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BOOK REVIEW

to proceed with a reduced reliance on precariously prone to tampering and ari Jaisingh, America. and embarked on
content aggregators, platform provid- falsification. Various organisations that the veteran a journey, like a Star Trek
ers, and royalty collection associa - post their ads online tend to hire “click- journalist and voyager, ‘to boldly go where
tions. Creators of content are granted ers” to jump up their statistics so that editor, is a no man has gone before.’
a higher level of autonomy thanks to the distributors can demand a higher well-known For her, from being Priya
the blockchain. Although I believe that price for that. Not only this, these big H name in the (Beloved in Hindi), in a tra-
some applications of blockchain tech- shot companies take advertising money subcontinent. After all, he’s ditional Hindu family with
nology will still require a few more for content they don’t own or produce. been editor of national liberal values tempered by
years to fully mature, aspects of the me- One cannot exaggerate the irre - dailies and publications and the sufferings endured dur-
dia value chain are well underway to be More than ever, sponsibility of media houses and ad- he has also authored several ing the creation of Pakistan
threatened by the rise blockchain based there is an alarming vertising companies when it comes non-fictions — No, My Lord!, out of British India in 1947,
payment and contract options.” to publishing content and generating Kashmir — A Tale Of Shame, to Zarina (Golden beauty in
More than ever, there is an alarming need to check and advertisements online. This not only India After Indira — The Tur- Persian) as the wife of an
need to check and regulate the content costs billions of damage to advertising bulent Years, India Between Indian American Muslim
that gets published on any platform. regulate the content companies but one can never trust if Dream And Reality and other with roots in the Hindi
Not only does it have a real-life impact, that gets published the statistics are from actual people or volumes. heartland of Uttar Pradesh
but it is also capable of altering the en- they are just “bots”. Now with the help And, now that he is out LOVE TAKES THE STORY its upbringing in Pakistan’s
tire host of issues within our society. on any platform. Not of blockchain, we can say goodbye to with his debut novel — North West frontier region
Keeping in mind, all the above let us not only does it have a the middleman and have complete Zarina, there is bound to be TOWARDS LOGICAL END that refuses to be subdued
forget the significant role of the adver- transparency and clarity about who is much focus on it. Yes, it did even today…”
tising industry in backing up the media real-life impact, but clicking on these advertisements. This come as bit of a surprise to The new book Zarina tells the fascinating And as Jaisingh calls
houses. Not only the news articles but it is also capable of will revolutionise the entire market- realise that this busy editor that transformation in the
even the advertisements and the sta- ing strategies that these companies was so very passionately transformational tale of a young girl groomed central character, that is
tistics that we see online have become altering the entire formulate and help them spend their writing his very first novel. and educated in a liberal atmosphere of when Priya marries Zaheer
host of issues within funds wisely and more accurately for And, as one read this novel, a family, writes HUMRA QURAISHI and changes her name to
• Media under threat Journalism is under siege their target audience. Blockchain tech- which revolves around not Zarina, as ‘no small step…it
and blockchain could be the saving grace our society nology will disrupt the power of online just along an emotional was as giant a leap as Neil
click bait and bots which overflow but also contains a her life … so much so that Armstrong’s on the moon
will help the companies well-structured story which she even changes her name, for mankind in July 1969’,
get returns from all the is not too far from the reali- from Priya to Zarina. If you so the offshoots cannot be
money that goes into on- ties of the day. It gets some- were to query that vital ZARINA expected to be regular. But,
line advertising. what apparent that the story why? Well, there unfolds the BY: HARI JAISINGH thankfully, there are none of
This might be 2018, but has been close to his heart varying highs to this novel, SELF-PUBLISHED the typical Hindu — Muslim
a free press is still an il - and soul. Probably, Jaisingh bringing to the fore an 191 PP; 100 clashes and confrontations.
lusion, a farfetched goal had been seeing and sensing interplay of emotional hap- Rather acceptance of the
that seems almost im - all these build-ups, and was pening. Priya falls in love other, with great sensitivity
possible to achieve when waiting for that ripe enough with a young Muslim man, and with an abundance of
we factor in the number moment to unleash this Zaheer, and it’s their love emotions.
of filters any news story story on paper. that takes the story forward There is lot of dialoguing
has to go through. How- There is a definite spon- towards the expected logical inhale the wisdom. between the prime char-
ever, blockchain brings taneous flow to his writing. conclusions, where sense In fact, the very introduc- acters in this novel. Maybe
us closer to this reality by Mind you, it’s a tale pregnant and sensitivity prevails. tory lines to this novel are a good strategy, as the dia-
eliminating the need for a with happenings and shifts There are no violent enough to relay what awaits logues expressed clear the
middleman. It establishes and counter shifts and not eruptions. On the contrary, the reader — I quote from haze and throw light on the
a direct, transparent con- to miss out the very climax. several subtle and subdued one of those lines: “She is crucial issues and miscon-
nection between the pro- No, nothing dramatic but moves hold out, carrying an a young lady at the cusps ceptions holding sway in
ducer and the consum- quiet and peaceful. What abundance of wisdom laden of a new world which is today’s world. But then, they
ers. Blockchain serves holds sway is the very ex- strains. tantalisingly different from also distract. Thankfully, not
the common purpose of panse of the novel. It covers Though I am more Lagos, the most fascinat- much come in the way of
bringing out the truth to three continents — Asia, than tempted is to write ing conurbation in Africa, the flow of the story, which
the forefront and to free us Africa, America. And not and focus on the intense where she had her child- flows along uninterrupted
from the centralisation of just that, the story moves philosophical relays that hood and schooling, and and ever so gently right till
information. along a purposeful strain, as this novels holds out, but it her first crush. Yet she did the very end.
the central character, Priya, would be best if the readers the unthinkable within a
LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM changes the very course of read it for themselves and few years of setting foot in LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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