BOOK REVIEW OF NOVEL HALF GIRL FRIEND

Bikash Choudhury

One rainy day in the month of September one full page advertisement stared at me on the face; the advertisement was bold one for a product of less than $3 USD. Dropping the suspense let me say that was a pre launch Advertisement place by e-tailer FlipKart for the new novel written by the famous author Chetan Bhagat with innocuous title ‘Half Girl Friend’. Instantaneously, I reached for my laptop to book a copy of the fiction just to satisfy my curiosity of experiencing the services of an online sale than any craze of reading another pulp fiction from Chetan Bhagat stable; though, I have consumed reading of his previous titles. I actually found Chetan Bhagat as a smart and shrewd business man in Publishing Industry than a fiction writer of eminence. However, one has to concede that Mr. Bhagat understood his customer-readers (target audience) as no one does in his genre of writing. It is only Bhagat who could coin a new word ‘Half Girl Friend’ in the Chambers English Dictionary. He knows too well about the implicit and explicit desire of boys and men to have a girl friend and the curiosity of girls/women to know about their spatial & not so spatial perception of boys about them and also to remain attractive and desirable. Two million print runs of the inaugural edition of the novel ‘half girl friend’ proves that the author has hit the bulls eye on selecting the title of the book and what a consummate business man that he is; however, no body has guts to challenge his ability of narration about intimate affairs as some time he could beat the infamous Viagra in straight sets 2-0 multiple times. May be performance enhancing drug Industry could take a lesson or two from the infamous author how to design their drug and how to promote their use. If Kamasutra were to be written all over again in this century; then, undoubtedly Chetan Bhagat would be its author. Those young men and women watch pornographic films with a guilty consciousness can migrate to read ‘half girl friend’ as it is written in very simple prose with dexterity and sophistication unlike the crude methods of pornographers. Half girl friend is good read on a long journey; though the plots are very predictable. Author has borrowed the flash back technique to some extent from the novel ‘The Guide’ of R.K. Narayan. For a change or out of greater ambition the author has interwoven himself as a compassionate character in the novel that young audience would very much like ‘consultant on love & romance’. May be the author would provide a new Idea in the oldest business of the world.

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LEARNING FROM SRINAGR TRAGEDY

Bikash Choudhury

One good thing about the unprecedented flood havoc in Srinagar City and other parts of J&K State was it did not distinguish between caste & class and have & have-nots as cascading flood water from Jhelum River inundated the bungalows of ministers and top bureaucrats; those who are partially responsible for such tragedy. Mumbai city was flooded in 2005 and the Cloud burst in Uttarakhand in 2013 took a heavy toll of over twenty thousand lives. However, we did not learn any thing from such catastrophic human tragedy. Looking at natural disaster happening in the country and other parts of the World; one should infer that such disasters would now happen more frequently and with enhanced ferocity in our country and outside for which we should remain prepared as a Nation. It is true we can’t avert such tragedy from happening; however, we can attempt to minimize its impact. Union and State Govt. alone can’t meet this challenge fully or partially; it would require the might of all private and social organizations and all conscious citizens to take some preventive measures in their daily life. Natural disasters mostly happen due to imbalance in the eco-system. The size of our population itself is one of the greatest destabilizer of our eco-system and on top of it our habitual & blatant abuse of Nature makes it much more lethal. We can now expect such tragedy hit each of us tomorrow and therefore take conscious decision to deal with Nature and Natural resources as one withdraw cash from bank. That apart conscious individuals should have a charter for them to manage their personal carbon foot print—to plant or sponsor plantation of twelve trees annually, cut down personal consumption of water & energy and to educate at least one more person about conservation of nature.  

HOW INDIA COULD POSITION ITSELF IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD?

Bikash Choudhury

Just Nine months before one woman Indian Diplomat was humiliated on the streets of New York City. Indian people may have forgiven such an insult to their sovereignty but could never forget. Call it an irony of fate or otherwise; Indian Premier Narendra Modi was feted in another part of the same city at the Madison square stadium with forty US Congress men in attendance and about eighteen thousand Indian origins Americans ecstatically cheering the new premier of India who received a massive thumps up in the recent general election in India. Over eight hundred million Indians chose a strong and dynamic leader of a right wing party to lift India to occupy an unassailable position in a growing multipolar World; where the Global leaders have lost much of their sheen and emerging ones lack Ideas. That assures Indian arrival on the Global scene to claim the leadership on the basis of ancient Indian philosophy of “Basudhe Kutumbakam” a Sanskrit couplet that considers the entire World as one family. Indian Prime Minister in his maiden address to the UNGA said a couple of things that would now redefine Global diplomacy with a new narrative on peace and prosperity of Global citizen. When the World is battered by climate change and divided by sectarian violence and war; Indian premier underscored the importance of adopting appropriate ‘life style’ change on the strength of ancient wisdom of ‘Yoga’ and ‘love of nature’ to control the impact of global warming. He spoke strongly to take stock of United Nations and to make changes to be relevant for the current times and to stop the practice of small groupings to strengthen the United Nations. In future India would champion the cause of Disarmament & Development to achieve Millennium Development Goals by involving the young people from university campus all across the World. Soon Prime Minister Modi would transform India economically and also take on Global leadership that would reposition India in a growing multipolar World.