No More Meows 😢 April 5,2025

 Our beloved cat Zeus, constant companion, playmate, instant therapist, compassionate listener, playful trouble maker and independent spirit, has left us for cat heaven on Saturday April 5, 2025. He had turned 12 this February and was going on 13 when a ruthless beast, in the form of Chronic Kidney Disease, snatched him away from us. If you have ever loved a pet, you would understand this feeling of profound loss. He was the happy beating pulse of our home which now stands silent where no beloved face peeps through the corners. There is no familiar thud either of Choobs jumping down from wherever he was to come investigate any ongoing action. He conversed to us with his animated ears and a swishing tail. That intelligent face and those chatty meows will forever be cherished in our hearts. We try to take solace knowing he is not suffering anymore. We love you our sweet little Zeus, rest in peace.

♡♡♡♡♡

And Quiet Flows The Nila : A Salute To M.T

This take on Mikhail Sholokhov's famous title aptly describes my feelings on M.T. Vasudevan Nair's departure at the great age of 91. He was the undisputed emperor of stories in Malayalam, a Dravidian language from the Indian state of Kerala. M.T as he was known, was synonymous with the language itself, such was the might of his pen. Marquez's 'Macondo' was imaginary while M.T's 'Kudallur' was a real village with its inhabitants living on as characters in his books and its river Nila forever his muse.

There was never a time when the name MT did not come up if you were into Malayalam books. To MT, celluloid was as familiar a medium as paper. He directed or did screen play for more than 50 films, almost all of which were hits with the state's highly discerning audience. English translations of his works made him familiar to non-Malayalam readers, but his words truly touch the soul when read in Malayalam. Unfortunately, this might be the reason why this unbelievably gifted author was never considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Akin to Dostoevsky, he had an uncanny ability to understand and vividly portray his characters. I have imagined them as emerging fully formed from the tip of his pen after dwelling deeply in his psyche. 

MT was forever in search of true human nature and had a unique gift to absorb everything around him. Another like him may never come by again. Malayalam was quite lucky to have had this giant literary presence for as long as it had. Sleep well MT! Your books will continue their triumphant journey through time even after the Nila stops flowing.

Maui sunset, 2024

Trust By Hernan Diaz

We had gone to the University to pickup our son for Christmas and decided to have lunch there as we sometimes do. There was a 45 minute wait for the table and so we went to checkout the bookstore that was right next to the restaurant. This book immediately caught my eye and I managed to read quite a few pages before we got the call. On the way back I bought the book and came home and finished it. A very novel way of story telling that will catch your attention for sure. The same story is told from four different view points. I was so caught up in the first version that I refused to budge when the second, more sane version came along but warmed up to the idea that the story and characters were changing by the time the third version came along and was fully sold onto the last one. Diaz is quite accomplished in that each of the stories gives the reader a certain closure on the at once enigmatic and pedantic couple around whom the stories are built. You can read this one for sure when you get that urge to read 'something' and want a satisfying read. Almost like a good meal of comfort food.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race By Walter Isaacson

 I am adding this here just to remember this book. As one gets older, memories become more like tiny pieces of cloud that we try to catch before it fades. I had read this fascinating real story in one sitting almost. But now, a month or so later I couldn't quite remember what was that book I had read with such passion. Took some effort but I have managed to grab that memory back and has now deposited it into the core memory. At least I think so.

It is a great read about the long history of research that resulted in the groundbreaking work of gene editing by Nobel prize winner Jennifer Doudna and team at UC Berkeley, California. Isaacson starts at the earliest spot of research done in this field and ties together various coincidences and efforts of the scientific community across the world with surprising clarity. Then he weaves the life of Doudna into this whole scenario to take it to the astounding conclusion that we all know of . A must read.

A House Without Windows By Nadia Hashimi

I have heard of writer's block but I'd been suffering from a reader's block for a while. Suffice it to say Nadia Hashimi's flavorful prose jolted me out of it and led me to complete her book in under 3 days! Despite a very serious story, Hashimi gently takes hold of the reader's heart with subtly placed details that elicit a craving for more. Who else can describe a plain meal of rice, bread and spinach so well and I quote, "the aromatic steam of the white rice, a blend of cumin and salt" and again, "tore off a piece of bread and shaped it around a lump of spinach, pink threads of rhubarb mixed in". The staunch non-vegetarian that I am, didn't stop me from drooling while reading this even as I worried earnestly about the protagonist's fate. Zeba is the central character who is jailed for killing her husband Kamal on a day described in such refreshing detail that you can feel it as if you were there in person. Through Zeba, Nadia Hashimi tells the story of the women of Afghanistan and to an extent women everywhere who face hardships because of their gender. I have flipped through similarly themed books without picking it up as a read just because of the unavoidable weight it places on one's mood. This book has resolved that dilemma and I find that I can see Zeba's life with a greater awareness. While I think the title didn't do full justice to the superior prose inside, I have gone ahead and ordered "The Pearl That Broke Its Shell" by the same author. Quite telling I'd say as to what I think of the book and the author. 

Two Books

The Ivory Throne By Manu S Pillai

With this book, Pillai has accomplished what many people take years to do. He has become a true blue historian. His well researched book on the last royals of the House of Travancore from the Indian state of Kerala at the cusp of independence is quite expansive and intriguing. Flavored with stories he must have heard from his own ancestors,  the book showcases evidence based research that lends it credence. He had access to British archives from the colonial times while a student in London and seems to have made good use of the State and National archives of India. This is more 'her'story than history as the book is presented around the reign of the last Travancore Queen Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. As a child growing up in post independence Kerala, I had heard a lot about this queen and always wanted to know more of her. The book also starts out with a wonderful chapter on the early history of the Malabar-Kochi-Travancore region with its many kingdoms that were engaged in regular trade with Arabs, Chinese and Europeans from ancient times.  So a big thank you to Pillai for this almost 700 pages long, 2 inches thick paperback that helped satiate a lot of my curiosity. I fervently hope he will come out with a book which further expands on that first early history.

Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki By TD Ramakrishnan

Let me be upfront. There is a good chance that getting through the second half of this difficult to pronounce book may be tough. But the good news is the first half. The scenes, story and premise are quite refreshing and relatively unexplored in Malayalam or for that matter in Indian lit. Before Ondatje I hadn't read anything on the country that lies so close to the southern tip of India. My first international roommate in the US was a Sinhalese from Sri Lanka. I remember how we used to marvel at the fact that a whole lot of people in those times didn't know that Sri Lanka was a whole country!

I asked for this book on a whim along with the Ivory Throne when my dear book friend offered to get me some books on her way back from India. There is nothing more that I need when a book is coming my way. Truly enjoyed the first half with its enchanting stories of the old and new and it was a privilege to learn of both Andal Devanayaki from the old era and Rajani Thiranagama from the new.  The second half felt like a lengthy repetition of the first but I am still glad I read this. Will be looking for more books from this promising author.

The Last Painting Of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

The other day my son remarked that I had not posted anything here in a while. This was the right remark at the right time as I'd been meaning to add a book post before 2020 finally wandered off. Not that any of us will miss it but it did have some highlights along with the low light. 2020 election results and the arrival of vaccines at the tail end, all four of us together under one roof and the absence of daily commute are a few of the favorite things of last year. I'll note down just one of the few books I managed to finish in this very busy year.

When a book is being read on Kindle, it is not lying face down where you left off, inviting you in on your return. To add to this, past and present lives of two major characters from two different centuries got intermingled enough for me to get lost and leave. That is, until I took it up again when it showed up in my Kindle library as 57% read. 

The key that holds this book came to me on this second attempt. Each chapter is a beautiful painting by Dominic Smith and each word a masterful brush stroke. Every sentence, part of a scene coming together to create that fully framed painting. 

 Dominic Smith created Sara de Vos out of the life stories of many women painters of 17th century that he had gleaned from research. It was so real that as soon as I finished the book, I started searching for Sara de Vos's painting 'At The Edge of The Wood'. I was frustrated that links for the book kept coming up instead of links to the painting. This is how I found that there was no such artist or painting! Apparently this painting provided some inspiration to the author.

