Review: The Three Wise Monkeys

The Three Wise Monkeys by Jeet Gian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE 3 WISE MONKEYS by Jeet Gian - Indeed a masterpiece (Review)

language plot drawback revi note I recently read the novel “The Three Wise Monkeys” by Jeet Gian™. This is the second novel from Frog Books (an imprint of Leadstart Publishing) and is being reviewed on BookLysis. Before sharing my opinion on the book, I would like to thank my reviewer friend Surbhi Sareen for recommending such a wonderful novel.


TITLE: ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ is a familiar yet an interesting title which attracts any bookworm to pick this book. The title ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ carries a subtitle “Life is exciting when you have money, honey, and cronies”* on the very first page of the novel. On hearing the title ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’, the first image which clicks in my mind is a historical philosophy of “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” suggested by Mahatma Gandhi through a trio of the monkeys.

COVER: A trio of the monkeys is portrayed in three witty poses on the cover of the novel. These three monkeys seem really (?) wise from their witty poses and funny stuff. The first monkey looks gentle as he carries a red laptop bag and wears black sunglasses (maybe he might singing or dancing on the song Kalaa Chashma…:)) ! The second monkey seems to be a techno geek or a DJ or any big fan of music (sir pe headphone jo laga rakha hai…:))… And the third monkey looks like a big smoker (Cigarette kaise foonk raha hai dekho to…)!!! Jokes a part! The trio of the monkeys hold revolvers and are seated on the bundles of Rs. 1000 currency notes (are re.. ab to wo bhi band (demonetise) ho chuki hain). Blue and yellow colour combination of the cover suits perfectly. Overall, cover design of the novel ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ by Jeet Gian™ is enough to attract readers and perfectly suits to the genre as well as the story of the novel.

LANGUAGE: Author Jeet Gian uses simple and lucid language to narrate the story and so the book is easy to understand. The author uses some regional (Hindi, Marathi and Tamil) words along with their English meaning in brackets. Regional accents are narrated beautifully by the author. Italic fonts and capital letters are used to highlight regional words in a proper way. Punctuation marks are used gracefully to showcase each character's feelings and emotions while narrating the story.

WRITING STYLE: Author Jeet Gian uses third person narrative style. Authors’ amazing sense of humour, presence of mind, deep observation behind each activity are reflected in his writing of this novel. I really loved little unique experiments made by the author Jeet Gian to narrate this story. I have not read Jeet Gian’s debut novel ‘The 3-U Turns of My Life’ but after going through ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ I would definitely try to read his debut novel. This is the magic of his writing style.

SETTING: The story of ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ runs around different locations. More than half scenes of the novel are developed in Mumbai, Maharastra while several scenes are developed in Gandhidham, Kutch, Gujarat. Little scenes are developed abroad like Switzerland and Mauritius etc.

CHARACTERIZATION: Entertaining Characterization is the most important and powerful literary aspect of ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ by Jeet Gian. I just loved the sense of humour of each character. The author sarcastically mocks at real celebrities, ministers, sportspersons, businessmen, actors, singers, social activists, journalists, bankers and saints etc by elegantly comparing them with his fictitious characters. Balanced comparison between fictitious and real characters create outstanding humor and keep readers engaged with the story.

The trio- Amar, Akbar, and Anthony who comes to Mumbai from three different states Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with an ambition to pursue a degree of CA are the three male protagonists while Meghna, Farah and Sarah are three female protagonists. Two businessmen brothers Raj Pawar and Suhas Pawar and their wives Ruma and Suma, Ravindran Rao, Somnath Bhagwat, Mohammad Zakaria, Solomon Prakasa Rao Pinto, ACP Kishan Kumar and Constable Keshav Kadam are other major characters. Readers meet so many minor characters who lead the story ahead.

