OMERTA

OMERTA, a mafia operation..!!

It’s the second novel by Mario Puzo that I have read. The first one was “The Last Don”. Though I read the previous novel a long time ago (probably 5 years) but yes I do remember that the author has good style of writing and has fine ability to present a clear picture of organized crimes.

From both the novels, I could easily conclude that the basic theme or general idea is kept same by Mario throughout all his books. There is a hero (or a Big Mafia Don) who protects his empire by winning over others. But the art by which he creates a different story every time and make us learn how an organized crime works is something to learn.

We do get good management lessons from it. How to protect your own team and to manage various operations simultaneously. We can see a good combination of system driven crime and people driven crime which can be seen as another style of management. Various Mafia Dons are organizing crimes against each other that can seen as system driven game and how one wins over other that can seen as the result system driven + people driven game.

Coming down to synopsis of this book, here’s a guy Astorre Viola who was adopted by Don Raymond’s Aprille from another Big Don of his own times. Don Raymond trains Astorre Viola about the organized crime and finally makes him a protector of his children, who were kept away from Raymond’s crime world and banking business. At the time of retirement Don Raymond was killed by anonymous guys, and that seemed to be the first step towards the end of Raymond’s empire and family. But Astorre Viola, as expected takes the responsibility of protecting Don’s children and the banking business.

The idea is how a new guys works in a preorganized crime world, his strategies and arts of working is something what makes Mario, the author, someone special.

Overall the novel is a good read and a good time pass. One doesn’t get bored at all throughout the complete story. Mario Puzo goes more on detailing of complete event which brings a clearer picture as if we are watching a mafia movie and not reading. If you are opting for this book to read, do realize the fact that it will be a Mafia story similar to any other Mario Puzo’s novel but his style of presenting the complete picture will keep you moving through the pages.

Another good review available is at the following link:
www.sfsite.com/~silverag/omerta.html

Vivek Nagpal
viveknagpal1981@gmail.com / viveknagpal@yahoo.com

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain

This book was in my course in class 5th. And the good thing about this book was that the children, who normally hate anything related to course, simply loved it.

The story is about young boy Tom Sawyer and his friends Huckleberry Finn, Joe Harper and his girlfriend Becky Thacher. Another legendary character in the story is Aunt Polly, the foster parent of Tom.

The story is full of adventures of Tom and his friends, which are quite common in childhood like stealing, acting as Pirates. The boy is really dare devil and diplomat. The best of his tricks I remember is about painting the fence, where he convinces all his friends that it’s a very enjoyable job, and he takes payment for allowing them to paint the fence.

The number of sequels to this novel has been written Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer Detective.

It is considered to be the legendary work of Mark Twain, and became International Bestseller. Number of movies were also made based on this novel.

I recommend it to all the children, to have fun. And also, I recommend it to all the adults, who wants to revisit the memories of their childhood.

The Godfather

By Mario Puzo



What should I say about this legendary novel by Mario Puzo?
I think most of us know about it. But still I will jot down my thoughts.

It was the novel I waited for 2 years to read. It was my father’s favorite and he used to tell me the excerpts from it since childhood. When I got into 11th Standard, the desire of reading became very strong. And to my bad luck, pirated copies were not available in my home city. And I couldn’t afford the original paper print. So, I talked to my dad about my wish. He simply said that wait for your admissions in engineering college, and then he will gift it to me. So, it happened I was gifted this novel by dad after two years of my request. And it was my first novel in life.

I liked the starting line among all the lines in the text. The line is “Behind every great fortune, there is crime”. Well I don’t totally agree to this, but it entices me.

The story revolves around Corleone family, which is strongest among five families controlling mafia of US. All these families belong to migrants from Sicily or better known as Sicilians. Godfather, Vito Corleone is head of Corleone family.

Godfather according to Christianity is the person who is responsible to take care of child next to his/her parents. But, Vito was not only known as Godfather by his godchildren who range from truck driver to movie stars but because of his conduct, his genuineness and balls.