The second protagonist in the story is also a woman painter living in New York in the 20th century. Eleanor Shipley restored paintings in the early phase of her career and the one mistake she did was to do a forgery of the single known painting of Sara de Vos. 

Through Dominic Smith, it dawns on us how skilled one needs to be to do a forgery. I had never thought of this angle before so this was very revealing. To faithfully represent the original painter and to pass through many inspections,  a forger has to have in depth knowledge of old paintings and the tools used to create them in those times. Same skills used by a restorer of paintings. Same difference between hacking and cyber security if you ask me. 

Dominic Smith is a painter of words and writes as if he has a scene right in front of his eyes. You don't want to miss any of the words because then you could very well be missing that little hint of sunshine or the shadow from a tree that gives depth to this masterpiece of a book. If you love paintings, then this is your book without doubt.

Two Books. No, Make That 3.

There is always a book waiting in the wings begging to start, midway through or almost done. Of all the books I read these months past, these 3 couldn't be left without giving a mention here. This doesn't mean the rest of them I read were garbage. Many were decent reads if not great, like Christin Hanna's The Nightingale, A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles or The Silent Patient by  Alex Michaelides. But the three books detailed below, reside in my cache memory till I give a formal farewell before shelving them away in the core memory.

Becoming By Michelle Obama
No introduction is necessary for the much admired former first lady's soul inspiring memoir. One thing that stands out is the sheer volume of information imparted with such an economy of words. I envision Mrs. Obama, sitting serenely scanning her entire life, her brain churning all the memories and deftly yielding a comprehensive summary in lucid prose that became this book.

She is extraordinarily gifted and I understand this great nation was blessed to get the Obamas as a package. His brilliance, universality, and love of humanity, blending perfectly with her insight, unbound intelligence and pure energy. They truly complete each other. That the country was governed by this union of spirit and wisdom for 8 years is a matter of simple good fortune. Where I used to think of her as a really smart person, I now believe her to be a pure soul untouched by evil. This is her strength and the bedrock of her personality. The role played by her parents, brother, and extended family is an important one in the making of Mrs. Obama. Her father with the unwavering work ethic, of infinite love laced with the right dose of humor, her mother a watchful, caring, and diligent presence who did everything possible to nurture all aspects of her individuality without interfering and her brother who loved and protected her unconditionally. Together they created their own little heaven with the little they had which then spilled over to the Obama family of four.

I don't like being a fan of anyone.  I am a true believer of personal power so long as one puts in the effort. But I have to say that the universe somehow conspired to give us this true soul and her spouse to be inspired from. Personal tragedies often shape what we become and inspiration is the mantra that can make a difference in that struggle. And lucky for us, we have inspiration in a bottle.. I mean.. a book.

All The Light That We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr
The protagonist in this story is blind and we are shown the world through her inner eyes. The tap, tap of her stick against the pavement keeps us in suspense whenever she is on the move. Anthony Doerr is a painter of words who brings to life this world war II era story in occupied France replete with a museum, secret boxes and keys. The girl's story is intertwined with that of an orphan boy in Germany who became a soldier of the same war on the other side. The two worlds keep colliding and blending, strewn so with pearls from Doerr's bountiful cache of words. Delightfully written, with evocative chapters, this is a must read.

Where The Crawdads Sing By Delia Owens
The book kept popping up every now and then in various booklists but it wasn't until a friend recommended it that I added it to my phone notes. From there it reached the next logical step of purchase with my self prescribed book-a-month allowance. Here is the thinking behind the allowance: at this stage in my life, if I cannot buy a simple book to read and enjoy, then why-oh-why do I exist? There, I am happy we are on the same page:-)

Author Delia Owens grew up in the coastal lands of Georgia which may have prompted the writing of this book about a little girl bringing herself up in the marshlands off the Carolina coast. Every sentence is alive with fantastic critters from this coastal world inhabited by the Marsh Girl. The beauty of a great blue heron is so palpable that I envisioned I touched it. I lived among the gulls and canoed across lagoons looking for fish and digging for mussels, collecting feathers from the myriad of visiting birds, and pocketing shells churned out by the sea from every part of the world. More than the story or the lonely girl child, it is this living, throbbing, coastal life that kept me captivated. More so because it transported me to the rain drenched lush green land of Kerala that I had spent my magical childhood in. Short and sweet. A book to read.

Jane Smiley's The Duplicate Keys

Note: This too is from an old draft and posting now before 2018 slithers away forever. This year I have read some fantastic books both in Malayalam and English and I'll just post the names in a later post to at least have it as a list here.

I know Jane Smiley of The Thousand Acres needs no introductions. Yet the very fact that a movie got made from her books made me leery of wanting to read her. Yeah, I can be mulish like that. But now it looks like I am ready for a Smiley😊. A winning decision on my part! The Duplicate Keys is a very readable book with some teeth to it. Smiley's expertise in showing a period or time is just enthralling especially since she revels in putting the right kind of people in it. New York is always a haunting place and the period of interest here is the rock and roll era in the music industry. The story is around six friends who moved from the Midwest to the Big Apple with thoughts of making it big and what happened to them when their plans did not pan out exactly as they'd hoped. Of course the cover page proclaims this as a cliffhanger murder mystery and all that but what keeps you going is the characters and their interactions to each other in light of the murders. The murders and the investigation surrounding them  satisfied a certain craving for mysteries in yours truly and made it for lighter reading. Now I know I can come to a Smiley if I want such a combo. Don't get me wrong, this is probably the only murderous book Smiley wrote but a writer who can do it so deeply has my trust.

Miniatures

Molu loves anything mini. This includes the uber cool mini cooper among other things like tiny jars, furniture etc. She is a wizard when it comes to shaping little things to perfection with polymer clay. No, she is not into jewelry. Not yet. Here are some beautiful hearts, a slice of water melon and an almost perfect cone of ice cream with sprinkles she made today.

The Little Paris Bookshop By Nina George

Let me be honest. I picked this book from the new arrivals shelf at the library mainly for one reason. That the full name of the author very much resembles names originating out of my birthplace. But by the time I checked it out I knew that this author is not a native or non-native Malayali . But a book with 'bookshop' in the title just had to be a delightful read. Not only were my expectations met but were exceeded by the end of the delightful journey that was this book. Nina George wrote the book in German although the story takes place in France.

George's adoration of books and love of reading spills out from every page as she takes us through the life of the leading man Monsieur Perdu. He is, wait for it..  a book seller at the aptly named  shop 'Literary Apothecary'! I am telling you there is not much to dislike here.  Perdu is the self appointed physician offering sure footed advise on what books each of his customers need to buy regardless of what they actually came in for. Wouldn't I have loved to be a customer there! There is more. He sells the books from a converted barge moored on the Seine. He keeps the vessel serviced so it is still seaworthy despite its static state. While prescribing ably for his customers Perdu is unable to mend his own wounded heart. He is besieged with memories of beautiful Manon. She had stormed into his life from Provencal France, ruled it for a while and then just left one day without notice. The bookshop with its loyal clientele and the occasional tourist kept him going. After twenty such long years, he meets sweet Catherine who is nursing a recently wounded heart and of course Perdu is there for the rescue with a perfect selection of books. This change prompts him to set off on a journey that will bring closure with Manon.

Perdu travels down the Seine on the now unmoored barge, deftly navigating its many canals and tributaries. He found some unlikely companions in this impromptu journey. Two cats named Kafka and Lindgren who used to frequent his shop and the young successful author Max Jordan who is suffering  from a severe case of writer's block. Later on they are joined by an old Italian friend of Perdu who helps them negotiate some of the practicalities of river travel. It helps that this friend also enjoys cooking. At Avignon he hands off the barge to the friend and goes on foot with Max in search of Manon among the vineyards of Bonnieux. Along with the cast of characters described so far, what ups the ante of this charming book are the ubiquitous books and lengthy discussions on various books. Perdu himself would love to write a book one day. A book of emotions that are neatly organized under each alphabet. Such a great journey to have had! There is even a section for delicious french recipes at the end of the book. If you liked 'The Book Thief', chances are that you will like this one too. 

A Man Called Ove By Fredrik Backman

You have to be a very patient reader to get into this book. If you do, you will be richly rewarded for having known the man called Ove. Be forewarned that you will need a wad of napkins to get through all of it. Ove is a Swedish retiree living in a housing colony made up of all kinds of people. His days are always the same and precisely set around the clock. Grumpy as he is, he finds himself getting involved with the Iranian family that moved into his neighborhood. Through the many interactions he had with them, we see that Ove's heart is in a far better place than many. I found it a little slow, but felt like if I don't finish it, Ove will disapprove. So honestly, I continued for Ove's sake. Such is the strength of his character, even though fictional. It is a good book to read with a refreshing take on this world where honesty and integrity are fast becoming jaded values. Ove might inspire you yet again to strengthen your hold on those and to live life as its true followers.

You Go Girl!

Finally the US can now say it is a developed nation without having to hide the gaping hole to this claim. We are not there yet but it is just great to see a viable woman candidate for the US presidential elections. I am not a Democrat or Republican and not particularly an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton. But she definitely beats the competition this election year and is clearly a capable candidate in her own right without the need for any labels. Still, when my son (his summer has already started) who is avidly following the elections texted to say Clinton is close to winning the primaries, I couldn't help but feel a certain thrill! I was surprised to see many women feeling the same across race, ethnicity or party lines. Now let us hope this nation can claim its rightful place in history by electing its first woman president. It's been 100 years since women got the right to vote here but better late than never..

A Legend Is Born! K.R Meera's ആരാച്ചാർ (Hangwoman)

Where should I begin? Should I start by saying that K.R Meera is as eligible for the Nobel Prize as Gabriel Garcia Marquez was or that her brilliantly written book should be translated into all possible languages or that I wish I could meet Chetna Grdha Mullick, the vibrant and quite unforgettable protagonist of this extraordinary tale?

K.R Meera is an amalgam of all great writers before her. In her writing I can see O.V Vijayan, Ashapoorna Devi, Marquez and a hundred others I can't quite place. But it is Meera's own voice that gives this novel its resilience, her heroine towering over the pages and not letting us get away so easily. It brings us back like migrating salmon swimming upstream to reach into its pages and make us lose ourselves in its enchanting diorama. Each page chock full of stories to last a generation, its heroine an eloquent narrator calmly pulling us time and again into the undercurrent of violence, disrespect, fulfillment and history, making it the saga that it is. Born as a legend from Meera's magic pen, this book will endure through time.

It has already been translated into English with the name "Hangwoman".  I haven't read that but I hope the subtlety of Meera's assertive language is not lost in translation. The heroine is India's first ever hang woman who is descended from a long line of Grdha Mullicks serving as hangmen going as far back as 400 years before Christ. The city of Calcutta is presented in full character, replete with freedom fighters of pre-independence India, the river Adi-ganga, Kali-ghat, the burning pyres of Nimtala-ghat, Sonagachi, all surrounded by tagorian lore so native to Calcutta yet so entrenched in the nation's soul. In this 552 pages long epic Meera has managed to touch on the entire nation's history while doing full justice to the city that she inhabited for a year or so to write the story. The only major omission I noticed was that of Mother Teresa, a name almost inseparable from that of the city to outsiders.

In their sparse house on Strand street with a steady stream of funeral processions to Nimtala-ghat filling the air with the smell of death, Chetna lives with her disabled brother Ramu, her parents, grandma/dhakuma, kakku/uncle, kakki/aunt and their two children. Like her grandma, Chetna knows the stories that made her family conquerors of death for so long. Each of her forefathers acted in the capacity of executioners for the ruling regimes of their times. While hanging through a noose is the preferred method of the Grdha Mullick family they have carried out justice with knives and lashes when required. I loved knowing the many names of the Grdha Mullick forefathers in the inner stories. Loosely based on real life events linked here at various places, Meera has created a powerful book from her vast imagination. Like the divided chambers in one of the numerous fables in the book, Meera skillfully weaves us in an out of many a chamber of luscious stories told through Chetna as well as her her grandma. It all seem to have started with one Radha Dharan Mullick, the first ever hangman of the Grdha Mullick family, from the time of the Nandas.

In her Dostoevskian thoughts on life and death, twenty two year old Chetna paints the turmoils of someone who has to dole out death as part of their civic duty. No one can make the knots of the noose as well as a Grdha Mullick. When the Government reluctantly agrees to extend the official hangman contract to this woman descendant of the Grdha Mullicks, TV channels and women's organizations were quick to tout her as the epitome of universal woman-power and self-confidence. A job that was never before taken up by a woman! Her father Phanibhushan Grdha Mullick aspired to be an actor but was forced to take up the family duty to make ends meet. He is eighty eight years old in the story and is only happy to take the center stage and play his part with panache in the tug-of-war between the news channels scrambling to bring the story of the first hangwoman to the public.

Chetna and Phanibhushan are caught in the intricate web of duty, journalism and money woven around them. Reporter Sanjeev Kumar Mitra plays a rather large part in this aspect of their lives.
To complicate things, Chetna finds herself falling in love with Sanjeev whose interest in her has many strange faces. Despite the myriad of sub stories that makes the book so long, the author has a firm hand on her story and keeps it going at the perfect pace for a reader fully along for the ride. That this momentous book written in excellent Malayalam is fully based in Calcutta with all characters inhabitants of that city, is rather startling. This gifted writer has a treasure trove of stories and the command of language and imagination to tell many such tales to the world. I will be waiting to experience that literary brilliance yet again...

Maeve Binchy's Chestnut Street

Reading Maeve Binchy's Chestnut Street is like reading the Book of Proverbs. It may sound like a harsh attribute for a work of fiction. But as far as I am concerned, the Book of Proverbs is full of practical advise on how to live in this world. It is the Bhagavad Gita of Christianity. Each chapter in Binchy's book will provide you with a valuable lesson on life. Really the book reads like a combination of proverbs and Olive Kitteridge. Besides, who wouldn't like to live on a street named Chestnut Street?

Each chapter of this book is about a person or family that calls Chestnut Street their home. They could be living there, returning there or connected through family who lives there. At first I didn't like that the stories were not connected. But each story is so interesting that I ended up liking the format. It also allowed me to put the book down at good places to come back to. There are no barren spots which you want to turn over fast. Each chapter is a good read on its own. This is is just perfect for a time starved working mother who is addicted to books. What I love most is the age old wisdom that shines out from every page. It is  cleverly disguised and you will not know that you are getting this little nugget of advise until you are at the end of a story. By that time you are nodding your head in full agreement. A great book! Having no time is simply not an excuse when it comes to a book like this. I was sad to find out that Maeve Binchy is no more. Check out a free short story from this beloved author at her eponymous website.

The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay

I wish I had sat down as soon as I was done with this book to jot down my thoughts on it. It just was not to be and here I am wanting to post about this classic book yet not fully remembering all that happened in it. I just have this great feeling of having read a good book... First published in 1989 it fell into my hands only now. It was a gift from H for my birthday. Whenever he decides to give me a book as a gift he always gets it right. He says it is with the help of the clerk at the book store but I'll take a good book any day over other gifts.

It took me while to finish it. I put it down at times only because I had to. It tells the story of a boy somewhere at the beginning of the apartheid in South Africa. A lonely boy who learned to take that loneliness by its neck and turned it around to a place of inner strength despite or because of all the experiences that came his way. Please read it and you will find yourself pausing at times and going back to re-read some stuff time and again because it speaks to something in you. Here is one: "-how I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed". And another: "The power of one was based on the courage to remain separate, to think through to the truth, and not to be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expects to maintain power."

Bryce Cortenay passed away in 2012 but he will live forever through the power of his words.

Humans

HUMANS

This link showed up on the google home page recently and I clicked it out of curiosity. It is a well made documentary of real human emotions. Well worth watching. Enjoy!

Ottayadipatha By Madhavikutty മാധവികുട്ടിയുടെ ഒറ്റയടിപാത

This was one of the books I bought at Kochi Airport on the way back after visiting India in April to see my ailing mom. I didn't get to it until I had to go back so abruptly. I grabbed this book to help me hold it together on the lonely flight there and back. It did help me a bit and made me think a lot. I tried my best to hang on to my rosary and Madhavikutty's thoughts instead of my own thoughts. My mom loved to see anyone reading and she always had a twinkle in her eye even when ostentatiously scolding me for reading while eating at the table. The book seems to be a collection of Madhavikutty's regular columns that came out in a newspaper or magazine. This is not mentioned anywhere on the cover or inside but the writer pretty much indicates this in most of the articles/chapters in the book.

Madhavikutty is better known and respected as poet Kamala Das in the outside world. Her writing was way ahead of the existing societal norms in Kerala/India and so instead of unconditional respect for her fresh writing style and forthrightness, she was much maligned and gained inadvertent notoriety in the beginning of her writing career. Luckily for her and her readers, the quite strength and quality of her writings just couldn't be held back. It looks like the one person who needed to understand her, got her better than even she understood herself. Her husband Madhav Das who worked as a bank officer. She is from the famous Nalappat family, being the grand niece of Nalappat Narayanamenon who reigns large in her childhood memoirs and the daughter of illustrious poet Balamani Amma. In her memoirs we see that Madhavikutty does not talk much of her mother and talks nostalgically of the time she spent with her grand mother in their ancestral home along with all the simple people of the larger household. Her Malayalam is written in very easy style. The very simplicity makes you feel like she is talking to you directly. I have not read her controversial autobiography but I feel that in order to understand this great writer you must also read 'Ottayadipatha'. She writes each article in it with clairvoyance and an alluring frankness.  I read more than half one way and the rest on the way back. Because of the special circumstance under which I read it, the book will always remain with me. This is a great book that discloses many truths that are gradually revealed to each of us as we continue to live this long life on earth. She is able to put each of her precious thoughts down in a way that is easy to decipher and with humility. This gifted writer passed away in 2009 but her books will never lose their relevance as they speak of basic human nature and every day truths. Let us hope Madhavikutty's little granddaughter Nayanthara will carry her gift forward into the next generation. Google searches will tell you that director Kamal is set to make a movie out of her life sometime this year with Vidya Balan as Madhavikutty. I hope it will be a movie that will do full justice to this consummate writer.

Books, Books, Books

No matter how busy I am, I always find time for books. Especially since this is the main form of relaxation for me. So even if I haven't written much in this space, I have read many a book. It is best to write about a book as soon as you have read it. So once a few days pass by, I am reluctant to write about it and the cycle repeats. I will put down some things on the ones that I remember.

Beginning with the latest that I read on our flight to the east cost.

Colm Toibin's The Blackwater Lightship

If Jodi Picoult is your source for light reading on deeper subjects, then Tóibín  is your ultimate source for a full dose on such subjects. Almost Dostoeveskian, Tóibín is in full control of his prose, characters and story. Each page reminds us of a movie director making a vision come to life with masterful orchestration of every object, every movement. The intensity of each of these scenes are paced and never lost to us, the reader. I have read Tóibín before and this was as great as expected. It is mainly told through Helen, a young school principal who is dealing with her brother's fight with AIDS as well as her complex relationships with her mother and grandmother placed in and around Dublin, Ireland. Only Tóibín can present us with so many characters, each complete for us to understand yet not giving away anything in the process. Every single book by this author is a find in itself.

