Interpreter of Maladies

Kudos to Mr... Donno his name. But yes, he speaks English. He calls himself a 'Friend osf students' and sells books at Nehru Place, New Delhi at throwaway prices, literally. I got it at Rs 60/-. No, it was not original, but pirated version of the Pulitzer Prize winner book in 2000. Printed, I guess, somewhere in or around Delhi. Thats how I came across Interpreter of Maladies. A collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, her first one. Nine stories make up the 270 odd pages book, one of the finest collection of short stories I have come across.
The book is rightly sub-titled Stories of Bengal, Boston and Beyond. It captures in words, the feeling called Nostalgia in myriads of ways. How you long for your own country, your own people, your own culture while abroad. How you start comparing with your home everything starting from food, dresses, markets to the way people talk and behave in a party, or in bed. How you wish to go back to your roots. Not because the new place is not good or people are rude or you are fed up with the job. But because you miss the faces you were so used to, or you miss that special Adda with your friends, or you yearn for fresh fish and frown at the lack of variety.
I dont really know whether the author lived in Bengal. But the way little things are presented makes you feel right inside a typical Bengali kitchen, or in a Calcutta fish market, or in that 3-storied building at Dacca, or in that building where Boori Maa lived. Bengali sentiments attached with fish, sindoor and Calcutta are taken care of rather objectively. You feel as if you were not reading a book, but watching a movie.
The characters are real-life. You might have seen them while you were sipping a cup of coffee at the Coffee House, or while working out at the Gym, or in a Railway Station, or your next door neighbour, or your colleague. Or, in some case, it might be you. Like the estranged couple, or the Bangla Professor in US in times of domestic turmoil, or the infidel executive, or the lady who happily becomes a mistress and then, suddenly, relents having done so.
Some stories take a sudden turn, sometimes tragic, sometimes what you would just like it to turn into. Like the story of two married, yet estranged people over the death of their child. Like the story of an Interpreter(read the story to know what this word means, literally and metaphorically) and a tourist lady when the former interprets the malady of the lady. But unlike the story of Boori Maa.
The only worthless story is that of a couple who keep on finding several 'blessed' objects like statues of Jesus and Mary, or a tablecloth with Jesus and the like. I hate to see such a story in this, otherwise, excellent book. When a story ends, you crave for more. You think 'Why the story ends at all?'. You are not going to stop for anything less than a full length novel on each of the bunch of characters.
I guess, I better start with The Namesake now.

Me Me Me 

Eleven Minutes

Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the most effective yet simplistic books I have ever come across. Lets see whether he lives upto my expectations in his new novel.

No, no friend of mine suggested this book. Neither did I learn of it from the net or some review in some Newspaper or Magazine. Wandering in streets of Delhi in search of a novel (Well, the search was not really for a novel. It was for pineapple juice at Nehru Place) brought me to a hawker selling the book at a cool Rs 60/-. 'Saare Paulo Coelho 60 rupaye mein', he said. The impeccable price - author combo led me to buy it. And in two days , I was through with the novel.

The novel starts with 'Once upon a time there was a prostitute', which is out of ordinary for a story to start with. It is the story of an ordinary girl leading an ordinary life and having ordinary ambitions - finding her Prince Charming. The girl goes out of her shell in search of that illusive entity - call it money or call it fame or call it realisation of a long lived dream, and lands up in the murky waters of real life. The story traverses through her several love encounters, her conclusions from each of those affairs and her consequent actions.
The novel has its moments of glory. Coelho gets philosophical at times, churning out statements in the diary of the protagonist, Maria, which are worth being noted down in a diary of the reader, or even scribbling them on the hostel rooms. He talks of Original Sin, of omens (remember The Alchemist) and of course S E X, which is the central theme of the story. He calls it Sacred Sex.

There are quite a few intimate scenes, scenes of love between Maria and ... wait I will not reveal the plot. These scenes have variety of shades from sadism-masochism to sheer passion, from amateurish to strictly professional, from loosing virginity to regaining it (Wait. 'Regaining Viginity'. What the hell does that mean? Read it for yourself). The sex scenes are on the borderline of Erotica and Porn, each treatment being one or the other. Female Orgasm is dealt in detail and Coelho tries to dispel a few misconceptions related to it.

