The Book of Story Beginnings, Kristin Kladstrup

The Book of Story Beginnings, Kristin Kladstrup

Like the title, the book's start is worthy of a book, but peters out after that.

 (Flipkart, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Kindle US, Kindle UK, Kindle CA, Powell's)

The problem, nay - the challenge, with writing a good book is not the beginning, though unsuccessful writers find ways to make a hash of even this. It is the middle of the book that maters the most. Of course, the climax is like the icing on the cake, and sour cream does not a good icing make. It is the bulky middle that takes the tiny sparks of a good beginning and sustains it through to a hopefully satisfying end. This book, "The Book of Story Beginnings", suffers from a strong start that magically sucks you in, but which leaves you in a sort of storytelling vacuum for much of the middle. In fact, within a few pages of the  plot starting out in earnest, I had lost interest. I persevered through to the end, and while the book did pick up somewhat, the beginning belied the book.

Mahabharata Vol.7 - Translated by Bibek Debroy

Mahabharata, Vol. 7. Translated by Bibek Debroy

Weapons kill, but words will hurt much, much before that
(Flipkart, Amazon US, Kindle US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA)
One-line review: The war ends, but the carnage will take a night more to stop.

Short review: This seventh volume sees the war come to an end, with the fulfillment of vows, the killing of family, the drinking of blood, and the breaking of thighs. The Pandavas have won this terrible war, but the final price they would have paid for this victory will be known only in the eighth volume.

Bangalore Comic Con, 2013

The 2013 edition of the Bangalore Comic Con (@ComicConIndia) was held at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium - the same venue as last year, on June 1 and 2 (today is the last day). Unlike last year's event, which was the inaugural edition, this second event was perhaps an order of magnitude larger in attendance - it seemed like every school and college student was there. I felt like an outlier in terms of age - till I saw Vinay's photo from the event.

Laugh With Laxman - Review

Laugh with Laxman, R.K. Laxman

(Amazon, Flipkart, Amazon Kindle)
This is a collection of cartoons that RK Laxman drew outside the world of his famous pocket cartoon - You Said It. While several are from the sunday edition of the Times of India, during a period when RK Laxman was at his prolific best, there are some that have been taken from cartoons he drew for the monthly magazine, Science Today.

Spring is Here, Big Bear, by Will Hillenbrand

Spring is Here, Big Bear, by Will Hillenbrand

We read in Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep (my review), Maureen Wright's delightful book that was gorgeously illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, that Big Bear kept getting confused when told to go to sleep. Once he finally fell asleep, he slept right through winter, as bears are supposed to. Now that spring is here, Mole wakes up, smells the air, tiptoes outside and feels mud under his feet. Yes! Spring is here. It is time for Big Bear to wake up. Bear is snoring. Mole cannot get Big Bear to wake, try as he might. Will he get Big Bear to wake up, and how? This is a short and endearing story for pre-schoolers as well as kindergartners, made that much cuter by the expressions on Big Bear and Mole's faces. The illustrations are double-spread, and while I read an Adobe Digital Editions version of the book, this book is perhaps best enjoyed in paperback form.

ISBN:  978-0823424313 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0823416028 (hardcover)

Adobe Digital Editions version of the book

    
© 2013, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.

Mahabharata Quotes - Udyoga Parva

After the Pandavas' thirteen year exile was over, they packed up from Virata and headed off to Kurukshetra to wage war against their cousins, finished off the battle in eighteen nights.

Not quite. The path to war was by no means certain, by no means inevitable. It is a tragedy when one reads the several opportunities for peace that went abegging. The story of the terrible eighteen day war often relegates the tale of the Udyoga Parva to a mere footnote. The other story in the Udyoga Parva notable in its own right is that of Amba. In between the several parleys that went on between the Pandavas and Kauravas, there is the staggering Prajagara Parva, where Vidura expounds an entire treatise on statecraft in the middle of the night to Dhritarashtra. It is the presence of such nuggets that make the Mahabharata another reason to read in its entirety.

Blossom Book Shop, Bangalore

The Blossom Book House, on Church Street in Bangalore, is my kind of a bookstore. Aisle upon narrow aisle, shelf upon shelf stacked with books, not an inch of space devoted to cute displays, but books, old, new, the really old, shiny books, dusty books, books you have never heard of, books you will never read, books you never imagined you would see in any bookstore, least of all in a used-bookstore in Bangalore - The Starr Report for instance. See this Wikipedia article in case you don't know.

