I must say, after all the weird incest-filled stories, that made me cringe, I had given up on Murakami already. Then, I stumbled upon this very serendI must say, after all the weird incest-filled stories, that made me cringe, I had given up on Murakami already. Then, I stumbled upon this very serendipitously on the very week of my birthday.
Four days before it(today), after feeling that nothing could possibly lift me out of the rotten mood I am in, and the absolute sense of helplessness I feel about getting another year older, I pick this up on a bus ride home and I am pleasantly surprised and believe that this book CHOSE me, much like the wand chooses the wizard.
Half an hour and forty pages later, suddenly I feel like I was the waitress and Murakami was the enigmatic hotel owner and something about that analogy cheers me up instantly.
**spoiler alert** Don't get me wrong: I loved this book! To pieces! And I've never wanted to give something I liked so much 5 stars but more than all **spoiler alert** Don't get me wrong: I loved this book! To pieces! And I've never wanted to give something I liked so much 5 stars but more than all else, I wanted it to break my heart-and it didn't!
Yes, tragedy strikes. Yes, a main character you grow up with dies but it isn't as heartbreaking as it should have been. Honestly, I expected to pause, shut the book and bury my face into a pillow to weep if either Marie-Laure or Werner died. One does and I still didn't quite feel it. Maybe it will grow on me because this happens only towards the end of the book but so far, I haven't felt the urge to so, maybe four stars for now and five only if the death haunts me.
Now my favourite part of the book: I have read SO many books on Holocaust. I had a complete "Holocaust" phase as a 20 year old. And yet despite all the Nazi bashing, the sorrow and grief of those who suffered the war, the eventual German guilt and what-not, not a single one I read so far quite talked about how the erstwhile Nazi soldiers felt when they did something that they were told was "right" when every cell in their body screamed "wrong." Nazi soldiers are always described as steel-hearted, robotic, mechanical beings with an emotional range smaller than a teaspoon. And yet, they were humans just like the rest of us. Not all of them went willingly to the war. Not everyone approved of the entropy. Not everyone felt Germany was doing a "glorious" job of bringing order to the chaos in civilisation. That's a balanced perspective that others quite forgot to include in their desperation to show how horrible the Nazis were.
I think every book has a hero and his nemesis but only very few books show that the lines between the two are very blurred. It isn't always black or white. Heroes have splotches of black and villians have streaks of white, too, sometimes. That's how the world is, too. And maybe if books are more likely to show this, that would minimise a little more bitterness at least within some of us towards others....more
This Review contains: 1. A book loving archaeologist 2. An Anthropologist-in-making 3. A Medieval Historian 4. An Anthropologist-turned-writer
Year 2009This Review contains: 1. A book loving archaeologist 2. An Anthropologist-in-making 3. A Medieval Historian 4. An Anthropologist-turned-writer
Year 2009, Solan, Himachal Pradesh A girl, enamoured with books, finds herself on a second hand book stall at a trade fair and picks up a slightly mouldy, rain drenched book by a famous author, known for his travelogues and novels.
Year 2018, also in Solan The same girl, now an archaeologist, is trying to teach Object Analysis to a rather disinterested young anthropologist-in-making, who is casually glancing through the various traditional objects she is showing him, until she says the magic word: Trade Route between India and Egypt
Thus begins a project (still ongoing after months of research) despite the hindrances of conferences and classes, visa applications and university applications and the two of them find themselves unnaturally observant of people's wrists.
Year 2018, Cambridge, England On her last evening in town, after a long tiring archaeological conference, our archaeologist finds herself on the dinner table with the family she has been staying with. They are to have another guest tonight. A Harvard historian who is working on some manuscripts from Egypt. She isn't very interested because her mind is still racing upstairs about what all she needs to finish packing, how will she head to the train station in the morning and whether or not she'd get to see Platform 9 and 3/4 (of all the things) on Kings Cross Station the following day. All this until the historian actually turns up and joins them on the dinner table.
Question: What are the odds that you're an archaeologist, researching trade routes between Egypt and India and just randomly you find yourself on a dinner table with an Egyptian, who just happens to be a historian, and who is in Cambridge, of all the Godforsaken places in the world, because she's looking at Cairo Genizah manuscripts? And while you casually mention your own project back home, she points out that, well, it's exactly what she's here for. That there are letters in the collection she's going to work with that deal with exactly what you're looking for. And it doesn't end here: that book you rescued in 2009? That's actually what got her started, too because you know what? That author was actually an anthropologist to begin with, and not only did his doctoral thesis talk about Cairo Genizah, that mouldy old book you bought for 10 rupees back home is actually all about it, too!
