Vipassana - A little dhyaan and a lot of silence

How does it feel to be silent for 9 days? To meditate, or try to, for 10 hours each for 10 days.

To me, the silence felt good. The attempts at meditation were not particularly successful but worthwhile nevertheless. Goenka's philosophy of salvation, however, was what I was least receptive to. Like any life-guiding philosophy, Vipassana affects each individual differently, and here's my personal experience of it.

During the long ten days, we maintained silence from the night of Day 0 to the morning of Day 10. The silence could be broken only to talk to the teacher to ask or answer questions about the meditation technique or, to raise any issues with the management. Besides an average of 2-3 sentences every 2 days, I was silent for the rest. Some folks gave up on the silence around the fifth day, but since this was the easiest task for me, I stuck. It was especially easy since our phones had been deposited with the management on Day 0.

The silence clears your mind of a lot of clutter. With no WhatsApp and Gmail, it's easy to focus on one train of thought and go deep. It helped me reach decisions on some life issues and think about the path I've chosen.

While the silence came easily to me, meditation was a different kettle of fish altogether. My silence did not extend to my mind. It was full of thoughts. Keeping it focused on my breath and body sensations was a constant battle. I did get better as the days passed but my interest waned after Vipassana discourses.

S. N. Goenka (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This was surprising as I'd enjoyed the discourses till then. In the daily video discourse, Goenka speaks of the theory behind practising Vipassana in the style he teaches. In the first few days, he's quite areligious and irreverent. Faith without the trappings of religion made absolute sense to me. However, in the later days, he talks more about how Vipassana is 'the path' to salvation where religion has failed. He also tried to explain how each religion talks about Vipassana in different words. Surprisingly, I had no problem with that, maybe because I've always appreciated politics. However, the repeated focus on how engaging in Vipassana would cure the sins of my past births and take me towards salvation, was a turn off.

Overall, the ten day course was definitely an enriching experience. It pushed me to crystallize my thoughts on life and what faith means to me. But, would I do it again? Probably not. Unless I need the silence enough to ignore the salvation mantra. 

Baby steps of my food photography

After a long soak, this blog is ready to sizzle. I am armed with a spatula and a camera, along with my trusty laptop. The next week would have posts about my cooking and its pictures. How did I go from being a multipurpose, could-be writer to food photographer and cook? The cook part is because the sous chef at home is on leave for a week, so it’ll be me manning the kitchen. The food photography has a more interesting story. 

My interest in food started dating my passion for photography during a Visual Communication class, in last September. Their lovechild is less than a year old now. She uttered her first word in January, it was of course garble, but it sounded so sweet to me: 

The next baby-book milestone was when she started walking on her knees: 

6 Lessons from the Man Who Drives Harley Davidson

Here are six lessons from today's guest session with Anoop Prakash, MD of Harley Davidson India. While we've had many corporate leaders as guest speakers at Young India Fellowship, Anoop stands out as he has worked in the US Marine Corps and been a part of the Bush Administration. Anoop was born in the US, studied at Stanford and Harvard Business School and has had a diverse career before moving to India in 2009. He put together his life-lessons for us as six bullet points. 

Purpose of your job matters

As most of YIF fellows are at the cusp of choosing their careers, Anoop outlined what is it that he looks for, every time he changes jobs. The name of the company and the job title doesn't matter but what matters is what is your purpose in the job and who is your boss.

Gandhi but not Gandhi 1.1

I wrote about the Gandhi dream in my last post. This is a continuation of that dream.

From Ritwik’s tutorial, my brain moved to Gandhi talking to a villager in Sabarmati Ashram. Gandhi was passionately describing his concept of an ideal village. The villager then asked Gandhi that why doesn’t he take another tour and spend more time in villages this time.

Gandhi but not Gandhi 1.0

I knew Gandhi wrote a lot but I did not realise that every scrap of paper he wrote on, is preserved. I was reading some texts for the course Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity when I came across this website that has a collection of his letters. These are not just political letters or letters published publicly by Gandhi, these are everyday letters to his sons, Ashram dwellers, and so on. When there is so much material available in his own lucid words, Gandhi should be an easy to understand figure. Alas, that is not to be. He was a prolific thinker and kept grappling with his experiments with truth until the end. 65 years after his death, the reader’s quest is to wade through numerous pages to grasp the essence of what Gandhi said.

