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Friday, December 24, 2021

Corporate Eagle: A Soaring Success Story by Madhukant Acharya

   

Corporate Eagle: A Soaring Success Story by Madhukant Acharya


Corporate Eagle: A Soaring Success Story by Madhukant Acharya | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Corporate Eagle by Madhukant Acharya


Author: Madhukant Acharya

ISBN: 978-1685233372

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Length: 180 Pages

Publication Date23rd August 2021

PublisherNotion Press

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/32oEoaS


About the author:

Madhukant Acharya was educated in some of the best schools and colleges in India and was adjudged the best student in his class. Soon after he joined the corporate world, working with eminent multinational companies and rose from a management trainee to the company’s board position in a short span of twenty years and was awarded 'Marketing Man of the Year' from the President of India. He has widely travelled in India and abroad and continues to be an avid reader. The author leads an active social life with friends and family and is a popular member of premier clubs. His interests involve being a fitness enthusiast and doing social and charitable work in rural areas. Many of his friends call him ‘people happy’.


Settled in Mumbai for nearly forty years with wife Kalpana, his children pursue careers in the US and Mumbai being doctors, engineers and MBAs. The idea of writing a novel motivated him some years ago after professional retirement when he rescheduled his priorities and lifestyle to devote required time to creating his debut novel Friends and five seasons in two volumes — Rupen's Early Years and Publishing hero Rupen.


Corporate Eagle: A Soaring Success Story by Madhukant Acharya | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Madhukant Acharya


Instagram: @authormadhukant

Twitter: @authormadhukant


DisclaimerThis review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 


REVIEW


Corporate Eagle by Madhukant Acharya is a fiction book spanning Mohan Dutt’s twenty-five years long corporate life that is indeed, as the title suggests, successful and always moving in an upward direction; set in India, it covers a handful of remarkable events that took place from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s; the book depicts the journey of its canny, perspicacious and enterprising protagonist from being a management trainee to becoming the chairman and country head of the fashion and clothing company, for which he worked doggedly and made contributions that proved indispensable to the making of one of the top corporate giant conglomerate in India; gives you an insight into the challenges and crucial decision-making processes faced by companies and the ethics and policies to go by to keep soaring high in the air; lastly, it shows how giving back to the society (CSR) is important, not only for the economic and social upliftment of the country but also the company itself.

The stated corporate theme here has strong political overtones, which is obvious because the influence of politics within and outside industries cannot be overlooked in any case. The book also starts with the communists winning the elections and what followed was the exodus of industrialists from West Bengal to other parts of India because of the labour disputes and lock-outs. There are a lot of such political events in the book inspired by Indian political history. For instance, finance minister Manmohan Singh and prime minister PV Narsimha Rao doing away with the license-raj regime. The other part of the theme is corporate warfare, which includes dealing with other rival companies, countering their efforts of a hostile takeover, remaining competitive in the market, warding off unwanted influences, etc. The protagonist Mohan deals with it very tactfully and manages to keep his records clean. Additionally, he looks for opportunities to expand the company in whatever aspects he could. Being a chairman, he keeps every department head in check and provides required guidance dutifully. There come a lot of obstacles and challenges pertaining to income tax, shifting of headquarters, politicians withholding raw materials, the factory shut down, legal battles, etc. The author has given detailed insights into the decisions that the protagonist takes while dealing with the obstacles as well as while planning for the expansion of the company into various other fields such as Information Technology, Finance, Sports, etc. 

As you can see that the corporate journey of the protagonist as well as the company is very compelling, although the novel as a whole is not as compelling considering the plot, narration, and setting. The book reads as if being non-fiction, documenting the life of a veteran industrialist in a particular company, stating data and information without any regard for surrounding elements. This also makes it an overview of the many modifications and expansions that the company has undergone. For instance, a single chapter runs you through several years of company-related happenings but doesn't offer how it is executed on the ground. While the corporate-specific insights may be interesting, the novel falls prey to the problem of ‘too much information’, where each chapter has the potential to be an independent novel. Being a successful story, this novel doesn’t even have a single falling moment, a crisis or a disaster, which also discards any possibilities of having any climax. However, as compensation for the missing action, the novel has two significant sports events that will keep you on the edge towards the end. The book is definitely not what you would expect after reading the synopsis on the back cover, because the novel exceeds your expectations in the corporate aspect, while also failing to deliver what it promises—the presence of Kumud and Cindy. They were mentioned in the book now and then, but they didn’t have even the littlest of roles to play.


Happy Reading!


