Review - Vermilion Harvest : Playtime at the Bagh

 

Vermilion Harvest : Playtime at the Bagh
by
Reenita M. Hora

312 pages, Indignor House, Inc.

Genre: Historical Fiction

“Mumma. She said that from the moment you are born,
you start your journey to Bhagavan-ji ka ghar. Such a long
journey can take all your life. So … how are all these people
going to get there without their chappals?” - Gopal


It is the time of the satyagraha ( truth and firmness)  in the Indian subcontinent when people are protesting non-violently against the Rowlatt Act which gave power to the British govt to arrest, torture and kill any person of the Indian subcontinent after declaring them as terrorists or enemies of the Empire.

Aruna Duggal is an Anglo Indian school teacher. Born as a result of rape of her Punjabi mother by her unknown British army father, she and her mother face ostracism from both her mother's Punjabi Hindu community and also the British community in general. However she falls in love with Ayaz, a Muslim law student who is also a Gandhian freedom fighter thanks to their fondness for Jane Austen's novel -Pride and Prejudice. Her best friend is Amrita Singh, a Sikh homemaker and mother of young Gopal. They are all young and hopeful in 1919.

Set against the backdrop of Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar which fell on Baisakhi (Punjabi Harvest Festival) and when people gathered to celebrate the festival while some to protest peacefully against the Rowlatt Act  and the arrest of pro-independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr.Satyapal  who symbolized unity of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, the book examines what it really means to be human. Hora ponders using the Jallianwala Bagh massacre if all those who fought for freedom from British colonization of the subcontinent, really got what they wanted or what they dreamed of in 1919 - a free subcontinent and instead  of what we did in 1947 - a partition of the subcontinent into three countries with people still struggling with scars even after 75 years.  Those who died in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar would have never accepted the partition.

Hora's writing style is crisp, fast paced, sensitive and heartbreaking. It is a well researched book that makes you wonder about hyphenated identities of people in the subcontinent. Everyone is a minority here. The narrative is unique as it tells it from an Anglo-Indian perspective which also covers how the unfounded fear from the British administration that led to the massacre thanks to General Dyer who yelled" Fire" without even asking the people to disperse which made it a turning point in the freedom struggle.

I don't know why this book hit me so hard and made me cry. Is it because from July 1, 2024, Indians will face a modified version of Rowlatt Act in India? Or is because I have always felt, that partition was a double insult to the freedom fighters  who dreamed of a unified subcontinent with free people and never of partition and the British cheated us of it? I don't know. All I know is that this book is a must read for all.

It is a unique book. Buy it here - AMAZON

Book Review - Babanango Trilogy - A Rougher Task

Babanango Trilogy - Part 1
A Rougher Task
by DJG Palmer
Cranthorpe Millner Publishers
344 Pages, 2024



What was the main reason for Britons joining the Army during the Victorian Era? Was it just patriotism or poverty? Who is a sapper and who is an officer? Why did the British invade Africa and Asia? DJG Palmer answers this and more in his part 1 of his trilogy, A Rougher Task.

Albert Bond finds himself penniless and friendless as his father dies while doing business and leaves him in debt which he repays by having to sell off everything he has including the golden pocket watch his parents presented him with for his 21st birthday. He plans to marry Clara who is the daughter of a retired Colonel but he doesn't have a respectable income. So he hopes to seek his fortune by joining the Army after due training at the Royal Military Academy just as Clara's father and his maternal Uncle Captain AW McGonagle.

As a gentleman officer, he is required to have a batman/sapper and he is lucky it is Jack Coleman who is a good looking, dutiful chap who has joined the Army because of poverty. However Bond is not too fond of his maternal uncle who has done a tour of India and now lives in Africa as his reputation in the Army is that of a maniac that Bond hides his correspondence with him so as not ruin his own reputation.

Bond and Coleman get on well despite their difference in class and rank. When their company is sent off to South Africa, so that they can fight the Zulus, they all get excited as they leave Chatham in 1878. It made me laugh that the Queen's regulations for a ship traveling to either Africa or India meant - a horse had 125 cubic feet of space while an officer had 175 and they stuck to it loyally. If two officers shared a cabin, then it was 275 cubic ft. while a sapper had only 50 ft. Some stuff like this are crazy and hilarious at the same time.

