Book Review – Nine Indian Women Poets, Eunice De Souza

Well, I am torn between giving this book an OK-ish 3-star rating and the approving 4-stars. This anthology contains the poems by nine Indian women poets, arbitrarily chosen by the compiler Eunice De Souza, who happens to be one of those nine poets.

On the positive side, this anthology is a fair introduction to the works of the little known or unknown poetesses of India. Poetesses like Mamta Kalia, Smita Agarwal and Tara Patel, the names that aren’t even heard of in the Indian literary circles these days, are brought to fore in this book. The book begins with the works of Kamala Das, understandably one of those few female authors that could stand on their own in the Indian literary stage dominated by men. But the names that all follow are in no way secondary to Kamala Das, though, when compared in terms of works published, Kamala Das wins the race miles ahead. But each poetess – hardcore feminists please forgive me – adds a rich shade of her own to this little rainbow of nine colors. 

On the downside, editor Eunice could have done a better job in selecting the poems and poets. While many of them are poems of a lovely nature, easy to read, of high literary quality, capable of tugging at your heart’s strings, an equal number of them just manage to fly above your head. Some of them come across as mere obscure ramblings, muddled words and written with a purpose to impress than to convey. If you’re a person that believes that a poem shouldn’t sound like a lesson in Particle Physics, then you’ll find some of these poems quite dull and uninspiring. 

Some of these poems are really beautiful, like love, sunset and a baby’s smile. Some others, confusing and just make the count. Three stars, it is!

Book Review – The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is one of my favorite authors, in the same league as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Neil deGrasse Tyson. What stands out in the works of these people is their unwavering loyalty to Truth and Reason. They are not the sort of persons that can take an affront to Knowledge lying down. All of them are outright atheists that don’t mince words when it comes to attacking the superstitious and stupid religious beliefs. 

This is the third work of Dawkins that I am reading, after having gone through ‘The God Delusion’ and ‘The Magic of Reality’. Dawkins continues in the same vein as in those two books, but this book is turning the heat up for the ‘Creationists’ – those that believe that a god created this universe, our planet and all the life forms that populate it, within the last 10000 years or so. Dawkins builds a citadel from which the Evolutionists – those of us that believe that the planet Earth is about 4.6 billion years and all the life forms that we see in front of our eyes today evolved through natural genetic modification – can fight the ignorance of the ‘Creationists’. 

And, what a citadel has he built! I don’t think that a staunch believer of the religious version of ‘Creation’ will be moved by this book well enough to reverse his/her views, but this book will nevertheless end up causing a dent in his/her belief. Be it plants, animals or the multitude of bacterial and vermin life forms, Dawkins pulls them all up to stand as witness to the survival of their ancestors in the long gone past and their evolution by ‘natural selection’. Dawkins also arms all the ‘Evolutionists’ and ‘Darwinists’ with enough arsenal to fight back the stupid questions raised by the ‘Creationists’. ‘If men evolved from monkeys why are there monkeys still around?’, for example.

But one thing that I couldn’t stomach in this book is that, while trying to build a citadel of facts and arguments strong enough to be unassailable by the ‘Creationists’, Dawkins seems to have become too obsessed with the details to the extent of ignoring the normal, laymen like me that couldn’t grasp science beyond a certain level, at least for now. You need to have a fair knowledge of genes to understand the book. In the previous two books, I found the words of Dawkins having a smooth flow. The same is lacking here. His random jumping between the topics and cross-referencing details in other chapters and even in his other books doesn’t make matters easy either. 

A good book to read, if you prefer reading books that are slow and heavy. Though this lacks the usual flow and wit of Richard Dawkins, it is a worthy shot in the arm if you are someone that ends up arguing with the ‘Believers’ every now and then.

Can Indian Women Become Great Orators? (Warning: Sarcasm and Just For Fun)

If you are a person that doubts the ability of Indian women to become great orators, you MUST read these findings of my recent observations (read, 'experiences').  ;-)

1. In a 4-hour long bus journey, men may chatter for a while, but sooner than later they tend to get bored and fall asleep, lulled by the wind and heat. But women can hold a riveting conversation throughout the course of the journey with the same vigour with which they started the discussions. Talk of being indefatigable!!!

2. At the restaurants, they can speak so fluently and unceasingly, without ever letting the inflow of food, solid or liquid, hinder their speech even for a nanosecond. Silver-tongues, 'borne with (ever-)silver spoons'!

3. In an over-night train journey, they can lull the entire compartment with their slow murmur, while slowly increasing their volumes to a crescendo that can put to shame the rattle of steel-on-steel. I often wonder whether they are the secret arrangements to keep the train driver alert and awake with their chatter and thus prevent accidents. Talk of not being loud enough!

Finally, what is more astonishing is their ability to hold an eloquent dialogue about almost any topic under the sun. If you're 'fortunate' enough to be seated near any such 'orators', you're bound to come away wiser in the topics of family life, tackling cunning relatives, family financials, neighbourhood gossips, hereditary inheritances of both properties and diseases, art of buying vegetables, culinary magics and what not?! Stay with keen ears and they may even 'spice it up' for you.

So, the next time you find two women sitting together, find a seat as close to them as possible and let me know your observations.

3 Lessons from the Movie 'Cast Away'

No one watching a beautiful movie like 'Cast Away' can miss out on these three life lessons.

1. Love isn't about those romantic cuddles, walking into the sunset holding hands, or dancing with a gang of hundred people clad in flashy attires. It is about being 'together' even while staying away from one another, even when there is nothing more to offer to one another, physically or emotionally.

2. Loneliness isn't just about sitting alone and sullen. It is about taking the time to evolve, learning from that solitude, taking it as a chance for deep contemplation and personal betterment.

3. Hope isn't just about hanging in there and believing that things will improve on their own. It is about grabbing the initiative, performing one's own little part in the great chain of events and trying one's best to improve the situation.

 

No wonder this movie remains one of those beautiful ones in my 'all-time favorites' list!