Aftertaste - Book review

Reading a second book by an author is much like watching a movie sequel, the reader's expectation is a greater barrier for the author to scale than merely a plot or a narrative. Namita Devidayal's first book "The Music Room", a memoir with a twist, featuring the life and times of her music teacher as the centerpiece was a wonderful debut for this journalist.

Like the earlier book, Aftertaste also has a central theme, not music but something more primal, food. Specifically, the heavenly mithai that the matriarch of the Todarmal family has converted into a thriving business. Mummyji, as the powerful old woman is known, is in the hospital, suffering from a stroke from which she is not expected to recover. The book chronicles the effect of this event on the condition of her four grown children and the impact her impending death has on the family dynamics.

The narration moves back and forth between the days prior to Mummyji's stroke in the lives of Rajan Papa, the oldest son, who is in a financial crunch which his doting mother is aware of but does nothing to alleviate; Suman - the once-beautiful elder daughter who preaches spirituality and detachment but is firmly entrenched in the material world, Saroj - the unfortunate, dark-skinned younger daughter struggling with her personal tragedy compounded by Mummyji's tyranny, and Sunny the youngest spoilt son who is juggling an extra-marital affair while dealing with business problems.

Through the lives of one family, the book shows the obsession of business families with money and its constant pursuit which becomes an end in itself even as the family ties chafe under the eternal pressure to maintain wealth and more importantly, social standing. Mummyji transforms the sagging fortunes of her husband by using her skill at making mithais, and as she traverses the traditional barriers, she picks up the family honor and the power that accompanies her actions. A strategy of bribing her kids either with food or money leaves a devastating trail in the dysfunctional family, spelling doom even for the next generation.

The story is fairly interesting but the author's use of similes and metaphors about food leave a bad taste. Instead of the gentle "show, not tell" style of the Music Room, there is judgment and justification for each character's action, an analysis of events from the author's point of view about the reason the characters behave the way they do. While a few loose ends are tied up at the end, it was heartening to see the surprise unresolved piece which is apparent but invisible to the ones who clamor for it.

I was reminded of a similar family saga "Home" by Manju Kapoor which focused on the lives of three generations of a business family that settles in Delhi after the partition. Both books read like polished versions of the family soaps more popular among TV viewers. Perhaps it is in this element that as serious reader I am disappointed.

Dance like a man

Today I went to see the whirling dervishes from Turkey perform at the Global Peace Auditorium. The flaming Spanish flamenco earlier this week, was followed by a traditional Kuchipudi performance by the Raja and Radha Reddy's Natya Tarangini troupe yesterday. The 1 hour show presented one piece "Mahanatam". The young dancers ably supported their gurus in their spectacular choreography with focus on excellence. Perhaps the only disappointment was the lack of a live orchestra.

The Sema, the whirling dervish dance was performed by a troupe with four dancers and four musicians. Wielding unusual instruments such as the ney, oud, kanun and kudum, the program began with the flute-like instrument instantly transporting us into another world. When the dervishes appeared on stage, wrapped in dark shrouds, the atmosphere became almost ethereal. In tune with the music, they gently unfolded their crossed arms to reach out with their right hand open towards the sky while the other hand faced the earth, bringing blessings from the divine into this world. The dancers spin around gently and continuously, never missing a step or losing a beat. Their heads are titled, eyes closed as they commune with the spiritual world right there on stage. The gracefully billowing white skirt, the outstretched arms and beatific expressions on their faces could only give us a glimpse of the bliss that the dancers experience.

What was striking about today's performance was that this was not something purely entertaining. This was one performance which made me wish to try twirling like them, just to get an insight into their mystic communion. It reminded me of the times I have attended aartis at ISKCON temples worldwide. In every temple I have seen a few fervent followers slip into an unending blissful chant of "Hare Krishna", making all others feel totally excluded from their personal connection with Krishna. The dervishes, followers of Mevlana Rumi, appeared to be the lucky ones, knowing the direct path of spirituality, attained through their dance. I felt fortunate to just watch them. Right here where I live.

