1000 novels everyone must read

Came across an interesting list today on The Guardian about 1000 novels everyone must read. Now I don't know about reading every single book on that list but quite a few sound very appealing. Maybe I can go to this list on days when nothing appeals and I cannot decide what to read.

Fall of Giants

This past week was excruciatingly slow so I took advantage of it and caught up on some reading. After finishing Eye of the Needle, I picked up the last Follett book not yet read – Fall of Giants. Over the past year, since its release I unsuccessfully tried reading the book a couple of times. The first time I lugged the 1000 page book half way around the world, the next time it just sat in my drawer. I was not motivated.

This time was different; I started it and raced through it within the week unable to put it down. First book of the century trilogy, Fall of Giants deals with several families and their attempts to survive during World War I. Ken Follett has a remarkable writing style which is further pronounced when he is narrating period pieces. It’s almost as if something in his writing changed and he adapted a new way of writing since Pillars of the Earth. To me all his books before Pillars have a different tone.

He talks of several characters scattered throughout the globe – aristocracy in England, mine workers in Wales, peasants in Russia, wealthy bureaucrats in Germany and nascent politicians in USA. Of course, you know at some point some if not all of the characters will meet each other and develop the story line further.

What struck me most about the story is the disparity between the rich and the poor. Much hasn’t changed since, but reading about the tyranny in Russia at the time of the tsar brought to mind a whole new reality. What history tells us is the tsar and the tsarita along with their children were mercilessly gunned down by revolutionaries. But history is not very kind, for it ignores to describe in detail the hardships that forced the common man to stand up and say “I’ve had enough!” When you are hanged for merely raising your voice against monarchy or gunned down because the tsar wants to dispel the crowd and lose your parent, child, sibling, reality becomes different. And all you were asking for is more bread or less squalid conditions. Is that really a crime? If a government cannot provide that basic need, what good is it? How are citizens supposed to survive when the harsh reality wakes them up at midnight to stand in line for a single loaf of bread that will run out before 5 am? What sort of existence is that?!

Post WWI, the story ends rather quickly but not before describing the harsh reality of what Germany had to endure. Much has been said and read about the reasons for WWI, some more real than others. Now I would not say Germany was not to blame but to think they triggered WWI, entirely on their own, would be extremely naïve. I always thought the terms meted out to them after the war were harsh but to think a loaf of bread cost 127 billion francs! I was not ready for that. Another case of history written only to exalt the winners. Imagine if Germany had won - how would have history been written then?

Then there is the cause of women – not being able to vote, cannot leave the home without an escort, constantly talked down to by their male counterparts – reminds me of the Taliban! You’d think the wars and the subsequent destruction would have taught us a thing or two, which I'm sure they have, but we still have a long way to go. Mankind is still scattered, fragmented, biased on gender, religion, even color of skin. We are all equal and a part of the whole. If only we all thought like John Donne.

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Fun reads

After finishing Too Big to Fail, my brain was incapable of processing anymore intelligent material. So I resorted to my favorite type of go-to novels -- Thrillers! Over the course of a long overdue vacation and some sunny weeks in New York I finished reading 3-4 books, after which tiredness descended upon me and I abandoned reading for a while.

During the course of my non-stop tirade I did manage to uncover a new character that I quite enjoyed. Jack Reacher, a Lee Child creation. Like most women, I love reading about guys who are tougher than tough, can get out of any situation effortlessly and have razor sharp intellect. Jack Reacher meets all those qualities and then some. He is the tough guy’s tough guy. So on and on I went reading about him and then Google-d him. For those who’d like a mental picture of Reacher, think of Hugh Jackman in his latest Wolverine avatar…ahh…times 10. Well not so much, maybe 5, ok no 3. Yes, 3 is good.  So with this picture in my head I am Googling Jack Reacher and guess what I find? They are making a movie out of one of the books. Now, firstly, what is up with every book being turned into a movie? Most never live up to the books (think Angels & Demons and the biggest disaster Da Vinci Code) so why ruin a handsome book? But the other important criterion is who is playing Reacher. Before the next line think of that mental picture again. Now, go on. It’s Tom Cruise! TOM CRUISE?! TOM CRUISE?! The little cuddly mamma’s boy? The one who looked more beautiful in Top Gun than Kelly McGillis? That ruins that!

I think it was the uber disappointment of reading that which swore me off books for a few weeks but thank fully Ken Follett changed all that. My mother in law sent Eye of the Needle, a book based during WWII. So spies, soldiers, murders are all rampant! Die Nadel or the Needle is the spy the MI5 is trying to track down. Throw in a woman not loved by her husband marooned on a lonely island and all in all you get a good thriller. Apparently it debuted as Storm Island and they made a movie from it too. There you go again!

The pages are flying as are the lovely days of summer. I’ll wait for the weather to change before taxing my brain. For now, beach reads is the way to go!

Way to escape bondage

I must share snippets of an article I kept re-reading yesterday. The sheer beauty and

magnificence of the words moved me to an alternate reality and brought me to a realization that we don't have to be bound by petty reactions/attitudes of bosses, co-workers or others who fail to realize the efforts we put in. Because in the end it is only the detached who is able to realize after all.

"The only way to escape the consequences of the acts is to adopt a detached attitude while one performs the acts.

This means one has to give up the sense of ownership (ego) as well as the fruits of actions. Renunciation means giving up not action but the fruits of action, says the Lord. Because of Avidya (ignorance) and lack of proper understanding, an individual gets confused about the agency of the action. An uncultivated mind sees things in the wrong light and does not realise the truth. His possessive attitude to the work makes it difficult for him to renounce the Karma and its fruits. But the realised soul is not possessive with the body and the senses and remains detached."

The complete article is here.

The comfort of home

Some days the weather inspires you to write; others it doesn’t. Today is one such day. What is so special about today you ask? The sky is forlorn as if shedding tears over a love long lost. The weather is cold, reminding of what lies ahead; in the months to come. The gruesomeness of the bitter cold remembered by everyone as the weather slowly but surely turns to its old ways. But it is exactly this weather that has inspired me to pen something. I am reminded of a vacation I took a few months ago that now seems so far; so long ago. This weather also reminds me of home; the warm smell of tea boiling in a steel pot with lots of ginger and tea leaves with the sound of oil frying beside it where my mother is getting ready to add another onion fritter.

I often wonder what makes a home a home and it’s precisely this. Even if I am so far away, like a perfect picture I see the movements, smell the smells and hear the sounds. Despite the million noises shuttling through my over worked brain, the thought of home calms me down. Seeing my mother standing next to the stove in her familiar garb relaxes me and gives me a sense of peace which I so often crave.

Luckily I have that home far away from home; where my mother (in-law) putters around the kitchen, cooking up new smells. I am not yet completely familiar with all the smells, neither, I must admit, do I crave them but the ability to recall them and draw serenity from them is harmony.

Days like today carry their own indulgence as do sunny, warm days when the heart is singing along with the birds in the sky. Melancholy days like today are a reminder that despite the weather pulling my strings down sweet memories of my mothers brings a smile to my face.