Collection of Book Reviews

Sunny Days: Sunil Gavaskar

2010-02-15T12:35:00.001+05:30

Sunny Days is part of the Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus printed by Rupa & Co..

Name: The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus

Author: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar

Publisher: Rupa & Co.

First Printed: 1999

As the book is a Omnibus it didnt contain any formal "foreword" and the first chapter starts just after the contents.. As expected from a biography the book is arranged in the chronological order of the events happened in Snnyr's life.. However, the first chapter starts with the most weird incident happened just after Sunny's birth.. because of a serious goof up by the hospital authorities, Sunny was taken by fisher-woman. Sunny just exclaims what would he be doing had he remained with that fisher woman!

The first four chapters contains about the details of Sunny's stint with his school as well as college teams and the keenness of school boys towards their club teams and Ranji trophy.. Regarding the inter university tournament, Sunny hasnt got any hesitation in expressing his disgust towards the treatment received by the players of the club teams when they tour outside their native places.. It shows the other side of becoming a cricketer as the fact that young cricketers are made to sleep on floor without proper mattress or a blankets.. Hope things have changed by now. While illustrating his debut in Ranji Trophy Sunny recollected the booing of the crowd after his five ball duck against Mysore.. Sunny took that booing as the result of propaganda that Sunny was in the team because of his uncle Madhav Mantri who was then a member of the selection panel. However, with the century against Rajasthan in his second match people realised that Sunny chose his bat to answer all the propaganda! In the same note he explained his tour to Sri Lanka as a member of the Indian Universities team.

Starting from the fifth chapter named as the "Caribbean Journey", the next four chapters contains Sunny's experiences in the 1970-71 Carribbean tour which is Sunny's first tour as the member of the Indian team. It was in this tour that Sunny declared his arrival to the world. With an aggregate of 774 runs at a startling average of more than 100 it was Sunny's way of saying "Ram Ram Saib" to the cricket world.. Dedicating four chapters to one series of his career shows what that series means for the individual. In the starting of the ninth chapter Sunny proudly presents the calypso which has been prepared on his name!

"It was Gavaskar

The real master

Just like a wall

We couldn't out Gavaskar at all

Not at all

You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all."

Then there was a mention about India's first triumph on English soil which happened just after the Caribbean victory. As expected Sunny was pleased to make a note of this..After these glorious days he mentioned his OZ trip as part of the Rest of the World team and made quite a few remarks about his interaction with greats of that era.. there was a mention of many incidents in this chapter but the best of them was regarding Ackerman, I dont wast to write my view about it but rather want to present it un altered. Here you go:

Tony Greig and Ackerman had flown in from Soth Africa, and were received at Adelaide airport by Gary Sobers and an elderly looking gentleman. Gary mumbled an introduction and Greig and Ackerman, both tired from the long journey sleepily mumbled 'hello' and sat down for a cup of coffee. While waiting to go to the hotel Ackerman asked the gentleman to hold his overnight bag while he went to the toilet to freshen himself up. When he returned, he made some polite conversation and then asked the gentleman if he was connected to the Australian Cricket. The gentleman replied in affirmative. Ackerman asked him if he had played cricket, to which the reply was again a yes. Since Ackerman had caught the gentleman's name properly, he asked him "What did you say your name was?" The answer was "DON BRADMAN!"

Not only the above mentioned one there are several interesting incidents which Sunny narrated. These all things will definitely help the readers understand the cordial relations existing in the cricketing community. Also, few of the unpleasant events were also mentioned in the book. The most unfortunate one was the verbal spat between Bishen Singh Bedi and Ajit Wadekar at some one's house in England. In Sunny's words this has did a lot of damage to the team spirit of the touring Indian team..Apart from these, Sunny took a dig at the English media as well as the English Cricket more than often. Sunny gladly expressed his love towards Trinidad where he averages more than 100. As a mumbaikar Sunny has done justice to his native by dedicating a whole chapter to Bombay and the passion of the Bombay players. Just to remind, staring from late 1950 Bombay have won 14 straight ranji trophies..No wonder Indian cricket was ruled by Bombay cricket in 70s and 80s.

Overall, the book never makes you feel bored and was a pleasure to read!

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu

-Karthik

Next to come: My Country, My Life-L.K. Advani.

Hercule Poirot-Complete short Stories

2010-01-27T18:15:00.002+05:30

Now, here I am writing about the complete short stories of Hercule Poirot.. I bought this book few months ago and already completed reading it.. here are the details of the book!!

