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We Can Pull It Off
It was the most unusual vacation for Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay the G4, as they called themselves. In the first few days of the vacations, they experienced some shocking incidents of declining moral values and corruption. These completely shook them up when they understood the implications. They dreaded the thought of being labelled as citizens of a corrupt country. G4 found this deplorable and decided to plunge into action. They had two weeks of vacation, which they productivly used to start an initiative to address this issue. They used their creativity and a number of unique strategies which left an indelible mark on the public, making their initiatibve a mass movement. The result? A complete cultural change and attitude shift in the citizens' minds leading to a complete transformation of the nation, earning it respect and recognition globally.
169 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 13, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 17, 2015
It was the most unusual vacation for Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay - the G4, as they called themselves. In the first few days of the vacations, they experienced some shocking incidents of declining moral values and corruption. These completely shook them up when they understood the implications. They dreaded the thought of being labelled as citizens of a corrupt country. G4 found this deplorable and decided to plunge into action. They had two weeks of vacation, which they productively used to start an initiative to address this issue. They used their creativity and a number of unique strategies which left an indelible mark on the public, making their initiative a mass movement. The result? A complete cultural change and attitude shift in the citizens' minds leading to a complete transformation of the nation, earning it respect and recognition globally.
Set in two different time periods - Washington 2030 and Delhi 2009-2013, the narrative describes how India has become a super power and what exact shift triggered that change by G4. Corruption is a major issue in India at this moment and is eating into the social fabric. This book provides a possible, probable solution with an optimistic point of view. Only glitch, the point of view takes superhuman and at times, impractical ways to achieve its agenda. The solution offered is too simplistic for the problem of this magnitude and does not offers enough reasons to convince its readers.
I can punch in a lot of financial and strategical loopholes in the agenda of G4 to bring about the change but that will get a little too academic for this book review. Let me just say that the whole strategy of bringing around a mass movement undermines the intelligence of its readers. There are never enough explanations given for any of the resulting positive outcomes and you are left lurching how exactly it worked out in the end. The author works with a straight two-piece narrative structure - show a problem and tell the solution, never sufficiently delving into the details how it is achieved. For example: We have been told right at the beginning of the book that in just 20 years, India have become economically sufficient to grant aid of 100bn USD. Fair enough, but it is never explained till the end of the book exactly how US has degraded their own economy so much that tables have turned against them. You got to provide justification for a reader to relate to this, not just superficial one-liners.
The sub-plots clearly ignores the diversity and cultural issues of India which in a way are the major stumbling blocks while implementing any change at a national level. Moreover, the change is brought upon by keeping the affluent or upper-middle class of India in mind. I don't have to remind where the majority of Indians live and what are the economic conditions they are subjected to. The book could have worked better if it was done at a micro level - applied to a city or maximum, a state. But since the 'change' is bought on an all Indian level, it comes across not only bizarre but in turn, undermines the spirit of the premise with a juvenileness that is hard to fathom.
If you are kind of a reader who looks for character depth or nuances, then you will sorely be disappointed with this narrative. Almost all characters are clones of each other: all speak in the same tone, style and are cardboard replicas who believe in the perfect world around them. However, the pace is fast and never stagnates. The 'Corruption Density Index' - how parents are rated by their children for corruption is a unique concept and stretches the imagination but never shows us way in which 'single' people are rated. The author seems fixated with two incidents of corruption - the Satyam scandal in the IT industry and the cash-for-vote scandal in the Indian Parliament. There are numerous references to them and all of them are succeeded by a moral lecture. The dialogues are bland, boring and editing leaves a lot to be desired. By the end of the book, you will be exhausted and drained out like coming straight from a political science lecture. Considering it is just 160 odd pages long, it is still a serious test of your patience.
I am going with generous (2+0.5)= 2.5/5 for Suresh Taneja's debut novel, We can pull it off. The author starts with a promising premise and the noble intentions associated with it should be applauded. But there is no excuse for giving us uni-dimensional characters, cheesy dialogues and even repetitive incidents in the narrative. Every one has an ear for hearing out preachy stuff, but there is no room for boring us. Read it because at least it tries to be different.
Set in two different time periods - Washington 2030 and Delhi 2009-2013, the narrative describes how India has become a super power and what exact shift triggered that change by G4. Corruption is a major issue in India at this moment and is eating into the social fabric. This book provides a possible, probable solution with an optimistic point of view. Only glitch, the point of view takes superhuman and at times, impractical ways to achieve its agenda. The solution offered is too simplistic for the problem of this magnitude and does not offers enough reasons to convince its readers.
