Footnotes on Salim Ali

Image Source: Wikipedia

Salim Ali was, in many ways,  more than unique - probably the only celebrated ornithologist from India, and one of those rare men of science who can claim both fame and influence on a larger, non-scientific community. For someone who chose a very, very rare profession for his time and kept it to its simplest form, he succeeded beyond probably his own expectations, and definitely beyond everybody else's. Among other things, the basic fact that comes out of a more-than-casual look at his life tells us that he was, above all, a man of science - and a field ornithologist who tried to make wildlife conservation a pragmatic activity rather than a sentimental one.

When one reads his autobiography, The Fall of a Sparrow, the struggles one sees from a young Salim to become what he was best at are illustrative: A serious lack of opportunity and enthusiasm in offical circles, lack of field enthusiasts and horrid travel arrangements, and a general lack of information about Indian birds during his early times. These illustrate the career of a man who shaped, and made a past-time to a profession for many in his country, rather than a mere practitioner.

A few side-notes in his memoirs actually help us understand his choice of career and life - it was definitely a love for birds, but more than that. He displays an innate dashing nature,  recalling a lifelong love for Shikar and Motorcycles. A free will with a distinct unwillingness to bow to any hypocrisy comes across, many times about the British (not least his frank appraisal of British toilet facilities at their annual derby race in London) and at one point on French arrogance. Nor does Dr. Ali come across as someone without a knowledge of his achievements - in fact, he gives a fairly exhaustive list of awards and accolades he got from various sources, both scientific and political, as encouragement to folks interested in birdwatching. But behind all this, he gives ample evidence of dedicated hard work into the study of birds. A lot of his work went into Bombay Natural History Society, or BNHS, which continues to publish a lot of his books.
   
Salim Ali's one of many gifts was his writing - simple, clear and arresting. This effective writings is what made his books so famous - they were not just records of birds, but highly readable ones. I have had occasion to refer to the famed The Book of Indian Birds, and have never been disappointed by his writing.

Interestingly, almost never does he record any sort of complaint about financial hardship or personal disappointments despite losing his parents very early, and his wife in his middle age. Tyabjis - Salim Ali's family - largely come out as a generally affluent family, and his wife Tehmina as more than a mere enthusiast in nature. The love and support he received from his family throughout his long life is one of the evocative and touching silver lines of his autobiography.

Thrilling Tales from the Cold War

Of the great events that influenced literature, cold war fed off innumerable spy novels, provided countless opportunities for budding novelists, spawned off a gazillion movies, among other things. Just highlighting two:

The spy who came in from the cold by John le Carré is considered a classic spy novel, arguably the best. It is blatantly realistic in approach, drawing from the experience of its author. Taking off all hype and concentrating on paperwork, patience and method, this books really brought out the spies from their James Bond-ish outlook to the real world.

The Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith is another one I enjoyed, albeit its unnecessary length. Looking at the world from Russia, it sets its act in Moscow and New York. The everyday life in the Soviet really comes out well, although it has very little to do with the actual cold war - most of the action happens around traditional crime taking advantage of national borders. But then, Cold war adds colour which, if missing, would have made the novel a bore.

The Trouble with The Trouble With Physics

Troubled Reading

Well, I confess that I did not complete the book. Mostly because it is my ever-lazy attitude, but the book itself contributed to a fair extent. As such, I may not do justice to the book itself, but I can atleast give an idea of what to expect.

The problem is the book talks about real modern-day physics. And that itself is not a problem, but it focuses on those parts that are not yet experimentally confirmed, which according to the author is largely the modern particle physics. Given that any subject's toughest part is its theoretical part, explaining something as tough as particle physics without empirical descriptions is bound to bore a lot of people. For me, lack of flowing prose and impressive explanations turned out to be turn-offs. And I think the writing is also boring!!!

Well, apart from that - actually you can learn a lot from this book if you are patient with the author. It is more like reading a textbook all over again, though :(

Crossed Careers - My Life as a Quant by Emanuel Derman

Crossed Careers

I chose to read this book hoping for some nostalgia about Columbia and NYC. The parallels I share with the author, even though for a very brief period and separated by 40 years of life - Columbia, life at the big apple and some degree of association with wall street made me buy this book, and the author definitely succeeded in evoking some degree of nostalgia in me. I definitely found what I was looking for - beautiful recollections of Columbia, Upper west side and Wall street culture in general.