Oxford Book Shop, MG Mall

I had read or heard that the Oxford Bookstore at the 1 MG Mall in Bangalore was huge. That was the attraction for me to visit it. I was wrong. The bookstore is not that big, though the ambience is nice, the bookstore is quiet, and there is a coffee store right inside the store for you to enjoy a cuppa whilst the children browse the aisles. There is a small but nicely done up kids area, and on small wall a set of beautiful coffee table books put up.

The Missing Queen, by Samhita Arni

The Missing Queen, by Samhita Arni
"A king's flaw and a society's decay. Engrossing book though marred by an excessive in-your-face liberal ideology."

(Amazon-US, Kindle-US, Flipkart)
Rama (राम) is considered an ideal - ideal son, ideal pupil, ideal king, and ideal husband. There are two blemishes however on Rama's character, described by adi-kavi Valmiki, in his Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, that almost every child who has heard the Ramayana's epic from his parents or grandparents knows fully well. Rama killed Bali by trickery, and he abandoned Sita for no fault of hers. Bali's killing is often seen as the lesser of the two blemishes, one that can be explained by an exiled prince's resort to realpolitik, and which would not have been out of place in a later age. However, Rama's suspicions about Sita's chastity after the war in Lanka and then his decision to abandon her after they had returned to Ayodhya - they so jar the reader, they so much conflict with our image of Rama. Questions abound, that have been asked and attempted to be answered for thousands of years. Answers sought in religious ruminations, literary liturgies, ideological idioms, philosophical ponderings, and more.

The White Man's Burden - Winthrop Jordan

Image credit: OUP

The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States, by Winthrop D. Jordan

One-line review: Self-evident truths are sometimes the hardest to uphold.
"Every revolution must suppress its successors"


(Amazon US, Kindle US, Amazon UK, Kindle UK, Amazon Canada, Kindle Canada, Flipkart)

Short review: This book is a condensed version of the author's celebrated work on the history and origins of racism in the United States. That book is still considered the "definitive work on the history of race in America in the colonial era" , but its formidable length persuaded Winthrop Jordan to come out with a condensed version that would appeal more to the general public. This book should be on every Indian's reading list for two reasons: first, it is a very accessible introduction to racial attitudes and societal discrimination in the United States, and in my opinion has value in the Indian context also. Second, the rationalizations for such discrimination, and in particular the arguments used there were to find an echo in early British colonialism in India, continued in the early twentieth century, and still find echo in several western and even Indian academic institutions. Lastly, this is also a very well-written book.

Long Review:

"Prejudices are inevitable, innate, and right"

Why should an Indian particularly care to read a book on slavery? It is, after all, a history of enslavement and discrimination half a world away, decades and centuries ago, and India has enough problems of her own to sort out without burdening itself with a history in a geography seven seas away.

To do so would however be to miss an opportunity.
For two simple reasons. To understand the mechanics and rationalizations of discrimination on the one hand, and how those same attitudes would vend their way from Europe to Africa, then to the Americas, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to India.
Studying discrimination in a context removed from one's own self can sometimes help bring perspective and understanding. It can also help see patterns that may not be visible otherwise.
What worked hundreds of years ago to dehumanize and subjugate an entire race of people half a world away would also be applied by the British to colonize an entire subcontinent.

"I remain convinced that white American attitudes toward blacks have done a great deal to shape and condition American responses to other racial minorities."

In the words of the author, a study of history "impresses upon us those tendencies in human beings which have not changed and which accordingly are unlikely to, at least in the immediate future." To that end, "The White Man’s Burden" does a tremendous service in lucidly documenting the evolution of slavery’s form and rationale. While the initial material on the roots of slavery is decidedly sketchy, the book is simply outstanding when taking the reader through the century and a half when slavery established roots, along with the accompanying prejudices. The book’s length should make this accessible to even casual readers.

While forming firm opinions on the basis of one book is risky, doing so on the basis of a well-researched and widely acclaimed book as this, from a scholar as well-respected as the late Winthrop Jordan is a relatively low-risk endeavour.

