The Average Indian Male (Book Review)

I enjoyed this book. That's all.

But keeping in tune with the high tradition of appearing very analytical with reviews, here is my go at it.

This book has received the following criticisms. Let us undertake a critical review of the critical reviews of the critical review of the Average Indian Male. The third mention of the critical review, of course, refers to the 8th century BC treatise by Cyrus Broacha.

1) Terrible writing 

Hey, all sentences were properly constructed, (unlike buildings in our LIG residential societies) and did not suffer from linguistic problems which contemporary books by many college graduates tend to, mainly because Cyrus never went to college. This has obviously helped him with creditable writing skills, which let me remind you, is still not a common trait among Indian writers. When a terrorist is not supposed to be judged based on his religion when other practitioners of the same religion are quite peaceful, Cyrus Broacha should also be spared in a similar fashion. That terse comment should not, however, be used as a signboard for deflecting potential readers away as I do not secretly wish to imply that Cyrus Broacha is a terrorist to literary society.

2) Repulsive 

I suspect that male readers who found it repulsive must have been those who Cyrus contacted for his research for this book, but who never replied after they sensed Cyrus' sinister designs and it appears that their feelings of being betrayed, seeped into their reviews of the book, which to me seemed similar in nature to Kunal Vijayakar's foreword, in that, both the reviewers and Kunal Vijayakar, did not read the book. As for female readers, who found it repulsive, I suggest that they borrow a time machine and apply for membership to 18^th century Victorian society. If they are unable to locate a time machine to borrow for the suggested purpose, then I have only a truism to offer, "truth is (repulsive)ly bitter." You are only an arranged marriage away from finding that out. Because if it is a case of love marriage, then you obviously find the repulsiveness of your male, very cute.

3) Poor Flow

What? Do the Latin words “Cyrus Broacha” translate in English to, “I want to win a prize for fiction”? People might look for flow when they read books that are supposed to have a “plot”. The relevance of a “plot” in a book like this is as great as having a “clean image” is to Congress’ Politicians. This is definitely not a story book to require a plot and consequently, a flow to it. Readers who picked up this book for flow are as misinformed as cricket fans who watched an entire bowling spell of Venkatesh Prasad looking for pace.

4) Cliched Satire 

People who thought that this was a poor “satire”, definitely need to get down from their literary high horse and then further climb down the fifty fat volumes of leather bound books older than this 8th century BC treatise by Mr. Broacha. Though I must admit that, what was clichéd in the book, were the shortcomings of the average Indian male, but definitely not the humour about it, which was fresh and mixed with adequate political references (only when appropriate). Maybe, if the average Indian man could switch personalities and quirks like how Cyrus switches women (if you don’t know, you can figure it out by judging Cyrus’ relationship with fat), this book would not have been called "cliched". 

Once again this kind of humour is not called SATIRE. Don't expect it to advance your understanding of our society with critical insights into a very niche subject of inquiry which an 'average Indian male' obviously is. Regardless, this book is upto the brim with good decent amounts of wit, humorous references and breezy irreverence, coupled with self-deprecatory light-heartedness that does not appear made up for the sake of self-deprecation or light-heartedness.

Image from here