Book Review: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

You don’t need a book to learn that Loss is an integral part of life, but to read a book which includes this plain lesson with a deeper meaning of life, embedded with humor, common sense, knowledge and a fairly decent amount of scuttling between very diverse people, environments and situations is, SUCH a delight.

Diverse – life in a remote corner of India in a palatial, yet dilapidated house near the foot of Himalayas overlooking the Kanchenjunga, then life in the illegal alien track in the unkempt kitchens of New York fast food restaurants to life in the pre and post-colonial England where Indian civil servants were trained to be sent back to British India. Training apart, the newly westernized civil servant came back with distaste for most things Indian - food, wife, bathroom, social manners and language and, to add to the medley - unrest in the remotest part of India by Nepali-Indians fighting for a separate Gorkhaland for Gurkhas (Gorkhas?).

Five primary characters, the judge, his cook, the cook’s son - Biju, the judge’s grand-daughter – Sai, her tutor and love interest Gyan. And an assortment of characters across three continents – Saeed Saeed, Harish-Harry in America, Uncle Potty, Father Booty, Mutt – the judge’s pet dog, all in India and some insignificant characters in England, where the judge learns to embrace solitude and develop a hatred for everyone and everything.

Every character has a story to tell, the Judge having learnt to love loneliness and trying to come to terms with having his 17 year old grand-daughter Sai, being imposed upon him, the cook living a typical servant-ish life in the judge’s home. Biju, the cook’s son running from restaurant to restaurant in New York making out his living escaping from the INS and saving his money in the soles of his shoes, Sai deeply attracted to her tutor Gyan and Gyan himself torn between youthful romance and the call from his kukri waving community for a separate Gorkhland.

Some stories are hard to explain, Kiran Desai the author, mentioned in an interview that she took 7 years to write this 1500 page book and then condensed it into 300 pages. I started this book a couple of times over the last one year after a sweet gift from Dabbu for ‘Raakhi’ and was overwhelmed by the intensity of the book. In some ways, this book is not just another enjoyable read. I had to struggle a little sometimes to keep myself motivated and, often went over some paragraphs more than twice gasping at the beauty of the words woven into sentences. There are instances where each character’s story running in 5 different tracks, is presented in bits in a page or two. And then the humor, subtle and powerful, the reader might as well shake his head in disbelief at the sudden injunction of humor in the story.

The book begins with a majestic view of Kanchenjunga and ends with the same view of Kanchenjunga in a different season. Not everyone gets what they want, but every one tastes Loss. And the Loss is - inherited.

And to quote Borges’ poem - Boast of quietness ; the lines of which are mentioned in the epitaph of the novel:

……………………………Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to arrive.”

Other posts related to books:

Kite Runner

Till death do us part

Dispatches from the edge

egayov nob

Every passing minute of time, until the destination is reached
my heart takes a flight, a breath and a blink’s delay
this isn’t reality, this can’t be a dream either
one thing will lead to another, until the destination is reached.

Good bye then, Happy Journey.
What next did you ask? Well this is just the beginning.
You’re now just a fellow traveller, there’s another journey ahead.
This was just the beginning.

AH, the title should have been Bon Voyage. Wait. Is this familiar? Yeah, it’s from HERE 

Now, is there a trackback or a reverse journey? Hmm, a reverse journey is toooo long , guess I’ll keep moving forward.

Have fun, Happy New Year.

Ee Jeevitham

Jeevam leni jeevitham edi ra, gamyam leni payanam edi ra
Maranisthu jeevisthunna ee lokam sthithi gathilemira
Svardham tho aarjistunna ee lokam “ardham” emi ra

- by Naveen Reddy Jonnalgadda, friend from college in India, in Jersey right now. A budding poet and an inspirational person. Just a minute sample of his talent, 3 lines of a beautifully worded Telugu snippet.

—

Rough Translation by Browsekid (pardon my below average Telugu literary skills and just average English literary skills)

This life.

What does it mean to exist, rather than live, like a journey with no destination?
What is it like- to be in this chaotic world that seems to be living and dying at the same instant?
Is it really a meaningful life, if one just craves for things of materialistic value? Reflect on it, my friend.

Now, the italicized part is almost an addition or an exaggeration, but I thought it was necessary for the translation to look complete. However, no translator for this couplet can actually bring in 100% value to the reader like if you could read the Telugu version. Please do comment about any better translation in English if you can speak Tinglish (Telugu+English).

Happy Holidays.

How to negotiate like an Indian

“In India, we bargain to the level of the individual vegetable purchase.”

