THE world is full of sunshine as well as darkness. If we are not careful, the world can be very mean and nasty to any of us. Life is about moving ahead, tackling the blows with equanimity because for fulfilling your desire, you have to be prepared to face brickbats and obstacles. This seems to be the theme of the anecdotes narrated by the author, who served for quite some time as Director of the CBI.
Many a time we get caught in situations from which we cannot extricate ourselves. At one high-profile function where a dozen ministers too were present apart from the author, there were 12 guest speakers scheduled to speak. The author says that he noticed that the compere, keen to hog the limelight and be the cynosure of all those seated below, kept on talking for half an hour and since the author was the 12th person to speak, he decided to pick up his cell phone and put it to his ear to say into it, “Please hold on. I am in a function and I’ll go out and listen to you.” So saying, he slipped out on the pretext of not disturbing the meeting and concludes, “Who says that mobiles, despite their myriad faults, do not have good points?”
Talking of the television, of which the author was a great fan at one time when he used to ensure he was at home on every Sunday to watch the Hindi movie, says how irritating it is to find that the private channels are doing brisk business by showing laughter programmes where everybody laughs at inane jokes, or with cricket being the craze in the country, ex-cricketers or film starlets who have outlived their utility are made to sit in the front row. The best way to watch the television is to “read the running line at the bottom of the screen.”
This is a good book for light reading when one is feeling low or when travelling and getting bored.
(Diamond Books, X-30 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, New Delhi-110020; www.dpb.in)
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