Book Review: Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure

This book was given to me as part of the #TSBCChallenge. What is that, you ask? Well, I direct you to go & read this: http://tsbookclub.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/the-tsbc-challenge/

The book's blurb reads: "In this wonderful blend of adventure and travel writing, Michael Palin journeys from the forests of North Michigan to the battlefields in Italy and the sites of the Spanish Civil War. He encounters the running of the bulls in Pamplona and the Fallas festival in Valencia, as bar-hopping in Cuba, marlin fishing and daiquiris helps unravel some of the myths surrounding Hemingway's life."

The book is an attempt by the author to recreate the well-known writer Ernest Hemingway's life by travelling to all those places where he stayed and experiencing some specific events there. In Palin's words, "Hemingway's world was close and uncomfortable and itchy and sweaty and frequently exhausting...This stuff was too good to be wasted on school exams. I must be bold and fearless and go out there and do it myself."

Since #TSBC had dared me to read this book, I could not leave it unfinished :) However, I need not have worried. I love travelling and this book is a semi-travelogue. The book is a collaborative effort between Palin and the BBC. Basil Pao has captured the wonderful photographs that are so generously spread out throughout the book.

The author begins his journey in Chicago & Michigan and then travels to Italy, Paris, Spain, Key West, Africa, Cuba and lastly the American West. At each of these places, Palin attempts to give us a sense of what Hemingway would have experienced/gone through. In his inimitable style, he also gives his probable reasoning for the events and Hemingway's reaction on the same.

The book not only captures the unique sights & sounds of each place but also puts a lot of Hemingway's life into perspective for us. Says Palin, "What terrified him [Hemingway] most was not losing his life but losing his mind; losing the ability to write."

In Spain, he gets a chance to witness the bulls running. According to the author, "There is something intoxicating and dangerous and reckless in the way the Spanish celebrate, which is what must have drawn Hemingway to their way of life." In Africa, Palin feels, "Mortality, of one kind or another, always feels close at hand."

I loved Palin's explanation for why he felt Hemingway travelled so much - "I reflect that what motivated Hemingway to travel, apart from natural curiosity, was a mixture of boredom and boastfulness." Don't we all experience that sometimes? I know I do.

The most interesting part about the book is the way Palin meets and mingles with people who may have interacted with Hemingway or who can shed some more light on the writer. Also, the author keeps mentioning Hemingway's books at specific points in time in the book - it helps us see how or what influenced Hemingway to write about a particular incident or place.

The only negative for me was I felt, at times, Palin forgot he was undertaking the adventure for Hemingway, i.e. his personal interests took precedence. Thankfully, that was only in a few places.

In a nutshell, pick up the book if you like Hemingway. Even if you don't, you can still pick it up and travel the world - from the US to Africa to Europe - all from the comforts of your couch :) And since the book was written in 1999 [15 years back], it's interesting to read about things/perspectives at that point in time.

Book Review: The Best Of Ruskin Bond

The book’s blurb reads: “This volume brings together the best of Ruskin Bond’s prose and poetry. For over four decades, by way of innumerable novels, essays, short stories and poems, the author has mapped out and peopled a unique literary landscape. This anthology has selections from all of his major books and includes the classic novella ‘Delhi Is Not Far’.

What review can you write about somebody whose mere name evokes a sense of nostalgia about the hills? Whose writing transports us directly into the markets of Dehradun & Mussoorie?

This book is a collection of his writings categorized into Love and Friendship, Tales of the Macabre, From A Little Room, On The Road, Love Poems & extracts from his novels. It also includes Time Stops at Shamli & Delhi Is Not Far.

For me, personally, the best part about Bond’s writing is his focus – he is passionate in weaving stories around the hills. Pick up any story from the book and you can visualize the sun rising/setting in the mountains, the long winding roads, the smell of fresh air, the varied flora & fauna and the different types of people residing there.

Bond is a keen observer of people and he puts those observational skills to good use in his writing. In addition to the physicality of people that he so vividly describes, he also brings out their nature very well. And the way he brings to life these characters it is almost as if you are seeing a live movie.

Though the theme running through the book is common, each story is different from the other. He speaks about being a pedestrian and loving to walk, the difficulty of making new friends, spirituality at the Ganges, his love for books, the local tea-shop being the gossip spot, falling in love, etc.

And while almost all his sentences seem like poetry in motion, a few that stayed with me were: “Nostalgia is simply an attempt to try and preserve that which was good in the past. The past has served us: why not serve the past in this way?”; “And when all the wars are done, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”

I would strongly suggest reading this book to someone who wants to know what it is like to live in the hills – not as a tourist, but as a local. For someone like me who has lived pretty much her entire life in a big city, this book offered a nice contrast. For me, Ruskin Bond made the hills come alive and become more romantic. Through this book, I have tasted the local tea and snacks, had interesting conversations with strangers after the Sunday mass at the church, foraged through libraries in search of good books, taken train journeys from one small town to another and dreamt of living the big city life while sitting at a window that overlooks the valley. If a single book is able to do all that, would you not want to read it?