Read it here

Courtesy: Surya on Gtalk

The grapes are sour

Around 1986-87, I was in Kindergarten and Vaidehi Ma’am was explaining to us kiddos one of the stories in an English text book. This one was about a fox that wanted to eat grapes and because it couldn’t reach them, it decided the grapes were sour. This was among the first instances of I failing to understand something in my life that my peers understood. I asked my parents and sisters and they tried explaining it to me with little success.

I don’t really know when the meaning sunk in, but this was probably one of those stories that have a major impact in one’s life.

Easy to despise what you don’t get. I don’t know with what intention Aesop might have written it, but this is probably the most common thing we see today - starting especially with a college someone wants to get into and then majoring-in field, visa, graduate school, assistantship, job, raise, car, girl and so on…

Ain’t it easy to discover a reason for something we tried and didn’t get, may sound a valid reason, may not sound as one. But the fact remains we did try for it, and then figured out a reason as to why we can’t be upset over not getting it. The proffesor will make you work like a dog - so it’s good you didn’t get the assistantship. May be valid. The girl I asked out had an affair with two guys before, good that we didn’t pair up. Invalid, and this is called character assassination. Those who agree  with the reason might just be helping you out emotionally.

The example I’ve taken stemmed out from this link that I found in Wikipedia for The fox and the grapes entry. The illustrations are tiny, yet good. While I think, to despise something you don’t get is actually good in some cases because you won’t loose your confidence, this must not lead to character assassination or any such thing that might hamper other’s views on a specific subject. SO if you didn’t get into majoring in English literature, do not ridicule it saying that’s not a good program or there are no future opportunities. Someone else might think it to be true as they don’t know the whole story behind your statement.

And just an FYI -  foxes do eat fruits, I really don’t think grapes are an exception, but I did feed pieces of apple to a fox. In more than once instance. They also eat insects (crickets), mice,  and other small creatures. I wonder that the fox would have said about the crickets it couldn’t catch. Insects are nasty and gross anyway. Pah.

Knight Rider movie

Remember this?

Come Feb 17th 2008, a full fledged 2 hr movie being produced by NBC

Press release video - Click here

And the model used in the movie is a Ford Mustang while the one used in the TV series was a 1982 Pontiac (from wikipedia).

Robot Demos

Robot comes of age, serves drinks to person who ordered them!

Honda’s Asimo

from www.liveleak.com]

Can Toyota be far behind then?

from www.liveleak.com]

How come robots look like aliens in the movies?

BEE Movie?

 Or shall we say DUCK Movie?

Chiranjeevi in the fray

Technically, I don’t usually talk about film stars in the positive sense, especially those who are known as movie actors but do not act proper in movies because they don’t need to anymore. However, when a national daily like the Times of India writes about Chiranjeevi starting a political outfit in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the news must be pretty reliable. Not that this is a surprise, not that this is good or bad, but this could be important.

 

Politics in Andhra Pradesh is as crazy as everywhere else in India. It is influenced by regionalism, caste divisions and party politics. Most Chief Ministers of the state have been either of the ‘Chaudury’ Caste or the ‘Reddy’ caste.

Taken and complied from K.C.Suri’s -  “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics in Andhra Pradesh, India”. The statistics indicate that Chiranjeevi’s caste (Kapu’s) share a 10-12% strong population in the state. Higher than that of Chaudury’s (NTR/Chandrababu Naidu’s caste) or Reddy’s (Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy’s).

 

Brahmins – 2-4%

Vaishyas – 2-4%

Chaudury’s – 4-5%

Scheduled Tribes  - 7%

Reddy’s – 8-10%

Kapu’s – 10-12%

Scheduled Castes – 16%

So called ‘Backward’ castes – 35-44%

Others - < 3-4%

 

–

And by religion

 

Hindus – 89%

Muslims – 9% (while in Hyderabad, the percentage is 26% of the population)

Christians – 1.8% , the number is harder to figure out as Scheduled castes and tribes are included in Christians too, and there are upper caste Christians in general, who form part of the 1.8%

Others – 1-2%

 

There’s no prominent Kapu personality in current political scenario who could rule the state by himself (ladies, by default omitted in AP politics, Renuka Chowdury could have been an option, but she’s too much of a man-hater to be the CM of a state)

 

29 March 1982 was one day when history was made when N.T. Rama Rao formed a political party that shook up the strength of Congress and became the first non-congress led state government in the state. Naming it ‘Telugu Desam’ (Country of the Telugus) and fighting for Telugu Atma-gowrawam (self respect of the Telugu’s), Telugu desam party won the riot and came to power.

