Pride and Prejudice

'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen, is an English Novel set in the turn of 19th century in UK.

The English soceity seems to be very different from the way it is now. Through there has been many strings of proposals, attractions and marriages in the novel, there is not a single mention of divorce- probably divorce was then not an obivious choice of an unhappy marriage.

The Bennet family consists of a frivolous and silly Mrs Bennet ,a relatively silent and usually disinterested Mr Bennet and five daughters. Jane , the eldeset who is known for her beauty in the neighbourhood, Elizabeth the clever and lively of the five, Mary - the book lover , Catherine - the ordinary and the frivolous and flirtacious Lidia.

The male protagonist is Mr Darcy - who is known for his pride and obsessive concern for social status.Mr Bingley is Darcy's close friend.

Elizabeth and Darcy meets in a ball where Jane and Bingley identifies their natural attraction to each other.Elizabeth having herad of Darcy's nature develops a prejudice towards him and develops a dislike for him.

She is later drawn to Mr Wickham who claims to have been mistreated by Darcy. Darcy and Elizabeth later meet at her Aunts place where Darcy proposes to her. Elizabeth rejects the proposal following heated arguments.

The story then follows different twists where Darcy helps settle the lives of Jane and Lidia who elopes with Wickham .Elizabeth also recognises her love for Darcy.

Elizabeth leaves her Prejudice and Darcy his Pride to recognise and love each other.
The story ends with three daughters of the Bennet family being married and settled in life.

Through the eyes of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet , the novel deals with the issues of manners, upbringing , morality, family values, love and marriage in the 19th century England.

Revolution 2020 : Chetan Bhagat

Revolution 2020: Chetan Bhagat

This is the first Chetan Bhagat book that I’ve read – and from the reviews of the book it looks to be a wrong selection to be his first read.

In my view, the book is a simple, easy, one time read.

The triangle love story, winning the girl’s heart and then letting it go – was all stereotypical and easily imagined. The description of the deeply rooted corruption in the Indian society seemed very peripheral and the solution that he suggested namely a different hue of family politics, again seemed corrupt to me. The readers are let to wonder how the revolution (if any) would be brought about.
The book fails to answer this.

The Kite Runner : Khaled Hosseini

Heart breaking, vivid, emotionally charging, enduring, deeply moving ,devastating- Khaled Hosseini's first novel - The Kite Runner - is about betrayal and redemption from a haunting conscience.

The story revolves around the lives to two childhood friends - Amir the only son of a rich and reputed Afghan father and Hassan - Amir's servant Ali's son. Amir and Hassan shares a unique relationship .Hassan is very loyal and loving to Amir in spite of the taunts that Amir passes diligently on him. Amir longs to be loved by his Baba and feels that winning the Kite running tournament would make him his father's pride. Hassan helps Amir win the game but the cruelty that Hassan faces the same day shatters both of them. Amir is unable to face Hassan since he didnot stand up for his friend while he was abused. He tries to escape his conscience by a plot to oust Ali and Hassan from his family and succeeds in sending them to the Hazaraland - the land for the Hazaras- a low afghan caste.

Amir and his Baba flee to America following a Russian invasion. Amir falls in love with Soraya- the only daughter of an Afghan family in America and marries her. Baba dies in America and Amir and Soraya are childless after fifteen yeras of marriage.

Almost 30 years later Amir returns to Taliban occupied Afghanisthan on receiving a message from Rahim Khan - his father's close friend and comes to know that Hassan and his wife were publicly executed by Talibs charged with occupying their house, and was lived by their son Sohrab. Amir also comes to know from Rahim Khan that Hassan was his half brother .He then goes in search for Sohrab and encountering Talibs - gets Sohrab to America.

Though the encounter with the Talibs leaves him physically shattered , Amir feels relieved and redeemed from a haunting conscience.

Sohrab is emotionally shattered due to the tortures that he undergoes in life and Amir and his wife succeeds in getting the smile back to his face - though a lopsided one.

A devastating and haunting story of a life crippled by an act of childhood - the story speaks of the harrowing truth about life, evil, cowardice, selfishness and redemption.

