NO ENTRY

Library

2005-11-08T17:00:00.000+05:30

I love libraries.I love the smell of books.I love to hear the whispers and murmurs that have a special resonance when heard inside the libraries. I love the sight of books neatly arranged and thrown around in heaps.Each library has it's own personality.Most public libraries in India are not well lit.They are dark and damp.Some are excellent.They have very high ceilings.They are airconditioned and have good amount of light.They have comfortable chairs and canteens.But the fundamental character of any library is determined by the qualities of the people who visit.Till my seventh standardI didn't hear of library.My first affair with the library started at a residential school,Triveni Academy near chennai where I joined for eighth standard .As I was away from home for the first time and being a pampered kid I was terribly home sick.I found solace in the library.Library became my home and librarian my guardian. The librarian took a liking for me and made me feel as if i am one of the books.I got hooked and this addiction has continued.

The libraries can be broadly classified in to two.(1)The libraries at academic institutions and meant for researchers and scholars have a totally different personality from those (2)frequented by the general readers.The first types are dry and haughty.They exude knowledge and the consequent arrogance. But the other type not infected by the professional intellectuals is full of wisdom.It is motherly and engages the reader unconditionally.The readers of the first believe they know a lot and visit the library only to substantiate and to find support for what is known to them.They have a defined purpose and they confine themselves only to the books and fail to feel the library as an entity in itself.whatever pleasure they have in reading is incidental and purely intellectual.The second type of library has readers who wander in without any agenda.They simply love to read They know all about the librarian and staff.They feel humbled by the wisdom stored in the books.Although passionately opinionated,they readily accept that they know only a little.They donot plan and read.They graze the books randomly and meander through all the subjects.Their pleasure is emotional.

Years of formal education has made me in to a reader of the first type.I am trying my best to unlearn.

Ernest Hemingway

2005-10-23T12:07:00.000+05:30

I had read Hemingway and like his works. I have a fascination for war(Ofcourse not getting into one but reading about). I don't know how i developed a taste for it. May be Amar Chitra Katha that i devoured in my childhood had some role.The romanticism of War grew further as a result of movies like 'Great Escape','Where Eagles Dare','Guns of Navarone'. My dad was very fond of Hollywood,more particularly cowboy and war films. Although i don't remember all that i saw,my dad took me religiously to all the hollywood films released in Erode till my fifth class.There was a steady clientile for the hollywood movies in all the towns.Same people used to come to all the English movies.A big board was kept just near the entrance to the Theatre on which the story was written in tamil.This helped the audience to intrepret the film and mostly the classics were seen as Action masalas that were only technically better than tamil films.Times have changed and now Globalisation has narrowed the gap between rich and poor by dubbing the hollywood films in to tamil spiced with liberal use of tamil proverbs, idioms and tamil movie songs. At the library in my residential school near Chennai i came across magazines , 'EliteForces' And 'WWII' and developed a taste for world war II.So the theme of both 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' and 'A Farewell To Arms' appealed to me. As i was going through the role of french resistance against Nazi occupation i found the role of leading intellectuals of France interesting and similarly in spanish civil war intellectua

India Wins Nobel

2005-10-08T10:22:00.000+05:30

A major research institution of the Government of India has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Governmentium."Left with no option, the nobel prize committee has chosen India for Nobel prize in all the categories. Governmentium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete, when it would normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass." When catalyzed with money, Governmentim becomes Administratium - an element which radiates just as much energy as the Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

I am i

2005-10-08T09:44:00.000+05:30

We Are Many

Of the many men whom I am, whom we are,
I cannot settle on a single one.
They are lost to me under the cover of clothing
They have departed for another city.

When everything seems to be set
to show me off as a man of intelligence,
the fool I keep concealed on my person
takes over my talk and occupies my mouth.

On other occasions, I am dozing in the midst
of people of some distinction,
and when I summon my courageous self,
a coward completely unknown to me
swaddles my poor skeleton
in a thousand tiny reservations.

When a stately home bursts into flames,
instead of the fireman I summon,
an arsonist bursts on the scene,
and he is I. There is nothing I can do.
What must I do to distinguish myself?
How can I put myself together?

All the books I read
lionize dazzling hero figures,
brimming with self-assurance.
I die with envy of them;
and, in films where bullets fly on the wind,
I am left in envy of the cowboys,
left admiring even the horses.