There is an overdose of Sex in the book, sometimes even the very scene, the very concept is repeated. Language is too simplistic, though I dont blame Coelho for this. The translator is responsible for the language, not Paulo Coelho.

But certain ideas are original. Like the phrase Sacred Sex, or the concept of regaining Virginity, or the alternative interpretation of the Original Sin or the detailed description of indecision. Apart from this, certain philosophical statements are really good.

All in all, An ordinary book with minimal freshness in ideas or events and one which is not expected after The Alchemist.

The God of Small Things

The novel revolves around the family tree of a Syrian Christian family in Ayemenem,Kerela. A family of variety of shades of characters. Reverend Ipe, the Blessed was a well known man. The novel details how his daughter Baby Kochamma falls in love with Father Mulligan and becomes a nun, only to come back some time later. How Ammu falls in love with a Bengali, bear the egg-twins, only to get divorced later. How she falls in love again but with an 'untouchable' this time. How Chacko marries Margaret, an English, while at Oxford and divorces a year later. How their Mol, Sophie, dies during Christmas Holidays. How Pappachi discovers a moth but couldnt name it after him.

But the description of the egg-twins Estha and Rahel top it all. The novel vividly describes the spontaneity of Estha as a child and his passivity when he grows up. The quietness that became a comatose. How they were physically separate, but had joint identities. They love each other more than anyone else. The last pages of the novel is exciting. Read it for yourself.

Roy gives a picturesque description of the things we see,Small Things, but do not notice. Scenes whose imprints are only ephemeral. But these are the finer details which make a memory more lively. A mental sketch worth recalling. Worth reliving. Like your slackness when you first met 'her'. Your first puff of cigarette. Your first visit to the theatre when you were six. People around you when you went to receive that special someone at the airport.

She also discusses scenes you dont want to remember. Like the act of balancing in air while pissing in the toilet at the cinema. Or your Mam spitting on your face. Or your wife asking for a divorce because she has met a better man. Or your Hubby asking you to sleep with his Boss to secure his job. Or you being molested by a sharbat-walla when you were six. Or the policeman tapping on your breasts with his stick as if he were choosing mangoes.

Roy nags at on the scourge of cateism even in Christian community in Kerela. Where the 'untouchable' Velutha is being totured to death because he made love to 'touchable' Ammu. The novel also points how the communists leaders, in the name of fighting for the poor, actually fight for their own bourgeoning.

Roy's treatment of love varies between couples. Between Rahel and Larry it is hollow but has a sort of enforced optimism. Between Chacko and Margaret love is a means of self discovery, a relationship where neither had any expectations nor anguish with the other. Between Baby Kochamma and Father Mulligan love is something worth changing faith, something which the couple cherishes 'till death separated' them even though they never got married. Between Ammu and her husband its a sort of infatuation which has a sudden demise. And between Ammu and Velutha love is nothing more than the means to satisfy the sexual needs.

There are way too many divorces in the story. The plot traverses so many subplots that sometimes the author looses the spontaneity that is visible elsewhere in the novel.
All in all, a good read with a fresh style and minimal surprises.

English, August

Welcome to the world of Agastya Sen, oops August. Or, as his dad calls him, Ogu. A world where Marijuana and Masturbation lives at peace with Marcus Aurelius and Bhagwad Gita. A world which doesn't spares any chance of mocking at Indian Administrative Services.

The Second World War

World War II in many ways is the 'favourite war'. These are the opening lines of the book. And the book really succeeds in driving the point home.

Today THE WAR is seen as an epic battle when the world powers were pitted against the Axis of Evil, as Bush Jr. would put it. The book describes major and minor events in the war with raw facts and bombards you with details, gory and influential. Spencer C. Tucker, the author, gives a bird's eyeview from Germany's attack on Poland, USSR's deterrent , the Pearl Harbor attack, America's late forced entry into the scenario , consequent war strategies to Bombs dropped on Japan and its consequent surrender, not to forget Hitler's suicide.

It presents finer details about the Battleaxe operation , about Ajax cruise to various warships. Read no book better than this one about the War that changed the world. Forever.

Da Vinci Code

Just finished the much talked about book.. It gives so much food for thought to a curious mind such as mine. It proclaims certain theories regarding Jesus, Mary, Church, the very base of the Christiandom. It celebrates the idea of womahood, of Sex and urges to shed off the discrimination against women in the altar of religion.