Shiva Trilogy 1- The Immortals of Meluha

“Look here, like it?” said my 25-years-old nephew as he turned his back to show me the intricate embroidery on the back of his shirt. His dark blue silk shirt had embroidered design of colorful snake wound around Trishul - the tri-fork blade.

“Have you become a disciple of Lord Shiva” I asked, slightly amused but quite impressed with the colorful thread work.

“Yes I have become the follower of dude Shiva who smokes chillum, uses bad language and is the destroyer of evil. He is really cool man".

My jaw dropped.

‘Relax’ he said, “after reading ‘The Mortals of Meluha’ you will understand what I mean” he laughed.

I googled the book online to read the burb

“The story of the man whom legend turned into a God” it said.

The book seemed to be part fiction, part mythological but how did it impress the young man? Maybe he was impressed with the war and violence that seemed to fill its' pages. Oh, It must be all boy stuff and I dismissed it.

Recently, on being confined to bed-rest, post-operation, I went through marathon reading and decided to read this book too.

Yes, this was un-put-down-able-book

‘The Immortals of Meluha’ is the first book of Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathy, brought up in a Shaivide family where he has been taught to worship and respect all religions.

It is a fast paced book, with interest never dithering a moment.

I loved reading about Shiva and Sati’s gradual love affair that begins when he watches her dance the first time, it deepens over the various meetings up to the time she finally expresses her love when she is seriously ill.

“I wish I had told you earlier,” murmured Sati, “because the first time that I am telling you will also be the last.”

Shiva continued to look at her, his voice choked.

Sati looked deeply into Shiva’s eyes, whispering softly, “I love you.’

That is the soft moment.

I have always been fascinated about Shiva dance that I have seen it perform by some Shiva devotees during several religious meetings. This dance is very well described in this book.

A beautiful eternal dance of love.

“Dancing was something Shiva was as accomplished in as in warfare. The dance conveyed the various emotions of a woman. In the beginning it conveyed her feeling of joy and lust as she cavorted with her husband. The next emotion was anger and pain at the treacherous killing of her mate. Despite his rough masculine body, Shiva managed to convey the tender yet strong emotions of a grieving woman.”

Shiva is so human and approachable. He makes mistakes and learnt from them.

The character of Anandmayi is also adorable, she being strong, fearless and sensual. She is the one who made me realize that Chandravanshis were not evil people.

Nagas are believed to be the evil forces behind the terrorist attacks that need to be destroyed but a human side of the Naga is shown when they try to save two women from being eaten by crocodile.

I am not sure if ‘Somras’ would be the preferred drink in present world, knowing the growing population of world today and all were to live more than 200 years, but I am equally fascinated by its' effects.

People looked young although they are more than 100 years old. What makes this possible is the brilliance of magic potion called ‘Somras- the drinks of the Gods invented by Lord Brahma. The power of the somras, when administered to selected group achieved a reverential status, which was used for the good of the society. They were not allowed to charge anything for their service, and had to live on alms and donations from others.

The city of Devagiri is a perfect town but I am still impressed with Ayodhya that resembles somewhat like Mumbai city with bad infrastructure, but people living a content life.

Some of the other excerpts that I liked

Page 86

Only your karma is important. Not your birth. Not your sex. And certainly not the color of your throat. Our entire society is based on merit.

Page 153

‘I think’ said Daksha smiling, ‘the most powerful force in a woman’s life is the need to be appreciated, loved and cherished for what she is’

Page 215

‘Transactions are threads that when woven together make up a society, its culture. Or in the case of a person, they weave together his character.’ If you want to understand a person’s character, look closely at his interpersonal behavior or his transactions.

The book is an interesting read. Waiting to read part 2 and 3.

'Another Man's Wife' by Manjul Bajaj

‘Another Man’s Wife’ is one of the titles in the collection of nine women-orientated stories beautifully told in a poetic detail with easy flow.

