Bharathipura - U R Ananthamurthy

 I heard and read lot about U R Ananthamurthy but only after his  death I bought two of his books. Between Bharathipura and Samskara  I decided to read Bharathipura first just because its bigger in size.  I started reading this book when I was doing volunteering work for SEA games and finished it in two days.

First, the story looked familiar for me, may be because I have seen some movies or read some stories like this before. But the ending was something I never expected. Bharathipura is famous for its deity Manjunatha. Hinduism's rules and rituals are in place. Everyday life of the residence here revolves around the deity. Everything is decided by the temple and the deity.

An young landlord Jagannatha who returns after having his studies in England wants to bring revolution by taking lower caste people into Manjunatha temple. He believes God must be challenged and over thrown first before taking steps to make everyone equal. "I must take the Holeyaru into the temple. I must change the tradition of centuries with that one step. I must break Manjunatha. In the one new step the Holeyaru take, all of us will die and be born anew." His main concern is the lower caste and dark skinned Holeyaru people.They were never allowed to enter into the temple and they have their own deity  - Bootharaya who is an agent to Manjunatha .

The Holeyarus do not have any issue with that age old practise , they are used to it - Jagannatha could not understand that - " Beyond Manjunatha, beyond Bhoothraya, beyond the landlord, the merchant, the ascetic, they have the power to live in a secret inner world that no one else can enter; perhaps they're not even aware that they do. Their world has its own shrewd structures."

This book explores the social and political tensions during 70's  along with personal relationships - both social and  sexual. One can wonder where is the revolution takes place is it in Jagannatha's head or outside? "This is all I have to say, Jagannatha. Do you really love the Holeyaru? If you love them unconditionally, you'll be one with bird, beast and chandala and become an ascetic. There'll be no question of any conflict whatsoever; no need for a revolution". The contradicting expectations of Jaganantha about his personal life and others are the highlight of this story. Though he accepts his girlfriend's decision to sleep with his friend but he could not accept the anonymous letter which states that his mother slept with someone other than his father.  He tries to reason the possibility of his mother sleeping with someone and could not take it further.  Though he was shaken but rises up and carry on his work.

This story is allegory of Indian society which is ready to open up but hold back by faith and believes. The author being Brahmin, knew the role of caste played in their life. One cannot forget Chikki, Sripati Rao,Raghava Puranik, Pilla  and Nagamani. Many of the scenes in this story will remain in our memory for long time - when Holeyaru touches Saligrama - the holy stone and when Ganesha uprooted the statue from the temple and throw into the river etc..

A must read Indian classic.

Koozhankarkal Paadukindrana - S.Ramakrishnan ( கூழாங்கற்கள் பாடுகின்றன )

This book is a good introduction for anyone who wants to know about "Haiku" poetries. As usual the author S. Ramakrishnan did a wonderful job in explaining the various aspects of Haiku.

"ஜென் கவிதைகள் இயற்கையைக் கடந்த காலத்தில் வைத்துப் பார்ப்பதில்லை . நாம் ஒரு மலையை ,அருவியைச் சந்திக்கும்போது இந்தக் கணம் என்ற மட்டுமே நம்மோடு இருக்கிறது . அருவிக்குக் கடந்த காலம் நிகழ்காலம் எதிர்காலம் யாவும் இக்கனமாகவே வெளிப்படுகிறது .அதைத்தான் ஜென் கவிதைகள் தன் கவிதைக் காலமாக முன்வைக்கின்றன ."

The author introduces and explains the aspects of the following Haiku writers :

1. Basho
2. Ryokan
3. Issa
4. Li Bai
5. Ikkyu

The author beautifully highlights how different poets use frog,moon,thief,butterfly and winter season as a metaphor in Haiku poems. The interesting aspect of this book is the way the author compares those famous Haiku poems with our own poets like Devathachan and Premil.

Personally I came to know about Haiku poems only in 2007, previously I heard about it but I did not know much about it. I started reading Basho some years back but I did not understand the deeper meanings of many of the poems so I registered in a haiku forum where people published their haiku poems and discussed about the master poets poems. I learnt a bit from the forum.  I believe understanding these master's poem's will teach to you to appreciate nature and life as a whole.

 This book is only 79 pages, a good introduction to these lovely poetry form.

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame.

It's easier to love a woman when you can't understand a word she's saying

One of the best novel I read in recent times simply because this story taught me many things. This story is based on the real incident happened in Lima,Peru. A guerilla group take high level executives and vice president as hostages, what happens after is the story of this novel.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

The story starts with terrorists entering the ambassador's house but everything gone wrong as the target of their operation the president did not attend the party. They do not have any other choice except keep the remaining as hostages. Among the hostages were an Opera singer Roxane Cox, a pianist and a translator. The translator is a unique character, he is a communication point(translates English to Spanish, Spanish to English, Spanish to Russian, Russian to English ...) for all the people, anything needs to be done should go through him .He too very strong and understanding and helps everyone including terrorists.

It was never the right time or it was always the right time, depending on how you looked at it.

The whole group was initially stunned by the voice of Cox and slowly they started to wait for her to sing everyday, even the terrorists like her voice. Most of the males in the group were attracted towards her. I laughed loud whenever the Russian guy tried to propose to Cox, during those times one cannot remain silent about the situations of  Gen.Hilarious.

