Karvalo : Poorna Chandra Tejaswi

Science and Philosophy in the Ghats

Karvalo is a story set in the interiors of Karnataka, along decrepit towns dotting the beautiful Western Ghats. The Ghats with their teeming flora and fauna provide the perfect backdrop for this amazing Kannada novel that combines nature, philosophy and science. Poorna Chandra Tejaswi the writer of this amazing novel was a nature lover himself and his love for nature comes across in every page.

The novel is set in the sleepy town of Mudigere where resides the eponymous scientist  Karvalo, a Mangalorean catholic which is somewhat of a rarity in these parts. He talks in the crisp Kannada of his native Mangalore peppered with generous English phrases like ‘My dear young man’ and ‘Yes yes’. A brilliant scientist he is somewhat of a mystery to the townspeople who cannot understand why a man of his talents is wasting his life in this decrepit town.

The answer is revealed by Karvalo himself in the middle of the Novel. The scientist is in search of a ‘Flying lizard’, a mysterious creature belonging to the age of the dinosaurs which has survived unscathed through the ages but also considered to be extinct by the scientific community now. Recent sightings of a similar creature inside the jungles has aroused the interest of the scientist.

Equipped with this knowledge the scientist and his assorted band of unlikely explorers set out to the jungles to capture the creature. This merry band includes the narrator and his dog curiously called Kivi (“Ear” in Kannada), Mandanna , the local bee keeper and Karvalo’s trusted lieutenant , Prabhakara an assistant of the scientist specializing in photography and the eccentric Biriyani Kariyappa who specializes in cooking “hot foods”.

This bunch of explorers roam the forests in futility it seems in the beginning enduring hardships and along the way ruminating about such things as the nature of God, evolution and man’s relationship with nature. In the end the creature is indeed sighted and is caught on camera but it has one final trick up its tail!

The novel impresses you with its humanity and its concern for nature that man is now hell bent on destroying. Considering that the novel was written in 1980 it does come across as remarkably prescient. Tejaswi continues the humanistic tradition of his father the great writer Kuvempu who created the philosophical concept of ‘Aniketana’ – the universal man who is at home everywhere in the world and is one with nature.

In one vertiginous passage Karvalo is chided by one of the townspeople for mixing with the lowly Mandanna who with his low caste and sparsely educated background the townspeople see as a bit of an upstart and a rascal who is indulged by Karvalo. The scientist retorts back dismissing labels like ‘Scientist’ or ‘Uneducated’ assigned by society and instead urges them to see the true self of any person and in this case Mandanna who is a born naturalist in his eyes thereby compelling us to slice through the smoke screen of society in order to  approach the real truth of human existence.

In another passage when the explorers are spending time in the forest the narrator asks the scientist if he believes in God to which Karvalo being true to his scientific self replies that he trusts nothing without evidence and when proffered with ‘evidence’ for God’s act on earth he tersely replies that only the acts are real but the proofs are all illusions. How many of us who think ourselves as 'scientific' can be true to ourselves and reply with this clarity without fear of society?

Evolution too is dealt with in the novel where the scientist gives an explanation of the mechanics of evolution and the role of historical chance. Of how man due to some chance broke from his ape siblings and descended to the ground resulting in his weak arms due to which he developed tools and weapons hence kicking off our civilization whereas his ape siblings delayed their decent a bit longer – thousands of years in evolutionary scale - hence missing the chance to create civilization.  

The essence of the evolutionary process is caught perfectly in the last paragraph of the book where the narrator seeing the flying lizard in flight notices that its wings were evolved from the rib cage and not the forearms as with birds thus reasoning its stunted growth through the ages hence concluding that it took a bad evolutionary turn when compared to birds who ‘won’ the evolutionary battle. When pointed this observation Karvalo simply sighs saying there is no right or wrong in evolution and the evolutionary process never ends. How true.

This is a remarkable novel which needs to be read for its humanity and scientific temper, both attributes sorely going amiss in today’s world.

Selection Day : Aravind Adiga

Exploring the great nastiness

In the middle of the novel Tommy Sir, the talent scout scouring the maidans of Bombay "who was given to the truth as some men are to drink" ruefully says this about the game he loves:

"How did this thing, our shield and chivalry, our Roncesvalles and Excalibur, go over to the other side and become part of the great nastiness?"

Tommy Sir is the puritan fan who believes in old-world virtues of principles and righteousness hence does not fit into the modern world and is definitely setup to fail. The above lines capture the wretched transformation in a game "invented by medieval shepherds" which has been corrupted beyond recognition from the gentleman’s game it used to be.

Having said that this is not just a cricket book but the story of modern India told through its most popular game. Since the game now cuts across classes and reaches new audiences and participants alike it is a great lens through which to look at the country as a whole. Hence the corruption in the game is a mirror to the corruption that infects the body-politic of the nation at large.

Aravind Adiga as in his master piece 'The White Tiger' manages to capture the voice of the aspirational underclass of the country who have migrated to the big city and demand their share of the prosperity pie. This time though this happens through the agency of two brothers who have migrated from a village in the Karnataka coast along with their father who amidst selling chutney in Bombay spots the natural talent of his boys for Cricket and then pushes them into the game. So unlike ‘The White Tiger’ the aspiration here of the two boys is forced by the obsessive father. 

The father Mohan Kumar wants to develop his elder son Radha into the 'best batsman in the world' and the younger and more complex son Manju the 'second best batsman in the world' using his home-grown eccentric techniques (“No shaving until Twenty-one”). In steps Tommy Sir who has a lifelong dream to uncover one real talent who will make it to the Indian national team before he dies. Tommy Sir also introduces the family to the visionary entrepreneur Anand Mehta whose vision is to support young cricketers with a monthly stipend in return for a portion of their marketing revenue when they make it to the big stage. Anand Mehta is himself the son of a wealthy stock broker who has rebelled against his father and gone to the US and on his return spends his time squandering the family wealth by investing in flop schemes. But with this new vision of sponsoring budding cricketers he thinks he can fulfil his lifelong ambition of gaining entry into the exclusive business club of Bombay. He is also given to spouting insightful social commentary on modern India. Sample this:

“Indians, my dear are basically a sentimental race with high cholesterol levels. Now that the hunger for social realist melodrama is no longer satisfied by the Hindi cinema, the Indian public is turning to cricket.”