But when I call upon my DASHING BEING,
out comes the same OLD LAZY SELF,
and so I never know just WHO I AM,
nor how many I am, nor WHO WE WILL BE BEING.
I would like to be able to touch a bell
and call up my real self, the truly me,
because if I really need my proper self,
I must not allow myself to disappear.

While I am writing, I am far away;
and when I come back, I have already left.
I should like to see if the same thing happens
to other people as it does to me,
to see if as many people are as I am,
and if they seem the same way to themselves.
When this problem has been thoroughly explored,
I am going to school myself so well in things
that, when I try to explain my problems,
I shall speak, not of self, but of geography.

Pablo Neruda

Desi Born Confused by America (DBCA)!

2005-10-08T01:53:00.000+05:30

The other day a man came up to me at the airport and said "Congratulations for getting the Palkhiwala Award." I said thank you. Didn't correct him. Palkhiwala or Phalke, it didn't make a difference to him. Mind you, he was a well-dressed, educated person. We think that everybody knows everything about what concerns us. Need not be so. Anyway, for a lot of people the Phalke-Palkhiwala award is just a day's news, to be glanced at and forgotten.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in Frontline

The Blogging Business

2005-10-05T18:08:00.000+05:30

Blogging is stupid; go be a human being
Not me but Heather Burns at The Pine Log writes -

Blogs aren't just stupid, they are crippling our social skills, and there is nothing better than human interaction, trust me.
Believe it or not, there is a world outside of the computer. No joke, it has trees, popcorn and drive-thru liquor stores.
Blogging is worse than being on facebook. Nobody wants to know if you have cramps today or if you sold 1,000 pounds of Nicaraguan cocaine to Chico and the man.
The people in your life like friends and family do care if you show up to the party and do a minute keg-stand or date that really cool guy from Nicaragua who is friends with Chico and the man.
To lay it all on the line, blogging is a waste of time. Why spend time telling strangers your innermost thoughts when you could be out making memories with those you care about most?

???!!

2005-10-04T02:43:00.000+05:30

Foundation Course

2005-09-09T01:21:00.000+05:30

I have completed one year as a taxman.I joined foundation course at mussoorie on september 6.The most exciting part in the whole year was the FC. It is the honeymoon period of the bureaucratic life.I was very apprehensive when i heard that there will be around 50 tamils at FC. I met prasana and lax thru sathish balan. Then i met anbalagan, mangai and karupsamy at prasana's home. I thought to myself that i will have atleast a few who are sensible. this apprehension was borne out of my ill feeling towards Indian babus.So the very thought of spending time at the Vatican of the Babudom, LBSNAA made me sick.FC was an eye opener. The faculty were too good to believe.The crowd was fantastic and i got to know very interesting people.

Kannanji was a DOPT send gift to tamils of 76th FC.He had already done a FC while in an earlier service. He had done his academy training and was made to attend the FC even though he had completed his district training and was to be posted.He is unassuming and leads by example.He set in practices that helped us in evolving into a cohesive group. He was very meticulous in finding out our birth days and anniversaries and made it a group celebration. He also intiated community feasting. Money was pooled in from willing contributors and a fish/chicken items were prepared.He had a way of accomplishing things without ruffling feathers.He was very particular in maintaining accounts and also getting/settling the money.Interacting with him was always a pleasure.

Kattu mama @ anand ambushed me on one fine day while i was walking towards the Ganga Hostel. I had already noticed him as he didnot know to talk. He can only shout.He had the uncanny ability to weave a story on the most trivial of things.As we started to converse i warned myself that i had better maintain distance with a guy like him. But planets had their plans.Due to KALACHAKRAM we had to do so many things together starting with a perilious trek to RUPIN PASS.
Kattu mama had made a terrible impression on me during the one day trial treks on weekends.He always wore a military green field dress with Jungle boots. He even sent a mail to all of us stating a list of precautions to be observed during trek.When the list of trainees going to RUPIN PASS from H.P was out i was happy that such an experienced trekker and a fellow tamil would be with me.Kattu mama put up a splendid performance for the first two days. The day one involved only bus travel over narrow roads perched on high mountains.The day two was a short trek and kattu mama did his best to cheer up the fellow trekkers.The day of our trek to RUPIN PASS was an enlightening experience.Kattu mama suddenly defied darwin's theory of evolution and four handedly started walking over snow and earned RUPIN CHAKRA ,the highest medal of honour given in recognition of unthinkable behaviour in very adverse circumstances .
AS ELDERS SAY BARKING DOGS SELDOM BITE!

