Post Great Election Tamasha!!!

So here ends The Great Indian Election Circus and what a superb ending it is with lots of emotion drama celebrations and also disappointments. I guess everybody had expected the same results also. Finally, we can take a break from all these Modi and Rahul jokes. But what next, I mean what is going to change by the change in government.
                                   

Pic Courtesy: Google

Will the new government be able to change the sad plight of women in the country? Or be able to provide youngsters a secure future? Will soon to be prime minister be able to prevent corruption? Are problems like female foeticide and child abuse going to national issues or not? Or as always all these problems will be ignored royally.

May be I sound like a person who can't see any positivity in a situation, but I don't know what to expect from NaMo. India for the first has voted for a change and I really hope that changes happen. Wishing for a bright future of  India!!!

Book Review- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Title: THE LOWLAND
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri               
Genre: Literary Fiction

Goodreads Blurb: Two brothers bound by tragedy; a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past; a country torn by revolution. A powerful new novel--set in both India and America--that explores the price of idealism and a love that can last long past death.

Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead of them. It is the 1960s, and Udayan--charismatic and impulsive--finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty: he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother's political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family's home, he comes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind--including those seared in the heart of his brother's wife.

Suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland expands the range of one of our most dazzling storytellers, seamlessly interweaving the historical and the personal across generations and geographies. This masterly novel of fate and will, exile and return, is a tour de force and an instant classic.

My Views: This book has been on my 'To Be Read List' ever since its release. Being a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri's writing style, it is no wonder that I fell in love with the simple yet poetic language used by her. While the language used blown me away like always, it is the plot that has left me craving for more this time. I admire the way Lahiri looked at the Naxalite movement and didn't go more into the political details of the movement. It is a powerful story, but I think characters don't come across as powerfully as they should have.

This is a complex story which deals with two lives Gauri and Subhash joined by a common thread Udayan. The story deals with the aftereffects of a tragedy that strikes on Subhash and Gauri with the death of Udayan and how their lives change post that. It deals with how the relationship of Gauri and Subhash progressed from strangers to a couple and parents and again to strangers.

What I like most is the sibling relationship between Udayan and Subhash and also relationship if Subhash and Bela his daughter. But I don't know why I couldn't relate to the character of Gauri. Okay, she is a victim of tragedy and it can somehow justify her relation with Subhash  but that doesn't justify the way she takes her relationship with Bela. For me Gauri comes out as a rude, emotionless and selfish person who just can't get over with her fears.

Overall it is nice read a bit sad though, and to be frank, I am slightly disappointed with the end. I'd recommend this book for its depth and language.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Isolation offered its own form of companionship” 
• “And yet he had loved her. A Bookish girl heedless of her beauty, unconscious of her effect. She'd been prepared to live her life alone but from the moment he'd known her he'd needed her.” 
• “With children the clock is reset. We forget what came before.”

My Ratings: 3.75 out of 5




   

Banaras- Colors of India

Last month I got a chance to visit " Shiv Ki Nagari" Kashi. As I was there for only one day and have to attend GD-PI of FMS-BHU, but still I wanted to explore the city as much as I can. With just 6-7 hours in our hand, we (me and my dad) started exploring one of the oldest cities in the world.
                                 

Main Gate Of BHU

Varanasi or what locals say Banaras has many faces as a city. It is a colorful blend of religion, culture, spirituality, food and so many other things which symbolize India. Roaming in those narrow lanes, being a part of the chaos of the city made me feel real India.

Our first stop after leaving from BHU was Guru Ravidas Mandir, which is the birth place of Guru Ravidas ji. It is a small temple near BHU and it is said that Guru Ravidas used to live and do Bhakti at this place.
                 

Guru Ravidas Mandir (that's my dad!!)

Our next destination was Kashi Vishvanath Temple and the first thing that I noticed that the whole place was swarming with devotees from all across India. Mobiles and cameras were not allowed in the temple premises. After an hour of jostling with the crowd we had our darshan and pooja. Another thing that I noticed there, the whole place was so dirty and walking barefoot in the temple for a non-religious person like me was a torture.

                                       

Main Gate of Kashi Vishvanath Mandir

                                           
                                                

Shop selling prasad near mandir

After that came the most exciting part of the whole trip The Boat Ride. After a lot of bargaining, we reserved a boat for one hour at the price of 150 per person. As we started our ride, boatmen went on with the stories and history of every ghat that we came across. Various activities were going on the ghats and it was a really captivating view.

                                    

Various Activities going on Ghats

                                                 

Munshi Ghat

                                   
                                                    

Such a Captivating view

                                                        

Manikarnika Ghat

                                                    

Tilted Shiv Mandir

                                                    

Beautiful and Serene

As we had our train at 7 pm, we missed Ganga Aarti (may be some other time sad na!) and decided to roam around the market before going back.

                                                   

Droolworthy Right!!

                                                         

A Shop selling Brassware

                                   
Unfortunately, we were too short of time and missed many things, but I still experienced the essence of Banaras. In spite of its overcrowded temples, dirty lanes and weird traffic rules Banaras have this old world charm which didn't fail to amaze me. I wish I could spend some more time roaming in those narrow lanes and can feel real Banaras.

Book Review : ROOM By Emma Donoghue

Title: ROOM

Author: Emma Donoghue    

Genre: Literary Fiction

                            

Goodreads Blurb:To a five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

My Views: I have heard a lot about this book and its plot and it sounded really disturbing to me. So I was not sure what to expect from this book. But from the very first page I was hooked to the book. The fact that the whole story is narrated by a five-year old makes it really different. 

The first half of the book revolves around the life of Jack and Ma and how they have created a whole world inside the room. Their daily life and the struggles for basic necessities like food, clothes and every other thing was really disturbing yet endearing. And then they escape that confinement and become free. But for little Jack it is not easy to digest the fact that they are not going back to Room which was his home till now.

 The second half of the book deals with the new life of Jack and Ma in the world. While Ma is coping up with post traumatic depression, Jack is trying to understand the place called world and how different it is from the life in Room. The book is such a compelling read that I can't put it down. But I am slightly disappointed with the end, I think its kind of abrupt. But I know that it was the most apt closure.
This is a story which will stay with you for a long time. Even with their dark and horrible circumstances, both Jack and Ma deal so beautifully with their lives. For me the whole story symbolizes hope, hope that some day everything will be alright.
    Beautiful and well paced, this a must read for everyone.

Favorite Quotes:

• "In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”
• If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.
• Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."
  Ma says it but on mute.
  I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.

My Ratings: 4.75 out of 5