The Immortals of Meluha

The three pillars of Hindu religion are Brahma (giver of life); Vishnu (creator) & Mahesh (destroyer of evil). There are multiple stories of these three Gods with Vishnu being the center of most of them in terms of his avatars balanced by Brahma and Mahesh. As Indians we have lived on these stories and revel in the knowledge that they impart. We pray to them and seek their blessings at all times. We revere Brahma, we learn from Vishnu and we fear the wrath of Mahesh or Lord Shiva.

But what if they were not Gods but men like us who on account of their deeds and qualities became legends and as the stories passed from generation to generation they acquired the status of Gods.

Among all three Gods the most closest to human flaws has to be Lord Shiva. He dances, he smokes pot, he sings, his temper is well known and he strikes the right balance between being a God and being human.

Amish Tripathi takes that as a concept - what if Lord Shiva was not a God but a man like us who became a God - and develops it into one of the best Indian books to come out in a long time. This is the story of how a Tibetan tribal leader became the most revered, respected, feared, loved and admired legend and who became Lord Shiva - Mahadev and destroyer of evil. It deals beautifully with the myths surrounding the legend and gives it credibility in the story.

An advice as you start reading this book. Keep and open mind and absorb the play that Amish has written. Don't get bogged down by trying to explain the myth and linking it to the story. At the same time remember the myth so that you are astounded by the simple explanations that Amish provides for it and weaves it fantastically into the fabric of the story.

By using everyday English that we speak Amish manages to bring the larger-than-life figure of Lord Shiva into the human realm and you start associating with this man called Shiva. The story is fast paced with interesting nuggets in intervals that keep you turning the pages wanting more. It has all the ingredients of a love story, accepting destiny, earning respect, making friends and asking questions. Amish manages to bring in interesting characters in the book and moving these along at just the right pace. The book hardly slacks and keeps you engrossed. The best part of the book is that it makes almost all the God legends into possible human beings who achieved greatness and contributed so much to society and its upbringing that story tellers made them Gods.

Who is Brahma? What did Lord Ram establish as governance? How did Lord Shiva become a Neelkanth? Did he invent the Trishul and how? How did Lord Shiva also become the dancing God Narataja? Where did the cry of 'Har Har Mahadev' when referring to Lord Shiva come from? Who is Nandi, the bull?

Close your eyes and think of Lord Shiva! 'The Immortals of Meluha' explains how Lord Shiva got Nandi, a blue throat and the Trishul. I am eagerly waiting for Amish's next two books and his view of how Lord Shiva got Ganga tied up in his hair, the cobra around his neck, the fearsome third eye and birth of God Ganesha. Come to think of it the fact that God Ganesha wrote The Ramayana as dictated by Ved Vyas is possible!

The only fallacy of the book is that you might start believing that this is possible and start looking at all our myths through the eyes of a human being rather than a devout!

I rate it 5/5 and encourage everyone to please read this book!

2 States - The story of my marriage.

In the recent past I have rarely read a book cover-to-cover at two or three sittings probably because of the size of the book or the nature of the read. This one I did. I started reading it yesterday afternoon and have just completed the book.

To start with '2 states - The story of my marriage' is a breezy read. The language is simple, the context clear and the situations understandable. The book appeals to you from the first page as Chetan Bhagat gives you a teaser and you wonder if the story will end on a happy or a sad note? If you skip to the last page you know that it will end on a happy note but then you want to know how. So it grabs your attention. At its core the story is about the love between a Punjabi North Indian boy and a Tamilian South Indian girl. But set it in the Indian context and you understand the complexities of that relationship. Marriage (at least in India) is not about the boy marrying the girl but more about the two families liking each other and accepting each other. The book is a journey of how the two counterparts convince their and the other family to accept them.

The book will appeal to you more if you fit into any one of the intended categories: (1) if you've had a cross culture, cross caste love - marraige or not (2) if you are a Tamilian or Madrasi / South Indian (3) if you are a Punjabi or North Indian and (4) if you've experienced any of them / lived in Delhi or Chennai. And I think therein lies the issue with the book. The segment of people that it will appeal to or the segment of people who will understand and identify with the book is relatively small.

The book panders to the agreed perceptions of the two classes - Madrasis are dark skinned, boring (read non-drinking, veg, intellectual focused) people while Punjabis are crass, loud mouthed, money focused people. And therein lies the second issue of the book. For a general reader this book might send wrong knowledge about the people and colour them with these characteristics. The book, of course, is superficial in its attempt at dealing with the North-South divide and does not go beyond dealing with certain set characteristics. It does not deal with why South Indians value education over money or why North Indians think the other way around. It attempts at doing this in a half-hearted way at some points of the book but you know that Bhagat does not want to write that kind of a book. He set out to write a cute, breezy love story and he accomplishes it.

