The girl with the golden parasol

Author in Hindi – Uday Prakash. Translated in English by Jason Prakash

Publisher – Penguin Books

Rating – Good

A book translated from hindi to english, it is closely knit with the Hindi heartland and it’s teeming problems of corruption, casteism and petty politics. The story is like a beehive of lots of individual stories held together with the protagonists’ desire to lead a life of dignity.  

Rahul is a university student at a college in MP and a hostelier. The hostel residents are terrorised by local goons who have political, police and college administration backing; who incidentally are all Brahmins and do not look kindly at other castes. The local goons target Sapam Tomba, a student from Manipur. They rob him, try to sodomnise him and make him pee on the heater. Unable to bear the cruelty, Sapam commits suicide. The hostel students vow to protect themselves since the college administration does nothing; are in fact hand in gloves with the entire nexus. They form their own group and next time the goons come, they trash them and hand them over to the police. However, the miscreants are soon out on bail seeking revenge.

In the midst of all this, Rahul falls in love with Anjali Joshi, daughter of a cabinet minister. The love story flows like honey through the beehive, soothing yet dangerous in it’s capacity to provoke violence in the gatekeepers. The goons have direct contact with her brother and she reports to Rahul that the goons will be after them. 

Soon, there are incidents of hostel students being beaten out at different public places. The local newspaper runs defamatory articles on the students accusing them of inciting violence in the city. Police raids the hostel and arrest two students who are cruelly beaten up.

At times rhetoric, the book cruelly shakes one out of the limbo of metropolitan living and shows what 80% of India is facing.  How casteism, corruption, greed, favouritism is eating up India’s youth – their dreams, their loves. After such harrowing experiences, what dreams are these students left with? Will hope still live on; will they  join the same system which oppressed them or will they take up arms to defend their ideals? The book forces the reader to ponder.

The author - Uday Prakash

Jaya. An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata

Devdutt Pattanaik

Author – Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher – Penguin Books

Rating – Highly recommended

Having read modern mythologies based on older mythologies and warped fiction on speculations, it was a breather to read a “simple” retelling. To keep it “simple” requires a MASTER and I salute Devdutt Pattanaik for this feat. The monumental task of keeping the fabric of the Mahabharata plot intact while also telling the numerous tales within the tale explaining the consequences of Karma, ancestry,  social hierarchies, practices and prejudices, relationship between vedic and non vedic tribes has been done beautifully.

Vyasa narrating the Mahabharata to Ganesha. An illustration from the book.

Of special mention is the Bhagavad Gita section. I’ve tried reading the Bhagavad Gita before but a literal translation is extremely difficult reading. Pattanaik’s  retelling of the “song of God” is in understandable English. Light readers beware though, despite the simple language, this is heavy stuff! The philosophical discourse has formed the basis of faith of millions of Indians. Though at times I couldn’t help but wonder at Krishna’s cleverness - this is the tongue of a clever statesman goading his best fighter to battle.  So many times in battle Krishna goads the Pandavas to break rules of war by offering a different point of view. Does this signify that to God there are no rights and wrongs? That there is only a flow of the universe and God’s work is to ensure this flow.

Krishna delivering the Bhagavad Gita to Arjun at the scene of battle. An illustration from the book.

This was a special time though and humans who manipulated nature and accomplished grand feats were worshipped. Balarama with his plough created canals from the river Yamuna to Gokul to water it’s orchards; Krishna argued that the mountains which stopped the rainclouds over their land and thus brought rain be worshipped rather than the rain; land was reclaimed from the sea to build Krishna’s Dwarka.

The footnotes explaining historical and philosophical significance even speculations are great especially as one tends to get lost in the fantastic tales in the maha tale.  The sketch illustrations are cool! J

As an animal lover a footnote struck me.  “Dogs represent attachment and bondage because they are territorial and possessive of their masters. They constantly seek attention and validation. They therefore become the symbol of neediness, insecurity, attraction and ego.” In this Kaliyug, we love our dogs. All characteristics mentioned above are why we love them.  Forced me to reflect – Is our times an embodiment of all that was abhorred in the Vedic times?

Small footnotes besides, the Mahabharata is a tale where there are no winners. Even though the Pandavas win in battle, all of them except Yudhishtir go to hell. While the Kauravas loose in battle, they enjoy heaven with the Gods. While Krishna is elevated to the stature of a God, he is cursed by a mother, looses all his family, clansmen, beloved Dwarka and dies alone by the arrow of a simple hunter.  The Mahabharata is not the tale of two families fighting for a piece of land. It is a moral tale to illustrate how the powers of Maya bind us. How what is right in one circumstance is wrong in another. While we think we are most attached to persons and possessions, it is to our judgements, prejudices and ego that we most tenaciously hang on to. The tale however, is a victorious tale. Not of victory in the materialistic plane – because there is no victory there but of victory over the self – “Jaya”. 

The only turnoff in the book is that the pages are scented! who does that! I love the smell of a book. To have some perfume waft out is distracting and irritaing.

The Krishna Key

Title – The Krishna Key

Author – Ashwin Sanghi

Genre – Thriller

Publisher – Westland Ltd

Rating – 2/5

Ashwin Sanghi

When I read “The Rosabal Line”, I thought it was a poor imitation of the Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”; when I read the “The Krishna Key”, I thought it was a poor imitation of “Angels and Demons”. The parallels between “The Rosabel Line’ and “The Krishna Key” are unmistakable.  Even if an author is writing in a particular genre, the author needs to innovate! Both books feature an age old mystery based on religion in which 21^st century people get involved. In “The Krishna Key”, various professors of history and archeologists with radical views explain the plot’s historical and mythological significance throughout the book. While this explains the background, it hampers the pace and after a point becomes plain irritating. 

The death of Anil Varshney, a linguist and symbolist who was working on deciphering an ancient seal found at the Indus Valley site, sets the local police humming. Their prime suspect is Dr. Ravi Mohan Saini, a professor at St. Stephen’s college, Delhi.  Dr Saini is suspect because he had met with his friend on the day of the murder and the murder weapon found at the site – a scalpel with the inscription R M. 

In true C.I.D style, the police led by Inspector Radhika Singh barge into Dr. Saini’s class and declare his arrest warrant. While a shocked Dr. Saini, accompanied by his dedicated doctoral student Priya, is being taken by the police, he recounts his last meeting with Anil Varshney.  Varshney had claimed the arid Rajasthan dessert to be the site of a great civilisation around the river Saraswati. He had entrusted a seal and an encrypted note to Dr. Saini. He had also told Dr. Saini that identical three seals had been found and sent to three of their closest friends. All four seals on their base-plate, which Varshney had procured, would provide the key to unlocking Krishna’s mythology.

The actual three headed seal and some pottery discovered at the underwater city of Dwarka

However the murderer who believes himself to be the tenth avatar of Vishnu i.e. Kalki in Kalyug had conveniently placed himself as the driver of the jeep in which Dr. Saini and Anil Varshney were travelling. The killer egged on by the elusive Mataji goes on a rampage killing the other two trustees of the seal and also manages to procure the base-plate. However even with access to privileged information on the Krishna legend, the killer – Tarak Vakil and Mataji cannot still decode the Krishna Key. But why are the killers in search of the Krishna Key? The answer lay in the finding of the Syamantaka – a stone with alchemic properties capable of producing a hundred and seventy pounds of gold each day! The quest is on by two parties – Dr. Saini, his doctoral student Priya and Inspector Radhika Singh on one side and Tarak Vakil and Mataji on the other.

The quest leads the parties through Somnath temple, once the abode of the Syamantaka from where it was taken by Mohammad Ghazi to Afghanistan, to Mount Kailash – believed by the seekers to be a man made pyramid and the possible current abode of the Syamantaka, to the Taj Mahal – believed to be the alternate current abode of the Syamantaka.

Somnath temple

Taj mahal with Kalash cupola

Pyramid shaped mount Kailash

As thrillers go, we have an imposter. Priya and Mataji are the same and she shows her true self when she thinks she has all the information she needs in her quest for the Syamantaka and leaves with Tarak Vakil for Mount Kailash, closely followed Dr. Saini and Radhika Singh. In true Bollywood style, a life endangering situation at Mount Kailash brings Dr. Saini and Radhika Singh together as lovers. So while they do not discover the stone they do find love. The duo head back to Agra in quest of the stone.

However love enables Dr. Saini to view the quest from a more philosophical angle aided by the saying of mysterious sadhus repeating that the philosopher is more important than the stone. The alchemy they discover is not in turning base metals to gold but in turning the base metal of the human heart to gold through Love!

Even if one reads through the never ending historical discussions and theories of ancient Indians practicing embryo implants, aeroplanes, reclaiming land from the sea to build a city and harnessing nuclear sites, the philosophical ending is a big let down.  All this running around... and then the learned professor is content to enjoy the sunset at Taj with his new found love!

While the book fails to meet expectations, it hounded me enough to make enquiries (of course on the net) on the veracity of Sanghi’s claims in the book. I read through various accounts of the Saraswati valley excavations and underwater explorations for the lost city of Dwarka. A river Saraswati did flow around the time of the Indus valley civilisation but whether this settlement was part of the Indus Valley civilisation or a vice versa is still being debated by archaeologists. Evidence of the city of Dwarka found through underwater explorations of the city off the coast of Gujarat is undeniable. As written in the Mahabharata, the city was built on land reclaimed from the sea; proven by building blocks used for the city discovered!

Map of the Indus valley and Saraswati civilisations

Underwater explorations of the submerged city of Dwarka

The Little Friend

Author – Donna Tartt

Genre - Thriller

Publisher – Vintage Contemporaries

Rating – 3/5

A book rich in prose and poise but oh.... so much anger and vengeance, I had to keep asking myself why I was reading this book.  I felt like a bystander to a road accident held in a trance by the tragedy, looking on, eyes and limbs refusing to do otherwise.

The murder of a nine year old boy in his own backyard while his family prepared for mothers day dinner shocks the town.  But while the town slowly comes to terms with the murder, the family members never do. The worst casualties as usual are the children. Robin's two sisters, grow up facing their insecurities all alone. Their mother becomes a recluse in her own house; their father takes up a job and a mistress in another town. Their grandmother and great aunts stay close and fill in for the absentee parents as much as they can. Their steady companion though is Ida, their coloured house-keeper. A presence at once warm and formidable, her stories and prejudices colour their imagination. Allison grows up to be a wish-o-wisp kind of young lady seeking refuge in sleep while Harriet is a rebel.  Harriet tries to pierce together Robin’s murder from her grandmothers who refuse to say anything, from her mother and Allison who clam up, from newspapers which offer only sketchy accounts. Only Ida speaks to Harriet on the matter. Her information though is based on personal views rather than facts. Ida blames Danny Ratliff, one of the poor whites in town for Robin’s murder.  To a child however, this straw of information is the red line, the truth at last now etched in stone. One summer, having totally convinced herself on the matter, Harriet goes out seeking revenge.

 

A tragic story of neglect of children and how the refusal of elders to face up to a tragedy can affect their young ones.  A child needs to be talked to, given colours to colour their imagination and pickets to build their boundaries. When none are provided, children turn to any source which will provide them understanding irrespective or right or wrong.

Harriet almost murders an old woman with a cobra and gets herself almost killed when she unwittingly steps into a family drug ring in her quest for revenge. As Harriet is lying in the hospital she learns from her parents that who she thought and targeted as Robin’s murderer was actually his friend!  Trigger happy, drug dealing, white trash yes, but a friend never the less!

Slow reading at times, the book touches a raw nerve especially in a young parent. How vigilant must one be with the young ones.  While it is important that the adults lead their lives, it cannot be without the young ones’ inclusion. Only providing a house, food and scholarly education is not enough, it is important to tend to them, to hear their anxieties, to ensure that they know and appreciate their protective environment and respect their boundaries for their own safety.

While the book is beautifully written, there is a typecast of charectors that is hard to miss – Coloured peoples prejuidice for poor whites, Trigger happy-domestic violence filled upbringing of poor whites, Moneyed whites preoccupation with proper behaviour in society and tight lipness of anything emotional.  The author’s message in the book is not typecasting typecasts but in giving the message, the author has unwittingly followed stereotypes herself.

The Star of Kazan

Author – Eva Ibbotson

Publisher – Pan Macmillan

Rating – 5/5

I’ve rediscovered the genre for young readers’ though I must confess thanks to J K Rowling. The simple reading and bits of grandma’s wisdom never fail to impress me.

