Review: Going Solo

Going Solo by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Roald Dahl has been a favorite author for many, many years now and I went into the book hoping to read another five star book. And of course, he delivers again.

The book is different not because it documents the adventures of him as a pilot in the second world war but because he keep referring them as more of 'misadventures'. There are places he glazes over details but if you only pause and reflect, then it dawns on you.

The book starts with his journey to Africa on a 'floating bath-tub' to work for Shell. He meets all these Empire builders and memsahib, all of whom come out as nutty. His relations with the native Africans are more on a neutral ground and he has a lot of good things to say about them but I was a little surprised that he didn't say anything about the social conditions in the continent at that time.
Its either he didn't notice or decided not to get into political talk. So it was all about the animals of Africa, the snakes, the servants and cooks and little anecdotes.

Then war breaks. Being in the fringe of action and with lower priority on everything, becoming an Air force pilot was a little different than in the other theaters of war. And Dahl goes over the craziness of war and the idiosyncrasies of the people who are running it.

In the middle of the war, he drives across the continent, across the Sinai and them passes over them in a couple of pages. I wish he had written a little more on the sights and adventures during this time.

But then, I am nit-picking. Over all, an wonderful adventurous book if you are a young adult or an adult.

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Review: Flashman and the Tiger

Flashman and the Tiger by George MacDonald Fraser
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is with a mixed feeling that I took up this one. This is the last of the Flashman for me. Letting Flashman go away is like having a fun part of life come to an end.

I started the series without much expectation thinking of it to be a period romance. So the non-conventional story telling of Fraser was a surprise, a pleasant one though. Every book had its quirk and watched the movie adaptation of the one book, it was like I was not getting enough of Flashman.

So it was with a bit of sadness that I took this one. However, I ended up feeling that probably Fraser stopped the series with the next one as otherwise he would've been trapped by the template of the stories and would've killed the fun of Flashman. By ending the series, he made sure the sense of longing lingers on.

Now to the book itself. This one is one novella and two smaller stories. Of course, the Novella follows Flashman in Vienna in the middle of the Balkan crises. There is the lady spy, the princess and of course the multiple conspiracies with a murder attempt on the Austrian emperor. Though it was good, it was not matching up with the intrigues Flashman was part of in the other continents.

The Tronby craft affair is the center of the second story which of course is the weakest of all. In fact, I stopped reading for a while with the boring back and forths of a domestic intrigue.

'Flashman and the Tiger' the last story in the book is probably the best of the lot. Again a domestic issue with flashbacks into the Zulu war, the story is racy, has Flashman in his elements and have a cameo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at the end.
Overall, an interesting (though partially) book.

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Death...

This I wrote 2.5 years back when we faced a tragedy in the family. Today, I was forced to re-open and re-live the same again. It may be difficult to find sleep again for some days to come.

Why? This year, 2016, has been so far absolutely merciless with deaths strewn across the months like a crazy monkey tearing away flowers.

But again, the helplessness one feels to console oneself or others makes one humble and absolutely mad. There is no healing for this wound. 

"How does one reconcile with death? It stares at you and mocks. All that you thought will hold melts away in a minute. The face of the baby still-born remains in one's mind always. The terrible reality of of the realization that you are robbed of your precious dawns like a snake in the grass. Stealthily and steadily. The stab it makes in the heart marks a permanent wound and may never heal. The happiness drains away so fast you don't even realize the world you are in.

You lose a bit yourself, some part of it dies, when the grave is filled. It fills the world with grief, unbearable silence, a sense of hopelessness which may never be recovered.The world loses its meaning and you reel under the merciless wheels of time.

Time may heal the wound, the scar remains. How do you reconcile with yourself when you know that it is not going to be the same world you are going to live in again. Never again. The world changes a bit for worse. There is no going back.

The one you love, the one you want to be happy, when you see that he and she grieving and when you know that whatever you say will not turn back anything, how to live with that?

The supernatural, the God, has a terrible pact with death and lets Him take little babies away. What is the point of Him if He cannot save one little baby? Merciful, He isn't.

It was like a beautiful dream. A dream which just flitted with reality for a moment. It vanished the moment it touched reality. The dream gave such happiness to everyone. It was such a beautiful dream it breaks my heart to realize that it is no more.

