The fascinating lives of Kalkatta

Kalkatta Chronicles by Supriya Newar is a book you are going to remember long after you finish it. It is a collection of chapters talking about different people and cultures of Kolkata the author experienced in her childhood. The prose is lucid and measured. It starts with the memory of the lift-operator whose character and duty effects the residents in unsuspecting ways. The observations are unique and sharp. They has to be seen first hand and not thought up because of their originality. For example, when the lift would get a makeover after maintenance,

the liftman too sat up straighter and prouder on his designated stool donning his newly stitched, ironed and monogrammed uniform.

This sense of childlike ownership has come out so endearingly solely due to inclusion of such excellent details.

While reading through the book I was nodding and smiling because there are so many things similar to what I had experienced in my childhood. For example, the brown paper clothing of books every year, the excitement around it, the joy of writing your name on stickers on the newly covered books, the process of flattening the books so that the brown paper covers get settled well. And I wonder how across different cultures, we lived the same lives.

The stories of grandiose train journeys, the world of cozy candle-lit rooms during routine loadsheddings, the struggles of getting tickets on black for the latest Bollywood flicks are all too familiar and made me nostalgic.

More than the world inhibiting in the book, I love to read about those different people living in various strata of the society. The family tailor is a businessman who is confident about his craftsmanship even if, at times the fitting would not be perfect. Still the family manages to keep him for years to come. The book and magazine seller is also a man who keeps his account meticulously and is the sole supplier of weekly magazine and comics. In the pre-era of globalization and commercialization of everything, there were personal touches everywhere, because things were not automatized or taken care by unknown persons behind websites. And even though sometimes things got inconvenient, the human touch made them personal memories, something to reminiscence, to cherish forever. 

I’m not sure what made him a success across the family for ears together, for he wasn’t necessarily the finest tailor around. […] Whatever may have been the secret arrangement, each party got used to the other and in the process, Iqbal […] became a bespoke family heirloom.

Apart from its literary appeal for all the above reasons, it is an important book for another thing. Present day Kolkata is a rich mixture of different cultures and people coming from all over the country. Getting to read how they fuse in the old culture of Kolkata and how still they manage to maintain their independent culture is not only fascinating, but also heartwarming. This book is a burning proof how different worlds can thrive together and create a culture that is so rich and yet so distinct.

The quotidian details of the homely world in this book often reminded me of Amit Chaudhuri’s splendid A Strange and Sublime Address and I congratulate the author for being able to write something so special. Strongly recommended.

P.S. Just look at those stunning illustrations!

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A review of Naiyer Masud’s stories: the essence of camphor

I came to know about Naiyer Masud some months ago when I read about his sad demise in a few literary conscious online sites. Recently I started wondering about why our curiosity about a writer’s work suddenly escalates when he becomes out of reach. Articles with ten best stories and so forth popped out within days. I looked up about his writing online and read a few pages in the amazon preview and I was very impressed. It was an unpleasant surprise of discovery and joy. It was unpleasant because what I was looking for had been right there, the things I find absent in most of the great stuff had already been so nicely written by an Indian writer who had been alive all this while.

I found his short story collection The Essence of Camphor in my local Sahitya Academy library which had come out in 1998 and immediately started with it. It contains nine short stories and one novella, all beautifully translated from the original Urdu. The first story, which is the title story is about the innocence of childhood and how a scent can be evocative, even if it is not a powerful one. The boy in this story tries to imitate a kafoori sparrow but couldn’t exactly imitate no matter how many times he try. During this he develops the art of making intricate objects from clay. His diligent effort reminds a neighbouring girl of her childhood and soon they became friends. But she was suffering from an ailment. Now here Masud tries to evoke the abstract by constantly reminding the reader that there is something special about the perfume made from camphor and that particular scent is the scent of death. He does it so confidently that even a cold, rainy afternoon and a dead bird can incite a strange forlornness in the reader. We sometimes feel something and try to link it to something entirely absurd. When an author identifies similar things and writes them down in a fictional form, the resulting work unsettles the reader. I felt vulnerable as if the author has touched something raw in me. I had a similar feeling when I read Clarice Lispector’s stories for the first time.