Book Review: English Bites! My Fullproof English Learning Formula by Manish Gupta

English Bites! is Manish Gupta’s debut book. The book’s blurb states: “Is the English language your biggest nightmare? It was Manish Gupta’s. Until he decided to cheat and beat the system. Today he is a smooth-talking banker and has written a unique English learning guide that is easy to read, super effective and hilarious. So, whether you’re a vernacular speaker, a GRE/GMAT/CAT/XAT/ aspirant or just a language nut, English Bites! will expand your vocabulary and improve your verbal ability. It may even help you love the English language a little more!”

What I liked the most about the book was the unique fashion in which it is written. The author has deftly woven his life story from an engineering college to his first job to his experience in an MBA college and finally life as a banker. In between are also interspersed tales about his personal life as well including his marriage.

As with most Indians, Manish considered the English language to be his enemy. Not surprising since English is not our mother tongue; only some have learnt it as a language at school. And unless you take efforts towards learning its vocabulary, it will continue to scare you.

However, unlike most, Manish decided to tackle the language head-on. The book is a funny account of how he managed to do that successfully. The writing style is simple and presented in the form of a story but with a lot of difficult English words thrown in whose meanings are given below each page. In addition to the meanings, the author has also provided the history and origin of the words and also their usage in a sentence. Also, the range of topics covered is huge – from medical terms to Spoonerims and from the different types of coffees to Levi Strauss jeans!!!

What, however, did not work for me was the fact that the book is a little daunting to read in one go considering there are minimum 2-3 words’ meanings to be understood in each page. Since I read the book non-stop day after day, I found myself getting distracted half-way through the book. However, it might be a good idea to keep referring back to the book on an ongoing basis to get a better grasp of the words and avoid the problem I faced.

What Manish has tried to do through the book is dispel the notion that the English vocabulary is difficult and unmanageable. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book especially as I am a huge fan of the Queen’s language and am always on the lookout for books which enlighten and educate me on the same.

* I was provided a review copy of the same by the author *

Book Review: Beaten by Bhagath! A Tale of Two Writers

 

Beaten by Bhagath! A Tale of Two Writers is author S. V. Divvaakar's second book. Its blurb reads: "'I'm sure you can do a much better job than Bhagath!' When BB hears these inspiring words from his sexy lady boss, his staid life as a successful analyst in an MNC goes into a tailspin. Bitten by the ego bug and smitten by her, BB sets off on his quest to write a book that's better than India's greatest writer Dr. Bhagath's blockbusters. Nothing unusual about this for BB, who likes a good fight. Except that he and Bhagath had been classmates and friends at college. What follows is a roller-coaster voyage of the debutant author and his book, with all the twists and cul-de-sacs. Brushes with publishers, celebrities, retailers, book chains, and competition with the alliances among giants, mark the challenger's journey, upping the stakes at every stage. Will BB catch up with his famous friend? What will their encounter be like? Written from inside the ring, 'Beaten by Bhagath' is a gripping tale...the first-ever about the unseen side of the wonderland of Indian fiction."

The book is light and easy-to-read - the author takes us through the entire process a writer goes through right from the time he decides to write his book to how he goes about it (affecting his family in the meantime) to the painful search for various publishers (including the waiting time till eternity). It gives the reader an insider's view about the whole thing. The author has done quite a bit of research into the entire publishing industry - as a reader, we never think about what exactly goes on behind the scenes before a book is actually published.

And, it does not just stop with the book being published. One also needs to market it on a large scale for it to sell well. Usually, these days, a book launch is invariably done in the presence of a major celebrity. This book does have some hilarious scenes revolving around the same!

Divvaakar's writing style is simple and the narrative flows freely throughout the book. He has also managed to incorporate calculations pertaining to how an author makes money and how online websites are able to sell books so cheap (which was quite a revelation for me).

The negative for me was the several sexual innuendos scattered throughout the book; I felt these were not required. For instance, the author says, "Somehow, the thought of a celebrity unveiling the book reminded me of the old Nath Utarni tradition at the famous kothas of the Nawabs. The Nath Utarni - the ceremony of the deflowering of the virgin prostitute - was always at the hands of an important man, usually someone from the nobility."

