Captain Cool: The M. S. Dhoni Story by Gulu Ezekiel

Captain Cool: The M.S. Dhoni Story - 4th Revised Edition by Gulu Ezekiel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

More a description of the matches than the life of the charismatic captain cool of the Indian cricket. He came in after a tumultuous era of captaincy by Sourav Ganguly and Rahu Dravid and took the cricketing world by storm with his big hitting abilities.

He led India with a cool head, one of the coolest heads that Indian cricket has seen so far in history, and led to them to real great victories. While statistics may not stand witness to this man the cricket fans during his time can never forget the hope infused each time he walked into the ground.

Don't expect any personal details in this book. It is mostly about the matches he played and with almost no behind the scenes snippets. Looks like the author put together the book without much discussion with the captain and the rest of the teams.

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Kamaraj: The Life and Times of K. Kamraj by Bala Jeyaraman

Kamaraj: The Life and Times of K. Kamaraj by Bala Jeyaraman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice biography of a man who was not known beyond South India. The book highlights his simplicity and his organizational capabilities.

He is famous for being the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, but the fact that he was a long term Congress party member who was looked up to for solving internal strife is lost on most people. Many do not know or appreciate this facet of his.

One cannot but end up admiring this map after reading this book. It is definitely not a panegyric to the man neither an ode, but a simple description of the facts which lends a lot of credibility to the book.

Do read to get an insight into one of the better politicians in the Indian politics.

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Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times by Nilanjan Mukhopadhay

Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A journalist by profession, the author has stitched together a book on the most "hated", "maligned" man today in India.

The key take away from the book is nothing different from what many perceive him to be autocratic, authoritative, manipulative, ambitious, hard working and many others. The only word that seems to be missing is megalomaniac. For all the negative adjectives heaped on him Modi seems to shrug off this tag.

The book kind of presents the rise and rise of Mr. Modi. The book has been written before Mr. Modi took over as the Prime Minister and hence it stops at saying that Mr. Modi is aiming to be the Prime Minister of India soon.

The book is decently balanced and is not completely biased although the admirers of Mr. Modi will tend to say that it does not highlight as much of his achievements as it does of his negatives.

A decent read to try and understand the most "hated"/"maligned" man in India today.

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