Looking For Palestine By Najla Said - A Memoir

Growing up in the US in shadow of her famous father Edward Said,  Najla was exposed to a wide variety of cultures, people and attitudes than many of us can imagine. Traveling to Lebanon to see her Mom's family remains the sweetest memory for her despite the violence that took hold there after bouts of peaceful times. Having grown up as a WASP (in her own words) for all intents and purposes yet not quite fitting in anywhere, it took Najla many years and therapists to carve out an identity of her own, to be comfortable in her own skin. Reared as a girl in the traditional family setup and not being expected to carry the weight of her genius father's legacy, added to the confusion in the formative years. Her book tells us how articulate and intrinsically smart she is. Despite the fog in carving out an identity, she is surrounded by friends who love to be in her company and she knew that she was loved by her well meaning parents. This Princeton graduate's understanding nature helps her to see all sides of everything that in turn makes her a very empathetic person. She has proven to be every bit her father's daughter through this lovingly written, articulate and evocative memoir.

On the home front we were busy landscaping our backyard with the help of a contractor and it is almost done. Since adding a room to our humble abode seemed to be an uphill task in terms of money, convenience, and time, we decided to at least have a relaxing backyard with some space to entertain. Backyard landscaping thankfully is not as disruptive as a kitchen remodeling I say! Now we are waiting for summer to roll around so we can start using it more. Here is Mr. Zeus inspecting our brand new pond. Oh and hurray for my hundredth post in Vaayanasaala! 

Wings Of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam

This was one of the four books I had read last time. I'd heard this book mentioned many times over but didn't really want to read it perhaps precisely for that reason. What more do I need to know about this famous Indian that was an essential presence growing up in India? Being geographically lucky to have the first Rocket Launching Station built in Kerala made it all the more certain that I would have heard of him often enough. I was glad for India when he was made the President of India. And I would have missed knowing the great person behind the famous personality if I had gone on not reading the 'Wings Of Fire'. The book is not that large but the story it has to tell is. The story of a true Indian.

Having grown up in an impoverished but respected Muslim family in the famous city of Rameswaram, Abdul Kalam recalls only the good things he was lucky enough to learn there. He barely acknowledges his own great mind that could easily imbibe what was there to learn. Being exposed to many religions and good teachers can expand the horizons of the right mind with enough encouragement. This he had plenty of, from family and friends. His innate intelligence developed into an innate wisdom over time it seems.

Vikram Sarabhai is considered the father of the Indian Space program but when he died so unexpectedly, Abdul Kalam could follow in his foot steps, having had the opportunity to learn from the master and the ability to apply what he learned. The fledgling nation of India was lucky to have the highly qualified H.J Bhabha and Sarabhai to lead its Nuclear and Space programs respectively. But it was equally lucky to have had the absorbing intelligence of Abdul Kalam to hold the baton in their absence. That he was from a not so privileged background as these two gentlemen were, only heightens his achievements and is a source of eternal hope to aspiring Indians everywhere. His life is the fulfillment of an 'Indian Dream' akin to the very appealing 'American Dream' that we hear so much about here. Surely a book for the home library.

Booklist

Instead of leaving things to chance I have taken things into my hand this time. Er.. it just means that I put a bunch of books I had wanted to read, on hold at the Library. Once I got the e-mail notification all I had to do was just pick them up. Surprisingly enough I finished all 4 books plus 1 in two weeks! Things must be slow or I am just preparing for the onslaught of projects gearing up soon. May not get much time later. In between we even managed to attend Hcousin's wedding in the East. Kids had a blast and for me it was a relaxing few days. Bride and groom are the very best kind of people and it was great to be there for this day with all the family around. Now that my son is in 8th grade he is busy shadowing at different High Schools and preparing for his Entrance Exams. A preview to the senior year in four years when he will be busy looking for college! Years are flying by I say. Zeus is flourishing after missing us dearly when we left him for a few days for the wedding. We were happy to be re-united with him. Here he is getting ready to read the books with me:-) He is using the glasses borrowed from my girl's doll. She likes dressing him up and sweet that he is, he lets her.

So here are the books in no particular order.

Thrity Umrigar's 'The Space Between Us'
Very perceptive book about two women whose lives are oddly bound together despite being from two different classes of the Indian society. Umrigar shows uncanny perception in portraying the lives of Sera and Bhima for the reader. It is this same perception that makes us want to stick to the book and read all of it even if the melodramatic turn of events at the end are a bit too common. I also loved all the Parsi names that sounded strange yet very Indian! Bhima is a grandmother who lives in a slum and works for Sera who lives in a bungalow. Despite the differences they are able to empathize with each other in their own ways. Definitely a good read.

I also read Umrigar's 'The World We Found'. It fell a little short of my expectation but still was a decent read.

The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghvi
I heard about this book from soulsearchingdays and was happy to see it in the library offerings.  Thanks SS! In what can be described as the Indian equivalent of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, Ashwin Sanghvi has made a decent effort. I wished he didn't try to create a literal parallel to Brown's book though. This is a limitation. The vast possibility of history, mythology and realities of the Indian pantheon gets diluted a bit as he tries to put it all into one book. It really came alive for me at the Taj Mahal segment. The equivalent to The Louvre in Brown's book. He talks about trying to be careful in picking Krishna as a subject for the book in a country like India with its multifaceted population. It is clearly a work of fiction and should be treated as such.

The Shadow of The Wind By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
This is one of those books that has winding subplots that will keep you gripped till the end. It is sort of a mystery and also good literature. The overall feeling was very similar to Orhan Pamuk's The New Life but taking place in Marquez's Macondo! It starts by describing how the young protagonist gets hold of this unlikely book the very first time his father took him to a used book store. The rest of the story revolves around his search to find more about the mysterious Julian Carax who wrote the book. There is also this odd stranger who goes around looking for any remaining books written by Carax, only to burn them! Though Carax is not a big time author, his books are still loved by those who choose to read them. Any lover of books worth their salt will find it difficult to put this book down. A wholesome book satisfying the reader in you on many levels. I am like that boy now, looking out for books written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon:-) Seriously, just get going guys. Isn't the name itself intriguing?

I think the last book deserves a space of its own. So I will blog on that in another post.

The Springs Of Namje By Rajeev Goyal

Rajeev Goyals's easy command of the language reels you in at first. Then the real life story with its cast of characters gets through.  Rajeev Goyal, born to wealthy, immigrant, Indian parents in America is embarking on his first stint as a Peace Corps volunteer to Nepal. The first quarter of the book gives us a glimpse of the political turmoil in Nepal around 2001with the eventual abolishment of its Monarchy. Rajeev's first assignment was to teach English at the remote village of Baitadi. There he eye-witnessed the caste system in action. He was an astute observer of the general life of villagers. Goyal's stay in Baitadi was made unfeasible by the ongoing political unrest and before he had time to wonder about his role there he was pulled into another little village and its school. The village of Namje. The second quarter of the book is all about Rajeev's life in Namje and what he did immediately after getting back to the U.S. from there. He is humble about his role in Namje's water supply project and attributes all credit to the villagers. For him it is all about the valuable life lessons he was able to learn while living with them. Lessons he was able to apply to his efforts back in Capitol Hill that lead to a $60  million increase in funding for Peace Corps. The largest of its kind in the history of the organization! The third quarter is all about his efforts in this regard and the fourth quarter brings him back to Namje on a project to build a road to Namje. This time around he witnessed how progress can change a way of life and not all for the right reasons. He thinks aloud about the need to bring progress in a sustainable way that is friendly to the basic spirit of wherever it is being implemented. Rajeev had spent so much time among the people of Namje that he ends up identifying himself more as a Namje guy than anyone else. The pragmatic Tanka Sir and other cast of characters from the village comes alive in Rajeev's inspiring book.

