India : From Midnight to the Millennium

Rating:
Summary: Too Much negative views on India
Review: I do n't know why but more and more Indian authors are joining western media and try to bring out only negative things about India. We know there are many problems in India. But I thought true journalism is where you show both the sides. Mr. Tharoor has completely ignored software industry of India. He could have come out with the suggestion that India has done very well in this field. let us foucus our resources in this field and take the maximum advantage of the momentum. It seems like Mr.Tharoor has a hard time accepting any positive views on India. For example he quotes Mr. William Rees-Mogg of London Times, anyone who wants to understand the modern world must make a personal passage to India, which has the deepest and most resilient culture of teh four likely economic superpower of the next century, more stable and politically advanced than Chiana, not yet denatured by the moderninism of the United Sttes and Europe. Mr. Tharoor does not give any detail explanation on why Mr. Rees-Mogg is wrong on his analysis.

I find this book very distrubing.

Rating:
Summary: An Honest and Brilliant Depiction of Contemporary India.
Review: India is a land of immeasurable contrasts and unending controversies and I feel Mr Sashi Karoor has captured that spirit successfully in his book. The glory of India's past, the variety in the present way of life, the elements that unite Indians in spite of their differences, the political and ecnomic struggles of Indians as a nation, all come alive in this well-written book. The book is very articulate about India's 50 year history both political and social, emphatic about the triumphs as a nation and honest about the challenges ahead.

The autobiographical elements of the book make it attractive to an inquisistve reader. Many Keralites can relate to Sashi who was "born in London, brought up in Bombay, went to school in Calcutta, attended college in Delhi and received my doctorate in the United States." I share many of his views and feelings about India and the contemporary struggles of Indians. As a Keralite I feel proud of Sashi and wish him every success in his literary career.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Observation !
Review: Mr. Tharoor's greatest gift of mingling with words is worth praising. In his unique style and blending of Words he has been able to observe the flaws of the Modern India. Instead of these flaws, he loves India so much that he has got a different full form of NRI which is actually Non Resident India as "Never Relinquished India". Is it his excessive love for India or What.

Any way, his arguments about the problems of present day India is worth praising, like the populations of Muslims in India. Though there's the arguments of Hindus that Muslims don't take any Family Planning programme. Hence their population is increasing more than that of Hindus. This he defends as saying that the number of productive women in Muslim remains same. How beautiful !

Similarly, in the case of Holidays, that the rich countries have less holidays than that of the poor countries. It's because the former has much money and they can enjoy their holidays in their own way. But the poor have very less to spend with for their entertainment. Hence there's much Melas, gatherings, social functions etc.. which are cheaper entertainment. Hence poor countries have much holidays than the rich ones. He's right.

Very informative book about India, though Tharoor is a bit complacent about his own country.

Rupesh

Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing book.
Review: This book may be my most definitive mixed review. Tharoor is attempting to take his readers on the geographical and cultural journey of a Non Resident Indian, or NRI, and in this process to convey the mixed beauty and confusion of his homeland in a telling contrast to life in the West.

He has only mixed success.

I grew up in a community with a high number of NRIs and from this perspective I find Tharoor full of insights that confirm and expound upon certain cultural trends and ideas that I have been exposed to and sensed before. There were also many new details that fascinated me, and the sketch of Indian history as the backdrop of Tharoor's life is very comfortable reading, well-constructed, and more thorough than one would expect for what is essentially an autobiography. What better way to illustrate social change that to tell a story about someone you have known? A good example is the breakdown of the caste system - told through the story of a boy that Tharoor knew when they were children. It is an effective technique and well-employed.

I do not object, as other reviewers here have, to the story being told from a privileged and upper class perspective. I feel that this fact is made abundantly clear in the book, acknowledged and not apologized for. However, there is s certain pettiness that runs through Tharoor's telling, and it spoils the work as a whole.

This is an intensely personal tale, using very specific cultural and geographic details in its attempt to convey a universal theme. It falls short of this by alienating the reader - or the Western Reader - in various outbursts of frustration and condescension. While these are probably natural personal feelings after living for a long time in the West, where Indian culture is not widely known and is often misunderstood, they are unharmonious and often irrelevant to the book - a rant about curry and Western opinions/perversions thereof coming to mind most vividly. Tharoor has a chip on his shoulder, and he can't conceal it. It strikes forth at the reader at inappropriate moments, and it served to ruin this book for me.

