Random...

I have been wanting to write about a few things from last couple of weeks. Like writing up a review of “Despicable me 2” which I watched. Then, I was in the live audience of a TEDx event and thoroughly enjoyed most of the talks.

But then sometimes if I don’t write them soon after I feel like wanting to write about them, a little later it feels like a self imposed assignment! 

I read excellent reviews for “Bhaag Milkha bhaag”, but the duration of the movie somehow is not very encouraging. Even D-Day reviews are good. Let me see which movies I really end up watching in the theaters. 

I watched the movie - "Love in the time of cholera" yesterday. Having read the book, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie. The passages from the book kept coming back. Then a thought occurred to me, had I not read the book, I dont think I can appreciate such movies. There are a lot of subtleties in the visual medium, which I cannot right away get, particularly when the cultural aspect of the backdrop and the time in which it is set is not familiar. The book on the other hand gives a lot of context and is easier to follow and you as a reader can decide on the pace.

 Well, the weather in Bangalore does not permit much these days, if it is drizzling in the evenings, all that one wishes to do is get cozy in bed with a nice book!

Of Love and Other Demons...

Author : Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Translated from the Spanish by Edith Crossman.
Pages : 160

Intense. Gripping. Moving.

A twelve year old Sierva Maria, daughter of a noble man - the Marquis, is bitten by a rabid dog. Months pass by, there are no signs of rabies. With a mother who hates and an indifferent father, she finds a family amidst the slaves and speaks many African dialects.
Rumors spread - about her being possessed by the demons when she shows no signs of rabies even after months.

The "authorities" gets involved and a young priest is made in charge of exorcising the evil spirits. As he gets to know her better, he realizes what the real demons are. A young man, a teenage girl. The more they spend time, the more they end up in love. And the world they inhabit, does not understand.

The narration is lyrical. Expressions like "..the enormous tolling of four o'clock sounded in the cathedral and resounded in his belly." and "...a tunic of coarse linen with patches worn thin by abuses of soap." made me wonder that such familiar knowledge of the senses could so wonderfully be translated to words and with such economy!

Very enjoyable.

This particular observation am going to make does not concern the review of this book - these days, am not sure of the exact reasons, but when I read/watch a story, I appreciate and accept it for what it is and have the patience to hang on - till it gets gripping. Hmmmm how nice is that!

Immortality...

Author : Milan Kundera

A few weeks, the first time I paid attention to the name Milan Kundera(In Pamuk’s – “The naïve and the sentimental novelist”), the Indian-ness of the name struck me. I was curious how I had missed an Indian writer who had impressed Pamuk. I wiki-ed and found he was actually Czech born. Later I started looking out for his books and the first one I found was “Immortality”.

First impression :  Great ideas thrown at you in randomness. On the cover is a review quote that says – “It will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover. Not many novels can do that.” (The smart cover designer put in a place where a reader notices it despite the small font.) I was curious, “a better lover" of what!? I could not keep the book back, the question was too interesting not to pursue.

After a few chapters, when the seeming haphazard-ness of topics, thoughts, ideas – brilliant though when I considered them individually, I so deeply wished for some order, some chronology and some sense in the bigger picture terms. But I could not give up, nonetheless. What about the answer I was seeking. It took some effort to keep me going and I felt like a “wanna-be” intellectual trying to read something smart, just because it claims to be – and to seem smart and in the process hoping the book smartens you in some-way kind!

I, as a reader am very comfortable in my skin. I care not much about being an intellectual. I say so, because at a certain time, I strove to be one, but no more. I am more the fun kind of a reader – no strings attached, just seeking pleasure in the company of a book, if I could say so! I prefer reading anything that I can lay my hands on and interests me. I just want to read all kinds of interesting books just to see how it feels.

Cons:

It was like the novelist took no pain to arrange his thoughts. Just wrote them as it occurred to him(Was there no editor at all one wonders initially!), he keeps throwing Goethe, Beethoven, Bettina, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin at you, amidst the actual characters – I take the liberty to use “actual” since the author himself talks of a heroine for his novel, and I refer to her and everyone related to her as the actual characters. References to history and Bible(Kundera suddenly mentions “Simon” like we all know him and you wonder who is Simon now, although from context I get what Kundera wants to say, I was plainly irritated by the suddenness! I look at the author when he writes in first person - like a good friend who takes me through the story introducing people I do not know and maintains that basic courtesy and not throw people and references at you like that! Or is it precisely so, that he thinks of you as a good friend, he takes the liberty to do so! J ).

I did not even know Goethe, Beethoven and Napoleon were contemporaries! I was only glad I knew they existed once! Then I suddenly find Goethe talking to Ernest Hemingway and give up all hopes of recollecting anybody from history correctly, when to my relief it turns out its an imaginary conversation they have in the other world!

