Category: reading

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U is for Upamanyu Chatterjee

Born 1959

I’m not quite sure how to begin about Upamanyu Chatterjee since I’m a one-book fan. However there was something so authentic about that one book that I wanted to write about it’s author. The book was – English August, published in 1988. It had to be born out of personal experience – just the way most wonderful books are born (Yeah well Harry Potter is one of the exceptions).

I read some of his other works too like The Last Burden, The Mammaries of the Welfare State but didn’t enjoy them much. I found them rather cumbersome and much too long.

Chatterjee lived his novel

Born in Bihar he studied at St Xaviers and then at the prestigious St Stephens. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1983. That marked, not just the start of his administrative career but also his literary one. It was at his postings that he picked his characters and crafted his first book, English August, published in 1988.

English August…

… tells the story of a young boy Agastya Sen, August, Ogu or simply English, to his friends and relatives. He spends his early days in Delhi and Calcutta and then, like the author, becomes a Civil Servant following in his father’s footsteps. His first posting takes him to the tiny provincial town of Madna. Rural India is eons away from its urban counterpart and Agastya is completely culturally alienated.
Then follows a cynical yet witty account of Agastya’s life as he fights frogs in his bathroom and mosquitoes in his bedroom. There is absolutely nothing heroic about this protagonist. He hardly tries to fix the system as any self-respecting hero would. He chooses to go with the flow. Losing himself in a marijuana induced lethargy, lying on his bed he spends his days faking illness and staring at the ceiling. A more aimless confused protagonist you won’t find.

It is Chatterjee’s characters that hold you. Along with Agastya there is the pompous boss, his wife – who heads the cultural activities of the town, the America-influenced young man who roams around with a ‘walkman’ (where did they vanish?).. delightfully familiar, aren’t they?

To me..

… the book is special because I stumbled upon it some six years after its publication when I had just moved to Mumbai. Although there were absolutely no similarities between the protagonist and me or between the tiny town of Madna and mad mad Mumbai yet the newness of the place, the heat, the feeling of disconnect and of utter loneliness were all so real that the book will always remind of my early days there.

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Sreeja you got it yet again and on a slim clue this time!

It’s another Indian author tomorrow, one who is responsible for the cutting down of many many trees..and that’s kind of a cryptic clue. Yeah well.. I’m just trying to spice things up a bit as we near the end. Come now do give it a shot. How many Indian authors are there beginning with the letter ‘V’?
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014, for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge
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T is for Tahmima Anam

Born 1975
All of us Indians share this great curiosity for our Western neighbours, Pakistan. In quite a contrast, tucked away quietly in the Eastern corner, our other neighbour Bangladesh draws very little attention even though it shares as much of our history as does Pakistan. In many ways it is more similar to the Indian state of West Bengal than it is to Pakistan, of which it was once a part.
I wasn’t sure what I’d be served when I picked up A Good Muslim by a Bangladeshi author Tahmima Anam. However the novel affected me like few others have. I found myself thinking about the right and wrong of religion and of sibling relationships. It left me a bit confused too. And I found myself hunting for the other book, the one written before this A Golden Age. I wasn’t disappointed there either.

The beginning

Tahmima Anam was born in Bangladesh but grew up abroad. Her father is the editor and Publisher of the Daily Star, an English newspaper in Bangladesh, so writing would have come pretty naturally. She completed a PhD in Anthropology from the Harvard University, which was based on the 1971 Bangladeshi war of Independence. While researching for her PhD she travelled and met people who had been part of the war. That’s where the seeds of her stories were sown.

Her books

Tahmima weaves intense human relationships in the setting of war and post war turmoil of Bangladesh.
A Golden Age is the story of Rehana. When she is widowed her children were given away to be brought up by her brother-in-law in far away Pakistan.  Rehana manages to get them back but now, years later, as she watches them plunge headlong into the war, she fears losing them yet again and is ready to sacrifice everything for them. One part of her wants to let them follow their heart in supporting the country’s struggle while another part wants to keep them safe.
The character of Rehana is loosely based on her own grandmother, also a widow. From a simple housewife she turned into a passionate nationalist during the war and much like Rehana she actively helped with the war effort and even harboured freedom fighters.
The Good Muslim talks about Rehana’s children Sohail and Maya in post-war Bangladesh. They are separated during the war. By the time they meet after a decade, the once close sister and brother, have grown far apart by the choices they have made. While Sohail embraces his faith becoming a charismatic Muslim leader Maya remains a revolutionary and cannot empathise with her brother’s choice. Caught in the tussle is Sohail’s son who Sohail puts is a madarsa to Maya’s distress. The book brings up issues of religion and how each one interprets it differently.
I had heard stories of the 1971 war between India and Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh. However the book made it very real for me. This is truly the best way to learn about history.

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Tomorrow we take a trip through India’s babudom. Guesses?
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.


Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

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S is for Sophie Kinsella

Born 1969
She was a financial journalist who didn’t much care for her job but since that was all she could do she slogged away at it, anyway. At least that’s what she thought. Each day while on her way to work she’d read paperbacks. One day she thought, “I can write books like this.” And she did just that. At age 24 she was a published author. She went on to write six more books and all were a success. They were light fun reads you pick up on a holiday. Madeleine Wickham had arrived.
A few years down the line she felt confident enough to work on an idea that seemed ‘silly’. She went ahead because she wanted to try to write something funny and ridiculous. So she wrote a book about a girl who, like her, is a financial journalist yet is clueless about her own finances. Wickham was a tad embarrassed about her idea and was so unsure of how it would be received that she submitted it to the publishers under a different name – Sophie Kinsella – combining her middle name and her mum’s surname.

