Curfewed Night - Basharat Peer

My  friend bought this book through Flipkart .I never read any book about Kashmir before. My idea of Kashmir - beautiful place, Apples,Dal Lake, Farooq Abdullah and some bomb blasts. Thats it. The news paper i read during childhood days always said how many people died , never explained the real reason behind it. So one part of me told "Kashmir is a beautiful place where i should go once" and in another part told me "Kashmir is a dangerous place with lots of militants" . What a shame !

This book had completely changed my understanding of Kashmir. Still in shock about the way Indian military treating Kashmiri people and the unspeakable atrocities done by them. I have read some world war books and how the prisoners were treated, the torture techniques of Indian Para Military were more or less equal or more. Unbelievable.

"Lovers leave debris like civilizations do. Civilizations leave debris like lovers do"

The author traces his life along with the life in 1980's Kashmiri village through the development of separatist movement. A very peaceful village life was disturbed by the Indian - Pakistan war and gradually deteriorated as separatist movements started to grow. Once a green and beautiful valleys are now with 'armoured cars and soldiers patrolling roads or manning check points had become part of the Kashmiri landscape' . Peer's own family lost many of their children(cousins) and some were joined militant movement.Peer's own father and mother went through mine blast by the militant. But they moved on and they never talks about it.

"People seemed to need faith; people seemed to need miracles."

The author meets various people from his village as well as his classmates and teachers throughout Kashmir and ask them about their life . Almost all of the stories are sad and profoundly affected by the conflict. The stories of tortured were unimaginable. The story of Mubeena who was raped by number of BSF soldiers was terrible and unpardonable. Her life changed completely , villagers called her "Crossfire Bride and 'Crossfire Groom' . But the courageous woman lives on .What the government did , it just  paid just 3000/- rupees as a relief. Like another incident told in this book about a bride raped by BSF. Very sad to know all the these horrific things happening.

The author also explains  how the various rulers ruled Kashmir, most of them for not good to Kashmiri people, and how they changed the history of Kashmir.The history part is very interesting . Its must for people to know bit of history to understand the life of Kashimir people.

I love this book because it was written by an insider , an Kashmiri. The author was more interested in the human emotions than the conflict, which is a highlight of this book. This book breaks many belief the mainland Indians have on Kashmir issues and Indian army.

Must read!

The Genius Factory - David Plotz

This book is very interesting and bit shocking. The book explores the following:
 1)What is "The Repository of Germinal Choice" nicknamed "Nobel Prize Sperm Bank"?
 2)What were the thought behind it and who were they?
 3)How it collapsed?
 4)How the children born through that are doing now?

In 1980 Robert Graham, an American businessman opened an sperm donation bank specially to collect from high IQ men. The rationale behind the idea was that high IQ men will create high IQ babies so that the world will be better place. But his idea based on "The IQ of the average Negro is twenty two points lower than average white American's". He believed that too many stupid people were breeding stupid kids.And he was very adamant on not giving sperm to black women.According to the author ," Robert Graham was a racist (which is very clear) but not always a white supremacist .He ranked blacks and Hispanics below whites in intelligence but ranked Asians above whites"

"There's nothing worse than a wish unfulfilled, except a wish fulfilled."

The author wrote series of articles in Slate asking customers and children of the sperm bank to contact him. This book is the result of the contacts the author made. He unearthed very interesting thing about the sperm bank and ultimately end up write biography of the sperm bank. Apart from the racism , this author explores the relationships between the children born through the bank and the parents. Very intriguing , when the author meets these kids and the stories of when the spoke about their unknown fathers .Sometimes the author without knowing lets these people discover important details.The very sad part of the whole story is that none of the kids produced from the bank were super smart, they have above average .Most these kids were raised by single mothers.

As he explores , at one point of time he himself wanted to donate sperm to know how everything works. His first hand experience with those people made this book very interesting . But the author thinks Graham's idea was not bad as it was aimed to produce high intelligent people after interviewing and meeting most of the employees of the sperm bank .But he is against "negative eugenics ".

The book is interesting , intriguing , surprising and sometimes touching. Worth reading and get to know little bit of history.

வாடாமல்லி ( Vadaamalli) - சு .சமுத்திரம்(S.Samuthiram)

 I came to know about this wonderful book through Writer Jeyamohan's website. After a long search , i found this book at National Library Book sales in 2012. Even though i got the book i did not read the book immediately . So confused to start the book . Before reading this book i read some other books including "வேதபுரத்து வியாபாரிகள்" ,"கோவேறு கழுதைகள்"  and   புனலும் மணலும்  . At last i read this book and finished in fairly quick time.

