Thursday, June 22, 2006

"Anything for you, Ma'am?" No thanks!

IIT may be the best thing invented in India since Punjabi malai paneer. And IITians the yummiest graduate students on the planet. They might be scrumptious partners at venture funded nanotech firms. Even finger lickin' good investment bankers.

But they should stop writing books. Especially books about IIT and IITians.

I mean granted, Chetan Bhagat pulled it off. But he was the first - there was novelty. More of the same starts tasting like a samosa made from yesterday's bhaji, fried in utra hua tel.

Besides, Chetan Bhagat may not have had too much style but his characters were well defined. As were their conflicts. The plot of 'Five Point Someone' was a bit far fetched, but not completely unbelievable.

The description of hostel life - and IIT in general - was well-sketched. And the idea of a guy who made it to such an institute and still felt like a 'loser' touched a chord with a whole lot of junta.

OK, to get to the point: 'Anything for you, ma'am' is a book written by Tushar Raheja, a 4th year B Tech student of IIT Delhi. The book is sub titled:"An IITians Love story" and that's all that occupies our hero Tejas Narula for 274 pages. How to somehow bunk the annual Industrial Tour and sneak off to meet his lady love in Chennai.

October this year
It was a typical October afternoon. I like this month the most. There's a cool breeze all over the place.

Yes, this is how it starts. And this is one of the deepest moments of the book..

I was speechless, again. She was right after all. If it was fun I was looking for, I better do that. But what am I looking for exactly, I thought. And the answer came to me in no time. A nice girl who loves me. I knew that. I mean I could never be happy with superficial relations with cheap girls.

Ah, I wonder if this is something of an IIT credo or more a case of sour grapes :) I mean jab ladkiyon ke upar line maarne ke mauke hi itne kam milte hain, given the sex ratio on campus, it's not hard to take the high moral ground.

On the other hand, I guess the author himself is so young.. maybe he didn't want to get into trouble at his own home, by suggesting otherwise!

I do wish I could offer some words of kind encouragement but the strange, self important style, non-existent plot, and string of crappy coincidences in the last 20 pages leave no room for that.

Truth be told, I rapidly skipped through to the end after about 75 pages. Really sloppy editing (assuming there was an editor in the first place!)

OK - one positive though irrelevant point. The idea of an attached bookmark, sponsored by Career Launcher was a nice 'marketing' touch.

Well, more than Tushar I'd say his publishers are to blame. Thinking 'Five Point Someone' bika, toh yeh bhi chal jayega they went ahed and released the book. As if there is a new market called "IIT-lit" at the price point of Rs 100.

Sorry Tushar - I am sure you will be excellent at all the regular IIT things. And your book may be bad but we forgive you coz you obviously wrote it yourself. Unlike you know who...!

P.S. Amazingly, Anything for You.. got a glowing review in the Hindu where gasp! it is described as "one of the funniest books in recent times". And compared to the 'breezy style' of P G Wodehouse.

Wonder if we both read the same book!

Methinks the bhoot of P G Wodehouse may now start roaming through IITs, to scare away any other potential authors on campus... Now there's a silly idea for the next edition of the Darna Mana hai series from RGV!

27 comments:

  1. Dude,
    That was a nicely written critique. The only thing that struck a sad note was the fact that the Hindu made such an error of judgement.
    Well, as the line goes.."Anything's possible"..

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  2. I am thinking of writing a book too! :)

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  3. Rashmi,
    I usually do like your posts but was taken aback a little by your unnecessary potshot at Kaavya.
    It actually reminded me of a similar, cheap potshot at Kaavya by our very 'original' Shobha De who made a really pathetic attempt at sympathising with Kaavya and how her publishers manipulated her.

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  4. This is intriguing. How did a book review turn into a 'lets take potshots at IITians' session?

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  5. IIT-Lit.. i agree on tht... Actually ppl r so hooked 2 the IIT brand tht nethin 4m tht stable, becomes a rage...

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  6. i think its the enginerr-turned-bpo employees who are turning to reading in a bog way for whom these books are meant

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  7. i read the hindu book review last sunday and asked the book shop guy in my company to get me the book.. now am wondering if i should actually read it..!!

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  8. Well I actually bought the book...read around 100 pages and gave it up..the writing is very mediocre...

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  9. i donno abt the book but loved ur posts and so have i linked it to my blog.

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  10. Ahh another 1 in the series of Lets bash the IITians :P
    The book aint bad as u say , Wat i dont get is why every1 keeps cribbing about the way Chetan bhagat or this guy wrote and still became a bestseller.
    I guess the "General" public likes it instead of hardcore novel readers..In the end its the numbers that matters :)

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  11. why only iitian authors...? even students from other collges too can write books..mebbe i too must try my hand at writing

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  12. The Hindu..haa haa haa. If the Hindu is bad at one thing, that reviews, be it a movie or a book or for that matter World Cup football. I have not read the book myself, but remember the bad review that Hindu gave to A.R Rahman's music score for the movie Bombay.

