Ruskin Bond - A Flight of Pigeons

It was a chance meeting. Smita was passing through Chandigarh enroute Mumbai and the train was stopping for 20 mins here. We met on the railway platform and chatted like old friends, turning our virtual friendship into a real one so easily, you would have thought we knew each other forever. 20 mins was too less, but we have to be thankful for such chances to meet. There was an exchange of books between two book-lovers before the train pulled out. Smita, it was awesome to meet you and your hair really looks good with the red glints.

A Flight of Pigeons is a book set in the times of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. A pathan Javed Khan is struck by the fresh beauty of a very young Anglo-Indian girl Ruth Labrador. A few days later, the mutineers strike Shahjehanbad where Ruth lives with her parents. Her father is struck dead and Ruth is taken in by a kind Indian acquaintance, Lala Amarnath along with her cousins, aunt, granny and mother. Javed Khan is hunting for Ruth, and manages to track her down. He takes Ruth and her mother to his home and declares his intention of marrying the girl. Ruth is terrified of being wooed so roughly by this savage. She is lucky to have her mother protecting her. Miriam Labrador is the daughter of an Indian Muslim and a British man. She is well versed in urdu and the muslim ways, thanks to her mother. She is extremely resourceful and well spoken. She is able to act tough and speak softly as the occasion demands. She is hard pressed to preserve her daughter against the decent but unwelcome attentions of Javed Khan.

Miriam uses the uncertain temperory victory of the mutineers as a reason for not agreeing to Javed Khan's proposal. If Delhi Falls, she will be yours, she says. Luckily for Ruth, Delhi does not fall. Her mother's sagacity saves the girl from a certain ruin.

Like most Novellas of Ruskin Bond, this book is slim. Like most books by Ruskin Bond, it is powerpacked with a terrific story, amazing style and language. The backdrop of Sepoy Mutiny, with its merciless killings, mercenary nawabs and caught-on-the-wrong-foot English rulers is brought out just perfect. The impatience, impudence and imprudence of Javed Khan; the wise old Kothiwali and her gaggle of womenfolk who love to bond over festivals; the savvy Miriam who is able to turn a bad situation into a tolerable one, these characters stay with you long after the book has been closed.

I loved this peek into history. It reminds me that pre-independence India was really a conglomerate of various provinces misruled by lazy, greedy nawabs and the subjects quite oppressed. The mutiny was an additional reason for these nawabs to kill and plunder in an attempt to fatten their own treasuries. The British used underhand methods to wrest power from the provincial rulers, but they did give India some form of formal governance.

This super book is a classic and was turned into a wonderful movie called Junoon starring Shashi Kapoor as the tempestuous Javed Khan, Jennifer Kapoor as Miriam and Nafisa Ali as Ruth. Ruth has little to do in the book but look good and be scared. But in the movie, Nafisa quite stole the show with her lovely schoolgirl looks. The movie is as good as the book. Both are not to be missed.

I read the book in one go on Sunday, it is simply unputdownable. Thanks ! Smita.. and the title refers to you ;)

Vikas Swarup - Q & A

I got curious about this book after I read about Slumdog Millionaire, an award winning movie by Danny Boyle. It was based on this book by Vikas Swarup.

Ram Mohammed Thomas is an orphan, abandoned as a newborn by his mother outside an orphanage. He is lucky to fall into the hands of a priest who is the best father he could have had. But an unfortunate chain of events force him to lead an eclectic life, trying to survive the misfortunes that befall him.  On a positive side, his experiences give him enough knowledge to be able to win the biggest prize ever in a quiz show.

The format of the story is interesting. Right at the first, Ram Mohammad is arrested for cheating in the quiz show he has just finished filming. The show has not been aired yet. He is bailed out by a young lawyer, Smita, who is willing to save his skin if he can prove he did not cheat. Ram tackles each question and shows Smita how his an experience at some stage in his life helped him learn an answer to each question. The story is meaty and goes forward quite easily.

What makes the book so pedestrian is the lacklustre style. It is the most un-beautiful language I have read in recent times. Even some crappy chicklit I read a while back was decently styled compared to this. I wish Vikas Swarup had taken some help, I don't think he lacked any. Surely it was his clout as an Ambassador to wherever that helped him in getting his book published in the first place.

Apart from the crappy language, at times the episodes seem a bit jerky, but I suspect, had the style been better, the jerkiness would have been ironed out.

It is a pity, because the idea is good. Ram Mohammed Thomas is an everyman sort of a fellow. His nomadic lifestyle, and exposure to different homes help him absorb knowledge. For instance, it is from his stint in the home of an Ambassador that he learns the Australian language, and also the meaning of the term persona non grata. It is from his stint as a servant of a famous but faded film star that he learns which movie won her the national award for best actress.

Alas Alas !

Now what remains to be seen is Slumdog Millionaire and if it is any good.

The most recommended books of 2008

47 Most recommended books of 2008

1984 by George Orwell (4 recommendations) :
No

Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter (4 recommendations) :
x

The Bible by multiple authors (4 recommendations)
yes, the language is good. but gets tiresome at times with all the begats.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (3 recommendations) :
I tried to read this.. couldnt !

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (3 recommendations) :
I saw the movie

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (3 recommendations) :
ew

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (3 recommendations) :
x

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (3 recommendations) :
One of my most frequently read books, and one of the most beloved.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (3 recommendations) :
x

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (3 recommendations) :
yes .. serious reading..

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer (2 recommendations)
x

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (2 recommendations) :
oh yes, influenced me tremendously.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (2 recommendations)
yes...

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2 recommendations)
oh yes.. its a classic.by an old master

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (2 recommendations)
wo.. of course, a fab book

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (2 reccos)
This I can try

Foundation by Isaac Asimov (2 recommendations)
x
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (2 recommendations)
x
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (2 recommendations)
x
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (2 recommendations)
x
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (2 recommendations)
yes I did read..

Paradise Lost by John Milton (2 recommendations)
bits of it.. very strong prose..

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (2 recommendations)
of course, a slim book. very hippie. anyone who was living in the 70s will remember the pics of a resplendent and bare breasted Simi Garewal

The Art Of War by Sun Tzu (2 recommendations)
x

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (2 recommendations)
Yes, read

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (2 recommendations)
no, alas

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (2 recommendations)
oh yes. i liked atlas shrugged better

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (2 recommendations)
x

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (2 recommendations)
oh yes yes yes.. whatta a romance

The Histories by Herodotus (2 recommendations)
x

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (2 recommendations)
Not to be missed. A must read by any human who plans to hitchhike through the galaxy in near future.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (2 recommendations)
A prequel to the Lord of the Rings, and very wonderful, warmer than LOTR

The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer (2 recommendations)
in bits n pieces.. again.. when an ancient master recites, you can but listen in awe.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (2 recommendations)
x

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (2 recommendations)
x
The Republic by Plato (2 recommendations)
x
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (2 recommendations)
x
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (2 recommendations)
x
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2 recommendations)
x ( i read candide though)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (2 recommendations)
I wish to.. I wish to

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2 recommendations)
x
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (2 recommendations)
I think I did

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (2 recommendations)
Oh.. absolutely. The books is like a bible.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (2 recommendations)
yes, a boys adventure

Ulysses by James Joyce (2 recommendations)
noo, has anyone tried stream of conciousness literature?

Walden by Henry David Thoreau (2 recommendations)
no but i can try.. seeing its thoreau

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (2 recommendations)
oh yes.. absolutely the best book ever, second only to Anna Karenina

Thanks to Smita for forwarding me this list. Any of my readers are welcome to make their additions and leave a link please. or discuss in the comments section - anytime.. even if the post is years late.

Ranjit Lal - Life and Times of Altu Faltu

How do I write about a book that captivated me, let me count the ways.

I could say the book is delightful, funny and amazing and still feel I have not said enough. These adjectives sound jaded and used. I could hit the thesaurus site to look for better words, but they would feel too high flown. There were passages in the book that made me laugh out loud, but most times the laughter rumbled deep in my stomach, as I recognised characters in the book from real life, and their idiosyncrasies that are so well brought out.

