Book Review: Careers in Wildlife Filmmaking

Career on the wild side
Careers in Wildlife Film-making by Piers Warren; Wildeye; Price: Rs.848; 187 pp

With a growing number of satellite channels invading the drawing rooms of middle class India, career opportunities in the multi-billion dollar television industry are multiplying. Though information about jobs and opportunities in this new and booming industry is readily available, it’s largely restricted to work opportunities in desi entertainment/ news channels (song-n-dance included). There’s little information in India for employment opportunities in high-potential niche or special interest channels featuring animal and wildlife (Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet). Against this backdrop, wildlife enthusiasts toying with the idea of making careers out of their interest will find Careers in Wildlife Film-making by Piers Warren very useful.

This unusual and information-laden book is a complete guide for the small but growing minority looking to venture into the fascinating world of wildlife, underwater and conservation filmmaking. The author is a well-known UK-based wildlife film-maker who is also the editor of Wildlife Film News and producer of www.wildlife-film.com. This book lists over 60 jobs in wildlife filmmaking, complete with eligibility requirements and case studies.

The book starts with a detailed introduction to this esoteric craft and states its objective clearly: “The aim of this book is to look at the career of every person involved in the making of a wildlife film and to give you a deeper understanding of the wildlife film industry and the career opportunities available.” According to Warren, who is also vice president and webmaster of the Filmmakers for Conservation (FFC), wildlife filmmaking is a challenge because “there are far more people wanting to be involved in the making of wildlife films than there are jobs, so it is very competitive”.

Written in a easy-to-understand lucid style, the volume is divided into eight chapters: ‘How a wildlife film is made’ (this chapter provides a brief overview of the whole process, plus an introduction to formats); ‘The variety of jobs’ (describes each function in the process and a few associated careers which can be employed positions or freelance ones, and each is illustrated with a number of case studies); ‘How to get started’ (strategies and tips to get your foot in the door); ‘Education and training’ (what study courses are available and how useful they are); ‘Wildlife film festivals’ (a discussion of festivals and why they are particularly important to this industry, plus a directory of the major international ones); ‘Organisations, projects and further information’ (where to find out more organisations that might help you, and recommended further reading); ‘The future of the industry’ (a unique discussion of the future presented by a number of experienced professionals from the industry) and ‘Contributors’ Index’ (a list of all the contributors to this book – with further information and contact details).

For individuals planning a career in the wildlife filmmaking industry the most informative and useful chapter is ‘The variety of jobs’. The list is exhaustive: producer, assistant producer, researcher, production assistant, administration and publicity coordinator, director, cinematographer/ camera operator, camera assistant, sound recordist, presenter, narration script-writer, narrator, music composer, dubbing mixer, picture editor, distributor, broadcaster/ commissioning editor, location manager, stock footage library manager and multimedia producer. Each career choice is discussed in great detail with an introduction, essential qualities one must possess/ develop to get the job and finally a case study of a successful professional.

In the chapter on education and training, Warren provides information about the few universities (with contact addresses) across the world offering courses in animal and wildlife filmmaking.

This compact book concludes crystal ball gazing by well-known wildlife movie professionals. They include top names from the industry such as Jane Krish, CEO of The Wildscreen Trust; Mark Bristow, producer BBC Wildlife Magazine; Michael Hanrahan, founder president, The Ocean Channel; and Amy J. Hetzler, membership officer Filmmaker for Conservation.

Though the book is US and UK specific, Indian wildlife enthusiasts can cull useful information on where one can pursue wildlife filmmaking courses (Alas! No Indian university/ college offers courses in this field). Moreover the numerous case studies in the book are certain to inspire enthusiasm. Contact details of every contributor and industry professional mentioned in the book are provided for networking. Careers in Wildlife Filmmaking is a useful compendium for Indian students anxious to break away from traditional career choices to walk on the wild side.

Movie Preview: Couples Retreat

I chanced upon the promo of this movie which is all about how to keep the romance active among couples. The trailer is real funny and I am sure this will be one hell of a hilarious movie... I will try to catch it on October 9th... the release date.

Book Review: Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book

Language guide for foreign travelers
Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book; by Eric Dondero Rittberg; Portside Language Service; Price: $12.50; 248 pp

The Indian economy recently attained a historic landmark when its foreign exchange surplus crossed the $100 billion mark. This is largely the result of the massive growth of industry and business especially in the IT and other technology areas in the post-liberalisation era. Globalisation has also opened up a host of new opportunities for the hitherto shackled Indian industry. The bad old days of foreign exchange licenses are just a bad memory and a large – and growing number of businessmen, tourists and students are travelling abroad to discover new and lucrative trade opportunities and open up new markets. Conversely, the number of foreign investors visiting India’s tech-savvy cities and business centres is multiplying by the day.