Director kannan- he ensured that we do not end up as simple fun loving fools bereft of creativity( whatever it is).He had that intelligent look with spec and could look serious even while smiling!he is fully fit to be a bureaucrat- he had unlimited patience, could take insults with out hitting back and was efficient too.He is a silent killer as i always learnt at the end of our regular card-playing sessions.He was the stockist who nurtured the intelligent minds by endlessely suppling cigarettes.He was first in Rangoli competetion,won the prize for best script at A.K.Sinha memorial play and turned the tamil crowd into actors,singers,dancers ON STAGE.It was because of him that i got the opportunity to appear on stage in a drama and silmilar was the case with the most. His efforts led to all the tamils to interact intensively, deeping the bonds of friendship and revealing our +es and -es to others.The drama rehearsals and India Day practice sessions made us in to the most cohesive group in the FC. One contribution of his towers over all other things-he single handedly kept the creative urge of kattu mama in check by listening to all the stories that kattu mama had in his mind for a play and making sure that anything even distantly resembling those story lines is keptout.

Investigative Reading

2005-09-09T00:02:00.000+05:30

Two weeks back i had gone to the Delhi Book Fair with my friends.All the major publishers in English from India were there.As usual i wanted to buy a lot but fiscal deficit came in the way.I came across the book Who Killed Daniel Pearl? By Bernard- Henry Levy published by Rupa and having read it's reviews bought it. It is a fantastic thriller written in an engaging style.I jotted down all the persons who appear in this expose of Pakistani state and tried to learn more about them thru internet.I got hooked to net for week and it dawned on me that 11/9 was always in the making.CIA is solely responsible for it.The hands behind world trade center bombing,US embassy bombibg in Kenya, Kandahar hijack, 9/11,attack on Indian parliament and sri nagar assembly, assasination attempt on Musshraf are the same.The author has recreated the lives of daniel pearl and his murderer Omar sheik(relesed in exchange of kandahar passengers). The conclusion of one year of pain staking effort is "I ASSERT THAT PAKISTAN IS THE BIGGEST ROGUE STATE OF ALL THE ROGUE STATES OF TODAY. I ASSERT THAT WHAT IS TAKING FORM THERE, BETWEEN ISLAMABAD AND KARACHI IS A BLACK HOLE COMPARED TO WHICH SADDAM HUSSEIN'S BAGHDAD WAS AN OBSOLETE WEAPONS DUMP."

http://www.melvillehousebooks.com/pearl.html------->

The shocking book that caused a furor in Europe now comes to America ...

It was a horrible tragedy, but what if, hidden behind the story of the gruesome on-camera murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, was another, still darker story?

What if the people who murdered him weren't actually fanatic followers of Osama bin Laden?

What if he wasn't murder – as was universally assumed – because he was Jewish and American?

What if he was murdered because he was onto something?

In a groundbreaking book that combines a novelist's eye with riveting investigative journalism, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of the world's most esteemed writers, retraces Pearl's final steps through a murky Islamic underworld, suffused by "an odor of the apocalypse." The investigation plunges Lévy into his own heart of darkness – and a series of stunning revelations about who the real terrorists are.

About the author
Bernard-Henri Lévy is one of France's most famous philosophers and one of the bestselling writers in Europe. He is also one of the world's most preeminent journalists, having started his career as a war reporter for Combat, the famous underground newspaper founded by Camus during the Nazi occupation of France. Lévy covered the war between Pakistan and India over Bangladesh. Returning to Paris, he became famous as the dashing young founder of the New Philosophers group. His 1977 book Barbarism With a Human Face caused the kind of sensation that Camus' The Rebel incited in the 1950's, and since then, Lévy's novels and essays have continued to stir up such excitement that The Guardian recently noted he is "accorded the kind of adulation in France that most countries reserve for their rock stars."

Lévy has held several diplomatic positions with the French government, and written numerous books. In particular, he has written several books about the Islamic Middle East, and in 2002 he was appointed by the French government to head a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in the wake of its war with the U.S.

