Tagged!

OK, what I dreaded would happen someday, has happened. My bud Kej has tagged me, and so I have to list "My 6 unspectacular quirks". He thinks 6 are too many, I think it is too less. Lest it makes me look like a complete freak of nature, I will list only 6. This also helps to break the long long silence on the blog, as Sangfroid is not blogging about his reading even after my repeated requests to him, and I have been reading 'Anna Karenina' since forever, and have decided not to indulge in any other book till I finish it. My quirk quotient includes (but is not limited to) -

1. I am quite punctual, and exact ugly revenge on people who make me wait more than a few times.
   
2. Get ticked off by people with low/no ambition. 'Aim high, fly higher' is what I say.
3. Automatically like people who know the difference between the taste of Mirinda and Fanta, and prefer Fanta. Similarly, question the taste of those who don't.
4. Love watching trailers in movie theaters, and hate theater management who does not indulge me in this. Obviously, things will change when I have my own theater chain.
5. No matter how much I try to be non judgemental, I lose a little respect for people who buy Maruti Wagon-R (the hideous box of crap!).
6. Go on an ego trip whenever my favorite podcast selects my email to read in their listener feedback section. To be fair, they get a lot of feedback, and are choosy.
   

I've been asked to tag others. I tag -

S'Lee

Bala (He'll hate me for this, but what the hell!)

The rules of tagging go like this

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag some following blogger’s by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each Tagged blogger’s blogs, letting them know that they have been Tagged.

Rabbit, Run

"The only way to get somewhere, you know, is to figure out where you're going before you go there."

Rabbit replies, "I don't think so."





Rabbit is Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a star basketball player in his high school, now 26, with a wife pregnant with their second kid. It is 1959, and we meet him as he is returning from his salesman job, as he stops on the way to watch a game of basketball on the street. Soon, he removes his coat, joins the game, trying to relive his glory days. A very different time from where he is at now, with a wife he considers dumb, and a kid he neglects. Everything about his wife irritates him - her continuous drinking, TV watching, and sloppiness around the house. He returns home from his little game, and has another uncomfortable encounter with her. He leaves home to collect his kid from his parents, but as if invigorated from his street basketball play and a feeling that things have to be better somewhere else, runs. Sits in the car, and starts driving off to somewhere. This leads him to a chain of encounters leading to living with Ruth, who becomes his mistress, more or less. The town preacher acts as a link between his family and him, and tries to 'transform' him and get him back to his wife.

"Rabbit, Run" is the first in the acclaimed Rabbit series of books by John Updike, consisting of 4 books, written over 4 decades, capturing Rabbit's life at different points. 2 of the books have won the Pulitzer Prize. Updike writes in the present tense, something Jhumpa Lahiri did in 'The Namesake', which, in my opinion, gives a kind of first hand experience of watching the characters.

Rabbit is a curious character, not 'bad' really, just unable to come to terms with his life and what it has become. Once you have been very good at something, which is basketball in Rabbit's case, everything else that follows can feel a little dull. He becomes aware of his duty sometimes, but just completely disregards it and runs from it when he grows bored of it. He does not seem to realize the hurt he causes the people who are left behind until he returns from his little 'journeys', if at all. He runs from home and from some other places, and never seems to find his way around the world as well as he did on the basketball court in high school.

The Kite Runner

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing... But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when the spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time."

I picked up ‘The Kite Runner’ when everyone I knew seemed to have read and fallen in love with it. I tend to view anything recently published and hyped up as much as this book with some skepticism. Add to that the fact that it was a gift from a friend who loved it, my liking it was pretty much expected. Now that I have read it, it is easy to see why it is so loved. A story of two childhood best friends from Afghanistan, torn by an incident for which one of them keeps seeking redemption all his life, even as he migrates to the US to escape the war-torn landscape of his motherland. It tells the story of Afghanistan (both the before and the horrific after) the way not many have heard it, and brings the horror of the ravaged country that much closer. It is also a study of friendships, the blood-brothers kind that young best friends feel, unstained by the realities of social standing and class, which might not necessarily last or build into a lifelong one; and the bond of adult friendship where the other friend knows you like no one else. Also, the writing is very good, and the characters are etched out well. I can also see why someone might not like it(though I have yet to meet such a soul). It is a bit melodramatic and the central character's attitude sometimes seems insensitive. But the strong point of the novel, which overcomes its very few shortcomings, is the pursuit of redemption and the author's refusal to hand it out in a simple way. The tone on which the book ends is especially good, without easy resolution or happiness, but definitely filled with hope. And who wouldn’t want to hear from a close friend: "For you, a thousand times over".

