Poonachi

By Perumal Murugan

In short: Go read it.

After a long time have I read a book that is telling the story of an entity that is so ordinary, so mundane but very much there in our lives so much so that we actually fail to register its presence as a sentient being. The writer has taken a goat who he calls ‘Poonachi’ to narrate its story and its world view of its surroundings. Its world is restricted to the small hut of its old and poor owners but its short sojourns to nearby places with the old couple gives it lot of wisdom and peek into the ways of the world. It is considered a miracle goat and that provides another angle to its otherwise simple life but acts as a mechanism to showcase the psyche of those around her especially the humans.

A big factor to liking this book is undoubtedly the lucid translation done by Mr N. Kalyan Raman. The story feels as if it was originally written in English rather than Tamil. Though I have not read the original work of the author, this work rendered in English translation uses the language to perfectly convey what must be some particular Tamil nuances. For example,  while alluding to the clan deity Mesagaran he retains the local way of addressing him as ‘Mesayya’ which lends itself quite effortlessly without creating any confusion. There are some more Tamil words that have been retained to good effect. One such word is the term ‘Asuras’ which has been kept as such without arrogating any western definitions or its equivalent in English and that lends a unique Tamil milieu to the narration.

The book is likened to the ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell as giving a political comment through the story which may be very well true. Sample this - ‘….Goats have horns, don’t they? Suppose they get a little angry and point them at the regime? Such goats have to be identified, right? That’s why they all have to get their ears pierced.’ Many more such references are there but the story doesn’t get lopsided with it. Rather it portrays the citizen as a politically aware commentator which is a page out of an Indian’s life.

The book wins for its simple yet thought provoking narration.

Vasudeva Krishna and Mathura

 

Some books are to be tasted, some to be chewed and others to be digested. This one had me chewing the information without undue haste and verily digesting the unpalatable truths regarding our history of incessant invaders and their unsavoury deeds. This is first book on some aspect of history that I have read after the mandatory reads at school. But I wish I had read something as written by Ms Meenakshi Jain as she has explained the details in simple language, starting with interesting factoids about how religious customs were back in the days, evolving into how we perceive and conduct them in the present time. From elaborate complex rituals to one that is less elaborate, more intimate and profound, and yet we still follow some of them to this day. This is duly corroborated by the various archaeological evidences as well as the ancient sacred texts of the Vedas.

The present book shines a light on a historical journey of the city of Mathura with the help of the many archaeological finds from this place as well endorsed by finds from secondary places/sources. For example it is interesting to note that the ritual culture of images developed simultaneously within Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism in the city of Mathura. This can be seen in the earlier images of Vishnu, Bodhisatva Maitreya and Mahavira that are similar in construction. The art in these three traditions had similar elements such as sacred trees, stupas, railings, chakras etc.

The book also focuses on the advent of the Bhagwata religion whence Sri Krishna rose in prominence among all deities and the eventual merging of Krishna Vasudev with Vishnu as same entity. The author has referenced several ancient texts to bring out some historical events that occurred in Krishna Vasudeva’s lifetime. This book is rightly a testament of the fact that not only is Mathura indeed the place where Sri Krishna was born and spent his childhood but the place where he was actually delivered- the karagrah or the jail where his uncle the king Kamsa had imprisoned his parents, is very much there for all to see in what was the great Keshavadeva temple.

That Mathura held a position of prominence is attested to by the writings of the many travelers like the French merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Mahmud Balkhi from Central Asia, the Italian Niccolao Manucci etc. It is through their writings that we come to know how the devotees conducted their daily routine as well as tell us about the grandeur of Katra Keshavdeva temple.

And then came the Hindu downfall with the marauding attacks of Islamic invaders like Mahmud Ghaznavi, Aurangzeb who razed to ground the grand Keshavdeva temple, killing thousands of peaceful people. The temple was built and re-built multiple times following its destruction time and again. It is this temple that has been in recent news better known as the ‘Krishnajanmsthan’ being claimed by the Muslim side. The latter part of the book is devoted to details about the various court hearings and verdicts delivered- all in favour of the temple. Presently, fresh case has been filed in 2020 on behalf of Bhagwan Shree Krishna for full rights over the place.

