Healer: the biography of Dr Prathap Chandra Reddy by Pranay Gupte

The foolish reviewer A friend sent me this message a short while ago, something she saw on facebook:

Does anyone know who Saaz Aggarwal is? Well, let me tell you: She's a Pune-based writer who "reviewed" my biography, Healer: Dr Prathap Chandra Reddy and the Transformation of India (Penguin) for Hindustan Times. In my opinion, I wonder if she actually read the 600-page book. For example, she says I did not deal with health insurance! Whaaa? There's an entire chapter on health insurance. And so on. Ordinarily, I ignore foolish reviewers on the grounds that they are, well, foolish, and that they have some sort of agenda. But this so-called review is egregiously misinformed. It misrepresents my book. The next time that Manjula Narayan, books editor of Hindustan Times, makes assignments, she should at least insist that reviewers read a book before "reviewing" it.

My ‘review’ of this book actually appeared in Hindustan Times on 5 April 2014, and if you like you can read it here: http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/booksreviews/book-review-healer-a-biography-of-dr-prathap-c-reddy/article1-1204417.aspx
I logged on to facebook and was bemused to find that the author of Healer had posted this comment along with a photograph (a rather glamorous photograph, if you want to know the truth) of me.
It’s not nice to spit and scratch in public, no? So I did ‘like’ on the comment. Then I found my better self suddenly pulled under, and I posted. Yes, it was a sponsored link, and yes that’s the rest of the dialogue, verbatim, at the time of going to press:

Saaz: Uh oh Pranay Gupte ... this SPONSORED link misses a few other things I said in my review:
Presented in the form of the author’s year-long journey in writing it, this book is too long. Besides biographical data, it has irrelevant information about each interview. Must Dr Reddy’s biography (and the transformation of India) include a description of the interiors of Sheila Dikshit’s ‘lovely bungalow in the Lutyens Zone in New Delhi’? Or the CV of the architect of Apollo and information about his leisure pursuits? In an interview with Richard M Cashin Jr of a New York equity firm, why is his experience at a random cocktail party, and even the song he sang there, mentioned in this book? Most of the interviews are weighed down with superlative testimonials more suited to a marketing brochure than a biography, and fail to create the impact of an intimate personal encounter: “Dr Reddy possesses great strength of character”; “the so-called learning curve happens faster at Apollo than anywhere else I have seen”; and dozens more. Removing this and the rather excessive repetition (that Dr Reddy’s granddaughter Upasna Kamineni married Ram Charan Teja, ‘superstar’ Chiranjeevi’s son, appears four times) would have made this book easier on the wrist.And a whole lot of other stuff I LIKED about your book too :-)
Pranay: Well, I appreciate your response, Saaz. Cheers from Delhi, and I hope we meet in more pleasant circumstances.
Saaz: What I wrote was a measured, balanced review AFTER reading, making notes and mulling on every page in your book. What you've done here is post a slanderous comment along with my photograph. Nice, eh! (Incidentally, I never said that you "did not deal with health insurance". What I said was, "Controversial topics such as vaccinations, the impact of health insurance and tort, and the basic concerns of access and affordability to best-quality medical care for the majority of Indians are not delved.")

I've been away from this blog for far too long. Thank you, Pranay Gupte, for getting me back to it.