Category: reading

Since we shifted this year my reading took a beating what with the settling down and looking for a Library that dished out more than just Bestsellers.

However, thanks to Flipkart I’m on a fast track again. Last month I ordered four books — Parul Sharma’s By the Water Cooler (BTWC) (Parul is someone who’s blog I follow and enjoy immensely), Keep the Change (KTC) by Nirupma Subramaniam, Beautiful from This Angle (BFTA) by Maha Khan Philips and Girl in Translation (GIT) by  Jean Kwok. Coincidentally all four books are by women authors and have women protagonists.

The first two proved to be quick, fun, one-time reads. They are interesting in their similarity. Both deal with girls thrown in competitive work atmospheres. BTWC’s Mini is a Brand Manager while KTC’s Damayanthi is a Chennai accountant both trying to find their feet in Mumbai. Both have mothers super anxious to get them married and settled. Both have fleeting affairs with handsome hunks only to find true love later.

I loved BTWC for its interesting characters… Tanya who obsessively plans her wedding, the anorexic Vaishali, Mumtaz the detective, Subbu the quintessential accountant, the bitchy boss Shipra. Besides, some of her lines really made me laugh. “.. her eyes were those of a Shark, not missing a single detail of my dress or appearance, assuming sharks were interested in that kind of thing.” Typically Parul.

I must confess though that I enjoyed KTC more. The protagonist Damayanthi is better etched out. She and her saucy ‘Little Voice’ make for a good read.

Both books are funny, sure, yet predictable, too predictable. Like I said quick, one-time reads with simple happy endings that’s all.

BFTA is set in high society Pakistan. It is about three friends, party queen Amynah Farooqui, Mumtaz Malik daughter of a drug baron and the image conscious, conservative Henna daughter of a prominent Pakistani politician. When Amynah’s friend Monty produces a hit reality show Who Wants to Be a Terrorist, Mumtaz too decides to make a documentary on violence again women to cash in on the international trend of Pakistan bashing. Amynah agrees to help and they rope in Henna. They make a documentary with a girl called Nilofer, who is not really as much of a victim as she pretends to be.

The documentary goes on to be a superhit and from then on things get complicated driving the friends apart. I found the book engrossing if for nothing else than the Pakistani angle. It’s a country that fascinates me for obvious reasons.

Besides, I’d never read about the Pakistani elite before. Amynah the protagonist is by far the most interesting character. She’s happy writing a totally fake book on oppressed women in Pakistan. Yet, it’s not that she doesn’t have a conscience, she just doesn’t want to complicate life by thinking too much. She keeps is simple.. goes to parties, snorts coke, has some casual sex for fun and crashes at home nursing hangovers. An interesting read but I kind of expected more when I started out.

Now for the Girl in Translation. If BFTA was about the rich of a poor country, GIT is about the poor of a rich country. The book traces the journey of a young Chinese girl Kim after she migrates to the US with her mother. She knows just a smattering of English, while her mother knows none. But she has an advantage in that she’s an extraordinary student. The story traces her journey as she overcomes financial, social and emotional odds to become a surgeon.

As I read the book what struck me first was that a ‘good traditional Chinese’ girl is quite similar to an Indian one, and that’s what makes it tough for Kim to fit in.

The description of abject poverty is startling in its detail. The grueling work schedule, the low wages, the cockroaches and rats in Kim and her mother’s dilapidated apartment and above all the lack of heating … the cold that forces them to sleep with the oven switched on all night… the cold got to me the most.

What’s better GIT satisfied my penchant for happy endings. This is the one I enjoyed most.

Waiting for the next lot from Flipkart. Meanwhile the hunt for the library is still on.

After ages I found myself browsing the preteen section and it was like opening a long forgotten treasure box… like being at a party filled with some long lost pals and some extremely fascinating strangers. Among the old friends Enid Blyton still seemed to rule. Famous Five and Secret Seven were everywhere. Then there was Caroleen Keen where Nancy Drew had turned younger. In our time she was a teenager now however, she’d gone much younger, an eight-year-old ND….. seemed kind of strange.