 

Churma

 

This is a Hindi book that I have read after a long time, written by an educationist and a poet Mrs Dolly Dabral belonging to Uttarakhand, India. She has a long and extensive experience of dabbling in the literary world of organizing and reciting poetry at various fora and been lauded with much recognition. Having carved a niche there, she has now put her penmanship to prose starting with reminiscences of various bitter-sweet events throughout her life. Before writing ‘Churma’ she has already written a previous book, again a memoir noir in Hindi called ‘Africa House’.

Both books are an interesting sprinkling of events and characters that she came across. This is evident by the fact that they stayed on her mind adequately to be recorded in the written word and relished by the reader. The title ‘Churma’ is as most people would know, a Rajasthani delicacy and is a retelling of an old story that she had heard as a child. She clarifies in an interview that she chose it to be the first among the other stories to also indicate the mix of things that is life, just as there are different ingredients that go into the making of churma.

There are a plethora of books out in the market and discerning readers will definitely be aware of the particular mould in which most are written, that are Anglophonic in sound and craft both. At most times it feels that they have been written with the western audience in mind- a veritable disconnect with the local sentiments and thoughts that makes a read unrelatable however lucidly or skillfully written it may be. But then this is mostly seen in books written in English. To get the local flavors in a read, one must delve their teeth in the Hindi books to be instantly transported to the familiar and the forgotten.

So I was pleasantly occupied in reading these two books that are a nostalgia trip of the author and it is even more pleasant discovery that I am not averse to such trips. Mrs Dabral talks about the Dehradun and its people of yore- a time when sitting and chatting was a social norm that thrashed out knotty problems over tea, knitting and company. A time when cows were kept in the homes of most, learning classical music, donating, sewing etc was part of the home set-up. Try and imagine that Dun with today’s- it’s irreconcilable! Since I too belong to Dehradun, I found the stories relatable but it’s not as if such scenario was not there in other parts of the country.

The writing is a straight off narration of how things transpired without any literary embellishments to distract from the conversational tone of the telling. This makes the readability immense and you keep turning pages to know what happens next. The writer has impressive command on languages that she displays with Punjabi, Garhwali and Hindi with acute proficiency. She has started her journey in prose with interesting autobiographical accounts in form of stories in two book forms that have been well received by the readers. 

I hope she comes up with a work of fiction soon that regales its readers with the Dehradun/Uttarakhand of the 60s and 70s about which not much literature is available. This unavailability is also one big reason I feel why youth of this region are not suitably connected with the culture and ethos of the hill station. It has never been projected to them. And as such Mrs Dabral's books help fill that gap we find in the Garhwali literary scene.

Book review: Ancient Hindu Science by Alok Kumar

 Book review: Ancient Hindu Science by Alok Kumar

 

This book is a long awaited one.

There has been a gaping absence of a comprehensive record or documenting of a literature that put all the knowledge that has been carried by the general masses in their consciousness through the decades but nowhere could be referenced as a physical document. This book satisfies that need to see the many achievements and accomplishments of the erudite ancients whose learning we still read, learn and make use of in our modern world. Although the author says that the book is an introduction to the vast knowledge systems of the Hindu learning in various fields like science (physics, chemistry, biology), astronomy, geography, geometry, mathematics, medicine etc, it very much touches the major aspects achieved in these fields and the influence it had all over the world. Bharata wasn’t the epicenter of learning just like that. It is heartening to affirm that it is indeed the ancient Hindu knowledge that enriched and helped advance not just the scientific thought but also in the spiritual and philosophical realms however long winded route the knowledge took like from India to Persia, Arabia, Greece and then to the European and Western world in general. Several translations of Indian texts made way across the world who in turn were made the richer for it. The work of al-Khwarizmi in Baghdad was made possible due to the discoveries and inventions of the ancient Hindus. His books were read by established scholars in Europe like Copernicus, Adelard of Bath, Leonardo Fibonacci, Pope Sylvester II, Roger Bacon et al who helped spread it further on. Voltaire, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Carl Jung, Max Muller, Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Shrodinger, Arthur Shopenhauer, Henry David Thoreau and many other intellectuals were influenced by the Hindu knowledge and in fact this was the harbinger of the ‘Oriental’ studies that evidently brought about the ‘aha’ moment to the western world allowing it to revel in it and slake its thirst from the wisdom available so easily. It can be said that the world knew the true strength and stature of our culture to which we have awakened rather late but awake we are now.