*Insert appropriate sound for comprehension suddenly dawning on the poor archaeologist !!!!!*
I feel now that my entire life was leading upto reading this one book I always had in my bookshelf. It's like my life is a product of the Butterfly Effect that picking up this book produced.
Who knew that Amitav Ghosh, my mother and grandmother's beloved writer of The Glass Palace , whose travelogues I had to read for my second Master's Degree in Literature, was actually an Anthropologist? Who knew that he went to Oxford, much like me, way before I did? Who knew that an Oxon from India would reach out to another Oxon from India across time to aid her with her project!
Who knew? Who could have ever known?
Now all that serendipity aside, about the book:
Should you, random-reader-who-came-here-for-a-review, read it even if you're not an archaeologist, an anthropologist or a historian? My answer is yes! If not for the history, the etymology of so many words we use today, or for the fascinating story of Ben Yiju, read it just to get a sneak peek into the head of a researcher. Read it to find out what it's like being a foreigner in a country that you have a shared past with. Or just read it to find out how where there's nothing today, there were close cultural and social ties for 4500 years, that were eventually severed by colonialism.
There's so much to take from this book: Anecdotes, stories but above all, the essence of what binds humans with each other regardless of how far away they are from you in time and space. This book is a true delight, whose occasionally slow pace does nothing to the powerful impact it will have on you when you're done. Read it intelligently. Read it because you want to experience so much more than history. Read it well but read it. You won't be disappointed!...more
A psychological roller coaster ride like Robert Browning's pA Victorian version of Crime and Punishment.
Wilde's love letter to art à l' Aristotle.
A psychological roller coaster ride like Robert Browning's poems.
The witty words that Wildean charm is made of.
Honestly, you can take what appeals to you the most from this incredible little book. There are no morals it preaches except the ones that you already believe in and no warnings it issues except that the excess of anything is bad.
For me it was quite like the conversation I had in January with a young student of mine, where I advised him to aim to be a man of substance in an age where people obsess over physical beauty.
In a sentence, therefore, "It is the spectator, and not life that [this book] really mirrors."...more
It's not something that you read and then put back into your shelf forever. It's something you open everyday, pick a quote and then chew at it as the It's not something that you read and then put back into your shelf forever. It's something you open everyday, pick a quote and then chew at it as the world spins madly around you....more
Let me begin this review with a simple truth:Binodini is a temptress. No, not just for the two men in the novel, but also for the Reader. If, like me,Let me begin this review with a simple truth:Binodini is a temptress. No, not just for the two men in the novel, but also for the Reader. If, like me, you, too started this book right before your exams, she's going to pull you in until you finish it, making you incapable of reading everything else.
Now, coming to the book: If you've not read Chokher Bali for whatever reason and do not know Tagore, trust me, you're on the losing end! This book is a true classic and there's beautiful poetry interspersed between scenes and dialogues, some really fluid description that's worth reading and some true philosophy and life lessons buried deep within.
For the archaeologist in me, this is a true treat because there's so much to take out from it than just the story. You can almost see the whole thing happening in front of you. You can feel every emotion even that which a minor character may be experiencing and there's this deep lingering scent of incense that seems to waft from the story towards you, at once intoxicating and purifying.
Seriously, no review can recreate what Chokher Bali brings to you when you read it. The vast range of perspicacity Tagore's storytelling possesses is enchanting, exhilarating. It lingers in the air like that incense I just spoke about. It's calming. It's profound. You shouldn't even be reading this review anymore. No, you should be searching for the book on Amazon as I go on rambling about it like a mad person....more
The first thing that I absolutely loved about Tara is you simply can't keep it down! No, you open it, your eyes skim through the setting and before yThe first thing that I absolutely loved about Tara is you simply can't keep it down! No, you open it, your eyes skim through the setting and before you know, it has grabbed you and thrown you into the beautiful, witty, twisted and painfully sad world of the conjoined twins, Chandan and Tara.
What starts as a play about two self sufficient siblings, in a famiky where the mother favours the daughter and the father favours the son, slowly evolves into a beautiful and horrifying tale of parental preference for the male, guilt, making amends, secrets and lies.
Tara is gorgeous! It's hauntingly gorgeous! I've read so many plays and yet I've never read anything like this before. Mahesh Dattani is clearly one of the best playwrights in India....more
Call me biased but I never even dreamed that an Agatha Christie book would make it to my favourites list!
