Silk - Alessandro Baricco

One of the beautifully written short novel. Lovely use of language. The credit should be given to translator, in this case , Ann Goldstein. I never heard of this writer before .

This is the story of Herve Jancour, silk breeder living in a small village called Lavilledieu,France. The year is 1861.When their silk hatcheries were affected by the epidemic,the villages heeding to the advise of  Baldabiou, who knew everything about Silk breeding, sent Herve Jancour to Japan to get silk eggs.That was the first of his four journeys to Japan.

Helen , Jancour's wife was very beautiful and had a great voice. They were happy couple without any children. Jancour wanted to build a garden and he started to design it himself.

In Japan, he met Hara Kei ,who was sort of head of the community. He gave him silk eggs but Jancour was attracted towards the lady who was sleeping on Hara Kei's lap. Her eyes fixed on Jancour. From that moment Jancour was possessed by her thoughts.She sent ideograms.He kept on thinking about her. On his fourth journey to Japan, he saw destruction everywhere. The whole village was destroyed by the foreign force. And they were leaving the village en mass. He found a boy who lead him to the leaving group. Hara Kei asked him to go back. The next morning he found the dead body hanging on the tree. After few days he returned back to Lavilledieu with nothing as all his eggs were hatched.

After the death of his wife Helen, he received a letter which describes so many intimate things. There he found who sent the letter and the love which made the writer to write that letter.

This is a poetic story, bit of suspense , bit of travel and a pure love.I finished this book in matter of hour, to precise 1 hour and 16 minutes. Very few characters but each character is a mystery.In the whole story what is unsaid is more powerful than what is said.The author allows the reader to imagine whatever he wants.The language is neat ,precise and delicate which makes the reading a pleasant one, of course there are lots repetitive texts specially when describing the journeys but none is boring.

I think  if i read it again my thought on Helen and the Hara Kei's lady and the letter  will be different. That is the victory for the author. "To be nostalgic about something never happened!" that line is really poetic and made me to think a lot.

Kalachuvadu had published this book with the title 'Pattu'. I hope that the poetical essence of the original will remain in the translation.I have to read in Tamil too.

Very enjoyable read!

ஆறுமுகம் (Arumugam) - இமையம் (Imayam)

This book i bought at National library book sales.I heard that the author's another book "koveru Kazhudaigal" is a great book but i did not find that book so i bought this book. Imayam , the author had done a great job by bringing the essence of life in a very simple language.

This is the story of Arumugam , the son of Raman and Dhanabhagiyam. Arumugam loses his father very early and he was supported solely by his mother. Dhanabhagiyam who got a job in hospital and they moved to pondicherry .Their lives goes well until Arumugam saw his mother sleeping with another man Jerry Albert. Arumugam run away from his mother  and his life starts from there. Where ever he goes , he looks around the events and observe it. Apart from his mother he encounters so many female characters like Vasantha , Chinnaponnu , Abitha and Lakshmi who shapes Arumugum like his real mother. The life's ups and downs along with death were portrayed beautifully.

The detailed description of day to day life of these people brings the reader closer to them .Kudos to the author. He did not follow any protocol or principles in writing this story, he made the day to day life lead the story and it worked really well. The author effortlessly enters into the characters's mind and brings their thoughts beautifully. I think this is possible only because he knew these lives.

I borrow these words from Aravinthan to descripe the authors stand, i also felt the same thing after reading this book and i feel that the author is wrong in his view.

" நவீன வாழ்வு உங்கள் மானத்தை விலையாகப் பெற்றுக் கொண்டுதான் சமூக முன்னேற்றத்தைத் தரும். இதனால் உங்கள் குடும்பம் சிதைந்துவிடும் என்னும் மிரட்டல் இந்தச் சித்தரிப்பில் தொனிக்கிறது."

A very different book . I enjoyed reading it. I have purchased his two other books "Koveru kazhudaigal" and "Sedal" early this year, will read these books soon.  I love his beautiful writing style and the subject he handles.

