BOOKS READ IN 2003.

BOOKS READ IN 2003

1. Shodh by Taslima Nasrin.

The story in Bangladesh but it may be anywhere else in the subcontinent. May be Muslim but it could happen in a Hindu family as well. The story argues for gender equality and in a strange way asserts it when the young wife takes revenge on her newly married suspecting husband by getting pregnant by another. She fosters on all that it was from her own husband. There are other aspects of life in an orthodox family. The protagonist’s father though otherwise modern in outlooks and practices causes the heroin to marry her boyfriend on societal norms. She analyses the status of an unmarried girl in love. She turns out to be a daughter in-law. No independent existence. Then a mother elevated in the family but still without any independent identity. She slowly turns out to assert her own identity when she takes a job as a school teacher without anyone in the family knowing. Then they accept her bold decision. Taslima tells the story without any effort or any clitch. Not high but average.


2. Sights and Sounds of the World
by Kushwant Singh.

This is a collection of articles by the author during his several trips at home and abroad. But it is not about travel as such. Most of his trips are in connection with conferences, seminars, anniversaries and observations. Even in his so old an age the naughty sardar has an eye for young buxom or nubile young ladies and he describes his encounters with them in his own racy language. Also there is a lot of roaming about the gullies in places visited. The whole book is of enjoyable reading.


3. Asylum U S A by Boman Desai.

The name is unfamiliar to self. From the blurb from publishers it looks like his second novel. Mr. Desai displays a flair for American use of language so typical. The language used in his narration resembles the language used by Gopal in his Toast Masters’ sermons. The novel is based mainly on the travails of an Indian immigrant, to get settled in the states. Some shade of Gopal in this. Nosheer the protagonist in the novel is one matured, philosophical and un-assuming. Except at certain parts the narrative is convincing enough to be truth as fiction or fiction told truthfully. May be it is only one facet of American reality at a lower level, reality of the marginalised. We are not introduced to high or middle class life. May be that a young man from Bombay has no easy chance to mix with middle or higher classes unless by dint of efforts he raises to that levels. Mr. Desai dealt with people at a lower level, most of them are diligent, honest and hardworking. They also show a kind of dignity in life, whether she is waitress, casino dancer or clerk. Of course there are crooks, extortionists and exploiters but they don’t mar the happy go lucky life pictured in the novel. They are hinted at the casino scene Still it is a success to the protagonist if not for of others. All his young loves fade away in course of years except for Lisa, who establishes herself to a respectable middle class life. Wholly it is a readable book by Boman Desai. There is no value judgement on any group of people that he portrayed in his novel. A lesson thru out is that being free and independent is the recognition of the same in others. No one should judge another with one’s own values.


4. Naked Ape by Desmond Morris.

Self bought a copy of this book when it was first published way back in 1979. Due to unfamiliarity with this subject, I was not able to read it with full understanding. It was kept but lost in the several shifting from place to place. This time I completed reading. This is too fascinating a treatise to say that biologically; man is still an animal in the group of primates.

There are certain points. Biological evolution was too slow and millions of years past before any perceptible change is noticed. More over Morris transcends this in case of naked apes. There is the idea that western and specifically Christian west that includes US are much advanced in this biological/cultural evolution while the tribes in Asian and African world are either stilted in their evolution and or still evolving. These thoughts may not be accepted universally.

There seems to be lot of speculative reasoning for which no concrete facts are adduced.

Adducing some evidence the author says that the present day American society and individuals are on top of the evolutionary pyramid. Most of the tribes and nations around had to strive to attain the height. Not getting there, will stultify them, as in the case of Australian aborigines which did not evolve further in the last thousands of years.

With all that it is most engaging treatise so far made available to us. The book re-issued after 30 years still holds attention.


5 Tibet, Tibet by Patrick Frank.

This book is about Tibetan history no ancient as a travelogue. Most of it is current history. According to the author Tibet of yore is lost. Under the Chinese communists the religion and culture of Tibet is being trampled under. The old generation is marginalised and the new ones are outgrown and meshed in consumerism. The Tibetan landscape is changed through industry and commerce. At times he is outspoken about the strange religion followed by people. His main concern is that the religious identity of Tibet is eroded to the point of losing it.

The narrative at places seems to rely upon the assumed superior position of the west others. The west especially the British and European had a history of trampling and eliminating entire communities in America, East Asia, Australia also in groups of Pacific islands. With such a historical background where the motivation was avarice and greed. With all that the book gives a good idea of changes creeping in to the Tibetan society. Worth reading.

6. Journey of Man by Spencer Wells.

This book was introduced in one Sunday Asian Age, as evidence of the humans having originated from Africa specifically east of the continent, 50 – 60 million years back, It is not that the humans originated at that time and place. The theme of this book that when genetic analysis is used it is found that all the human communities throughout the world are descent of the man and woman of African origin some 60 million tears back. The descendents journeyed thru various verifiable routs all over the world. There might have been other humanoids communities like the Neanderthals but they did not survive the harsh conditions. The evolution took care of a lot.

Reading this book brought some revelations not familiar with many desperate facts that are connected like in a thread as if by coincidence pointing out to one truth that mankind is one and descended from one ancestor. The facial and other differences were gifts or results of random mutations of the gene chromosomes. DNA and Y chromosomes.

This book re-enforces the theory that there are no indigenous crop of people as self centred nationalists might argue. The author mentions the multi origin theory which basically justifies the racial differences. He also mentioned some Sino centric idea propagated by certain Chinese scientists. I think that the author is not privy to the claims made by hindutva brigades like Bhagwan Gidwani, B B Lal and like that there were separate hominids in India. But their time frame goes back upto 10,000 or BC. Spencer Wells in this book points out that people of South India were the earliest arrivals thru the sea cost from south east Africa who reached Andaman and Australia in those far past time 50 – 60 thousand years. The major part of the north Indians are subsequent arrivals 15 or 20 thousand years. His statements hint at a possibility that the Harrappan and subsequent Aryans were one gene stock, but immigrants at historical times.

Among all the books read recently, the Journey of Man is most significant and important. The language is little difficult but considering the subject one should not complain. In the group of numerous treatises on the oneness of mankind this one is the latest incorporating evidences from genetic research, palaeontology, archaeology, linguistics. But the evidence from genetics is central to it.

This book needs to be disseminated more widely on all our languages. But the basic genetic approach and the language and theme of this book may not get sufficient appreciation. This book is an antidote to all religious fundamentalisms propagated nowadays.

7. HINDUISM and MODERNITY
by David Smith.
This is a scholarly study of modern day India student of Hinduism in a series titled Religion in Modern World.

David Smith is a sympathetic student of Hindu religion. He has almost succeeded in encapsuling the enormous literatures and practices of Hindu religion from ancient to modern Satya Sai Baba cult. He also discusses the political manifestation of this religion in RSS parivar.

According to the author the modernity is not
revolutionary but that of reformist. The author has
amassed a large pose of standard works
But along with certain welcome manifestations, the
modern Hinduism in fact regressed to the extend of
revenge and fundamentalism on Hinduism by a large and
assorted scholars and the references and bibliography
included in this authors, from east and west which is
evident from book. The encapsuling of all the references
with which the author observes today’s Hinduism, at
times tended to be one sided. The author did not take into
consideration that a large majority of the high and rich
Hindus take their religious faith and practices in a formal
way, think nothing of their value and or significance. This
attitude of the majority is the real strength of Hinduism.
It allows all kinds of faith and practices to be called
Hindu religion. At one extreme the propagandist of
advaita, an un differentiated void ( who in fact were not
practicing it but follows blindly a traditional way) A
Brahmin who learned and believed in advaita is still a
Brahmin in every day rituals. On other hand non-
Brahmin and low caste guru mouthing advaita
philosophy, is not practicing any Brahmin rituals. They
resort to certain popular community practices such as
Ganapati homam, chanting Lalita Sahasranamam and
reading of Narayaneeyam. The Mata Amritanandamayi
cult is an example. At one time a couple of decades back
the Chinmaya Mission Geeta classes were rage among the
high castes, without learning the meaning of the verses
and without understanding the teachings of
Geeta. It was just chanting a mantra to appear blissful.

In fact the late Kanchi Swamy Chandrasekharendra
Saraswathy explained that Meanings of Vedic verses are
not material. The importance is to learn to chant
Mantra correctly. All bliss comes from the appropriate
tones of the mantras chanted. the Mantra correctly. All
bliss comes from the appropriate tones of the
mantras chanted.
After going thru this book one might ask the author about
the actual practices, followed by the Sangha Parivar
whether they represent modern day Hinduism.
But the great majority of Hindus look at the parivar
differently as a set of cultists.

8. IN TIMES OF SIEGE By Geeta Hariharan.

The subject of this novel is very much topical today. It is a
mirror image of The present day hindutva history
mongers. The attempt at remaking Hindu history for
schools and colleges are on and it seems to be succeeding.
Hindutva portrays it as larger than living. A calendar god
is made a model and history takes a saffron colour.
There must be more polemics against and historians like
Akhilesh Mittal should lead in challenging the saffron
brigade.

Judging from those articles published in news papers, one finds a new respectability to people like Balbir Punj BJP’s hard hindutva ideologue. He is a regular in Asian Age. But except for Akhilesh Mittal no secularist is bothered to rebut Balbir Punj. This lethargic attitude will vitiate the national and secular interests on a long term.

Geeta Hariharan’s novel based on a secular historian and the harassment meted out to him by the hard core hindutva brigade is well intended and timely.


9. Our Amazing Planet A Time Life Series.

This book is well illustrated and explains the basic features of our planet earth. Added to it s information about the planetary system. All factual informations are conveyed thru short sentences. Both doubts and other interpretations are mentioned. There are no dogmatic assertions There is a ready acceptance to say that on several areas factual informations are limited and further research might find something entirely different than that are accepted as truth and only truth today. A healthy scepticism is imparted through out this good book. A must for all ages.


10. TRAVELLER and The ROAD by Com. Mohit Sen.

Whether Com. Sen in his narrative is truthful or not, he has posed a lot of fundamental questions and also tried to answer. I have no specific reasons to disagree with much of his views but would like to state that Sen is too subjective in evaluating the personalities of the early CPI leadership, who accepted Marxism in the later half of forties. I knew about the self sacrificing nature of most of the leadership and therefore I respected them much. A. K. Gopalan is one in point. After becoming MP with maximum votes to first Parliament, he came to Chembur and after a long speech in a public meeting, joined our family to have dinner, at Station Colony i.e. Subhash Nagar. As political personalities they cannot be faulted. They were not opportunists as some later day politicians including the socialist/communist variety. If there were certain factional and unfriendly traits they were the product of circumstances and not inherent. Com. Sen missed to state that many of the Kerala leadership of CPI were well versed in their knowledge of Sanskrit like N.E. Balaram, K. Damodaran, M.S. Devdas and also so many sympathisers there. They tried to instil a secular culture and an inquiring mind. I myself came to the party with such a background of Sanskrit education.