A pleasant read

Keshav Rau

et, "Trafficked" has an under-current of morality in public life. Having said that, one must admire the sheer amount of research put in by the author whose collection of material is mind-bogglingly immense. He has sifted through a vast mass of information from printed material which he has collected over six decades as a newspaper person. Those six decades were spent primarily chronicling and providing insightful critique of sports ---- cricket to be precise ----events.
But this genre of writing from the pen of Kishin Wadhwaney comes as a pleasant surprise. What is more remarkable is that the memories stored in the inner recesses of his brain and the back-up written material neither got jaded nor obliterated with the passage of time.
"A Chance Arrest" is a commendable compilation of events with dates and comments and exposes the banal trait of corruption which has crept into the very fabric of public service. It completes the episode with the arrest of a Parliamentarian whose network had almost brought off yet another fake-passport, visa and immigration racket.

"A Chance Arrest" is a commendable compilation of events with dates and comments and exposes the banal trait of corruption which has crept into the very fabric of public service.

Kishin R. Wadhwaney It also highlights, in the succeeding chapters, the insatiable desire of certain sections of Indian society to go over to the US, Canada and the UK unmindful of the cost and dangers of breaking rules and regulations.
The chapters which follow are full of reports of incidents, sometimes unconnected, and, at times, a bit confusing to the reader. But one episode of the experienced Air Hostess of Indian Airlines' plane, Amrita Ahluwalia, of saving a girlchild from the clutches of a very old Arab who had 'bought' the child off her Hyderabad-based parents is moving. Despite all efforts of Amrita to bring up the child, the convoluted law of our country would not permit such a thing. Ultimately, therefore, the child had to been sent back to her parents. [Chapter 5]
The last three chapters are a bit of digression ---- perhaps an expression of the author's own feelings. That the author has completed the book at 87 years of age, after a series of traumatic surgeries, demonstrates his grit and determination combined with his love for writing.
Decidedly, the book is a good read.