=========================

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Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

How ‘If I’m Honest’ helped me identify and acknowledge my own mental health-related issues and showed me the way forward

  

How ‘If I’m Honest’ helped me identify and acknowledge my own mental health-related issues and showed me the way forward

Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi


If I’m Honest: A Memoir of My Mental Health Journey by Sidhartha Mallya


If I'm Honest by Sidhartha Mallya | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
If I'm Honest by Sidhartha Mallya



AuthorSidhartha Mallya

ISBN: 978-9390679447

Genre: Memoir

Length: 208 Pages

Publication Date27th September 2021

PublisherWestland

Book Editor: Deepthi Talwar and Kushalrani Gulab

Deepthi Talwar: Twitter - @deepthitalwar

Kushalrani Gulab: LinkedIn - @kushalrani-gulab-64673844

Cover Design: Saurabh Garge | Instagram: @garge_saurabh

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/3HhkJbR


About the author:

Sidhartha Mallya is an American-born, British-raised actor of Indian descent. He was born in Los Angeles, California to Indian parents, who moved to England shortly before his first birthday. He attended Wellington College, and then Queen Mary, University of London, where he graduated with a BSc in Business Management. After a short career in the business world, Sidhartha made the switch to acting. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, graduating with a Master of Arts in acting. He made his feature film debut in the Netflix Original Brahman Naman, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Aside from acting, Sidhartha’s main focus has been on the promotion of mental health amongst the youth. In 2020 he launched an online series called ConSIDer This, which talks about the mental issues he has struggled with over the years, and offers advice to the public on how to deal with such challenges. If I’m Honest is his first venture into the writing world.


If I'm Honest by Sidhartha Mallya | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Anisa Butt and Siddharth Mallya | A still from his Netflix movie 'Brahman Naman'


Instagram: @sidmallya

Twitter: @sidmallya


DisclaimerThis review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 


REVIEW


Here, I should add to the disclaimer that it is not always advisable to self-diagnose your mental health-related issues. If you have the resources like therapy, psychiatrist or even educational books (if you understand the scientific terminology) at hand then you should first give them a go. It is because, self-diagnosis may go extremely wrong considering how you approach, your relationship with yourself, your thought process, etc. To be honest, I haven’t self-diagnosed myself with these issues, rather I was able to recognise the patterns and identify them because of the several years of reflecting back on my life and getting to know myself, to which Sidhartha refers to as ‘Self-Work’ and ‘Self-Discovery’ journey. It is the best part of this book that the author has made it very easy to understand what he has undergone throughout his life and how he became aware of it all.

So, what do I mean when I say this book helped me identify some of the issues and showed me the way forward? One of the things that Sidhartha emphasized early in the book is that this is not a self-help book. It is rather a memoir of his life regarding what issues he had faced throughout his life and anything that has impacted his mental wellbeing. Truly, the book is an honest account, where he has shared a lot of personal and past traumas and what he is currently dealing with, without any filters; there’s something wrong he has done, he accepts it; something he thinks is wrong, he mentions it without the fear of being judged. At least that’s what I think. For instance, he chose to address the mindset that makes people believe that people who come from a life of perceived privilege or people having a certain financial, religious or ethnic background are immune to mental health issues. I know, some people reading this right now may think so, and will continue to do so. But that is exactly why I think mental health needs to be talked about, even if a greater part of society isn’t aware of it, even if an even greater part of society can’t afford it, even if an even greater part of society treats those having mental health-related issues with stigma and discrimination. We need to start taking care of our mental health just like we care for our physical health; we need to normalize seeking help while going through mental disorders, just like we do in the cases of other medical conditions like diabetes or injury. 

Alright, back to where I started—how did this book help me in any way? Sidhartha has mentioned this on the back cover itself, above the synopsis that ‘I felt like I had a dementor on my shoulder, sucking the life and happiness out of me…it was no way to live.’ It is this realization that something is wrong and you need to do something about it. You’ll know when something, a thought, fear or anything like that starts to get in the way of life, career, relationships, etc. For me, it was the year 2018 that I started daily journaling and I started taking into account that there were a lot of things that were and are putting me off the road I’m supposed to travel in order to fulfill my desires and dreams. Soon, I could recognise thinking patterns and could trace back my fears, anxieties, guilt, etc to their roots. It is not that hard to realize that this thought may have stemmed off the back of so and so reason; you just need the right resources and tools by your side to reflect on your life. After all, as we say, the person who knows you the best is yourself and getting to know yourself can incredibly help you. Sidhartha has mentioned ‘getting to know myself’ along with a set of resources/tools that you could put to use for your own self-work journey. However, these may or may not work for you, it’s completely subjective. Again, back to my point—what this book did for me is help me better express myself and my mental health-related issues. It also kind of identified a range of feelings and behaviour and actions for me that are most probably the result of some mental disorder. According to me, identifying and acknowledging an issue lifts up half of your baggage from your shoulders.  Now, you have a direction and you can start working on the issue without falling prey to the disorder. So, the next time you recognise a pattern as Sidhartha says, you can immediately identify, ‘Oh, that’s my perfectionism and I can let it pass without the automatic reaction of a compulsion.’