At one point Mehta says that Cricket is essentially 'state-sponsored lobotomy' and its chivalrous ways are ideally suited for male social control especially in a country where the sex ratio is so skewed. So the only way to maintain the sanity of the nation wrecked by this crisis of masculinity and to keep the "rogue Hindu testosterone" in check is "Bread and Tendulkar" and hence a steady dose of live cricket. Such observations make you realize the social impact of the game on the country which might be bigger than even Football’s impact on Brazil.

The elder boy Radha is indeed the protégé but soon Manju overtakes him much to the displeasure of the elder brother. But what everyone fails to notice is to ask whether Manju himself wants to play the game. Manju himself is much more interested in Science and forensic science at that in the mould of TV series CSI.  So he halfheartedly takes to the game and perhaps for this reason does not feel any stress and this ironically makes him excel in the game.

Manju also has his growth pangs as he is ambivalent about his sexuality and this reaches a head when he meets an equally talented but disinterested in the game cricketer, Javed Ansari. J.A. as he is fondly called makes Manju question whether he loves the game at all or he plays it in fear of his maniacal father. He tethers between the poles while answering this question and in the end his indecision leads to his tragic fall to mediocrity. Radha on the other hand feels fate has been unkind to him and blames Manju for usurping his space. The father in the end feels if the God of cricket Subramanya he trusts "gave one boy the talent and the other the desire". This adds up to a tragic climax for each of the protagonists and the boys themselves realize all too late that they have "martyred ourselves to mediocrity'.

If anger marked ‘The White Tiger’ then fear marks this novel. As Manju’s father is driven not just by the desire of the riches but also from fear of what will happen if his sons do not succeed and as the end shows this can lead to nothing but tragedy.

Adiga also revels in biting satire as in when he says:

'Nothing is illegal in India. Because, technically, everything is illegal in India... See how it works?'

Or

'Revenge is the capitalism of the poor: conserve the original wound, defer immediate gratification, fatten the first insult with new insults, invest and reinvest spite, and keep waiting for the perfect moment to strike back'

Or when he describes the boys' father :

“Because Kumar’s eyes had in them what Anand Mehta called a ‘pre-liberalization stare’, an intensity of gaze common in people of the lower class before 1991, when the old socialist economy was in place”  

This is genius in one line!

There is also a rejoinder from the man to his critics who panned his first novel for bashing the dreamy eyed Indian middle class:

'What we Indians want in literature, at least the kind written in English, is not literature at all, but flattery. We want to see ourselves depicted as soulful, sensitive, profound, valorous, wounded, tolerant and funny beings. All that Jhumpa Lahiri stuff. But the truth is, we are absolutely nothing of that kind. What are we, then? We are animals of the jungle, who will eat our neighbor's children in five minutes, and our own in ten. Keep this in mind before you do any business in the country'

Personally for me this novel is also a depiction of millions of Indian kids who lose their childhood in pursuit of the goals set by their over-ambitious parents who do not care about their real ambitions and in the process manage to push them into a life they do not want but who still labor on courageously knowing well that they might end up as tragedies.

So in the end this is the work of a genius, our own Flaubert who dissects the hypocrisies and ironies of modern Indian life like no other!   

This Divided Island : Samanth Subramanian

Hand grenade country

Somewhere in the middle of this riveting biography of a nation at war Samanth Subramanian dismisses the  banal expression terming Sri Lanka a 'teardrop island'. He instead views it as a hand grenade with Jafna being the safety pin. Suddenly this becomes your image of Sri Lanka too as you view from the bloody prism of its three decade old civil war and it feels like an accurate description of the country. It is moments such as these that make this part war book , part travelogue such an interesting read.

Samanth simultaneously explores the civil war, it's aftermath and the social conditions which led to it in the first place. Although this appears to be a daunting task he pulls it off with spectacular finesse giving one a whole new perspective of the country.

The book starts with a look at modern Sri Lanka as it copes with the aftermath of the civil war. The Sinhalese are in a triumphant and brash mood after vanquishing the Tigers in the bloody endgames of the war while the Tamils are a sober lot learning grudgingly to play second fiddle to the Sinhalese even as they stew in their new insecurities. The urban landscape is undergoing a transformation to reflect the emerging Sinhala majoritarianism where a 'brawny and purposeful'  rather than the serene Buddha is making conspicuous appearances. The creation of an overtly Buddhist landscape is also accompanied by cleansing of any Tamil remnants. As he ruefully observes - 'where there was nothing Buddhist to reclaim, there was always something Tamil to destroy'.

For novice outsiders like me Buddhist fundamentalism was a revelation. Buddhism is often cited in religious debates as an example of a truly peaceful religion compared to the other lot(the religious minded miss the delicious irony that by making such a case they in fact worsen their brief by accepting the violence of the other religions). This simple minded assumption is credibly questioned in the book as Buddhism employs casuistry to shamelessly legitimize the war effort by terming it speciously as a 'war for peace' effort and the war being carried out in the name of the Buddha himself.  Buddhist moral high ground is ripped apart layer by layer as monks are presented as specimens who rival the bigots from other religions.

The book then tracks the origins of the conflict and it's surprising to note that rather than being a recent phenomena it has a 2000 year history dating to the founding of Sri Lanka. The Mahavamsa,the Sinhala epic exhorts fellow Sinhalese whom it deems to be of superior Aryan stock to actively hate the much inferior wild Dravidian Tamils and stake their claim as the first sons of the soil. The British true to their policy of divide and rule favor the minority Tamil community which angers the Sinhalese further and once freedom arrives the  Sri lankans feel it's their time to redress the balance. What begins as preferential treatment for the Sinhalese turns into outright institutional discrimination towards the Tamils by the 70s.