The book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, was a knockout success.
She went on to write five more books in the series while simultaneously working on stand-alone books too. Oh she’s prolific.
She’s hardly similar to her ditzy heroines. She studied at the University of Oxford where, after a year of studying music, she moved to Politics, Philosophy and Economics. That’s where she met her husband Henry Wickham.

About the Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood..

Kinsella’s shopaholic heroine, Rebecca Bloomwood is a financial journalist yet her own finances are always in a mess. Even if she’s overshot her credit limit, or has loads of debt on her bank overdraft she finds herself in the poshest of stores buying things she might not even need. Yes she’s a Shopaholic.
I wouldn’t call Becky Bloomwood my favourite heroine. Each time I’d see her longing for that crazily expensive scarf or a madly out of reach dress I’d find myself saying….No no no.. stop stop… even knowing that she wouldn’t. And she never did.

Yet there’s something lovable and ‘nice’ about her that appeals even to a conservative Capricornian like me. Besides, she’s funny. Her adventures make for a delightful read. And so I remain a Kinsella fan.
PS: I’m thinking of writing a book because women authors these days are so darned pretty.
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It’s a relatively lesser known author tomorrow from a neighbouring country – Bangladesh – this time. She delves into issues of war and religion like few have ever done.
So any guesses?
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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R is for Roald Dahl

1916 – 1990
This one is for my kids because this is their favourite author. Roald Dahl. His Fantastic Mr Fox is part of their curriculum and that started them off on a Roald Dahl party. He is to them what Enid Blyton is to me.
As I’ve been writing this piece and sharing bits of information about their favourite author he’s risen in status from ‘cool writer’ to the ‘coolest man ever’.

After all how many writers of kids’ stories can, in real life, boast

— of writing all his novels with a pencil (just like them) because he didn’t know how to type
— of making it to the boxing, squash and football teams in school (boxing and football are BIG in our house
— of being a fighter pilot, having survived a crash on duty then having gone back to flying and shooting down enemy planes
— of being a spy (isn’t that cool?)
— of marrying an actress and lastly…
— of putting a dead mouse in a jar of sweets in a shop owned by a mean old lady.
I cannot but be impressed too.
Another thing that appealed specially to my son – he wrote a diary and, so his sisters wouldn’t get at it, he’d hide it on a tree higher than they could climb!

The beginning

Dahl hardly distinguished himself at writing during his school days. One of his English teachers wrote in his report, “I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.” However, he did have a passion for Literature along with a love for sports and photography.
He had a very successful stint as a fighter pilot and was quite a James Bond in real life. A book on him written by Donald Sturcock, claims he was a young, handsome and dashing RAF officer and had a whole ‘stable’ of women! He worked for a secret service network in the US with other agents like Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond.

During his assignment at the British Embassy he met Writer CS Forester. Forester had been asked to do a story on Dahls’s flying experiences and asked him to jot down some anecdotes. Dahl did such a good job that Forester decided to publish the story as it was. And so he became a published author in 1942. A year later he did his first book for kids –The Gremlins. That kicked off his career as a children’s writer – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and so many more books followed.

He also wrote stories for adults. These were often gruesome with unexpected endings.

He’s a favourite because

…his books are told from a child’s perspective. They often have clear white and black characters just the way kids like them. Also, he weaves in very real situations and gives them unreal twists that would seem plausible to a kid and that’s what makes for a huge fan following.

He picked inspiration from his own life. The idea of Charlie’s Chcolate Factory came from the chocolate company Cadbury that would come to their school to test samples on the kids. Young Dahl would dream of making all kinds of fancy chocolates and the idea translated into the book.

If you want to know more about him do visit his official site roalddahl.com. It’s a great place to hang.

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As for tomorrow’s author – should I, shouldn’t I give this one away with a single simple clue? Oh well, we’re all tired as the Challenge nears its end so simple it shall be. Here it is – you’ll find her heroine bumming around in a mall. Yeah.. I’ve made it easy.
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.
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Q is for Quiz Time

It’s Q day. The quirkiest and quite the most confusing letter of the alphabet. I was in a bit of a quandary regarding my post for the day but then I’m no quitter. 
And so this is what I came up with – a famous authors’ Quote Quiz.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from some of the cleverest authors. Some you’ll surely recognise, some that’ll make you smile and some that’ll have you nodding your head in agreement. 
Check out how many you can fix to a name and a face.
1. If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.
2. Big Brother is watching you.　
3. Several excuses are always less convincing than one.

4. To say ‘I love you’ one must first be able to say the ‘I’.

5. My books are like water; those of great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

　
6. To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.
7. I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

8. Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love that makes the world go round.

9. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

 

10. A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.
11. When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.’
12. Never have more children than you have car windows.

13. Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
14. God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.
15. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

Answers:
1. Richard Bach
2. George Orwell
3. Aldous Huxley
4. Ayn Rand
5. Mark Twain
6. Ernest Hemingway
7. Jerome K. Jerome
8. Lewis Carrol
9. Oscar Wilde
10. Jane Austen
11. Stephen King　
12. Erma Bombeck

13. George Burns
14. Rudyard Kipling
15. e. e. Cummings　

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So was your favourite quote on the list? No? Well then share it with me here.
How did you score on the quiz?
And before I forget – here’s Monday’s clue. This author was a real-life James Bond before he settled down to writing. What’s more, he tops mine, as well as my kids’, list of favourites. Quick now tell me who he is.
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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