Farewell, little one! We did not even had time to give you a name. You somehow detested to live in this sinful, pathetic world and chose to leave us all for the happiness beyond. We are happy for you, for you showed us what absolute happiness is, even though it is for a moment. You showed as what life could've been and that was absolute bliss. May be you will chose to come back to us. We will wait for that day and we love you with all our heart, it broke mine to bid you farewell this morning.  May you find eternal peace and take pity on us and send us another angel to our house. We hope and long for that."

An afternoon with Bernie

My introduction to American politics happened with the 2000 election between Al Gore and G.W.Bush. I've had notions of the way the American democracy works before but never bothered to learn about it. However, on the merit of being the oldest democracy, it was easier to blame on a system which was confusing and too vague from a largest vote getter wins narrative. 

So when the 2000 election and the subsequent commotion happened, that is when I thought it worthwhile to read about the American electoral system. It was difficult to understand and was counter-intuitive. I couldn't for the life of myself figure out why the electoral system is the way it was. It needed a lot of reading into the lives of the founding fathers of American politics and introduced some of the leaders I consider great and who actually were visionaries and pioneers in defining democracy so many years ago (Jefferson, John Adams, Hamilton, Burr, Madison, Ben Franklin). 

That said, a lot of the issues with the current state of American politics also can be traced to most of the issues plaguing the system today. I am no expert but understanding the issues makes it more interesting to follow them.

So I've been following the election years of the America with more interest as the civil blows of the day make for good reading. So it was in  2004 & 2008. 2012 was timid compared to those elections. Infact the 2008 Dem primary was more interesting than the 2012 election.

So it was again with interest that I started watching this year's primaries and the rebellious candidacies of Bernie and Trump. Trump, I lost interested in him the moment he started behaving like a crazy guy. Bernie, he looks like one, but talks more like how I used to be while in college. 

Now, the inequity of the world used to piss me off so much that I was expecting a revolution to come to sweep off all that and bring in a utopia of sorts. This is something I strongly wanted to happen till at least 3-4 into the job stream. And attributed to the heavy reading of Soviet literature in my early days. I remember the snowy nights in Omaha when I used to argue hotly with Haridas about the coming revolution. 

Then something happened and I became skeptical, then cynical and then lost faith in the revolution. In fact the revolution seemed like a cruel idea to keep dreaming about the life during the college life. 

Now Bernie was like the guy who still lives in college with the same dream for the past 50 years. I am not sure whether that is a good thing or not. So it was that by chance, I happen to be in the area during the NY primary and decided to check out Bernie in one of his rallies.

So after a few transfers and quite a bit of walk, reached the Bronx Community college. A short introduction by Susan Sarandon and Bernie came and spoke for about 45 minutes.

 I was listening with interest as Bernie starts off with the list of how his revolution will proceed. Free college, $15, On par wages for women, Healthcare for all, closing down jails etc. And every time he touched the particular item, the crowd went crazy. 

The crowd consists of mainly college kids, mostly white but some Latinos and African-Americans as well. It was fun to see all that enthusiasm and the inevitable reality that will take over. For all the believing in vs pragmatism, I do not think Bernie is no FDR or Lincoln to push through his agenda and I thought the Americans learnt it in the past 8 years of Obama and how much he had to struggle to push through incremental changes.

But then I would love to see Bernie as president trying to push through his agenda in a Republican congress. That will be something. 

But then my limiting knowledge of American politics may be a reason why I am skeptical. Any way it was an learning experience to be there feeling to be part of the great American election experience.

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are a lot of books on Rome that read like history. They talk about the well-known actors of the Roman stage and go about explaining the history of Rome. Mary Beard takes on the task of trying to put together a history of the first millennium of Rome in perspective and she does it in the most unorthodox way.

Instead of trudging through the usual players of the first Roman millennium, starting with Romulus, Numa, Tarquin and then jump a few hundred years into the interesting stories of Marius, Sulla and Ceaser, she constructs a story based on multiple sources of archaeological evidences gathered and more importantly, the quaestors, praetors, the slaves and the citizens (and non-citizens) of Rome.

Thus the book tries to take a perspective of things through the lenses of the ordinary people of Rome. Thus we get to read about the bar fights of the day, the toilet humor (who knows the philosophers will be so much useful there!), the laundry unions of Rome, the lives of the people of Rome which has scant evidence and as the author acknowledges in the epilogue, would've taken a lot of time to gather, analyze and infer from whatever evidence available.

