Apart from writing book-reviews and other minor-major things, I am seriously considering writing on Chambal-division now on. (If you are new to the term Chambal then hold on, I will be explaining it in next two paragraphs.) I simply love this place. No, its not pure chauvinism. I agree that I belong to this place and its quite inevitable that I love this place but there are many other solid reasons for loving it.
If you have gone through my profile, homepage and some previous posts you might have well realized that I belong to a very small place Ambah which is there in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. Despite of the fact that my native place Ambah and its surroundings are wonderful places to live in, irony is that they are highly notorious in India. They are considered to be Bihar of Madhya Pradesh. (people from Bihar should not get offended here as they share the same fundamentals that these places I am talking about have.) My objective of writing about Chambal is to make people aware with the realities of these places. I have a lot to tell and I want to tell it aloud so that every single person who have heard about Bhind, Morena, Ambah should realize that these are not those places they have been reading or listening about. They are quite simple, normal and friendly places like the ones you are living in.
If you have been interested in Indian Civil Services or any GK-based exam, or like to read newspaper or have watched old Indian daku (Dacoit) movies then you must be well aware with Chambal ghati, Chambal beeharh and or Bhind-Morena. Yes, I am from same notorious place that you have worst thoughts about. What you have been told by media, movies and all is a bit different than what I will be telling you. If it surprises you or you need further clarification of anything, please do let me know, I will try my level best to come up with a solution.
Its just a preface, I have a lot to talk about, like people, place, agricultural status, education, dowry system, caste system, poverty, festivals, revenges, disputes, killing, and every other thing that I know and you should know too. Will begin with it very shortly.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Vipradas by Sharatchandra
I had read Sharatchandra's Devdas, Parineeta, Charitraheen and Baikunth Ka Daanpatra earlier and I liked them very much. This was the only reason that made me and Rajeev jump over Jabal's (Arun sir) collection of Sharatchandra. I picked up Vipradas last week. As you must be expecting, its a Hindi translation of his Bengla book with same title (I hope so, I don't have an idea about the original book.) Publisher of the entire collection is Raja Pocket Books. The books are quite different from they are expected to be. These books look like more of station-chhap books, with shiny names and all. Price is quite economical, 50 rupees per book. Paper quality is above average and there are not much printing errors etc. There is one major problem, you don't know who the translator is. Book doesn't talk about the translator at all.
This novel too, like maximum Sharatchandra novels, has very much influential, mostly Brahmins, jamindaars and well-educated people. Like Premchand, poverty is not an issue with Sharat Chandra. Our protagonist, Vipradas Mukhopadhyay is the eldest son of Dayamayi, jamindaar of the village Balrampur. He is well educated, has enormous physique, is very much influential and is very kind. Villagers, his family persons respect him from bottom of their hearts. He is step-son of Dayamati but is the main person of the family, looks after all the property and business. Story of the novel rotates around him only mainly, though his younger brother, his wife, his wife's cousin sister etc are other people in supporting roles.
There is not much to talk about the story, its small, straightforward but involving. Its written in typical Sharatchandra-literature-style, a complete family drama, love story with very good depiction of society, its values, its narrowness and peculiar rule-regulations. What I feel about authors like Sharatchandra, Premchand and other authors of their time is that they were not completely fictional. They presented us a real picture of their time, society and people. They tried to solve many of traditional, superstitious problems, they tried to move people by their work. They didn't write bull-shit just to make people feel good. Perhaps money wasn't on top of their minds. I feel very good after reading such books, believe it or not but they influence me a lot. Sometimes I start feeling like if I am doing nothing for my country, my people. This book wasn't revolutionary like Godan of Premchand or Ganadevta of Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay.
Overall a satisfactory read. Would say nothing was great, but everything was above average. 6/10 would be my bid for this book of Sharatchandra.
