If reading the title has left you bewildered and you ponder what exactly is Nation of Idiots? You’re in the right path of questioning that. What is NaIf reading the title has left you bewildered and you ponder what exactly is Nation of Idiots? You’re in the right path of questioning that. What is Nation of Idiots? Who are they?
Let me break it done for you.
Daksh quotes “The idea within our country, a collective of heads that influences our lives for the worse. A group that forces on us their logic, their reasons and their way of life. It confuses us, and expects of us, to follow blindly. This collective I call a nation of idiots.”
An idiot maybe around you, at the railway station, restaurants and shopping malls. They maybe among your friends or family. An idiot might be in your bedroom, even if you’re alone. Strange. The author faced difficulty in opening the first chapter. He hit the right spot by doing it with demonetization. Happened just a few years ago, the wound is still afresh. We are persistently nagging about the pink colour of 2000 rupee note, or the arrival of new 10 and 50 rupees note in the market. But what are we missing on the bigger picture? Have you questioned that?
Author with sheer sarcasm and sharpness covers all the topic, we Indians detonate in public. Cold war between India and Pakistan, dowry system, rape, sexuality, politics and religion prevailing in our society, are talked about in a span of just 200 pages. My favorite chapters remain State of Women and Sex and Sensibility. The lines after every chapter are an added bonus. The lines make you laugh your head off and you might end up using that in your life.
“2047 will be a big year for us. It will be hundred years of being ripped off by our own.”
We need more authors like Daksh, who aren’t engrossed in a fairy tale love story and actually show reality a mirror. This book is not meant to teach anything, it makes us aware of the country we’re living in. Helps see things clearly, like a pair of spectacles.
Thank you, for sending in the early reader’s copy.
Merged review:
If reading the title has left you bewildered and you ponder what exactly is Nation of Idiots? You’re in the right path of questioning that. What is Nation of Idiots? Who are they?
Let me break it done for you.
Daksh quotes “The idea within our country, a collective of heads that influences our lives for the worse. A group that forces on us their logic, their reasons and their way of life. It confuses us, and expects of us, to follow blindly. This collective I call a nation of idiots.”
An idiot maybe around you, at the railway station, restaurants and shopping malls. They maybe among your friends or family. An idiot might be in your bedroom, even if you’re alone. Strange. The author faced difficulty in opening the first chapter. He hit the right spot by doing it with demonetization. Happened just a few years ago, the wound is still afresh. We are persistently nagging about the pink colour of 2000 rupee note, or the arrival of new 10 and 50 rupees note in the market. But what are we missing on the bigger picture? Have you questioned that?
Author with sheer sarcasm and sharpness covers all the topic, we Indians detonate in public. Cold war between India and Pakistan, dowry system, rape, sexuality, politics and religion prevailing in our society, are talked about in a span of just 200 pages. My favorite chapters remain State of Women and Sex and Sensibility. The lines after every chapter are an added bonus. The lines make you laugh your head off and you might end up using that in your life.
“2047 will be a big year for us. It will be hundred years of being ripped off by our own.”
We need more authors like Daksh, who aren’t engrossed in a fairy tale love story and actually show reality a mirror. This book is not meant to teach anything, it makes us aware of the country we’re living in. Helps see things clearly, like a pair of spectacles.
Thank you, for sending in the early reader’s copy....more
Woolf believed that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” What Woolf presents through this book is her ideas andWoolf believed that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” What Woolf presents through this book is her ideas and a train of thoughts supporting this statement.
But what truth lies in this statement? For women to pick up a notebook and a pen? It is easy, you say now. Were there any lives sacrificed eons ago to make this statement a reality? Woolf herself gave up her life by drowning with her overcoat pockets filled with stones. Had she been born in this 21st century, would her life's purpose be reduced to mere pen and paper?
"She, a woman. She pervades poetry from cover to cover, she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of the kings and conquers in fiction; in fact, she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life, she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband."
Women scarcely kept diaries to write their handful of letters in existence. They left the world with no mark, no play or poems to judge them. What good writing is? They asked. Lock up the libraries, they said. But no lock or bolt can ever set upon the freedom of a mind.
What Virginia Woolf asks the women of today is to earn money and have a room of their own, so as to live in the presence of reality and invigorating life. It is much more important to be oneself than anything else.
What Virginia Woolf wants when she asks the women to write books is to do things for their own good and for the good of the world at large.
"Because masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that experience of the mass is behind the single voice."...more
Now I think stories are more complicated. Not a simple one; instead, something ancient and a pile of stones. Stories piled on one another like stones.Now I think stories are more complicated. Not a simple one; instead, something ancient and a pile of stones. Stories piled on one another like stones. You knock one stone off and the whole cairn collapses.
So what do we have here? Three stones; before the war, during the war, and after the war.
Which stone must lay the foundation? Before the war, right? It takes back to the time when the Button Factory was a serious business. There was a high demand for buttons in the 1870s, you see. Buttons were made and sold cheap. Benjamin Chase, the founder of Chase Industries, pounced upon this opportunity and opened up his factories in Port Ticonderoga. They stood derelict, windows broken and roof leaking. But, they did well in spite of that, the factories flourished and so did their lives. Until. Until? Until war struck.
The war began in August 1914. Benjamin lost two of his sons in the war and handed over his business to his only son Norval Chase. Under his leadership, the business plummets and he forces his daughter Iris Chase to marry one of his competitors Richard Griffen.
This is where the real story begins and you start understanding the things which you were supposed to understand. Wait, I said understandable and not simpler, okay? Atwood is the most generous author, she gives you a story within a story, that's two stories in two different genres and a hell lot of evidence through newspaper snippets and diary entries which you didn't ask for.
Did I miss after the war scenes? Yes, it was on purpose. Eeep! I don't mean to tell you about that. Come on, I read a 600-page long book which could've been narrated in half its size, and I'd give spoilers right away? Duh, I am not that good. Go away and read this and tell me later, What happened ten days after the war ended?...more
About two years ago, an evening hike led me to a beach to catch the evening sun. I sat on a rock and watched the surfers. I marveled at these courageoAbout two years ago, an evening hike led me to a beach to catch the evening sun. I sat on a rock and watched the surfers. I marveled at these courageous people who endured freezing water, and paddled through barreling waves, all for the sake of, maybe, catching an adventurous ride. After about 15 minutes, it was easy to tell the surfers apart by their style of surfing, their handling of the board, their skill, and their playfulness. Despite the difference in style and experience, they all had one thing in common: all surfers ended their ride in precisely the same way — by falling.
I have a similar notion regarding 'And then there were none' All the curious ten strangers are sealed with the same fate, despite hailing from different location and profession, they all had one thing in common: they all die by the weekend. Definitely, one by one. The question is how is this possible and who is behind these mysterious murders?
An unparalleled masterpiece produced in the simplest of terms. Loved the mystery, loved the characters, loved the plot, and of course loved the poem. What a marvelous poem. It blew my mind every time I read it.
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. ............................. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."...more