Coorg Plantation Photos

Coorg (Kodagu) is a district in the state of Karnataka, and apart from the rich and proud cultural and military heritage of the native Kodavas (they revolted en-masse in 1785 against Tipu Sultan's attempt to convert them to Islam), today it is better known as being coffee country, and this district alone accounts for almost 40% of the coffee produced in India (an estimated 124,000 metric tonnes of the total estimated 325,000 MT produced in India).

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

Don't Walk Through the Brick Door.

(Amazon US, Amazon IN, Anniversary Edition, Flipkart, Flipkart e-book)
What happens when you run into a brick wall, figuratively speaking of course? You go get the key. And if that key eventually takes you to an alternate reality - a parallel universe, ghosts, ghouls, a twilight zone? Where you have a new set of parents wanting to give more tender, loving care your real parents will not, or cannot, but which would cost you your heart and soul, for all eternity? Can you get to keep your soul and get your real parents back? That, in short, is the premise of this creepily darkish short novel for kids.

Mahabharata Quotes - Virata Parva

The Virata Parva is the fourth parva in the Mahabharata, and the shortest of the first four, clocking in at under two thousand shlokas, and covers the thirteenth year of exile in incognito the Pandavas have to spend, which they do in the King Virata's kingdom.

Covers of Vols 1 - 6

These quotes are from the unabridged translation of the Mahabharata by Dr Bibek Debroy (my reviews: Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol.5 (1, 2), Vol. 6 (1, 2, 3)). The Virata Parva begins with the fourth volume of the translation, and ends someway around the half-way mark. Then starts the Udyoga Parva, which also features the story of Amba.

The start of the parva, where the Pandava's consiglieri, Sage Dhoumya, advises them on how to conduct themselves while in exile, could well have been taken from an HR manual for executives at a Fortune 500 company.
On to the quotes.

Jallianwalla Bagh

How do you shoot more than one thousand defenceless, unarmed, peaceful men, women, the elderly, and children in cold blood? How do you get honoured as a hero, as saviour, by your countrymen for saying you would have murdered even more women and children had you been able to? That, my dear fellows, is a question that does not seem to have troubled most people.

Truck signage, near Dharmapuri

Spotted at the back of a truck on NH7, between Salem and Dharmapuri. The funny thing is that even though this truck is sporting license plates of the state of Nagaland, I doubt it has ever been to the state in a long, long, time, since this is a truck carrying vehicles for the Hyundai car company.

Anyway, there are three fine examples of the art of poetry - shayari to be precise - here. I have transcribed two here. The first is a very typical example of what one finds on the back of trucks.

"Itni mod sadak pe nahi jitni vo teri baalon me hai
Itni rs angoor me nahi jitni teri gaali mei hai"
इतनी मोड़ सड़क पे नहीं जितनी वो तेरी बालों में नहीं
इतनी (sic) रस अंगूर में नहीं जितनी तेरी गाली में है

And the second is definitely risque.

"Hai raam kitni lambi hai, par dekhne me kitni achhi hai"
हाय राम कितनी लम्बी है, पर देखने में कितनी अच्छी है

© 2013, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.

Mahabharata Quotes - Aranyaka Parva

The Aranyaka Parva is the third parva in the Mahabharata, and in my reckoning one of the riches in terms of content. While the Adi Parva is literally the book of the beginning, and contains stories few may have heard of of the origins of few know of, and even fewer associate as belonging in the Mahabharata (like that of Uddalaka Aruni), and the Sabha Parva is perhaps the most pivotal of all parvas, as it lays the foundations of the destruction to be wrought thirteen and some years hence, the Aranyaka Parva is literally a goldmine of stories - a veritable forest of tales and philosophical discourses. Stories that are told, most of them by Sage Markandeya - and who himself has a story behind his everlasting life, as the Pandavas spend the twelve years of their exile in the forest, waiting, preparing, pondering. The thirteenth year, to be spent incognito while living among people, forms the fourth parva, the Virata Parva.

Covers of Vols 1 - 6

This post then collates quotable quotes from the third parva, the Aranyaka Parva, which at more than 10,000 shlokas, also happens to be the second longest parva in the epic, right behind Shanti Parva. This Parva starts in Vol. 2 of the unabridged translation of the Mahabharata by Dr Bibek Debroy (my reviews: Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol.5 (1, 2), Vol. 6 (1, 2, 3)), and continues into Vol. 3.