There are some places where nothing seems to make sense, and you need to have patience! That’s one thing that this novel almost demands as a pre-requisite(if you are like me – a first time reader of Kundera i.e)!

Pros:

If you pursue with a little more patience, you will slowly get a hang of his narrative style and random references don’t annoy you anymore. It does not bother you if you don’t understand what Kundera is talking about when he seems to start off on something totally new thus far , because in the next few lines or paragraphs you know it will be made clear and he will give you more context eventually. And his references may be seem absurd, but on closer observation you don’t need to know history or Bible to get what he is saying – it’s the parallels he draws - between the people of then and now, of the situations then and now – and how what you say has been said before – someone else in history has been there and done that - how what you think has been thought before, what you feel has been felt before, that gesture – that facial expression – that feature- you think is unique to you, could be your mother’s or father’s or someone in your family tree so long ago before you, that you never got to see! When you get it, you go wow! 

His observations about many things change the way you feel about things. The way he talks about ‘life theme’(something like - even if you started your life all over again, it would more or less be the same, set around the same theme!) , how time is circular and how beautifully he puts it.

Brilliance! Great observations. That acute sense of humor! A joy to read! (All these appear at the back cover including “one of those great unclassifiable masterpieces that appear once every twenty years” – taken from book reviews, but these were my feelings as well – like the book says, what I have to say has been said before! :P)

You need to have patience for wonderful things to unfold and make sense to you. When it is in progress, it may or may not make any sense. Wait. Patience is a virtue. J

I was in no hurry to finish the book, I savored passages that I enjoyed - slowly, soaking the ideas, warming up to the brilliance and germinating thoughts. Mostly with a smile!

Some brilliant lines from the book. They are flavored with humor, that only makes the brilliance strike you with a smile.

Check these out:

“When someone is young, he is not capable of conceiving of time as a circle, but thinks of it as a road leading forward to ever-new horizons; he does not yet sense that his life contains just a single theme; he will come to realize it only when his life begins to enact its first variations.”

“…Nineteenth-century writers often ended their novels with marriage. This was not because they wanted to save the love story from marital boredom. No, they wanted to save it from intercourse!”

“I think, therefore I am is a statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches. I feel, therefore I am is a truth much more universally valid, and it applies to everything that’s alive”.

“Many people, few ideas: we all think more or less the same, and we exchange, borrow, steal thoughts from one another. However, when someone steps on my foot, only I feel the pain. The basis of the self is not the thought but suffering, which is the most fundamental of all feelings. While it suffers, not even a cat can doubt its unique and uninterchangeable self. In intense suffering the world disappears and each of us is alone with his self. Suffering is the university of geocentricism.”

My take : Highly recommend it! Go ahead, enjoy! J

P.S: I found my answer to “a better a lover of what!?” question. Icing on the cake, indeed!

A favor...

Years ago, I wrote a post. It was a simple, yet profound idea.
Usually, I shy away from asking. Well, if "you dont ask the answer is always a 'no'".
Hmm so am going to do some asking to the Universe! :)
I am asking you - the reader, for a favor. I have been wanting something for a while now. Can you please pray for me? :) Thank you!

Lootera...

Movie : Lootera

Language : Hindi

Why did I watch : New release, a period movie set in 1950s around the time when Zamindari system got abolished, looked interesting from the promos.

(Why do I even have this section when I write movie reviews I wonder, I just love the theaters, the darkness, the big screens, the uninterrupted joy of watching the movie, the surround sound, the smell of popcorns, the promos before the movie starts! I love the experience of watching movies on the big screen! I anyway watch most of the new releases with a decent imdb rating.)

My take : A Zamindar in Bengal dotes on his only daughter - Pakhi, and tries his best to be the mother as well, whom she has lost.  A young archaeologist Varun comes along and asks the Zamindar for the permission to excavate around the temple with a golden idol, that belongs to the Zamindar. Turns out Varun is not who he claims to be, but unwittingly falls in love with the Pakhi. Torn between the “duty” of being a “looter” and a lover, the twists and turns of the story demand for a decision and he chooses duty, as he feels that is in the “best” interest of his lover.

The world, even in the 1950s was round, and of course they meet! What happens when they meet - does she take revenge or let go, does she love him or hate him – that consists the rest of the story.

There is a scene where you know their fate – Varun and Pakhi’s i.e, but with all your being you wish they could be together when you know however you see it, there is no way that is possible – that moment of absolute helplessness of the twisted fate of the two lovers and sincere wish against all odds, contradicting one another – I was almost in tears for Varun, although he is the bad guy!

The chemistry between Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha as Varun and Pakhi is quite good. There is a scene where they look at each other and exchange feelings worth several pages of dialogs. And you sigh, getting it all!

