Malice towards N(one)

As a child I didn’t have any clue I have been reading and laughing on jokes of the matchless, exceptional, incomparable and one of the most contentious writer in the history of Indian authors.
I assumed Khushwant Singh to be another Jaspal Bhatti cracking jokes after jokes in his books. But as clueless as I was about the epics being written by this fearless writer on most ticklish and sensitive issues of Women and Sex, Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims, India and its Politicians, Indian History, Death, Eunuchs and some more of Women and Sex.

Amidst his innumerable books, I have till now flipped just a few of them and I already feel I have known him quite closely. Perhaps some very minute characteristics of him have been telepathically communicated into me while reading his joke books. Since childhood I never missed anything written on, about or by Khushwant with a prospect of reading something funny, oblivious to the fact that I aspire to be a Journalist or a writer or a dedicated reader of his sincere books. In fact when I first read his first book ‘Train to Pakistan’ I scribbled in my diary about how at times his thoughts match to that of mine.

Nevertheless Khushwant Singh has been densely criticised and often referred as ‘nasty old man’ for his bold and promiscuous writings. Many of my friends rather most of them hate him and never touch his books calling him insane while I as a teenager postponed reading him imagining his books to be too serious for my age (although that was true). It’s not that I condemn people’s criticism because Khushwant really gets nasty many times and writes daringly on the most hidden curiosity of human mind that they always deny facing even to their conscience!

I take him quite realistically, considering his explicit writing as his inquisitive fascination on several subjects and belongingness towards the nation. Apparently that’s the reason Pakistan, Partition, Muslims, Sikh, Death and Dead, Unapproachable, mysterious and secretive characters, Ghosts and Eunuchs have been his major area of concern. Of course Khushwant remains incomplete if I don’t mention something that he has been disapproved most, even now in the age of 97. How could we forget the diversity in age and class in women, their femininity and their nationality that always appealed him more to first experience and pen them down later in his books? Try to think privately with just yourself; don’t you feel an impression of a mischievous child in that old nasty man? Weird enough to be intrusive, to annoy, irritate, stand to rebukes of readers; Yet research and opine on the topics only he is interested in.

Well, I would call this old nasty man of 97 years ‘a true Sardar’ and alternatively ‘a true writer’. Really. He chose his own style of freedom in his thoughts, works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and short stories, even as a tourist guide and in unfolding the beauty of women and their characteristics. He wrote what he was not asked for but what he felt is wanted..that should be the spirit of a writer. C’mon you can’t deny he is still one of the most incompetent authors in the country.

Read him once and you would know the quality of knowledge he has to serve, his vocabulary and perfect usage of words would convince you to believe, he is a man of wisdom, just that he writes bluntly doesn’t take his intelligence away.
Although he is 95+ now, and suffering from "a declining body, impaired vision, impaired hearing and soon, no doubt, mental degeneration", Khushwant's output, both written and spoken, remains uninterrupted.

The man who persistently had ‘malice towards none’, now with ‘death at his doorstep’ rests peacefully on his armchair with a realisation that there are still many who has ‘malice towards one’….

On Amrita Pritam, For Amrita Pritam, Because of Amrita Pritam

Very lately I finished a book in Hindi (well yes, I tried my eyes on Hindi for a change), it's called 'Paanch Baras Lambi Sadak' by Amruta Pritam. Oh! quite a heavy one for someone who keep oneself distant from the deep thoughts, solitude and being too sensitive.
It carries a few short stories and a long story too, called 'Yatri'. Each story gives an idea on how drastically life twists itself within a span of five years and how, for some it's a long time while for others it's not the case. 'Yatri' on teh other hand was bit dragging and extremely saddistic to handle, but I read it patiently.
It proved a bit heavy to me for the reason I simply couldn't absorb the idea of someone writing so very well. I mean that's what I would call a perfect writer, Amrita Pritam had the ability to connect each and every word and thing she wrote, knew exactly what she wanted to express further, skilled to pour life into the dead and non living things. It took quite a long time for me to finish a book of just 180-200 pages because unlike other usual books, it forced me meditate it! Sink in. Within.
It surely weren't the stories in particular that swayed my thoughts but the pensiveness of the author left me hysterically wondering how..how could it be possible for a human being to think of something so sublime! And then I find my eyebrows raised with a thought 'it's just the first book of Amrita Pritam that I have read, what would happen if I read further?' The writer's soul within me says that her writing has a capability to deject a good writer and elevate an aspiring writer. And I decided to be an aspiring one. May be forever. May be till I finish reading all her books. May be till the day I become a writer like her.
I was experiencing a block recently, it wasn't the writer's block exactly but yes, something near to it because I knew I wanted to write but the cause was missing. Thankfully, it's over now. Amrita Pritam definitely added fuel to the tank of words, though she is all about Hindi, the language which is absolutely alien to me when it comes to writing, but her style of writing is brisk, sausy, novel, unused and fresh forever. Really believe it or not she was an awesome woman of thoughts and words.
Her writing is like...you are isolated? Not liking it? Read her, you will love your solitude and would want to be there forever. If you aren't isolated because you are afraid of it, that fear will go off once you read her, because you will start loving it. And if you aren't isolated at all for no reason, you should want to have a cozy corner in life where you could read her heartfully. The latter one goes with me!

So guys don't miss a chance to read her at least once if you want to try some serious reading or writing for that matter.
And as for now I am back to my very own shelf of books backlogging since ages, namely: 'At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks (more than half done) and 'Wuthering Heights a classic' (just started) and many more. They feel ignored, therefore, after a brief attention to them, I would be back to Amrita Pritam's Biography called 'Rasidi Ticket'. Yeah, I have already got it with me, courtesy to my friend Raj.

:)

From The Book Shelf

‘A Roller Coaster Ride- When an IITian met a Bitsian girl’

Genre- Drama, fiction

Publisher- Srishti Publishers and distributors

Author- Saumil Shrivastava

Pages- 216

Debut author Saumil Shrivastava an IITian from Mumbai is basically from Raipur Chhattisgarh and currently settled in Gurgaon. The novel Roller Coaster is based on a fiction that connects to the lifestyle of maximum of the youths today, so in a way it is a fiction based on non-fiction.

Story walks back to review Maddy’s genuinely roller coaster ride with lots of jerks in his career, friends and love life in particular. Maddy the focal character is an IITian who after a bunch of struggle reaches Gurgaon with a good corporate job in hand. A few poky yet lively and virtuous friends/colleagues/flat mates altogether made his life disquieting and heartening as well. Maddy had this foolish habit of chatting and meeting with strange girls on the cost of ignoring his enjoyment with friends. But no sooner he met with his dream girl Divya (in the office, life for him completely changed everlastingly, for good or bad…find it out in the novel.

Oh! And the place H93 where Maddy stayed with his friends and the celebrity cook plays a significant role in the novel with frequent reminders. Specially the kind of sudden undesired hindrances that popped up every now and then attaches the reader to the main character’s life.

Every time you finish a page of this book, it creates curiosity for what would happen next to Maddy or how he would deal with the unforeseen trouble. So, it proved to be a perfect page turner for all those who feel connected in someway to this novel. And the blend of different kind of characters like Harsha, Satya, Pooja etc stages a link with real life encounters in almost everyone’s life.

Saumil’s novel definitely conveys an important message to the most worrisome problem of youngster’s i.e love and career. It clearly suggests you to balance things wisely and how to shrug off unwanted depression by boozing and fagging out with friends. Though the novel targets towards the lifestyle of core youth but then who grows old without crossing this critical bridge of adolescence. Thus, Uncles and Aunties, Roller Coaster is a nice excuse to peep into your youthful past.

Book Review: Train to Pakistan

From The Book Shelf

Comment: Breathtakingly superb
Genre- classic fiction
Pages:181



A story that connects each Indian and Pakistani to its past to feel that we weren’t always the way we are now. A confrontation which couldn’t be undone, the brunt of which India and Pakistan is still facing. ‘The Partition’.
The author’s very debut novel though written in the year 1956 still carries credence enough to stand and contest the latest bestselling novels of the recent years. In the beginning it depicts an interesting and peaceful picture of a rural place in the borders of Punjab and Pakistan called Mano Majra that would compel today’s reader wondering on the survival of ancient people in absence of mere resources like ‘watch’. People of Mano Majra actually depended on the morning and evening trains to sleep, wake and eat, trains were the time-tellers to them.
The story gives an idea that it’s been written with a focus to highlight the turbulent situation during partition but featuring the lifestyle of Mano Majra and a tiny love story in the backdrop keeps balm-ing the painful wounds both to the writer and reader as well.

Khushwant Singh in this book reveals the unerasable outbreak of our country’s history that’s haunting both India and Pakistan till date. With millions of men killed, women raped and children burnt, it’s been more than half a century old now. Thus, it carries an ability to move every patriotic nerve of the country lovers.
His powerful writing doesn’t allow the reader to ponder over the gory inhuman incidents of murder and slaughter for a long time as the mood of the story took sudden turns to bring back the reader’s composure.

