Booked, indefinitely !

Request for the admins on this blog.....specially SSM. Please help!

2006-12-30T18:26:00.000-08:00

Hello - I'm currently listed on the OLD "Dud Sea Scrolls" on Blogger as well as the "Booked, Indefinitely !" blogs.

Could SSM or someone else who's authorized KINDLY REMOVE me from those blogs? Thanks!

The Line of Beauty

2005-04-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

To be honest, when I first began reading The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, I found it a bit difficult to embrace.

I had picked up the book mainly because I had read an article regarding the Booker prize contenders, and how very close the competition had been.

I was determined to give it another go only because I cannot bear to leave any book half-read. And when I turned the last page yesterday, it was with a sense of reluctant relinquishment that I put down the book.

The story is about young gay Nick Guest, who moves into the home of his Oxford classmate and crush, Toby Fedden, whose father Gerald is an ambitious Tory MP, with lovely wife Rachel, and manic-depressive daughter Catherine.

Nick slips easily into the indolent and luxurious life of the rich and famous: he loves the beautiful things life has to offer, he snorts coke, he loses his virginity to a black council worker he picks up from the classifieds; he finds himself a wealthy lover of Lebanese origin, with whom he attempts a foray into publishing and films. The backdrop of Tory conservatism, AIDS, and the scandals that break out inevitably provide a rich foil to his story.

What makes this book so eminently readable is the superbly cool elegance of the prose. It is almost languorous and makes you feel heady, like after a glass of wine. It is neither harsh nor maudlin; there are no rude jerks or sudden peaks; no flourishes or swaggers; it is gently undulating all the way. The phrases are crafted with the finesse of a master craftsman.

Consider
Perhaps being old friends didn't mean very much, they shared assumptions rather than lives.

or about a public telephone
So he had never breathed this terrible air, black plastic, dead piss, old smoke, the compound breath of the mouthpiece --

or about a pianist brought in for a recital
She had clearly been ferociously schooled, she was like those implacable little gymnasts who sprang out from behind the Iron Curtain, curling and vaulting along the keyboard.

Practically every page in the book is strewn with such gems, and it is richly rewarding to read this book at a leisurely pace, and it becomes almost mandatory to stop and admire every once in a while.

Some may find the gay stuff a little awkward. It was the first time I'd read such a book, and I felt it was treated most naturally, and I didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable.

I'd definitely recommend reading this if you love stylish prose.

The selfish gene

2005-03-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Am currently reading this book. Very very fascinating stuff.

It talks about how the first replicating entities might have evolved in the primordial nutrient soup, and how every organism might just be an elaborate defense mechanism built by each replicator to defend itself.

What is scary is to see the sheer number of conclusions of the selfish gene theory that are corroborated by evidence in nature.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book is the explanation of apparent altruism between competing selfish entities using concepts from game theory.

A few years back, I had jokingly modified Einstein's famous quote to say: "All God does is play dice". I think I need to revise it to: "All God does is play prisoner's dilemma". To know what the hell I'm talking about, read the book. :-)

The only beef I have with the book is that the author extends the concepts of the selfish gene theory into some pretty fuzzy la la lands. For example, the meme theory. The problem with this kind of extrapolation is that there is no way to corroborate or falsify it with evidence as it is all castles in the air.

Potpourri Review

2005-02-11T02:05:00.000-08:00

Few Indian English books that I picked up recently: here are my scattered thoughts about them. Didn't want to put formal reviews, just wanted to share my observations.

Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair

Indian English authors keep on fascinating me (so do Indian regional language authors, but then I hardly know regional languages other than my mother tongue Marathi). So when I saw this book in the local library, I picked it up. I knew nothing about Anita Nair then, so didn't know what to expect. The book turned out to be worth the read though.

Ladies Coupe is the tale of Akhila, and five other women that she meets in train. The novel is split into multiple stories, interspersed by Akhila's own story, which can be a little distracting because of so many POV changes, but after a while, I got used to it. Most of the stories, and the characters are ordinary, as far as the literary value goes. But that's the success of Anita Nair's book IMO, because it becomes very easy to relate to or believe in in those stories. And although the plots are outright beaten, the perspective Anita throws on them is quite interesting. The same characters, that one would hardly notice if they come face to face to us in our daily lives, spin a surprise or two, as if saying there is more to me. She has done a good job of spinning these tails, making the reader think, and question. None of Anita's characters are feminist rebels, quite the contrary, and yet the novel ends up questioning the patriarchal equations. I think it's the kind of book that most Indian women should read, and so should most Indian men.

The day in shadow by Nayantara Sehgal

My wife picked this one up from the dusty shelf of our local library, and again neither of us had heard a thing about it. Later when I tried to search on net, I could hardly find any reviews, which I think is surprising considering the quality of the book. Written in the license raj times, the book tells the story of a divorcee lady, and a mother of pre-teen children, who is struggling to find life again. It's the story of resuming life, once paused -- telling us that it's never too late to restart living.