The novel describes in management terms the whole Supply Chain of Crime. One can learn lot of things from it like Manpower Management, SCM, Change Management and what not. It was proper business set up and the only thing missing was legal entity.

Then to most of the youngsters’ page no. 28 will entertain a lot, animal like sex.

Number of movies has been made on this novel -Godfather series in English & Dharmatma, Sarkar, Atank hi Atank, Zulm ki Hukumat and many more in hindi. Recently I saw one real life movie City of Gods. I think it was in Spanish, but again the underlying situation and conduct was similar.

And I have read and heard lot of business tycoons, claiming that this novel is their mentor.

So, its one of the books that I gift to my friends who wanna start reading. And most of the times they don’t leave it till they finish it. But, still there are others who are unable to read it completely. For them, I will just say “If you can’t be interested by this, then you can’t be interested by anything”.

Kane & Abel

By Jeffrey Archer

On the same day, on opposite sides of the globe, two boys are born. The boys are William Kane and Abel Rosnovski. While Kane is gold, Abel is steel.

The style of writing is typical of Jeffrey. The two stories are parallely running in a way that one chapter is dedicated to Kane and the consecutive one to Abel. The style continues till they finally meet.

Again Archer weaves the story into history by beautifully portraying the characters involvement in Titanic and WWII.

The two boys are the deadliest enemies and the fastest friends. One is from Poland the other one from US.

The story is a thriller jampacked with action, drama and business.

And the most beautiful thing is the two characters met only thrice in their life and still always think of one person that is each other only.

Once I picked the book, I couldn’t keep it down and read it in 2 days. The funny thing was that it is during my final exams of engineering I picked this book. I needed to prepare for the exams but at the same time couldn’t forgo the lust of the novel. So, along with my batchmate I studied it in a manner that I used to read one chapter of the novel and then pass it on to my friend. And studied the course till he didn’t give it back to me. This way we spent two days reading the book and course and if I talk about food, then it was only water for two days. Such is the grip of this book.

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Zendagi migzara - Like Afghans like to say , Life goes on.

Picked up a fiction after a while this time ...A Brilliant read ... One of the most moving ones i have read.

Its about Amir and his quest to find the real himself. Its about the acts he has committed , cos he was only human .. Its about his guilt which formed inside him cos he committed these acts also that he did not commit certain other acts.

Its about Amir's Baba , a true & brave afghan to heart. About his struggle with being a single parent, about his belief in humanity and nothing else , about his subtle revolt against the existing differences between Pashtuns and Hazara communities, about his love for his country , about him not being able stand anything against Afghanistan even after he forcefully quits his country for his childs safety, About his expectations from his kid and about his secret which gives direction to this story.

Its about Hassan , A Hazara boy ... his lifelong bond with his Pashtun Master's son Amir. Its about his humility , about his brilliance in his own little way . At the end u would get a feel that maybe this is what god's own son would be like.

It of course is also about the Afghanistan that was there before the Russians trooped in and about the afghanistan as it is now..Its about the pomegranate , apple and cherry trees , its about the Rostam and Sohrab stories and about reading it to your own brother .... It ofcourse is also about flying kites and running for them , and the wish to run it over for your bro "A thousand times over"

Thats where i will restrict myself from writing more abt it , cos I wont want to be unfair to people who plan to read it up.Go pick your paper back copy ... May u be touched for a lifetime, a thousand times over.

Rating - ****

CATCH-22

By Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is a satirical, historical fiction novel by the American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The novel, set during the latter stages of the Second World War from 1943 onwards, is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the Twentieth century.The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other characters. Most events occur while the airmen of the Fighting 256th (or "two to the fighting eighth power") Squadron are based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy. Many events in the book are repeatedly described from differing points of view, so the reader learns more about the event from each iteration.

