the one with the dragon and her boy

The Inheritance series(or Cycle as he chooses to call it) is finally complete. And what a ride its been.
To be honest, initially Eragon didn't appeal to me at all. With its ancient language, the elves and the dwarves thrown in all together, it seemed to me to be a weak copy of the Lord of The Rings.The orcs could be Urgals; there was a mad King ruling over Alagaesia just like Sauron threatened the land.
It was an enjoyable read for sure(I was, in particular, enamored with Saphira. She is the strongest character to me. And Arya with her aloof awesomeness enchanted me.) but the whole too-much-resemblance-to-LOTR had me just putting back and saying 'eh..'.
Eldest impressed me. Oromis, Glaedr, the world of the Elves...I'd never read anything like it. And now, more clearly, I could see the differences. Here, Elves were strong and beautiful just like the LOTR Elves but the whole 'they always speak in riddles' and the other little details like them being vegetarians made it stand out. It was thrilling to see just how much Eragon changed from the farm boy he was in Eragon to the warrior that he was at the end of Eldest.
In a manner, Brisingr didn't fulfill all my expectations. It wasn't the end for one thing. And parts of it were too wordy. Like Eragon and Arya's trek back from Dras Leona to the Varden's camp. While I enjoyed the whole make a ship and set it free, I wanted action ! Revelations like Brom being Eragon's father(it would have been lovely if Morzan had been his father ! The whole choice deal that Dumbledore spouts and that the heritage of the father doesn't pass onto the son. I mean, look at Murtaugh. He turned out fine.), the Eldunari and the fact that the whole 'Look under the Menoa tree' stuff spiced it up and made us ache for the ending.
And lo behold ! Inheritance lived up to most of its expectations.


(I feel obliged to add that while I wont be spelling out spoilers bit by bit, if you're gonna read the book and find out everything for yourself, Stop Reading. Now.)


Inheritance began with a bang and kept racing towards the ending. The book was absorbing; the storming of Belatona, Aroughs and Dras Leona(I felt a particular satisfaction that the priests of Helgrind died !) and the finding of Niernen gave hope and the sense of building up to what promised to be a good battle. Nasuada's subsequent capture forces leadership onto Eragon. The weight on his shoulders forces him to start moving and make the decision to go find the Rock of Kuthian and the Vault of Souls. I expected Eldunari but not the eggs(good to know Saphira's not as alone as we all thought! I wonder if that changed her true name ?). The section with Eragon finding out his true name didn't appeal to me but it was necessary for him. The interleaving of Nasuada's imprisonment and Eragon's foray into Vroengard was well written and didn't let me put my book down at all !
The book start's picking up after this; the battle is here, Urubaen is before them. Eragon faces Galbatorix but to be humbled in front of the strength he posses. It was a little sad imagining the sadness and anger that raged inside Shruikan.
It was nice to see that Murtaugh was able to change himself; to break away(even though they didn't get together in the end, they were very cute together!) and turn against Galbatorix when required.
The fight-of-the-century(or so we anticipated) turned out surprisingly simple(Harry Potter anybody?). When Galbatorix is experiencing everything he ever inflicted, Eragon and he duel and Eragon manages to kill him(simultaneously, Saphira and Thorn take on Shruikan and kick his ass and Arya kills him with the Dauthdaert.).
The last egg hatches(the Rider was just like I expected) and Saphira falls in love(or lust depending on how you look at it). Nasuada is crowned Queen of Alagaesia while Arya becomes Queen of the Elves. Eragon faces the prospect of rebuilding the Riders.
Remembering Angela's prediction that he would leave Alagaesia to never return, Eragon and Saphira bid farewell and set sail along with all the Eldunari and the eggs to become the Leader of the New Riders.


A LOTR ending rather than a Harry Potter one; it was bittersweet and beautiful. The love story that began to take shape in Eragon and tormented the character Eragon all through Eldest and Brisingr, receives a sort of conclusion. There is a chance of it becoming a happily-ever-after but its left to the reader. I thought it was a mature ending and anything else wouldn't have fit this Eragon(despite the fact that he left so many people behind).


Overall, the Inheritance cycle definitely deserves its place up there next to LOTR, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and what not. There are jarring notes(Eragon is not always likable), heavy passages and sometimes not very satisfying conclusions but there are also a lot of strengths to this series.
Christopher Paolini wrote this series for 12 years of his life(he began when he was 15 and now he's 28) and I must say he's done a bang up job fleshing out a whole universe(that is as rich as Middle Earth), an assortment of characters(he left Angela to be as mysterious as ever!) and a fantasy story that's for all times.