The biggest problem with this book is that you can feel and see that Bhagat has written the book clearly with a Bollywood movie deal in mind. I think post his two books getting picked up by the Hindi movie making industry, his writing has changed. '2 States' is clearly written with a movie in mind. He peppers the book with the requisite Hindi movie characters and scenes - the breezy first half love story with no worries in the world, the cheesy proposal scene, the domestic abuse and a heartless father, the comedy of the North Indian landing in Chennai, the overbearing boss and his turnaround, DDLJ type boy endearing himself to various members of the girl's family, the presence of a guru to show the path, the depression for a sad song, a Punjabi wedding for the dance sequence, the sudden turn of heart of the father for the required lump-in-the-throat scenes and some comedy for the last bit.

Its all there and Bhagat will be seriously disappointed if this does not become a movie! The intent is there but the writing is for a Hindi Movie!

And for that I give it a 2.5/5. Read it if you have time and don't want too serious reading material!

Kafka On the Shore

When you pick a book you look forward to a genre and get ready to read the story pertaining to that genre - thriller, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy and so on. Pick up an Asimov and you know the story will pan across the galaxy. Pick up a John Grisham and you know the story, most probably, be about lawyers. Pick up a Murakami and you should expect a story that easily crosses between the real world and the metaphysical one.

Given that, Kafka On the Shore is probably Murakami's most extreme take on bridging that divide. The story deals with complex emotions as Oedipus Complex, labyrinths inside and outside oneself, androgynous characters, ghosts and being at two places at the same time. The story is also peppered with the usual Murakami foundation of music, sexuality and dark humor.

Kafka On the Shore deals with two parallel stories which are destined to cross paths. While at one end is the story of Kafka Tamura, a 15 year old boy who runs away from home to escape his father's prophecy; it is also the story of Satoru Nakata, a 50 year old who has lost all memory, is a bit slow-witted and who can talk to cats. As you read the story you realise that their lives are interlinked and they will cross paths at a later part in the novel. Across the story they come across various other people who add to their journey and keep you engrossed.

Kafka is a 15 year old boy who wants to become tough and has left his house to find his mother and sister. On the run he lands up a a library where he meets with Oshima, a 21 year old female who knows that she is a he, lives her life as a he and becomes Kafka's closest friend. Throughout the novel Oshima is always referred to as a he and infact you think otherwise till she herself explains her status to some arbid random visitors to the library. Oshima also lets Kafka stay in his jungle log cabin as a refuge. Kafka also meets with Miss Saeki who he thinks is his mother but who seems to visit him as a 15 year old girl/ghost in his room at night. And his runaway travels also bring him across Sakura, a young woman who he thinks might be his sister.

Nakata, on the other hand, is a 50 year old man who - after a childhood accident - lost his memory, his ability to read or write and a bit slow on the uptake. He gets a subsidy from the Governor and think that the governor controls everything. However, he can talk to cats and becomes a cat-finder on the side. One of his finding missions bring him across a person who kills cats to capture their souls. Nakata kills him in cold blood and then his life takes a different turn as he now realises that he has to close an entrance stone and he takes off on a mission. Nakata meets Hoshima, a truck driver who helps him in his mission.

But did Nakata kill Johny Walker (a take on the whiskey icon) or did he kill Kafka's father? Did Nakata kill him or did Kafka take over his body and make Nakata kill him? Is Kafka's landing up at the library where Miss Saeki works pre-determined or co-incidence? Is Miss Saeki really his mother? How are Nakata and Kafka connected and what has the entrance stone got to do with all this? Just some of the interesting questions that come up across the story.

Without revealing too much, Kafka On the Shore is also a story of metaphors as each flawed character represents some aspect of human nature. Kafka is the quintessential teenage boy who needs to discover himself and has too many angst and is struggling with questions. Oshima is the perfect voice of subconscious - non sexual, knowledgeable, with all the answers and some deep questions.Miss Saeki is the one lives in her memories and cannot live in the real world. Nakata is the perfect example of simplicity and focus - one who takes on a task and single mindedly pursues it to its closure. Hoshima is a story of coming-of-age, someone who has no cares in the world who comes in contact with Nakata and whose life changes for the better, who gets a purpose in life. Johny Walker and Colonel Sanders represent the temptations that come our way and what actions we do to overcome them or fall prey.

Murakami is not an easy read for everyone. I believe that there is a right time in your life when you will enjoy reading Murakami. If you start reading him too early you find his novels idiotic and without purpose and too esoteric. But if you read him at a proper time in your life, the novels get you thinking about yourself and your beliefs and flaws.They stay with you. If you've read a Murakami and found his novel too obtuse for your thinking, I suggest you give it a rest and pick them up after a few years again. I'm sure you'll discover something new.

