An Equal Music

So, after shamelessly falling victim to the Twighlight bug and reading parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.. (!!!), I finally decided to pick up Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music" again. That it is SJ's favourite book had a little bit to do with the decision to read the book again because I remembered liking it when I read it in 2000 (gosh! that was ten years ago) but I couldn't say it was even close to being one of my favourites. I wondered if I had been too young then.. and what was so special about the book anyway?!

Now, halfway through the book, I do know that I did not "get it" at age 16! Some of the things I understand more fully now are the way Michael's mind works - the self-obsessive (but endearing) melancholy he indulges himself in, the music and the beauty of what they play (one can almost hear it when he describes how it dips and soars and sounds), the chemistry between the members of the quartet, the scenes of London painted by Seth so lyrically (I want to visit the Orangery at Kensington Gardens!), his sense of humour while writing, such as when Helen says to a waiter "my friend will have some horrible spinach" and the waiter says "we only serve excellent spinach, madam" to which she replies, "well, he will just have to have some of that then". I also like Julia's character - her obvious beauty, the way she plays music, how she would be as a mother - he has described her so vividly that you can almost see her sitting there, playing the piano, unhearing, attentive to her memory but lost in the music she is creating. Even the bits about Luke, the child, are small yet well written. You can sense his irritation at his mother and yet his devotion to and protectiveness of her.

In the first 100 or so pages, the book made me very sad. It makes you miss someone, without there necessarily being anyone to miss, so deep is Michael's grief, even ten years after having lost touch with Julia. Then I wondered if anyone ever actually loves someone else like that, especially in this day and age. Will I ever feel like that? At some level I find myself thinking the book is just mush. It's like a grown up Eric Segal, but then I think that Seth has a way with words. He makes me sit up and read, way past the stage where my eyes are closing with exhaustion.. I carry the book with me on my daily shaadi-shopping jaunts, in the hope that there will be time in the day when I can grab some time to read some more! When my mother is following me around the house with a list of chores, I hide in the loo to read An Equal Music. It is not that it is suspenseful or that I want to know what happens next... its just the way it transports you to this place where there is music, soft sunlight, grey skies, dark green leaves, long overcoats, rain, more music, sadness, happiness, uncertainty, longing and then more music. I find myself looking up and listening to the music the quartet plays..trying to see if I can identify the parts that Seth describes so wonderfully well. I also find myself being grateful that I have the time to immerse myself in a book like this and to have the time to listen to the music. I understand now what he meant when he said "when i read an equal music i felt the whole book was cocooned in this soft melancholic violin." 


I dont want to analyse or "review" the book. I just wanted to write about it because I'm enjoying it so much and am so happy to be reading it again. I love stories for the sake of stories, especially when they're so bursting with relationships! 

TGOST - Finished

continuing my ramble on "The God of Small Things"...

so, on a recent trip to india, i had a lot of airport and flight time to finish TGOST and i did!

i maintain my initial view, which is that the book is a lovely read. as i went along, it did get darker and more "adult". towards the second half, Roy definitely took the gloves off. the seven year old's story made way for the mother's and the rest of the family's and their misfortunes and the fall(s) from glory. without revealing the story, i just want to say that its heartbreaking in the end. somewhat like "a fine balance" where the reader isn't offered any hope in the end. you look for something good, something hopeful, but there just isn't!

however, at the end of the day, as i see it, it is a story and its woven really well. some people may find her lyrical descriptions tiresome.. but i think they stop short of being so because every word she uses actually moves you to see and feel more of the scene she wants you to see. her description of the river, the smell of the monsoon, the oldness of the History house, the colour of blood, an old boat with its bottom sprouting plants and moss, the way a drowned human body looks even.. everything she tells you, makes it that much more vivid.

there's a point in the book where the three cousins are playing in the mud and one of them is killing ants.. the other says "leave one, so that it can be lonely". i re-read that a few times because it shows you how mean kids can be but how clueless they are of what they might be doing.. or witnessing or experiencing. another instance is when the twins ask ammu if she was having an afternoon-mare and she says it wasn't because she was happy in her dream. so the son asks, "if you're happy in a dream, does it count?" and ammu asks "does what count?" and he goes "the happiness". i think that not many a seven year old would have asked that question.. but it does make you think.. if you're happy in a dream.. does it count? it is happiness. right?

so there. i'm tired of writing about it. in the end, i just want to say that the book made me very sad but it also made me very glad to have read something that made me feel so much.

Hey, wondering why this has gone all quiet suddenly?
Thinking about Angstien's Prizes and Glory post in light of the current award season. Haven't always picked up books following the author winning the nobel, (i sometimes wonder how some of my favourite authors who possibly meet the description from Angstien's post- wordy, heavy and the like, never got the prize. kundera, ben okerie, murakami. many have languished on the long list for ages) but its funny how Indian book shops, including the ones that are ubiqutous and are particularly badly stocked (no Tagore! our only Nobel laureate! Poetry section- 2 shelves! loads of robin sharma! i could go on forever!) are suddenly flooded with books of the nobel laurete of the year. I suppose one exception is VS Naipul, which oddly they had some of even before the nobel. But that's cause of his partly Indian connection and our obession with *claiming* or *appropriating* nobel winners is another thing not worth getting into in this post! But was refreshing to have sooo much of doris lessing (another long lister for a long time- that was not meant to be alliterative or anything. just rather inarticulate right now. am not reading a nobel laurete, therefore do not have a theasaurus around, as Angstien said! ;) ), including her non fiction, science fiction and some of her essays stocked, cheek-by-jowl with shobaa de and chetan bhagat. Also manged to pick up some great bargains on Elfriede Jelinek (2004 winner) in a sale coupla years ago - they'd obviously overestimated a lot when ordering!

So but anyway, have not read any of herta muller, this year's winner. But am a sucker for good speeches (my dad collects books of inspiring speeches. these are prob among the first few serious books i read after enid blyton et al.) , so make it a point to lap up the nobel speeches. Yes even the science ones. :) And i really enjoyed hers. Her take on the vicious circle of words is deeply personal, with shades of post modernism. go figure. ;)
Here's a link.
http://http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2009/muller-lecture_en.html

Really hoping the nieghbourhood black and yellow shop stocks up on her soon!

Note to Angstien: The orange prize typically throws up some great if lesser known (at the time) jewels. Two of my favourites- half of a yellow sun and a short history of ukranian tractors.

Note to NOT: Owe you a proper reply on your GOST post...

Note to the absentee fourth blogger- where ARE you!! :)

Khamosh Sach/ Silent Truth

While the long elaborate post is still to come, sorry to constantly do this, but really wanted to share this urdu couplet by a lesser know poet called Momin, a trained Unani physician.

Kuchh log hain khaamosh
Magar soch rahe hain
Sach bolenge tab
Sach ke jab daam badhenge
- Hakim Momim Khan Momin

There are some who remain silent
But are sunk in deep surmise
Yes, they wll speak the truth
But when the price of truth is on the rise-
-transalated by Khushwant Singh

No Goats No Glory

If George Clooney were to sit three feet away from me and stare at me for a good 5 minutes....I would kneel over and die. So would most women I know. What chance does a goat have against the mesmeric blue eyes of Clooney?

I just had to write a review for director Grant Heslov's movie called The Men Who Stare at Goats because this is the funniest screwball comedy I have seen in the year 2009. If you like Coen Brothers, I say you go watch this one.

The movie starts with a note saying "This movie is more true than you would believe it to be" ....or words to that effect. Now the beauty of this little sentence in the context of this movie is truly stupendous. I spent the whole movie trying to figure out which bits of it are true and which are made up. But everything about in this movie is so farcical that it is hard to

Ok, so we have a loser journalist Bob Wilton (played by cuteii Ewan McGregor) whose wife leaves him for another man. He decides to go to Iraq, play the sympathy card and get his wife back. Only, he lands up in Kuwait and bumps into one Lynn Cassidy (Clooooooooney). Bob remembers that he had heard about this Lynn Cassidy when he had interviewed another man about psychic powers. Lynn, he (other guy not Bob) he claimed, was the ultimate in psychic powers.

Lynn takes a liking to Bob and reveals to him that he is a part of the (and get this) The New Earth army - an exclusive wing of the US intelligence and army who believe in non-lethal weapons and methods. They want to make peace and not war. They are, in other words, hippie Jedi Warriors. Lynn then invites Bob to go along with him on a "mission".

What this mission is ...no body knows, but the journey of Lynn and Bob is hilarious. They get kidnapped, shot at, land up at a house of an Iraqi, get lost in the desert. All thanks to Lynn and his Jedi powers. The interaction between Bob and Lynn and the banter between them provides some sparkling moments. Lynn totally believes in this psychic BS and its absolutley amazing how Lynn says these completely idiotic things with a deadpan face. howlarious! really.

The main narrative goes into flashback every now and then into the story of how the Jedi warrriors and the New Earth Army actually originated. Apparently, it all started with Lynn's commander, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges....the Lebowski returns) had a vision in Vietnam which set him off on this path. The formation and the activities of the Jedi warriors is extremely comical to say the least. Imagine Full Metal Jacket mixed with Bohemian Raphsody! Sir yes Sir!

Anyway, the happy days of the New Earth Army come to an end due to the antics of Larry Something (played by what i call fat Kevin Spacey - what happened to the lean chap in American Beauty?). The unit gets disbanded and Django disappears.

The end of the movie brings the threads together - again I am tempted to tell you the ending but I will try and be good. And not tell who what happens to Men Who Stare at Goats.

So go watch the movie for the crackling dialogue, outrageous situations, great acting by Clooney and Bridges and a mystery - at the end of the movie, I bet you will come out thinking how much of it is true. Happy figuring that out!

O Me O Life !?!

The Answer

That you are here - that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play will continue to go on and you shall contribute a verse.

An advance warning

Coming soon.....a piece that will blow your collective intellectual pretensions to smitherns.