Everyone has been speaking of Philip Roth sp that I finally got one. It’s called Everyman and must be very new because it talks about post 9/11.
Everyman's Jewellery is the name of the shop of the protagonist’s father which he starts 'to leave something for his two sons'. Typical Jews. The sons make much more money in other fields. But that is incidental.
The story, told in a no-stopping -for -breath narrative is about death and disease.
Probably Roth has got to the stage himself. I have no idea never having read him before but judging from the blurbs, not one of his best. Still it holds one - the smooth flow of words and narrative.
It moves. The constant battle with the body. The unbearable pain. the embarrassment, the humiliation , the bewilderment of not being able to be active anymore. the diminishment of self which is hardest to bear.
"It’s so shameful.Not being able to look after oneself, the pathetic need to be comforted, the isolation, the dread”, cries a woman in a retirement community who has to psyche and drag herself through the day.
We can sympathize and resolve not to let it happen to us. But it does, seems to be Roth’s message. To everyman, blows must fall and among them are disease and death and there is little you can do about it. Just live and try to accept it as well a
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
eco weekend
The weekend or Monday morn is providing a lot of random thoughts. Mostly triggered by the Mag section. Why do I find it always much more interesting than the News section?
Dr. Ullas Karanth who has won the Paul Getty award from WWF. He's a Mech engineer, turned farmer, turned biologist and conservationist. Obviously passionate about tigers and wildlife and he studies and helps to study the ecosystem very systematically. He says we know very little about our ecosystem. I thought there were millions of studies going from what he see on national Geo. But they are only scraping the tip, so says a fabulous book of photographs on rain tree forests I was lent.
But a thought that has stayed with me from Amitav Ghosh is that this eco conservation is always at the cost of the poorest who can barely afford it. He talks of the tigers in the Sunderban area who prey on the people there. And so many of them die every year. Its natural that they kill the tigers then.
As with elephants. The conflict between the farmers and the elephants is always on. With electric fencing and whatever they can come up with to keep the elephants out.
But where will the poor things go? Their forests are getting so depleted.
Then it comes to our govt shift on industries. And encouraging MEZs and MNCs. India should stop shining this way.
The rangers come down heavily on our poor locals foraging for firewood while the lorries cart it away in tons.
And conservation is something that only the minuscule english speaking population is talking about. Only something we can afford to think about???
I'm reading about a group who has been taking evening tuitions for local kids in Puliakulam for 17 years! And Sat is for extracurricular activities. What I am doing but in a very organised way with lots more people, Maybe if more people get involved, then it will grow. And we could influence the cleanliness and healthiness of the area.
Dr. Ullas Karanth who has won the Paul Getty award from WWF. He's a Mech engineer, turned farmer, turned biologist and conservationist. Obviously passionate about tigers and wildlife and he studies and helps to study the ecosystem very systematically. He says we know very little about our ecosystem. I thought there were millions of studies going from what he see on national Geo. But they are only scraping the tip, so says a fabulous book of photographs on rain tree forests I was lent.
But a thought that has stayed with me from Amitav Ghosh is that this eco conservation is always at the cost of the poorest who can barely afford it. He talks of the tigers in the Sunderban area who prey on the people there. And so many of them die every year. Its natural that they kill the tigers then.
As with elephants. The conflict between the farmers and the elephants is always on. With electric fencing and whatever they can come up with to keep the elephants out.
But where will the poor things go? Their forests are getting so depleted.
Then it comes to our govt shift on industries. And encouraging MEZs and MNCs. India should stop shining this way.
The rangers come down heavily on our poor locals foraging for firewood while the lorries cart it away in tons.
And conservation is something that only the minuscule english speaking population is talking about. Only something we can afford to think about???