"மானுடத்தின் இந்த மூன்றாவது அலியை கிண்டல் செய்வதும் கேலி செய்வதும் காட்டுமிராண்டித்  தனம் . நமக்கு சாப்பிடுவது  எப்படி இயற்கையோ அப்படி அவர்களுக்கு பெண்ணாவவோ , அல்லது ஆணாவவோ பெண் உடம்பில் ஆணும் , ஆண் உடம்பில் பெண்ணும் இருப்பது இயற்கை . இதனால் இவர்கள் வீரத்திலோ விவகத்திலோ குறைந்தவர்கள்  அல்ல ."

This story made me to think a lot specially about our relationship with transgenders . Very very few occasions i had seen people behave properly towards them. We have taught even our kids to tease them and treat them badly. In fact most of the time we never accept them as a fellow human being. Shame on us. Congratulations and thanks to the author for bring the life of these wonderful people.

This novel tells the story of Suyambu an energetic young boy who with his good marks enters into an engineering college.But after two months he realized that he is feeling like a girl. His activities slowly changing.
Because of  this he was beaten and force to leave his village .The journey of Suyambu to become Megala was horrendous and told in a manner that the reader will start understand the life of these wonderful people.

The struggles these people undergoes in day to day work is terrible even today particularly the way the police treat them . The police always think these people as sex worker and do all sort of atrocities. In this novel too , the police are same. The story travels to different parts of India almost all are under developed or slums. There was a contrast in the jobs they do in different parts of India but they were treated bit better in Northern parts of India. Suyambu also goes to Delhi and adopted by an older one.There he was treated well by fellow transgenders .

The author details the various very painful rituals Suyambu undergoes and how he became Megala. I have never heard or read anywhere else about these rituals and their customs.Again , the author should be appreciated for shedding light on these rituals . The feeling of loosing their identity was told beautifully, very sad to read those part. My thoughts on transgender changed completely after reading these things.

 The way the author explores the relationship between Suyambu and his  family was very realistic. The doubt of his brother about his sexual orientation ,the villagers believes that Suyambu was haunted  and the girl's love towards Suyambu were realistic and  written well. The character of David portrayed beautifully along with Suyambu's love towards him.

"அலித்தன்மை வேறு .. பாலின  மாற்றம் வேறு ...அலி அலிதான். குழந்தை பெறவும் முடியாது . தரவும் முடியாது . திடீரென்று பெண்ணாய் மாறுகிறவர்களை அலின்னு தப்பா நெனைக்கோம் .. பொதுவா மானிடத்தை ஆண் பெண் என்று பார்ப்பதே தப்பு .ஆண் தன்மை அதிகம் உள்ளவங்க , பெண் தன்மை அதிகம் உள்ளவங்க என்றே பார்க்கணும் ..... அலித்தன்மை , மானுடத்தின் மூன்றாவது குலம் ."

This book really teach us something important that these transgenders too have life like us. Respect them and treat them well. A wonderful and painful journey into the world of transgender. This is my first book on transgender and it was a very good read. If anyone wants to know more about life of transgender , start with this book.

Click here to read writer Jeyamohan on this author

You can read this novel  here

ஒரு கடலோரகிராமத்தின் கதை (Oru Kadaloragramathin kathai)- ோப்பில் முஹம்மது மீரான் (Thoppil Muhammad Meeran)

Every other day i saw this book on my table , two or three times took it and kept it back without reading a word. At last two days back took this book and started reading , and i did reading without stopping and finished the book . What a joy to read this book. Its worth the delay .

As the name suggests
this is the world war time story of a village called Thengaaipattinam where majority were Muslims.  The community was soaked in religious roots and never accepted anyone go out of their belief and faith. The darker side of the community was told beautifully without hurting the religious sentiments.I think this is the first book talks exclusively about the Muslim community in Tamilnadu .

The author explores the life of the people with two very unique characters Vadakkuvettu Ahamadkannu and Mahmudeen -the two main protagonists .Larger than life and over the top and typical village head Vadakkuvettu Ahamadkannu, who is doing everything for the sake of his family name and for prestige . But he is evil minded even to his own people - killing of the the lady(Lakshmi) who keeps her assets with him, arranging marriage to her daughter Aisha just to avoid getting bad name, opposing anyone who oppose him etc.. and Mahmudeen , who is a dried fish merchant and a good man who opposes the village head for his wrong doing.

