“Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai”
the first novel by Rishi Vohra is a superb narration which will
invoke inspiration for the so called “under achievers” to focus on their goals
and work towards their accomplishment. Like the intertwined tracks, the
characters make the story an intricate mace of love, attraction, heartbreak and
courage and the destination is hope and victory.
The story is written in the first
person by Babloo, nickname for Balwant Srivastav, who introduces himself and
states that ‘they’(one can say the experts and people around him) said that he
was autistic , schizophrenic and psychotic. He is a neglected child for no
fault of his as he is slow by birth. He is a 24 year old young man living with
his parents and his only brother Raghu , younger to him, who is a graduate and
is employed ..The family has been living in the Bandra Railway colony for 26
years. Nobody cares for his likes or dislikes, except Vandana, the daughter of
his father’s boss, who is very kind to him and lives in the same colony.
However Raghu being the more eligible is engaged to Vandana. Babloo is ignorant
about this. He has only one aim in mind – to get the appreciative nods of
Vandana and marry her. The colony bad boys’ gang headed by Sikander also has
his lusty eyes on her. When he comes to know about Babloo’s adoration for her
he uses him to become friendly with her. Vandana is enamoured with Sikander’s
high talks but realizes his nature and also saves a teenager from his clutches.
However Good prevails over evil.
The introduction of the character
of RailMan from the railway tracks is the mainstay of this novel. He
saves the oppressed and people in distress. How Babloo lands in the mental
asylum and how he is groomed into a self confident citizen is beautifully
described and one should really value Rishi’s imagination for such an useful
and inspiring finale. It makes us realize that as parents, siblings , friends ,
neighbours, relatives and well wishers we must understand with compassion the
needs of such Specially abled members of our society and lend a
supportive hand for their rehabilitation.
Kudos
to Rishi Vohra for his first novel and we wish that he will give us many more
such beautiful literary experiences.
I was watching one of the IPL-6
matches the other day. With cheer leaders cheering for each team to microphones
attached to players in the field, viewing cricket these days have become a
visual extravaganza. This made me think of a period (mid eighties to mid
nineties) when I was so crazy about cricket and how the matches were telecasted
during those times. This blog post is about those days, when as a small kid I
will eagerly sit in front of Doordarshan to watch those cricket matches. There
was a time when cricket was played like this
Only one camera was used to cover the entire match and
it is placed near the long-off region
Only channel that telecast cricket was Doordarshan
If the test match involving India was held in any other country
only highlights will be shown in Doordarshan. One has to depend on All India
Radio (AIR) for live commentary of all Test matches outside India
Doordarshan had only two commentators – Narathom Puri
in English and Sushil Joshi in Hindi (I started learning Hindi listening to
Sushil Joshi; he uses only 10 sentences to cover the entire match like –
khobsoorat cover drive char run keliya)
First slip position is reserved for captains.
Diving while fielding is unheard of in cricket field.
A score of 30/0 after 10 overs or 45/1 after 15 overs
were considered to be a very good score in a one day international.
Day and night matches were rare phenomena.
Colored cloth and white ball were yet to be discovered
in India.
Field restrictions were unheard off.
Cricket even used to be played in ground meant for
athletics having synthetic running tracks.
If a batsman mistimes a shot, the single camera in the
field moves in the direction where the batsman intended to hit and by the time
camera-man realize that it was a mishit and spots the ball, the bowler may have
started walking back to his bowling crease.
Terms like “Physio” or “Coach” were unheard off in
cricket.
Best cricket reporting was done by R Mohan of The Hindu
and the best weekly covering cricket was “The Sports Star”
If you are travelling, the best bet to update the
cricket score was the pocket radio.
Best commentator for cricket in All India
Radio was none other than Harsha Bhogle.
Slogging happens in one day cricket only after 40 overs
are bowled.
Test match crickets were meant to end in draw. Rarely
did the Test matches ended in victory for one team.
No one was talking about the concept of neutral umpires
for Test matches.
Every April and September there will be a one day tournament
played in Sharjah and during the live telecast you could see Dawood Ibrahim and
all those big names in Bollywood in VIP stance in Sharjah.
Once a series is over, one has to wait for weeks or
months before another international series happen.
I am sure I may
have missed so many while writing this one. If you use to watch the match those
days and feel that I missed few points unique to that era please add here.
To sum up here
is a match that falls under that category – India
playing Australia
during the 1987 Reliance World Cup. Enjoy!
Here comes a thriller with a mind blowing
theme originally written by Keigo Higashino and wonderfully translated by
Alexander O.Smith with Elye J. Alexander. ‘Salvation of a Saint’ is a
suspenseful murder mystery with an intricately woven story involving crime and
intelligent investigation. One just cannot keep the book down once he/she
starts reading it.
The
story is about unraveling the crime of death of Mr. Yoshitaka Mashiba by
Kusinaga the famous Tokyo Police Detective with the help of his able assistants
Kaoru Utsumi and Kishitani. Yoshitaka Mashiba is poisoned to death using arsenous
acid .The first informant is Hiromi Wakayama the student of Ayana Mashiba , the
beautiful wife of Yoshitaka . Ayana is away at her parents’ place at the time
of murder but all clues lead to her being the prime suspect.
Yoshitaka
Mashiba is rich and wealthy and wants to marry and have kids and marries with a
precondition that if the wife is unable to bear him a kid within the one year
of marriage he would seek divorce. Ayana has a birth defect that has rendered
her infertile. But still she marries him. However he is killed. There is
Yoshitaka’s legal advisor and close friend Tatsuhiko Ikai, who is a lawyer and
his wife Yukiko, mother of a two month old kid. Another crucial character is
Junko Tsukui, who is the friend of Ayane and who also commits suicide by
consuming arsenous acid. When the mystery deepens and cannot be unscrambled,
Utsumi seeks the help of her physicist friend Yukawa, whose acumen and
reasoning clears the mystery.
The
meaningful and logical research done by Keigo in the technicalities of the
crime in the administration of the arsenic acid is commendable and
praiseworthy. The investigative process and the imaginative prowess of the
detective and his team show the ingenuity of the author. The string of events
right from the first chapter to the last have coherence and are consistently
placed.
Though
the author reveals the intention of the killer in the first chapter , the
wife’s being miles away from the location of her husband’s murder , her
patchwork skills, her interest for gardening and watering flowers’ plants, her
dedication to her husband , thoroughly attending on him when he was at home,
his habit of drinking mineral water even for making coffee, the student
Hiromi’s attachment to the family, Detective Kusinaga’s soft corner and attraction for Ayane and Junko’s tragic episode all make
the readers ever alert and curious to know the killer Hence a prolonged
applause to Keigo for the meticulous approach, for making this book an
enthusiastic reading.
This
is a gripping thriller. I did not attend to any social calls during the reading
of this book. We must also thank the Alexanders for translating and making
available such a detective book with the unpredictable suspense to all English
readers. This is a must buy book for all fans who have a penchant for
exceptional crime fiction. Looking forward for many more creations from Keigo
and many more translated works from the Alexanders.
