The Namesake

Why should I review a book only after giving a complete go? I am free from any work as my application is on downtime. I decided to write about the book which I am half way through. Beginning Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, I realized immediately that this book is certainly not that of regular kind pick the book read and throw kind of which we usually read. This book in certain ways is purely emotional and has cultural identity which any transnational can relate into. The plot certainly is combination of both certain and uncertain events that we either undergo or shall we here of. Lahiri’s language is the language I daily experience it, it’s also the most unfamiliar dialect and also combination of the two. When I decided to take up this book after completing Kushwant sahib’s “The company of women” – which in any case the worst of his works, I was in particular to get engaged with the kind of work Lahiri has given which describes the real phenomenon the transnational associates universally recognize. I started sensing the transnational emotions, the reason behind extending boundaries both the physical and emotional attack on the same, the value of family in a family, its preciousness, meaning of the word home and the same of home away from home. The Namesake is a clear example of this, though I have not personally undergone this transnational living or stepped outside Mother India I can relate to the characters portrayed by the author. These emotional adventure the characters live is easy to understand and difficult to digest. The Namesake is not the story I can relate to myself or of those known to me but it could plausibly be any one of so many transnational stories, which is why it’s familiar to me. I don’t know where this book will take me, it will be like anything else in this innocent world, will be a journey, with the destination unknown. But I do know one thing, even apart distinguished from its brilliant portrayal of the transnational lifestyle which is experienced by more and more people in our modern day world; it is brilliant on its own. I can give vivid example of one scene in which Ashima, a young Indian girl about to become a bride, inserts her feet into her future husband’s shoes before ever setting eyes on him, so that his shoes, “brown shoes with black heels… [And] lentil-sized holes embossed on either side of each shoe”, are her first experience of him, clearly shows. I can’t wait to keep going.

P.S. To be reviewed later once the reading is done.

In Search of Realm of Life : Ganges , Trip to Gaumukh

Ganges trip… a trip from the mouth to the toe is what I stood for while commencing the trip to Gangotri. I m not a theist but I do believe that India’s wealth is mostly covered on the hills of Himalayas and in the entire plains of Ganges. Without taking any credits from other places I stoutly order the importance of India’s wealthily heritage and culture which are deep sprouted on the plains of Ganges. Spiritualistic view says on the shores of Ganges lies India. India as the world says the epicenter of the world’s cultural heritage beauty and the heart and soul of the world’s spiritualistic dynasty which can be and was possibly measured in terms of its marvelous exposure, of its beauty and rich spiritualistic heritage. Personally for me, being in search of selfless meaning of self and realm, the reason to live, it was very much important and was in sync with India’s rich heritage cultural values which plausibly I learnt a lot through my experience in the travel I made and surely shall be the motto to travel the outer world in order to know the self existence and its virtues. The need to understand the beauty of Himalayan terrain was as much as essential like learning the self emotional conscience as both were as much difficult and incomparable. Himalayan terrain sans ice was still looking gorgeous with dangerously flowing Ganges jumping and thriving its speed as if it was the last drop to be rushed into the mouth of ocean was unimaginable sight to be with and every wish was saying the inability to have the grasp with a pair of eyes. Ganges with its tributaries flowing onto it with melting of its ice blocks making ice cold waterfalls and tributaries makes one dangerously difficult to cross the path to reach the ultimate aim of the trip , The Gaumukh. Knowing there is no end to the beauty of Himalayan kingdom and the Tapovan being on it, trip was rested till Gaumukh and saved our imagination and interest till the next trip till Tapovan, the abode of the universe where one can see the real power of life existence, its selfless beauty, unbelievable sceneries that will make one feel the death has to wait till one has seen the ultimate journey of life. Eighteen kilometer trek was without any pin head of doubt the best walk one can ever have in his life journey to understand the real meaning of life. Ganges flowing beneath you and you walk head high watching the Himalayan terrain called the lower Himalayas was just walking towards heaven, the heavenly abode unarguably the best picturesque place one can ever visit. There are thousands of best places to visit in the universe but I personally speak the need to visit the place which teaches you the life’s real virtue behind living and beyond living. One can define himself wrong if he fails to understand the beauty behind Ganges sitting somewhere down the flowing river path as the real truth and true color of the river is where it originates. We are pure at our originating point and are contaminated thereby walking towards our destination which in one way either made lengthy by external forces for its personal benefits or is contaminated by selfish creatures those who want and need to throw away their own filthy dirt pass on to someone thereby thinking of making themselves pure from dirt, clear from unclear, truth from untruth, kind from unkind. The sanity of purest form of living thing shall also be dependent on its purest form of origination and I defy easily that Ganges is at purest and has attained unquestionable sainthood when it terrains from Himalayan abode. Himalayan trip can always be unquestionably the best adventure has to make. Himalayan expedition makes a thump of awful hit on your emotions that changes the entire life after that. Spirituality and atheism are often one and the same unless the way one sees it. I always enjoy the holy places and its atheism in it. Ganges belt is no different from the view point I m making and the view the world sees. The end truth and elixir of life is as same as everyone sees it. It is just as difference as viewing in different view-point. When on a place where you are not the same as you are there is series of unquestionable thoughts one attain in the mind that solves the real purpose of the word travel. My view-point always administrates the need of an individual to understand the fact of his living. Travel teaches the life one needs to live. India is just the bucket one needs to explore completely till he sans his life thereby ending his life incomplete. India is undoubtedly shall and will remain incomplete expedition even if you devout your whole life for that.
To be continued…

Inside Beauty Part II : Being Selfish

Homo sapiens, just like other species (like Dogs, Whales, Ants, Giraffe and other animals) are selfish by their very nature. There shouldn’t be any kind of psychological variations while we address to other species or to the creatures within the species we are. Should there be? If you watch closely a dog sleeping, watch how he breathes, watch how his chest goes up and down, it is exactly like your mother breathes, watch how he gets alerted when you make a little noise. Creatures are the same all over the universe. Why those native species think they are superior to the world when there is something universe beyond that. Watch a dog how he stretches his body when he wakes up, it is exactly like you did when you woke up today. Watch how a cat looks at you while you are looking at her. Watch how a cow behaves with you when you touch her, watch her reaction when you try to hit her child and then people think we are the center of the creation of this universe. People think we are not species, we are humans and better than all. What should be the heights of stupidity when we think we are on our own? Earth is only a very tiny part of the Milky Way Galaxy and this galaxy has millions of stars like Earth. And there are more than a billion galaxies in this universe. How come you say that earth has only the living system? Do you have the power to peep inside the window of neighboring galaxy? How can you say that stones exist only in your backyard, that they don’t exist on Mars or a planet which is billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of miles away from you and no one has seen that planet. Since no one has seen that planet, so it must not exist. Right? It sounds ridiculous when people act in a selfish way towards other creatures. May be life is beyond what one can imagine. There is something more to venture inside once own self than to try IF you watch animals e.g. Lions, Deer, Parrots, etc you will see they exist and live primarily only to survive and the way to survive is to be selfish: Eat what you get and don’t share with others. Forget about fellow lions, I will eat the killed deer alone and if you mess with me I will tear your ass out you. So when we see on News Channels that George Bush ordering the invasion of Iraq or when we hear or read Hitler killed millions in concentration camps or general Indian police men raping women, then we get angry or surprised. Why? Its ordinary species behavior. Why do you showcase your anger as a greedy bitch for word call fame? Is there any need to portrait the anger for those incidents which are far inferior to those happening around? The most important point why everyone has to stop breathing one day, or why you stop breathing when put a knife in your heart. We are species. And on a final note, Hitler did not kill millions himself, his army men killed millions and those army men were also in millions. Millions of species killed millions of other species. Why surprise? Other species (which we call animals) die and they stop breathing. Humans die and they stop breathing. The difference between a dead deer and an alive man is that man is breathing while deer is not. Why? Ever saw a buffalo getting hurt when you hurt her child? They speak, they talk, they communicate and when you can’t understand their communication and you tie them in rope you say we are the center of creation of this universe. What the heck? Are we? Maybe we are the center of living universe known to us. What kind of logic is this? The difference between species is only of their shape and the way they breed. So why you think that this tiny star called Earth has life on it? Why you think there cannot be another life, another species which is watching you like you watch the behavior of Lions on Discovery Channel. What make you think that only human species can create warplanes and atom bombs? Since you never saw anyone with different shape than humans creating missiles so there must not be anyone. Did your stupid school teach you this? When will the living world learn there is a need for companionship within and with other species? What is the need to explore heavenly objects when you can’t see your own species dying? If you think we are special to those species they think the same. Think again else there may be one day when there isn’t anymore.