The central character is a bundle of contradictions -- of independence and dependence, of strength and weaknesses. It's one of the most alive characters that I've come across in my (no doubt, all too limited) reading of Indian English literature. The storyline itself is predictable and does not throw any surprises at all, but the book is certainly not about the story. It's about the nuances, of relationships, of perceptions -- and there are plenty of those. Most of the characters are well formed and believable, the dialogs engrossing. All in all a very very readable book.

Making The Minister Smile by Anurag Mathur

Yes, this is the same Anurag Mathur of The Inscrutable Americans fame. I have not read that book, so had no opinion about him, and going by this book, I would rather read that one before I have an opinion about him, for this book is pretty sterile, full of stereotypes, and utterly humorless. I don't know if it's intended to be humorous, but it definitely does not seem serious either. The characters are uninteresting, and of cardboard verity, the storyline is predictable till mid-way at which point I put the book away for good. I just hope someone reads this and tells me, hey, that's where it starts to get interesting. But if someone asks to bet my money on it, I definitely won't. I think the author is confused about what he wanted to do with the story -- make it hilarious or relevant. As it comes out, it's neither (unless again, the second half is where he picked up his acts). And although I rarely write review of books I didn't like (forget those which I didn't complete!), I decided to put this up anyway, for completing the potpourri.

Don Camillo and His Little World

2005-01-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

I recently realized that one of my most cherished assumption about myself, that I'm decently well read, was quite off the mark. The realization has partly to do with a friend, herself a voracious reader, who made a similar remark. That did it. If even she ain't well read, where does that leave me? I decided to work on it.

This same friend lent me a few books from her collection, and I'm chewing at them, along with my normal quota of massively parallelized reading (which is the principal reason why I never finish any of the tens of books I'm reading at any time). So in a way, accidentally I stumbled onto Giovanni Guareschi and his (The) Little World of Don Camillo. For a change, I went into single book mode, and owing to the fact that the book is rather small, I finished it at a couple of goes. That in itself deserves a strong round of applause for the book! But the first thing I remembered was this SSM's book blog-site. I owe him a few reviews, and at the risk of reviewing an already well read book, I decided to go ahead.

For the uninitiated (like I was just a week back), Giovanni Guareschi is an Italian journalist, and novelist, whose biography if it's written (and I assume it must have been) should be more interesting than most fiction. However, he is better known (as I learnt) for his stories of a little village somewhere in the valley of the river Po. The central character is a Catholic Priest who is always ready to give back two punches for every one he receives, if the Lord, the Christ himself (but not The Christ, as Giovanni Guareschi would say) would let him get away with it. For Don Camillo, the Priest, talks to the Lord, and the Lord talks back to him. And Camillo's Lord has a fine sense of humour too!

Camillo's prime adversary in the village is a communist Mayor, Peppone, is in a certain sense a carbon copy of Camillo -- nice at heart, passionate about his belief system, and combative to the core. The stories could well be included into a fourth standard text-book, if one goes by the look and feel of it, but then that's the greatness of the author, who reduces the central conflict -- between a predominately religious orthrodox world-view and a godless communistic one -- into an almost cartoon world war, where the warm forces of humanity turn out to be the winners. The greatest achievement of the book has to be the liberal ethos it espouses without any preaching. A book probably more relevant to the present day India, deeply divided along multiple intellectual axes. And to hell with my rationing of the word, it's a poignant book -- if there was one. Welcome, to The Little World of Don Camillo.

Great Finds

2005-01-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

A re-post of one of the blogs I wrote at sulekha, with a few additions...

The idea here is to compile a list of some non-mainstream gems that I ‘discovered’ in my affair-with-reading (partly to see if there's anybody out there who read any of these, and partly to get u folks to suggest some of your own :d). Some of these I found on friends’ bookshelves, others in second-hand book markets plus gut-feel...so here they come, in random order:

Azadi by Chaman Nahal
This book was mentioned in the comments to salonii's blog on partition. This is a very touching story of a well-to-do Indian family in Sialkot, and the toll partition takes on them. The characters are developed with parent-like care. And you see the partition through different pairs of eyes at different points in the book. The book has its hilarious moments, and its poignant ones too. The tone of the book is very neutral. Credit is given (to India and Pakistan) where its due.

