Book Summary- One and a half wife by Meghna Pant

One and a half wife

By

Meghna Pant, Westland Ltd. 2012, 296 pp, Rs. 250/-

          Meghna Pant’s debut novel is interesting and deals with social and marital issues that the middle class face, but shy away from.  It traces the story of Amara Malhotra, who arrives in US and tries to live her mother’s version of American dream (posh and polished lifestyle yet Indian in values).  Her efforts to impress others by living someone else’s life always meet with failure, and her ‘Indianness’ makes her the bride of an ivy-educated millionaire, being his mother’s choice.  Then follows a life of Jekyll & Hyde – trying to be her Indian self from within and seeming to lead the husband-friendly lifestyle from without.  She forces herself to compromise on her likes and dislikes and tries to adjust to her husband.  She ends up with a double whammy – failing to rise up to his expectations as well as being herself.  All her efforts to ‘save’ the marriage prove futile, because her husband never wanted her in first place.  The truth of the failed marriage is something she has to come to terms with and at the same time, face the adversity of her parents and the ostracism of the Indian American community.

Book Summary- A River Sutra by Gita Mehta

A River Sutra

                                      by Gita Mehta

Viking – Penguin Books India, 1993 282 pp,  Rs. 299/-

          This is an interesting book made up of stories either experienced or told on the banks of the River Narmada.  There is a narrator (Sutra-dhar), an ex-civil servant, who takes up the job of the Manager of the Narmada Rest House, a Mughal vintage building deep inside the forest on the banks of the Narmada, as if only to symbolise his entering the Vanaprastha stage of life.  One finds vivid descriptions of the building and its neighbourhood but the thread (Sutra) that runs the book is the River Goddess herself.

The Exorcism of the Ghost- Part II (concluded)

(continued from the previous post)

          Padma was in her mid twenties.  Their house bore a pall of gloom because of the death of a relative – not that their family had not known death, because the deceased individual forced it upon himself!  This was the first ever suicide heard of in the village the family hailed from!  Moreover, the relative was a prodigal son who wrought infamy upon his parents – he would purchase expensive items from the market on credit by (mis)using his father’s name and the poor father would have to foot the bills at a later date.  There was a point when the parents grew tired of his spendthrift habits – they warned him strongly.  The suicide was not the result of the repentance, rather of determination to put elderly parents into further trouble.  When he was ‘fished’ out of the river, a suicide note was recovered from his possession, which said that his parents drove him into taking this extreme step and that he would take revenge on his parents and those who supported them by haunting them.  In addition to the sorrow, Padma was worried about this ‘haunting’.  She expressed her fears to Sakti, who assuaged them by saying, ‘Don’t you worry, Padma!  If each and every individual who committed suicide would decide to haunt some one or the other, the roads would be full after dark and there would be no room for traffic either’.  Padma was relieved.

* * * * * * * * *

The Exorcism of the Ghost-Part I

          Padma was introduced to the ghost when she was, may be, three years of age – that’s what she remembers.  She was not sure of her accuracy on this count.  That was when her relative mentioned the word ‘Deyyam barukulu’ (Ghost scratches) for chapped skin in winter.

          Padma had got curious.  She wanted to know what the ‘Deyyam’ (Ghost) was and how it managed to scratch her.  When she asked her cousin as to how those scratches appeared, the latter bit her tongue and promptly told her, ‘Actually they are called ‘Gaali Geetalu’ (lines caused by the air).  They occur during the winter.  Some people also call them ghost-scratches’.  Those were the days when cosmetics had not invaded our dressing tables in the way they have now.  Awareness of moisturising the skin was quite low – it either took the form of application of coconut oil (which, some people worried, would cause thick body hair) or, for those who could afford, petroleum jelly, on the body.  Needless to say, with no fragrance to enjoy, and an oily skin to handle, children naturally made a lot of fuss to let their mothers lubricate their body, and therefore, usually ended up with chapped and scraped skin during winters.  With low levels of awareness about the skin, people attributed the scratches on their skin to the invisible air or to the equally invisible ghost.

Of Leaders and Losers- 1. The Strong Comeback

            We normally associate leaders only with the power to control the course of others’ lives.  The aim of the anecdotes related below is to disprove that notion.  People in their own small ways can make the difference not only to their lives but also to others.  Such leaders are highlighted in this series. Some others get the opportunity of helping others’ lot improve but they seek to dump it. Many more think negatively and, deservingly, get reflected in the ‘losers’ part of this series. Some stories may also bring out the contrast between leaders and losers!

            In a small town of India, there lived an IIT aspirant called Srinu.  His extended family looked up to him because none of them had ever come close to making it to the esteemed institution.