Thus the middle of the 70s is all set for a showdown between the two communities and confrontation does come in the form of riots across the country. As Tamils realize the failure of constitutional methods of their moderate politicians they are drawn to the extremist ideology advocated by the Tigers spearheaded by Prabhakaran. This of course is a catastrophic choice and the remainder of the book deals with this horrific cycle of violence which culminates in the defeat of the Tigers three decades later with the world questioning the purported war crimes committed by the Sinhalese. 

The books also holds out a lesson for India which has - thus far - been saved from majoritarian excesses. India proves the need to have a feminine accomodative touch rather than an aggressive masculine approach in handling diversity. Lest we forget it we just need to have a look at our southerly neighbor.

The book in the end explores the psyche of the two communities and arrives at the surprising conclusion that the civil war has rendered both with the same temperament marked by extreme insecurity, fear of the authorities and loathing of the other. It is here that the book ends with neither hope nor despair for what is to come as it leaves time to decide on either path.

Samanth's writing in the best words of Orwell is as clear as a window pane and he peppers it with flourishes of imagination like a novelist. As he describes his intellectual friend M whom he meets in Jafna who he tries to pin to English to get the 'materialistic' information of the country even as he tries to defy him and  'soar in Tamil'. Also the description of the mechanic Nirmaladevan who is so purposeful in his daily chore that interrupting him would be like interrupting a phenomena of nature 'like a disruptive boy stopping the path of purposeful ants'. He is affecting when describing small actions of people that touches you like the 'beautifully futile act of resistance' of a Muslim butcher who hangs the key prominently outside to indicate a degree of ownership as 'he had ceded the house, rather than having it snatched from him'. Or the poignant request of a man who's leg is blown away by a tiger raid as he requests for a copy of the book when it eventually makes it to print. These and other such moments make sure that the book and the people it endeavors to describe stay in your mind for a long time to come.

To the Finland Station : Edmund Wilson

The History of an Idea

The history of man is the history of Ideas. However tracing the intellectual journey of an Idea is always complex but unfailingly interesting. The idea of Socialism is one such idea which has gripped mankind since the renaissance and continues to dazzle us even to this day. Here in this brilliant book Edmund Wilson tells the story of a succession of eccentric revolutionaries diverse in their temperament but united by the conviction that they have cracked the code for human prosperity. The idea that humanity need not depend on the mercies of celestial beings but in fact seize the engines of history and sprint towards their own progress. The idea of socialism.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the early socialists continuing in the renaissance tradition and deriving their inspiration from the French revolution. The second section and the crux of the book is the life and times of Karl Marx. The final section deals with the Russian revolution spearheaded by Lenin.

The section on the early revolutionaries is good and is an eye opener about the early socialists and shows how the idea existed long before Marx came along and made it his own so to say. The chapters on the great French historian Michellette and the irrepressible agitator Babeuf are especially good and exemplify French revolutionary thought. Their selflessness and passion for their ideas even as they fight the repressive regimes they find themselves under is truly inspirational.

The hero of the book really is Karl Marx and the middle portion and the biggest of the book is entirely dedicated to him. The picture that you get is neither the divinity ordained by his followers nor the ogre despised by his detractors. Instead you get a man of flesh and blood born at the end of a depleted rabbinical line who loses his religion to embark on a career of radical writing enduring poverty and displacement, all the time fighting for the cause of social justice, democracy and human freedom. A man who excoriated those who denied "human rights to human beings" as he endeavored to break the manacles binding humanity in order to release the genius of human creative energy. Wilson explains what made Marx a truly great writer as he combined his immense knowledge of social processes and history with an eye to pick the regnant issues of the day and to render them in witty, muscular and evocative prose.

This does not mean Wilson blindly worships Marx, he criticizes him for his gross simplifications and erroneous predictions regarding the classes and about his overbearing and fractious tendencies which duly got passed onto his followers. However he recognizes the genius in the man who spotted the trend of history like no other and pursued it with unprecedented drive. As Engels seems to ventriloquize beautifully Wilson's thoughts - "Marx was a genius, the rest of us were talented at best". Engels himself gets a sympathetic summary as the man Friday who supported Marx both financially as well as intellectually. In fact the section describing one of their rare and serious fights is touching as it shows Marx the sociopath genius who is suddenly terrified by the knowledge that he can lose his friend.

The last section of the book tells the story of the Russian revolution with Lenin at the center. The opening chapter beautifully describes Lenin's childhood in provincial Russia and provides a background into why he became what he became. Lenin is depicted as the iron willed revolutionary who brooks neither the theoretical hurdles of dogma nor the practical hurdles of personal calamity as he focuses on bringing to fruition the revolution Marx predicted. One feels this to be a far too generous assessment as his dictatorial tendencies and plain cruelty against those who disagreed with him are air brushed by Wilson who directs these aberrations to Trotsky's machinations. Nevertheless Lenin is brought to life in anecdote as well as deed as seen in the final paragraph of the book which has an ecstatic Lenin and his wife who have just arrived in a room in a palace even as the revolution has swept away the Tsar who formerly owned it. Finding no words to express themselves in they simply look at each other to realize that "everything was understood without words".

Edmund Wilson is a great writer and infuses this historical account with the urgency and human drama of a novel. The great historical actors leap out of the pages and fill our mind with their presence and their idea grips you like a vice. This is a rare book which needs to be read and re-read for generations to come.

River of Smoke : Amitav Ghosh

On the Opium Trail

'River of smoke' is the second installment of the fabulous Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. It follows the lives of the 'jahaj-bhais' aboard the famed Ibis setting off on a migratory journey to Mauritius. Although the Ibis plays less of a role here than it did in the 'Sea of Poppies' much of the same cast of characters exist and are joined by a few more.

The book starts with the storm that ended the first book with Neel and Ah Fath escaping the Ibis under cover of the storm and eventually making their way to Singapore and in Neel's case to Canton. Here we are introduced to the central character of the book , a Parsee merchant from Bombay called Bahram Modi who is aboard another ship at the time of the storm heading towards Canton. He is carrying a big shipment of opium which is his gamble at setting himself up as an independent businessman. His ship too gets caught in the storm and the vivid description of the swaying opium carts as Bahram evades his way through is one of the highlights of the book. Eventually Bahram reaches Canton after suffering minor damages with Neel in tow who he has employed as a munshi en route.