A pre-requisite of transacting business is adequate language and communication skills – not only in English but also in the other languages spoken around the world. Without basic language and communication skills it is difficult to converse, argue, discuss, convince or close big or small business deals. But how does one learn a new language and converse with ease in a short span of time? Traditional learning systems require months – even years – to learn and master a language. But with new and innovative techniques and publications like Eric Dondero Rittberg’s Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book learning the basic phrases of 40 languages has become easy.

The best thing about the Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book (WMPB) is its compact size. Printed in a easy-to-carry pocket-book format, this 248-page volume is packed with commonly used phrases in over 40 different languages with verbatim translations into English, presented in an easy-to-read and easy-to-grasp fashion. The languages covered in the book vary from Spanish to Greek; Swahili to Cantonese and Vietnamese to Yoruba (West Africa) and Bulgarian to Gaelic (Ireland) among others, and offers an excellent introduction to over 40 languages from across the world. Indeed WMPB is an essential companion for globetrotting businessmen as also for the growing number of outbound leisure travelers from the subcontinent.

A widely-travelled US-based linguist-cum-interpreter and certified language instructor, Rittberg who has also authored Vacation Spanish; Fast Spanish and Fast Chinese is well-qualified to write this useful companion guide. It offers valuable tips on how to master the basics and converse in a foreign language. Hardly surprising that he is a language-learning aficionado speaks in many tongues including: Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Greek, Swahili and Dutch. A political science alumnus of the Florida State University, Rittberg has travelled to more than 25 countries including India, China, Japan, Korea among others.

The book comprises 16 sections: Preface; The Latin languages; The Germanic Languages; The Slavic Languages; Finno-Ugric; Greek; Turkic; Semitic; African; Indo-Persian; Chinese; East Asian; Southeast Asian; Austornesian; Other Really Exotic Languages and Further Language ending with a brief autobiography of the author. Plus a bonus chapter on great web sites and tips for further language learning.

Indeed the striking characteristic or unique selling proposition of this useful companion handbook is its easy-to-use structure. Each section is further divided into numerous one to many page sub-sections, explaining different techniques and tips on building language-learning skills. Historically or culturally connected language are grouped together and common phrases provided are adequate to help in nearly every situation a visitor to foreign shores is likely to be confronted with. A note on grammar, followed by a set of basic phrases, key propositions, numbers, general, extra and special vocabulary, makes the process of learning a language simple and easy. But inevitably while most European and American languages are dealt with in detail the African and Asian languages are not. These sections however are packed with information on the country, regional and cultural aspects of the language followed by a list of commonly used phrases.

Though the book addresses the needs and situations in which globe-trotting American businessmen are likely to encounter, it is likely to prove very useful to the local Indian and other businessmen as well. “We want it quick, easy and most importantly, we want it all now,” says Rittberg delineating about the expectations of the new genre of peripatetic businessmen. “For those who want to learn a language fluently, there is more than a sufficient amount of material available at the bookstores, libraries and on-line. However, for those Americans who have no time to obtain fluency and who just want to learn some basics for a variety of languages, there are little if any materials available all in one source,” says Rittberg “The purpose of this phase book is to teach individuals the basics of essential words and phrases for a variety of different languages from around the world.”

The objective is sufficiently realized by WMPB. It’s an excellent resource for every traveler going abroad. With this handbook ready, the traveler need not worry about being able to communicate in another language.

Boa viagem!

Book Review: Travel Wisdom

Utilitarian Compendium
Travel Wisdom by Lynne and Hank Christen; Aventine Press; Price: Rs.582; 251pp

Cover via Amazon

By common consensus the world’s largest and most high-potential industry is travel and tourism. Its worldwide revenue is estimated at $ 4 trillion (Rs.180,00,000 crore) (2002-03). And with India’s showing in popular travel destinations surveys improving by leaps and bounds, this continent-sized nation is all-set to grab a large slice of this huge and growing global tourism market. In October 2003 the ‘land of sadhus and saris’ was ranked among the top ten preferred tourism destinations in a survey by the UK-based Conde Nast travel magazine. Recently (February 2004) India hosted its first-ever international travel and tourism seminar-cum-exhibition – World Travel India 2004 – in Mumbai which drew enthusiastic participants from around the world.

With travel made easier thanks to the plethora of package (adventure, heritage, cultural, and historical) tours and discount deals, there is no stopping the newly liberated Indian traveller. But travel especially across the dreaded Kala pani has its own pitfalls. With the ‘war on terror’ in full swing, the new world traveller has to face innumerable checks and verifications. And as if this isn’t enough there is a mountain of groundwork – visas, reservations, itinerary planning, health and security clearances to contend with. Contemporary holidays are short duration, intensive experiences in which even a minor slip-up could prove frustrating and expensive.