The Peril of being ‘Practical'

          There's nothing new in this. In fact, you feel you've read it somewhere, may be in a newspaper report, seen it on TV, or on the silver screen. However, a message needs to be reiterated till corruption is eliminated; hence this story.

Fear of Death- Part II (concld)

           

(contd from the  previous post)

       Padma came of college- going age. The typical day at her college started with a prayer which requested God to take them from mortality to immortality (‘Mrityorma    Amritamgamaya’), among other things. When ever she uttered the word, ‘Mrityorma’, if the face of any human showed up in her vision, by any chance, she shuddered. She did not want anyone, who may have knocked the doors of her thoughts at the time of she uttering the word, to pay with life on account of that. So, she tried to work out a solution- she wanted to consciously remember someone dead to symbolize mortality. A plan-B was put in place to remember the king Cobra, whose bite was a sure-shot cause of death- so that the horrendous bite may be an antidote to poison in life!

       At last, some initiative had been taken in overcoming the fear!

Fear of Death-Part I

       We mortals are sure to have one fear – the fear of Death. It is more visible in some, while many others have been able to successfully conceal it behind a cheerful countenance.

       Padma was a sensitive child, more sensitive than normal children. She realized she had this fear much earlier than other children of her age did.

       ‘I don’t want to read this comic’, 5- year- old Padma said in a firm voice to her parents. She was recently introduced to the world of Amar Chitra Katha comics. As a part of her socialization, her parents bought her a comic containing that part of the epic, ‘Mahabharata’ which covered the Battle of Kurukshetra. Children of her age normally were fond of battles, which depicted vivid pictures of mace and bow- and- arrow fights. ‘Why?’, asked her bewildered parents.

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 2: An Incessant Rain of Blessings all the way

            After all the strain of Day 1, we made it a point to wake up only after having been sufficiently blessed by the Goddess of Sleep and we followed it to the dot.  The Goddess was also kind enough in not testing us on this issue.

          Even as the others got ready, I sneaked into the verandah attached to our room in the Lalithambika Guest House of the Kollur Devasthana to catch a glimpse of the nature around us. And I was not disappointed at all.  I stared at the clouds hitting the hills at a distance and descending.

The clouds on the Western Ghats- Kollur, Karnataka

What a colour combination!

What a bliss to be here!

Reality is not so Scary

                   The presence of the moon around us is a source of happiness, isn’t it? Padma was a big fan of both the Sea and the Moon.

                   In her childhood, it was fairly common for her to watch the moonlight  fall on the Bay of Bengal and think of moonlight songs like  ‘Lahiri lahiri lahirilo’.

Does this pic not remind us about songs on the Moon? I remember 'Lahiri  lahiri' and the legendary cinematographer Marcus Bartley

                  

Making a choice

    Padma’s progressive parents allowed her to make decisions.  Right from a tender age, they made her a part of financial decision- making in the family, listened to her with rapt attention, discussed her point of view and she, Soma and Shakti took unanimous decisions later.

     Padma was a bright girl.  She was good at all subjects, but had a special interest in History.  She was also exceptionally fond of mathematics, but loathed Science, mainly because of non-inspiring teachers, both at home and in school.  This was a contradiction of sorts, because traditionally the best teachers in schools belonged to the Science or Mathematics or Literature streams, whereas it was commonly opined that people whose career options were closed ended up as teachers of humanities.  Then how did Padma nurture her fondness for History?  She found the social studies teacher more boring than those who taught Science.  That was because of her aunt Lakshmi, who made stories out of Asoka’s renouncement of war post- Kalinga, the crusade of Rajah Ram Mohan Roy against Sati, the efforts of Iswara Chandra Vidyasagar towards women’s education and widow remarriage, Mahatma Gandhi’s weapon of non-violence, so on and so forth.  Plus, Padma was herself a voracious reader of the Amar Chitra Katha.  She had read enough of them to fall in love with History. 

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 1 : All’s well that ends well (including two ‘pots’ of ‘gold’) Part- II

           After a point, we entered into the Kudremukh National Park, home for the cheetah, spotted deer, bison and other animals.  Dilip alerted us to look around the surroundings to spot some wildlife.  It rained consistently and mist greeted us after a certain point.  Alas, time was too insufficient to even think of photography. We downed the window-glass and let the bliss overtake us.  Wow!  After a while we spotted a tail.  Whose could it be?  Of a fox? Or a wolf?  Oh no, it is a dog’s!  Suddenly Dilip found a small snake crossing the road (I could not see it, to my dismay).  The forest was dense and pleasant.  Memories of my trip to Darjeeling four years ago came to my mind.  Suddenly I looked at the watch: 4.30 p.m.  At inopportune times, we remember unpleasant things. 

Karnataka Pilgrimage Day 1 : All’s well that ends well (including two ‘pots’ of ‘gold’)- Part I

          After two successive sleepless train-borne nights, if one had to wake up so early that one is ready to be road-borne by 5.30 a.m., it is a tough start, to say the least.  If one was ready and eager to leave by the designated time and had to find another vehicle and a driver as the one supposed to turn up, did not, one knew what kind of day was in store.  This was the beginning of the Day 1 of our Karnataka Pilgrimage recently.

          We wanted to cover two places and pray at the temples and reach another temple town by the evening.  The one who planned it out for us had spent a decade in the Western Ghats, and specifically told me that the course of the journey and the serenity in the temples would compete with each other for the resultant peace of mind and the bliss of the soul.

Ullala Beach and Netravati : Sagara Teeram, Nadi Samuttaranam, Suryastamayadarsanam

          One evening in Mangalore, we decided to visit the seashore.  We reached the Ullala beach (the place Ullala being famous for a dargah) and walked around.  May be I was not in my elements, I only greeted my friend Samudra from a distance and not by touch.  I noticed that there was a slope in the landscape.  Even if the waves seemed to be low, one could never accurately gauge the depth of water so it appeared improper to venture into deep water (not that it was a valid enough excuse to keep away from Samudra).  A true friend understood silence, it was said.  Samudra did just that.

The Visit to the Malampuzha Dam- An Adventure-in- the- Waiting

      

On my maiden visit to Palakkad (the Gateway to Kerala, literally translated as ‘The Milk Forest’), we planned a trip to the Malampuzha Dam (about 6 km from the Railway station). 

 This dam was meant to collect the rain water and the natives of the city, I was told, would get jittery if it were not filled in the monsoon.  

Faith in Upbringing

          Soma & Sakti were an understanding couple and blessed with two daughters,  Padmasana and Lalitha.  They were content with one child till their daughter began to miss the love of a sibling.  Lalitha was born a good ten years later.  Eventhough theirs was an arranged marriage and despite the fact that they did not converse with each other before their marriage,  they understood each other well, mainly because both of them believed in the same set of ideals.  Since they believed in realizing their ideals, they took great care in bringing up their children in the way they wanted to.  The couple feared God, spoke the truth (even if it were bitter), respected elders and treated others kindly.

Sea+ Me= We (in Visakhapatnam)

I took a nostalgic trip on the beach road ......thanx to the cyclonic weather, my friend, Samudra, was rough and very nice to look at. Somewhere en route, the auto passed by what we always refer to as our 'old house'- a staff quarter of an autonomous body. I stared at the window sill I used to climb up and sit on, just to stare at the sea. That also took me back to all the love Samudra showered on me from when I was a kid and some random memories....

This was the Bay of Bengal in Dec. 2010

....................to the Banks of Godari Ganga

Hmm, come summer, come mangoes!

                             Early on Tuesday morning, we headed for Bhadrachalam. We reached Vijayawada to pick up Uncle’s elder brother who was eager to have the blessings of Lord Rama. On his suggestion of a ‘shorter route’, we got stuck on narrow village roads for nearly an hour and a half, but I got the chance of clicking a tree full of tender mangoes and a flock of sheep.  I also saw a standing crop of corn- I just loved it, even if our ‘Driver Mama’ got annoyed.

The flock of sheep that excited me but annoyed my uncle

                To reach Bhadrachalam, we crossed the Godavari bridge beyond which we spotted the temple tower. Excitedly I began to sing, “Adigo Bhadradri, Gouthami Idigo Choodandi” (Yonder, we can see the  Bhadradri and here, we can see the Godavari).

.....to the Depths of Patala Ganga .........

Now I'm back to my travelogue- the second of the April 2009 triology.

The first view of Patala Ganga a. k. a River Krishna in Srisailam,        
Andhra Pradesh

Shortly after our return from Tirumala, I had a routine conversation with an aunt of mine, during which she tried to ensure my presence in Guntur for the forthcoming weekend. Finding me not too interested in a two- day trip, she offered to take me around a lot of places, including Hamsala Deevi (literally translated as ‘the Isle of the Swans’), where the River Krishna joined the sea. In normal circumstances, I would have jumped at the offer but the summer heat still made me uninterested. My unrelenting aunt thought of something BIG- she told me that we could visit two temple towns if I were to take leave for a couple of days and suffix it with a holiday on Wednesday. 

The Challenge within

                   Time: Fag end of December 2004, in the aftermath of the Tsunami.

Place: Visakhapatnam.

                   Padma flipped through the newspaper, her first activity of the day; it was full of reports and photographs detailing the death and devastation caused by the recent Tsunami. Sensitive as she was, tears filled her eyes but she did not give up reading. One of the pictures showed the devastation caused by the disaster in Kanya Kumari. She did not go further than that. She took a closer look at the photographs- the broken country boats on the sea shore rang a bell in her heart.