I have been so engulfed in Gandhi’s writings that they are cropping up in my dreams now. In last night’s dream, I kept trying to figure out where Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj ideas got sidelined by his larger-than-life image of ‘Bapu’.

Swimming in Ideas

When I saw the course Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity on YIFP curriculum, I expected it to be an extension of Makers of Modern India by Rudrangshu Mukherjee. Gandhi was the only leader whom we did not discuss in that course so I was looking forward to a story-telling of Gandhi’s life and reading some of his writings. Critique of modernity was a phrase for me that did not go beyond what Gandhi wrote in Hind Swaraj. Coming from a non-social science background, my only introduction to such movements has been through Gil Harris and Anunaya Choubey in their courses on Shakespeare and Art Appreciation respectively. So here’s how the cloud of ideas has influenced me so far, where the pivot is learning about modernity.

I am an economist and an engineer by training, so rational thought is like the core of my being. It is surprising that while championing rationality, I never stopped to define or explore what rationality is.

From Glory to Dust and Blood: Trajectory of Hyderabad

A researcher is bound by the rules of her craft to remain objective and detached from the subject.  A writer, on the other hand, can give something of herself to the writing. This is clearly seen in the different approaches taken in these two books: Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation and The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad. While the first book is edited by two academicians Laurent Gayer and Christophe Jaffrelot, the second one is by advertising professional Syeda Imam.

Word Picture

At the elemental level, art exists because it appeals. This post is an attempt to capture an oil-on-canvas painting in my words. Will the image I evoke and the real work match?

Cloaks

The girls’ laughter could be heard on the street outside. Young girls dressed in pretty clothes were participating in a feast. It was the ninth day of Navratri, and they were in high demand. This was the third house they were visiting that day. Nine pre-pubescence girls are fed and worshipped at the end of the nine-day fast as they are believed to be avatars of the Goddess Durga. The delicious smells and tinkling sounds brought another girl to the door. But she was so filthy and grimy; it was hard to guess her age. She came with the hope that she would get some leftovers. Maybe they would give the food to her before it went out as garbage; and she would not have to rummage for her meal in a bin again. She stood near the door and waited silently to be noticed. It was not long before a stern woman came to shoo her away from the doorstep. In desperation, the girl clutched at the woman’s sari. The woman screamed, “Satyaanaash, now I’ll have to bathe again”. The sari was quickly extracted from those tiny hands and the girl was chased out of the gate. The sanctity of the woman was soiled by the touch of the low-born urchin. You must indeed be born in the right house to have Devi Durga reside in you. 

I live in a society which places emphasis on how people dress. Especially in times of festivals, there is multi-hued, sparkling splendour in shops and homes, as if stars have descended on the earth. But closets don’t just hold shimmering saris and glittering jewellery, some store cloaks too.

Open Letter to a Friend

Hi,

We had talked about hypocrisy in people during one of our long talks. You and I were so strongly critical of duplicity and hypocrisy and we’d said that it was the first turn-off for us in a person. I still remember you saying “how can people do this, be like this?” 

I recently read a couple of essays which brought that conversation to my mind. The first was George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’.

Meri Kahaani 1.3 : Putting it in Context

Here's the last post in Meri Kahaani series. The three parts already posted are:

Credit: Star Campus

• Ariel's Story 
• Transient yet Eternal 1.0 
• Transient yet Eternal 2.0 

If you have read The Tempest, here is the explanation of how Meri Kahaani is a re-imagination of the play. Prospero, Caliban and Sycorax are spread across many characters like in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. This novel by Tayeb Salih is a re-imagination of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, another play by Shakespeare. The British rulers are Prosperos while the Mughal rulers are Sycoraxes. Caliban corresponds to Maharana Pratap in the Mughal era and Subhash Chandra Bose in the British period. There is no back-story of deception to Prospero’s arrival as in the play so, the characters of Alonso, Sebastian, Gonzalo and Antonio are absent. Stephano and Trinculo are visualised to a certain degree as the Germans and Japanese in the sense of Caliban’s collaborators in the British period.