Against this backdrop comes Travel Wisdom, a comprehensive how-to-do-it-yourself guidebook by the extensively travelled US-based couple Lynne and Hank Christen. This book is the outcome of the Christens’ travel experiences spread over two decades and 43 countries. “Our goals for this book are two-fold. First, we want to inspire you to turn your travel dreams into reality. Second we want to share the practical tips, tools, and tactics we have acquired through our own travel experiences and research,” say the authors in the introduction of the book.

True to its promise Travel Wisdom is a useful, practical and hands-on guide for those interested in making their money go the extra mile. Well-organised into 18 chapters, three appendices and topped off with an index, this utilitarian compendium covers almost every imaginable aspect of travel. The very first chapter titled ‘It all begins with a dream and plan’ which provides tips on how to get started on planning a journey, is sequentially followed by others offering practical travel advice: ‘Packing smart’; ‘Choosing a travel agent’; ‘The dollars and sense of travel’; ‘Travel health and safety’; ‘Minding your travel manners’; ‘Taking care of business’; ‘The disabled traveller’; ‘Going solo’; ‘Baby makes three, or four, or more’; ‘Pros and cons of group tours’; ‘Smooth sailing’; ‘Airs above the ground’; Riding the rails’; ‘Highways and by-ways’; ‘Vacationing at home’; ‘When things go wrong’; and ‘Making the memories last’.

Chapters which are likely to prove useful to the new generation of outward bound Indian tourists unshackled from the ancient regime under which foreign exchange was always ‘precious’ are ‘Travel health and safety’ which includes a sub-chapter on being street smart and ‘Minding your travel manners’ which is particularly valuable for Indian tourists who have already acquired a reputation for loud boorishness. Among the basic do’s and don’ts: Make the time to learn about your destination; respect local languages and customs; think before you speak; dress appropriately; practice good photo etiquette; go easy on smoking, chewing gum and cell phones, beware of sign language.

Another useful chapter is the ‘The dollars sense of travel’ which advises travelers how to get the most out of their hard earned savings and holiday budgets. It offers valuable tips on how to divide and carry your money in various forms: cash, travelers’ checks, ATM/ debit cards, credit cards etc and precautions to be taken while using ATM/ debit and credit cards.

Travel Wisdom also contains a useful appendix section providing checklists for planning your travel. The comprehensive checklists detail what you should start doing as early as six months prior to departure. Included is a list of online travel resources; sample packing list for women and men and other travel necessary accessories.

Though Travel Wisdom is an unabashedly ‘how to’ book, it’s a useful guide especially for first time travelers who might be blowing several years’ savings on a once-in-a-lifetime foreign holiday. Sidebars provide valuable insights, travel homework, travel experiences and amusing anecdotes and experiences which combine to make this how-to book lively and interesting. Though this guide seems to be targeted at the middle-aged business and leisure tourists, it’s also useful for younger tourists.

Book Review: Wanna Study in the U.S. 101 Tips to get you there!

Guide to US-bound students
Wanna Study in the U.S.? 101 Tips to get you there! by Natasha Pratap; Rupa & Co, Price: Rs.395; 302 pp

According to recently published US student enrollment statistics, India has surpassed
China as the No.1 country of origin for foreign students in American universities. Last year (2000-09) the aggregate Indian student population enrolled in institutions of higher education (95,000) topped the Chinese total. With a large and growing number of Indian students hell-bent on pursuing at least a part of their education in the US, this aggregate number is expected to grow by 20-25 percent annually. But making it into the US of A for higher study is easier said than done. With half the third world’s population fleeing communism, socialism, dictatorship and plain socio-economic mismanagement, aspiring to enter this fabled land of opportunity, the US immigration and naturalisation service is working overtime to keep out the scrambling hordes – especially after 9/11. Unsurprisingly the admission process is tedious and difficult questions are raised about adequacy of funding. Visa procedures too have become complicated.

For the swelling number of hopefuls fleeing India’s dumbed down institutions of higher education, Natasha Pratap’s maiden book Wanna Study in the US? 101 Tips To Get You There! is a boon. This easy-to-read volume written in simple English is a comprehensive compendium of accurate information and useful guidelines to students and professionals on ways and means of accessing American universities and institutions of higher education. “There is so much to be gained from a US education, that I continue to be grateful for it every day. Studying in the US is about pushing your boundaries: academically, intellectually, geographically and emotionally. The best thing is fearlessness and confidence I developed from my own experience. Choose to study in the US because it is better. Go because you will be the better for it,” writes Pratap an alumna of the blue chip Cambridge (UK), Stanford and Boston universities.