Namje's water project is much reminiscent of the movie Swades. However according to wikipedia, this story is not one of the many inspirations for the movie. I was heartened to see that many such activities are going on this way. Very remarkable! I am hoping my son will go for a stint in the Peace Corps as he grows older. In the end Rajeev harks back on the relevance of Peace Corps in todays' world and the importance of keeping it strictly apolitical. Rajeev's ambivalence in what the development meant for the community is to be noted. It was not all roses and petals after the parched village got a steady supply of water. He surmises that instead of filling an obvious need blindly, it is better to study and offer one that is more beneficial in the long term. Sustainable and eco-friendly seems to be the keywords.

Zeus has developed an eclectic palate. He is into flowers now as you can see - barely- in the picture below! Not sure if he had a chance to look at Goyal's book in the process:-)

The Aviator's Wife By Melanie Benjamin

Almost all of us have heard of Charles Lindbergh, the fearless American pilot who crossed the Atlantic without the aide of much of the technology available for such feats today. No wonder even Neil Armstrong felt compelled to say to him when they met : "Sir we are only following in your footsteps". Well, just look at me going on about him when the whole purpose of this book was to show off the woman who was on his side through it all!

 Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the author of the best selling book 'Gift From The Sea' which is still widely popular. How many of you knew she was the first woman to earn a glider pilot license and that she partnered fully with Charles Lindbergh in his many famed explorations in the air? I hadn't even give this woman a second thought despite CL's family being in the limelight when his baby was kidnapped. Turns out she was the recipient of two top literary prizes of her graduating class from Smith College. While it is difficult to ignore the larger than life presence of the Aviator, the book has done justice to Mrs. Lindbergh. Melanie Benjamin has achieved what she has set out to do. It holds your interest despite the characters and their lives being public knowledge. Good book to turn to whenever you need a read fix. Satisfying on many levels.

Side Note:

Zeus is truly the 5th member of our family. It is a pleasure to know that he waits for us when we come home in the evenings. The kids fight amongst themselves as to who will get to hold him first. 'Chooba' (my nick name for him) enjoys being adored and gives a contented swish of his tail and perk up his little ears to show his pleasure:-) We give him a bath every week which he seems to be tolerating so far. Apparently Maine Coons are like the dog of the cat family! He seems intelligent. We have purchased a harness and leash for him and put him on it when we all sit on the patio. He loves being outside and is at the door in a minute if anyone so much as slide the patio door a little. He is learning to show what he needs through actions which are truly fun to watch! He will be 6 months at the end of this month. 

The War of the Rosens & The Virgin Cure

The War of The Rosens by Janice Eidus

I didn't expect the book to be this good! Janice Eidus writes with control and I found her prose to be very stimulating. The Rosens are a Jewish couple with two daughters. The dad is a wannabe intellectual who loves his family but can sometimes be cruel and impolite in contrast to what he expects from them. Mom is supposedly a weakling because she does what she needs to do without complaining but a woman of integrity in her fidelity to the family. The older kid May is consumed with jealousy of the younger, more beautiful Emma. It doesn't help that the younger one writes poems and happens to be the father's pet. Indeed it is the 10 year old Emma Rosen that captures our imagination too whenever she comes on to tell the story. Each character in the family is given a voice infused with the clarity and strength of a very real person. We see their individual worlds, their differing views on faith, daily routines, family celebrations, and their pain when one of them is struck down with illness. Through it all little Emma keeps us as curious as she is. So much like my own little girl! There is certain relief to be had at the end with a window into the future. Janice Eidus was probably trying to give closure for us and herself with that last chapter but the book would have been fine without it too. Eidus drew from her own life as a Jewish person living in the Bronx which shows in her characters and the vivid  life around them.

