Luka and the Fire of Life

Quizzers make good chefs as they are very good at cooking up juicy factoids (or what in the Age of the Wiki is known as “unverified facts” or “citation required”). One such urban legend is that of the 15-Page club – an exclusive club made up of millions of people who give up reading a Rushdie book after 15 pages.

Whether such a club exists or not is not the point. Assuming a hypothetical or notional community of readers who realise they are intellectually incapable of taking in anymore (after page 15 that is), I can say that but for one or two books, I have been a finisher (and with relish). The two books I could not finish, The Moor’s Last Sigh (after about 150 pages) and The Ground Beneath Her Feet (this one ended after 20 pages or so) . In fact the only part about this novel that I have seriously engaged with is the U2 number.

But there is one book that I have read more than three times – Haroun and the Sea of Stories. So when Luka happened “a companion to Haroun“, I had to read it of course. There is not much to spoil with sharing what the book is about because the magic is not in the story as much as it is in the narrative and the language. For all of us who have lived and continue to live in the world of riddles, magic, myths, legends and fables with simple morals, this book brings back the same old memories presented in the form of a Quest (an eternal favourite story telling device). In this Luka like his older brother Haroun and Quest-mate Frodo Baggins takes us along to meet the Insultana of Ott, the Respectorate of Rats, the Elephant Ducks (who remember everything. If there is anything they don’t remember, it means that thing never happened), the Badly Behaved Gods and his two incredible companions Dog the Bear and Bear the Dog. And of course a lot events happen which are P2C2E. The land of Kahani and the Magic world of Rashid Khalifa are as enchanting as Middle Earth or Faraway Tree or the strange lands visited by Sindbad.

Salil Tripathi writes

The novel sets its adult theme — a man growing old, his powers diminishing, facing death — in an engrossing thriller for younger readers. The ability to engage different generations is the hallmark of both novels. What also resonates in each is the central theme — freedom.

There is a neat video of the book

If you haven’t picked up your copy as yet, I suggest you do so immediately.

In the Fullness of Time – Random clippings from three books

There are three different books that I am currently reading – Romila Thapar’s Early India, Michel Danino’s The Lost River and JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit (part of my periodic pilgrimage to middle earth).  And three different lines written in altogether different contexts seemed to somehow link up.

Gollum, waiting hungrily to eat up Bilbo, poses a riddle:

This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays kings, ruins town.
And beats high mountains down

The answer is Time. Bilbo almost did not get the answer and in a bid to ask Gollum for more time, shrieked “Time! Time!”.

However, when reading about the Saraswati, Michel Danino talks about the drying up and disappearance of the river over time. One major tectonic event that may have happened was the Yamuna tear. It is believed that an earthquake shifted the course of the Yamuna (which was earlier feeding into the Saraswati) southwards. Danino writes:

… a small opening and eastwad tilt in the slopes would have been enough to funnel parrt of the glacier-fed rivers through the new gap; erosion would have done the rest in the course of time.

This among other events like the westward shift in the course of the Satluj has led to the Saraswati disappearing. From being “limitless, unbroken, swift-moving” as described in the Rig Veda, it becomes “Saraswati’s streams lost in the barbarous sandy wastes” in Kalidasa’s Shakuntala. Over two-three millennia, the river had become a lost stream.

The fact that “Ancient” history covers such large literally earth-changing events along with the resultant changes in civilisation makes Romila Thapar write:

“Ancient” in Indian history remains an imprecise term, conveying little of the nature of the period, and “Medieval” merely means the middle. In addition, the Ancient period covers a large enough span to include major changes within it.

She then proceeds to suggest an alternate periodisation just to cover the “Ancient” part of the story. This includes the period of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and early farmers; the first urbanisation of the Indus plain and north-west India upto the Mauryan state c 200 BCE. Her logic being:

Determining periods in history is important, but it is equally important to determine the cause of change, a question sometimes referred to as that of the transition from one period to another. Even specific changes may begin casually, but if they occur with sufficient frequency they can give a new direction to the way society functions and this encapsulates historical change.

Thus, three different perspectives on time. And to close on a humourous note, the classic from Sir Humphrey Appleby:

… at the appropriate juncture, in due course, in the fullness of time…

 

Ten Thousand!

“Ten Thousand bombs had landed on Beirut and I was waiting for George“

From the opening line to the last word, Rawi Hage’s De Niro’s Game makes the numeral 10,000 into a metaphor for chaos, infinity and action. It resounds through the novel as the protagonist lives through a civil war.

The story is nice but the use of the English language by a writer whose first two languages are Arabic and French is commendable. This is my favourite line:

I looked at the sky. It was covered with light signals from faraway planets bursting with gas and the happy bonfires of dead humans singing warriors’ songs in a landscape of burning rocks, and sending Morse code signals to ships steered by alcoholic captains into islands inhabited by sirens who sing in cabarets and offer up their salty sex organs that taste like the marinated fish of Sunday’s family gatherings after the families have endured the moralistic discourse of fat priests who douse congregations with incense spilled from the pendulum motion of their jerking hands, a motion that rocks like the swings in parks that are swamped with baby strollers pushed by Filipino nannies on temporary visas and with small paycheques that are transferred at Christmas to faraway families who live in huts by the sea and receive Morse code signals from those old creatures from astral space.