The writing style is unassuming, fresh and very very functional. By which I mean there are no linguistic flourishes here meant to show off the writers superior vocabulary, that when he writes a passage it serves to highlight an event or detail to its best. It does not mean the language is not lyrical, it is, but not all the time which means at no time does the language cloy in your mouth.

Sample this : "The Lodhi Gardens are certainly the most prestigious amongst Delhi's public gardens: if you are rich, famous, bureaucratic and overweight, and live in Central Delhi, that's where you go every morning and evening to vigourously atone for the sin of being fat in a thin country. The gardens, built around the solid, solemn tombs of the Sayyids and Lodhis, are beautifully laid out with pleasent undulating lawns, tall, dark and handsome trees, rainbow beds of flowers (especially in February and March) and a curving waterway where kingfishers flash and egrets fish."

The story? Well it is about Altu Faltu, a skinny monkey who has chosen to while away his days lounging around the Hindu Rao College and is addicted to cough linctus. For some reason Rani-beti, a princess of the Falstaff clan has fallen for him, and Altu Faltu finds his lazy days change. You see, Chaudhray Rai Bahadur Charbi Saheb has not taken kindly to his daughter flirting with such a wastrel. The love story of Altu-Faltu the bekar bander of the hazel eyes and Rani-beti the pretty princess with golden eyes and pixie ears is played out on the background of political turmoil, social upheaveals and WAR between various factions of monkey tribes for supremacy. Religion is also mixed with politics when Swami Palang Tode the wise monkey appears on the scene. Sex can never be far away when life abounds with so much vigour. From the pretty bandaris of the Khyber Pass Massage Parlour to concubines and multiple wives, there are plenty of interfering females here to change the course of simian history.

What is the most endearing feature of the book? The names given to the characters and places. Apart from the Chaudhry Charbi Singh, there are his wives named - Bibi-ek, Bibi-do and Bibi-teen whose goings on would put the harem of a Mughal court to shame. Then there is monkey Leechad who wishes to curry favour with the Chaudhry so he could close to the beautiful Bibi-do. There is Brigadier who is ever-ready for war, Chamkili of the beautiful smile, the Kacha Banian Gang run by Kacha and Banian the supari monkeys, Ghungroo the nautch monkey.

On a serious note, the book is a marvellous and a gentle satire on our life and times. Although we may be tempted to call it the modern Panchtantra, it is never ever preachy like those ancient fables. The author is a faithful historian, not a pontificating one.

In these times of shit-lit, when you can print a book faster than a monkey grabbing a sweet off your hands, it is a wonder to come across such an unassuming author, who published such a masterpeice. Ranjit Lal the author is a famous naturalist. His new book on the wildlife of Delhi has just come out.

Here is what Roli Books has to say about him : "Ranjit Lal was born in Calcutta in 1955, and educated in Mumbai, graduating in economics and sociology. As a freelance writer and columnist, he has over a thousand articles, short stories, features and photo-features published in over fifty newspapers and magazines in India and abroad. He has special interest in areas like natural history, photography, humour, satire and automobiles, on which he writes for both adults and children. He is one of the few Indian journalists to write satire and humour on a sustained basis. He has authored several books including The Crow Chronicles, The Life and Times of Altu Faltu, That Summer at Kalagarh, The Bossman Adventures, Enjoying Birds, Birds of Delhi, Birds from My Window and The Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet and Other Stories and When Banshee Kissed Bimbo. Ranjit Lal lives in Delhi."

The book is magnificent and a must read for lovers of good fiction.

Manju Kapur - Difficult Daughters

"He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."Wittingly or not, the sins of our fathers (or mothers) have a bearing on us.

The eldest of eleven siblings, Veermati is owed only one duty, to marry well. Fate decrees otherwise and she finds herself treading rebellious paths. After her death, her daughter reconstructs her life. The novel traces her journey to her ancestral home in Amritsar and the places her mother had lived in, Lahore and Nahan. The setting is Pre-partition to post-partition Punjab and Lahore, when a few women were taking tentative steps towards emancipation. The rest of Punjab was mired in tradition that decreed zero personal freedom for women.