An amusing and a bit surprising point that I realized while reading this book is the constant question mark we have been putting towards the education we take and dispense, especially like geometry and mathematics. Haven’t we oft heard as to what use are we going to put the learning of quadratic equations or trigonometry in real life? And for all practical purposes that is indeed the case. We do not need to use mathematics more than the knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Those in specialized jobs or maths ‘nerds’ may be using the complicated and advanced calculations to some use but that is not the norm.

Guess what? The ancients had the usage of these advanced knowledge systems in daily life. For example Hindus observed the several festivals and fasts that we still see being followed in our society. These sacred days are calculated with the help of the Hindu almanac called the ‘Panchang’ that is luni-solar in its format ie the the Hindu months of the year are lunar and the years solar. The knowledge of the ecliptic circle of the moon was something that every Hindu family could calculate to find the days of Amavasya, Purnima, Ekadashi, Chaturthi or the various days of fasting, festivals or the auspicious times for worshipping etc. This is how closely science was woven into the daily fabric of life.

How could the fantastic ancient temples we see today have been built without the use of trigonometry?

It is such bits of information that the book wisens us to, things that are common knowledge but lost to us of the deeper meanings they hold.  As another example, the concept of zero began as a philosophical idea of ‘sunyata’ ie nothingness- a void that indicates the ‘nirguna-rupa’ form of God. This eventually evolved into a mathematical reality in the form of zero. Thereby establishing a link between an abstract subject with an exact one! Reminds me of a college student being asked by his Mathematics professor to write a paper on the link between Philosophy and Mathematics. He was at sea to say in short. This book would have helped the student in multiple ways I am sure.

The book is well researched with several citations and references duly annotated. The language is lucid and without heavy vocabulary that makes it very amenable and immensely readable especially for the younger readers but is a good resource point for even the older readers for whom it may serve as a reminder of why we believe in certain things and for what reasons?

Recommend it to all to get to know the strands of Indian history that still influence the modern world in its workings as we see it.  

Book review: Half A Life

 

Half a Life is a lucidly and cogently written book by the renowned and inimitable VS Naipaul that won him the Nobel prize for Literature in 2001. 

The story is about Willie Somerset Chandran facing an identity issue starting with his name. What emerges is the imagery of a tumultuous India in the 1930s but whose effects are negligible in the maharaja’s estate where the initial part of the story is set. The plight and dilemma of a temple community that is facing no patronage from the rulers since the advent of muslims and then the British, is what is leading the priests and its support system to look for better living and paying opportunities elsewhere. But in the backdrop of the freedom struggle going on in the country and Mahatma Gandhi’s call to give up foreign goods and uplift social barriers leads Willie’s father to take a decision that he lives to regret all his life.

With such rooting Willie wishes to escape the insecurity, the same life as his father’s in his coming future. The deep caste riven society would make it difficult for him to find a better life than what he had already. And thus starts his quest for a better life moving across the seven seas to Great Britain eventually to Africa, giving deep insights into the life during post-war England and the isolated yet communal lives of the business class during the last days of colonialism.

Half a life is a phrase to depict the unfulfilled or incomplete lives lived yet seeking to complete it through the course of events and individuals one meets. In this case Willie is not the high caste brown man in a foreign land or his own motherland that would tether him to any one place just as the business community of his neighbours in Africa were. As he observes-

‘…that the world I had entered was only half and half world, that many of the people who were our friends considered themselves, deep down, people of the second rank. They were not fully Portuguese, and that is where their own ambitions lay.’

In the end isn’t life all about compromises and adjustments? Willie wants to quit his marriage with Ana for he doesn’t want to live her life as he says.

‘Perhaps I haven’t been living mine either’ is her reply.

 

 A perfectly good read.

Book review: The Postcard

 This was my first acquaintance with Leah Fleming's work. The premise of the story is a postcard that is the axis around which the story revolves that intrigued me into it. True enough, it harks back to the days when writing letters was the mainstay of communication and it is a postcard that leads into an inter-generational search for one's roots that in return helps the reader traverse the various time scales via the social mores, dresses, beliefs, thoughts via multiple points of view. The story has the lives detailing the aftermath of pot WWI era and the fresh tidings of another war looming on the horizons.

It is a fine storyline except the reader sometimes gets a little confused about the timelines and some wartime details that one is unaware of owing to not knowing that particular history. Despite that, the story can be followed well but then again it spans a vast expanse of spatial detail like across Australia, Scotland, Egypt, Belgium, UK etc so the mental follow up needs to keep pace with the change of setting to get a deeper feel of the people and places. This also shines on the fact that the author is well traveled (or very well informed) about these aforementioned places with a good sack of nuggets or trivia stitched into the story. 