This book is all over the place as it is the first part introducing too many characters but is mostly about the brewing bromance between Bond and Coleman. There is the battle with Zulus which for the first time though fiction is an honest account, actually shows how scared and disorganised the British were when they fought, how terrified they were of Zulus when they first met them in the battle field which Brits would have lost but for their superior weaponry, etc. The McGonagle monologue might be okay for someone like me in India who knows about the sepoy mutiny but can be confusing for most people. 

For those who are interested in history, colonialism and war strategy - this would be a great read.

Buy it here    AMAZON

Abilene - Book review

 

Abilene

By Dare Delano

Genre: Fiction

 

“We are all going off to battle and we have no idea what we are in for” – Chapter 34

Len is a 12-year-old kid who longs to know the identity of her father as her mother Coralee refuses to tell her and neither does any in her mother's family or anyone in the small town of Abilene. Why are they all being so secretive in Texas? Len wonders if her parents broke up because her mom became pregnant with her. In her search for her father, we are also introduced to her grandmother Lorelai, her aunt Jean and Len friend’s mother Doris. Will Len find her father ?

Does really getting to know the identity of your dad that important? Does it even matter if your father is not around when you have a loving family of women to take care of you? In this so-called patriarchal world does it even matter who the father is when women are independent and can take care of themselves and their loved ones? This is the larger question the book deals with. Sure, there are good men but do women need men to live their lives all the time? When Len says, “I am enough”, you realize the strength of the human female.

I don’t think I have ever read a book that punches you in the gut and wants you to save the characters from disappointment, emotional and physical abuse like this one. The novel has multiple POV (Points of View) of women in different age groups. However, it is a relatively smooth read.

Initially, I thought the story was about Len but then with so many women telling their stories, it is hard not to recognize many women in our lives and society as Dare Delano narrates the story of one family. To think this is a debut novel surprised me as the author carefully captures the emotions of women in her novel. While I guessed how it would end, the twists and turns keeps you going at a pace that makes it a must read for all women.

 

To buy the book, go to Amazon 

Book review : Black Fox One

 

Black Fox One
by
Elyse Hoffman
Genre : Fiction


Ava and Jonas are teenage sweethearts and friends. They truly believe Hitler is the right candidate and will do good for Germany. One fine day, Ava and her entire family disappears and no one in the neighbourhood knows what happened to them. Distraught, Jonas joins the SS and while trying to uncover the Black Fox network of gentiles and Jews who help the Jews escape the holocaust, he catches many and send them to their deaths. Jonas believes in the cause as he searches for Ava who feels he lost because of the Jews. He is given the nickname Fox Hunter by Reinhard Heydrich.

Jonas is given a mission - he has to hunt and capture Black Fox One who will be executed when they open the Fox Farm which will house most of the Black Foxes. Will he capture Black Fox One or will he get captured and killed? Will he find Ava finally or will Ava find him?  Read the book to find out.

What I liked about the book is though the Black Fox network didn't exist, Reinhard Heydrich did and he was nicknamed as the "Man with the Iron Heart" by none other than Hitler. Most people know about Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler but don't know much about Reinhard Heydrich or Alfred Rosenberg because their area of operation was Eastern Europe. The author uses these people in her books to shed more light on what actually happened like how a ship filled with Jews were turned away by both USA and Canada and were forced to return to Europe. While the UK took some of them in, the rest died. This happens in most genocide situations worldwide like the Sri Lankan genocide of Tamils in 2009 when a boat full of Tamils escaped but Australian govt.  refused to let them in and most of them died in international waters. All were democratic nations who refused help.

The book is fast paced and shows how normal, decent people can quickly turn against a people following a minority religion in a democratic country when right wing hate filled leaders are elected. The propaganda machine of the right wing makes it such that you are patriotic or anti-national. The quick dehumanizing of the "other" leads to majority of people unleashing violence on a scale that is unimaginable. That this is now happening worldwide across nations makes this book almost contemporary non-fiction.

