Sprit Nights - Easterine Kire (Book).

Book 55/52
Sprit Nights - Easterine Kire

My Rating: 4/5

I got this book from a friend who was visiting us from Nagaland last month. I told him to get me a book from a local acclaimed writer, and I must say what an amazing pick-up he had made for me. Easterine Kire from Nagaland is the winner of the Governor’s Medal for excellence in Naga Literature 2011, Winner of the Hindi Prize 2015 and winner of the Tata Literature Live book of the year award 2017. This was my first from her, but an incredible read at that. So much she tells us about Nagamese culture, beliefs, system and stories from the day. Especially what they eat, imagine in one of the instances the little kid is supposed to drink a Frog soup to make his legs stronger. She so much reminded me of my own grandmother, who migrated from Nepal in the early 20th century to India, and she used to tell us the stories of spirits that they believed in back home. She insisted that swallowing live leeches helps with so many stomach-related ailments :). Almost the same stories are narrated in this one from the perspective of an ageing grandmother who takes care of her grandson after the loss of her own son and his wife, very early after the child was born. She becomes a village seer of the entire village, consisting of some 20-odd houses starts coming to her for advice and whatnot. The story is how she prepares her grandson for the big day when he will become a seer himself, as the seership runs in the family, much to his likeness, though. How he comes across the title and why he starts believing that he is the one is why you need to read the story. I totally loved it. I still remember my granny used to tell me that she used to foresee her funeral attended only by her six sons (my father and uncles totalled 7), but she couldn’t tell me which son was missing. Later, when we lost one of my uncles in a freak accident, she took me aside and told me, “Didn’t I tell you, I am going to lose one of them?” This story had so many episodes like that in the story, which gave me goosebumps, although now we may call them superstitions or whatever, but in the story, they sound so believable back in the day. With hardly 180 pages, but I must say it's a gem of a book, and I am going to remember this for a long time to come.

Also, I will be looking forward to reading a few more from her in the very near future. Do let me know if you have read anything from Easterine Kire or from any other writer from the North East that you cherished. I would love to give them a try too.

 

Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh (Book).

Book 54/52

Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

My Rating: 5/5

I wanted to read an Amitav Ghosh or Shashi Tharoor novel for so long, finally got this one in our library, and gladly picked it up as my next read. On top of that, as soon as I added it to my Goodreads account, I realised that this one happens to be the first part of the trilogy that he has written, which is fantastic. What I expected was a novel with typical hard-to-read English, written to impress the reader of a historical fictional story, but what it turned out to be is very simple to read English with so many chaste Hindi and Bhojpuri anecdotes, proverbs, even poetry and songs too, which bowled me out totally. Eagerly looking for its second party if I can lay my hands on it at the earliest. Terrific is the story of four main characters that Amitav has carved out in the year 1838 around Ghazipur (Bihar) and Calcutta, with much of the latter half of the story taking the Hoogly and Ganga rivers on a ship named Ibis (that's the name of the trilogy too). Eye-opening was the highlight of the Opium trade back in the day, with all the main characters involved in the same one way or another. The main story belongs to the King of Rakshali, a fictional kingdom of Raja Neel Rattan Haldar, his histrionics and riches to rags story. The second main character is a recent widow, Deeti, who fights for her and her daughter’s survival after her good-for-nothing Afimkhor husband dies in the factory where he worked. The third main character was my favourite French girl, Paulette Lambert, an orphan who had to escape from India at the earliest or end up getting married to someone she doesn’t want to because her guardian, whom she is indebted to, thinks otherwise. Fourth is Paulette’s nanny’s son Jodu, who grew up with her since her mother passed away, and Jodu’s mother took care of her from birth. And then there are a few more very interesting characters whose paths cross each other one way or another, taking the story ahead. The story is already very engaging because of so many perspectives, Indian, British and even an American first mate aboard Ibis makes it a very intriguing read. 

What I loved is the way Mr Ghosh tells his story. Initially, he refuses to translate the local proverbs in English, which made me even happier, as I have read so many books in English where they lavishly use the Latin and French proverbs with no translation in sight, thanks to Google, as that helps but makes the reading cumbersome. This is our revenge on them, as this one went on to get nominated for the Man Booker Prize, too, so I am sure it must have its own audience as well. What I found heartening is the way he has showcased the then imperialism and colonialism, especially the way the British treated Indians back in the day, and the language, even in fiction, was boiling my blood big time. Beautiful is the way he has captured the life of Deeti, an ordinary village woman who goes through so much reminded me of Munshi Premchand’s female characters in any of his stories, the same plight, the same pain and almost the same patriarchal handling. The lavish life of the Britishers in India and the way they spread their wings through idiot Kings and Kingdoms of India. Loved the way all the characters end up in one place for the journey of a lifetime to the Island of Mauritius, some going to serve their punishment while others are escaping from their painful lives in hopes of a better future. The entire book (500+ pages) reads no less than a thriller right till the very end, which is again an open ending as it's a part of a three-part series, and that's why to give a closure, I need to get the second at the earliest, as so many questions are left unanswered in this one. 

I had a special connection with this book as most of its story revolves around the poppy seeds and fields, or people smoking opium. Back home in MP and the Rajasthan border few of my cousins actually farm poppies legally for the government. I have visited, and so many times we have gone for picnics on those fields, the way the entire crop gets done, plus the way they take it out, is depicted so beautifully in the book. My second special connection with the book was the way Ibis is portrayed (you have to read the book for the same) as a giant winged creature ready to take its flight with 100s of people on board. The way they all come on board the ship and go on the unknown journey, amid the crushing waves of black water, and what happens on the ship is totally unbelievable and captured in the most surreal way. He has shown the same. 

