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A satire-cum-thriller — inspired by politics (Book Review)

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By Himani Kothari
Title: Miss Laila Armed and Dangerous; Author: Manu Joseph; Publisher: Fourth Estate; Pages: 210; Price: Rs 499

A lanky woman, arms akimbo, wearing a tucked-in white shirt, divided skirt and red high heels is standing with her back to us. There’s a mike in front of her and she’s addressing a nondescript crowd, waving flags — the ‘Bhagwa Dhwaj’ (the saffron flag of Shivaji, adopted by the RSS) to be specific. But what catches the eye is her dress — specially her khaki shorts.

The cover of Manu Joseph’s “Miss Laila Armed and Dangerous” is telling.

“Just the sight of Hindu patriots this way in the uniform of the Sangh reminds Muslims of death,” writes the novelist-journalist in his new book.

The woman in the Sangh outfit is Akhila Iyer, one of the protagonists in the book. And if the way she dresses is any hint, Miss Iyer is that rare breed that has both a sense of humour and strong political views. She is all that and much more.

In “Miss Laila…”, Joseph is having fun. He is unapologetic and out to offend. And he spares no one. If you’re a Right-winger or a Left lib, Arundhati Roy fan or Modi bhakt, a feminist or an activist or a journalist, Anna Hazare follower or Irom Sharmila sympathiser — this book is NOT for you. Or maybe it is.

The novel opens as a political satire, with Miss Iyer — a neurosurgery student who has a love-hate relationship with Left liberals (in possible revenge at her mother who had abandoned her to carry out her ultra-Left activities) — playing pranks on everybody, and exposing their hypocrisy.

As far as the “patriots” go, Joseph also makes fun of them, though in a subtly indirect way, with characters like Damodarbhai — DaMo for short — and his minions, a certain Professor Vaid, and through “White Beard”.

There are two gripping narratives running parallel to each other. One involves Miss Iyer helping a man caught in the debris of a collapsed building survive by crawling to him through a tunnel and feeding him. Then he whispers to her something which has the intelligence agency racing against time to avert a terror attack.

The other concerns Miss Laila — of the title — whose character is loosely based on the 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan, an alleged terrorist killed in a “gunfight” with police while on the way to assassinate the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom most of us will only recognise from that picture of four dead bodies strewn on a road besides a blue Tata Indica.

There have been many theories on the Ishrat Jahan case, some holding that she was an innocent girl who got mixed up with wrong people. Joseph seems to subscribe to this view in his fictionalised tale that is too close to the real thing.

“Miss Laila…” is not an investigative piece in that it doesn’t provide any new information. But it brings a fresh perspective to the story of a “hip” Ishrat Jahan from Mumbra — a sister to six siblings, their idol and bread winner. Instead of letting the character of Laila speak for herself, the author lets her younger sister to be the narrator and that’s what humanises the story.

With his earlier works “Serious Men” and “The Illicit Happiness of Other People”, Joseph has already established himself as a prolific writer in English. With “Miss Laila…” he has set a new benchmark for anyone looking to spin newspaper headlines to write an everyday politics-inspired thriller.

While anyone can write a political satire-cum-thriller, which is at once funny and dark, it is a writer like Joseph who can make you question and laugh at your beliefs. (Unless you are a bigot, in which case the only literature you should be reading is that recommended by Dina Nath Batra).

Joseph addresses many issues in this stylishly-written 210-page book. Capturing the themes of identity, selfishness and inefficiency, he talks about the life of extras in the film industry, poor disaster management in the country’s financial capital and journalists who swing facts to show the poor in worse condition than they actually are in. He does all this while maintaining the flow of the narrative and never losing the plot.

And there is never a dull moment.

In one chapter, the author goes deep into the ways of the Indians with his description of “faces only an Indian can make”. Like when “he crosses the road like a cow, and is startled by a truck… when boys fall off trains because they were dangling from the doorways, when illegal homes built on infirm soil collapse, when pilgrims are squashed in annual stampedes inside narrow temples”.

In another, flaying the Hindu outfits’ claims of Muslims reproducing to take over the world, Joseph says that one thing Damodarbhai would never say out loud is “reason why the Muslim population is growing faster than the Hindu… Muslims don’t kill their girls in the womb”.

Writing about the Indian Marxists and their love for French wines when they wish to discuss poverty and revolution, he says, “Actually, they are happy with South African wines, too.”

There is so much happening, the moment you finish reading the book feels like you just got off a roller coaster. And you want to take the ride again. Luckily for us, the book is being made into a movie.

(Himani Kothari can be contacted at [email protected] )

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

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The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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