Lunatic in My Head- A Review

Since the day I heard about the book, "Lunatic in my Head" I had been waiting eagerly for a chance to get my hands on a copy of this book. After all it was a book about Shillong, written by an author who grew up in my Shillong with characters based in my quaint little home town. How could I not want to read this book. Finally on my trip home I managed to get it, a gift from my sister.
The book relates the story of four very different people in mid 1990s Shillong, people who had lived for years in this city but were still outsiders. People who had no other place to call home but still didn't belong in Shillong. Just like the pace of life in Shillong there is something slow and painfully consistent in the life of characters. It's like nothing ever changes. Nothing ever changes in Shillong, not the rains, not the riots, not the extortion, not the smell of pine, not the pain, absolutely nothing. Reading the book was like listening to my Dad talk about life in Shillong. There was nothing new or nice in the stories but you listen anyways. The book also ends fairly abruptly with absolutely no progress in the story. Yes it felt like Shillong, my home where nothing ever changes.

An Equal Music - A Review

During my visit to Boston I decided to go to the Harvard bookstore. I wasn't looking for any book in particularly when I went there, just an opportunity to see a famous landmark store. So while in the store I just happened to pick up Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music". On a whim I bought it. I had never read any of his books, though I did get my hands on "A Suitable Boy" once but never got the chance to read it. So without much expectation I started reading it and couldn't stop till I actually finished it.

"An Equal Music" is the story of Michael a violinist and Julia a pianist who run into each other after 10 years of parting ways. The story progresses with a whirlwind romance between the two even though Julia is married and explores their deep love for music and for each other which nothing can change. Though essentially a love story it explores more than love between two human beings, it touches on their love for music, the music which brought them together and their undying commitment to live for music.

What I found remarkable about the book was the narration and the portrayal of the characters, the emotions and the turmoil they go through. The characters are depicted extremely well and almost felt real. Their thoughts, feelings confusions and every emotion was so real. Even London felt so real. I could almost imagine myself walking the streets of London and riding the buses there. After a long time I read a book which was not completely dark and which I could relate to and yes fall in love with. At certain points the book did remind me of "Of Human Bondage" another one of my all time favorite books. Ofcourse there was nothing similar about the two books except that they evoked the same reaction in me.

My trip to Boston wasn't a great trip with all the rain and wind in Boston and the crazy feeling of being intimidated by scholars which I felt constantly but I guess I can finally say it was worth it. I have the book proudly sitting on my book shelf and I am glad I bought it after all.

The Inheritance of Loss-Review

I just finished reading the Man Booker Prize winning "The Inheritance of Loss" and the first thing that struck me when I closed the book was "what was she thinking when she wrote the book". I mean in her attempt to touch many subjects all I can say is she did justice to none. There is a smattering of so many subjects yet none feel accurate. It's almost as if the author was relating something she had heard from another person. There was a lack of connection. The details of the Himalayan city, the Gurkha uprising, the son's stay in New York, the death of the judge's wife, daughter and son-in-law all had a certain sense of vagueness. Almost as if a part of the story was concealed by the author or almost as if she herself was unaware of so many facts. It was an idea which went wrong. Like a beautiful drawing which became ugly after adding colours.

13 Dec-A Reader

I am posting this particular post hoping that every human being who still believes in the victory of good over evil will read it without any prejudices and distinction of caste and religion. What follows is an excerpt from Arundhati Roy’s introduction to 13 December - A Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament. The essays in the reader are by A G Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Ashok Mitra, Indira Jaising, Jawed Naqvi, Mihir Srivastava, Nandita Haskar, Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Praful Bidwai, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Sonia Jabbar, Syed Bismillah Geelani and Tripta Wahi.

Most people, or let’s say many people, when they encounter real facts and a logical argument, do begin to ask the right questions. Public unease continues to grow. A group of citizens have come together as a committee (chaired by Nirmala Deshpande) to publicly demand a Parliamentary enquiry into the episode. There is an on-line petition demanding the same thing. Thousands of people have signed on. Every day new articles appear in the papers, on the net. At least half a dozen web sites are following the developments closely. They raise questions about how Mohammad Afzal, who never had proper legal representation, can be sentenced to death, without having had an opportunity to be heard, without a fair trial. They raise questions about fabricated evidence, procedural flaws and the outright lies that were presented in court and published in newspapers. They show how there is hardly a single piece of evidence that stands up to scrutiny.
And then, there are even more disturbing questions that have been raised, which range beyond the fate of Mohammad Afzal.

