The tales are so poignant, you cannot help but feel a deep sorrow.
A terrible sense of helplessness will creep into you.


THE LOWLAND - BY JHUMPA LAHIRI

Title : The Lowland Author : Jhumpa Lahiri SOC Rating : 4/5 Genre : Historical Fiction Publisher : Random House  Publishing Year : 2013 #Pages : 340

     

The best coming from Jhumpa Lahiri.
Her immaculate observation of even the most mundane things will send chills down your spine, just through the way of her narration.
The way she writes, it seems like she herself is telling us a story without any expression from her part, but her eyes are on the look to see if her listener is absorbing and feeling each of her words.
Her style will take you off-guard.
Her plot will will sink your feet in the ground.

With a keen eye, she shows us the abnormalities of the human mind. Its fanatic nature, its slow fall to obsession, its power to possess, its ability to love and remain unmoved under the onslaught of strong affections, its compassion, its ruthlessness, its stubbornness, its desire to hold on to hope even when it is roughly snatched away, is beautifully depicted through the lives of Udayan, Subhash, their parents, Gauri, Holly, Bela, Meghna and Elise.

Two brothers, Udayan and Subhash, share a bond very strong during its inception, but it turns weak when the two brilliant minds choose different paths in their lives.
Udayan decides to turn into a Naxalite and works to bring about a revelation in their presiding government. He dreams of a better world where the poor are not subjected to inhuman torture. He does not care about his life. He has bigger dreams, bigger goals to achieve. He wishes his brother shared the same view as him. Amidst all the tumult, he meets a simple but intelligent Gauri, a woman who shares his passion and falls in love with her.
But their love and his hunger for a different tomorrow didn't last long.

Subhash, fifteen months elder to Udayan, was always a little neglected by his parents in comparison to his younger brother. But that never irked him although he was well aware of it. He loved his brother unconditionally, tried to support him as much as possible, but didn't share his love to risk his own life. Subhash always wished for a stable, secure life and didn't understand his brother's zeal for something else. Leaving his hometown he went to Rhode Island to complete his PhD. All was going fine till the time the woman he had been intimate with decided to end their camaraderie and a letter from his parents reached him. His life turned into the choppy waters of the sea on a stormy night.
A compassionate man,wants to hold out his hand to reach out those in need, Subhash has to face the constant jibes of the absence of his brother and is brutally thrashed about by fate in terms of love. So much so that you wish you could reach out to him, comfort him, caress his hair and tell him all is fine. But you cannot and neither is anything ever fine in his life again. The last few paragraphs of this novel will tear you up.

Gauri, a woman for whom I hold nothing but sheer hate, could be empathised with at first. But her blunt brutality towards Subhash and her own child will not keep her in your good books. There are times when people may not like others, but given her situation, she leaves you wondering about her steely perspective. However, the loneliness that was at first forced onto her, but later on taken up voluntarily, slowly drives her to the brink of loosing her mind.

Holly,Bela,Megha and Elise are women who have come into the trio's life and left behind meaningful imprints.

The Lowland is a compelling read. If you don't read it at once you can never read it again. Also you cannot keep it aside as it will constantly prod you to read further.

A fluid read. A read to remember. A read to feel.

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MY NIGHTINGALE : A LOVE STORY BURNED IN THE HYMNS OF INDIA'S GREATEST STRUGGLE - BY ARUN BHIMAVARAPU

Title : My Nightingale : A love story burned in the hymns of India's greatest struggle Author : Arun Bhimavarapu SOC Rating : 3/5 Genre : Historical Fiction Publisher : Notion Press Publishing Year : 2016 #Pages : 348

A riveting story entwined around facts dug up from times during the war of India's independence.

During those times, there were two kinds of Indians. One who revered the British and wanted them to stay and the rest who wanted them out of their lands.

Prudhvi was a man of the former kind and so was his father. But the love of his life, Sanjukta, believed otherwise. She loved freedom, wanted freedom, was so desperate for it that she was ready to go to any lengths and even denied to acknowledge her love for her husband.
Prudhvi, hurt goes to London, away from his wife, to ace what he was already good at, codes.

There he meets Emily. The third person to form the love triangle.

Emily, a genteel girl, falls hopelessly in love with the caring, gentle yet strong and intelligent Prudhvi.

Even though Prudhvi loved Emily as a dear friend, his loyalty lied elsewhere. He loved his wife dearly and couldn't forget her. His only wish was to hear the words 'I love you' from her lips and listen to their special song from her voice just before he died.

London fell prey to World War II, and Prudhvi parted from Emily to come back to India.

