Sankhini by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay

Meeting a favourite writer can be exhilarating. I met two young leading Bengali writers within a week. Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay is one of the most talented original writers to  have emerged in the Bengali literary scene in recent times.  Her personal life is as romantic as her stories. Sangeeta lost her parents at a tender age and was brought up by her maternal uncle. Her first prose writing and her first novel “Sankhini” was written in self-imposed exile. She lived a solitary life in Santiniketan for a year doing nothing but writing and her first novel took shape in the form of Sankhini. Those who have read Sankhini will know how powerful, frank and open her writing is. It had created a huge stir when it was being published as a serialised novel in the Bengali magazine Desh .

There are autobiographical traces in Sankhini. The leading protagonist is a hugely exploited and betrayed woman who is at the same time a victim of her own sexual passions. The double life of men in her life who she thinks love her completely only to discover that they have their own parallel lives and never really belong to her wholly, tears her apart. It is a poignant tale and very much a woman’s tale. How many times have women been victim of such circumstances, every woman probably has a similar story to narrate. Cheated by husbands, lovers, and partners – women are duped again and again. Sankhini brings out the pain of the betrayed woman. It also explores boldly the theme of sexuality from the female perspective. Rarely do we come across women handling such themes so freely. I asked the writer whether the theme evolved spontaneously or was it a deliberately thought out narrative. She said it was a conscious decision. I felt the sexual theme is only one of the vehicles to explore the deep down pain which engulfs a woman’s soul eternally.

Sangeeta’s writings are being translated and hopefully her writings will touch many more lives.

http://www.mediafire.com/?47q3poox3bp4fu9

Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks , Vintage International Edition, 656p

Sebastian Faulks was the literary editor of The Independent. Human traces was published in 2005  and it took Faulks five long years to complete the story.  Though he is more known for his book Birdsong which was made into a film, Human Traces is  also an interesting book  about consciousness and   the human mind.  The Tavistock Clinic in association with the University of East London awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contribution to the understanding of psychiatry in Human Traces.

Set in the late nineteenth century the story is about two young men who become friends and embark on a joint partnership to unravel the world of psychiatry. Jacques Rebiere  son of a forester lives in rural France and grows up to study  medicine in Paris .His brother Olivier is mentally challenged  and lives in a world of  his own. Jacques is determined to help his brother . Thomas Midwinter lives in England and is resigned to study medicine as per his father’s wishes . At the age of twenty the two men meet at a French sea side resort and become friends and partners on a lifelong path of scientific study and discovery. The two men  become pioneers in the nascent field of psychiatry.

The story revolves around the  lives of  the two  men . Sonia is Thomas’s sister who comes to live with her parents  after her husband  releases her from a loveless marriage but only after  he signs a lucrative  deal with Sonia’s father.  Jacques falls in love with  Sonia and marries her. Jacques and Thomas start working together . They face serious professional conflicts  which threaten to destroy their partnership.  The book captures details of the conditions of the asylums and the suffering of the patients in those times.  Psychiatry is a specialised discipline and generally people tend to ignore issues related to mental health problems unless they personally face such matters directly or indirectly. It is not easy to come across good psychiatrists in the same fashion that one might come across cardiologists or gynaecologists in cities infested with doctors of all shapes and kinds.

 I feel it requires some courage to write a story around such a complex theme. Around the central theme the story also talks about relationships – both Thomas and Jacques have very strong, supportive partners.  Jacques’ love for his brother, Thomas’ love for his sister and Sonia’s love for her brother -every relationship is beautifully built into the theme . A lengthy and a leisurely read , I found it quite easy to read Faulks since this was the first time I was reading  Faulks.