What Men Really Think About Sex by Mark Mason
I’ll cherish this book for a long time to come. The author’s a brit and a debutante. Found it in a sale, read the first page (that’s how my gut-feel works…the blurb never works for me) and boy, am I happy I bought it. The whole book is about this outrageous bet that these two guys in a software company get into. An American lady, Clare Jordan, from their US office has been brought in for a particular project, and these two want to settle, through this bet, the matter of who gets the right to ask her out first. The reason for the bet? Avoid unnecessary competition in wooing her. They name it The-Clare Jordan-Five-And-Three-Quarters-Feet-Handicap-Stakes. (needless to say, the lady doesn’t and shouldn’t have a clue about this bet, and there is always the risk of her finding somebody while the stakes are on. And btw, 5’9” is Clare’s height, in case you haven’t figured it out by now). With a premise like that, it becomes difficult to avoid being funny :d…

The Girl by David Thomas
This is another rip-roariously funny book (dunno if such a word exists but it expresses the way I feel about the book perfectly). This author is a brit too and a debutante too. The story starts with a guy in a hospital for a tooth-removal operation, whose stretcher gets accidentally swapped while he’s sedated, with a transsexual’s who is about to have his/her penis-removal operation. A lot of people don’t see the humor in that :d…but the quote on the book cover sums it up best: “It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me check in my pants.” You might wanna keep your brit-slang dictionaries by your side. There’s so much slang that you don’t understand (or maybe its just me)…

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
This book is a surprisingly simple story. The narrator’s a spiritually disillusioned guy who gets his spiritual comeuppance from a gorilla (yes, the wise-man in this book is actually a wise-primate). This makes the book sound ridiculous, but it is not. The person who suggested this book to me (the way he got his hands on the book is another freaky joke of fate) has summed my view of the book best for me, and I’ll quote him here: “this book gave me spiritual and metaphysical closure”. This is all very deep. But be warned, it might not have the same profound impact on you. In any case, it gives delightfully simple answers to very pressing issues ailing man and the world he’s living(?) in.

Moby Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville
(Well, it was a find for me ‘cos I wasn’t expecting anything. All I had was a vague recollection of the story from my 12-yr-old pocket-illustrated-classics days). Let it be said, for the uninitiated, that this book is regarded as one of the greatest works to have ever been churned out of the American Literature mills. And rightfully so. I’d picked it up from my university book co-op when I saw that it was selling for a throw-away price. I’m 2/3rds way through it right now, and I’ve to say it’s THE best book I’ve ever read. On the face of it, it’s a blow-by-blow account of a whaling voyage headed by a captain who’s almost maniacal about his need to find and kill a whale that whalers have christened ‘Moby Dick’. So yeah, rich content. But it’s the writing-style that’s the best part of the book. The vivid, often funny, descriptions of whaling practices, are in themselves enough to thrill you to bits. But the bugger doesn’t stop at that. He has to throw in choice doses of philosophy too. And his tools of the trade are metaphors and alliterations. He uses them to such good effect that you’ll have a tough time calling it prose and not poetry.

The Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
This guy is one tale-spinner. The way he weds quantum physics concepts with several inter-looping, criss-crossing threads, is breath-taking to say the least. And he’s funny as hell. And the entire book is generously sprinkled with kick-ass insights. Here’s one I can think of, off the top of my head: We live in our fantasies and endure our realities.

There Should Have Been Castles by Herman Rocher
This is a typical Bollywood-ishtyle love-shtory…very clichéd and trite. But the best part is not the story itself, its the writing style. Extremely funny. So if you read it with the suspended disbelief that you reserve for the crappiest of Bollywood movies, you’d love it.

The Revised KamaSutra by Richard Krasta
This guy fits the Indian-author stereotype. Overly verbose writing style. But to his credit, nowhere is it unnecessarily so. Just a legacy of his colonial past, I guess. The book is very well-written and very funny at times, although the intention is to tell a story. The humor is incidental. (I just noticed this while writing this blog. I seem to have a nose for comedy…)

with that my friends i sit back, satisfied in the knowledge that i've opened a can of bookworms here :p...happy reading!

Voices of the old sea (actual review)

2005-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Here is the first part

The village where Norman Lewis stayed was called the 'cat village' as the whole place was filled with them. This was in contrast with another village, mostly filled with peasants, which was a dog village. So in a way, the ways of life of one village is completely out of sync with its immediate neighbour. Unlike their pets, the dog village was individualistic where as cat village was more community oriented.

One of the central person in the cat village was Grandmother. She had a lot of say in many matters. Considering the fact the NL was renting out a room from Grandmother, he had access to many things that would have been otherwise shut. NL's involvement in this village was further enhanced through the friendship he developed with the Grandmother's son-in-law, who incidentally was not wealthy enough to have his own home and hence lived with his mother-in-law. To make the matters worse, there has not been any grandchild. This further shrunk the little respect the SIL had and was completely under the thumb of G.

This village was very tolerant of idiosyncrasies of humans. The priest who had a mistress had a normal life, the village dress maker's undercover operation was prostitution but she was welcomed in any home. Later NL found out there have been a succession of such women in the past. This was to facilitate the young men who, NL says could not afford marriage till they were well into their thirties.

During their small talk at the village bar, SIL asked NL if he would like to fish with him. Soon both of them went out fishing. Just so that they do not upset the local fisherman, they fish another species. To add to their earning, they also decide to fish underwater as well by choosing a spot which made net fishing difficult.