The protagonists are three ladies Phoebe, Caroline and Melissa. Out of them I felt the first two led very lonely, unhappy lives with lessons for the third one to have a go at love and second chances. 

All in all it makes for an interesting read.

Book review-- Makers of Modern Dalit History

 

Makers of Modern Dalit History is a joint effort by Sudarshan Rambadran and Guru Prakash Paswan. The book is well researched project to document the adversity and travails of the subaltern communities that make an important weft of our social fabric but are belittled or kept disadvantaged in the social ladder. The book documents eighteen luminaries from such disadvantaged backgrounds who defy the impossible to chart pathbreaking course of their lives. The personalities have been picked from far back in history like Kabir Das, Guru Ravidas, Rani Jhalkaribai, Veda Vyasa, Sant Janabai, Ayyankali, to closer in time such as Jogendranath Mandal, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Udham Singh, B R Ambedkar etc.

 Most individuals we have known with some details and some only by name. So it made for a pleasant and interesting read to know some unknown details from these life accounts not just about the adverse situation made due to the political, religious , social rules that they had to face and fight but also how they were able to motivate and take the masses along with them. Some facts like Guru Nanak , Guru Raidas and Kabir were contemporary and met together at least once was an eyeopener. The book must be read to find some such nuggets in those biographical chapters.<br />The language of the book is simple and without jargons so that one easily slips from one chapter to the next. And herein lies a little catch for one to catch the moment, era, ethos of an individual and then retain the flavour, one needs to forego jumping too quickly from one to the next. Other than that, the book is a reminder to the difficulties faced by a part of our society but the authors maintain the tone in a positive way rather than be recriminatory, exhorting for equity and progress for all within the framework of existing social and constitutional structures. 

A Bad Place

A confession from me first: I do not have a taste for the thriller-horror-supernatural-ghostly-other worldly kind of genre. So having received Mr Mayur Didolkar’s book ‘A Bad Place’ was a test of nerves for me whose dalliance with this genre has been far too less for me to claim of any accumulated insights about it. However the story has kept up my interest spiked from the first chapter itself and I have found myself curious to know the twists and turns about to be unleashed upon me. As curious as the characters in the story who knew some new facet/twist/shock was expected and yet they opened the forbidden door to enter and came out uninjured but changed nevertheless every time. And I too exhaled in relief! The author has used the local Maharashtrian lingo and set up for his story premise but that doesn’t mar the narrative. It effectively helps one place the story in its right background and moves it to the cityscape to show the choices, turmoils and decisions of a modern day resident who has to also deal with a superstitious ‘humbug’ of the supernatural elements. Despite the modern setup of the story I had butterflies in my stomach while reading. The writing is good, clear headed, pictorial and engaging. It’s a goodread for anyone that loves the unsettling feeling as if being in ‘A bad place’.

 It's been a while- well quite a while that I have jotted down a review though I have been reading some spectacular books. I am breaking the jinx..and my laziness with this review of the book 'Kunti' by Koral Dasgupta. I have quite a few reviews to pen including of Hindi writers too. So here goes. Hoping that my reading and reviewing keep pace this time.

The Review

Kunti by Koral Dasgupta is the second book in the series of the five satis namely Ahalya, Kunti, Draupadi, Mandodari and Tara. These stories are a retelling of the historical events as we know them through the epic sagas but the gaze is turned away from the traditional rendering of the events or tales. Here the point of view is of the ‘sati’- the heroine who states it as she must have seen it. That means through her the author brings out aspects that are not very obvious or are hidden due to more attention on certain other characters. Though the epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat have women with strongly etched characters and those that can stand apart on their own merit, they are largely seen wading in the shadows of the giants. Giants of the time when society was run mainly through the male thought process, the much clichéd—the patriarchal outlook. And since the aspects being discussed are something that have happened eons of years ago the author has tried to shift the platform from the earth to some other planes where the cosmic lords like Surya, Indra might reside. While there is an incredibility about assuming (imagining) such worlds but the way it is approached indicates a scientific basis of the protagonist in attaining her answers to the puzzles instead of a magical appearance of things. Kunti’s relationship with her husband Pandu is traversed with reasoning mind as to how it must have been for a warrior who was under the wings of the great Bhishma and who might have been riven by his own inadequacies as well as unable to match the charisma of his step brother. That Kunti is able to hold a candle to the latter in statesmanship and war craft and commands respect of all which is otherwise a privilege reserved for the husband, speaks of her ability and stature. Her actions further in the story only underline the maturity of her dealings towards her duties not only as a wife but the elder wife too.