In China itself, the opium trade is under great danger as the Chinese have finally realized the effects of the substance. The British themselves have no compunction over the trade as they do it in the name of 'free trade' which is as much a religious credo to them as Jesus Christ. As one merchant pithily says 'Free trade is Jesus Christ'. Even though he too is an opium merchant Bahram is troubled by the nature of the trade and somehow convinces himself by comparing it to the uncontrollable wind upon which he has simply set his sails, in essence detaching himself from morality.

The drama reaches another level with the arrival of commissioner Lin who is a smart and canny administrator who has promised the king that he will root out the opium scourge. Then begins a cat and mouse game between the merchants and the Chinese administration with each upping the ante. As the commissioner tightens the screws the merchants forced to yield more and more eventually leading to a minor victory for the commissioner when the book ends with the war very imminent.

Amitav Ghosh's prose is lush and wonderfully evocative of 18th century China. The bustling Hutongs with the china-men speaking in their pidgin, the boat women's course hand and tongue, the tactful notices of the mandarins make you feel you are indeed in the middle kingdom. It is quite easy to see the similarity between the opium trade of the 18th century and today's oil economy as both have a bunch of western countries setting upon Asian countries in the name of free trade and indeed freedom proving Marx's dictum of history repeating twice.

There are other small details too that stay in your mind like the multi-course meals served among the merchants, the effect of the inhaled opium, the Indians with their diversity trying to conjure a little India foreseeing the Indian nation a century later, the underlying racism of some of the British merchants, these and many more details are vividly written.

This book will invariably be compared to the first one. As brilliant as 'Sea of Poppies' was this book should be rated higher. Although few of the characters from the first book like Deeti and Neel don't get too much prominence you understand it is for a reason as Bahram becomes such an overpowering character in this book. The moral dilemmas are more starker as they are played out in all its complexity in Bahram's mind which takes the novel to an altogether different plane. He realizes in the end the falsehood of his rationalizations and tragically realizes that the trade is nothing but a deal with the devil for which he has to pay. Bahram's dilemma is beautifully summed up towards the end as he says overlooking the young Indians playing in the maidan 'what was it all for, was it just that these fellows could speak English, wear hats and trousers and play cricket'.

In the end with the opium wars looming in the background the stage is set for a fantastic denouement in the final book of the trilogy which will bring to an end one of the great works of modern literature.

Sea of Poppies : Amitav Ghosh

In the shadow of Opium

Historical fiction is that rare thing that is difficult to research, hard to put into fiction and harder still to make it gripping. Amitav Ghosh has succeeded in doing all three and more in his Ibis trilogy and the 'Sea of Poppies' is our entryway into the great world that he creates.The Ibis trilogy aims to bring alive the opium trade, from its origins in India to its eventual destination of China along the way exploring the migratory history of the Indian people across the Indian ocean. This novel in particular traces the origins of the opium trade which Ghosh himself calls 'the dirty secret of capitalism' across the towns, cities and plains of 18th century British India.

The story starts in Ghazipur on the banks of the Ganga whose fertile lands have been turned into poppy fields grown to satisfy the increasing demand of the drug in China. The British have run a trade deficit with China as they don't have anything to exchange for the enormous quantities of tea they import and have thus zeroed in on the opium trade to offset this deficit. The trade helps them both ways as they have a near monopoly on opium cultivation in eastern India which they sell in the Chinese markets at enormous profits. Of course no morality pricks them as they are doing all this in the name of free trade even as they have hypocritically banned the drug in their own country.

The story of opium is told through a diverse cast of characters who happen to end up on a slave ship called the Ibis as it set sails to Mauritius. Chief among them is Deeti who is widowed of her opium addicted husband soon after the novel begins and escapes her relatives who are hell bent on forcing sati on her. She is joined on the Ibis by Neel Rattan Haldar who is a rich landlord fallen on hard times who ends up as a convict meant for deportation. A mulatto American called Zachary Reid rides on the ship looking for adventure. The ship is also boarded by a young botanist girl called Paulette who is escaping a dreaded life in Calcutta after her father passed away. These and many others come to share the Ibis and become in the evocative words of Ghosh himself 'jahaj-bhais', a term still used by their descendants in Mauritius.

The rest of the story traces these characters as they make their way across the Bay of Bengal. Their suffering inside the ship, their almost mythical attachment to the Indian landmass and their deep sadness when they finally leave behind that land and enter the 'black water' all these are captured in a spell binding manner. The novel ends in a great big storm with Neel and his fellow convict friend attempting an escape. The next two novels in the trilogy will pick the threads from here and string together the story culminating in the opium wars.

As good a prose as it is from Ghosh it is the extent of his research that impresses the most. The details of the poppy crop, the way it is harvested and even the way it looks and its many usages are an eye opener for anybody. Also the way the opium is then processed in the factory and made ready for export is simply fascinating. The scene at the factory that vividly describes the processing of the opium as Deeti hurtles from room to room looking for her husband is one of the best written passages I have read and just this scene is worth the effort of picking up the book.

What alarms one is the extent to which opium played a role in the creation of modern India and China and also its huge impact on Britain and US. The entire Indian economy lead by its leading families and royals was driven by opium, China of course suffered immensely from the ill effects of opium and opium kicked off its 'century of humiliations'. On the other side, the English effectively ran a 'drug wielding cartel' across Asia which helped them run their empire. Even the leading American families like the Coolidges and Roosevelts amassed their wealth upon the trade so much so that the great riches of the American east coat were built upon the opium trade. Even more alarming is the fact that this story of opium has completely vanished from public memory across the world and more so in India. Hence kudos to Ghosh for bringing alive this forgotten page of world history.

