മാടൻ മോക്ഷം- ദൈവങ്ങളുടെ പരിണാമഗാഥ

 മാടൻ മോക്ഷം. ദൈവങ്ങളുടെ പരിണാമഗാഥ. നൂറു സിംഹാസനം എന്ന അച്ചുവാർപ്പുകളെ തച്ചുതകർത്ത കൃതിക്കു ശേഷം ജയമോഹനെ വീണ്ടും വായിക്കാനെടുത്തപ്പോൾ അതിൽക്കുറഞ്ഞത് പ്രതീക്ഷിച്ചിരുന്നില്ല. മാടൻ മോക്ഷം അതിൽക്കവിഞ്ഞു നിന്നു. അധികാരശ്രേണിയിൽ താഴേക്കിടയിൽ നിൽക്കുന്നവന്റെ ദൈവത്തിന് അന്നം മുട്ടി, വെള്ളം മുട്ടി, അവന്റെ പ്രജകളെപ്പോലെ അവനും കുരിശുവഴിയിലേക്ക് തിരിയും എന്ന് ഭീഷണിപ്പെട്ടപ്പോൾ, മത-രാഷ്ട്രീയ അച്ചുതണ്ട് ഇടപെട്ട് പദവി ഉയർത്തി അവനെ സനാതനിയാക്കിക്കൊടുത്തു. മനുഷ്യൻ മറുകണ്ടം ചാടിയാൽ സഹിക്കാം. എന്നാൽ ദൈവം അങ്ങനെ ചാടിയാൽ സഹിക്കുമോ? 

സാന്ദ്രതയേറിയ സമൂഹവിമർശനം ആക്ഷേപഹാസ്യാത്മകമായി അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കൊച്ചു കൃതി. ജൈവികമായ ദേവസങ്കല്പത്തെ രാഷ്ട്രീയലക്ഷ്യത്തിനായി, കിട മത്സരങ്ങളിൽ ജയിക്കാനുള്ള ഉപായമായി, ചുറ്റുമതിലിനുള്ളിൽ തളച്ചിടുമ്പോൾ ദേവനും യഥാർത്ഥ ഭക്തനുമായുള്ള ആത്മബന്ധം എന്നെന്നേക്കുമായി പറിച്ചെറിയുന്നത് കാണിക്കുന്നു. തനിക്ക് കൈകൂപ്പാനും, ഊട്ടാനും, കൂടെ ഇരുത്താനും, ശകാരിക്കാനും, ഉപദേശിക്കാൻ പോലും സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യമുള്ള ദൈവം, ശ്രീകോവിലിൽ തളയ്ക്കപ്പെടുകയും, കയറി ഒന്ന് കാണാനുള്ള സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം വിലക്കപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്യപ്പെട്ട പൂജാരിയുടെ അവസ്ഥ. ഒരുകാലത്തു നാട്ടുകാരുടെ പരമാധികാരിയായിരിക്കുകയും, എന്നാൽ ഇന്ന് സഞ്ചാരസ്വാതന്ത്ര്യവും, ഭക്ഷണസ്വാതന്ത്ര്യവും പോട്ടെ, മനസ്സറിഞ്ഞ് ഒന്ന് ചിരിക്കാൻ പോലും പറ്റാത്ത ദൈവത്തിന്റെ അവസ്ഥ. മാടൻ സ്വാമിക്ക് മോക്ഷമല്ല യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ കിട്ടിയതെന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവിലാണ് വായന അവസാനിക്കുക.

1989ൽ തമിഴിൽ രചിക്കപ്പെട്ട കൃതിയുടെ മലയാള പരിഭാഷ ചെയ്തത് രചയിതാവ് തന്നെ. അന്നത്തെ ജീവിതസാഹചര്യങ്ങൾ മാറിയെങ്കിലും സമൂഹമനോഭാവം ഇന്നും അതുതന്നെയെന്ന് ഈ വായനയിൽ നമുക്കു ബോദ്ധ്യപ്പെടും. തദ്ദേശ സാഹിത്യത്തെയും, കലയെയും, സിനിമയെയും, വ്യാപാരത്തെയും, എന്തിന്, ഭക്ഷണത്തെയും വെള്ളത്തെപ്പോലും വിഴുങ്ങുന്ന കുത്തകഭീമന്മാർക്കിടയിൽ ദൈവത്തിന് മാത്രം എന്ത് രക്ഷ? 

Book Review- Stolen Family: Captive in Saudi Arabia by Johanne Durocher

In 2001, a Canadian girl of seventeen fell in love with a Saudi man, who claimed that he was a student in Canada, and became pregnant. When he was deported back to Saudi Arabia, she decided to follow him with the baby, thinking that she could return whenever she wanted. Little did she know that she would be trapped there, in a violent marriage marred with abject poverty, and that no bureaucracy or diplomacy would take the step to hear her pleas and relieve her of her egregious distress. Her mother moved heaven and earth to repatriate her and her children back to Canada, and still, after more than one and a half decades, she continues the fight.

Stolen Family is the real-life account of the plight of Nathalie Morin, who got trapped in Saudi Arabia, as told by her mother, Johanne Durocher. It also details the immense struggle of Johanne to ensure the safe return of Nathalie and her children back to Canada and the personal losses that she had to endure in her effort. The book was originally written in French, and Netgalley gave me an ebook of the upcoming English translation by J. C. Sutcliffe, in exchange for my honest feedback.

It is a very shocking book to read. To imagine that the events described in it have happened or are playing out in our times is very disturbing. In hindsight, it is easy to blame Nathalie for her erroneous decision-making and for not backing off when there were several evident danger signals. It is also easy to blame Johanne for not trying harder to avoid the traps into which her daughter fell, in spite of her being a victim of similar crimes.

But nothing can excuse the devious and underhand manner in which her husband trapped Nathalie in a foreign land and forced her to conceive three times more, binding her more to Saudi law. Equally dicey is the Saudi authority, which used its power to unfavourably prevent any respite for her and make her stay in Saudi Arabia by hook or crook. The Canadian government and authorities also failed spectacularly in protecting their citizens interests and safety in a foreign land. It is evident that they misinterpreted and trivialised a serious diplomatic issue between two sovereign countries into a common family tussle. It can also be observed many times that Canadian officials worked hand in glove with the Saudis to ensure that Nathalie and her children were not repatriated to their homeland.

