Book Review :The Madras Mangler

Usha Narayanan spins a thriller in her debut novel "The Madras Mangler ".Usha Narayanan is a jack of many trades.She was an English Teacher, creative director in advertising agencies,jingle writer,web editor,journalist,green volunteer ,head of copy right publishing in e publishing,etal.She has completed Masters in English Literature with a  gold medal.She has a diploma in creative writing from the Hawaii University as well.

The cover of her thriller shows a girl's face with hair  scattered all around.The eyes are closed .The cover is in black & white .Just like the snaps of old times before colour photographs became a rage.The title of the novel is printed in red towards the top of the cover.The bottom of the cover states the name of the author in white. The back cover of the book is greenish grey with a synposis of the novel towards the upper end.The back cover has faint images of a beaded necklace & some more scattered hair.

The printer is Jufic books.Paper quality is good.Chapters are short in length.There are fifty five chapters in the book of 280 pages.The author thanks all the people who made her debut novel a reality in Acknowledgements.There is a Prologue to the story, which sets the tone.

This is a story full of action & thrills.It is sets in a college in Chennai. Girls go missing from colleges.This is a tale of five girls.....Deepika,Kat, Lolita,Minx,Moti  studying at SS Padmaja College,Chennai.One of the five girls goes missing.No leads are available.

The deputy commissioner Reddy is eager to mingle with the press. Reddy expects girls to remain indoors so that they will remain unharmed. Vir,the NRI criminologist has a scientific approach to the missing girls problem.His Indian batchmate Bishnu has set up an enviable state of the art technology office for detection.Reddy is unimpressed & keeps shooting his mouth off.The girls have to fight on so many fronts....their parents,hooligans at the college,the khap like dictats of Reddy ,etc.

As the bodies of missing girls are found ,the city gets scared.There is a serial killer on the loose.Why is he targeting girls ? Why does he disfigure the girls ? The bodies are battered & barely recognisable.

Who is the killer ? Why has he started killing girls ? Is he trying to break some record in killing ? Do Reddy & police team unamsk the killer ? What about Vir & Bishnu  ? Are they able to rescue girls from the menace of the killer ?

The story is fast paced.It is so much rooted in the current scenario in our nation where girls & women fear for their safety in their homes & even outside.Molestation,ragging,rapes,eve teasing are so common place .It has humour too. Kat opines  that her mom thinks of the boys available for marriage is like a clearance sale ! Kat sarcastic remarks to boys about their evolution ( if any ).Girls like  the college for  freedom from their prying parents,possessive fiances & others gundas.Yet in college ,they encounter hooligans pretending to study,Principal making rules for the supposed safety of girls,etc.

The language is good.A glossary at the end of the book explains the Indian terms used in the novel.At a price of RS 195 /- this book is worth every page !

The author writes from the perspective of the woman .Her narrative makes it  very interesting & immensely readable.

I am thankful to Storizen for making this book available to me for review.

The gift of time !

This post is a part of the contest at BlogAdda.com in association with Badhai.in

I love receiving gifts.Giving gifts is not my cup of tea.I do give gifts & that too without discrimination.This means, that I find the cheapest ones available.I go to sales & buy gifts.I know, that as you read this ,you must be thanking your stars, that you are lucky enough to be have never met me ! I am like that only.

Most of the people we meet & know, generally have everything they needed & gifts are unnecessary except for the feel good factor.Moreover, our gifts may be not liked by them because they preferred a different brand,colour,type etc etc.Many of the gifts, we give to others, are simply recycled so much so, that often ,they are gifted back to us !

I have many NRI ( non resident Indians ) friends.They gift me & I in turn, have to hand them presents. For NRIs,the choice of tohfa gets very narrowed down.Electrical items are a big no as these items  available  here, are especially suitable  for Indian power fluctuations.Heavy  & bulky items cannot be gifted as NRIs generally have lots of baggage of their own.Clothes are also ruled out as dressing up abroad is a different ball game unlike here.

I once had this problem of what to gift my NRI friend who was on a short visit to India..She is working & has got many Indian clothes & she would hardly use the said dresses.She said she wanted nothing as she  had done most of  her shopping .

Gift unwrapping at Birthdays is so exciting !

I was confused.I was racking my brains to come up with any idea of a special  gift for her.I asked my other friends,parents,neighbours ,etal but to no avail.I tried shopping for something unique & that gift shopping experience drove me crazy & I failed . Very soon, it was time for her  to return.