In ‘Interregnum’, which is one my favourite stories in the collection, a father-son relationship has been shown in ways I seldom see. Of course, there are books like “The Master of Petersburg” that can challenge the above statement, but there is something entirely different in this story. The motherless son is possessive about his father from a very early age. His father is a mason, he designs patterns and makes sculptures. The son would hide his tools every day and he has to beat him up to let him go to work. Thus their chemistry changes with time and nearly in the end, in one afternoon, the father met an accident. He was bedridden for weeks. And there is this passage:

“After he was seated, supported by several pillows, he became absorbed in thought. Never before had he seemed to me to be a thinking individual. But now, as he sat propped up against a pile of pillows, dressed in clean and proper clothes, he was in deep thought. And, for the first time I considered the possibility that he might be my real father.”

That passage hit me. I was in awe, to be honest.

‘Sheesha Ghat’ was another story that dwells on a similar theme.

Another story I really liked is called ‘Obscure Domains of Fear and Desire’. I read a preview of this story before in Amazon. And upon finishing the story, it turned out to be strangely dreamy. Throughout, his techniques have been similar. You always feel that the author is talking about something out of your reach or grasp. I remember V.S. Naipaul once advising young writers to not go for the abstract, and go for preciseness and clarity. I believe he meant to say only the skilled and the gifted people should try to handle the abstract ideas in their writings.

Not all his stories are like this. ‘The Myna from Peacock Garden’ is a simple tale of a father trying to fulfil the wish of his daughter. In all his stories, I found his prose to be clear and precise. Masud was a gifted writer and he writes about stuff no writes about. I hope his works get translated in more languages, especially now that he is no more.

 

Review: Spy from Unaula by Alok Kumar

Introduction:

The story is set in pre-independent India spanning over a life time of a character. The story follows Ram, who born in a remote village Unaula and his adventures as he frees himself from the bondage of social prejudices and backwardness of the uneducated society there. He is inspired and supported by his brother Bhagwati right from the beginning.

What I like about the story:

The content of the story is very unique, fresh and something we don’t see in present piles of romance, mythology and crime-thriller novels. The characters are normal, real-life people and events are told in good detail (the war with Japanese, the process of selection, the atmosphere of death). Especially I like the sketched images which frequently try to bring out the scenes going on in the book. It has social messages, about how a little person from some remote village can become big.

Critical Comments:

The narration puts me off, to be honest. It is top to bottom telling in dull way. The story here is huge and if it is written with more patience it could become a 400+ pages epic, whereas solely due to the school text-book style telling, the book is merely 210 pages long. For example, it is not enough if one tells me that Ram is courageous and nervous at the same time. One can show that simply by his actions (like he elopes from his house just before 2 days of his forced-marriage but at the same times, trembles, cries sobs, wanting for water etc. when he is walking away from his home.) Or if one really wants to stick to telling, he should use similes, allegories to evoke cruelty, humor in the tone. For example, let see if the same situation can be written like : Fifty kilos of weight, he felt such pride and determination that he could alone conquer even Achilles if he tried to force him to marry that unknown girl, who definitely was not a decedent of Helen. By the way, when Bhagwati fights against Japanese in army of British, I have expected the mention of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who was using the Japanese force to create the menace British felt.

To be Specific:

Plot:

The plot is has potential, as I have mentioned before. You’d agree with me after completing the journey of the characters in this book.

Dialogue:

It is natural and okay, but the amount of dialogue is very less in this book which is not compensated by good narration.

Characterisation:

It is good but could become livelier with more developed style of presentation. I wanted to feel the same disappointment was Ram was prevented from going to school, I wanted to feel the tension Ram felt when he was leaving his home forever.