Name : Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories

Author: Agatha Christie

Publisher: Harper Collins

Price: 520/-

First Published: 1999

Here is the list of stories present in the book. I have marked in Green the stories I liked:

1.The Affair at the Victory Ball

2.The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolion

3. The king of Clubs

4. The Disappearance of Mr.Davenheim

5. The Plymouth Express

6. The Adventure of the Western Star

7. The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor

8. The kidnapped Prime Minister

9. The million Dollar Bond Robbery

10. Adventure of Cheap Flat

11. The Mystery of Hnter's Lodge

12. The Chocolate Box

13. The Adventure of Egyptian Tomb

14. The Veiled Lady

15. The Adventure of Johny Waverly

16. The Market Basing Mystery

17. The Adventure of Italian Nobleman

18. The Case of Missing Will

19. The Incredible Theft

20. The Adventure of Clapham Cook

21. The Lost Mine

22. The Cornish Mystery

23. The Double Clue

24. The Adventure of Christmas Pudding

25. The Lemesurier Inheritance

26. The Under Dog

27. Double Sin

28. Wasps' Nest

29. The Third Floor Flat

30. The Mystery of Spanish Chest

31. Dead Man's Mirror

32. How Does Your Garden Grow?

33. Problem at Sea

34. Triangle at Rhodes

35. Murder in the Mews

36. Yellow Iris

37. The Dream

38. The Labours of Hercules- Foreword

39. The Nemean Lion

40. The Lernean Hydra

41. The Arcadian Deer

42. The Ermanthian Boar

43. The Augean Stables

44. The Stymphalean Birds

45. The Cretan Bull

46. The Horses of Diomedes

47. The Griddle of Hyppolita

48. The Flock of Geryan

49. The Apples of Hesperides

50. The Capture of Cerberus

51. Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Murder on the Orient Express

2010-01-16T20:54:00.005+05:30

Name: Murder on the Orient Express

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Detection

E-Book: Available

Since childhood I’m very fond of detective stories and made my debut with the one and only 'The Hound of Baskervilles' after that I read a lot of similar books starring dearest Sherlock Holmes, cunning Hercule Poirot, shrewd Perry Mason and Miss Maple. To be frank I’m an ardent supporter of Sherlock for his intellectual skill set and the way he executed his plans. Believe or not the door of my hostel room contained a print out saying “221B, Baker Street”. Even then I never wrote about any of them, not even about "Valley of Fear". But today I’m writing about "Murder on the Orient Express". The novel does not consist of any scientific method of reasoning or any other method of deduction. It’s simply plain and soft thinking based on human psychology. That’s the reason I would say this is my favourite detective. I know all my friends from the Sherlock Holmes community would like to bury me. (If they want to do so, I request them to bury me at 221B, Baker Street J). With due respect to all the Sherlock’s adroit problem solving skills, Perry's consummate argumentative skills (also to the beautiful looks of Della Street :) ) I would say Poirot comprehensively won the fray. When I started this book I thought I will read in the journey but once I entered into the crime I just could not resist and eventually completed it in one single go. In many of the detective stories I read I could make out who is going to be the culprit (at least after reading 70-80%) but in case of this book I was completely clueless and barking at possible wrong trees. That’s Agatha at her best! I have read only a few of her 92 novels, but I’m sure none would be better than this one. At the end of the novel all you are left with is awe and a feeling of admire towards Agatha.

Unlike other detective novels, this book starts in a very lucid way introducing the various characters present in the Orient Express. The novel starts in Syria where Poirot gets on to the train. As the story moves on Poirot observes certain interesting things about the people in the train. Later on, once the crime is committed the story takes all possible twists and turns. The story never loses its grip over the reader which is a mark of Agatha Christie. When I reached the chapter “Hercule Poirot sits back and thinks” I thought I can find the culprit in this chapter but eventually I ended up in doubting 2-3 people. At this point of novel what one should recognise is the subtle things which Poirot recollects (As expected I missed themJ). On a whole one just cant ignore the way the problem is broken into different pieces and connected in a logical sequence. EOD detection is about checking the consistency of the various statements made by the witnesses!

Overall, A must read book if you are a detection maniac. For others, best possible book for their debut into the world of detective literature.