The merits of this chatty and unapologetically how-to book apart, a striking achievement is that she has persuaded Mukesh Ambani, chairman & managing director of the telecom, textile, petroleum and IT behemoth, Reliance Industries Ltd to write the foreword. “All these years, information on studying in the US was limited to a privileged class of Indian students, by virtue of their advantaged school, teacher and peer group environments. This book would democratise this advantage to a much wider cross section of Indian students,” says Ambani, himself a Stanford alumnus.

Though the information, data and procedural guidelines provided in this deliberately casually titled book is by no means novel, the fact that it has been collated, sorted and compiled into a one-point, well-laid out compendium is its unique selling proposition. “When friends asked me questions on their applications or essays I realised that what seemed obvious to me was not to others. Book stores in Mumbai had little information on the application procedure, and even prospectuses of colleges say little. The internet is too vast and some information is misleading. Since I had experienced the system first hand I decided to write this book,” says Pratap explaining her motivation to write this valuable guide.

Though the author claims to have completed this comprehensive volume in just seven weeks, this 302-page compendium is well organised into 11 main chapters each offering valuable nuggets of information and advice. The main chapters are: top 10 reasons to study in the US; 101 tips on the application process; scholarships from Indian sources; visa Q&A in consultation with the US Consulate, Mumbai; interviews with Stanford and Harvard university heads; application datelines; a special section for parents titled ‘heart to heart with indian parents’ among others.

Particularly useful is the chapter which includes the essays (SoPs) of Indian students which dazzled admission evaluators of blue-chip universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Columbia. The essays are discussed and dissected with the plus and minus points highlighted. “Many applicants tend to borrow SoPs from others and then modify it (sic). You may not be exposed to the kind of introspection and writing that applications to US universities demand. For many, the idea of writing itself is overwhelming and the nature of the questions makes them apprehensive. By including the essays of people who have gone through the process and written everything themselves, I want to illustrate that the task at hand may be different, but is not incredibly difficult,” explains the author, no mean correspondent herself who has written for publications such as The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Mid-day, Verve, Man’s World and Elle.

The overwhelmingly major preoccupation of Indian students aspiring to education abroad – scholarships and bursaries – is also addressed. There seems little awareness that the natural instinct of institutions of higher education in the industrialised nations is to levy higher tuition fees on foreign students than payable by natives. Nevertheless there is widespread belief that scholarships are available in plenty. Wanna Study provides a list of trusts and foundation which offer (usually grudging) scholarships and bursaries to merit students.

Though a useful guide to the growing number of students driven to foreign universities by the abysmal and declining Indian institutions of higher education being relentlessly dumbed down by politicians and educrats, the publication and reportedly enthusiastic reception to Wanna Study is a wake-up call to Indian academia. That a rising number of Indian students are ready to pay relatively huge tuition and residential costs abroad and endure the rigours of incrementally humiliating visa and admission processes is a severe indictment of India’s higher education system. Quite evidently Indian educationists and academics need to get their act together and canalise the huge annual outflow of hard currencies into their own cash-starved institutions. But this requires the practice rather than mere preaching of excellence in Indian academia.

Book Review: What! Me Travel?

Useful Primer
What! Me Travel? by Dan Rosendahl a.k.a. Traveldan; Frontage Publishing; Price: Rs.938; 284 pp