I have heard about this novel a lot from my friends, from different magazines and other sources. So, I got it as my birthday gift from one of my close friends. And after hearing a lot about it, when I read it. At start, as usual I thought the plot is being built. And the problem was even after 100 pages I still felt I need to be more patient and let the plot build. But around 150 pages, I lost my patience and simply torn the book and threw it in the dustbin. This was happened to me for the first time. I don’t understand why the book was written and why so much popular. According to me, it was pure clutter. My biggest mistake in my reading life was to read this shit 150 pages and to corrode my mind with this shit. I simply tell anybody to not to read it if you intend to and throw it in dustbin if you have already got the copy of it.

The Fountainhead - by Ayn Rand

Ed: This post was originally made on May 18, 2005 at my blog. This is a reproduction of the same.

Most B-schoolers discover Ayn Rand classic during their MBA preparations. In fact it is probably a matter of prestige for B-schoolers to have 'The Fountainhead' as their favourite book. But I have met quite a few people who call 'The Foutainhead' their favourite just because everyone else does so. By doing so they go against the very philosophy that this book tries to teach. Such people are the living copy of the character - 'Peter Keating'.

Relievingly, I have found many people who have a mind of their own and do not feel ashamed to confess that they either do not understand Rand or the book itself is complete bullshit!

I just completed my 3rd reading of the book. I had failed to complete it 2 times and had to restart every time. After completing the book I felt that the core of the book is the testimony given by Howard Roark (the protagonist of the story) in the court at the end of the story. However, Roark's (or rather Ayn Rand's) ideas are so fundamentally challenging to the dogmas of the society that Ayn Rand had to create a story filled with extremely unnatural characters to explain it.

This is one reason why many people start reading the book but give up in the middle finding the story too absurd or extreme. I myself came very close to being one of such people and know at least two of them.

I feel that such people can read the above mentioned speech and try to understand the concept presented here. I had earlier pasted the text of the speech on my blog but it was too long to be posted here. So I have made good use of my Yahoo! ID which works on all Yahoo! affiliates like geocities by creating a webpage dedicated to Howard Roark's Testimony.

We The Living

by Ayn Rand
It was a rage among my group of friends. One might say that I had just three friends, but it was a rage nonetheless. And I used to wonder what is so outrageous about it. I set out to discover. Thus I got my copy of ‘We The Living’, the first one by Ayn Rand. The woman must have been quite headstrong herself to have written such a novel (for the lack of a stronger word).

This book holds within itself the lives of three people. But it has no intention of just holding them in because the three people are embodiments of the three characteristics attributable to the extremities of the human race.. The three characteristics are extreme love, extreme love and extreme love – though the recipient in each case is different. One is extreme love for freedom and life – that the protagonist Kira embodies. She wishes to be an engineer in a fighting country where her class is looked down upon. Amidst the hypocrisies of socialism, she gets into the institute. Her will to live freely is consummate, so is her perseverance against all odds. In the institute she becomes close friends with a fellow student, Andrei – who embodies extreme love for idealism and honesty. He is also a member of the socialist party. Both Kira and Andrei have the highest respect for each other despite their difference in political opinions.

Then comes Leo- who is the embodiment of extreme love for the self. Kira chances upon him one night and immediately falls in love. Both own a free spirit, which , it shows later, was much exaggerated in Leo. Both hated the socialist totalitarianism. By crook, they are able to escape the oppressed city. They are passionate in the beginning until differences start to creep in because of Leo’s extreme views, verging towards the foolhardy and Kira’s realist. Amidst all this Kira is expelled from the college because of her anti-party opinions which she was not afraid to voice. Cash starts to get extinct. To add to the woes, Leo develops tuberculosis. Kira wishes to turn to Andrei to help but Andrei is avoiding her for a reason that escapes her. She later confronts him and gets to know that the reason was that he has fallen in love with her. Andrei knew nothing about Kira’s relationship with Leo, so with no intention of hurting him but rather for Leo’s sake she accepts. She keeps visiting Andrei and each time they make love. Then one day Kira musters enough courage to ask for the money. He is more than happy to give.

