Following the Nobel Prize in literature for the last few years I have noticed a discernible pattern. Barely a handful of readers seem to know the author from before he got the award. Herta Muller is such a classic case. On the official site of the Nobel Prize a poll was put on, asking how many of the readers knew her work before the announcement of the award. The result was 11 percent! I dutifully bought one book – The Passport – of Muller and started reading.
There is a very famous quote by the early Church father Tertullian:
“The Son of God was born: there is no shame, because it is shameful. And the Son of God died: it is wholly credible, because it is unsound. And, buried, He rose again: it is certain, because impossible.” (De Carne Christi V, 4)
This absurd argument was followed by the fanatic Christians over the centuries and is still being followed by those who continue to persist in their belief. It was an inspiration during the Crusades; an ideological backbone for those who had to face reality and had an enormous task of reconciling it with the unreal dogma of Christianity.
In effect it is a brazen acceptance of the falseness of a belief and yet a plea for its militant defense. Often it is the only way in which an ideology can be supported. It has to deny truth as a rule. We experience something familiar in the contemporary Leftist-liberal Indian media.
With Marx, Lenin and Mao as their guru I do not need to go into detail here about the dogmas of Indian media. Just as a refresher: being the closest ally of the Islamic apologists they have to whitewash every crime related with Islam, including all the terrorist attacks. They shift the blame on a non-Muslim authority such as the US or the Hindu masses in India.
Just a few hours ago the peaceful and beautiful city of Pune was rocked by the Islamic terrorist attack in which 9 people have died so far. Reactions of general public started pouring in on social media sites and twitter was all abuzz with the shocking event. There were two types of responses to the event.
![2_States_-_The_Story_Of_My_Marriage_thumb[1]](http://bhejakhol.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/2_States_-_The_Story_Of_My_Marriage_thumb1-196x300.jpg "2_States_-_The_Story_Of_My_Marriage_thumb[1]")
Books long have been the best companion of man. From the ancient times, they have influenced his mind to shape the very foundation of society. In fact books are the things which separate the wheat from the chaff in the movement of redemption in the social order!
However, like almost everything else, books have become audacious and nifty, especially fiction. A good story line is one which has clever detailing of imagination and fact, beautiful construction with realistic plots and highly dramatic and bold characters. This is because a new genre of authors has cropped up, which aims to change the whole scene.
One such author who has been tagged by the T.O.I. to have “Changed the very deplorable reading habits of Youngster” is Chetan Bhagat. (The author of Five Point Someone (2004), One Night at the Call Center (2005) and The Three Mistakes of My life (2008). All the three books have been bestsellers and have inspired major Bollywood films. In fact The New York Times called Chetan the ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history.’
On 8th October ’09 marked the release of his new book titled, 2 States: the story of my marriage. It’s a story of inter-state marriage in India. Love story of paranthas with idlis and chicken with coconut. The narrative of the book is fairly humdrum which is perceptible from the feel-good title itself.
Two protagonists – Krish Malhotra (a punjabi) and Ananya Swaminathan (a Tamilian Brahmin) are classmates at IIM Ahmedabad. After the initial rendezvous at the college canteen they are drawn towards each other irresistibly. In a matter of days the duo are physically intimate in hostel rooms. Love blossoms, and by the time the pair pass out of college, they’re resolute to get married to each other. The obstacles seem insuperable in the beginning – bone jarring differences between their parents, their traditions and the language barrier being the reasons for the disparity. Krish gets himself posted in Citibank Chennai, where Ananya is working with HLL. Their cleverly-crafted plans suffer sporadic setbacks and at one point in time, the entire affair goes topsy turvy but things supernaturally get sorted out with the typical, happily-ever-after climax.
Though the book is claimed to be inspired by his own family and experiences, the book must be viewed as a work of fiction.
The lingo is outlandishly rude at times, showing very stark differences between the cultures and boorish generalization in the so called Matrimonial Market where the boy and the girl are treated mainly as commodities on sale. The book seems to be meant for an entirely different layout, quite different from the usual crop. It is a book that’s written like the script for a drama or even a teleplay, for that matter. Yes, the chapters are divided into Acts I, II, III, IV and V!
However, the most spectacular feature of the book is the autobiographical element.
C. Bhagat himself has confessed that the story has been taken from his own life. Yes, he’s a Punjabi and his wife Anusha is from Tamil Nadu, and they did study together at IIM Ahmedabad. Krish and Ananya have twin kids just like Mr. Bhagat and his wife do. Plus, the book seems to be a straight part 2 of ‘Five Point Someone’. ‘Hari’ has apparently become ‘Krish’. There are mentions of ‘lost semesters’, ‘affairs with the prof’s daughter’, ‘traveling in car with the professor’, and there’s even a detailed chapter regarding how the old affair didn’t materialize. And to top it all, we have Krish’s repeated assertions about his aspiration to be ‘a full time author’. The parallels with real-life are too many.
Sadly not everything about the book is rosy, though. The looks of his cover-pages are peccadilloes. The raucous -red outer-cover with a egalitarian graphic is enough to jolt many a of potential readers, I’d suppose! But the book may help people to think positively about inter-cultural alliances. Despite its non-realism I would recommend the book for the chemistry between the protagonists, the charming mushy scenes , the tongue-in-cheek humor, the simple-yet- heartrending ‘C. Bhagat-logic’, and last but not the least, the central theme – LOVE!
The biggest treasure hunt in history.
There is always a difference between history and fact. And this can be vividly experienced by the readers of this book. Matthew Reilly, the New York Times bestselling author, structures a headlong race in his new book, Seven Ancient Wonders. The book is full of colorful, audacious characters that may find an uncanny resemblance to Indiana Jones.