Physics and Finance are explained in a not-too-complicated fashion, with most of the accounts limited to cursory topical introductions, just enough to give the reader a context. The cultural differences and similarities between academia, bell labs and wall street make for a very interesting read, and is the biggest take-away from the book. The narrative itself is never boring, and the book is very readable.

I guess people familiar with the finance industry obviously have a head-start to enjoy the nuances described by the author, but I don't think this makes it appealing only for them. I am hoping to read a few more such accounts from diverse careers, giving sneak peeks into the world of other careers.

Footnotes on Poochante

Poochante

Kannada literature is crazy about classifying its writers into categories, creating well-defined pigeonholes for every nook and corner of the language. I don't know where we got this culture from, but as a result we have more than a handful of literary movements which make no sense to the amateur reader, who just wants to have a good read. Gladly,  K P Poorna Chandra Tejaswi, or Poochante,  went off the beaten path and rejected all such pigeonholing. He professed that he would not be bound to any one method, and in his own words "started writing whatever came to his mind" (Quote from Annana Nenapu). And just for the record, this is not a scholar's critic, but an amateur's random notes.

The most striking thing in Poochante's Kannada is its style - the man was blessed with a writing style rarely seen in print. His writings are simple, fluid and effective beyond any other contemporary Kannada writer - and I am including people like  S L Bhairappa, U R Ananthamurthy etc in this list.  Add to this the honesty and simplicity of his writing - you won't see Poochante muddling his writings with half-baked convictions. The simple awesomeness of simplicity is that it makes more people understand, and so like, your writing. Truly. After reading and comparing the three authors mentioned above, I have a question: While it may be great to write social treatises and revolutionary essays, what is the point if your reader gets deadly bored, or gets dangerously confused after reading your work?

If we briefly look at the timeline of his works, we see that Poochante started writing in line with the Navya Sahitya (new literature) movement of his time. Starting with a collection of short stories and another collection of poems, wrote quite a few essays, and then moved onto novels, and these form the best of his writing.

In his early works, many of which are essays and critiques, we notice a clear opposition to sanskrit-inspired literature, an active resolution to fight against the traditionalism of the Hindu society. I think at least at some point Poochante had a very active thread against the so-called Brahminical Kannada Literature, and a conviction that such literature is not the true literature. I think he was convinced that literary movements which do not influence society into a transformation, sometimes resulting in a widespread change in a region's outlook to its country - read his thoughts on Tamil movement - were useless. I guess he retained most of these thoughts to the end of his career, but he does not seem to have written so actively, or campaigned for such a literary-societal movement in his later life.

But he did move away from all that, lived a farmer's life in a small corner of Karnataka, interacted with nature to an extent unheard of by other authors, and defined his own niche, where he explores human life and its interactions with mother nature. This forms the bulk of his writings, especially his masterpiece - Karvalo.

The biggest complain about his literary career I have is that he wasted a lot of effort into bringing out translations from English into Kannada. For a man of his originality, this was indeed a wasted effort - not that the output was in any way less than excellent - his translations of Kenneth Anderson's experiences hunting down man-eaters remain arguably the most vibrant record of hunting in Kannada. Many of his later books are collections of essays about geography, science and history - a far cry from the indecipherable connections created between elephant, man and nature in Krishnegowdana Aane, (Krishnegowda's Elephant) the short story I rate as his best.

But then, apparently he was that type of a person - interested in a lot of fields, curious about nature and man, and impossible to pigeonhole. His experiments at photography, sketching and other forms of expression remain an inspiration to our generation.

Lastly, did I know the man? No, I never even met him - except for a glimpse of him in Shimoga in a function full of people, through a window out of the building, where as a 12-year old I had to ask my father to point him out for me. I know him only through his pen, and some say that is the easiest way to be misguided. But then, his pen has kept my admiration of him alive for nearly 17 years, and basically made at least one 15-year old sacrifice afternoon cricket and pickup books to read and re-read. Well, if that cannot make an author proud, what will?

Bangalore Book Festival 2010 - First Impressions

As most people in Karnataka know, The Bangalore book festival is back in the Palace grounds. I have made it a habit to visit every year if I am in the country, and unfortunately that was not the case for the last three years. People told me this year it is much better than previous years, and I have to say I had high expectations.