All in all, as in all retellings one has to be circumspect about our traditional leanings about our sacred epics not to diss them but to see some overlooked aspects in a different light. 

A Slick Life

A Slick Life is a biography of my father Shri Satish Chandra Bhatt who was an ordinary man during extra ordinary circumstances living the tumultuous life during and post independence times of India. the story is set during the freedom struggle period when he was a little boy living without the presence of his father who was a freedom fighter. His childhood was spent amid such uncertain biddings while having a large extended family for company. This gives a glimpse of those lost times when large families were a thing and how it moulded his personality. his youth, education and finally the job accompanied by the aspirations of a newly formed nation is what his life story entails.

Why is it important that one reads a common man's story. there were scores like him after all. What was special about him. The truth is this book isn't to laud a man out of the blue and hammer people to read it just because it has been written. No. That is not the purpose for me- his daughter to have written the book. My aim for writing it was to track the course of his life which was concurrently following the track of the progress of our nascent nation and it was easier to learn the feelings, decisions and motivations of those times, at least some of them. Undoubtedly, it was my curiosity to know what the previous generation had done for the country that could be pointed out with pride and satisfaction that it had indeed helped move the engines of a broken down economy, zero industries and an education that could not guarantee employment. and hence to answer that he started with the dams, IITs and Scientific research centres that the government had initiated. That evoked some more queries , more and then some which lasted in a heavy and hearty and multiple exchanges with him over phone, face to face and sometimes some tidbits in notes that he would give me. 

A lot of time was spent in creating a coherent picture out of the snippets offered to me and with two small kids it was definitely an ask but something that I looked forward to. 

Why is it called 'The Slick Life'?

The protagonist's life takes him through  different routes finally to his karm-bhoomi which as an oil well driller in ONGC which was just starting out in its baby steps. Herein lies the destiny of both- the worker as well as the organisation trying to make the best of of the situation during the times when such advanced technology or money for oil exploration and scouting was not available but the people engaged- normal graduates were asked to somehow deliver the results. These were the pioneers who went through a rough regimen, training, learning on the job while trying to avoid fatal accidents all the time. With joi de vivre and bon homie especially of the Dehradun boys. This book is a homage to those wonderful people who bonded over their ties from Dun and became more than family even in later times. 

Just a reminder, the ONGC was not what we see now. Much initial blood and sweat has gone into its making and splendour it has today. And that is one major reason why I set out to chronicle those lives and times that was easily forgotten in the rough and tumble of normal lives as we see now. The characters are all from real life except a couple of them who you may try to identify when you read about them. 

I believe that those were the times when people really lived their lives well with all the perceived shortcomings and less riches. Hence the title- A Slick Life. And of course the word 'slick' is associated with oil and here we are, celebrating an oil well driller's life story that is also the story of new India. 

Man or Salman

Good and bad reside inside a person.

If we see a lot of bad happening there is also an exceptional number of do-gooders in this world that kind of brings the world order at a par. Man will not desist from doing wrong as also some good. So it is rather a pesky thought to burden oneself over why people behave the way they do. If you know someone who has done something wrong and may be does so consistently, then apart from it giving you the gee bees you may also want to know his/her nature, compulsions, motivation, circumstance or the situation of that individual as to why a certain action took place. And after you’ve known the needful, you may still be restive in your mind with dissatisfaction of sorts as you mentally shrug with incredulity at the ridiculousness of the situation. A wrong can never be accepted as easily as a correct deed can be.

On the other hand if someone does good, it is taken as de rigueur and sometimes even acknowledged for what it is worth. That’s how nature ordains in its rule book.

However, we also seem to have contrived of ways to assimilate things that are not right and are untrue, into the web of our life and that has become de rigueur too. We are ready to forgive faults of those we think we like and whose image sits pretty in our hearts. We allow what our heart desires and pleases the eye to decide how things sway in the major play of elements so that the truth becomes a mere point in the agenda and the last one at that.

Whatever the repercussions: they will come as they come. There’s a very clever explanation in the Hindu philosophy for any good or bad happening in our lives and which btw transcends its communal limits to explain things to the general citizenry of our country and that is called ‘fate’.