Steve Waugh: Out of My Comfort Zone

2010-01-16T08:21:00.001+05:30

Name: out of my comfort zone
Author: Steve Waugh
Genre: Autobiography
Publication: Penguin Books
Price: INR 595/-

STEVE WAUGH, a name which needs no introduction in the present day of cricket. A man who taught the art of "aggressive cricket" to the cricketing community. His autobiography is nothing more than a manifestation of cricketing passion in his heart and hunger to perform in his belly. It is a consolidated journey of how a rookie with many a self doubt transformed himself into a legend of his era.

The privilege of writing the foreword to a legend's life was presented to the wall, Rahul Dravid and Steve's friend forever Tim May. Dravid recalled his first observation of Steve during the 1987 world cup and went on explaining his first encounter with Steve at the Firozshah Kotla a decade later. He also cherished receiving of the winning boundary ball from Steve and had no hesitation in acknowledging the pain of not defeating Australia in Steve's last test at SCG.

Unlike other biographies, the introduction does not have details of Steve's birth, childhood etc but consists of two very important moments of his long spread international cricketing career. One was an exhibition match against Hongkong XI where a disturbing inner voice told him "you aren't good enough" and second was the world cup winning moment at Lords' in 1999. Here Steve observed that life would not be as enjoyable if it’s always easy and that personal growth comes from having to move out of our comfort zone. May be that’s the reason for naming his autobiography as "OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE".

The 700 pages of material about Steve contain 43 chapters excluding forewords, introduction and epilogue. All of the content is arranged in a chronological order of Steve's cricketing years starting from his days of playing cricket in his backyard to his last test at SCG in 2004. Another striking feature of this book is the presence of many rare photos which Steve collected in his almost two decade career as an international cricketer.

The first 15 chapters explains how he approached his early days of cricket, what he went through to cement his place in Australian cricket team and how he craved for his first hundred. Here he explains many incidents which inspired him to be a better cricketer. Few incidents worth a mention are the brilliance of Imran Khan against Allan Border in a county game, emphatic Allan Border after Steve's match winning last over against India in 1987 world cup. It is in this part that Steve called Javed Miandad as a "street fighter" and his experience of being part of a world cup winning team. But the most noteworthy incident of this part of the book is the hangover episode when Steve got his first man of the match award. This led to the banning alcohol in b/n the matches and is being continued by the Australian team till date.

Then comes chapter 16: Attitude, which I would rate as the best part of the book. It is in this part that Steve makes a declaration to himself that he don’t want to be part of those who "could have, might have, should have" played international cricket. It is in this chapter all the hard work made by Steve after getting dropped from the test side was mentioned. It was certainly a treat to read as a legend explains what it takes to be called so. In a proper way of summing up Steve calls that " as the case in all big things we try to achieve in life, my success or failure in this quest came down to one word: Attitude"

From chapter 17-30 Steve explained his days of coming back into the Australian side and becoming the captain of the team. A significant portion of this accounted for Australia-Pakistan series of 1994-95, the early signs of the match fixing scandal and the role of Salim Malik. There was also a clear mention of the Murali-Hair episode and the atmosphere in the dressing room that led to Australians backing away from their fixtures of WC '96 in SriLanka. But the eye catching mention in this part was the eligance of Sachin against Warne at Chennai in 1998. He had no reservations in expressing his awe and calling it as breaking the golden rule (not to play against the direction of spin) and to a give a tag of 'wonder kid' to the maestro.

Chapter 30 was completely dedicated to Udayan and Steve's relationship with that organisation. It is after this chapter that Steve placed his days of captaincy and further glory which shows the high respect which he carries for that organization. In his days as the captain of Australian side, though many famous incidents and controversies are explained, the best is the motivation he provided to win the WC '99. This is actually the transition phase of a consistent side to an invincible side and making the WC '99 as a mere landmark that passed by. The eye catchy thing here is the mention of a page which Steve gave to each of his team mates containing "Every sacrifice we make is the down payment for the acquisition of the world cup- Tugga". The last few chapters were dedicated to the incidents that led to his dropping as the Australian one day team and various other miscellaneous things. As a case of many great players even Steve is not happy over CA regarding the way his sacking was dealt. Another important mention here was the Wes Indian chase of 407 at Jamaica.

Overall, out of my comfort zone certainly deserves a place in our shelf even if you carry mildest of interest in cricket. If you are not then it shows you all the furnaces one should pass through to be called as a "CHAMPION"