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An extraordinary memoir of a man who grew up as a RSS member, later moved away from RSS because of their betrayal and hypocrisy and working towards social unity and started exposing the RSS hypocrisy towards Dalits, Adivasis, and OBCs.

The book is full of exploitation by Brahmin-Bania castes in the name of Hindu unity and how the oppressed are merely used for carrying out attacks on Muslims and perform violence against poor people.

The pertinent learning point - any institution or group modeled after the Hindu or Sanatana dharma is nothing but a hog-wash name for caste hierarchy. the entire structure of RSS and BJP political party is structured after caste-system with a single point of projecting outsiders (Muslim) as enemies. Hindu nationalism is nothing but caste nationalism to win elections and keep control over the society

One has to give it to Bhanwar's courage, grit, passion to fight for Dalits, unity of oppressed people, and be the loyal and uncompromising fight for the cause of humanity, equality, and justice even when the lethal attacks were carried out by the RSS, Rajasthan state bureaucrats and elected members and ministers.

The book is a collection of interviews from the brave fishermen involved in the rescue operations during the 2018 Kerala floods.

In the Lucid writings, the author narrates the events of bravery, reactions of the affected humans, how each one put their life on the boat leaving behind the economic distress with one mission to save lives, and how victims react in the most unexpected line of religion and caste.

Along with the incidents, the author mentions the history and background of the place, fishermen, society, and the state. As a result, the book reaches closer to any reader. The conditions these fishermen faced during the rescue is beyond normal human capacity.

The book is written in an accessible and straightforward manner. You can read it in a single sitting. The page after page, you can witness the generosity, humanness, dedication, simplicity, and bravery of the fishermen folks.

Kudos for the author for writing it. You can read complete review in this blog post: anthology.kracekumar.com/post/book_review_rowing_between_the_rooftops/

Exquisite Cadavers, an excellent work of fiction set in the time of political divide and rise of the extreme political right in Britain and India. Meena Kandasamy's two columnar storytelling hooked me to read it in two sittings. The style, voice, and format are new to me and addictive. I completed one column for ten pages and forget there is another column to read, went back and reread. While I was reading, I was contemplating, how could be the experience of reading Kafka on Shore in a similar format.

What astonishes me is the experimentation in the last novel - When I hit you and in the current book — shattering the convention of the fixed fiction format and voice and expectation for the readers.

The writing brilliance excels where the Tamil poems, landscapes, philosophy gels well in the English language and London for every immigrant.

The novel is an absolute reading in the time of human madness destroying humans. Pick up this book!