Ref:  above picture and further reading

http://www.k1bond007.com/2008/03/28/human-traces-us-paperback/ 

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/historicalfictionreviews/fr/humanTraces.htm

Graphic Guides

I have discovered a quick and interesting way of upgrading my knowledge. I have started reading Graphic guides . My library was already overflowing with graphic novels and now come the graphic guides. Graphic novels are very popular with book thieves. My friend in Pune is losing graphic books regularly from her library collection. I have realised that graphic works can be very addictive for any age group of readers. My initial curiosity is turning into active scouting for the right content in the graphic form. The Introducing series of graphic guides published in the UK by Icon books Ltd can be sourced in India through Penguin Books. I am grateful to Penguin India for pricing the books sensibly .The books are in the range of 200 odd pages ,easy to hold and carry and the content is delightful . Capturing highlights and salient points of the topic the language is compact . I was able to complete one book while I was travelling on a very hectic schedule. And I am not a very fast reader . The illustrations are wonderful to look at and enhances your engagement with the theme.

Take for example the book “ Introducing : Wittgenstein : a graphic guide”. The book opens with an illustration of the palatial house of the Wittgensteins and details about his birth and parents. I found it easy to put the character into context. If this can happen to an adult reader like me I am sure this will definitely have a much stronger connect with young minds .One page captures an important phase at Trinity college with few sentences spoken by G.E Moore, Russell and Wittgenstein and three portraits of these men.” Wittgenstein always looks so puzzled…” .” Do you think I am an idiot” .“Why do you ask” . “Because if I am I’ll become an astronaut. But if I am not I will become a philosopher’

The format , I feel is excellent for new age readers who lack the time and mental training to delve into complex theories and detailed discussions on topics of wider interest. After the childhood obsession with various comic characters like phantom , tarzan , batul ,hada-bhoda I am seriously rediscovering the pleasures of reading graphic books. I also feel that it is a nice way of relaxing by admiring the sketches and possibly gaining some new knowledge as a spinoff.



Further reading


http://www.introducingbooks.com/book/group/Graphic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel

Medicine's Strangest Cases (Strangest series) [Paperback],published by Portico ,315p.This edition published in 2009

The book contains over 100 anecdotes from over five centuries of medical history. This collection of true tales ranges from the painful to the hilarious. We were brought up in an era when doctors were regarded as God in most Indian homes. Patients and their families never thought of questioning the doctor’s judgement at any point of time. Times have changed and the patient-doctor relationship is full of suspicion and mistrust nowadays. Almost two decades ago a young doctor who was going to the UK to complete his MRCP degree had remarked that doctors should be treated like any other professionals .They had to deliver against payment and that is where the transaction ended. I had found the logic contrary to my understanding of the noble mission of medical profession. Michael O’Donnell’s book portrays the profession from a wide range of angles. The stories are strikingly refreshing written in a concise manner in two to four pages each .The headings are imaginative and sometimes quite    humorous.

Followed by a brief introduction the book opens with a chapter called “The case of the vanishing father figure” where O’Donnell talks about Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Oath. In 1973 the science writer Dr Robert Reid wrote “It takes little consideration of the Hippocratic oath to conclude that it is a bigoted and dangerous document. It embraces hardline trade union practices…… As well as encouraging nepotistic incompetent hierarchies, it hands out totally ambiguous ethical advice.” O’Donnell writes “ One dangerous effect of the Hippocratic inheritance is the way  it is used by those who think that because they have acquired a medical degree, a divine light sparkles somewhere about their person”. I was pretty amused reading this statement but I must say the doctor is not alone guilty .Often divinity is bestowed upon them by well meaning patients and their families.

Trust me I ‘m a doctor recounts the story of Alexander the Great and the young doctor Philip the Acarnanian .Alexander was struck down  by a debilitating disease during his sojourn in Asia Minor . When the king’s physicians refused to treat him Philip agreed to try his skills. In spite of receiving a warning that Philip might poison him Alexander went ahead and swallowed the potion that Philip gave him. He recovered to win the battle against Darius.

In The Surgical Triple Whammy the author narrates the funny and sad story of the surgical speedstar Robert Liston a daring and successful Scottish surgeon who was known for his operating speed .Before the coming of anaesthetics the most admired of a surgeon’s skills was his operating speed. Sometimes his speed had “side-effects”. Once while amputing a patient’s leg in his standard two and a half minutes time his flashing knife removed the poor man’s testicles and on another occasion he inadvertently removed the fingers of his young assistant.

Large fees and how to get them is about doctors attempt to balance the demands of Hippocrates and Mammon. Faddy about his Food  tells the story of a three year old Spanish child who refused to eat and was taken to various doctors  by the anxious mother .The child thereafter  underwent a stomach operation which revealed he had swallowed 30 pebbles, two collar studs, two  buttons, two coins ,one screw and two plastic gambling chips.

The tales are extremely well chosen and is eminently suitable for lay readers. An excellent read for information, leisure and entertainment. Michael O’Donnell was a practising doctor, was editor of World Medicine and wrote a weekly column for BMJ.

The book can be ordered directly from www.anovabooks.com .Other topics under the strangest series – boxing,golf,sailing,tennis,television,scientific inventions political characters etc.

Ref:
http://www.amazon.com/Medicines-Strangest-Cases-Michael-ODonnell/dp/1906032904 - #

Arthur and George ,Julian Barnes. Jonathan Cape

Julian Barnes finally won the Booker this year for his novel "The Sense of an Ending" after being nominated several times .The chair of this year's judges, former MI5 director general Stella Rimington, said the winning title had "the markings of a classic of English Literature. It is exquisitely written, subtly plotted and reveals new depths with each reading." I have read one book by Barnes and I have been captivated by his storytelling skills. Arthur and George was nominated for the Booker in 2005 but missed the trophy. After reading Arthur and George I had wondered how such a well constructed novel could fail to impress the judges. A&G will definitely figure in my list of all time favourites.


Arthur and George is the story of two lives Arthur Conan Doyle and a provincial half Indian solicitor George Edalji and the convergence of these two lives at one point. George is wrongly convicted by the police for killing of horses at Wyrley .George approaches Sir Arthur to help him fight his case which finally leads to George’s vindication.

The story is told mainly from two perspectives that of Arthur and George with some characters coming in between. I found the section and sub-section headings interesting. There are four main sections –Beginnings, Beginning with an Ending, Ending with a Beginning and Endings. The sections have sub-sections which simply alternate between Arthur, George, Arthur, George and sometimes George and Arthur, George, Campbell, George and Arthur. It is a mystery and the narrative keeps you involved throughout.

But Arthur and George is not just a crime story .Set against Edwardian background it is about Christianity, religion, racial discrimination, justice, love and society in general.

“The general opinion is that cities are violent, overcrowded places, while the countryside is calm and peaceable. His own experience is contrary: the country is turbulent and primitive, while the city is where life becomes orderly and modern.” I found a resonance in similar thoughts shared by a friend of mine who had been posted in a rural institute sometime back.

The discussions around race and religion -where George says “There were teasings and jokes. I am not so naïve as to be unaware that some people look at me differently. But I am a lawyer …. What evidence do I have that anyone acted against me because of race prjudice? …. What concerned me about more about the police was their lack of competence” and Sir Arthur comments “ The truths of one’s religion and the truths of one’s religion do not always lie in the same valley”- are insightful.The book at times had reminded me of Harper Lee’s classic novel.

The book is also about Sir Arthur’s life, his longstanding relationship with Jean, his work, his psychic and spiritual quests, his experiments with séances, his travels around the world.Sir Arthur's fans will definitely enjoy reading about the life and times of the famous man who still remains a popular household name across the world.
 Arthur and George is also a highly readable book because of the language which is simple and classic.The  360 page book is available in both hardback and paperback. I will definitely recommmend it as a brilliant piece of writing.

Ref:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/18/booker-prize-julian-barnes-wins

Gilgamesh : A new English Version by Stephen Mitchell, Profile Books,First South Asian Edition Distributed by Viva Books 2006, Rs 325/-

“Who is like Gilgamesh? What other king
Has inspired such awe? Who else can say,
I alone rule, supreme among mankind?
The goddess Aruru, mother of creation
Had designed his body, had made him the strongest
Of men – huge, handsome, radiant, perfect.”