It was a quite pleasant experience - of course, we have to forget the bad language of people supposed to help us park - with lots and lots of options for Kannada book lovers. That was the part I loved most - every major Kannada publisher was there, with a considerable variety of books. So I was able to collected a few works missing my bookshelf in Kannada. Nice to know they have started to re-publish books like Rangannana Kanasina Dinagalu - not seen in print for a long time.

English would have been better - I kept seeing the same titles in every other shop, and was hard put to find rare books in English. I was rather hoping that Bangalore readers would be exposed to a somewhat wider reading world than they would from a usual visit to Sapna or Crossword, but for me that was not the case. The single English book I bought is the one available in every major bookstore - Ramachandra Guha's new book Makers of modern India.

Arts was the most disappointing section, though - it failed me completely in digital photography, and the usual display of Ravi Varma's paintings had a few more not-so-famous artists added to their list. I must say expansion in arts - both books and paintings - has been very little over the years.

Only one place selling ebook readers was there, and I am hoping the empty stalls will be occupied over the course of the exhibition with more tehno-enthusiasts. Not that I am a fan of ebook readers - quite the opposite, in fact - but that is the changing page of reading, and Bangalore bookworms deserve a display of available readers.

Overall, I must say it is pulling crowds, and is showing signs of succeeding beyond most other book fairs of today. The face that I spent only 1/10th of the budget I had gone with probably shows how much scope is there for expanding the range of works, even by the standards of a rank amateur like me, but overall it looks like it is doing its job.

Remembering Will Durant

Will Durant...he was the man who made philosophy popular, history thrilling, and reading a fascination in the early 20th century. It has been nearly a century since the ever-popular 'Story of Philosophy' came out, but its popularity has not reduced at all - even now from Bangalore to New York, the one book I see that is commonly flashed across in bookstores is the story of philosophy.

True - western philosophy has changed an awful lot, approaches to teaching western philosophy has changed, but the value of enjoying a historical account of some of the greatest people in history has not changed at all - Durant definitely has a penchant for studying people more than theories - that, and the wonderfully absorbing English of Durant is what makes this work a must in every bookshelf.
Durant has written somewhere that if we read Spinoza's ethics carefully, we will forever remain lovers of philosophy.Read the story of philosophy at leisure, and you will remain forever a lover of reading.

One great criticism of Durant's 'Story' is that he did not mention two of the most original philosophies of all time - Indian and Chinese. Well, some say he forgot to mention the motherland of philosophy when he omitted Indian philosophy. He sort of made amends to that in his 'Story of Civilization' series, though - his detailed account of philosophical thoughts is a rare thing to see in a volume dedicated to history.

Unlike the story of philosophy, this 11-volume set is no longer being printed - I had to buy a collectible edition for a small fortune to add this to my collection - and the later volumes are co-authored with his wife, Anne Durant. But the first volumes are just as lyrical, and make as compelling a reading as ever. Being a study of world history, Durant looks at history's major personalities, does not give us a list of events to read through, paints a rare picture where he tries to view history through its major people, not events. After all, isn't our society what we, the people, make it?

Agreed that after nearly 40 years of the last volume being published - and 70 since the first volume - much has changed. Both history and philosophy have grown, and the modern student needs to know more than what these books can teach us. But for those of us who want to sit back in an armchair, who can read just to enjoy reading, Will Durant remains a perennial favourite.

Why I do not (always) want reality

I solemnly swear the interview below did not happen.

The other day I was trying to explain to my wife my total fascination of Wodehouse literature, who must have been wondering if I spent more time reading Wodehouse books than reading her emails when we were just engaged bachelors (well, I swear I did not, so that is that :) - well, If I stack up 15 Wodehouse books on my bookshelf and have five more lined up on Amazon, I guess she had a right to know!!! But the interesting story is that the explanation developed into an explanation of my love for fantasy and daydreams, of why some of us love Wodehouse and Anthony Hope just as much as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. So I wrote that up as an interview rather than an essay.

Q: What do you mean by un-realistic or fantasy fiction? A: Let me make it clear that by fantasy, I mean any fiction that is not aimed at reflecting the reality of today's life. For example, Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda tells a story which could not have happened for the last 150 years, even allowing for all the fictious makeovers. But I still love reading and re-reading that classic.