The second chapter in the parva is itself an exposition of Samkhya Yoga, and in the words of Dr Debroy, "This entire section is reminiscent of the Bhagvad Gita."
On to the quotes then.

• "There are four kinds of reasons behind physical sorrow - disease, the touch of something painful, labour, and distance from loved things."
  [Shounaka recounting King Janaka's shlokas  to Yudhishtra, Aranyaka Parva, Aranyaka Parva, Ch 2] (the first sub-parva in the Aranyaka Parva is also named Aranyaka Parva)

Mahabharata Quotes - Sabha Parva

Covers of Vols 1 - 6

My earlier post, collected some of the more interesting quotes from the first Parva of the Mahabharata, the Adi Parva. This post continues with a collection collated from the second Parva, the Sabha Parva. This Parva is contained entirely in Vol. 2 of the unabridged translation of the Mahabharata by Dr Bibek Debroy (My reviews: Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol.5 (1, 2), Vol. 6 (1, 2, 3)).

Narad muni's discourse to Yudhishtra, after the latter had settled down in the grand palace at Indraprastha, architected by the asura architect Maya, is quite notable as a piece of mini niti-shastra. I have taken the liberty of including many quotes from it, though I would recommend that people read it in its entirety.

"Do you hurt dharma by artha or artha by dharma or both for the sake of pleasures that kama brings?"
[Sage Narada to Yudhishtra, Sabha Parva, Sabha Parva, Ch 5] (the first sub-Parva in the Sabha Parva is also named "Sabha Parva")

"Surely you do not seek the advice from only one, or from too many."
[Sage Narada to Yudhishtra, Sabha Parva, Sabha Parva, Ch 5]

"Do you purchase a single learned man for one thousand foolish ones?"
[Sage Narada to Yudhishtra, Sabha Parva, Sabha Parva, Ch 5]

"Have you appointed superior men in superior positions and medium ones in medium positions?"
[Sage Narada to Yudhishtra, Sabha Parva, Sabha Parva, Ch 5]

Mahabharata Quotes - Adi Parva

The Mahabharata is a goldmine of stories, episodes, conversations, and incidents. As I read the Mahabharata - specifically the unabridged translation by Dr Bibek Debroy (it is a task as yet unfinished, primarily because Dr Debroy has completed six volumes of the translation and Penguin is expected to publish the seventh volume in April), I underlined passages, excerpts, dialogues, quotes that caught my eye. Yes, many of the books I read (and own) are littered with these underlinings. A book once owned and read is rarely left in a pristine condition, severely affecting its resale value I suppose.

I thought of how to collect some of these memorable excerpts into one place, and then decided that organizing them by parva, one post for each of the eighteen major parvas in the epic, would be as good a way as any. Now, based on the first parva, the Adi Parva, it seems that publishing them by parva may indeed work. If it turns out to be impractical, because of the length - too short or too long, then I will adopt a horses for courses strategy. If dharma can be subtle, so can a blog strategy.

The very first parva is the Adi Parva, and is contained mostly in the first volume of the translation. In this post, I have collected some of the notable quotes from this parva.

• "Time brings existence and non-existence, pleasure and pain. Time creates all elements and time destroys all beings. ... Time cannot be conquered. Time walks in all elements, pervasive and impartial."
  [Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra, Anukramanika Parva, Adi Parva, Ch 1]
  

• "There is no curse that does not have a remedy. O snakes! But he who has been cursed by his mother has no remedy."
  [Vasuki, Astika Parva, Adi Parva, Ch 33]
  

• "One who is afflicted by destiny can find a remedy in destiny alone."
  [Elapatra to Vasuki, Astika Parva, Adi Parva, Ch 34]

The Demonologist, by Andrew Pyper

Image Credit:
andrewpyper.com

The Demonologist, by Andrew Pyper
Doesn't Quite Flatter, Most Certainly Disappoints

(Amazon, Kindle, Flipkart, my review on Amazon)
"Makes me question the devil's competence, the author's grasp on storytelling, and David Ullman's hold on sanity."