Here Leo is cured and comes back – changed. With the help of some friends, he opens a shop that runs an illegal business and earns a lot of money. Kira is not happy with all this, she also tries to correct Leo. Incidentally, unaware of Leo’s identity, Andrei sets out to discover the truth about the shop he had been hearing bad things about. He solves it and on the day of the arrest, Andrei raids Leo’s house and finds, in the drawers, panties that Kira wore when they made lave. Things become clearer now. Kira explains to him that it was all for Leo’s sake as he was suffering. Andrei is hurt but her respect for her grows even more. Andrei goes against himself to get Leo out for Kira’s sake. Because of this, he gets expelled from the party he was so loyal about. He commits suicide.

Leo is free but suspicious about Kira's relation with Andrei. Leo decides to go to another city to earn more money. He tells her about the Decision and asks if she had slept with Andrei. Kira confirms but asks him if would still have taken the decision had she not slept with him, he says ‘Yes’. Kira feels no need to explain him the real reason. Now her ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ heart yearns to escape to her home, her country. She is just a step from the border when she is shot. Till the end she was faithful and loyal to Leo. And Leo, he goes ALONE to the other state and becomes a gigolo.
The story is so powerful that you start feeling so strongly for the characters. Kira, who had been the epitome of strength and the will to live, dies. Andrei, the idealist, the honest, commits suicide after he gives in to the corrupt. And Leo – one might think he lived, but I think living can not be worse. He probably just survived.
I fell in love with it and would love to see a HUUUGE fan-list of the book from among the people I know.

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

This is the first Kafka Story I have read and already I belong to the Kafka clan or the cult. Its only fair that I start with a brief introduction of our Illustrious author.

In his short career, Kafka wrote some of the most amazing pieces of literarture ever put on paper. He died when he was just about 41 years of age but his sheer artistry with words is mind boggling.

The metamorphosis is one of the few short stories which Kafka wrote in his brief career. His brilliance was only recognized after he died and most of his work is posthumous work which his friend got published, though Kafka wanted it all to be destroyed. If his friend would have listened to him, we would have been deprived of this mans profound juxtapositioning of the real versus the imaginary, his vague analogies, his deft touches in each and every word he chose and paradoxically his savagery with them, using the words as a chisel to cut piece by piece or a sword to slash with one clean swipe. Kafka seems to delve into the depths of the human psyche with ease and delivers stories in the first person.

Metamorphosis is about a young man - the bread winner of the house, who gets up one morning and realises that over night he has become a Bug - like a cockroach. What transpires after that is sheer poetry in words. The Human cockroach's each and every thought is layed bare in front of us. His helplessness, his pain, his delight, his effort, his shame, his guilt, his sorrow, his crazving and his ultimate death.

After the man - Gregor gets up that morning, he is already late for work. He is worried that if he does not go to work, he might lose his job and then his family would go hungry, but his sheer helplessness to move and his dreadful appearance prevents him from doing his duty. When his family sees him in this condition, they lock him up in the room. They are ashamed and scared of him. His food is thrown into the room when he is out of sight, no one enters the room and his room's not cleaned for a long time. Basically he is marooned from this world. Kafka delves into the helplessness of this person, who has suddenly metamorphosized into a cockroach and has become reproachable. Even his mother finds him abhorable. His father beats him up with his boots, wounding him, when Gregor tries to come out of the room. He craves love, he craves for belongingness, but dies in loneliness and gloom. His family arrange for the Maid to dispose off his body and only then their normal diurnal activities resume.

It might seem weird; telling a story of a man whos turned into a Bug, but its just an analogy. It might be some disease - like leprosy which had no cure or vaccine in that era. Its the helplessness of a diseased man, shunned by society and his family, which is depicted with such deftness, dexterity and profoundity, whats amazing. Its as relevant today as it was almost a century ago.

This is definitely not for the average reader, for they would be bored or confused at the end of page 1 or might find it some weird concoction of an insane mind. If you skim the surface you would find it to be weird, but if you swim the depths - you would realise the profundness of the analogies. If you do read it, do notice how KAFKA plays with words and your thought process. You would probably have to read everything twice or thrice to really know the real meaning of what Kafka wants to say and I think he wanted it to be that way. He did not care for the ordinary or the frivolous, but the meticulous, the artistic and the intelligent.