By common consensus the world’s largest and most high-potential industry is travel and
tourism. Last year (2002-03) 715 million people across the world spent US$4 trillion (Rs.19,200,000 crore) travelling across continents for reasons varying from business and education to leisure and health. France was the most popular destination, with 76.7 million tourists visiting the country. Spain came second (51.7 million) followed by the United States (45.4 million) in the tourism destination popularity chart. Italy, China and Britain were other popular choices.
In sharp contrast and despite its huge size (3,287,590 sq. km and mountains, hill stations, beach resorts and historic sites galore), India attracted a mere 2.5 million foreign visitors. But fortunately for the country, the domestic tourism industry is booming. A massive number of 60 million citizens travelled for business and pleasure within national borders. This despite a pathetic road infrastructure, chaotic and accident-prone trains and inflated airfares. But the some good news for the Indian traveller who wants to hit the road is the Union government’s ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ project (an estimated road network of 14,850 km, across the length and breadth of the country is being constructed at a cost of Rs.54,000 crore), slated for completion in 2007.
Though with mushrooming travel agencies, introduction of package tours and deals, online train reservation and the growth of the internet, travel has become much easier, the pitfalls have also multiplied commensurately. There is a mountain of groundwork – visas, reservations, itinerary planning, health and security clearances to contend with. With holidays having transformed into short duration, intensive experiences a small slip-up could prove ruinously expensive. What! Me Travel? by Dan Rosendahl a.k.a TravelDan is a travel guide which offers advice on the dos and don’ts of travel.
In this book, the best-selling US-based travel consultant Dan Rosendahl who has also authored 20,000 Vacations and The Good, Bad and Weirdest Places to Stay, following his bestseller 10,000 Vacations (1996) offers valuable advice on how to plan a holiday from scratch, how to clinch value-for-money deals and how to most enjoy your destination once you get there. The book comprises four sections: ‘Ten Commandments of Travel’ (Use common sense; know when and where; ask questions first; reserve after you decide; buy from someone you like; be a travel hero; keep your sense of humour; use a credit card), ‘Going, Going, Going’ (Trip Attack; travel agents and their ilk), ‘I’m There’ (Upon arrival; sight seeing; well fed; health is wealth; the dangers) and ‘Appendices’ (The 30 types of travellers; travel reservation helper; simple truths; the history of TravelDan; best country guide). Such a step-by-step travel guide is useful for novice and intermediate tourists as well as experienced travellers.
Unlike the usual travel guide, What! Me Travel? doesn’t tell you what to see, but how to make sure you get to your chosen destination smoothly and how to make the most of the experience. Therefore it’s a general rather than a destination-specific guide. Each chapter offers useful tips on saving time and money gathered by the author from years of experience in the travel industry and personal travel experiences.
The introduction titled ‘A subdued introduction or The Zen of Psycho-travel’ divides holidays into four different types: the weekend getaway (WEG), the vacation, the holiday and travelling. The distinctive character of each is described in detail so that the reader can choose the type that suits him best.
Each of the four sections of the book dwells upon a different facet of travel, viz, Section I: ‘The Ten Commandments of Travel’ advises the reader on how to start planning and researching for a dream holiday. Section II: ‘Going, Going, Going!’ contains information relating to different travel options (road, rail, sea, air), how to deal with travel agents, etc. Section III titled ‘I’m There’ tells you how to enjoy your trip once you are on the road, what to do on arrival, how to bargain to get the best deal, what to eat, how to take care of your health etc. Section IV titled ‘Appendices’ explains the jargon of the travel trade, describes 30 different types of travellers, is a travel reservation helper and also includes a biography of the author.
Unlike the many destination-specific travel books which crowd the bookstore shelves, this zanily written travel book offers a one-stop guide to travellers with clear instructions, referrals and amusing examples.
The book though well written and packed with hard information on budget travel, is too US-specific, with most of the website referrals catering to American travellers. But that doesn’t diminish its international appeal.
It is a useful primer as well for a first time traveller in the subcontinent who has been shackled to home and hearth for the past five decades by the chronic scarcity of “precious foreign exchange” and the perpetual scarcities created by the monopoly Indian Airlines and Indian Railways. Suddenly after the economic liberalisation initiative of 1991, the 50-year-old foreign exchange scarcity has been transformed into an embarrassing $80 billion surplus, and computerisation of reservation systems supplemented by the automobile revolution has boosted domestic travel. For such recently unshackled and enthusiastic new generation tourists, this is a particularly useful book.
It’ll get you more bang for your buck!

Book Review: Sadak Chhaap

Story of a Mumbai street kid
Sadak Chhaap by Meher Pestonji; Penguin Books; Price: Rs.250; 190 pp.

According to an Amnesty International report (1999), 18 million children eke out a hazardous existence on the mean streets of India’s ill-planned, under-served cities where 40-60 percent of the population live in squalid slums. With railway platforms, bus stations and other public spaces serving as their homes, doing odd jobs, scavenging rubbish dumps and begging, they are easy prey to paedophiles, gangsters, unscrupulous businessmen and drug and substance dealers. With no education, skills or training these children have to fend for themselves in an environment in which even the beat policeman is usually a predator.

Sadak Chhaap (‘Mark of the Street’) is a work of fiction based on the lives of street children in Mumbai. Its protagonist is ten years old. Rahul a typical street kid living on a railway platform. A sprightly lad, he has run away from a village which he himself doesn’t remember. But unlike his peers who are resigned to life on the street Rahul is determined to rise up and move out.

The main characters of the book are an eclectic mix of people ranging from Karim Bhai (a fruit stall owner and father figure), Bablu (his best friend, also a street kid), Aparna (who works at Sharan — a shelter for street children), Chameli (a flower seller on whom Rahul has a secret crush) and baby Kajol. There are other characters in supportive roles including street children Victor and Shekar, vendors Hamid, Heera etc, who are not quite fleshed out, but are important to complete the plot of the narrative.