So started the tale of this village, which was in a way linked to the peasant village through economic exchanges. One of the income generations for the peasant village was cork trees, which for some reason started to get sick and die thereby creating a calamity of sorts for both the villages. To make the matters worse, the dogs of the peasant village enter the community coop of the cat village and have a merry feast. This aggravated the relationships between these two villages increasing the economic strain that was already past the threshold limit as each one lost the market of the other.

So the narration goes on about the fight between these two, invitation of a mystic to usher in some economic growth by pointing out spots on the sea where the catch would be good, the village being under observation of the nationalistic police (Spain was under the dictator Franco) who warn NL that he does not have a license to fish and was prohibited for venturing into the sea, the local festivals that still have to be performed in spite of the economic strain, etc.

All this changed after a gangster decides to retire in this part of the world. He purchases a large house moves in with his entourage. After some quite living, he decides to redo his house and ask the village to change its ways so that his next venture - tourism - would bring in success and prosperity to very one.

The book then goes now how the people who initially were extremely reluctant to change their ways soon succumb to the economic benefits these tourists bring. Soon there were live performances in the village, the village idiot who waited at the tables of the local bar was taken away and someone who could assist the tourists in their selection of food and drink was employed.

It was also decided, by the gangster, to permit kissing and embracing, that were earlier made illegal by social regulation. He also used his 'contacts' to get a jetty constructed, re-did the beach front by buying up property through offers of prices that were unheard of in that area.

The book makes an interesting read for those interested in understanding how humans behave, Nl goes about his documentation like an anthropologist on an ethnographic study. Only that the report of his study is much more readable and much more thought provoking, minus the jargon.

Never Change-A Book Review

2005-01-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

Very rarely do you come across a book that very simply, very affirmatively and very positively tells you something powerful about humanity's two most intriguing puzzles, love and death.

Elizabeth Berg's "Never Change" manages to pull of this feat remarkably well, especially when you consider the fact that she is talking of both mysteries in concomitant terms. This is the story of a specialized care nurse Myra Lipinski, a fifty something "never been loved" spinster who has found or rather has been forced to find all her victories and joys in her work of caring for the infirm and often the terminally ill. She is in her words "the one everybody liked but no one wanted to be with".

Enter Chip Reardon (yes, that is actually his name) her crush from her school days and someone whose memories Myra has carefully preserved in the recesses of her heart.There is one small problem though. Chip is in the last stages of battling a malignant brain tumour and all he wants is to die with dignity...and Myra is the nurse, the care agency assigns to him. Somewhere Myra still has some embers of love for him, somewhere she hopes that he will survive the odds and live to fall in love with her and complete a chapter she started many summers ago. Chip still holds a candle for his high school sweetheart Diann who also happens to be Myra's classmate and is everything Myra isnt; savvy, utterly drop dead gorgeous and yes utterly in love with Chip. Chip and Diann have drifted apart and come together again after Diann's divorce and Chips flings and now she is determined to be with him till his time is up.

So where does this leave Myra? As you start reading, you realize that all of us at some point in time or the other have known a Myra, a Chip and a Diann. For Myra love blossoms again but it is worse than it was in the first round of high school, because this time she is competing not only against Diann and her looks but also against the greater enemy of death. Myra however is not about to get drawn into this love feud, she helps bring Chip and Diann together and the three strike up a friendship made richer by the deep pain that they all share.

Diann departs from the scene when she realizes that she does not have the courage to see Chip dying day by day and Chip turns to Myra to be his confidant and soul mate...a bond perhaps established only by fears of his own mortality but finally they have a bond and just like that, just like love is wont to do, when you completely give up on it and when you decide it isn't going to pass your way anytime soon, it surprises you with a visit, often announcing it is here to stay. Out of the situation is born a love so extraordinary that it even manages to make death look like a weak loser.

A brilliant book by many accounts, the characters have been developed beautifully...apart from the three main characters, there are Myra's other patients...the generous drug leader Dewitt, confused Grace who doesn't know whether to keep her baby or not, dear old Marvelous with her dignity stemming out of a life of oppressions and the squabbling couple Murray and Ethel with a love older than time...they all add to the narration and the flow, they all play a part in the love story and they all establish a bond with you that makes you want to care about them.
When Chip decides on euthanasia, you silently agree with him keeping aside moral debates about the same. When Myra decides to assist him with this voluntary death, you cry for her and for his love and hope they will both change their decision. When Chip tells her that she can be loved only if she gives love a chance, you implore her to believe.

In a graceful climax, Berg re-affirms what we stumblingly try to learn all along, that love is often part of a bigger picture with many other strings attached and that true love often comes so well disguised that it is easy to miss it. Berg also re-affirms absolutely that in the end, death is just an interlude, a pause in the grand cycle of events and often it is life that does not stop for death and not the other way around.

The narration is well paced and the ideas lucid. The language is crisp and breezy, Berg can be emotional without any melodramatic overtones and profound without sounding vague. At the end of it, you will walk feeling a lightness that Berg wanted us to feel and perhaps with the realization that after we have lost the ones we loved deeply and after death has cheated us, we can still live, still laugh and most importantly bear the hurt...and move on.

