Electrified!!

I have mostly used this blog space to lament on my experience of reading. I have doled out formal reviews of the wonderful books that I've read. And mostly, all this was done in public eye; my blog was very much in the public space through social media, shares in email chains, back links from other bloggers, guest entries, correspondence with the authors etc,. But I have grown beyond that stage. I am going through an immense personal metamorphosis and the blog hasn't been a reflection of that at all. I felt estranged from this passionate lover from the past. I no longer wish to have that estranged relationship with writing. I want to chronicle all the beloved learnings and experiences I face through this blog. It will be a mirror to my self-journey.

I am currently reading Salman Rushdie's "Joseph Anton" and moved by the bare authenticity of the work. To see a book's realization through the creator's eyes is electrifying. As I have a deep connection to books and experiences, I am able to relish in all the details that the author has provided. A book is so much more than just a work of imagination to an author. An author leaves behind his personal self in the pages. A book is a glimpse into his mind. A book is a piece of author's soul left behind for all the posterity to enjoy. I cannot thank enough the book sale, where I bought this book. Lost in the world of education sector, I had temporarily departed from writing although I read many life altering bits. I am connected to my element whenever I am reading.

I am an engineer by training and an educator by choice. But the world of books has a strong calling. I cannot put my finger on what role I will play in the world of books but I just know that I am here to stay.

There is no friend as loyal as a book. - E Hemingway 

Kind to self!

It's been long since I penned down my thoughts. I  recently had a wake up call that I absolutely lack work-life balance. I enjoy my job immensely and in such a scenario, my work has become my life. It is the ideal condition everyone aspires to be in. I am never exhausted mentally and I have the energy to do six days' work at once. Nevertheless I consciously choose to take a step back and relax a bit. I need a respite from workaholic schedule.

Today I was faced with a situation where there was a minor mishap in my work. It occurred due to a combination of faults from 3 people but I had to face the consequences. I was chided by my superior and fell into the guilt trap immediately. My mind was clouded with the self-abnegation. I just couldn't forgive things going on a any path that is less than perfect. I was cruelly judging my preparedness, dedication and capability all at once. It took a colleague's soothing moral support and my own reflection to bounce back into being happy.

What makes it so hard to be kind to self?

• Ego
• High expectations from self
• Societal expectations
• Fear of failure
• Doubts about one's own capability 
• Locus of control lying outside of your mind
• Less energy to stop the penetration of external influences into your mind
• Lack of clarity on one's efforts and the outcome
• Circumstantial pressure
• Self-criticising 

All the above reasons are daunting to tackle at once. But all it takes to overcome them is self-awareness. Being extremely conscious of one's own thoughts and emotions is crucial to practising kindness on self. We find it easy to help a friend at times of distress but to muster the will power to help oneself requires practice, confidence, resilience and grit. High degrees of honesty plays a major rule in accepting mistakes and turning them into learnings. One more underestimated tool for practising kindness on self is humour. Being able to laugh at your mistakes is the most courageous thing to do. Standing up to an enemy (your brain) who knows you very well is outright intimidating. First line of defence is to empathise with self. Then the below cycle follows:

• Take notice of the mistake
• Observe your emotions towards the mistake
• Embrace your weakness
• Be vulnerable and stop playing perfect
• Analyse the growth points
• Do damage control
• SMILE
• Go back to the arena being vulnerable and ready to make another mistake

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” 
― Dr. Seuss

Book review: Ajaya - Epic of the Kaurava clan Book1

Ajaya

The play dough of any creative writer in India, The Mahabharata is retold yet again from a villain's perspective in Ajaya - Epic of the Kaurava Clan. I was unswayed by the rebellious tone of the author, Anand Neelakantan's previous novel Asura. Hence, I approached this one with trepidation. The first 100 odd pages were gloomy as ever with only crows cawing, rain spattering during night, dust, stench and hunger taking precedence over any other word of imagery and descriptive details. It was a turn off for a person like me who can't take in pointless negativity in a book.