Also see------>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,679229,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/search/article/0,8599,411458,00.html

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF28Df02.html
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16823
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1821/18210150.htm

FOR EXCELLENT INFORMATION ON EVENTS AND PERSONALITIES RELATED TP DANIEL PEARL'S MURDERERS See------->
http://www.saja.org/pearl.html

Few days with Rajali

2005-09-08T00:20:00.000+05:30

Myself,senthil velavan and sivakumar(my collegues and friends)suddenly decided to go on a trip. We zeroed on Indore as our friend, Rajali is posted there. We checked out in the net and planned a day each at Mandu fort and Ujjain.Although the railway station is small the city( yes Indore is a city!)is large and bustles with activity.We spent tha day one just chatting with our rajali and for dinner we went to chokki Dham (also in Jaipur)where the culture of rajasthan is literally showcased. There are four different dance troupes that entertain the visitors with dance and songs.There is a magic show, a puppet show and also a camel ride.The ambience is made to resemble a rajasthani village of our dreams.No actual village looks like that.It exists only in the imagination of our film art directors and citywallahs.I was reminded of big exhibitions held at Paris and London in late 19th century where models of villages with inhabitants from colonies was put up.We being the modern day colonists are just following the British but with a swadeshi touch.

Next day we left for Mandu along with Rajali who carried his handy cam along. Mandu was wonderful.It is a huge fort complex. I had been fascinated by the history of Mandu as it was of importance during mughal times and also because of Baz Bahadur, the last sultan of Mandu whose romance of Roopmati is well known.We bought a booklet from ASI stall and it was of much use. I always make it a point to get hold of some booklet while going around historical places.

As rajali had pressing engagements he had to stay back and we went to ujjain, the place of pilgrimage for centuries.We visited the Mahakaleswar Temple, the kali temple where the poet Kalidas was granted the boon , Bhrhathari caves and Kaliadeh palace of the scindias.We also spent some time at the Jantar Mantar. We went around looking for the chattri of Durga Das Rathod, the famous rajput General who had rebelled against Aurangazeb and after much driving around found it on the banks of sipra river. It is a beautiful memorial.We had a shocking experience at the Vikram Kirti Mandir which is a Manuscript Library cum Museum.There was no one at the museum and building repair was being carried out. We went into the museum and found priceless sculptures lying around. Most were from 10th -14th centuries.A head of Buddha carved on the Gandhara pattern was kept on a stool with out any protection.

The final day of our trip we went to Kanch mandir built aroun 100 years ago. The interior space including the floors and walls, the ceiling is decorated by glass.We visited the chattri of Bolia Sarkar belonging to Holkars which was built on a grander scale than that of Durga Das Chattri at Ujjain.

Its all in the Name

2005-09-08T00:16:00.000+05:30

A peculiar feature of Tamil Nadu is the culture of naming. The children are named after personalities that their fathers admire, friends are given nick names that often displace the original and adults are given “titles” that are either prefixed or suffixed to their names to recognize their attaining a “status” in life. Thus Tamil Nadu has the largest number of Stalins, Lenins, Gandhis, (even Sanjay Gandhis!!), Ambedkars and many more personalities. I have come across Bertrand Russel, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Shelley, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy. My batch mate in school was named Aryabhata to commemorate the launching of the Indian satellite.I have developed the habit of probing people about their names. This has revealed a lot not about them but their father!!! Many of my friends are known only by their nick names. Thus Selva IlanKumaran is sik, Radhakrishnan is googhly, siva is kadian, Thirunavvukarasu is Thadi and ofcourse I am mottai to my school friends.

Long live the Intelligent Doctors( can these last two words go together)

2005-07-11T06:26:00.000+05:30

My friend senthil Velavan has an interesting anecdote for us. He was traveling by Muthu Nagar Express and Sippiparai Ravichandran happened to be in the same compartment. When Senthil informed his P.A that he wants to meet the M.P who was in the First Class coupe, the P.A went and chatted with the M.P ,came back and told senthil that M.P himself will come and meet him. All of us know that senthil is quiet a big shot and so there is nothing extraordinary in a MP calling on our friend. But a few minutes later the M.P rushed out of his coupe with a forlorn face and declared that democracy is doomed in India. It wasn’t the usual politician double speak. A famous doctor from Madurai was traveling along with the M.P on that fateful day and he failed to appreciate that a M.P was his coupe-mate. Then a conversation ensued that resulted in the Honorable member calling on our friend.

SIDE KICK of the M.P to the Doctor : Ayya thaan namma sivakasi MP!!

DOCTOR( with a puzzled look): State MP ya allathu Central M.P ya????