Q: What is it that makes you love fantasy? A: The fascination I have for Wodehouse stems from the greatest gift of mankind - imagination.


Q: But is this not just daydreaming? I thought daydreaming was a totally useless thing? A: Wodehouse was a first-rate daydreamer. His gift for obscuring the reality and bring to life a world far removed from our day-to-day chores, stressful activities etc is remarkable. With a Wodehouse book,
you won't need a stress reliever, ever. So no, daydreaming is not at all useless - in fact, that is one of the most effective ways to keep yourself alive.

A scene from The Prisoner of Zenda

Q: But surely that type of literature is just 'time-pass', not a serious part of your lifelong obsession, is it? A: You are quite wrong. That is one of the points I am trying to get across to you - good literature needs a good study of human character, but where and how the story is set has nothing to do with the quality of the story.

Q: So you are looking more at how deeply an author looks at human nature? A: Precisely.

Q: And obviously you think human nature does not change quickly if you think fantasies that are hundreds of years old are still relevant. A: When did human nature change?

Q: But don't you get bored of a life that is not real? How can you keep reading stories which don't even remotely describe your situation in life? A: Actually I can't. I keep shifting between two types of literature. But remember that man has a deep-set attraction towards all things he can't do by himself, but has heard of happen. This is why all of us love fairy tales and Arabian Nights.

Q: Do you imagine yourself to be a Knight rescuing a Princess? A: lol. I used to :)

Q: What about this thing where people think other people who read Harry Potter are not really grown-up literary fans? A: Let them think so - I challenge them to find out why they find it difficult to keep shifting - as long as a story is well-told, and engages your curiosity, of course you should read it. Only stories I can't stand are those which do not have something in it and/or badly narrated.

Q: What about people who write great stuff, but can't narrate well? I find some authors' using overly-complex style, and some others who just say things as they are. A: If you can't be a narrator, you can't be a great novelist/story teller. I love people who say things as they are, and make their story really beautiful. Unfortunately, some authors don't know how to do that, but phenomena they want to describe are best described as sequences of events. A story being the most natural sequence of events, these people become authors. I have very little respect for such authors' literary ability - though I respect their scholarship.

Ernest Hemingway, a great author who kept things simple

Q: But they are different from people like Tolstoy? A: Yup. Tolstoy was one of the greatest narrators in history. Coming from the right author, realistic fiction is much more exciting than fantasy, and there are people who are really good at that stuff.

Q: For a hobbyist in literature, what type of literature do you think is more important as a part of his hobby? Realistic fiction or Fantasy?
A: I think both are equally important. A realistic fiction can only prove to be fascinating in a dreamworld, and a fiction is effective only with a background in reality. In other words, a man who does not know the real world can't enjoy fantasy, and a man who writes fantasy can't do so without knowing the real world.

Q: Do you really pick up a book after knowing if it is going to be useful to you? A: Lol. That would be ridiculous. I pick books largely on their reputation, and my taste. I believe every read of a good work is eventually satisfying.

Q: Reading something that is not going to help me in real life may be exciting, but isn't it a waste of my time if it can never come to my aid? A: Lol - if you have enjoyed the time, how can it be wasted time?

Q: Any advice? A: Nope. Go for a walk. Read a couple of good books. Call it a day.

The Friendship Story

Quite a few years ago, one my friends, Shreesha Karantha, told me this (imaginative) story about two friends in the Indian epic, Mahabharata - Karna and Duryodhana. I thought it showed the depth of understanding and excellent harmony two people can achieve, so my humble attempt at translating it to English:

One day, at the height of his power, Duryodhana the king had gone out on some chores, and his wife was alone in the palace. Karna came to visit the king, but as he was a close family friend stopped for a chat with the queen. Soon they began to play the game of dice, and it soon developed into a very relaxed game which they continued to play on the Diwan. For the sake of betting, the Queen bet her pearl necklace and Karna bet his golden ring. Eventually Karna won the game. By this time the mood was very relaxed, and queen had no intention of parting with her necklace. So she refused to give it to Karna, and Karna playfully tried to grab the necklace, and the queen jumped from the bed. Karna's hand struck the necklace and broke the thread, causing the pearls to scatter everywhere.