Written by Meher Pestonji, a freelance journalist and social worker, whose earlier works include Mixed Marriage and Other Parsi Stories, Pervez: A Novel, and Piano for Sale, a play, Sadak Chhaap is the outcome of her voluntary work with street children in Mumbai. The narrative begins on a railway platform, where Rahul, feasting on a stolen mango spots a small package on a neighbouring bench. In the hope of chancing upon some food, clothes or a blanket, he opens the package to discover a half-burnt baby with ants crawling all over her face. He runs to Sharan and approaches Aparna who heads the shelter, to rescue the child.

The child is taken to hospital for treatment and is saved in the nick of time. Rahul christens her Kajol after his favourite Bollywood movie star. Soon Kajol is moved to an orphanage in Vashi, a distant suburb of Mumbai and in appreciation of his good turn, Rahul is offered the job of a gardener in the orphanage. He seems to be moving up in life, but typically the management of the institution demands a stiff price in terms of total obedience and conformity. For the small misdemeanour of sneaking out to watch a movie and meeting his old friends on the street, he is found out and sacked from his job. Kajol is given away in adoption and Rahul is denied the privilege of meeting with her.

Without shelter and jobless again, Rahul shifts base to the streets near the Gateway of India which offer new challenges. To survive on these mean streets he begins running drugs and becomes a male prostitute at the age of twelve. On one such sexual assignment Rahul is badly abused by a firang (foreign) sexual pervert, Greg. This traumatic experience plunges him into further despair for which drugs are the only pain killers. But his friends at Sharan rescue him and enroll him for detox sessions.

Pestonji weaves a fast-paced and absorbing narrative which is a window looking out on the brutal streets of Mumbai, where millions of impoverished children are left to fend for themselves. Living in the shadows of the city’s plush 5-star hotels where gastronomic excess and effete luxury are a way of life, for these Fagin’s children hunger is a constant companion. Rahul steals a bicycle to save bus fare; lies to keep Kajol within reach and eventually succumbs to the lure of affectionate paedophiles. Pestonji’s vocab and descriptive power highlights the despair of these helpless children and her portrayal of street life has the stamp of authenticity. Moreover the direct, simple and sensitive plot into which her social message is woven, makes compelling reading.

Sadak Chhaap is a simply told tale whose subtext is a campaign against the neglect and abuse of India’s huge population of street children. But its major infirmity is that it is recounted as a breathless narrative of episodes and adventures in quick succession. There is a conspicuous dearth of analysis of the causative factors proliferation of street children. Surely Aparna who heads the NGO Sharan would have some macro level explanation? To accept the status quo as the natural order of things is suggestive of excessive pessimism if not a morality. Moreover Pestonji seems oblivious of the reality that some street children have — with a little help from NGOs and social workers — risen from the streets and gone on great things. A note of optimism could have retrieve the gloom which pervades the novel.

Also towards the end, Pestonji seems to lose the thread of the narrative and veers into a denunciation of communalism, making a passing reference to the Gujarat riots of 2002. This is a rather unnecessary inclusion and strikes a jarring chord which is out of sync with the major issues the novel confronts — homelessness, drug addiction, child marriage and sex tourism.

Book Review: Discover Your Destiny With The Monk who sold his Ferrari

Useful motivational guide
Discover Your Destiny With The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma; Jaico Books; Price: Rs.175; 220 pp

I read and reviewed this book when I was in India hence the tone may be a little different. India is a huge market for self-improvement books. Legend has it that the most successful title in Indian book publishing history is How to Improve Your Correspondence, first published in the 1930s and since reprinted hundreds of times. In a rapidly growing economy, youth in the world's largest democracy have a constant quest to enhance their personalities and hence lap up self-improvement books in a big way.

Into this scenario comes Discover Your Destiny With The Monk who sold his Ferrari, a sequel to the bestseller The Monk who sold his Ferrari authored by Robin Sharma. A US-based lawyer-turned-motivational speaker Sharma is ranked among the world’s premier self-improvement gurus and has authored six other books, including The Monk who sold his Ferrari, which reportedly sold over four million copies worldwide. Founder-CEO of Sharma Leadership International (SLI), Sharma is the star of his own PBS television show and lectures over 200,000 people a year at his overbooked international seminars which attract audiences of up to 10,000. He has also shared speaking platforms with high-profile individuals including former US president Bill Clinton, holistic healer Dr. Deepak Chopra, author Richard Carlson and counsellor Dr. John Gray.

Promoted as a handbook which offers seven steps to self-realisation, Discover Your Destiny is recounted as a narrative, detailing the story of Dar Sanderson, a 43-year-old successful entrepreneur who has a nice home, and a steadily increasing income but suffers on the personal and home fronts. Fed up with his odd timings and obsessive business overdrive, his wife walks out on him with their three children. Deeply depressed, Sanderson takes to drinking, loses his fitness and health and attempts a desperate suicide bid by shooting himself in a shabby motel room. Just as he is about to pull the trigger, he feels dizzy and collapses on the floor. As he lies writhing with fearful seizures he experiences a revelatory vision. "Your life is a treasure and you are so much more than you know," intones a voice which pierces his deepest being.