A Visit to Fathepur Sikri and Taj

2005-05-23T14:07:00.000+05:30

A visit to Taj Mahal is a must for any tourist in India. I had been to The Taj a few years back in a pak(c)aged bus tour. The image of Taj was much better than the actual visual experience.I went expecting to see a beautiful structure made of pure white shining marble that one sees in modern monstrous buildings. But Taj is built of small pieces of marbles that are in all possible shades of white.
The general traveller in India is never bothered to learn beforehand about the places he is visiting.He simply wants to SEE the place without troubling about artistic or aesthetic aspects.So i also did the same. For this visit i thought i will read some thing on Taj and Fathepur Sikri. But i could not do it. I along with four of my batchmates from NACEN set out in a Qualis to Agra from Delhi on this saturday(21-06-2005).Just before we reached Sikandra where Akbar's tomb is situated our vehicle broke down. Fortunately, my batchmate Balaji had a friend who is working as a wild life vetenerian in the Bear Rescue and Rehabilitation center that was a Kilometer away. So we spent around two hours at that center discussing and learning about an interesting aspect of wild life conservation. The center rescues bears from the traditional tamers of bears who eke out a living by making the bears do some acrobatics.A community of Muslims called Qalandars is involved in this. The center buys the bear from them by persuasion and rehabilitates the bears.

I have read something on Fathepur Sikri as part of my civil service History mains preparation. I had the image of dilapidated and ruined structures in mind. But the remains are impressive.It is a very huge complex and it is among the best preserved palaces that i have seen.I earlier had a serious aversion to hiring guides while visiting any historical monuments.The guides had their own version of the historical events which are absolute nonsense. But over the period of time i have changed my opinion. We spend so much in travelling to these places and the cost of hiring isn't much in comparison. With out guide we might we miss out many features although their narration of history is of no use.

How I Nearly Became a Botanist !

2005-05-20T16:09:00.000+05:30

The recent issue of Outlook carried a news item on a couple, Raghavendra Rao and Shylaja Rao who have taken to natural farming in the Chitoor District of Andhra Pradesh. They had met Masanobu Fukuoka,(http://masanobu-fukuoka.biography.ms/) the famous author of One Straw Revolution while studying their MS in Ecology at Pondicherry University. Inspired by him, they had saved money for 12 years and bought 27 acres of land and started natural farming. I was amused to come across the M.S ecology course as it had played an important role in my life. After my +2, brushing aside my amma’s pleadings I decided to join BSc Botany at Vivekananda College, Chennai. During my higher secondary years at Erode our group of friends at school had come in contact with Professor P.Kandasamy who introduced us to the charms of forest and wildlife thru treks. This made me think that I should do some course related to ecology/wild life. The whole biology department at my school was bewildered by my inability to draw any biological diagram. I could never hold a pencil properly and in spite of admonition and being made to stand outside the class( an outstanding student!!) I failed miserably to draw any diagram properly. Finally my friend Senthil Vidyasagar had to bail me out by drawing for me. (Note- only two students in our batch were warned that they will be stopped from appearing in the +2 public exams. one was this Vidyasagar and the other was myself. So you could imagine my diagrammatic skills). I had got 945/1200. In biology I had scored 189/200. So I started fancying myself as a leading biological scientist and took that fateful decision of doing BSc Botany to the horror of my teachers.

I completed my BSc without arrears and had managed to get 55 %. I could not motivate myself to get involved in the subject as I started dabbling in student activism and social studies. Just before my final year exams I resolved ( I have lost count of my resolves) that I will prepare hard and get in to M.S ecology course. I applied for it and prepared well. But could not clear the exam. I was terribly upset at that time. But looking back I feel pathetic for joining BSc Botany and not unhappy with failing to get in to M.S.Ecology

Was it an encounter or ambush at Hyderabad?

2005-05-12T15:00:00.000+05:30

In an altercation between IPS probationers and Panwala over pricing of cigarretes,the shop owner and a probationer were injured seriously. This recent incident involving IPS probationers from National Police Academy, Hyderabad, reflects the inherent disability of Indian bureaucrats to demarcate personal life from professional.Thus we
are often witness to multitude of comic-tragic rituals in all the state institutions. I have never been able to make sense of people in Tamilnadu leaving behind their slippers outside the rooms of Babus before entering and having dharshan. The complete fusion of
the individual with the office he/she holds has resulted in senior bureaucrats behaving like aging actresses.All possible ways of rule bending is invented to stay on the job for three more months. it
puzzles me to think of what would that three months help them to attain that was not possible in thirty five years of service.

what took me by surprise in NPA encounter story is that the panwala demanded Rs 150 instead of Rs 59 for a pack of cigarretes.I have had the occasion to witness the sale of cigarretes in innumerable dhabas,in places where their sale is prohibited, even during the treks where anything and every thing was sold at a premium.But none had the vision to enrich themselves in this manner. May be even leading economists would not be able to explain why the theory of demand and supply failed more miserably in Hyderabad than anywhere else.