Just to give you context, I would share with you an example from my own life. I don’t like to do it but as Sidhartha says, therapy and self-discovery won’t be easy because rummaging through your past can be hurtful; you will have to put effort to see the result. This is similar to what Sidhartha had experienced regarding the Scrupulosity OCD. In my case, it’s not Scrupulosity OCD but something along the same lines. Touchwood, I have never had that fear-based relationship with God. I don’t know when this started, but I must be going through a lot of bad days among a few good ones. My offering of prayers to the deities in our small Pooja Mandir at home would start with burning incense stick and chanting of a specific verse. Seeking good days, I would ask God that if I finish the verse before the incense stick’s flame got extinguished, let it be a good day, otherwise, I accept the bad day. In other words, it was supposed to be an easy way to have a good day. This went on for a while; the day I get a ‘good day’ signal from God, I’d focus on only good things and when I get a ‘bad day’ signal, I’d focus only on bad things, reinforcing at the end of the day that I really had a bad day. In short, I started believing that it is actually working and that one verse and an incense stick started controlling my life. This continued for four fucking years. It took me four years to realize that it’s not God but my obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour. Just recently, a couple of months before I completely eliminated that verse from my prayers and still, sometimes I automatically switch to that verse, however, I have learned to not associate with it anything fear-based. The bad part is it’s just one of the many such examples.

The book is written in very simple language and is effectively structured to get the best output. The vocabulary used here makes it really easy for us to understand everything, what he had gone through mentally, how it had impacted him and his reaction to it. As for any other memoirs, there are plenty of things you can take away from this book as well. As you read Sidhartha’s journey, you’ll come to know that there are issues completely avoidable or could be handled better and are not worth it. For instance, a sentence said to you in your childhood can have a lasting impact. The most trivial of things at an early age would show through one’s adult life or maybe throughout the life in a form of mental disorder. Not stretching it further, I will mention some of the key takeaways from ‘If I’m Honest’:

  • You could be depressed without you knowing and you can be ‘not-depressed’ even when you think you are depressed. The best way to know is to seek professional help. But if you cannot, seek help from your loved ones or just share it with the person you think would understand.
  • In the last chapters where Sidhartha has listed some tools/techniques/resources which I consider as ‘the way forward’ after you acknowledge that there is something wrong. One thing that everyone should note is the ‘power of listening’. When someone is sharing with you their mental health issues, you just need to listen ‘with your whole body’. You don’t have to try to fix their problem or give your invaluable advice; just keep your mouth shut and be a better listener.
  • Let go of the prejudices regarding mental health and issues.
  • It is okay to feel what you feel. You don’t have to feel guilty about feeling the way you do. Do not beat yourself up for that. Never.
  • Be careful about selecting the best alternatives for yourself. What works for Sidhartha may not work for you. And it’s okay. So, don’t hold on to things recommended by someone else and that is not working for you. It can be anything/anyone from a therapist to medication.
  • Be careful about how you treat children around you and what you say in front of them. You may consider it negligible, but they will remember your words and how you made them feel for a lifetime.

There is just a lot of stuff that will remain untouched in this blog like details on depression, OCD, dealing with trolls, divorce, guilt, alcohol, etc. But you can always pick up this book if you want to know more. I will just end this discussion here with a few words of wisdom from Sid. 

If you are going through anything, then know that you are not alone. It is okay to seek help and lastly, no one is immune to mental health issues.


Happy Reading!


=========================

Follow me on InstagramFacebookTwitter, and Pinterest. Don't forget to subscribe for more content. Thank you so much for reading!

Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮

Monday, November 29, 2021

Sabarna Roy Materializes a Roller-coaster of Limitless Melancholic Illusions Using the Classical Tracks in a Hauntingly Creative Manner

 

Sabarna Roy Materializes a Roller-coaster of Limitless Melancholic Illusions Using the Classical Tracks in a Hauntingly Creative Manner

Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi


Winter Poems by Sabarna Roy


Winter Poems by Sabarna Roy | Book review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Winter Poems by Sabarna Roy


Author: Sabarna Roy

ISBN: 978-9382473718

Genre: Poetry

Length: 60 Pages

Publication Date16th July 2013

PublisherLeadstart Publishing Private Limited

Book Editor: Surojit Mohan Gupta | LinkedIn: @surojit-mohan-gupta

Cover Background Painting: A Wet Afternoon in Kolkata by Arup Lodh

Painter: Instagram: @a.r.u.p.l.o.d.h

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/3xzOWPm


About the author:

Sabarna Roy (46) is a qualified Civil Engineer from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He works in a senior management position in a manufacturing and engineering construction company. He is widely travelled in India and lives in Kolkata with his family. He is an avid reader and a movie buff. He started writing during his university days, mostly English and Bengali poems. He stopped writing after he left university and took up employment. After a gap of 19 years, he started writing once again mostly to reconnect with himself. In the period of 19 years when he did not write, he spent his non-working hours reading, listening to music and watching world cinema. He loves reading Tolstoy, Chekhov, Rabindranath, Eliot, Manik Bandopadhyay Satyajit Ray, Kundera and Pamuk the most. He is hooked onto Mozart, Turkish and Egyptian music and M S Subbalaxmi. In cinema, his favourites are Aparajita, Pratidwandi, Rashomon, Eight and a Half, Breathless, Head-on, The Birds, The Godfather series, Vertigo, Sunset Boulevard, Sacrifice, Garam Hawa and Taare Zameen Par.


Winter Poems by Sabarna Roy | Book review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Celebrated Author Sabarna Roy bags Times Excellence Award 2021



Instagram: @authorsabarna

Website: www.sabarnaroy.com

Twitter: @authorsabarna


DisclaimerThis review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 



REVIEW


Winter Poems by Sabarna Roy is a collection of poetry divided into two parts, one of which comprises 12 long poems—Winter Poems 2010 and the other consists of 26 relatively shorter poems—Winter Poems 2012. As I often keep referring to Margaret Atwood’s words in my reviews, here too, I would say that once the book is out in the world, it’s the readers who decide the meaning of whatever is written. Sabarna Roy’s poetry in this collection has many layers to it. For some poems, I was able to peel off some layers of them. And for others, I wasn’t able to peel any layers of it, which, as a reader felt sort of frustrating that I couldn’t decode as in what hidden secrets or meanings I was missing on. In the following section, I have tried to convey what it felt like while reading this collection and I apologise already in case I get something wrong.


"This lake, mountain and moon are crumbling images inside a dream
Of another man - somebody else's dream - his last dream
Before he's dying drenched in a jelly of melancholy."
-From Winter Poems 2010 (no. 8, p-25)


I wouldn’t like to categorise these poems into distinct watertight compartments because the poems are spread across such a large canvas that it wouldn’t be fair to put tags on them. They each cater to many diverse and varied subjects or issues. Some of the many subjects that occur repeatedly are death, condemnation of industrialisation, impending war, love, being lost, childhood, games, loss, inequality, and the end of the world. 


For instance, the poet implicitly delivers the truth of death in a really creative way using figurative language and symbolism. ‘Shop in town…that sells your shadow’, ‘people are losing their shadows’, ‘a teenage girl hanging…in the air’ and ‘virus of light’—these are some of the usages of metaphorical and allegorical writing that add an unpleasant and poignant effect which helps depict the death. There is this amazing poem that I’d love to title ‘Love on the Road’ which powerfully defines a notion of home and what ‘home’ should be like. Which also simultaneously exudes emotions like loneliness, jealousy and challenges our decaying and cheap definitions of affection and sensuality. 


"You are the face of an ocean where I can drown endlessly
In my burning boats of thousand defeats."
-From Winter Poems 2012 (no. 1, p-35)


The one starting with ‘Glasses and utensils fell from the sky’ which is also the longest poem from the lot is my favourite too. Here, the poet uses poetic devices like hyperbole to create a dream-like world, giving it a dramatic effect and using an analogy, connecting it to the real world in a way that blurs the line between the two. The dreamy world is being inflicted with havoc as the narrator’s life is being destroyed. Another poem ‘Dream of a Dying Man’, is simply commendable. I am in awe of how magnificently Sabarna Roy has brought together surreal elements having nightmarish qualities.


The ‘Grassland Island’ poem challenges our notion of home again in a crooked manner. The poet uses allusion and symbolism to such an extent that it breaks its bond with reasoning; you just need to savour each line as you read while the narratives are turned and twisted at every other stanza. Moving onto the second part of relatively short poems, the poetic devices remain pretty much the same and the patterns continue. The poet has used the dreamy and illusory elements to their full potential. It feels as if the intensified emotions are being let out in a hauntingly creative and evocative manner. 