The best quality of Johanne's writing is her utter frankness and courage to call a spade a spade. She names every politician, officer, bureaucrat, and journalist who intentionally or unintentionally denied justice. In the initial pages of the book, I got the feeling that Johanne is just a vitriolic mother who is desperate for her daughter's return and not ready to have an objective view of the situation. But while the situation was unfolding in the later pages of the book, I realised that this was not the case. Two incidents especially anchored my realisation: her reaction to the plight of two Saudi activists who tried to help Nathalie and her objective description of her Saudi son-in-law that is described towards the end of the book.

Stolen Family: Captive in Saudi Arabia is a harrowing experience even to read. We can only imagine the plight of the individuals who had to live through this and had their lives devastated. It also makes us aware that many other unaccounted-for similar incidents are happening around us even today, in the era of a globalised world. I believe educating children to become more independent and to curb their tendency to get addicted to substances will be the right step. Recently, Saudi Arabia has been ready to dilute many of its tough religious laws and open up towards a more liberal and free society. I hope other autocratic nations follow suit and that no more families are stolen hereafter.

Book Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Legend of the Great Auk by Linda Stratmann

A stuffed specimen of the great auk, a flightless bird supposed to be extinct, is being unveiled at the British Museum when a young ornithologist tries to vandalise it after accusing it of being a fake. When he is murdered in a fashion similar to how conventionally flightless birds are done away with, Sherlock Holmes is entrusted with three missions: to solve the murder, to prove the legitimacy of the specimen, and to save the museum and the late contributor of the specimen from further scandals.

Whenever any attempt is made to bring out a new novel or movie from a known franchise, there arise certain expectations that are built up from the previous experiences associated with it. If the new product fits the template, it is, personally, a satisfactory experience for me. If it alters the franchise in a great way that radically changes our attitude towards it, like how Christopher Nolan transformed the cinematic landscape of Batman movies, I am delighted. But if the retelling tries to subvert my expectations and spoil my goodwill towards the franchise, it will be a horrible disappointment. I had my fingers burned with Sherlock Holmes once before by reading The Curious Case of 221B by Partha Basu.

Thus, it was with a certain curiosity about how it would turn out that I started reading Sherlock Holmes and the Legend of the Great Auk, which was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It is written by Linda Stratmann and is the fifth installment of the series The Early Casebooks of Sherlock Holmes. The novel chronicles the mysteries solved by Holmes in his pre-Watson period, while he was a student doing rather dangerous chemical experiments and accumulating different skills and knowledge required for his celebrated and distinguished future career.

As this is the fifth book in the Early Casebook series, the character is properly established in this universe. Linda Stratmann doesn't deviate much from the template set by Conan Doyle. The character of Holmes displays all the quirks and eccentricities that are made famous by the classic stories. The author has toned down a lot of his tendencies towards substance abuse. It is evident that Stratmann has a good understanding of the historical mapping of the times and the literary style of Doyle. The language she uses is thankfully very similar to that of Doyle and suitable for the story. The plot is intriguing, with many threads of mysterious incidents overlapping one another.

The story is narrated by Mr. Stamford, a student of surgery who is also Stratmann's stand-in for Dr. Watson. There is nothing to complain about the character, but while I would appreciate that Stratmann chose to stay as close to Doyle in other aspects, a slight variation in this character, who very much resembles Dr. Watson, would have taken the novel to a higher level. It is evident that Stamford narrates his adventures with Holmes at a later period, long after Watson has already published his stories with Holmes. This setup is excellent, as it leaves room for a lot of references to the plots of various classic Holmes mysteries. It will also be interesting to explore the motivation behind Stamford's recounting of these old accounts so late in life. Was it a late attempt to grab fame and limelight when Watson has already achieved them? Does this attempt compromise his storytelling in any way? Some interesting details to ponder about

Stratmann has used several real-life figures and incidents in the novel, which became evident to me only after reading the final notes. This also became a factor that I appreciated about the book, as it added an additional layer to it. The plight of the great auks and the final extinction of the flightless, monogamous, penguin-like species are heartbreaking. Though the author doesn't explicitly express it in the book, ecological conservation manages to come out as a major takeaway. An envelope of humor—a tad more than that can be found in the works of Doyle—covers the Legend of the Great Auk.

Linda Stratmann has delivered a suspenseful detective novel featuring Holmes, very much in the style of Doyle. Though this Holmes never attempts to break any new ground and settles to stay close to its classic predecessor, the book ultimately was a satisfying experience.

Book Review: Robots Through the Ages

A machine is a Man turned inside-out because it can describe all the details of a process, which a Man cannot, but it cannot experience that process itself as a Man can.

Months ago, I saw a travel documentary about a hotel in Japan that ran exclusively using robots. Receptionist, waiter, roomboy, chef, and laundry man—all were robots. Once you check in, you won't see a human being until you check out. It was an immensely entertaining spectacle and, at the same time, a deeply profound one. Robotics and AI are growing by leaps and bounds, but we are still unsure about the dynamics of our relationship with a non-human intelligence that doesn't need our intervention for sustenance. The only sure assumption is that our future is going to be totally and radically different from the way we have lived until now.

Robots Through the Ages is an anthology of science fiction short stories and novelettes, written by stalwarts, that deals with robots and AI. There are 17 stories in it, arranged chronologically, except for the first story, which is an original, unpublished one. There are two more original stories in the collection. From the vast ocean of good, bad, and ugly science fiction stories dealing with robots and androids, it is a daunting task to select a few that represent most of the different subgenres and also put forth relevant queries that a life with them poses. To the credit of the editors, Robert Silverberg and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, they have succeeded in their endeavour. I would rate the stories of Robots Through the Ages from above average to excellent in terms of quality, with many of them inspiring the reader to mull over the ramifications of the life-altering technological advancement that we now encounter even in our daily lives.

The book opens with a wonderful introduction to the volume by Robert Silverberg, which explains the need for such a venture. It is followed by the story Perfection by Seanan McGuire, which subtly points out the basic principle of robotics: attaining clinical perfection that is impossible for ordinary humans. It paints a grotesque picture of how an unnatural desire for perfection strips us of our humanity. Most of the stories in the collection gaze at this dilemma from different angles and in varying tones. Then we have a spooky story from 1899 by Ambrose Bierce about the creator who secretly built a machine that could think without a brain. Most of the initial stories are highly pessimistic about mixing thinking machines with human beings, like Jack Williamson's With Folded Hands, in which self-thinking humanoids that are bound to serve and guard humans wipe out the entire human industry, or Philip K. Dick's Second Variety, in which robotic warriors get so advanced that they forget which side of the war they are fighting for.