The language of the novel is another fascinating aspect of it. The pure well of the queen's English is mixed with a plethora of words from Hindustani, so you have the pleasure of finding words like 'khidmatgars', 'tankh-wah', 'afeem-khor' and 'Kaala paani' among others including quite a few imaginary expletives. Add to these the words of the sea faring sailors or lascars and you have a fascinating cacophony of words and languages.

All in all, the sea of poppies makes for a gripping read and tells the story of opium that needs to be told in a world that is very much it's creation but has sadly and dare we say conveniently forgotten it.

Arzee the Dwarf : Chandrahas Choudhury

Convicted by reality, pardoned by imagination

Arzee is a dwarf working the projection room of the once great but now declining Bombay theater called 'Noor'. As one of his poet-philosopher-driver friend memorably says, he is 'chained by reality but pardoned by imagination'. He imagines himself being thought of as a special person despite his height, imagines working as the head projectionist at the Noor some day and dares to imagine marrying and settling down too. He is a thinking man who ponders about people, god and life, even as one of the other characters derisively calls his mind a 'theater of emotions'.

But too often reality jolts him like a thunderbolt. His dreams for the Noor come crashing down as the owners want to sell off the loss making theater. He is hounded by the betting cartel to whom he owes money. The girl he loves is wrenched away from him by her father and finally he gets to know of a family secret which makes him so despondent as to appear as a 'dissident' to happiness. Arzee finally manages to somehow get out of these difficulties and attain some kind of closure when the book ends.

Chandrahas Choudhury has created a character in Arzee who reflects all of us who have some kind of inadequacies. Arzee's inadequacies are externally manifested in his dwarfness which forces him to 'talk to the asses and crotches of the world' but many of us too suffer inadequacies internally and we like Arzee try to overcome them throughought our lives with varying degrees of success. Arzee's anxieties are the same as ours - a decent job, someone to love and a life of happiness. These are our anxieties too and this makes Arzee a very relatable character despite his dwarfness.

The novel also is a quintessential 'Bombay novel' where the city is as much a character as the others. The cast of characters with their varying backgrounds and thoughts could only have been assembled in the great metropolis. There is a wonderful description of the bustling train station which is a superb piece of cityscape writing. The great theater and the wonderfully evocative 'great beam' inside it can also be looked upon as a distinct character. The fascination with the movies and the effect it has on mass culture is beautifully depicted and is an ode to the charm of the erstwhile single screen theaters. 

Although its a very good novel with lot of layers, it does have a few shortcomings. The ending seems a bit contrived and has an almost bollywoodish feel to it. Also a few characters could have been given a longer run , like Arzee's poet-philosopher-driver friend Dasharatji and the blind daughter of the head projectionist who light up the only scenes they appear in, an extended role for each of them would have given an added dimension. Nevertheless the novel heralds the arrival of another English speaking voice to the welcome cacophony that is Indian writing in English and we should all welcome it.

Between the Assassinations : Aravind Adiga

Subaltern biography of an Indian town

Kittur, sitting on the western coast of India 'between Goa and Calicut' is Aravind Adiga's Malgudi whose host of characters bring out the preoccupations of little town India with its plethora of caste, religious and moral conflicts. Purportedly a collection of short stories set in the seven- year period between the assassinations of prime minister Gandhi and her son however the stories translate easily to contemporary times as the issues involved are still very much alive.

Mangalore is the clear inspiration for Kittur not just in terms of geographical locale but also for its mix of religions , languages and castes. As with any collection of short stories some of the stories are sublime and others ordinary however the sublime ones clearly triumph and they live on in your mind.

Although not as biting as 'The White Tiger' Adiga still retains his feel for the pulse of subaltern India. Many of the themes and characters remind one of his most famous novel and it is a delight to see how they incubated in the author's mind and seeped into the novel which he wrote a few years later.

The effecting moments are many. For instance in the first story where a muslim boy in a desperate need of dignity develops a surrogate pride in Muslim achievements in far away north India only to be jolted back to reality when he finds himself tempted by an Islamic terrorist. The shuddering inferiority complex of a low caste mother in front of her Brahmin son and the conflicts wrecked on the boy himself as he tries to locate his true being holds a mirror to the continued prominence of caste in modern India.

Or the arresting story of a honest journalist who after realizing perchance the untruth of whatever he has written thus far seeks redemption by writing one true story at last. Or the sigh of a cart puller who laments the injustice in the world when he sees an elephant with almost no load striding in front of him even as he pulls a humongous load.

Or the touching story of a quack sexologist who sells fake sugar filled tablets to credulous youth finds himself assisting a young man to find a cure for an ailment that could be AIDS as he questions the justice in it all with the youth getting this terrible disease on 'his very first time'. Or the disillusioned communist who after a lifetime of keeping the faith rues that 'Americans had somehow won' and 'Marx had become mute'.

The white tiger showed a man who rose from the underclass with all it's attached miseries to break the glass ceiling and secure a good life. However the characters in this book barely attempt to break the mold and instead wallow in their travails with little hope in sight. However in the process they give us a glimpse into the lives of subaltern India.

The White Tiger : Aravind Adiga

India's Flaubert explores the 'darkness'

Every once in a while comes a book that challenges what passes for mainstream opinion. 'The White Tiger' is one such book which came around the time when India was hailed as a rising power with the holy grail of Superpower-dom just a few steps away. Adiga's novel throws cold water on the face of the people with such grand delusions and forces them to stare hard at reality. It definitely deserved the Booker prize as it presented the stark realities of modern India much to the displeasure of the 'shining India' crowd raised on fantasies of superpower-dom.

It is written as a dramatic monologue which reminds one of the narrator from 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' but only more angrier. The story takes us through the protagonist Balram Halwai's birth and upbringing in the 'darkness' of eastern India with its stark caste and religious conflicts where 'one cannot be a good man even if one wants to be' to the radiant 'light' of Bangalore bustling with call centers symbolizing new India. The contrast between this 'darkness' and 'light' is one of the central themes of the book and shows two disparate countries within one. The people from each of these Indias might as well been from different planets, such is the contrast.