"Before I passed out and became sediment of ashes I saw a dream of billion coffins made of trees, metal and hydrocarbon fibres carrying unbundled skeletons of men, women, children and babies ballooning up in a smoke-filled sky."
-From Winter Poems 2010 (no.7, p-24)


There is gambling, there are ships, there is the writing of a book, there is the debris of a railway bridge, there are heaps of iron scrapings made out of crumbled ships and deluxe cars, there is a king travelling over the oceans on a speeding train and much more. Some of the poems followed this pattern (which I loved reading again and again) that made sense to me, while some of them did not make sense to me and felt absurd. As I mentioned earlier that once the book is out in the market, readers give it the meaning and here I just couldn’t do that. One thing that bothered me was that the poet chose vast canvases to paint his poetry that covered widely separated elements, which resulted in a disconnect with poetry and in itself. 

Happy Reading!



=========================

Follow me on InstagramFacebookTwitter, and Pinterest. Don't forget to subscribe for more content. Thank you so much for reading!

Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Numair Encapsulated Many Shades of Bangladesh in Bare Minimum Words Using Hair-raising, Allusive—His ‘Trademark' Narration

 

In His Short Stories, Numair had Encapsulated Many Shades of Bangladesh in Bare Minimum Words Using Hair-raising, Allusive—His ‘Trademark’ Narration 

Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi


Taxi Wallah and Other Stories by Numair Atif Choudhury



Taxi Wallah and Other Stories by Numair Atif Choudhury | Book Review By Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Taxi Wallah and Other Stories by Numair Atif Choudhury


Author: Numair Atif Choudhury

ISBN: 978-9354892134

Genre: Collection of Short Stories

Length: 132 Pages

Publication Date: 17th September 2021

PublisherFourth Estate India – An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Cover Art: Sarnath Banerjee

Cover Designer: Website: arts.mit.edu/ | Instagram: @sarnathbanerjee

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/3wxYOIX


About the author:

After studying creative writing at Oberlin College and the University of East Anglia, Dr. Numair Atif Choudhury did a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Dallas. He had been working on Babu Bangladesh!, his epic first novel, for nearly fifteen years. Soon after completing the final draft, he passed away in an accident in 2018.


Taxi Wallah and Other Stories by Numair Atif Choudhury | Book Review By Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Numair Atif Choudhury


DisclaimerThis review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 



REVIEW


Taxi Wallah and Other Stories is a collection of eleven short stories written by Late Numair Atif Choudhury that were published in different anthologies, print media and online forums throughout his writing career. The short stories are preceded by an introduction by his friend and another Bangladeshi-origin author—Nadeem Zaman. This introduction tells you how Numair’s first and only novel—Babu Bangladesh!—came to be published and a lot of other information about the author’s voice, language, the issues he chose to address and in which way, etc. The introduction also contains a sort of summary and a glimpse; a brief look into the study or the standard reading of each short story, which, in my opinion, was the best decision for the reasons you will come to know in the latter part of this review.


The introduction serves as the best review (not a critique) each story can have—what each story is trying to convey, what elements and devices are used, what characters are going through, why is it written, everything you could think of. That’s why I need not give you a summary of each story and review them separately for you. Instead, I will share my experience of reading this collection of short stories rather than a standard examination of different elements. 


(Note: You can read the Introduction by downloading the sample on your Kindle app or device. Introduction in the sample will introduce you to many of these short stories. Six out of eleven, to be precise.)


First of all, the writing style. The writing style for each story is unique with different narrators, language and narrative techniques. But there is something common in the output, which is—rubbing out paintings of day-to-day landscapes our eyes have become accustomed to and exposing the darkness of despairing and wretched reality behind those customary sights; faintly splattering the brightness of hope on this blackened canvas. This strand of hope can easily be seen in the stories titled ‘Crumble’ and ‘Chokra’. 


The second feature of his writing that I recognised is—dropping bombs of menace which creates a threatening effect amidst the serene and composed flow of writing, not breaking the flow, rather further paralysing the senses and stripping off readers of their beliefs and demystifying the crooked patterns of actual-world hidden behind the world of make-believe. Basically, the writer blurs the line between surrealism and realism to reveal a darker shade of reality as calmly as he could. ‘Different Eyes’ and ‘Asking Why’ are two such stories that epitomize this idea. 


The third and the last feature that we will be discussing in this review is—several stories in this collection are abstract on the face of it. You couldn’t start to imagine what message or moral this story is trying to implicitly convey, what is being concealed underneath all the devices, characters and conversations that we are reading. That is why I needed the help of the introduction to see the conclusion or the conceptualization that a particular story carries with it. ‘The Truth’ and ‘On the Way’ are those stories for which I had to get back to the introduction part. This is not bad at all, in fact, I propose every collection of short stories should start with such insightful an introduction.