For India reading that does better in telling the story of a people through personal detail, I strongly recommend The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh or Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar.

Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing book.
Review: This is probably one of the weakest books ever written about contemporary India. I cannot imagine what a reader might gain out of this work. Tharoor basically writes about his experiences in India. This autobiographical approach through which Tharoor links his experiences to India's development does not do justice to India's history.
In addition, I was kind of hoping Tharoor would analyze India's current position and maybe give his recipe for future policy. He does a bad job of describing what is the dream behind the Indian republic. A much better book is Idea of India by Khilnani.
Finally, as another reviewer has pointed out, Tharoor is very naive about social and political issues. In a lot of sections he actually starts preaching his philiosphy. To me preaching is unacceptable in a historical work.

Rating:
Summary: Cornered at a cocktail party
Review: Well, Taroor got one thing right. When he says in the introduction that this is a "personal account" rather than an objective attempt at a modern history of India, that should have set the alarm bells ringing.

"From Midnight to the Millennium" is a very long book about India's first 50 years of independent existence. The chapters are laid out by theme: caste, politics, economics, religion, future prospects and so on.

But in fact, every chapter covers the same topic: Shashi Taroor. Shashi Taroor the country boy made good, Shashi Taroor the precocious child sage, Shashi Taroor the intellectual with too much insight to relate to his boorish countrymen. When you notice that the book starts with an account of a 19 year-old Shashi's brief meeting as a student reporter with Indira Gandhi, you know what's coming. A 400-page monologue from a guy who's been so flattered as a genius all his life that he's forgotten what it feels like to have to LISTEN. The two most irritating manifestations of Taroor's ego are the repetition (if he's proud of an idea he shows it off again and again, re-wording it each time) and the occasional clever-clever turns of phrase that sometimes even upstage little old India.

"From Midnight to the Millennium" is twice too long.

But don't get me wrong. There's interesting material on economic liberalisation, the Hindutva movement and political stagnation in this book. You just have to read a lot of Shashi Taroor to find it.

Rating:
Summary: Cornered at a cocktail party
Review: Well, Taroor got one thing right. When he says in the introduction that this is a "personal account" rather than an objective attempt at a modern history of India, that should have set the alarm bells ringing.

"From Midnight to the Millennium" is a very long book about India's first 50 years of independent existence. The chapters are laid out by theme: caste, politics, economics, religion, future prospects and so on.

But in fact, every chapter covers the same topic: Shashi Taroor. Shashi Taroor the country boy made good, Shashi Taroor the precocious child sage, Shashi Taroor the intellectual with too much insight to relate to his boorish countrymen. When you notice that the book starts with an account of a 19 year-old Shashi's brief meeting as a student reporter with Indira Gandhi, you know what's coming. A 400-page monologue from a guy who's been so flattered as a genius all his life that he's forgotten what it feels like to have to LISTEN. The two most irritating manifestations of Taroor's ego are the repetition (if he's proud of an idea he shows it off again and again, re-wording it each time) and the occasional clever-clever turns of phrase that sometimes even upstage little old India.

"From Midnight to the Millennium" is twice too long.

But don't get me wrong. There's interesting material on economic liberalisation, the Hindutva movement and political stagnation in this book. You just have to read a lot of Shashi Taroor to find it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Springboard to learn about India
Review: While I was born in India, I have lived most of my life in the United States and as such, I have little in-depth knowledge of India's rich history, religious strife, political demarcations and business climate. I am grateful that an erudite and insightful writer as Shashi Tharoor has taken the time to write India: From Midnight to Millennium. This work will allow the reader to get a firm overview of the major points that drive India. If there is a minor fault in the work, it is that Tharoor fails to include any sort of bibliography that could serve the reader to learn more about the topics.

Occasionally, Tharoor's deep love of India becomes distracting in this otherwise objective book. But then again, it is that precise subjectivity that Tharoor is communicating through his book - India is at least 1 billion truths. From Midnight to Millennium is one such excellent truth that will provide the reader a powerful starting point for learning more about India.