Later a chance encounter with Julian Mantle — a hotshot lawyer turned monk who has learnt the secrets of lasting success from sages in the Himalayas — sets Sanderson upon an exciting and educative six-month odyssey to discover himself and reclaim the life of his dreams. As he journeys down the path to self-discovery, Sanderson learns about the seven paths every person must walk if he/ she wishes to experience lasting happiness and personal and spiritual development.

In the ten chapters, Sharma provides useful answers to questions that inhibit every mind and prevent people from innovating or undertaking great enterprises for fear of failure or ridicule. There are useful pointers on ‘How to trust in your limitless potential’; ‘How to avoid the crime of self-betrayal’; ‘ How to realize the life of your dreams’; ‘How to transform fear into fortune’; ‘How to discover your true calling’; ‘How to turn events that test you into experiences that reward you’; ‘How to find the love you want’, among others.

I can’t help admitting that despite its folksy tenor, Discover Your Destiny provides a useful road map to self-improvement. This book could well be a catalyst for self-transformation and could stimulate readers to stop leading mundane lives by lighting a path for those lacking self-belief and wallowing in despair. It has potential to deliver the happiness, prosperity and inner peace to which everyone is entitled. Sharma has successfully combined eastern wisdom with western management principles in this absorbing practical guide, which offers the reader a simple blueprint for a beautiful life. A motivational guide, especially for the timorous and faint-hearted who lack courage to follow their dreams, it could, however have done with better typography and layout. But then Jaico is Jaico.

Book Review: Eleven Minutes

Saga of self discovery

Cover of Eleven Minutes

The story begins with the author writing “Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria”, then halts jerkily and ironically addresses the reader regarding the appropriateness of using these words. In the initial chapters Eleven Minutes seems to be confused, a book that cannot decide whether it wants to be fairy tale or saga of sexual discovery and ends satisfying neither of the demands. In his dedication, the best selling Brazilian novelist Coelho, whose works include the internationally best selling The Alchemist, The Fifth Mountain and By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept tells readers that his book will deal with issues that are “harsh, difficult, shocking,” but neither the inane descriptions of sadism and masochism nor his detailed and elaborate observations of female anatomy and the hardly new fact that most women are dissatisfied with their sex lives will shock readers. “Some books make us dream, others bring us face to face with reality, but what matters most to the author is the honesty with which a book is written,” writes Coelho as if substantiating his introduction.

Eleven Minutes tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. Her girlhood experiments with romance convince her that love is a delusion, or at least it is not for her. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love and instead starts believing that “Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer...” Attaining her majority, she becomes a shop salesgirl with limited career prospects. Her striking beauty attracts several young men to her including the owner of the shop she works in. Her introduction to sexual pleasure and how she tries to find the sacred sex in her various boyfriends is described in simple language and great and sometimes unnecessary detail. While on a vacation to Rio de Janeiro Maria comes into contact with a Swiss tourist looking to hire dancers for his club in Geneva. She accepts his offer and travels to Geneva with the hope of realising her dreams of finding fame and fortune. Starting off as a lowly paid dancer in Geneva, Maria soon ends up working as a high-class prostitute. Her journey from being a restaurant dancer to a high-class call girl, her philosophical exploration of sexual love, her explicit quasi-philosophical diary entries makes the book overall an interesting reading.

Beginning to work as a prostitute, Maria drifts further and further away from love and slowly develops a fascination for sex. In the process of her exploration with sex she arrives at a conclusion that eleven minutes is all that is required for a sexual act. The title of the book – Eleven Minutes – refers to the hypothetical average duration for an act of coitus as described by Maria. “It’s really only forty-five minutes, and if you allow time for taking off clothes, making some phoney gesture of affection, having a bit of banal conversation and getting dressed again, the amount of time spent actually having sex is about eleven minutes,” writes the author echoing Maria’s thoughts about why men so powerful and arrogant at work, constantly having to deal with employees, customers, suppliers, prejudices, secrets, hypocrisy, fear and oppression, ended their day in a nightclub.

Eventually, her despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets internationally famous, rich and handsome young painter Ralf Hart. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to discover her own “inner light” and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love. In this daring, but rather slow-paced – and at times downright boring – novel, Coelho sensitively explores the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our own prejudices and demons and embrace our own “inner light”.

