdays we spent with friends, we forget those carefree days when girlfriends were the only part of the celebration. mostly now, even at own bday parties, the woman only cooks, arranges for everything; and actually gets happiness from it!

does it mean that when the women marries, becomes a mother, she stops being a girlfriend? or does it mean that girlfriends lose importance and other people gain more importance? whatever the reasons be, I just know that today when we celebrated my friend's bday in 'girlfriend style', we really had fun; we went back to the times when we were just girlfriends for someone.....and not a wife or mother!

.....till it was time to pick up the kids from school! :):)

ciao

Lagos people

okay now more on lagos....the people in lagos are strange! given that they are staying in an underdeveloped country, one would think they would make more efforts to work hard, get new ideas and try and improve their living. living standards here are not say pathetic, but worse than similar cities in india (such as mumbai). mainly because electricity is a major problem.

so main thing one notices about the people here, is the sheer laziness and the unwillingness to work. prime example of laziness are the maids, security guards and drivers. they can go off to sleep at the drop of the hat. my maid lays the table, then sits on the stairs and dozes off. when i call her, she says 'ma'am'.......and i wait for her arrival, only to find she has again dozed off!!

unwillingness to work really borders on rudeness. you can experience this when you go to purchase something. in places such as china market, they will ask you to leave the shop if you ask them to show more than 2 things (even small things such as purses or sandals); and God forbid if you ask them to open any clothes packet and NOT purchase it! then you are almost thrown out of the shop.

this is not restricted to smaller markets, but also to malls/supermarkets. we went to buy a food pro and waited for almost 45 minutes for the salesperson to attend to us. when i asked the guy to give a demo of the food pro, he told me rudely to read the instructions and went off!!!

all this definitely made me regret my treatment of the salesmen in india, esp in the saree shops i visited. poor fellow did not even let me know, visually or audibly (audibly! the guy would surely have lost his job), what a let down i was, after asking him to open 5-6 yards of saress and not buy! imagine the time he would have spent in folding it back with precision!

still, i do buy stuff in malls and bargain shops, and try not to get insulted or thrown out! each experience makes me hail the indian salesman......rocket singh or no rocket singh! :)

ciao

Lagos!

hi,
as the title suggests, this blog would be about lagos. we shifted to lagos in june 2009 and before coming here, I had great apprehensions. hence, my husband came 3 months before my son and I, to see if it was safe for us to come here.

initially when I came here, I was ever so watchful, always used to double check if the windows and doors of the car were locked; could not sleep properly at night; and didn’t walk at all even 1 meter. heart in your mouth is a phrase often used in books......that was my general state for few months.

coming from mumbai and a flat system, where there are lots of sounds heard, many people etc, i used to find the evenings very boring, lonely and damn depressing. in all this, my next door neighbour's servants were very noisy, and i used to seek solace in that! really, if it weren't for them, the silence would be killing!

after a few months, i sort of adjusted, the fear was still there, but somehow instead of many times at night, i used to maybe wake up once and think i heard gun shots. i stopped looking over my shoulder while buying veggies.......but what stopped doing the most was...differentiating between whom to listen to and who not to.

i found out that a lot of perceptions of lagos are that only...perceptions i mean. indians have a great love to talk, and are bad at maths....2+2 isnt equal to 4, its like 22! so if someone hears a scooter's exhaust pipe exploding, its immediately labelled as a gun shot.

after returning from india, i felt i was more settled in lagos. sounds strange right....one would have thought i would be hating it even more and getting home sick each day. maybe there is something that my mother says about your own house, own routine and all. maybe that works for women.

now i have my own circle of friends, we go out once every week; and chat in school. i have sort of adjusted to the silence, it seems slightly more comfortable now. except in the evenings, i still miss my mumbai life a lot!

ciao

My first blog entry

Hi,
My first blog entry and I am very excited about it!!! I had been thinking of writing a blog since many months now. I don't know why I hesitated so much....maybe I didn't know how to go about it (though I could always find out), maybe I thought what if someone reads it and criticizes it (that could be the key reason), maybe I thought I would not be regular on it....

Anyways, having mulled about it soooooooo much...here I am...a late yet hoping to be a regular entry. I think I started this blog as a result of reading so many Chetan Bhagat's books.......my admiration for the guy increased a lot...I mean he has the guts to pursue his dream, leaving a cushy and well paying job. How many of us would really have the guts to do that?

On this topic I think, is it we lack the guts? or is it simply a matter of conditioning' in Indian society. The guy needs to earn...and earn more and more......wife can 'support' him, cannot be the chief earner.....education is what matters, high percentages, 'reputed colleges' and traditional degrees (engineering, medicine, MBA, CA). So, we forget where our passion lies and blindly follow this path.

I think in most cases we don't even know what our passion is.....we don't try to find out and even if we do, may not be allowed to explore ir further. Like my son, he cannot run very fast and my husband thinks he SHOULD! after all he is a boy!! :):)

Okay, I think for a first blog entry this is getting slightly heavy...so let me sign off now

ciao