I have nothing against detective fiction ( I Call me biased but I never even dreamed that an Agatha Christie book would make it to my favourites list!
I have nothing against detective fiction ( I enjoy it very much, rather!) but I never seem to remember a mystery and when I look back, they all seem the same! As a result I had more interest in the works of Agatha Christie's husband, who, like yours truly, was an archaeologist.
So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that Christie, too,had written her experiences of being married to one and her time at the digs in Syria! I wasn't just happy, I was overjoyed because this book, thatwas bought (or rather, rescued) from a dirty, dingy bookshop in Firozpur Cantonement (an old British town) was both a first edition and a book that had never been bought! The cherry on the top was it was about archaeology from a non archaeological perspective, similar to my own initiative, Speaking Archaeologically!
And so began a journey of almost two months with this book, which accompanied me when I held seminars, assisted volunteers and then came to an end in Firozpur itself, where I had first started reading this book!
I am not going to talk about whether you should or shouldn't read it but I loved it! Nothing is more refreshing to an archaeologist than reading about a dig informally and living vicariously through someone's account in a dig from the 1930s!
**spoiler alert** Disclaimer:This review is more of a rant against all those who have been criticising this book so much! Please read this review**spoiler alert** Disclaimer:This review is more of a rant against all those who have been criticising this book so much! Please read this review if you hated the book! READ it especially, though, if you liked it!
Seriously, what is your problem? You did not like the book? Why? - Because Jem's dead and there's no Dill, except for passing references? - Because it was too political for you? - Because Scout is now Jean-Louise? - Because she has a fight with Atticus that eventually all of us have had with our parents at some point or the other?
Or is it because just like Scout, you too have married your expectations with Harper Lee's freedom to write whatever she chooses and to take her characters wherever she likes?
Or maybe, like Scout, your conscience is also linked with that of Atticus and once you saw that he ceased to be...how did some of you put it..."the paragon of justice"...at least for you, you just started screaming whatever came to your mouth like she did.
Maybe, then, you too need a slap on the face from an Uncle Jack.
Maybe, you, too, missed the point!
One, there is no dark side to Atticus in this book! (The previews got it so wrong!) If at all, there is only that side of him which developed with years of experience and because of what he had seen! Atticus isn't a racist or anti-democratic person. If at all, he is a Jeffersonian Democrat (a term you probably would have known if you had read about Jefferson at all or would have at least registered while reading the part where Attticus explains his thoughts!)
Democracy is a debatable form of government and those of us who hail from it can tell you from first hand experience that once it has been extended to all, especially to ones who neither understand it nor know of its implications, the whole country suffers. (I come from the largest one there is in the world and trust me, every second person on the street can tell you that just because you have a democratic set up, doesn't mean you deserved it or were ready for it!) That opinion alone does not make a person a racist or an immoral, undemocratic idiot! That is something almost every second or third person hailing from a democracy can back up...sometimes, you're given equal rights too soon. Maybe you've just overthrown dictatorship or stepped out of the shackles of slavery. Just because you've just attained freedom does not give you the right to automatically and immediately claim democracy. With freedom, first comes the acquaintance of as hitherto suppressed race with their rights and then their duties. Then and only then can people effectively adopt democracy for their own progress. This is what Atticus tries to say and this exactly what Scout, much like some of you, ignores, then screams and swears then carelessly goes on to pack her bags! There's absolutely no part of the book where Atticus claims the superiority of the whites over any other race! So if you can't read properly, stop jumping to conclusions and shut it!
Second, a lot of people talk about Scout being stupid, selfish and obnoxious. My question for them is: Have you never read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'? Scout is popular only because she features in these books! Had she been a real person in your life, you'd have kicked her out the first opportunity (or the other way round) and either way, you would have been glad of it! Why I say so? Because I have, in my life, had the misfortune of meeting not one but two such people, who think their opinion is superior to everyone else's, who are a bigger pain to those who love them than they are to themselves, who constantly think that the world is just not good enough for them and who are quick to quarrel and are too rash too quickly!
So, if you have all that against Scout, let me remind you, that's exactly what she always was-rude, unfeeling and emotionally handicapped towards one and all! What's annoying about her is not why she is like this but the fact that she's like that still! That she neither grew up nor changed!
Simply put, To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a lesser work of fiction because Scout was such a pain of a character and Go Set a Watchman isn't either! Scout is the protagonist, there's no doubt about that, but she has as much of an influence on the merits of these books as those two mockingbirds (one dead and one alive) on their cover pages! She's just a medium for storytelling, not the essence of the books!