Book Details:
------------
Vipradas by Sharatchandra (Hindi Translation)
Publisher: Raja Pocket Books
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 182
Price: INR 60
ISBN: 8176041149
This novel too, like maximum Sharatchandra novels, has very much influential, mostly Brahmins, jamindaars and well-educated people. Like Premchand, poverty is not an issue with Sharat Chandra. Our protagonist, Vipradas Mukhopadhyay is the eldest son of Dayamayi, jamindaar of the village Balrampur. He is well educated, has enormous physique, is very much influential and is very kind. Villagers, his family persons respect him from bottom of their hearts. He is step-son of Dayamati but is the main person of the family, looks after all the property and business. Story of the novel rotates around him only mainly, though his younger brother, his wife, his wife's cousin sister etc are other people in supporting roles.
There is not much to talk about the story, its small, straightforward but involving. Its written in typical Sharatchandra-literature-style, a complete family drama, love story with very good depiction of society, its values, its narrowness and peculiar rule-regulations. What I feel about authors like Sharatchandra, Premchand and other authors of their time is that they were not completely fictional. They presented us a real picture of their time, society and people. They tried to solve many of traditional, superstitious problems, they tried to move people by their work. They didn't write bull-shit just to make people feel good. Perhaps money wasn't on top of their minds. I feel very good after reading such books, believe it or not but they influence me a lot. Sometimes I start feeling like if I am doing nothing for my country, my people. This book wasn't revolutionary like Godan of Premchand or Ganadevta of Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay.
Overall a satisfactory read. Would say nothing was great, but everything was above average. 6/10 would be my bid for this book of Sharatchandra.
Book Details:
------------
Vipradas by Sharatchandra (Hindi Translation)
Publisher: Raja Pocket Books
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 182
Price: INR 60
ISBN: 8176041149
Saturday, October 07, 2006
The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur
I am not satisfied with this short-novel which I randomly picked from book-fair, Vashi last week. Maybe I could enjoy more if I hadn't seen movies like American Pie series and their desi adaptation Ye Kya Ho Raha Hai. I find many people admiring this book, even the print media and all. But I kept on thinking what's special in this book apart from a very straightforward comic story? I started this book with no expectations, the criteria of buying it was its size, only 246 pages! I didn't even started reading the book, one of my boss told me that there is a very famous letter in the book. The letter is written by an Indian (just reached America) to his younger brother. This is what made me excited to read the book and provoked many expectations...
The book starts with the letter itself. Gopal, protagonist of this novel is from a very small town Jajau, somewhere in interiors of Madhya Pradesh, has just reached America and writing this letter to his younger brother. You must be thinking, what's so special about this letter? Its funny! The guy, Gopal's English seem to have just one tense, Present Continuous! He is totally unaware of American English, their special vocabulary and their special meanings. He like peanuts and appreciate the security person at the exit while he is shouting 'Nuts, totally nuts.' He feels, this guy knows that I like peanuts. :-) Book is full of such estimates, guesses Gopal makes. Gopal's understanding on things, his way of talking, his town, family, his Hair Oil Factory and especially his 'and like that', 'all that stuff', 'things like that' and other suffixes for every sentence made the book a bit special.
He went America for studying and he did or at least tried to do everything but study. From day one in America, he was told that every girl here is America is desperate to get laid. Once Mr. Anurag Mathur started this American Girl Philosophy, he continuously used it till last page. Girls, girls, and just girls. As per Mr. Mathur, everybody in America is obsessed with sex. Our Gopal seems to be more desperate than the other Americans out there. He gets a good friend in terms of Randy, another research scholar at University.
I found a problem with Mr. Anurag's writing (it might be a problem with me too!). Whenever he tried to elaborate Gopal's mind, he made me lost. Many time I couldn't figure out where is the story going and what is the context of this elaboration here. In the short-novel of merely 250 pages, he managed to talk about America's white-black problem, poverty problem and of course girls and sex problem. He talked about Indians-turned-Americans who prefer to be called as Andy (Anand!).