THE PLOT & THE STORYLINE:

The plot of ‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ is well researched and nicely narrated. The storyline refers to several real incidents like November 2008 Terrorist Attack, different revolutionary movements, various government schemes, authorities and institutions like UIDAI (Aadhar), IMF and ICAI, natural disasters like BP Oil Still Disaster in 2010 and Uttarakhand floods 2013, disappeared Malaysian Airline 370 and Sheena Bora murder case etc. The story of the novel begins with an introduction of the trio of protagonists Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. The novel comments on an economy of India. In the beginning, the story glances at the 2010-11 Indian anti-corruption movement for Janlokpal bill under the leadership of the senior social activist Anna Hazare and Bharat Swabhiman Andolan to bring black money back in the leadership of Baba Ramdev. Akbar sarcastically questions on the paid honorary degrees and awards in exchange for a large donation. The book shows glimpses of Maharashtrian festivals, cultures, and traditions as well as delicacy and tourism of Gujarat. The book remarks at activities and agendas of regional political parties like MNS and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Anthony’s mom Emily D’Souza discloses a banana remedy as the first aid in an emergency of eye contact with Sulfur. Reiteration of the song “This is gonna be the best day of my life” inspires me to enjoy an every present day. The story remarks at how business tycoons like Raj and Suhas Pawar do believe in the lucky charm advised by babas and Pundits. The novel sarcastically mocks at pedestrians who only become viewer and make videos but don’t come forward for the help of injures in accidents.

The book talks about honest CAs. I would like to mention a
character Natwar Lakhotia’s quotation on black money-
“There is more black money in our country than we see trash and dirt on the streets of our country. We need to clean this country not only physically but also mentally and virtually.”
The book sarcastically doubts on the connection between government, businessmen, and corporate world. Namdev Yadav moronically comments at corrupt bureaucrats-
“Every government department in India is corrupt and has the worst bureaucracy.”
‘The Three Wise Monkeys’ guides you about offshore companies and their meaning and also how parent company and their subsidiary companies work? What does ‘bearer’ mean? How does black money turn into white? (No! The book doesn’t advice you to illegally convert your black money into white.) And how does money laundering happen? I wonder about author’s prediction at the implementation of Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) which has been recently announced after Rs 500 and Rs 1000 Indian banknotes demonetisation 2016 (after the publication of this novel) by the Finance ministry of India. Natwar Lakhotia, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Department (a fictitious character) tells the figures of dishonest taxpayers,
“97% of our 1.21 billion populations do not pay taxes.”
He announces a whistleblower idea against black money holders.
Stuff found in Meghna’s handbag will make readers laugh out loud. I loved the narration of telephonic conversation between Akbar and Anthony in the background music of Kajrare and Ooh la la…! Telephonic conversation over conference call among Suhas (turned into Raj) Pawar, constable Keshav Kadam and ACP Kishan Kumar about Razz (a dog) is just outstanding!! Naresh Gowlikar’s English accent is full of fun and humor.
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MINOR DRAWBACKS:
Weak Page Quality: Being a big 400 pages book I like it’s light weight, but I can’t appreciate the weak pages of the book.
Stretched story: I felt some chapters stretched. This book could have been narrated in maximum 350 pages.
There is a difference between the stuff Tom and Dick carry in the cover image and in a scene narrated before the climax.
Minor Typing Errors: ‘became, doesn’t and Dr Davendra Patel’ should be corrected as ‘become, don’t and Dr. Devendra Patel’ on page numbers 77, 82 and 273 respectively. A grammatically incorrect sentence of page 305 “Raj wore the Suhas’ white dress of Suhas” should be “Raj wore Suhas’ white dress” or “Raj wore the white dress of Suhas”.
I found few punctuation errors too.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
“The Three Wise Monkeys is indeed a masterpiece of knowledge with tadka of non-stop sarcasm, twists, suspense, thrills, goosebumps and of course the incredible sense of humour for everyone to know an unknown side of the banking sector, corporate world, black money, money laundering, taxation and the whole economy.” - Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH)
I would give 4.6 to the story and 0.15 extra for the amazing sense of humour of the author so “The Three Wise Monkeys” by Jeet Gian gets 4.75 on the scale of 5 stars.

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