Killing Jesus : A History by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

Im not going into the politics of the death of Jesus , but this book helps to understood the religious and political situation during Jesus's crucifixion. The authors tries to explain the human nature of the Christ . As mentioned  by the authors its a historical account of Jesus's Killing not a biography or religious text.

For me, many of the information in this book is new. I knew the story of Jesus crucifixion only through the Bible, but this books gives lots of historical information which im not sure correct or not. Definitely there are some fictional elements there in this killing story of this author. Though the book focus mainly on the killing of Jesus, the authors did not include the vital information about Jesus's beliefs ,in fact they missed many of Jesus sayings and teachings.

The authors explains the ruthlessness of the various Roman rulers and their tensed relationship with Jews.The authors gives lots of details about Caesar, Tiberius , Cleopatra ,Octavius etc which is interesting and give some perspective of the situation during Jesus's time. In fact all these characters were introduced one by one and each one played a role in Jesus's killing. The authors wrote little more than needed about the sexual lives of those Roman rulers.

The roles played by leaders of the Jews specially Annas and Caiaphas and their close relationship with Roman rulers were told realistically.The authors explains how the high priests and his family controlled the temple's wealth specially during the Passover.  The Passover rituals and how people /mob behaved during that time  were explained very clearly . The authors also give some information about Jews Sanhedrin - the assembly of seventy one Jew leaders and how Caiaphas made use of the Sanhedrin to sentence Jesus.(Since I have not read any book other than Bible I can not argue anything about these informations yet !!)

This book is definitely readable history book written in simple language and style. Various places and roads Jesus and his disciples visited  'comes alive'  as the authors explains the Jesus's journey into Jerusalem.  Since most of the details are taken directly from the Bible its like reading the Bible itself. Its better for any reader like me to fall back on Bible for more details about various events explained in this book. It seems some of the events explained in this book contradicts the Bible's version.

Definitely a good read.

Our Moon Has Blood Clot - Rahul Bandita

This is the second about Kashmir I read . The first one was written by a Muslim and this one was a by Hindu. Both gives two different perspectives but one thing was sure - the people of Kashmir had suffered a lot.

I have to admit that I did not know anything about the Kashmiri Pandits before this book, always that Muslims are the only sufferers. To my shock , the atrocities by the Pathans towards Bandits were unspeakable. While reading this book simultaneously I searched in the internet about the exodus of the bandits - really shocking.First thing that struck me - why there was not much news about this tragic events in main stream media. I think they mostly focused on militancy. Another pathetic thing was the inability of the government during that period, the book clearly says that the government did not do much .

"Tradition is like an embarrassing grandparent who needs to be fed and put back to bed in a back room."

The book starts with short history of Kashmir and its beauty, specially the author's place. Kashmir's history is unique on its own, ruled by very different kingdoms. According to the author the golden phases were  reigns of Lalitaditya and Avantivarman and the worst were the reigns of Sultan Sikander and other Afghan rulers. The author also explains how the Pandit community progressed and suffered throughout the history.

 The author feels that everything was perfect before the exodus.May be or may not but nothing is same after the riots. The author meets many exiled bandits and made them to talk about those dark days. The unfortunate things happened during 1947 was told through the eyes of Prithvi Nath. The story of Ravi his friend was too emotional for me . In all these conflicts mostly innocent people only get killed.

"God pervades every particle,every being
  Don't distinguish between a Hindu and a Muslim"

One can sympathize with the author's mother who was shocked at being called a refugee and her need to talk to everyone about their house with 22 rooms. Definitely one will get emotional while reading about the family's stay at the camp and later at  the lodge, their struggle for water and food. The slow deterioration of mother's health was something very unfortunate and the author explains the pain of the whole family.   The book also shows the abject failure of the state to provide for refugees.

This book depicts the pain of the exiled community aptly.A must read book for every Indian.

The Great Tamasha - James Astill

The author documents the growth of India with development of Cricket. The books starts with history of Indian cricket and it's origin. Most of these information I knew through Ramachandra Guha's " A Corner of a Foreign Field". This author gives more credit to Lord Harris than Guha for the development of Cricket in India. I knew most of the information in the early chapters so it was a easy and quick read. But I can not blame author for this because many readers may not know the Indian cricket history.

Though the story is repetitive it did not bored me, in fact I devoured the information about Palwankar brothers, Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji (both played for England), the heroic innings by CK Nayudu against visiting MCC. Then the exploits of the spin quartet - Bedi, Prasana, Venkatraghavan and Chandreskehar - wonderful read. The author also watches India Vs Pakistan match to get the real feeling of the public and of course, the politics played out behind it. The story of Nawab Pataudi was very interesting.

The author explains how the Indian public moved from melodic dramas to the shorter format of the game in quick time by the advent of satellite television and the middle class growth. All these shorter format worshipping started in 1983 when India won the world cup beating the mighty West Indies.The arrival of  T20 format changed everything in India. The book also highlights the caste difference in the sport.

The best explanation for India’s shortage of fast bowlers is not religious or physiological: India has 30 million Punjabis of its own and an awful lot of tall people. It is cultural. India’s biggest cricketing heroes have been batsmen, from Nayudu to Gavaskar and Tendulkar. Some see in this a continuation of the old British snobbery favouring gentleman-batsmen over working-class bowlers.

Through the  story of Cheteswar Pujara  the author highlights the aristocratic nature of the national and state cricket boards. The relationship between Pujara and his father was beautiful and the author did a wonderful job in telling this story. Another interesting read chapter is about India , Pakistan matches. Another highlight in the book is the role of religion (and questioning of patriotism) in cricket, specially in regards to India and Pakistan matches. The story of Azar and Irfan Pathan was a good example. The story of Pawar and his power play was well known to Indian Cricket fans , the author used this story to the full extend.

The book is written easy style and language, starts slowly and ends with a blast i.e IPL scams etc.The book is a  kind of study of power, wealth and corruption in India. India turned once an English summer game into a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. The author wonderfully explains the role played by Lalit Modi in the creation of IPL and his life after the scandals. At one point the author highlights the lack of interest for Cricket in IPL in parts of India.

Another good book about Indian Cricket.