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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