Click here for the author's interview

Click here to go to author's blog

The author's address :

இமையம், 
முத்தமிழ் தெரு, 
பெரியார் நகர் தெற்கு, 
விருத்தாசலம்-606 001, 
மின்மடல் : imayam.annamalai@gmail.com

Snail Watching - 3

I really do not know how i got interested in Snails. Over these 3 years i started love these beautiful little creatures. Last week, when i was jogging  i found these wonderful scenes.These scenes were the REAL mating scenes not my previous post ( Snail Watching-2). When i did research on Snails mating procedures, i was really fascinated .
Some interesting information about Snails:
- Snails are gastropods (belly foot), use stomach for moving.
- Snails are hermaphrodites (means they have both male and female organs).But there are exceptions.
- Snails are considered sexually matured in one year time.
- Mating rituals can go for more than 12 hours sometime(!!)
- Fertilize the each other eggs after the mating.
- Snails can carry upto 100 eggs.

When i started taking picture,that was for almost 10 to 15 minutes, there was no moment.Never seen anything like that before, i stopped jogging and was filled with some kind of strange feeling.

I do not know what species these snails belongs to, i believe these are garden snails(??) .And when i researched about mating rituals i found that some snails are dioecious i,e separate sexes. So i think what i saw was mating between male and female (not sure).

I have seen the same thing as in the below video but i did not touch it( i should say that i was scared to disturb them!).

Click here Apple Snails mating info
More info about how snail reproduce

The Conference of the Birds - Farid Ud-Din Attar

An Epic! I should say this is the one book i keep with me always after Bible . It is still inside my bag ,where ever i go i will take this book also. I finished reading this book long time back. I always underline the lines i like most in the books. But in this book,i did not do like that because each and every line i liked and treasured.

This book is a great deal of Sufi poetry , the true idol be destroyed is the Self.The Poems are multi-layered allegory.

The story is that all the birds of the world decided to choose their king as they do not have one.The Wisest of all the Hoopoe suggests that they should go and meet the legendary Simorgh .The  Hoopoe leads the bird in their journey, each bird represents a human character. The journey is tough and the birds one by one leave the group.At last only thirty birds remains and they reaches the place of Simorgh and find only a lake, which shows their reflection .

The birds have to go through seven valleys to reach the place of Simorgh .The are
1)Talab - Yearning
2)Eshq- Love
3)Marifat - Gnosis
4)Istighnah - Detachment
5)Tawheed - Unity of God
6)Hayrat - Bewilderment
7)Fuqur & Fana - Selflessness & Oblivion in God

I quote this from Wikipedia "The idea of God within is an idea intrinsic to most interpretations of Sufism. As the birds realize the truth, they now reach the station of Baqa (Subsistence) which sits atop the Mountain Qaf".

The author makes the journey even more interesting by telling short stories here and there and teach us many things. I loved all the short stories.

Read and treasure the pearls of wisdom.

Complete Audio book in youtube

பிறகு(Piragu) - பூமணி(Poomani)

I bought this book long time back, many times i took it ,read few pages but never continued to finish it. At last, few days back i took this book and started reading and continued, i should say i had great time  reading this classic.First , the front cover design is something one will not forget soon. I was really struck by it , well done designer Santhosh.

This books tells the story of Alagiri and his community. Alagiri is a cobbler and earns his daily living depends on the high caste people.His wife died after giving birth to his daughter Muthumaari, after long consideration and compulsion by community, he remarry Aavuda . Aavuda takes care his daughter like her own daughter. I love this character, beautifully portrayed by author.

Alagiri's life revolves around his family and the neem tree. The author characterizes the neem tree which bears everything from the community.The sorrow filled life of Muthumaari makes the reader to feel for her, i was really surprised how Alagiri coped the death of her. Muthamaari was first married to Vairavan , who joined Army and left her. Vairavan is the first one to break out of the community .The gradual transformation of Vairavan was told beautifully by the author. She remarry Muniyaandi but it failed after she left home the child and attend Vairavan's father's funeral. She died by jumping into well. The marriage, the marriage life , the children and the death of Muthumaari was told in a manner one can easily understand the community's way of life.