For me, what was interesting was that the book dodges the salacious stories of the emperors and tries to focus more on the Roman history of people. However the written evidences only offer a glimpse of the people and so the author reconstructs the events through the evidences that are available. Starting from the letters of Cicero to Pliny and the (now preserved) museum of Pompeii, she constructs a story which is as interesting to read and learn about the emperors of the era.

A must read if you are a history lover.

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40 books

One of the things I tried this year is to set a target for my reading and figure how I did. It sounded easy to do and the target of 40 books seemed a little low at first. What I learnt through the year to keep going is definitely worth writing about.

I buy a lot of books and read at will most of them. Comparatively the number of books that I've but not read is probably in the single digits. The reason being that I take my time to buy a book. I do not invest if I don't know for sure that I am not gonna read it. I try to do my research and make sure it falls within the ambit of my interests before deciding to buy it.

The problem with that is that I take a lot of time to finalize a book that I want to read. This complicated things a bit. If I've to read 40 books I've to average at least 3 every month and read 1 more at least for 4 months. Sounded easy but the time I took to start reading meant that I fall back on the target real fast.

I also read multiple books at a time. I start on more than 2-3 books and keep going based on the time I've. This meant that there are longer intervals before I can update on the progress and again it means I kept falling back on schedule.

One of the things I learnt long back when I was a kid is that if you don't like a book, there is no need to keep reading it. Just skip it and move on to something else. This also meant that the time spent reading the first 50 or 100 pages are not going to help in the challenge.

Last year I started on the e-books. I found it easier to carry and read during the wait times or during the breaks, lunch etc and helped a lot in achieving the aim. I bought a bigger, newer phone which helps in reading at a reasonable pace.

Some time in the middle of the year, I started on '1Q84' and despite its length, got mesmerized into reading it. I spent about 2 months of elapsed time to complete it and felt actually to re-read the same. Probably the best book I've read this year.

That is, if I can discount Flashman. Flashman has become one of my favorite heroes or is it villain?. Nothing gives joy than the Flashman books and I am keeping the 12th one unread for fear that that will mean that there will be no more Flashman to read.

So by the middle of the year, I was only 30% through the challenge and decided to spruce it up a bit. It just happened that I became member of the British council library again after a few years and that meant that I've a constant supply of books with a deadline to return them. The best thing that happened to me in the year. This accelerated the reading and the number of books kept tumbling down.

However, by November, I still had 3 more books to go with no hope of making it. Then the Chennai floods happened. It meant that I was stuck at home with no electricity, no phones, no computer.

It was a lesson in humility for me but overall I was able to complete 42 books for the year. Looking into 2016, I think may be I will try to increase the number of books...

உயிர்த்தேன்

உயிர்த்தேன் by T.Janakiraman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'உயிர்த்தேன்'. தி.ஜாவை படிப்பதற்கும் ஒரு நேரம் தேவைப்படுகிறது. சென்னை 4 நாட்களாக மழையின் வெள்ளத்தில் தத்தளித்த போது வீட்டில் மின்சாரம், கைபேசி எதுவும் இன்றி வெறும் மெழுகுவர்த்தி துணையுடனும், நிற்காமல் மழையை பார்த்து ஊழிக் கால மழை எல்லாம் நினைவில் வர இருந்த நாட்களில் ஒன்றில் ஒரு மெழுகுவர்த்தி துணையுடன் படிக்க ஆரம்பித்தேன்.

தி.ஜாவின் பலமே அவரது உரையாடல்கள்தான். இதுவும் அது போலவே உள்ளது. செங்கம்மாவின் கதையாகவே போகும் இந்த நாவல் தி.ஜாவின் சிறந்த நாவல்களில் ஒன்று அல்ல. நாவலின் கதாபாத்திரங்கள், குறிப்பாக செங்கம்மாவும் அனுசூயாவும் கொஞ்சமும் யதார்த்த தன்மை இல்லாமல் இருக்கிறது ஓரு காரணம். அது போலவே கதையின் பல நிகழ்வுகள் சற்று நாடகத்தன்மையுடன் இருப்பதுமே.

பூவராகன் பட்டணத்தில் இருந்து ஆறுகட்டி கிராமத்தில் பூர்வீக நிலங்களை பார்த்து கொள்ள வருகிறார். அவரின் கணக்க பிள்ளை கணேசன் மற்றும் அவரது மனைவி செங்கம்மா சமையல்காரியாக அவரின் வீட்டில் இருக்கின்றனர். ஆறுகட்டியில் பூவிற்கு முன்னர் மிராசாக இருந்த பழனி காரணம் தெரியாத வன்மம் பாராட்டுகிறான். என்ன நடக்கிறது என்பதே கதை.

தி.ஜா காட்டும் அந்த 60களின் உலகம் அதன் பல மாய்மாலங்களுடன் நம்மை மயக்குகிறது.அது ஒன்றே இந்த கதையை காப்பாற்றுகிறது எனலாம். அனுசூயா யார் அவளுக்கும் பூவிற்கும் எப்படி பழக்கம் போன்ற சிறு தகவல்கள் அங்கும் இங்குமாக இல்லாமல் இருப்பதால் அனுசூயாவே ஒரு ஆதர்ச பெண் கதாபாத்திரமாக கதையின் ஓட்டத்தில் ஒரு நெகிழ்ச்சியாக ஆகி விடுகிறாள்.

அந்த ஆதர்ச நிலையே கதையின் பலமும் பலவீனமும் எனலாம். அதுவே கதையுடன் ஒன்றமுடியாமல் செய்து விடுகிறது. ஆனாலும் தி.ஜாவின் சில உரையாடல்கள் புன்முறுவலை வரத்தான் செய்கின்றன.

"ரொம்ப ஜாக்ரதையாகதான் இருக்கிறேன். இந்த தேசத்திலேயே ஜாக்கிரதையாகத்தான் இருக்கணும். ' வயசு வந்த மகளா இருந்தா அதோட தனியா இருக்காதே'னு நீதி சாஸ்திரம் எழுதி வச்சிருக்கிற புண்ணிய தேசமாச்சே இது. ராவணன் சீதையைத் தூக்கிட்டு போறப்ப, சீதை ஒரு பக்க ஆபரணங்களெல்லாம் கழட்டி போட்டா, வானரங்க மத்தியில விழுந்தது அது. பின்னாலே, ராமனும் லக்ஷ்மணனும் வந்தப்ப, லக்ஷ்மணன் சொன்னனாம் 'எனக்கு காது கை தெரியாது, மூக்கு நகை தெரியாது, கை நகை தெரியாது, கால் கொலுசுதான் தெரியும்'னு, கற்புக்கனல்,அருள் வீசுது முகம் - அதை பார்க்கவே கூசினானாம் இவன். அவ்வளவு சுத்தாத்மா! ராமாயணம் எழுதின மகானா இந்த அசிங்கத்தை எழுதுவான்! பின்னால் வந்த நாட்டமைகாரன் எவனோ அப்படி சாமர்த்தியமா செருகியிருக்கிறான். ஆகா ஆகா எப்பேர்ப்பட்டவன், எப்பேர்ப்பட்டவன்னு எத்தனை ஆடுங்க தலையாடிக்கிட்டே வருது அன்னியெ பிடிச்சு! சீதைய அசோக வனத்தில இருந்து பல்லக்கிலே ஏத்திக்கிட்டு வரப்ப, 'எல்லோரும் பாக்கட்டும், திரையை விலக்குங்கடா'ன்னு ராமப் பிரபு உலகத்துக்கு அந்த அருளைப் பளிச்சுன்னு திறந்து காமிச்சான். லக்ஷ்மணன் கால் நகைதான் தெரியும்னு சொன்னானாம். அத்தனை அயோக்கியனா அவனைப் பண்ணனும்னு தோணிச்சே பின்னால வந்த நாட்டமைக்காரங்களுக்கு! எப்பேர்பட்ட புண்ணிய பூமி! என்ன பண்பாடு "ப்ராய்ட்" எல்லாம் தோத்து போகணும். நான் ஜாக்கிரதையாத்தான் இருக்கேன். பயப்படாதே" .....
"என்ன இத்தனை ஆவேசம் வந்தது உனக்கு? ராமாயணத்து மடியிலேயே கை போட்டுட்டியே!"
"நான் போடலே, நாமெல்லாம் கெட்டு போயிடப்படாதுன்னு கண்ணில விளக்கெண்ணையைப் போட்டுக்கிட்டு கவலைப்பட்டு புதுசு புதுசா சேர்க்கராங்களே , அவங்களை சொன்னேன் சிங்கு"

இதை படிக்கும் போது இப்போது உயிரோடு இருந்திருந்தால் தி.ஜா என்ன பாடு பட்டிருப்பார் என்று தோன்றாமல் இல்லை.


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