Question 1: For months before the Attack on Parliament, both the government and the police had been saying that Parliament could be attacked. On 12 December 2001, at an informal meeting the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee warned of an imminent attack on Parliament. On 13 December Parliament was attacked. Given that there was an ‘improved security drill’, how did a car bomb packed with explosives enter the parliament complex?

Question 2: Within days of the Attack, the Special Cell of Delhi Police said it was a meticulously planned joint operation of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba. They said the attack was led by a man called ‘Mohammad’ who was also involved in the hijacking of IC-814 in 1998. (This was later refuted by the CBI.) None of this was ever proved incourt. What evidence did the Special Cell have for its claim?

Question 3: The entire attack was recorded live on Close Circuit TV (CCTV). Congress Party MP Kapil Sibal demanded in Parliament that the CCTV recording be shown to the members. He was supported by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, who said that there was confusion about the details of the event. The chief whip of the Congress Party, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, said, ‘I counted six men getting out ofthe car. But only five were killed. The close circuit TV camera recording clearly showed the six men.’ If Dasmunshi was right, why did the police say that there were only five people in the car? Who was the the sixth person? Where is he now? Why was the CCTV recording not produced by the prosecution as evidence in the trial? Why was it not released for public viewing?

Question 4: Why was Parliament adjourned after some of these questions were raised?

Question 5: A few days after 13 December, the government declared that it had ‘incontrovertible evidence’ of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack, and announced a massive mobilization of almost half a million soldiers to the Indo-Pakistan border. The subcontinent was pushed to the brink of nuclear war. Apart from Afzal’s ‘confession’, extracted under torture (and later set aside by the Supreme Court), what was the ‘incontrovertible evidence’?

Question 6: Is it true that the military mobilization to the Pakistan border had begun long before the 13 December Attack?

Question 7: How much did this military standoff, which lasted for nearly a year, cost? How many soldiers died in the process? How many soldiers and civilians died because of mishandled landmines, and how many peasants lost their homes and land because trucks and tanks were rolling through their villages, and landmines were being planted in their fields?

Question 8: In a criminal investigation it is vital for the police to show how the evidence gathered at the scene of the attack led them to the accused. How did the police reach Mohammad Afzal? The Special Cell says S.A.R. Geelani led them to Afzal. But the message to look out for Afzal was actually flashed to the Srinagar Police before Geelani was arrested. So how did the Special Cell connect Afzal to the 13 December Attack?

Question 9: The courts acknowledge that Afzal was a surrendered militant who was in regular contact with the security forces, particularly the Special Task Force (STF) of Jammu & Kashmir Police. How do the security forces explain the fact that a person under their surveillance was able to conspire in a major militant operation?

Question 10: Is it plausible that organizations like Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed would rely on a person who had been in and out of STF torture chambers, and was under constant police surveillance, as the principal link for a major operation?

Question 11: In his statement before the court, Afzal says that he was introduced to ‘Mohammed’ and instructed to take him to Delhi by a man called Tariq, who was working with the STF. Tariq was named in the police charge sheet. Who is Tariq and where is he now?

Question 12: On 19 December 2001, six days after the Parliament Attack, Police Commissioner, Thane (Maharashtra), S.M. Shangari identified one of the attackers killed in the Parliament Attack as Mohammad Yasin Fateh Mohammed (alias Abu Hamza) of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, who had been arrested in Mumbai in November 2000, and immediately handed over to the J&K Police. He gave detailed descriptions to support his statement. IfPolice Commissioner Shangari was right, how did Mohammad Yasin, a man in the custody of the J&K Police, end up participating in the Parliament Attack? If he was wrong, where is Mohammad Yasin now?

Question 13: Why is it that we still don’t know who the five dead ‘terrorists’ killed in the Parliament Attack are?

The following are links to 2 essays which are part of this book and another article by Nirmalangshu Mukherji on the same incident.

