Skip to main content

Book Review: The 9PM Debate by Vivek Chandran

The 9PM Debate by Vivek Chandran is a fascinating contemporary novel that sheds light on one of the heinous crimes of our society: rape. Backdropped against the bustling Mumbai city, The 9PM Debate novel will not only shake you with its context but also nudge you for a revolution against the rapes of women in our nation.


As the title suggests, it is about debate, well not the ordinary one. A rape victim and her perpetrators go live on a TV debate. Before the story could settle with its protagonists and antagonists, the author literally takes readers on the cultural tour of Mumbai. Not shinning with all aspects, the city is a gruesome chaos with its transit, traffic jams, shanties, and crime rate. The special coverage is about Mumbai’s local trains and the lurking danger for women commuters.

The story is about Mumbai-Virar gang rape case of Sujata aka Durga. Radhika, an ace TV journalist with ABTV (Akhil Bharat Television) can be considered the protagonist. She is all stubborn to bring a change in the society with her powers. She runs through her contacts, meets people of authority in police and law. On her show, she will bring the rape victim and rapists face-to-face. One of its kind and first in the nation…such a debate can bring a transformation in the society. How does she arrange all, is a struggle worth appreciation?

When Sujata and her four rapists Mahavir, Bimal, Sukhdev, and Riyaz are face-to-face live, many others join the momentum to cash on the opportunity. Ironically, things didn’t turn out in their favour. Inspector Tariq Khan is badly immolated, he loses his job. The home minister is trapped subtly for her outsmarting behavior. The novel swirls the story from as many as possible angles. The author did a brilliant job by painting the working mechanism of a TV debate – he takes us through their meetings, agendas, TRP, and much more.

Once the debate is live – many participants, opinion holders give their wart-and-all palaver. Readers might feel, specifically in the first part, that the novel is limited up to debate only. However, as one chugs ahead, its real veracity could be felt. The story has some major twists as it gallops to the finish line. The police system that supposed to work in favour of rape victims isn’t holistic, it needs to be exposed and many other allied social elements. The rudimentary base of society is challenged with this story, people’s perception towards rape must change for the betterment of all. Another gem is that TV channels can work in the favour of people and society, instead of just focusing on their ulterior TRP motives. Have you ever thought as why TV people don’t cover a rape case, well why they always look for a breaking and sensational gang rape?

“A normal rape is too commonplace to get any attention. A brutal gang rape makes headline news.”

The novel has a strong message for society and the people who work for it in various roles. Vivek’s ability to craft such an intelligent tale of justice is superbly done. He writes with good usage of words and his narration comprehensible. All is great about this novel, except its length. Read it and bring the change in the society.

Buy it from Amazon/Kindle.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
68 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
64 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more