The novel revolves around 3 protagonists- the one at the supreme rung of social heirarchy; the crown prince of Hastinapura Suyodhana, the ill-fated low caste outcast Ekalavya and the casteless urchin Jara who follows Ekalavya everywhere like a dog. The crude inhuman reality of any society is brought about in the description of the lives of poor Ekalavya and Jara. The author has gone over the top to gain sympathy for such people. Since this task is overdone by him, the readers develop an initial disgust to such a writing style.

As the story proceeds, Suyodhana is shown in the light of a non-villain. I wouldn't say hero because he has not been portrayed as a person having revolutionary ideas and the courage to bring about a substantial change. He is a prince who doesn't believe in the rigid chaturvarna caste system that prevailed during his times and values merit and generosity above all other human virtues. While the Pandavas are shown as charlatans who would do anything to uphold the prevalent dharma (social order), Suyodhana is projected as a firm believer in establishing an egalitarian society. The book discourses views on an ideal society with the master strategist Krishna and his followers (Pandavas, Drona, Parashurama) on one side and the idealists such as Kripa, Balarama, Karna, Kauravas and Bhishma on the other side fighting for casteless, merit based societal norms.

The reader can't help but rejoice in the character of Suyodhana for he is everything that we imagine a modern political visionary should be. My heart went out to Suyodhana when a Pandava marries his first love, Subhadra. The atrocities of upper caste individuals(Drona, Kunti and her priest gang) against the politically weak (Suyodhana) individuals and lower caste heroes (Karna and Ekalavya) make one's blood boil. The reader in my mind was doing a full split cheering act when Karna won the coveted 'Dharmaveera' title based on sheer talent and merit. The flight of the nishada boy Ekalavya who is denied basic survival and respect in society makes you wonder whether the time of Mahabharata epic was really habited by God and god-men.

The picturing of low caste livelihood, their shanties and slums, untouchability, unequal opportunities to flourish in life really got me thinking about the fantasies of the epic of Mahabharata. After many millennia of its inception, we still base our moral decisions drawing on the wisdom of Mahabharata. This book drives home the common clichés that history is written by the victors, a hungry man is not a free man and others. I started questioning the deeds of many main characters of Bharata- the deeds which I took on their face value till now. 

Although this book has a dejected and dark beginning, the overall read leaves with a lot of questions in your head, the mark of a good book. Read this compelling book if you want to 

• fathom the difficulties a commoner like Karna had to face to level upper caste Arjuna in his renowned skills.
• mull over the intricacies of 'Dharma' that Pandavas so fondly fought for and in the process burnt half the country.
• be challenged over what is right against what is humanity.

“There’s no path to liberation that doesn’t pass through the shadow.” 

Jay Michaelson

Our epics, fables and folk tales have age old wisdom. It is upto the wise people to not accept received rigid wisdom without questioning its moral fabric.

Interesting blogs that I came across

A friend of mine always keeps telling me that reading should be a social thing for adults as well as children. So keeping with her philosophy I am going to share some of the interesting things I recently came across that are worth mentioning.

The blog wander is a site I stumbled upon while browsing FB (funny thing how FB has been the source of some of my very good reads). Five 20 something girls share their views on life, travelling, love, friendship, self identity and lot of other things that really matter to 20 somethings all around the world. Few of my favourite articles are:

• http://wanderonwards.com/2013/12/30/23-things-to-do-instead-of-getting-engaged-before-youre-23/ 
• http://theblogwander.com/2013/12/07/is-beauty-really-skin-deep/
• I am sure you will add your own favourites to this list - keep browsing

My partner and I have this habit of reading about interesting people from all walks of life and we mostly come across mind blowing people and their head turning lives in TED videos. One such amazing person I know about now is Raghava K K from Bangalore, Karnataka. He is a guy who quit schooling at 16 to become a caricature artist and life made him don many more titles such as cartoonist, painter, reformer, celebrity show manger etc. Here are a few of Raghava's videos that will inspire you beyond wits. 

 

Not to mention, Raghava has a very interesting life partner too- an accomplished western classical music composer Netra Srikanth. 