Happy Reading!


=========================

Follow me on InstagramFacebookTwitter, and Pinterest. Don't forget to subscribe for more content. Thank you so much for reading!

Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮





Sunday, October 24, 2021

From her Birth to the Passing: The Life of Bakuli

  

From her Birth to the Passing: The Life of Bakuli

by Dhiraj Sindhi


Dedicated to those who don’t get enough time and space to grieve for their animal companions


Few words before you begin. I don't think I know and can create the art of poetry, as I do feel with other forms of writing. While grieving the loss of this little one, I had to express and let it all out. But, for better or worse, I eventually chose poetry. Feel free to comment. Would love to hear from you all readers.


From Her Birth to the Passing: The Life of Bakuli by Dhiraj Sindhi | Poetry and Prose | Dedicated to those who don't get to grieve for their animal companions
The Mother-Daughter Duo

 

That was the night, her mother was meowing louder than ever
A huge sign for the little life that could not wait to see the world
As if she knew that her house was set up days before we came to know of her
That that Peti of Alphonsos and that Washing Machine were meant for her
Not us humans. She knew, being a single child, she’ll get all of it to herself
Love, care, comfort and compassion that we would die to protect her
Only if you could tell your future that you won’t be able to do so
That I need to be more vigilant and be on my toes to be able to do so

The morning rays were spreading happiness more than light
Because the Lord Ganesha had blessed the family with a child
After some twenty-two years, we were to witness the magical world around the new-born
Where your worries and thoughts would perish the moment you saw the new-born
Like mother like daughter, the same number of black stripes squeezed into her tiny stretch of skin
A glimpse was enough to lose your heart to the fresh pink glow and her smell, like a baby shampoo
For the next few days, we wouldn’t touch the baby, ravishing the view from afar
Because we need not breach the privacy of the duo, relishing intimate moments of their lives

For the coming week, the cat mother won’t budge from her tiny abode in the attic
Caressing and grooming her daughter with licks full of affection
It could be the rains that she didn’t carry her daughter anywhere else
On Anant-Chaturdashi, we were away at the gulf, getting drenched in rain
And the baby was fast-asleep against her curled up mom’s tommy
Camouflaged, you couldn’t tell where the baby rested amid the fur of her mommy
Finally, as they say, it was time to move the kitten through seven houses
In our case, she took the kitten through four different rooms and moved twice in the same room

A tiny frightful gasp would leave us stricken, whenever the mother decided to shift
The shifting would involve a lot of meowing at first and then that scary sight
The wrapping of jaws around the neck of her kitten, swinging from side to side
Walking through many doors, springing up on and down from the parapets
She once tried to carry our heart away through the shared courtyard
Enclosed from the all four sides, eventually, she had to return
Climbing up the three storey building, leaping across roofs in the dead of the night
The baby intact, clasped in her jaws, finally, got to breathe as she again put her to sleep

When in her second house, Bakuli opened her eyes that had world of its own
Whiskers and eyebrows growing faster than ever, as if to compete tigress of her mother
Her tiny little claws sharper than her mother’s, snagging out stiches already
Soon she started imitating her mother, licking her paws, as if to launch on her preys already
That’s when we started talking to her, and her foxlike ears would perk up in response
She would raise her head to look up at us, with all the attention she could muster
Her flowery black eyes staring deep into our souls, with slightly tilted head
Pure innocence flashing into your eyes, you couldn’t resist but caress with the back of your hand

Now, she dared coming out of her little abode, stumbling down every now and then
But it was not long before she began scampering up and down the rooms
We needed to be extra careful now that she could greet our legs any given time
Even while sleeping, you do not turn sides without ensuring she’s indeed inside her space
In the early morning the duo would wake us up from deep slumber
We would agree to all their demands, chasing them around the house all day
In the evening, after a much tiresome playful field day with her
We would tuck her into her mother’s furry bosom like our own daughter

There were some days difficult for them, but the duo endured them like warriors
The Gulaab cyclone struck the coast of Cambay, completely opposite in nature
It gave us and the duo some of the most life-threatening thunderclaps ever heard
Heart-stopping sound effects, as if divine energy of the Dancing Three-eyed God 
Had been released from the sky, cascading down the steps made of cloud
The mother-daughter duo sat in darkness, chin up and calm as ever
Warrior queen and the warrior princess were the reason we felt composed these days
Not realizing how incredibly blessed are those who’ve got someone to check in on every few seconds