It is a common knowledge that starting from the constables every body tries to extract anything from every body. So it is not a surprise that no one is ready to buy the version of the probationers that they were on the right side of the public morality.

Dan Brown

2005-05-12T14:35:00.000+05:30

I came across "The Da Vinci Code" in innumerable magazines and newspaper writups. Many celebrities mentioned this work as their choice of the week,month and year and whatnot.This made me lose interest. I was frightened off by the hype.But fate had it's own designs. My friend, Vijay who works in Delhi presented me a copy of The Da Vinci Code.(http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/plot.html) I thus had to read the novel.On reading i was reminded of the novel "The Name of The Rose" by Umberto Eco(http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_works_fiction.html).The novel was fast and i liked it very much.

I borrowed another novel by Dan Brown, "Angels and Demons".I am going thru it and will be back with the review soon.

Red Earth and Pouring Rain

2005-05-12T14:13:00.000+05:30

I had read the novel " Love and Longing in Bombay" by vikram chandra a few years back and i liked it. I followed the duel between meenakshi mukherjee and vikram chandra on (IWE)Indian writing in English in the Hindu. Although i do not remember the arguements fully i can recall the bitter criticism of IWE as catering to western markets by depicting an unreal exotic india.What made me notice the book "Red Earth Pouring Rain" was the title.I was pleasantly surprised to know that the title is taken from a translation of the famous sangam poem by A.K. Ramanujan, the US based poet and translator.This novel is an interesting attempt at story telling. The canvas is vast and there is a conscious effort to
copy the style of puranas/epics. The main character is a monkey which is shot at and critically injured by Abhay an Indian student at an US university who has come back to his parental home.The monkey due to the shock starts remembering his previous lives.Lord Yama comes to finish of the monkey but hanuman appears as result of monkey's prayers and brings about an agreement.According to this agreement the monkey will have to tell a story and also keep the audience engaged.The monkey who was a poet,sanjay in the turbulent times of 19 th century northern india tells his story. The story has lot of History mingled with myths and magic. The lives and times of European military free lancers form an important thread in the narrative.Sanjay has an anglo-indian friend whose father is the most famous of European miltary adventurers in 19 th century india, Skinner.Their lives form the core of this story.

There are stories within stories.Thus Abhay also tells about his life in USA.Although there are many brilliant pages the excellence is marred by numerous stereotypical descriptions. Thus abhay has a girl friend whose mother had been the centerspread in Playboy , he meets a porn actress whose story is also narrated.The style and the width of issues dealt are most interesting.But as if to prove the critics of IWE right many characters lack depth and unlike many a work where only western stereotypes are portrayed vikram chandra has utilised his skills to give life to Indian stereotypes of westerners.

The novel is quiet big running around 520 pages.I found that the novel takes many meaningless deviations trying vainly to ape our epics.A few years back i met Indira Parthasarathy the famous Tamil literary personality in Delhi.He suggested one simple test to judge the quality of IWE. Try and imagine how would a work of IWE look if translated in any of the Indian languages. By that test Red Earth and Pouring Rain is average.

http://www.vikramchandra.com/vc/pages/Reviews_RedEarth.aspx

2005-04-29T20:43:00.000+05:30

O.V.Vijayan

On reading the news of the demise of the famous malayalam novelist, O.V.Vijayan i was reminded about the nostalgic pleasure on reading his work The Legends of Khasak. It was in November 2001 just before i was to appear in civil service mains exams. i was preparing at Indian Agricultural research Institute (pusa institute), New Delhi. As it was my third attempt at mains i was pretty annoyed at having to go thru the ritual of giving exams. Anyway pusa institute was a better place than JNU for i had spent the first four years of my life in JNU in extra-career activities and built up enough avenues of distraction. my schooltime friend sasi had got admission into pusa institute and was in to civil services preparation. that's how i ended up there. Another of my friend P.S. who had a taste for literature was also at pusa institute . As i was finding it difficult to read anything distantly related to upsc\ civil services, i asked him to give me some novels to read. he gave me the legends of khasak by O.V.Vijayan. I started to read in the morning and at a stretch finished it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it but on completing it i felt as if i was rudely being awaked from a dream that i wanted to last forever.