Inside Beauty … Part I

Just today, I learned a new and one of the most important lessons of my life. I have experienced this over the years and today it hit me while I was walking on the road going back to my rented room after purchasing some stuff. I saw people talking, laughing, some sad, some poor, some beggars, some rich persons, some with tensions stretched across theira faces, some with “Fuck You” on their face.. many many different types of humans emotions.

I learned the lesson that the facial beauty or the ugliness, that the superficial shapes and curves of human body, in reality are superficial. There is something that lies deeper inside, that deeper thing shows itself in the form of habits and behaviours in a person and no matter how much you try, you can never change a man. Every man has one fundamental form of his behaviour which he never changes throughout his life. Put an honest and patriotic man in a company of corrupted politicians and businessmen and when you will remove him from there after 10 years into the normal life, he will basically remain the same. Some habits of him may have changed over time and the basic traits of his thinking will remains same, like if no one ever touched them over last 10 years. Almost all men fall for the beauty of a woman. I am a man and I guarantee you about these typical habits of men. A man can fall for a woman who is much more beautiful and glamorous than his own wife and he will cheat on her wife for that. Men fall for beauty and glamour. When your life your life as a man responsible for his family and his society, what you see is deeper than that beautiful face , you see how that woman is going to live with you, how she is going to affect your life (in positive or negative way), what type of communications she has towards persons she lives, what she thinks of some people and why she does not think some good or bad about others. Just typical characteristics of human behavior. What you see on the face and the sexy figure is a deceiving phenomenon. The Truth of the Beauty lies in the relationship with that woman. What life you are going to live with her. As a married man you will fed up in sex with a beautiful and sexy wife just after 2 years if she does not give a suitable life and growth to your kids( our kids ?). You will fed of your moments on bed with a sexy shape you own when you will see your life is imbalanced. Why don’t men see that 2 years ago? Why do they have to fall for beauty and sex? Now women will say I am criticizing them by my own biased opinions. No its not true, so lets come to the side of general viewpoint, applied to all humans. Same way the woman works in last paragraph, the general friendship works, in case of relationships. Your relatives, your friends and your parents are bound by their natural instincts which is mostly same in all species: Being Selfish. Few are good by nature and thats what I will call Natural Evolution. If your friend, or your business partner or your husband, has some habits and characteristics which are not well fit in a family and kid-raising environment, your marriage will perish. Most Indians believe, that the culture of white people (by white people, most Indians refer to native people of USA and UK) is of sex and hence divorce. My countrymen, very proudly have convictions that white-people are not family people, that they are superior except when comes to family life. They think they divorce because of they are full of sex. I can see many whites will not like this picture of theirs but thats what a typical Indian thinks about them. Indians think that our family lives are better as divorce rates are way-way less. My fellow countrymen do not want to see the truth that its not about sex or family life, thats its about human rights. You can not hit your woman in USA, well, in India you can punch her in the stomach while she is 6 months pregnant and law gives a shit about it. The human rights are worse (but better as compared to China). Any Indian husband can beat his wife like a dog, while he is drunk and people will come to rescue both of them, man from his liquor and woman from the wounds and then they will say “ok, ok, its all ok, after all you are husband and wife. Forget the anger now and live like a family. After all you have to live together for all of your life” The Americans divorce because if man beats a woman while she is pregnant, he is doomed. Any teacher in India can beat his students with sticks only to express his anger and no one will say anything because law have no rules like a teacher can not slap or beat his students. Its about human rights, its not about cultures or race or color that most Indians wrongly believe.

