Haunting and lyrical - beautiful short stories by Yuri Kazakov

I found the book 'Autumn in Oak Woods' by Yuri Kazakov, published by Progress Publishers, at my in-law's home library, when I was in Madurai this summer. There are 12 stories in this collection. I don't think I have thought of any book as beautiful before. This book is beautiful. The writing is haunting and lyrical. I fell in love with the writing even though it is a translated work.

Some stories happen in fishing villages and in wilderness in Northern Russia. Some are set in Moscow and some around the country side of Moscow. There is a similar familiar voice throughout the book. There is pain, love, and melancholy in the stories. There are unsaid words, unfinished relationships. The stories have vivid descriptions of settings and emotions. Then there is alluring, romanticized description of nature, wilderness and music. Nature especially. You can perceive the love for it throughout the book. The North Sea, cabins, shacks, fishing villages, islands up north, rain, snow, river, Milky Way and northern lights all come alive and enchant.

My favorite stories were 'Nikishka's Secret', 'Adam and Eve', and 'Blue and Green'.

In Nikishka's Secret, Nikishka, an 8 year old boy goes to see his father, who is out fishing in the wilderness, on horseback. He goes along the sea, watching rivers flowing into them, along mountains and through the forest, taking in the view. The story ends with him, his father and their dog gazing at the Milky Way at night. The description of which is enticing.

Adam and Eve, is about a disgruntled painter from Moscow, who moves to an island up north, looking for some inspiration to paint. One night, he happens to watch the Northern Lights shimmering in the sky which enamors and moves him.

Blue and Green is a poignant adolescent love story.

The thing I liked most about the stories is that they are not resolved in the usual pattern. There is no definitive ending. There is no happily ever after. The words start, flow, bewitch and then they stop.

Book: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The crux of the book is the love story of Ifemelu and Obinze who grow up in Nigeria. They fall in love, but their life splits path when Ifemelu gets her student visa and leaves for America. Obinze ends up going to UK and lives the life of an undocumented immigrant.

The powerful parts in the book are the experiences of Ifemelu as a Non-American Black immigrant in America and struggles of Obinze as an undocumented immigrant in London. Ifemelu struggles in finding her way, navigating through the culture in America, while trying not to lose her identity. She starts a blog, writing about her experiences as a non-american black, feeling the weight of her race for the first time, which she didn't have to care about back home in Nigeria. Obinze meanwhile goes through perilous life of an undocumented, in London. The book has many characters across US, UK and Nigeria, adding depth and dimension. 

Ifemelu and Obinze eventually meet back in Nigeria and contemplate a future together, each changed by their own experiences, but still in love with each other.

Adichie's insights and her immense command in putting them to words, unapologetically and genuinely was brilliant. This is probably the most imposing contemporary immigrant story I have read.

Book - Gods, Kings and Slaves: Siege of Madurai by R. Venkatesh

This book is a historical fiction set in 14th century India. The story travels through the lives of Veera Pandyan in the south and of Chand Ram, a boy in northern province of Gujarat under Rai Karan's rule, who ends up an eunuch slave and rises as Malik Kafur, general under Alauddin Khilji, in the north.

It was an interesting read, the narration is short without elaborate descriptions. The story moves quickly through the years spanning the entire life time of Veera Pandyan and Malik Kafur. The author leading the story from the point of view of these two characters, given his account on how their love, tragedy, ambitions and failures led to shape history, highlighting historical events and sprinkling them with myths. As someone who enjoys this genre, I liked the book and it being South Indian history, was added bonus.

The book gives accounts of Alauddin Khilji and Malik Kafur's campaigns in the north and south. It also touches on their crushing the Mangolian invasions in the north. The following are some of their campaigns that are mentioned in the book which paved way for Malik Kafur to reach Madurai.

• The conquering and plundering of Gujarat in 1299 by Alauddin's generals Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan. (Rai Karan escapes and his wife, Kamala Devi gets abducted)
• The successful expedition to Deogiri (The Yadavas) in 1305. 
• The siege of Warangal (The Kakatiyas) in 1311, where Pratap Rudra ultimately surrenders and gives up immense wealth including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond.
• The fall of Dwarasamudra. The Hoysala King, Veera Ballala, gives up wealth and becomes a vassal.

