The Quilt and Other Stories by Ismat Chughtai

Sometimes as readers, we’re so enamoured by stories, books, themes and writing styles that are foreign to us, and to our culture, that we spend less time digging into the literary scene of our own country. Perhaps that’s because we choose those contemporary books that go super-popular and have snazzy titles, but later realize that they’re not even close to our preferences. So we avoid it altogether, not trying too hard to experiment. But then in between those rare trials, we find a book(s) that’s not on a bestseller list in the present scene, but is relatively well-known to a small section of people who’ve read it. We realize that digging deep and experimenting aren’t all that bad, and we give it more chances, and most of the times when we’ve got a hang of the kind of thing that’d be good for us, we come across more such titles and stories. We love them!

Ismat Chughtai

One such book I read is called The Quilt, Stories by Ismat Chughtai. She was a courageous Indian Urdu writer who was also a fierce feminist, and in her stories, explored themes of female sexuality, middle-class gentility and other areas of social reality.  

This collection has ten short stories, nearly all of them centred on feminism or having female characters bravely depicted just as they really are. These stories do not create fantasies or promote wishful thinking, but are descriptions of people and life as we all might have seen around us. One might think that the absence of a ‘happily ever after’ would make the stories depressing or non-hopeful, but the effect is opposite. You would be left thinking about them for a long time afterwards, and probably would feel even more close to them, just for the realness of them.

Be it the story of a child bride, getting beaten up and abused by the in-laws, yet having her own innocent ideas, or that of a woman scared of childbirth; be it a story of a woman who spent thirty years not getting over the man she loved, or that of a domestic worker thinking of the Englishman as her man – the stories do not shy away from presenting stories of people who’re very much real, very much messed up and whose stories are looked down on.

The beauty in Ismat Chughtai’s stories is in the writing style and the realism, the frankness and light-heartedness with which they’ve been narrated. If the translation manages to make a reader love those stories, no doubt the original Urdu version would be amazing! I’m finding it a little hard to describe the writing style. It’s simple, yet the stories are narrated in a way that you just cannot stop reading! Half the things are not direct, but implied, and that makes this narration just so unique.

One of my favourite stories in this collection is called Roots, and is about two families from different religions, living next to each other with utmost friendship that spanned three generations. That was a time when partition was limited only to a joke, but then it started becoming a reality, extended family and relatives started flocking in to the two houses, and a deep chasm was created in between them. After many, many years when the lady of the house refuses to leave for Pakistan along with her children, the story reflects her pain, confusion and memories associated with the place. Where is home? What is this stupid thing called ‘our land’? Is it not here, where she was married, where her children were born and where her husband lay buried after fifty years of marriage? This, and other stories like these do not talk about politics or superficial ideas, but the small lives of real people who just want to live a love-filled and happy life.

I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in stories that explore women and their lives, Urdu literature, popular classical authors, or Indian stories. It’s a light-read that would definitely leave you with something to remember.

Find it at: Amazon

Translated by M. Asaduddin in 2001. Published by Penguin Books in 2011.
Recommended to me by a super-duper friend!

Book Talk: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

John Boyne

Title: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Author: John Boyne

Published: 2006 by Random House

Pages: 216

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 3.5/5!

Blurb excerpt from Goodreads
Bruno is nine years old, and the Nazis’ horrific Final Solution to the “Jewish Problem” means nothing to him. He's completely unaware of the barbarity of Germany under Hitler, and is more concerned by his move from his well-appointed house in Berlin to a far less salubrious area where he finds himself with nothing to do. Then he meets a boy called Shmuel who lives a very different life from him -- a life on the opposite side of a wire fence. And Shmuel is the eponymous boy in the striped pyjamas, as are all the other people on the other side of the fence. The friendship between the two boys begins to grow, but for Bruno it is a journey from blissful ignorance to a painful knowledge. And he will find that this learning process carries, for him, a daunting price.

My Thoughts!

Before reading this book, I had imagined it to be something really, really profound, considering it’s been made into a movie as well. Based on the horrific time of the Holocaust, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas follows the story of nine year old Bruno who lives happily in Berlin. His father is a senior soldier, and one evening, ‘The Fury’ decides to come to dinner at their home. He’s the man who runs the country, and although Bruno doesn’t realize it, it’s a pretty big deal. Bruno’s father is promoted to the post of Commandant, and he tells the family they’re to move to a new place that Bruno calls Out-With. He’s horror struck at first, and doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. He cannot surely leave his three best friends for life! But the move is made, and soon enough Bruno feels he’ll go mad if he just stayed put. So he decides to explore.

