Amritsar

Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle

By: Mark Tully, Satish Jacob

Narrated by: Homer Todiwala

On 5th June 1984, the Indian army began its attack on the complex at Amritsar, which houses the two most sacred shrines. Generals who had pledged to use minimum force and on no account to violate the shrines were not prepared for the fierce and adept resistance they encountered. Having suffered severe casualties, the infantry were driven back, and as a last resort - with approval from Delhi - tanks were ordered in. The Akal Takht was virtually reduced to rubble. It is doubtful if Mrs Gandhi would have initiated Operation Blue Star had she known how bloody and devastating the consequences of that 24-hour conflict would be.

©1985 Mark Tully and Satish Jacob (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Amazing book, terrible Orator

This book came highly recommended from multiple award winning journalists and it lived up to its promise. It reads like a fiction and provides the context about 1984 Riots and provides the history of Sikhs all the way to Bhindrawales killing in Golden Temple.
What’s horrible about this book?
The orator! I have heard many Indian books but the Orator - Homer Todiwala was terrible. Although he is of Indian origin, neither does he read the book as a non-native, nor as a native.
1. What’s worst is - he butchers the pronunciation of the main character (Bhindrawala) worst than any non-native would have.
2. If the orator had done any research, he would have known the Pandit Nehru, Indias first prime minister had a British accent and not a horrible grinding Indian accent. It’s almost as if Homer is mocking Indians.
Lazy terrible orating and it irritated me enough that I stopped listening to the book because of the orator and decided to buy the book and just read it.
I will never listen to another Homer Todiwalas narration ever.

Good book_ Terrible narration

Book is awesome. Amongst very few on Indian politics. It gives a good chronological order of the events. But the narration is disappointing. Especially the enacting effort Indian accent is terrible. It's unfair to use such accent.

Another one of Mark Tully's great

Great narrative of Punjab situation in the 80s and exposure of Bhindrawala's terrorist cult created by Zail Singh and Mrs. Gandhi’s son. 99% of operation Blue Star is probably due to Zail Singh's narrow minded political stratifies. He was corrupt politician like most.
Where n the hell they find the narrator? He mis-pronounced almost every name or event related to Punjab

Terrible narration

The book's material is really good and unbiased. But the narration is very poor, especially the "quoted" comments where the narrator is trying to mimic the accent. It started getting on my nerves after a while. It would have been nice see a normal dialogue rather than dramatized version of the comments.

Worst narration

Worst narrator, starts getting on nerve . I don’t understand why dialogue can’t be delivered in a normal way .

Horrible Narration

Couldn't get through the first few chapters even. Horrible narration and accents attributed to characters takes the serious subject matter to situational comedy territory. Stay away and stick to the real book. That's what I'm going to have to do.