A New Beginning

Despite being a far-from-literary-genius myself, I have the audacity to judge writers and sentence them to abandonment. I am hardly certain about how many people would agree with me in this, but based on what I have experienced, I have developed a habit of averting myself from writers who write too much (and marry too many times). Waiting or expecting is a laborious assignment; just as absence makes the heart grow fonder, anticipation makes it grow more desirous and more demanding because, having waited for it, we assume a right of being presented with the best work ever. I have certain (well-deserved) regard for writers who take their time researching for a book or may be just writing it with complete focus. And as I said, I am not a great fan of those who just feel a compulsion to produce greater mass of printed paper than everybody else. It is not because their books are always not good; but they are just good, not memorable and not much valuable; goodness and value are two different things. Perhaps this would more concisely explain all my ramblings:

گاہے گاہے کی ملاقات ہی اچھی ہے  امیرؔ

قدر  کھو  دیتا  ہے  ہر  روز   کا   آنا   جانا !

So, why I am suddenly taking the trouble to go philosophical? As it happened, the first news my laptop brought as I opened it today was that Khaled Hosseini's next book, And The Mountains Echoed, is scheduled to be published on May 21st this year, six years after the launch of his previous book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini is one of the most-read writers and a great many people who have read his books, The Kite runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, are admirers of his superb story-telling. I think The Kite Runner is the one which is commonly read and highly rated by most of my friends on Goodreads. These two books are among some of the most memorable ones. But up till now, reading Khaled Hosseini's books has been a rare feat; there are just two of them; which had to be taken slowly and savored. Now, we have something to anticipate! 

For better or worse (you are free to choose your own philosophy) May 21st is still 53 days ahead! which means, for me, it is a new beginning; a beginning of expectation, waiting and recollecting (of Hosseini's previous books). No need to tell how much I hope that it will be just as good as the others, if not better.

Happy Reading to all (me inclusive) !!

My Introduction to the The Great Literary Genius

Since my very first ventures into the realm of Urdu literature, I have somehow nurtured an anxiety about Ashfaq Ahmed's writing. I have always been told that at the end of the story, I would feel lost, not getting what exactly he wanted to say. A few days ago, I read an excerpt from Zavia that did not seem to be that beyond my scope of comprehension. So I thought I should finally give it a try.

This book "Aik Zakhm Aur Sahi" is a collection of small anecdotes. Every one of them has a complete philosophy behind it. Mostly, (I think) that he has tried to demonstrate how the very same things and events look when seen from different perspective, by different people or at different times and situations."Irony of Life" could be a fitting title for this piece of work. 
3/5 stars! 

Here is an excerpt:

اجالوں کا کرب

                                  

وہ بہت غریب تھا لیکن ایک دن اس کی قسمت کا ستارہ چمکا اور اسے لاٹری مل گئی۔ دو لاکھ روپیہ ہاتھ آیا تو اس نے اپنے اور گھر کے افراد سے متعلق سوچنا شروع کیا۔ ہزاروں خواہشوں نے سر اٹھایا اور پھر ان ڈھیر ساری خواشوں کےدرمیان اس نے محسوس کیا کہ وہ تو اب پہلے سے بھی زیادہ غریب ہو گیا ہے!!۔

So why 3 stars? I like it, no doubt. Not many people can master the art of putting so much between the lines. But I think the anecdotes were mostly depressing, mostly highlighting the wrongs, the double-standards and the deceitful nature of people and the misery they have to endure. They were half page stories, so there was no character development and therefore no justification for their behavior. I believe that our world has its share of both the right and the wrong and so when talking about life in general, there should be a sense of proportion. Bringing only one side of the story to the foreground is unwarranted.

And frankly, there were a few which I don't think I quite understood.

"Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business.” (Bill Bryson)

The moment I started reading it, I have been thinking why I never read Bill Bryson's work before! I am reading it rather slowly because there is so much in it. But even before reading half of it, I know that I am going to read it again.

About the book:

At some point in life, the idea fascinates us all:

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances. ” (Maya Angelou)

But how? How it was created and how has it continued to exist in the way it does so? Most of us "normal" people have more pressing issues to reflect on.Well one day, the very same godforsaken idea was fortunate enough to find its way into the inquisitive and adventurous mind of Bill Bryson, so now he tells the story of how this question motivated mankind and what it yielded !

