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Making the Minister Smile
Meet Chris Stark, a former player of American football who, as he himself is the first to accept, 'think pretty good but don't talk that great on account of playing too much football.' Following the opportunities created by Liberalisation, his family's corporation has entered into a business collaboration with an Indian company, and this has brought the sportive young man to Delhi. While in India he becomes enmeshed in industrial disputes, political machinations, weird intelligence webs and an unfortunate love affair, besides various other oddities. The solution to the entire Gordian knot of problems lies in making the Minister smile. What happens?
219 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Anurag Mathur
66 books31 followersAnurag Mathur was born in New Delhi and educated at Scindia School (Gwalior), St. Stephen's College (Delhi), and the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma). He lived for three years in the U.S.A. before returning home to India to embark on a career in journalism and publishing. He now lives in New Delhi and contributes regularly to leading Indian magazines and newspapers. He is also the author of a travel guide called 22 Days in India.
A fanatical cricket player, he also plays tennis and enjoys travelling.
A fanatical cricket player, he also plays tennis and enjoys travelling.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 28, 2020
★
Picked this expecting light humor. This is polarized version of The Inscrutable Americans.
Here an American lands in India for a business trip and spends some time knowing the knitty gritty of Indian politics and power games.
I'll quote two passages, apart from which I didn't find anything worth enjoying in this one.
"He looked around the railway station at the bodies sprawled everywhere and marveled at the Indian ability to create a home with invisible walls of privacy in the most public environment conceivable. People slept as soundly as if they were in their own bedrooms. A certain spot was the toilet judging from the smells emanating and this was tacitly agreed to by everyone, though why they chose one spot and not another was unclear."
"While in the club, he stopped a passing waiter and got a beer. He approached the tables heaped with cuisines of at least 5 different sorts, including salads, four kind of meats, a range of vegetarian dishes and naturally about a dozen desserts. He wondered where people had got the notion that Indians barely ate. He'd never seen a country that stuffed itself as much as Indians did. And if they weren't eating meals, they were having what they called 'snacks', which anywhere else would have qualified as meals, in themselves."
Overall: Avoid.
Picked this expecting light humor. This is polarized version of The Inscrutable Americans.
Here an American lands in India for a business trip and spends some time knowing the knitty gritty of Indian politics and power games.
I'll quote two passages, apart from which I didn't find anything worth enjoying in this one.
"He looked around the railway station at the bodies sprawled everywhere and marveled at the Indian ability to create a home with invisible walls of privacy in the most public environment conceivable. People slept as soundly as if they were in their own bedrooms. A certain spot was the toilet judging from the smells emanating and this was tacitly agreed to by everyone, though why they chose one spot and not another was unclear."
"While in the club, he stopped a passing waiter and got a beer. He approached the tables heaped with cuisines of at least 5 different sorts, including salads, four kind of meats, a range of vegetarian dishes and naturally about a dozen desserts. He wondered where people had got the notion that Indians barely ate. He'd never seen a country that stuffed itself as much as Indians did. And if they weren't eating meals, they were having what they called 'snacks', which anywhere else would have qualified as meals, in themselves."
Overall: Avoid.
July 27, 2018
No climax, no proper end. builds up to the climax then ends abrupty. good view of india through the eyes of a foreigner
April 22, 2011
http://iandbooks.wordpress.com/
This book is no competition to “The Inscrutable Americans” that was the first book of author Anurag Mathur. That one was real good humor and satire and I have already written about it earlier. “Making the Minister Smile” is his attempt to write about political corruption in India and he had some success in doing it. Since the idea of political corruption is hot in the media currently, I thought of writing about this book though there is very little in the book that inspires.
The story is about industrialist family who are facing labor trouble in their factory. The union leaders are asking for unreasonable demands. The family seeks intervention from Minister but do not get favorable hearing. Their problems increase as they look for alternate solution including connection to first family of politics. Eventually, they are able to offer some solution that makes the minister smile and their problems are solved.
The whole story is about what all a person has to do to make a minister smile. There are layers of connections, subtle hints which flow from the political system which needs to be understood by people if they wish to survive in business. Author has also taken liberty with portrayal of social fabric in India where wives are getting more bold about their needs and life of poor people has little meaning and is considered expendable. I felt that the author could not do justice to the whole subject and somehow the presentation of satire, humor got mixed up with a serious topic.
This book is no competition to “The Inscrutable Americans” that was the first book of author Anurag Mathur. That one was real good humor and satire and I have already written about it earlier. “Making the Minister Smile” is his attempt to write about political corruption in India and he had some success in doing it. Since the idea of political corruption is hot in the media currently, I thought of writing about this book though there is very little in the book that inspires.
The story is about industrialist family who are facing labor trouble in their factory. The union leaders are asking for unreasonable demands. The family seeks intervention from Minister but do not get favorable hearing. Their problems increase as they look for alternate solution including connection to first family of politics. Eventually, they are able to offer some solution that makes the minister smile and their problems are solved.
The whole story is about what all a person has to do to make a minister smile. There are layers of connections, subtle hints which flow from the political system which needs to be understood by people if they wish to survive in business. Author has also taken liberty with portrayal of social fabric in India where wives are getting more bold about their needs and life of poor people has little meaning and is considered expendable. I felt that the author could not do justice to the whole subject and somehow the presentation of satire, humor got mixed up with a serious topic.
April 23, 2007
TRASH
October 8, 2008
again written with a lot of wit and intelligence!
June 15, 2010
A very pathetic book. Strictly advice to not to read it !!
January 31, 2013
crappy
January 12, 2014
Inane. Big let down
June 11, 2015
False
October 25, 2015
was slightly disappointed with this one. esp since i'd just read mathur's "the inscrutable americans"..
September 18, 2007
Utterly boring, save yourself some time by not reading it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews