Life as I know It

A Suitable Boy - Book Review

2013-10-16T23:17:00.000+05:30

Some of the greatest novels that I have read and still recall fondly have one thing in common – memorable characters whose joys, sorrows, successes and disappointments seem very real and personal. A Suitable Boy sketches not one, but a multitude of characters, from a genius child of ten to an irascible doctor of seventy, whose contours start appearing as we are introduced to them, and who, by the time we finish the last page with a sigh, have taken an indelible shape on the canvas of our minds, and a select few of them find a way into our hearts.

A Suitable Boy begins with the wedding of Pran Kapoor and Savita Mehra, the elder sister of Lata Mehra, whose mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, vows to find “a suitable boy” for her younger daughter as well. The incidents span over a period of a year and the story culminates with the wedding of Lata almost a year later. During this period, Lata falls in love with Kabir Durrani, who, among other things, is a Muslim. The setting is a little after India’s independence and partition, and although secular Hindus and Muslims are amiable and even friendly with each other, inter-religion marriage is taboo on both sides. During the ensuing period, Lata is also introduced to two other suitors – Amit and Haresh, both of whom have strikingly different personalities and priorities. This is what the novel appears to be about, but it isn’t all it’s about. In fact, there are a host of other characters, some of whom I found more engaging than Lata and her story.

My favourite characters include Maan Kapoor, Malati, Savita, Pran and Amit. Maan is Pran’s younger brother who falls in love with Saeeda Bai, a courtesan who performs at a Holi celebration at his father’s house. At the start of the novel, Maan is a wastrel who loves to divide his time between Saeeda Bai’s parlour and his friend Firoz’s company. It cannot be said for certain that the Maan Kapoor at the end of the novel is any different from the Maan Kapoor at the beginning of it. Circumstances elevate him to the pedestal of a hero – when he saves his friend’s life, risking his own, during a communal riot – and denigrate him as a villain – when he stabs the same friend in a fit of jealousy. But his largesse shines through the novel and endears him to the hearts of the readers – the way he builds relationships with the villagers of Debaria fending off communal insinuations with light hearted repartees, the way his thoughts always turn to Saeeda Bai even when she artfully exiles him from Brahmpur, the way he castigates the mushi who is rebuking a poor old woman, his childlike innocence of all things evil and above all, his pureness of heart. Not once does Maan Kapoor entertain ill-will for anybody. His is a light-hearted character who takes life easy, who lives and lets live. Though not like me, he is my kind of a person.

I like Malati, Lata’s friend and confidant, for her independent and spirited nature. She is bold and follows her mind, unlike Lata who, for all her rebelliousness and romanticism, is a family-oriented girl and self-admittedly “follows her mother’s advice” in all matters, including the choice of a suitable boy.

Pran and Savita are one of those made-for-each-other couples, who have their differences, but are so compatible and like each other, that every small squabble resolves itself in no time. Pranvita (Pran & Savita) are not highly romantic, but their love is rooted in shared interests and pragmatism. It is an arranged marriage that has led to a perfect match, something that Mrs. Rupa Mehra is proud of and intends for her younger daughter as well. Whether Lata finds happiness in her choice or not we don’t know because the novel ends with her wedding (I won’t say to whom).

Amit Mukherjee is one of Lata’s suitors and the one I was rooting for, after Kabir since Kabir is Lata’s first and true love. Amit is a poet and a writer, and he along with his eccentric family form the comic brigade of the novel. I read somewhere that the character of Amit Mukherjee is fashioned after Vikram Seth himself. He is a typical creative person, sometimes lost in his own world, slow to take action but always full of thoughts. I felt he would have made a good match for Lata, his eccentric sisters Meenakshi and Kakoli notwithstanding.

Some minor characters who deserve a mention are Zainab – the daughter of the Nawab Sahib of Baitar – whose quick wit saves the family mansion from being appropriated by the government. As a woman my heart goes out to her as she silently suffers due to her husband’s many infidelities with the only hope that he will one day come to his senses. In those times and in that society, there is no other course available to her, and the thought of divorce doesn’t even cross her mind. I also feel sad for her being limited to the zenana or the ladies’ section of the mansion with no contact with any man other than her husband, brothers, father or sons. Another woman suffering a similar - although less severe fate - is Priya who is married in a family where women are not allowed to go out alone, except to the temple. Meenakshi and her husband Arun are the most obnoxious characters, one an infidel and the other a grouch. Varun, Lata’s brother, suffers abuse at the hands of his elder brother Arun throughout the novel, until the end when, as an IAS officer, Varun becomes the new eligible boy and his mother, none other than Mrs. Rupa Mehra, sets out on a mission to find him “a suitable girl”.

Apart from the endearing characters, I also loved the contextual themes which take the story forward and shape the characters bit by bit. The Zamindari or Land Reforms Act, the Hindu-Muslim relations, cultural themes and festivals like Holi, Muharram and Dussehra, English literature and dramatics, politics and the state of Congress, the intricacies of the shoe-making business, the Kumbh mela (renamed as Pul mela in the novel), friendship that transcends religion and political differences, the insidiousness of the caste system, political opportunism, infidelity and flippancy, high-society snobbism and the game of cricket form the canvas on which the characters are drawn.

Some of these themes are relevant in the Indian society even today, though to a smaller degree. The caste system for instance is much prevalent today in large sections of the society and I don’t know if this mindset will ever change. With certain political parties communalizing politics, Hindu-Muslim relationship is still a priority area for a diverse country like India. One of the best traits about Maan is that he sees the person Firoz, his friend, and not a Muslim. I wish people thought of people as human beings rather than as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Sikhs. After all, how much of our personality and character is moulded by our religion? 5%? 10%? 20%? Yet, why do people not see the person for who he is, rather than his tag? I am digressing, but this is why I loved the novel. It shows the futility of communal bias and hatred.

The narrative is beautifully penned and is easy to read. Although the novel is gargantuan, the story grips you and draws you in surprisingly early. The novel is divided into 19 parts, each part usually focusing on one major character and his/her story, which makes it easier to read. It is a must-read for anyone who loves a good story. And I guarantee this novel will have you riveted from the first page to the last! I hope you enjoy the novel as much as I did.

Women of India

2013-03-09T11:11:00.001+05:30

8th of March was celebrated worldwide as International Women’s Day. As a woman, I received wishes from friends, colleagues and family, but the day held no special joy for me as a woman. In a country like India where crime against women is on the rise, where politicians and netas make outrageously sexist remarks with impunity, where a certain Prime Ministerial candidate flippantly attributes something as grave as malnutrition in his State to ‘figure-consciousness’ of girls (can you believe that?), where rape victims and their families are asked by the Church to ‘stay away’, where eve-teasers and acid-throwers get away with light sentences, where extremists barge into private parties and beat up and molest girls, where a young girl stepping out of a pub is molested and stripped by a crowd goaded on by a reporter, where thousands of tribal and low caste women are raped with an audacity that is shocking, where Nirbhaya faces an unspeakable ordeal but doesn’t go down without a fight… I don’t think Indian women and men had much to celebrate this Women’s day.

To the educated, liberated women of India, I have only one message. If a change has to be brought about in the Indian society about the role of women, it is up to us to initiate that change. We must not fight only for ourselves, but for all the women of the country, especially those who have no voice. Start by snuffing out gender stereotypes. Scientific evidence shows that children learn gender stereotypes from adults – parents, teachers, leaders, media etc. pass on the gender stereotypes from one generation to the next. The way parents behave in front of children greatly affects the child’s perception of the role of man and woman. Treat your boy and girl the same. Raise a generation of children who feel like equal members of the society irrespective of their gender.

Second, continue to encourage and appreciate women who work for you. In India there are scores of maids who slog and slave in our houses to scrub the floors, wash our clothes and cook our meals. These are hardworking women supporting their families. Be generous with them. Educate them about health insurance, especially those who are working in the unorganized sector. For jobs that are gender-neutral, employ women. Talk to them about their rights, about the help available to them if they are victims of domestic violence or any other type of crime.

On this Women’s day, let us each pledge to do our bit for women and a better society.

"समय चलते मोमबत्तियां, जल कर बुझ जाएँगी ...

श्रद्धा में डाले पुष्प, जल हीन मुर्झा जायेंगे ...

स्वर विरोध के और शांति के अपनी प्रबलता खो देंगे ...

किन्तु 'निर्भयता' की जलाई अग्नि हमारे ह्रदय को प्रज्वलित करेगी ...

जल हीन मुरझाये पुष्पों को हमारी अश्रु धाराएं जीवित रखेंगी ...

दग्ध कंठ से 'दामिनी' की 'अमानत' आत्मा विश्व भर में गूंजेगी ...

स्वर मेरे तुम, दल कुचलकर पीस न पाओगे ...

मै भारत की माँ बहेंनिया बेटी हूँ ,

आदर और सत्कार की मै हक़दार हूँ ...

भारत देश हमारी माता है ,

मेरी छोड़ो, अपनी माता की तो पहचान बनो !!"

~ Amitabh Bachchan

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer - Book Review

2013-03-05T21:22:00.000+05:30

I just finished reading ‘The Life of Mahatma Gandhi’ by Louis Fischer and one word that can describe my feeling at the moment is awe. We were taught in school about India’s history, about our freedom struggle, about our fearless leaders and their countless sacrifices. We studied the contributions of leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar, Lajpat Rai et al to our struggle for independence, but as we grow up and become enmeshed in the humdrum of our daily activities, these names begin to have diminishing relevance in our lives.

So what brought me, a humble fiction reader, to pick up a 526 pager, non-fiction account of the life of M.K Gandhi, authored by a foreign journalist? To begin with, it was a debate with my friends about Gandhi, which started with the discussion about Nathuram Godse, the man who shot Gandhi on 30th January, 1948. Was Gandhi a saint or an evil genius? Was he a soft-hearted democrat or a dictator with a soft touch? Was he responsible for the partition of India or was he heart-broken over the vivisection of his beloved nation that he struggled so hard to keep unified? Was he a saviour of the backward classes or did he strive to keep them suppressed? These were some of the debatable points that came up. Even the biggest detractors of Gandhi among my friends reluctantly admitted that Gandhi “was not a bad man per se”.

My mind was made up. I couldn’t participate in a debate effectively unless I was well-equipped with the facts. I needed an objective, neutral biography on Gandhi. Louis Fischer was a journalist who worked in Europe and Asia. He spent considerable time in pre-independence India hobnobbing with prominent Indian leaders, not only Congressmen but also Muslim League leaders like Jinnah.

I am happy to report that I was not in the least disappointed. The biography presents an unbiased, objective narrative of the life of Gandhi. The facts are presented to the reader, allowing her to draw her own conclusions. The same action of Gandhi may appear genius to one reader while leaving another reader unimpressed. It is an excellent book for anybody interested in Indian history. To understand the psyche of the Indian society today, it is imperative to understand how it all began. I give a five star rating to this book. And here I list down some of the facts presented in the book that have left an indelible impression on my mind:

1. Mahatma Gandhi died on 30th January, 1948 as a private citizen without wealth, property, official title, official post, academic distinction, scientific achievement or artistic gift. Yet men with governments and armies behind the paid homage to the little brown man of seventy-eight in a loincloth. Some of the people who paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi included Albert Einstein, Pope Pius, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, the chief Rabbi of London, the United Nations, the Soviet Union, and the people of India and millions of people all over the world.

2. The Gita was Gandhi’s ‘spiritual reference book’, his daily guide. It condemned inaction and Gandhi condemned inaction. More importantly, it shows how to avoid the evils that accompany action; this, Gandhi asserted, is the central teaching of the Gita. Gandhi’s interpretation of the Gita was thus: The Gita is an allegory. The battlefield is the human soul where Arjuna, representing higher impulses, struggles against evil. ‘Krishna’, according to Gandhi, ‘is the Dweller within, ever whispering to a pure heart. The Gita described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts of mankind.’ Gandhi strived throughout his life to achieve detachment and become a Karma Yogi. In tough times, instead of becoming disheartened or angry, he turned the light towards his inner self, exploring his own shortcomings. He never accused or criticized others; he endeavoured to look inwards to find solutions to his problems. In today’s age of politicians who bicker and crib, who point fingers at others at every possible opportunity, do we have a single leader who comes close to Gandhi?

3. History is abundantly sprinkled with examples of the times when Gandhi insisted on travelling by third class train, sweating and rubbing shoulders with the masses, even when he could afford first class travel. He continued to do so even at the height of his popularity. He wanted to be treated like the common man. How could he travel by first class when millions in the country were starving and living in unhealthy conditions? How many Indian politicians of today can even conceptualize such sacrifices? Other examples of self-abnegation included living and working in heat when he could have lived in comfort, walking several miles under the unrelenting Indian sun, working manually with his hands and encouraging his family and friends to do likewise, denying his frail, old body food, water and medical treatment while fasting for his various causes, non-violence being the most prominent one.

4. Gandhi arrived in South Africa in May 1893. He went there on business, to win a law suit. When Indians in South Africa were faced with a legislation depriving them of their right to elect members of the legislature, Gandhi consented to stay a month to help resist the move. He ended up spending 20 years fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa. He won. As a result of his mass civil disobedience movement, Hindu, Muslim and Parsi marriages were declared valid (which were earlier declared invalid by the government to check immigration), the tax on indentured labourers (most of them Indian) was abolished, and indentured labour influx from India was stopped. While individuals in several continents have practised passive resistance, nobody except Gandhi has ever led a successful, non-violent, mass, civil disobedience campaign.

5. Gandhi was his own greatest critic. He accepted his faults, his mistakes publicly. He never chastised anybody else as publicly or severely. Just the way he was harshest with himself, his severity of conduct extended to those closest to him – his family. When Gandhi left South Africa for India in 1901, the Indian community in South Africa gave him and his wife expensive gifts and jewellery. He set up a community fund for Indians in South Africa and donated all the gifts, including the gold necklace given to Kasturbai, to the fund. He was extremely critical about the faults of his sons; nobody was given special treatment because of being related to Gandhi.

6. Gandhi’s ashram in Admedabad housed many people apart from his family. When an untouchable family came to his ashram and asked to become permanent members, he welcomed them. Everybody else objected. He insisted that the family stays at the ashram. He even adopted the daughter Lakshmi as his own. Gandhi said, “I do not want to be reborn, but if I have to be reborn I should be reborn an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings and the affronts levelled against them in order that I may endeavour to free myself and them from their miserable condition.” He took to cleaning the lavatories of the ashram. His disciples voluntarily joined him. Gandhi began calling them ‘Harijans’ (Children of God), and later named his weekly magazine after them. Once a leper came to the ashram. Everyone was scared to go near him for fear of contamination. Gandhi welcomed him and even gave him a massage.

7. Indian people worshipped Gandhi. When the train he was travelling in passed by towns and villages, people gathered in large numbers to see him and wave to him. The trains were delayed. They kissed the dust under his feet. They followed his call for passive resistance. At a protest, hundreds of people walked in without resistance to protest. Policemen charged the protestors with rods on their heads, but not one person lifted a hand to defend himself/herself. Many were admitted to the hospital with severe skull injuries and a few died. This was the extent of influence Gandhi had on the masses.

8. Gandhi was vehemently opposed to the partition of India. He was opposed to vivisection of any kind, based on considerations of religion, caste or creed. The Muslim League, lead by Jinnah, wanted nothing less than Pakistan. The non-Muslim minority in north-west Pakistan was close to 38%, and in the north-eastern area (now Bangladesh) was 48%. These figures show, claimed the Cabinet Mission, that partition would not solve the communal minority problems. Jinnah also wanted Punjab, Bengal and Assam to be included in Pakistan, but these areas had a large non-Muslim population. The Cabinet Mission advised a united India. Unable to have its way, the Muslim League under Jinnah, declared 16th August 1946 as Direct Action Day. Savage riots broke out all over the country. Jinnah’s threat of a civil war forced the Congress to accept the proposal of partition. Gandhi was opposed to the decision as he was against division of any kind.