As Ariel is a spirit, he can learn any language from the people he comes across. But, as a spirit existing on an island, he would not have spoken all human languages. When Sycorax came to the island from Algeria and then Prospero from Milan, he had to learn their languages in order to communicate with them. Taking Sycorax as Arabic influence and Prospero as European/English, I have drawn a parallel between Ariel's life under Sycorax to Mughal era and Prospero's regin over Ariel to British Raj in India.

Correspondence between The Tempest and Meri Kahaani

Bhadrapada Shukla Navmi is a date, the ninth day of the month of Bhadrapada in the Hindu calendar, Vikram Samvat. Bhadrapad Shukla Navmi in Vikram Samvat 2063 would be 22nd August 2007 in the Gregorian calendar. Since the Gregorian calendar was not used in Akbar’s time in India, Ariel has only the Hindu date as reference. 

Lastly, Ariel is unnamed in the blog posts for two reasons: first, they are written in first person and second, his identity keeps changing with time, so there is no single label to put on him.

Meri Kahaani 1.2 : Transient yet Eternal 2.0

My cellphone’s shrieking alarm woke me up some time ago. Here I sit, fingers poised above the keyboard, wondering how best to capture the cacophonous, jarring period of Indian history that was the British rule.

Indo-European language family tree

I had to master English in order to function effectively under the British officials. Here again, the script was completely new to me. I had become accustomed to writing from right to left, now reverse gears were required again. The locals treated the English as “pardesi hamlaavar” or foreign invaders. But in my study of languages, I discovered that Hindi and English belong to different branches of the same Indo-European language family. Despite the metamorphosis that happened in both languages, there are some cognates i.e. words with same roots: naam-name, janam-generate, mata-mother, patthar-Peter etc. The study of English opened up a whole new world of literature to me as most of European literature was available in English. I could have read about new scientific inventions too. But this knowledge was inaccessible for me. I was supposed to memorise the name of every king and queen who sat on the British throne but my knowledge of science remained confined to the basics.

Deliberate suppression can make even a rusted spring exert its strength. So it was with me. I thought of what the British gave me but it was not sufficient to quench my soul. When they chanted that their religion and culture was supreme, my ancient pride rose up. While I was studying, I was appalled to hear of the cruel treatment meted out to those who dared to rebel. The heavy handedness kindled contempt within my breast but I did not dare to speak out for fear of retribution. My English mind then created these lines:

Blown from cannon, hung and shot,

Torn in pieces, India to rot,

Bayonets sprouting blood and gore,

Stop the carnage, Please no more.

The sepoy mutiny of 1857 was a violent bloodbath. The Indian National Congress had been set up in 1885 but it only discussed the issues of English-educated Indians. I was heartened by the first flicker of sovereignty when Annie Besant founded the Home Rule League with Lokmanya Tilak in 1916. I had supported Britain in the First World War. After the war was over, Swaraj beckoned. But, it was not granted. I served the British again in World War II. By that time, I was fully supporting the Indian freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. I participated in the demand for freedom, although being a civil servant made that a low-key request. There were some who disagreed with this style of freedom movement. They were dubbed radicals and ultimately they turned to violent revolution in order to overthrow the British Rule. One such individual was Subhash Chandra Bose. He sought help first from Adolf Hitler in Germany and later from Japan to overthrow the British rule. The attempts did not succeed. Also, Subhash Chandra Bose realised that Germany and Japan both were becoming the masters in this alliance. He left Germany for this reason. Even though his Indian National Army took control over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, their administration remained in the hands of Japanese navy. An iconic figure, Bose has been lost in the wild after his alleged death in 1945.