Part of the new house that disturbs him is the view from his window. He can see a huge wire fence, taller than their three-storied house, going endlessly on both sides. And behind the fence, he sees desolate men and children, all in striped clothes and matching caps. When he decides to explore around, he walks along the fence and after some time, finds a boy his age sitting behind the fence. The two become friends. The year that follows is one where Bruno is gradually exposed to the horrors of the world, and the book describes how he feels about the same, and how he acts. After about a year, their mother decides she’s had enough and wants to take the kids (Bruno has a twelve year old sister Gretel) back to Berlin. Now Bruno is sure he will badly miss his new friend, Shmuel, so he decides to do something special for his last day at Out-With.

The story has been narrated in third person, and written as a children’s book. It’s suitable for all ages, though. From what I could infer from the writing style, the story and the theme, the author tried to put forward a child’s viewpoint about the horrors of war, and how it affects them. It definitely talks about a friendship without limit or distinguishing between communities and caste, away from the malice of ignorance. By playing down with words the terrible events at Out-With, it seemed the author wanted to talk about mistreatment and the terrible things that happened at concentration camps, which he managed to. Somewhat.

I had been feeling pretty much okay with the book until I read a couple of comments on Goodreads, which was when I realized that that’s what I feel too, to some extent. To begin with, Bruno could have been shown a more... understanding child. It is reasonable to assume he’d be innocent at age 9 and seeing things like that for the first time, but perhaps if the mother, if not the father, could have sat him down and told him why they moved at all. That’s what would normally happen, right? What I found slightly off-putting was that a whole year passed when he was friends with Shmuel, yet there’s little progression of his maturity. A kid listening to stories about the other side of the fence for a year, looking at his emaciated friend should be able to understand things better.

As for the ending, since I hadn’t yet watched the movie, it was pretty surprising, and I wished it weren’t that way, but well, even if it’s sad, it made a point. And drove it home. I just wish the last chapter could have been more elaborate, but then again, I think it goes with the way the book has been written. The focus is almost entirely on Bruno. Overall, it’s a light read in terms of writing style, not so much in terms of content. It might not be the best book themed around the Holocaust, but for younger readers, it makes its point quite well. I’d recommend giving this book at least one read. And then perhaps enjoy the movie version (which I've heard is better!)

Quotes from the book

“Don't make it worse by thinking it's more painful than it actually is.”

“. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.” 

“Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.” 

He looked down and did something quite out of character for him: he took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly. "You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”

PS- The Fury in the story is Bruno’s version of The Fuhrer, the German word for Hitler. Similarly, Out-With is Bruno’s mispronounced version of Auschwitz.

Review: The Girl With All The Gifts

M/R. Carey

Book Title: The Girl With All The Gifts
Author: M.R. Carey
Published: 2014 by Orbit (Little, Brown Book Group)
Pages: 403
Find it at: Amazon
My Rating: 5/5

Goodreads Blurb!
Not every gift is a blessing...

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.

My Thoughts!

The Girl With All The Gifts is what would leave you shuddering, for various reasons, depending on how you interpret it. Melanie, a ten year old girl living with her classmates at the 'base', knows no other home. Getting strapped into a wheelchair every morning with a gun pointed at her, she gets ready for classes, and a few other routine things every week or so. As you read this book, get ready to dive into a future where nothing seems safe anymore. Guard yourself with arms, lots of e-blocker and only then go about your day. If you have a day left, that is.

At the base, Melanie takes classes with different teachers, none of whom are as good as Miss Justineau, who frequently tells them stories. Nobody likes Caroline Caldwell, the woman who runs the 'programme'. What happens when one day, Mrs Caldwell asks for Melanie? Who are those men slinking around the boundaries of the base? And when everything is turned around, how can things get even worse? But they do. And that's when you, as a reader would start realizing what is happening. Set in a dystopian setting (or something more imaginative and horrifying than that), this book is about the life of a girl who likes imagining herself as Pandora - the girl said to have all the gifts. This book is also about fighting for survival and about goodness in the midst of evil. It is also about personal life goals and crossing limits, boundaries and whatever has been set for you, just to achieve those. It's about love for fellow humans, even strangers, because sometimes those are all you have. It's also about surrender and about why it can be okay to give up, to make the best of the situation at hand.

The story has been written in third person, but even that narration seemed different to me somehow. It transitioned from nearly one person's perspective to someone else throughout the book, which I thought was inventive. This is also a great book if you want to increase your vocabulary. I've underlined so many words I didn't know even existed! Other than that, I liked all the characters, even the horrendous Mrs Caldwell, since they all seemed to be carrying their own back stories and even if you hate anyone, it's not without good cause. More than that, it's Melanie and Miss Justineau's relationship and their strong character sketches that keep the book going. It's hard not to empathise with characters like them. The sequence of events is such that the book's bound to keep you hooked, especially since it'll be a long time when you start understanding what's it all about. That's when you'll find yourself in a confounded state, because you'll be wanting to shut your eyes as you read on about unimaginable stuff, but you'd be automatically reading it nonetheless. 

I really can't talk a lot about this book without giving away anything, which I don't want to, because that'd be spoiling the reading experience for you. But I'd recommend all lovers of futuristic, apocalyptic, horror stories to read this book. It's also part fantasy, but mostly about human relationships, especially that of a child and parent. It's classified under horror not because it's the 'OMG-there-comes-a-foul-ghost' kind of scary, but the kind that slowly seeps into your veins as you read the words, and since it's already running in your blood, you'll feel cold all the time. Yes. That kind.    

Quotes marked from the book:

'You can't save people from the world. There's no where else to take them.'

'Melanie finds this interesting in spite of herself. That you can use words to hide things, or not to touch them, or to pretend that they're something different than they are.'

'It's not just Pandora who had that inescapable flaw. It seems like everyone has been built in a way that sometimes makes them do wrong and stupid things.'

'When your dreams come true, your true has moved. You've already stopped being the person who had the dreams, so it feels more like a weird echo of something that already happened to you a long time ago.'

'The horror of the unknown is more frightening than any horror you can understand.'

Classic Talk #6: Short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist and short story writer*. His stories are themed upon dark romanticism and centered around evil, sin and the dark side of human psychology. In the past week, I've read four short stories by Hawthorne, as part of an online course. That made me wonder why on Earth did I neglect classics earlier? You know how you know of popular names in the world of literature, yet you hardly ever check them out? That's not the best idea. Check those authors out, and to complement that, read up story analyses on the net from authentic sources. There's soooo much to learn!

# 1: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (click on the title to go to the book's Goodreads page)

A notable researcher and scientist, Dr Heidegger invites his four old friends to his study. These four friends have had not-so-great lives, and they're all old now. So when instead of the expected boring experiment, Dr Heidegger produces a draught supposedly from the Fountain of Youth, the friends get excited. This book explores man's fascination with achievement by defying the laws of nature, using science. From how I interpreted the story, the four friends get wildly excited as they think they're getting younger, and the maturity they displayed at old age seemed to have been replaced with the foolish acts of youth.

It was actually a refreshing read. It's mysterious as well, in the sense that a reader would be fascinated not just with the events that occur, but also with the setting and what the various, mystical objects signify. This story expresses the lure for youth and beauty that's present in human beings. You can read this story in the book, Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

# 2: The Birthmark

Aylmer is a brilliant scientist/alchemist. His wife Georgiana possesses unparalleled beauty. He should be a happy man, but his ideals for perfection are so strongly rooted in him that he feels terribly for that little red birthmark on Georgiana's cheek. His revulsion to it is so strong that Georgiana starts hating it too, before feeling like she should die rather than let that horrendous birthmark make her husband shudder. Aylmer, convinced of the power of his scientific knowledge (which has been doubted, by the way), decides to make his wife rid of that birthmark. What follows is a story of man tampering with nature's creation, and dealing with its after-effects. (No. It's not as simple as plastic surgery, in case you were wondering)

The Birthmark is a story of humanness in all things. Of flaws present in the most seemingly perfect things, and how sometimes the quest for flawlessness becomes too overpowering. Also, since this was written in the year 1843, when science was seemingly too fascinating and new, it also shows an over-dependency on science and trusting it to solve all problems.  

# 3: Rappaccini's Daughter

Giovanni Guasconti is a student at the University of Padua. He discovers a beautiful garden near his living quarters, full of brilliant plants and herbs. Someone tells him that it is Rappaccini's garden, a man who literally lives science. As Giovanni starts observing the garden, he notices Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Rappaccini, who enchants him at one glance, just like she did many men before Giovanni. She's just so beautiful. Entranced, Giovanni finds a way to talk to her, and it soon becomes a routine. He cannot just stay away from her, even when he starts feeling that she's not entirely right. Or does he think so? Does he feel like that based on rumours about Rappaccini's monstrosity and about Beatrice? I had initially believed it all to be true - Rappaccini meddles with nature in the most horrific way, resulting in his most prized possession - his daughter - suffering the consequences. But when I read a fellow student's essay on this story, I got another point of view. That of trust in love. If Giovanni had believed what he felt rather than what he saw or heard, could he have had a different, happier relationship with Beatrice?

The story can be interpreted in different ways, I realize. It is partly Gothic horror, relating to the acts of Rappaccini and how it seems to affect those who come in contact with it (read Giovanni). It can also represent the perils of trying to overpower nature with science. 

“There is something truer and more real, than what we can see with the eyes, and touch with the finger.”

# 4: The Artist of the Beautiful

Among the four stories, I'm most conflicted on this one. I found it a little difficult to read because of it's elaborate descriptions, but I loved and hated it at the same time. I'm not sure why, except that I loved the essence of an artist depicted in this story, but hated the way it ended. True, a lot of stories by Hawthorne, if not all, do not have happy endings, but I wanted to shout and fling my Kindle across the room (which I obviously did not). I might be biased, because I was anyway reading a lot of stories by the same author, based on similar themes of science. But still. 

