Starry Nights - Plz Rename it Casting Couch

Gudness Gracious me ! I have just finished reading Starry Nights...yes finished reading the book by none other than Shobha De. This is the first Shobha De book that I have read and definitely the last.

Okay , the moral of the book (refrain from the word story ) is that the only way a woman can acheive something is thru sleeping with men in power. So the main protaganist of the story, a film actress sleeps with every possible man in the film industry and becomes a super star. The irony being her only true love dies of AIDS!

I have just a couple of suggestions for her : since the sole purpose for which the book was written was to sell, shud have named it Casting Couch..would have become a bestseller! You cn always take out a sequel and name it casting couch.

Reduce the price next time coz porn of this narure is dirt cheap.

To readers, read the book and thrwo it in the Bin

Aadhi Raat Ki Santane

With the burning desire to buy ‘The Namesake’, I rushed to a much-celebrated bookshop in the city after twelve long hours of slogging out at work. As usual my complete lack of direction lead me into another adventure.

The moment I entered the bookshop, I realized something was amiss. One round of the store confirmed it. I had muddled my left and right and here I was in the store with only books in Hindi. I turned around to leave & I bumped into someone I had been trying to impress since a long time- a prolific writer, social activist & poet.

He looked surprised & the first comment in chaste Urdu was ‘I am surprised to see you here, I thought you preferred English books’. Of course I corrected his ‘(mis) conception’ and told him that I am a great fan of Sadat Hasan Manto, Premchand & a few other names I could see on the self.

Now the situation demanded that I stay there till he leaves. I recognized a few names one of them was a section devoted to Salman Rushdie, the first book I laid my eyes was called ‘ Aadhi Raat Ki Santane’ – my instant reaction when did Mr. Rushdie get into porn writing. And lo then I realized it was the Hindi adaptation of ‘Midnight’s Children’.

Goodness gracious me- does Midnight’s Children turn into Aadhi Raat Ki Santane. After this the time seem to fly, all I did was look at the name of Hindi translations of English Novels. I was very disappointed to say the least.

But then alls well that ends well …. I left the bookshop with a short story collection of Manto that I had been planning to read & in a couple of days I got a call from the ‘MAN’ himself. He wanted to know more about our advocacy group.

So at times it pays to get my directions all muddled up

Reading Ladies Coupe or was it Losers Coup

On the first working day of the week, admist overflowing mailboxes, incompetent stenos, absent colleagues (when needed most) incessant ringing of the cell & a page long to do list , I write this review - with a firm sense of Now Or Never

‘Ladies Coupe’ an English novel by an Indian Author (Anita Nair) is a story of women ranging from 16-60 years who meet in a ladies coupe. The author excels in her description of people & their surroundings and has an eye for most things that we take for granted. The story is about five women who meet in a Ladies Coupe from diverse backgrounds & age groups. It’s a story of reminiscing & experience sharing in a train journey, where four women share the turning point of their lives with the main protagonist Akila.

Akila is a middle aged single woman with a stable job but without a life of her own. The book throws light on the plight of single women in our society forced to live like nuns. Ladies Coupe is a journey of her self-realization that ‘I gotta have a life man’.( more importantly a man in my life)

What hit me like a bolt was that all women in the book at one point or the other in their lives with age and background as no bar ,realized that they were (reduced to) worthless parasites and so they did a coup (in their own ways), conquered their adversary, which of course had to be a man? It is a story of loser turn winners, which inspires the main protagonist to do the same.

So she takes control of her own destiny (sleeps with a total stranger, Locale – a resort at Kanyakumari!). straight out of a Sleazy porn - entirely my opinion

On a whole the book, it seems has been written with the good intention to bring forth & question stereotypical notions that are thrust upon women, though the answers to the questions were not very apt.

With full responsibility of the opinions expressed. My only excuse being that I read the book on an early morning Shatabadi Journey having sat and watched an Australia – South Africa match for the better part of the night.