 

New reads,new lessons

Owing to ill health and professional creative writing I had resigned from publishing any article in this blog. It haunted me many nights that I wasn't sharing any of my reviews for the books I read. But it slowly dawned on me that what I missed the most was not sharing the formal book reviews but the stories and learnings I imbibed.

In the past two months I struggled to keep up a living (read job for outsiders) I am madly in love with. I chanced to read quite a few good books:

• Asura - Anand Neelakantan
• How I braved Anu aunty and cofounded a million dolalr company- Varun agarwal
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
• The Ugly Duckling - Hans Christian Anderson

Varun's book was a delight for me, a Bangalorean. Any Indian will love this casual book, more so if one happened to be a Bangalorean. This is a story of yet another engineer who "came out" (:P) of the boring rut many Indians get into - life of a techie. He braves many odds against him and becomes a successful entrepreneur. This book is a peek into the lifestyle, language and attitude of a typical Bangalore guy. I was actually impressed by the courage this guy shows in meting out all naysayers from his life and achieving his dream of doing something on his own. 

Asura was a dark shade of Ramayana for me told in the voice of the antagonist - Ravana. There are few books that are not delightful reads in themselves but which make you end up opening a new window of thought. Asura led me to read many of the famous versus in original Valmiki Ramayana and I can now point out so many outright male chauvinistic views in our age old holy classic. It sickened me in a funny way. 

Jonathan Livingston is the dude. This seagull goes above and beyond the normal societal conventions imposed on a seagull and flies away his journey to glory and inner peace. It's a breezy read of 85 odd pages and a quickie when it comes to inspirational books. I got inspired and went out to watch a movie all alone on a weekend! Ha 

The Ugly Duckling is a oh-so-cute kind of children tale that has messages on identity crisis and finding oneself going through a tumultuous journey. An ugly drake is hatched out of an egg warmed by a duck and for the one single fact that he is an ugly misfit he is rejected by many of the other animals. But he ultimately finds out that he is a beautiful swan and thereafter finds peace in his new found identity after a long struggle of trying to fit in all the wrong places. 

A new update in my reading habit is the use of kindle :D although I am using it through an app in my cell phone, it is a welcome change. 

Happy reading :D 

Book review: The Mountain of Light

The Mountain of Light

“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” 
-Bertrand Russel

Few reads just alter the way you look at something. I was driven into silence after I finished my latest read and was deeply engrossed in research. I read mounds of articles on the Punjab empire, it's treasure, it's ancestry - even the servants of Sikh royal ancestry have tales to tell. I am mesmerised now, knowing all too well that India is strewn with endless saga of affluence, influence, power, bloodshed and a talent that the world has never imagined to exist.

I thank Indu Sundaresan for sending me a pre-release copy of this captivating historical fiction. I took to reading this book with a lot of apprehension since I was unsure of whether this book would impress me. Having read Indu's previous triology on Taj story, I certainly thought her latest book wouldn't have anything new to offer me. But I am glad to be disproved this way because her signature style of using an enthralling imagery served it's purpose yet another time. I was transposed into pre-independent Indian times where aristocracy, diplomacy and invasion were at their best. History fed to me in such a delightful way is an always welcomed gesture. I am left with a hunger to know more, to imagine more and to relish more of the centuries old Indian tussle with a foreign power.

The beginning of the story is set against the backdrop of a lush Punjab empire in the western frontier of India. The larger-than-life ruler of Punjab empire, Ranjit Singh is hosting another king in exile- Shah Shuja. This deposed Afghan ruler has been kept under protection (read house arrest) in the beautiful Shalimar Gardens with a promise of all the help to regain his kingdom. But the Punjab's lion only bargain in exchange of his support is to get the possession of Kohinoor diamond from Shah's wife Wafa Begum. What follows in the narration is how the diamond changes hands from Wafa Begum to Ranjit Singh, how East India Company lays a greedy eye on it and eventually how the world's biggest diamond is secreted out of India on a voyage to land in the crown of Queen Victoria of England.