Two years after World War II ended, India got independence in 1947. The farewell given to Lord Mountbatten was India’s last offering to the British rule. After Independence, India has seen its ups and downs while fighting the legacy of its colonial past and rediscovering its ancient heritage. English, given as a tool by the British, became India’s strength in a globalised world. Today, an average Indian whose mother tongue is supposedly Hindi, speaks in a mixture of Hindi, Urdu and English. School textbooks often emphasise the slogan ‘unity in diversity’ for Indian population. But I would say this is not merely unity: It is creation of a new identity where being Indian transcends any single linguistic identity. Children here are born polygots. Today, I can be perfectly understood in India when I write like this:

Viraasat ki neemat lekar, present time ki lagaam pakado

Vartamaan ki seedhi chaddhkar, future ko bright banao

Meaning:

Taking the blessing of your inheritance, catch the reins of your present
Climbing on the stairs of your present, make your future bright

The first part of this story is in the post Meri Kahaani 1.1. If you are wondering what got me started on this track, read Meri Kahaani 1.0

Meri Kahaani 1.1 : Transient yet Eternal 1.0

The context for this story is in yesterday's post Meri Kahaani 1.0
It was a quiet day at the office today. But too much silence perturbs me. Is this the portent of tempestuous times ahead? I looked at the calendar and realised that today is Bhadrapada Shukla Navmi. Many centuries have gone by, but I can never forget that on this day I became a part of the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s court. As a Central Government bureaucrat, I know the approved markings of India’s border. But I also remember the India that was unified for the first time by Akbar. If I tell tales of those times, will anybody believe me?

The Mughal rule began in India when Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of the Delhi Sultanate in the Battle of Panipat in 1526. I was serving Krishnadevaraya at that time. Kannada was the language used most in his court. From there I went to Raja Bharmal’s in Amber. When he married his daughter to Akbar in 1562, I moved again and became a part of Akbar’s court. I had learnt Hindi in Amber and had hoped to use it in Akbar’s court too. However, despite Akbar’s support for Hindu culture and Hindi; being his courtier, I was forced to learn Persian. This was completely different from any language I had learnt before. My knowledge of Sanskrit had always helped me pick up the language of any court in India. Whenever I struggled, I used to remember this shloka:

Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
presenting Akbarnama to Akbar
(Credit: Wikipedia)

उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनेारथै ।।
न हि सुप्तस्य सिंहस्य प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृग: ।।

Udyamen hi sidhyanti, karyaani na manorathayee,

Na hi suptasya sinhasya, pravishanti mukhe mrigah

This means work gets done only by action, not by thoughts alone. Just like a sleeping lion’s mouth does not get a deer by simply dreaming of it. I used to think of it over and over again, and plough on. But Persian! Even the script of that language is in reverse, from right to left. I really had to put myself to the task to become proficient in it. Just as I had mastered the language, I heard whisperings of a new language in the country. It was called Urdu and was born when Persian and Hindi combined. Another mixing was happening in this melting pot of a nation. However, the courtiers refused to use it. They called it a ‘base’ language, only to be used by the crude and the uneducated.  The Rajputs were proud of their Hindi and the Mughal courtiers wouldn’t dream of diluting their Persian. But languages have a way of sneaking in and Urdu thrived. I changed with the winds and had long lost the concept of cultural purity. At that time I said:

कुछ नई है परिंदों की चहक, कुछ नई है फ़िज़ाओं में महक

है दुनिया की फ़ितरत बदलना, वक्त का तकाज़ा हमेशा चलना

Kuchh nayi hai parindon ki chahak, kuchh nayi hai fizaon mein mahak,

Hai duniya ki fitrat badalnaa, waqt ka takazaa hameshaa chalnaa

Meaning,

There is something new in the chirping of birds, 
there is something new in the smell of the air,

It is the world’s nature to change; 
it is the time’s demand to always move.

I remember a noble ruler who would not dream of giving up his sovereignty to Akbar. Indians revere him to this day for his heroic nature - Maharana Pratap. He was proud of his native Rajput identity and treated the Mughals as invaders and intruders in India. Even after losing the battle of Haldi Ghati, Maharana Pratap kept engaging in guerrilla warfare. So many lives were lost in those battles! Wouldn’t it have been better for him to accept the Mughal rule? He and his population could have lived in peace and comfort while still maintaining their Hindu identity.

