SEA OF POPPIES BY AMITAV GHOSH(book review)
September 7, 2009 § 20 Comments
Yes it is a nice book, yes I loved it. But on second thought, what happened anyway?
A disposed Landlord being sent to exile, a woman rescued from the pyre of her husband by a fellow from a lower caste , Opium(hence the sea of poppies) addicts , Opium harvesting , Opium wars(being mentioned) , ship and boats and well friendships across races and colours.
If this book(as it is) was written by anyone else other than Ghosh, I will dare say, it wouldn’t have been a hit. It’s not my favorite among his works(The Hungry Tide swallows that) but there is something about it which actually makes you like the book. Of course since there are a couple of sequels to follow, we are left to wonder.
Yet the ending is not that Strong, especially for someone like me, for whom “series” represents either the Happy Potter variety or the Blyton or the Christi variety. I felt slightly cheated, as if I was left in the middle of the ocean, no clue as to what I was doing there. Maybe the ship could have sailed a bit more, but it is the authors choice I wonder whats in store.
For those who are used to reading Ghosh’s book, there are no surprises in this one. The backdrop is Indian(and as usual has a lot to do with Bengal) and the characters are as usual well presented. There is always a variety in his characters and in the books which I have read(three I think) none of them are repetitive either in personality or in presentation.
Its pretty light(maybe because the other books which I am reading at the moment are way more serious stuff). I am pretty comfortable with his writing and the way he takes his stories. The 500 odd pages fly by, no drags anywhere. The book jumps ships pretty fast and its always nice to read things which make the world look like a small place.
Rating:- 9/10( as I said it is the ending!)
Image from here.
My little sister’s project on Mughals :)
August 6, 2009 § 23 Comments
Yup thats my sister and her friends 😛 They did this for a computer science project 🙂 (after making me download a software called Photostory { ya microsoft does have a few free software!} ) .
” Laziness is the mother of invention” , so mom feels because :-
Got them to speak through the speaker mode on the phone from their houses.
Click here to read her entry and comment on it 🙂
HA if only I was that innovative 😛 The maximum I have done till date is to assemble a project in under 15 mins( took print outs of the material and pics , told people to bring charts , sketches etc and assembled in school 😛 – I do miss those things 😦 )
And ya do comment on her blog ( ya ya she finally has decided it is high time she starts writing over there diligently 🙂 )
P.S:-Krithu I know you don’t like me to call you little , but come on kiddo , you are only in seventh!!
Happy birthday shy-u
July 1, 2009 § 13 Comments
From Downloads |
The only person on this earth who hates being clicked – ya thats my cousin . She whined and whined after I clicked this photo . Her eyes “ache” when  someone takes a photo (even without the flash 😉 ) . And of course I never got the chance to take a photo of the palm tree 😉
The baby among us , but trust me she is the best among us(cousins) when it comes to fighting 😉
So from all of us – happy happy birthday 😉
P.S:- where is my chocolate ?
P.S:- I am off to college so you can’t call and shout at me , lol 😛
The essence
April 1, 2009 § 9 Comments
Sense,
Essence,
At a certain distance,
Connected through reverence or vengeance.
For a few a revelation,
Others a illegitimate menace.
Far away from the visceral planes,
Where one notorious thought reins,
In a dream of a certain refrain,
The colours of freedom seem strained.
Through the senses-scintillations,
Through the emotions-vibrations,
The balance of past and future,
Deliberately hang on the vision,
Of a mortal and bound scion.
Words may pass wisdom,
Actions may give martyrdom,
But neither can provoke, freedom,
Unless within the creature arises
A stroke (almost a epiphany,
Yet one of time’s boundless nature)
On the verge of breaching space,
Yet binds the universe,
Into the cramped room of a head.
And there it fills the thoughts,
The emotions and something shines,
A rudimentary essence,
The grit of our race’s existence.
Origin unknown,
Yet never visceral,
It is the knowledge of many an incidental,
carved into the nerves -the child
Of verses of unknown depths
And the knows worlds’ heavens.
And as such a realization dawns upon,
In those glorious hours,which life is called upon,
Everything tries to belong and then in a strung call,
Falls upon and arranges as if bound by a song,
To show the exactitude-the answer to the puzzle
Of living. Yet by the time the strains resurface,
Negligence reverberates and confiscates,
The essence through illusions.
At that,petty decorations need harnessing-
Water needs colour,
For the solvent cannot solve,
The lack of opaque it possesses,
For it is deemed unclean without spillage
For a bearded man said that was its visage.