In her fourth week, she had truly grown up, slits visible in her big blue eyes
Chewing on things and biting our toes and fingers now that canines were developing
She had now chosen for herself the favorite spots where she would spend most of her time
Jumping up and down the threshold between hall and kitchen became her most favorite activity
Second was to hide under the fridge and the washer, making the mother anxiously meow with agony
Pacing backwards and pouncing on us humans, you couldn’t tell who’s more like her mommy
Twisting her body and licking her tail, climbing was another of her ambitions
She conquered all the cartons she ever lived in, descending on the same courageous paws

Then, the fateful day arrived that had been looming over us since long
The clouds of worries that had been contained till now had broken lose
The morning greeted us with distressing sight of kitten all shriveled up 
Puking every now and then, getting thinner than before, her steps getting weaker
Seeking solitude, she would sit alone in the middle of a room, refusing to eat
Gleaming eyes, staring into void or maybe conveying how bad she felt, crying for help
Can’t even bear the memory of that sight; the following day, minutes before she was pouncing around her favorite place
And that was the noon, the daughter ceased to meow, forever; the mother in deep slumber, and us, wailing

The medicine and the dropper that she left behind had been souvenired
Did the vet know this was coming? Was it the Sunday Holiday?
Or the lack of vets? Can it be the evil eyes?
Or was it us who made this happen?
We should have been more careful, but that’s that.
The mother had been searching for her in every corner
But now, the grieving mother is back to normal, though one thing has changed since
The nameless mother has naturally acquired the name of her daughter – Bakuli.


To the eternal memory of most precious thirty days with the bravest paws to walk on earth.
17th Sept. 2021 – 18th Oct. 2021


=========================

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Friday, October 1, 2021

Kala Krishnan’s Lyrical Prose in Mahasena Harmonizes the Novel’s Striking Elements, Creating an Undying Ode in the Reverence of the God of War and Victory

 

Kala Krishnan’s Lyrical Prose in Mahasena Harmonizes the Novel’s Striking Elements, Creating an Undying Ode in the Reverence of the God of War and Victory

Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi


Mahasena: Part One of the Murugan Trilogy by Kala Krishnan


Mahasena: Part One of the Murugan Trilogy by Kala Krishnan | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Mahasena by Kala Krishnan


AuthorKala Krishnan

ISBN: 978-9390679133

Genre: Myths, Legends & Sagas

Length: 264 Pages

Publication Date: 19th July 2021

Publisher: Context – An Imprint of Westland Publications Private Limited

Cover Design: Saurabh Garge

Cover Designer: Website: theaoi.com/ | Instagram: @garge_saurabh

Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/2YaUKS8


About the author:

Kala Krishnan works in Bengaluru. She is the author of two books of poetry, He Is Honey, Salt and the Most Perfect Grammar and Offer Him All Things Charred, Burned and Cindered, in which the god Murugan appears in surprising versions.


Mahasena: Part One of the Murugan Trilogy by Kala Krishnan | Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi | Indian Book Blogger
Kala Krishnan (PC: Kinshuk Rawat)

Instagram: @poetkala

Website: poetry.sangamhouse.org/

The Hindu Article: ‘I see Murugan as language’


DisclaimerThis review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author. 



REVIEW


Not long ago that I came to know of the associations between my hometown and the young lord Kartikeya. While there is only a single prominent temple in Gujarat that is dedicated to Balamurugan, one of the Mahapuranas tells a wholly different story. According to the local legend, as mentioned in the Skanda Purana, a golden pillar was fixed at the place along with the Shivaling (Stambheshwar Mahadev, a temple in Kavi that hosts thousands of pilgrims after its redevelopment, on the full moon and the new moon of every month) on the battlefield where Tarakasur was slain by Kumara—the young God of War, to celebrate the victory. This place was then a much-revered pilgrimage region called Kumarika Kshetra where the Mahi River met with the sea, thus Mahisagara-Sangam Tirtha, also known as Gupta Kshetra, which is now represented by Khambhat—a town on the coast of Gulf of Cambay, Kavi—a town on the other side of the gulf and the neighbouring region. That is how Khambhat has received its name, after applying phonetic laws with contraction, assimilation and elimination; the Sanskrit name ‘Stambhtirth (The Pillar Shrine)’ was transformed into modern-day Gujarati name ‘Khambhat’. I’m saving the details for some other blog, now, let’s see how the poet and author, Kala Krishnan pays ‘a homage to a cherished boy-god’—as Sharanya Manivannan says—as well as to the language of the South in a unique way and probably the perfect way for the modern world era, something that is essential to preserve and uphold the cultures cascading through centuries of generational changes.
 