I'm reading about a group who has been taking evening tuitions for local kids in Puliakulam for 17 years! And Sat is for extracurricular activities. What I am doing but in a very organised way with lots more people, Maybe if more people get involved, then it will grow. And we could influence the cleanliness and healthiness of the area.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
WHITE BANNERS
This is an old book written by a Lloyd.C.Douglas. But it has a definite feminine feel to it. The thoughts and the story.
It’s in key with the thoughts of our oldest philosophers which are being revived today.
NO resistance. Go with the flow. Don’t rail against what is happening to you. Don't curse people who let you down or do bad things to you.
Trust in a higher being. Or Nature or It. or They.
Don’t bargain with Them. Don’t ask. You can hope, but not implore.
Best things could happen or not. Usually they do, when you do your best and trust is the theme of the book.
It also emphasises on doing good, more on ' being good' known only to you. You don’t tell anyone about it. And that builds your character.
The protagonist is a person who gives birth in a state hospital and has to give up the child for adoption. She feels she has used the state resources and has to repay it in some way. So she goes to work in a Professors house as maid; he being a tax payer.
It was a surprise to see these thoughts in a Western man and so many years ago.
It’s in key with the thoughts of our oldest philosophers which are being revived today.
NO resistance. Go with the flow. Don’t rail against what is happening to you. Don't curse people who let you down or do bad things to you.
Trust in a higher being. Or Nature or It. or They.
Don’t bargain with Them. Don’t ask. You can hope, but not implore.
Best things could happen or not. Usually they do, when you do your best and trust is the theme of the book.
It also emphasises on doing good, more on ' being good' known only to you. You don’t tell anyone about it. And that builds your character.
The protagonist is a person who gives birth in a state hospital and has to give up the child for adoption. She feels she has used the state resources and has to repay it in some way. So she goes to work in a Professors house as maid; he being a tax payer.
It was a surprise to see these thoughts in a Western man and so many years ago.
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Hungry Tide
I've been reading the Hungry tide by Amitav ghosh for about a week now. And I can really feel Im floating down the river in the Sunderbans whenever I pick up the book.
At first the feeling that flooded me was how can this guy know what is going on in the minds of fisherfolk, simple folk who are a class apart from him obviously? He is into this life which must be removed from his in Calcutta. So much of research about dolphins, the ecology of the Sunderbans, history and so many little nuggets of information has been woven into the story.
Few characters but they are so real with their inner lives and strengths. Each one of them is strong from somewhere inside. And the poetry within too. Besides Rilke’s which he has interspersed.
The life on the boats itself is so amazing. Here we are safe in our cocoons thinking about our comfort 95% of the time- good food, good roads, cars, shelter, cleanliness, better furnishings. And here is a bunch of people on a little boat, with primitive food and toilet and sun in their eyes and infinite patience in their hearts.
Priorities are so different.
Amitav’s regard for people itself is amazing. There is hardly any physical description of people anywhere in the book while there are many of the waters and the land. When he describes the thoughts of people, they are on a different plane hard to outline. Its like a leap in thought.
A book to be savored and read slowly.
At first the feeling that flooded me was how can this guy know what is going on in the minds of fisherfolk, simple folk who are a class apart from him obviously? He is into this life which must be removed from his in Calcutta. So much of research about dolphins, the ecology of the Sunderbans, history and so many little nuggets of information has been woven into the story.
Few characters but they are so real with their inner lives and strengths. Each one of them is strong from somewhere inside. And the poetry within too. Besides Rilke’s which he has interspersed.
The life on the boats itself is so amazing. Here we are safe in our cocoons thinking about our comfort 95% of the time- good food, good roads, cars, shelter, cleanliness, better furnishings. And here is a bunch of people on a little boat, with primitive food and toilet and sun in their eyes and infinite patience in their hearts.
Priorities are so different.
Amitav’s regard for people itself is amazing. There is hardly any physical description of people anywhere in the book while there are many of the waters and the land. When he describes the thoughts of people, they are on a different plane hard to outline. Its like a leap in thought.
A book to be savored and read slowly.
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