Whew! What a sentence.

John Le Carre – A Most Wanted Man

I just finished John Le Carre’s A Most Wanted Man, his latest novel. Le Carre has found a new canvas – the Jihad and the blundering of the intelligence community. In my view, this is one of his best in the post-Smiley era. My personal top three would include this book along with The Russia House and The Constant Gardener.

A key element of Le Carre in the post-Smiley era has been the clear focus on the people and lesser importance given to the tradecraft of the intelligence community. The characters have a more deeper and more human personification. There is more to read about how each character is thinking. It was there earlier too but there were fair number of pages devoted to tradecraft.

A Most Wanted Man continues this. Who is a terrorist? And who is killing for a just cause? The lines are blurred. There’s a British private banker who discovers that not all the funds he has are being used or were used for legitimate purposes. There is a lawyer who does not want to believe that her client can be anything but a victim. There are spooks who want to remove anyone with even the slightest of “Islamic” tradition in their life. There are governments, allies in the “war on terror”, who don’t trust each other.

As in Le Carre’s novels in the past, there is no winner or losers. There are victims who move from one state of being to another. There are political winners, winners because of their self-proclaimed righteousness and dedication to their “war on terror”.

I suppose a film based on this book would be coming soon.

AR Rahman – The Musical Storm

Kamini Mathai’s “AR Rahman – The Musical Storm” is a fascinating book on many counts. At times it is slow, repetitive and seems to be full of eulogies. But it also opens up AR Rahman’s world with some interesting insights into one of the most brilliant individuals of our times.

As a fan of AR Rahman and , there are many questions I have e.g. how does he get that song to a level where even if one tries, one can never just listen casually and get away with it?

Take for example the song Jaage Hain from Guru (2008).

I have the song on my phone and have had the opportunity to listen to it while traveling to office or returning back. It starts with a simple soft prayer like chant. And then the strings team start. And there’s a break. Then ARR’s voice breaks in, again slowly, almost cracking up. And then he jumps to a high pitch. By this time you have goosebumps, your mind is jammed trying at one level to keep pace with the musical journey while gathering the meaning of Gulzar’s lyrics. And then all hell breaks loose with the choir.

Listening to every song made by AR Rahman is an experience, an experience that is both spiritual (in the sense it takes into the meaning of the song) and material (in the sense that it entertains you).

Answers to such questions is what one seeks when one reads any writing on the man. Kamini does not disappoint. I was able to discern three main insights into the man from the book.

1. AR Rahman (note: He does not like to be called Rahman as it is the name of Allah. Instead AR, ARR or AR Rahman in full) takes music as a form of devotion, one with his faith. A pious Muslim, his faith is a source of strength and peace and for him, composing music is a holy act of creation that serves as a focal point of all his energies.

He is known for taking enormous time with his tunes, often delaying movie releases. When people come to meet him, they have to wait because he is busy inside his studio. Even though he says he will be out in 10 minutes, it is not always so. Quoting from the book, AR Rahman says he immerses himself into the music and the act of composing music. When he is in that state, he will get out only when it is done – to his satisfaction.

That immersion, on hindsight, can be felt in every composition of his.

2. AR Rahman never filches from anyone. Everyone is given a credit. Even the person who does backing vocals and only does “la la la”. And he does not direct. He just says “Play something”. Or “Just be free”. Or “Make it wild”. And his musicians, singers, lyric writers, engineers do just that.

Naveen, a flautist, was asked to “play something”. A few notes were given. So he played. You can hear his “something” in the Bombay Theme

All this means that not only is AR Rahman creating, he is getting everyone around him to be creative as well.

3. There was one line in the book “every song should be a masterpiece”. That kind of says it all.

I duly recommend reading this book – to really understand how an individual can create brilliance.

Book Review: My Friend Sancho

All this week, Amit Varma’s My Friend Sancho would be hitting stores across the country. It has already hit Mumbai and yours truly had the good fortune of picking up a copy (signed by the author, of course). You can catch up with Amit around the country. The schedule is on his blog

Cover Art of My Friend Sancho, Image Owner: The India Uncut Blog

Here’s my review (without any spoilers)

This book is recommended for the free and light writing style. The story is tight and short. There is no meandering and wastefulness. The language is open and accessible. No big words. No flaunting of one’s vocabulary. Not surprisingly, the writing style is consistent with the India Uncut style.

I have lost the reading habit over the last few years with all the heavy stuff I need to read at work. Reading long posts in blogs are extremely tiresome for me. This book addresses that problem. I finished the book in one sitting briefly interrupted for lunch.

It may be passed off as another pop fiction. But then, that’s what Amit aims for. I don’t think he really cares about it being a literary classic. Hell, I don’t think it should make into English language textbooks. But then, why not?

For fans of India Uncut, a short message (spoiler warning)

Many references to the author incorporated in the book. The repeated browsing by the protagonist of the India Uncut blog is a plug for the author’s own blog. Repeated oft. Can be after a point irritating. Other references include black coffee, visiting a large book store in a mall in Andheri, playing poker online and the Bongness.  References to a certain elite mailing list that Amit is part of including one on infant sacrifices.

Final Verdict

It was a good entertaining read. And it has triggered an appetite for more of the same.