There are stories with an unpredictable twist in the last sentence, like Goodnight, Mr. James by Clifford D. Simak, in which a clone has to think of saving his skin while trying to kill a runaway murderous telepathic alien, and Instinct by Lester del Rey, which is about a robot in an apocalyptic world hell-bent on cloning a man, going against its superior, but having no idea what to do with him once cloned. A Bad Day for Sales is a satire about an automatic robotic vending machine finding himself in a nuclear blast. Another laugh-out-loud story is The Golem by Avram Davidson, which is about a robotic demon with murderous intentions and a retired couple who don't give a hoot. For A Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny is a profound existential thriller about a sentient machine that probes what it is to be a man in an apocalyptic future, with a beautiful ending.

The editor of the book, Robert Silverberg, has contributed an interesting and humorous story titled Pleasent News From the Vatican, about a group of people waiting for the election of a new pope with the possibility of a robot being elected. That Must Be Them Now is a story about a lowly robotic junk-collecting drone with ambition trying to hustle his way up against formidable competitors. There is a humorous play by Suzanne Palmer titled R.U.R.-8? (referring to Karl Capek's play R.U.R. that introduced the word robots) about the introduction of robots making humans too lazy to pursue anything meaningful. Today I Know by Martin L. Shoemaker is a wonderful, warm, and feel-good story that is the most recent one in the collection, about the relationship between an empathetic robot and a suicidal girl.

There are certain stories that did not work as well for me as the ones that I mentioned above, though even in them I could spot flashes of great imagination and genius. Dilemma by Conie Willis felt like a fan fiction story about Asimov, though it is eminently readable. The Robot's Girl by Brenda Cooper, which dealt with a couple trying to rescue a girl in their neighbourhood who is brought up by robots alone, was repetitive and ended up as an ordinary story. The climactic twist in Robinson Calculator by Paul Levinson didn't work for me, though the story until then was delightful. Ken Scholes has contributed an original story titled Of Homeward Dreams And Fallen Seeds And Melodies By Moonlight, which is a prequel to the world he created in his novel series. I feel someone who is more familiar with the lore will appreciate it more.

I believe we are at a crossroads as humans, and the possibilities and dangers of our next step forward are to be known, discussed, and resolved by the time we traverse the point of no return. Robots Through the Ages works as a collection of short stories due to its sheer diversity of themes, which make the reader think about the issues and opportunities created by a technology that has the power to permeate every dimension of human life.

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

 

With only a few days left for his engagement with Sibel, an educated young modern girl, the rich boy Kemal happens to meet his distant cousin Fusun, a lower middle-class student working part time as a salesgirl, and starts an affair with her. This affair kicks off a chain of events that shatters the lives of all three involved, leaving an obsessed and love-lorn Kemal in a long and arduous wait to win back Fusun. His only respite was the possession of petty articles that Fusun contacted, with which he could nurse her memories. Years later, these articles enabled him to build a museum dedicated to his love affair with Fusun.

The Museum of Innocence is a novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk that is both a love story and, at the same time, an exploration of the connection between articles and the memories their presence evokes. Reading it reminded me of many other books that I had read before for several reasons. The loving portrayal of ordinary items that we use and discard without realising their emotional connection reminded me of Chilean poet Neruda's collection Odes to Common Things, in which the poet writes lovingly about common articles that we take for granted. The awkwardness of its love story reminded me of Marquez's magnum opus, Love in the Time of Cholera. The theme of collecting articles to remember a certain period in the past reminded me of the novel Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, which won the International Booker Prize in 2023.

"It was the happiest moment of my life, though I did not know it". With this opening sentence, Pamuk gives two warnings to his reader. Firstly, the novel that begins with the happiest moment of its protagonist's life guarantees that we are in for a long, gloomy ride of tragic happenings. Second, the protagonist realises the happiest moment in hindsight, and the story is told in flashback. These realisations, along with Orhan Pamuk's fabulous writing, helped me navigate the 700 pages of plot that developed inside the mind of the most obsessive, awkward, and politically incorrect protagonist I have ever read in a fictional book. (In nonfiction, some autobiographies did the job.)

As Pamuk explained in an interview, this novel is an experiment, and the author has established an actual museum in Istanbul that exhibits various articles explained in the novel. His intention is to show the importance of ordinary items in daily life that we tend to forget and how everyday items induce memories in our minds due to the emotional connection that is established in the process of interacting with them. In the novel, the protagonist explains the Aristotelian principle that time is nothing but a line that connects different moments that we experience. He wants the artefacts of the museum to be that line that connects the spectators with the past moments and makes them appreciate the life story of Kemal and Fusun in a new light.

In the love story that he describes in the novel, Pamuk ensures that the reader too gets to experience this emotional connection with the lives of Kemal and Fusun through a detailed explanation of their everyday experiences. Pamuk describes Kemal's wretched condition in all its pathetic glory with painstaking detailing of his everyday interactions with his family, friends, and society, and with his obsession to get his love back. His fascination with the items that elicit Fusun's memories is also similarly enumerated. Though we hear the story from Kemal's point of view, the writer cleverly shows us the error of his ways and how his lack of judgement clearly ruins his and his loved ones' lives. The character of Fusun, who for most of the story remains just an ideal of Kemal's obsessive mind, takes on human form by the end, revealing her wants and aspirations.

The third important aspect of the novel is the conflict that the traditional mindset of its characters has with the European sensibilities they aspire for. Most of the time, they are all stranded in a limbo between tradition and modernity, which causes many decisions to be made by several characters in the plot. As an Indian reader, I was able to relate to this aspect of the story. Istanbul at the end of the twentieth century has a lot of similarities with the society that I grew up in. It is also interesting to observe that the book doesn't detail most of the political turbulence of the time. Though there are some mentions of the coups and the resultant curfews, except for a few mentions, the novel chooses to be apolitical. Instead, it chose to focus on the east-west conflict and Western aspirations of the community.

The Museum of Innocence may not display the ambitious storytelling of Pamuk's previous novels that I read. But it succeeds tremendously in its intentions: to portray the social and cultural structure of Istanbul in the last decades of the twentieth century; to tell a powerful love story of an unlikeable couple, for whom we feel sympathetic by the end; and to assert that it is the small events and articles that constitute the entire life. It tells us to celebrate them and relish in the memories they elicit.

Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami- A Subjective Interpretation

 "Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, and feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library."

