Kundan Chhabra

One of the best books ever that truly encapsulates our Indigenous Hindu philosophy “Defeat but not destroy”, that is, “Do no harm but take no shit.”

I will probably write a more detailed review on my own Substack but here all I want to say is that there's nothing new nor even original about this story... it's basically the same old rehashed centuries old racist colonial classist Hinduphobic anti India anti poor “poverty porn” written for the Western gaze by a Brown colonial stooge/proxy.

It's the same old Marxist influenced “poor people become desperate, and desperation leads to violence and even murderous,” and the related “look at these poor violent murderous Hindu/Indian savages turning on each other in their failed/failing state” while of course the “great” Amerika is their “savior” country they try to escape to as climate refugees because in 2050 in this story, Kolkatta is flooding and going through a famine.

It's a lot of American exceptionalism and hubris because the truth is that American coastal cities will also be flooded in 2050 and will also most likely experience a famine. In fact, it's more likely that American climate refugees will escape to India in 2050... and if you don't believe that, check your racism and Colonialism.

It's also a lot of “human nature is violent” when in reality it's completely false . Colonial nature is violent, not human nature. It's a lot of colonial projection mixed with fears of violent retaliation by the poor for how these Imperialists meddle in Global South countries, destabilize them and keep them poor while they then blame them and use their resulting poverty to justify and validate their racism including Hinduphobia and anti-India anti-poor and anti-Indigenous bigotry.

And the ending is so predictable! OMG I knew where this was going halfway through it .If you were surprised by the ending, I feel very sorry for you because it shows me how pathetically naive you are it's disgusting, dangerous and harmful! 

Wake up from your privilege and check your Epistemological privilege and Epistemological Western gaze!

So it's definitely less than a 1-Star read for me!

I only read a few chapters. I took a break. I love the book but will have to finish it later.

Unique magic system that blends science & magic - kinda computerized or at least “algorithmic” magic? With a little bit of applied physics and math without being overwhelming.

One of the best depictions of colonialism, racism, imperialism and cultural cult mind control cults (yes it's a cult. I refuse to call it “religion”, and I have my reasons which is too much to share here). 

And especially - wonderful debunking of the (Abrahamic Supremacist originated) Good Evil False Binary. Especially with a morally grey FMC who is both victim AND perpetrator who nevertheless benefits from an oppressive system.

This is like the fiction counterpart to the nonfiction “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World” by Anand Giridharadas because they both show how easy it is for colonizers and Imperialists to justify themselves and lose integrity, even at the”Middle Class” or Upper Middle Class level - yes you can still be an imperialists even if you are not rich or a billionaire. You can be their agent for example, wittingly or unwittingly. 

It's so so so GOOD at showing us the arrogant shameless colonial mindset and the hypocrisy of abusive oppressive people wanting to delude themselves as “good persons”. 

Like most dystopian novels, I still have issues with us becoming desensitized to violence and oppression but even in that regard, the novel does a better job than others to make it clear what's happening is sooo NOT ok...

My number one concern is still us becoming brainwashed with the sense of the INEVITABILITY of imperialism because then it can make us apathetic or not want to fight back. I think this story still risks that but is still more nuanced than others I have read. 

All that said, I still have 2 issues with it:

1. It still has the “fixing the bigot” trope: a marginalized person helps “evolve” the more privileged person although it's a bit more complicated here because the FMC is a woman with class privilege and race privilege but her poor marginalized assistant is a man with neither class privilege nor race privilege.

2. It still is told from the POV of someone with class privilege,  race privilege and more importantly, colonial privilege instead of the Indigenous person. Hence it's still written through the Colonial gaze. 

Overall, this book will stay with me for a looong time! 

This is not actually a book about “communications”. That's just a marketing angle to sell you the book to hide what it's really about. 
It's a manual for mass hypnosis & mind control.
He gave the game away even right from the first two chapters by giving examples from FBI & CIA agents. Come on!

It has a few good tips & an interesting 3-step framework for group communications (yes it's mostly for groups rather than 1-1 although there's a few examples of 1-1)....but on the whole, it's just meh! 😂

The best way to self-improvement is to re-connect to your own pre-colonial pre-imperialist Indigenous ancestral spiritual practices. Otherwise, you are just a Colonizer stealing other people's wisdom you are not entitled to, and have done nothing to deserve.