Mar 11, 2007 07:13 PM
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Flash of 2003: It's true! It's official! Aniruddha Bahal won an award in Britain - "Bad Sex In Fiction Award"! Well, so what if the year was 2003? "Who is this AB", did you ask? Read on, at your own risk. And make sure your kids are not reading this over your shoulder!
First, you may like details on the award and the winning content? For those not faint hearted, you may click on https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3288179.stm! For the rest, here is a run down on Herr Bahal's "MM", a la Ian Fleming's "Bond"!
The Book: Bunker 13 is an action thriller enacted at Delhi and on the North Western borders of India. The anti hero is a former army cadet turned investigative journalist, Minty Mehta (MM). MM is all that Bond was/is, sans the mean machines and flashy gizmos, but a thrill seeker and an acutely self-destructive specimen of the male human race, with hard drugs and kinky sex adding the spice in life!
The Long n Short of It: MM is a hot shot journo, whose boss sends him to report the Indo-Pak hostilities on the Kashmir border. Thanks to his cadet days and his gift of the gab, plus the high and mighty connections which the media affords, MM is embedded with the army and partakes of their routine actions - thereported as well as the unreported variety. Bunker 13 is the place where the twists in the tale commence. The coverage of war turns secondary as MM finds that a few rogue, but highly rated army men are deeply involved in amassing and reselling of drugs and arms seized from smugglers and terrorists. Added to that is the deep-rooted hatred between two regiments posted in the same area, leading to mindless and often, rabid violence amongst themselves, in pursuite of less-than-noble ends. Luring the bads Tehelka style, MM flirts with danger, nuke warheads, the Defence Minister, his Editor's hot daughter (that even won him the above Award!) and in short, does stuff which would make even Herr Bond apply for Casual Leave from his job!
Pluses: Very detailed and accurate descriptions of systems, mechanisms, techniques and deeds, portrayed with journalistic acumen backed by depth of first hand knowledge, the story takes the reader on a whirl wind tour of India's almsot unknown underbelly of this genre. The uninitated would be pardoned for mistaking that this is actually how things work in the Army. A fast and furiously paced book, of about 325 pages, filled with the choicest expletives spewed during the narrative in utterly natural fashion, it is a complusive read. You may well finish feeling you know more of India's nuclear triad, RAW, Army system and national strategy than APJ, The Army Chief and the Director of RAW put together! But then, the beauty of the book is that it makes you believe all it says! Even with the absolutely unbelievable suspense at the end, Minty Mehta aka MM stays on in our hearts - an anti hero doing everything that one is not supposed to, if one were even remotely in possession of a semblance of conscience, and getting away with it, until the last page, that is!
Minuses: It is a stupid plot, an overkill even by 007 standards and sustains itself on the adrenaline rush which the reader begins to share with MM, as the story progresses. It is just too fictitious to be true, and at times even beats Bollywood script, in its Dhoom-ic proportions! But then, you would love to pardon MM and Bahal for all their sins, for the momentary high it gives you, just being there, watching all of it getting done!
My Reco: Read it, but if you can do so without buying it, do that! Eminently readable, but certainly not ownable! You definitely do not want your children building themselves up along those lines!
If you are travelling on business and need a book to retire with at the end of the hectic day,
If you are alone and have a lot of time on your hands,
If you have even remotely not experienced what the Army folks do and think and want to, in a twisted manner,
If you get your adrenaline pumping playing the War Games on your PC,
If you really want to know why this bloke won that Award...
Read It! ..But, don't wince every time you find a word you thought was "Eeeks"... they will keep coming back!
I repeat - Readable, but certainly not Ownable!
Now, like the Army advertisement goes " Do You Have It in You"?!
But for God's sake, don't go around believing the contents! Enjoy!
.... And keep looking over your shoulder!!!