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  13. I m not from IIT and i still say the Review is simply wrong and too damn harsh.
    What i fail to understand is why some writers who write in a simple nice funny manner are usually tagged with the Label of being incapable of being good writer.
    In case most of Critics forgot , Simplicity is the always the top requirement of a good writing style.

    P.s:Doing personal attacks on any1 is not a right thing.Please avoid that.

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  14. well Rashmi, two things in your review seems noticeable to me -

    1. you especially notice the marketing effort gone into anything. this is evident also in your Krishh article. now can we brand this as a remnant of your IIM days, where you notice the marketing effort and not the the fact all you sell is soap and salt ... nothing wrong in doing that, but a parchoon wallah also does that, and you will turn up your nose at this association, no doubt

    2. how long will you keep trying to justify your not getting into IIT ? it is OK to not enter IIT. you are allowed to do that, and not keep justifying till the end of your life.

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  15. neat review. not yet read the book, but i did flick through it, and what i did see, just felt too flaky. i shall deign to trust your opinion rather than that of the many *extremely* ineloquent ones who'v posted theirs.

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  16. Got this book as a gift, and that too after my repeated requests. One word to wrap it up -- "Cheap", wonder my IIT days wud never have been this way, mediocre writing -- "Repetitive usage of first person tenses", most importantly sloppy editing, am now forced to read the whole book since I have it, but for others, an easy pick to let go !!!!

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  17. agreed! bad writing, combined with an entirely melodramatic set of characters. But there's no need to be so harsh with the Mr. Raheja, he just wrote a book! " But IITians should stop writing books." .. .seriously, what crap!

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  18. girl..i just want to comment on one thing..about the price, i think it is quite a sensible move.. People will just pick up the book n will not think twice about price.. And incase if u didnt know..this book has sold nearly 20,000 copies in a single year.. How do I know this..well.. My book is all set to be released by the same publishers..

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  19. Hi Rashmi,

    I love writing but haven't indulged much in it for a while now. I have my own blog (http://little-tibet.blogspot.com/) but haven't been able to find any inspiration to update it for sometime. I'm looking for any freelance opportunities. Would appreciate if you let me know of any window to reignite my interest for writing.

    Thanks :o)

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  20. Anonymous12:52 AM

    hii thr

    well afrnd of mine suggested me this book...

    neway,,,this is such a goddamn crappy book...
    iv never read nething as bad as this one...

    ankita.

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  21. hey i likes the cricts but ... having read the book its the only one even near to five piont someone in todays times... i also read above average and love both by iitan authors and they could be rated as the crappiest of all in terms of entertainment ....that atleast this book provides you with... thumbs up to tusahr raheja ... hes done a fairly good job as a rookie...

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  22. i think the book was not too bad...
    the kind of language he used was that every college srtudent will enjoy...
    although these much of coincidences were stange but it was a story yaar its a fiction and stories are to enjoy....
    i think the book was good,interesting and enjoyable....
    it was not as bad as u said... at some point of time i also agree with ur critics but its jst that it need some improvements but to say that it was not good is itself not correct..... i like and enjoy "anything for u ma'am"....

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  23. you know wat...some times reaidng ur comments its quite difficult to decide whether.it a gud book or not...but it looks lik...it might not be a very gud book for hardcore readers..but might be a light book for general readers...as one of the guys said..mass matters...and its clear it s a hit for itians...wel actually th reson is one or the character of the book or the events reminds the reader fo his days i the colg..actually this is wat happene whe i was reading 5.somoone..and this is wat i got from all the readers know personally..but if somebody seriously wanna tak abt it..mail me at rohan_gupta2@rediffmail.com hope i get this book in maurtius. and really...let me tell u one more thing....my grandmother was a renowned writer in india.. and i learnt something from her even writing a bad book is not easy and let me tel u...just to get a book in the mind of reader is not easy....
    hope i get a mail from someone who really is a admirer of this book world..we hav in india..as u knw nowadays..very few gud books to read

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  24. i think the review was more entertaining than the book, really slick and crisp.le li.. :)
    i think everyone's entitled to an opinion, if you have a problem dont read the review.so all those with censorship aSSpirations should fuck off.

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  25. Babita............


    it is the first book which i read in my life. it is an interesting book it made me to read other books in my life.

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  26. rashmi i mst say i do agree wid mst of d things u rote in ur review(if we can cal it dat).......bt dunno hw....i still liked d buk...its dis crappy piece of of riting dat sumhw clicked wid me...mayb coz i a diehard romantic..

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  27. i really dono which way to go. intially i like the book a bit, but as i proceeds it got crap and crapper.literature wise if author him self really respect the art of writing, then he he must read it by himself. he won't attempt to write again.

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