9. When the communal riots broke out between Hindus and Muslims after partition in 1947, Gandhi went to Calcutta where the situation was the worst. He fasted and promised to continue his fast until people gave up the madness. He succeeded. The riots subsided. After that he went to Delhi where Muslims were being slaughtered by Hindus and Sikhs. Similar riots were taking place in Pakistan where Hindus and Sikhs were being butchered. He appealed to Hindus and Sikhs to not answer violence by violence, to allow Muslims to return to their houses. As he was harshest with himself and those close to him, he was severest with Hindus. To bring about unity and tolerance between different religions, he often read verses from the Koran during his evening prayers. Fanatic Hindus called him a Muslim lover. Fanatic Muslims accused him of opposing partition. Towards the end of his life, 95% of his mail was hate mail. Once somebody asked him, “If there is one God, should there be only one religion?” Gandhi answered, “A tree has a million leaves. There are many religions but all are rooted in the same God.” Gandhi was responsible for stemming riots that broke out after partition. If it wasn’t for him, many more innocent people would have lost their lives.

10. Hindus like Madan Lal (who had tried to assassinate Gandhi by throwing a grenade) and Nathuram Godse were incensed by the presence of Muslims at Hindu services and the reading of selections from the Koran. They resented Gandhi for criticising Hindus for indulging in rioting. Godse shot Gandhi at close range just before the evening prayers on 30th January, 1948. Gandhi fell, and died murmuring ‘Hey Ram’.

Gone with the Wind - Book Review

2012-12-04T17:07:00.003+05:30

If there’s one thing about Gone with the Wind that has left an indelible impression on my mind, it is the character of Scarlett O’Hara. Beautiful, fearless, ruthless, practical and materialistic in a world that is bleeding for the Cause, she epitomizes the anti-hero in the eyes of the Confederate society. Her character is so complex, layered with unyielding determination and an utter lack of morals, shouldering responsibility for those who have submitted to her care, sprinkled with self-confidence and a penchant for theatrics, cemented by an irrational, passionate, blind love for the husband of another – which eventually proves to be her undoing in a way.

Gone with the Wind is the story of courage and determination, love and jealousy, persistence and hard-work, practicality and obstinacy, the selfish Scarlett O’Hara and the altruistic Melanie Hamilton, the spirited, cheeky Rhett Butler and the listless, fatalistic Ashley Wilkes. As with all the great novels, what a reader will remember the most about Gone with the Wind are its characters, their trials and tribulations, some of their iconic conversations and their heartbreak. I particularly admire the strength of Scarlett and her charm ‘I will not think about it now. I will think about it tomorrow’, which worked perfectly during trying situations. I admire her courage to go on after the untimely demise of her mother Ellen whom she loved tremendously, followed by her father’s disillusionment and finally death, financial troubles, the attempts by people to buy out Tara, her father’s plantation, and her desperate, brave efforts to save her land, the only thing worthwhile left with her.

I also loved the character of Melanie and how she transformed from a meek, defenceless girl to a pillar of strength and social tact. Although Scarlett is blind to her support, Melanie unwaveringly backs Scarlett through ups and downs of murder, financial trouble, social ostracism, and especially when Scarlett is seen embracing Ashley, Melanie’s husband. Melanie refuses to believe anything bad about the people she loves, including Scarlett, and instead of questioning her, she banishes India, Ashley’s sister, who had seen the two embracing. During the scene when Melanie is breathing her last and wants to speak to Scarlett, Scarlett is tormented by the possibility that Melanie might have known all along about her and Ashley. Guilt tortures her soul as she remembers the occasions when Melanie supported her, stood up for her when nobody else would. It is during this moment that Scarlett realizes she wants to please Melanie like she wanted the approval of her mother, and that despite the fact that she tried to steal her husband in every possible way, she loves Melanie. The relationship between Scarlett and Melanie and the way it evolves is one of the most interesting threads in the novel.

Scarlett’s zest for life is admirable. She is always looking for something to give meaning to her life, even after heart-breaking setbacks like her parents’ demise, abject poverty, the fear of starvation, the loss of children and her best friend Melanie. She is able to amuse herself even as a widow with watching couples dance at charity events, when she is supposed to be in mourning and stay indoors. She displays initiative and determination by turning around her second husband’s lumbar business and making it hugely profitable. All her actions are motivated by a deep-rooted, insatiable desire to make money and retain Tara, her father’s plantation. And that’s all she has left at the end.

A book that depicts the tragedy of unrequited love, Gone with the Wind is an experience of an era, a civilization gone by, a mishmash of emotions, and truly memorable characters that you will remember for a very very long time. I recommend Gone with the Wind to all those readers who want to read a book they will never forget.

A 1939 superhit movie adapted from the novel is worth watching for it manages to capture part of the charm of the novel.

Underworld: Awakening - Review

2012-01-26T10:23:00.003+05:30

“If you really want to watch a Vampire movie, you should watch the Underworld series,” remarked my boyfriend after I forced him to sit through the latest installment from the Twilight saga. And thus, I got introduced to the dark world of Vampires and Lycans and their unending, bloody war. Several differences between the Twilight series and the Underworld series struck me. Twilight is essentially a love story, enveloped by the overlapping worlds of Vampires and Werewolves, while Underworld is primarily a Vampire-Lycan saga, with several motivations driving the main characters, love being just one of them.

Of the 90 or so minutes of Underworld: Awakening, about 45 minutes is pure, unadulterated, adrenalin-pumping action. Selene (Kate Bekinsale) is the undisputed hero of not only the movie, but the entire series. I cannot think of too many successful Hollywood action movies with a female lead. It won’t be exaggeration to say that she owns the movie. Michael Corvin, ostensibly the male lead, literally sleeps throughout the movie (you’ll have to watch it to understand what I mean).

Actress India Eisley, playing the role of Kate’s daughter, doesn’t fail to make an impression. The sort of movie you cannot analyze while watching it because of its fast pace, Underworld: Awakening starts off as a battle between Vampires and humankind, but the apparently extinct Lycans make a surprising comeback. Best watched in 3D, Underworld: Awakening doesn’t fail to thrill and entertain. Hats off to the scriptwriters and their imagination for contriving such an engaging, enthralling, gripping story. The movie ends with Kate faced with the task of rebuilding the supremacy of the beaten Vampire clan and finding Michael Corvin, her mate for life, and leaves the audience wanting more.
Overall rating – 4/5

Programming your mind for success

2012-01-25T12:47:00.000+05:30

The mind is the most potent tool in the hands of man to steer his life in any direction of his choice. Thoughts become things. We create our lives in our minds. Imagination is the key. These are some quotes pointing to the same principle or law. There are innumerable books written about the power of subconscious mind for achieving wealth, health, happiness, love and what not. Ask and it shall be given. I have read countless quotes, shrouded in complex pattern of words, all guiding me towards one truth. We create our lives with our thoughts. What you think about today will manifest in your life in the future. What you have or don’t have today is a result of your past thoughts. Positive thoughts engender positivity in life. Negative thoughts spell our doom.

I accidently came across an article on Visualization a few days before my final MBA placement. It presented a simple, but powerful technique on visualizing the end state, what you desire (in my case, excellent performance in the GDs and interviews). I tried this technique once, only once, and the results were remarkable. All that’s needed is a quiet space with the ability to concentrate. The more clearly you see the end state, the better are the chances of its success. I placed myself in a mild trance by following the given instructions and pictured myself excelling at the GDs and interviews. I clearly formed a picture of myself receiving job offers and announcing the news to my family. I was particularly concerned about the group discussions as I’m not a person to interrupt while another is speaking, an imperative for group discussions. The next day, I was a changed person. I cleared all the GDs except one, and performed extremely well in the interviews as well. I was surprised at the efficacy of the mechanism and ever since, have been referring it to people I know.