Enjoy this classic repeatedly. Its like a sugarcane which has juice in its every straw. The only thing is that you need a big machine - concentration and passion, to squeeze out each and every drop of the nector.

Regards,
Funda-mentor

Animal Farm

By George Orwell

This is very important book in my life. Actually, it was part of our academic syllabus of first year of engineering under the subject called ‘Communication Skills’. And as usual, most of the students including me hated to read anything which becomes part of course. But, I m really grateful to my teacher, who taught it in a way that created my interest in the novel. And this experience was so much exciting that I became an avid reader.

This novel is not any other novel, but is considered to be ‘Novel of the Century’. The novel is a satire on Russian Revolution. It was written during the WWII and was widely criticized globally.

The story is narrated in the form of fable. It is about a farm, having all sort of domestic animals like pigs, cows, horses, hens, sheep, dogs, ass…………. The farm was governed by Mr Jones, a human being. But, due to pathetic conditions, animals revolted. The revolt was headed by two pigs Napoleon and Snowball. Here, Napoleon depicted the character of Stalin while Snowball of Lenin. According to this revolution, all animals were comrades and all humans their enemies. They succeeded in the revolution and took control over the farm. Now for the daily governance and administration of the farm they drafted the policies in the form of the following commandments.

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

Being clever, pigs took over the leadership of the new farm. Slowly, under the guidance of Napoleon, all the critical resources like food in the form of milk, grain and fruits and power in the form of dogs, was controlled by pigs. But, he saw one impediment in his way in the form of Snowball. So, he poisoned the ears of animals against him and threw him out of farm. Now, Napoleon was the sole tyrant of the farm. In the meanwhile there were number of attacks on the farm by Mr Jones, but he failed to recapture his farm. Then there were further attacks on the farm by the neighbour farmers Mr. Pilkington, of Foxwood & Mr.Frederick of Pinchfield (representing Germany and England), but they also failed.

Now pigs started violating the commandments set by them. In order to pacify the other animals, they took advantage of their short memory and innocence by telling them that actually the interpretation of commandments is:

1.Four legs good, two legs better
2.No animal shall drink alcohol to excess
3.No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets
4.No animal shall kill any other animal without cause
5.All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

The last scene of the novel is as follows

But they (innocent animals) had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. Uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, hangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, and furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously. Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which.

This last scene had a very deep impact on my psyche. It clearly confirms age old adages

“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

“Might is right.”

Since then, I have been trying to search for a book of similar cadre. But I can’t find one. As there is only one masterpiece.

Lust For Life

By Irving Stone


This is the novel, I saw lying with one of my friends. Since then, I was craving to read it. Its name was reason enough for my craving. Finally, after two years I got chance to read it.

The story is based on the real life story of renowned painter Vincent Van Gogh. It covers all the major phases of his life since he was adult. It tells us about his series of careers and failure in each of them. He belonged to the family of Van Gogh’s, which was reputed throughout Europe.

He started his career as a dealer in paintings at one of his uncle’s shop. Then he pursued career of priest, Evangelist, and many others. But, either he didn’t like the career or career didn’t like him. He was having many siblings, but was close to only one of them. His younger brother Theo was also a dealer in paintings, and was gaining reputation slowly and steadily in his profession. It was Theo who understood and supported Vincent’s will to do something in life.

Vincent was born in Zundert, a small village in Holland. His journey to make a painting that will sell, took him to many places-villages, towns, cities and coal mines. Though he pursued many careers at different places, but he was always painting something. He painted children, farmers, villagers, trees, sky, women and what not. Most of the times it was dilemma for him whether to buy food or paints & canvasses from the scarce amount he had. And it was always paints & canvass that was bought.

During his journey, he well in love with number of girls and women. One was his house owner, other was washerwomen, and then there was a prostitute. But he was not having any stable love life as he was not having any stable career.

Finally, he reached Paris where he was having regular supply of food and paints & canvasses together, as he was staying with Theo. He made lot of like minded painter friends who were working on modern paintings. He also, started selling few paintings.

