Reading List 2

INVISIBLE LINES

I am often tempted to pick up women authors writing their first books, more so if they are from the Indian Sub continent and neighborhoods. It was this that led me to pick up “invisible Lines’ by Ruby Zaman , a lawyer by training, an activist and surprisingly language teacher too!! The book cover with mango being peeled was an added incentive. Who say’s cover pages are unimportant!! The mango on the cover had nothing to do with the story inside, but it did tempt me.

I have not read anything from Bangladesh and this story beginning with the formation of Bangladesh tells story of young girl caught up in politics of a country and family.  Bangladesh's Liberation War was a changed the dynamics of relations between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It also in many ways divided the world into two bitter halves—Pakistan on one side  supported diplomatically and militarily by the US and China, and on the other were the people of Bangladesh, and its allies India and the USSR. Most important in the paradigm, however, is the role of ordinary Bengalis, who took up arms to change the course of history. Some of them were peasants; some were students, day labourers and women who otherwise would have remained content in the footnote of history. 

In this book too it is the characters that give this extra ordinary book it’s edge. As we follow Zeb through her first teenage ‘love affair’ to her accidental encounters with Shaifque, her leaving Bangladesh for good and trying to forget it…it catching up on her 13 years down the line!!! It a story that jumps from Chittagong to London, from Zeb to Didi to Shafique. It is an enduring story of love, hate, faith, treachery and most importantly of human beings caught up in a time, in a ‘period’ of history. It is one of few stories that we have on the sub continent about people caught up in war and liberation.

A memorable first book. Can we hope for more from begum Ruby Zaman?

New IDEA in an old bottle!

Watch me Escape !!

Google Honours ‘Uncle’ Anant Pai With A Doodle On His 82nd Birthday

Google Honours ‘Uncle’ Anant Pai With A Doodle On His 82nd Birthday

Reading List : The Millennium Trilogy

In March sometime I picked up this book with an intriguing title "Girl with Dragon Tattoo". The book had been all over the bookshops for several months and finally I succumbed into buying the book. It was by an author I had never heard of or read...and I find myself increasingly picking up authors I have read and liked. This, largely because in the past few years there has been such a proliferation of new authors who have written unreadable books (will talk about them some time later). But this new author from a distant land (in a country where English is not native to it's writers) aroused enough curiosity to make that investment of Rs 499/-. But once I started I could not keep the book down...I read it as soon as I got home from college, I read till 3.00am!!! It's a FAT book (554 pages in tiny print). The book by Steig Larsson blew me away. Even after reading it stayed with me. The characters intrigued me and I could not wait to know them better. The book is a translation from Swedish, but more than the language it is the characters that caught my imagination. They are well etched out, full some and with loads of "character". It is a rare book today that catches both the character and plot effectively.

After that the next two books of the Millennium trilogy as this series is called, the Girl who played with fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' followed and both these books too continued to have the same magic as the first one. His development of his two main characters Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist is absolutely brilliant. They are both non conventional, smart and very "today" kind of characters.

It was with deep sense of loss that I discovered that Steig Larsson had in fact died soon after he had given the trilogy to his publisher. He never saw the phenomena that his books have become. And as a reader I feel sad that I will not be able to anything else by him. It's truly to all of us his ardent admirers and followers. But he will continue to live through his characters Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.

Next I will tell a bit more of another astonishing book I picked up from a first time author, this time from our neighborhood - Bangla Desh.

Cheers...keep reading, keep healthy, keep enthused!!!

New Start

It's been a long time and I think I will try and make a more concerted effort at writing. There are so many things that I am thinking about and want a dialogue - so one of the best ways to do it on this blog.