Kandhaiya , the village guard, is the only man who try to solve issues within the village and he is very supportive of Alagiri. Kandhaiya's death brought tears in my eyes.Two other characters which made impact on the whole story were Sakkanan and Chithiran. Their continues talks about past and present was funny and interesting.Karuppan and his silent romance with Muthumaari, in fact many times i thought he will propose to her but the author knew very well , it should not happen in the community.

The transformation of the village is slow but dramatic.First, the announcement of election and how the rich (Appaiya&Villiserikkarar) instructed Sakkiliyakudi to vote.More lands were bought by the rich and money allotted to the municipality was laundered by the rich.All these transformation did not affect this community much, their life goes on as usual.

"எலே சொதுச்சொகம் காசுனு மனசுல ஒடயிலதான் நிம்மதியே கெட்டுப்பொகுதுடா "

The author has portrayed the suffering and pain of the people born as a result of economic hegemony and more importantly caste.I borrow this from Davind Announsamy - "Hero is not a person, he is a community itself. ' .The author once told “I don’t know where the word Dalit appeared. I have been writing about the poor and marginalised sections of society well before the word appeared. The term is derogatory because many critics use it as a concession to writers belonging to lower castes. There is no concession in Literature.” No where in this novel the author used the word "dalit", which is great. The author knew his role, he did not try do create uproar by his portrayal but he simply tells their way of living.

I will certainly keep this book as one of the Modern Tamil classics and must read.

The books that Inspired CEOs

I came across this list at Business Insider website.Have heard of some of the books mentioned below. Its quite interesting that people get inspired by fictional works and make it work in real world. I noticed that most of these CEOs took their hobbies and interest into business and succeeded in it. I always believe in the idea of making hobbies and interest as a profession.

CEO Name	Company	Books
Steve Jobs	Apple	King Lear,Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma, Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Chogyam Trungpa's Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, and Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
Jack Dorsey	Square	The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande.
Elon Musk	Inventor&Entrepreneur	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Glaxay
Time Cook	Apple	Competing Against Time by George Stalk
Larry Ellison	Oracle	Napoleon by Vincent Cronin
Michael Bloomberg	Mayor Newyork City	The Honourable Schoolboy by Le Carre
Mark Zuckerberg	Facebook	The Aeneid by Virgil
Bill Gates	Microsoft	The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker,The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Jeff Bezos	Amazon	Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Who Reads More? And the answer is .... INDIANS

NOP World Culture Score Index had released this years scores. Surprisingly India ranks first with 10.7 Mean hours per week.

            Reading                     Computer/Internet
                                         (Not for Work)***
                      Mean Hours                       Mean Hours
     India              10.7         Taiwan               12.6
     Thailand            9.4         Thailand             11.7
     China               8.0         Spain                11.5
     Philippines         7.6         Hungary              10.9
     Egypt               7.5         China                10.8
     Czech Republic      7.4         Hong Kong            10.7
     Russia              7.1         Poland               10.6
     Sweden              6.9         Turkey               10.6
     France              6.9         Brazil               10.5
     Hungary             6.8         Egypt                10.3
     Saudi Arabia        6.8         Philippines           9.8
     Hong Kong           6.7         Korea                 9.6
     Poland              6.5*        Saudi Arabia          9.3
     GLOBAL              6.5         South Africa          9.0
     Venezuela           6.4         GLOBAL                8.9
     South Africa        6.3         Argentina             8.9**
     Australia           6.3         Russia                8.9**
     Indonesia           6.0         France                8.8
     Argentina           5.9         U.K.                  8.8
     Turkey              5.9         USA                   8.8
     Spain               5.8         Canada                8.3
     Canada              5.8         Sweden                8.0
     Germany             5.7         India                 7.9
     USA                 5.7         Indonesia             7.7
     Italy               5.6         Venezuela             7.5
     Mexico              5.5         Australia             7.0
     U.K.                5.3         Czech Republic        7.0
     Brazil              5.2         Japan                 6.9
     Taiwan              5.0         Germany               6.4
     Japan               4.1         Italy                 6.3
     Korea               3.1         Mexico                6.3