Scarlett

Book Recommendation

2004-12-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

People interested in history in general, and history of western civilization in particular should checkout "Passion of the Western Mind" by Richard Tarnas.

Rest of the post

Books on movies (thanks, void & Deb)

2004-12-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Reposting an old blog on books on movies. Just to record the names, more than anything else. And paraphrased, with discretion :-)

Original blog (by Deb):

Void, could you be a darling and reply to this post with a list of all the movie making related books you posted about yesterday. (I'm too lazy to scroll back several blogpages :)

Thank you much

And the comments:

-------------------------------------

Posted by SeaSwallowMe on Sep 29, 2004

void, deb ...

picked up a book recently that might be of interest to you guys (and other noir enthusiasts ... tocsin, where are you these days ??)

.. "Out of the Past - Adventures in Film Noir" - by Barry Gifford (one of the modern-day renaissance-men of letters - novelist, essayist, screenwriter, ...).

it's a collection of short takes - a very subjective look at some of Barry's favorite noir movies. not more than a page or two per movie. makes for very interesting reading. i was pretty thrilled to find him talking about "Cul-de-sac", an obscure classic by Polanski. I could write a whole blog about how I came to see it .. decades ago, in the British council auditorium in Madras .. ;-)))

-------------------------------------

Posted by void on Sep 24, 2004

since you are asking so nicely..
Loius D. Giannetti - Understanding movies [I quite liked this one, nice overview of all the depts]
Robert Mckee - story: substance, structure, style and principles of screenwriting [defintely read the first few chapters.. its written more like a textbook]
Sidney Lumet - Making movies [havent read this, but ppl reco'ed this over Mckee's]

SSM chipped in with this one:
TG Vaidyanathan's "Hours in the dark - Essays on Cinema"

Books on the sacred-lily-tank-town :-):-)

2004-12-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

This mini-blog was inspired by TVS' wonderful series, and particularly his latest on growing up in Triplicane. And further inspiration by tocsin's comment .. "..why not blog instead of only making posting in the comments section.." :-):-)

I love reading about Madras, and I've been trying to collect books (those by S. Muthiah are a special treat .. he's got a great body of work on Madras, I've got 4 of his books - - I'm going to blog about him one of these days, he's such a treasure).

There are two books in my collection that I enjoy reading (& rereading whenever nostalgia strikes ;-))
- Madras Rediscovered (S. Muthiah, East West Books),

- and then a really *nice* book published last year by the Tamil Nadu chapter of INTACH (Indian national trust for art and cultural heritage) called Madras, the Architectural Heritage (K. Kalpana & Frank Schiffer, distrib: East West Books)

I'd love to review these books in greater detail .. unfortunately, I don't have much time today. But I promise to come back with a sequel (and I'll add a couple of other books as well). This blog is just about Triplicane.

Muthiah's book has a whole chapter called "Of Peacocks and Lilies" .. Chennai-vasi's would of course immediately recognize that to mean Mylapore & Triplicane ("Mayil" = peacock; Triplicane <= "Thiru-alli-keni" = "sacred lily tank).
Fascinating insights into Triplicane - home to Subramania Bharathi, Ramanujan, the legendary Hindu High School where the Nobel laureate S. Chandrasekar studied for a few years, and the old-old 8th century Parthasarathi Temple built by the Pallava Kings, and then the Wallajah Mosque - unique in that there's apparently an inscription by an Arabic language scholar of Hindu persuasion on one of the walls in the mosque (I'm told that's pretty rare).

The second book is very cool .. it looks at Madras from an architectural perspective. The book features photographs - both old & new of Madras neighborhoods, landmark buildings as well as houses typical of a particular era or style of construction, and then architectural plans of most of the buildings. And to top it off, wonderful essays by eminent Madras-ologists like Muthiah (there's my man again :-)), PT Krishnan, Tara Murali, Theodore Bhaskaran, among others.

My only crib, is that I have a paperback edition. I don't know if INTACH brought out a coffee-table-book edition .. this particular book screams for a larger format, there are *tons* of lovely photographs - the effects of which are diminished by the smaller size.

Some of the Triplicane-area buildings featured in the INTACH book - University, Senate House, Chepauk Palace, Presidency College, Wallajah Mosque (built entirely of granite, no wood/steel anywhere), Parthasarathy Temple, Hindu High School, Bharathiyar's house, Ice House, Amir Mahal.

An interesting piece of trivia that this book had about agraharams in this area - apparently, in contrast to similar neighborhoods in Mylapore which feature tile roofs, these traditional homes in Triplicane feature a flat roof, with an extension over the front of the house that was at the same height as the interior. TVS & others more familiar with Triplicane & Mylapore can probably attest to this fact,if it's really true.

That's it for now ... you guys have a nice day !!!

