Lucknow Boy: A Memoir
Vinod Mehta
Penguin Viking
Rs 499

Lucknow Boy: A Memoir is already a widely extracted book, including a long cover story in Vinod Mehta’s own magazine, Outlook. Known as one of the most irreverent editors (barring, his dog named Editor), he doesn’t disappoint at all. He unabashedly admits to being a gossip monger and consumer, which helps the book immensely.  Mehta has said that he “prefers brickbats to bouquets.” Plenty of brickbats are sure to fly because of the many famous personalities he has been rather ‘honest’ about. That should, in fact, add to the bouquets at his door from readers and consequently his publisher.

Lucknow Boy makes for compelling reading and has that chatty quality about it, especially if the reader belongs to the media frat. The average reader gets his fair share of ‘fun’ too. Name dropping, name shaming, scandals and controversies, they are all in this work spanning 325 pages. The most startling revelation is about his daughter, born out of wedlock with a Swiss woman, an admittance to his life and times in “swinging London”. But Mehta is less forthcoming about his two marriages and divorce, or other family members. 

Ever since he returned from England to edit the lads magazine, Debonair, Mehta has built up a reputation of starting and editing several publications, each time being ‘resigned’ to his fate. He has been with the Outlook Group for 16 years and is still the editor-in-chief of Outlook, the news magazine. Mehta's book is a riveting tale, centrespread – to use an inappropriate pun – chronicling 40 years counting his Lucknow days as army brat and the decadent years before his professional life.

- Pavan Tarkash

The Average Indian Male
Cyrus Broacha
Random House India
Rs 199

Kunal Vijayakar's witty foreword sets the tone of what one can expect from this book. When you think of funny-man Cyrus Broacha, the image of MTV Bakra comes to mind. His crazy antics designed to entertain the aam aadmi have been a laugh riot. So when this comedian decides to write a book, one expects Broacha’s unparalleled humour to pop right out of the page. His debut novel Karl Aaj Aur Kal didn’t fly off the shelves for various reasons, one being his one dimensional jokes, probably. With his second, the hope was that history wouldn’t repeat itself.

Well, history repeating itself is a true adage. There were bits in that book that has that definite Cyrus charm, a throwback to the old days but the humour doesn’t come naturally. Most of the letters in this collection are his commentary interspersed in superfluous situations with little wit.

Not for those who enjoy cleverly crafted humour, this book was hugely dissappointing for this Cyrus fan.

– Charlene Flanagan

JS & The Times of My Life: A Worm’s-Eye View of Indian Journalism
Jug Suraiya
Tranquebar
Rs 495

With JS & The Times of my Life, Jug Suraiya displays both a retrospective as well as an introspective view of his 43-year journalistic career. He presents these in two halves, first with The Statesman (more specifically with Junior Statesman later known as JS, which are his own initials, too) and the second half with The Times of India.

He still writes prolifically in the TOI, so it’s but natural to present a rosier picture of the publication than of his previous company. Probably, the reason he doffs his hat to Samir Jain, (Vice Chairman, TOI) for ideating on the cover of a publisher other than the Times of India. Just a quibble, really, but you can expect more in the JS chapters where he throws light on the late CR Irani (Editor of The Statesman).

Jug Suraiya is a remarkable practitioner of his craft and often has his tongue firmly in cheek. But you have to spend some time with his narration. You can hardly call his style “racy” making it an unsuitable read for airport lounges.

An interesting fact is that JS was edited by the iconic Desmond Doig, in his 50s then. JS was the pioneering magazine of its kind, “the magazine that thinks young” as their tagline went. Predictably, the competition came from Youth Times from the TOI stable.

Think about it, these publications would be the precursor of the magazine you hold in your hands right now, Yuva, some 40 years later!

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Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves
Matthew Reilly
Hachette India
Rs 595

Matthew Reilly is back with the the fifth in the Scarecrow series and by far the most violent one. There's more humour and character development than any of his previous ones.

Schofield receives a call from the White House requesting his help. A mysterious group calling itself the Army of Thieves has taken over an abandoned Soviet base known as Dragon Island and is threatening to unleash a terrible weapon on the world in five hours. Schofield must lead his under-equipped team to the fortress-like base and dismantle the weapon before it’s used to destroy the world. The Army of Thieves are Matthew Reilly’s most cruel and violent villains. Some of the scenes between Schofield and his loyal friend, Mother are particularly touching, and long-time fans will enjoy learning more about both Schofield and Mother’s personal lives. Schofield’s ongoing grief, after losing someone close to him in Scarecrow, has also humanised an often superhero-like character.

– Tanusree Chakraborty