The time when his career as a painter was almost consummate, he started getting fits of madness. His condition was so bad that he pointed gun towards one of his best friends and he cut one of his ear only to present it to one prostitute. He was sent to mental asylum, to recover. He continued his painting in asylum also. But, finally he shot himself in the fit of madness.

Such was a love of Theo for his brother, that at the peak of his youth he died to accompany his brother after few months of death of Vincent.

Today, we know Vincent Van Gogh as one of the most famous painters in the history. But, throughout his life he struggled just to be noticed, just to earn enough to sustain his living.

TAI-PAN

By James Clavell

This is the book, which gives the historical instance of the formation of a city, country and trade center, which is today known as ‘Hong Kong’.

This is the story of China, Britain, Hong Kong and Dirk Struan. Dirk Struan was a businessman, an opium smuggler, a pirate, a master manipulator, a ruthless intriguer and a mighty lover and head of Noble House. Noble House was the most powerful trading company in the Far East. In China, head of business house is known as ‘Tai Pan’. So, Dirk Struan was Tai Pan of Noble House or he was first among Tai Pan’s.

The story takes us to the times of 19th century, when none of the foreigners was permitted to enter China Mainland. It tells us how trade between Britain and other European Countries with China prospered especially in tea and silk. It tells us how, the monopoly of China as sole producer of tea was broken by smuggling tea seeds to Assam, India. It also tells us the genesis of ‘Opium Wars’.

Then, there is insight into Dirk Struan’s personal life. It reveals how he became most powerful person in Far East from his poverty stricken childhood. It narrates how he lost his family to plague, how he fought with his only legitimate son Culum, how he prospered against his arch rival Tyler Brock, how he made love with his Chinese mistresses. It also throws light on his friends Aristotle-the painter and Mary Sinclair. Then it narrates the saga of formation of Hong Kong in which Dirk was instrumental. And finally it tells how his son Culum became Tai Pan.

The story also vividly describes the changes British Society was undergoing after Industrial Revolution. Especially, its colonial aspirations and its strategies. At the same time lot of observations are elaborated regarding the engineering development especially the marine engineering during the nineteenth century.

The story uses lots of Chinese dialects and proverbs. So, at times it’s funny and at times witty. The stark contrast between European and Oriental habits like taking bath daily is noticeable in the story. In brief, this story is an interesting insight into the history of Hong Kong.

Other commendable works by James Clavell are Shogun, Gai-Jin, King Rat, Noble House (sequel of Tai Pan) and Whirlwind. James Clavell has also translated ‘The Art of War’, by Sun Tzu.

Mother

By Maxim Gorky

I have been fascinated by Russian stories since childhood. Then by Russian Revolution and their technology. I have read some technical books of Russia and admired them. This was my first chance to read rich Russian Literature – Mother.It was simply beautiful. It is the story of how revolution – ‘The Russian Revolution’ was deep rooted inside the masses which forced these so called workers to come up and carry the onus of forming new world of their own where every member is ‘comrade’ and no exploitation because everything is common – nobody says ‘mine’. It was a wonderful process.In this story our hero Pavel Vlassov is first among comrades who with his conviction and reasoning pulls his downtrodden soul out and see how deteriorated their lives are and think that ‘Did God really made man in his own self ?’ . With this he decided better die with the cause as noble as liberation than die for a dog’s life. He was a brave boy. Brave as he was to the extent that he became leader of the movement, influenced his friends, relatives and above all his mother.The title of the story ‘Mother’ is very apt because it is from a mother’s eyes that we see the revolution, from her heart we felt the pain of loosing her only son to the movement. If Pavel was brave then his mother was braver because she couldn’t think but she felt for the movement, for her son and his comrades. It is mother which brings the force to this novel which touches every heart that comes across in the same way as it touched in 1907 when it was first published. Napoleon very rightly said ‘Give me good mothers. I will give you a good nation.’ And his words were indeed materialized in the form of a model nation Russia was immediately after the revolution.