At this precise moment Duryodhana entered, and for a single second surveyed the whole scene - His wife's pale face in complete shock, pieces of the game of dice strewn all over the place, Karna's hand near his wife's neck, pearls dancing all over the floor, and his wife trying to escape from Karna. He just said:

"Karna, shall I give you the pearls in a bunch or around the string of a new necklace"?

The Pickwick Papers

After a long break from literature, I returned to the good old classics - after a completely satisfying two weeks, I finished the Pickwick Papers - or, formally, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, today. This being the first true English language blockbuster in printing history, he will be a rare reader who can discern that Dickens was 24 when he wrote the first of his masterpieces.

I remember trying to read this multiple times when I was very young - in my school days - but the work was too big for me back then. That remains true in some measure - This is not a work that has to be read letter by letter, but for most of its numerous pages makes you read it letter by letter.

An incident that occurred in India during the centenary celebrations of Dickens (around 1970) shows the immense popularity of this novel:

Sometime around 1970, marking the centenary of Dicken's death, a Dickens expert from UK visited many colleges in India, giving talks about the works of Dickens and their significance. When he asked about the most popular books by Dickens in these parts, response from the Botany Professor B.G.L. Swamy in the Presidency College of Madras (now Chennai) was this: (translated from Kannada, from his book 'Collegu Ranga') :
"There are many people who maintain a steady habit of reading English literature, both people who teach or study English everyday and make it part of their living, and those for whom English is just an optional pleasure. Many such people maintain their own personal libraries, according to their knowledge of English language. One work of Dickens that all such libraries have in common is the Pickwick Papers."

Galahad's Blandings

Finally, a Blandings castle novel which I loved just as much as my favorite Jeeves and Wooster novel. Till I read Galahad at Blandings, I had thought of Blandings as Wodehouse's secondary creation - quality comedy lacking the genius of usual Jeeves novels. But Galahad changed all that - Lord Emsworth is as absent minded and pig-minded as usual, Lady Hermione as bossy as other wodehouse aunts, but Galahad exceeds all expectations.

Galahad at Blandings has a very subtle rigor to it - a literary rigor which keeps the plot tightly in line, making none of the twists and turns distracting. The positive character of Galahad gives an extra pace to the novel - something that was missing in Blandings minus Galahad, like Leave it to Psmith. If you read between the lines, you will notice a subtle balance of characters - Wodehouse plots the story in a way where no character is used too much. Well, packed with the usual supply of lovers, tangles, pigs, menaces and of course, lots of love, this ranks right at the top of Wodehouse novels.

Overlook Press page for the book
Amazon Link

India After Gandhi

Well, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is not a literary masterpiece - nor does it talk about our culture. So what is a work on political history doing in this blog? To point out exactly that - lack of focus on things other than turmoils in post-independent India. The book discusses the struggles of India at great lengths, but does not seem to be interested in its triumphs just as much. Also, the book does not provide even a cursory look at the cultural changes in modern India.

The book is very readable, and does not get boring even for such a huge work - it is nearly 1000 pages long.

Visiting the Frick Collection

Until today, my favorite museum in New York had been the Met - especially because it houses my favorite painting. But today a strong contender to the #1 museum spot came up - The Frick Collection.
Eventhough it is one of the more famous 'small museums', I had never bothered to read up about the Frick, so when I visited it today on a whim, the pleasure of seeing the rare collection was doubled by surprise. And oh my, the collection suits me so very much!!

Housed in 18th-century styled palace of Mr. Frick, the collection of European paintings is absolutely astounding - if you get a chance, in addition to observing Rembrandt's self portrait from close up, go all the way back to the end (near the boucher room) and see the painting. It is a long way, but the effect of his golden dress and the face in shadows is worth the walk! Turner's waterfronts are as pleasing as ever, but Paulo Veronese touches your wisdom with The Choice Between Virtue and Vice and Wisdom and Strength. The house itself is as breathtaking as some of its paintings - the elegant drawing room nearly, not quite, as appealing as Rembrandt's The Polish Raider or Renoir's portrait of a young mother with her two children.