Ariel imprisoned in a tree by Sycorax
Credit: Burning Coal

While Akbar, Jahangir and then Shah Jahan were appreciative of Hindu culture, Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb enforced strict Islam. He destroyed many Hindu temples. As a courtier, I disagreed with his actions. My rebellion was not taken kindly and I was thrown in prison. I, who had seen centuries of history, possessed knowledge of several kingdoms, was left to rot in a tiny cell. I could not have freed myself: Once I choose a life form, I have to live until the mortal shell dies. Aurangzeb died in 1707 but my imprisonment continued.

A parallel development was happening during my imprisonment which was to be of great significance to Indian history. In 1702, the East India Company was revamped and the United East India Company was formed. In 1757, the Battle of Plassey brought new rulers to this country. I served in a rudimentary capacity to the British rulers until I could master their language. This happened because of one Lord Macaulay, who said in his address to the British Parliament on 2^nd February, 1835:

“The dialects commonly spoken amongst the natives of this part of India contain neither literary or scientific information, and are, moreover so poor and rude .... means of pursuing higher studies can at present be effected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them ... who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia” (Source: Scribd.com)

Alas, this was not enrichment of culture. This was destruction of the kind Aurangzeb wrecked. It was like building a new church with the stones of the fallen temple. But let us leave this tale for another day. I will tell you how I managed under the British rule in my next post. 

Meri Kahaani 1.0 : Ariel's Story

The next three posts on this blog are going to be like a serial novel. It is a fictional, historical re-imagining of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, mapping it onto Indian history from 1526 AD to 2007 AD. The piece contains two posts from the August 2007 archive of Ariel’s blog, Meri Kahaani, which chronicles his life experiences. His blog posts are autobiographical but are considered fictional by the modern scientific world.

Credit: Chest of Books

Ariel is a spirit in The Tempest who does the bidding of a European wizard, Prospero, the displaced Duke of Milan. Prospero comes to live in an island after a coup of his dukedom. Ariel is a native inhabitant of that island. The other Tempest characters which appear here are Sycorax and Caliban. In the play, Caliban is the son of Sycorax, a witch from Algeria who was exiled on the island. Caliban believes that the island rightfully belongs to him and has been stolen by Prospero. He attempts to overthrow Prospero by conspiring with two stranded servants from a ship after the tempest. In the island life, Caliban is forced to serve as a servant to Prospero and his daughter, a position he hates. Ariel also serves Prospero using his own magical powers and longs for his liberty. Unlike Caliban, Prospero has promised Ariel his freedom at some time. 

If you want a summary of the play, you can find it here on Sparknotes. For the text of the entire play, you can check out No Fear Shakespeare. No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with a facing-page translation into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today.

In the re-imagination, Ariel is an immortal spirit who has lived in India forever. His outer form is that of a human who is intelligent and accomplished and, is destined to serve the ruler of the land. He changes forms with each ruler, thus nobody realises he has lived forever. For the purpose of this piece, India in any time period refers to the mainland of Indian subcontinent, even though it was not consolidated until the Mughal Empire. 

Credit: InglesBlog

The superimposition of the play and history was motivated by the question of Ariel’s language. His verses to Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, show that Ariel has a good command over Prospero’s language unlike Caliban who possesses only rudimentary vocabulary. Ariel is a spirit and it can be assumed that the island is his natural habitat. So he is, in effect, a native dweller of the island much before Sycorax arrives there. At the end of The Tempest, while Caliban’s freedom comes with a sense of loneliness, Ariel’s freedom is more joyful as he is free to enjoy the island as he pleases along with his kind, namely the gods – Ceres, Juno etc.

The next post will be up tomorrow. The first blog post written by Ariel.

India Dimming

In the fourth quarter of financial year 2011-12, India’s growth rate dipped to 5.3%, the lowest rate since 2003. On June 22, 2012, rupee depreciated to a record low of INR 57.15 against US dollar. In the same month, food inflation was at 10.81 percent. A country that was termed as the next global super-power suddenly seems to be in a mess. Was India’s success story just a flash in the pan? 

Shikshalaya and How Agrini Works?

Shikshalaya is the second project of Agrini. I had written about the aanganwadi project earlier. The video accurately captures how Shikshalaya started and its current functioning. Gourav is planning to implement the aaganwadi programme in Darasi Kala too, the village where Shikshalaya is operating. However, all extension plans and new programmes are dependent upon availability of manpower.

Agrini has only Gourav as a full time staff. All others are volunteers. He supports himself through Youth Collective Fellowship. Some of the volunteers are students while others are working professionals. An enthusiastic volunteer is a village health worker who likes his job even though he is qualified for much more with a Ph.D. in Social Work.

The materials required for Agrini's projects have been collected in the villages itself. The space is usually given by the gram panchayat. The way this collection happens is interesting. For example, there is no provision by the Govt. to install electricity in aanganwadi buildings. How they came up with such an atrocious plan while approving aanganwadi buildings is beyond me, but fact remains. Now how will the computer, needed for multimedia content, work? The power line was taken from a buffalo-shed (bhains ka tabela) next door and Agrini pays for this electricity. In Shikshalaya's resource centre, the books came from a discontinued community library. The 3 computers were contributed in a piecemeal fashion where somebody gave a CPU, another a monitor and so on. 

Agrini started in 2009 and is a good example of what the youth of this country are creating. Gourav Jaiswal is originally from Seoni. While the organisation is small, it is heartening to see that somebody returned to their town to help improve it. In terms of organisation structure, it matches Bakul Foundation of Bhubaneswar, which defines itself as a movement for volunteerism. Bakul's story will be up next on this blog. 

Related articles

• Importance of Social Work (jacobam.wordpress.com)
• Social Work and Irony (jacobam.wordpress.com)

Review of 'A Calendar too Crowded'

Title: A Calendar too Crowded     Author: Sagarika Chakraborty

Publisher: Niyogi Books     Price: 295

This is the first book that Sagarika has published despite writing light fiction and poetry for various online and print media. The subject of the book is women and their plight in the contemporary society. This in a way matches my work closely as I am currently touring the country visiting organizations working for women development. However, while I know the grim reality, I am meeting people who are trying to better lives and have had excellent achievements too. On the other hand, many of Sagarika’s stories are grey with no silver lining.

The only wholly positive example is ‘Selling a Body to Gain a Mind’. Despite the negative title, it is about breaking the vicious cycle which sucks generations of women into prostitution. It talks about how the daughter of a commercial sex worker studies away from the environment and makes something of herself. It is written in the form of two letters and again stands solitary in this kind of style. While there are other stories that have a hopeful tenor, it is the only one that makes you feel good at the end of the story.

The book is an anthology of stories. Each unit is a month of the calendar and the special days for women are introduced at the beginning of every chapter. In a few cases, the stories have corresponded to the days mentioned. But mostly, it is just a reminder that while life goes on like a chore, there are conferences and discussions being organised on that plight. An example of synchronization is the above-mentioned story. ‘Selling a Body to Gain a Mind’ is featured in the month of April in which April 4 is Anti-Child Prostitution Day in Italy.

While reading the book, the first few stories appear a little unoriginal. While the words are hers, the style of capturing the well-known subjects like gender discrimination etc. isn’t new. The first story especially felt like the general literature on the topic. However, as you progress through the book, her stories get captivating. She has addressed a variety of important issues and seems to have covered an exhaustive list of them. The chauvinistic dictates of society in ‘Behind those Whispers’ (March) and ‘The Trials of a Nice Girl’ (August) culminate well in society’s astonishment in ‘The Last Flicker’ (October).

The life of a mother is viewed with a negative lens in ‘Finding an Ideal Mother for my Unborn Child’ (January). This clashes harmoniously with ‘Of Jatakarmas and their Stana Pradidhanas’ (August) which is about the expectations from expectant mothers and how the pressures of modern lives keep these expectations unmet. As a short story is usually an intrigue on its own, I am not commenting further on any story or mentioning the topics of other stories.