The House of Blue Mangoes - a review

2004-12-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

This book had two things going for it, at least for me, straight off the bat. It's set in the southern-most parts of the Tamil-speaking region of India which very rarely sees the likes of a full-blown novel in English (please correct me if I'm wrong !), and then the mention of the "blue mango", the legendary (you guys know how I tend towards hyperbole when it comes to food !!) late-blooming Neelam mangoes of the southern parts of Tamil Nadu & Kerala.

The book then, por favor :-)

The action is set in turn-of-the-century southern India, in a fictional village called Chevathar on the Coromandel coast. A map places Chevathar just north of Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), and a few hundred miles south of Tuticorin. On the border of the Madras Presidency & the Travancore kingdom. The village has its quintessential (for that part of the country) Murugan & Amman shrines, a small church, the different communities in a permanent passive-aggressive dynamic (believe me - that stuff still goes on, even now), and the everyday concerns of rural life - like "will the rains come this year". The story follows a family of rich land-owners, the son-of-the-soil patriarch Solomon, his beautiful wife Charity (from Nagercoil), and then winds its way thru a few generations ... a hot-headed son on a downward-life-spiral who goes into the freedom movement, another son who sets up a very successful firm that makes a skin-whitening lotion (Dr. Dorai's Moonwhite Thylam :-)), a grandson who attends Madras Christian College (any MCC alumni here ? .. there are quite a few pages set in MCC) and falls in love with an Anglo-Indian girl from Tambaram ...

What I liked about the book, much more than the story, was the atmosphere. If you've lived in the south for any length of time, it's hard to read the book and not recognize the scenes & the characters described in the book. The language and the tone, even if it's English, is unabashedly at sync with the setting. From the mention of plucking "karuveppalai" in the morning, to the description of the inter-caste politics always in the air in rural south India. The patriarch's pet dogs are Rajapalayams. There's a description of the Thai Poosam festival. It's written almost as if David Davidar wrote the book for his children or grandchildren - for them to know what life was life back in the native village a 100 years ago. That was a period of change & unrest, both historically & socially .. and the book weaves some threads into the narrative - the freedom movement, the identity-angst of the Anglo-Indian community around the time of partition, colonial tea-drinking-tennis-playing life in the tea estates in the hills (with the memsaab learning Tamil words from a list -- "Inge Vaa" being the first phrase on that list :-))

There's a description of the sunset & sunrise at Kanyakumari on the occasion of the festival of "Chitra Pournami" that's absolutely enchanting... the author describes the sun setting & turning the seas blood red... and then at that very moment, the moon rises. "Fire and frost - the two sides of God" ... is how the author puts it.

Has anyone here seen this happen ?? ... it must be a amazing thing to watch.

I'd wanted to write a full-fledged review a couple of months ago (I think I promised Maria), but I never got to it. Unfortunately, I don't remember much of the story (that typically happens to me with these family sagas). But what I liked was the wealth of details ... there are some pages where you could close your eyes and imagine you were walking in that grove of neelam mangoes.

Some Malayalam Books

2004-12-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

Jottings after reading a few books during vacations in Kerala:

Two other books that I read last vacation was- Vyaadha Bharatham ( the epic of the hunter) authored by one James, - a vivisection of Mahabhaaratham from the angle of Ekalavyan! (yup! The little guy who cut off his thumb as Gurudakshina to the venerable Guru Dronacharyar). Well, it made interesting reading, but some parts were unbelievable and even rebellious. The author suggests that Kunti forced/ rather pushed Madri into the funeral pyre of Pandu! This comment is made by one Charvaakan who was the only surviving member of the family who was left to be killed in the Varanaavatam episode- burning of the lac mansion.The Pandavas are made to look like real scheming, villains.

Of course, anybody would question the Dharma behind several deeds and incidents in the Mahabharatham, but the accusations in this book sometimes crossed limits(????)
Anyway, I enjoyed reading it, and enjoyed even more arguing about the liberties that a writer could take in a creative endeavour based on an existing epic. Amma was dead against such blatant accusations, while I defended poetic license, but she insisted that no one had any right to twist an existing epic.

In M.T.Vasudevan Nair’s Randaamoozham ( The Second Turn), he has confessed that he had evolved the theme from Bheemas angle from certain - loud silences- in the epic, and he has also given the reasons why he wrote in a particular way, in the epilogue. We had a similar argument regarding V.T.Nandakumars - Ente Karnan- but that was long ago. In that book, I remember the author, in an attempt to glorify Karna, maligns the Pandavas mercilessly and justifies Duryodhana too! Which brings me to Kuttikrishna Maraars ( a famous critic) Bharatha Paryatanam, in which Maraar questions the subjectivity of Dharma and Adharma, the definition of rights and wrongs...pardon me I’m digressing-

"Vamshasaakshi"- was yet another exposition on the Ramayana from Urmila’s (Lakshmanas wife) view point...in this the writer goes to extensive lengths to justify and condone Manthara and Kaikeyi...he makes these characters open their heart out to Urmila, and Urmila understands perfectly!! However, she is unable to justify Ramas Seetha Parithyaagam- Abandonment of Seetha- but accepts it as inevitable in the larger scheme of things! I found the language very stylised and dignified. Urmila is portrayed as a very wise, mature woman, almost like a saint- there is a majestic detachment in her demeanour...an elevated soul..and she enjoys a special relationship with her mother- in law- Queen Sumitra, who herself has resigned to the whims of Fate with supreme dignity. One is made to feel that it was Queen Sumithra who had to bear the brunt of several unfair deeds...but her serene acceptance lends a dignified pathos to her character.