A boy runs away from his home, from his dad, and from a prophecy on the day he turns fifteen. An old disabled man, who could talk to cats, embarks on a journey with a destination he will know only when he reaches there. Two parallel journeys, two contrasting protagonists, fantastic and strange people, and events that they encounter on their way eventually converge on the verge of an alternate universe.

Kafka On the Shore by Murakami is a multi-layered novel that can be interpreted according to the personal readings of each reader. It explores a wide variety of themes and ideas in its plot, which sometimes feel like the concoction prepared by witches in Macbeth. The writer himself has said that it needs to be read several times to solve all the riddles. My intention in this post is to list out what I think about the book subjectively.

The cover of the copy that I read was instrumental in my understanding the book. I saw that several other versions of the cover are also available, but this particular one very cleverly illustrates its central philosophy. The cover bears a resemblance to the yin-yang symbol of Chinese philosophy. On the cover, we see a circle in which one half is a human face (probably a boy) and the other is a cat. Yin-yang symbolises the interconnection of opposite forces, like male and female or morning and night. One is essential for the existence of the other, even though they bear no resemblance in any manner.

The cat points to the character of Nakata, the old man who can talk to the cats, and the boy points to Kafka Tamura, the runaway kid. Both characters are, in many ways, diametrically opposite from each other. While Kafka is a fifteen-year-old fit boy, fitter than any fifteen-year-old can be, who has run away from fulfilling a prophecy, Nakata is an old person who is weak and is on his way to fulfilling one. While Kafka is burdened with memories of somebody else's past, Nakata has lost his own. While Kafka is a voracious reader, Nakata cannot read or write. Just like yin and yang joining together to create balance and meaning in life, the odysseys of these two extreme protagonists converge to give meaning to the chaotic existence of all the characters in the novel.

Music is a very important component of Kafka On the Shore. The title itself is a poem written by Miss Saeki, the aloof librarian of the library in which Kafka finds solace, when she was a young girl of fifteen. She composed it into a song, which became famous. Kafka also likes to hear music, and Murakami is very deliberate in providing the details of every song he listens to in the entire novel. But my favourite references to music in the book are the ones that Hoshino, the truck driver who accompanies Nakata on his mission, explores. The account of his hearing and appreciating Beethoven in a cafe is one of the most beautiful passages I have read in any novel.

Kafka Tamura is running from a prophecy that closely resembles the story of Oedipus. His mother leaves his father and him, taking his sister along with her, when he is very young. His father always evokes the prophecy that Kafka is destined to kill his father and then sleep with his mother and sister. It is to escape this prophecy that Kafka takes flight, but he suspects every female that he meets to be his lost mother or sister. This Oedipal complex is the backbone of Kafka's character arc.

The connection between the past and memories is an important element of the novel. Kafka has faint memories of his mother and sister, and he is in a constant search to put a face to them. When he meets the aloof Miss Saeki and hears her story from Oshima, the hemophilic gay transgender librarian, he also becomes a part of it. He tries to pry open the closed memories of Miss Saeki and imagines himself as her long-dead fifteen-year-old lover. Miss Saeki herself lives inside a self-made wall of memories. On the contrary, memories of Nataka were stolen from him at a young age, along with his faculties to read and write or to think coherently.

Kafka On the Shore employs magical realism heavily; you find an excessive amount of reality whenever highly improbable magic is not thrown at your face. The book has talking cats, a man resembling Johnny Walker murdering cats to make flutes with them, Colonel Sanders pimping in the back alleys of a Japanese town, a heavy downpour of fish and leeches, and these are just a few of them. The detailed and descriptive narration of routine life gives the magical portions of the story a realistic form.

The novel contains several dream sequences seen by Kafka, and many times it becomes difficult to differentiate dreams from reality. It is also possible to imagine the whole story as the lucid dream or imagination of an anxious young boy tormented by the loss of his mother. It can explain the alter ego of Kafka, a boy called Crow (Kafka in Czech means Crow), who motivates Kafka for his adventures, the mysterious appearance of ghosts and several supernatural elements, the alternate reality that is devoid of memories, and a suspected murder.

The novel alludes to an alternate reality that several characters happen to visit at one point or another, transforming their lives for better or worse. It is shown that memories disappear when one visits this realm. The novel hints that to reach this territory, one has to transcend a labyrinth and cleverly connects it to the Mesopotamian method of studying labyrinth-like intestines to reveal prophecy. All this connects to the larger theme of Oedipal prophecy and makes it necessary for Kafka to study his labyrinth, the one inside him, to reach the alternate universe. This makes the novel a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, of Kafka Tamura.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells: Adventures of a Binge-Watching Robot

An AI SecUnit construct, which provides security to interplanetary explorers, hacks his governor module, effectively becoming free from any human interference in its working. He could do anything, but finally chooses to download hundreds of hours of entertainment media illegally and watch. His clients, a team of explorers, are mounting expeditions on a remote planet when things start to go wrong. Every system is trying to kill them on the strange planet, and their only hope is a serial-watching rogue AI construct, which calls itself Murderbot.

I had been continuously reading books on serious topics for a while and desperately wanted something light for a change. Thus, I ended up picking All Systems Red, a science fiction novella by Martha Wells. This is the first part of an ongoing series of books called The Murderbot Diaries. But even if you read it as a standalone book, it stands tall. I was getting the vibes of the Indian movie series Drishyam while reading the book, because in that movie the protagonist, an illiterate cable TV operator, gets his ideas from watching movies, like our binge-watching Murderbot.

The narrator of All Systems Red is the Murderbot himself, a reluctant protagonist who seems not to care much and is happy when left alone. He doesn't like to show his face to his human teammates and mingle with them. He interferes only with the security details and is careful not to let them find out that he is now an independent entity. But when security glitches start to appear and things go for a toss, he has to reluctantly assist them, thus realising the values of camaraderie and bonding.

The most interesting aspect of the book is its depiction of the relationship between the robot and his human clients. He saves them during an initial attack from an unknown creature, sustaining injuries to himself, because it's his duty to do so, even though in the present state he has a choice. But later, when he gets to know them more closely and gets accepted into their group, the choice to help them survive the impending doom is independent. In this aspect, the book can even be thought of as a coming-of-age story.

All Systems Red is a short, fast-paced page-turner that, at the same time, touches very briefly on several interesting aspects of corporate culture, human greed, teamwork, and assimilation. It points out several pertinent topics with an amazing economy of words, which turns out to be more effective than long essays or philosophical dissertations. I enjoyed the short novel for its interesting portrayal of the AI protagonist, subtle humour, incessant thrills, and its potential to make the reader ponder the positive and negative effects of a technology that can alter the experience of being human.