The way David Ullman, Cornell professor and expert on demonic literature, especially Milton's Paradise Lost, deciphers clues, goes on a cross country motor trip, in a Ford Mustang to begin with and later in several stolen cars, to rescue his daughter, Tess, before she is claimed, forever perhaps(?), by one of Satan's disciples, does more to make you question the devil's competence than David's proficiency.

David's marriage is a mess. The protagonist has to have little going right for him in such novels. Except his daughter Tess who is the only ray of light in his otherwise dismal existence. And truth be told, the one thing that this book gets somewhat right are the bits about the father and daughter interactions. When his wife informs him of her decision to move out of their house, David uses the opportunity to accept an invitation from a mysterious lady to go on an all expense paid visit to Venice with his daughter. What happens at Venice leaves David with only a matter of days in which he must decipher clues to retrieve his daughter before she is claimed by the devil for all time. So far so good. The plot has all the ingredients required for a truly gripping and empathetic thriller. Who would not be attracted to a thriller with elements of the supernatural, a race against time, a father's love for his daughter, a cross-country road trip - very American, and more. But if you take all these ingredients and just dump them into a cauldron in the hope that what will emerge will be a savory dish, anyone who has ever ventured into a kitchen will know that does not happen.

As I said, to be fair, some of the passages that describe the father's moments with his daughter, Tess, indeed ring true and heartfelt, and these are some of the redeeming passages in the book. Since they do not quite follow or lead up to anyplace, they feel forced into the narrative.

This is one of those I've-seen-better-film-on-teeth type of screenplays, written post-haste, using a heady concoction of adverb-laden over-wrought prose (sample these: "A quietly beautiful woman too" or "Her hand on my elbow a patch of cool on my suddenly burning skin"), with strategically planted episodes meant to evoke a sense of growing horror, terror, and suspense, but however elicit only a derisive burst of laughter, snort even, but nothing beyond. Yes, we can see how they would fit neatly into a screenplay, and we can even imagine how they may be shot and presented to us, but this is a book, not a movie, yet. The clickety-clack from the rusty springs of a trampoline in the middle of a night is one such episode, but why is it in the novel, and what exactly does it do to drive the plot ahead is sadly never made evident or hinted at. The "Pursuer" is man of such clumsy incompetence you wonder how he manages to even brush his teeth in the morning without choking and drowning.

The plot needed to be developed, the characters fleshed out, the clues needed to contribute to the fabric of the plot. That didn't happen; the result is a constant attempt at smashing adverbs into every sentence in the hopes of producing literary fusion. It has to be "A quietly beautiful woman too", while  "Outside, the interstate hums and yawns", or the truly climatic "Her hand on my elbow a patch of cool on my suddenly burning skin", while the mind bends to wrap itself around "She exhales. And before I can awaken, she releases an endless sigh. One that forms itself into an utterance that grows in volume and force, until it billows out of her as a kind of poem." On the other hand, "I sip the coffee. The taste of liquefied rust" does bring a smile as I remembered the brew that goes by the name of coffee in so many fast food joints.

And finally, it's a jet, it's a plane, but is "The jet humming and whistling, soothing as a mechanical womb"?? This question will keep me awake for hours on end. The plot? Not so much.

Author's site, Twitter handle, Facebook page
Kindle Excerpt:

© 2013, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King - Review

From Different Seasons (Signet)
Fascinating Novella; The Screenplay of the Movie Actually Bettered It

 (Kindle)
I must have watched "The Shawshank Redemption" more than a dozen times. It is a testament as much to the movie as it is to the screenplay and the novel it is based on. The Stephen King novella, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" is less than a hundred pages long, and is unlike other Stephen King works from the horror genre. It is the travails of a convict, Andy Dufresne, wrongly sentenced for the twin murders of his wife and her lover, and how he spends his years in the prison, finding his way through the brutal hierarchy of the prison, the brutality and venality of the prison officials, his friendship with Red - this Irish character is played by Morgan Freeman in the movie, and from whose eyes we see and are told this story, and his escape from the prison that is also his redemption in some ways.

Without going into the details, it was somewhat my impression that while Stephen King's novella is very good on its own merits, the movie betters the book, and that is saying a lot for both the movie and the book.




Kindle Excerpt:

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© 2012, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved.