Immortals of Meluha

I have wanted to read the 'Shiva trilogy' ever since the recent book 'Oath of the Vayuputras' was released. The Shiva trilogy, in case you don't know is a series of 3 books written by Amish Tripathi. The first book was called, 'Immortals of Meluha' and published in 2010. I have always been interested in fiction based on our Indian mythology. It seems much simpler to understanding than understanding something like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Fantasy is not really my choice for books. I have only read the first book in the Harry Potter series. I have watched movies of the other six. As for Lord of the Rings, I have only watched the movies. So if it was fantasy, I thought I might as well try out an Indian one.

The 'Immortals of Meluha'; is definitely interesting and fast paced. The story stops at a very important point at the end of the book. I will know what happens next only when I read the 'Secret of the Nagas'. Unlike the Harry Potter series, there is no conclusion after each book. So the story is about how Shiva, a tribal chief from Tibet becomes Lord Shiva, the Mahadev. The story unfolds in a mythical land called Meluha somewhere near the ancient city of Mohanjadaro. The people of Meluha, the Suryavanshis, are looking for their savior, one who would help them fight against the Chandravanshis of Swadeep. It seems like Shiva is the one, who will protect the good from the evil. But then at the end of the first book, you are left wondering as to who is the evil of the two. What is evil afterall, is it just a perception, is it a definite quality?

Amish Tripathi has done a lot of research for the book, with respect to the places, the stories behind the origin of the rivers and cities. He gives a good description of the cities, the condition of the houses, roads, public facilities, royal buildings and so on. Somehow, I got that feeling that the land of the Chandravanshis resembled India and Indian cities. The land of Meluha seemed like the US. Order versus chaos, discipline versus impulsive action, luxury versus poverty and squalor, pleasure versus contentment. Anyway, there are a number of ways this can be interpreted and that is the potential of the story.

Shiva, as a mythological character is always interesting as He is shown to be quite human sometimes, with His blatant display of anger and raw energy. He is the nomad, the one who does not conform to the norms of the society. In this book, all other characters are quite ordinary and are shown in relation to Shiva. The character of Sati is not so strong yet, the focus is still on Shiva. There are a number of 'action's sequences, which are described quite well. The scene of the war with the Chandravanshis, the surprise attacks which resemble gorilla warfare are all well written.

If there is one negative about the book, it is the language at some places. When you read about mythological characters or characters who have lived several hundred years ago, you somehow assume that they were more polite with each other. Atleast you don't want to hear words like 'shit' and 'bloody hell' especially coming from Shiva. The other point is that may be there should have been more Indian words replacing some words like 'My Lord'. May be they should have used words like 'Maharaj' which would have been more apt and easy to understand too.

The Golden Notebook

I really enjoyed reading "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing. This is the second time I am reading it (after a gap of 7 years) and I felt I understood it better now. I liked it the first time, but I wanted to go over it once again, really carefully. Attempting to write about this book itself is very challenging for me. It is over 500 pages long and I think it is the most exhaustive expression of a woman's psyche. It was published in the 1960s and had a shocking impact on the readers.

The first time I saw this book, I got attracted to it by reading the blurb and also finding that it was on sale. I read it first in 2006, before the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to the then 87 year old Doris Lessing. So I read it with no major illusions or expectations about the author. About half way through the book, I was quite engrossed in the story and had to remind myself that this was written in the 1960s. It is one of the most honest descriptions I have ever read about the challenges faced by a woman and an author.

The book has a very different structure. It actually has a book within it and a flashback to the main story. The main character is a woman in her thirties, Anna Wulf, an author and a single parent. The book goes back and forth from the time Anna was a young woman in her 20s and her life when she is in her 30s. Anna Wulf has a whole gamut of experiences as an idealistic young woman in South Africa, as a modern woman in London trying to live life on her own terms. The story is told in terms of entries in Anna's notebooks or diaries in various stages. Anna is a successful author after writing one best selling book. But all of a sudden, many things start crumbling in her otherwise independent life.

South Africa forms the basis for Anna's communist leanings, and her ideas about love and life in general. Later as a mature woman in her 30s, she tries to come to terms with the changing face of communism, its place in the world and her own identity. She is also a single mother which was something quite challenging by itself in the 1950s. With the collapse of communism and increasing importance of capitalism, Anna finds herself questioning the traditional role of a woman and a mother. She also tries to pursue the ideal man in her life and in the process comes across her own weaknesses and strengths.

There are many stories within the main story of Anna Wulf in the Golden Notebook. Women and their internal and external struggles are the focus throughout the book. Doris Lessing is quite bold in her descriptions about the feelings and emotions of women at various stages in their life. I loved reading the description of real women in this book as opposed to the the false and often pathetically portrayed characters in many books. I loved the fact that Doris Lessing did not hide behind too many emotions to state the conditions of women in the 1950s. She was impartial in her observations about men and women and this is what makes her writing authentic. She was not trying to be a feminist, trying to strongly state something about women through her book. It appears as though she made strong observations about anything or anybody that really caught her attention. She was interested in the conditions of the people living in South Africa, the condition of women in the so called liberal London society. The description of places and scenes throughout the book is equally captivating. Whether it is the description of the South African landscape or the interiors of the London flat, her description brings the scene in front of your eyes.