Come be my light - Mother Teresa

Some revealing private writings of Mother Teresa. The book had me hooked to it till the end.
A neat compilation of some of Mother Teresa's letters, replies to them and diary pages - the book gives a glimpse of the humility , faith and belief that made it possible for Mother Teresa to do what she did and attracted so many people to her. Jesus' words in St.Matthew's gospel, "whatever you did to the least... you did it to me " were a rock on which her convictions were built.

Some excerpts from the book :

I made a vow to God,binding under the pain of mortal sin, to give to God anything that he may ask, 'Not to refuse Him anything'.

Our spiritual life must remain simple- so as to be able to understand the mind of our poor.

The complete trust in divine providence for everything, even for her spiritual needs, was a hallmark of her life.

" A hearty 'Yes' to God and a big smile for all"

" I must have been so very full of self all these years - since God is taking so long to empty me- I hope one day when I am fully empty He comes "

Words printed on a small card that she used to distribute :

" The fruit of silence is prayer,
The fruit of prayer is faith,
The fruit of faith is love,
The fruit of love is service,
The fruit of service is peace "

The Story of My Life - Helen Keller

A book that came my way late...I should have read it mush earlier is what I felt after reading Helen Keller's autobiography - ' The Story of my Life '.

Helen became deaf and blind at nineteen months, following a fatal disease.This autobiography is an inspiring and exquisitely touching account of how little Helen learned to communicate and break open the dark and silent world within to emerge as a ray of hope for people all over the world.

An excerpt from the book:

Is it not true , then that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the life of the world beautiful ? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Sometimes, it is true , a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life's shut gate.Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter.Fate,silent,pitiless bars the way.Fain would I question his imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter,futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, "There is joy in self-forgetfulness." So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness.

The Last Jews of Kerala - Edna Fernandes

'The last Jews of Kerala' successfully captures the melancholy, despair and fear that envelops the last less than a score of Jews left in Kerala - the living remnants of around two millennia old Jewish settlement in Cochin.

Edna Fernandes walks the lanes of Jew Town , Cochin ,to capture the sad story of the two Jewish communities- the blank and the white- their histories, the fatal colour based caste discrimination and rise and fall of this once glorious community.She also goes to Jerusalem to study the life of the re-settled Cochini Jews of the now Israel to learn that while few of them successfully resettled in 'The Promised land' , others yearn for the peaceful and glamorous life that they left in Kerala.

It was not plague or war that led to the destruction of this community in Kerala but bitter feud and apartheid between the black and the whites.

A touching investigative account of a dying community in 'countdown mode' that has no more marriages but only funerals to attend ...

The Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger

I had seen the name of the book 'The catcher in the Rye' in many of the must-read books lists. Read of the reclusive life of it's author JD Salinger as an epitaph in The Hindu Literary magazine and decided to grab a copy for the next read.

J D Salinger:

American author born in 1919, JD Salinger's slim oeuvre consists of his only novel ' The Catcher in the Rye ' and few anthologies of short stories. Known for his only novel and reclusive nature alike , Salinger went hiding to a wooded compound in New Hampshire, London when his novel was published in US which came to acclaimed as the great classic of American adolescence. He lived in New Hampshire till his death on January 27Th 2010 due to natural causes. Obsessed with privacy, Salinger wanted his photograph removed from subsequent editions of his novel and had the fan mails burned.

The Catcher in the Rye:

An adolescent novel written as a first hand narration by the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, the story spans three days in his life. Ousted from his school, Holden decides to stay back in New york for three days before Christmas so that he could reach home as if for the Christmas vacation. Holden dislikes anything phony and hence end up hating most people he meets in his life. The two people he admires the most are his younger sister Phoebe and his younger brother Allie who passed away a few years back due to Leukemia. He decides to leave New york to an unknown land where he would live like a deaf-mute to be spared from the phony talks of the world since he felt most people would not take the pain to write and communicate with him if he pretended to be a deaf- mute. The only person he wishes to say goodbye is Phoebe and due to her insistence that she would also join him in his journey, he finally decides to stay back home. He enjoys Phoebe's innocence and fears that the filthiness in the world would grab her of her innocence one day. At times of fear and despair he talks to his deceased brother and gains solace.

The language of the book is a little too colloquial with words like 'Goddamn','something and all','old..'etc being used abundantly. The frequent,carefree description of adolescent sexual desires made it a little uneasy to read through.

A good book which would make you love Holden as you reach the end !