The delicious aroma of pastries and fish wafting eloquently from the book do nothing to help one remember the time either.

Set in Vienna, this is a simple story of an orphan girl bought up lovingly by two maids – Ellie and Sigrid. A young life filled with joy at the simple pleasures of life. Annika befriends an elderly lady in the neighbourhood. “La Rodine” had led a colourful life in the theatres and bequests her belongings, some stage clothes and fake jewels to her little friend.

Throughout this rather satisfactory life however, Annika has one secret longing – that her mother, preferably a grand lady appear and swipe her off her feet in her embrace. So one day when an aristocrat Lady does appear and claim to be her mother, she does not think twice before committing all her pent up love and loyalty to her mother.  Annika leaves her doting adoptive mothers and leaves with her mother for her new home – the castle Spittal.

What follows is a roller coater ride into the world of the aristocracy. A world more subtle and dubious than Annika has encountered in her young life.

An industrious child, Annika is stuck by how slack things at Spittal are. She befriends the young stable boy who tells her that it was not so under the previous master, her mother’s father.

Of course there is a nefarious plot, a scheming mind, loyal friends, devoted mother and... a young man...  but not always where Annika thought or wanted them to be.

Annika’s gentleman mother puts her into a very strict school for young women, women who Annika discovers are not particularly wanted by their families while her brother gets to join the expensive military school.  Annika still presumes her mother has her best interest at heart.

The stable boy Zed is not so trusting. He rides to Vienna and delivers the news to Ellie and Sigrid. Torn with worry Ellie visits the school and discovers Annika stripped of her joyousness. Annika sees Ellie as if in a dream and fails to recognize her. There follows a heart warming rescue attempt and Annika is restored to her home in Vienna. However her heart is still with the mother she has yearned for since she can remember.

Her longing leads her to discover that her mother has been siphoning her inheritance from ‘La Rodine”, the jewels were real after all. But still Annika’s loyalty to her mother does not alter. It is only on discovering that the honourable Frau  Von Tannenburg is not her mother that Annika is able to look beyond her love for her mother. It is only then that Annika realises that she has been clinging on to the woman she wanted to desperately believe was her mother while her heart knew this not to be true.

The book leaves me one feeling sad – how guileless is a young ones love, how desperate can a child be for her mother. And elated – Ah.... she realises that the woman is not her mother that her real mother is the one who has loved her since she was little, who brought her up and continues to look out for her.

The Sign. The shroud of Turin and the secret of resurrection

Author – Thomas De Wesselow

Genre – Art and History

Publisher – Viking, Penguin group

Rating – 4/5

After the success of “The Da Vinci Code” loads of books on Christian conspiracy theories have made their way to the mainstream market.  Most deal with Templar conspiracy theories, Mary Magdalene or Grail quests. “The Sign” is based on the supposed Shroud which was used to wrap the dead Jesus and placed in the tomb.

The shroud of Turin is widely believed to be a clever artefact of the middle ages.   While Welleslow attempts to establish that the Shroud is a genuine relic and was used to wrap Jesus, the going is fine. Arguments on how the image of a crucified person was transferred on the cloth is based on scientific research – though widely argued.  Though I’m still unconvinced how such a clear imprint of a person could come on a cloth which was used to wrap the dead crucified person at the base of the cross, transferred to a stretcher and then deposited in the tomb. Such movement should have caused smudging where the body was handled wrapped in the cloth. Plus, the clear framing of the face by hair. How can shoulder- length hair frame the face when a person is lying down?

Further arguments on this crucified person being Jesus based on historical evidence is believable albeit a few gaps. Chief among them is the shroud carbon dating result which shows that the shroud material is from the middle ages.  However since the carbon dating result was not concurred with a second test result and historical evidence points otherwise, it is possible to give the shroud the benefit of doubt.