Maybe I read this book very late, I could have read it in early 90s in order to appreciate more. Today every second sex-comedy movie seems to have same ingredients. I was wondering whether this must be an inspiring book for many of such movies/books. Read this book for Gopal's letters and his funny English. Nothing else to read. I didn't like the book very much, however overall it gets 2.5/5 from this novice reader for being very funny.
Book Details:
-------------
The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur,
Publisher: Rupa Co.
Price: INR 76
Pages: 246
Binding: Mass Paperback
ISBN: 8171670407
The book starts with the letter itself. Gopal, protagonist of this novel is from a very small town Jajau, somewhere in interiors of Madhya Pradesh, has just reached America and writing this letter to his younger brother. You must be thinking, what's so special about this letter? Its funny! The guy, Gopal's English seem to have just one tense, Present Continuous! He is totally unaware of American English, their special vocabulary and their special meanings. He like peanuts and appreciate the security person at the exit while he is shouting 'Nuts, totally nuts.' He feels, this guy knows that I like peanuts. :-) Book is full of such estimates, guesses Gopal makes. Gopal's understanding on things, his way of talking, his town, family, his Hair Oil Factory and especially his 'and like that', 'all that stuff', 'things like that' and other suffixes for every sentence made the book a bit special.
He went America for studying and he did or at least tried to do everything but study. From day one in America, he was told that every girl here is America is desperate to get laid. Once Mr. Anurag Mathur started this American Girl Philosophy, he continuously used it till last page. Girls, girls, and just girls. As per Mr. Mathur, everybody in America is obsessed with sex. Our Gopal seems to be more desperate than the other Americans out there. He gets a good friend in terms of Randy, another research scholar at University.
I found a problem with Mr. Anurag's writing (it might be a problem with me too!). Whenever he tried to elaborate Gopal's mind, he made me lost. Many time I couldn't figure out where is the story going and what is the context of this elaboration here. In the short-novel of merely 250 pages, he managed to talk about America's white-black problem, poverty problem and of course girls and sex problem. He talked about Indians-turned-Americans who prefer to be called as Andy (Anand!).
Maybe I read this book very late, I could have read it in early 90s in order to appreciate more. Today every second sex-comedy movie seems to have same ingredients. I was wondering whether this must be an inspiring book for many of such movies/books. Read this book for Gopal's letters and his funny English. Nothing else to read. I didn't like the book very much, however overall it gets 2.5/5 from this novice reader for being very funny.
Book Details:
-------------
The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur,
Publisher: Rupa Co.
Price: INR 76
Pages: 246
Binding: Mass Paperback
ISBN: 8171670407
Monday, October 02, 2006
Ganadevta by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
Another Jnanpith awarded Hindi legend. Originally written in Bengla by Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay. Originally it was written and published as two books, Chandimandap and Panchgram. Later its single-hardbound Hindi translation was published in 1967 by Bhartiya Jnanpith. I bought this book after reading very high praise for it by Jnanpith itself, the editor said "This book is considered to be one of the best books ever written." After reading such beautiful words for any book who won't be interested in reading it. I was no exception. Moreover Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay is considered to be one of the best Bengla authors.
Background of this book is pre-Independence, around 1920-1930 in Bengal, India. Its a very touching story about Indian villagers and their day-to-day problems. First part of the book starts with the introduction of a very small Bengla village, Shivkalipur and its inhabitants. Almost every caste is there in this village, from low to high, all needed to make a community. Problem starts when a few low-caste people deny to do their usual/inheditery work e.g. hair-cut, forgery, carpentry etc. Their complaint is that they are unable to survive on what they are getting for their work. They try to move out of the village to work in mill or do some other work that they are not supposed to do. A panchayat is called at Chandimandap (As the name of first part suggests, Chandimandap, is a place for public gatherings, panchayats and considered very respectable by every villager. Here is a small temple as well which adds some dignity to this place) in order to punish these revolutionary people, Arihant Lohar (Blacksmith) and Girish Badai (Carpenter) but they refuse to follow any suggestion further.