Do let me know if you have read Sea of Poppies and liked it, or if you have a favourite Amitav Ghosh book. I am going to get a few more from him at the earliest. 

 

My Friends - Fredrik Backman (Book).

Book 53/52.

My Friends - Fredrik Backman

My Rating: 5/5

Backman is one of my favourites from the current crop of writers, and this is his latest book that I got to lay my hands on in our little library, which I visit every two weeks. Incredible is the story that he has written with such ease which works like a time travelling machine because it sent me back in time when I was a teenager and had a bunch of friends just like our protagonist, four of the best friends go through so many ups and downs in one summer and how their lives change over the 25 years of which the story covers majority of the events in lovely flashbacks. One of them becomes a terrific artist whose one particular painting is worth a million bucks, and he gifts it to a little girl because he feels “she was one of them”. How beautiful is that? The same homeless orphan girl goes on a journey of a lifetime with one of the four friends to uncover their stories for us (and for herself). She, too, had recently lost a best friend named Fish. The best part of the story is the painting itself, the way he has shown it in his beautiful words, and especially the way the little girl, an artist herself, explores it further to decode so much hidden in the beauty of it, was totally rocking. I have so many similar memories of our own rebellion without a cause that we did back in the day and than I read these teenagers do the same and the way they hang around the pier everyday throughout the summer, as they part every night they dont say “Goodbyes” they rather say “Tomorrow”, that was so damn right, it was always tomorrow that we wished each other that we will meet again without fail. The entire story, stretched over 400+ pages, is so heartwarming and life-like; no mention of any city or town, yet the journey of one of the friends with the teenage girl to take the painting to its birthplace was no less than an epic adventure. I am sure this will be another of those rare books that I will now read again and again in the very near future. 

I loved all four characters. They are so unique, each with its own quirks, yet very much alike. The way they talk, argue, fight, and then make up is amazing. This book is a translation, but I’m sure it doesn’t miss anything. I had so much fun reading their perspectives. The story is mostly told in two versions. One follows the teenage girl, the other the 40-year-old teacher. His only task is to ensure she gets the painting, since it was a gift from his friend. How he does this, and where the painting ends up, make up the story. I liked the third friend as well, who becomes a self-made mechanic and dates the fourth one. Choosing a favourite among them all would be tough for me. 

Have you read My Friends? I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If not, give it a try—you won't regret it. I’m now excited to read more of Backman’s work. This one stands alongside my favourite, "A Man Called One". 

 

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak (Book).

Book 52/52.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak. 

My Rating: 4/5

Last book of the year, as per my target, had to be a special one, and after reading my first from Elif Shafak (40 Rules of Love), I was totally in love with her writing. So this one was no exception, loved it, but not the way I liked the first one. I am sure this one lost a lot of its originality in translation, as it is a little disjointed and contradictory at times but that nothing takes away from a beautiful story of an innocent girl who becomes a prostitute in the city of Istanbul and then faces the ill fate of being killed and dumped in a trash bin right in the first chapter of the book. What follows is the ten minutes and 38 seconds of what she goes through once she is dead and her spirit leaves her body, her life flashes back to her in those 10 minutes and 38 seconds, and we, the reader, go through the lives of 5 of her favourite people and with her own life story till the very end. Starting from her birth to her death, the way those ten minutes and 38 seconds cover everything was totally amazing, the way that she has captured the entire story of Tequila Leila as she was named, her parents, life in the city of Van before she is forced to move to Istanbul and her five friends, part of which is fiction but so much of it was real too. What touched my heart was the ending of the story in the first chapter itself, yet my heart kept expecting a better life or a change of events for her, which, in the first place, was impossible to expect, if you know what I mean. Incredible story covered in mere 300-odd pages, but I am sure this will remain with me for a very long time to come. On top of that, this was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2019, a much-deserved accolade, I must say. 

Have you read 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World? If not, you’ve got to read at the earliest, and I am looking forward to reading the other 15 books that she has written so far. 

 

Upsanhar (Hindi) - Kashinath Singh (Book).

Book 51/52.

Upsanhar (Hindi) - Kashinath Singh. 

My Rating: 5/5 

I got this book after reading an amazing review on the same in our book readers group, and another reason to get this is our upcoming trip to Dwarka (Gujarat) around mid-December. I am super happy to read this gem of a book, especially because it was originally in Hindi, and every time I read a Hindi book, it improves my depleting vocabulary. I had read somewhere that even after being only 120 pages, it is no less than an epic, and it was so rightly said. The way it covers the last 4 decades of Lord Krishna’s life after the great war of the Mahabharata, it also covers almost the entire Mahabharata episode in small glimpses, but makes up for a terrific review of the entire epic war, which lasted 18 days but sounds like a lifetime. The painful movement of the Yadav clan from Mathura to Dwarka, and after the inevitable debacle of beautiful Dwarka, how they disperse is so amazingly captured. It was an eye-opener to see Krishna in a totally new light, especially his regrets when he accepts what he had done in the so-called Dharmayudh. Was he even righteous, as he himself questions his ways of helping Padava win the ultimate war and reclaim their right? I must say I haven’t read a better life story of much much-loved character from Hindu Mythology. This will certainly go on top of my recommendation list if anyone ever asks me which is my favourite Krishna retelling, this will be it for sure. 

Have you read Upsanhar? Do let me know if you loved it. I am looking forward to reading so much more from Kashinath Singh, as I have loved two of his books back to back (Kashi Ka Assi being the other one).