I can punch in a lot of financial and strategical loopholes in the agenda of G4 to bring about the change but that will get a little too academic for this book review. Let me just say that the whole strategy of bringing around a mass movement undermines the intelligence of its readers. There are never enough explanations given for any of the resulting positive outcomes and you are left lurching how exactly it worked out in the end. The author works with a straight two-piece narrative structure - show a problem and tell the solution, never sufficiently delving into the details how it is achieved. For example: We have been told right at the beginning of the book that in just 20 years, India have become economically sufficient to grant aid of 100bn USD. Fair enough, but it is never explained till the end of the book exactly how US has degraded their own economy so much that tables have turned against them. You got to provide justification for a reader to relate to this, not just superficial one-liners.
The sub-plots clearly ignores the diversity and cultural issues of India which in a way are the major stumbling blocks while implementing any change at a national level. Moreover, the change is brought upon by keeping the affluent or upper-middle class of India in mind. I don't have to remind where the majority of Indians live and what are the economic conditions they are subjected to. The book could have worked better if it was done at a micro level - applied to a city or maximum, a state. But since the 'change' is bought on an all Indian level, it comes across not only bizarre but in turn, undermines the spirit of the premise with a juvenileness that is hard to fathom.
If you are kind of a reader who looks for character depth or nuances, then you will sorely be disappointed with this narrative. Almost all characters are clones of each other: all speak in the same tone, style and are cardboard replicas who believe in the perfect world around them. However, the pace is fast and never stagnates. The 'Corruption Density Index' - how parents are rated by their children for corruption is a unique concept and stretches the imagination but never shows us way in which 'single' people are rated. The author seems fixated with two incidents of corruption - the Satyam scandal in the IT industry and the cash-for-vote scandal in the Indian Parliament. There are numerous references to them and all of them are succeeded by a moral lecture. The dialogues are bland, boring and editing leaves a lot to be desired. By the end of the book, you will be exhausted and drained out like coming straight from a political science lecture. Considering it is just 160 odd pages long, it is still a serious test of your patience.
I am going with generous (2+0.5)= 2.5/5 for Suresh Taneja's debut novel, We can pull it off. The author starts with a promising premise and the noble intentions associated with it should be applauded. But there is no excuse for giving us uni-dimensional characters, cheesy dialogues and even repetitive incidents in the narrative. Every one has an ear for hearing out preachy stuff, but there is no room for boring us. Read it because at least it tries to be different.
March 22, 2011
Rampant corruption in India is probably something you have heard about, I certainly had but only in very vague terms. So when I discovered that in writing this novel the author is hoping to make more people aware of the situation in Indian society I was curious. In this his first novel Suresh Taneja feels he has woven the issues into a story that he hopes will encourage readers to think about strategies and solutions to address the problem.
Unfortunately it did not work for me at all but I think it is important to remember that this may just be because it has failed to cross cultures and appeal to a European reader. It was not only the story that I found boring but the language and grammatical usage left a lot to be desired. I have no idea if this novel was originally written in English or is the subject of poor translation and editing. For example early on in the book someone opens a bottle of ‘Champaign’, unless this is not ‘Champagne’ as I assumed but some drink available only in India.
The author is certainly passionate about his subject and in his novel envisages that by the year 2030 India will be the new super power of the world and free of corruption and this will all be thanks to the children of 2009 that the story is built around.
There are many characters but not one was memorable and the conversations in the book tended to be rather repetitive, again I think this would have improved with stronger editing. Overall a clever concept but spoilt by poor characterization and mediocre writing. The latter which I do feel is more than likely to be a language issue. The author may well have felt more comfortable writing in his mother tongue and then maybe the story would have flowed better. Who knows?
Normally I write a précis of the novel, without spoilers but today having not really understood or enjoyed it I have decided to just leave you with the blurb from the back cover, to make of it what you will.
FROM THE BACK COVER OF ‘WE CAN PULL IT OFF’
This is a story of courage, determination, ingenuity and love for the country.
It was the most unusual vacation for Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay — the G4, as they called themselves. In the first few days of the vacations, they experienced some shocking incidents of declining moral values and corruption. These completely shook them up when they understood the implications. They dreaded the thought of being labelled as citizens of a corrupt country.
G4 found this deplorable and decided to plunge into action. They had two weeks of vacation, which they productively used to start an initiative to address this issue. They used their creativity and a number of unique strategies which left an indelible mark on the public, making their initiative a mass movement. The result? A complete cultural change and attitude shift in the citizens’ minds leading to a complete transformation of the nation, earning it respect and recognition globally.