So having experienced it first-hand, I became a believer in the power of subconscious mind. This is in line with the teachings of ‘The Secret’, which states that we create our lives with our thoughts. There are several tools listed in the book which can be used to control our thoughts in a better way. Gratitude is one of the best ways to attract good things in your life. Another tool is visualization – picturing you already have what you desire to have. It could be money, it could be great health, it could be love, or anything else. When our minds are programmed in this way, we automatically act to achieve those end results. This is one of the most effective ways to achieve what you want. And one of the most important mantras in life.

Desi Boyz - Movie Review

2011-12-01T23:24:00.004+05:30

Desi Boyz is the story of two friends living in London who are hit hard by the economic recession of 2009 and face the possibility of losing their near and dear ones. When nothing else seems to work, the two friends are lured into ‘Desi Boyz’, a male escort agency run by the ‘Khalnayak’ with operations all over the world. As the people in their lives discover the truth about their new profession, Desi Boyz find themselves lonely and bereft of those for whom they had taken up the names of Rocco and Hunter in the first place. The rest of the story deals with the Desi Boyz making amends and setting things right in their lives.

While some elements that make up the plot of Desi Boyz are new to Bollywood, the story is predictable. The question of whether it is possible for male escorts to live by the principle of ‘only stripping’ and ‘no sex’, and on top of that, become the most successful pair in the agency, is questionable. The lead actors Akshay, John and Deepika, while may have given an above average performance as per their acting standards, leave much to be desired. Sanjay Dutt, in his cameo as the proprietor of ‘Desi Boyz’, delivers some of the funniest and most enjoyable scenes and dialogues in the movie. Anupam Kher’s performance as the quirky father of the lead actress hits the mark. Monish Bahl’s role is small, but I don’t see anybody else doing a better job at it. Chitrangada Singhmakes an appearance only in the second half, but doesn’t fail to impress. I wonder why we don’t see more of her in mainstream movies.

The background score is spot on. The songs are catchy and inspire movement even in the most ungifted dancers among us. One of the biggest positives about the movie is the humor. It is subtle; the joke is implied and not told. The loose ends tie up well together, with even the minor characters like Deepika’s temporary boyfriend who also turns out to be the prosecution lawyer (and hence the bad guy) in the courtroom scene. Some of the jokes will be remembered and retold even after the movie is over. The movie has oodles of entertainment and is a feast for the eyes (and for a change, equal attention has been paid to male and female viewers). A good watch and a nice way to relax on an evening with friends and family.

Overall Rating - 3/5

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: Book Review

2011-10-18T18:44:00.004+05:30

A Thomas Hardy classic, set in the Wessex countryside, the tale depicts the life of beautiful Bathsheba Everdene, born to a humble background, who inherits her uncle’s farm upon his demise. Much of the story revolves around Bathsheba’s three suitors who experience success and failure in trying to woo her. Gabriel Oak, a shepherd by profession, is the first to be struck by her beauty. Farmer Boldwood is the most persistent of the lot, who also suffers the most cruelly through the story. Troy is the unscrupulous charmer for whom Bathsheba falls, and in marrying him, alters the course of her life to betrayal and tragedy.

What is most remarkable about the book is the characterization; it is the defining feature of the story. One is likely to remember the composure and humility of Oak, the doggedness and pain of Boldwood, and the fickleness ad charm of Troy for a long time after reading the book. The three rivals are distinctly dissimilar in their nature, behavior and social standing, and yet fall for the same girl. Their journey, their failures and successes, their interactions with each other are very well depicted.

Another interesting thing about the book is that the same character inspires different and sometimes contrasting feeling. One may pity Oak when he is turned down by Bathsheba. But through the story, he focuses on building his life, working well, being a reliable support to Bathsheba, yet never nursing any false hope of marrying her. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t suffer as much as the other two suitors. Oak inspires respect by his commitment to work and to Bathsheba as his employer, and his goodwill towards Boldwood, despite both of them being in love with the same girl.

Boldwood, on the other hand, enters the story as a respectable, middle-aged bachelor, an extremely successful farmer and a respected member of the society. He almost succeeds in marrying Bathsheba twice, but faces disappointment both times. From being a respectable character, Boldwood quickly degenerates to an emotionally vulnerable man, negligent of his work, who sometimes begs Bathsheba to marry him and other times despises her for hurting him. Being the most determined, Boldwood continues to woo Bathsheba after her husband Troy goes missing, pressing her for a promise to marry him in order to make amends for hurting him. Helpless and cornered, Bathsheba desultorily agrees, only to be unable to keep her promise due to circumstances beyond her control.

Troy begins his journey as a disarming, straightforward young man carrying his heard on his sleeve, hell-bent on winning over Bathsheba. The first few exchanges between these two characters are so beautifully written, I don’t completely blame Bathsheba for falling for him. Later we learn that Troy’s attachment to Bathsheba was transient and he claims to love another girl, Fanny. And so he slips from the pedestal to a despicable, insensitive coward who only wants to return to Bathsheba for her money after Fanny’s untimely death.

The irony lies in Bathsheba suffering betrayal and abandonment from Troy, after she unintentionally inflicted pain on Boldwood and Oak. To be fair to Bathsheba, she never broke her promise to Boldwood, but even the consideration of his proposal by her makes him feverishly optimistic. Later in the story, she even agrees to marry him to make up for hurting him. If anything, this is a story of unrequited love and every character deals with it in a very different way.

The ending of the story is completely unpredictable. While reading this book, a reader may make many conjectures about who Bathsheba ends up with, if not alone, and most of these conjectures are likely to be wrong. The last few chapters are a medley of tragedy and hope in equal proportions.

In my opinion, Far from the Madding Crowd is a very enjoyable story; the narrative is slow in a pleasant way. I was gripped by this book right from the first chapter and it does not, like some classics, take a few chapters to generate interest. The story is evergreen and easily replicable in the contemporary context. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and look forward to exploring other works by Thomas Hardy.

Morning Walk

2011-10-10T15:39:00.000+05:30

Every morning when I go for a walk to my neighborhood park, I see many people from different age-groups and backgrounds, some walking leisurely, others briskly, a few jogging and some simply sitting on the park benches. Apart from the health benefits offered by a morning walk, there are several reasons I prefer it over sweating it out at the gym. Through my own experimentation over the past 4-5 years, ever since I entered my early twenties, I realized that brisk walking is the best form of exercise and if done regularly for a duration of 45-60 minutes, can also help reduce weight. Only last year, I reached my minimum weight since reaching adulthood (50.5 Kgs.), which is on the lower side for a girl measuring 5’6’’. How did I do it? I simply walked for 60 minutes every night post dinner, at least 5 times a week. Walking offers the best exercise, keeps your body in shape, without putting undue pressure on your knees, as could be the case with jogging. I love the morning fresh air, crisp and cool, and the roads almost devoid of traffic. At the gym, if you spend more than twenty minutes on the treadmill, it is likely that a middle-aged overweight lady would interrupt you and point out that you’re allowed only twenty minutes on the treadmill and must make way for the others. Some gyms allow thirty minutes but you get the picture.

Other than the fresh air and lesser noise, a morning walk also offers you a peaceful, solitary time, best for introspection and positive tuning of the mind. Our minds are at the sharpest and freshest and our bodies well-rested in the morning. If there are certain problems troubling you, or you feel stressed out due to a situation at work or a personal issue, think it out in the morning. You would be more likely to think constructively and figure out a way out in the morning than any other part of the day.

It is also said that our first thoughts in the morning can affect the way our day unfolds. Early morning, when your mind is like a clean slate, fill it up with positive, optimistic thoughts. An excellent way of doing so is to count all the things in your life you are grateful for. Be thankful for everything wonderful in your life. Positive thoughts attract positive things into your life. Think about what you want and exclude thoughts of what you don’t want or fear. This simple exercise of giving thanks for all the good things in my life for forty minutes every morning has made a significant difference to the overall quality of my life. Just the way money begets money, positive thoughts bring positive things, thus reinforcing your belief and bringing about more positive thoughts. I believe that a person can write his destiny. Combining the ritual of morning walk with positive thoughts will double the benefits you reap from this simple exercise.

