Untold Tales from an Epic

Book Review

After Kurukshetra by Mahasweta Devi, translated from Bengali to English by Anjum Katyal is a collection of three stories that draws information from the longest epic in the world - the Mahabharata, sets the war of Kurukshetra - hailed as Dharmayuddh as the central leitmotif. Then combining fragments of imagination, exploring the unsaid, Mahasweta Devi creates three tales that focus complete attention on women in the epic- Kunti, Gandhari, Uttara, Subhadra and Souvali.

A keen socio-political commentator that the author is, an activist of rights of the tribals, landless labourers and the marginalised sections of the society, it is obvious that each story highlights the differences in ways of life of the rajavritta (of royal folk) and janavritta (of common man). The simple lives of janavritta allow tenderness, care, compassion, love, anger, all natural emotions, a lot of free will for every being. The lives of those in rajavritta though rigorous, austere with strict control over emotions essentially abound in lust, greed, arrogance and hatred, such acerbity among brothers and ravenous hunger for power and ultimate authority that wipes every trace of humanity.

Panchakanya - The Five Women from a farmers community who lose their husbands in the war show Uttara, the young, widowed princess how and why life must go on.

Kunti and the Nishadin is a marvelous piece of writing which reveals how narcissism can blind one thoroughly and literally.

Souvali, the last tale in the collection, speaks of the mother of Yuyutsu, the Kaurava who was never accepted by his 100 brothers, her plain principles in life hold our attention.

I loved all the three tales, the simple and thought provoking writing makes the reader tread upon lesser known paths of the kingdom of Hastinapur. Definitely, recommend this book for a read.

Also, I found something relevant to this from another book I possess - The Blue Lotus - Myths and Folktales of India by Meena Arora Nayak.

I bought The Blue Lotus end of year 2018. And it is the excerpt shared below that I read from the book at a bookstore that made me buy it immediately.The book by Aleph Book Company is divided into three parts, and this excerpt below appears in part two.

How Kurukshetra became a battlefield?

When Pandavas and Kauravas could not resolve the issue of Hastinapur's legitimate kingship through negotiations, war became imminent. When the allied forces of both sides were counted , they amounted to at least eighteen akshauhinis - each akshauhini unit consisting of 21870 chariots, 21870 elephants, 65610 horses and an infantry of 109350 soldiers. Now a battlefield had to be found that was large enough to accommodate such massive armies. Dhritarashtra, the Kuru king of Hastinapur , then sent out his envoys in all directions, petitioning various kings to lend a suitable tract of land in their region. But none were willing to lend for the Kuru war because they could foresee the massacre.

When returning emptyhanded to Hastinapur, the envoys were crossing a large area of farmland in Kurukshetra, they saw a farmer tilling his field. As he irrigated it, a levee broke and despite all his efforts, he could not stop water from flooding the field. The farmer grabbed his young son, playing close by, cut off his head with his sickle and repaired the breach using his son's dead body. When the envoys witnessed this incident , they knew this was the perfect battlefield, because it's soil was able to bear the burden of blood turning against blood. This is a folk myth from Haryana.

A Beautiful Mosaic of Short Stories

BOOK REVIEW

The Thing Around your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a collection of a dozen short stories, each one a complete 'slice of life'. This is the first Adichie book I am reading, I prefer picking up a short stories collection when I am reading an author for the first time; and Adichie has convinced me to pick all her books with this one.

The writing is lucid, prose crisp and characters neatly etched in all twelve stories, my top favorites  being - The Headstrong Historian, The American Embassy, Tomorrow is too Far, Jumping Monkey Hill, The Thing Around your Neck, Ghosts, A Private Experience, The Arrangers of Marriage.

Adichie's writing broadly speaks of Nigerians, their lives in their strife torn land riddled with corruption and all societal ills and Nigerian immigrants in America, struggling to get to the mainstream.

Prima facie, one's head might process this book like Jhumpa Lahiri's The Interpreter of Maladies which talks of Indians, more precisely Bengalis, both in homeland and in a land away from it.

But as stories unfurl, we realise that Adichie's writing reveals essential, distinguishing socio-political information of Nigeria in the backdrop, about cult culture in the story Cell One, of ethnic and religious clashes between Igbo Christians and Hausa Muslims in A Private Experience, the Biafran war in Ghosts, about pro democracy war and general Abacha's regime in the American Embassy, about a fateful day when an airplane crash coincides with Nigeria's first lady's death in the Shivering. Also, Jumping Monkey Hill briefs about eminent writers in African writers circle. There is a decent plethora of information on culture, local beliefs, cuisine, what traditional names imply apart from mere detailing of subtle human emotions;  and this earns the book a BIG thumbs up.

