The Inheritance of Loss

The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai

From what I had heard of it, it sounded a brilliant work. And it had won the prestigious Booker Prize, of course. The media had heaped enormous praises on it (though I would like to know whether these commendations are given or after the announcement of the prize, in general). But I have come to the sad conclusion that these award winning compositions are not my cup of tea. I wasn't impressed with 'The God of Small Things', and found 'The Impressionist' quite trying.

'The Inheritance of Loss' was ok, but I did not particularly like it. I like stories that take a direction, and this one does not seem to move anywhere to me. It is a continuing tale of pathetic life, dysfunctional families, caricatures of ill-placed, ill-timed grandeur that belongs to the past. No single character is rational in his or her behavior. There is no spirit, no strength of character. The past is blemished, the present is chaotic, the future is bleak. Certainly not an uplifting story.

But this is my impression, or rather my preference (A little while ago a friend said I am a tough one to please ;-)]. It has been acknowledged as a remarkable example of contemporary literature, and I would not like to discourage anyone from reading this.

Playing with colors

I haven't played Holi in ages. But this time, I did play with colors on Holi .... though only on paper - I finished a watercolor I started last year, during the long weekend. It was "inspired" by a photograph of a painting I saw in the newspaper. The painting I made is about 34cmX24cm (the photograph about 6cmX4cm). Given such a small size, I sure took a long time to finish it!

Stage 1: The background.
I managed to splash a few drops of dark color, from which I couldn't recover till the end.

Stage 2: Long break.
This is around where I left it last year .... to hibernate for the winters :-)

Stage 3: Execution complete
Finally ... done ... finishing touches added ... ready to be framed.

A Place Called Freedom

A Place Called Freedom - Ken Follet

This has a very different flavor from other Ken Follet works I have read. As opposed to modern-world, conspiracy/espionage stories I had come across earlier, this novel is a historical.

The story starts in early 18th century, in coal mines of Scotland, where every miner's sons are enslaved at birth to the lord of the mine. Thus, miners are enslaved generation after generation, and live in torturous conditions till they die of illness or accident. Young McAsh finds out that this inhuman treatment is against the law (though the poor villagers are not aware the law, and the lord refuses to acknowledge it), and becomes determined to fight for his freedom. He rebels, is subjected to savage punishments by Jamissons who own the mines, but finally escape to London. However, his life is intertwined with the family in ways neither can foresee. Jamissons' neighbors are widowed Mrs Hallim, and her vivacious daughter Lizzie. Lizzie does not submit to subordination as the women of their social class do, but defies normal conventions and seeks to live on her own terms. McAsh and Lizzie become aware of a connection between them, but the vast difference in their social status is something that neither of them dares to overcome, and Lizzie becomes engaged to younger Jamisson son, Jay.

Once in London, McAsh tries to stand on his own, but once again comes up against oppression by the rich and powerful. Once again, he challenges the authority of these people to deny him his rights. But he falls victim to the powers-that-be, and later gets convicted because of a conspiracy hatched by Jay Jamisson. McAsh is transported to America along with other convicts on a slave ship owned by Jamissions, while on the same ship, newly married Jay and Lizzie set out to America to look after family's tobacco plantations. But their fates are tied together; while other convicts are sold as slaves, Jay keeps the strongest ones for himself, McAsh amongst them. Jay's fortunes continue to decline through is ineptitude, Lizzie finds herself trapped in an unsuccessful marriage with an unfaithful husband, and McAsh finds it unbearable to accede to the whims of a tyrannical supervisor. McAsh and Lizzie make a escape to wild country; they are chased by Jay and his henchmen, but finally manage to secure their freedom.

The conditions of life in the era are very well described - lifelong slavery and torture under exacting conditions in coal mines, the harassment of unprivileged people trying to earn a decent living at the hands of rich who make the laws, and the brutal treatment of workers and convicts on American plantations in early colonial days. Though the story is predictable, the details are thorough, and cover a lot of ground in breadth and depth. It celebrates the human spirit, which can endure a lot to attain that elusive freedom and dignity of human life. On the other hand, it exposes the mean side of human nature, which can stoop to any level to attain or hold wealth and power. In all, it can be called a very good book. Although I appreciate the thoroughly-researched details, well-developed characters and finely plotted story, I didn't altogether like it very much. It's difficult to reason, but there it is. I like the stories of triumph of the spirit, but do not like to read those of unreasonable and unending treachery and oppression, however realistic - I find them rather depressing. I still less like content of violence, which tends to be downright gory at times.

Landscaping ....

Some time back a friend asked me to make a pencil sketch for her. A 'Vastu' consultant had suggested that a landscape will be suitable for her, and gave her some specific directions. My friend also wanted me to cheer me up by taking my mind away from my illness and getting me to do something I enjoy. It was some time before I finally started on the sketch, and completed it on a day off. I did enjoy doing it, and was reasonably happy with the result too, and I sent it to her hoping she'd be pleased. But well, that was not to be. She gave me a call, regretfully telling me that though she liked the sketch, her consultant had asked her that her sketch should not have representation of water (it is inauspicious for her). And I guess I forgot this in all the time I took in starting on it.

I had to say ... uski ummedo.n par paani phir gaya ... quite literally.
Well, no problems ... I can make another one.

I made a careful selection this time.


But oh! a flop show again .... the pots represent water :-(

She's ready to give up now ... but I am not. Will try out another one this weekend :-)

1001 Books You Must Read

I just came across this list : 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It is a literary reference book compiled by over a hundred critics.

I immediately fell into the obvious trap - how many have I actually read! And I was dismayed to find have read too few, even though the list includes some very well known classics.

I have read about 20:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Of Human Bondage – William Somerset Maugham
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
She – H. Rider Haggard
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Pity I didn't have a blog sooner ... as early as I started reading!

And read abridged version of these in schooldays:
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
The Count of Monte-Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Emma – Jane Austen
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe

And saw a few movies ....
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell


Surprises:
- Nevil Shute's 'A Town Like Alice' made it to the list, but not 'Requiem For A Wren'. I have always maintained that the latter is far better than the former.
- Likewise with Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn made it, but not Tom Sawyer. Wonder why ...
- I was rather surprised to find 'Alice in Wonderland'. I mean I have enjoyed it since childhood, but a must read?

Disappointments:
- Anne Frank's 'Diary Of A Young Girl' is not there. But perhaps it is an autobiography, rather than a nove.
- So with Henri Cherriere's ' Papillon'
- What about 'Gulliver's travels'?

False impressions

False impressions - Jeffery Archer

A gripping thriller, one can call it a typical Archer - prodigious protagonists (quick on wit as well as action), unscrupulous antagonists (greedy for money and power, and callous about lives), and innumerable twists and turns (so obviously contrived). The difference is the background - Art. Well-known, and not-so-well-known works of the maestros represent a great amount of money, and forgeries are not uncommon. I have read some fact and some fiction based on this context, but even then, this one introduced me to some new things. This is one thing I like about thrillers by Archer, Follet, McLean, etc - that they are thorough in the research on the background, so you get to know something about it in the bargain.

This novel opens on the 9/11 attack on WTC towers - there is a brief but captivating description of the tragedy. It is cleverly used as a means to cover her trail, by the protagonist, art expert Anna Petrescu; however, it has no bearing on the subsequent events. Anna sets to correct the wrong done by her unscrupulous boss, to an English lady; what follows is a fast track chase through three continents, involving an unaware Anna, a ruthless killer Olga Krantz(who has been a former Olympic level gymnast) hired by her boss, and a FBI agent Jack Delaney who is keeping an eye on both.

The plot is interesting, though there are too many coincidences, and there are times when the story becomes predictable. The story covers a lot of ground, but does not delve deeply anywhere. However, it moves at a fast pace, and keeps up the interest through a lot of action, and I guess that is what matters for a novel of this genre.

Bashir Badr - VI

This is the last post on Bashir Badr [for now, at least :-) ]

*** *** ***

Isi shahar mei.n kaii saal se mere kuch kariibii ajeez hai.n
Unhei.n meri kuch khabar nahii.n mujhe unka kuch pataa nahii.n

Many of my near and dear ones reside in the same city since years
They have no news of me, and I have no knowledge about them

Ah, how true. It is indeed a selfish world – people forget all about others until they need them …

*** *** ***

Kabhi dhoop de kabhi badliyaa.n dil-o-jaan se dono kabool hai.n
Magar us mahal mei.n na kaid kar jahaa.n zindagi ki havaa na ho

Tere akhtiyaar mei.n kya nahii.n mujhe is tarah se navaaz de
Yuu.n duyaaei.n meri kabool ho.n mere lab pe koii duaa na ho

Give me sunshine, give me clouds, I accept both whole-heartedly
But do not imprison me in a palace that does not get the breath of life