Owen works in a clock shop as a watchmaker. He's been dedicated to working on something 'secret' that he is creating, which turns out to be a mechanical butterfly of unimaginable beauty. It is a story of an artist, and describes in chilling relatable language, the way an artist feels - for his art, for the world, for the people who do not understand him. I'm no artist, but I had flashbacks of people who seemed to be like the ones Owen runs away from. Probably that's what made me sad. Then there's this wonderful idea of an artist's spirit embedded in his work, so much so that it seems like it is competing with nature. Again, we see themes of nature vs science in this, but I want to focus only on art and artists and this confusing world! I'd recommend people invested in creative work to read it. If you feel the story drags because of descriptions, I'd suggest you to be patient and still read it. Hopefully you'll end up loving it. Even if you don't, you would get a brilliant insider's account of an artist's mind, which you most definitely need to know. Read this book, okay? It's a short, short story!

The last three stories are available in the book, Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Have you read any of these? Or perhaps Hawthorne's other popular novel, The Scarlet Letter? What do you think of such classics?     

              

*Source: wikipedia.org

                                                                                            

Book Talk: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Book Title: Fahrenheit 451

Author: Ray Bradbury

Published: 1953 (Ballantine Books)

Pages: 159

Find it at: Amazon

Spoiler alert: This is also kind of a summary, not just a review.

They call it dystopian. I feel what Bradbury predicted might not be far from a potential possibility. A haunting tale of a future where 3D, televised 'families' are more important than the people you live with, where firemen are armed with kerosene and matches and light fire in houses where books are reported to be. They cannot remember a time when firemen used to put out fires and people like the young girl Clarisse, who dare to ask questions or spend time to 'think', are considered mad and unsuitable for society. The basic premise is that no one should ever be sad, and for that, everyone has to be ridden of things that make humans sad.

Guy Montag, a fireman with a wife (Mildred) devoted to her TV 'family', meets seventeen year old Clarisse and finds her strange because of the kind of questions she asked and how she made him think about things he hadn't thought about lately. When did he last smile? Was he happy? But soon, it becomes a routine when he meets her every evening for a few minutes as she walks along, an air of wonder and curiosity in her features, something that's so new to Guy that he feels sad just spying on her family next door. One day, he feels something's off and he never sees Clarisse again. Then there was another house reported where the firemen find an old woman clinging to her books, and when she refuses to leave them, Guy looks on horrified as his boss lets her light up her house herself, and dying in that fire inside.

That incident shakes him up and for the first time in years, he's craving for real company, but his wife doesn't understand his sadness and wants to stay with her TV family, his boss seems to know something, to understand this stage in a fireman's life, but is mean about it, the robot dog at the station seems to be growling at him more and more, and he's started hiding books in his own home. Soon enough, he realizes that he cannot live there anymore. There's the war coming and people are to busy driving rashly, staring into 3D people and screens, listening to talks with earpieces permanently stuck in their ears, looking at advertisements constantly running on billboards so people cannot pause to think for themselves. He soon turns into a Wanted man, and makes a run for his life.

A lot many things happen with Guy in this book, beginning with coming across Clarisse and getting a jolt out of the everyday desensitized living, to being hunted by the whole city and escaping into another world. He realizes he's not alone, but the power of the world overtaken by the craze of keeping everyone from thinking is too much and the rest are too small in number. Yet, they're hopeful. As the frenzied society comes to an end, these men, with memorized books and knowledge, armed with hope and ideas, set to rebuild the society, all of which has been wiped out by war. 

With a title that refers to the temperature at which paper burns, Fahrenheit 451 talks about books and censorship (because academic plain texts, I think, and user manuals were allowed) and the power of independent thought and ideas, things people are banned from indulging in. It's a good, short read, well described, although you might feel like it's become stagnant in between. It picks up pace, however, in the later half of the book. It's also been written in a way that made me wonder if there were perhaps printing errors, with phrases repeated, but that's how it is. It leaves the reader to ponder over what is happening even now. What makes me praise this book is the timing and the imagination. This was written in 1953, and what Bradbury imagined then seems much too possible right now. So what if we don't have radios plugged in the ears? We have headphones. We have more screens - LCD, computer, tablets, smartphones, etc - than books. If this situation of an imagined world would shake you up and make you slow down a little, be sure to read this book. If you still have the time to read, that is.

Some quotes from the book:

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there."

“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” 

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.”

“The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.” 

“Do you understand now why books are hated and feared? Because they reveal the pores on the face of life. The comfortable people want only the faces of the full moon, wax, faces without pores, hairless, expressionless.” 

“Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for... are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book.”