Pacing:

Unnecessarily fast which neither creates the thrill it intends to create, nor allows the reader to feel for the characters.

Narrative:

It is mentioned in critical comments section.

Editing:

Not many typographical and grammatical errors. It’s neat.

Resolution:

Satisfying but could have been of more impact.

Overall impression:

A good read for readers searching for something new based on Indian setting which could become a far better piece of novel.

3 out of 5.

Amazon Link.

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How to receive a review (both positive and negative)

A book can get both positive and negative criticism from a reviewer. This post is about how to handle such criticisms. Now, if you search in internet, there will be plenty of posts regarding handling a negative criticism, but no one tells you about the positive one. We shall try to discuss that too in this post.

Before reading any review, remember the following:

1. The reviewer has invested 6-10 hrs of his time on your work. He has the right to voice his say.
2. If he thinks his time is wasted by reading your work, he can say bad things about your work.
3. If you get offended by that (and yes, you have also the right to get offended), you should be okay with it. Tastes vary.
4. If a reviewer tells that “this part of this novel is crap, and should have been written in this or that way”, it doesn’t establish that the reviewer himself can write the way he has expected to read.

Read the last sentence again.

Now, let us divide our discussion in 2 parts.

1. Handling Positive Criticism: If you get positive views from someone about your work, then pat yourself, you deserve it. You should use this praise to boost your confidence and work harder to bring better work. But I have seen in many cases, the recipient gets so inflated that he refuses to work hard anymore. Remember, every work will require equal and preferably more effort than you have put in your previous work. So boost your confidence with positive criticism but don’t become overconfident. If you become overconfident, points in italic in following will happen.
2.  Handling Negative Criticism: If someone bashes your book showing valid reasons, analyze if those reasons are at all valid for you. In many cases, the reviewer may not get your intentions or visions. In those cases, as you are the creator and know more about what you are doing, you may (not must) ignore those points. 

   Source – Barron’s Cartoon – by Kaamran Hafeez.

   On the other hand, if a good reviewer gives negative review and justifies his points with enough reasons and examples, preserve the review and apply the lessons learned from it. Due to overconfidence, if you respond with hostility to the review and ignore everything he has said, two things will happen: people will get a pretty good idea about your nature and you lose the chance to learn from your mistakes which you will iterate in your next works.

So, that’s it about receiving a review. This is the last post about reviewing and receiving them. Coming up: few short-stories, few discussions on books, some amazing workshops/articles/interviews by various well-known authors and a serialized post about something (I’ll reveal later). 🙂

Review: Brick Lane

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At last, I am able to finish this book. Phew!
This is a 500 page novel about Bangladeshis living in England and their problems. Our protagonist Nazneen who is left to her fate from the very birth is pictured, transformed and described beautifully.

Why I like this book:

>> Narration is tremendous and funny; also very very intricate.
>> All the characters are drawn with utmost care and every single negligible character is memorable.
>> Story is good and fresh and being a Bengali, I have felt deja vu kind of feeling with scenes and characters.

Few things I don’t like in this book are:
Somewhat slow and dragged story.
There are so many “as if”-s that it have seemed dull; but there are many instances where it actually have made the sentences funny.

Examples of few such sentences are:

Two old men in white panjabi-pyjama and skullcaps walked along the path, slowly, as if they did not want to go where they were going.

OR

She never spoke to Abba after that, not that Nazneen saw. She always kept back the choicest bits of meat for Nazneen and Hasina. She kissed them all the time, even though they were fourteen and twelve. And she talked about Amma, over and over, as if you could change something by talking about it. ‘I don’t know why those spears were in the store, and wedged like that. So dangerous.’ Hasina always ran off when she started, but Nazneen just stayed and listened.

OR

She took a handkerchief and wiped her mouth, as if clearing the way for the next story. Her eyes were small and hard like a bird’s; her white hair looked as if it would snap under a comb.

You’d find a minimum of 5 such sentences per page.

Overall this is a very good book, you should actually read it.

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