In the south, after the fall of Chola empire, the Pandyans rule the Tamil country with Madurai as the seat of their power. The Cholas are reduced to vassals, the Hoysalas and Kakatiyas are kept at bay and Cheras are allies. There has been no war for years, having no major enemies, the war tarnished Pandyan empire under Kulasekhara Pandyan enjoys years of peace. Only trying to show their power, by invading parts of Lanka. Civil war brews as Veera Pandyan (the illegitimate older son of Kulasekhara Pandyan) and Sundara Pandyan (the legitimate younger son of Kulasekhara Pandyan) yearn for the throne. The civil war weakens the already complacent Pandyans further and makes way for Malik Kafur to weave through the Pandyan Kingdom using Dwarasamudra as the launch pad. His army traverses through Chidambaram, Srirangam and finally to Madurai plundering the temples on the way.

The book wraps up hurriedly in the end, with more historic accounts on events that followed after the first wave of invasion of Madurai by Malik Kafur in 1311. The Pandyan rule is reduced to shambles by two more waves of assault and leaves Madurai under Delhi Sultanate rule and later under independent Madurai Sultanate rule. In 1372, the Vijayanagar Kingdom led by the couple Kumara Kambana and Gangadevi, sweep the south under their control, which then lasts for three centuries.

I am glad that I read this book before I started reading 'காவல் கோட்டம்' (Kaval Kottam), the Tamil book that won the 'Sahitya Akademi' award in 2011, which picks up from the arrival of Vijayanagar Kingdom, and traverses the history of Madurai, up till the British rule. I have just started reading that book. It is dense and not a light read like this one and understanding this previous history has been enormously helpful.

Book - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

'Midnight's Children', written by Salman Rushdie is a historical fiction set in India and Pakistan, imbibed with 'magical realism'.

Saleem Sinai born at the stroke of midnight on August 14th, 1947 when India gained independence recites the story of his family starting with the story of his grandfather, while in parallel, history shapes India and Pakistan. The story travels through generations - Saleem's grandparents, his parents and then his own. As Saleem grows up he finds out that he has special telepathic powers and connects with the children born during the first hour of independence - 'midnight's children', each with special powers of their own. He also finds out about the mix up at the hospital when he was born. The child he was switched with, grows up poor, as Shiva, who is also one of the midnight's children. The premise of the plot is intriguing. The author draws a lot of parallels between what happens to the characters to what happens in the countries.

I thought I would have loved to read this book without the 'magical realism' part especially since it is historical fiction. The mysticism part, I found to be unnecessary and many escaped my mind or left me confounded. I couldn't appreciate the point of the midnight's children and their special powers. The idea, though interesting, is not brought together in cohesion. I would have liked it to be more straight forward.

The author's writing is brilliant in many ways (humorous, satirical, amusing and immensely creative) but also drawn-out and tedious in many instances. I did feel the need to ditch the book during those tedious narrations. But in the end, I am glad that I stuck with it and finished it. I liked how the story travels through history. The book draws the reader to envision the complex nature of the birth of these two nations (with an equally complex narrative) and the struggles in the early years of formalizing themselves.

Dropping of the atom bomb, end of World War II, Jallianwala Bagh, India's independence from the British, partition of Bombay into Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Indo-Chinese war of 1962, India Pakistan war over Kashmir in 1965, Indo Pakistan war 1971 which led to the birth of Bangladesh as a separate country, Indira Gandhi's emergency 1975-77 are some of the historic events through which the story travels.

I found the early history of Bombay and it's partition after independence interesting. I haven't read war stories set in India and I was unaware of the specifics of the birth of Bangladesh as a separate nation. The chapter 'In the Sunderbans' where Saleem is caught in the Sunderban forests bordering India and Bangladesh during the 1971 war after losing his family, especially was poignant.

Saleem's grandmother, Naseem Ghani's (who is often referred to as 'Reverand Mother') idiosyncracy and her catch phrase 'whatsitsname' I thought was amusing.

The book has left me wanting to hear more stories of the people during the partition how their lives were touched by that very significant part of the country's history and the wars that followed.

Children's book from Karadi Tales

This is another book from India that we enjoy at our home. This one is published by Karadi Tales.

The Monkey King & The Blue Jackal - Folktales in Folk Art

The folk art illustrations in this book are brilliant. The book actually has a small description of the types of artworks used. The first story 'The Monkey King' has a combination of folk arts called Cheriyal, Mithila and the other story 'The Blue Jackal' has Warli painting inspired artwork.

There is also a brief description in the book about Jataka and Panchatantra from where the stories hail from.

I have fallen in love with the illustrations in this book, especially the Warli artwork in the Blue Jackal story. Its stupendous.

In the land of Westeros and Essos...

'A Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R.R. Martin is an escape into a fantasy world, reflecting the middle ages, filled with numerous characters - some that you love and some you hate. It is a story replete with politics, war, gore, love, tragedy, death, glory, honor, allegiance, betrayal, dragons, and magic.