The Curious Case of the Pathetic Detective

There was a time when detectives occupied a different existential plane, emotionally distant from the crime. Poirot or Holmes arrive at the scene not with baggage but with pure logic and deductive thought. Detectives had many eccentricities, which made them unique and interesting, but their nonconformities never compromised the investigation.

But today, the detective characters have become more invested in other characters and the plot, both emotionally and socially. At the same time, they are shown to be as socially inept as their predecessors or more. Before, the crime and its detection used to be complex, but in today's novels, the most complex element is the psyche of the detective, and then only the plot and other aspects are considered. It seems writers have this notion that the detective has to be flawed and emotionally drained, so that the investigation poses obstacles due to this aspect and not because of the complexities of the crime itself.

When we analyse the chronology, it can be noticed that classic detectives like Dupin, Holmes, Poirot, or Miss Marple operate totally above the zone of the plot and the other characters. Then came the era of the hard-boiled ones like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, who had an emotional connection with the plot, mostly by way of a sultry beauty. But in the end, with the beauty conveniently out of the way, they lunged back into their exalted position.

Then it was time for another crop of detectives to emerge—the ones who bear the cross. Alex Cross (pun unintended), John Rebus, and Bosch are the ones that can be named off the top of my head. They are the conscientious ones. They are bound by duty to be impartial, but for them, finding the criminal and bringing them to justice is also a personal act of redemption. Their biases affect the delivery of justice, as they are prone to errors by virtue of their conscientious nature. But they attain the final vindication, and all their toils are rewarded by their conscience. In these stories, the crime element is relegated to the background, and more mileage is given to the character arc of the detective.

After seeing the enormous success of the final kind, many writers started developing detective characters with deep flaws, thinking that readers would empathise with their protagonists by relating to them. The emotional level of the detective in these stories is well below that of the plot and other characters. I will term them "pathetic detectives". I felt this recently while writing about a detective novel. But then, I wasn't able to put my feelings into words properly for fear of digressions that might lengthen my article.

The first pathetic detective that I encountered was Cormoran Strike in The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym of J. K. Rowling). I read three installments of the series, and by the third, I concluded it was futile to go on. The flaws and disabilities of Cormoran Strike were not at all relevant to the central crimes that were committed. With each installment, Strike became more and more pathetic and incompetent due to his disabilities and emotional baggage. By the third one, which was more of a romance than an investigation, he was cutting a sorry figure.

There are a few more novels that I read after that in which the detective is made to have many flaws and personality quirks only to elicit an emotional response from the reader—either sympathy or laughter. In many well-written novels, I feel that the lead character is written very well, but the central plot of the investigation is thin and banal. For me, the primary purpose of reading detective fiction is to enjoy the depiction of a well-executed and complex crime, the fruitful investigation by a competent detective who is able to detect things that others miss, and the final surprise reveal that makes me wonder how I missed that.

Book Review: The Sorcery Of The Senses By Tanima Das

A divorced man stumbles on a family heirloom when he visits his deceased parents' house. It opens a portal through which he is able to converse with the five senses. They make him see his previous lives, where he, as the chosen one, spectacularly failed in spite of possessing amazing powers. In this life, he is an overall failure and doesn't have any superpowers. The Senses believe that this may help him take on the evil versions of the five senses, who are out to make the universe a hell.

After re-reading the above synopsis, I realised that if this novel was written as a comedy, reading it would have been great fun. But this is not a comedy, and I didn't have much fun reading it. The Sorcery Of The Senses is the debut novel of Tanima Das. It is a fantasy novel that checks every box on the fantasy story checklist. The plot has magical elements and characters with special powers doing interesting feats. The world-building in the novel is not bad. There are three distinct worlds described in the story, and the writing is immersive enough to transport you there. Characterization is excellent, with all the major characters getting a good story arc and making the reader empathise with them even when they end up doing foolish deeds, which is almost every time.

Every fantasy needs an intricate quest for the protagonist to undergo and a formidable nemesis who severely impairs his progress. The novel lacks on these two accounts. This is the first part of a series of books. Though there is definitely a quest, it just begins at the end of this book. Also, we never get a good look at the antagonists, though they are mentioned briefly. These turn out to be the handicaps of the book, and owing to them, the book ends without a hook—something that can compel the reader to grab its sequel when it is released.

The protagonist, Dhruv, doesn't feature much, as most of the story told in this book deals with his two previous lives. But the character, with all his flaws, manages to make an impact. I really loved the realistic way in which his marital issues are depicted. His ex-wife also turns out to be a very sympathetic character, though I guess the author may surprise me in the sequel. The three senses that make their appearances in this volume unfortunately turn out to be damb squibs. Their relevance in the plot is reduced to providing exposition. The characters of the two past lives of the hero are far more interesting, especially the story of the blind princess. The first one had an issue with everyone making really bad decisions, but still, the characters were colourful and interesting.

There are no gimmicks employed in the narration, as the author decided to plainly report the story. But the simple narration turned out to be impactful, especially when magical elements were described. Ghriz moving into the poison forest and Mong curing the illness of the king are two very interesting segments that benefitted most from the plain-sailing narration.

The Sorcery Of The Senses by Tanima Das is the first part of a fantasy series that doesn't make the reader crave its sequel. It is well narrated and inhabited by good characters, though it lacks a hook for the reader in its climax. I do feel that the author missed the chance to make something crazy with material that had the potential for an over-the-top plot. Still, it is a pretty good debut, and fantasy lovers will not complain after reading it.

Book Review: Fate Eclipsed by Deepak Kaul

The Mahabharata is an epic that has inspired the creativity of artists for generations. Writers, painters, sculptors, and moviemakers have used the epic for inspiration. Innumerous masterpieces are born in the shade of the massive banyan tree that is the Mahabharata. There are several interpretations, elucidations, and analyses of events and characters available. It's safe to say that the Mahabharata is a treasure trove for all.

One character of the Mahabharata who has awakened the fascination of artists all over India is Karna, the first son of Kunti, the mother of five Pandava brothers. His father was Surya, the sun. When Kunti abandons him, a chariot driver and his wife adopt him. The transformation from Kaunteya to Radheya and from Surya Putra to Suta Putra defines the character of Karna in the Mahabharata. He was supposed to be numero uno, but fate quashed his destiny. His ambition to become the world's best warrior was scoffed at, and his talents were not taken seriously. Karna is a complex psychological figure who will any day stand tall before even the best of Shakespeare's tragic heroes.