(P.S- Thanks, Harsh for preordering and then lending it to me :D)

the one with the hamshiras

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"


Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns is breathtaking. It makes you miserable, emotional and fills you with turbulence. 
It's divided into four parts. Part One is Mariam's story, Part two Laila's. Part three has both Laila and Mariam narrating and Part four is just Laila again.
Mariam's story is painful to swallow; an insane mother, a father who is too weak willed to defend his daughter, a cruel husband and miscarriages make hers a cruel life full of misery.
Laila, younger than Mariam, has a life that is light years apart. War and cruelty takes this away from her and blinded with deceit, she's driven to a life similar to Mariam's.
Women in Afghanistan endure the unendurable; they live life being submissive to the demands of the more or less irrational male(the burqa, the abuse both physical and emotional). Some parts of the book are just sickening(the hospitals refuse to accept female patients. they are all driven to one dirty hovel with no X-ray, no medicine, no anesthesia. There are only two doctors and they are expected to perform surgery while fully covered in a burqa. It is a wonder that Laila survives.), the way Laila is brutally beaten every time she tries to visit Aziza at the orphanage that she is forced to leave her at(because they couldnt afford to feed her and didnt want her to starve. Rasheed actually suggests prostituting Aziza, a small eight year old girl. When Laila refuses, he hits her).
("I see you again, I'll beat you until your mother's milk leaks out of your bones.")
Rasheed, the forty year old man that marries Mariam and the sixty year old that marries Laila, is a cruel misogynist. The way he treats Mariam at first is heart warming(so different from Jalil) and Mariam begans to slowly warm to him with affection. With the loss of every baby and the fact that Mariam cannot bear him a boy(when she is pregnant the first time, he buys clothes for a boy even though they dont know the gender), he descends into violence and cruelly abuses his wife.
Similarly with Laila, he is gentle through out her pregnancy yet cold and vicious after she bears him a baby girl(Aziza; when Zalmai is born, he goes head over heels to pamper and spoil the brat that imitates his father). The straw that breaks the camel's back is when Laila finds out that Tariq is alive and that Rasheed paid a man to come and tell her convincingly that Tariq died.
The ending is presented in a realistic manner(there is no amnesty; murder is murder regardless of the provocation) and Laila leaves with Tariq and her children.
Jalil, Mariam's father, attempts to redeem his character(before he dies, he comes to Mariam's house and begs for her to see him-similar to how she waited outside his house as a kid-) by leaving her her inheritance and a video tape of a movie that in a way, set off the chain of events(Pinocchio, curiously.). But it is sadly too little and too late.
Tariq is the only male character that shines in this gruesome tale. He is strong(despite the loss of a leg) and yet, tender when dealing with the children and Laila. He loves and respects Laila. He tries and succeeds in getting Zalmai to trust him. He befriends his daughter and proves to us all that not all men are the same.
After years of struggle and strife, their marriage provides the sweetness to the bitter ending.
After I read this book, I couldn't sleep. I thought of everything they'd suffered(fictional or not; the plight of women in the Taliban ruled countries is pitiable) and of everything I had; a loving family that provides me with everything I need no matter what the sass or the anger I display.
There are some things that I take for granted; the little freedoms that so many girls enjoy. The freedom to dress the way I want, to say what I think, to study as much as I want and to shape my own destiny(even with the restrictions about the directions I shape it into), is something that so many girls don't have. I am grateful for this life and everything I have; so much more grateful after I read this book.


*end personal rant*

the one with the many tales

"I wonder why grown-ups always complete their sentences when talking about pleasant things, but always leave them unfinished if it's something unpleasant. Like 'Ah, a woman's fate..' or 'Oh, three girls..'. There's always silence after these half statements."


The Inner Courtyard, Stories by Indian Women(edited by Lakshmi Holmstrom) isn't a book I'd usually pick up by myself but when presented it by a person(I'm entirely confident that her taste in books is similar to mine), I made the attempt to read the many short stories within its pages and I fell in love with quite a few.


Vishwapriya.L.Iyengar's The Library Girl crawled under my skin and refused to leave. It's the story of a girl in a Muslim neighbourhood or basti. Ever since her father made her(Talat) drop out of school, Talat goes to the library to read(without her father's knowledge) and learn what is beyond her reach. We hear her mother argue for Talat to go to school(her little brother Tahir goes, yet not Talat) and her father firmly dismisses her with an admonishment for comparing Talat to Tahir.
("Buy her silk, satin, velvet, silver -but, fool woman, don't compare her to Tahir.")
Talat, popularly known as the library girl, flounders on after dropping out of school. She plays, she learns, she is the girl who learns to dream. Her father surprises her one day with a burqa as a gift, a black silk one with fine net mesh as the face covering. Talat, happy and delighted, with the gift doesn't consider with the consequences of it.
("Her mother rubbed salt into the goat's breast and did not know whether glass crystals were being rubbed into her own. Only her father's eyes shone with pleasure.")
She slips off to the library always but there are no friendly greetings; no one even seems to recognize her. She runs to the library yet even the librarian doesn't see the Library Girl. She sees only a woman running in a burqa and waving her hands, falling down and crying. They all go about their day; missing the library girl who was no more.
("Within the veil, a darkness seized Talat. It bandaged her mouth,her eyes, and sealed her voice. Today her smiles had lit nothing. Blank faces became ash in her gaze. She wanted...she wanted to lift the veil and say,'Look..it's me. Only me in a Persian robe. It's a joke.' But the robe had hands that clasped her mouth.")
It's hard to explain what made me love this story so much. Maybe its the lyrical nature of the story; its in third person narrative and written in a form that makes you feel like you're there too. The little undercurrents that Talat doesn't seem to see, the larger picture that she doesn't seem to know; everything leads to the inevitable end and you weep for the loss of one so bright as well.


Another favorite was Girls by Mrinal Pande. The protagonist is a young girl; the middle child of three girls. She is being taken along with her sisters with her mother to her parent's home to stay there for the remnants of her pregnancy. The girl thinks of how much she hates coming to her grandmother's house(her mother is always meaner to her and her father never accompanies them) and tries to amuse herself by various small means(usually like a boy) which makes her mother more angry.
Through various conversations("You are born a girl and you'll have to bend for the rest of your life, so you might as well learn how" ; her grandmother, "Oh goddess! Protect my honor.At least this time, let her take a son back from her parent's home") and observations, she puts together the significance of being a girl in her family.
("That girl must be harassing her. She was born only to plague my life.")
This strikes a chord in every girl's heart. While having never been discriminated against for being born a girl(by my family or anyone else), it is quite difficult to not empathize with the protagonist for the difficulty of her situation and the lifelong struggle she'll have to face. Told entirely, in first person narrative, this story brings a lump to the throat.
Mrinal Pande, skillfully hints at the environment and the people; the words just pull you in and absorb you.
I, initially, typed a whole rant about how girls are discriminated against in favor of boys but I don't want to turn this into some sort of wild discussion. This is a blog post about a book I read; a book which has some stories that mean a lot to me. A book, I'll treasure.


("When you don't love girls, why do you pretend to worship them?")


P.S - the books features 18 stories by a lot of prominent writers some of whom are Anita Desai, Mahasveta Devi, Shashi Deshpande, Kamala Das and Vaidehi. These two are merely part of the book and are in no way, the most important ones.

the one with the Dog

“I sing of a woman with ink on her hands and pictures hidden beneath her hair. I sing of a dog with skin like velvet pushed the wrong way.I sing of the shape a fallen body makes in the dirt beneath a tree, and I sing of an ordinary man who is wanted to know things no human being could tell him.This is the true beginning.” 


Caroyln Parkhurst's novel, The Dogs of Babel begins with the end; well almost. The novel opens to what we know is the end of the tale: Lexy's death. Paul, the grief stricken widower, begins to suspect is not just an accident. Lexy wasn't the kind to climb apple trees and several things around the house don't seem to add up(the rearranged books, the steak that Lexy fed Lorelei out of the blue). So, Paul turns to the only witness to the incident: their dog, Lorelei.
Paul begins a series of attempts to teach Lorelei to speak or sign so that she'll be able to tell him what really happened. Pronounced as mad by his friends, colleagues and everyone, Paul stumbles upon clues and finds the end to the tale and his peace.
A non-linear narrative, it shifts between Paul talking about the aftermath of Lexy's death(his attempts to teach Lorelei, the way his colleagues and friends teach him, his own attempt to peace together the entire tale) and their story together(how they met and their little slice of happily ever after). Lexy's moulded for the reader without ever being alive throughout the tale; she grows through the story, her character becoming stronger through out until in the end we see her for who she really is.
Woven into the tale is a story with a group of people who really do believe that dogs can speak and perform surgeries on them to 'enhance' their vocal chords and Paul, initially a believer, realizes the truth of things.
This book is absolutely brilliant; every book has its flaws and so does this one but it more than makes up for it with its lyrical writing and the emotions it induces in the reader.You grieve along with Paul as he suffers through the five stages of grief and you're reeling too when you finally realize the truth along with him. This book is also for dog lovers; Paul depends on Lorelei while he is grieving and he realizes just how much she means to him(she is his last gift from Lexy).
Lexy wanes in front of our eyes and it's all we can do(just like Paul) to hold onto the memory we have of her; the strong, beautiful woman that she began as and not the emotionally turbulent, troubled person she was.
The ending is satisfying; Paul comes to terms with himself and Lexy and takes several steps forwards, treasuring only the good times and leaving behind the back.
A first timer, Carolyn Parkhurst produced a great book that deserves all of its accolades. It's not a book well known here in India(its barely known at all) and that's a shame because when people are reading all those Nora Roberts and those Danielle Steeles, they could be picking up this book and realizing just how beautiful a book really can be.
The Dogs of Babel is about love, trouble, grief and finding out how blind you can be about the person you love more than anything. Paul and Lexy were no super couple; they had fights, problems, disagreements and their moments of happiness. And that's what makes this book amazing.


"I remember my wife in white. I remember the red dahlias she held during our wedding. I remember her turning away, her body stiff with anger. I remember the sound of her breath while she slept. I remember the feel of her body when I held her. I remember, always I remember that she brought solace to my life as much as grief. I remember that for every moment of darkness between us, there was a moment of such brightness, that I almost couldn't bear to look at it headlong.  I try to remember my wife for the person she was and not the woman I had created from spare bits and parts to help me in my mourning. As the time passes by and the balm of forgiveness soothes the parched pieces of my heart, I realize remembering my wife this way, is a gift I can give us both."