It is a story of the history of man's quest for knowledge about the universe and the extra-ordinary discoveries he made over the course of existence. As far as I have read it up till now, it is about the revelation about cosmology and basic physical sciences. No,no, it is not written by an obnoxious scientist, boasting about his work in nasty, hard-to-pronounce, encrypted words and taunting all the other scientists who were fatuous enough to think that they could share his own research interest. Bill Bryson is no scientist! The uniqueness of this book is that the writer treats scientists/researchers as human beings, not just documenting what they found out or invented, but he narrates their accomplishments (or blunders) in the backdrop of circumstances they were living in, their nature and habits and the obstacles they faced. No, just hang on. he does not tell all that in the notorious dry, boring tone of historical volumes, rather he ... oh I don't know yet how to describe it best. Probably like grandfathers usually speak when they tell really fascinating tales to their little grand-children, who cannot really grasp the solemness of what is being told to them. He knows how to keep non-scientists engaged in listening to indeed very sophisticated concepts of science. Let's just say that he tells in a way that you want to hear more.

Some of my favorite quotes, to give a taste of the tone of the book, rather than the scientific and historical facts it tells:

"For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally under-appreciated state known as existence. Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level."

"So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here. To be here now, alive in the twenty-first century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business."

"What is extraordinary from our point of view is how well it turned out for us. If the universe had formed just a tiny bit differently—if gravity were fractionally stronger or weaker, if the expansion had proceeded just a little more slowly or swiftly—then there might never have been stable elements to make you and me and the ground we stand on. Had gravity been a trifle stronger, the universe itself might have collapsed like a badly erected tent, without precisely the right values to give it the right dimensions and density and component parts. Had it been weaker, however, nothing would have coalesced. The universe would have remained forever a dull, scattered void."

"Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache." ( Mae West)

Sadly, I am no dentist, so I have no authority on anything that affects toothache. But I read something that deals extensively with love and poverty and their terribly conflicting relationship and a lot of other very important things and toothache is the maximum amount of humor (if it qualifies) that I can manage with the subject at hand. It is called "Man o Salwa" written by Umera Ahmed. 

A Review of Man-o-Salwa by Umera Ahmed:

It was a very long and complicated story. In my opinion it was more complicated that it could be. It was a great novel in many aspects but it has some flaws as well. No, just hang on, I love it, but you should not overlook the flaws, even if they are minor. It is one of the lessons the story has to offer.

First, as I said it was unnecessarily complicated and dramatic. Secondly, the characters acted unnaturally and obtusely. Thirdly, I don't think it was an instance of Umera Ahmed's best pieces of writing. Her style of writing is much better in Amarbail, Peer-e-Kamil and some of her other short stories. I cannot classify it as a good or a bad quality that all the characters and situations were representing various types of extremes while neglecting the grey areas.

I am finding it very difficult to review this book because I liked it despite the flaws and the things I liked are fairly hard to be put into words. Also it is about some very serious social problems, so I cannot describe it casually.

It is a story of the curses of poverty and the path of sin it leads to but at the same time it is also a portrayal of the strength of character with which one can steer away from this path to that of the purity of soul. Zainab, Shiraz, Karam Ali and Zarri having born in almost similar families with regard to financial status, come to lead very different lives, all by virtue of their choices, most of which were emotion-driven.

The most conflicted character was Zainab, who was at one time the most obedient, loving and caring and religious daughter of a pious man who had always stuck to Rizq-e-Halal despite the temptations of bribes he had as a clerk in income tax department. Zainab has always lived under the shelter of her father's love and was engaged to the man she loved. One flaw in her personality was that she was emotional to the point of foolishness. She loved Shiraz with such passion that she continued to ignore the much apparent flaws in his character. He spoke ill of her father and his "Rizq-e-Halal mania", he accepted favors from her but never reciprocated or even bothered to share anything with her and unlike her, he was not at all religious. Had she been any wiser or a little less blind in her love for him, it would not be hard to see his materialistic thinking. Another thing that I found incongruous was the freedom that Zainab and Shiraz enjoyed, which is not common in Pakistani lower class and especially religious families. So predictably, Shiraz abandons her in a most ignominious way. At one point, it has been categorically declared that Zainab was not a fool, which is an absolutely bogus claim in my opinion. She suffers from a great emotion upheaval and realizing that poverty was the reason of her misery, she is caught up in a compulsive desire to earn as much money as she could and in the shortest time possible, so that she could place herself in a position to avenge herself and to escape the very reason that was the cause of her disgrace. Ironically, she chooses to disgrace herself even further. Her story is the picturesque version of the famous saying:

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."