One of the special attraction to me were the books - the elegant display all along the walls in the reading room adds a special, rarely seen, effect to the display of other art work.
Also, almost none of the paintings are 'protected' behind ropes and enclosures - on the downside, though, you cannot take your kids if they are less than ten years old :(

Museum entrance is at 70th street, 5th Avenue. It is open 10 AM to 6 PM from Monday through Saturday, whereas on Sundays it operates from 11 AM to 5 PM

The Lost Symbol

Disappointing. Dan Brown's new novel was utterly frustrating. The storyline is dull, and writing lacks the rigor of 'Da Vinci Code'. Only thing I could remember after reading this was an old saying: "It is much harder to stay somewhere than to get there". Dan Brown has definitely not lived upto the high standards set by his previous novel - The Lost Symbol is more in the league of his earlier works, like Angels and Daemons, which were, in my opinion, mediocre at their best.

The identity of the antagonist was not well-hidden, and the plot is very predictable. One of the reasons Da Vinci Code was so exciting, at least for me, was that the whole mystery unfolded gradually, without explicitly forcing a treasure hunt on the readers. It started out as a genuine murder mystery - but Lost Symbol forgets all such pretense and jumps into a treasure hunt from page one, and the ideas he has used for the mystery lack the pull. And the science seems to be a bunch of words :(. Dan Brown's style of emphasis - using impressing statements in italics - works only if the content is powerful. Without that, his new novel is something like poor style without good content.

Thor vs Odin

The second installment of Dirk Gently's adventures, 'The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul', was much more exciting than the first. Full of typical Douglas Adams quips, it was an awesome read.

The last time I saw such humane side of gods was in the great epics - Mahabharatha, Iliad etc etc. Douglas Adams reminds of a lost style of writing - free of all the mundane philosophy into the true imaginations of humans who create the gods. To put it in a nutsehll, there is a difference between talking about imaginations and imagining things - and Adams is a citizen of the latter class :).

It was a pity I lost the book when I had another 50 pages left to finish the book - the first time I lost a book in at least four years :(. Well, pain of losing a book is nearly as bad as joy of buying one.

Edgar Allan Poe

Thanks to the tip from Anj, visited the street on upper west side where Edgar Allan Poe once lived - on 84th street between Broadway and West End Avenue.Adding to the environment, there is a cosy cafe called "Edgar's Cafe", where unfortunately I did not like the food :(. But this walk certainly reminded me of those boyhood weekends when I had just started to read English literature - stories like 'The Gold Bug' and 'The Tell-tale Heart' have a place of their own in every reader's heart, as does my family's old-fashioned, leather-bound, red coloured short stories of Poe in our village bookshelf.

My Golden Treasury - Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom

I sure love Lord Byron a lot :). Well, his romance always seems to have a purity to it, a rare purity and love that can make the stoniest philosopher go soft. At least, that is what I feel whenever I read, and re-read, Oh! Snatched away in Beauty's Bloom. The blend between the solemness of death, the grief, and the innate emotions of human life in this poem is amazing for me. The perspective provided by nature, and the disdain for the philosopher, make the poem a truly moving one.
Full text.

Victor Herbert

In one of my aimless walks of upper west side, found this interesting plaque on 108th and Broadway (if I remember correctly), outside the house where the composer Victor Herbert lived. (Click on the image for higher-resolution picture).

Rememberig Roerich

Of the many museums of New York, there is a small, almost hidden, gem of a museum on the upper west side, The Roerich Museum. Setup in a house on 107th St, between Broadway and Riverside Dr., it houses a very representative collection of Roerich's paintings, books and a few portraits from his son, Svetoslav Roerich. Those Himalayan scenes rich in colour always leave a deep impression on my mind. The paintings have a way of occupying our minds, peace and quiet of the mountains seem to be around us.

Museum is free for all, and is open from 2PM to 5PM Tuesday - Sunday. It is closed on Mondays.

Magical Memories - 1

The moment I am recalling today happened around Feb 2009. This was a classical Hindustani concert in downtown manhattan, sewhere around soho. I went there with four of my friends, and I don,t even remember the artists :(. Please don't get me wrong - it was a very, very good concert. The aalaaps, the tunes lingered in my ears for quite sometime after the actual concert. But most importantly, I rember that day because that kicked off a long series of visits to other concerts and performances that form an unforgettable part of my new York life :).