The presumably highlighted characters like Lalaji the Hindu moneylender, Juggat Singh alias Jugga one of the notorious elements mostly in and out of the prison, the Muslim priest and the Magistrate cum Deputy Commissioner Hukum Chand, simple priest of Sikh temple, Iqbal, the communist party worker whose religion remained disclosed till the end, none of them proved to be a monopolist. Rather played acceptably till the end while Jugga’s strong dialogue delivery, aggressiveness, mood swings and indigenousness in the end give him a saviour’s title.

Khushwant Singh sketches his characters with a sure and steady hand.
Train to Pakistan highlights the political complications after sudden taste of independence while the author made sure not to be judgemental over the people behind mass murders, rapes, robbery and violence, he didn’t blame anyone. Instead he emphasised on those innocent people who were absolutely ignorant of what’s and why’s of the happenings, while they were brutally killed or separated from their own people for reasons they didn’t knew, they were bewildered, victimised and torn apart. Things change for the worse when an east-bound train makes an unscheduled stop at Mano Majra, the wagons full of corpses. The most heart-rending passage in the book is when the government makes the decision to transport all the Muslim families from Mano Majra to Pakistan.
It’s a must read for every Indian and Pakistani to know the hard truth of the begged independence away from just the politics, Britishers, Gandhi and Nehru gaatha. This gimmick book has been reprinted and translated into many languages since its publication in 1956. Another reason for its publicity was also the author’s boldness and exposed writing in terms of the women characters including a little teenage girl in the story. Compared to the conservative era of 1950s, it’s considered as an intrepidly courageous step in the world of writing for Indian writers and readers.
Khushwant Singh since then went on to become a famously truculent, humorous, and eccentric columnist and editor, but this is one book infused with his compassion and humanity or say inhumanity.
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Book REview: The Kite Runner

From The Book Shelf

Book: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Pages: 336 pages

An Afgan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel The Kite Runner released in 2003 is something to be curled upon. An amazingly powerful book speaking the stories of wounded part of the world, Afganistan. The horrifying realities of war, inhumanity in the caste system between Sunni and Shia’s Muslims and the chemistry between a loyal and disloyal friend makes it a perfect page turner. Precisely this book is about life, society, friendship, betrayal, guilt, love and Afganistan.
Kid Amir belonging to a culturally and luxuriously rich Pashtun business family has Hassan a lower caste Hazara boy as his taken for granted pal whose father is an age old servant at Amir’s bunglow.
The story starts with a phone call to a grown-up Amir from his late father’s old friend Rahim Khan. This call gives him a chance to revive his life of betrayal and guilt he has been carrying since childhood. A flashback is then followed with friendship between Amir and Hassan where Amir secretly envies him due to his father’s affection for Hassan while the latter loves him unconditionally and says ‘for you a thousand times over’ whenever his friend asks him something.
The powerful expressions in sentences could take the readers on a flight to Afganistan allowing them to visualise the happenings. The story takes a required U-turn with Amir’s betrayal that forcefully departs Hassan from his dear friend forever. Actually devoted Hassan was brutally beaten and raped by a group of Pashtun bullies when he was on his way with Amir’s last cut kite in the local kite-flying tournament. Where Hassan played unbreakably loyal, Amir didn’t turn up to rescue his friend inspite of being an eye-witness of the piteous incident. Novel’s name suggests Hassan’s skillful quality of knowing where the kite would fall, it was assumed that perhaps he follows the kite’s shadow and reaches the landing place before the kite.
Hosseini describes further story as if he was Amir, followed with the unwanted departure of Hassan and his father Ali, war in Kabul, refuge to Pakistan and then America, Amir falling in love with a beautiful girl Soraya and healing the scar of guilt by adopting Hassan’s orphaned son Sohrab. It was a perilous task for him to free Hassan’s son from violent Talibanis’ grip.
Though The Kite Runner runs around Amir’s life but leaves Hassan’s mark in reader’s mind through out. The author has perfectly utilised the characters in the story to strongly portray the Afgan history from the non-violent 70’s to ugly truth of Taliban taking over in 90’s.
The story twists many times in between surprising the reader as well as Amir. The beauty of writing lays in The Kite Runner which is definitely addictive and not a topsy-turvy.
The book is heartbreakingly moving right from the start. In the end reserved and unfriendly Sohrab only shows a smile to as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over."
The Denver Post, a daily in US says The Kite Runner "ranks among the best-written and provocative stories of the year so far." The book has also been conceptualised into a motion picture in Dari language with the subtitles in English.
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From This to That, that to There and to Him...

I Guess Jade Goody wouldn’t have got after death publicity (or space in newspapers and TV channels) , if at all she weren’t a racialist and a participant of Big Brother....defame also has its own advantages....not that she was a bad human, reports say that Goody was equally compassionate to orphans and needy Indians. May Lord rest her soul in peace.
Possibly I would have opined on few of the hot national, international, regional and personal updates?? Like..