The narration comes through different characters and with an extended timeline shrunken into a mere 300 odd pages. Naturally the reader finds herself relishing in the perspectives of different characters. There is the lordliness of a generous king of a mighty empire, unadulterated admiration of a general towards his master, shrewdness of a woman under veil, amusement of an outsider finding home in a land that couldn't be more foreign to him, the innocence of a little boy who looses his priceless empire and all the power that comes along with it to a foreign hand only to find himself living off the scrap of a salary from the same hand.

Only at the end of the novel did I realise how much I wanted it to end in a different way, how I wanted the young Maharajah to have been a little older to truly understand what was at stake in his life, how I wanted a piece of India to be independent for a little longer than it did in actuality. The last chapter 'Diary of a Maharajah' was heart wrenching for me as I had to read along Dalip Singh's bewilderment in a foreign land. This young prince was uprooted from his homeland and Anglicised in every possible way before being taken to London to be presented in front of the Queen mother. My heart went out to this child who was a puppet king from the age of 5 under British, removed from the care of his mother into an English couple's guardianship, christened even before he was 15 (though he converted back to his birth religion of Sikhism at the latter part of his life) and visited his homeland as a foreigner only twice under the controlled-watchful eyes of Britishers.

The characters take over the show in this novel of Indu's. Although there are quite a lot of main characters in the narration, a reader will be able to associate with them all. There are haughty mighty rulers of lands, demure and enigmatic Indian women of power, unsympathetic East India Company officials while many other Englishmen who blended with the rich fabric of Indian culture and called India their home, English maidens with a longing for love and companionship et al. One character particularly stood out to me which is that of a faithful son of the soil who gave up his life to stop Kohinoor from adorning another lord. This character is greatly inconsequential in comparison to others involved in the mayhem of Kohinoor transport but yet the subtlety with which the author has painted this character makes one's heart melt.

A good read to me is the one that sets me up for many more reads and I dare say I indulged myself in Punjab Empire and a bit of East India Company history. This book revels in the mellowness of Indian culture, diplomacy of a falling kingdom and the ruthlessness of a conqueror. On a parting note I want to uphold one dismal fact of Indian history that it was made mostly by men. I recommend this book to all historical fiction lovers and especially to those who bask in fiction with good imagery.

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” 
― William Styron

Is quality dependent on the price?

It's often a norm in our society to treat any less expensive product to be of low quality, but there is a book publishing brand that just proves it wrong- Pratham Books.

Pratham Books

Pratham Books is a non-profit organization that is striving hard to make India a better reader by publishing richly illustrated excellent content books at throw away prices. I happened to buy it's entire book collection into my classroom only to be humbled myself at the quality of books. I got the same irresistible urge to rip open all the packages that I get on receiving books. I soon employed myself into reading all the 69 books (perks of being a literacy teacher). 

I am a lot wiser after the completion of this reading. Most often than not adults consider they have an upper hand in knowledge in comparison to children. But I cannot stress enough how that illusion is broken every time one reads children literature. Pratham books like 'Sailing Home' and  'A Royal Procession' drill into young minds the nuances of Indian history. Children are lured into learning history through captivating short stories and colourful illustrations. Stories like 'Chuskit goes to school' and 'Cheenu's gift' make children understand social disparities among healthy and disabled, rich and poor by upholding humane qualities. There are many other books which speak of traditional occupations of India and educate children about the rich heritage of India. The set of Pratham Books I bought exposes one to culture of different parts of India, artistic diversity of various locations, moral values for righteous life, money management, various art forms et al. The books are levelled at 4 different reading capabilities of children and available in 11 Indian languages that just opens up opportunities for children from all linguistic and economic backgrounds. 

Kids can learn a humongous amount of vocabulary and ideas through covering these books. The ideas are rendered in such a bright child fashioned manner that it's hard to not absorb the linguistic knowledge. I made up for the loss of reading in my childhood by indulging in Pratham books. I advocate the use of Pratham Books in every household and every classroom. Indian young generation is at a stage where it's getting exposure to English language only through foreign literature. Pratham Books is a ray of hope in educating India in English through Indian context. I recommend these books to all and sundry.

You can also read this review on Pratham Books blog here.