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8 Apr 2010

Oh Shit Not Again! by Mandar Kokate


One of the worst books I've ever read by the worst author ever. The book, clearly, has not been through a single round of review by anyone who speaks a decent level of English and definitely no sign of having been put through an editor of any kind. 

The most apt thing about the book is it's title 'Oh Shit Not Again!' (by the way, notice the incorrect grammar in the title). I read the book and thought, "Oh shit, not again!". The book has all the ingredients that could be conjured up (or copied from numerous others) by a wannabe writer who has read little and thinks he can fly with words because a bunch of his friends said so. 

I've read a number of Indian authors of this generation and most of them have the same stuff, in more or less same words - ogling at girls, alcohol binges - but this one is so over himself that he tries to portray himself as a hero.  For instance, there is one bit where he tries to help a woman who suffers from a cheating husband and eventually gets divorced. He further tries to 'save' her by accepting her proposal of marriage. At the age of 20, there is no mention of him being in college or working, all he seems to do is loiter with a group of kids who do the same as himself i.e. nothing. 

The language used is the worst form of English ever! He tries to use words that he probably found in the dictionary or synonyms for common words that he got off the internet, for the usage is mostly inappropriate and he obviously has not the faintest idea about it. He constantly uses wrong grammar - the one that peeved me most is 'discuss about' - aaarrrgggghhhh!!! 'To discuss' is 'to talk about', so 'discuss about' is 'talk about about'. 

When a so-called Youth Icon, Mr. Chetan Bhagat, whose books sell like hot-cakes from the day they are sold out, sells his books at 90 bucks, it is amazing that Mr. Mandar Kokate has priced his book at Rs. 150. The cover of the book is a bit colourful and the back of it makes one hopeful that the book maybe worth reading. I made one of my worst investments on a book with this one. My brother bought a copy too, making it a wastage of 300 bucks in the family. 

I'm done ranting. If anybody wants to read this book, I'm happy to lend it for free. That's before I try to sell it for half or less than half the price at a used-books store when I'm headed there next. 

2 comments:

  1. Mr Youth Icon is no great my dear friend. He writes books that more often than not sounds like a script for a commercial bollywood movie. There are good Indian authors too. I believe in people who write in their tongue than English. Believe me, there are better Kannada and Tamil books I have read than English ones. Probably, because I understand the language better too...

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  2. wow...simply WOW ! i had no idea you could write SUCH BULLSHIT as this disgrace of a book and still be published !
    anything's possible in this world...am convinced !
    a 15 year old could have written better. also, the author's blog doesnt allow free comments. the "moderator" has to approve them. no wonder theres not a SINGLE negative comment. am quite sure the author made a few 100 profiles and added the comments himself cuz its impossible that anyone genuinely liked this piece of crap which has to be called a "book", when in reality it is just a random flow of secret thgts that the author wishes could happen to him in real life. sad. 150 bucks for this piece of "shit" is jus plain daylight robbery.

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