Read a biography of Ramakrishna Paramahansa by Madambu Kunjukuttan- while the factual details were interesting, I found the language jarring- because it was recounted in colloquial dialect…as in direct speech…while I guess its ok in a story with the dialogues, it really does not go well in such biographies especially in this context…I found it painful reading but I managed to complete it- I realize how usage of language can affect literary experience…

Then read a translation of V.S.Khandekar’s “Yayaathi”- a bit slow moving initially but which caught on tempo later..had heard a lot abt it, but did not enjoy as much…Mythology is increasingly becoming difficult to digest… however there are random introspective observations statements which caught my attention and appealed to me – abt duty, familial obligations..so on..

Read Uroob’s “Sundarikalum Sundaranmaarum”- (Beautiful women and Beautiful men) –a poignant novel- moist with sighs and tears- frustrations in daily life, too many details, character sketches were good- each character assumed well etched personalities – their dreams and aspirations, sorrows and dissappointments …however factual details were an overdose for me atleast- set in riot ridden days during pre independence- I skipped details abt politics and war references.

Not Reviews please...

2004-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends!

The following are not reviews by any standard, just random jottings- actually bits from some mails that I had sent to a friend …so please excuse the scribbling quality…

“Parallel journeys” by Anu Majumdar- nice book- it is the story of a young dancer –and a French architect whose lives are infiltrated by the journey undertaken by Maitrayee and Yajnavalkya – of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad- aeons ago- I’m using the words in the book here-
The story weaves in and out of the Vedic past and the contemporary present, interlinking 2 strangers on their parallel journeys that bind them closer with each step.

Anu Majumdar is a dancer, choreographer- this is her first novel- she is married to a French artist- Pierre Legrand , and lives in Auroville –India.

As for availibility of books here where I live—its pathetic- i joined a library with great hopes to find that they have only tamil books- ( which unfortunately am not very good at ) barring Gandhiji’s expts with truth! Then I have this mobile librarian (!) who comes with all magazines- and he has these Robin Cooks, Sidney Sheldons, M&B’s, Danielle Steele, Erich Segal- and of course, Femina, Woman’s Era, Stardust, Cine blitz…he is fed up with my requests- finally he got me Ayn Ryand’s atlas shrugged- could not complete it- just could not get into its flow- then read fountainhead- interesting tho i can’t make up my mind whether i liked it or not..had been hearing so much abt Ryand- wanted to see what was the fuss abt- i found the characters too confusing- none of them seemed consistent in their attitudes, reactions, behaviour- each person seemed like multiple personalities, they seemed to keep changing their ideologies as was convenient..

then read Magic of believing and Mind power- both are about how one can practise thinking positively...and bring about changes for the better..sometimes I need such external pep up- motivation to get rid of my illogical fears abt life.. abt the self help books- oh u dont know how pessimistic a creature i used to be- i’m using the past tense in the belief that now i’m reformed...the trait is a family legacy...we very sincerely believe tha the sky will fall, and has a special animosity towards us and hence will definitely fall on our heads...so for me such books have definitely helped ....yea, yea, I am a sucker for such self help and pop philosophy …( am hearing the word for the first time on the comments to my last post on Fulghum– still to understand what it means) reading such stuff makes me feel very happy with life in general!

Started and finished reading “Leaving Eden” by Anne Le Claire-

We subscribe to Reader’s Digest ,and they send these complicated forms for resending- to pluck and stick some stamps from all the leaflets and pamphlets that they send- and the whole thing is so complicated- like if our answer is no. then we got to choose one envelope with one particular stamp, and if our option is yes- then we got to choose another envelope and stick another stamp- and all this one got to do within 7 days- and of course, that we are their special, one and only VVVVVIP subscriber, and we have been “specially” chosen- doesn’t matter that we happen to know many other such “special” customers…

And any way, they do send these books, …which are “free” if you pay such and such amount..but the we do get these joke books, riddle books- which my elder son has to read it out to me, even if I tell him I’ve read it before…he seems to derive full enjoyment only if I listen to him reading the joke…

Yeah, so got this book with a selection of 4 novels- from Reader’s Digest after a complicated process of screening, and obviously we have been lucky because we are special!

Read the titles- and chose “Leaving Eden”- actually I liked the story, the narration- very simple, lucid- the story unfolds from the view point of a young girl- there is continous slipping into the past…and returning to the present- her mother is dead, and she misses her mother terribly- she longs for her mother- and yet she feels her mother guiding her constantly- it is a kind of calm flowing story, in spite of a murder, and a bit of mystery hovering her mother’s past..and yet ..there is something very placid about the story flow… when I came to the end of the story it was like, I wanted more..

