Is there a Universal language: At least to the extent of words for elementary feelings in life. This could be a very bad premise to start my thought process on this subject, but the overwhelming amount of evidence or coincidence cannot be denied or diluted. Linguists have researched and written perceptive dissertations about this. Yet these observations are from a layman’s point of view.
Varanasi being in the news again, I went down memory lane and refreshed my visit to this eternal city in January 2013. This is more in the form of a travelogue and will be in varying tenses. “I’m travelling to Varanasi by the Ganga Kaveri express. Dry and deserted rural Maharashtra – Men in Dhotis and women too in Dhoti styled saris.
From the novels written by Indian writers, I have planned a small detour to desribe three novels which I had the opportunity of reading. All the three novels are from the East and each of them has valuable insights into the art of writing fiction. Red Sorghum Red Sorghum is an intense novel from China…
E.M.Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’ narrates the social and political condition of the days of the British Raj and the relation between the colonial masters and their Indian subjects. The relationship was strained and fragile. The novel presents the fractious and mistrustful sentiment that permeated this unequal relation and even gestures or attitudes which…
The language of childhood is Universal. Is there any writer who does not wish to go back to those happy, innocent days when life was an endless discovery spent in the company of friends. R.K.Narayan’s Swami or Chami as he is affectionately called by his Grandmother in the TV series ‘Malgudi Days’ beautifully recreated by…
Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfel Hall is unlike any novel that I have read so far. Not getting into the details of the story which was considered far too liberal or immoral for those times, I shall touch upon the power of the novel for presenting two remarkable characters in Mr. Arthur Huntingdon and…
Reading a novel can be a weighty matter especially when the novelist looks at the more serious side of life. Expecting an instance of light hearted fun and comedy in a novel like ‘The Rainbow’ would be a misjudgment since the novel’s energy and force are vital to propel the characters ahead in a spiritual…
I had no idea about this novel. I should have read it long ago but it has been reserved for me after I have read the other Bronte novels; Villette, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Bronte. This is my first novel of Anne Bronte and I have ‘The Tenant of…
When India won the World cup in 1983, I was in Madras in my 10th standard and I can recall the headiness and excitement in the air as we ran from the hostel to a neighbor’s house to catch glimpses of the Indian team lifting the cup. I have followed nearly all the matches that India have played here or abroad mostly on T V or in the news columns, but I have never been to watch a match live. There was a time in 1980 when Pakistan toured India; I went into the Chepauk stadium with my Dad to watch the action.
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…