Karna is a character about whom numerous novels, plays, poems, and movies are made. From Shivaji Savant's Mrityunjay on, there are many novels that explore different aspects of the warrior. Karnabharam is a Sanskrit play by Bhasa, in which Karna is the protagonist. Rasmirathi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar is a long poem that is also about the life of Karna. The first book that I read is a classic in Malayalam with the title Ini Njan Urangatte (And Now Let Me Sleep), written by P. K. Balakrishnan. Dana Veera Soora Karna, a Telugu movie starring the legend NTR, and Kalyug, a Hindi movie by Shyam Benegal in which Shashi Kapoor does a fabulous modern-day version of Karna, are some examples from the silver screen that I have watched. Mani Rathnam's Thalapathy and Prakash Jha's Rajneeti have Rajni Kanth and Ajai Devgn playing characters inspired by Karna.

Entering this already oversaturated list is a short novel or novelette titled Fate Eclipsed, penned by Deepak Kaul. From his Goodreads profile, I could gather that he has written 25 books, including at least one that is a retelling of the Mahabharata. To be honest, my first reaction when I started reading Fate Eclipsed was relief because it was pretty short and I wasn't sure if another retelling of Karna that could be fairly interesting was even possible.

The title Fate Eclipsed is perfect for a story about the tragedy of Karna. Being the son of Surya, his death can be equated to an eclipse. In the book, Karna feels that he receives his strength from being exposed to the sun. When all the other warriors get tired of the furious rays, it seems Karna gets more ferocious. Even though Karna is forewarned of his end many times, he never recognises these signals. It is only when he finds the sun eclipsed that he realises it is his end. The title very cleverly alludes to the tragic fate of this brave warrior.

The story is told in four chapters. It begins with the return of the Kauravas to Hastinapur after the insult to Draupadi by Duryodhana. This is the beginning of the descent for Karna, as he becomes weak in front of his loyalty to Duryodhana. After that, each chapter goes one step further towards the final tragedy. The narration mostly happens from Karna's point of view, with certain inputs from his wife Uruvi as well. The writer wisely forgoes the descriptive mode and focuses on being inside the mind of his protagonist. We get a glimpse of his emotions at work, his feelings towards others, his ego, and his beliefs.

The writer uses a language that is quite simple and sufficient to mirror some of the basic emotions of his protagonist, culminating in his eventual downfall. I feel the book is written in a teen-friendly way. So you can see Uruvi wishing for a nice vacation after the end of the war and some characters using modern expletives while angry. To the writer's credit, it never descends into becoming unintentionally funny. He is somehow able to sustain the emotional arc of the story intact.

Fate Eclipsed is a short novel that is inspired by the Mahabharata. It offers an interesting, though not very deep or illuminating, insight into the mind of one of the most influential characters in the epic. I found it an entertaining and quick read, and I hope the author can come up with a longer book that unearths and explores a different facet of the Mahabharata.

 

61 Hours: Less on Thrills

61 Hours is the 14th Jack Reacher novel written by Lee Child. I've read some 6 or 7 of his works and always felt Jack Reacher books provide adequate thrills and entertainment- nothing more, nothing less. The basic premise is always similar. Jack Reacher, the perpetual traveller, reaches a corner of USA and gets involved, mostly against his wishes, in some trouble and settles it by the end using his brain and brawn.

61 Hours uses the same formula. This time Reacher is a traveller in a bus carrying some senior citizens, while it breaks down and is forced to stay in Bolton, a prison town. He has to endure snow fall and heavily fallen temperatures while solving a mystery involving murders of crime witnesses, lawless bikers, a mysterious structure concealing hidden secrets from Cold War era and a powerful drug baron from Mexico.

I loved the overall plot. Its really thick and carries suspense adequately. Compared to other Reacher adventures, this one is more mellowed and introspective. And thrills come far in between. But it never hampers the pacing. I loved the detailed description of landscapes that Lee Child etches in his novels. That differentiate the otherwise similarly plotted from each other and provides each with a unique signature.

The title doesn't have any significance to the story. I felt it as just a gimmick and doesn't contribute anything to the plot. The countdown in every chapter appears to be added in later drafts of the novel. I feel it is included just to invoke a false urgency to the proceedings. 

Likewise I felt that some of the suspenseful passages are too drawn out and lessens the impact of the story. You wait eternally, with bated breath, along with the characters, when entire passages are dedicated to every leaf turning and every snowflake falling, only to find that ultimately nothing happens. This event has a significance that is revealed later on but at the cost of some frustration to the reader.

But it really was a welcome change, reading a Jack Reacher book that is not just a collection of one frantic action set piece after other. The ending also was very different from usual fare. The ambiguous ending was unexpected, but gave more gravity to the story. And makes me want to grab the next book in the series... 

All That Man Is by David Szalay: A Warm Portrayal of Male Psyche

All That Man Is is written by David Szalay and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. Though it is listed as a novel, it is actually a collection of nine stories with many recurring elements and themes. Basically it is a portrayal of manhood through specimens of nine European men of different ages and at diverse stages of life.

The book starts with the story about Simon, a young introvert British teenager, sightseeing in Berlin along with his friend. It ends with the story of his knighted grandfather Tony who is seventy three and recuperating from surgery. In between there are diverse stories about men of many ages and social status facing testing life situations where either love, money or in most cases both are at stake.

All the protagonists are invariably flawed men in humiliating circumstances, mostly of their own making. Some are indifferent, some are with bloated egos and most of them totally break down. The stories are pretty bleak, but told with a very mild dose of humor and with much sympathy. They are so realistic that they have the potential to be case studies of psychologists.

All nine stories feature their protagonists in international journeys- some of them holidays, some personal errands and some business trips. Invariably while they are in a foreign situation, they face an issue where a tough choice has to be taken which can affect their life. The stakes- sex, love, money, job, assets and ultimately life- build up as the age goes up. The book is an existential comedy.

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His Bloody Project: Account of a Gruesome Crime

His Bloody Project is a novel by Graeme Macrea Burnet that was short listed for Man Booker prize, 2016. It is a historic crime novel based on the Scottish peasant life of 19th century. The novel narrates the story of a young man in late teens who end up murdering three persons in cold blood and is awaiting trial. His brutal act marks the title of the book.

