I was deeply enchanted after reading Nelson Mandela’s ‘Long walk to Freedom.’ What I found most interesting was the question the author poses to himself; Should an individual live for his family or the society; a question obviously confronted by many great freedom fighters. Mandela’s life belongs to the category of saints and apostles for…
It has been a long time since I have left my village to live in a city. A city dweller left without anything to do has to find ways to consume time. A village has its charms and interests which give a feeling of time standing still and an unchanging scene. After a long time I made a chance visit to a village and could see a fair.
Of love and other demons by Marquez took me into familiar territory; the territory in my cerebral space which is especially reserved for the fictionary tales of Marquez. This space gets activated as the indicators that receive signals begin to infuse my creative imagination, for reading a manuscript from Marquez is like awakening my dormant…
It is sheer master class fiction considering the sparse story on which it is built. A young English actress is recruited by the Israeli secret service to infiltrate the Palestinian terrorist network and the drama that unfolds before and after this ‘event’ as such, is what this 615 page novel is all about. This is…
Who is happy in Vanity Fair? Who has not a desire in Vanity Fair? This is a world of charades. The subtitle of the novel “A novel without a hero” appears to be apt as all the characters appear to be flawed to a greater or lesser degree. Among all of them Rebecca Sharp is…
Fathers and sons is a sad novel. The wasting of a life; of an existence gone awry, all great ideas strewn to dust in the case of Bazarov, the compromise, the decisiveness in love and marriage, the reflective, unperturbed existence in the case of Kirsanov. These are the major themes of the novel. The novel…
How time passes; I went to Chennai on Friday to attend a meeting. We were put up at the State Guest house Chepauk. I could find some time to adjust some visits into the itinerary. We worshiped Lord Shiva at the Kabaleeswaran Koil Mylapore, the center of Brahmin power in Chennai. I had visited this temple some good 40 years ago.
Arrived in Dehradun on Wednesday evening. The journey from Delhi to Dehradun is very short. We arrived here on a chilly evening. The weather here is very cold. We were given accommodation in the Golden Jubilee hostel. The food is bland, la canteen style and it is mostly potato and paneer. The IIRS campus is beautiful with a number of trees inside. We could see fir and mango trees mostly. The lecture halls and auditorium are state of the art
Yesterday KNR was talking about the 1977 cyclone in A.P; the Diviseema Tragedy. The topic came up from the Sardar Sarovar project which KNR had visited that day. He said he remembers it all even now, 1977 when he was just 14 years old, he had seen it. Tragedy struck A.P that year. His Grandmother was talking about her days when the tidal waves (that struck the villages that day) were last seen a good 90 years ago.
The Rainbow is a wonderful novel. The novel portrays the life of three generations of Brangwens. Tom Brangwen, the farmer of Cossethay, who marries Lydia Lensky; the Polish widow, Anna Brangwen, the daughter of Lydia Lensky, who marries Will Brangwen and Ursula Brangwen, the first child of Anna and Will Brangwen. The novel is wondrous…