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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Oryx and Crake: A Dystopian Novel About An Imminent Future

The whole human race has succumbed to a mysterious virus and possibly the only human survivor in an apocalyptic future is Snowman, who lives near an artificially engineered race of humans called Crakers, who believe him to be a prophet of their creators, Crake and Oryx. Once upon a time, when the world was divided into compounds by profit hungry corporates playing with genetic and bio-engineering experiments, Snowman used to be Jimmy, Drake his friend and Oryx his romantic interest. Oryx and Crake tells the story of how the world ended up with the extinction of humans and the survival of Jimmy.

Oryx and Crake is a novel by Margaret Atwood that was short listed for Man Booker on 2003. It paints a scary picture of a future that is possible due to the many long strides made by innovations in technology. It is the portrayal of a society that is on the hold of profit hungry corporates who are interested in using science for feeding off the worries of the public instead of helping them.

The novel is told from the perspective of Snowman. The narrative flips from his adventures as Snowman to his past as Jimmy told in flashbacks. This makes the novel structured like a jigsaw puzzle, where you fit each bit of information as you lay your hands on them and finally get the whole picture once you assemble all the individual pieces.

Oryx and Crake is an enjoyable apocalyptic science fiction, that succeeds in making the reader imagine a future where bio-engineering makes the life of humans and animals a means for profit generation and the horrible results of that.

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The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten: Intellectual Workouts

Is the world around us and everything that we take for granted real? What if all these are illusions created by a tricking demon- even our skill to reason rationally?

Suppose we are watching a red ball. What guarantee is that the red colour that we see on it are perceived in the same way by both of us? What if the colour that I see on the ball is red and for you it is actually green?

Suppose we come across a twin planet like earth and there instead of hearing music, they smell it? Do sound has a smell? What if we are just unable to sense it due to our physiological limitations?

Suppose in that planet there is a liquid that is clear, tasteless, odorless, falls from sky, that the people over there drink to sustain life, just like water on earth. Can we call it water if the chemical composition is slightly different from water in our planet? What if humans find out about it before we deduced the composition of water? Will there be a dispute over which of it is really water?

Suppose you are offered a chance to enter a virtual reality machine for your whole life and live a simulated life that is in no way different from ordinary life, other than every decision that you take become right and all luck is aligned on you side. Would do enter it or prefer to continue with you ordinary existence?

The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten is a collection of 99 such thought experiments written by Julian Baggini. As you can see, all the situations presented here are far fetched ones. But when we start thinking on them, we realise that our points of thought show real life parallels. When we base our thoughts on out of the world scenarios, it helps us to think unbiased and without prejudices. Baggini has written a book that helps us to frame our thoughts on.

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The Rogue Star Wars Movie...

I never cared for Star Wars. I never used to miss Hollywood movies at the times when the prequels hit the screens. Even then I didn't watch them. To me they were movies in which dudes fought with tube lights. Then I read the humorous comics by Jeffrey Brown and slowly caught up what the fuss was all about. I have watched the original trilogy and Force Awakens till now and am yet to see the prequel trilogy. Now the latest one, Rogue One is out.

Rogue one is the prequel to the sequel trilogy and the sequel to the prequel trilogy. How's that? I love it when I speak about Star Wars to those who never watched it. I have acquired expertise in confusing the shit out of them. It's total chaos when I explain the time line of the movies. (Before Star Wars, I used the John Travolta- Nicolas Cage movie Face-off for this purpose. But people sometimes actually figure out the plot of that one.) To make it simple Rogue One leads to A New Hope, which happens to be the first Star Wars Movie ever made. It came in 1977.



It seems the idea of Rogue One came from the opening scroll of A New Hope. To those who watched A New Hope, it will be interesting to find out how the maps of Death Star, the WMD developed by the empire ended up with Luke Skywalker. The title Rogue One is also apt because this movie, though very much part of the canon, stands apart from other movies. Several characteristic traits of other movies in the series are absent in this one and with reason. There is no recurring mentions of the Force, no Jedi training, no comic side kicks and most disappointingly we get to see a light saber only by the end of the movie.


Rogue One is more like a war movie. Its like that last part of The Matrix, in which cool fights in green tint were kept minimum and much focus was given to the war between humans and machines. It sucked because we all went to watch the cool fights in green tint. But Rogue One gets its feet right because, unlike The Matrix Spoiled, it makes sure we care for the handful of characters. We know how it turns out in the end but the story and situations, though similar to other installments, really invests in emotional returns.

Those who never watched Star Wars before might get frustrated by the climax. But watching A New Hope is the only solution for that.