Category: Books

  • Bear with me, Mother – Memoirs and Stories

    MT Vasudevan Nair

    “Bear with me, mother” is a collection of memoirs and short stories from arguably the finest writer that Kerala has ever produced – MT Vasudevan Nair. The book has 16 memoir pieces and half that number of stories.

    Though its against the flow of the book, it might be a good idea to read the stories before the memoirs. This is because many of the stories have a touch of autobiography/ reality in them, and it might take away a little from the stories of you read them second.

    The memoirs work amazingly well because it takes the reader back in time. Even for a Keralite like me, it seemed like a different culture. Temple festivals replete with folk arts, ten days of Onam celebrations, communities which hadn’t split into religion based factions all point to a Kerala that was markedly different, and this was only a few decades back. The change is visible in geography too, as the author agonises over the fate that befell the Nila river.

    The author walks the journey of his life with us, with anecdotes from his school and college life as well as his early working days. In them, we can see many characters that made it to his fictional works too.

    The stories offer excellent glimpses of the author’s craft, and works like ‘The Soul of Darkness’ will stay with you for a long time. In yet others like ‘Firecrackers’, ‘Karkitakam’, and ‘Elder Sister: Oppol’ we see the world through the eyes of an innocent child. It is amazing how even in the translation, I could imagine what the original Malayalam words must have been and marvel at the wordcraft.

  • The White Tiger: A Novel

    Aravind Adiga

    The experts talk of India and China dominating the world’s economy in the near future. Aravind Adiga’s protagonist Balram Halwai agrees, and even states as much in his letter to the visiting Chinese Premier. But the macabre twist lies in his reasoning, and that’s perhaps why this book is unique.

    There are many books that talk about India’s rising middle class and its opulence. There are also ones that talk about the ‘Other India’, the one that lurks beneath the urban sprawl that inspired ‘India Shining’. So the premise is not a new one, but I haven’t yet read a book that explodes the accepted stories of India’s transformation with such a relentless and unforgiving narrative.

    The White Tiger is an animal that appears once in a generation, and Balram is given the title early in his life, for standing out amongst his classmates. He takes it to heart and climbs up the class ladder despite being born in the Darkness, where moving out of one’s position in the social hierarchy is impossible. From the Darkness, he moves to Delhi with his master. The city, with its politicians and malls, when seen from Balram’s perspective has a bleak tinge to it.

    Balram breaks all the rules that bind the traditional Indian joint family unit and ends up an ‘entrepreneur’ and a murderer. At one level, its a social commentary that starkly shows the difference in lifestyles of the various classes that make up India, and what it takes to break through.

    But more importantly, it is more a take on an individual’s morality – Balram’s and even his master Ashok’s, when traditional diktats meet the necessities of the modern world in a nation that has only begun its march towards a complete overhaul. Though one could be critical and claim that some parts of the novel/characters merely reinforce stereotypes, the fact that Balram’s story seems entirely plausible makes the book a winner.

  • Death of a Moneylender

    Kota Neelima

    Farmer suicides are unfortunately a ‘dog bites man’ story in journalism parlance, but Falak Anand is sent to a remote village in south central India to cover an almost ‘man bites dog’ version- a money lender has been found hanging, and an entire village is suspect.

    I quite liked the book for the premise, and the subject matter, because while this is a work of fiction, it gives a lot of perspective on the conditions and circumstances that forces a farmer to take his own life – crop cycles, dependence on rain/sun, credit facilities which show the reasons why farmers are forced to go to moneylenders despite the existence of banks, market economics and the wily middlemen, and the abject poverty that all these factors collectively land the farmer in. Add to this, a corrupt set of politicians and file-pushing bureaucrats, and the farmer is left with no other choice.

    In the context of the book, it takes the death of a decent moneylender who wishes well for the farmers, for this stranglehold to be loosened.

    Now, while I understand that the author has taken pains to ensure that the inhumanity of it all gets drilled into us, I felt that, as a work of fiction, it could’ve been edited better, especially the last 30 (about) pages, especially since the climax is quite predictable and given away by the summary.

    Also, except for Falak’s character, which dominates the proceedings, the others tend to be just supportive and all too stereotyped, despite a setting I haven’t encountered much before.

    But I’d still recommend it for sensitizing us to an India that is somehow forgotten amidst our relatively trivial urban dramas.

  • No God in Sight

    Altaf Tyrewala

    Somewhere in between a relay race and ‘six degrees of separation’ lies the narrative style of this excellent novel. And just like the city it showcases, it sets a scorching pace. But its not just a microcosm of the city, its also a take on social issues – from religion to class differences to a clash of the old and new. And somewhere in between is a subtext of man’s search for where he came from and where he is going, and the series of connected lives and the sheer weariness that prevents them from being able to think beyond their immediate existence, somehow points towards the title – ‘no god in sight’.

    From the millions that make up the phenomenon that’s Bombay, and gives it a ‘spirit’, the author manages to create a few characters that give us a glimpse of the individual lives. He begins with a seemingly nonchalant treatment of what might be considered a moral issue – abortion, and thus captures the pulse of a city and the thought process and credo of a new generation. But amazingly, there is a universal nature to it too, and more often than not, the author manages to walk this line with balance, despite the majority of characters being Muslim. Featuring the famous local trains, the cop who expounds the logic of his sense of justice, the men who share a name with a terrorist, the book is quintessentially Mumbai, and yet, from another perspective, they’re just human stories. If we juxtapose the allusions to ‘my mumbai’ and ‘your mumbai’ in the corporate executive’s story and the ‘to be comfortable with discomfort, one must banish all contact with ease’ in the butcher’s story, we see two sets of people figuring out their own ways to cope with what the city and life throws at them. Sometimes, they can’t, and all they want to do is escape, like Amin Bhai.

    In just about 170 pages, Altaf Tyrewala creates not just the characters who make Mumbai, but even manages to represent, even if its just through a few examples, how they got there. Can’t even complain about the lack of character development because the snapshots almostd efine the characters. Another great rendition of Mumbai, and a must read!

  • The Servants of Twilight

    Dean Koontz

    Refreshing to see a ‘Twilight’ book without teen vampires. But though its not a damsel, a woman in distress is one of the main characters, this time with a child, who is the cause of all the trouble. The Twilight cult, led by Mother Grace, believes that single mother Christine Scavello’s son Joey is the Anti Christ.

    A relatively harmless parking lot incident turns into a full blown chase, with Christine trying to protect her son from the cult. She is helped by Charlie Harrison, a detective, who quite predictably falls in love with Christine. Most of the book is an elaborate and vividly described chase sequence, which I found quite boring after a while.

    I’m quite a fan of the author’s later works, when he explores new concepts and then weaves in a thriller narrative. But this was quite a Terminator meets religion style mash-up, which failed to engage me after a point. I kept waiting for the Koontz touch, which, though promised to appear towards the end, turned out to be just a mirage.

    Quite an avoidable book, especially since there are many other works from the same author like False Memory or From the Corner of his Eye, to name a few.