March 2020 Reads (Part 4)

BOOK REVIEW: Son of the Thundercloud by Easterine Kire 

Pele leads a simple life with his parents, wife and child, content with the harvest from his land. However, an unprecedented famine causes death of all his family members and Pele leaves his village. He wanders aimlessly hoping to reach the Village of Weavers where he is told he may get food and shelter.

Enroute, he stops at a highly desolate place with grey, parched earth where he meets two old women, sisters nearly 400 yrs old - Kethonuo and Sietze. The sisters claim they thrive eating hope and are waiting for the arrival of the Son of Thundercloud, one who will herald unbelievable changes for the better. Pele and the sisters are welcomed in the village of weavers by Mesanuo (younger sister of the older duo) who claims is impregnated with a single drop of rain.

An age old prophecy that a tiger widow who lost her husband and 7 sons to a 'spirit' tiger will be impregnated by a single rain drop, bear a son who will avenge their deaths is finally unfolding into reality with Pele a witness to it. Rhalietuo, son of the thundercloud is born to Mesanuo and Pele begins to find a new purpose to his life being around the boy.

Though titled Son of the Thundercloud, the story is of how Pele realises hope, love and longing sustain life for eternity, and how the dark side of human beings - hatred, greed, envy can wreak complete havoc. 

Will the age old prophecy come true? What happens to Pele, Rhalietuo and the sisters? 

Folk tales have a rustic charm. They impart simple joy, one like you get from resting your head on granny's lap while listening to her stories and comfort you get from hugging your mother - her cold, sweat soaked skin, her crumpled cotton saree easing the summer afternoon heat.

Easterine Kire's lyrical storytelling, simple prose blended with magical folklore in this book manages to create the above said effects partly, if not entirely.

BOOK REVIEW : The White Umbrella by Brian Sewell 

Mr. B, a 50 yr old man from London is in Peshawar with his crew to make a TV series when he stumbles upon a donkey foal, wounded and tottering under the weight of loads piled on it. Eccentric Mr.B decides to take the donkey back home to England with him. He names her Pavlova after a famous ballet dancer. 

Dropping out of his planned flight journey, he decides to travel by foot from Peshawar to Wimbledon, via Quetta, Zahedan, Kerman, Isfahan, Tabriz, Doğubayazıt, Istanbul, Bosporus, then into Europe via Macedonia.

Mr.B though perceived as an addlepated crackbrain for his expedition westwards with a donkey gets great help from kind souls who ensure he reaches the next important town in his journey in some vehicle in comfort with Pavlova.

A pharmacist in Peshawar, a poet in Zahedan, a carpet dealer in Isfahan, deputy governor in Dogubayazit, the British ambassador and his wife in Istanbul, Hector (who becomes a best friend for life) ferrying him all the way home after Macedonia, helping him smuggle the donkey across English channel are lustrous examples of kind hearted human beings.

The book is highly redolent with history, geography and culture of each town en route - Isfahan, the ancient bustling centre in silk route, Mount Ararat in Dogubayazit where Noah's Ark halted safely, Metz and Verdun towns near French border which witnessed Battle of Attrition in 1916 et al. 

Equally abundant are mentions of local food and drink - Kahraman Maraş, a eastern Turkish city famous for its elastic ice cream; Ayran, the refreshing buttermilk like drink of Iran, Slivovitz - the strong plum brandy of the Balkans, Piesporter - a fine German wine.

The White Umbrella, mostly humorous and little poignant is a tale of a man who loves animals down to his bones.

End note:

How Covid 19 pandemic has scarred us all cannot be conveyed in words as precisely and incisively as numbers specify a death toll. With oodles of compassion & empathy, this book on a normal day would have choked me with its utter sweetness. But for the current tumult, it managed to partly nullify the effects of a bad spell around us.

March 2020 Reads (Part 3)

BOOK REVIEW : The Mountain of the Moon by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

"It is much better to be a shattered piece of jade lying on the floor rather than a tile in the corner of the roof". -- Chinese proverb from the book.

And Shankar Roy, the protagonist of - The Mountain of the Moon (the original in Bengali titled Chander Pahar) by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, translated by Jayanta Sengupta, believes in the above.

Set in 1909, Shankar, an arts student in Calcutta, an avid fan of travel, astronomy and geography and a very promising sportsperson, reluctantly takes up a job in the jute mill in his village to meet his family's financial ends. 

Thanks to a neighbor's husband, an opportunity beckons him to the Dark continent, the alluring lands which he always gazed at fervently in maps. In Mombasa, he works in a railway construction firm, and then as railway station master before the call of the wild takes him on a grand expedition with an older Portuguese man, Diego Alvarez who he saves from death throes.

Alvarez tells Shankar tales of his earlier unsuccessful expedition in Richtersveldt mountains close to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), his quest for diamonds and tryst with an evil monster that killed his teammate Carter. Shankar yearns for a life full of adventure and Alvarez wants to accomplish the unfinished task; having forged a father-son, master-disciple like relation, the two set out on a journey where known factors are very few and unknowns uncountable and highly intimidating.

With frugal maps, a non working compass in a land with no natural landmarks, limited food, water and ammunition can the two achieve their dreams, come out alive and victorious?

Impenetrable jungles, arid Kalahari desert, chattering baboons, man eating lions, tsetse fly that causes sleeping sickness, evil monsters like Bunyip and Dingonek that devor those who trespass the lands they guard, an active volcano explosion, labyrinthine cave systems add thrill to Shankar's peregrinations that cover most of Sub Saharan Africa.

Well translated, this brilliant work of fiction gives vibes of movies like King Solomon's Mines and Congo. 

Thanks to such stories, the 'free spirited, wide eyed and mouth agape' kid in us stays alive.

BOOK REVIEW : Ships That Pass by Shashi Deshpande 

Radhika is a fiesty, headstrong girl who has just finished her BA degree. Questions on 'what next' from friends and family members jangle in her head. She just cannot make up her mind and when she does, getting married; an arranged marriage seems the best answer. Though taken aback at her suggestion, her family finds her a groom - Mr. Ghanshyam with Radhika still mulling over her choice of the man and marriage as a solution.

Meantime, a letter from Shaan, her elder sister Tara's husband, written in a secretive tone arrives. Shaan sounds both urgent and helpless describing Tara's failing health condition and summons Radhika to their home in a different town hoping Tara will feel better.

Tara, 33 yrs old, looks aged and withered since the last time Radhika met her. Tara suffers from arthritis and a psychosomatic illness. Shaan conveys that Tara refuses to see doctors, considers pain her punishment and fears she would commit suicide one day. Tara, on the other hand fears Shaan is putting her life to risk. Between two whom she trusts and cares for equally, Radhika sways like a pendulum between extremes, unable to understand what led this once ideal marriage esconced in complete love to decay.

There is none to offer her clues except Dr. Ram Mohan, their neighbor since childhood days in Mumbai. The denouement arrives with Tara's death and Shaan's arrest for her murder.

Did Tara commit suicide, what caused her illness? Did Shaan kill Tara, but why? How do these events shape Radhika's future, her thoughts about marriage? 

Ships that Pass by Shashi Deshpande smoothly blends elements of a murder mystery with keen observations on human relationships, putting greater stress on delving into human psyche. All this in a 144 pages novella in simple and powerful prose speaks immensely of the writer's prowess.

Exploring the institution of marriage, its perplexities, the burden of fear and guilt, the need to love, forgive and forget, this open ended novella asserts that there is no bigger enigma than the human mind.