The book is a good read for both men and women. While it is feminist in its outlook, it will be a study in the more struggling circumstances that women face. As I read a lot of contemporary and older literature in Hindi, the topics of these short stories are not new to me. But if you have not read that kind of fiction, this one is a sound initiator.

A little about Sagarika:

This Kolkata-born studied law at National Law University in Jodhpur. She is currently enrolled in ISB, Hyderabad. She loves Salsa and as mentioned earlier has made a foray into fiction and poetry earlier. Her research projects have been on varied topics like corporate governance, monetary economics and religion. 


This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda. Participate now to get free books!

Reviewing Conversations

Conversations are a part of our daily grind - the memorable moments and also the ones we'd rather forget. Some are stimulating, some are mundane. They capture thoughts of the speakers and the silence around them captures the unspoken expressions. One kind word can warm three winter months says a Japanese proverb. At the same time, the wounds by words are deeper than those by swords. It is this magic of words and situations that Rajeev Nanda has beautifully captured in his first fiction book "Conversations". 

The book is a collection of short stories. The setting is always urban and contemporary. The stories span from dreams to truths. It is a book that has benefited from crispy editing. While the first story ‘Splinters’ talks about dreams and how the protagonist has lost track of his own. The next one is still surreal with its conversations with God. There is a struggle with idealism in ‘Soldier’.  ‘The Taxi Ride’ is fiction within fiction while stories thereon have taken a touch of reality. The graduation from lofty heights to earthy depths is brilliantly assembled. Short pieces of poetry strewn amongst the stories add value to the book. At the same time, lines from these poems can be quoted by themselves:

E.g. from ‘I Have’

“I have a lifetime full of joy,

     But, all I need is a moment of ecstasy”.

The poet has penned universal experiences in ‘Darkness’:

“This one idea that was aborted,

Sits in my heart like a lump,

Like a still child in a womb.”

In the last poem, the ‘Misfit’ says:

“I kept quiet to contemplate,

Mirror and the reflection expectantly wait

I turned and walked away;

The mirror and reflection shattered lay.”

Coversations is a book that makes you think what would you have done in the protagonist’s place. It teaches without preaching. It is not a mystery thriller that binds yet it allures the reader with reality, which is a staggering feat to accomplish. The enigma in some of Rajeev Nanda’s stories reminds me of Anton Chekhov’s works - The questions hanging in the air after a story has ended. 

While the setting is urban, it is also very contemporary. Some of the stories are also based in the U.S. Rajeev has shown struggles within families when issues like adultery and extra-marital affairs arise. While the issues are not new, he has changed the angles. Whether his characters are fence sitters or on either sides of the line – there remains an element of unease and introspection. Incidentally, there is a poem called ‘Introspection’ :

“If I never talk to myself,

      Whom can I expect to speak to me?

If I fail to own myself,

      Whom can I expect to take charge of me?” 

                                                                                                           

In his stories, there is death but not grief. There is depression but not sorrow. There is envy but not jealousy. To experience these, read the book.

About the book:

Publisher: Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd

Price: India: ₹195              Elsewhere: US $14

ISBN: 978-93-81115-12-1

About the author:

Rajeev Nanda completed his graduation (B.Sc) in general sciences from D.A.V College in Jallandhar, Punjab (India) in 1984. He did post-graduate diploma in Computer Science and other professional certification courses in software & technology from various institutes in New Delhi while working for a startup.

After spending more than 10+ years in the US, he relocated to Bangalore to help Intel setup their IT group in India. His professional expertise lies in strategy, technology and management leadership.  More on his professional experience can be found on:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevnanda

He started writing at the age of 10. In his college years, he picked up controversial subjects, like atheism, to write for the college magazine. He published his first book (e-verything.com: How to map out a viable e-strategy) in 2001. His fiction writing was a private affair until 2005 when he uploaded sample stories on American Book Publishers’ (ABP) web-site. The editorial board of ABP extended the contract in Sep 2005 which resulted in the book ‘Conversations’ in 2009.

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