Author: Khushwant Singh/ Publisher: Grove Press/ ISBN: 9780802132215

Arthi is back to pen her thoughts down and so is Train to Pakistan - one of my long-loved books. Here's a guest post, the book review of Train to Pakistan. 

Although I have read a lot of books since I was 10, this is my first book review. Thanks to Rahul who inspired (read as forced) me into this one ;)

Train to Pakistan is a book based on the partition of India Pakistan right after India's independence. It takes us to the summer of 1947 to Mano Majra, a tiny village in Punjab.

The partition means almost nothing to the local villagers and all is well between the Sikh farmers and Muslim tenants of the village until the local money lender Ram Lal is murdered. Jugga and the England-returned social activist become the prey of Punjab police. The heavy drama shifts drastically when an eastbound train makes an unplanned stop at Mano Majra, coaches full of corpses. The flabbergasted villagers have not yet accepted the truth when reality slaps them once again when Sutlej floods from neighbouring village. Action paces on as the magistrate, Jugga, Iqbal (the social activist) and village heads try to tackle the revolting violence. Also, the attitude of local police and niggling government officials is very nicely portrayed. The end, however, leaves a lot of open threads. Once I was about 4 - 5 pages away from the end, I was keen to know how will he end the series of misfortunes in the village. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed since I was expecting something out of Mr Iqbal as well. But to sum it up, Mr Singh's eye to detail makes it a total page-turner. Train to Pakistan gets a "Must Read" tag.

Author: Chetan Bhagat/ Publisher: Rupa & Co/ ISBN: 9788129115300

Just finished reading Two States and thought of sharing its review. Two States is fourth in line from Chetan Bhagat after blockbusters Five point someone, One night at call centre and Three mistakes of my life. (What’s with the numbers here? Chetan Bhagat really seems to be a superstitious, as all his books start with numbers.)

Statutory Note: If you are thinking that this book is going to be different from his previous writings, then don’t buy it - instead, borrow it from a friend. ;-)

The story goes like this: There is a girl and a boy; they meet as classmates; become friends; fall in love and decide to get married. Here is where they hit a roadblock - the boy is a Punjabi and girl is a Tamilian and this is where the book gets its name from: Two States (of India?). What follows is a long drama of how the boy and girl struggle to convince each other’s family and the hard fact that an average Indian was, is and will always be (I hope not) against inter-caste marriages.