Also, this book DOES NOT RUIN To Kill a Mockingbird ! If at all, it only adds to it! Why? Because it is a book about growing up, about making your own choices, about learning to come to terms with the flaws of people you once deified, idealised and accepting that they are just as human, just as prone to mistakes and just as entitled to differences of political, ideological and moral opinions as you are!
Bottom-line: To each his own ( because I am entitled to my own opinion, too)!I LOVED this book, loved every bit of it! It made me laugh, it reminded me why exactly I loved its prequel so much and it added to my own knowledge of human characters.
You, meanwhile,may still sit around and mope about how you could have spent your money and time better!
For me, it was worth its price and a helluva good read!...more
I write this review with a mingled feeling of pride and shame. Pride because India was the blessed country which bore a poet like Gulzar, who is a livI write this review with a mingled feeling of pride and shame. Pride because India was the blessed country which bore a poet like Gulzar, who is a living tribute to the rich traditions of Urdu poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Ghalib, Zauq, Faiz and the like.
Shame because I was no stranger to Gulzar.I have watched his movies, enjoyed his lyrics in many a Hindi movie Soundtracks and yet, it took me all this time to read his works.
A typical Gulzar anthology has the original verse in Hindi on the left and an English translation on the right. Normally, when I read such translated books, I generally pay more attention to the translation as I rely on them heavily. However, this is the first time, for the life of me that I have no idea how good or bad the translation is! I was completely enchanted and ensnared by the beauty of the original so much that it didn't make sense to read the translation. No matter how beautiful it would have been, it could never have matched in magic, lyrical quality or emotions, the original!
Must read for the poetry buffs! If you cannot read Hindi, I suggest you still buy it for the translations are right there but I cannot vouch for it, seeing I never read it! ...more
A Confession: I'm biased when I write my review of this book.
Why? Because I already loved the story of Pedro and Tita's passionate and unrequitedA Confession: I'm biased when I write my review of this book.
Why? Because I already loved the story of Pedro and Tita's passionate and unrequited romance even before reading the book. I grew up on the story. It has been my favourite story since I can remember.
How so? Allow me to tell you of the days when Indian teleseries had class. Yes, back in the early '90s, when I was a kid,they showed all sorts of good stories on the tele. A serial called Margarita was one of them, that my Mum used to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed. The story of Pedro and Tita was brought to life by two very talented actors of the time, Milind Soman (who, by the way, is Chocolate personified!) and Rajeshwari Sachdev. The epic Kalpana Iyer added the necessary spice while portraying Mami .
So powerful was the acting of these three actors, that nearly two decades later, the story is still alive in my memory and I would have remembered it perfectly, scene to scene ,had I not accidentally discovered that it was based on a book! And that, too, on the book I had been avoiding to buy primarily because of all the negative reviews it had on Goodreads. (I'm sure they must have mentioned it in the credits of the series but I must have forgotten! ) So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that I no longer needed to piece together random scenes from the serial to savour again the romance of Pedro and Tita, my Pedro and Tita, my friends from the good old days!
Do I need to say that I love this story? I adore it! I grew up on it! It's a long lost childhood friend and it's beautiful to me.
Why then do I say that I am biased? Because of all the negative reviews I read here. Apparently, the translation is pathetic, the language is childish, the story is abrupt, the entire plot is pointless and reading this is a waste of time.
Now, I could argue with one or two of them reviewers and say I disagree but how could I argue with them all? Maybe, just maybe, it is possible that because I have always liked the story, I liked it even more. Maybe, for once, I read with a blindfold to all the faults of this book. Or maybe, I picked up the perfect translation?
I don't want to plead my case here and with all due respect to everyone here, I stand by my verdict: I loved the book! I adore Tita and am in love with Pedro. I have a soft corner for Dr Brown. And nothing, no amount of insult or injury, would change my opinion on this book.
I loved the blend of recipes with the story, each giving its own flavour to moods and feelings of Tita, the language for me flowed like water, and the story for me was my favourite flavour of bittersweet chocolate with hazelnut chunks in it!
Do I recommend it? It's a story blended in recipes and encapsulated in magical realism. Hell, yeah I do, if you believe that my taste in books is like Tita' s for food!...more
A little Bit of Bragging: Since the book in question picks up a lot of stuff from Sir Rushdie's life, let me brag about the only thing that con A little Bit of Bragging: Since the book in question picks up a lot of stuff from Sir Rushdie's life, let me brag about the only thing that connects me to him. I live next to the house where he used to spend his summer vacation as a child! (Not that I saw him! That was way before we moved there.) But the fact that Salman Rushdie owns a house in my neighbourhood and might someday walk in while I am taking a walk by Anees Villa makes me want to mention it because, believe it or not, I have fallen in love with his writing!