 

Come 2008, Chiranjeevi’s entry could for the second time mark the entry of a cinema star into AP politics. NTR relied on his image as a demi-god who acted in roles depicting Lord Krishna and Rama and other mythological characters which were the norm in 70’s and 80’s. Chiranjeevi steadily built his image as a hero of the masses, with films starting late 90’s where specially penned dialogues in movies would be on the lines of “I’m born for the people” while two heroines whose combined age would still be less than his age would be fighting for his ‘love’. People, obviously are blind or squint eyed.

 

In late 80’s/early 90’s while I was at my grandmother’s place in Bhimavaram, coastal Andhra Pradesh, the news was that NTR would pass by in a procession, I vaguely remember the reason or the situation but sure remember the commotion it caused and the hundred thousand people that turned up out of nowhere in the wee hours of the morning. I preferred my sleep to NTR much to the surprise of the elders around me, but I know there were a thousand enthusiasts waiting to catch a glimpse of NTR.

 

In 2003, I happened to pass by Bhimavaram again, my grandparents are long gone, I do have lot of memories of the street though, one of my Aunt’s still lives at the end of the street where I spent the first 3 years of my life. Around 12-14KM away from the area I’m talking about, lies another small village –Vempa, where my eldest sister’s new relatives came from. It was but natural as her brother to follow up with all the new relations and get to know the families better, I did go, and I occasionally passed by a tiny place called ‘Mogalthur’ which was quite close to Vempa. Now the difference is, people in Vempa prospered instantly on aqua farms, overnight all paddy fields were converted to aqua farms and prawns raised, returns were quick and very high but not stable. Everyone made enough money for the next few years, lifestyles changed from Amabassadors and Maruthi 800’s to TATA Safari’s instantly, then dollar value dropped and foreign importers started complaining of a ‘mud’ smell in the prawns. Demand dropped. The thing with aqua farms is most paddy fields can be converted to aqua farms overnight, aqua farms cannot be reverted back as crop growing fields again for a couple of years.

Mogalthur on the other hand was very undeveloped, a road ran through the center of the village connecting vempa to other tiny villages around. Mogalthur had no big houses, or proper roads, but yes it had a specialty. It was where Chiranjeevi was born.

2003 is not too long ago, I doubt if anything has changed around Mogalthur, I sometimes wondered why the place wasn’t fully developed or at least had a proper road. Chiranjeevi could sure put one in place if he wanted in a matter of days. He did not, until now.

 

So if Chiranjeevi does become a CM, what essentially will change? Nothing. I can reasonably expect he is not pro-hindutva. He should have a sizeable following among all religions, especially Muslims. No leader outside the old city of Hyderabad has won the hearts of people inside the old city. Apart from ryot suicides, terrorism will be the primary obstacle that any future CM will have to face. It’s really impossible to expect someone to be good at ‘handling’ terrorism in Hyderabad. No one can, not even with years of experience as a state or central intelligence officer. Many other things will not change, the way bribes are given and taken, for every single little thing related to government. It won’t change.

 

And Chiranjeevi sure has an uphill task ahead, there are problems, problems and more problems. He has had to face reputation problems with his youngest brother’s first wife. Ironically, though most people would agree his brother wasn’t at fault nor did he cheat anyone. Someone just wanted to get back at him, she did.

 

And of course, the new teen sensation, Chiru’s second daughter, Srija – most people view her as the person who brought down the decades strong reputation of her father in an instant. Chiranjeevi’s successes make him super human; his problems make him human.

 

Above all, the challenge of politics itself, Chandrababu is lying low, but he is one of the shrewdest politicians in the history of Andhra Pradesh, and now he is the father-in-law of Balakrishna’s daughter. Chiranjeevi by default has two opponents, one an able administrator with the experience of two consecutive terms as the CM of Andhra, the other his primary opponent as an artist and son of the legendary NTR, viewed by many chamchas  as the unofficial first family of the state. AP politics have rarely played an important part in politics at the central level, Jayalalitha in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu usually keeps hogging the limelight, Chiranjeevi sure has a lot to learn in the coming days, as long as he keeps his office honest, free of personal vendetta, keeps his family out of his political spectrum and makes able decisions, he can be a good leader. So simple, yet so difficult. Chiranjeevi in the fray.

 

References:
K.C. Suri - Democratic Process and Electoral Politics
in Andhra Pradesh, India.

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp180.pdf