Before I can really
get into the review, let me tell you - "This book has a potential to
become a movie very soon". So, before it becomes a movie and gets
compressed losing all the greatness it has in the paper form, read the book.
Also, let me state it: I really do not want to get into the story or part of
the story to reveal bits and pieces of it. So, my review is mostly from the
aspects of the book and why you should read it.
Recently, my kid had
a story telling competition at school and the way I had written the first line
for her to tell is "Knowledge and presence of mind are power
supreme." 'Pinto has an idea' closely matches this line. It narrates the
story of an inquisitive Rajat whose nick name is Pinto and his always
unquenched thirst for knowledge, to come up with something new, aims to reach
people, and the struggles that he had to undergo at many places including his
love life. Not sure why they call it usually love chemistry, but this book is a
real chemistry mixing science, love and many other stuff.
In India, many of us
(or most of us) really excel in theory, and that is because of the fact that
our education system gives importance to how much you can memorize and not how
much you can practically apply what you learnt. Pinto is different. He always
has an idea, excels in studies from school to IIT to MIT, and then throws away
everything to invent practical solutions to everyday problems that the society
faces. His love Lavanya truly acts as a catalyst to Pinto to do this and more -
solve the common problems that are faced by common people (the word 'common'
present twice in this one sentence is not oversight). The author has brought
out a beautiful point - for anyone having intellect and motivation, nothing is
impossible. I am not sure if part of this book represents his own story, but
Rajeev Saxena seems to have powerful imagination to bring out so many
scientific stuff in a book like this that any non-science person can also
easily catch and understand. The choice of characters are very good.
Simplicity is the
foremost plus point of this book. Especially, when you are narrating a story of
a person that has its roots from a village environment, it ought to be simpler,
if not simplest. Secondly, in my opinion, as a reader reads through a book, it
must make the reader forget where he is present and change his imagination and
the associated environment the same as the one that he is reading. Rajeev has
done a great job on both. The language is classic and that increases your pace.
And, he brings Pinto right on your eyes as your read, as well the environment
that he is in at various points of time whether it is village or city, the
Mumbai floods, everything. That gives this novel the liveliness that any novel
must have. And, if these reasons are not enough, let me tell you this secret.
This book will mostly bring back your own memories as your read the first half.
The book does get
little dragging in the middle and towards the end, but the interest to complete
the book never goes down. I am reproducing these lines from the book because
these lines will tell anyone the essence of this book and Pinto, and not
surprisingly, these are the everyday questions in our mind about our own
country: "Why were a country's people left so ignorant of their real
needs? Why were people so poor? And, why were their cunning leaders allowed to
benefit from those so-called shortcomings? And why were people so timid that
they didn't put up a fight against those leaders who had been fooling them for
three-quarters of a century?" I don't think anything else is
needed to invite you to read this gem from Rajeev.
Go, buy and read it.
Sure, you will enjoy this one!