If we have a bad turn of events it would mean simply that we did something bad (karma) in our previous birth or life and are now paying for it. Even if we are two goody shoes or boots as the case may be in the present birth, we may still have to suffer because of our misdeeds we did foolishly and spoiled our stay for the present.

The good we are receiving is similarly proportional to the goodness we’d done then. As you sow, so shall you reap....... in another birth. So you recharged your mobile phone balance but the money went to some other number by mistake. But you know what to blame it on. Same thing you pavement dwellers.

Image courtesy: spiritual-knowledge.net

What should a reader do to be a good reader?

It's a fad these days to be professing one's love for books when all around you see people deeply engaged in online gaming or surfing net. For all the love declared towards an act that takes such religious heights for some (and a small % only at that), you try forming an interesting, leave alone a learned conversation on the topic of books and it doesn't take more than a few minutes to abandon the effort altogether and start on another one involving a movie or an actor or mobile chatting or some such. Anything but the sacrosanct books that are something like a deity to be revered but not made close bonding with.
My 14 year old daughter  believes she is an avid reader and is happy to remain quite smug in that knowledge. So much so that she doesn't feel the need to go to the nearest library more often as she has her staple of Harry Potter, Eragon, Percy Jackson series that are apparently enough for her requirements. The vocabulary given therein is sufficient to help her 'Rowling' in clever English as she spreads her wings with 'wingardium laviosa' to 'ascendio' to the higher limits of knowledge sphere and many others.

But I digress. My point of writing this post is my alarm at the state of readership in the citizenry of present day India that is for some reason not able to devote him/herself to the written word but lives in the notion that they otherwise are devoted readers ie bookworms. Many older and well known authors have given their views on what they expect a reader to behave like to show he /she is a true blue follower of the word. Expectations aren't a one sided process you see. If a reader expects good, interesting or engaging writing from a writer, the writer too expects something out of its readers. Hummmm! Now that's a thought!

The renowned author Vladimir Nobokov had a rather straight forward requirement of a reader when he laid out the following 10 points of reference to be a good reader. Check yourself out dear how you fare in it! ;) Any four out of the lot makes you eligible at it.
Here goes:

1. The reader should belong to a book club.
2. The reader should identify himself or herself with teh hero or heroine.
3. The reader should concentrate on the socio-economic angle.
4. The reader should prefer a story with action and dialogue to one with none.
5. The reader should have seen the book in a movie.
6. The reader should be a budding author.
7. The reader should have imagination.
8. The reader should have memory.
9. The reader should have a dictionary.
10. The reader should have some artistic sense. 

Not just this Nobokov also believed that a reader should be a re-reader to really appreciate the writing. he says:

'A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a re-reader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what teh book is about, this stands between us and the artistic appreciation.

But I guess if there is even a single time of reading happening, the writer should be grateful enough. that would be enough a discharge of his/her duty towards the book.

As Samuel Johnson says- 'A writer only starts a book. The reader finishes it.'

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Book Review: Crossed & Knotted

Crossed &Knotted

India's First Composite Novel

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The Blurb

Crossed & Knotted is India’s first Composite Novel, a book written by fourteen authors in close collaboration with each other. The chapters, each a story in itself, are knotted with one another through characters, events, settings and emotions. The result is a read that criss-crosses through a multitude of emotions bringing out deep rooted human desires. They narrate tales of love and betrayal, suspense and mystery, courage and dilemma, along with hope and resilience. Read it for a taste so tantalizing, that your mind will surely be craving for more!

My Take On It : 

Crossed & Knotted as a composite novel comes out as one whole bunch of flowers in a bouquet, varied in colours and design yet joined at a common point. This being an experimental genre gives a unique opportunity for creative writers to excite their creative juices and bring in an individual voice unique to each one of them. The novel is therefore naturally not a straight take off about a single story but has a different takes on the various characters as a separate entity with every writer’s imprint on them. All in all a very interesting and enjoyable read all through the 14 stories. Here’s a brief look at what the stories have to offer:  