Balram typifies the plight of the rural poor as he grows up in an impoverished village wrought by landlords termed with imaginative names like 'Stork' and 'Buffalo' who cruelly fatten on the labors of the poor. He is sent to a dysfunctional school where the teacher collaborates to rip the students of the government funds . He is then rudely taken out of school to supplement the family income after they 'suffer' the marriage of a sister. He goes on to work as a 'human spider' working the tables in one of the ubiquitous tea shops and finally ends up in the local town where he learns to drive and lands a job as a driver.

As a driver he experiences the unfairness of the master-servant relationship which seems to mirror the rich-poor relationship outside. The inherent injustice in the relationship is best brought out by an incident which culminates in Balram being asked to take responsibility for an accident caused by the madam of the house. Although the charge is never pressed, just the fact that the master - and shockingly he himself - had found it normal that a driver take the blame disillusions him. Balram starts to relate his own state with that of the poor outside and feels that both of them are like roosters trapped within a coop which condition them to bear the injustices without rebelling.

The 'Rooster Coop' is the most abiding image from the novel. Adiga compares the disillusioned poor tempered by history to be inherently subservient to roosters in a coop. Like the roosters in the coop they do not rebel even in the face of impending doom as the 'coop is guarded from inside'. As Balram says himself, the coop is so sturdy that it would take an extraordinary 'freak of nature' - a white tiger like himself someone who is born 'once in a generation' to break out of this coop. Although one can argue with the means used by Balram to break out of the coop one has to sympathize with his helplessness and also that of the poor in general who have no means of breaking out of this coop. Balram sees his act in a larger context of breaking out of the coop and terms himself as 'neither man nor a demon' but simply someone who has 'woken up' in an unjust world and has decided to act rather than face his inevitable fate of dying a pitiful death like many of his ilk. In other words violence becomes an acceptable currency of transaction for the poor in an unjust world. Although one does not agree with his actions one does understand his motivations.

Adiga's writing is flawless and the images he conjures stick in your mind for a long time. As Dickens and Flaubert exposed the cruelties bred by industrialization in 19th century England and France Adiga does the same exposé with the 21st century growing India. Adiga also doffs his hat in the direction of Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' who he acknowledges as an inspiration. As Ellison brought out the issue of racism from the perspective of the black man Adiga endeavors to bring out the perspective of poverty and caste discrimination from the perspective of the Indian poor and succeeds marvelously.

Joseph Anton : Salman Rushdie

Memoir of a 'multi-rooted' man

Joseph Anton - a pseudonym conjured by the author joining first names of Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekov - tries to be different things at the same time and succeeds brilliantly.

Primarily a memoir about the almost decade long siege Salman Rushdie was under due to the Fatwa, it is also an eloquent treatise for free speech and its value to the world where it has increasingly come under attack. It also elaborates on the author-publisher relationship and provides insights into the goings on in the publishing industry.Finally to spice things up he also adds details from his personal life and in the process excoriating two of his ex-wives!

Rushdie purportedly kept a diary during the Fatwa years and that would explain his detailed day-on-day account of those days. Although rich in detail it also tends to get monotonous after the first few years what with innumerable parties, home shifts and speaking engagements. This makes the book 100-pages too long but this is a minor criticism of a brilliant book.

It is written in the third person which gives it a novelistic feel with the author himself being the prime actor. There are cameos from the who's who of the literary world and Rushdie always remembers to drop in a good word for someone who helped him or stood up for his cause. On the other hand he dishes out opprobrium to those who let him down during the time.

It also provides wonderful insights into what went on in the author's mind when he wrote his novels, explaining the points of conception of the idea, the way he worked out key characters and their inspirations from real life. The conception of the 'The Satanic Verses' based on a course he took in university is one of the best passages in the book which provides a historical context to the novel and is a fitting reply to those who accused him of coming up with an 'insult' for a novel. As he rightly points out why would he spend five years of his life working tediously on as he says a literary exploration of 'revelation from the standpoint of an unbeliever' if he wanted to come up with a mere 'insult'.

His defenses of free speech are among the most passionate passages in the book where he argues for a free society with a cacophony of varied opinions where everyone has a right to express his/her opinion without fear. He also emphatically points out the importance of 'stories' in our society and warns us against the pernicious attempt by religious extremists to monopolize them. In the process he attacks both the left and the right on letting down the principle at various times and urges the general public to hold steadfast to the principle.

His personal life too is opened up in a frank manner. His relationship with his first wife Clarissa and their son Zafar beautifully done, especially moving is his moments with a dying Clarissa. The relationship with his second wife - and wife at the time of the Fatwa - Marianne Wiggins is the most frantic and he frankly writes about the the strains in their marriage and how it fell apart, their quarrels do provide comic relief at times! Also funny and revealing are his comments about his last wife the model and TV persona Padma Lakshmi whom he calls the 'illusion' who comes across as a self seeking and ambitious. To be fair Rushdie too confesses to being selfish at times in his relationships especially with his third wife Elizabeth who was left stranded after the Padma Lakshmi 'thunderbolt'struck him.

What came as a surprise are accounts of the author as a boy and young man growing up in post-independence Bombay and his journey to boarding school and college in England. His encounters with England rather than making him lose his Indian roots instead provided him with as he says a 'multi-rooted' existence.His love for India shines through, evident in the fact that all his novels had their inspiration from Indian stories. His disappointments with India too come through when at times India rejected him and as he wryly says 'the wounds inflicted by India were the deepest'.

All in all it is a brilliant, moving memoir where the reader will come away much the richer!

Countdown : Amitav Ghosh

The best account of the subcontinent's tryst with the N-bomb

We have all known Amitav Ghosh as the weaver of stories, bringing to life exotic locations and eras. This time he casts his focus on the nuclear dilemmas plaguing India and Pakistan and does so inimitably with style and precision.

On one side he relates the almost illogical underestimation of the nuclear threat on the Indian side who are rather seduced by the ephemeral promises of 'superpower-dom' and on the other hand the logical but overtly pessimistic view on the Pakistani side where there is a real sense of a country going to pieces.