It is inspired from a O’Henry’s short story - “The last leaf”. I would say worth my while and money. Enjoyed the show.

The naïve and the sentimental novelist...

It is a series of lectures by Orhan Pamuk. I had read his books ‘Istanbul’ and ‘My name is red’, and ever since, loved the way he writes. This book is a personal account of what Pamuk thinks about how the novel is read and what goes through in the mind of the reader. He sometimes gives an academic background and sometimes gives insights about his own experiences while reading or writing a novel. The latter is what interests me more. I am also making a note of the books he seems very impressed with, for future reading.

This on the dedication page, made me smile - To Kiran Desai.

I could relate to a lot things I do as a reader, as I read through the first chapter – “What our minds do when we read novels”

- like I try to guess which part is fiction and which part is real in story based on the author’s own life experiences!

- I also take moral stands sometimes about the characters and at times it actually affects my pace of reading, I realized this influence after reflecting on what I read on the subject! I need to understand the characters for who they are to enjoy the story better. In future I got to remember this!

- at times I keep looking for hidden meaning in anything, even when there may be none!

- I imagine what may happen next while I am reading and sometimes am thrilled if it turns out some other way and sometimes disappointed.

- keep searching for that “core” of the novel .

The second chapter/lecture is called “Mr.Pamuk, did all this really happen to you?”. It deals with how readers sometimes speculate and to an extent believe that some facts about the protagonist of the novel is based on the author itself. Pamuk gives an anecdote from his experience.

The third chapter is called “Literary character, plot, time.  I found really interesting – “People do not actually have as much character as we find portrayed in novels, especially in nineteenth –and –twentieth –century novels.” He being a 57 year old at the time of writing this goes on to say “human character is not nearly as important in shaping our lives as it is made out to be in the novels...”. When I sometimes unconsciously compared myself to a character I was reading about in a novel, it would leave me dissatisfied, I kind of know now the reason!

While describing the role of a plot in a novel, he says that protagonists are not just invented. A novelist’s desire to explore a certain topic shapes the world of the protagonist. The writer tries to see the world through the protagonist and this could leave aspects of the writer in the protagonist as well vice-versa. Very, very interesting thoughts and to me they give a fresh perspective.

Words, picture, objects – in this chapter Pamuk talks about two kinds of writers – visual writers and verbal writers – based on whether the writer triggers the visual imagination of the reader or the textual imagination.

A chapter titled “Museums and Novels” draws parallels between museums and novels. J There are interesting observations on how a reader sometimes uses the novel she is reading to give a certain image.

“The center” deals the core of every novel. The kernel around which the narration evolves. He mentions as a writer, the techniques employed sometimes to make the center less evident while sometimes efforts are made to make it more evident. There are some philosophical thoughts about life and its meaning in the same context, about how the center is what the reader and the writer strive for in a novel and how that gives satisfaction to both.

It is not a book I would read in one shot. I was reading other stuff and would come back to read a chapter and take a break before returning to it.

Pamuk uses metaphors to get across certain aspects of the art of writing a novel– like a scene from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, which he uses to compare finer aspects on novel writing, while another - classical Chinese landscape painting, he uses to bring out the “bigger-picture” aspects. There are several of these, but these were the ones used across the lectures, so I remember it.

Reading the book, has made me more of a conscious reader. I become aware now, when I am “judging” a character rather than understanding it. When I began reading the book, I thought I was the naïve kind of a reader, but gradually realized that am not solely of any kind, sometimes naïve and sometimes sentimental/reflective reader. I had not imagined a book on such a subject, since it has a more academic tone, to keep me absorbed! Pleasantly surprised indeed! J

Sawaar lu....haaye sawaar lu...

This song from the new release "Lootera" called "Sawaar lu" is so melodious and has an old world charm - sounds like a song from some Dev Anand movie. The simple lyrics, beats, the voice of the singer(Monali Thakur) - totally, a mesmerizingly beautiful song! It has a playfulness to it that makes me smile.

This part of the lyrics particularly caught my attention and I took an instant liking to those lines:

"Baramade puraane hain, nayi si dhoop hai

Jo palke khatkhata raha hai kiska roop hai

Shararatein kare jo aise bhoolke hijab

Kaise usko naam se, main pukar lu

Sawaar lu, sawaar lu"

The song picturization is also nicely done. 

Have been humming the song for a few days now...

Summertime...

Author: J M Coetzee

A young biographer - Vincent tries to construct the life of a deceased Nobel laureate - John Coetzee– at the time of which John was trying to establish himself as a writer, through his thirties - with a series of interviews of various people, mostly women. Vincent chooses these people based on John’s notes.

It is a reflective piece of fiction. Autobiographical to an extent.