The Motorcycle Diaries

As I sit down to blog my first impressions of “The Motorcycle Diaries” I am suffused with the youthful energy and the spirit of adventure. The book offers glimpses of the Che Guevara’s mind who latter went to be become an iconic revolutionary figure. It would be correct to say that the book tells us not only the story of the journey of the two men but also the story of the transformation of Ernesto Guvera - the pleasure seeking youth to Che Guevara- the rebel. This is an account maintained by Che as they traversed the entire South American continent.

The idea of traveling the entire South American continent on a motorcycle to break free from the monotony of their humdrum existence was lapped up eagerly by both Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara during a chance conversation. So, these two young men, aged between 22 -25 years set out to travel the entire South American Continent on their Norton 500 motor cycle which they christened as “La Poderosa” or “The Mighty One”. At the outset, their trip is more about youthful pleasures and sowing wild oats [;)]. But as their journey progresses they meet new people; their journey brings them closer to their cultural roots. It also provides them first hand experience of the lives of the South American people. They found several common threads running through the cultures of the various countries they visited and hence Che’s belief in Pan Americanism.

Throughout the journey, they faced innumerable difficulties on account of their bike’s frequent breakdowns and ultimately, they were forced to forsake “La Poderosa”. Che was an asthma patient and was down with asthma attacks several times. However, not once, during their troubles did the two friends whisper a word of turning back. All hardships are faced with optimism. They continued their journey by hitching rides onto trucks. On an occasion they hid as stowaways on a ship due to their inability to pay the fare. They often paid for their passage by their labor or by doing the odd jobs that came their way. Their travails for food make an interesting read. For meals they relied heavily on the hospitality of some generous soul or the other. They made full use of their adventurer’s status to gain boarding and meal. Throughout the book the author seems buoyant. Never is he tired or bored of the adventure and the ensuing hardships that accompany them. He chronicles their numerous escapades candidly with great humor.

Both Alberto and Che come across as remarkable humanitarians through the small incidents that we come across in the later half of the book. In Chuquicamata, Alberto and Che give away one of their blankets on a cold night, to a couple espousing communist ideology Che goes on to say: “ They had not one single miserable blanket to cover themselves with, so we gave them one of ours and Alberto and I wrapped the other around us as best as we could. It was one of the coldest night in my life, but also one which made me feel a little more brotherly towards this strange, for me anyway, human species.”

Their first hand impressions of the problems faced by people awaken a more sensitive, humane person in them. The trip to Chuquicamata copper mines shows Che’s proclivity for communism or rather his revulsion at the system which feeds off the blood and sweat of the laborers for profit.

Being doctors (Che was a medical student while Alberto a full fledged doctor) they are keen observers of the medical standards of the places they visit. Che also chronicles their stay at a leper’s colony. They are also interested in history as seen from the Inca account. They are not aimless travelers but observant people who are soaking in the sights and sounds and culture of every place they visit. Che is an accomplished writer. The imagery created by him on several occasion brings the situation to life and the reader easily empathizes with the author. There are several hilarious incidents that dot the entire account. This account was a personal diary of Che’s travels. Che comes across as a man of immense self belief. In later life Che went on to become a highly charismatic communist leader. This travelogue was accidentally discovered and on being published, it went to become a best seller throughout the world. The account of the book has been adapted to make a movie by the same name. I highly recommend the book for the young and adventurous at heart.

Beloved

"Not a house in the country ain't packed to its rafters with some dead Negro's grief."





A baby girl dies in the most horrifying circusmstances which makes one think about the implications of slavery and the effect it can have on otherwise normal people. That baby girl's tombsone says one word: "Beloved". The ghost of the baby girl is the past coming back to ask questions, not really ready to be satisfied by the answers.

The novel is set in Post Civil War America, and looks at the lives of freed African American slaves. Sethe, the mother of the baby girl, has escaped slavery but not the memory of the terrible times past. She lives with her children and mother-in-law in the house haunted by the baby girl. The story moves forward as a man she knows from her past arrives after 18 years. They try to talk about the past and try to forget it at the same time. There are memories of various farms where they spent their lives and the similarities and differences in their "white" owners. At one point, a character says from her experience "that there is no bad luck in the world but white-people." Different characters at different times seem to move towards this conclusion, some against their better knowledge. What is unravelled as the book goes on is the picture of slavery from an author who does not hold back anything. No soft language and insinuations here; things are laid bare as they happened. This reminded me of a other favorite book of mine: "The god of small things" by Arundhati Roy and the word that comes to mind about both works is "unflinching".

This is a beautifully written novel examining slavery, freedom, the past and the present, the crimes and the victims and coming to terms with it all.

Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer prize for this one in 1987 and she was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. "Beloved" was also named the best work of American fiction of the last 25 years by the New York Times from a survey of important authors and critics.

Prologue

She was a junkie for the printed word. Lucky for me, I manufactured her drug of choice.
- Wonder Boys

I think the above sums up why we are starting this blog. A place to discuss a thing that we can't seem to get enough of: Books.