The profiles of George Fernandes , the Indian defense minister at the time and the Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jehangir are beautifully done and are wonderfully illustrative of the politics in both countries. It is especially moving and tragic in many ways to see an idealist like George turned into a Realpolitik leader - the kind whom he criticized all his life. It succinctly shows what is wrong in our cynical politics today where men of ideals are 'spun and spun' by the system until they are hollow shells of their earlier selves.

There is also a wonderful account of the Siachen conflict and the futility of the entire endeavor made even more ludicrous and tragic by the fact that it was these two poor countries who were engaged in it. The description of the perils faced by the soldiers and their feelings are done in a very engaging way.

In the end there is a chilling dystopian description of a Delhi hit by a nuclear missile. This will bring to sense all the gung-ho supporters of the nuclear tests as they will realize what a horrible event they have conspired to bring into existence.

In the end this book despite its slim size espouses strong ideas against a nuclear world and along the way enlightens us also about the tragedy that is India-Pakistan politics. Two thumbs up!

Beijing : Olympian dreams and Neighborly impressions

The idea of the Olympian has traveled a great distance. From the dusty, hot Hellenic mountains to the verdant plains of China it has indeed been a long journey. The Olympics has come and gone in Beijing but its legacy is scattered around the city. It is to explore this Olympian legacy of Beijing that i ventured into on my last outing in China. And also hoped to get some neighborly impressions along the way.

December 15, 2012, Saturday

Olympian dreams

The winter was settling into the vast Chinese landscape. It was a foggy morning indeed with visibility down to the few nervous meters. This was my third visit to the capital and i aimed to visit some of the other major attractions in the city.

Soon after arriving at the Beijing railway station i was onto the by now much familiar metro. The Olympic park was on the northern end of the city. In fact it stretched the famed historic axis that passed through the Tiananmen square and Forbidden city in a northern direction. Since the Olympic park was in the northernmost end of the city i had to do around four metro switches . However this showed the breadth of the Beijing metro as i seamlessly moved across the city and without once being over ground reached my destination in under half an hour!

A pall of fog had enveloped the famed Olympic 'Bird's nest' stadium. The iron twigs of the Bird's nest were vaguely visible in the fog and beckoned us to come closer for a clearer view. On going further the view became much clearer and also hit home the vastness of the Olympic park.

The Bird's nest affirms its name brilliantly with the numerous iron beams bending like twigs and forming a huge metallic nest. Even the uneven shape gives it a distinct view as opposed to a regular stadium. Although a great sporting success, the Olympics were also viewed as a kind of coup de grace over the Chinese economic miracle. And the Communist party left no stone unturned in ensuring that it was a resounding success. The Olympics were controversially awarded to Beijing even as the world was recovering from the horror that had unfolded at the Tiananmen square in the summer of 1989.

But China led by the party had moved forward in great gusto and built remarkable sporting infrastructure and also more importantly readied a crop of spectacular athletes who could win medals by the dozen.However as the Olympian tryst loomed on the horizon, the Tibetan protests around the world came in as a rude reminder to the party in early 2008. Tibet had long claimed independence from China claiming a distinct religion and tradition from mainland China. However it inevitably got caught in the fervor of the Communist revolution in 1949 resulting in the en masse displacement of the Tibetan monks along with the Dalai Lama to India. Bulldozers thundered into peaceful towns strewn with monasteries and in no time entire Tibet was under Communist rule. Thus the embers of human rights violations had been festering for over half a century and the Olympics gave the perfect opportunity to bring Chinese misdeeds into the world's attention. However the situation was rescued in time and the Olympics went on as planned.

And what an Olympics it was. It was kicked off by what is by far the most spectacular opening ceremonies in Olympic history. It was so good that even the Greek gods must have smiled at the audacious display. China had pooled in its resources in a way no other country had and delivered a spectacular ceremony.

'Friends have come from afar, how happy we are' chanted the enthusiastic bunch of drummers as China greeted the world. This Confucian aphorism symbolizing the famed Chinese warmth towards foreigners was quite an apt way to welcome the world. However it was just a start and performance after performance by the various enthusiastic troupes of singers and dancers and musicians had the world spellbound. The piece de resistance however was the lighting the torch by a former gymnast who seem to run across the ceiling of the stadium without any harness.It was one of my great TV spectacles i had ever witnessed as i watched it from the comfort of my drawing room and making a mental note of visiting the place if ever i had a chance. And as luck would have it i was there at that very place!

Apart from the Bird's nest there are various other stadiums around the Olympic park, however the pick of them would be the famous 'Water Cube' swimming stadium. This stadium which hosted the swimming and diving competitions is shaped as a huge water cube. The brilliant blue as well as the elastic appearing exterior gives the impression of a water container. With all the snow around it , it looked as if the water cube was on ice!

After roaming around the Olympic park for a while it was time to turn attention to another aspect of China, its affiliation with that great neighbor to the south.

Neighborly Impressions

India and China have been great neighbors over the centuries, sometimes reluctantly so but neighbors all the same. They have affected each other sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Like two enormous giants they have embraced each other with passion and shared each other's genius and also at other times bickered with each other to show that the world is imperfect.

The Chinese interaction with India started with the advent of Buddhism. China itself a very godless culture relied more on Confucian thoughts as a moral compass. At this time however India was being swept by a storm called Buddhism. Arising as a rebel movement due to the increasing inflexibility and dogmatization of Hinduism , Buddhism came as a new light in the tunnel with none of the affectations that plagued Hinduism. It was devoid of Casteism  hence inclusive in its appeal and its rejection of moribund rituals attracted it to the masses. It had also shed Sanskrit the famed 'Language of the Gods' and had embraced the vernacular thereby able to reach a multitude of people. Also unlike Hinduism it was a proselytizing religion which meant that more and more people were being converted from Hinduism to Buddhism everyday. The great emperor Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism was a turning point in Buddhist history as the religion of the heretics now got state sanction. It was similar to what happened to Christianity after it was adopted as the state religion by the Romans.