To sum up, go read the book if you are keen on how the publishing and book-writing industry works. The book talks about Ketan Bhagath - unless you have been living under a rock, you will figure out whom it is hinted at :) I don't know if the author knows but there is actually a Ketan Bhagat in existence - http://www.ketanbhagat.com/

Book Review: The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel

This is one of the most fascinating and incredible books I have read in recent times. It is the biography of the famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

The book’s blurb states: “The Man Who Knew Infinity is a fascinating biography of the brilliant, self-taught Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. It is also a history of the astonishingly fruitful cross-cultural collaboration between this young, ill-educated mathematical genius and his mentor at Cambridge University, G. H. Hardy – a relationship that turned the world of mathematics upside down before it withered and died through a combination of Indian bureaucratic short-sightedness, superstition, English spiritual asceticism and the First World War. Robert Kanigel, author of The One Best Way, tells this extraordinary tale, assessing the legacy of a man whose work contains some of the most beautiful ideas in the history of science, and whose major papers are still being plumbed for their secrets today.”

When I picked up the book, I was a bit apprehensive about reading the biography of a mathematician – I wondered if I would be able to follow it. However, my apprehensions were laid to rest. Kanigel’s attempt at piecing together Ramanujan’s brilliant and short life (he died at the young age of 32) is an outstanding oeuvre. Right from his childhood in the small town of Kumbanokam to his dedicated single-minded focus on learning mathematics to his journey to Cambridge and back, Kanigel paints before us a vivid picture of South India in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

The book is outstanding for a number of reasons. Most importantly, because it brings out the human element in each and every action or decision that Ramanujan took. You almost feel pity for the young Ramanujan who is unable to clear his exams because he would not study other subjects due to his interest in Mathematics. At the same time, you are also amazed at how he would sit in the courtyard of his home dedicatedly solving problems on his slate and erasing any errors with his elbows to avoid lifting his arms. But the best way in which the human aspect is brought about is by highlighting throughout the book how Ramanujan craved for appreciation and recognition at each stage; even though he knew he was brilliant and outshone everybody else, he still wanted others to say that.

Kanigel is also able to narrate to us life at Cambridge during those times, how the other mathematicians were in awe of Ramanujan for his genius and how Ramanujan, who never had an Indian degree to his name, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (F.R.S.) and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

The other important part about this book is the way the relationship between Ramanujan and his mentor Godfred Harold Hardy has been elaborated. The importance of having a mentor at a critical juncture in life and how it leads someone to achieve his true potential has been beautifully brought out. It is as if this relation was meant to be – else why would only Hardy respond to Ramanujan’s letters when the latter had written to two other Cambridge mathematicians as well?

The only sad part which ran through the book is the fact that ultimately it took a foreigner to recognize the genius in an Indian; Ramanujan had to go to Cambridge because his brilliance was not rewarded in his own country. This, unfortunately, seems to be the situation today as well though it is changing albeit at a snail’s pace. Another sad thing was the relation Ramanujan shared with his wife, Janki (who was only nine years old when they got married). Since Ramanujan was so pre-occupied with his work and since Janki was still too young to be a wife, they never really had a traditional husband-wife relationship. Janki also did not accompany him to Cambridge. Neither was she interested in learning about his work and his research.

This book is a must-read for anybody who feels passionately about Indians achieving something in their chosen field. It is about a person who is not afraid to spend time and attention on his passion even though it does not bear fruit initially; who is not afraid to go from door to door trying to make an honest living so that he gets the freedom to do what he wants and ultimately who is not afraid to leave the comforts of his home and family to go pursue a better career abroad (at a time when not many people would do so).

Rating: 5/5

Festivals & Street Harassment

My September-2013 post for the Stop Street Harassment Blog is now up at:

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/2013/09/india-festivals/

It speaks about the harassment faced by women during various festivals celebrated in Mumbai.

Reminiscing about Jaipur

Call it the Shuddh Desi Romance Effect! Watching the film yesterday made me reminisce about my first and only visit (yet) to the Pink City - Jaipur. Some of what I captured there features below.



Any visit to Jaipur is incomplete without a visit to the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) built in 1798 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. Climb its five stories and listen to the recorded explanations provided by Jaipur tourism in the form of an audio to better appreciate the structure. I personally loved the architecture and the intricate work on each of the windows :)



Next up - the Amer Fort built by Raja Man Singh I. Be prepared to trek up a long way to reach the top of the Fort. But believe me it will be worth it. Take along a guide, if you must, or at least a booklet detailing the various locations inside the fort.



Jal Mahal (Water Palace) situated in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake was, unfortunately, not accessible at the time I visited (April-2012). But one could appreciate its beauty from afar. [The beginning of the 'Gulabi' song in Shuddh Desi Romance has been shot along the promenade from which the palace can be viewed.]





And no visit to Jaipur can be complete without indulging in a bit of retail therapy - shopping for the traditional Bandhani clothes and the Lac bangles :)