What is beyond your power? Bless me in such a way
My prayers are accepted so that there is no prayer on my lips

These couplets depict another beautiful aspect of [urdu/hindi] poetry – an address to the Lord, whom you believe in, whom you accept as all-knowing, all powerful, and yet to whom you can complain, request about His world …
The idea of the first couplet here is not a novel one, but the presentation definitely is. And it reminds me of another thing about which I have wondered a few times – in Indian poetry, ‘dhoop’ (sunshine) represents hardships, while clouds are synonymous with relief or pleasant times. From my impression based on a rather limited knowledge, the symbols are used in an opposite way in English poetry. Something to do with our tropical summers? ;-)
The second line in the second couplet is quite interesting, I could make two different interpretations out of it (which seem rather opposite) 
- Accept my prayer so that I do not have a need to have more prayers, i.e. all my wishes are fulfilled before I seek their fulfilment
- My prayer is that I do not have any prayer – I want to be completely content with what I have, and do not wish for anything more

*** *** ***

Ik dooje se mil kar poore hote hai.n
Aadhi aadhi ek kahani ham dono

Mai.n dehleej ka deepak hoo.n aa tez havaa
Raat gujaarei.n apni apni ham dono

We are complete when we meet each other
We are two halves of a story

I am the lamp of the doorstep, come o strong wind
Let us both spend the night in our own pursuits

*** *** ***

She

She - Henry Rider Haggard

"She" stands for "She who must be obeyed", as the local African tribesman call Ayesha - the immortal, extremely powerful and incomparably beautiful queen, whose name they are afraid to speak.

The plot summary from wikipedia:
A Cambridge professor, Horace Holly and his ward, Leo Vincey, travel to Africa, following instructions on a potsherd (the "Sherd of Amenatras") left to Leo by his biological father. (Haggard made a physical copy of the potsherd which is now in the collection of Norwich Castle Museum.) They encounter a white queen, Ayesha, who has made herself immortal by bathing in a pillar of fire, the source of life itself. She becomes the prototypical all-powerful female figure. She is to be both desired and feared. She is a breathtakingly beautiful creature who will not hesitate to kill any one who displeases her or stands in her way. The travelers discover that Ayesha has been waiting for 2000 years for the reincarnation of her lover Kallikrates, whom she had slain in a fit of jealous rage. She believes that Vincey is the reincarnation of Kallikrates. In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the pillar of fire. She wants Leo to bathe in it as she did so that he can become immortal and remain with her forever. His doubts about its safety lead her to step into the flames once more. However, with this second immersion she reverts to her true age and immediately withers and dies. Before dying she tells Vincey, "I die not. I shall come again."

The book was first published in 1887, more than a century ago. So the style, specially that of the dialogs, becomes tedious. Nevertheless, the story itself is quite captivating. Even though it is primarily a fantasy and an adventure story, it gives an insight into the human nature that one cant help wondering about. The eternal life of the supremely powerful queen is a life of loneliness and yearning. She despises the people whom she rules by force of terror, precisely because of their fear. The explorer Leo starts on a mission to avenge the death of his ancestor on the queen, but ends up enchanted by her beauty. The professor is wise, but still affected. Quite a story of desire and contradiction!

The book belongs to the genre of 'Lost World', not a kind usually favored by me. So there is quite a story behind how I landed up with it. For more than 15 years now, I am more or less a regular on the TOI daily crossword. For a stretch of time, I do it everyday, even looking at the answers next day, and then for a period I give it up altogether. When I was in college, I even used to tear up the crossword from the paper in the morning, to fill it up in the classes. They tend to repeat the clues, so, quite a number of times, I came upon the clue "Rider novel" which had a 3 letter answer; after a while I learnt it was "SHE". This intrigued me a lot ... if the book featured in the crossword so frequently, it must definitely be very famous. So, when I saw it at the book fair last year, and found the description at the back cover interesting, I got a copy for myself.

Daughter of the Ganges

I am as good as my word ... so here is the first "review" ...