Back in his own country he went to meet his lovely wife, but met with such news that changed the course and aim of his life forever. Searching for her, he found that his Sanjukta after facing a horrendous encounter with Lord Canning , had turned into a rebel, a devotee of Bose. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Overjoyed to see her husband after ages, the two spend a blissful night in the forest, sharing the details of their journeys so far. Prudhvi's heart burned with rage on hearing what Sanjukta said. He wanted revenge on those who hurt her. He wanted to rise in her eyes. He wanted to earn his wife's love. A single night with her, brought about radical changes in Prudhvi's beliefs towards freedom.

Next morning when Sanjukta couldn't find her husband she went crazy. But when she learned that her husband had finally realised the right path, that he had gone to work for Bose, she shed bitter-sweet tears. Prudhvi had left a letter to her. That was the last letter she ever received from him.

Now begins the tale of Prudhvi the freedom fighter, Bose - the venerable man and Gandhi, the poison of all the rationals eyes. Prudhvi puts his brilliance to encoding and decoding codes, his work and dedication allows him to meet the genius Bose. His diligence as a spy in foreign lands, his methods of manipulating Emily with a pang in his heart when fate plays a cruel taskmaster and his final act of saving Bose, earns him respect.

In this book we see the difference between Gandhi and Bose. We get to learn what a speculative mind Bose had, what a strong support he had undercover.

What happens to Prudhvi at the end and the two women who loved him is for you to find out.

All I can say is that this book is a must read. 

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After a hectic week, I needed to unwind reading something which wasn't too serious,melancholic, mind numbingly dumb or added to the already soaring adrenaline levels of mine. So after a thorough scanning of the shelves at Starmark, I found this book.

When I read the synopsis, I realised this is the one. Something about the cover, I cannot put a finger on it, maybe the balance of it all, made me feel good about it.

Being a Bengali myself I could immediately relate to the summary and was eager to see what was between the covers.

A surprise was in tow as well 'cause when I opened the book I found the autograph of the author herself !!

Off to a good start then.

I devoured Creme Brulee in a day. I am choosing the word devoured because this book cannot be read in any other way. It goes on talking about food and the way it spins the story, you cannot possibly do anything else.

We have a lot of Bengali authors and some of them have written books on this breed but none have described it the way Ramona Sen has. She has given it the touch of reality and it is so easy to connect with what she has said, because this is what we see and do all the time. Others have always focused on different factors and been very obtuse about the true characteristic of us Bengalis. Agreed that we are lazy and afternoon siestas are a must or else we will end up having a throbbing temple by six in the evening and are, as some like to call us, pseudo-intellectuals at times. But there is more to us than that. And that is exactly what Ramona Sen has shown. She couldn't have described us any better.

The dialogues, the people, their nature, the locations, the emotions, everything about this book is an actual reflection of our families, of our lives. Bengalis are probably the most anglicised of the entire lot and are popularly known to snigger at others after they have flawlessly learned the tongue of the West.
Even if you aren't a Bengali by blood, being a Calcuttan will be enough to make you enjoy this read. Familiar names are strewn throughout the book and they definitely strike a chord with all Cal peeps, Bongs especially.
Food is an integral part of this book. So read it while munching on something or else you are bound to have hunger pangs.
The emotions have been dealt with very delicately and those who ponder on love matters should give this a read, as it deals with the common worries, such as how to face your ex, how to move on and how to profess your love. It talks about love, but not in a suffocating manner. It doesn't asphyxiate your brain with pointless eulogies on love and dejected poems from jilted wooers.
She hasn't belittled the Bongs, has very efficiently pointed out the flaws and fallacies and definitely has not overdone the good in us. She has shown the roshogolla like sweetness in us. :)

Most importantly she has brought forth an imperative aspect of the B-breed and that is liberality with an equilibrium.

The current trend, that we can see, rather sadly I must say, is of behaving in the extreme. There are some of us who wish to shed the tag of our culture and take after others and then there is another section who are downright orthodox and put their feet down when it comes to acceptance.
The former being more in number is alarming, as it is increasingly making our culture turn into a rarity and the latter are just making us visible enough to be sneered at.

But Creme Brulee brilliantly shows how to to have a broad outlook AND love our roots as well.
It continues to show the creativity Bong Brains have nurtured over generations.

It shows us how a Young and Kapoor can love a Mookerjee.
It shows us how we can love our unbeatable nolen gurer payesh and enjoy their creme brulee too.

If only people took to the best of both worlds.

Title : Creme Brulee

Author : Ramona Sen

SOC Rating : 5/5

Genre : Romance/Fiction

Publisher : Rupa

Publishing Year : 2016