Shallow Thoughts to Profound Insights

The Road -Cormac McCarthy

2009-11-04T13:34:00.004-06:00

Despair in a book is very hard for me to read. Despair from the past is better than despair based in the future. In the former case at least we know things got better. What does the the future of a very bleak future hold? There is very little hope. Sitting in Wisconsin on a poopy day adds another layer to the already existing despair in the book. It almost made me want to hoard food in the pantry. Despite all this I read the book.

The book explores the human condition in a post apocalyptic world. There is not much said about how it came about, just that it is. The father and son take the road south in the hope of finding the 'good guys' who also 'carry the fire'. The narrative is crisp. The entire book is written without the use of quotation marks or apostrophe (don't is dont, won't is wont!). It adds something to the book. Makes it unattractive like the landscape and the life the words describe. I am not sure if this is an acknowledged writing style, but the usage in the novel is brilliant.

In the entire novel the father and son eat out of cans. The earth lacks a biosphere. Hence there are no plants, animals etc. The air is still breathable. How long can, what is left of humanity, survive on left over cans? What happens to left over people in countries that do not can food? Silly thoughts, but I did wonder about that. The book provides a first world perspective of what the human condition will be in such a future. What will the third world outlook look like? The survival skills of the third world is so much more different than the first world. The degree of despair and hardship will be so different.

The movie will be out during Thanksgiving. I cannot watch despair in a movie. Remember Artificial Intelligence, I desperately wanted to get out of the theater. So I will not watch this one.

Global Short Story Competition - I made the short list!

2009-11-01T19:22:00.002-06:00

Success for England and France

Fiona Cooper has selected our September winners and it‘s honours shared between England and France.

Our winner comes from North East England. Hazel Osmond, of Stocksfield, Northumberland, wins £100. Our judge, Fiona, said of her story Step-baby: “This is a slick and observant story, where the reactions of each character are unpredictable and ultimately satisfying. Stemming from the most unlikely event, the triumph of Gavin’s rebellious spirit is movingly described and convincing.”

Highly commended was Michael Abberley, Indre, France, of whose story A Shared Crossing, Fiona said: “Set in the confines of a passenger ship and a short period of time, this story is accomplished and the writing is assured and confident, leading the reader into the mysterious elements with total belief. The unexpected conclusion is very pleasing.”

The September shortlist is again truly international:

Liliane Parkinson, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Ginny Swart, Constantia, South Africa

Susan Lanigan, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Dragica Djiipalo, Volos, Greece Baron Frankal, Manchester, England

Terry Bell, Montreal, Canada

Jackie Vickers, Long Hanborough, England

Sowmya Santanam, Wisconsin, USA

Fiona Foster, Stourbridge, England

Pamela Scott, Glasgow, Scotland

Jonathan Pinnock, St Albans, England

That late 80s TV series

2009-10-02T09:30:00.002-05:00

I was reading some blog post and someone mentioned Supriya Pathak. Suddenly I wanted to google her and see what she looks like now. There was time in the late 80s when I liked her a lot. So I google and find out she doesn't look anything like she used to. Wikipedia reminds me that she married Pankaj Kapur and Shahid Kapoor is her step son. That leads me to google Pankaj Kapur's first wife and that turns out to be Neelima Azeem. The name rings a bell and I cannot place her at all. Some more googling and I recognize her. I feel really old figuring out that Shahid Kapoor is Neelima Azeem's son.

Now, there was this TV series back in the late 80s with Neelima Azeem in a supporting role. She plays this muslim girl. Her friend who is from a rich family falls in love with a guy in college. Turns out he is poor and from the village. The rest of the story leads to these guys eloping with the help of Neelima Azeem and her fiance, who she marries later in real life. I cannot remember the name of the series.

Does anyone? Please tell.

Another one that I remembered was called "Pachpan Khambe lal diware" starring Mita Vashisht and one cute looking guy. I was 14 or 15 and liked Mita Vashist a lot, until she starred in a Hindi rip of Star Trek. But anyway, I loved "Pachpan Khambe lal diware". It aired for only a few weeks and then it was gone.

