Bricks of Corruption

Book:              Corruption in Construction
Author:           JK Hirani
Genre:             Fiction/Humorous 

Publication:     Leadstartpublishing/frog books
Pages:             198

X-FACTOR:       Fresh writing style 

My Rating:       3.5 out of 5

THE STORY: It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story. So, it is an allegory here more than a story. This story is about a bunch of friends who are engineers (also). I don’t know how many engineers we have in Indian fiction. I guess too many to count. But as I say, every story has something different. This story is short, crisp and fast. Nice incidents, embraced by emotions like love, care, friendship and mischief. Story gives almost equal treatment to all of its characters. The protagonist, Aryan leads the story through different incidents and shows how important it is to talk with your own conscience at times. Aryan represents today’s young generation who is full of zeal, energy and positivity. Despite of all-corruption status of our nation, they dare to see dreams of a developed and bright India. Half of the book reads more like a memoir than a story, but in later half, it takes the shape of a good tale. It also tells many things about the corruption in construction sites and gives an idea about the reasons of delays in government projects.
There are no lapses as such but a few places where the story becomes slow and stretched. I think leaning about furnaces and other engineering stuffs can test the patience of a common reader. In the story, engineers are beaten by contractor’s men but everything settles down without any retaliation. There are instances where the tricks used by the protagonist is unrealistic like while trying to remove truck from traffic, convincing boss for leaves and some other places. The climax is most dramatic, though it does not happen in real life but still people will enjoy it, as an allegory.
Overall, it is nice story. Flirting and rusty language usage at some places makes it a fun read before it gets down to its real business at the end.

THE WRITING: I must say that it is very well written. The language is easy and dictionary free, it has the pace required and most importantly apart from a very few places it compels reader to hold the book right in front of his nose. The writer describes the incidents quite nicely and in an easy-going manner. Every page shows lots of potential and talent.
After reading the whole story, it is brutal to mention about the lapses but reviewers are cruel people. I don’t know whether there is any side lower and side upper birth in 1st class AC (correct me if there are), this is in context of the episode where Rehaan meets with Deepa. At a point the protagonist shows 1000 rupee note to a truck driver and he runs after him leaving his loaded truck (also, the color of 1000 rupee note is written green but actually it is red). The names like Rehaan and Rehanaa, Aryan and Alya give feeling of brother and sister more than lovers (that’s more what I feel than a lapse). But again, these minor mistakes have no impact over the story and the writing remains brilliant.

THE CONCLUSION: I am not sure whether this story can be placed under humor because there are not many paragraphs which can induce smile. But it is a brilliantly written story. It gives some moral messages which are most needed by today’s youth. Moreover, this book expresses the helplessness of an honest employee in big construction companies. All becomes well at last but it shows that in reality, how difficult is for one to adjust in such situations. It is a nice and less time taking story and would say it will attract the readers who like to read the novels which are fast, less complicated and with a happy ending.