Manjul Bajaj, is a good observer of people’s expressions and mannerisms, her description of characters helps you relate to the persons you might have met sometime in your lifetime.

On page 107 she writes

Nusrat never fussed or hemmed about telling a story like other storytellers do. No clearing of the throat or slipping of a clove into her mouth or asking for water or tea. It was as if the story of the day was in the air surrounding her, waiting to be plucked out and told. “Listen then,” she would say, tilt her head to one side and simply begin

On page 207 she beautifully chalks up the love affair between heaven and earth during rainy season, she writes

Weeding the vegetable patch in the homestead, Kuheli looked with happiness at her maize crop dancing in the breeze. After three successive years of drought, the rain has come pelting down this chaumasa season. The gods had finally stopped clearing their throats and were singing without restraint, the joyful song of falling rain. Heaven and earth were in love again and many good things would be born of their passionate coming together.

I love her style of writing and her bold descriptions of sensual moments, showing sensitivity and insights, the writings that very few Indian writers dare to explore. On page 282 she writes

Betrayed by her knees, she shut her eyes tight and slid down slowly to the floor, pulling him to her, over her, into her. The river of time was breaking all around her in swift spasms, rising, falling, thrusting, heaving, twisting, turning, shuddering, gasping and finally crying out aloud. She heard him whisper her name over and over again, like life-saving mantra, as he climaxed.

On page 144 she resonates my thoughts on women, she writes:

I wanted to tell her that we virtuous women set too much store by our virtue. If we don’t let the man who love us take our body, time will take it anyway, without passion, indifferent to its beauty. I no longer believe that there are thick dossiers on each of us in the heavens and a record kept of our every deed and omission. At most each of us is given four or five chances at happiness. At the hour of reckoning we are left alone with ourselves to answer this- did we grab our opportunities with open arms or did we let them slip through our fingers, did we squander those chances or make something of them, did we sit our life out on the earth caged in prisons of our own making or did we have the faith and courage to walk out and know ourselves as the inheritors of the world and all that it has to offer?

'Another Man's Wife' has been an excellent read for me, I surprised myself when I took 2 days off the social network and paused all my other activities to cuddle with this book and walk with the author, Manjul Bajaj, into the interiors of India, passing through the villages, the deep forest, the Mango orchards, the markets, into the huts, the Shikaras, the private homes, feeling the spirit of a particular community and getting entangled into the folds of women’s mind. 


I would highly recommend this book to all those who like women-oriented stories.

Sitting In a Durbar With Tavleen Singh

I first heard about this book when I stopped for a brief moment at NDTV and watched Barkha Dutt interview Tavleen Singh. The interest was immediately aroused when I learnt that this book revolves around Nehru family during 70’s and 80’s.

I lived in Surinam in late 80’s and being Indian, when Indira Gandhi was killed, I had group of local people gather in my house who came to offer condolence.

There was just a brief mention on Local TV channel about Indira Gandhi, and the social media was non-existent, local Hindustanis, the natives of Surinam, wanted to know more about Sikh community, many of them failed to understand how an Indian could kill their own Hindu Prime Minister.

When I moved back to India, I was more curious about Indian politics than ever before. Almost nothing has been written about the inside stories during emergency and Rajiv Gandhi era, and the beginning of Punjab and Kashmir problems, therefore I was most pleased when I chanced upon this book.

What I liked about this book is that it’s a first hand account of events unfolding as she takes you through the corridors of power and the mistakes that they made, of not being able to change policies or bring about changes when it could have been done.

“I saw how my life as a journalist open up doors that made me constantly ashamed of how India has been betrayed by people like me. I believe that it is because India was let down by the ruling class that she failed to become the country she could have been. If we had been less foreign and more aware of India’s great wealth of language and literature, of her ancient text on politics and governance and her scriptures, we would have wanted to change many things, But we failed and brought up our children, as we have been, as foreigners in our own country fascinated by all things foreign and disdain of all thing Indian” she writes

She describes Sonia Gandhi, the president of the congress, as merely a foreigner who loathes the nation she reluctantly adopted as her own, one who fervently stated that she would rather see her children beg on streets than allow them to them join politics.

