"Entry From The Backside Only: hazaar fundas of indian english" - Binoo K. John.

I got this book as a Birthday present from one of my friends in college. The title seemed interesting and I thought, the book would be humorous, and so I immediately settled down to reading the book. Wellllllll........ the only thing that turned out to be interesting about the book was it's title. Humorous - the book was not!!! not from any angle whatsoever!!!!!!!!

Mr. Binoo. K. John is apparently a journalist who has apparently written two other books which have been well received by society in general. Both are travelogues - one about Cheerapunji and the other about the Malabar Coast. Praises for these books find their place on the cover of 'hazaar fundas...'. Well, if that is true, then Mr. John should stick to writing travelogues and not venture to attempt either satire, humour or even sarcasm.

The overwhelming feeling that a reader gets on reading this book is:

firstly that Mr. John has tried a li'l too hard to be funny and in the process has lost out on whatever li'l laughs he could have otherwise hoped to generate,

secondly that he has been unable to decide whom he is addressing the book to: the foreigners to whom he seeks to explain India's obsession with English or to the Indian's themselves for whom he is attempting to hold a mirror and get them to laugh at themselves.

I believe that had he been trying to do the latter, the book would have been far friendlier and made for more interesting reading.

Thirdly that he has written this book at a time in his life when he has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do and so he has stretched what could have been an entertaining essay into a torture spanning 212 pages.

Fourthly the book leaves you wondering whose sense of logic is at fault: yours or Mr John's? He takes one or two illustrations of 'Indian-English' and proceeds to make generalisations about the country as a whole and all it's people. Sweeping statements like: ".... the cleanliness and civic sense which no Indian can be credited with...", "...he forsakes Hindi with the unquestioned and guiltless ease of all Indians, giving yet another example of how tenuous an Indian's link with his mother tongue is", find their way onto almost each and every page of this book.

In attempting to explain why people take to 'Indian English' he lambasts the users of such English as those who are desperately trying to climb the social ladder. The tone of his writing suggests that what he really wants to say is that such people who have the temerity to vilify the most sacred of languages should know their place and should not aspire above their rank and 'capabilities'. He clearly draws the distinction between the 'aspiring-Indian-English-using THEM' and 'the-well-read-socially mobile-correct English using US'. And he makes it very clear which side of the fence HE belongs to. He says that the major reason why Indians want to learn English is because they want to go to foren country. A read through this book, gives one the impression that he is the one targeting social acceptance among the pool of internationally renowned authors and thinks that distancing himself from his ill-bred and ill-mannered countrymen is the best way to do so.

However, to be fair to Mr. John, the book also has a few merits. The anecdotes and the quotes that he has chosen to show case Indian English are extremely funny and raise quite a few laughs. But as a critic in 'The Hindu' said: Had Mr Binoo John not attempted to explain humour that is self evident and pat himself on the back, the book would have made for some interesting afternoon read with 'some chai wai for company'.

Another appreciable fact which cannot escape any reader's notice is how well researched the book is. Mr. John has dug up anecdotes of usage of Indian English from as far back as the early colonial era and has researched and gone through obscure books found only in the dusty corners of libraries such as the 'Nehru Memorial Library' in New Delhi. All, with the sole intention of bringing out the various ways in which English has been used in this country.

But on the whole, this book is disappointing. It takes too many uncalled-for pot shots at the 'common man' in India for it to have gone down my throat at least!!!!