Book Review: Closed Casket: Author:Sophie Hannah

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. But if you are imitating the writing style of an author like Agatha Christie who is widely revered across the globe and you compound it by 'purloining' Hercule Poirot, her adorable hero, to tell your story, then imitation is more scary and intimidating than a mere flattery.

In case of flattery you have only one person as your audience. When you imitate Agatha Christie, and write her name boldly in the cover of your book, it is an open season out there.

In writing the book Closed Casket, Hannah stayed very close to Christie style. The typical play of words is there, the neat deflections are there, even the cast is Christiesque, set in an isolated country house, few suspects each having a motive and opportunity to commit the crime, a mysteriously appearing Hercule Poirot and a murder. It is classic Agatha Christie.

Hannah has not just followed Christie to the 'TIE', she has introduced her inventiveness as well into

The Cows of Bangalore and other stories: Bangalore Lit Fest 2018 Day 1

Over the last weekend I attended the Bangalore Lit Fest 2018 held on the lawns of Hotel Lalit Ashok, Kumarakrupa Road, Bangalore on 27 and 28 October 2018. This is a summary of the sessions that I attended and my views on the same.

1. The Cows of Bangalore: Shoba Narayan with Rashmi Menon.

At the top of the post, let me inform you that Shoba is my cousin. I try to not let my affection for her cloud my observations. 

Having got that behind.....

Bangalore Lit Fest: General Observations

I attended Bangalore Lit Fest 2018 over the weekend of 27th and 28th October, 2018. The event was held on the lawns of Hotel Lalit Ashok, on Kumarakrupa Road. It was an exhilarating, tiring, inspiring, fascinating and educative weekend. Now that the weekend it over, it is time for rest and reflection of the events of the past two days.

Lying in bed at home on the 29th, I went over the events of the weekend. I listened to a number of authors, each of whom stood out for the kind of inspiration they generated. Shoba Narayan (she is my cousin btw, and I am so proud of her), for example, weaved a simple act of giving a loan to a lady to buy a cow, into a beautiful story that linked the modern with the ancient, the city with the village, the rich with the poor and the literate with (not so) literates. She took a controversial topic of Cow and deftly and compassionately created an evocative story and presented it beautifully.