By looking at the way my outlook towards reading has changed in the last couple of years I can call myself an avid reader. However, till very recently I enjoyed anything related to History be it ancient or modern mainly from an Indic perspective. A few days back read a book named Operation Johar which was a venture into an unknown territory.
I agree I was very skeptical at the start and had various notions from reading the name of the book. At the very first, like most of the bollywood freaks I too categorized it be some kind bollywood masala fiction which somehow links to Karan Johar or another one would be the Rani Padmini Johar whatever the topic was it was a "NO GO" zone for me as since school staying away from fiction books has been my idiosyncracy. Be that as it may, a change happened and all thanks to Indic Academy that I got a glimpse of the book from the author himself Mr. Abhishek Banerjee.
At the very start of the talk Abhishek clarified all my misconceptions and the book was not related to either bollywood or Karan Johar or Rani Padmini it was a story about the manace of Naxalism in Jharkhand. A state about which not much is known and the information about which starts with its creation by carving out a separate state from Bihar in the year 2000 and it ends with Captain cool MS Dhoni hails from this state.
When we hear about Naxalism a usual response is that "this whole thing is a problem in the interiors and not in the cities why do you care so much", however, the book Urban Naxals by Vivek Agnihotri brought to light the city realities, which one can say were hidden but, the fact is he brought to light the elephant in the room which none wanted to see. Operation Johar is in a different format however, brings to light the same and Abhishek has made it very interesting read without being preachy. He has so beautifully described the landscape of Jharkhand that we get a realization of why the name of the state is so apt. In every chapter I was wondering how little I know about Jharkhand or for that matter the naxal issue faced by the state. Though the story is a fiction I don't think it is far from reality and you can link it with current city activism which calls for freedom of expression at every minute of the day without even having a slightest of awareness of the responsibilities as a citizen. A gripping love story of a teenage boy named Somu and Sangeeta a doctor. Their story of coming together takes the reader along an unimaginable journey of the Naxal activism and cruel and barbaric side of the people involved in the fight for power which the naxals by mistake call a fight against the state. It also gives a perspective of the tribal people who are forcibly pulled into the fight and their struggle for saving the forest.
I agree I was very skeptical at the start and had various notions from reading the name of the book. At the very first, like most of the bollywood freaks I too categorized it be some kind bollywood masala fiction which somehow links to Karan Johar or another one would be the Rani Padmini Johar whatever the topic was it was a "NO GO" zone for me as since school staying away from fiction books has been my idiosyncracy. Be that as it may, a change happened and all thanks to Indic Academy that I got a glimpse of the book from the author himself Mr. Abhishek Banerjee.
At the very start of the talk Abhishek clarified all my misconceptions and the book was not related to either bollywood or Karan Johar or Rani Padmini it was a story about the manace of Naxalism in Jharkhand. A state about which not much is known and the information about which starts with its creation by carving out a separate state from Bihar in the year 2000 and it ends with Captain cool MS Dhoni hails from this state.
When we hear about Naxalism a usual response is that "this whole thing is a problem in the interiors and not in the cities why do you care so much", however, the book Urban Naxals by Vivek Agnihotri brought to light the city realities, which one can say were hidden but, the fact is he brought to light the elephant in the room which none wanted to see. Operation Johar is in a different format however, brings to light the same and Abhishek has made it very interesting read without being preachy. He has so beautifully described the landscape of Jharkhand that we get a realization of why the name of the state is so apt. In every chapter I was wondering how little I know about Jharkhand or for that matter the naxal issue faced by the state. Though the story is a fiction I don't think it is far from reality and you can link it with current city activism which calls for freedom of expression at every minute of the day without even having a slightest of awareness of the responsibilities as a citizen. A gripping love story of a teenage boy named Somu and Sangeeta a doctor. Their story of coming together takes the reader along an unimaginable journey of the Naxal activism and cruel and barbaric side of the people involved in the fight for power which the naxals by mistake call a fight against the state. It also gives a perspective of the tribal people who are forcibly pulled into the fight and their struggle for saving the forest.
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