Kafka On The Shore is best summed up by Murakami himself when he said - The secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it multiple times. Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write.

I rate it 4/5 at this time of my life. I'm sure I'll pick it up again in about 5 years.

Have a little Faith

I picked up the first Mitch Albom a few years back when I saw it on Oprah. I loved 'Tuesdays with Morrie' for its simplicity and its core message. The book opened up a few windows for me and got me thinking that its sometimes worthwhile to slow down.

I then read his 'Five people you meet in heaven' which I didn't quite enjoy and so I stopped reading his books. But when I saw that his latest book 'Have a Little Faith' is a return to non-fiction I had to pick it up.

This book reminds me very much of his 'Tuesdays with Morrie' and he regularly references his meeting with Morrie in this book as well. 'Have a little faith' will take you on a journey that you may not want to go on. It raises some pertinent questions on your faith and also tries to answer them through the perspective of two believers of completely different faiths.

The book starts with Mitch's rabbi requesting him to write his eulogy. This gets Mitch intrigued since he has hidden his faith and run away from it. Mitch approaches the 'problem' in the same manner as he would write a book - he starts to research the subject through regular meetings. In his own words Mitch says that he wants to know the person rather than the rabbi that everyone knows. It is these conversations that slowly get Mitch to understand his own faith and start believing again. At the other end, as part of his charity that helps the homeless camps, he comes across a pastor of a crumbling derelict church in the poorest center of the city who still sticks to his faith and believes that the Lord does everything for a reason. And therein lies the crux of this book.

Through the eyes of a successful community building Jewish rabbi and a Christian pastor of a derelict church with a past so dark that you wonder how he became a man-of-God, Mitch Albom brings to fore some of the underlying question on faith and belief in God. How do you cope with the loss of a child? What do you do in tough times?Is it OK to blame God? If there is a God why is there so much sadness and violence? If none of the religions preach violence then why are most wars fought on religion? Suffice to say some of the conversations will open your mind as well.

Mitch Albom's writing also keeps you engaged. As he begins the story of his meetings with Rabbi Albert Lewis to understand him as a man, he peppers it with nuggets on the past life of Henry Covington (a criminal, a drug dealer, a jailbird) and his journey to becoming a pastor. While the first half is more about The Reb, the second half dwells more on Pastor Henry and his struggle to keep his church operational. The faith of people shines through in instances where Henry's church has no electricity in the middle of a harsh winter.

As you read this book you realise that faith is not something connected to your God. Faith is universal and stems from your belief.

Read it and it might open some windows for you.

I rate it 3.5/5.

Ford County Stories

Mississippi - the US state made famous by movies like 'Mississippi Burning' and 'A Time to Kill' - is the location for John Grisham's collection of short stories. 'A Time to Kill' is of course his own novel and a brilliant treatise on segregation and racism rampant in that area. For us non-Americans the horrors of racism against blacks, the philosophy of the KKK and the terrors that the blacks had to endure during those years is gleaned from novels and movies like these. John Grisham himself accepts that he wanted to return to the places and people from 'A Time to Kill' and talk about them.

So as I pick up the book at the store I half expect to read stories again on racism, on segregation and atrocities on blacks at the hands of the whites. The book pleasantly surprises you by the absolute lack of that. 'Ford County Stories' is not about rehashing what happened in 'A Time to Kill' but about the people who stay there and their daily lives. From your past 'experience' of the area you do expect the people to be boorish, crass, temperamental, angry and gun toting extremists. Some stories validate these characteristics while some very beautifully bring out the basic human nature that you would find anywhere in the world.

A group of youngsters decide to go on a journey to donate blood to one of their town guys and get sidetracked by gang fights, sleaze and sex and land up in jail - a poignant story on how one can loose track of the aim and objectives.
story about hope that a convicted death row prisoner keeps giving his family till the last moment and how his family seems to be relieved when the inevitable finally happens.
A vendetta by a low key guy who discovers that he can manipulate casinos and how he destroys a casino to get his wife back. A wonderful story on skills used well.
A dead beat lawyer hits jackpot with an old litigation and how he manipulates things to start a new life. A story on how some things help to start a new life.
A lawyer comes face to face with an old case where he was responsible for wrong justice and gets a time bound life sentence. Things will always come back to haunt you.
But my best story is really of a white boy coming back home with AIDS, how he is sent to stay in the blacks portion of the town where he finds more love and acceptance by the lady of the house than he found even in his own family. The short story selection end on this beautiful note about human relations.

Its not vintage Grisham. Its not all about lawyers and cases. Its not about blacks and whites. But its a good read on a short flight or when you have nothing to read.

I would rate it 3/5.