Last but not the least, I like observing the people at the park, noting the differences in their ages, clothes, walking/jogging pace, regularity, expressions etc. Apart from one or two people whom I see every day, most people are irregular, showing up once a week or once a month. Some aunties are dressed in saris and slippers. Others wear canvas shoes (belonging to their daughter perhaps) with suits. Old grandpas walk with the support of walking sticks, some skinny and others pot-bellied. One group of elderly men is always seen sitting on the bench and bantering, never exercising. Two ladies who’ve spent some time overseas pass by, speaking with an accent, looking condescendingly at the rest of us. A father and his two school-going children, a son and a daughter pass by, determined. A mother and her young son sit on the side bench chatting, a pleasant sight which makes me wish my mother was staying with me. A balding middle-aged man overtakes me, walking briskly with headphones on. This is the one common feature cutting across people from all age-groups, teenagers to grandpas. Almost everybody has earphones plugged to their ears, lost in their own world and thoughts. Among these people, there’s a lone figure of a girl walking at a medium pace, soaking up all sights and sounds, thinking positive thoughts, and wondering about the story of each individual passing by. That’s me, starting another hectic day with an hour that’s completely mine.

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

2011-09-25T01:47:00.002+05:30

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence is the story of the attachment of a mother with her son, and her pervasive influence on his life. Mrs. Morel is a married woman with four children, and a miner husband who often quarrels with his wife and spends the little money he makes on alcohol. The children grow up in an atmosphere of discord and sometimes abuse, hating their father for mistreating their mother and at the same time, developing a deep reverence for their mother, the only real parent they have.

Mrs. Morel loves all her children dearly and hopes to live some of her dreams through her children William, Annie, Paul and the youngest Arthur. Particularly attached to the eldest child William, Mrs. Morel influences his life and his choices, including the women in his life. Life seems to be getting better for the Morels with William supporting the family financially when tragedy strikes and William passes away. The entire family is shattered, Mrs. Morel most of all.

At this point, Paul takes the place of William in Mrs. Morel’s life and she begins to live vicariously through him. She takes him to a factory and gets him a job as a clerk. Paul is completely dependent on his mother, and loves her to the point of reverence. At sixteen, Paul meets Miriam, a shy, diffident girl who falls in love with him completely and hopelessly. Although Paul also begins to love Miriam at some level, he despises her at the same time. Firstly, Mrs. Morel does not approve of her and secondly, Paul is unable to give himself completely to her, because of which he feels guilty and despises her for making him feel so. Throughout the story, Paul fails to understand why he cannot give himself completely to any woman. He sees love as bondage and he is unable to be bonded to anyone. Miriam hates Paul when he is cruel to her, but she is unable to leave him.

Meanwhile, Paul breaks off with Miriam because he cannot marry her and meets Clara, an older married woman who is separated from her husband. Paul’s passion for Clara is far greater than what he felt for Miriam, but he is again unable to love her completely. It is as if until his mother is in his life, he cannot completely give himself to any other woman because he feels he belongs to his mother first. Clara is also hurt by Paul’s cruelty, and refuses to divorce her husband, and finally reunites with him as Paul walks out of her life too. In the end, Mrs. Morel is very sick and suffering from an incurable tumor. She is about to die but is suffering. Paul and his sister Annie euthanize their mother by an overdose of morphine because they are not able to see her suffer anymore. Paul is now all alone with his mother dead and both the women in his life gone. He is broken at losing his mother but he also feels a sense of freedom from the bondage of love. He is finally free.

If the theme of the novel could be summed up in one sentence, it would be ‘Love as bondage’. Unknowingly and unintentionally, Paul Morel views all his relationships with the women in his life as bondage. He feels that as long as his mother is alive, he cannot give himself completely to any other woman. Although he loves both Miriam and Clara at one point of time, he is often cruel to them. At the same time, his love is passionate, but often turns into guilt and scorn. He despises Miriam because his mother doesn’t approve of her. He is sometimes snappish with his mother when she expresses his displeasure over him spending time with Miriam. He hates Miriam because she makes him feel guilty for treating her badly. It is also possible that the way Paul feels about the women in his life, is a reflection of his subdued feelings towards his mother, whom he never openly challenges even if there is a disagreement. He loves his mother dearly, but on some level, he unknowingly despises her for exerting such a powerful influence on his life, making it impossible for him to develop a healthy and lasting relationship with any woman. But since he cannot express these feelings to his mother, he directs them at Miriam and Clara who often have to face his coolness and cruelty.

It also makes one question Paul’s motive behind putting his mother to sleep. Consciously, he was being kind to her by putting an end to her suffering. But it is possible that without knowing, Paul wanted to rid himself of his mother’s paralyzing influence on his life, which led him to put her to sleep. At last, Paul is alone, happy and sad at the same time.

The novel captures the essence of relationships of the primary characters very well. The reader is able to experience the conflicts and emotions of the characters. Although the novel is written very well, but I feel it is on the longish side with 484 pages (by Collins Classics). The story and the mood are mostly dark, but I was compelled to finish the book. Patience is a must to read this book, but finally it culminates well.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2011-09-03T14:34:00.002+05:30

Ever heard of someone named after err – not a historical figure, not an incarnation of God, not a renowned poet, not even a human being, but a swimming pool? Meet the protagonist of ‘Life of Pi’ – Piscine Molitor Patel, named by his swimming enthusiast uncle after a famous swimming pool in Paris. If you find this weird, let me warn you - the name of the protagonist of this book is one of the relatively less weird things about the story.

Although ‘Life of Pi’ is a fiction novel, it is narrated in a non-fiction, anecdotal format. The Canadian author who is in India on a grant to find a story for his third book, after a lukewarm response to his second book, chances upon a stranger in a coffee house in Pondicherry who promises to tell a story that will make him believe in God. And thus begins the story of Piscine Molitor Patel.

Pi Patel, born to a family in south India has spent most of his childhood in Pondicherry, where his father owns a large zoo. For a good part of his childhood, Pi is teased as ‘Pissing Patel’ and other such names. A Hindu by birth, Pi accidently ventures into a church while on a family vacation where he meets Father Martin, who introduces him to Christianity. A year later, Pi meets a Muslim baker who takes him to visit the mosque. Soon enough, Pi is a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim, silencing the religious saints who claim that he cannot follow all three religions and he must choose one with the simple answer – “I just want to love God.”

“One other time I felt God come so close to me. It was in Canada, much later. I was visiting friends in the country. It was winter. I was out alone on a walk on their large property and returning to the house. It was a clear, sunny day after a night of snowfall. All nature was blanketed in white. As I was coming up to the house, I turned by head. There was a wood and in that wood, a small clearing. A breeze or perhaps it was an animal, had shaken a branch. Fine snow was falling through the air, glittering in the sun light. In that falling golden dust, in that sun-splashed clearing, I saw the Virgin Mary. Why her, I don’t know. My devotion to her is secondary. But it was her. Her skin was pale. She was wearing a white dress and a blue cloak; I remember being struck by their pleats and folds. When I say I saw her, I don’t quite mean it literally, though she did have body and color. I felt I saw her, a vision beyond vision. I stopped and squinted. She looked beautiful and supremely regal. She was smiling at me with loving kindness. After some seconds, she left me. My heart beat with fear and joy.
The presence of God is the finest of rewards.”

Pi’s religious inclination is scorned by his elder brother Ravi in colorful words – “Have you found time yet to get the end of your pecker cut off and become a Jew? At the rate you’re going, if you go to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life.”

At another point, Pi narrates the incident of a lady in Toronto who was his foster mother, one of my favorite paragraphs in the entire book. Here it goes – “Though she has lived in Toronto for over thirty years, her French-speaking mind still slips on occasion on the understanding of English sounds. And so, when she first heard of Hare Krishnas, she didn’t hear right. She heard ‘Hairless Christians’, and that is what they were to her for many years. When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.”

When Pi is sixteen, his family decides to immigrate to Canada due to the political instability in the country. The Pondicherry zoo is shut down and most of the animals are sold off to various zoos in US and some in Canada. Pi, his parents, and his brother leave India onboard the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum.

This is where the second part of the story begins and it begins with the words ‘The ship sank.’ With the entire crew of the ship, and his family dead, Pi is the lone survivor, lone human survivor that is, along with a hyena, a zebra, a female organgutan and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker atop a single lifeboat measuring eight feet by twenty-six feet. Having been around his father’s zoo has given Pi a good knowledge of animals and a sound understanding of animal psychology. He also knows what his odds of surviving are as evident by the following sentences. “Of the five senses, tigers rely the most of their sight. Their eyesight is very keen, especially in detecting motion. Their hearing is good. Their smell is average. I mean compared to other animals, of course. Next to Richard Parker, I was deaf, blind and nose-dead.”

Pi survives by remaining on the tarpaulin of the lifeboat, sheltered and away from the vision of Richard Parker who is under the tarpaulin. Soon enough the hyena kills and eats both the zebra and the orangutan, while Pi witnesses the horrifying scene from his little shelter. Its over three days in the lifeboat and finally Richard Parker overcomes his seasickness and kills the hyena, without noticing the terrified Pi. Somewhere during the mayhem, Pi narrates the comical story of why the Bengal tiger was so named, apparently due to a clerical error. Richard Parker was actually the name of the hunter that caught Thirsty, the tiger cub and its mother. The befuddled shipping clerk switched the names, and so the tiger cub arrives at the Pondicherry zoo as Richard Parker, while Thirsty None Given is the recorded name of the hunter. A very interesting story indeed.

Another couple of days later, plagued by intense thirst, Pi ventures into the lifeboat to find a box of emergency supplies – emergency rations, first-aid kit, fresh drinking water, survival manual, among other useful items, enough ration to last him 93 days at sea. But there’s nothing to tell him how to survive on a lifeboat with a tiger onboard.

After considering several crazy options, Pi realizes that he must keep supplying the tiger with food and drinking water, or soon enough the tiger will attack and kill him. There is no other way. He must keep the tiger well-fed, if he is to survive. Using the emergency supplies, Pi builds a small raft, ties it to the lifeboat and jumps on to it every night, returning to the lifeboat only to collect food and water supplies.

Soon after, Pi begins training Richard Parker to accept him as the alpha animal. The routine involves rocking the lifeboat to cause seasickness to the tiger, while blowing a whistle at full blast, and repeating the routine tirelessly so that the animal begins to associate the whistle sound with its nausea. Once this association is complete and unambiguous in the animal’s mind, one shrill blow of the whistle will act as a deterrent against untoward behavior. At the same time, Pi also begins fishing – fish, turtles, dorados, dolphins, whatever he can find to feed the tiger and himself.

Pi is almost getting used to the routine when the lifeboat is seized by a tumultuous storm and unceasing rain. During one of his periods of semi-consciousness, Pi loses his eyesight. At this time, another lifeboat arrives and Pi has a conversation with a man, apparently who is also lost at sea. The man comes onboard Pi’s lifeboat under a garb of friendship, but actually to kill him and eat his flesh. Unaware of the presence of the tiger, the man steps on the floor of the boat and is instantly killed and eaten by the tiger.

In the following days, Pi’s lifeboat miraculously reaches an island, but it is no ordinary island. A botanical discovery, the island is made of a tight mesh of algae, with nothing on it but trees and hundreds and thousands of meerkats, a type of mongoose. On the island, Pi and Richard Parker discover fresh drinking water, and an unlimited supply of meerkats, that can be easily hunted for food. For a few days, Pi explores the island during the day and returns to the lifeboat every night, a routine that is mirrored by Richard Parker. One night, Pi decides to sleep at the island atop a tree. Upon discovering the teeth of a human being, just the teeth and nothing else, Pi realizes that the island is carnivorous by night and one step on the algae is enough to cause a burning sensation on your skin the entire night.

The next morning, Pi decides to leave the island. Even though he is in a position to leave behind Richard Parker, who undoubtedly would have perished in the island at night, Pi waits until evening for the tiger to return to the lifeboat before pushing it off the shore. After a total of 227 days at sea, the lifeboat reaches Mexico. As soon as it touches land, Richard Parker jumps off the lifeboat and disappears into a nearby forest. Pi’s first reaction is to cry and cry inconsolably. While he is happy about finally reaching land, Pi is deeply hurt at the tiger’s unceremonious departure, without any gesture, not even a glance at him. During his ordeal at sea, Pi has come to love Richard Parker, who was his only companion, even though he posed a danger to his life.

During his recovery at a hospital in Mexico, Pi is visited by two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport who are investigating into the sinking of the Japanese ship. Pi narrates the story to the two gentlemen who find it incredible and ask a million questions. Not completely believing the story, the two officials ask Pi to tell them a story without animals. Pi obliges them by narrating another story with people, instead of animals surviving on the lifeboat. These people kill each other and die one by one, leaving Pi as the lone survivor in the end. Pi asks them if they preferred the story with the animals and they reply in the affirmative. “And so it goes with God,” says Pi before starting to cry.

Eventually, in the report that is prepared by the Japanese officials on the sinking of the Japanese ship, they acknowledge the original story of Pi Patel, and the extraordinary and difficult circumstances during which he survived in the company of an adult Bengal tiger. This is where the story ends.

To me, one point which is explicitly unspoken about the story mightily stands out. Throughout his ordeal at sea, during those 227 days or over seven months, alone in the sea with the tiger, having lost his entire family, uncertain of surviving another day or night, perpetually drenched by the ocean, hungry most of the time, scared, tired, injured, alone, Pi never loses his faith. He keeps praying to the Gods every single day as a part of his routine, and that probably is what keeps him alive and gives him the strength to strive to live.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

2011-08-23T16:38:00.005+05:30

Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is one of the defining novels of its genre. First published in 1897, Dracula employs the medium of letters exchanged between primary characters and their journals as the medium of story-telling, popularly known as epistolary. Frankenstein, published by Mary Shelley 69 years before the first publication of Dracula, is also written using the same enthralling format. Needless to say, this form of story-telling allows the readers to peek into the inner thoughts of primary characters through their private journals, and follow the rest of the events through the medium of letters exchanged between them, rendering the story much more credible.
The chilling story opens on a cold dark night. Jonathan Harker, a young man employed with a law firm, travels by night to visit a client, Count Dracula, who lives on an isolated hill in Transylvania in Eastern Europe. At first, disarmed by the Count’s hospitality and grace, Jonathan finds the castle and its surroundings strange, yet charming. His meals are served hot and his bedroom is always tidy, yet Jonathan fails to spot another soul in the castle, apart from the Count himself. Over long dinners in front of a cozy fireplace, the Count and Jonathan have many conversations, sometimes lasting through the night, although the Count never joins Jonathan for any of the meals. Every morning at dawn, like clockwork, the Count takes leave of his guest and disappears, apparently to take care of business.
Things begin to turn awry after a few weeks when Jonathan realizes that he is actually a prisoner in the castle. He is not permitted to leave the castle, or wander through the rooms without permission. Despite his growing uneasiness, Jonathan plays along, answering every one of the Count’s innumerable questions about life in a city like London, where the Count has purchased property through Jonathan’s law firm. All the proceedings are recorded by Jonathan in his journal without fail. One dark night when the Count is out, Jonathan wanders through the forbidden part of the castle and has a chance encounter with three breathtakingly beautiful women, only they are after his blood. The Count intervenes at the moment, saving Jonathan’s life, for he still needs some more information from the poor man. Eventually, Jonathan finds an escape, even though he almost loses his mind in the process.
Jonathan’s fiancée Mina Murray is residing with her friend Lucy and her old mother in another part of Europe, completely unaware of the ill fate that has befallen her beloved. She yearns for and awaits the arrival of Jonathan, from whom she has received no correspondence for a while, and is naturally worried for his safety. Miss Lucy meanwhile has received three proposals for marriage in a single day – from Arthur, Dr. Seward and Morris, three brave young men who love Lucy dearly. While she accepts Arthur’s proposal, Lucy continues to be friends with the other two, who also remain very good friends with Arthur.
The trouble begins with the arrival of a wrecked ship on the harbor, the entire crew of which has died or jumped off the ship under mysterious circumstances, as evidenced by the journal of the captain which is found among the wreckage. Soon, Lucy begins sleep-walking and her health deteriorates rapidly. Often enough, a bat is seen flapping its wings against Lucy’s window. Dr. Van Helsing, a renowned doctor is summoned by Dr. Seward to look after Lucy, who wakes up every morning pale, and as if drained of a large amount of blood. Despite the combined efforts of Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, Arthur and Morris, Lucy passes away, and so does her ill mother.
Soon afterwards, strange incidents plague the entire city, of children disappearing at night and appearing the next day with tiny punctures on their throats. Dr. Van Helsing wastes no time as he keeps guard at Lucy’s grave, which is found inexplicably empty on some occasions. In the face of mounting evidence, Dr. Helsing convinces Arthur and the others of the horrible truth he knows – Lucy has become the ‘Un-dead’, joining ranks with the Count. Every night, she wakes from her grave and roams the city in search of defenseless young children whose blood she drinks until her cheeks flush with color. The following day, Dr. Helsing along with the others, enter Lucy’s tomb during the day, for the Un-dead have absolutely no power between sunrise and sunset, and drive a stake through her heart, and decapitate her body, to release her from the curse.
Meanwhile, Jonathan has been located at a hospital where he is recovering from what has been termed as ‘brain fever’, having lost all memory of what transpired at the castle. He and Mina are married shortly and he gives her his journal, urging her to read it only if absolutely necessary. On a trip to London, Jonathan spots a tall ghastly man, and falls into a bout of panic and hysteria, causing Mina to open his journal and read about his horrifying experience in Transylvania.
Dr. Van Helsing informs Mina of the sad demise of her friend, and Mina requests Dr. Helsing’s help to fully restore her husband. Both parties share their stories and recognize the common enemy, the monster, who not only killed Lucy, but is also on the loose in the city of London, where he has bought not one, but several properties through different law firms. He has also shipped forty cases of earth to different addresses in the city, where he plans to rest during the day.
One by one, Dr. Helsing along with Arthur, Dr. Seward, Morris, Jonathan and Mina, uncover the addresses of each of the Count’s residences and sanctify the cases of earth, making them unsuitable for the Count to lie in. The idea is to destroy his havens one by one, and drive him back to his castle, and somewhere along the way, kill the monster between sunrise and sunset, when Dracula must lie in a case of earth, powerless and unconscious. Meanwhile, Dracula has infected Mina and the only way to save her soul is to destroy the Count before he disappears. From here on, the pursuit becomes a matter of life and death, with the resolute team chasing the vampire on its way back to the castle.
While the market has been inundated with a pouring of vampire tales, Dracula is and will remain the most chilling, engaging and original story told about vampires. I think one of the best things about the book is that it scares you, and it scares you in a way that you do not realize. The horror and the fright of the story are very subtle and build in your mind slowly as the tale unfolds in all its brilliance. There is no single heart-stopping moment in the story, but as a shroud it surrounds and envelops you in its horror, slowly but surely. Even though the vampire legend is old as the hills, Dracula is a gripping tale, right from page one.
On the flip side, I did not find the characterization very strong, despite reading the private journals of most of the primary characters. Except for the characters of Dr. Helsing and Mina Murray, the rest of the characters do not have any distinguishing traits and their dialogues may as well be interchanged without much consequence to the story. The climax of the story is a little bit of an anti-climax, and before you realize it, the story is over. The end is predictable, but its execution is not. After reading 450 pages of an enthralling novel, I was expecting a little bit more from the climax. I think the author may have hurried over the ending a little bit.
All in all, a defining novel of its genre, a masterpiece of brilliant writing and engaging story-telling, Dracula is a book that would occupy a permanent space in my mind’s bookshelf for a long, long time.
P.S. – Warning! Reading this book may make sleeping a tad difficult at night.

Book Review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London - Part 1

2010-05-09T18:06:00.003+05:30

At first I wasn’t sure I could write a review for this masterpiece, not because I didn’t want to (in fact, I was extremely keen on capturing my experience of reading this wonderful book so that I could re-live it whenever I wished), but because I didn’t know if I could write a review that would, in effectively capturing the nuances of the character of Buck, the protagonist, his feelings and experiences, his unparallel loyalty, his life lessons and his frightening ferocity, do justice to this marvel called The Call of the Wild.

But then I realized I couldn’t complete the journey I’d embarked on by turning the first page of the book without a proper and befitting farewell by way of a book review.

As evident from the title, The Call of the Wild is the gripping story of an animal, a dog named Buck, who lived a King’s life in Judge Miller’s house, a Californian ranch home. Greatly loved and adored, Buck enjoyed hunting with the Judge’s sons during the day as much as he loved curling up near the roaring library fire on cold evenings. His regal upbringing instilled a certain pride in Buck, his physical prowess matching the strength of his character. However, unknown to him, there was an evil world filled with sinister people beyond the comfortable premises of Judge Miller’s house.

It was in the fall of 1897 that the word of the Klondike Strike reached the United States. Rich deposits of gold had been found in the Klondike region in Canada’s Yukon Territory and thousands of hopefuls were pouring into the frozen North. The demand for sled dogs skyrocketed, and so did the prices people were willing to pay for them. An unsuspecting Buck was furtively led away by one of the gardener’s helpers and sold off to a greedier middleman.

Caged and humiliated, Buck was passed on from hand to hand, finally landing in the custody of a ruthless club-wielding man hellbent on teaching him a cruel lesson. Once freed from the shackles, Buck attempted again and again to tear apart the throat of the club-wielding man, but every time, he was stopped mid-air by a fierce blow that bloodied his beautiful coat. At last, beaten, but not broken, Buck learnt the Law of the Club, a lesson he remembered all his life – there is no chance of success against a man with a club.

Bought by two French Canadians, Buck begins his journey towards the frozen North. On his way, Buck witnesses snowfall for the first time in his life, the experience captured wonderfully by the following excerpt from the book:

“At the first step upon the cold surface, Buck’s feet sank into the white mushy something very like mud. He sprang back with a snort. Most of this white stuff was falling through the air. He shook himself, but more of it fell upon him. He sniffed it curiously, then licked some up on his tongue. It bit like fire, and the next instant was gone. This puzzled him. He tried it again, with the same result. The onlookers laughed uproariously, and he felt ashamed, he knew not why, for it was his first snow.”

Before long, to Buck’s chagrin, he learnt, or rather witnessed firsthand, the second lesson. Camping with Francois and Perrault, the two Frenchmen, and their other wild dogs, before Buck, a husky called Curly made friendly advances to another wolfish husky. To Curly’s horror, the husky did not take her advances kindly, and a fight ensued. At first, Buck could not comprehend the silent eagerness of the dogs surrounding the combatants, nor did he know why they licked their chops as they witnessed the wolfish husky tear apart Curly. No sooner had she tumbled off her feet, the onlooker huskies closed in on her, ruthlessly and greedily, and within minutes Curly was no more than shredded fleshy remains splattered over the white snow. As Buck watched an abominable dog Spitz walk away from the scene licking his bloodied chops, he learnt that in the wild, there was no fair play; there was only the rule of the fang. Once down, that was the end of you.

The journey to the North continued with Francois and Perrault driving the huskies in a formation that pulled the sled, with Spitz at the head of it. As Buck learnt the ways of the jungle by watching the wild beasts around him, he soon picked up a technique of stealing chunks of bacon, unnoticed by the Frenchmen. He soon came to realize that in the wild, under the law of the club and the fang, morality was a crippling handicap, one that would eventually lead a dog to a terrible death. Even as he underwent development (or retrogression) at a swift pace, relinquishing the civility from his days at Judge Miller’s house, there was no malice in his nature.
“He did not steal for joy of it, but because of the calmor of his stomach. He did not rob openly, but stole secretly and cunningly, out of respect for club and fang.”