Ah! I digress! So, coming back to the point... Midnight's Children was lent to me by a friend sometime last year but something I don't like thinking about, made me drop the book and return it to her. By that time, I had finished about 400 pages of this long but captivating novel and couldn't get it out of my head so, I borrowed it again from the same friend, read it (finally) and am now reviewing it.
There is no reason why you should not read Midnight's Children because it is as close as magical realism can get to real life while keeping its dark, seductive charm intact. It has all the good elements of a great political commentary, a vivid imagination and a cocky yet innocent kind of humour very unique to writers like Salman Rushdie . In fact, this is one of the rare novels which is as close as any book can get to Arabian Nights while being simultaneously close to the narration of Gabriel García Márquez . Read Midnight's Children if you like magical-realism or step into the genre with it, read it if you like fairy-tales which talk about politics or political novels which are written like fairy-tales. It will get slow, it will be hard to read and yes, you might reach the point where you'd just want it to end but it is a book which will continue to haunt you unless and until you don't finish it! ...more
Beautiful, poignant and heart wrenching, Spirit Brides compels you to think about the power of love, the misery of being poor and hapless in a world fBeautiful, poignant and heart wrenching, Spirit Brides compels you to think about the power of love, the misery of being poor and hapless in a world full of people with money and power. Although the stories in this anthology are very very common, to almost every culture, but what makes it different, and beautiful is how they havebeen written. A must read really and all you need is half an hour!...more
" Their melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you rea" Their melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart. " -Victor Frankenstein on Oriental Poetry (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein )
I begin my review, or rather, I sum it up in the words borrowed from Mary Shelley, who said it all about the likes of Omar Khayyam, Khalil Gibran, and Rumi, in those two lines. Yes, this is exactly what reading Oriental poetry feels like, even to a person from the Oriental world! This is exactly what reading this little pink book feels like.
In fact, I'm glad I got my hands on it before that little three-year-old girl, who was probably eyeing it keenly because it's pink and cloth bound. I still shudder to think where Rumi's wisdom would have lain, in a doll house perhaps, surrounded by Barbie dolls, instead of a bookshelf!
Anyway, what about this translation of Rumi? Is it as good as Barks? Better than Barks? Is it different?
Well, I am not going to compare it with Barks, because, I am yet to read it. As to what I think of this translation, it certainly is amazing but it isn't what one would call brilliant. Somewhere, while trying to keep the rhyme scheme intact, the translator lost that key essence of Rumi: depth! I don't mean that the poems are not deep anymore or have suddenly become simple and shallow and meaningless-no! However, the original beauty of Rumi is lost in the use of more colloquial words and all this just to get the whole things rhyme. Certain quatrains are so vague you just lose track of what you're reading and there are places where the translation is simply clumsy.
I do not claim to be an expert on Persian poetry like my grandfather was however, I know for sure that if this collection had been translated in the same way as Navtej Sarna translated Zafarnama or Vikram Seth translated certain couplets from Arabic, Persian and Urdu in his A Suitable Boy , I, for one, would have loved this book slightly more than I do now.
That being said, I have still adored the book. Who couldn't? Rumi's poems are like music to the soul, and even if they seem a little too casually handled, they still leave a mark on you, hit the nail, touch a nerve somewhere. I throughly enjoyed the book but I just feel that it could have been better!
The day I finished with The Prophet I thought I'd never read anything quite like it and that saddened me greatly. How wrong I had been!
The Garden oThe day I finished with The Prophet I thought I'd never read anything quite like it and that saddened me greatly. How wrong I had been!
The Garden of The Prophet is every bit as amazing and soothing for the soul as The Prophet was and there were parts that seemed to be written especially for me.
Continuing from where The Prophet ended, this book begins with Almustafa returning to his homeland. The words and the thoughts that follow talk about distances, departures, farewells and homecomings. They talk about the transience of beauty and the about despair in abundance-things that make you see life with a different point of view.
I would agree with you if you tell me that in poetic merit it doesn't rival nor stands equal to The Prophet but, if, for a moment, these books are treated as separate works, which they are, it is both unfair and wrong to even venture a comparison.
Without doubt, The Best Read of 2014. Highly recommended!...more
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