Book Review - Nine Lives, William Dalrymple

We humans love stories and are fascinated by story-tellers who can weave some fascinating tales. Right from our childhood, when even the noblest of morals was taught using fables, to filling ourselves with news telecast on a daily basis to learn the happenings around, we learn more in the form of stories than through mere stating of facts. Authors like William Dalrymple are fascinating raconteurs that bring history before our eyes with their lucid prose. This book is a testimony to that.

This ancient land of India has seen the rise and fall of various civilizations and cultures. Along the way, it has also seen the birth and decline of various religious paths. Though many of them, like Buddhism, Jainism and Tantric worship, have not caught up with the larger masses, they have held on to their own and flourished in the shadow of that all-encompassing ocean called Hinduism. With their own holy scriptures, rituals and routes to seek the Eternal Truth, they are still in vogue among many parts of this country. In this book, Mr. Dalrymple brings to fore nine such people, who have all, in their varied ways, been searching for that one single Divinity.

A Jain nun explains her struggle to let go of her attachment towards her friend who undertook ritualistic fasting unto death. One of the members from the ‘lowest’ levels of the society gets worshipped by even the higher castes for a quarter of an year, when he dons the garb of a God and becomes ‘occupied’ by the Divine. Then told the tale of ‘Devadasis’, so-called ‘Slaves of the Lord’, a pure tradition that got tarnished and truncated into mere flesh trade. The waning art of Rajasthani Bhopas who use their ‘Ektara’ (a musical instrument) and a ‘Phad’ (a fabric painting) to invoke the Lord and sing His glories, wandering across the land. There are Sufi dervishes caught in the whirlwind between their pure love for the God and the puritanical, rabid form of Islam that threatens the very existence of humanity. Then there is a Tibetan monk who tried unsuccessfully to fight the invasion of his country by the Chinese, but who now spends his time in the hope of atoning for his acts of violence and returning to his motherland someday. Thanjavur’s bronze idol makers who have kept alive the traditions of their ancestors for nearly a millennia, casting bronze images that turn into vessels of Divinity, have been lent voice in the next chapter. The final two chapters are devoted to talking with people that chose to seek the Divine in the profane and the mundane – through Tantra.

Every character in this book is different and unique. Yet, what binds them all together is their seeking to connect with their God through art forms and austerities. Also, the understanding they share about there being one God who gets worshipped in many names is a common trait that needed to be told to the whole world.

Each of these nine chapters brims with history, tradition and emotions. Traveling across the vast expanse of India, Mr. Dalrymple has put in a lot of efforts to capture the characters in their truest, most vulnerable selves, laying bare their lives, emotions, ideals and ambitions. As each chapter comes to an end you can’t help feeling a tinge of emotion – sorrow, anger, awe, anguish and, above all, hope – surging through your hearts. Riveting. Realistic. Wonderful recounting.

These ‘Nine Lives’ will really live upon your heart!

Mrityor Ma Amrutam Gamaya! ❤

Mrityor ma Amrutam gamaya! ❤

Early in my life I had realised that we humans need not protect Nature but only respect it. I sometimes laugh at efforts to 'protect and conserve' Nature. Nature isn't our pet animal, but this whole vast Universe. She can get hurt and heal herself on her own. It is us, the fragile humans that need to protect ourselves from her whims.

My thought was reasserted today when I saw this -

In the pit dug for rain-water harvesting, there were some roots of the old curry leaves tree. The workers had cut those roots and continued with their work. Now, a month or so after, I am seeing a lot of fresh growth in that root, that had remained buried for more than a decade!

Nature, thy name is Life! ❤

Happy Diwali 2019!

*'Diwali is no longer exciting for us adults. It is only for children!’*

Whenever I hear this clichéd utterance from someone, I smile. Diwali is not exciting?! You either gotta’ be kidding me or you are, respected sir/madam, a blatant liar. Like the forbidden tinge of excitement one feels when one hears the name of a long-last crush, all of us feel at least a hint of excitement every time we even hear the name of this festival. From fireworks to delicious snacks, new clothes to visits from friends and relatives, people of every age group have something to look forward to in Diwali. This is a festival that means fun for all the age groups.

Not just that, even for people across economic and social barriers, this is a festival that means grandeur. Even the economically least privileged person in the society ensures to provide well for one’s family and oneself on this auspicious day. Thus, this is a festival that everyone looks forward to. 

For the whole of this week, I have been wishing everyone I come across to have a great festival – cab drivers, security guards at malls and departmental stores, parking lot attendants, sales people at showrooms, neighbors, colleagues and even strangers. Whenever I utter ‘Happy Diwali’, I could see a glint in their eyes and a genuine smile across their face! Yes. They ALL love this festival and they all want to celebrate it big. 

