Arzee The Dwarf - Chandrahas Choudhury

I came to know about this book when i was browsing flikpart for some Indian author books. Intrigued by the name , i bought it.  This is the story of Arzee the dwarf, he is a assistant projectionist at  "Noor" cinema . His dream is to become a head projectionist in Noor after the departure of the current one - Pheroz .Another dream is to get marry a girl without any form of dwarfism  - that is a 'completeness' in life. But everything collapses when he came to know that the owners of  Noor decided to sell it.

The romance between Arzee and Monique was physical , like normal , and told beautifully but something is missing in the female character portrayal - partially drawn. The author should have given some more space to her. Then there is Deepak , the chaser, who chases Arzee  to pay the money he owes to the betting syndicate after he lost the cricket betting. The conversation between these two brought lots of laughter. But the way they handled the searching  of Monique looks cinematic but worth reading.

"The rose of peace can never bloom in the soil of unrest"

One good thing about the story is, in spite, of all the problems the hero gets into, the author able to brings smile frequently .  His original name was Arzoo - 'desire' in Urdu was changed latter to Arzee - 'plea' , we can understand why it had changed.The metaphor is that life moves on despite of our defects and  inability . The writing is rich in vocabulary and kudos to author for bringing everyday life with all its ups and down so beautifully.

A wonderful debut novel , worth reading!

Singapore Writers Festival - 2013

The much awaited event of the year SWF-2013 was concluded on Nov 10 after a week full of so many wonderful events. I applied to volunteer for SWF some months before, i was bit worried because last time they had rejected my application. But this year i was selected and i was really happy. I was assigned as a room manager for Tamil events. Before going to the event location, i saw a Indian woman with saree , i was thinking i have seen her somewhere ,yes , it was writer Salma , whom i'm following in Facebook for a long time. I went and spoke to her , she was very polite and asked about my life in Singapore and gave me autograph.

Salma

Nov 9 : My first day of volunteering . I was posted at National Museum of Singapore (NMS). NMS is a beautiful building. I have been to this place many times before but this time it was bit crowded as expected. The event was "Literary Styles and Innovation / இலக்கிய வடிவமும் புத்தாக்கமும் " ,the authors participated were Imayam, Salma and JM Sali.  I was very excited to see writer Imayam, when he spoke , his voice was stern and honest - not hiding his feelings. The authors explained their source of inspiration for their books.

The second event of my day was "Evolution: Women;s Voices in Tamil Literature / பரிணாம வளர்ச்சி - தமிழ் இலக்கியத்தில் பெண்களின் குரல் " . The authors on the panel were Kamaladevi Aravindan, Suriya Rethnna and Salma. The writers talked about how they worked their way up to write stories.Writer Salma's story was interesting . I did not understand much of writer Suriya Rethnna's speech. The moderator was not good , she was just listening.

Imayam

The third event was " Meet the Author : Imayam / எழுத்தாளர் சந்திப்பு : இமையம் " . It was an one to one session with writer Imayam. The writer started his biography telling major events of his life and how he started writing his stories. Very interesting because all his stories are inspired by the real life characters . According to him , if a writer is not writing from his life then its no use. Again the moderator was not good , he did not know the details of the author and he did not initiated any questions, he was just another participant.Shame , he would have asked so many questions related to the recurring themes in Imayam's book etc.. After the session, i spoke to Imayam, he was very polite and i got his signature. For all the other events i did not go inside the room.

Nov 10: Only one event to volunteer and  that was the final Tamil event of SWF 2013.  It was held at National Library Board (NLB) @ queens street. "SWF 2013 Literary Pioneer: Memories of G Sarangapany /  இலக்கிய முன்னோடி : தமிழவேள் கோ.சா. நினைவலைகள் " .  I was the only volunteer for the event so i was posted outside and given the job of checking tickets and guiding the guests. I got a chance to meet many Singapore Tamil writers , many of them i never heard of but got to know through the venue manager.

My other volunteering colleagues were students and some are Tamil Literature students.Very excited to talk to them about Tamil books but unfortunately most of them did not recognize the writers i mentioned like S.Ramakrishnan, Vannanilavan, Jeyamohan , even Sujatha .Heartbroken i stopped asking them about writer and books. But i liked the way they conversed in Tamil , i felt ashamed of my Tamil.

Overall a great experience. 

Cathedral of the sea -Ildefonso Falcones

I should say that "Cathedral of the sea" is one of the best historical novel i have read so far. The author brings alive Barcelona,Spain of 14th century . This book was well researched and written.

This the story of Arnau Espanyol and Santa Maria Del Mar cathedral. Barcelona was its peak during that time, their ships ruled the coasts. The people of La Ribera decided to built a church in hour of Mother Mary and named it Santa Maria Del Mar. Arnau was born as serf , his father left his land and took him to city, Barcelona so that he can become a freeman. Apparently there was a law in those days in Spain that if you live one year and a day you will be certified as a free man.  Arnau lives his life in faith in God and in Virgin Mary.

Aranau through his good will and act, grew up to be one of the rich and noble man of  Barcelona. He loved his work , by saving a Jew family he became rich. The Jew offered him business and money to carry out it along with a slave called Sahat who was latter baptized as Guillam . Guillam took care of all of Arnau's business which grown into big enterprise and created  a network of traders and merchants around the world. The author very clearly explains how the Jews did their business of money lending . The Catholic church banned lending loan with interest so the people found other ways doing the same. In fact , the church itself did the same thing with leasing of houses to people. These tenants pay full amount of the house to the Church but they can not own it but they can sell it to others of same nobility.

Santa Maria del Mar*

Is this book a perfect historical fiction ? I don't know, there are lots of flaws .Most of the characters are one directional. Good people are always good and bad people are bad . The author did not explore the darker side of good people. Aranu remains super good through out the story. But the characters's twist and turn and coincidental historical events will keep you reading till the end. The books best pages are definitely the pages which explains the construction of the cathedral specially the work of bastaixos carrying the stones from the quarry to the construction spot and the laying of keystone. The author beautifully explain the prejudice against Jews , the arrogance of noble men and rise of Spanish Inquisition . Lots of very interesting historical details were there in this book . The epidemic plague which killed thousands played a vital part in this story. The author also tells the Catholic Inquisitors greed for money  and how they exploited ignorant people in the name of God.

This book is a spellbinding journey ... for me it was an epic journey with Aranu .

*taken from http://mytravelphotos.net/