Blast from past

I don't know by what quirk of fate, I bought two books, Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence and Orhan Pamuk's My name is Red from a book vendor. I was fascinated by Rushdie's Midnight's Children before and that was the precise reason I bought his novel. Orhan Pamuk's novel I selected because the vendor suggested it. "Sab forenwalein yahi book lethe hain". How could I ignore such an expert opinion. I ended up buying two novels that are quite different from each other in style and plot but have quite a few similarities also. Both are stories happening in two different parts of the world at the same period, around 1580 AD. Both are exotic recreation of a splendid era of two powerful nations of the same period... And both are fabulous reads... 

Enchantress of Florence is the story of  the life of a Mughal princess who was lost at the time of Babar and how  her arrival after two generations changes the fate of a city made by wealthiest emperor of Hindustan, Akbar. A handsome foreigner arrives at the darbar of  Akbar, pausing as the messenger of Queen of England, murdering the real messenger on the way. The reason for his arrival is to tell a tale... of the beautiful Mughal  princess and a Turk warrior of Italian origin (It seems Rushdie has an obsession depicting people with a multiple cultural background) spanning a hundred years and three continents. And through the tale, the princess comes alive... As in Midnight's children, Rushdie weaves the story by using fictional and real characters, like Akbar, Amerigo Vespucci, Birbal and Thansen... And another queer depiction is of the fictional queen, Jodhabai, a figment of imagination of Akbar, who lives as a shadow in the palace of Fatehpur Sikri, respected and envied by all, including the other queens (real of course) till the other princess, Qara Koz, comes alive in the Emperor's imagination dethroning Jodha. I wonder how people will react to the theme of an imaginary Jodha after watching Aishwarya Rai as Jodha in the Bollywood extravaganza Jodha Akbar. I think, it will be fine considering the shadowy acting of Mrs Bachchan. The novel starts with the image of a lonely traveller arriving near a lake and imagining it to be filled with golden water, a mirage created by setting sun. But Enchantress of Florence, is no mirage... it is true gold, thanks to the splendid plot setting, larger than life characters, and non linear mode of story telling... 

Next novel, Orhan Pamuk's My name is Red, tells the story of a murder mystery happening around the same time, but in Turkey.  A miniaturist working on illuminating a secret and controversial book commissioned by Sultan is murdered. The murder opens a Pandora's box... Several questions are asked on politics, religion, art and the relation between them, an old love is rekindled, much to the worry of others who don't want it to happen for various reasons, an all out war between traditional and modern thinking is started and the only solution... lies in the identification of murderer and his motive. Thus Black Effendi, who is brought back from exile for completing the book after the murder, starts a journey into the magical world of books and paintings to get some clue about the murderer.... This book is not as extravagant or exotic as former, requiring great attention from the reader. Many pages are dedicated to the style and history of Ottoman illustration and book making, and discussions on religion and art. The narration of each chapter is done by different characters of the novel, including the dead man and the murderer (without revealing the identity of course). Even non human elements like Dog, Satan, Death and coin narrates some part of the story. But if you are dedicated to read through all these hurdles... I assure that you will have a great read...