However, Welleslow’s further claims are more hypothesis and have little or no historical or scientific evidence. He recounts the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus.  The body of Jesus was taken down from the cross, rigor mortis had set in. It was washed carefully at the site of crucification i.e. at the base of the cross, wrapped in the Shroud in question, carried to the tomb in the shroud  and laid to rest there still covered in the shroud. (How could such a complex ritual as cleansing of a dead body be done at such a dusty place as the base of the cross?) Since it was the Sabbath the next day, the body could not be embalmed that day as the Jewish rituals. The body was not touched on the Sabbath. The next day, a contingent of women headed by Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to complete the embalming of the body. The woman however discovered that stone to the entrance of the tomb lay rolled away and an angel of the Lord (Mathew 28;2); a young man in while robes (Mark 16;5); two men in dazzling white (Luke 24;4), appeared and proclaimed to them that Jesus was no longer in the tomb but had risen from the dead. The women were to go back and proclaim this good news to the disciples. Only in John 20;1, Mary Magdalene sees the tomb stone rolled away, does not see any heavenly visitors but is frightened and runs to tell Peter and the disciples that the body of Jesus is no longer in the tomb. In all these appearance stories, only John clearly mentions Mary Magdalene saying that the body of Christ was not in the tomb though it does not mention her going into the tomb at all. However both Luke(24;12)  and John(20;6) mention that Peter entered the tomb and found it empty of the body of Jesus and instead saw the linen shroud. He wondered when he saw the cloth.

Welleslow now recreates the story of the resurrection taking the shroud into account. The impression of Jesus’ body had already come on the shroud when the woman went into the tomb. Although how the women made out the dim outline of the body on the shroud in the candle or lamplight of the cave/tomb in the dim early morning glow is a big question. Thereafter Welleslow argues that what the gospels refer to as “angel”, “a young man”, “two young men”,” Jesus” was the shroud. The impression of Jesus on the shroud was taken by the disciples as the sign of Jesus’s spiritual resurrection. Thus began the proclamation of the good news that Jesus had risen. This theory, given the ancients penchant for story telling and myth creation is far more believable to the reasoning mind than a flesh and blood resurrection theory or the Jesus being in a live but comatose state after being taken down from the cross and being revivified after 2 days in the tomb theory.  However, to claim that the strangely marked shroud of Jesus was the basis of the resurrection stories sounds too far fetched. After all the disciples who preached Christianity were so convinced of Jesus’ and their own resurrection that they did not even fear death.  However miraculous the strange markings on the shroud may have seemed, was it enough to transform frightened fishermen into bold missionaries of a radically different religion in alien lands?  If the shroud with the imprint of Jesus was seen as his spiritual resurrected self, were the disciples also hoping to be transformed thus?

Yes, there is a mystery to be solved and the Christian emphasis on faith and belief in miracles does not satisfy Christians today. How else can one account for the large number of Christian conspiracy theory books making it to the best seller lists?  I see other books authored by Indian writers which try and explain in socio-political and sometimes scientific terms the mythology of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The world then in asking for rational answers to their faith. It is looking for a more solid footing than fantabulous myths of miracles.    

Asura. Tale of the vanquished. The story of Ravana and his people.

Author – Anand Neelakantan

Genre – Historical fiction

Publisher – Platinum series

Rating – 4/5

I bought this book with loads of expectations and curiosity. I had always wanted to know the ten headed monster’s story.  The one overwhelming emotion in the entire book is ANGER. There is pent up anger of a civilization being destroyed by invading barbarians and being labelled demons for living according to their culture and striking back at the invading hordes.

Ravana, the first son of a Brahmin and a tribal woman is passionate, arrogant and brilliant. Leaving Lanka to seek their fortune, the brothers Ravana,  Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana learn under Brahma, the scion of the Brahma family specialising in arts, crafts and music under the protection of Mahabali,  the once powerful king of the Asuras now hiding in the jungles in Central India. In his last lesson Mahabali attempts to instil values of self control and sacrifice in Ravana who mocks these and proclaims his preference for the base emotions which make a MAN rather than the higher values which make a GOD. Ravana then returns to Lanka with high ideals of returning the Asura empire and civilisation to its former glory.

While the book is not named after Bhadra, an asura commoner, he is one of the main protagonists of the story. A sword of rage and revenge against the marauding conquerors who proclaim themselves Gods and seek not only to conquer lands and allegiances but destroy an entire people and their culture.

Ravana the king and Bhadra the commoner make a formidable team as they establish the Asura kingdom in Central and South India with their Golden capital in Sri Lanka.

