Maria Just Maria

Making Sense of Maria's Mind

Good Novel with possible subtexts to ponder over.

At times it does sounds like a chain of unconnected stories coming one after the others mostly in semi caricaturist fashion.Those Unconnected Stories and plethora of semi caricaturist characters have predominant intention of amusing the reader and go no further.

These stories create a universe as seen by Maria but does not take any direction or do not have an impactful story arc to cherish or ponder over after we have read.Amusing one-liners keeps us engaged, at times writing makes us wonder at the simple explanations of many things, but on the whole, Novel does not create any overall lasting impact. Novel’s impact comes in parts with Independent glimpses of good writing.

Subtexts of Wandering Rural Vs Time Driven Urban, Commune Living in Urban Setup gives us the indicative view of world Maria Troubles.

Novel’s tone set us up for an interesting question of how we separate Desire from Ambition.

Maria’s Character seem to indicate to us on the great joy of desires of many things, but she seem devoid of any ambition.She loves talking to people around, Basks in Memories, longs for tasty food, always moving around but within in specific circle of repetition and worries about separation by death .Though she is devoid of any ambition, there is no indication of inaction, life seem to on the flux driven by desires of many things simpler and smaller.

Ambition as a Career , as Personality, as Good Will, as discipline, as an Economic benefit set against many things simpler and smaller.This Ambition vs Desire Arc makes reading this novel worthwhile.

India - VS Naipaul

 

Series of Interviews and inferences 

Bombay Theatre 

• Jain Stock broker Papu
• Patil Sena Leader Shiva Sena
• Anwar office worker
• Vithal and Gangsters 
• Raote Sena Leader Shiva sena
• Ghate in Dharvi Shiva Sena 
• Pujari, Saraswath Brahmin
• Script writer from Calcutta 
• Namdeo and Mallika
• Anxiety of Money, Caste Space and the Other 

Secretary s Tale

• Story of Rajan, Secretary to a Politician 

Breaking Out

• Set in Karnataka
• Interviews with mainly people with Brahmin background who are changing their traditional priestly work to other areas - Mostly out of Karnataka State - Scientists, Clerks, Office work, Librarian of Wodeyar - Deviah, Subramanian,Pravas, Kala, Politician Prakash, Mysore and Bangalore Palaces

Little Wars

• Set in Tamil Nadu , Chennai
• Sugar, Mylapore Brahmin, Solitary man and Local Saint 
• Kakusthan, Triplicane Brahmin, his double transformation and his Family 
• Brahmanical Purity 
• Physical, Genial and Mental
• Periyar and rise of Dravidanism 
• Periyar and Gandhi
• Biblical photos of periyar life , Dravidian Iconography and engravings in periyar thidal
• Education of the middle caste and their rise 
• Downtrodden missing out
• Peasant revolts crushed
• Intelligent Brahmin Vs Average Brahmin 

After the Battle 

• Set in Calcutta
• Chidananda - Boxwallah to Film Society 
• Ashok - Boxwallah to New Age Sales and advertising manager
• Dipanjan - Physyics Phd, Ex Party member, part of peasant revolt, Teaches in college
• Debu - Boxwallah,party member, worked with peasant revolt, worked with Charu Majumder, Opposing execution Killings as a Strategy 
• Ambition Vs Idealism Vs Reality
• Marxist Lenninst Fallout
• Naxalite Fall out 
• Nostalgic Communism 

The End of the Line

• Set in Lucknow 
• 1857 Mutiny in Lucknow - Account by Howard Russell, First war of Independence 
• Rashid, Elite Muslim and the pent up anger of defeat
• Amir, A prince, Son of Muslim League Treasurer, Shia,Talks about pain, becomes Reluctant Cong MLA
• Set on Partition Family connections across India,Pakistan and Middle East, Differences between Evolving India and Pakistan in terms of Religion.