This has been quite the toughest post to write. Each time I have gone to my bookshelf to figure out that veteran among veterans I have been found by my children a long time later sitting cross-legged on the floor with a pile of books around me and one open on my lap. Sometimes they’ve found me giggling uncontrollably, sometimes smiling gently and sometimes with tears in my eyes. Wodehouse, Huxley, Austen, Harper Lee, the Brontes, Margaret Mitchell – who’s been with me the longest?

Talking technically, the oldest books around my house are for the youngest of readers. Piggly Plays Truant, Billy Goats, Cinderella all of my old favourites, were rediscovered and claimed by my four-year-olds at their nani’s house last year. However they have now moved to the kids’ cupboard and so are no longer in the running.

Technicalities aside, the book that’s been closest to my heart for the longest of time (and is still in my cupboard) is one by Gerald Durrel called My Family and Other Animals. It’s quite the funniest of books I’ve ever read. It came to me as part of our school curriculum about a quarter of a century ago in 1985 and has since then stayed with me.

Set in Corfu, Greece, the book is an autobiographical account and talks about young Gerry, a natural history enthusiast.. hence the title. The book is peppered with hilarious characters starting with Gerry himself. He keeps a series of peculiar pets including Roger the dog, two pups Widdle and Puke (what’s in a name, yes… but Widdle and Puke?), Achilles the tortoise who loves strawberries, Ulysses the brave owl who would ‘unhesitatingly attack anything and everyone’, a gecko Geromino who ate up Gerry’s other pet Cecily the mantis and Quasimodo the ugly pigeon who thought he wasn’t a bird at all and refused to fly preferring to walk.

Gerry doesn’t think twice before putting his pet snakes in the bathtub when they get dehydrated or housing a family of scorpions in the matchbox. Of course he forgets to inform the rest of the family to hilarious effect.

His family is no less interesting. There’s Larry the littérateur who once set the house on fire quite literally, Leslie who can think of nothing but guns and pistols, Margo who has the uncanny ability to find the most unsuitable of suitors and his harried yet extremely patient mother with a passion for cooking and gardening.

There are scores of other characters too. Some completely lovable and others you are tempted to clobber on the head but I’ll leave you to read about them yourself.

Initially I skipped the parts dedicated to natural history enjoying just the human characters marveling at their eccentricities laughing at the troubles they got themselves into. Much later I delved into the other life forms that Gerry is passionate about and he taught me to enjoy and appreciate them just as much as he did.

Trapdoor spiders, mating turtles, sparkling fireflies, geckos, swallows, magpies — enchanting treasures, all of them. Even now, years later, I open the book randomly and read it for a good laugh.

Interestingly, I lost the book in one my numerous moves across the country. Such was my yearning for it and so much must I have complained about the loss that my then roomie finally ordered, yes ordered it, as a surprise for my birthday, because it was not readily available. And so it came back to me. Friends really are the best.

For the record I have no intentions of giving it away to anyone. I am however game to share/lend it on a strictly returnable basis…. unless of course Gerry decides to go the Cinderella way and finds his way to the kids’ cupboard. Then of course I’ll have no say in the matter.

Afterword

Incidentally I owe a lot of books to good friends and a doting aunt. Pocket money was an unheard of concept back in my childhood and gifts were scarce. So if a friend gifted a book it was/is cherished forever. Then we had our aunt. Each year she would come to spend the summer with us and each year she’d give us the option of choosing between new clothes and new books. We’d pick books without fail. I remember craving for Gone with the Wind for a long time till my aunt took me shopping. It was priced at Rs 60 and I just couldn’t bring myself to ask her for such an expensive gift. Fortunately she saw me lusting at it and bought it for me. It remains a favorite even today. That year was exceptionally lucky as she also gifted me some other favourites including Far from the Madding Crowd and Wuthering Heights.

Yet I pick Gerry’s adventures as my favourite solely for their ability to make me laugh. I do so like to laugh.