I am amazed at the number of characters that the author has penned and the many he has layered so beautifully with details. Its hard to imagine how the he kept track of the timeline of all these characters. Apart from the characters, there is the map of an entirely new world detailed along with its own history, geography, religions and people.

In the 5 books released so far the story mostly happens in the continents of Westeros and Essos.

During the time the story happens, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are ruled by one King from the 'Iron Throne' in Kings Landing. Westeros has varied landscapes. It has different regions under the control of 'Houses' (big and small), each with their own sigil and legacy. The small houses often serve as bannermen to the lords of the big ones. The description of the landscapes and some of the enigmatic and imposing castles of Westeros are enchanting.

There are also a band of cold dead creatures called the 'Others' rallying 'beyond the Wall'. The 'Wall' is the huge man made ice structure in the North, that is guarded by the sworn brothers of the Night Watch. The Wall and the Nights Watch stand between Others (their coming often referred as 'Winter is coming') and the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Then there are the 'Wildlings' (freefolk) who don't care for the laws of the seven kingdoms and live beyond the wall, their common enemy being the 'Others'.

To the east of Westeros, in the land of Essos, there are free cities, slaver cities, Dothraki lords and fallen kingdoms of the past (Valyria, the land of the dragon lords which lies in ruins now). There are ruins and there are mystical creatures.

I love that the books are written in the point of view of characters scattered around the continents of Westeros and Essos. The story is always from the perspective of what that character knows at that particular time and hence never definite. Sometimes you know more than the character knows, and sometimes you get to know different pieces and different perspectives of the same event from different characters. The context keeps shifting while the pieces come together, and that, I think is the beauty of the books in the series.

The other thing I love is the many different diverse female characters in the series. (There are interesting male characters as well. Ned Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Jaime Lannister to name a few. But I especially like how well the female minds are characterized). All very different, and stay true to their nature throughout. I think it is really brilliant that he was able to sketch the varied minds - their outward aspect as well as their inner monologue. The virtuous and striving ruler Daenerys Targaryen, fierce and headstrong Arya Stark, brave and loyal Brienne, vicious and ambitious Cersei Lannister, protective mother Catelyn Stark are all my favorites. All of these characters have their point of view in the narration and each of their journey, their choices, love, endurance, yearning and turmoil fills you with frustration and fascination.

The first book starts in the land of Westeros where King Robert of House Baratheon, rules the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros from the 'Iron Throne' in Kings Landing. He had rebelled against the House Targaryens 16 years ago and successfully over thrown them. He visits his friend Ned Stark of House Stark in the North, after the death of his 'Hand', asking him to be the Hand of the king. The conspiracy in the death of the hand rolls the dice for the series of events that the House Stark get caught up in. The fight for the claim of the Iron Throne begins and hence starts the 'Game of Thrones'. And you get sucked in with it.

There are so many things happening in the book. It's like looking into a medieval world through the minds of few characters. There are shaky allegiance formed, deadly betrayals and brewing vengeance. The characters, loved and hated, get killed off alike. Many of them caught in complex, deadly predicaments. And you get lost with them in this intriguing epic fantasy.

There is no one hero or one villain. (except, in my head, Jon Snow is the hero).

The question really is, who gets to sit in the iron throne finally with so many of them claiming their rights. I wonder if finally Daenerys Targaryen brings democracy to the middle ages and that's how the story ends. ha ha!

Awaiting desperately for the next book (book 6) in the series...

Children's books we love from Tulika Publishers

Here are some books that we have enjoyed reading at our household, from Tulika Publishers (their Wikipedia page has their official website) in India.

'Flower' - by Sandhya Rao and pictures by Ashok Rajagopalan, featuring 'Thumb Thumb Thambi', the thumb print boy, is a dear one. My son got this as a gift when were in India in 2009. We have since then sampled few of the books published by them and these are the favorites.

'My mother's sari' also by Sandhya Rao is an ode to the childhood memories of saris.

'Junior Kumbhakarna' by Arundhati Venkatesh, is fun. The boy Kukku in the book goes to bed listening to Kumbhakarna story from his appa and wakes up asking - 'where are the laddus?'.

Mala's silver Anklets by Annie Besant and Gajapati Kulapati Kalabalooosh! by Ashok Rajagopalan are delightful as well.

The books have a taste of India that we enjoy.

Ponniyin Selvan - Stage Act by Magic Lantern

'Ponniyin Selvan' by Kalki, a historical fiction in Tamil, is a famous, loved book.