Beginning with Sutapa Basu’s story ‘A Curious Dalliance’ which has Sudip Roy’s wife Megha dying of a curious disease leaving behind a daughter Shivi, in-laws and of course her husband. Shivi is a grown up girl in the next story by Ayan Pal- ‘The Diary of Joseph Varughese’ who is inordinately fond of collecting old diaries and which could turn into her undoing in this thriller-ish story with her boyfriend James emerging as someone we wouldn’t think he would be. The novel diverges into the lives of various characters not holding on strictly to the original characters or story line so that we have Shivi’s friend’s Siya getting a lead place in the next story by Sanchita Sen Das- ‘The Web of Life’ and we venture into the esoteric realm of karma and regressive hypnotherapy.  The novel takes an unexpected route into fatalism and rhetorical musing regarding the aim of writing a story in ‘The Real Fiction Of Illiana Braun’ by Arvind Passey as he effortlessly  merges real life characters of the novel within his own story to surprising results while also propagating the diary as a perfect prop to advance a story line. ‘A Burning Candle’ by Mithun Mukherjee has Illiana  make a new friend in Catherine and find her nemesis in her quest to find the truth about Lily Brown whose story took shape in Kochi and where Illiana found herself in on a trip to India for a workshop on Architecture. Her brief acquaintance with Illiana leads Catherine- a journalist on a mission to Afghanistan to cover a story on situation of women and children there in the next story ‘Relic to Ruins’ by Avanti Sopory. Through her, we get a peep into the life of people in present day Afghanistan as well as that of Jameela and her children. ‘Leap of Faith’ by  Bhaswar Mukherjee, moves the story of Jameela- a fiercely independent  and progressive woman in an atmosphere that encouraged the subjugation of women and the weak but who manages to fight it while her daughter Rukhsana is able to break free of  it all completely and make a life for herself in India. ‘Reclaiming Life’ by  Anupama Jain shows an aspect of women in India not really in control of things concerning themselves as portrayed by Poorni, who is a friend of Rukhsana aka Dimpy, and is helped by latter to gain her lost ground in a patriarchal society as ours. Kamu aka Kamala Devi is the ‘Dragon Lady’, also Poorni’s vampish mother-in-law who has been illustrated vividly by Deepti Menon  in this story that explains why and how she came to be called the ‘dragon’. Her scheming and machinations lead everybody become afraid of her and thus making her succeed in her plans. This is how she also manages for her under qualified son Pankaj to have a better educated and simple girl Poorni as his wife. Pankaj’s younger brother Binoy leaves his mother’s home to find his own bearings in ‘For a Speck of a Moment’ where Amrit Sinha brings to light the terrifying moments of the Cafe Leopold and German Bakery bomb blasts through Binoy who has reached Pune to make a life for himself. He moves ahead in life in ‘To Ma & Pa, Con Amore!’ by Monika Nair, managing to find a wife in Mona Lisa who brings out the struggle between two generations, one- her father Shankar preferring the small town while she her self, the city life.

‘Look Beyond’ by Amar Lakshya Pawar reconnects the lives of a happy couple namely Aditya and Meena, destined for a tragedy as Shankar tries to lend a helping hand in the melee. A recently widowed Meena tries to build a new life with Sudip Roy without knowing much about his past in ‘Dawn to Dusk’ by Bhuvaneshwari Shankar. This penultimate story brings around the story line to the cast of the first story and gets anchored in the end chapter called ‘The Last Act’ by Arpita Banerjee. It attempts to bring a logical closure and peace to the demons raised by Sudip’s actions although quite dramatically!

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Sutapa Basu is an Honours scholar from Santiniketan and holds a Masters degree in English Literature. Her professional career has seen her as a teacher, editor, and publisher. She has worked with renowned international publishing houses like Oxford University Press and Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the last five years of her professional career, she has launched 111 educational titles, 33 CDs and digital products, a language lab and a website. She has also developed and edited over 450 books over the last thirteen years.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER : READOMANIA

India has traditionally been the land of storytellers and a lot of us have an inherent skill of creating good plots, stories and narrations. With a little encouragement and support, many more authors can be widely read. This is the essence of Readomania-an initiative that nurtures emerging stars of the literary world.

Readomania is an online content discovery platform that brings to life a whole new literary world, with stories, authors, books and a lot more. We also have a publishing house that takes the best of Readomania from the online format to print editions and launches debut authors. Our focus is to bring to the market, new authors and novel concepts, a composite novel being one of them. Our previous book, Chronicles of Urban Nomads, a collection of short stories, was also an experimental publication. 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Readomania is the talent hunt in fiction that goes a step beyond, nurtures talent and showcases it to the world, in the process, creating a powerhouse of content.