Gilgamesh , the oldest story on earth was written ,in ancient Mesopotamia in second millennium BC and predates the Iliad by at least thousand years. Its hero Gilgamesh was a historical king of the city Uruk (modern Iraq) and had an intimate friend Enkidu.Enkidu was a naked, wild man who was civilized through the erotic arts of the temple priestess Shamhat .With Enkidu Gilgamesh battles many monsters and when he dies he is inconsolable and sets out in search of someone who can tell him how to escape death. A brilliant tale of self-discovery Gilgamesh has been compared to the great epics but was lost to civilization for over two thousand years. The eleven clay tablets in which the story was inscribed in cuneiform was discovered in 1850 in the ruins of Nineveh. The great poet Rilke wrote in 1916 “Gilgamesh is stupendous” .He considered it to be a masterpiece in world literature.


Mitchell’s translation is superb and easy to read

“Humans are born, they live .then they die
------------------------
But until the end comes enjoy your life,
Spend it in happiness, not despair'"


“…….Suddenly ,savagely death
Destroys us, all of us, old or young
And yet we build house, make contacts, brothers
Divide their inheritance, conflicts occur
As though this human life lasted forever”


Gilgamesh’s despair after the death of Enkidu and his travails have been likened to Buddha’s renunciation and search for truth. The poetry is haunting and the feelings expressed by the poet are eternal.

"I cannot bear what happened to my friend.......
My beloved friend has turned into clay----
And won't I too lie down in the dirt
like him and never rise again"

 Mitchell writes a detailed and fascinating introduction to this composition where he describes the historical and cultural context of this epic. The story of the discovery and decipherment of the clay tablets is itself a great tale. A young English traveller Austen Henry Layard found tens of thousands of clay tablets buried in what was left of the library of the last great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. Twenty five thousand of these treasures were taken away to England .In 1872 George Smith a curator in the British Museum first realized that a great story was written on the tablets. Probably such discoveries reflected the brighter side of imperialism and redeemed to an extent the various looting expeditions of the imperialists.

The Unbearable lightness of being/Milan Kundera, Translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim ,Faber and Faber,2004

The cover description says it is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities. I picked up this book because I wanted to read Kundera. I wanted to read Kundera for a while but kept on delaying because I have heard all along that he was a cerebral writer and was not easy to read. The final push came from my friend who described him as a simple yet complex writer. According to my friend you can dwell on a sentence or a phrase from Kundera’s works for hours just to get a sense of what the author was trying to say. I was interested. Kundera did not disappoint me. He was not too intimidating either. The book is about relationships and the essential polygamous nature of man-woman relationships. While reading the book one wonders whether monogamy is a myth that society carefully nurtures. The story revolves around Tomas, Tereza, Sabina, Franz and others. The book begins by challenging the “mad myth of eternal return” which Nietzsche called the heaviest of burdens. “What then shall we choose weight or lightness?” Questions are raised on love, betrayal, sexuality, repression, freedom of speech etc.


Tomas a surgeon who has had over 200 women (erotic friendships) in a span of twenty five years is forced to leave his profession on account of writing a critical letter to the editor of a newspaper condemning the communists. Sabina is a woman who thrives on the concept of betrayal .She abandons Franz who leaves his wife of twenty years to be with her. Franz dies while travelling abroad with his mistress and in his death his wife finally claims him as her own. Tereza is torn between her love for Tomas and the anxiety over his constant infidelities which tear her apart. Tomas realises he loves Tereza but thinks love and sexuality cannot be equated. Tereza’s dog Karenin plays a key role in the novel and is instrumental in bringing Tereza and Tomas together in the end.



The book is strewn with sentences like these

“We can never know what to want because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come”..

” And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?”

“In a society run by terror, no statements whatsoever can be taken seriously. They are all forced ..”


I wonder if the translation has been able to capture the spirit of the original of such a philosophical novel. The 300 page book should be read slowly and in leisure.

Follow the link below to read more about the story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being