First Impression
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The Omega Scroll; Adrian d' Hage; Penguin; Rs. 195
AFTER the incredible success of The Da Vinci Code, it seems almost every church in Europe has dark mystical secrets that need telling. If The Da Vinci Code was the original in its genre, then books like The Omega Scroll are faithful reproductions, never straying too far from the original formula.
Set in the late 1970s, this is all about human civilisation, as well as the Vatican's impregnable fortress of secrecy. With an ailing Pope unable to reign in his staff and a viciously greedy and ambitious second-in-command, the Vatican, once again true to stereotyping, is ready to fall prey to the ambitions and desires of one man. Cardinal Lorenzo Petronni has his eyes fixed on the Keys of St. Peter and nothing will stop him from getting there, not even a few human lives, which he reasons can easily be dealt with in the "Italian fashion".
But when a fellow member, Giovanni Donelli is unexpectedly made cardinal, Petronni feels the heat and finds ways to eliminate him, especially since the new cardinal insists on looking into the affairs of the Vatican bank. Then there is a nosy journalist looking into Petronni's past, his alleged links with some of the more unsavoury members of the clergy and the redoubtable Dr Allegra Basetti who insists on pursuing the contents of the deadly Omega Scroll. Lost to mankind some 2,000 years ago, the Scroll apparently contains a terrible warning to civilisation and some numbers, which the Vatican fears the most.
The perfect book to read on a long and dreary haul. You don't need to tax your mind. Like a good Bollywood film, this one sticks with the tried and tested.
Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki; Deepti Priya Mehrotra; Penguin, Rs. 295.
WHEN 12-year-old Gulab joined the nautanki, she became the first female performer of this art.
Over the years Gulab Bai's fame spread all over India. She not only lent her powerful voice to Nautanki, but also infused in it her entire personality.
It was north India's most popular form of entertainment and it wasn't long before Gulab Bai was considered the epitome of wit and wisdom.
As a member of the Bedia caste, Gulab Bai managed to draw her sisters and daughter into this art form. She was awarded the Padma Shri in recognition of all that she did for Nautanki.
Yet she died a sad and disillusioned woman when she saw then art languishing with the onslaught of cinema.
But hers is a fascinating tale of emancipation in a society that did not respect its women, of intrigue and the freedom to choose when many suffered silently.
Gulab Bai's life and that of Nautanki are inextricably linked and one cannot be told without reference to the other.
The Fourth Monkey; Sushil Gupta; Indialog; Rs. 195.
WHEN Madan Swaroop takes up an assignment to teach English at the university in Bhutan, he does so after much soul searching. Here he is, in his fifties, alone and then not quite.
His wife of 25 years has decided to take sanyas. Swaroop should not have been surprised at her move. The signs were always there in his strange marriage to this beautiful woman where he shared his conjugal rights with "her God".
His unconventional life led to some strange and funny moments but none that he couldn't handle. They even managed a child.
But spirituality overcomes all and his wife finally leaves to live as a hermit.
Swaroop reaches Bhutan and is charmed by its quaintness and its people. And then because he is that sort of guy he drifts into his students' lives.
Even as he decides against a sexual liaison with anyone he is unwillingly drawn into an "encounter". But he's not complaining.
While the author tries to draw some clever parallels between Swaroop's sexual desires and cricket most of it comes across as crass. Unfortunately for the book, it is neither hardcore pornography nor a sophic tale.
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