That is DD's contribution to my nostalgia.

Duet

2009-09-17T14:50:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time I was 19 and still naive. One day my sister came up to me and asked me to sing a duet with her. I was all ready and eager. So she starts singing the above song and tells me to say "kyun" every time it was required by the song. I had never heard this song and didn't know it was an 'equally sung' duet. I was not paying much attention to the lyrics. I just thought one person sang the song and the other person said "kyun". I told you I was naive. So I dutifully pitched in and said "kyun" every time my sister cued me. Then later when I heard the song I figured I was just a kyun prop and my sister had made a complete fool of me. To this day, Appa recounts this incident in detail and tells every relative that visits home of how my sister made me sing only "kyun" and called it a duet. Mean sister. Meaner Appa.

Love Story - Erich Segal

2009-09-09T14:24:00.002-05:00

I read this book the first time when I was 19. I hardly remember how I felt or why I liked the book. It was mandatory reading for the English class and since we had to be cool in college, we watched the movie too. I only remember that the movie was very 60s style and nothing much else.

Yesterday I was walking towards the library check out counter and saw this book and picked it up. I read it in a couple of hours. Even though the story and setting sounds dated at times, there is still a timeless aspect to the wit in the narrative. It is a very well told, poignant story. The kind that wants one to shove all the cynicism aside, at least for a couple of hours. I am glad I am still capable of that.

Kamila Shamsie, Pakistan and related stuff

2009-08-27T09:10:00.003-05:00

I have been reading Kamila Shamsie and have this new found curiosity about Pakistanis. I have known some people from across the border, but no close friends really. Some guy that was in my ECE 555 class in grad school. I didn't learn much from him, except that he once came on a bus to Bihar to meet some relatives. Waiting at the bus stop in Madison winter, I wasn't curious enough and he wasn't drop-dead-handsome (what vanity at 24?!) for me to dig any deeper.

Now, I have a neighbor from Karachi. A very nice family. For a long time we would just wave if we met on the road or something. One time Salma and me were discussing childhood asthma and she said "Oh! I just do apna desi dawa Sowmya". That was really endearing. I was part of her 'apna' and 'des'. Wow. I never thought of her like that. I felt small being that narrow minded. But since then I have become pretty friendly, but there is a very American formality that lingers. Maybe both of us think it is necessary because we haven't bridged some cultural gap. I don't know.

And then about a year ago, I met this Pakistani doctor at the airport. We started small talking

"Where are you from.. in Pakistan?"

"I am from Lahore"

"Do you still have family there?"

"Not much, a lot of my relatives have migrated to America. But I do go every 5 years or so. Where are you from in India?"

"I am from Madras"

"Oh, really! My mother is from Madras and so is my father"

"They grew up in Madras? "

"My mother was very young while in Madras. She doesn't remember much now. She keeps telling me she wants to go visit. But she is a little ailing these days."

"So, when did they move to Pakistan?"

"In 1950. They had to leave"

Something in the way he said "They had to leave" made me uncomfortable. I never knew about Muslims from Madras migrating to Pakistan. And that too three years after partition. And it bothered me that, this doctor who was born and brought up in Lahore had some kind of sadness about his mother leaving Madras when she was 10 years old. I couldn't figure it out.

And then another time, I had this conversation about Pakistani men with a friend. She is Indian muslim but a lot of her cousins have married Pakistani men. She claims that Pakistani men make wonderful joru ka ghulam type husbands as compared to their Indian counterparts. I want to assume - Indian muslim men as counterparts, but I want to generalize too. It is more alluring like that. After all, both of us were married to Indian men and in our thirties we needed some kind of romanticism about other people's lives, while our own life was filled the mundane.

That pretty much sums up all that I know about Pakistanis at a personal level. Since I have somehow managed to not know any Pakistanis that well and I have read two of Kamila Shamsie's novels, I still have that mysterious aura attached to pakistanis. I like that.