I Know This Much Is True By Wally Lamb

Wow, Wally Lamb and Colm Tóibín in the same post! Talk about larger-than-life, stalwarts etc., I am reading Wally Lamb for the first time and what a loss it would have been if I had never come across this author. He is a modern day Dostoevsky who completely inhabits his characters and brings to light every possible emotion they have with ease. Be it real magic or magical realism, he writes with such authority that we are just putty in his hands. He credits having grown up with four sisters as an only brother for his intuitive understanding of the female mind. After I read this book, I went on to get his first novel 'She's Come Undone'. It is a great first novel but I feel nothing and no one else can beat 'I Know This Much Is True'. 

Told by Dominick, the non-schizophrenic twin, this tale takes us through their lives with their mother, stepfather and other array of characters that shape their lives. The larger than life presence is that of their maternal grandfather Dominico Tempesta whom they never saw. He passed away while their unwed mother was expecting them. They grew up in his imaginary presence made real by their mother's reverence for him.  Dominick is more like this grandfather and Thomas, the other twin is a lot more like their sweet, shy mother. Only Wally Lamb can tell you the complexities of their lives with such clarity. A wealthy but hard and absent grandfather, unknown father, strict stepfather, mouse of a mother made more shy with a harelip, Thomas being favored by their mother for his sweet nature, Dominick being favored by their stepfather for being the stronger one, living in the shadow of racial superiority as well as witnessing and sometimes being subjected to all kinds of prejudices, all of this just shines forth from Lamb's book in perfect harmony. Lamb deftly portrays an Indian psychiatrist who helps Dominick to unravel the pent up feelings about himself and his twin. The amount of knowledge he displays of India through this character is purely amazing. Olive Kittreridge, Conrad Richter and many others come together effortlessly in this blessed author's hands. That he weaves magical realism unobtrusively to the absorbent reader is nothing beyond magic! Wally Lamb has earned his place in world literature, period.

Many other books have passed through my hands. The ones I want to write about  now deserve more attention than I can give today. So I will post on those at a later time.

Susan Pohlman's Halfway to Each Other

The subtitle for this book is : 'How a year in Italy Brought Our Family Home' and it is the Italy that got my attention since we had just booked our tickets to go to Italy in summer. It is a memoir and I was looking for pointers from someone who actually lived in Italy. It was not a waste at all because if it wasn't for this book I wouldn't have known to take a beeline to St.Peter's Square to see the Pope as soon as we reached our hotel that Sunday.

Pohlman is a good writer and the book is written from the heart. I took some lessons from it without even realizing that I did. She and her husband were living the American dream to the fullest. Shuttling their two kids back and forth for their myriad of activities and entertaining for the husband's high profile and busy work and taking part in all parent volunteering at the school with barely any time for each other or for the grand home they had bought together. When counseling didn't work the couple decided it was time to divorce. That is when they took a last trip together for a work related conference of Jim Pohlman. Having had some time for each other in between entertaining guests rekindled some of their old feelings and suddenly they were not sure that divorce was the right choice. Jim asked Susan if they could give it another chance with the irresistible choice of living in Italy for a year, away from the rat race waiting back home. Normally a grounded creature of habit, Susan was not so sure of this uprooting of their lives but she agreed with Jim in giving each other another chance. Being on vacation and being with each other without all the baggage helped them to see themselves as they had in good times.

Once the decision was made, they sold the house and got the kids admitted to the only International school in Italy. The location of this school decided where they will live. Thus the entire family sans their sweet dog moved lock stock and barrel to the top floor of an apartment building in Italy close to Genoa. Despite the initial hiccups and general feel of reduced amenities compared to their American lives, the family soon adjusted to the slow relaxed pace of life in Italy. Susan even managed to memorize what pasta goes with what sauce and was able to order things with confidence towards the end of their stay. She found friends among the other school moms and both kids adjusted after at first being extremely grumpy about the regular routine in their lives.

At the end of the year, they decided that without a steady income they simply cannot continue in Italy. So they moved back again after much thought but this time with a solid marriage and happier more mature children. They also simplified their lives by opting for a smaller home and making things less complicated to manage.

This book is inspiring and thought provoking since it makes you look at many things through a different eye. Even if they were things you knew it still is good to hear it from another source. The book serves you in more ways than one. As a travelogue, a self help sort of book and just a plain satisfying read.