Cloud 9 minus one - Book Review

Here is another book which is perhaps a thinly disguised autobiography, a debut novel by an author (Sangeeta Mall), writing about fictional characters set in her real-life alma mater IIM, Bangalore. Is it a female version of Chetan Bhagat, a wannabe chick-lit, or serious literary fiction? It is hard to classify this novel about Shruti Narayan (nee Malhotra, aka Ruts), ex-IIM grad, now NRI, who is visiting Bangalaore for a weekend reunion, twenty years after leaving the place.

The book is well-written and neatly flashes back and forth from the present to the past, as the skeletons emerge with old classmates coming into the scene. The language is realistic and dialogs authentic. The story is utterly believable and told in an unselfconscious first person narrative that is laced with tongue-in-cheek humor. We meet a whole bunch of characters from the past with quirky nicknames like Rats, Captain, Curry, Jaggu and Paxi. The central theme of Shruti's discomfort with th whole idea of revisiting IIM is revealed in bits and pieces as the story about her friend Priya unfolds. College friendships, the urge to try something new and exciting when stepping outside the comfortable boundaries of home, the naive belief in good-bad, right-wrong, dealing with conflicting feelings of loyalty and jealous, are seen in the petty rivalries and competition in the college campus.

It is heartening to see Shruti's struggle in trying to find her old (or is it young) friends in these new middle-aged creatures that she confronts. Some things have changed, much hasn't. The story is not just about what has transpired to make the once-rebellious youth into conformists but about finding that core characteristic of each individual that made them your friends (or rivals) and reconciling to the new reality.

While Shruti's perfect marital situation with an understanding husband and well-behaved kids gets a little jarring, it is Shruti herself who comes across as a regular person with her quota of diffidence and insecurities. The strength of the book is not the story which is fairly pedestrian, but in the telling of it. It is a comfortable read, interesting enough to keep you turning pages but a tad too long.It is a coming of middle-age story.

In the final analysis, personally, this book seems to be new wine (of the chick-lit variety) packaged in an old bottle, with huge doses of nostalgia and the wisdom that comes from hindsight. And it tastes pretty good.

Ice and fire

In my quest to smell the roses even if I don't time to stop, I have enjoyed the last two evenings right in my neighborhood, spending my time in doing something that brings me joy. The "Parampara" series of dance shows, featuring internationally acclaimed troupes is performing at Shilpa Kala Vedika, the wonderful auditorium located right next to Shilparamam in Hitec City. We have the opportunity to watch fantastic dance productions for free, right here in Hyderabad!

Yesterday was the Moscow Classical Ballet troupe that mesmerized the audience with their graceful performance. It was my first time watching live ballet and it was an out-of-this-world experience. The soothing strains of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake filled the half-empty hall with the smooth, fluid movements of the artistes. The petite ballerinas in their gossamer outfits glided across the stage like dainty fairies and comets while performing lifts and twirling on tiptoes for moments that seemed to go on forever. They almost did not look like discrete human figures, but resembled the soft, gentle strokes of a painter's brush, floating across the canvas of the stage. The emotions displayed were universal and felt collectively by the audience as they continued to impress with their finesse.

This evening I was once again fortunate to attend another spectacular performance by Flamenco dancers from Spain. In contrast to the icy elegance of the ballet, this Andalusian dance form had all the fiery passion that Spain is famous for. Jose Parcel was superb as he performed solo footwork that was mind-blowing. The dumbstruck audience responded to his performance with thunderous applause and whistles. The live musicians sang soulful ballads and rousing numbers which in turn energized the dancers who seemed tireless as they stomped around with their flouncy long gowns, their furious footwork a source of intense fascination. I watched unblinking, totally captivated by their grace, their controlled passion and their love of this wonderful energetic dance form.