My great take-aways:

o   The whole narrative is a series of interviews. Lovely conversations. Delightful insights. [This is what I feel - Conversations, interesting and engaging,  be it with a person or in a book, active or passively involved,  are one of the best indulgences of life. ]

o   The women interviewed seem very real. That goes to show the author has a great sense of observation and understanding of the human nature.

o   Great men, even a Nobel laureate for that matter, may have confusions, needs to sort of things to getter a perspective, may not be sure of his calling and lead a “boring” existence! Lives of great people may not be a series of exciting events. [ No one ever claimed so, just that as a child I expected life to be a series of fun adventures and exciting moments as an adult – the greater the person, the more I felt his/her life was interesting. Only life itself, literature and insightful interactions sobered me down to accept the plainness of adulthood and the ordinariness of life!]

o   John is an introvert [And it turns out, an introvert is not closed or cold when he starts writing!]. The book has interviews at first followed by notes of John. One of the points in the notes about dance can be linked back to the what a Brazilian woman thought were John’s undue advances (as shared in an interview) when he tried to learn dance from her! It is actually comical if you could link the two!

o   A grown man’s struggle to understand his own father, how without a woman the two men of the family have nothing to bond over and just co-habituate uncomfortably! He is ill at ease with people who are not ill at ease! He is a product of a damaged childhood, as his notes say. His relationships and expectations from women don’t seem natural, it takes effort on his part to even have them in his life, he is not sure if he belongs in their world and all of it is obvious to the women.

In the notes section there is a mention of one John’s lists titled – “Ways of doing away with oneself”.

If literature cannot open up to you the life in all its variations, and give a peek into minds and lives of people very different from yourself, what else would? Life is too short to know all kinds of people. And it is always a pleasure to read a book like this.

o   There are very interesting ideas, to ponder, muse about. Hmmmmmm. Thoughts and ideas that makes the reader feel like having a very intimate conversation with the author(of course the reader is a “good” listener here!)  are some of the best moments of reading a book. This is at the fag end of the book, and by then you know the kind of person John is. I was nodding, smiling and couldn’t agree more!

o   I love the cover picture of the book. This was what caught my attention first.

Enjoyed reading the book a great deal. A delight. Makes me wish living was as pleasurable an experience as reading a well written book! J

Now you see me....well, I almost did!

Movie : Now you see me

Language : English

Why did I watch the movie : New release, promo was too good!

My take: Very interesting idea – four magician loot a bank and distribute the loot among the audience, during a magic show in Las Vegas! There is no evidence that the police can use against them. The movie begins with a series of interesting magic tricks by the 4 magicians, and you as audience would be thrilled! Then the 4 of them meet and magic tricks at a grander scale happen and wow you. 

Then comes the climax. It seems so hurried. You would be eager to know how the earlier “magical” stuff would get explained and you are waiting. More or less you are left with the same feeling even at the end of the movie! Except for the last 15-20mins, the movie is wonderfully exciting. Liked all the magic. J

Beauty and the wrath - in the beautiful lands...

Have been reading reports of the floods in Uttarakhand over the past 15-20 days. I had been there last August and a week or two before I went there were flash floods. But I never imagined the magnitude of floods to be as it is now.

While I was there I had seen land slides, fallen bridges, the tar of the roads swept away by rains make the rides bumpy. Had experienced the perils of driving in the rainy weather on the winding narrow roads sitting next to the driver in a small bus. On one side was a mountainous “wall”, that could give way anytime and rain boulders, stones, pebbles and soil, and anything that the loosened earth from the rains had in it, which was just yielding to gravity. On the other side were the deep valleys, beautiful for an onlooker but if the vehicle lost control, hardly anything recognizable could be retrieved.

Can you spot the road there?!

Rubble from a land slide...

Life there is not easy like in the plains, everyday is an adventure if you think about it. The most beautiful picturesque river can wash everything in the way if the rains persist. I remember so distinctly sitting on the banks of river Ganga in Haridwar, just keeping my legs in the water sitting on the steps – that itself kind of scared me, because the current of the river was so strong and just the immersion of a few centimeters of myself was enough to make me feel like being carried away by the mighty river. I am talking of the calmer times of the river when the river was flowing well within the danger limits. Imagining the ferocity of the river during the floods is plain scary.

A bridge view of civilization on the banks... 

Some say the calamity is man-made, deforestation loosens the soil, the washed away soil increases the level of the water in rivers, the rivers gets ruthless almost to the extent of wiping out the very civilization it had created around the banks.

My sincere wish is to preserve the forests, rivers, valleys, lakes and mountains of Uttarakhand, it is the land of a lot of the most beautiful places on earth. 

Engulfing beauty - a blissful feeling!

I have had spiritual experiences just looking at the wonderful natural wonders here. May peace and green prevail.

Picturesque journeys, happy memories!