The book circumnavigates around the biggest historical conquest the world can ever perceive. The past has always presented an endless source of inspiration for anyone equipped with imagination and a pencil! After all history is little more than, as Napolean once put it, “A fable, agreed upon.” This seems to be the exact theme of this book as well.
The story revolves around the Great Pyramid at Giza that had a golden capstone with remarkable powers at the beginning. This Golden Capstone was placed atop the Great Pyramid at Giza during a rare solar event called the Tartarus Rotation. Once every 4,500 years, a superhot sunspot — the Tartarus Sunspot — aligned itself with Earth and caused immense worldwide flooding and sun-scorching. It is said that when the Capstone sat atop the Great Pyramid, no such flooding or solar damage occurred. And, according to legend, whoever places the Capstone on the pyramid at the next Tartarus Rotation will gain absolute power over Earth for the next 1,000 years. After its first use in 323BC, Alexander the Great had it broken down into seven pieces and hidden them all over the world. Each of the pieces is located with one of the lost seven ancient wonders of the world.
As the Earth heads towards what could be the most monumentally important day in its history, nations are involved in a scramble to locate the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Hidden within each of these wonders is one of the seven pieces of the capstone to the Great Pyramid. And this capstone holds the key to world domination – if only it can be assembled in time. The only clues are some ancient documents written in an almost untranslatable language (The so called word of Thoth), which only a child or children of the oracle can read. These hiding places are booby trapped, created by one of Egypt’s cleverest builders and pharaohs (Imhoteph I, II, IV).
Every nation that knows the significance of the looming solar event is keen for a shot at the power. Two big forces look to be in the running – a European coalition led by the Vatican and the mighty US. But an unlikely council of eight small nations is determined to make sure that no one nation should possess ultimate power. Led by Captain Jr. Jack West, former Australian SAS, the team of nine races through the wonders, avoiding booby traps, unlocking secret messages, and dodging the valor of the opposing teams.
Seven Ancient Wonders has a lot of riveting twists and turns forming a whirlwind action-packed quest through the Wonders, which author Reilly unrelentingly delivers. The real magic of this book is proved by the spell it casts on the reader. Albeit, some of the details of pathways, booby traps and secret chambers can be a little difficult to follow, this can be forgiven by the action, which is really what drives the story.
On 14 October 2008, the Booker Committee announced in London that Aravind Adiga will get the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, ‘The White Tiger’. The writer, Aravind Adiga claims in an interview:
“At a time, when India is going through great changes and with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society.” He added that criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens in the 19th century helped England and France become better societies [1]
In a single breath, Adiga takes upon his young self the huge responsibility of highlighting all the ‘brutal injustices’ of India, while feeling proud enough to compare himself with Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens.
One should be cautious while making self-comparisons with great personalities. Dickens wrote about London and English society as it was. Almost all his characters from David Copperfield to Oliver Twist have an autobiographical ring.
दीपावली के शुभ अवसर पर भेजखोल डॉट कॉम की तरफ से आप सबको हार्दिक बधाई.
“लक्ष्मी आयेगी इतनी की सब जगह नाम होगा, दिन रात व्यापार बढे इतना अधिक काम होगा”
ॐ जय लक्ष्मी माता,
भेजखोल एडमिनिस्ट्रेटर.
Thanx to the print and televsion media, we all are well aware that Julia roberts is shooting in india for her next film titled – “eat,pray,love” . The film is based on a best selling novel having the same title and has been authored by Elizabeth Gilbert who shot to international fame with this book. For the uninitiated, the journey of elizabeth gilbert’s life would seem quite fascinating and intriguing. She began her journey around the world in a quest to understand the meaning of life, in search of “personal restoration” after a difficult divorce. She studied and practiced yoga at an ashram in india and understood the significance of meditation here. Read more »
The story of a small boy whose life was changed by a sparrow
“ Bird-watching is one of the greatest excuses for removing myself to a place where every prospect pleases- whether up in the mountains or deep in the jungles. In future it shall become a form of escapism, but one that hardly needs justification” by S. Ali
The Indian nation-state turned 62 last week. However, the Indian nation is thousands of years old. It has been there ever since innumerable men and women who considered this ancient land their home sang of the glory and majesty of the Himalayas and marveled at the life-giving properties of the great rivers that traversed across the northern plains of our country. They were moved to poetry when they encountered the lush green forests of the peninsula blooming with flora and fauna during the rains. For those who dwelt near the coast, the oceans were to be worshipped for they brought forth riches and if one were to conquer them through the force of one’s will, opportunity presented itself to the conqueror to not only add to the wealth of this country but also to enrich one’s own cultural heritage through contacts with other nations. This cultural exchange was indeed mutual as the lives of the peoples of the far as well as the near East were enriched by this contact. It is erroneous to assume that India was no more than a geographical entity. For thousands of years, it was a deity that millions of people sanctified close to their hearts. These emotions were articulated beautifully by many great poets throughout the course of history.Valmiki, Kalidasa, Bhushan, Subramaniyam Bharathi, Tagore-the list goes on and on.
Henry David Theureau, had once proclaimed, that “This World is but a canvass, what we shall paint, shall be seen and felt by others for ages”.
The Global Climate change today treated primarily as a chewing gum ,to be simply used and discarded. But its actual value and worth remains unstated in more than one measure.
Climate change is more relevant to contemporary socio-political concerns, of the Earth as a whole over an appropriately significant period of time. It reflects abnormal variations to the expected climate within the Earth’s atmosphere and subsequent effects on other parts of the Earth, such as in the ice caps over durations ranging from decades to millions of years. It is the result of a great many factors including the dynamic processes of the Earth itself, external forces including variations in sunlight intensity, and more recently by human activities, which might in future be deliberate geoengineering.