If you wish to buy the book, go here ➤  Amazon

Book Review : The Vengeance of Samuel Val by Elyse Hoffman

The Vengeance Of Samuel Val
by
Elyse Hoffman
110 Pages, Project 613 Publishing

Khruvina is a tiny, backwater village in Belarus, Soviet Union. Young Samuel Val lives there with his parents and sisters and hopes to become the Rabbi of Khruvina when he grows up. Instead he finds himself the only survivor as his village is burned to the ground by Germans headed by Viktor Naden aka the beast of Belarus, under orders from Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was described by Hitler as the "Man with the iron heart."  Sam is shot and left for dead but survives and joins the Black Fox underground network which frees Jews and puts them up in safe houses. When Sam is on a mission to bring back a fellow Jew namely Amos, they accidentally end up in a safe house run by Naden's wife and daughter. Will he have his revenge or will he spare them because the German wife and daughter of Naden are helping the  Jews escape?

From Belarus to Germany, Hoffman spins a tale of horror, inhumanity with flickers of humanity and extreme sadness thrown in between. One cannot think it is just a fiction based on the Holocaust of the past as you see this is being repeated again and again in the genocides across the world making you wonder what is wrong  with human nature that fascism is taking such a strong hold on mankind nowadays. Is ignorance or love an excuse to forgive a barbarian? There is a wonderful debate in the story about redemption and repentance.

The writing style is crisp and the pace is fast. This book reminded me of the recent horror in Manipur, India and we do not know yet all of the stories as it is still ongoing and everyone is aware of the ethnic cleansing.  While synagogues and churches have been destroyed, numerous villages have been burnt leaving many homeless and as internal refugees in India. That Hoffman's story is still valid as genocide is still happening in Asia, makes this book all the more important.

If you wish to buy it, go here  Amazon      - available from Sept 1, 2023 but you can pre-order it now.

The Viking -Gael Saga - book review

 The Viking Gael Saga
by J.T.T.Ryder                                                                                                                    Genre: Historical fiction

Asgeir and his brother Odd lose a duel to Ulf and his son Rolf.  While Odd gets killed, Asgeir is now a deckhand on Ulf's ship and is even unable to attend the funeral of Odd. What adventures will he face when he goes a'viking or works as a pirate on Ulf's ship?  Will he survive the ordeal and return home to his mother with his honor intact? This is the first part of the book which gives the background to the Denmark, Norwary and Finland history through the novel and also the meaning and origin of the words in English like Wednesday, Thursday, troll, etc.

The writing is good but since the author is an archeologist and also has a sequel to this one we are yet to get to the Gael part of it as Asgeir is half Irish and half Norse though he grows up in Norway. It also explains why there are certain laws in Scandinavia today that is a result of past history.  Since the story is set in 870 AD, it is more of the pirate and honor history.

It is an interesting strange tale, the likes of which I have never read as the plot keeps twisting and holds the reader's attention. This is eyeopener of a story and the original pirates were the Norse. I've always wondered why the Vikings came all the way down to South India and ended up building the Tranquebar fort. This book made me understand a bit of pirate history and also why so many pirates were one eyed! It was surprising to learn that the Norse had slavery of their own apart from the heathen gods.

If you would like to buy this book, go here to Amazon

 

Recycled Prisoners - book review

 

Recycled Prisoners is a short story that covers a part of history that most narratives leave out. While most of us know about Hitler and Goebbels suicide, I was surprised to find out that in a single day in Berlin alone over 8000 Germans committed suicide. This is about Robin and Stacy who are childhood friends and have one thing in common - they both have nightmares as they relive their past lives as two men ( Hermann Lett and Viktor Steinman ) from Prague who committed suicide in Auschwitz. As a result of their nightmares, Robin and Stacy are unable to lead normal lives and how they get out of this nightmare cycle is what the story is about. It is a fascinating premise as they become prisoners of the nightmares from a previous birth.

I wish it had been a book instead of a short story. The writing is crisp and it makes you wonder if this can happen.

If you wish this short ebook, you can click to buy on Amazon