And while the forces seem violent-
The wind torrential in its wisdom
And the seas tumultuous in action,
Humans throng and try to belong through religion.
The docile are then fermented
With ideas that man is tormented
By the virtues used
To bind him and rule.
Albeit that does come purity,
But then named
Heretic ,by some capricious decree,
Only later , understood to be,
What is really seen;
But veracity needed fire
And so it was lit
With a match upon a soulless hay
With chants of hail for the gist of the display.
Such are binds which curtail the hands
Of values and refined sands.
They call him the devil,
And he does roam among humans.
he has no eight tails waging
Or thirteen a table set,
All he has is a gullible mind
And he does exploit with haste
And then spreads like a plague
From man to man,
Until everyone seems wan
And prone to the entourage
Of a abyss and its flaming reaches,
Illusions bent from the malleable,but
Mind,that oh! if used properly is divine!
Finally as all seem corrupt
And thought dead and shut up,
Struck a ray through the condescending grey,
Creation was set alive again,a rebirth ,
Now life doesn’t seem vain.
And that abrupt force was all hailed,
And his words proclaimed
As wisdom, his actions martyrdom,
But fail did everything to grasp its freedom.
Then the devil did descend in full,
Dressed in white,peace he would bring,
No one would sing,the mantras
Of old and sally no more would
The undercurrent wisdom
(Relight by nature with
A little bit of nurture)
As the mirror reflects
The myriad darkness
And in it man would see
Nothing , for an eye
Is as good as its lens,
Mind is as good as its exponent.
But the devil was faced,
He could not rebate
Nor could he reinstate
His hold. The keepers
Were three,wisdom was set free,
Though humans have a hand on
The devil’s vehemence,
Another does hold the benevolence,
Of the spirit of creation.
The sevens and nines
Will never die,
Unless new numbers are sworn by,
And so will never the life
Be left astray,
For there is a final way,
The path which all do face
And on a gloom filled morning comes
To the surface,there they do
See the light from the negation,
It is the mere lack of contradiction
Which sets the world into a revolution.
The light shines the brightest
The Angel Of God by Jyothi Menon – Book review
March 29, 2009 § 17 Comments
Picture from the Author’s site(link at the end).
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A pretty ‘warm’ book and a lovely story. Something about it makes you feel comfortable,maybe becuase we Indians already have heard about people,whom she has created . This book would have welcomed more superlative appraisal from me, if not for a few places where the ‘ HR ‘ sticks out.
The story has three main characters , the first one being a  underworld  don called Moosa . The character is someone who you would like to encounter in real life,in fact you do wonder where are such good , kind hearted people, but then you realize that something is not right and well he is ‘ bastardised by the circumstances’ – his childhood in the world famous Dharawi and the various illegal things he gets into make him into a black sheep,but a sheep never the less.
The second is a character called Bhaskaran who is from an ancient family in Kerala. He grows in a place a close to Dharawi where he happens to meet Moosa during a row. He later goes on to achieve ,thanks to Moosa Bhai’s help.
The third is a orphan called Abubacker,in Khozikode,who , with the help of Moosa become a ‘Muthalali’. The book has vivid descriptions of the illegal businesses both in Kerala and Mumbai. Moosa helps in the making of two men,both different- one educated in MIT(Bhaskaran) and the other educated by experience in the underworld. The book also moves a lot – Kerala,Chennai,Mumbai, Libya,Middle East ,Nagpur etc.
As I said,the book seemed to have bit too much of the HR angel. This being fiction, every paragraph helps in molding the story and the reader being a person who picks up this book from the best seller stand,is bound be at loss,when he is faced with description of running a business,it catches you out ,when at about 1 0r 2 in the morning between a nice story someone talks about business.Also if it were so simple,then everyone would be a entrepenuer . But maybe that is the cynic in me,rather maybe it is a reaction to the fact that a particular part towards the end , seemed to add a certain degree of reality to it and rob it of the ‘cho cho sweet why can’t this be a feel good movie/ wah wah a fairy tale at last’.
I never like to reveal the story,except maybe the main characters,because my belief is that,reading a detailed review,takes away a bit of the charm of reading a book. I would say,read this book,if you want a something light and feel good(there are a few bits of harsh reality,which seeing other stories now days,would make into a fairy tale anyway) .It also gives you an insight into a few places and ways of living(ya well I guess it is better than travel and living). Â Though I just criticised the HR part,there are a few messages which have been put in with a bit of euphamism which we all can use,when we deal with people( Okay, I am not know for my patience when dealing with certain type of people,so yes,maybe I should learn). I might be over rating this book,but anyway..