Women's Era

• Set in Delhi , background of Women magazine content and audience 
• Vishwanath of Women's Era
• Personal dilemma combining 
• Living like Rats
• Strings from the past 
• Passive Inactions to Foreign rule - Brahmin, Non Brahmins 
• Humiliation of being ruled over 
• Individual desire 
• Need for a Missionary Response to above factors 
• Response in Missionary fashion Contradicting to the Indian way of ever reconciling attitude with the reality or Change or Subjugation
• Aura of Missionary Response similar to Ascetic response 
• Ascetical Ambitions
• Wounded Civilizations Response

Shadow of the Guru

• Set in Punjab
• Lineage and History of Guru and Sikhism
• Bhindranwale and Operation Bluestar 
• Gurtej Singh
• Kapur Singh
• Feeling of Religious Persecution 
• Sufferings of the Guru Juxtaposed with Current day Sufferings 
• Trail of Bhindranwale Killings and Counter Killings 
• Patiala - Amarinder Singh

The House on the lake

• Set in Kashmir 
• Remembering two visits one in 1962 and another in 1988 set during the period for current book
• Kashmir Raja and Shiite Influence 
• Mohd Aziz and Butt of leeward hotel in Srinagar 
• Nazir, Aziz's Son

A Happy Death

First Novel of Albert Camus, Last Published posthumously in 1971.

Read in Tamil, Difficult translation to read (!)

Writing to conflate many parallel readings and reflecting on personal experience.

Meursault, Escaping from Work , seemingly a regular desk regime to earn a living, what shackles and feelings one goes through adjusting to the regime, Through Meursault we start with this initial question and continue following him through out his journey.

In following Meursault, we reflect on How do we reconcile with what we are born around with, Past,Surroundings and Responsibilities ? Should we plan a escape based on some philosophy ? Or without changing much must we face a natural inevitable death ?

Having cut off the past and Surroundings we are left to negotiate with the Family, where inevitably all are apt to be called children, as Meursault calls them. Most beautifully placed home amidst fond children, is it enough for a Man ? 

As fate or freewill would have it Meursault escape again to loneliness to face himself all alone, With economics of simple living taken care, Meursault left with oceans of time to himself without any responsibility, without any additional words to digress, He has to face himself all alone ? Do we aspire to be in Such a situation as Meursault. Meursault still needs company but it does not seem Mandatory.

Having come this far, Meursault faces the Inevitable death with tremendous grace and happiness, He fears disease, for it dampens his freewill, but faces death without any fear or anxiety.

My thoughts waver to many touch points but mainly hover around Escaping, Not opposing the freewilling existence and Religious Introspection.

On Escape, Iam always reminded of Ashokamitran s indicative words that we always escape in the pretext of living. Escape and Freedom are now interchangeable words whose meanings are almost similar yet different.

On Unopposing the burden of existence, wonder if Camus had any connection with JK, JK, A master of words to inculcate a sense of being amongst those who listen or read him.Many passages in this Tamil translation reminded of JK, especially the phases where Meursault comes to term with his own loneliness. 

On Religious Introspection, Camus as we knew cannot be pigeon holed as existential writer alone, for he is surely one, But apart from that, that unbearable pain he feels while reflecting on his loneliness, He opens the door of Introspection for us. From the basic questions on Meaning or Meaninglessness of existence to yearning for a graceful, undisturbing, contented, silent, unconsuming life, we see tremendous similarity in his aforesaid resolve to Vairagya or Sankalpa Part of Religious Introspection.

Having conflated many things similar and dissimilar to relish the text, I wish to read the English Translation of "Happy Death".

Two Lives - Vikram Seth

 

Portrayal of two complete lives with tremendous details , perspectives spanning across the entire twentieth century.

Tracing the lives of Shanti and Henny acting as a mirror of their daily lives, the book unfolds with reflections on many facets of their lives, how they lived, what they liked, what they felt and what they did and what they spoke about.

Book's form is mosaic of many touch points. Author Vikram's direct relationship with his Uncle Shanti and his aunty Henny forms the bedrock. Vikram does a series of Interviews with his Uncle to unfold Shanti's Life while his Aunty Henny s life unfolds through series of letters she wrote and received. Picture gets completed by Shanti's relatives view points , all three masterfully emotionaly woven to the book by the author turning it into a fantastic and humbling read.

Novel offers a precious window to see how a person grows, from the spring of youth to the firmness of the middle to the frailties of the old to the senility of last, a complete view of a life lived with all its highs and lows evened out.

This Novel is Double biography, as the author puts,  throws light of  two persons in exile , both exiled under completely different circumstances, One by choice or chance of fate to other by political developments.

This book helped author to overcome his understandable bitterness on how things turned out, perhaps there in lies a life lesson of able to see things as is with a degree of detachment. 

In Author s Own words....

"What is Perfect? In a world with so much suffering, isolation and indifference, it is cause for gratitude if something is sufficiently good".

