The Man Who Became Khali by Dalip Singh Rana/Vinit K. Bansal (Book Review-2.5*/5) !!!

Reading biographies about sportsmen really charges you up and makes you motivated towards changing your lifestyle as soon as possible. I have read many autobiographies and biographies of personalities belonging to different professions like politics, manufacturing, sports, movies, film making, entrepreneurship etc. Each time I have read an autobiography, I have felt motivated to do something big with my life and it has changed something in my routine. Even reading Karan Johar’s autobiography did that to me which has nothing related to me. Such books definitely raise the bar about how an autobiography/biography has to be written. I just ended up reading The Great Khali’s autobiography titled as “The Man who became Khali”. The book is co-authored by Vinit K. Bansal who generally writes love stories.

Khali’s life has been very dramatic and knowing his struggles and hurdles that he passed during his childhood years is really painful and inspiring. How he changed his destiny from being a labour to bodybuilder to constable to Mr. Punjab to a wrestler before trying many other sports too. The way he narrates how not being educated made him make fool of his own life at many turning points makes you realize how important education and literacy is. His love for his wife is also evident in the two chapters that is totally dedicated to her. The way he takes tough decisions for his family shows that behind the huge physique there’s a caring and emotional man.

The book is written as a Wikipedia article where you get to know in which year Khali did what. It tells you his journey right from his childhood to the recent years. It tells you about his personality that he gets angry whenever he faces humiliation which makes him do something big and different. The book also tells that Khali takes his own decision and doesn’t listen to anyone even his father. But, there’s a very big problem with this autobiography. Anyone who keeps an autobiography expects to know the minute details about that personality as we are interested in going inside the mind of that person and not through the timeline of events in his life.

Nowhere is it mentioned that what kind of exercises Khali went through. Everyone is interested in knowing Khali’s diet which is never talked about. What did his family feel when he came on the television for the first time is not narrated anywhere. Is WWE rigged or not is never discussed which is the main thing which should have been talked about in the book. How did he manage to learn the little bit of English that he knows is not shared with the readers. How hard, difficult or funny it was to act for movies and advertisements is not described. His fear while fighting with his opponents is never discussed. The book is written with a purpose to just tell what Khali did in each phase of his life but you will never get to know who Khali really is, what he really thinks, what he is passionate about except sports etc. Overall, it is not an impressive autobiography at all. I give it 2.5* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA – VEERU!!! 

The Four Patriots by Sumit Agarwal (Book Review- 2.5*/5) !!!

I have been reading lots of books published by Rupa publications recently and to my surprise, I have liked most of them. But as it is said, not always roses smell the same. This time I picked up “The Four Patriots” written by the debutante, Sumit Agarwal. The cover page of the book and the synopsis made me very eager to read the story as I found the theme very interesting and intriguing about how four boys in unrelated professions will end up coming together to save the nation from the hands of the politicians who are eating and killing it since years. But I feel that the author has not been able to do complete justice with the theme. 

The writing style of the author is simple which will make the new readers interested in the book. The best part of the book for me has been the initial 100 chapters where the characters and their backgrounds are being disclosed to the readers. It is done in such a wonderful way that the book already becomes your favorite by then. But after that you want the book to reach another level with its chapters and the decisions and actions each of these four characters will take but unfortunately, the story does not take off after that. Only the first half is page-turner till the time the momentum is been built.

The problem with the book has been the individuality of all the characters even when they come together in the second half. Also, not all the characters are treated equally to make you believe that each one of them played their part well. Author keeps on concentrating only on one or two characters while others just play cameo in between. This is where the disappointment scales high as each of them is introduced as unparalleled hero in the initial chapters. Also, there is too much of politics and governance part included in the book which eventually makes the book sound as if the action is done by someone who is a big time politician and not by a common man. Some parts are so over-descriptive that you want to skip it. Overall, I am glad with the attempt of the author that he wants a message to spread across the youth but unhappy with the execution. I rate the book 2.5* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA – VEERU!!! 

31 Miles by Vinita Bakshi (Book Review- 2*/5) !!!

There are some books which aren’t that lengthy but it takes you a lot of time to complete them. And it is because they become such a bore after a time that reading out each sentence becomes a hell of a job. I admit that I have never skipped pages or sentences between any books even if I find them the most boring thing on Earth. I recently picked up book written by Vinita Bakshi named “31 Miles”. It also has the tagline “Can we ever win against ourselves?” The book has been complimented by Imtiaz Ali and the foreword has been written by Rajiv Makhni. Seeing all this, I had very high expectations with the story but I am deeply disappointed with the outcome.

Vinita Bakshi’s command on the language is undoubtedly unbeatable and she has the skill sets to challenge some bestselling authors of India. But the problem lies with the narration. She gets stuck in a section of the story and keeps on repeating the same until it sucks out all the excitement out of the reader. Even when the story is fast paced and short, it feels as if you are not turning pages anymore. The same thing is retold. The same emotion of a character is defined every time with different formation of sentences. The same type of conversation keeps happening between the character of protagonist and Rajan. The same consequences take place every time after the conversation. This makes the story sound totally boring and uninteresting.

Talking about the climax, I would have rated the book at par even if the ending would have done some justice to it. But it isn’t as fascinating as I expected it to be. When the words like Karma and Dharma are used, you already know what will happen and by whom and to whom. There is not much in it then to surprise you. Same has happened with the climax of this book. Though its intriguing to read how the unexpected takes place but it somewhere got predictable since the pre-climax section begun. Overall, I would say that the narration of the author could have changed the whole outcome of this novel. I give this book just 2 stars out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA – VEERU!!!