If someone loves you for what you can do then it’s flattering, but why do they love you? If someone loves you for who you are then they have to know you, which means you have to know them. 

Each character was fully developed and very interesting. I specially loved translator Gen and Carmen, one of the terrorist girl. Their romance was very interesting and the way the communicate and  understand each other is something i enjoyed reading. And I will not forget it easily too. And there is another romance between Gen's master Hosokawa and the singer Cox. Both enjoyed their role in music and even started enjoying themselves.

For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man.

We can learn that "bad guys" are not really bad and the good guys are not as good. In fact by the end of the story the roles are reversed. I formed a strong relationship with most of the characters , by the end of the book I felt really sad for the 'lovely' terrorists. The author did not talk anything about Peru and situation during the hostage time, I don't know why she left it out. It would have created stronger sense of emotion towards the captors, may be its good that the author left it out.

If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to complain.

I stopped reading the book after 60+ pages felt bit boring , did not touch the book for next 5 days. Then one day took it and started reading without a break, good I did that. It was a roller-coaster ride of everything, though I guessed the ending and expected it that way but not the relationship between Gen and Cox. The ending did bring tears to my eyes. The community that these group of people created was uniquely bonded , no one wants to break it even the Red Cross mediator, who really enjoyed staying with them. I too did not want to break that.

The writing is superb ,sometimes lyrical and it will make a good movie. The story says all humans are nice if given chance.

Wonderful read.

Killing Jesus : A History by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

Im not going into the politics of the death of Jesus , but this book helps to understood the religious and political situation during Jesus's crucifixion. The authors tries to explain the human nature of the Christ . As mentioned  by the authors its a historical account of Jesus's Killing not a biography or religious text.

For me, many of the information in this book is new. I knew the story of Jesus crucifixion only through the Bible, but this books gives lots of historical information which im not sure correct or not. Definitely there are some fictional elements there in this killing story of this author. Though the book focus mainly on the killing of Jesus, the authors did not include the vital information about Jesus's beliefs ,in fact they missed many of Jesus sayings and teachings.

The authors explains the ruthlessness of the various Roman rulers and their tensed relationship with Jews.The authors gives lots of details about Caesar, Tiberius , Cleopatra ,Octavius etc which is interesting and give some perspective of the situation during Jesus's time. In fact all these characters were introduced one by one and each one played a role in Jesus's killing. The authors wrote little more than needed about the sexual lives of those Roman rulers.

The roles played by leaders of the Jews specially Annas and Caiaphas and their close relationship with Roman rulers were told realistically.The authors explains how the high priests and his family controlled the temple's wealth specially during the Passover.  The Passover rituals and how people /mob behaved during that time  were explained very clearly . The authors also give some information about Jews Sanhedrin - the assembly of seventy one Jew leaders and how Caiaphas made use of the Sanhedrin to sentence Jesus.(Since I have not read any book other than Bible I can not argue anything about these informations yet !!)

This book is definitely readable history book written in simple language and style. Various places and roads Jesus and his disciples visited  'comes alive'  as the authors explains the Jesus's journey into Jerusalem.  Since most of the details are taken directly from the Bible its like reading the Bible itself. Its better for any reader like me to fall back on Bible for more details about various events explained in this book. It seems some of the events explained in this book contradicts the Bible's version.

Definitely a good read.

Our Moon Has Blood Clot - Rahul Bandita

This is the second about Kashmir I read . The first one was written by a Muslim and this one was a by Hindu. Both gives two different perspectives but one thing was sure - the people of Kashmir had suffered a lot.

I have to admit that I did not know anything about the Kashmiri Pandits before this book, always that Muslims are the only sufferers. To my shock , the atrocities by the Pathans towards Bandits were unspeakable. While reading this book simultaneously I searched in the internet about the exodus of the bandits - really shocking.First thing that struck me - why there was not much news about this tragic events in main stream media. I think they mostly focused on militancy. Another pathetic thing was the inability of the government during that period, the book clearly says that the government did not do much .

"Tradition is like an embarrassing grandparent who needs to be fed and put back to bed in a back room."

The book starts with short history of Kashmir and its beauty, specially the author's place. Kashmir's history is unique on its own, ruled by very different kingdoms. According to the author the golden phases were  reigns of Lalitaditya and Avantivarman and the worst were the reigns of Sultan Sikander and other Afghan rulers. The author also explains how the Pandit community progressed and suffered throughout the history.

 The author feels that everything was perfect before the exodus.May be or may not but nothing is same after the riots. The author meets many exiled bandits and made them to talk about those dark days. The unfortunate things happened during 1947 was told through the eyes of Prithvi Nath. The story of Ravi his friend was too emotional for me . In all these conflicts mostly innocent people only get killed.

"God pervades every particle,every being
  Don't distinguish between a Hindu and a Muslim"

One can sympathize with the author's mother who was shocked at being called a refugee and her need to talk to everyone about their house with 22 rooms. Definitely one will get emotional while reading about the family's stay at the camp and later at  the lodge, their struggle for water and food. The slow deterioration of mother's health was something very unfortunate and the author explains the pain of the whole family.   The book also shows the abject failure of the state to provide for refugees.

This book depicts the pain of the exiled community aptly.A must read book for every Indian.