"Sonia's taste in fur coats was so refined that she was not satisfied with Soviet tailoring and had the coat sent to Rome to be redesigned by Italian fashion house Fendi. These were the stories that are never possible to confirm, but gossip rarely needs confirmation to be believed," Singh writes.

"That Sonia's become the most important political leader in India is a comment on other political leaders," she says admitting that one of her motivations in writing the book was to chip away at the Gandhi mystique.

An interesting book that kept me awake late nights even after I had shut the book and the lights to log on to yet another day.

'The F Word' by Mita Kapur. (book review)

The

'The F-Word' by Mita Kapur is the book I am reading during my weekly bus trips from Bandra to CBD, Belapur (at home I am too obsessed with twitter n facebook, visiting links and blogs which hardly leaves me any time to read the printed hard bound book, Alas!) and Mita takes us through her food journey with memoirs that are delightful to read.

Excerpt

*"You are greying at the temples. Shouldn't you color your hair?"

"No. I want my age to show. It's about growing old gracefully"

I looked at him. "that quite an bulge in your middle" I saw the picture in his eyes- a girl in a floral white skirt and a flimsy blouse, waiting on the steps of her house. He would arrive the moment Ma left for the hospital.*

Memoirs like these and those of her trips through Lucknow/Jaipur streets savoring the kababs or her trips to Amsterdam, talking about her experience during her travels and their signature cuisine is what makes this book interesting.

*A warm aroma of cocoa beckoned to us from the cocoa-making factory, along with sink-into-the-mouth cream puffs at the charming local bakery. We saw different types of cheeses with their odours and overpowering tastes, and a live show on how wooden clogs are made. We tried them all, the cheese and the shoes. The cheese won, obviously.*

There are many recipes that I have book marked for future use and am planning to try some day, when I have some guests, or maybe when I am invited for 'Share a plate' party.

One another blogger, Monika Manchanda, who is now my friend after our Lavasa trip, also wrote a review at her blog, saying that she heard about this book from her friend Kiran, she quotes

“The first time I heard of this book was from Kiran who said that this book got her into kitchen she was all praises of the book and being a foodie having cooking as one of the hobbies it promptly went into my must reading list…”

But Kiran responded on twitter by saying “I was very upset because I mailed mita kapur a gushy gushy letter about how it had inspired me to try cooking & got no reply”

I had met Mita Kapur during the Jaipur lit fest and knew that she is quite busy woman and she must have recieved lots of fan mails after her book was launched but not replying to her fan mail is quite rude. I think so too.

Anyways, everybody have their own reasons for not replying to fan mails. *Pinching myself to reality*

Where was I?

Ah..this book on cuisine…I was impressed....

Just few more pages to go and then I shall be in the kitchen trying some of those recipes…..come over if you wanna try..I intend to follow the recipe and cook those Mita’s words that skip out from her book into the hot pot….of tasty meals

Reading a book during my bus trips...

I am reading this book called ‘The Diary of a Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin, which is quite hilarious and keeps me entertained. The author is a Pakistani and she has used lot of Hindi words (Uff! Itni main exhaust ho gayee hoon, na.) in the book to make it interesting with phrases such as ‘three-tiara cake’ ‘business typhoons’ or ‘slip into a comma….’ Excerpt from page 136: Imagine! The guts! And you know what he looked like? Like one of those clerks, all thin and reedy, who used to quietly, uncomplainingly work for hours and hours in Daddy’s outer office where there used to be only punkhas and no ACs. And now they’ve got cars! And tongues! As daddy says, “Bhutto has a lot to answer for!” Recently some one commented on my thread on a forum of writer's group: He writes - “I've noticed that these days, there are a lot of Indian authors trying their hand at writing, and unfortunately, many of them are really really bad...I only buy their books because I want to encourage Indian authors to write more and more, but their writing is so pathetic...” and now, he might even hold the similar opinion about Pakistani authors. But the fact is that everyday new styles have to be established and people will write what sells and this book is selling. People like to read ‘light stuff’ sometimes and we cannot call them ‘pathetic’ just because they write differently. It is good book to read in a bus trip, when the rush hours drive you crazy and the humor helps keep our sanity.

