~~[Post 9] - And all ~~

Okay, what do I write about today, really? It’s the ninth day of the blogathon and I am already thinking what else is there to write and all. Let me just type whatever comes to my mind and let’s see where the post goes and all.  So I started reading “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D.Salinger yesterday. It’s about this teenager, Holden, who is weird and lonely, and all. Boy, there is nothing that interests him and all. The book takes you through these wild depressing continuous thought stream of his and all. Everything is crumby and everyone is phony in his thoughts and all. But he is very protective of his sweet little sister Phoebe and he admires his late brother Allie, Really. He also has an elder brother who is a writer and has migrated to Hollywood, but, that’s not important and all, because Holden hates Hollywood and actors and all, of course, because they are phony and all. Boy, he is very concerned about the ducks in the lake of Central park and all. Where do the ducks go during winter when the lake is frozen and all? He asks almost everyone he meets about these ducks and even goes there late in the night to find it out himself and nearly gets himself killed and all, really. He keeps thinking of Jane, a neighbor who he grew up with, but does nothing to pursue much and all, really! He also keeps thinking about old Sally all the time and all. Boy, such a confused soul and all, really.

Now, if you are wondering, what the hell just happened in the previous paragraph, well, it’s not me, I just gave you a glimpse of what is in store if you pick the book “Catcher in the Rye” to read.  That’s exactly how the book’s writing style progresses. And no, I am not making fun of the way the book is written. Because I liked it and tried to imitate it in the first paragraph you just read. Believe me, its not easy to write something like that, when you don’t talk or think so.

So back to the book, it takes a few pages before you realize that you have delved straight into reading a clueless, depressed teenager’s every single thought. He is as confused as a teenager should be, completely directionless about his life, lonely, unhappy about everything around, and gives you this impression that he just doesn’t care about anything. He is unable to relate to anyone and still has liberating outbursts with just about anyone. He suddenly sinks back into a self-introspection mode and ends up having conflicting thoughts about a person, who in a moment he loves, and the next moment, he hates. As he progresses through days, he reaches out to as many people as possible, and also ditches them as soon as he cannot stand them anymore, which, I must say, is just in minutes.  His irritation about everything wrong in the world and his swinging moods is very well represented in the book.  The only time you feel good reading is when he is hopelessly affectionate towards his younger sister Phoebe and in his absolute adoration of his late brother Allie. The section of the book involving Phoebe is quite a treat to read and her unbiased affection is about the only thing that saves him from taking any drastic steps in his rather confused state of mind. Even though the repetitive usage of “and all”, “Boy”, “Really” in almost each sentence and usage of slang irritated me for a while, it did help drive home the point that I am reading a teenager’s train of thoughts, in the brink of losing his innocence, in search of something he doesn’t even know, but he wants to get there somehow.

As a reader, you know, he is in an attempt of getting out of his loneliness, seeking affection, though he never really openly admits it, you know, he is looking for the warmth a conversation provides to a lonely soul, but try as he might, he doesn’t feel the warmth or love from anyone, and that frustrates him like a mad man. Towards the end of the book, I just wanted to hold this Holden person, look him in the eye and tell him, boy, just lock these confusing thoughts up and throw away the key, quit smoking, breathe, go hug your parents, spend some time with Phoebe, get some sleep and you will see, world is not such a phony and crumby place as you believe it to be, really!

Overall, the book made me just very very very sad, because I do know, there are teenagers out there, who live in a similar dilemma, lonely in life, unsure about self, painfully dragging each day amidst who they think are phony people. All I wish for such confused souls, is a little sister Phoebe who can help them see life as beautiful as it is.

~~ [Mini Book Review]: 11 Hours by Daniel Paul Singh ~~

So, a quick mini review on the novel - "11 hours" by Daniel Paul Singh! 

For a first time author, it is rather quite a very good attempt. Reading the book has definitely been a nail-biting experience. Its an absolute page turner and I couldn't put it down and had to complete the read in one sitting.

There's a perfect mix of romance, friendship, suspense, science woven in the story. I was always at the edge of the seat trying to guess what happens next and well, the best thing - I couldn't guess what happened next which in itself kept me hooked to the book till the last page :)

I particularly loved the following in the book apart from the story itself.

1) Toggling of the chapters between the flashbacks and the present
2) Inclusion of actual places from Chennai to make it more realistic for the reader
3) Realistic Conversations
4) Tying all the loose ends (pan card from the security etc)
5) Keeps you guessing

Kudos to the author on his debut novel!! Would love to read more of his works!

~~[Mini Book Review]: Futility ~~

Happened to watch Titanic over the weekend (no, not the first time!). I always have felt that a movie or a book gives you different experiences when read at different times in your life! This definitely proved as one such example. The first time I had watched the movie in theater and without subtitles, I was a teenager.  Yes, I was sad for the disaster, I had cried and I was moved by the aftermath and the tragedy. I still am.  However, the depth of the characters, the dialogues of each character, the agony that each might have gone through hit me hard only this time.

Like the trend nowadays, I immediately went to Wiki to read further and thanks to Wiki, a bit of reading led me to a book “The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility” written by Morgan Robertson having strange eerie similarities to the sinking of Titanic. The book was published in 1898 – Titanic sailed and sank in 1912. The book features an unsinkable ship of similar specifications as that of Titanic. This fictional ship also has lesser lifeboats than the ship’s capacity, just like Titanic! The supposedly unsinkable ship “Titan” sinks in North Atlantic on a cold April night after hitting an iceberg – yes, just how “Titanic” did.

Too many of these spooky parallels – made me pick the book. I was expecting a detailed read of the sinking, however, was quite surprised that the actual sinking and the aftermath of the shipwreck was not discussed at length at all. The book takes us through the uncertainty of John Rowland’s life, one of the 13 survivors of the shipwreck, who keeps encountering situations which are too difficult to get out of. At a point, when he is too desperate, though he being an atheist, he looks up to the sky for help from whoever is up above there. Its about this man who somehow manages to moves forward as life directs him to without the possibility to even have any clear view of his own.

And oh, he is strong too, he slays a polar bear on the iceberg single handedly!  Though I couldn’t fathom what a polar bear was doing on that lonely iceberg in the mid of a vast ocean, it did give an impression that it probably was a very huge iceberg.  The one in the movie doesn’t seem too large or vast.

As a reader, you keep hoping that John’s clear conscience through these endless situations doesn’t prove futile in the end – and well, there’s a happy ending too :)

Definitely recommend the book – for the similarities and for the story too

~~ Mini Reviews - Of Movies & Books ~~

Originally written on 12-Dec-2015..

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

~~So, we went to watch the 3-D movie – The Good Dinosaur today noon! It’s been a while since we watched a movie in theater!!! Poor kid, was quite excited, about this whole movie thingy and so was I – of course, not to mention, my love for popcorn, which she shares too! She didn’t touch her popcorn throughout the trailers in the beginning and reprimanded me when I sneaked in one or two (oh no, not from her bucket, but my own)!! Though she kept munching on and watching intently during the initial cutesy dino family growing up phases, things got worse as in any movie it does, and poor kid had to finally end up sobbing through most part of the movie… whenever there were thunderclaps and lightning flashes in the 3D scale combined with the sound effects -she wailed, gushing waters-she wailed, dino fell from a cliff-she wailed!  Well, this is not her first movie experience in theater, we have watched a few animated movies before but she had never ever wept like today! Poor kid, loves such movies, and I am sure, would have probably liked the movie if we had watched it @ home rather than in the theater!  So if you have a < 5 year old, I would say, better skip the movie! Even otherwise, I wouldn’t say it’s a must-watch kind!

~~Speaking of movies, the latest I watched on TV was Bahubali… I knew that the movie ends abruptly indicating a part-2 in the rise, but when I actually watched it, I didn’t expect it to leave me overwhelmed and cheated at the same time :P I didn’t want the movie to end – yeah, I just didn’t want the movie to end and I kept staring at the TV unbelievably, thinking that it must be a mistake :P I would have definitely loved to watch this one in the theater!  May be the second part next year.

~~ Any of you watched Talvar? Read Aarushi by Avirook Sen? I did and it left me shaken for various reasons! Not that I was unaware of the case before and not that I haven’t read any crime fiction or thrillers before – but the movie and book somehow freaked me out, book more than the movie, maybe because it is not a work of fiction… So much so, that, as soon as I was done with the book, I kept it back on my shelf with the cover page with the title facing the wall so I don’t have to look at the cover page again (I somehow feel the cover page could have been a bit less intimidating for weak hearted souls like me, but I guess, it was so to make a point) …. I am not sure if you would understand when I say this – I don’t like lending my books, but then, for the first time in my life, I finally gave a book away asking it not to be returned but just being passed on……

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

~~ Mini Reviews: The Fault in our stars & Looking for Alaska ~~

Originally written on 08-Dec-2015:-


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


~~ So, I am going to try and post few mini-reviews of long review-pending books.. I recently went through the reviews that I have posted earlier – they are awfully huge, almost like a chapter from the novel that I have reviewed…  :P I have been always that way…. During the beginning of my career, I would write lengthy emails to my onshore counterparts and my team mates would yawn and then start reading them! I have toned down on emails now, but should work on the reviews…. So this attempt! I must warn you, there are spoilers even if these are just mini-reviews.. So proceed only if you don't mind and of course, do let me know your reviews on my reviews :)

~~I read 2 of John Green’s novels back to back a few months ago.. The Fault In Our Stars & Looking for Alaska.. Honestly, I probably would have written a review immediately, if I had read it as a teenager! I just read it a tad late, but nevertheless, they both still managed to move me and bring tears to my eyes!! If you are going to read these, please do remember that this is teen/young adult fiction and few of the stuff will be a bit dramatic or childish for us mature minds (if I may say so) :P

~~The fault in our stars is about Hazel Grace (I love the way how Augustus, hero of the novel keeps referring to her this way) who is a cancer patient and meets Augustus, an ex-cancer patient in a cancer support group meeting which she actually till then detests to go to! Its about how the dying Hazel Grace & just recovered Augustus fall in love slowly, through their sickness, through their realities, through their insecurities.. Its about how Hazel Grace keeps thinking how she would be the first one to go, but is finally left alone to bear that extra pain of losing a loved one….Its about how a novel that’s her favorite is read by Augustus and how both discuss about the cliffhanger ending.. which then further fuels their quest to find out what happened next from the elusive author who agrees to answer only in person, even if it means, they have to travel to a different country altogether…Its how they go through the shock together, of realizing that their favorite book’s author, who they took all the pain to travel albeit their sickness and come meet in person, just doesn’t care and is a mere drunk and to add to it, an abusive person! Its how Augustus who was supposed to live longer than Hazel Grace, succumbs early and during his final few days, tries to write the sequel of that favorite novel, on his own for the love of his life… Well, at the end of the book, you are engulfed with so much sadness that you want to stop reading and just live your life! At the end, you are just thankful to the life you have, because you know, that there are lives out there, living a much more sad & pain-filled life without complaining, and well, you just have no reason to cry and complain about yours!

~~Looking for Alaska is all about looking for Alaska Young, the young beautiful confused teenage girl, but in the process, just finding self! Its about friendship, school, hostel life, pranks that friends play on each other,  and how serious these pranks can get, sad secrets that seemingly happy and care-free teenagers try to hide, how friends look out for their best buds, how when even one link in that tight friendship-bond is broken – everyone feels lost and nothing is ever the same again, how sometimes life just abruptly changes with no explanations whatsoever and how we should just move on, instead of dwelling on the “Closure” part….. The book in itself leaves you with a lingering sadness, mourning, but still looking for Alaska!

~~ Book Review: The Rise of Hastinapur ~~

Unlike with the first book (reviewed here) – I waited until I received the hard-copy of next book in the Hastinapur series by Sharath Komarraju.  Again, unlike the first book, the book cover of the 2nd book in the series was quite intriguing urging me to begin reading this almost as soon as I received it! (No, I don’t judge any book by its cover, but comparatively, this book cover was much much better than the first one)

With the earlier book being about the 2 wives of King Shantanu, this next book, The Rise of Hastinapur, focuses on the next generation of Queens associated with the kingdom.

First set of chapters is all about Amba, who is escorted to Hastinapur along with her 2 younger sisters by Bheeshma, in a fair win, but without her wish nor her consent, ironically in what is supposed to be her swayamvara (groom choosing ceremony)! She is in love with another king, Salva, who doesn’t make any attempt to stand up against Bheeshma when the latter provokes for a fair fight to win queens for his brothers! Blinded by the multiple eternal love proclamations professed by her lover in the past, she is inclined to take a few wrong decisions even when she is advised against it, which then decides the course of her entire life!! The hardships and shame she faces when she goes from one king to another seeking refuge, seething in anger, seeking revenge and in the end, getting nothing from anyone makes us almost cry for her plight! She later turns to a peaceful life, worshiping nature, yet for years, the fire of revenge is still there, somewhere deep inside, smoldering, waiting to erupt just like a volcano at the slightest provocation..! Her hatred towards Bheeshma is so strong, that you almost want to hate Bheeshma for her, but then you also want to knock some sense into her and help her understand that revenge is taking her nowhere!! She makes you so sad for her plight that you want to just hug her and point out that she could have just spoken her heart out to Bheeshma even before leaving her father’s palace instead of suffering and considering him to be the sole reason of all hardships she faced later! She makes you shudder with her strong revenge laced emotions that even you feel her anger, but still wonder at her immaturity when she is able to let  go of the injustice done by everyone else, even her lover, but just not Bheeshma… Ah, story of the scorned lover, but taking revenge on someone else altogether is brilliantly written! Personally, the chapters where she goes back to Salva with lots of hope just to face rejection is brilliant!!By the time, Amba’s chapters were coming to a close, I was deeply conflicted and drained of energy!

Second set of chapters are focused on Kunti and her futile attempts to save her brother Vasudeva from his brother in law Kamsa’s prison! I have always always thought of Kunti as a complex character with a lot of layers, probably with a few layers, unknown even to herself, a mysterious person with a lot of things going on in the background!! But I was in for a surprise in this book… She is portrayed as this most naïve & completely gullible character that I just kept feeling sorry for her weaknesses! I must say, that the chapters involving her, were, very easily, the least impressive chapters of this particular book! It got boring after some time... And I guess Sharath took a right decision (am not sure if it was intentional) by placing her chapter’s right in the middle of the book, because if it weren’t and if a reader knew her chapters led towards the end of book, a reader might just as well skip it!

The third and last set of chapters are dedicated to Gandhari and again, was I in for a surprise or what! I loved her fiery character and felt sad for her almost the same as I felt for Amba! How as a queen she was constantly defensive of her people, was placing the safety and well being of her kingdom above anything else in her life, her tactical decisions, her one and only worry about her kingdom prospering against odds and of course against Bheeshma has been brilliantly portrayed!  Her fear of leaving the kingdom under her brother Shakuni’s rule when she has to get married and then how she immediately thinks if she will ever get married is subtly put and indeed very hurting to read!  Easily the most positively powerful chapters of the whole book!

Throughout the book, Bheeshma‘s presence lingers mostly in the background, but, believe me, he is out there, making appearances now and then, working towards the rise of Hastinapur relentlessly, an efficient hard-worker with brilliant game plans, sometimes unaware that his actions for the rise of his empire, is leading to be the sole reason or one of the reasons for each of these queen’s lives turning upside down! 

Towards the end, you realize, how seamlessly Sharath has managed to pull this off, without tweaking the Epic in any which way, maintaining the basic essence of the ancient history that this Epic is, effectively trying to build entirely different vantage points to the Epic! In all, as I mentioned for the very first book in the series, it is definitely a very interesting read – a cannot-stop-reading kind of a book which makes you long for the next one in the series which might be out only next year – almost like how a kid in the month of June longs for the summer holidays of next year!! 

~~Book Review: Life after Life ~~

--Originally written on 21 Aug 2015

 

So, I completed reading “Life after Life” by Kate Atkinson recently! I had ordered this book online,  without giving it much thought,   never having heard of the author, nor having read any reviews…..Going by its name, I had expected a gripping “after life” story or theoretically inclined prose on various experiences of people claiming re-birth etc., etc., but well, it was anything, but not that!!! 

 

I started reading this towards the end of May and after going through a couple of pages, with nothing mysterious happening, and the realization creeping in that it definitely was not an interesting mix of people recounting their re-births – I took a break from the book…Though I never stop reading a book, however boring it might turn out to be (exception of course being Mein Kampf), I had to keep this book aside…!  And well, meanwhile, I couldn’t just pick another book to read, since I had already started this one – Yeah, I am like that, eka-book-vratha, if you get what I mean!!  Then one fine day, late July, I finally dared to pick it up again!  And this time, to my surprise, I didn’t, to be honest, I couldn’t keep it aside at all!  Though the initial few pages were a bit ordinary, the book managed to impress me beyond my imagination!

 

I am not sure how many of you have watched 12B in Tamil. It was a movie about how the course of a guy’s life is decided when he, at a point makes it right in time to catch 12B or due to momentary ignorance, misses 12B (12B is a bus, btw)… To draw an analogy, in 12B, the catching/missing of the bus is that one turning point to showcase that, a decision taken at such points, mostly changes the course that life takes!

 

Life after Life, explores such various turning points in the life of Ursula (the main character), and each such different set of decisions, at different turning points leads to a different set of events happening in her life (also impacting everyone else involved) and ending in her death, eventually, every time! She dies at birth, she dies a small baby, she dies a young child, she dies an adolescent, she dies an unwed to-be mother, she dies single, she dies an abused wife, she dies in the London Blitz and on and on, and oh, she dies an old woman too!

 

As we read, there are many instances, where there is this sense of De Ja Vu of going through these experiences already… Most of the times, I just wanted to go back and re-read what had happened, when she(or even someone else) had taken a different decision at that particular turning point!  It’s confusing at times, but brilliantly written, with no loose ends, ending every time with Ursula’s death!

 

Someday, when I am totally free, I would probably sit and jot down each turning point and the set of decisions at each of those points 

 

Well, to put it in simple layman terms, Imagine a tree which has many main branches, and each main branches then have their own set of tinier branches, and then these second set of branches, have their own set of few more teeny-weeny branches and so on.. Right?!!? And now imagine an ant, trying to traverse through the tree starting from the root, has to dig its way through up from the root, encounters the first main branch, it can either take it to traverse to second set of branches or just ignore it and move forward on the main trunk to the next main branch and so on… get a picture? This book takes every single such branch of Ursula’s life & explores it till the end .i.e., until she dies!

 

Apart from the way the structure of the novel is woven, where we are taken through a course of her life till her death & again sent back to the same decision point with a different decision, leading through another course of her life, the novel also showcases , how certain events happening in her life are interlaced with London Blitz, Hitler times, Second world war etc….. 

 

All in All – I would recommend it to anyone, who has all the patience (it’s a huge book) to go through it and sometimes, even go back and forth, just to make coherent sense of absolute brilliant incoherence :)

~~ Book Review: The Winds of Hastinapur ~~

I guess I will be ever grateful to the book reading challenge that I had taken up last year!  I had expected that the challenge will finally help me, build some interest in the non-fiction genre, which sadly didn’t happen, but of many things, it got me addicted to the mythological genre like never before!

 

Mahabharata, the greatest and the longest epic in the world which has been translated and probably re-told many number of times had always been my personal favorite – I had read R.K. Narayan’s “The Mahabharata” and “The Ramayana” long back and I can vouch that those are the best to start with, that is, if you have never read these epics till now!!

 

This book reading challenge thus introduced me to a book which painted this great Epic in Bhīma’s POV, subsequently leading me into an unquenchable quest of reading this epic through different point of views!  I have almost all of the POV’s stacked in my bookshelf at home by now (or so I want to think)!

 

So, when one fine-otherwise-boring Friday, a fellow blogger asked if I would like to be an early reader of Sharath Kommaraju’s upcoming 2^nd book of the Mahabharata series – I couldn’t believe it! Needless to say, I gladly accepted!  

 

I began by reading the 1^st book in the series and so this is the review of the same – The Winds of Hastinapur!

 

This book, to be precise, is about the 2 wives of King Shantanu, who, of course, is the king of Hastinapur! As most of you might already know, Ganga is his first wife and Satyavati, his second!  Most of the renderings of the epic does portray Ganga as the queen bearing & letting go of her 7 sons, before she gives birth to Bheeshma (Devavratha) and then leaves, but then that is all or may be some more!  This book, however, dedicates almost half of its chapters to showcase Ganga’s life as never before! It makes you wonder, how a theft of a holy cow somewhere someplace and a resulting curse from a sage’s wife, results in a major upheaval in Ganga’s life, who is blissfully unaware about any part of it! She, Ganga, the future lady of the River, is chosen to liberate the 8 Elements(Vasus) from the curse, entrusted the responsibility of bearing 8 sons (Vasus), of whom she has to give up 7, and leave her 8^th one to suffer, where in reality, all she craves for is to grow up as soon as possible, be with her mother, the present lady of the river, take over in future someday, and then bear a girl child who would grow up to be the next lady of the river to carry the legacy forward!

 

I immensely liked the portrayal of Ganga as a woman at the core, wondering about her destiny on why she was chosen of all to be a part of this, when she was nowhere involved in the theft, even remotely! The turmoil’s of Ganga as a confused & angry mother, who has to overcome her maternal instincts to prioritize her duty of relieving the curse for the Vasus is worth reading! Apart from these, what intrigued me mostly was the different yet refreshing concept of the balance of life and nature, which is described in an unusual way, indicating that a loss is always accompanied with gain, but, may be just somewhere and someplace else!  As I was reading through these phrases or sections, it somehow gave an “Avatar” movie effect, with strange possibilities to be comprehended!  I must say, Sharath did a great job here with his imagination & yet managed not to change the underlying actual epic that Mahabharata is!

 

The other half of the book, is focused on Kali (Satyavati), who is an ordinary fisherman’s daughter, rebuked for her awkwardly manners with an everlasting fish-odor that lingers on her & how she, emerges out of this awkwardness and grows up to be a maiden, pursued by all and ends up being the queen of Hastinapur!  I particularly liked the part where she feels bad for depriving Bheeshma of something, in her quest of the greater good for her tribe, but then immediately recovers and pursues her aim! I also liked the way in which she broods later, that maybe, things would have been different, if she had actually married Bheeshma instead of Shantanu!  Though the first half was more magical and imaginations galore, the second half was very down to earth!  As I kept reading Satyavati’s tumults of able to bear 2 sons for the kingdom, yet, being dependent on Bheeshma to even win brides for them, her anguish at not feeling anything for her son’s deaths, her search for her long lost son who she had to let go of in the past, as she hadn’t a marital status yet – Oh, I just didn’t want the book to end, but end it did, abruptly, angering me for a while as I was expecting it to continue forever!

 

So, in all, a very interesting read – provided you are not the kind who would want to read the sequel immediately :)

 

Is it too late to reveal that this also was my first successful attempt at reading an online version of a book! To be frank, other than the experience I missed of holding the book in my hands while reading it, I had no other complaints! Once I have the actual book in my hands – I am definitely reading this one again! :)

~~Weary moods with Wuthering Heights~~Blog-Week-Athon Post # 7

So – “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte is what I chose for the next category of the book reading challenge - 19th Century Fiction! It was on my to-read list for quite some time & is also considered one of the best classics of English literature! An important aspect that increased my interest in the book was a Zero rating in one of the reviews posted by a fellow blogger! Led by the curiosity of difference in the way a top English literary classic was rated by a fellow blogger, and the announcement of book reading challenge on the same day, I JUST couldn’t resist choosing it for this category!

 

Wuthering Heights is about a passionate, yet a very very tragic love saga between the two significant characters Heathcliff and Catherine. They share a love so supreme, yet which makes life so miserable (for them and for others involved), that they can only find peace together after death! Heathcliff is found as an orphan by Catherine’s father & thus brought into the household; He is treated as THE favorite, by her father compared to the 2 children of his own. Though, Catherine is more accepting of this fact after initial hesitation and becomes gradually friendly with Heathcliff, it’s not the same for Hindley, her brother & this in itself, forms the basis for the first flicker of the hatred that would last for the coming generation as well! 

 

There are few excerpts that will probably remain etched forever in my thoughts!

 

Catherine’s justification of accepting another proposal (that of Edgar’s whom she marries), when in actual, she truly loves Heathcliff! 

 

“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar’s] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.”

 

Only the first liner of the justification is heard by Heathcliff where she mentions about “degradation” & he heartbroken, leaves Wuthering Heights only to return later, as a much more bitter, manipulative & vengeful person (well, than he already was) !

 

You would want to hate Heathcliff for his brutality, but then you cannot, because the extent of Heathcliff’s love is very much soul stirring when he tries to explain his action of excavating Catherine’s grave!!

 

“That, however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination is actually the least, for what is not connected with her to me? And what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!”

 

It’s quite disturbing that this same person who can love so very supremely has not an iota of guilt or pricking conscience when it comes to destroying someone else’s love by constant manipulations (which he does when his own child from a different marriage falls in love with his beloved Catherine’s child from her marriage to Edgar)!

 

I am not going to get into further details on the book or introduce you to any more characters in the book as I can’t do it without explaining the entire plot, and I don’t intend to do so for the simple reason that though I found the book very gloomy & depressing, it still is an excellent piece of commendable imagination by an author who hardly ever was exposed to the outside world for most part of her life!! The way in which few intrinsic thoughts of the significant characters are put across, is really strong & definitely praiseworthy.

 

Having read most of the books by Jane Austen, which are almost from the same era, this book came across to be very startlingly different & at the same time, I must agree, interesting enough to not stop, but go on reading till the end! Personally, I felt very much drained by the time I completed the book and this is something I have never felt with any book (believe me, I have read my share of not-so-happily-ever-after endings)… I also had mixed feelings about each character as I couldn’t relate to anyone & I couldn’t feel entirely happy, sad or bad for anyone! I just had this one constant lingering thought for some time, that if Catherine’s father had not gotten Heathcliff to his home, all the pain & suffering for generations to come, could have been avoided!!

 

For those of you who are looking for a fairy tale saga and a seemingly hopeful plot with a happily-ever-after ending – this book is definitely not meant for you! However, if you are one of those, who do not mind a different kind of a read (just once in a blue moon) and you have the perseverance to stick to reading a massive masterpiece, through to the end, even if it’s not what you had expected in the beginning, then, yes, you can give this a try. To be true to the book, there is a happy ending after all, but the portrayal of the extreme emotions of possessive love, the individual sufferings due to that extreme passion, the hatred & revenge that it gives birth to, the hostility that it inflicts on self and others throughout the course of the book is so upsetting & saddening, that the happily ever after ending just doesn’t seem to matter anymore at the end..

~~ I am Time ~~Main Samay Hoon~~ Blog-Week-Athon # Post 6

Disclaimer - Before you start, one small clarification - This is just a book review, nothing more, nothing less :)

So, what are your earliest memories of the great Indian Epic, The Mahabharata?  For me, it is that of watching it on Doordarshan every Sunday – without a finer understanding of what exactly was happening (I was a small kid then)- yet loving that mysterious voice who started the episode with “Main Samay Hoon” (I am Time), loving & singing along with the title  song, being awestruck at the splendor, being scared for the Pandavas during the wars, waiting with bated breath to see how the opposition would deal the arrows shot towards them which eventually turned into vile serpents, fire balls & various other creative things when it reached the skies etc. etc. – basically loving the entire show as it was one of its kind those days.  It was such a dreadful empty feeling for many of us, when the show finally ended!  

I was again introduced to it a few years later when my brother, on the day of his sacred thread ceremony, was gifted 2 books by one thoughtful relative  – The Ramayana & The Mahabharata, by R.K Narayan (Though it was a gift for my brother, I don’t think he ever got to read it :P ).. ….These books were/are supposed to be a shortened version of the Epics & yet having read it multiple times, I can safely claim, that both the books did full justice in capturing the entire essence of both the works! The fact that I still have these books should say it all!

After that, I again re-lived my childhood experience of watching this great Epic on TV, this year!  Though I couldn't follow it on a daily basis, I still loved every aspect of whatever I could watch.

So, why this post, you may ask! Well, I had accepted to take up a Book Reading Challenge at the start of this year! Per the challenge, we were supposed to read at minimum 1 book & maximum of 2 books in particular categories. One of the category was to read something from the historical genre & My pick was Bhima: Lone Warrior by M.T. Vasudevan Nair (originally Randamoozham in Malayalam translated into English by Gita Krishnankutty) for the first category. I was inspired to pick this book as the original blog post which initiated this challenge mentioned it & to add to it, I figured that reading it along with the daily telecast of the Epic would make it more interesting (though I started reading it in parallel to the TV series, I completed this book before the TV series concluded).

So, without much ado, here goes my short humble effort of reviewing a great book on THE GREAT EPIC! Well, I am not going to delve into every chapter and review for pros and cons – but just let my thoughts out on the experience of reading the book!!

As the name signifies, this is an attempt at re-telling Mahabharata, from Bhīma’s perspective.  Bhima was the second of the five Pandavas – the mighty powerful one amongst the brothers with a huge physique & an insatiable appetite for food – This is pretty much the impression we all have, don’t we? This book changed that impression for me & in actual answered a lot of curious questions that I had on few assumed considerations in the earlier versions that I had read/watched!  (Well, but on a side note, I do also remember that the answers that I got was entirely Bhima’s (author’s) perspective & there might be a different set of answers if the same is read from another’s viewpoint :) )..

The book starts with the chapter on the final journey of Pandavas to reach Heaven. Though the path requires you not to stop or retrace your steps, Bhima disregards it for his beloved wife Draupadi when she is breathing her last & rushes back to be on her side! However, all he can see in her eyes, even in those last few moments, is the disappointment that only Bhima turned up to comfort her!! She was expecting Arjuna, her beloved!  This sets the stage on what is about to come & then the flashback begins narrating Bhima’s journey throughout the Epic!  

What impressed me the most was that the book did not attempt at twisting the original Epic into entirely something else – actually there’s nothing new or modified in the entire structure of the Epic.  It’s like you always open the windows on the right side of your house & you absolutely enjoy the view. One fine day, you take your kid to the window for the first time and ask her to describe the view after she takes a look! She loves it too, She enjoys it too, but she points at a few things that you never noticed & it makes you enjoy the view even more!!! You see, same view, just different eyes!!! :)

As we read on, we find that everyone in the book is represented as normal beings with their own set of positives, anxieties & difficulties.  It helps because we can very well feel the love, the pain, the hurt, the anger, the passion, the insult, the helplessness of each without having to keep them on a pedestal…

We are taken along the journey to savor Bhima’s childhood, his love for food, his education & training, his first war victory, his archery skills, his perseverance to defeat his enemy at any cost, his first love in Hidimbi which he has to let go, his helplessness when he has conflicting thoughts on his mothers or his elder brother’s decisions etc. etc.

We also get introduced to the other side of him, a soft-hearted & helplessly-in-love Bhima who keeps pining for his unrequited love for Draupadi, till the end. The lengths that he goes to procure whatever Draupadi requests, the way he stands up first for protecting her honor at every possible instance etc. etc. just makes us (women readers) feel that our life partner should follow Bhima in this aspect atleast :) :)

We get a glimpse of the various strategies employed by several people throughout the Epic & how everywhere the consequences of these on Bhima’s life are not even given a considerable thought!  We experience Bhima’s unexpressed trauma of losing his own sons in the battle!! The whole Kurukshethra war is highlighted in Bhima’s point of view & forms a very interesting read in itself!

Well, I think I can go on and on; Most of the times, a book, if it doesn’t have a sequel, might not stimulate any curiosity to go research further! However, this one made me very much curious to actually go look out for other attempts from various perspectives. It also made me add R.K Narayan’s version again to my to-read list so I can read it afresh!

Overall, it was an interesting read. I would recommend this to anyone who has a curious mind and a passion for reading :)

~~ Hate to Read, Try this ~~ Blog-week-athon post # 5

Okay - So we have a blogging challenge doing rounds in my other blog space with a 14 day deadline! I received lot of interesting challenges & one of that was to “Write a post, to convince someone who has never read fiction/books, typically those people who go “Eewww Books! Yuck!!” to read one of your favorite books” 

I knew from the beginning, that the persuasion part was going to be difficult, but what I had not anticipated was the task of choosing ONE favorite book!!!  I scanned through my “Done Reading” list thrice and I just couldn’t choose ONE. I thought at first that I could write a small review about each of those books in a post!! Imagine if I had done such a thing! Poor someone who was yet-to-develop an interest in reading would have just gone into I-am-better-off-without-reading mode!! Phew! I didn’t want to take that risk!

I tried to recall how I had developed the interest in reading so I can illustrate the same and get someone interested in developing a reading habit… But when I looked back, I just couldn’t remember THE exact moment which started it all and inspired me to read. I checked with my parents, with my brother, with my friends – No one knew!! Phew, this wasn’t working!! 

I then tried to remember the first lengthy story book I ever read! And, as you can probably guess by now, I couldn’t remember that as well! My earliest memories are of reading Amar Chithra Katha, Tinkle, Gokulam, Chandamama (Kannada) etc., but I couldn’t exactly remember when I transitioned into reading big stories/novels….I used to read everything that I could get hold of – sometimes even the newspapers which came as packaging for groceries!.. (No, dont roll your eyes yet! You will have your chance)..there were times when I would even read the subsequent year’s detail/non-detail books (English/Hindi etc.) as soon we got them from the school during the summer vacation! (Yeah, see, you have the chance now to roll your eyes !)

And then, I slowly realized, that the first time I ever marked a book as my favorite when we shared scrap books in school was one of the English non-detail book “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Emma Orczy…Though I always buy my own personal copy with the intention that I can re-read them anytime I want, I have re-read only a few books/novels multiple times (no, not because I didn't understand it the first time, but because I just absolutely loved reading them) and this is definitely one of those few books!

So now if you are one of those who hate reading and yet have survived the above few paragraphs – give me a high five and read on! Well, why? Because you were READING & you still are READING and hence you are on the right track!!

Ok – Ok – without further ado – here goes my tiny attempt at inspiring you to read one of my favorite book!!

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy – is a novel set in the years of French Revolution! It is a period marked by mass guillotine executions of people who are against the revolution. The plot revolves around how the “League of the Scarlet Pimpernel” which is a group of 1 leader, the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel & his 19 followers, seek to rescue as many as possible from these guillotine executions without getting caught! Every time a rescue operation is successful, the leader leaves behind a card with a symbol of a red flower (he derives the name of Scarlet Pimpernel because of the flower).

In order to maintain secrecy & hide his identity, Sir Percy (Scarlet Pimpernel) maintains a social presence which gives an impression of him being a very dull & foolish man. He is married to a beautiful actress who he adores, Marguerite, but then, distances himself from her, when he learns that she played an influential role in sending one of the families to the guillotine! However, he is not aware that his wife wanted only harmless revenge, which later led to an inadvertent result of guillotine execution for the family!

While there are people being saved from guillotine executions by this 20 member league, Marguerite learns from a French representative, Chauvelin, that her own brother is linked to this league!  Chauvelin strikes a deal with Marguerite to spy & provide any information she can gather on the Pimpernel so she can save her brother! Poor Marguerite is quite unaware of the fact that her seemingly foolish husband is the most sought after Scarlet Pimpernel & so keeps leading Chauvelin to him in an attempt to save her brother!

Here’s when it becomes interesting!!

:

:

:

Will Chauvelin be able to reveal Scarlet Pimpernel’s Identity?

Will Marguerite be able to find his identity before Chauvelin?

If yes, who will she save, the brave husband who is seemingly not in love with her, or her brother?

Will Marguerite die trying to save one of them?

Will the Scarlet Pimpernel ever realize that his wife had, in actual, no role to play in the death of a family?

Will he be able to forgive Marguerite and reveal his real emotions for her?

Will they ever live happily ever after?

Go read and find out for yourself :)  :)  

What? You thought I was gonna summarize the whole story for you! Aha! Dream on!

~~Tired & Thankful~~ Blog-week-athon post #3

Okay!! I am tired! Damn Damn tired!! Yes, on a supposed-to-be-a-lazy Sunday! Phew! I thought I could nap for a while once I was done with my work(yes had a production deployment today!!).. But for some reason, I couldn't and so, after a heavy lunch, I grabbed "The old man and his God" by Sudha Murthy from my bookshelf and finished reading it, say 5 minutes ago!! I am not going to post a review or anything, but then, I couldn't stop myself from writing how I felt about the book!

In a nutshell - the book narrates author's real life experiences with various kinds of people! Its written in simple English and yet holds its own charm! As we read, each snippet/experience keeps oscillating between selfishness and selflessness of "real" people! There were many which moist my eyes! There were a few which made me feel good..There were also a few which disgusted me to the core (particularly the one where a blind girl mentions that her poor parents left her in a bus stop with just a pack of biscuits(5 yr old) and never returned to take her back home - I just cannot imagine how scared & cheated that girl must have felt).. It left me wondering about the behavioral patterns & the decisions that people are forced to take at various stages and circumstances in life!! It also left me feeling thankful for a lot of things that I take for granted in my life!! 

Well, overall, a good read  - I would recommend this book to school children/teenagers so they learn to value what they have in life and be thankful!!  

Okay - now that I am both tired and thankful, let me go get some sleep!

#Yayyy - Blog-week-athon post #3