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Rating – 8/10. Makes a nice little quick read.
A new silence
March 24, 2009 § 13 Comments
A new silence,
The gap before a new penchant.
In it,seems to lull,
A song once in which life was dwelt.
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A memoir,
A remains,
Yet the strands of belonging curtail.
The inertia maybe strong,
But I will move, to where I belong,
Even if only in my dreams,
That Reality is far from perceived
By anyone but me.
Myself I will never give,
And whatever the world does ,
Never forgive.
For the shores can be further away,
But some how,some day,
I will reach it,for only to understand
The limitless ocean,
Free from words and relation,my penchant.
The gaps do sing,
But their meaning
I do know,
Let the hours go,
I dare to watch the flow,
Never mind what of mine
Is lost or hurt,
I will get a chance to flirt,
With the destiny I do wish
To reap, For my efforts,
Are not meant to be vain,
I will surely something,gain.
The light shines the brightest
this is 25.
March 18, 2009 § 20 Comments
Reema tagged me to write 25 random things,so well this is 25!Â
1) I wrote this post on the eve of my economics exam,now I have forgotten what I had thought out
2) I like to try to do everything with my left. In this respect I now prefer to use my left in footie and am almost as good with my left as I am with my right in Table tennis.The only thing tough is writing with my left.
3) I dream a lot. And I have in my dreams been in movies,become a top biz man ,played for all the top football clubs and published a hell a lot of books and been the hero.It is worth mentioning all these things till date have remained as dreams. Oh! and talking of dreams,this post crosses my mind.
4) I love to try and make inanimate things alive.Some how it seems nice to have something which is not prejudiced to talk to.
5) I can be in a dream land for a long time, in this case the real world and that world almost merge.I sort of float around and to many people around start acting in a very attached,detached way…
6) I hate to read anything twice. And so I never study for my exams.I just start sleeping or well start doing something else,like blogging 🙂Â
7) I am a true cancerian,while I can take any amount of nonsense,some times,I get damn emotional.
8) For me the things which I feel are virtues,are something I will not give up,no matter what.You can call me tenacious or arrogant.
9) If I respect someone,I genuinely respect them.If I don’t ,I don’t really care who they are and if I have little tolerance towards certain people…
10) I love to watch football,especially flowing,attacking football.
11) It doesn’t matter what people tell me,I believe everything in this world is connected,that is why we have so called miracles,things act a certain way because they are all linked and there have been enough incidents to prove me right.
12) YU! means a lot to me. But not many of its members seem to care. I try to tell myself not to conclude ,that people will be people but I am tempted to.( If you do really care,wake up! Don’t tell me you can’t find anything to write or comment!! ) { strictly meant for YU! members,but then most of them don’t read my blog anyway 😛 }Â
13) Someone pointed out a while back,that this blog has more women/girl readers.And I have always wondered why 😛Â
14) I can be very very irritating and well my class mates and friends can vouch for it .
15) Sometimes I become a 5 year old.And when I am in that state,like in my dreams,the world seems all fine and azure.
16) I cried in front of my whole class in 10th,I was that sensitive.But then that was the year a lot changed for me. I started writing poetry ,it was a turning point in my life.Â
17) It really doesn’t matter who you are and what you do,all that matters is that you use your senses and enjoy the world.I hate the world for making things complicated.
18) When I am damn happy or damn sad,I ask myself ” What the hell are you doing here anyway? ” and also ” what is all this? ”Â
19) I like to be special to people. And there are lot of people who are special to me.But some how many of them don’t  seem stick around.
20) I have seen a ghost as a kid and no I was not dreaming ,I still remember it.
21) I hate smokers . And I don’t care what the cost is,I either walk out or tell the person not to smoke around me.
22) Till date I have showed all those people who belittled me what I am made up of but it is not yet done,I wish and I hope and I will.
23) I have been blogging for almost 3 years now.Many have come and many have went but I learnt the differences between people and I have also noticed how people who blog have changed.
24) I don’t really care what “people” think about what I write. My poetry is my way of telling myself things.I post it here,because I feel there are people out there,who may like to read it.
25) And my blog means a lot to me.If not for poetry and this place,I don’t know,where my self confidence and belief would be.Thank you all!
And for once I  am not tagging anyone 😉Â
P.S:- Sorry for making this so serious. I want to play the joker ,I so badly want to!