Our website also has a lot in store for the reader. Since the content is edited and curated, by a strong team of editors, readers get quality reads on a platter. The variety on Readomania is impressively vast; we have romance, emotions, thrills, travel, humour and drama. 

Accessing Readomania makes for a perfect break of fifteen minutes from your daily grind. The website was launched in January, 2014 and is already very popular with about 3500 registered users, of which 300 members are active contributors and authors. The site also boasts of 800 online publications and more than three lakh page views till date.

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Book Review: And We Remained

And We Remained 

by 

Asad Ali Junaid

The Blurb

It is Bangalore in the late 1990’s. There are tremendous socio-economic and cultural transformations taking place as a result of liberalization. How would these changes impact a group of friends in their late teens? How would they cope, find opportunities and what of their original identities would they be left with, after western ideologies are brought in and bombarded into their awareness by cable TV and new media? 

Told through emails and first person account of events, And We Remained is a light and entertaining read of these friends as they experience love, heartbreak, prison, politics, drunken binges, strip clubs, sexcapades, US and Europe during their journey into adulthood


My take on it:

Junaid brings here a breezy and honest-as is where is account of life of an engineering student. This is such a sincere portrayal of a set of students and also their families coming from the middle class; their struggles and boys being boys come what may! It is a story told in a very simple and forthcoming manner.....yeah a no-holds barred definitely as you go through the untraversed territory of the male psyche and habits. :)
Five friends Sahir, Gopal, David, Sandeep and Anand give us a peep into the life in an engineering college where they share the back benches, pretty teacher's classes, a villain of a principal and even a girlfriend in a girl called Wardha, that forms a gamut of collective experiences throughout their seven semesters. This inspires quite some funny, light hearted moments in the narration like the time when due to paucity of money, Sahir and Sandeep end up giving a valentine's day card jointly to the same girl!
The various ups and downs therein form the basis of how they fare in the outside world which is not too great as they find out eventually. The tough life of the youth abroad while the families back home remain blissfully unaware of the hardships they face in the land of opportunity is also highlighted seamlessly into the story.
Since it showcases the lives of these students in the 1990s the emails emergence as the new tool of communication has been put to good use here as a means to relate the story from the various character's point of views.
All in all a light read to be enjoyed by all and also an enlightening one especially for the parents of budding engineering students to get a perspective! 

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Meet the Author

Asad Ali Junaid is a design professional in Bangalore working in the area of Human-Machine Interaction. He aims to resolve problems to enable humans interact and use technology efficiently.
Junaid writes whenever there is a compelling story inside him bursting to get out.  Junaid’s first fiction novel –And We Remained – started as a story which needed to be told… and one which needed to be told differently. He joined a three week in residence ‘Just Write’ fiction writing workshop where he got a chance to learn the nuances of and hone his story telling skills from authors Anil Menon, Anjum Hasan and Rimi Chatterjee. And We Remained then turned into a 52,000 word novel with an absorbing storyline and a unique narration style – the story is set in the 1990’s India and is told through emails and first person accounts of events.  Junaid is getting great feedback for the story depicting the mindset of engineering students in that era and the unique narration style it follows.
Junaid is married and his wife is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore working in the area of Molecular Biophysics. Their toddler completes their home while keeping them on their toes.

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Book Review: The Rozabal Line

Republished from wordpress blog with the same title:

Book Review: The Rozabal Line

Well! This is the Indian version of the famous Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The discerning point here is that what Mr Dan Brown indicates not very emphatically, Mr Ashwin Sanghi bases this book on that very premise namely that Jesus  came to India after the crucifixion and lived as a messenger of God among the local people and in fact died here too. Mr Sanghi’s book begins by detailing a crypt in the depths of Kashmir mountains that is believed to be the grave of Jesus and is known by the name Yuz Asaf locally.

In fact the whole book is a continuation of factual details mixed with some fiction and simultaneously concluding how all religions are actually a derivation or have been linked to each other in some form or other. The prophecies at various times of the world coming to an end, the bloodshed, murders and all good or bad things are a consequence of one’s karma, is all interconnected with all the peoples of the world– is what Mr Sanghi tells us in this very descriptive and interesting book.

There is no single hero or heroine but the various characters whether a murderer or a priest in distant parts of the world, find themselves coming face to face as a natural process of their karma and actually a one and only one shared history that we have with each other although some links have become blurred with time.

I found the book quite engaging, well paced, and well researched work of historical fiction, one that will make you like history if you’d never liked the subject in the past.