*Varun Gandhi
*Ipl
*Nano
*Banning black glasses in cars
*Summer
*Water
* LS elections ofcourse
*Terrorists in Pakistan !!!! ( Well this would cover a ‘space’ for itself )
*Sanjay Dutt banned for LS elections and many more bla blas.. but I suppose News Channels and Newspapers are already leaking with them. Therefore, I dropped.

So lets talk nothing in particular but personal updates in a purely personal way. Because according to people here (or say considering my age and all) the ‘updates’ are particularly about ‘Are you d engaged...when are you planning to get married?’ and things like that. I wonder what update would they want after I marry....lolzz...I feel sickk. To marry is so very important I realised lately or you would be strangled to death with a rope of stupid questions. Not that I don’t want to marry or something its just that.....well... M I answerable to everyone?
Of course not dude !
‘I am like your mother, you can tell me; Don’t you think its late?; What do you waaaannntt?; Do you like someone?’ Hell lot of answers they want to know for their nose-poking questions. How on Earth could I explain this is just not the time....., why, they would ask and I give a damn to explain why. I came across a few real traditional families who want their not-eligible-sons to be tied into nuptial knots and I found a few things irritably common in all of them, don’t know if all the marwaris come from same genes but one thing I know and scream about is ‘I am not like you people, have mercy.’ Everything in them makes me really indifferent, uninterested, unresponsive and all ‘un(s)’ towards them.
Okay I was talking about the common features or questions or looks or whatever.
*Hobbies: Agh! The common-est and most disgusting question ever heard...can’t they just ask it in some other way like....’what I like or dislike’ or what interests me most or what I do at leisure time?
What if I reply that I love to freak out, surfing, friends and partying...naah they don’t want to listen this. What interests them is mehandi, stitching, cooking and those oldie stuff. Am not against all this but am for freedom to speak, hear and everything. Actually they keep changing, I concluded.
*Job: Well we are traditional people and don’t believe in girls-at-work funda. But don’t worry, we are affluent and there’s a lot of money here. Huh!!?
*Driving: Arrey we toh have drivers at home and above all, gents in the family are the dominating factors, so they drive. Okhayy!!?

They have many more issues like these and I don’t consider them to be really important. Now comes the common looking guys...fat stomach, fat glasses and a fat rather swollen mouth filled with gutka I avoid to peep in or I would be baffled looking at iron stained teeth, by god! Some of them have such big nose that I imagine myself flying in from one nostril and out from the other. Lolzz its hilarious, I feel like laughing my lungs out at that most serious state. I concentrate on the humour part to compose myself. Maan..God knows that I don’t really hate all the traditions and all but imposition is what I can’t stand. Why can’t the trends be changed a bit. Why is this authority to decide is always given to Men, I am trying to rule over here at my time. We girls expect from the compatibility part all other things are secondary.
Oh, I forgot to mention the most wanted stuff, The Dowry !! Before they decide to see the girl, they want to know ‘Party kitne ki hai’ or ‘Kitna lagaenge’. What silly jargons. Luckily I haven’t come across such things yet or I would have cleared them with party kitne ki hai.
Aahhh....this personal update thing doesn’t seems to be a good idea here...it gives me a feeling of ‘lifelessness’ and am not lifeless c’mon.
Good idea! How about Books and Movies? Sounds Interesting ( atleast better than the above(s). Very lately I have got this habit of reading books followed by watching the motion pictures of the same that tells me so much about writing and filming at the same time! Undoubtedly I find the writing part i.e books more arresting than the films.
Lets say ‘The Kite Runner’, read the book and you will come to know the beauty of writing, watch the film and you will know the kindness of editing. Seriously, sometimes the zeal of converting a book into a movie kills the whole concept and life of the story: My opinion.
Movies like ‘Message in a bottle’, ‘PS, I Love You’, ‘Marley and me’ and many more didn’t give me the same feeling when I finished the books. Somewhere I couldn’t find the characters were justified. Yet am enjoying this new hobby of mine, (hobby again??) it activates the rational and emotional glands that gives a lot of space to myself for myself. I was always fond of reading and to collect books but hardly spared time to read them, I felt cruel to leave them unread.
Then came this guy or ‘The Reader’ whose views, maturity, knowledge and wisdom inspired me or say who fixed up a reading instrument in my braino to read books. Good, better or best ones. Unlike Journalism the guy very un-forcefully and secretly gifted me with one of the best habits in world. Reading.
And today, I starve for books. Gimme more and more, possibly I would end up opening a book store one day. That’s a dream I never realised before.
‘Books are your best friend in life’ they said, but I said, ‘What about the best friend who brought books into our life’??
Cheers!!