Mahasena by Kala Krishnan—a mythological fiction, is a synthesis of several literary and non-literary elements that are emphasized to achieve an effect, a sense of high regard and admiration for the Lord Murugan and everything he touches in his lifespan; woven together as one lyrical phenomenon that flows rhythmically like a river, gushing down from its source at higher altitudes to the plains where it’s much needed, cutting through the grounds, rocks, valleys, mountains called Skanda, Kartikeya, Guha, Mahasena, Kandhan, Murugan, Kumara and ceaselessly thrives not knowing how many lives depend upon it in myriad aspects; it is thus the exceptionally beautiful, written in rich prose, a musical story of the God of Tamizh from his birth to battlefield, from Kumara to Mahasena, and most importantly from ‘ the Kumaras’ language’ to the fully-developed rich culture of Tamil people.
 
Let me now shed light on the five major elements that are seamlessly ingrained in the text and into one another, which bursts open the floodgates for lively imagination and even wilder creativity.
 
Nature: The free-flowing nature, something that is boundless and limitless, the flora and fauna, the earth, the sky, the fourteen worlds in the universe, the rivers, the mountains, the seasons and the likes of it, all are depicted as natural it could get. It is quite responsive and sensitive that it reacts to everything the Gods do. While it is not bound by time, space or any living being, the very presence of the divine being comforts nature and it starts moving as if dancing to the rhythm of Murugan’s heartbeats. This is because, of course, Murugan treats himself as an inseparable part of it, which is evident by the breath-taking scenes where the boy-god is shown playing with snakes and where “Kandhan was mud” and the creatures—“worms, bugs, caterpillars, bees, butterflies, dragonflies—were swimming into him, passing through skin and swimming out.”
 
Music: Music and the art of writing and reciting poems, verses, and the likes is the second thing that is given utmost importance in Mahasena, the first being the language of the South, Tamizh. The music is accommodated in the storyline as well as the writing style from the very beginning before the younger brother of Ganesha was born. The music comes to Lord Murugan as naturally as Dance comes to Shambhu and Shakti to Parvathy. Murugan always has the anklets of music wrapped around his feet and gravely condemns any flaw he recognises, which he always does. The author has cleverly ensured that the two leaders on the battlefield are equal, no more, no less. The Dashagriva Ravana also plays a small part along with the opponent of Murugan—Surapadman. As these Asuras are depicted as engineers and experimenters, they also have achieved perfection in the art of music.
 
Tamizh Language: The Tamizh language is one of the most prominent aspects of the novel. This language is portrayed as the most natural language that can occur to any being; that also goes hand in hand with everything from people to objects. The grammar, the words and the phonetics of this language are such that the words or noises a child barely a year old would make on seeing a newborn and that would be in none other than Tamizh. Murugan makes the language perpetual and never-ending by teaching it to Kuru Muni Akaththi, also known as Agastya or Akattiyam, who in turn, spreads it across the land of the South with the help of grammarians, poets, bards and scholars, where it “grew surer and more adventurous, it sank roots, and like a giant tree…and on its branches perched the mighty-winged birds of poetry, grammar and music.” And thus Kartikeya gets yet another name—Tamizh Theivan means the God of Tamizh.
 
Magical Realism: It is debatable that whether to treat the fantastical elements in mythology as pure miracles or as elements of magical realism. Well, I have chosen to call it magical realism because even in the set boundary of mythology some things go beyond comprehension and reasoning. Some of the magical realism devices are communication via dreams, epiphanies, the very birth of Kartikeya, his ability to speak to the anklets as if using a similar mellifluous sound.
 
Reconstructed Myths, Legends and Sagas with Freshly-developed Characters and Unique Working Mechanism: The author Kala Krishnan has developed her own mythology world that has its own creation story and own way of functioning. I am utterly in love with how she has presented the enigmatic images of the gods and goddesses; they are depicted as human-like as they can get and at the same time, they never lose or stop radiating the god-like aura of divine energy. It is also absolutely remarkable how the author has detailed the relationships between the siblings—Ganesha and Kartikeya, Murugan and Aambal, and one that has no equal in the universe—Shiva and Parvathy, the Mother and Father of Creation, whose relationship is just as Kala Krishnan describes it—“you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.”
 
I will be eagerly waiting for the next part in the Murugan Trilogy to uncover the secret behind ‘Mahasena’, a name given to Murugan by Indra’s daughter Devyani, also known as Devasena or as Murugan calls her, ‘Theivanai’, which is also the title of the next book.


Happy Reading!

Thank you @vivekisms for the review copy!


=========================

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Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮

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