I read it when I was on vacation after my 12th standard exams. I read all the huge 5 parts of the book within 10 days, I think, or could have been a little less or more than that. Well, a teenager on vacation, with nothing else to do, can accomplish that I think. I don't know. My memories are hazy now. It's hard to believe that I had so much time in hand to finish the books in such short period of time. I know I was obsessed, because my nights were haunted by the characters.

It is one of the books that I want to re-read in my adulthood but have not gotten around to it, not completely.

When I was in Madurai for a short visit this year, I had the chance to watch the stage performance of the book, performed by Magic Lantern at the Lakshmi Sundaram Hall, arranged by Rotary Club of Madurai, as a fund raising event. It's a four hour event with a 15 mins break in between.

There was music, singing and dancing. The sound, mic and lighting setup were all done expertly. The music, art and costume design, dance and stunt choreography were all creative and aesthetic. The artists were brilliant, I thought, with proficiency in Tamil, stage presence and command of their character. The funny, adventurous and trouble seeking Vandiyathevan, the shrewd spy Azhwarkadiyan Nambi, the quirky and brave Poonkuzhali, the beautiful and smart princess Kundavai, the remorseful and love struck prince Aditya Karikalan, the mysterious Nandhini - all came alive through their performances. They all captured the essence of the characters in the book.

I thought they had done a pretty good job in condensing the huge book with so many characters and events into a single stage performance. Still four hours couldn't contain all the major events in the book. Parts that happen in Sri Lanka including the ones in Buddhist Monastery were omitted and few more.

I am not sure if it will delight people who have not read the book though. It might be hard to grasp the many different twists and turns in the story without the knowledge of the book. And a certain mystery element that hangs in the book is also lost on stage, as characters have to narrate the events in many cases, but music and the lighting setup make up for it, where possible.

Little Women - book and movie.

My favorite book, when I was 12 yrs old was 'Little Women' - Part 1 by Louisa May Alcott (I did read the second part of the book, few years later, not read as many times though). I have read it many times and loved it dearly during that time. 

I have loved the interplay among the four, very different March sisters.  I have especially adored Jo March, the one who loves to read and write, wishes she can fight in the civil war along side her father, is unconventional, wants to do something heroic or wonderful, and loves her sisters.

I used to be charmed by the parts where Jo writes plays for her sisters to perform, how the girls put the set together and enact it, the way they get ready for parties (burnt hair, mended skirts and all), the friendship they develop with the boy next door, the 'Pickwick Club' (which produced the Pickwick Portfolio, the weekly newspaper with all sorts of articles, stories and announcements contributed by all four sisters, who name themselves after the characters from the book 'The Pickwick Papers'), the 'Post Office' on the hedge where secrets, letters and trivias were exchanged, the 'Busy Bee Society', the plans for the future they dream about, the fights, the heart breaks and much more.

These are the parts that stuck with me through the years about this book. I re-read the entire book after a long time last year. I noticed that the book had a didactic tone that had evaded me (or rather didn't bother me) when I was young. 

Re-reading a loved book, especially after a long time, there was new layers explored, there was rekindling of memories and a brush with the younger self of me.

I also watched the movie (1994 version in which Winona Ryder plays Jo March) recently. The movie bypassed the didactic tone and kinda stuck to the dynamic aspect of the characters, which is what I love about the book. The book and the movie will remain special.

In the movie, there is a dialog exchange in a scene (where a bunch of men support women's right to vote, albeit rather patronizingly), that I love, which I feel decisively sums up women's rights. This particular exchange is not in the book. The book portrays a different situation.

Jo March: I find it poor logic to say that, because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.

Mr. Mayor: You should have been a lawyer, Miss March.

Jo March: I should have been a great many things, Mr. Mayor.

Book: Palace of Illusions

I have read couple of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s books before and I remember not being able to appreciate her writing.

I picked up ‘Palace of Illusions’ as it was recommended by a friend in facebook. It is a novel idea of narrating ‘Mahabharata’, from Draupadi’s angle, a female perspective, with her as the protagonist. The book was fascinating. 

I thought it is a very cleverly conceived project. Redefines Draupadi in a distinct, substantial manner. The author has stuck to the original stories of Mahabharata, but has added a dimension that scrutinizes all the characters and events. Made me pause and muse. It shatters the facile depiction of her marriage with the Pandavas, depicts the characters more as ‘real’ people with misgivings rather than as nonpareils. The author's portrayal of Draupadi’s attraction towards Karna in the book, I found interesting. 

I feel the book stands testimony for how a change in frame of reference, executed well, can be captivating and make you see the same story in a different light.

Meaning of life and everything...

