Well around ten days ago I returned from a short five day tour of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Quite obviously... we could not cover either state entirely. We spent around 2 1/2 days in Kerala..... and Boy did that place capture my imagination!!!!! One has to visit the place to truly realise why it is called God's Own Country...... we went only to Trivandrum and Kovalam... which are not even the most beautiful places in the state and THEY were soooo beautiful!
The very first thing that will strike you about Kerala are the coconut trees!!!! I only wish I could have captured on lens the scene outside the airplane window just before we landed at Trivandrum...... solid body of water on one side, and a solid mass of coconut trees extending for acres and acres on the other... separated only by a thin strip of white and brown sand!!!!!! Then you make your way out of the smallish airport and the next thing to strike you ... is how clean the city is! This is reflected not just outside the airport but all across the city and indeed every part of the state that we travelled. There is a beach right next to the airport and the clean soft brown sand, clear blue skies, the emerald waters of the sea and green coconut trees give you as warm a welcome as can be!!!
Even while touring around Trivandrum the cleanliness of the entire city keeps impressing itself upon you. Be it right outside the extremely busy Anatha-Padmanabha Swamy Temple or be it at the usual tourist attractions eg: The Palace, the Museum, The Zoo, The Art Galleries, 'VELI': A Tourist Village, or even the main Marketplace - and they are all maintained by the state government!!!!!! Also, the fact that they were all so obviously well looked after. I was extremely impressed. To think that a major tourist draw like Agra is not half as clean as small town Trivandrum which is not even the main tourist attraction of the state.
Kovalam.. I believe is slightly over-hyped and that the beach though very good is nothing to go sooo ga ga about! In fact there are other beaches in and around Trivandrum and Kovalam itself which are far less crowded and equally beautiful! However this is not to take away from the beauty of Kovalam or the fact that it's beach creates the perfect combination of crystal clear waters, white sand, blue skies (or the perfect sunrise or sunset - depending upon when you go) and of course the green coconut trees. Just that it was a li'l crowded when we went - blame it on the time of the year!
Even the highway out of Kerala and into Tamilnadu is lined with an unbroken line of thick coconut groves with banana trees growing in their shelter, with quaint red tiled houses with sloping roofs showing themselves here and there among the trees. The beauty is indescribable. By contrast and at the risk of hurting a few feelings.. Tamilnadu is no comparison!!! Neither cleanlinbess wise (the less said about this the better) nor Beauty wise. The coconut trees start thinning almost from the moment we enter Tamilnadu and get replaced by vast plain fields with green standing crop. We visited Kanyakumari, Madurai and Rameshwaram before flying out of Madurai and the only place that came close to matching Kerala in beauty was the highway leading upto Rameshwaram. The city itself, like Madurai and Kanyakumari is pretty dirty (and it seemed especially so after coming straight out of Kerala), but the highway leading into it makes up in beauty for what the rest of the city lacks. Just before entering Rameshwaram, you can see the Indian Ocean stretch out endlessly on either side of you.... it seems the road itself is going to end in the sea...... a li'l further and you can see the brown sand, the blue skies, the emarald-blue waters of the ocean and the green coconut trees again and I, for one, will never cease to recapture that scene everytime I close my eyes and think about it!!! As wordsworth aptly said, "and when..in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude." Unfortunately, the rest of the places that we visited in Tamilnadu are nothing to right home about... except of course that the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai is every bit as beautiful architecturally as the stories make it out to be. But apart from the highway to Rameshwaram and the Meenakshi Temple, Tamilnadu was disappointing after the heady high that Kerala had given us.
I have decided to go back to Kerala and explore the rest of that state. And this time I hope to do it slowly with atleast a week to 10 days in hand. I end this travelogue with the disclaimer that: the views expressed herein are merely the personal opinion of the author, formed mainly through the circumstances, the duration and the places covered by the author on this tour. The views expressed are reflective only of the places visited and not generalisations about the rest of the two states which the author has not had the good fortune of visiting. Still, any hurt caused to any person's sensibilities or sentiments is deeply regretted. (true law student ishtyle!!!!)
Now for the second part of this rather long post!!!!! For all those wondering where Books fit into the entire narrative - here is the answer. I bought two books on the tour - one the comparatively unremarkable "The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho, and the second - "Ananda Math" by Bankimchandra. This second is slightly more momentous than the first since it is my very first Hindi book. (of course translated - from bangla). For a long time now I had been wanting to start reading some vernacular. English literature was good but I started to realise that vernacular literature too has a lot more to offer. My only two options were Hindi and Kannada (my mother tongue). I am slightly ashamed to say that though I can read and write in Kannada, I am nowhere near fluent. This is owing to the fact that I have lived all my life in Ranchi and Bokaro. Therefore Hindi was the only real option.