For me, this book was a fulfilling read.As stated on the cover - Adichie makes story telling seem as easy as bird song, attractive tunes come from its pages, some melancholic, some little cheerful, all nevertheless with an upright dose of hope and optimism.

The Mini Joy of Reading - Review of Penguin Modern Minis -3

Book Review
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Verdict : Buy, Read, Retain for Re read.

This penguin mini is a must read and a must have. The book about 50 pages long has in its first part a letter dated April 16, 1963, written by King jr. from an Alabama jail as a response to eight white Alabama clergymen who denounced the civil disobedience movement against racial discrimination and segregation terming it untimely, unwise and observed that the issue ought be taken up in courtroom and not on streets.

A little after beginning the letter, Martin Luther King Jr. claims injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. He goes  onto explain the four essential steps of a non violent campaign, how creation of a constructive non violent tension is essential to ensure the community takes note of an issue that for long has been sidelined. He states justice too long delayed is justice denied, also that one has legal and moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws, just like it has to obey just laws. He ends the letter with the hope that he stands one day with the white clergymen not as a civil rights leader but as a Christian brother in an atmosphere where there is peace and brotherhood.

If I were to write down powerful lines from this letter, I am afraid I might have to reproduce almost all of it here.

The second part of the book is King Jr. 's sermon titled The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life , first delivered at the new covenant Baptist Church in Chicago in 1967. This sermon details what makes up the length , breadth and height dimensions of one's life and is astoundingly relevant even in current times, may be starkly essential now.

Please buy, read and retain this little treasure. Buy, Read, Retain for a Re read, am being assertive about this without doubt.

The Mini Joy of Reading - Review of Penguin Modern Minis- 2

Book Review

An advertisement for toothpaste by Ryszard Kapuscinski

After hunting for an advertisement of toothpaste in a couple of newspapers (sadly, the newspapers only have property ads nowadays), I settled to click a pic of my book with a page from my kid's book - Mr.Fussy from the Mr.Men series that we read together yesterday night.

Another penguin mini done; four stories set in Poland, all in about 53 pages; each one, pretty decent. My favorite was 'The Taking of Elzbieta' for it covered quite a gamut of emotions and had lyrical prose. 'The Stiff' where a young miner's dead body is ferried to his hometown with six men keeping guard had some good lines which I am sharing here - "A man when he is finished, doesn't want to drop out of sight. It's people who hide him from their sight. To be left in peace, they hide him. He won't go on his own". Quick take on the book:- Passable collection of four stories, meant for a quick read.

PS: The Penguin Modern Minis are a great way of reading many authors (well known, lesser known or rather unknown), each book roughly 50 pages give a quick insight into the author's style of writing. 

The Mini Joy of Reading - Review of Penguin Modern Minis -1

Book Review

The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier is a chilling, riveting account of a scientist's attempts to discover what happens after death, to harness the life-force (or Force Six as it is termed in the book) that leaves body/matter as death brings an end to it, and the consequences of the experiments.

Published in 1966, this book is way ahead of its time. The author has this book perfectly paced, unveils essential details just at the right time; in just 57 pages, she leaves you spell bound and at the edge of your seat all the time.

As Saunders leaves a happy position in his company Associated Electronics LTD only temporarily to join James MacLean's project at Saxmere, he does it as a  personal favor for his boss with utmost reluctance. The computers capable of voice, the electronic circuits in his new lab hold him captive despite his initial urge to return home, thus allowing him time to know his project mates better - Robbie, a doctor;  the jolly guy Ken, and the care taker Janus and his daughter Niki. Saunders slowly develops a liking for them and begins to share the same vision as them towards work.

High frequency waves, machines that hypnotise, rhythms recorded as life leaves an ailing man take you on a terrifying journey through the last few pages in the book. I cannot divulge more on what happens in the labs at Saxmere, what happens to Maclean, whether he, Saunders and Robbie manage to tap the life force after death, what their observations are.That is truly meant to be read and discovered.

There is no one who can hold a reader's attention the way Daphne du Maurier does. She is an unparalleled master in the craft of story telling. If I were allowed to travel back in time, I would take this book, meet her and get it signed by her. Get all the stars from the sky to rate this book, haunting it is!