Some days ago, I read John Irving’s “A widow for one year”...a different book...grief is described so ..errr...differently...then it is hilarious too...explicit at places, bit repulsive though..but if u ask me if I liked it- I dont know...i’m curious, intrigued, and the narration style is gripping...the chronology is random, references are made to future incidents...there is no attempt to hold back ...no suspense...there are psychological insights...and yet I ‘m not sure if it will have a lingering effect in me as a good book....

Abt John Irving- readg him for the first time...there were some parts which I cannot say I enjoyed much... however got thru those...but have to reiterate this is an unusual narration- some interesting insights into the mind of a novelist- she goes to great lengths to collect matter for her next book...yeah- but it is funny...best part is even pathos,horror is described in a funny manner..

In this story- there are 3 writers - and while none of them are able to eliminate the autobiographical element from their writings they’re successful in disguising it to different degrees- but the basic thought remains autobiographical. The protagonist persists in denying the autobiographical element in her writings, and she writes in the third person- but her friend points out consistent characters reappearing in her every work...and finally she decides to write in the first person...this seeping/leaking of autobiographical elements in a person’s writing is something which has intrigued me…to be able to write something totally creative- without the author’s persona leaking anywhere- is it possible?

And when I finished reading this book... tho there were portions which I did not enjoy- the “feel” of the book after finishing with was quite good..the aftertaste/hangover- whatever...some parts were boring,some grating, and some a trifle “yukh”- atleast for me...

How I got this book- Vamshi was mentioning to his buddies- how I was in quest of a library...one friend helped us join one near by, but like I saidbefore- they have only tamil books...and unfortunately I do not know the script too well- then another friend said- there were some books lying unread in his office and he said I could keep them, and this one was one of those- there are 2 more books- Greg Iles’s- “Spandau Phoenix”- have no idea what it is abt- seems like a thriller with lots of action- not my type usually- looks forbidding, and the other one is ErichSegal’s “Acts of Faith” which I’ve already read...

Kartography ... and a few other things..

2004-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

I started out to write a straight-forward review of the Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie's book Kartography, but then I had the urge to blog some thoughts I had while reading the book. So this blog is ... a little bit of this ... and .. a little bit of that. Please indulge me for a few minutes, will you ?

While growing up, have you ever had a person - a part of the family - that you were really really close to ? Mine is a male perspective, so your mileage may vary .... but if you wanted to talk about, gossip even, about things in the family .. who would you turn to ?

Male friends are of no use .. if you said something juicy to one person, the guy would just stare at you as if you were an alien, then he'd turn the whole thing into a goofy joke, and before you know it, the time at the playground that evening wouldn't be about the cricket game .. you'd just be the butt of innumerable jokes all around ;-) ..

OK, how about siblings ? We won't even go there ... say something inappropriate, and you never know when you're going to get blackmailed later for some unrelated thing.

In my case, that left my cousin .. a girl who grew up with me, went to the same school for a while, stayed together in our grandparents house... and as we grew up, we shared a lot of things... her flings & break-ups ...my infatutation-of-the-day...smuggled cigarettes ... Even later in life, before our respective marriages, .. walks on the beach in Madras on my trips back home - she lived in a hostel while she did her masters ...she had first pick on all my T-shirts from here, even the ones off my back ;-)....... She'd told me about the love of her life a couple of years before she dropped the bombshell on the family ...he was Catholic, and that's when I realized my cousin's parents - the so-called liberal couple in the family from the ultra-liberal city of Bangalore - were the exact opposite when it came to their daughter's marriage.

I was (and am) closer to this cousin than most other people in the family. So close that .. once my adoringly clueless mom, in a carefully worded letter, even asked me if we were planning on getting married to each other .... I didn't know the word ROFL then, but that's exactly what I did on the floor of my apartment ....;-)))))... couldn't even call this cousin in India to share the yucks - she was out of town that week !

Anyway .. why am I sharing all this with you ?

This past week has been hell for the family. This loving cousin of mine has a 6-year old daughter, and they found a tumor a few days ago. A week of utter darkness, as my cousin wrote in her email. But, miraculously, thankfully, the biopsy came back negative yesterday. I'm still reeling from the sheer relief of getting this good news ... I can't bear to think what would have happened otherwise....

Oh yes,... I'd forgotten about the review.

_Kartography_ is a story of a beautiful relationship between two precocious children, growing up "spine to spine" as the author puts it, and then slowly drifting apart, before they get to realize the family's dark secrets. Set in Karachi, with slices of upper middle class life ....

You know what, forget it. Just trust me, you'll enjoy the book. If anything in what I said in the preceding paragraphs makes any sense to you ... believe me, you'll have a good time reading the book.

Have a nice day. And you know, sheer coincidence or something ... but the sun's out today after 2 days of gloomy weather :-)))