The novel is rich in detail. So rich, that it can effective be used as a reference for the life in those times. The novel is so rich in detail, that it is evocative not only visually, but also aurally.

"And that is how Veermati found herself on a train leaving Amritsar, her feet on her bedroll, her metal box pushed behind it, its lock faintly clinking with the motion of the train."

Coming back to the richness of the detail, if Veermati finds herself working in a school in Nahan, we are first given the history of Sirmaur in brief, the mission and work of the Rajmata who promotes education for girls and institutes a school there, the civil management of the place, and then we are shown the connection between this prestigious institution and Veermati. This detail enhances the story to the level of a piece of history rather than remaining just an account of the life and times of Veermati.

The book is extremely true to its time, not judging any of the characters, just presenting them to us as they are, so that we find ourselves loving them despite their flaws. The way the old ladies speak, always trying to say what they should say, using sugar coated taunts rather then a direct attack, never saying what they really feel. It is all so true and so familiar to me, I who grew up hearing my aunts and her cronies talk like that.

The men are rather in a shade, egoistic and self centered. The spotlight is on the women who are usually in subjugation here. But in a way, even in subjugation, the women are very much in control and strong.

The book is like a beautiful tapestery which might have been woven by Veermati herself for her trousseau. An elegant work by an elegant lady is how I would classify it.

Risa Aratyr - Hunter of the Light

Once every nine years the sacred elk runs through Eire and the designated hunter must hunt him before Bealtine Day. This year the task is all the more difficult because Shadow has reared his head and Scaileanna and Orcs are abroad, ravaging the villages that lie in their path. There is also a false hunter who wishes to kill the sacred elk and bring the Light forever to Shadows. The Mighty of Eire, the Midhe and the Sidhe align themselves to fight the Shadow and help the called hunter. For only when the sacred elk dies by the spear of the hunter will the Light survive, and magic still aid Eire.

In this world the poets are deemed the greatest because their words can make or mar a person. Mothers are revered for the far reaching powers they have and the Kings fight lustful for the Glory. The women are not consigned to the hearth, but stand in the forefront as leaders, it is the men who seem to be a step behind. This is the world Blackthorn the bard loves, when he is called to be Hunter of the Light, he knows he has to put all he has into the hunt and succeed at any cost or all Eire will suffer.

This fairy tale charms its way into your heart with references to elves, spells and mighty warriors. It harks upon the times when men walked with fairies and were privy to their secrets. But those were not innocent times, life was hard for all and danger lurked at all bends. It was in these times that nature was at its most beautiful and terrible, and men needed to be true survivors or fall.

The words of the tale are chosen with utmost care by the writer, making sure they maintain the folklore-like tone of the tale. The story never falters, never loses its step. The descriptions are almost cinematic, making the world come alive virtually in your mind. We see the long limbed dark hunter stride through the forest, stalking his prey. We see the evil elves, quick to wreck havoc upon peaceful folks, and the greed in the heart of the false hunter who wishes to rule Eire with the aid of the Shadow. The poet Scatach, dancer Meacan, Mother Liannan, King Niall, Reatach the shape shifter and Cessair the Sidhe warrior, Una, all come alive for us. It also tells us that all will be right with the world if Love prevails, for the relentless hunter Blackthorn is also a true lover, who must race against time to lift the spell on his beloved Roisin Dubh.

This magnificent book is written by Risa Aratyr, though it seems as if the tale has come down from a line of bards, like Iliad. Her vivid prose is worthy of high praise, and the book deserves the kind of success Lord of the Rings has.

How did I come by the book is a story in itself and needs to be told in detail, which I will do soon, I promise.

I have to thank couchpapaya for this award. Her blog is extremely interesting and I look forward to her new posts eagerly. I am supposed to forward this award and all the people on my blogroll deserve it. I admire bloggers because they take time out to express themselves. It is art for art's sake, most times. In my turn, I will confer it on Oxymoronic despite his love for Rakhi Sawant, because I think his posts are highly irreverent, extremely entertaining and often shake you up. He even has a stalker, a fact I envy.