I could go on and on about this book. I wish I could quote my favourite lines from the book too.  But I just may have to read it once again and mark them. Another aspect of the novel that I really loved is her use of the 'notebooks' to denote the various stages of Anna's life and emotional development. I could actually relate to it. Women try so hard to play the perfect roles of a dutiful daughter, loving wife, responsible mother, that they lose themselves in the process. Anna tries to find her true self, separate from her other identities of that of a writer, a single woman, mother or lover. She keeps one notebook for each of her identities, one of the notebooks contains the story she wishes to write.

It is too easy to brand "The Golden Notebook" as a feminist book. It is finally the quest of an individual to find her true self. Anna wants to live a free, independent life. When she says 'free' she means that she wishes to live like a man without having to do things differently just because she was a woman. Back in the 1950s women were still not accepted as individuals. They had to stick or attach themselves to their roles in society. A woman who was single and wanted to experiment with her life was just not accepted. Doris Lessing has just tried to prove that a woman is just as influenced by her philosophies in life and has the right to make mistakes and learn from them. The story was written at a time when people were finding out the dark side of communism and racism, the devastation of war and the need for a new way of life.


The book can still be read and enjoyed today just to get inspired by the seeing how much our society has changed since then and to experience some brilliant writing by Doris Lessing.

On Teaching

 Like all little girls, I too have admired teachers, when I was in school. In real life, I tried being a teacher, when I volunteered in a Government school near my house for a while. I was to teach English for Class V in a Tamil medium school. It was a combined class, so the total number of children in the class was about 50 or sometimes it would be 30, depending on the number of absentees. I went there for a couple of hours in the morning, from 10 am to 12noon. That was when I realised what an exhausting job, teaching is. By the end of one hour, on most days, I could feel my throat getting dry, and my hands dry with chalk powder. I felt like sitting down sometimes. But I had to stand for the children to remain attentive or atleast active.

Teaching is usually a profession taken by many married women as it is considered convenient and most 'appropriate'. This actually translates into being easy as the timing was fixed and holidays were a bonus. I actually resisted joining a 'Montessori Teacher Training' course that was right next to my house for quite some time. It was the course chosen by many young, educated mothers who wanted to work part time. I am glad I didn't take that course too......as adult education sometimes catches on and I find myself wanting to take every other 'part time course' that is offered. Anyway, coming back to teaching, I realised that only if you have real passion for the profession can you continue doing it for a long time.

During the three months that I volunteered, I realised that my throat went hoarse after about 2 hours of talking and shouting..Well, shouting was part of the teaching as these were active 10 -year-olds who had to be outshouted sometimes just to make myself clear. I also realised the difference between teaching, say a bunch of 20 well behaved kids and teaching a motley group of 40 kids in a class. Also, if you don't prepare for the class, even if it is a basic English class, the kids can outsmart you and make you feel quite lost.

Yesterday was Teachers Day and it is right that we should celebrate this day every year. I congratulate all the teachers for being dedicated to their profession and contributing so much to the growth of young minds. It is after all my teachers who have made me like 'English' to start with. I wish educational institutions also realise this and pay their teachers well because it is afterall quite an underpaid job.

My Life in France: Julia Child

I just finished reading the book 'My life in France' by Julia Child and Alex Prud Homme. It is a wonderful book and can be enjoyed both by foodies and book lovers. It was written by Julia Child in her later years as a memoir about her experiences in France which changed the whole direction of her life. Julia Child was one of the earliest TV stars, who had her own popular cooking show, during the 1960s and 1970s. I did not know much about her until I saw the movie, 'Julie and Julia'.

When I lived in the US, I had occasionally watched the Martha Stewart show and wondered how she became so popular. Home cooking, a beautiful kitchen and good food seems to be always popular on day time TV. And it was Julia Child who kind of introduced this concept in the US. When I saw a couple of her shows now on You Tube, I thought it was Julia Child's simple commentary and demonstration which made the show such a success. Black and White TV with a made up studio kitchen is not as attractive as the real home of Martha Stewart but Julia Child  was the pioneer TV host who proved that a cooking show would be quite popular.

Anyway, I think I enjoyed 'My Life in France' much better than the TV show. What I liked about the book was the way Julia Child's life is described through her travels and her cooking experiments. The book describes Paris at a time when international travel was not so common or so easy. She had to travel on a ship for a week before reaching Le Havre in France. Paris in the pre-war period has been beautifully captured through photographs and beautiful descriptions of places and smells and sounds. It seems as though Julia Child loved travelling and her curiosity about new places, people, customs, cuisine comes through the book. It is her endless curiosity that led her to master the art of French cooking. Julia Child was actually a modern woman with a good education and work experience. She traveled to various places for work and met her future husband, Paul Child. The experiences of Julia and Paul as they set up their home when they first land in Paris is particularly charming.

The book is quite simply written and gives the impression that Julia Child truly enjoyed her life and cooking for people. It was an enjoyable read and I finished it quite quickly. What I got from the book was that if a person holds on his or her passion, it would show the way to success or fulfillment in life.