Book Review – The Quest of the Sparrows, Kartik Sharma & Ravi ‘Nirmal’ Sharma

When the authors of this book first approached me, offering me a free copy in exchange for a review, I felt a little apprehensive. I had already received two books thus from first-time authors and, I must say, both works ended up being dismal. While it is not correct to brush away someone’s hard work thus, the reader in me couldn’t stomach those books and I ended up panning them both. With those experiences at the back of my mind, I agreed to read this book reluctantly. But whatever hesitation I had about reading this work got dispelled as soon as the book began.

Before I get further, here’s the plot – the young Swami Parthiban becomes the leader of a spiritual organization at the ‘demise’ of the elder, Swami Parmanand. Soon after he takes over the mantle of the ‘ashram’, he asks his disciples to undertake a pilgrimage with him to a nearby holy town, with no possessions of any kind, except a change of clothes. He says that such a pilgrimage will teach them to live light, like the sparrows, without all the mental and emotional baggage and evolve spiritually. The book elaborates on the events throughout the pilgrimage, through the words of two of the pilgrims  – Nikhil, a rich NRI whose family life has fallen apart, and Sanjeev, a private detective recruited to prove that Swami Parthiban is nothing but a fraud, moonlighting as a spiritual guru.

Nikhil and Sanjeev narrate the first two chapters, recounting the perspectives, perceptions and eventual spiritual changes that overcame the group as a whole, apart from them as individuals. While Nikhil gets to learn more and more about the purpose of life and changes into a better human being, Sanjeev clears his bitterness and suspicions – arising out of his own past experiences - to end up as a real disciple of Swami Parthiban. The third chapter recounts how the young and hapless Parthiban ended up heading the globally celebrated – and abundantly rich – spiritual organization, from the unenviable life of hiding from the creditors baying for his blood. The fourth and final chapter though undoes all the good work done by the authors in the previous three chapters. Sounding more like an anti-climax of the Indian movies, it will make you wonder whether the authors were in a hurry to finish the book.

Parthiban is not your run-of-the-mill spiritual guru, speaking only in esoteric puzzles and preaching impractical ideals. All ‘his’ ideas are simple, worthy and touch a chord in your mind. That is sure to endear him to you. Thrust into the high pedestal suddenly, he has a foot on the higher path and the other on the mundane ways of life. Such a depiction makes his words sound more real and practical. His flaws, fears, idiosyncrasies and eventual spiritual evolution are all well captured. The writing has a smooth, flowing quality about it. The characters all seem as real as your neighbourhood personas. The ideas are all absolutely lovely.

Though the book is categorized as ‘Fiction’, I am keeping it between the ‘Self-Help’ and ‘Spirituality’ sections of my home library, because it tries to give you the best of both worlds. As good as Robin Sharma’s ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, this is a book that I would recommend/gift to all my friends. Who knows?! I myself may pick it up every now and then, choose some random page and ruminate upon the good ideas found in there. Kudos to the authors for coming good on their very first book!

The Nest

Ever since childhood, I have seen various 'winged guests' visit our home. They always arrived uninvited (but definitely not unwanted), made their little homes within our home, took up as little space as possible, built their homes with straw, thread, twigs and any other riffraff they could lay their hands, er... claws upon.

They shared food, made love, threw tiny garbage around, quarreled, laid eggs, caused ruckus and then, one fine day, left without bidding adieu. The only rent they paid was through their chirps and songs. At times, they did leave behind poems too as gifts - either with me or my father.

The new addition to the list of such 'uninvited guests' is the tailor-birds. Choosing the red spot croton's long leaves for their cosy homes, intricately stitching its leaves together, making it fluffy with foam and threads found elsewhere, they have built their own little home inside our home. Wonder what they will leave behind as rent this time!

Love Isn't...

 

Love isn't when you need someone to make you happy. Love is when you want someone to be happy. Simply.

Love isn't when someone's curves and complexion excite you. Love is when their very presence gives you absolute peace.

Love isn't about simply staying together. It is about being together even after Time and Distance cleave you away from one another's arms.

If it doesn't make you feel grateful for a person's presence in your life, fill your heart to the brim and make it flow through the eyes, it isn't Love! 💕

Nature & Perfection 💗

Enchantingly beautiful peacocks make unbearably hoarse cries, but the cuckoos of glorious songs are less than ordinary in appearance.

The all-nourishing Sun is unbearably hot, whereas the mellowing Moon is neither a reliable source of light nor can it support life.

The divine and healing Tulsi stays humbly close to the ground, while the simply showy bougainvilleas are pampered in rich houses.

The vast, overflowing ocean can't offer even a drop of water to quench the thirst, whereas pure water is found even in pits not deeper than one's own palms.

Nature does not care for 'perfection'. Everything in Nature is as it should be. Everything in Nature is perfect the way it is. Everything in Nature is perfect by just 'being'! 💗

Book Review – milk and honey, Rupi Kaur

‘the very thought of you
has my legs spread apart
like an easel with a canvas
begging for art’

When a female friend of mine shared this poem with me, I winced. Receiving stuff of sensual nature is by itself something that I am not quite comfortable with, but here is this poem, sent to me by a female friend. What both aggravated and doused my uncomfortable feeling was my getting to know that the author of this poem was a woman herself. Reading through the lines again I understood that her words exude not just eroticism but a sense of deep esotericism as well. Her words emanate from the longing, a deep pain, searing loneliness and flowing love – all things that I myself can relate with and connect soulfully too.
 

