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Tsunami on Roads: Wake up India
This book is a must read not only for road users but also for powers that be. The Unprofessional
Photographer
Kabir loves and marries Naina whereas Tarachand and Chaaya are courting. All the four are young doctors. Just when one settles for a soft, romantic narrative it takes a "suspenseful" turn. No, there are no dead bodies with an anonymous fiend on the prowl in the aseptic hospital interiors, and certainly not mysterious sudden deaths or patients going into coma. It is only a ward boy taking video shots of pregnant patients in varied states of undress in the labour room! Normally, the matter should have ended with such a depraved delinquent handed over to the police for investigation. But, we sit up and note that the hospital authorities are chary of even filing an FIR. Is there more to it than perverted photography? Maybe, some sort of porno-mafia? If you are smacking your lips for a desi crime-thriller just banish the thought! The izzat factor deterred them, actually. Banal anti-climaxes, contrived situations, undeveloped plot and caricatured characters are this novella’s bane. Many situations are added as afterthoughts, which are as unappetising as jute patch on silk fabric. Writing fiction is not an amateur’s cup of tea. One needs to do thorough research, develop the plot with dollops of imagination, craft it with diligence, give each character a distinct personality and then choreograph the interplay of emotions, situations and persons in such a way that the end product becomes a compulsive read. Jhaj, a medico, displays knowledge of her profession and good command over the language, but writing skills she needs to acquire. The Punjab Crisis:
Student’s Perspective
Jameel has done a signal
service in this respect by coming out with a well-researched tome on
what the student community in Punjab thought about various issues
relating to the terror-stricken state. I wish the publisher had shown
more diligence while binding the book.
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