Book Review of "From Tryst To Tendulkar"

This is not a bad read, it is just not as good as it could have been, especially if you have followed the writer’s - Balaji Vishwanathan’s - answers on Quora. A 3.5/5 from me.

A book solely aimed to capture the History of Independent India sounded very interesting. I still remember how the school history books would just stop after the Independence struggle, as though anything that happened after that was just not worth teaching the kids. That coupled with the fact that I have been a follower of Balaji Vishwanathan’s answers on Quora increased my expectations. Unfortunately though, my high hopes turned out to be futile and IMO, this book feels like a sequence of good Quora answers stitched together without a cohesive narrative thread. 

The main weakness is its short length. In ensuring that everything fits within 250 pages, each chapter feels rushed and unless you already have some context, you are left catching at straws figuring out the missing details. 

I applaud the writer though for talking about “contentious” topics in our country’s recent past - like the Shah Bano Case, the Mandal Commission, the Operation Blue Star and the IPKF embarrassment - in detail and applauding as well as criticizing the actions taken. Some chapters and/or discussions are true gems -reminding one, unfortunately of the writer’s well researched quora answers. I can’t help but think that this book could have turned out better had there not been a hard requirement to fit everything in 250 pages. Anyway, with all said and done, 3.5/5.