The moulding of his character was accompanied by a strengthening of his body. He could eat almost anything, however indigestible. His muscles hardened, and he became callous to ordinary pain. With senses keener than before, he became more sensitive to hostile advances in the wild. Years of domesticity at Judge Miller’s house faded into a forgotten past as Buck embraced his new lifestyle, his basic instinct that had been dormant until then – hunting his prey like an animal of the wild.

“They (his ancestors) quickened the old life within him, and the old tricks they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at a star and howling down through the centuries and through him.”

Despite the increased hostility between Buck and Spitz, with Spitz deliberately picking up scuffles at every possible opportunity with his archrival, Buck was not inclined to rashness. He was too busy adjusting to his new life to engage in fights with the other huskies. Yet, one night as Buck grudgingly left his warm and snug nest to devour the thawed fish distributed by Francois, and returned later to find his nest occupied by no other than Spitz, it was too much for him. The beast in him roared. However, it wasn’t long before the fight began, that the camp was attacked by a pack of wild, starved huskies crazed by the smell of meat. The team dogs, including Buck and Spitz, joined the two Frenchmen in driving away the wild huskies, but not before half of their food ration was consumed and all of the nine team-dogs were wounded.

The depleted rations notwithstanding, the pack of the team-dogs, under the leadership of the Frenchmen, trudged on. Spitz capitalized on another opportunity of attacking Buck, when the latter was vulnerable, but was thwarted by Francois, who was watchful of the enmity between the two dogs. From that day, the war was on. Spitz, the acknowledged leader of the team and the lead-dog, felt his supremacy was challenged by Buck. On the other hand, Buck wanted the leadership role, simply because he was gripped by the pride of the trail – “that pride that holds dogs in the toil to the last gasp, which lures them to die joyfully in the harness, and breaks their hearts if they are cut out of the harness.” Also, unlike Spitz, Buck had not a trace of rashness left in him; he could bide his time and wait for the perfect opportunity to overthrow his opponent.

Buck craftily drove a covert mutiny within the team. He opposed the disciplining of erring dogs. He interfered in Spitz’s role as a team leader, often when Francois and Perrault weren’t around. His cunning schemes led to a breakdown of the hierarchical structure of power that Spitz had cautiously built over the years. The team was infected with disharmony, indiscipline and discord.

One night, under the white moonlight, as Buck led the pack of huskies chasing after a snowshoe rabbit, he experienced blood lust, the joy to kill. It was the moment he felt most alive. The following is my favourite passage from the book:

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which, life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the solider, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back to the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew and that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.”

Soon after the rabbit’s life was snuffed out, Buck found himself face-to-face with Spitz. The moment had arrived. With the rest of the huskies gathering expectantly around the two combatants, certain stillness, borne out of respect and awe, settled over the onlookers. Spitz’s cunning and years of experience soon left Buck bleeding profusely with not a gash on his white fur. However, unknown to Spitz, Buck possessed a quality that made for greatness – imagination. Following his instincts, Buck pretended to attack using an old shoulder trick, and swept shrewdly at the last moment to cripple Spitz’s foreleg. Several times, the trick was repeated, leaving Spitz wounded and helpless. There was no hope for him. Buck felt no trickle of mercy; it was a virtue for gentler climes. As the huskies watched with bated breath, Buck moved in for the kill. He stood and looked on as the huskies tore Spitz to pieces. Buck, the dominant primordial beast, had arrived.

Between a rock and a hard place

2010-04-12T17:48:00.006+05:30

Today, I chanced upon three news reports on the recent Maoist attack wiping out almost an entire CRPF patrol, killing 75 paramilitary men and a policeman in Chhattisgarh on April 6. It anguishes me, as it does every conscientious, patriotic Indian, that our paramilitary men became cannon fodder for the Maoists, who after mercilessly carrying out the carnage, walked away with the rifles, SLRs, bombs and other ammunition of the massacred paramilitary men. What’s even more shocking is that 48 of the 82 men of the ill-fated CRPF patrol had little idea of the area they had been patrolling for the one day and two nights before the morning of the attack. These men belonged to the Alpha Company of the CRPF transferred to the location only a week before the attack. Compare them with the rebels, who know the forests like the back of their hands because they were born there and probably have the backing of hundreds of thousands of tribal people. No wonder our jawans were sitting ducks for the Maoists who ambushed and attacked them from several directions, “On the hill on the left and on the hill on the right, on the trees, and behind us. Everywhere. Once the firing began, we had no chance”, says one of the three survivors of the attack.

Many in the CRPF believe such an ‘area domination exercise’ cannot possibly be carried out for three days without running a tremendously high risk. It was absurd to send only 80 odd men away from the camp in a forest densely infected by Maoists without risking an attack. “There should have been at least 500 men in that party,” says a CPRF constable. “The patrol was outnumbered by at least five to one.” Top that with the brazen public statement by the Maoists a few days after the attack, expressing ‘sympathy’ with the families of the 76 men they slaughtered and proposing to offer ‘compensation’. "All those who want monetary compensation from the rebels who killed the man of your house, your husband, your father, your brother, your son, raise your hands please!"

That the three survivors of the CRPF patrol were not provided any briefing by the CRPF planners on the Maoist warfare strategies is revolting. At best, these constables received orders routinely instructing them to “do nothing but go out and search”, and if need be, “shoot”. And when one comes to believe that things can’t go any worse, a glimpse of the hospital, where the wounded are being treated leaves us stunned and speechless. These ‘lucky’ survivors lie in crippling pain on dirty hospital linen stained from the dried blood of previous occupants. There are no doctors or nurses. Two constables have come on their own to watch over their injured mates. This is how we treat our soldiers in India.

Imagine lying injured with bullets riddled through your body, everywhere but in your guts, hanging on precariously to life, pretending to be dead in a mass of bodies of your colleagues, your friends, whom you called by their nicknames, keeping your eyes closed and your head down motionless even though the pain is excruciating, as you hear men, women and even children walk over the dead bodies collecting their weapons and ammunition to be used against your brothers in the future. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Hard to put ourselves in the bloody, shredded fatigues of those unfortunate men. Even if you have a vivid imagination, you’d probably experience only a tiny fraction of the ordeal the three survivors of the attack went through.

When asked what’s on his mind, one of the surviving constables worries over the Rs. 1.5 Lakh debt he owes for his daughter’s wedding four years ago, which his paltry salary of Rs. 18,000 has failed to pay off (Rs. 1.5 Lakhs – that’s probably the amount most of us earn in one or two months. Yet, what sacrifice have we made for our country?). Survivor no. 2 is worried about his father, a patient of cancer. He wonders if the compensation for nearly giving his life for his country will be enough to save his father’s life. The third constable, a young chap, yearns to return home to his new bride, whom he married only 23 days before leaving for Chhattisgarh.

So whose fault was it, the whole fiasco? Who made the decision? The government? Mr. Chidambaram? Or some high-ranking officer of the CRPF? Will there be an inquiry into what brought upon such an ill-judged decision to send a patrol of unprepared men to their deaths? Does anyone care? Does the government care? Do we care? Or are we satisfied with the high-sounding rhetoric resounding from the high pedestals of political powerhouses?

I think at the end it all boils down to one question – do we care?

An Excerpt from my upcoming Book

2009-08-11T20:06:00.006+05:30

Life as I know It

A Suitable Boy - Book Review

Women of India

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer - Book Review

Gone with the Wind - Book Review

Underworld: Awakening - Review

Programming your mind for success

Desi Boyz - Movie Review

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: Book Review

Morning Walk

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Book Review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London - Part 1

Between a rock and a hard place

An Excerpt from my upcoming Book

The Curve of Life

Birthday Hues

Missing child from the Tsunami disaster

to be, or not to be

Moral decadence of the Modern society

Slumdog Millionaire or Slumdog India?

Of Prejudices & Generalizations

Greatness Vs. Happiness

Voting in Vogue