The narrative, constantly alternating between third-person narration about the heroine and first-person excerpts from her diaries embeds itself firmly in Maria’s perceptions, experiences, emotions and dreams as she struggles to understand life. Coelho’s prose -- at least in the fluid English translation by Margaret Jull Costa -- is simple, straightforward and easily understandable, Eleven Minutes is an easy read, as easy to assimilate as water. On the downside however, none of the characters other than Maria and, to some extent, Ralf, is described any deeper than his functionality demands. For instance, Maria’s best friend in Geneva is a female librarian known as “the librarian”.

It can easily be argued that Coelho’s first smash hit, The Alchemist (1993), set the template for Maria’s story. The shepherd in that earlier novel is bent on living out his ‘personal legend’ through a voyage of self-exploration, so is Maria in the book under review. Both decry the failure to dream and the impossibility of living the dreams of others. The two characters even buck themselves up in near-identical terms. The shepherd: “He had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in search of his treasure.” Maria: “I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure.” While The Alchemist was almost asexual in its romance, this novel revels in the physicality of love and thus serves to complement the earlier book.

According to Coelho sex is civilization’s core problem, and that it’s far more serious and worrisome than terrorism or environmental degradation. With the way world’s population is exploding every day, Coelho maybe right after all.

Book Review: Digital Fortress

Cover of Digital Fortress: A Thriller

Pale Comparison

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown; Corgi Books; Price: Rs.567; 510 pp

Dan Brown author of the Da Vinci Code which has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for an unprecedented three years is assured of a place of honour in book publishing history. This religious history thriller which advances an outrageous proposition, has spawned a cult following and several connected industries. To cash in on the outstanding success of Da Vinci Code, publishers not surprisingly reprinted his earlier works expecting newly won Brown fans to lap them up with the same enthusiasm.

This reviewer bought the reprinted Digital Fortress expecting a replay of the riveting plot which made Da Vinci Code a transnational bestseller. But unfortunately it pales in comparison. Digital Fortress (first published in 1998), though a la Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced thriller, is set in cyberspace and doesn’t have the same optimal mix of art, adventure, popular history and romance. In Digital Fortress Brown, a former English and creative writing teacher, explores the subject of internet security and how e-mail messages, popularly perceived as a never-before safe and secure mode of instant communication, can be accessed and read by enemy security agencies across the world. It’s a gripping techno-thriller alright, but likely to appeal only to technophiles and computer geeks.

The book begins with an emergency within the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) where its state-of-the-art advanced tech code-breaking computer ‘TRANSLTR’ with more than a million processors, encounters a mysterious code it can’t break. Trevor Strathmore, deputy director of the agency summons NSA head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant mathematician to break the mysterious code. What she uncovers sends shock waves through corridors of governmental power. NSA is being held hostage by software so complex that if not decrypted in time it will cripple America’s global intelligence gathering network. Thus begins a real or rather virtual war in cyberspace, where the ‘bomb’ (an encryption algorithm) will explode, exposing the entire American defence ministry’s intelligence data to any and everyone.

The villain in Digital Fortress is Ensie Tankado, a mathematics wizard, encryption software expert and former NSA employee, who scripts a coded algorithm with the potential to cripple NSA’s capability of accessing data transmitted on the information superhighway. It is this code which has stumped the TRANSLTR. Born with deformed fingers due to the effects of nuclear radiation his mother suffered when Hiroshima was nuked in 1945, Tankado grows up nurturing a deep-seated hatred of the United States. Later he reads about Japanese war crimes and Pearl Harbour and his hatred for America slowly fades. He starts learning about computers in his 12th year and by 20, Tankado is a cult figure among programmers and is offered a job in Texas by IBM. Thereafter, Tankado rides a wave of fame and fortune writing algorithms, prompting NSA to offer him a job in its crypto team.

A human rights activist, Tankado quits NSA when he learns that through TRANSLTR the agency can access and open every e-mail message and reseal it without anybody the wiser. A firm believer of the Latin aphorism quis custodiet ipsos custodes (who will guard the guardians?) he tries to go public about TRANSLTR and its capability with the help of Electronic Frontier Foundation — an online group of people championing the right to privacy — but is captured, accused of spying and deported to Japan. To take revenge for his disgraceful exit from the NSA and US, Tankado designs Digital Fortress and unleashes it on TRANSLTR.

Digital Fortress holds the reader’s attention from start to finish, despite some elaborate descriptions of processors and code breaking algorithms which could put off technophobes. But everyone is likely to experience an uneasiness about the internet and e-mail after reading this book, a feeling born out of the realisation that somewhere across the world, someone may be reading your online correspondence. Technophiles on the other hand may get to work on evolving their own unbreakable codes to encrypt their e-mail, in the awareness that a TRANSLTR clone could be eavesdropping.

An updated version of Big Brother could be watching…