Norwegian Wood

Another Murakami and another beautiful piece of work. If you've read a number of Murakamis - like I have - you realise that this one is a bit different but still retains the essence of his writing. The poetry in prose is intact. As you read this book the metaphors come alive and you can almost visualise the scene and the people in them.

'Norwegian Wood' is at its root the love stories of the central character Toru Watanabe. Its a story of lost friendships and the pain felt by Toru as he tries to find and keep love. Death is a underlying theme in the story and Toru learns something new with each death. The engrossing thing of Murakami's writing is that each character is human surrounded by flaws and you feel the pain of each character. As you read the book you tend to relate the flaws with some of the people you know and wonder if this is how they feel.

The entire story spans just 4 years but is packed with so many events in Toru's life that you feel he has lived a lifetime. The huge emotional gap in Toru's life starts at 17 when his best friend - Kizuki - commits suicide. He discovers love for Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, but she is so flawed and emotionally imbalanced by Kizuki's death that she focussed on healing herself first while asking Toru to wait. But Toru finds friendship in Midori who, incidentally, is just as emotionally unstable as Naoko but accepts those faults and lives with them rather than fighting them.

The book presents us with two completely different ways of dealing with the pain of losing a loved one. While Naoko is unable to deal with the pain and is trapped in her own fragile world; Midori accepts her instabilities and fights them in the real world. Her bravado hides the emotional instability but she is at least alive. At the same time one sympathizes with Naoko and wishes desperately, for Toru's sake, that she get better.

In all these are two fantastic characters - Reiko Ishida - Naoko's room mate in the sanitorium but really a midway character between Naoko and Midori. Reiko understands her instabilities, has not bravado and quietly fights them to emerge triumphant. And then there is Nagasawa, Toru's friend who presents the emotionally detached character for whom women and lust are a ways to and end; who clearly knows where he wants to go and is bored by the journey.

The best character in the book is of course Toru and you feel for him as you travel the journey with him. You wish he gets Naoko, you wish he outgrows her and understands his feelings for Midori, you wish he listens to Reiko and you wish that he does not become like Nagasawa. You smile as he tells Naoko that he will forever remember the time she gave him a handjob and that he would never have sex with another woman and would wait for her. You feel his pain when he roams Japan to get over the death of the one he loves the most.

For me the book has a special meaning for its explanation of love that resonates with how I understand love. Read the book - you might discover something about yourself.

I rate it 4.5/5

Nine Lives

I hadn't read any books of William Dalrymple before this, which was probably for the best. I approached this book as a fresh one by another author without being prejudiced by his earlier writings.

'Nine Lives' appealed to me from the time I heard about it in the media. Here was a book that spoke about searching for the sacred in the modern India. At the same time I was skeptical that the book would dissect India and its religious beliefs and present it from a view point of a Westerner thereby making it sounds spiritual or worse still comical. And so I started the pages with trepidation.

Suffice to say 'Nine Lives' is one of the best books that I have read in a long time - especially about India. William Dalrymple shows why he loves India so much as he approaches each subject with an open mind and presents the religious belief in a neutral manner. He does not put his views on the subject matter but rather presents it as a learning experience informing the readers about the belief, giving a backgrounder of the same and taking us on a journey of the person in question.

Starting from the first story of the Jain Nun and the concept of Sallekhana he captures your mind. The book presents various facets of India's lost religious cults and masters which - I am embarrassed to say - even I didn't know of. I've learnt a whole new face of India which I was unaware of.

From spirituality of the Jain munis in 'The Nun's tale' to overturning the oppressive caste system in India for a brief moment of time in "The Dancer of Kannur".

From explaining how religion was viewed in a sexual form in India and the challenges of latter day prostitution in "The Daughter's of Yellama" to showcasing how 'illiterate' villagers of Rajasthan can remember and sing the wonderful 5,000 couplet epics in "The Singer of Epics".

From bringing to life the real background of the Runa Laila hit song 'Dama Dam Mast Kalandar' and introducing a Bihari lady in Sindh Pakistan in "The Red Fairy" to the absolutely amazing story of the Tibetan monk who took up arms to fight for his motherland and presenting the true angst of the Tibetan folks on the China invasion in "The Monk's Tale".

From showing us how God's idols are made in "The Maker of Idols" to the amazing story of the sadhus in the cremation grounds of Tarapith in Kolkata in "The Lady Twilight" and the Bauls of West Bangal in "The Song of the Bling Minstrel".

From one part of India to another William Dalrymple takes us through a journey of exotic India and presents facets of India that we may not be aware of. The best part is that it really does present India in its true form - not in a spiritual India or a comical India or a yoga-istic India but in its true form.

I highly recommend this book to everyone - Indian or not - to understand what India's religions are about, especially the so called exotic ones.

I rate this 5/5!