Starting to read in Hindi was not completely without hiccups. The translation was an extremely good one and had been able to recreate the magic of story while at the same time not letting anything get 'lost in translation'. It was also in Shudh Hindi. This meant that for a novice like me whose only other exposure to Hindi literature had been the Hindi text books at school, understanding some of the words and phrases were slightly difficult. But as the novel progressed and I got used to the language, my speed increased and so did my comprehension. I am extremely glad that I have made this beginning and hope that I continue this newly acquired taste right through.
The book of course was extremely good, the narrative tight and gripping. It offers an insight into one of the political movements in Bengal against the Muslim ruler of the time, prior to the takeover by the British. However the one thing that kept nagging me throughout was how communal and shortsighted (with respect to the British) the book was. Once when Jeevanand (the protagonist) captures a British Captain in a war, he seeks to befriend him by saying that their war is against the Muslims and not the British, whom they consider their friends. Also, the army of the Vaishnavas took great pride and pleasure in burning down all villages populated by the Muslims. But just when you seek to end with the thought that Bankimchandra was probably not as secular and patriotic as he is made out to be, comes the last two pages of the book and the monologue by a swamiji who was also a healer. He seeks to explain why the vaishnavas failed to rule Bengal in spite of all their devotion, and 'good deeds'. He tells the protagonist that their main fault lay in their bigotry and the fact that they had failed to correctly assess the British. He also takes an extremely realistic view of things and says however, that the defeat of the vaishnavas at the hands of the British was not necessarily a bad thing but was something which had been pre ordained. Their beloved Bharat Mata would be best served at the hands of the British since they would pull her out of the middle ages and put her firmly on the path to modernity.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Some more poetry.
I recently found this wonderful site full of poetry called "The Wondering Minstrels". For those interested, I have added this site to my list of "I also Visit" sites. It was while I was trawling through their site, that I came across this excellent poem by W.H. Auden about the partition of India and the nature of the 'task' that radcliffe was assigned. The poem is a wonderful description of the situation then and the role that, I believe this poem proves, the British played in the whole saga, either by omission or commission. The Poem is called 'Partition' and I have reproduced it here: -
"Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
"Time," they had briefed him in London, "is short. It's too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we've arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.
"Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.
The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot."
- W.H. Auden.
"Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
"Time," they had briefed him in London, "is short. It's too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we've arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.
"Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.
The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot."
- W.H. Auden.
Law in Poetry - I
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
- Portia's 'Mercy Speech' in "Merchant of Venice" - Act IV, Scene I.
The Law That Lawyers Know About!!!
(copied from http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1392.html)
The law the lawyers know about
Is property and land;
But why the leaves are on the trees,
And why the wind disturbs the seas,
Why honey is the food of bees,
Why horses have such tender knees,
Why winters come and rivers freeze,
Why Faith is more than what one sees,
And Hope survives the worst disease,
And Charity is more than these,
They do not understand.
- H.D.C. Pepler.
Both these poems reflect two different views about the law and the lawyers. While the first portrays a lawyer who understands the 'soft law' as it were and feels free to use concepts other than strictly legal ones such as religion and morality to try and achieve the ultimate aim of justice, the other one condemns the law and lawyers as being mainly positivistic in their approach and being insensitive to ethics, morality and the natural laws.
It is for each to decide which version to accept. All that I say is, lawyers do what they can to achieve the best for their clients. Just as members of any other profession do.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
- Portia's 'Mercy Speech' in "Merchant of Venice" - Act IV, Scene I.
The Law That Lawyers Know About!!!
(copied from http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1392.html)
The law the lawyers know about
Is property and land;
But why the leaves are on the trees,
And why the wind disturbs the seas,
Why honey is the food of bees,
Why horses have such tender knees,
Why winters come and rivers freeze,
Why Faith is more than what one sees,
And Hope survives the worst disease,
And Charity is more than these,
They do not understand.
- H.D.C. Pepler.
Both these poems reflect two different views about the law and the lawyers. While the first portrays a lawyer who understands the 'soft law' as it were and feels free to use concepts other than strictly legal ones such as religion and morality to try and achieve the ultimate aim of justice, the other one condemns the law and lawyers as being mainly positivistic in their approach and being insensitive to ethics, morality and the natural laws.
It is for each to decide which version to accept. All that I say is, lawyers do what they can to achieve the best for their clients. Just as members of any other profession do.
Monday, December 10, 2007
A 'Bookie's' Dilemna.....
A strange problem seems to have assailed me these days. Though my hunger to read more and more books has not diminished, my reading speed seems to have come down considerably. This has meant that along with the other things that I have to fit into the mandatorily allotted 24 hours, (most notably eating, sleeping and pursuing legal studies), I barely get anytime at all to devote to reading. I am also afraid that the laziness which has been creeping up stealthily on me for the past 3 1/2 years has finally caught up even with my book-reading habit. I had a good mind to blame the complex legal language that we are forced to 'interpret' and 'reinterpret', as the reason for all these ills. The only thing that deterred me from doing so was the 'sudden' realisation that this peculiar illness does not seem to have striken my fellow law school-ites at all. They are still busy devouring all the books that they can get their hands on. To top it all off, a subsidiary illness that has befallen me is the leave-books-half-read illness. This illness, let me warn you it is an extremely irritating, guilt inducing and depressing sort of illness with no known cure except a cast iron willpower.
Therefore, I have decided on a new-and-early new year's resolution:
1. Read all the books you want to,
2. Finish them all,
3. Do not let the ignominy of having to return books to the library - unread after having gotten it re-issued fall on you,
4. Also if possible, avoid having to reissue books from the library. Finish it within the original three days.
These resolutions, if at all I keep them, (i'll write a post on the fate of most of my new year resolutions another day) ought to bring me slowly back to my old self. So... wish me luck!!!
Therefore, I have decided on a new-and-early new year's resolution:
1. Read all the books you want to,
2. Finish them all,
3. Do not let the ignominy of having to return books to the library - unread after having gotten it re-issued fall on you,
4. Also if possible, avoid having to reissue books from the library. Finish it within the original three days.
These resolutions, if at all I keep them, (i'll write a post on the fate of most of my new year resolutions another day) ought to bring me slowly back to my old self. So... wish me luck!!!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Blogging......
Well..... I just realised that this blog has already deviated from its stated objective. This was intended to be mostly a Book review blog.. though 'other things too could find their way here from time to time'. Well........ if the pattern of my posting-so-far continues.... the blog will become an 'other-things' blog and BOOKS will then have to try and find their way here from time to time.... :-)
But with this realisation has come another one, namely, that it is not easy to write. I fully intended (and still do) to try and keep this blog as updated as possible. But that [to my shock and disbelief :-)] meant that I had to keep posting. Now THAT was a bit of a problem. Though I am not a complete novice at the art of putting pen to paper but I have never written on a public forum before and I find that it is a completely different ball game altogether. It comes with its own set of problems. The most notable being:
1. A blog, especially an unadvertised one, (even among the writer's friends circle) which hopes to attract readers solely by the merit of the writing, needs to be interesting. However, even though my vain self might find my own writing interesting, it need not always pass the test with the myriad readers. Therefore.......
2. A blogger needs to be honest, to himself and to his readers. Now, that again, I have a problem with. Not that I am a cheat or a liar!!!!!! Just that I find it impossible to lay down my private thoughts on a public forum. I had thought that those 'thoughts' would be limited to my thoughts and experiences in my 'life' alone. Therefore, since I wanted to experiment with blogging and still protect my privacy, I chose the one thing I truly love - reading books - and decided to blog on that. Now I find, that to lay down my thoughts and opinions on the various books that I read, and especially the ones I really like, is just as difficult. I realised that I regard my opinions on books and the reasons why I like some and dislike others, as private too. A lot of people may not agree with this assessment but I believe that the same book may connect with different people in different ways and it is not always easy to express this connection.
3. Also, another reason why I have told almost nobody about this blog is because I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether the writing is good enough. I don't care what the wider world thinks about me. I don't care... at least not too much.... about what other anonymous bloggers will think about my blog and the writing in it. It too matters, but only to serve as an impersonal feedback, which may be used to improve the blog. However, I do care, deeply, what people I care about, think of this blog. I care for their opinion. It would therefore not be nice, for this blog to be dismissed (however kindly or subtly) by them as being a not-nice blog.
Call it what you want - inferiority complex (?), inability to rise above the trap of other people's conceptions, insecurity, immaturity, not having confidence in oneself, fear, cowardice, humility (?), false modesty............... the list can go on. But this is true of me.. whether I like it or not. I am also reasonably certain that these issues cannot be peculiar to me alone. I, therefore, have a new-found respect for the blog space and for those bloggers who are able, easily, succinctly and interestingly, to put their point across.