          Watching TV                    Listening to Radio
 
                    Mean Hours                         Mean Hours
     Thailand          22.4          Argentina            20.8
     Philippines       21.0          Brazil               17.2
     Egypt             20.9          South Africa         15.0
     Turkey            20.2          Czech Republic       13.5
     Indonesia         19.7          Thailand             13.3
     USA               19.0          Turkey               13.3
     Taiwan            18.9          Poland               12.5
     Brazil            18.4          Hungary              12.1
     U.K.              18.0          Germany              11.5
     Japan             17.9          Australia            11.3
     Saudi Arabia      17.7          Mexico               11.1
     France            17.3          Sweden               10.9
     Hong Kong         16.7          U.K.                 10.5
     GLOBAL            16.6          USA                  10.2
     Czech Republic    16.2          Spain                 9.9
     Poland            15.9          Philippines           9.5
     Spain             15.9          Canada                9.1
     China             15.7          Egypt                 9.0
     Korea             15.4          France                9.0
     Germany           15.2          GLOBAL                8.0
     Hungary           15.1          Venezuela             7.6
     Russia            15.0          Italy                 7.2
     Italy             14.9          Russia                6.6
     South Africa      14.8          Indonesia             5.8
     Canada            14.7          Hong Kong             5.1
     Argentina         14.0          Taiwan                4.7
     Australia         13.3          Japan                 4.1
     India             13.3          India                 4.1
     Sweden            12.3          Saudi Arabia          3.9
     Venezuela         11.9          Korea                 3.0
     Mexico            11.6          China                 2.1

 

Click here for more info

Amen - A Refreshing One

An unexpected and beautiful movie. Loved all the aspects of this movie.After a long time i watched a movie two times.The cinematography and music made this movie an unforgettable experience. The crew and cast were simply superb.

The story is nothing new but the narration is fresh and interesting.The story revolves around the church and its band,which historically had a good record. But lately the band is not winning any titles.Solomon, the son of the dead master clarinetist , was a failed band member , as he struggles to play before the priest . He was in love with his childhood sweetheart Shossana but her family ,except her grandmother, did not support their love.

Fahadh and Indrajit .. 

The parish priest Fr. Abraham wanted to dismantle the band and vows that the church will not finance the band anymore. Then comes the new assistant priest Fr.Vincent Vattolli , young and exuberant music loving priest who supports the band and helps in their training. He also came to know about Solomon and Shossana's love and wanted to help them. He tried to sent them out of the village but he and the pair were caught .Louie Pappan who was a band member and master of the band came to know about Solomon's talent one night .  Solomon has to prove his musical talent and marry Shossana, did he? that was the story. And there is a twist who is Fr.Vincent Vattolli?

The stunning cinematography by Abinandan Ramanujam was a big plus for this movie. Prasanth Pillai's  background scores as well as songs were great support for this story. Specially , the clarinet's solo scores.The composer brings the freshness of the village in his melody and background.I loved it. The screenplay and dialogues by Rafeeque was apt and it was wonderfully executed by director Lijo Jose Pellissery .

Fahadh and Swathy.....

All the actors played their part perfectly,well almost. The parish priest played by Joy Mathew reminds me many priests i have encountered in my life.The tone and the facial expressions were just perfect. Indrajit as Fr.Vincent Vattolli was witty and genuine. Fahadh Fazhil as Solomon was perfect. He has grown and shown his versatility in this movie. Swathy as Shossana was beautiful and her eyes speaks volume. Another great performance was by kalabavan Mani as Louie Pappan .

This movie manages one to laugh and think.This movie touch the heart with its simplicity ,humor and above all love. I loved the one liners . Well done director.