Central characters of this novel are Devnath Ghosh (Debu), Chhiru Paal aka Shrihari Ghosh, Jagan Doctor (A fourth-pass individual who practices as Doctor), Yatin Babu (A freedom-fighter who is kept in this village by police itself so that they can keep an eye on his activities. He is not supposed to take part in any anti-British activity), Durga (A Chamar/leather-worker by caste) etc. Debu is a very respectable person of Shivkalipur as he has passed 12th and teaches in village's only primary school. People of all ages call him Guruji. Initially Debu seems to be a very ordinary person who knows something about this village's problems and wants to have a solution for everything. He thinks too much and wants to do something good for this village and become central character. There is another character, Shrihari Ghosh. He is rich, has a great personality and has a very ill mind. He too wants to be prayed, but nobody likes him. He is considered to be a villain and everyone just hate him. He is ready to do anything for this village, school, temple, hospital, roads, loans to people and all but in return he wants to be god of the village and people have no intention of accepting it. Then he tries all the evil means to break the villagers down and bring them to their knees. He burns their crops, houses at night, uses his power and wealth in flattering the police in order to put few good people in jail for no apparent reason. Most interestingly, he changes his name to Shrihari Ghosh from Chhiru Paal.
Durga a very interesting character in the novel seems to remain mysterious for most of the villagers, they considered her as prostitute who can sleep with any man for some money. She does this for sure to feed herself and her family. Her brother doesn't do any work and counts on her for his living. Despite of unliking her shameless act, he too helps her sometimes by taking her to rich people's house at night and take her back home. Later in the story Debu starts to get involved in social activities and Durga proved herself as extremely helpful to him. Yatin Babu, a stranger to villagers initially too become very respectable person in the village because of his high-caste (Brahmin) and educated, good looking personality. He too provokes Debu to do something for this dying village and later helps him from behind as much as he can.
Second part of the book includes four more villages which are pretty close to Shivkalipur. In fact all these five villages are called Panchgram as a whole. Debu becomes a prime person of all these villages and fights against poverty, starvation and all. He finds himself responsible for feeding every single person in Panchgram and works hard to do the needful. Problems of these villagers seem never-lasting which break this young guy sometimes but he continues to think positive and do what the best he can do to help all of them.
This novel is all about poverty, illiteracy, superstitions, castes, religions and many other very commonly found problems associated with Indian villages. Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay had analyzed the problems very well and depicted them as it is in the book. Being very close to rural India, I could feel what he tried to convey. Bandhopadhyay seems to be the second author who presented the Indian villages very lively to me, first was Premchand! Premchand's Godan made me cry and so did Ganadevta. The poverty, pain, sorrow, problems seem to have no end, they seem to grow everyday. Every kind of problems on this earth find their way to come down to villages and villagers struggle with these till their death. No government, no God, no person can help them.
This is no fairy-tale, except for the climax which surprisingly romantic! This is hardcore poverty description. You might feel disturbed after reading this 580 pages long novel. But believe me if you dare reading it and complete it anyhow, you will find yourself aware of most of the Indian villages. Overall I found the book very good and give it 9/10. Highly recommended to people want to know rural India.