The Buddhist wave was not just confined to India but spread far and wide into Asia. Within a few hundred years it had spread to Sri Lanka, China , Japan, much of Indo-China and South east Asia. Buddhism was a typically Indian idea in that it did not seek to uproot the existing cultures but instead mingled with it and took shape in the contours of those cultures. This must be one of the great integrations in history and was so much successful that you could not distinguish the additive from the base in the mixture. Even to this day if you visit Buddhist temples around Asia it will be an effort to think that Buddha was indeed Indian, it is so seamlessly meshed with those various Asian cultures.

In order to explore this Indo-Chinese synchronization i visited the Yonghe Lamasery which is the second biggest Buddhist temple in China. It was built at the time of the great Mings and originally functioned as a residence of the Chinese royalty. However with the building of the Forbidden city the royal family moved there converting it into a monastery. As i entered the place it was redolent with 'Indianness'. The various Sanskrit and Pali inscriptions, the Buddhist incantations, the incense sticks and the way of worshiping of the devotees all were reminiscent of India. It was one of my proudest moments of being an India to see a quintessentially Indian concept being respected and adhered to in such a fashion. It was not as if Buddhism went to a backward culture, in fact China was one of the leading civilizations in the world and the fact that Buddhism found a place and respect there is quite instructive. It shows the universal appeal of Indian values and culture which made by chest swell with pride.

As i explored the temple further, i came across various statues of Buddhist legend which included Gods, incarnations, teachers and monks. It was interesting to know that Buddhism had a pantheon of Gods obviously inspired by Hinduism. The center-piece of the temple was the 20m statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved out of a single sandalwood piece. Also nearby was the statue of Kasyapa Matanga, who was an Indian monk who came over to China to spread Buddhism by translating numerous Buddhist texts to Chinese.

This interaction was not just one-sided. Several Chinese monks visited India which they viewed something of a pilgrimage visiting several places of Buddhist significance and also the great universities of Nalanda and Taxila which were the Harvards and Stanfords of the day. The Chinese had a strange predilections of writing history. In fact they were obsessed about documenting history, not only theirs but even of other people's and so as it came to pass monks such as Hiueng Tsang and Fa Hein wrote most of Indian history in the first millennium. 

Confucian tryst

From the place of Indian impressions it was time to go to a place quintessentially Chinese. The Confucian temple was quite nearby to the Buddhist temple and the contrast was obvious. The Buddhist temple and its street wore a vibrant look with buildings of various colors and the steady stream of incantations. The Confucian temple street was very sober and austere quite like the man himself.

Confucius was born around 600 BC at the time of Chinese history when it was plagued with constant strife and unrest. The period was aptly called the warring states period and as the name indicates was full of chaos and civil wars among the various states. This had a huge influence on Confucius whose thoughts aspired for an orderly and peaceful society , no doubt to counter all the strife around him. His teachings took the form of classical books , poetry and analects. In each of these he expounded values such as loyalty to elders, loyalty to Emperor and those in power , filial piety , peaceful interaction among people and such things. In fact this can be viewed as the beginning of humanism and considering that China started such humanist thought almost 1500 years before the Europeans simply boggles the mind.

Unfortunately Confucius seemed to be way ahead of his time as his China was not ready for it. He searched relentlessly all through his lifetime looking for a King who would patronize him and implement his ideas and bring peace to the society. Alas no such thing happened and despite a huge body of work and a handful of disciples he died thinking himself as a failure. But his ideas were preserved by his disciples for almost 400 years and when China was ultimately united his philosophy came across as the exact idea needed by the Emperor to control his people. Hence Confucianism was institutionalized and spread all over China as the primary moral compass of the people ensuring loyalty of the people to the rulers.

The Confucian ideal of Order is deeply ingrained in the Chinese people whether they acknowledge it or not. This can be traced right through Chinese history right until today in Communist times. The thrust has always been on Order even at the expense of personal freedom and aim is always to foster common views and avoiding of all possible conflicts. This was in marked contrast to India where the individual views and diversity of views were tolerated and in fact encouraged. This fascinating clash of world view was on display during the heydays of Indo-Chinese interactions when the monks from India argued so much with each other that it shocked the Chinese who looked along in disbelief.

In fact this obsession with Order in my view is the main reason for the continuance of Communist rule in China. The communists promised a war ravaged people order and delivered it even at the cost of freedom. What also play on the Chinese mind are the periods when chaos replaced order. This happened during the Taiping rebellion in the mid 19th century which started as a Neo-Christian cult and ended up in a massive civil war resulting in the killing of millions. Soon after that there was the Boxer revolt that started out as an anti-imperialist movement but again sadly ended up in chaos and civil war and millions dead. All these events have ensured that the peaceful Chinese put up with the communists even though they pawn their freedoms in the process.

The Confucian temple opened with the statue of the great man himself and even the temple built for him was unlike any temple. Instead of gaudy idols and incense it had placards which had words written on them. The Chinese in fact believed that words had divine power and this was an example. The Chinese were cultured and knowledgeable even in their superstition! It was not the prettiest of buildings as like the man himself it was very sparse and austere. What were beautiful were the rows of pavilions outside the temple which reminded me of the Forbidden city.

The temple also contained the Imperial college which was responsible for the training of the bureaucrats who would later govern the country. The students came through to the college from a unique system. This was the Imperial examination system. According to the system all the aspiring students from various parts of China had to sit for a rigorous central examination where their knowledge in Confucian classics was tested and the students who passed it were privileged to join the college and pass out to become bureaucrats. The system was started in the first century and went on right till the 20th century when it was put to an end on account of the revolution. Its remarkable to imagine that at a time when kinship and closeness to the King were the primary ways of become a bureaucrat China had a rational system to pick them. There is an adjacent courtyard where the students who had passed out from the college had engraved their names in stone. Its amazing to look at these names which are more than 500 years old. It just showed how much the Imperial examination mattered to young Chinese.

With that my visit for the day and my Chinese trip came to an end. It was satisfying to go to a country which i had always dreamed of but seldom thought it was possible to visit!