Daughter of the Ganges - Asha Miro

"Daughter of the Ganges" is one of the few non-fiction books I have read, and liked. It is a memoir of Asha, who is adopted from an christian orphange in Bombay at the age of six, by Miro couple of Barcelona. Her adoptive parents have adopted another daughter, and chose to retain the given names of both their daughters; the mother maintains a diary for each daughter, describing her thoughts and feelings as they bring up the daughters from another part of the world. The book starts with Asha's memories of the distant past, interspersed with excerpts from her mother's entries.
In her growing-up years, Asha is troubled by the thought why her biological parents abandoned her, while strangers showed her so much love as to make her their daughter. As with many adopted children, her desire to know more about her roots increases with time. She joins a group going to Bombay to work with the poor, to seek answers and discover her past. In the orphanage in Bombay, she meets a nun who remembers her, but could not, or does not, give her much details about her birth parents. She just tells Asha that she is a daughter of the Ganges. Asha returns, unsatisfied, and still a feeling that her father had disowned her (her mother having died in her infancy).
She writes a book on her experiences, and a few years later, returns to Bombay to film a documentary based on it. This time, she is able to trace back her journey much farther, and circumstances of her adoption. After her mother died, her survival became doubtful. Her father, a very poor farmer, unable to look after two young daughters, requests nuns of a Bombay church to take care of her, thinking that they would nurse her back to health, and he will bring her back once she is older. However, nuns agreed to care for her only if he would agree to giver her up to the orphanage. Desperate to save her life, her father consented.
A helpful man from her village tells Asha that her elder sister still lives in their native village. He brings her brother-in-law to meet her, and then they take her to their village. A sentimental reunion of the sisters follows, even though they cannot understand each other's language. Asha is striken by the poor conditions her sister lives in. From her sister, she is able to learn much more of her father and her family. She also meets her half-sister, who had nursed her for quite a while after her mother's death. As Asha prepares to leave, the people from her native village are unable to comprehend that she wants to return even when she has found her family. But Asha's sister wants her to go back to the family she has known for years, to the life she has been living, life that is not full of hardships as her own. All she asks for is Asha to call her up some time, so that she can hear her voice, even if she is not able to understand what she says.

The book is simple, but poignant and touching. Her reunion with her sisters and family is specially moving. As are her experiences in Bombay, where she stays with a poor but caring family...
... she finds that people are amazed to find that she cannot speak their language although she looks like them
... she tries to discover familiarity with her native languages, but is unable to do so
... she tries to look for something, someone in the population of Bombay who might be her family, but not realistically expecting it, yet filled with a longing
There are points when one is surprised by her astonishment at the way of life in India, specially that of the poorer people - the poverty, the warmth of strangers, the oppression of women ... unexpected indifference, as well as unexpected love and sharing .... hey, come one, all of it is "normal" in our "culture". And then you remember, that although the book is a story of an Indian in India, it is through the eyes of a person who is not familiar with it.
A good read, over all.

Long time no see

I have been away from the blogging world, and more so from my blog, for a long while. I have visited a few blogs now and then, read posts in my reader for most part, but haven't yet found the energy to get back to posting myself. I hope to gain back the pace now on :-)

In this long absence, since I had nothing better to do, I read, and read a lot. Though I could get a few books that I had not read earlier, mostly I re-read many books, some of them for the nth time. Many times people wonder how I can read a book, even a mystery, again and again. I usually say that I do it just to pass the time, but I think that is not the real truth, certainly not the complete truth. Even though I don't have a definite answer myself, I believe it is just for the pleasure - I enjoy reading. I started reading quite early (I remember reading hindi edition of the Readers' Digest when I was 6 or so), and since then, if I have nothing (necessary) to do, I can usually be found with a book (though more than a few times I have been guilty of neglecting tasks for reading).
Then they are people, who don't read at all (except for a little of newspaper, and some religious text) - they just cant stop wondering how can I read all the time, and why do I have such a collection of books (even though it is not a large one from my perspective). I am amazed how can anyone NOT read? As I said, I read primarily for pleasure, but there are other benefits - you enhance your knowledge about people you will never meet, places you will never visit, and times you will never live in. When you appreciate others' ideas, you broaden your own mind and understanding of humanity - perhaps it is not as good as traveling and meeting real people, but I think it is the next best thing. After all, there is only so much you can learn from the newspaper, and hardly anything at all from the television.

Well, so much for contemplation. I have been reading a lot, but most of it was re-reading. But I read quite a few new ones too. Some of them were Perry Mason series by Gardener, and Three Investigators - they are really good timepass (specially if you dont want to read something serious), but one of them is quite like another, nothing much to write about. On the rest, I'll be posting my impressions, as I have been doing earlier. I dont think of myself as a reviewer, but it is good to collect ones perceptions in perspective. At any rate, it gives me something to write about ;-)