The story is told as a collection of  documents acquired accidently by the author about a long forgotten crime. The main body of the novel is an account narrated by Roderic Macrea, a teenager imprisoned for murder, on the insistence of his lawyer. He writes about the events that lead to his desparate action. It also contains legal testimonies of the people of his village, a paper by a criminologist about his involvement in the case, post mortem report and trial report.

The novel maintains its intriguing style for its whole length and manages to keep the reader invested. It is successful in making us feel inside that the truth is not what that meets the eye and there is something more than what's revealed. It exploits the unreliable narrator technique. Instead of being just an account of a gruesome action, events that lead to it and the aftermath, it stands as a powerful character study of a young man who is in the midst of tremendous pressure due to his conflicts with the society and family.

The novel also is a study on inequalities, abuse of power and existence of class in society. Though the background of the story is the Scottish croft system, I felt that there is a universality to it. In some form or other, our society displays the same callousness and absence of empathy. We can observe the distrust between people of different social structures of our society.

His Bloody Project is a remarkable novel that mirrors the contemporary reality in the guise of historical crime fiction.


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Book Review: A Mother Dies

One of the most difficult experience one has to sail through in life is to face the fact that someone very dear, someone whom one took for granted, is no more. A Mother Dies, a short book of just around 50 pages written by Arusha Topazzini deals with such an issue in her life when her mother passed away. It is very personal and heartfelt account about her mother and their relationship.

At the same time, it is also a universal theme, because in this world there will only be very few lucky people who never had to endure the pain of losing. The writer was able to bring this universality in her writing. It makes you relive the days when you had similar experiences. I feel it has a therapeutic value, when after reading about another person's life, you get a chance to go through your own past, your pain, reevaluate your life and appreciate the value of those who passed by and those who are still with us.

A Mother Dies is available at Amazon Kindle.

The Sympathizer : Complex Duality..

Vietnam war is a much repeated plot point in American movies and novels. The plight of soldiers has been repeated so often that it has been turned to a cliché plot device. Making a lead character a Vietnam veteran automatically injects him with a new level of maturity, outlook and weariness and makes any further exposition needless.

The Sympathizer is the first work of fiction that I encountered which tells the Vietnamese perspective of  the war. In American books and movies, even the ones that are sympathetic, Vietnamese are either faceless victims or perpetrators of violence.

The Sympathizer is the Pulitzer prize winning novel of 2016 written by debutant novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen. The book has its protagonist a half Vietnamese- half French unnamed man. He fights with Southern Vietnamese army along with US army, but is actually a sympathizer, an undercover Communist spy.

The novel portrays his dual nature that accepts both perspectives. It proves to be a handicap for him because both sides actually wants from him unflinching loyalty to their individual causes and unlimited hatred against other side.

The book is written in first person singular narrative and when the protagonist becomes aware of his dual nature, turns to first person plural 'we' in the final chapter. The narration, which is matter-of-fact in the beginning, slowly turns more complex as the story progress. The mechanical recounting of events give way to personal narrative which, as time progress even involves fantastical elements.

The Sympathizer is an intense and profound novel that is primarily about Vietnam war, but deals with contemporary issues like migration, alienation and futility of blind idealism. It is a worrying portrayal of how the society tends to keep apart the individual who are broad minded in outlook.

Read the blogpost on the 2016 Man Booker award winning novel The Sellout by Paul Beatty.

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The Little Prince: Reminding Our Days Of Innocence

Normally most of the books have designated target readers, who are interested in consuming them. Like crime thriller or romantic novels will be appealing only for readers having taste in them. There are novels that appeal only to people living in certain region. Sometimes some books are made which will be interesting to readers liking diverse genres- like Paulo Coelho's novel The Alchemist which was lapped up by enthusiasts of different genres like romance, fantasy and self help. But few books have such universal appeal that anyone belonging to any age, region or personal liking can benefit by reading them.

French novel The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupery is one such book. I had read a Malayalam translation of it when I was a small kid. That book was there with me till I was 16 and the times I had read it is countless, each time giving me immense pleasure. A few weeks back I read the English translation and realised that, even after these many years, it is still relevant- to me as an individual and to the society in which I am living.

The Little Prince starts by the author recounting an incident of his childhood. He drew an elephant eaten by a boa constrictor, but all adults who looked at it saw a hat. The author stopped drawing after that. Story fast forwards, and now we saw him, who went on to become an airplane pilot, stranded in a desert following a crash. He meets the Little Prince, who used to live in a tiny planet in space there. Prince tell him his story. The author learns valuable lessons about living. The novel ends in a sad note when Prince return back to his planet leaving the author alone in the desert.

The Little Prince is written in simple language intended for kids. But it deals with several issues like love, possession, patience, selfishness and the difference between adults and kids. It stress the importance of keeping the life simple and thereby more enjoyable. This book is a must read for kids. They will definitely enjoy the story and illustrations, at the same time learn valuable lessons about life. Adults also will enjoy the story as it will remind us of our days of innocence and may prompt some of us to simplify our complex and hectic lifestyle.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty: A Loose Cannonball

I just finished reading Paul Beatty's novel The Sellout. It is the Man Booker prize winner of 2016. The Sellout is a biting satire about post racial US society, the one with a Black person as it's President. It was a tough read for me as it took almost double the time that I usually take for a book of its length. I had to re-read many parts again to find out if I had missed something and there were many points that were clear only while re-reading.

The protagonist of The Sellout is a black man whose first name is never mentioned and his surname is just Me. He is summoned to the Supreme Court to deliberate a case of apartheid. It seems the guy was reinstating segregation and owning slaves in his home town, Dickens in Los Angeles.

This guy is the son of a psychologist, a single black father, who used his son as a Guinea pig for his psychological experiments. He was counting on his memoirs to take them out of poverty. But one fine day police 'accidentally' shoots him. The son continues his father's part time career of a Nigger- whisperer - rescuing suicidal black people.

When he realised that his home town is no more in the American maps, totally wiped off, he comes upon the idea of reinstating segregation as a means of retrieving it, much to the horror of his father's friend and later rival, Foy. An aged black actor, Hominy forces Me to take him as a slave. What follows are the attempts by the duo to reintroduce segregation and reclaim Dickens.

The book consists of a torrent of wise cracks and jokes about post racial US society. As a novel, it doesn't have a strong structure or plot. The whole book gives you a feeling of watching a very long stand-up act about racism. Several of the jokes and observations are ingenious. The author deliberately avoids any meaningful characterisation and keeps them all two dimensional caricatures. Instead of weakening the novel, it makes you not to care for them and concentrate on the rants of the protagonist, which is actually the strong point of the book.