1. Guilty of an Unsolved Crime - Mihir Srivastava

2. India's Shame - Arundhati Roy

3. Who Attacked Parliament - Nirmalangshu Mukherji

1984

I just finished reading George Orwell’s 1984 and I am speechless when it comes to describing the book in 1 word. Recommended to me around one and half years back it took me a long time to actually read it. The book relates the story of Winston Smith and his moral destruction by the totalitarian state of Oceania of which he is a citizen.
The narration of the story and the unfolding of the plot is brilliant. The characters of Winston, Julia, Mr Charrington, O’Brien, Goldstein and the formiddable Big Brother are well crafted and speaks volumes about the care taken to build the perfect plot. The book as a whole is an exceptional piece of literarary work. However there are a few points and concepts of the book which I found amazing and cannot help but discuss.

• Totalitarian Governance : The Government of Oceania headed by Big Brother controls every aspect of the life of the party members. The government not only controlled the individuals but also the past and the future. The Ministry of Truth dealt with writing and rewriting history to ensure that it said only what would be beneficial for Big Brother and the party. All books and refrences to the period before 1960 had been scrapped and no written record other than that maintained by the Ministry of Truth existed. Every piece of paper and record which questioned the stand of the Government was put down the memory hole. So is it actually possible to control the future and the past ? After all like mentioned in the book past is not “Happening” somehwere. It exist only in memories and records and if both could be controlled the past itself was being controlled. What happens if the past is altered and retold to us in a different manner ? What if the same happens today ? How would we deal with it ?
  
• Thought Crime : As Winston aptly says, “Thought crime does not entail death, Thought Crime IS death” in Oceania. Each individual’s life is kept under strich surveillance and his/her every move is monitored closely. There were telescreens and microphones fitted in every place to monitor the party members and their movement. Even children were taught to report their parents to the Thought Police if they ever saw, overheard or noticed any signs of treachery. Friends, spouses, children no one could be trusted. This was a spine chilling idea. Loss of freedom and policing of the mind could very well lead many of us to prison. After all how many of us have never thought of revolting against the government? Or a thought which made us feel guity later.
  
• DoubleThink : The ability to believe in 2 contradictory views at the same time. The mind would say that 2+2=4. However to believe that 2+2=5 simply because the party says so was to doublethink. It was sanity defined all over again. Can truth be altered simply because the majority believe so ? A whole nation of people can believe that the sun rises from th west. So can a entire nation denying the truth actually falsify it ?
  
• Newspeak : The new language of the future. The language which would limit vocabulary and eventually curtail all thoughts leading to betrayal and revolution of any sort. It would abolish words which could explain the concept of political freedom. This idea in itself is amazing for the human mind cannot imagine anything which it cannot articulate. It is difficult to present an abstract idea when there are no befitting words. This revelation increases my respect for language tenfold. Not only can language determine what we say now, it can also determine what we think and say much later. It can decide our future and even the future of a nation and maybe the world too.
  
• SelfPreservation over Love : Winston’s only claim to being human was his love for Julia and he firmly believed that the Thought Police could never get into his mind and end his love for her. However when he encounters his greatest fear, rats he betrays Julia screaming that she be subjected to that torture and not him. After his release when he encounters her they speak about their betrayal to each other. The song “Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me” sums up the feeling at that point. So if love can be crushed is love overrated in today’s world ? Is love and romance merely instruments of entertainment? Feeling which can come to an end under severe conditions. Maybe the concept of undying love is a mere poet’s fantasy. Like Utopia, it does not exist yet people dream about it.
  
• Sexual Repression : Big Brother’s Government discourages all forms of sexual encounter between man and woman for pleasure. It treats sex as a “Duty to the Party”. It is simply an action for reproduction and nothing more. It believes that there will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. Sexual desire one of the baser instincts of mankind if supressed can only lead to passion spilling out elsewhere. In Hatred and in War. The war between countries which might never end.
• Proles : When Winston scrawls in his diary “If there is hope... it lies in the proles”. He believes that a revolution will come when the proles will rise and overthrow the government. However the party is sure that the proles will never revolt, never raise their voice against the government. This appears so true in today’s context. No matter how hard the times or how corrupt the government the commmon man has restricted himself to his own life. He will not step out of his small protected world and make any attempt to make a difference.
  

An extremely thought provoking book which even after almost 60 years is not out of context. It could very well have been written today. A masterpiece in the truest sense of the word.