On the parchment

Its time to bash Jeffrey Archer again (Jeffery Archer's fans, please don't read this. But I will give you this, I love to review his books!) Okay, here we go. War, politics, family business and family money...... There are other topics and genres too Jeffrey. Snap out of these for a change! I am not even going to bother retracing the story. Cut to chase. The doctor in the Russian camp helped only Abel to escape from the camp, giving his map, money, support, guidance and risking his life. The lady in the train helped Abel to escape again and considered him her son. Mr. Leroy, owner of the Richmond group of Hotels, gave away his 75% share of hotels to Abel before dying? He couldn't think of his daughter while generously giving away the hotels to a third person? And it was obvious that the Baron would bequeath his property along with the silver band on to Abel. And on seeing the silver band, the Englishmen stop Abel from being amputated. Why is everyone kissing his ass? ...

***Spoiler Alert*** The story starts with Chetan and another person(the hero, probably played by Arjun Kapoor/Ranveer Singh in the future) and goes to a flashback as in most of his books. The hero, Mr. Madhav Jha, is a Bihari who is a state level basketball player, not to mention a Prince in his little village. He gets admitted to a famous high-class English medium college in Delhi where he meets the heroine, Ms. Riya Somani (probably Deepika Padukone/ Anushka Sharma) who is tall, fair and also a basketball player with great eyebrows! The hero's antennae pick up the heroine's great legs in her shorts and the love story begins. What is it with Chetan Bhagat and girls wearing shorts? I just don't get it.. Anyway, this heroine is not falling for college love and she agrees to be his "Half-girlfriend". Madhav has no other go but to accept it. They go out together, play basketball, she hosts her birthday party and they do other boring stuffs. He doesn't give up ...

***Spoiler Alert*** "The Mahabharata is an ancient epic where: A son renounces sex so that his old father can remarry: Bhishma a daughter is a prize in an archery contest: Draupadi a teacher demands half a kingdom as his tuition fee: Dronacharya a student is turned away because of his caste: Ekalavya and Karna by Drona a mother asks her sons to share a wife: Kunti a father curses his son-in-law to be old and impotent: Shukra a husband lets another man makes his wife pregnant: Pandu a wife blindfolds herself to share her husband's blindness: Gandhari a forest is destroyed for a new city: Khandava-Prastha a family is divided over inheritance: Kuru clan a king gambles away his kingdom: Yudhishtira a queen is forced to serve as a maid: Draupadi and Sarmishtha a man is stripped of his manhood for a year: Arjuna a woman is publicly disrobed: Draupadi a war is fought where all rules are broken: Kuru-kshetra war a shift in sexuality secures victory: Shikhandi the v...

Tilly succeeded in bringing back Sidney Sheldon's characters alive but the characters were dancing for Tilly's tune and not Sidney's. If you want to be famous, write a sequel to a bestseller, don't go after the legend! Sidney Sheldon was and forever will be the master storyteller. As for the characters, I'd like to start with Gabe. He is a drug addict, loser, criminal and a prisoner. When he is released and suspected for a fraudster again, the natural reaction would be to think he is guilty. But the detective who inquires the case believes in him even though he knows Gabe is an ex-con. Seriously? What was I reading? Sidney Sheldon's sequel or some self motivating crap? The characters were co-operative and lending a helping hand in every step of his. Dhai helps him in real estate business. His friend from "prison" (yeah that's right. People are very generous and kind) is financing him to start a real estate business from scratch. Tara agrees to m...

We all know that slums are very common and abundant in the third world countries. But do we know what makes a locality to be distinguished as slum? There are various factors involved in this apart from the fact that the people in those areas are really poor and uneducated. For one, it is unclean and unhygienic. One of my friends, who is doing a course on Environmental Science happened to take up a project on Slum areas in Bangalore. Now I know what everyone thinks.   Slums in Bangalore? Impossible. But that is the cold truth. And what is worse? Those slums in Bangalore are generally tagged along a posh locality. Initially, each family was given money by the Government to build their own houses. But most of them found the necessity to save the money and build a small house with no toilet. They did not feel that toilet and sewage system was an integral part of home. But we cannot stereotype slums on the whole. Every slum has its own characteristics. There ...

Prologue “Dowry is not so common in our community”, said my perima, while biting into a piece of pizza we just bought. “That is true. It is considered a shame to demand from the bride’s parents. Although there are some people who still ask according to their convenience”, my mother added. We were reminiscing their childhood days over dinner. Perima had come over to our place for the weekend and we were enjoying the occasional pizza (occasional for them, as they hardly eat junk food) for dinner. “Who asks for dowry? Is there anyone in our family who did?” I asked. “Oh I don’t know. But your grandfather had to pay a huge sum to get his sister married. You see, back then, girls used to get married in their early teenage. It was a big deal to the family if a girl is 23 and unmarried”, said my perima. “I thought granddad’s sister was married when she was eight!” I said. “Not her. She was the elder one. She got married when she was eight. She left to her in-law’s p...

***Spoiler Alert*** You have got to be kidding me! I know that Jeffery  Archer went to prison and that he is a politician, but is he capable of writing about anything else? Same old layout.. The protagonist (Danny Cartwright) goes to prison for a crime he did not commit, his fiance: whom he is supposed to marry in a few weeks, is pregnant, he gets the best of the cellmates, one of them teaches him dining etiquette because lets face it, the hero HAS to know how to use a fork and a knife.. And here  is the biggie.. He changes his identity (conveniently), inherits a big chunk of property which is not his to begin with.. sounds familiar? yes, same as Clifton Chronicles (I know Clifton Chronicles were published after this book). And this one is three books in one bloody long book! It is acceptable to copy the others' in your own (like he took the idea from Sidney Sheldon's 'The doomsday conspiracy' for his 'The Eleventh Commandment' book) but it is not cool to cop...