History of our earth:

The earth is apparently 4.6 billion years old. Here is the earth's time clock as scientists believe it to be:

"For a nearly a fifth of its existence it was cooling down - crust melted, cooled remelted and cooled again. It took another 300 million years before life had evolved enough to produce the oldest known fossils.  For the next 3 billion years life on Earth had evolved so much that early dinosaurs appeared. Dinosaurs dominated the earth for 185 million year (nearly twice as long as mammals have existed). Age of the mammals lasted for about 65 million years and man-like creatures have been around for about 4 million years!"

(The above information is from the book "Marvels and Mysteries of the world around us" published by Reader's digest. I just love the book. Its easy to read and has brilliant illustrations and pictures.)

So recently my mind had been pondering about this whole meaning for the existence of life on earth and more so ever on the existence of complex creatures, that's us humans.

There is this book 'The hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy' by Douglas Adams. I read this book few years ago. I remember a very funny part in the book, where in a galaxy far far away there is a complex computer called 'Deep Thought' which is fed the question "what is the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything..." The computer takes seven and a half million years and comes up with the answer as '42' to the despair of the men who fed the question in the computer. The computer says that is the answer to the question. It also says that the question has to be understood properly for the answer to be satisfactory and adds that it will build a more complex super organic computer to understand the question which would be called the 'Earth'. The men in that part of the galaxy wonder about the strange name - Earth.

As I sit here worrying about the long list of things to be done, making plans and time for everything I need to do to keep my mind in peace I just can't help but wonder what on earth am I doing here.

Book - 'The Ramayana' by R.K.Narayan

My earliest memory of this epic story is the television series that was playing in Doordarshan during my school days. I vaguely remember the episodes and the story somehow did not stick with me. I had grown to think of 'Ramayana' as a religious book, one that never appealed to me.

During my recent trip to India, I read 'The Ramayana' by R.K. Narayan. It is a small, crisp version of the epic as written by Kambar. For the first time I enjoyed the story and was awed and inspired by the whole plot.

The language that Narayan uses is very simple but it captures the imposing grandiose of the saga. I am astounded that Valmiki wrote his version almost 2400 years ago, which is believed to be the earliest version. The idealized image of Rama described by Valmiki was later presented as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu by the later versions. 'Ramayana' is made up to be a very sacred and religious story, but it appeals to me as a great fantasy adventure, romantic thriller that encompasses melodrama and the civics of monarchy.

Book - Anne Cherian's 'A Good Indian Wife'.

I read this book when I was in the cruise to Alaska. It was entertaining, funny and kept me company when my 17 month old was napping and I had to keep guard inside our tiny stateroom. Suneel, an anesthesiologist who is independent and abominates the way things work in India, escapes the Indian way and lives the life he had always desired in the Bay Area in US and Leila, who has lived in India for long enough to have accepted things there but still is interesting and versatile, come together in an arranged marriage. How they come to like each other and things work out between them against all odds is the gist of the story.

Even though the story is set in the most recent times showing the cultural clash between the two countries, the way that Anne Cherian has sketched the characters in the book reminded me very much of the characters from Jane Austen's, 'Pride and Prejudice'. The handsome rich guy who is proud and looks down on the girl but is still drawn by her beauty and interesting persona, the simple family that Leila comes from with two other sisters and the desperate mother who wants to get her daughter's married away, the aunt who has married off her children and looking out for other matches to make, the 'girlfriend', who is desirable but not well suited - all of these characters are remnants of Jane Austen's ingenuity adapted by Anne Cherian.

Even though Anne Cherian emulates Jane Austen, she has made it interesting by being creative with the plot. In this case the cultural and ideological conflicts among the characters and the entertaining stage set between two people from different backgrounds makes it an enjoyable read.

Good reads

I read Arvind Adiga's 'Man Booker Prize' winner book, 'White Tiger' a few weeks ago. I was stunned by the blunt language Adiga uses in describing the hard truth of the 'dark side' of India. It was a compelling read that gave a blow by blow account of the cold reality that exists in the country with no leeway for any distracting narrative. I thought he was dauntless in delivering the message without any pretense, even though it did leave me a little depressed.

His next book 'Between the Assassinations' is not a novel like the first one but a collection of short stories that happen in India. Adiga has sketched a series of characters living in a town at a certain time period while manifesting the predicament of corruption, extreme poverty, caste diversity, discrepancy in the treatment of hindus and muslims, women's plight and other issues. One particular character that haunted me was 'Chenayya' the cycleman, who is just trying to get out of the rat race but in vain.

All in all I thought Adiga's writing is audacious and forthright in conveying the adversities that exist in the country.