Book Details:
-------------
Ganadevta by Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay,
Publisher: Bhartiya Jnanpith,
Pages: 581
Binding: Paperback
Price: 135
ISBN:
Background of this book is pre-Independence, around 1920-1930 in Bengal, India. Its a very touching story about Indian villagers and their day-to-day problems. First part of the book starts with the introduction of a very small Bengla village, Shivkalipur and its inhabitants. Almost every caste is there in this village, from low to high, all needed to make a community. Problem starts when a few low-caste people deny to do their usual/inheditery work e.g. hair-cut, forgery, carpentry etc. Their complaint is that they are unable to survive on what they are getting for their work. They try to move out of the village to work in mill or do some other work that they are not supposed to do. A panchayat is called at Chandimandap (As the name of first part suggests, Chandimandap, is a place for public gatherings, panchayats and considered very respectable by every villager. Here is a small temple as well which adds some dignity to this place) in order to punish these revolutionary people, Arihant Lohar (Blacksmith) and Girish Badai (Carpenter) but they refuse to follow any suggestion further.
Central characters of this novel are Devnath Ghosh (Debu), Chhiru Paal aka Shrihari Ghosh, Jagan Doctor (A fourth-pass individual who practices as Doctor), Yatin Babu (A freedom-fighter who is kept in this village by police itself so that they can keep an eye on his activities. He is not supposed to take part in any anti-British activity), Durga (A Chamar/leather-worker by caste) etc. Debu is a very respectable person of Shivkalipur as he has passed 12th and teaches in village's only primary school. People of all ages call him Guruji. Initially Debu seems to be a very ordinary person who knows something about this village's problems and wants to have a solution for everything. He thinks too much and wants to do something good for this village and become central character. There is another character, Shrihari Ghosh. He is rich, has a great personality and has a very ill mind. He too wants to be prayed, but nobody likes him. He is considered to be a villain and everyone just hate him. He is ready to do anything for this village, school, temple, hospital, roads, loans to people and all but in return he wants to be god of the village and people have no intention of accepting it. Then he tries all the evil means to break the villagers down and bring them to their knees. He burns their crops, houses at night, uses his power and wealth in flattering the police in order to put few good people in jail for no apparent reason. Most interestingly, he changes his name to Shrihari Ghosh from Chhiru Paal.
Durga a very interesting character in the novel seems to remain mysterious for most of the villagers, they considered her as prostitute who can sleep with any man for some money. She does this for sure to feed herself and her family. Her brother doesn't do any work and counts on her for his living. Despite of unliking her shameless act, he too helps her sometimes by taking her to rich people's house at night and take her back home. Later in the story Debu starts to get involved in social activities and Durga proved herself as extremely helpful to him. Yatin Babu, a stranger to villagers initially too become very respectable person in the village because of his high-caste (Brahmin) and educated, good looking personality. He too provokes Debu to do something for this dying village and later helps him from behind as much as he can.
Second part of the book includes four more villages which are pretty close to Shivkalipur. In fact all these five villages are called Panchgram as a whole. Debu becomes a prime person of all these villages and fights against poverty, starvation and all. He finds himself responsible for feeding every single person in Panchgram and works hard to do the needful. Problems of these villagers seem never-lasting which break this young guy sometimes but he continues to think positive and do what the best he can do to help all of them.
This novel is all about poverty, illiteracy, superstitions, castes, religions and many other very commonly found problems associated with Indian villages. Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay had analyzed the problems very well and depicted them as it is in the book. Being very close to rural India, I could feel what he tried to convey. Bandhopadhyay seems to be the second author who presented the Indian villages very lively to me, first was Premchand! Premchand's Godan made me cry and so did Ganadevta. The poverty, pain, sorrow, problems seem to have no end, they seem to grow everyday. Every kind of problems on this earth find their way to come down to villages and villagers struggle with these till their death. No government, no God, no person can help them.
This is no fairy-tale, except for the climax which surprisingly romantic! This is hardcore poverty description. You might feel disturbed after reading this 580 pages long novel. But believe me if you dare reading it and complete it anyhow, you will find yourself aware of most of the Indian villages. Overall I found the book very good and give it 9/10. Highly recommended to people want to know rural India.
Book Details:
-------------
Ganadevta by Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay,
Publisher: Bhartiya Jnanpith,
Pages: 581
Binding: Paperback
Price: 135
ISBN:
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