I was reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's central premise in his book "Outliers" that those who perform exceedingly well at any given task, have at least 10,000 hours of work behind them. While this is apparent in sports, nowhere is it a greater delight to watch, than in the arena of performing arts. Each of these artists have put in thousands of hours of practice in their pursuit of perfection. In the presence of such dedication, all that one can do, is feel humbled, and grateful to be a witness.

Love, my friend, is not Easy - Book Review

There are books that you like instantly, some that grow on you and some that you dislike so much that you can barely read it. This book does not fit in these categories. The short version of the review - the book is totally pathetic.

Perhaps the acknowledgments in the front of the book should have given me a hint. It is basically a story written in a blog, in bits and pieces, over a period of time. The book, in its final finished form reads like a blog, not like a novel. The story is cliched, not copied from one known story or movie, but from many movies. Aditi, the main character, having to grow up all to soon after the sudden death of her father, seems competent to manage the lives of her family members but totally incapable of having either a stable thought or logic while managing her own. She is supposed to be a finance whiz-kid but cursed with the absolute worst luck, two great guys wooing her simultaneously. And how much better can it get, when she is pregnant with one's child that the oher marries her, a la Amitabh in Silsila. But there is no great drama with a love triangle involving another woman here but just poor sucker number one who runs off after finding out that his life is limited, like Rajesh Khanna in Anand.

The grammar is poor, the prose is pedestrian. There is no sign of an editor anywhere in the vicinity with sentences like this "I had always been a thinking person if not not a thoughtful one, and the buzz in my mind has spiralled to an all time high crescendo. I plunged into work even more deeply than ever before." The story-line is jerky, the narrative simultaneously exists in past, present and future tense. There is no depth to the writing, no insights, no takeaways. It is an example of how low chick-lit can go.

There is one thing that this book makes me want to do - read Chetan Bhagat!
I can't help but end this review by saying, "Reading this book my friend, is stupid. Don't do it".

3, Zakia Mansion - Book Review

Sometimes I go on a binge - I read all the books written by an author. While it is great to keep reading someone who writes well, it is difficult to evaluate the different books in an unbiased manner. Sometimes the characters look familiar, even identical to characters of other books, the situations seem all to similar and the dialogue can sound repetitive. But this time, I was pleasantly surprised.

I picked up Gouri Dange's first novel, 3, Zakia Mansion, after reading her more recent "The Counsel of Strangers". It is a brief novel, hardly 160 pages or so but tells the story of Shaheen Adamji, born as the oldest child of the Karimali family living at 3, Zakia Manion, in a household made up of parents, two siblings, an orphaned cousin and a loving grandmother. The story begins with 14 year old Shaheen and appears to be a coming-of-age novel at first. The level of details in the narrative are just enough to illuminate the everyday events of a family that had seen better days while continuing to live in an ordinary life in a city.

The story takes a unexpected turn with the arrival of a cousin from Junagadh, a turn that breaks apart their humdrum existence and plummets all the three children into a dismal spiral. Shaheen is the first to escape, by marrying Ayaz, a Mama's boy, who is unable to balance the two women in his life, a state that does not improve even after the arrival of another female, his daughter, Juhi. Shaheen's siblings, Ayesha and Farhan suffer longer at Zakia Mansion and head towards their own private hells. Ehsaan, the cousin who grows up with them, flies off to America and is relatively spared the sad details of those he holds so dear.

A large part of the novel deals with spunky Shaheen's life as she weathers the storms and one day finds herself a divorced woman without custody of her teenage daughter. Dange has done a fabulous job of capturing the thoughts and the nuances of teenagers, whether it is Shaheen's feelings or the more vicious sentiments of Juhi towards her parents. The story meanders along for a brief while until Manas, a young man, appears in her life. From this point till the end of the novel, the story keeps you riveted with the brisk storytelling style that moves the plot forward without sacrificing deeper insights into the various characters as they learn to take risks and enjoy what life brings them.

There is no comparison with the later novel that Dange wrote, the originality is refreshing, as is the writing. This novel, is a great read, with characters that are real people who we all know, characters that show us that life, after all, is worth living, even as it pulls you in myriad directions.