In the name of religion Ahamadkannu opposes the building of English teaching school and takes all steps to prevent the construction and latter children from attending it. The worst of his activities was making some guys to defecating on the front door of the new teacher's house.

Aiza , the daughter of Ahamadkannu, loves his aunt's son Fareed. Fareed is not a emotionally strong guy. He did not understand much of what Aiza told. But the physical touch made him to realize that he needs Aiza. No one suspected anything between these two. Ahamadkannu without asking neither his wife nor his daughter quickly arranges marriage for Aiza to a old man. But she returned from her husband house due to his illness. The author beautifully tells the tragic life of Aiza, with an eye for her youthfulness and her wishes to unite with Fareed.

Two other characters makes the story even more interesting ,Avukaaru , the accountant of Ahamadkannu and Asanaar ,the imam-like guy. Through Avukkaru's character the author tells the story of Ahamadkannu's 'fall from grace' stage of life beautifully,  Avukaaru's inner conversation specially after Ahamadkannu became mentally unstable- brilliant. Asanaar ,on the other hand, as Ahamadkannu loses power he slowly move away from him . The author portrays him as ugly guy - did not take path for some days with dirty dress and cap and rude behaviors towards kids. His life was a bogus one.

The author tells how the people hold on to their belief and how it changes slowly as time passes and new things arrives. The impact of new changes made on these people was enormous. They lost their way of life slowly.This book tells the story of one particular community like 'Irandaam Jaamangalin Kathai'. But the similarity stops there. Both are dealing with different things.

A great read!

இரண்டாம் ஜாமங்களின் கதை (Irandaam Jaamangalin Kathai ) - சல்மா (Salma)

I read about this author in many articles but never read anything about this book until i read an article about " The Hour Past Midnight" , this book's English translation. I got interested but never got a chance to buy the book in Singapore. Luckily , when i volunteered for  "Singapore Writer's Festival" i got a chance to meet the author and bought the book.

The novel explores the life of group of Muslim women during 1980. The story  also brings the many unknowns among the Muslim community. Most of the female characters are some what not satisfied with their life specially in regards to their bodily wants. In my limited Tamil reading experience this book is something i will not forget easily. None of the  books i read dealt with issues faced  by the female characters in this book so effectively and without provoking religious sentiments.

All the characters are lively and portrayed beautifully by the author.I like the way the author as if holding our hands and walking through the characters. Very well written. I split the story into two , the stories of adults and stories of kids. The author very realistically wrote about the way the  kids grow in that environment and their thoughts on various things including sex . The many questions Rabiya asks still remains to be answered.

The author clearly details the marriage life and the family structure. The role of women is also defined partly by the family and partly by the religion. One can find the shadow of religion everywhere and the portrayal of God, sometimes for Justice , sometimes against the will and sometimes  as a question mark. The female characters goes through various perception of God but they clunk on to the belief and religion.

The gossiping is another important ingredient in this novel . Whenever the women meets there is lot of gossiping , laughing and teasing . The gossiping is most about sex . These women meets only during some special occasion and they never miss to gossip. In fact , i felt the author moves the story through these gossips.

Men:
 Most of the men in this novel are doing business(Merchants or traders) in India or abroad. These men decides the life of their family women.  Kadar, who love his wife but decides against her wish on marriage of their only daughter and Karim ,whose affair with Mariyayi is well known, never treat his daughter Rabia properly are the main characters. Suleiman who came back from abroad and started creating rules on community and try to impose those on women in particular. Most of  the men are either too religious and did not give much freedom to their wives and kids, specially daughters. What these women expects on them is simple things but these men could not do that also.

Then there are some non-Muslim characters like Mariyayi , mistress of Karim, Shiva whom Fridowze loves The author uses these characters to show the relationship Muslims and different castes of  Hindus .

The book is bit lengthy but one will not worry about it as the author makes sure that we will continue reading with her wonderful narrative. Its always dangerous to write about particular community and specially about the life of their women and their relationship but Salma did a wonderful job without hurting anyone. I think the author used her childhood experience a lot in this novel

There are so many memorable characters in this book . I do not want to single-out anyone in particular. This book is the celebration of women , their joys and miseries , their friendship and families and their wishes. Truly a remarkable book.