Immediately I ordered for the book online. From the moment I received the book in my hand and opened it, to the moment I closed it this morning, it was one hell of a ride through the dark corners of my heart. Dealing with lust, longing, love, pain of betrayal, self-love, letting go, hurt, healing, feminism and acceptance, this is a book that every introvert, every aching heart and every one that still believes in that quaint concept called ‘love’ must read.
 

Her words are the magical runes that any heart capable of love would respond to. They touch the raw nerves of our inner-selves, bringing to light all those unhealed wounds of the heart that we have learnt to live with, stir up all those dark passions that we keep buried deep beneath the hypocritical facades of politeness and public perceptions about ourselves. With her, you don’t get to feel the servile yearnings of a Kamala Das or the aggression of a Taslima Nasrin shelling out satires about the grapes gone sour. Here is a woman who feels love and writes about it, as deeply and as passionately as a Pablo Neruda or as a Kahlil Gibran also can. She loves, she yearns, she crumbles, she weeps about the loss, but she also picks up her pieces and puts them back together, but this time only more firmly.
 

Here is a real feminist that doesn’t talk about her body and her desires with a feigned sense of supremacy or acrimonious misandry. There is no vulgarity when she writes about her lust. You feel no revulsion when she talks about the inner functions of female body. She doesn’t preach promiscuity in the name of freedom. She takes pride in what she is. She doesn’t accede to the preset conventions of feminine beauty. She doesn’t pay obeisance to patriarchy. Here is a poetess we can all fall in love with, not just for her words, but for all that she is – her fears, her pains, her strengths, her weaknesses, her courage, for her being the person that she is. Each poem here is a colorful thread, seeing which you will be able to perceive a beautiful tapestry - that is her adorable personality!
 

This is a book that will leave you craving for more – like a perfect session of passionate love-making!

Book Review – The Very Best of the Common Man, R.K.Laxman

Politics! 

Said to be the second oldest profession in the world, bearing a close resemblance to the first, politics has always been subjected to searing scrutiny and bitter ridicule. Especially in a highly populated country like India, politicians have been offering a lot of free ‘entertainment’ to the public, next only to cinema and cricket. Stupid statements, senseless actions, scams, and scandals – you ask for it and the Indian politicians only feel obliged to deliver it for your ‘pleasure’.
 

Cartoonists are that rare breed of people who make the caricatured images of theirs speak more than a thousand acerbic words mocking the actions of the politicians. Especially those cartons that appear daily in the newspapers seem like the oasis amidst all the chaotic news articles. R.K. Laxman is the doyen of the cartoonist profession in India. Having had a prolific career that spanned more than half a century, he is one cartoonist who can really claim to have seen it all and drawn it all.
 

This book contains some hundred plus cartoons of Laxman that have withstood the test of time. A mere glimpse at the cartoons and you will realize that our politicians have remained as pretentious, as egoistic, and as dumb as ever. Indulgence in boastful talks, broken promises, opportunistic behaviors have all been the bane of Indian politicians always. Hence some of the satiric jibes that Mr.Laxman had aimed at the politicians of old remain relevant enough for our ‘leaders’ of these days as well.
 

Leaders that visit their constitutions only during election campaigns, who don’t think twice before throwing senseless percentages and figures without showing any real progress on ground, the servile acolytes who need to flatter their bosses even during their visits to places hit by natural disasters – Laxman has drawn them all, keeping his ‘Common Man’ – a lovable bald old man – as a silent observer.
 

Just a complaint though. The cartoons have all been published on one side while the opposite side is used for a caption of only a line or two. Either they have opted to present the book so due to the poor, thin quality of the paper that could have made the images on different pages look overlapping and thus messy. Or, they could have done so to make this book appear in a decent size. But this seems to be a blatant wastage that the publishers could have very much avoided.
 

As for the content, a thoroughly enjoyable book and a collector’s treasure!

Book Review - The Japanese Wife, Kunal Basu

Recently, when I was talking to a friend of mine about my love for the almost-lost art of letter-writing and my desire to recreate that habit among my friends, she told me about the movie 'The Japanese Wife'. It is the story of a simple school teacher from Bengal, who befriends a Japanese woman over letters. They strengthen their bond through letters and soon end up exchanging marital vows through letters. They don't come to meet one another and live together even after their 'marriage' through letters. After spending almost a long time thus, the woman whom the school teacher should originally have got married to, were it not for his love for his foreign wife, arrives back in his house, with her son borne through another husband. The subtle emotional changes that happen in the relationship between the long-distance couple and the eventual 'end' are the rest of the story.

The moment my friend from abroad described this tale, I felt quite moved and immediately searched to find whether the movie was based on any book. The moment I found that it was, I ordered the book. But only then did I find out that it was only a short story. Well, if such an intense plot could be offered in such a tiny package, won't that make an even more interesting read? Also, if the first tale itself could be such a beauty, won't the rest of the tales in the book make for a feast?! It was with these expectations in my mind that I bought the book. But it turned out to be one of the most insipid books that I have read in recent times.

Except the titular story and to some extent another tale - The Accountant - the rest don't tug much at the reader's heart at all. Of course, the tales are all unique and portray a whole gamut of human emotions. But it is the writing style that fails the book. There are some tales that feel too lengthy to hold your attention throughout. The author's attempt at making the reader feel in place of the plot by making use of various cultural references and jargon is a failure too. Some of the stories sound like either they are incomplete or run-of-mill melodrama.

Some interesting, some OK-ish, but mostly insipid. To sum it up, this is a book that I would not buy for my friends.