Then comes the nemesis of the mighty Asura empire – Sita or rather is brought in by Ravana himself.  Ravana claims that Sita is his long lost daughter who he brought back to protect her from the male dominated barbaric Deva culture. In war Ravana’s actions are very much like so many mighty kings who believed themselves invincible. Rama’s actions very like a commander directing his band of soldiers in guerrilla warfare.  There is the constant theme of Rama’s double standards – he does not hesitate to strike from behind or use guile while portraying himself as the epitome of Dharma. He constantly plays into the hands of Brahmins to prove himself a righteous king.

While soldiers view the actions of the other army as despicable and not in accordance with the honoured rules of warfare, war has it’s atrocities, atrocities which have not changed over the ages. So comes the fall of the last bastion of the great Asura empire and the winner takes the spoils including history and culture.

However personal loss follows Rama even in his victory. Questioned by a citizen of his kingdom on accepting Sita as his wife and queen after she has been in Lanka for so long, Rama decides to banish Sita from his side even though she had undergone the “Agnipariksha” – test by fire at Lanka before the victorious soldiers to prove her chastity. Even when Ram is re-united with Sita after twelve long years through the valor of his twin sons Luv and Kush, Ram again asks Sita to go through a test of fire to prove her chastity. Tired by the constant demands to prove her virtue by her husband, Sita enters the Earth. While Ram returns with his sons to Ayodhya to a just rule. However, Ram is never happy and at last enters the river Sarayu and gives up his life.

“Asura” personifies two opposing  cultures into the person of Ram and Ravana. While both cultures had a social pecking order as per economic status, the vedic culture introduced the concept of birth linked with a man’s profession. Resulting in generations staying in the same social class. While Ravana had the courage to accept Mandodari as his wife and queen even after she was gangraped by the Vanara soilders, Rama repeatedly asks Sita to prove her chastity and banishes a chaste and pregnant Sita from his side.  While one culture was about doing one’s duty the other was hedonistic.

By raising these differences, Neelakantan questions why an entire civilization and it’s king was termed demonic and another culture and it’s king in-spite of prejudices and shortcoming applauded as Dharma and Lord.  

A Fine Balance

Author – Rohinton Mistry

Genre – Historical drama

Publisher – Vintage International

Rating – 5/5

A book on the search for dignity and happiness, fate and loss. Sounds morose?.... the telling has been dealt with such poignancy, poise, pride and prose that the tale flows through the pages.

Set in Mumbai  “A Fine Balance” follows the lives of four people from different walks of life looking at bettering their lot. The Book begins with the meeting of two tailors, Ishwar Darji, Omprakash Darji come looking for work and Maneck Kohlah, a student come looking for a bright future in the city of dreams, Mumbai. Their lives are inextricably joined with Dina Dayal, a middle aged widow trying hard to preserve her independence. She takes in Maneck as her paying guest and the two tailors in her employment to fulfil orders of a textile export house.

The tale spills effortlessly between the past and the present; Ishwar and Om’s, filled with oppression of the higher castes that destroyed their family because they dared to change their profession from cobblers to tailors and better their social standing.  Of Maneck of the paradise hills, sprawling property  and loving family destroyed first by the partition line which rendered most of their property on the wrong side of the border and then by the influx of modernisation. Of Dina Dayal’s oppression by her brother – Nusswan, after the death of her father and her struggle to stay independent after her husband’s death.

The Emergency brings all of them under one roof – Dina Dayal’s. Slowly mistrust, social and economic barriers are replaced by empathy and a semblance of a family.  The four find the love and laughter that has been missing from their lives for so long and dare to start dreaming again.

While Manek heads for a ‘secure’ future in the Middle East, Omprakash and Ishwar get the worst of upper class prejudice and inhuman Government policies during the Emergency. They are evacuated from their shanty, then sold to a labour camp, then made to go through vasectomy from which one emerges castrated and the other with an amputated leg. Dina Dayal looses her contract with the textile company and has to face the indignity of moving in again with her brother.

 However the latter three remain in touch and Dina keeps the defiance of her brother alive by offering tea to Omprakash and Ishwar who are now beggars in cups meant for Nusswan and his wife.

However it is Manek who has lead a comparatively sheltered life who gets disheartened by events and takes his life.

Rohinton Mistry spins a larger than life, multi starrer, mega budget tale which is still simple, heart wrenching, warm and humane in it’s telling.