(openPR) - From 1976 to 1981, Shashi was a student of Birla Institute of Technology and Science -BITS Pilani Rajasthan which is one among the top ranking universities in India today and obtained his Masters degree in Economics. After careers in consulting, journalism and Software, writing full time became a mission with passion for Shashi in the mid 90s. He has conducted sessions on creative writing at BITS Pilani and has always been closely connected with his alma mater.
Shashi has authored several books which include Hangman’s Journal, Sniper, The Orphan, Night of the Krait, the Marblewood Forest, The Hidden Continent, Suzy’s Gift, Sally and the Warlocks and Other Stories. The India Today review for Shashi’s Night of the Krait thundered that Warrier can give Ludlum and Co a run for their money.
Shashi’s latest book from Penguin, The Homecoming does an anatomy and surgery of the Kashmir problem in his own inimitable style. He has dedicated the book to all those displaced by the insurgency in Kashmir and the shelling across the Line of Control (LOC). The world might have woken up to the realities of terrorism only recently after 9/11 but for the past several decades, Kashmir has not slept peacefully even for a single night.
This book is just not the story of one family in Kashmir but also of the many families there whose lives have been destroyed by decades of violence and uncertainty. With a sense of well being, despite the troubles, the violence and the bitterly cold weather, Carpet Merchant Javed Sharif the central character of the book returns home to Srinagar from Bangalore to celebrate his father’s eighty fourth birthday. With the birthday party in full swing, the Police team led by his close friend Inspector Ghulam Rasool raid his house and arrest him along with his son Irfan under POTA. His dreams of settling down in Kashmir are shattered. The father son emotional encounter in the lockup indeed moves the heart of the reader. Every character in the story represents one dimension of the Kashmir problem and only a Shashi Warrier could have made this haunting political tale profoundly personal.
There are some pioneers who think that no book on Kashmir is complete without writing about chinars, deodhars and the chinkaras. But Shashi's writing is of different category as he does not belong to the crowd class of writers. One of the reviews for The Homecoming states that Warrier visited Kashmir as a journalist while the fact remains that he visited Kashmir as a private citizen. Referring to Shashi as Dan Brown clone in India today is nothing but clownish as Warrier’s thrillers are older than Dan Brown. For that matter last two books of Shashi are not thrillers and none of his books has been a spy thrillers. Calling The Homecoming as a thriller is like calling a chilled can of Pepsi or Coke as a cup of hot coffee.
This proud to be a BITSian Shashi Warrier is bound to climb many more peaks in the years to come.
About BITS Pilani: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Rajasthan which has the reputation of pioneering the online examinations for admissions through the path breaking BITSAT and setting a bench mark in industry university collaborations is one among the top ranking universities towering above the rest in various best college surveys in India today. BITS offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad campuses apart from an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast spectrum of Indian corporates. The alumni of the Institute who are who is who in various professions and Proud to be BITSians peaking with Passion Quotient for Alma mater are spread across the globe from Australia to America.
Dr BR Natarajan
Vice President BITSAA
Professor BITS Pilani Rajasthan 333031 India
Phone 91-1596-242210
Fax 91-1596-244183
Email brnt@bits-pilani.ac.in www.bits-pilani.ac.in
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