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

Ami Mckay catapults us into her story through a novel way of writing. The entire book is written in a style that could be aligned to the period of her story. 1870's New York. Ingenious idea! The story again revolves around a little girl called Moth growing up in a world quite different from little Emma Rosen's although there are many parallels if you look for it. Both tells their stories when they can, both wonder about the adults in their lives and both live in New York around the same time period. But the choices Moth had to face are eons away from what Emma had to face. Moth lived in a slum with her Mom who had no qualms selling her for money ostensibly to do housework but that can be meant for anything the new employer cooked up. Moth escapes from her employer only to see that her Mom had left their little shack without telling her. Back on the streets the only decent option available to her 12-year old self
was to be set up in a high-end brothel in return good food and fancy clothes. Young virgins where in high demand in those days as men believed mingling with a virgin can cure them of sexually transmitted diseases. I was aghast when I clued on to this part because the author wrote this loosely based on her great-great-grandmother's life and so it is based on historical facts. I'd read similar stories happening in third world countries many times over but never in the New World that is the US! Loved how the author stumbled upon this story. She used to sit and look at a painting of her great-great-grandmother Dr. Sarah Fonda Mackintosh for hours on end in their house. As she grew older she found out that Dr.S was in the first graduating class of the medical school founded by the Blackwell sisters who were the first women doctors in the US. This prodded her curiosity more and she landed on Dr.S's graduating thesis on the diseases suffered by the patients at the Blackwell's infirmary for women and children. McKay decided to give the story a single human voice fused from the voices of the many girls and women who lived and suffered in those times. The only solace Moth had in her difficult life was Dr. Sadie who worked at the infirmary and looked in on brothel girls as part of her work. This Dr.S - probably like the original Dr.S -encouraged Moth to leave the life at the brothel and join a rescue home for girls. The rescue home also was not secure against the viles of determined people and so she hesitated. Eventually she joined Dr.S after learning things the hard way. Moth did not disappoint in carrying Ami McKay's voice far and wide. The novel is widely acclaimed and Mckay received many accolades, all well deserved. I am sure Dr. S is smiling upon her from the heavens!

The Master's Muse by Varley O'Conner

I simply cannot turn away from a classic. This time I come to you with a book written around ballet. It is the story of the beautiful and vivacious Tanaquil leClerq who was the principal ballerina of the New York City Ballet in the 1950s. I had to remind me that this is not a memoir because the voice of Tanaquil that speaks to us in the book feels like it is the real deal. Apparently Tanaquil was very reserved during her lifetime and some who knew her even felt that the book should not have been written, to respect the wishes of the reticent ballerina. But I am very happy to have read about this quite unique personality.

So if Tanaquil was the Muse, who was the Master? It is George Balanchine, the master choreographer who gave us 'The Nutcracker'  and the american ballet in its current form. Having studied under soviet master's and having performed for the Czar, he emigrated to the US and changed the world of ballet altogether by modernizing it while preserving its old world charm. He had the likes of Igor Stravinsky composing for him and the incomparable Jerome Robbins working with him and the support of many patrons who loved the art. The New York State Theater was designed to Balanchine's specifications. Tanaquil was his fifth and final wife counting the one common-law wife whom he never married. Each of his previous wives were prima ballerina's at the time and all marriages ended in friendly terms. I assume mostly because they all loved dancing and revered Balanchine's skills as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. He wrote ballets for each of them in their time. Tanaquil is considered the ultimate Balanchine ballerina with the perfect physique and dancing skills to translate Balanchine's visions onto the stage. At the height of her career she was struck down by polio and was bound to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She loved Balanchine despite his many dalliances and through their divorce. He loved her in his own way too it seems even after she had polio. He had taken a year off to take care of Tnaquil and continued to be solicitous till he died despite being extremely busy choreographing, producing and performing ballets across the world.

Sometimes it felt to me like the real Tanaquil is hiding behind her abiding love for George Balanchine. But regardless of the wheelchair I could see a strong personality in her own right who had affected the people around her with her charisma and willpower maybe as much as Balanchine. Reminded me a lot of Scarlett O'Hara of 'The Gone with The Wind'. Tanaquil was named after a Roman Empress and was the product of a French father and an American Mother. Loved the name too! Didn't like the title that much. Tanaquil leClerq can stand on her own without the master.