I feel the intention of the book is to criticise the attitude of modern society to avoid discussing of racial difference altogether. The author tries to put forward a view that it is better to go back to the old ways of segregation if there is no atmosphere to openly discuss and agree on racial differences. It is more difficult for the minor ethnicities to live in a society that obliterate it's identity and makes it conform, rather than giving it space to develop its culture. In the novel we can see that segregation leads to better performance of students and general uplifting of the quality of living.

The Sellout is a highly contextual novel. It is specific in its historical, political and social contexts. To appreciate it fully, one has to physically experience these. There are many elements that are universal, and easy for people without the background to enjoy, but I feel it will be a different reading experience for people who are aligned to any of the sides portrayed in the novel.

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The Sceptical Patriot: Auditing India Facts

Internet is a medium for transmitting information. The problem is that there is no guarantee that it is right information that reaches us. Day by day we are assaulted with loads of data on dozens of subjects and most of them come without substantial proof.

We wisely ignore some of them, like the ones about wives of overturned dictators trying to transfer their ill begotten wealth out of their countries and the ones about Mark Zuckerberg donating one dollar for the cause for every one share or like of a picture. But there are others that appeal to our soft emotions and make us believe them. Finally we end up sharing it and becoming part of the chain.

The Sceptical Patriot is a book written by Sidin Vadukut, Indian blogger, writer of Dork series of satirical novels and journalist, that sets out to evaluate how much truth lies in the kind of forwarded stuff that he has named India Facts. I think there won't be any Indian who hasn't encountered forwarded messages containing list of all things that are supposed to make us proud as Indians. Some examples are the claims that India has never attacked another nation in the last 10000 years, or the claim that it was Indians who invented zero.

The patriots amongst us immediately pat their own back and spread the good words. The sceptics shout aloud that all these are bogus and ignore or delete the message. But Sidin, being the sceptical patriot, took upon himself the task of making the record straight.

When I took to read this book, I was in-fact sceptical about it. Sidin, being a writer of humorous pieces and the task being the inspection of history, I was sure that this is going to be a terrible mish-mash of humour and shallow history. But there was one statement in the introduction that made me feel that my expectations are going for a toss.

"...just when it looks like we have unshakeable proof to buttress some historical argument, new discoveries will come along and make everything before them meaningless."

If he is smart enough to figure out this fact, the uncertainty in finding out what exactly happened in the past, I felt it would be reasonable to give my time to this book. And I wasn't dissappointed. For a book on history that is designed to entertain the reader along with its other goals, The Sceptical Patriot scores.

In ten chapters the author tries to find the truth in as many India Facts. To his credit, he never goes for shortcuts. Most of his missions end in more questions. Some of the claims stand meritorious and some dubious. Most stand in between. Without going for the temptation to proclaim each claim as true or false, Sidin gives them a rating out of 10 according to their truthfulness. I appreciated that element the most in this book.

The Sceptical Patriot is a book that instils in its readers a sense to question the knowledge bequeathed through internet and to gauge its merit instead of blindly choosing to believe or deny it.

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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy: A Deceptively Simple Tale

Hot Milk is a novel written by Deborah Levy and was short listed for Man Booker prize 2016. On the surface it appears as a sweet, short and simple tale about the love-hate relationship shared by a mother and her daughter. But I feel the simplicity of the plot is a clever facade, below which can be identified a complex study of human identity and self esteem.

Rose and her daughter Sophie is staying at a beach side holiday spot in Almeria, Spain. But they aren't vacationing. Rose is partially paralysed and they are to consult Dr Gomez, a doctor with a dubious reputation. Sophie feels tied up with her dominating mother and is tired of tending her whimsical wishes. She is not even sure if her mother is actually sick. But a chance meeting with Ingrid, a German girl transforms her life and makes her confront her absent Greek father. She finds herself finally fighting her worst fears.

The cover of the book, picture of a bikini-clad woman and its beginning like a chick-lit generic story is the first deception in this book. My knowledge that it is shortlisted for Man Booker is the only factor that kept me from tossing it aside then. But gradually it made me invested in the proceedings. The characterisation and narration is very effective. Each character make us feel that there is something more to him or her that will be shared with us soon. And we keep on reading. Apart from the mother and daughter, the character of Dr Gomez kept me thoroughly entertained and I was perpetually waiting to see what new trick he pulls up his sleeve next.

It is only by the time we reach the part of Sophie's meeting with her father, which comes around second half from the middle of the story, do we appreciate the symbolic importance of several instances in the first half that we thought trivial while reading. And by the end the author succeed in making us realise the strong undercurrent of drama and emotion that never makes it to the surface, but nevertheless makes us aware of its silent presence underneath.

Still I feel many important instances and their significance went above my head. Probably I may have to read the novel again to appreciate and understand its nuances fully. It is a captivating read, of course, but as I mentioned before it is also a slippery and deceptive one. And, if somebody who read the novel could educate about the connection between its title and the story, I would be grateful. I know it is something related to Sophie's occupation in England as a coffee maker and how she prepare milk, a fact that is touched upon a few times in course of the novel, which is also the only reference about milk in it as far as I observed. But I cannot pinpoint the payoff of that information to the themes covered in the narrative.

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Durbar by Tavleen Singh: Criticism of Dynasties

Years back I had read a book called Political and Incorrect by journalist Tavleen Singh, which was a collection of several of her articles written for various periodicals. I loved her integrity after reading it and started following her articles through her twitter account. Now I got a chance to read another of her book Durbar, which is about the situation of our nation when late Rajiv Gandhi was our PM.

Durbar is a scathing criticism of Rajiv's tenure as Prime Minister and of the dynasty politics. Tavleen Singh establishes how most of his decisions and actions costed India dearly in home-front as well as in international arena. The book starts by explaining the situations during the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the infamous killings of Sikhs that followed. While it was declared that Rajiv was going to be the prime ministerial candidate, even after his justification of the killings, general feel among public and media was that he was capable of changing the course of our nation for good. But it was not to be.

The book is a chronological account. It has the feel of a memoir and not that of a political discourse. This vastly improves the readability of the book. The author had personal connection with Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi and she is able to give a lot of insights into how their relationship worked. Her interactions with different players of the time and their perspectives makes it all the more interesting. I was impressed by her adventures inside the Golden Temple.

Another positive of Durbar is the objective stand that Tavleen takes. She doesn't criticise for the sake of it. I still felt the account just skimmed the surface of the time period and lacked depth especially while dealing with the case of Bofors scam.

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