What makes every festival an occasion to rejoice and remember is the simple act of sharing - sharing the special food, sharing the moments, sharing the good vibes and, above all, sharing the blessings. Festivals are occasions for spreading the love within us around and filling us with the light around. 

On this Diwali, the most vibrant festival of Lights, wishing you and your family members abundance of good health, absolute peace, unbound happiness, ever-lasting love and every good thing that you can ever wish for! 

Happy Diwali 2019!

Brief Review - Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy, Tim Harford

So many books have been written about all the great inventions that make our lives as comfortable as they are today. In fact, we take for granted most of them - inventions that help us travel to any part of the globe within hours, to communicate with people in any part of the world at the touch of a button, to process/store food without having to run behind it everyday, ability to change the landscape around us at will, to state a few. This book speaks about many such inventions too, but with a difference.

Without making a tale out of each of the inventions and delving into what led their inventors to their 'eureka' moment, this book defines the inventions and the social-economic impact that these had on the world around them. Crisp, clear and a pleasure to read.

Book Review - Mystical Tales for a Magical Life, Shubha Vilas

If only I could give a negative rating to this book!

Nope. Not for the contents, but for the misleading title and the writing quality. This was the same author who had given a lovable book on Shri Hanuman and hence I bought this book with a lot of expectations.

But the tales are all neither unheard nor vedic. These are but little tales found all along the Mahabharatha. Except for one or two, the rest are all tales that we Indians know like the back of our hands. Neither are they Vedic in terms of sources.

Glaring spelling mistakes all along are a pain too. The author's attempt at sharing the wisdom, which are little better than platitudes make reading a pain. So are the 'lessons' at the end of every story, which almost recount the story in brief and try to state the obvious out of it. The cursive font makes for the eyesoreness and nothing else.

Overall, if you have already read the basic versions of the Mahabharatha or a fan of Indian epics, you can safely skip this book. There is nothing new or even refreshing here.

Book Review – Amritsar – Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle, Mark Tully & Satish Jacob

1984 is one of those years in Indian history that reek of blood. The rampant killings by the secessionist terrorists, the Indian army’s entry into the holiest of places for the Sikhs – the Golden Temple itself - to capture those terrorists, subsequent assassination of Indira Gandhi to avenge that ‘insult’, and the resultant pogroms that mercilessly butchered innocent Sikhs in and around Delhi – if all these didn’t shock the Indians enough, the year wrapped up with the Bhopal gas tragedy, which wiped out more than 2000 people overnight.

I am always fascinated by history, especially Indian history. But the problem with history is that you must view it through various perspectives in order to arrive at the real, clear picture. Identifying the correct, well-informed and unbiased sources of history is a big challenge, especially in an age where fake news and misinformation campaigns have really become a threat to the very fabric of human societies. This book by Mark Tully stands out for the very reason that it tries to bring out the facts of that time without being biased to any side. It places the blame on the culprits, gives credit where it is due and states the facts without giving us any hints to judge on a particular way.

Politicians across the globe have this bad habit of creating demons to do their sayings, but such demons have inevitably ended up haunting their own masters. The world recently, and painfully, learnt this lesson for the Nth time when Osama bin Laden, CIA’s poster boy in a cause against the Russians, perpetrated the worst terror attack on the American soil. Two decades before that, India also had such a radical, fundamentalist preacher whom the Congress politicians groomed for their narrow-minded political gains. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a preacher with radical notions but living in oblivion. Sanjay and his coterie brought him to the limelight in order to weaken their opposition in Punjab, the Akali Dal. But soon the sant, meaning ‘saint’, accumulated a lot of followers, grew more radical and became quite a brutal force to reckon with.

With support pouring in for him in all forms, Bhindranwale started running a parallel government, terrorizing not just the common people of Punjab but the very unity of this country. The spinelessness of the government led things to the breaking point, allowing the Sant to not just occupy the holy shrine of the Sikhs but to turn it into a fortress, amassing weapons and supplies to challenge the very might of the Indian army. The rest, as they say, is well-known history.

When I searched the web for a book on Operation Blue Star, this was one of those few that topped the list of reliable accounts. Having read this book, I could understand why. From briefing us about the early history of Punjab to describing those events that led to the crescendo that shook Delhi and caused deep divides in Indian society, it is all in here. Written in simple, flowing style, without being prejudiced against any of the parties involved in the conflict, this is a must-read for any lover of Indian history!

Book Review - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari*

With the first few chapters threatening with inevitable realities of anarchy, dystopia and digital apocalypse, I braced myself for a depressing read ahead. But as the pages progressed, the book lightened up and started instilling hope within me. One of the best books to read, if you are trying to make sense of all the idiocy in the world around and the idiosyncrasies of us humans.

Beginning at the macro levels of the universe and our planet, the book signs off by bringing us to the microcosm of our minds. The author stops just short of recommending meditation and self-awareness as the panacea for the current chaos all around. An intriguing read that any thinker will relish!