The phone rang .It was my friend.I again asked her if she needed anything ,I would gift her that.She said she wanted  something.I was thrilled .She enquired, if I could accompany her the next day or any day in that week for meeting  friends.She said she needed company as  the city was not what it was, when she stayed here.I agreed, as I had no work lined up the next day.I had also felt the need to talk with her & gossip about our other friends , acquaintances,the city,our neighbours,& so many things.I just couldn't  let go of this chance of spending so much time with her.

The next day ,I met her at her parents place & we left together.She paid for all the travel ( I love this about my friends - they never let me spend a dime ! ).We met her friends.She also finished some last minute shopping & other errands on the way.We gossiped throughout - I gossiped & she listened.She had no choice.After all, she had asked for it ! We did get emotionally nostalgic about the times we had spent years ago.

It was late evening ,when I left her at her place & bid her goodbye.It was a day well spent for me.I doubt if it was the same for her ? She must have got a splitting headache listening to my ranting. And she called me up before she flew back.She told me how much she loved me for having given her the gift of my time ! She said that I had given her the most memorable tohfa - of love,  by being there with her, when she needed me ! I was on cloud nine ! I mean, this was priceless for me, for reasons stated earlier , & even  for  her !

Henceforth,I know that, I must spend time with those, whom I want to gift.That is me -gift wrapped  !

Screensaver.

Why is it, that we often pretend that all is well ,when it isn't ? This is specially so ,  in personal  life.A family will like to show that all the members are coexisting with gay ( ? ! ) abandon though not one minute passes without an argument .We all pretend to be what we are not.We parade ourselves in front of others individually as also collectively, as if, we are  the best family & we have happiness that brimmeth over, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I have observed people who would like to call friends & relatives to their homes just to parade the supposed happy times their family is enjoying.The invitation to others is to arouse jealousy .It is  also to remind them that because of wrong values,the others are not happy as a family.At all such times,the family members put on their masks & try to behave well. But as soon as the guests depart,the masks go off & the fights begin !


This all happens because someone in the family tries to control how other members ought to behave not just socially but also in other spheres of life.The ladies in the house will be told to give up jobs as they are the caregivers .If sons are settled in a different location -abroad or at another inland location,they will be recalled back.Even son -inlaws will be recalled back.The protests will all be silenced by emotional blackmail.

Then,the word will be spread around that though that lady had a cushy job ( meaning ,she was relaxing on the job,that is) ,she left it on her own ! The NRI guy also opted for a job in this small town as he doesn;t care a damn about money or the big bad city.He was pining for home & so with  the first offer,  he landed ,he returned.About small things like NRI guy or the city person coping with small town attitudes at work & otherwise & the ladies getting bored at home,the karta is least  bothered.

This recalling is advertised to all amongst friends & relatives in order to exhibit the power of the karta.This is only a pointer that the karta is running the family with an iron hand .Moreover people are invited to have a dekko at the whole family in flesh & blood to understand what a happy family means & perhaps, looks like.

Sometimes,the karta is able to remote control the members of the household.Like the karta will be advising that a job had to be done in one particular way only & if the member strays from that ,then all hell breaks loose even if it is equally effective & equally ethical.The member have no privacy & hence the whole family goes together to shopping,travelling ,etal.But sometimes, the oldest couple in the family will masquerade as a newly wed couple & go for walks,cinemas,theatre etc.Agreed, that as they couldn't do it in those earlier days,does not mean that they have to make up for all that now.Moreover,if they have no respect for solitude of  couples  in the family,are they not forgetting something ?

The karta will also try to drag his partner as a tag all around.Hence if the woman refuses,there is a backlash.The younger unemployed women at home are blamed as they are idling away whilst the oldest woman is so busy slogging that she is unable to accompany the karta.So the anger of the karta is not that his wife is working but because her exhaustion leaves her no time to accompany the dictator.If she would be besides him on all his jaunts with his retired cronies,he is not one bit affected by her tiredness.

But all the tension & the feud arises because of the stiff attitude of the karta.All this leads to hatred & bitter feelings which would have never happened if things were not forced down the throats of all .But ,some never want to admit that they can  commit wrongs like fellow humans .So,the saga continues with things reaching to such a situation, that members stay together but the invisble walls amongst them getting stronger by the day.

So,it is better to listen to all before coercing others to fall in line with one's outdated thoughts.Otherwise,we will only get regret & hatred in return.