I have been more honest in this post (on a public forum!!!!!) than I probably intended to be when I started writing this post. The confidence must be from knowing the fact that not many know about this blog (3 on last count. 2 - only guess and 1 - knows) and the one who knows has most probably forgotten or at the very least will be too busy to come read it. :-)
But with this realisation has come another one, namely, that it is not easy to write. I fully intended (and still do) to try and keep this blog as updated as possible. But that [to my shock and disbelief :-)] meant that I had to keep posting. Now THAT was a bit of a problem. Though I am not a complete novice at the art of putting pen to paper but I have never written on a public forum before and I find that it is a completely different ball game altogether. It comes with its own set of problems. The most notable being:
1. A blog, especially an unadvertised one, (even among the writer's friends circle) which hopes to attract readers solely by the merit of the writing, needs to be interesting. However, even though my vain self might find my own writing interesting, it need not always pass the test with the myriad readers. Therefore.......
2. A blogger needs to be honest, to himself and to his readers. Now, that again, I have a problem with. Not that I am a cheat or a liar!!!!!! Just that I find it impossible to lay down my private thoughts on a public forum. I had thought that those 'thoughts' would be limited to my thoughts and experiences in my 'life' alone. Therefore, since I wanted to experiment with blogging and still protect my privacy, I chose the one thing I truly love - reading books - and decided to blog on that. Now I find, that to lay down my thoughts and opinions on the various books that I read, and especially the ones I really like, is just as difficult. I realised that I regard my opinions on books and the reasons why I like some and dislike others, as private too. A lot of people may not agree with this assessment but I believe that the same book may connect with different people in different ways and it is not always easy to express this connection.
3. Also, another reason why I have told almost nobody about this blog is because I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether the writing is good enough. I don't care what the wider world thinks about me. I don't care... at least not too much.... about what other anonymous bloggers will think about my blog and the writing in it. It too matters, but only to serve as an impersonal feedback, which may be used to improve the blog. However, I do care, deeply, what people I care about, think of this blog. I care for their opinion. It would therefore not be nice, for this blog to be dismissed (however kindly or subtly) by them as being a not-nice blog.
Call it what you want - inferiority complex (?), inability to rise above the trap of other people's conceptions, insecurity, immaturity, not having confidence in oneself, fear, cowardice, humility (?), false modesty............... the list can go on. But this is true of me.. whether I like it or not. I am also reasonably certain that these issues cannot be peculiar to me alone. I, therefore, have a new-found respect for the blog space and for those bloggers who are able, easily, succinctly and interestingly, to put their point across.
I have been more honest in this post (on a public forum!!!!!) than I probably intended to be when I started writing this post. The confidence must be from knowing the fact that not many know about this blog (3 on last count. 2 - only guess and 1 - knows) and the one who knows has most probably forgotten or at the very least will be too busy to come read it. :-)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Mills and Boon
All girls have read it at some point of time ot the other... and yet very few come out of the 'closet' as it were and admit to have read it and to some extent enjoyed it. Well I decided to join the ranks of the few(may our tribe increase) and admit to liking certain kinds of MBs (as we 'addicts' like to call them). For the uninitiated, MB's (so called because their publisher is Mills and Boon - though others have come into the market too.. e.g Harlequin etc) are short Romantic novels which invariably have a happy ending. They are the genre that first gave rise to the cliche of "tall, dark and handsome" :-) Invariably, in every book, a rich or at the very least a drop dead gorgeous guy, who has usually given up all thoughts of settlng down, meets (in varying circumstances) a good looking every-day-sort-of-girl and falls hard for her. The girls are not always gorgeous but in many instances are very like the average girl. They are aimed only at a female audience and aim at inducing a kind of a sense of well-being and happiness - a kind of a 'feel-good-factor' among the readers. :-)
This is precisely what has me going back time and again to MBs whenever I wish to read something, but have very little time to devote to it. Typically an MB takes about an hour to get through. MBs are thus meant for the 'tired girl who wants a book to read but is not recommended for the eager girl who wants to read a book.'
I suggest that everybody should try reading this genre once. This genre... with all its cliches and predictability... actually makes for some amusing reading.
This is precisely what has me going back time and again to MBs whenever I wish to read something, but have very little time to devote to it. Typically an MB takes about an hour to get through. MBs are thus meant for the 'tired girl who wants a book to read but is not recommended for the eager girl who wants to read a book.'
I suggest that everybody should try reading this genre once. This genre... with all its cliches and predictability... actually makes for some amusing reading.
Monday, November 26, 2007
They that have the power to hurt and will do none...
They that have the power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
the basest weed outbraves his dignity.
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
- William Shakespeare
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces,
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
the basest weed outbraves his dignity.
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
- William Shakespeare
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