Cell Company ads on Indian TV channels.

Indian TV ads always interesing and some of them are really good. I have been enjoying nowadays an advertisement of one cell company. There are series of ads featuring Bollywood stars Madhavan and Vidya Balan as a married couple, who are connecting emotionally on the phone. There are three different ads so far, promoting their best network connection using this particular cell company services under the message: That it is cheapest, that you can pay your bills using their services and you can transfer money to your loved ones without leaving the comfort of your home. All the three ads have no music, there is soft and interesting conversation between a married couple, and I love all three of them. The first one is about the wife who is away for a holiday (probably to her mom’s place) and he keeps calling her (eight times in one hour) and the conversation are sweet nothings . (Message of the cell company in this ad is that with cheap telephone connections you don’t worry about the bills and can talk more often) The second ad on these lines is that couple are traveling in a train and are playing cards, and wife inquires whether he has completed all the last minute jobs before closing the house, light, water, doors, etc. She asks whether he remembered to pay the bills before leaving and he quickly pays his bill from his mobile and smiles when the message comes, ‘bill paid’. The third one features husband returning home, is tired and wife is messaging his shoulder. She asks him about his hard day at work and then she asks whether he had send money to his father, and he quietly transfers money from his mobile and then says ‘’long ago’ This particular cell company always portrays a gamut of human emotions and they really touch the cord. It is amazing how so many emotions are portrayed in just few seconds. All three ads are really cute and no matter how many times I have seen them, I don’t change the TV channel when this particular ad is playing…….

‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’ by Lisa See

While in lagos, I had ample time to catch up with the reading. My niece lent me her book assuring me that it is a good book. and it was. 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is the book that I enjoyed reading. This is an extraordinary tale of Chinese Culture in 19th century, set in a remote Hunan county, it is a story of a bond between two girl friends,(the laotang or old same) Snow Flower and Lily that lasts a lifetime. The laotang, Snow Flower, introduces herself at the age of seven to Lily by sending her a silk fan on which she has written a poem in ‘Nu shu’ (meaning women’s writing) a unique language that only Chinese women could communicate secretly away from influence of men. Having a wife with bond feet was a status symbol for men in the 19th century and consequently having bonded feet increased a woman’s chances of marriage into a wealthier household. Women took great pride in their feet which was considered not only beautiful but also their best and most important feature. Snow flower and Lily had their feet bound during the same time and there begins their friendship. They both endure the agony of foot binding and together reflect upon their arranged marriage, shared loneliness and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. Excerpt: Snow Flower My son is here beside me My child bearing pollution days are not over My husband visits in the morning His face is happy My son has eyes that stare at me in question I can’t wait to see you at one month party Please use your best words to put my son on our fan Tell me of your new family I don’t see my husband too often. Do you? I look out the lattice window to yours You are always singing in my heart I think of you everyday Lily Lisa See has triumphed, writing an achingly beautiful story through vivid memoirs of eighty year old woman who reflect on her life during the 19th century and her relationship with her laotang Snow flower. Nu shu is the backdrop over which the whole story is woven. This haunting, beautiful and ineffably sad tale of longing so intense as to be taken beyond the grave, is written in See's characteristically strong prose. She has a keen ear for Lily's yearning, and manages to depict an era and place vastly different from our own Westernized world with grace, acumen and not a little humility. In her capable hands, Lily evolves as a character with whom the reader (of either gender) can feel a deep affinity, for Lily's quest is irrespective of era or geography or even isolation. See makes her audience feel what Lily feels, to identify with her desperate desire to be touched at that place we call "soul," to exorcise the alienation she feels through one passionate connection with another person.