Kottukkaali

Beauty of well constructed scenes keep you in awe. What we knew already from what we see is the premise of a Hyper Male against an Adamant Female. This Premise is aptly decorated by Family Members's idiosyncrasies and gossips.

Thus a Journey begins for the family, a rally to seek remedy to the current plight with prayers on either sides. Journey across Villages, Forests, barren lands leads us to the final destination. Journey is fillled with curious, inadvertent, stereotypic, touchy obstacles until we reach the finish mark.

A Road movie similar to Madras to Pondicherry done aesthetically. 

Frames, admirable, Rally view from the top, from the sides, from the front, Staccato Shots, Hyper walks, Justapoxing two or three Characters in a single frame, All these frames waiting for the viewer to interpret, leads us to the end of Journey with no apparent indication or suggestion. All these frames above does not in any way indicate the upcoming subtle transformation or about the Open Choice every one has to make in the end. Instead those Frames end up as a Outsider Gaze on a family, seeking remedy to a dispute, Viewed with curiosity and enjoyed with Silly Jest.

Frames though intelligent rarely evoke any emotion or movement within us. Frames does not add up to the overall Philosophy of the film if there was one.

End of Journey, the original Premise still remains nascent without flowering into any depth or Subtext. This left a gasping feeling of incompleteness at the end.

Film may pretend itself to be Open ended, it could also be because it could not grasp any depth all along during the Journey. All the movement that happens until the end is a mild indication to us that this Adamant girl is indeed a freedom loving girl where as the erstwhile hyper male is a doubting male now.

Thangalaan

Life of the individual juxtaposed with Life of the society in euphoric drama. 

Eventful journey of self discovery going back in time remembering the promise and responsibility.

Promise closer to truth whose voice we repeatedly hear throughout. Euphoric clarion call by the unmatched energetic force to stand by the promise and responsibility. Voice of the primordial power making us feeling safe and all consuming at the same time.

Promise in the form of pangs of conscience, dreams and inner voices you can neither ignore nor listen to. Journey undertaken demands to listen such voices and also demands to ignore the same voices to  chart your own intuitive path.A classic case of past leading us to the future. A habit to look back to arrive at now.

Standing out from the society but taking them along, Real Hero Arrives at the light dazzled by the complete truth of it only to carry a part of the whole to the show the world how it needs to be done.

Most famous hymn invoked here with all its grace.

Journey to achieve the material need brings within it the seed of contentment to bring freedom and everlasting peace. Movie beautifully captures that pursuit of wealth and contentment are inseparable and are intertwined with one another unimaginably. Unimaginably Dual.

Inversal of any folk tale or archetype is an excellent opportunity to learn more about our human nature. To arrive at the light we need to fight venomous desires, vigorous passions, Ruthless death has to be slain. but the same desires,passions and fear of death teaches us like no other , they are not to be shunned but faced and won. Nature in its splendid duality to teaching and taking us to the one light.

Buddha watching over centuries of similar lessons left unlearned. people Repeatedly left high and dry about the illusive goal of freedom and peace.

Should we move forward or go back in time to learn to keep the promise ? Was there a heavenly content society before us, long before us, Going by the stories we grew with answer seem May be. Individuals seem to have been arriving waiting for the Society.

Extraordinary film, with multiple layers of Retelling history, Retelling Social Order with a diligent eye for Individual liberation amidst all the euphoria.

The Delinquents

Who are these Delinquents ?

It begins as 

A common bet perhaps

Amongst the Delinquents,

Life time savings under the table,

But can only be used after, always,

Hidden amongst the rocks of time.

A pursuit not so uncommon

A pursuit not so greedy 

A pursuit in desparation 

A pursuit of promise

A pursuit of minor criminality

Pursuit is the bet

Bet is the pursuit.

Pursuit filled with 

So much tyranny 

So much distress to self and others

So much cunning and

So much anxious.

Pursuit broken by

Wonderful sunny day under the sky,

With love and company amidst the nature,

Unhinged flowing love brightly beauty, 

Moved by dreamy love,

Moved by arrangement of words, 

Moved by Silence and Movement.

Such days extended to eternity is

The Heaven

A dream, a promise, a yearning

of these Delinquents 

To keep things this simple.

Searching, a bet forgotten 

Waiting, a bet remembered 

Who are these Delinquents?