Adrift – A Junket Junkie in Europe

— by Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu

Before beginning the review, I have to say that this is my very first travel journal. I have read travel anecdotes and accounts on blogs all over the internet, but I had not read such an extensive journal till date.

My first reaction after reading this book was simple awe and a decided kinship! It is amazing that this author can pack up her bags and leave to the most favored destinations of the world trusting a shoestring budget and a bunch of relatives & friends. I am yet to go alone on a trip anywhere! And she managed most of Europe on her own. She is living my dream and I have to applaud her for this.

I started this book not knowing what to expect, but the author has managed to move me with detailed accounts of all her destinations. She has devoted a chapter each to significant places of visit. Mostly following a pattern, she begins by introducing her hosts in that place, all of them old friends or relatives. She then briefly describes her accommodation conditions and then launches into an extensive narration of the history, nuances, culture, people and cuisine of each of the places. And being a self-professed foodie, she describes the culinary delights of the place with mouth-watering descriptions! She effectively captures the core attraction of the place through her experience of it and feelings towards it.

As much as the book is about Europe, it is also about the author. Her personality and preferences shine through her words. Without being too narcissistic, she manages to balance the information and her own personal feelings towards these destinations. We gather from her journal that she is a seasoned traveller and not a mere tourist. It is not her job to go to catalogued places and take pictures , live in expensive resorts and wind up a trip. She is determined to soak in the experience of a particular place. By meeting its people, by eating the signature dishes, participating in the local events and in general by enjoying herself thoroughly!
The journey through Europe for Puneet starts by the discovery of a ticket that was gifted to her long time ago. Some rummaging around found her a couple of relatives in Germany and UK. So she gathers her essentials, scrapes some money together and sets off on the trip. With her determination to not delegate herself to being a tourist, our happy traveller sets a few ground rules for herself. She does break a few of them but under pressing circumstances. Her wit and humour are a part of her writing too. She also manages to sufficiently convey her sympathy when she visits places with unfortunate history like the house where Anne Frank’s family hid from the Gestapo. She parties hard and fully exploits the delights of places like Amsterdam. She finds the best of eateries in Paris, bicycles through the plains of Sweden and even manages to travel on a train in Paris without a ticket! Though not many misadventures, except a near escape from a customs officer and a bad movie experience, her other happenings are thrilling enough for somebody who truly would love to go to Europe!

I was a bit put off by some of the writing though. Though I do applaud her vocabulary, the book consisted of one too many unnecessary words. Also some of the complex sentences were not well formed and it is real hindrance to read a sentence multiple times, distracting the reader from the real intent of the book. Also, I was amused to find British influences in her writing. The trip really seems to have had an impact on her! Looking over other aspects of presentations, I have to say, the cover art of the book really did its job by capturing the mood.

All in all the book is an excellent ride through Europe. I thoroughly envy the author for her spirit and independence. Still I hope she goes to more places and documents more of her travels for me to read!

My Rating 4/5
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Love on the Rocks

- Ismita Tandon Dhankher

My first thoughts on hearing the title of this book was categorizing it to the arena of sappy romantic stories. But surprise of surprises! It is an enthralling thriller with strong undercurrents of love. The first two pages of the book are enough to  make you get up and take notice of the plot line.

In a cargo ship sailing from Japan to America,the Sea Hyena, among with the 24 crew members, the chief officer, Aaron is newly wed and decides to bring along his wife, Sancha on board for the voyage. The husband and wife are blissfully in love but there is turmoil on the vessel. A murderer is on the loose and this in turn causes turmoil among the happy couple too. Everybody is under suspicion for theft and murder. Once the detective authority comes on board, it becomes a vicious cat and mouse game. With the thrill of murders there are also revelations of various key characters and they are not pretty. Sancha even doubts her own husband and doesn’t hesitate to voice these doubts. A gloomy masked presence looms over all this drama.

The narration of the book is unique. Every character explains the proceedings from their own perspectives in their respective chapters. This style may start out to be mildly confusing, but you soon get into the rhythm as you grasp the nuances of each character. There are several mysteries entangled in this story but the author deftly extracts each one and even succeeds in connecting them to each other to form a beautiful large picture at the end.

The mounting suspense predictably climaxes to the finding of the murderer without any twist. But it is then that the author brings out her trump card and reveals the identity of Manna, the mysterious journal writer with the violent past.

One flaw that I observed was the characterization was incomplete. There were some gaping holes in the character descriptions. All the characters have some kind of a past which could have been better illustrated in the soliloquy chapters.

Even through all of this and some mild confusion in the middle of the plot , the book turns out to be a delightful read. It is non pretentious, mature and manages to be practical and true to the characters at all time. An engaging thriller with great description of life on a cargo vessel. Kudos to Ismita!

Rating – 4*

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The Boss Is Not Your Friend

… by Vijay Nair

When I heard the title of this book and the introductory blurb, it all sounded like a self help book with detailed steps and mantras for improvement. But the snazzy cover art threw me off. It made me very curious to find out what this book was really about. As it turned out, “The Boss is Not your Friend” was an enjoyable read. It is basically a satirical, mostly pessimistic look on the corporate organizational structure in India.

Vijay Nair has a way of convincingly proving a seemingly outrageous hypothesis. He shows that the entire corporate pyramid is a flawed structure. A money-grubbing, greedy and self-involved one. He spares nobody in the book. The boss, the HR, the team members, the system, the process, everything in an organisation is “evil”. Yes, thats right. “All organisations are evil”. This is the premise he comprehensively proves in the whole book.

The book starts with the Boss, a despicable thing, whose criticism is the main agenda of the book. We look at a modest questionnaire whose result classifies the boss into six categories. These categories are later explained with associated case studies. Next, he gives in-depth instructions to counter each kind of Boss and to emerge victorious in the battle. After this we move on to the CEO. The CEO is apparently a no-good fellow and I wouldn’t be spoiling the book if I revealed that he has to always be fed on flattery to keep him amiable. Next he attacks the HR managers, who are ultimately slimy and two-faced in their dealings with the employees. Further on, there are tirades against third-party consultants, the rules of the organisation and more such instructions to fight them in the corporate setting.

All in all I found this book outrageous and enormously hilarious! The author treads no sort of middle ground in the book. He is focused on the mission at hand and very carefully avoids even a single good remark about the organisation. He urges the reader not put herself in any of the characters described but to only visualize the other members of the organisation in those roles. I enjoyed the case studies immensely and some points could even relate to them through personal and second-hand experience. It is true that when it comes to money-saving, nobody is indispensible to the organisation. The encouragement of countering office politics with even more under hand methods appeared, in some places, to be practical even!

But still, the book is what it is. It is an offshoot of the recent scams uncovered and the recession cost cutting that was rampant. It appears to be a comical take on these events and I just felt that actually following this advice would get me into a lot of trouble at my workplace! The exaggerated effects leave you in no doubt about the intentions of the book, however.

Everyone may not appreciate the author’s intellect, but for a corporate employee it is an enjoyable read and an assurance that he is not the only sufferer!

Rating 3*