Shiraz abandons Zainab to marry into a very rich family. The behavior of his family among their new relatives is thoroughly disgusting. What I fail to understand is how could Shiraz, who was supposedly an intelligent person, be blind enough to think that a rich and powerful man wanted so desperately for him to marry his daughter for no apparent reason. He made a complete fool of himself throughout the book and strangely he never felt as miserable as a person should have felt in his situation. He practically gave away the control over his life in exchange for money and social status, one of the frightening consequences of having experienced extreme poverty and never wanting to leave room for any possibility of returning to that life, if once escaped.

Karam Ali was by far the most adventurous of the lot but the difference was that unlike Zainab and Shiraz, his ventures were mostly involuntary. He was the eldest among his siblings in a family that had practically no bread earner. So the responsibility of earning fell upon his very young shoulders. His problem was that he was indeed very dutiful and protective of his family. He took upon himself much more than was his share of responsibility and thinking that his family's peace of mind was also to be taken care of, he chose to face every obstacle alone instead of sharing his problems. Consequently, his family starts to deem him as the person responsible for all their needs and desires even after all his siblings are married and settled in their businesses. I think it was in his nature to be uncommunicative but he was great character. While Umera showed that Zainab and Shiraz fell prey to the curse of "Rizq-e-Haram", she maintained in the form of Karam Ali that it was not impossible to stay on the right path. Karam Ali was extremely poor and like Shiraz, he also shouldered the responsibility of earning livelihood for his family and was in an even worse financial condition than Shiraz but unlike him, he never considered the possibility of doing it through unlawful means. He was similar to Zainab in being emotional and having experienced betrayal from his loved ones but unlike her, he never compromised the purity of his soul or the idea of revenge never found a way into his head.

The character of Zarri is a blend of ignorance, emotional weakness and a desire to escape the clutches of poverty, which is common in all the characters. To describe her in the best possible way, I would say that she wanted to have her cake and eat it as well. She wanted to marry Jamal, who was an obviously unreliable, irresponsible and violent person and at the same time she wanted to remain under the financial shelter that her husband had provided. And the choice she finally made left her unhappy, dishonored and a subject of violence. 

Man o Salwa is a very rich story including life in the slums of Pakistan, the ruthlessness of Arabian Sheikhs, the miserable and artificial lives of peoples whose needs take them away from their relations and the wretchedness of the people of film industry behind the facade of glamour. In this story, you fill find characters that you love, hate and feel sorry for. Their behaviors and actions will be sometimes outrageous, sometimes lame and unreasonable and sometimes too soft. It is a story of people who try to escape poverty but what it makes clear beyond doubt is that Rizq-e-Haram is not the way out. What you can get lawfully is the Man o Salwa for you and it is what you should be thankful for and content with.
All in all, It was an unforgettable, thought-provoking and hard-to-put-down novel.

"Don't think or judge, just listen." (Sarah Dessen)

A Review of Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid:

Well, today I am going to be voicing some very bitter facts about our dear country Pakistan's culture. This voice is not really original, rather it will be a narrative of thoughts set into motion by this book I finished last week. This review is not any guide to judge any Pakistani, because every society has its share of good and bad people. If there is any index of the health of a socioeconomic system, it should be judged by the direction in which it evolves. Evolution is a continuous process which can change its course any time. And hopefully it will.

First of all, I want to say that Mohsin Hamid is a great writer. He has deep insight and strong imagination. His style of writing is unique in the use of figurative language and abstract in a thought-provoking way that appeals to the intelligence of the reader . He has laid out the causes and effects of the restlessness in Pakistani society in an apparently simple but in its meaning and implications, an intricate story. Moth Smoke is undoubtedly a masterpiece coming from an undoubtedly intelligent writer.

Aurangzeb belongs to the elite class that is quintessential for lack of conscience and their perception of themselves as being above the law. Darashikoh is from a poor family who owes his education and his job to Aurangzeb's father. They think themselves as friends but actually they have very complicated relationship. Darashikoh never quite trusted Aurangzeb. And Aurangzeb could never accept him as his equal. There is this difference of status that neither of them can ever overcome. As Darashikoh goes to visit Aurangzeb at his house and Aurangzeb offers him drinks, the writer narrates what is really going on inside his head. What he feels when visiting his friend is that he might not be able to afford that drink himself, so he should take the benefit when he can. His situation is even worsened when he meets Aurangzeb's wife Mumtaz, because he becomes conscious of his own loneliness. There is a triangle of wealth, need and friendship.

As the story progresses, we come to know that whatever his present situation may be, Darashikoh is not some idiot, illiterate farmer from some remote village but he was at one time pursuing his Ph.D and was admired by his professor. But he has fallen a victim to the uncertainty that has long been an essential feature of Pakistani society, originating from the scarcity of employment opportunities and even these scarce opportunities being provided on references regardless of merit. To survive in such a society, one has to have unwavering will power. Darashikoh, who had fortunately been helped by Aurangzeb's father, does not possess any significant sense of self-worth. He naturally hates being in need. After losing his bank job, he literally abandons looking for any other work. Instead he gradually indulges in a life of forced lethargy. He stops paying his servant and somehow he takes out his anger on him. He represents the effect of the unjust socio-economic setup that has the ability to aggravate itself by developing a psychology among the oppressed. They develop a sadistic attitude of subjecting themselves and others around them to as much misery as they can manage to inflict. Somehow, it gives them a sense of power although they do not realize that their notion of power is not any different from those they hate. This is what happens to Darashikoh. He, who was very upset about witnessing his friend Aurangzeb killing a poor boy in an hit-and-run accident, does not find it cruel to stop paying his servant or punishing him when he questions him. Slowly, he enters into drug dealing.

Mumtaz is another difficult character. She is the beautiful wife of Aurangzeb and the mother of a little boy. In the start of the novel, they appear to be a happily married couple, yet Mumtaz's behavior is queer in a way. As the story moves forward to unravel her restive personality, we come to know that she feel trapped in a marriage that was totally her own rash decision. She tries hard but fails to establish an intimate relationship with her son. From the very beginning, she is trying to find an outlet to pour out her feelings. She has an autistic and mistrustful relationship with her husband. She does not talk about her problems, rather becomes more and more secretive and starts satisfying herself with little adventures.

Their restlessness leads Mumtaz to infidelity and destruction of her relationships and Darashikoh to being accused of a crime he did not commit.

Meanwhile, Aurangzeb manages to remain largely unperturbed by the betrayal of either of them. Why? Because he is in position of power to avenge himself. In an unstable and morally degrading judicial system of Pakistan, laws are made and implemented by and for the rich. This is what  they term as "democracy". So he satisfies his ego by sending Darashikoh to prison for his own crime.

At many places in this novel, I kept recalling The White Tiger, another narrative of the society dominated by the rich.

It was a thoroughly great book.

I pointed out earlier that it was going to be an analysis of a Pakistani mind. The characters in this novel are very much representative of the thinking of some classes in our society.

The rich who deem themselves as some superior form of species, capable of doing without the law. They can run their very own, personal system of justice which is designed to serve their ego and their bank accounts.

The competent but financially mediocre, low self-esteemed people who quit trying for lack of fruitfulness of their endeavors. They tend to find easier ways of supporting themselves, which are more often than not illegal.

Those who feel indecisive and weak who cannot stand by their own choices and end up being rebellious.

The whole picture is that of discontentment and psychological degradation.

But the bright side is that: all is not yet lost. And to preserve what is left and grow from it, we have to be very strong-willed.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Reading this book through initial pages reminded me of a tv drama that was telecast a few months ago "Ishq-e-Mamnu" meaning "Forbidden Love". I don't know much about the story. It was more a subject of fun for me (because of extremely sub-standard dubbing). Point is the idea of people crazy about getting cure for love was.. what to say .. LAME. I was even thinking of leaving it unfinished but I decided to give it a chance. I am glad I did it.

The story is very well-written. In a love story, this is the most important thing. The writing style was such that it added a poetic touch. Lauren Oliver describes scenes and places very beautifully. Characters are typical self-conscious, low self-esteemed girl and the perfect movie-star boy and most of the story is also quite predictable, though not all of it. I liked Hana's character just as much.

I liked the principles from "The Book of Shhh" and other sources at the beginning of each chapters. They are intelligently thought and well placed.

So I am off to read its sequel.

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

A Review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling:

I have been meaning to write about Harry Potter for some time but I don't think I can do justice or that I have good enough words. Still I decided to give it a try. I read it for the first time many years ago, after having been a forced listener to the rants of one of my school friends who was a big fan of Harry Potter series. In those days, you could find Harry's face on literally everything including rulers, sharpeners, pens, pencils, handbags, diaries and what not. So I finally bought a copy and up till now, it has become extremely battered from excessive use.

On opening it for the first time, it is not the story but J. K. Rowling's style that caught my attention:

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense. Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere."

Could there be any better introduction of the bullying, nosy, obnoxious Dursleys!! These are some of my favorite lines from this book.

As I continued, I became somewhat lost! I mean, what is happening!! owls and fancily dressed people and this strange Dumbledore (who appears suddenly late at night) and McGonagall (who was impersonating a cat for the whole day sitting on a wall in Dursleys' street). Turns out there is some big cause for celebration that night. And Dursleys are about to be at the receiving end of a great surprise.

Ten years have passed since Dumbledore left Harry with the Dursleys. During this time, harry somehow made strange things (including setting a Boa constrictor free after actually chatting with it in a zoo)happen around him, which continued testing the "excessively normal" Dursleys' patience for 10 years.

So now it is harry's 11th birthday. Harry has never got a birthday cake and has spent his birthdays wondering what it would be like if his parents were there (who had supposedly died in a car crash: Dursleys' version of the story). But this time there is something special. On the day before his birthday, there are heaps of letters addressed to Harry which follow them everywhere when Mr. Dursleys tries to escape them while getting even madder than he already is. When they think they have managed to escape the letters, the sender of these letters Hagrid himself arrives with Harry's first ever birthday cake!

Now Harry is being told the truth of his identity (oh he is a wizard and a very popular one among thousands of others). What the hell was he doing with Dursleys who are so excessively Muggle (not a wizard)? Well, it turns out that Dursleys had lied about his parents death. Both of them were also wizards and had been killed by the darkest wizard of all times Voldemort (nobody but very few people in wizard's world dared speak or write or even spell his name). Harry being the only one who had defied Voldemort as a one-year-old was very famous in his world. So Hagrid tells him that there is this magic school Hogwarts, where Harry has got a place. Harry shops for his school, gets a wand and an owl (his first ever birthday gift) and finally leaves for Hogwarts on Hogwarts express.

And he reaches the great, prestigious Hogwarts, where he comes to feel at home!

At Hogwarts, life is totally different. He finds friends, Ron and Hermione, who are just as adventurous as Harry himself. He is both liked and hated. He meets his new teachers including formidable McGonagall, quivering Quirel, bitter and contemptuous Snape and the sleepy ghost Binns and learns to play Quiditch as a seeker (youngest in a century). Now, Harry and his friends have a knack of attracting trouble. When everybody is busy in studies and other normal school routine tasks, Harry, Ron and Hermione are intrigued by a three-headed dog (which they were not supposed to set eyes on in the first place). They don't even refrain from going into the forbidden forest (after Harry receives an invisibility cloak on Christmas) and badgering Hagrid with questions about the dog and what he was protecting. After some help from Hagrid's blunders, they discover that the dog was protecting the Philosopher's stone and they take it upon themselves to save the stone from Snape. Later it turns out that they were wrong about Snape. But Harry, in his very first year, comes face to face with Voldemort, who had been in hiding all these ten years and now is trying to come back.

Apart from the adventures, Harry learns the true meaning of friendship, of sticking together with friends and standing by each other, not to mention, making troubles together as well. He also makes enemies in the form of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. 

So Harry's first year ends and I am tempted to read it again since I realized while writing this review that I cannot recall a lot.

Besides some lines from the book that I mentioned in the beginning, I also like Dumbledore's talk with Harry when he is at the hospital after his adventure:

“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." 

"If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign … to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin.."

I doubt I will ever say goodbye to Harry Potter. It is still fresh in my memory. It was my introduction to English fantasy and I still think about fantasy as something to do with Harry Potter. No novel has ever been even nearly harry potter-good. It really deserves the attention and world-wide fame that it got. Just to be clear, I am not a fan of Harry Potter movies. And that is not because they were any of the actors or directors fault. The plot of the actual stories is so rich that it is probably not possible to capture it in a 2 and 1/2 hour movie.