Read about this movement and its impact…
Also posted on LindyLouMac's Book Reviews
http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspo...
Unfortunately it did not work for me at all but I think it is important to remember that this may just be because it has failed to cross cultures and appeal to a European reader. It was not only the story that I found boring but the language and grammatical usage left a lot to be desired. I have no idea if this novel was originally written in English or is the subject of poor translation and editing. For example early on in the book someone opens a bottle of ‘Champaign’, unless this is not ‘Champagne’ as I assumed but some drink available only in India.
The author is certainly passionate about his subject and in his novel envisages that by the year 2030 India will be the new super power of the world and free of corruption and this will all be thanks to the children of 2009 that the story is built around.
There are many characters but not one was memorable and the conversations in the book tended to be rather repetitive, again I think this would have improved with stronger editing. Overall a clever concept but spoilt by poor characterization and mediocre writing. The latter which I do feel is more than likely to be a language issue. The author may well have felt more comfortable writing in his mother tongue and then maybe the story would have flowed better. Who knows?
Normally I write a précis of the novel, without spoilers but today having not really understood or enjoyed it I have decided to just leave you with the blurb from the back cover, to make of it what you will.
FROM THE BACK COVER OF ‘WE CAN PULL IT OFF’
This is a story of courage, determination, ingenuity and love for the country.
It was the most unusual vacation for Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay — the G4, as they called themselves. In the first few days of the vacations, they experienced some shocking incidents of declining moral values and corruption. These completely shook them up when they understood the implications. They dreaded the thought of being labelled as citizens of a corrupt country.
G4 found this deplorable and decided to plunge into action. They had two weeks of vacation, which they productively used to start an initiative to address this issue. They used their creativity and a number of unique strategies which left an indelible mark on the public, making their initiative a mass movement. The result? A complete cultural change and attitude shift in the citizens’ minds leading to a complete transformation of the nation, earning it respect and recognition globally.
Read about this movement and its impact…
Also posted on LindyLouMac's Book Reviews
http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspo...
September 27, 2012
We can pull it off’, is author Suresh Taneja’s debut book, and is about corruption, which is something the author is passionate about tackling. The book is even more appealing given the fact that corruption is something that just about everybody agrees, is one of the biggest problems that India is facing today. Eradication of corruption could effectively resolve most of the other problems that India faces today.
The book starts off in 2030, where a group of four friends(G4), are meeting up in America. An America where Indian brands and India itself seems super-powerful. The story goes back and forth between 2009 and 2030, tracing out the revolution that changed India and helped make it the most powerful country in the world.
The four friends,Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay whose parents were close-knit friends themselves, came across instances of corruption that made them realize how badly corruption affected life in India. How the innocent could be framed. justice denied and life could be made complicated by corruption. They decide to tackle it and come up with an idea to eradicate it completely. They harness the youth to tackle corruption and change the way India looked at things.
The concept behind the book is excellent. The author’s passion for the subject is evident in his writing. The book is fast paced and a very quick read. Despite all these factors, the book did not work for me. It fell flat. There was something missing. The story seemed too easy. too good to be true and it could certainly do with better editing. Spelling mistakes, grammar, cheesy dialogues and some unnecessary sequences/events made me cringe a few times. It could have been a more hard-hitting book had it been edited better. While the intention of the author is commendable. one can’t help wish the story was etched out better.
As it is,I would give it a 2.5 overall, which is a pity because it is on a subject that really matters today.
The book starts off in 2030, where a group of four friends(G4), are meeting up in America. An America where Indian brands and India itself seems super-powerful. The story goes back and forth between 2009 and 2030, tracing out the revolution that changed India and helped make it the most powerful country in the world.
The four friends,Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay whose parents were close-knit friends themselves, came across instances of corruption that made them realize how badly corruption affected life in India. How the innocent could be framed. justice denied and life could be made complicated by corruption. They decide to tackle it and come up with an idea to eradicate it completely. They harness the youth to tackle corruption and change the way India looked at things.
The concept behind the book is excellent. The author’s passion for the subject is evident in his writing. The book is fast paced and a very quick read. Despite all these factors, the book did not work for me. It fell flat. There was something missing. The story seemed too easy. too good to be true and it could certainly do with better editing. Spelling mistakes, grammar, cheesy dialogues and some unnecessary sequences/events made me cringe a few times. It could have been a more hard-hitting book had it been edited better. While the intention of the author is commendable. one can’t help wish the story was etched out better.
As it is,I would give it a 2.5 overall, which is a pity because it is on a subject that really matters today.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews