Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Madhulika Liddle - My Lawfully Wedded Husband and other Stories

I love short stories. Flip over 5-10-20 pages and the story is done.  It usually deals with one aspect of the life of its protagonists, so the reader does not have to remember a lot.  On the other hand, just as you have gotten into a story and the character, it is done with.  It is difficult sometime to turn to another story immediately, as you are still 'into' the first one.  Hence, I find it difficult to get through books of short stories at a stretch.  They usually lie on my 'unread' pile on the bookshelf, to be picked up when the fancy takes me.

My Lawfully Wedded Husband is a collection of 12 stories.  They are mostly funny/scary/dark and sometimes, all three combined.

1. Sum Total - A young woman goes on a killing spree when she finds herself pushed to the limits by people around her. 

2. A Tale of a Summer Vacation - A young girl happens to be visiting her grandmother in Goa when an incident takes place with a neighbor.  There are some secrets that only time can unlock.

3. A Brief Lesson in Trust - Two childhood friends find themselves face to face again after many years.  Surely an old friend can be trusted to help you out when you are in a bad spot.

4.  Feet of Clay - There are many people who seem harmless, but are not.

5.  My Lawfully Wedded Husband - Boring people can be safe to be with, some times.  Maybe it is not a good idea to be scornful about people who are staid on the outside.

6. Number 63 - Sometimes it helps to be a nosey neighbor.

7. On the Night Train - There is a nice tip in here that can help you get a good night's sleep on a train.

8. Hourie - A grim look at the happenings inside a whorehouse.

9. Silent Fear - A scary office tale.

10. St. George and the Dragon - This is what happens in a government office when a frustrated PA decides to act against his boss.

11. The Crusader - How many times have we gone to see a movie and felt unhappy about people who don't allow us to watch it peacefully.

12. The Howling Waves of Tranquebar - Even a tiny place like Tranquebar can have an exotic story behind it.

Madhulika's prose is elegant and simple.  The stories often have a twist in the end, some skilful and some predictable.  In case of St. George and the Dragon, I liked the story a lot.  It was a very genuine portrait of a government office.  But I felt the end was a bit too drastic.  Silent Fear was a bit unsubstantial.   Apart from these little things, all the stories are immensely likeable.

The last one in the collection, The Howling Waves of Tranquebar is exceptional.  It is going to rank among the best short stories I have ever read.

Keigo Higashino - Salvation of a Saint

I do not have a huge budget for buying books.  A book that costs Rs.350/- or more makes me groan.  I am not one of those IT professionals who take home upward of 50k every month. Much much less in fact.

I could join a library, you might suggest.  There are seldom good choices available in a library.  It is like shopping for exotic vegetables on the cart of the vendor who roams in your mohalla.   Just like the cart is often loaded with the ubiquitous aloo, the library is also loaded with books that were published in the 50s.

Hence you are forced to buy books if you are to read the latest titles that are reviewed in the newspapers.  If the book measures up to your expectations,  you do not mind the money you spent on it.  If it does not, you rue even the poor tree that was cut down to print the book.

I read a glowing review of the book by Keigo Higashino, Salvation of a Saint in a newspaper.  That sent me off to flipkart.com to order the book.

Yoshitaka and Ayane are on the verge of a split.  He is carrying on with her friend and  assistant Hiromi. Ayane is upset about this and goes to visit her mother.  She has to hurry back when her husband is discovered dead in his house, a cup of poisoned coffee by his side.  What looks like a suicide is found to be murder.  Detective Kusanagi steps in and finds himself falling for the lovely widow.  His assistant is worried that it will affect his judgement.  She decides to get help from an old friend.

The story is narrated skilfully and keeps you turning pages.  The writer gives away very little, just a tantalizing hint here and a glimpse there to make you suspect this or that character.

However, the denouement, when it did come, made me feel a wee bit let down.  The mystery of how the man was poisoned seemed a bit far fetched.  And the story also changed a lot in the last chapter.

The novel was not too skilfully translated.  The translation is not really smooth.  It is a bit awkward in places.

It is good enough to read in an airport/metro and all such places where you just want to lose yourself in something racy to while away the long hours. 

Mohammed Hanif - Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

The book reminded me of a game of billiards.  The cue hits a ball which nudges several other balls and finally kisses one teetering on the edge, and pushes it into the pocket.  We are not solely responsible for all that happens to us.  It is a game of cause and effect, the actions of others tell on us and often improve or worsen our situation.

Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is the story of Alice Bhatti of French Colony daughter of Joseph Bhatti, the prince among chooras. He is the go-to guy when a clogged drain flummoxes all the other cleaners.  Her sainted mother died when she fell down the stairs in the house where she was employed as a maid.  The mourners at her funeral were intrigued by a fellow servant from that same household who kept saying 'murder murder' as he cried.  Some people were of the opinion that he was actually crying 'martyr martyr'.



What chance does Alice have of getting on in life when...

1.  She is an untouchable, a choora

2.  She is a Christian in the land of Muslas

3.  She has just served time in jail

4.  She is a woman

Alice tries to rise above her station in life by studying Nursing.  With some help from Dr. Jamus Pereira she finds work at the Sacred Heart hospital of All Ailments.  The grim looking Sister Hina Alvi comes to her rescue when she is stuck.  The young jailbird Noor, another of Dr. Pereira's proteges, is working at the hospital so his mother, who is cancer ridden, can get medical aid there.  

Alice has just started work at the hospital when Teddy Butt walks into her life.  Captivated by the pretty nurse, Teddy starts wooing her with determination.   Teddy Butt is body builder and also a peripheral police helper.  His boss, Inspector Malangi has caught Abu Zar, a terrorist.  Teddy is given the task of making him talk.

All these characters impact the life and times of  Our Lady of Alice Bhatti.  Alice is a victim of a society where it is a crime to be a woman, let alone being an untouchable and a Christian.

Mohammed Hanif draws a realistic portrait of life in Karachi and at a big busy hospital, Sacred Heart.  In fact the life at Sacred Heart is so self sufficient, that the novelist steps outside it just a few times, when he needs to show how the events happening outside will impact the lives of those who live within the hospital.

This is a skillfully written story.  It is replete with dark humor and compassion.  I won't say the book was unputdownable for me.  There were times when its starkness disturbed me and I had trouble continuing with it.  But the story of Alice and Teddy made me pick it up, and I must say, the end of the book is superb.

Amitav Ghosh - River of Smoke

In our History textbook in school, we had a chapter titled Greater India.  It was about Indians settled in other countries.   How these people came to move away from their motherland and settle in a foreign places is often an interesting story.  How Indians came to mix and match their language and culture with that of their adopted country to create a hybrid culture that was acceptable to them as well as the natives can make a fascinating narrative.

Sea of Poppies was about how a lot of people from various backgrounds find themselves on the Ibis.   River of Smoke starts with a magnificently evocative description of Deeti's shrine.  The Ibis had landed, after a stormy crossing, at Mauritius.  Deeti finds herself in an alien land, with a child, and has to forage for food in the forest there.  On one such sojourn she finds a cave in the cliff overlooking the sea.  This becomes her shrine, where she draws images from her past life.  This is where she starts her family, and establishes a clan.

But we are running ahead.  The story where Sea of Poppies ended continues with Raja Neel.  Raja Neel finds himself along with Ah Fatt, on way to Canton where Ah Fatt hopes to meet his father the great opium merchant Behram Moddie, owner of the grand ship Anahita.  In Canton, we meet an array of new characters.  Behram, his Man Friday Vico, the British and American opium merchants, Charles King, Mr. Lindsay, Dent, Wetmore, Jardine.

Essentially it is about how the East India Company forces the farmer to grow opium in India and then sells it to China to suck the wealth out of these countries.  Unfortunately for the traders, this is the time when the Emperor of China decides to appoint a tough Commissioner to deal with the issue of widespread Opium addiction that was eating into the social fabric of China.  The Commissioner Lin decides to make the traders of Opium pay for their smuggling, both the Chinese and the British.  The Britishers are not used to being dictated to by the countries they trade with and try to strike back.

Caught in this crossfire is Bahram Moddie who has staked all his wealth in this last huge consignment.  It is a trip that will either make him or break him.

Paulette has been taken on by Fitcher, a botanist who is visiting China to look for a rare plant that he has drawing of.  She cannot go to Canton, and has to stay in Hongkong.  She runs into Robin, an old playmate from Calcutta, the bastard son of the celebrated painter Chinnery.  Robin is in Canton looking to broaden his artistic skills and knowledge.  He pledges to help Fitcher and Paulette to look for the elusive plant by tracking the person who made the drawing.  In the process, he writes very illustrative, incisive and entertaining letters to his old friend Paulette.

River of Smoke paints a beautiful picture of the language, food, the clothes, the culture, the way of life of these merchants in Canton.  It is a brilliant sequel to Sea of Poppies which was more like an introduction to the key characters and their backgrounds.

In one of the blurbs the author was compared to Charles Dickens and Tolstoy.  I shook my head after I was done with the book.  This is Amitav Ghosh, he stands in a class of his own.  It is not fair to compare him with anyone else.

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is right up there on the list of my favorite books.  I have owned several copies of it, lost them in transit from one place to the other in my life, and bought again, lost again, till I lose count.  It popped up somewhere in the lists when I was browsing for books on flipkart.com.  It arrived with another book that I ordered.  I tore the open the wrapping and started reading it three days ago.  I have barely put it down, in any free moment that I have to call my own.  It helped that my net crashed for a couple of days.

First Edition

I met my favorite characters once again, if you can call that rude bunch a favorite.  Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, Nellie Dean, Lockwood, Edgar and Isabella, Frances and Hindley, Linton, Hareton and Catherine junior.  I was transported once again to the moors of Yorkshire and roamed over them with Cathy and Heathcliff.  It is not hard to see why such  a rough and cheerless place excites passion in the hearts of those living there.  Heathcliff is bound to Cathy by a common childhood, and a bond they cannot break.  The word love is useless to describe their feelings for each other.  It is just that they share a spirit.

As long as they are children, things are alright with them.  But creeping adulthood brings changes in them.  Heathcliff is a foundling and a ward of Catherine's father, a fact that her older brother Hindley resents.  As soon as he gains control of the house, he tortures Heathcliff and wedges barrier between him and Cathy.  On her own part, Cathy grows up and discovers the charms of being wooed by a rich, good looking and an accomplished neighbour Edgar Linton, whom she marries by and bye.

Heathcliff is devastated at losing Cathy and vows to wreck revenge, first on Hindley for his mistreatment of him and later on Edgar.  He succeeds, but finds the whole exercise futile in the end.  He does not repent, but dies possessed of the spirit of Cathy.

It is not an easy book to love.  It is full of heady passions and hatred.  Yet it is beautiful.  The passages that describe the love between Cathy and Heathcliff are unparallelled anywhere else in literature that I know of.  "I am Heathcliff" Cathy declares. "He is always, always in my mind", she says.  On his part, Heathcliff never desires to possess Cathy's body.  He is happy to be close to her, and be allowed to see her and walk with her.  'I could never hurt Linton', he says, 'because of her.'  If Cathy wants Linton around him, he would not dream of preventing her.  It is SHE that he adores, above his own feelings.  It is when he is prevented from being with Cathy, that he turns into a vengeful beast.

All the rough characters in the book, Heathcliff, Joseph, Hareton are closer to nature, they live more like farmers than gentlemen and are bestowed with rude health and manly beauty.  Edgar Linton, and Linton are pretty boys, full of bookish learnings, but are weak in health.  Emily probably saw a lot of such examples in her life.

Most readers that are fascinated with the strange novel, are also fascinated with Emily Bronte, its writer. What mind produced such a singular novel.  Hence Emily, along with her talented siblings, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell are subject of many books.  Their cloistered lives, enriched only by their readings, are as curious as the novels they wrote.

Anne Carson writes in her beautiful poem, The Glass Essay:

She lives on a moor in the north.

She lives alone.

Spring opens like a blade there.

I travel all day on trains and bring a lot of books—

some for my mother, some for me

including The Collected Works Of Emily Brontë.   

This is my favourite author. 

All of us that feel emotions other than we perceive as 'normal' can agree a lot with Emily. This is a bold novel that she wrote. It is full of forbidden feelings, but also very true. Sometimes it seems to be as if Heathcliff and Cathy are the normal people in the narrative, true to their inner selves. This is the way Emily wanted to be, true to her inner self, which is why she could not write in any other way.   

Her superb imagination awes me and makes the stark world of the moors and Wuthering Heights come alive even today.