Aghori …

Wizards don’t just exist in fairy tales…there are real ones…modern day Merlins who live among us as imperceptibly as the wizarding world lives among muggles in the Harry Potter Series. You may believe that what they do is magic or you may not. But from their perspective there are spirits, gods, and complex alchemical energies flowing through the world that only the trained mind can see. They are shamans that travel between the spirit worlds, using marijuana and alcohol as sacraments. Hindu wizards are known as sadhus, and among them possibly the most intriguing bunch that roam the earth these days are the Aghoris. They commune with the dead, living among them and practice rituals with corpses in order to make contact with the divine mother, Kali, to whom they pray. It all sounds very macabre till you read some of their philosophy. For them, nothing and everything is sacred. That is to say, excrement and corpses are as sacred as flowers. They see all things as a divine expression and the idea of matter as being impure, an illusion. By the way, I’ve always wondered why Shiva always seems to be depicted clean-shaved. He was a sadhu like the Aghoris, and would have had dreds and a beard.

Although the practice of taking all of one’s food and drink from a human skull is rare nowadays, certain sadhus, particularly the Aghori sub-sect, still hold to it as a daily reminder of human mortality and as a challenge to transcend the duality of life and death.These ascetics remain naked and often wear a rosary made of bones around their neck and carry a human skull in the left hand and a bell in the right hand. Their sectarian tilaka, forehead mark denotes unity of the Hindu triad.

I had long been fascinated by the Aghoris or “aughars” and my fascination was born out of the many weird and incredible stories that are associated with “aghoris”, their way of life and their supernatural powers. “Aghori” stands for and the origins of this aghor sect?The word “Aghor” when translated literally means “that which is easy or non-terrible” which is the underlying philosophy of the Aghor sect. Contrary to popular perception that “Aghoris” are human flesh eaters and urine-drinkers who practice black magic, “Aghor” philosophy is about absolute renunciation. However, the “Aghoris” do drink liquor and eat flesh as opposed to practitioners of other spiritual sects in India where these things are taboo. But for the “Aghori” these acts are a way of breaking all social conventions.The “aghors” believe that by breaking these social taboos, true realization dawns. Secondly, for the “aghor” their Lord Shiva is perfect and since he is responsible for everything hence everything that exists must be perfect and so for the “aghor” nothing is dirty or untouchable or unpalatable. So the “aghori” would wear the shroud taken off a dead body, or chose to remain naked or rub himself with ashes of the dead, or drink in vessels made of human skull only to negate the popular perception that these things are unholy or impure in a way emphasizing their core belief that nothing is impure as everything stands for Shiva and Shiva is perfect.

Inspiration : Tamil Movie (Nan kadavul)

Train to Pakistan : Khushwant Singh

Train to Pakistan
Author Khushwant Singh
Country India
Language English
Genre(s) Historical novel
Publisher Chatto & Windus
Publication date 1956
Media type print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 181 pp
ISBN NA & reissue ISBN 0-8371-8226-3

The most well-known work brought forth by the multi–faceted Khushwant Singh, “Train to Pakistan ” addresses as it’s central theme the mindlessness and the futility of communal hatred and violence.

Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped”.

Set in the year 1947 in an Indian village –Mano Majra–along the Indo–Pakistan border, the Novel shows how a communal wedge of distrust is drawn between the peaceful Hindu and Muslim denizens of the village. The Hindus of the village are incited to murder their Muslim neighbors and friends to send a Train full of Muslim corpses to Pakistan, as an act of retribution to a similar mass murder performed by Muslims on there other side of the Border.

However, the Love of a village Rogue, Jugga, for his Muslim Beloved Nooro, finally, motivates the Rogue, who is a Sikh of the village, to save the lives of the Muslim Refugees aboard the Train from a planned Hindu assault.

Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis”.

The Novel describes how peaceful villagers are forcibly drawn into the vortex of communal violence, and, how futile this violence ultimately proves to be in front of their traditional Brotherhood.

N S VAITHEESWARAN