{"id":1090,"date":"2009-05-25T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/archives\/1090"},"modified":"2009-05-25T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-25T03:34:00","slug":"my-friend-sancho-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/my-friend-sancho-review\/","title":{"rendered":"My Friend Sancho – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amit Varma’s<\/a> debut novel My Friend Sancho<\/a> is a welcome change. I say this not because of its literary merit. It is a welcome change because a) It is pop-fiction b) It does not try tricks like that IIT-MBA fellow whatever his name is (blending bollywood and cricket, well fuck you!) and most importantly c) It is almost-honest writing. No holier-than-thou shit. <\/p>\n

It is a funny book. For people with average sense of humor that is. That’s like 99.999999% of people. So I enjoyed it. For example, that MF line. And the oft-repeated imaginary dialogue. Note to Amit: Stop saying ‘So there.’ so often. So there.<\/p>\n

Amit Varma uses his book to promote his blog. That’s quite smart. I am sure Amit, on his birthday every year, sends a ‘Congrats’ card to his parents. <\/p>\n

But does Sancho provide a great experience? Well not quite. I know Amit is capable of much, much more. The book hurries you. I was expecting an Andhra meal and I got a vada pav. For instance, Muneeza’s character was till growing on me when the book ended. Is she a modern, muslim girl? A middle class chic restrained until now but waiting to fly free? Doesn’t she want a boyfriend? Did she ever date? Did any guy hit on her any time? If yes how did she react? The trouble with the character is that the minute you realize she is a victim-muslim, you think “Zaheera!” I am sorry but I couldn’t help it. And Amit’s effort to position Muneeza as a ‘modern’ girl does not quite succeed. But, I won’t blame Amit for it. Like I said I am the average reader with average intelligence and imagination. Or maybe Amit was so caught up with Abir Ganguly that he missed some fine tuning on Muneeza. Amit may claim that he is not Abir but hey! \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

I don’t know if I am writing this because I have followed Amit’s blog and met him a couple of times… I tried to be as honest as I can be. Um, so there!<\/p>\n

This is the kind of a book that you’d finish in one sitting. Probably during your commute. And you’ll probably startle your fellow passengers with your laughter. So go ahead and give it a spin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amit Varma’s debut novel My Friend Sancho is a welcome change. I say this not because of its literary merit. It is a welcome change because a) It is pop-fiction b) It does not try tricks like that IIT-MBA fellow whatever his name is (blending bollywood and cricket, well fuck you!) and most importantly c) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[79,94],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Amit Varma’s debut novel My Friend Sancho is a welcome change. I say this not because of its literary merit. It is a welcome change because a) It is pop-fiction b) It does not try tricks like that IIT-MBA fellow whatever his name is (blending bollywood and cricket, well fuck you!) and most importantly c)…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-hA","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/06\/user-interface-standards-of-mobile-phones\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":0},"title":"User Interface Standards of Mobile Phones","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"June 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night at a birthday party we got talking about mobile phones when my friend Amit told me how frustrated he was with Motorola and Nokia mobile phones. When asked why, he said, 'I replaced my Nokia with this new, sleek Motorola and my phone bill almost doubled!' I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":777,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/07\/mumbai-drowning\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":1},"title":"Mumbai Drowning","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope all Mumbai bloggers are doing okay. Amit has blogged about the monster rains of Mumbai. A friend from Mumbai was telling me how the people help each other there during troubled times. But alas, such a great city has a lame ass government. I am sure that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":639,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/01\/india-uncut\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":2},"title":"India Uncut","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"January 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"India Uncut by Amit Varma offers insightful accounts from the Tsunami affected areas in TN. Excerpt from India Uncut: \"They took all the veg biryani that had been prepared for the wedding feast, and went and fed it to the affacted people. From that day until the day we met\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"tsunami\"","block_context":{"text":"tsunami","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/tsunami\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":788,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/08\/how-to-be-a-good-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":3},"title":"How to be a good wife","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, I like the bit about not wearing any clothes in the \"in-law's house.\" The institute also has time-tables for the day, specifying \"midnight to three in the morning\" as the best time to have sex, and \"three to six in the morning\" as the \"time to sing bhajans\". I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/01\/now-theres-a-bigger-flood-of-aid\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":4},"title":"‘Now there’s a bigger flood of aid’","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"January 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"'Now there's a bigger flood of aid': \"'Now there's a bigger flood of aid'\". It is really remarkable how the common man has risen to the occasion to ensure that his brethern is taken care of. And as Amit asks, how long will this be sustained. That is something which\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":702,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/disgrace\/","url_meta":{"origin":1090,"position":5},"title":"Disgrace!","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Amit says, \"India just lost their sixth wicket, but there is a matter of greater disgrace than just a loss at hand. Hordes of bottles have descended on the field from a section of the stands, in a sudden flurry, as cops and groundsmen have rushed over to pick them\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}