The 7 Secrets series by Devdutt Pattanaik: Impressions

I was gifted the 7 Secrets series by a dear friend recently, and I read the 7 Secrets of Vishnu and the 7 Secrets of Shiva back to back. They are both structured in the same way with the author explaining the myth and symbolism of many a Vishnu and Shiva lore. The Vishnu book takes the avataars and forms of the Preserver God (Matsya, Kurma, Mohini, Krishna, Ram, Kalki, etc.) and explains why the incarnation was taken, what it represents, and the common stories associated with it. The Shiva book, on the other hand, picks the Destroyer God's many roopas or forms (Kala Bhairava, Ardhanarishava, Nataraja, Shankara, etc.) and tells the story behind each of them.

The books are half full of pictures and serve as helpful cases in point. There are images of temples, paintings and statues on every other page that help a reader understand the symbols associated with a certain God. With the help of these pictures, the author also demonstrates the regional variations in a single lore thus reaffirming the complexity of mythology. Our epics are not a linear stories, but an intricate web of stories which have God-knows-from-where branches.

The modern reader of mythology will find many insights in the books. My favourites include the reason why Brahma, or the Creator God, is not worshipped among Hindus, the function and meanings of the Adi-Shesh-Anant Nag, the significance of the Shiva Linga, the Deva-Asura symbology, and the nature of Goddess Lakshmi.  
 
What I like about Pattnaik's style of writing is that he treads with perfect balance on this treacherous ground. In a country full of religious fanatics and self-proclaimed mythology experts, he writes with confidence and caution, taking care to not sound like a blind believer or like an insensitive rationalist. He sometimes proffers logical explanations, but mostly sticks to storytelling and tries to be free of bias. The author is also a gifted illustrator, and I missed seeing his wonderful illustrations in this book.

However, I find that I'm beginning to get bored of reading Devdutt Pattanaik's books. While the author's admirable style of  writing remains the same, it is the content that is getting repetitive. Not the author's fault, of course. He cannot change mythology. He may write about different things, but the common interlinking stories, which are necessary for explanation's sake, appear over and over. The profusion of books on Indian mythology in the market are also to blame, for I tend to pick and read them all. How Ram goes to vanvaas and Krishna kills Kamsa must remain unchanged.

I am going to take a little break from books on Indian mythology, but I wholeheartedly recommend Pattanaik's books to a more eager student.

This is love (LOL)

(Image source: Deviant Art by Yoda13)

The summary of all I'll ever have to say to you is I love you.

A love that breaks shore over and over at your stone feet, 

hoping you will feel something; anything.

Step into my skin for a day, and know how I bleed for you.

It's hard on days when the voice of my love will not be tamed.

That helpless, shameless kind of love that I can lay at no one else's altar.

My songs are orphaned without you.

My heart, a lost child in a fair.

My life, an endless spin down a black vortex.

When love is on the other side of the thick red line of morality.

But I've chosen to be blind to all else but you.

It's harder still when I almost believe that my love will be returned.

Kill me, if that's what it takes to make you lay your eyes on me.

Let me peel away all that is not about you. You were made for worship.

'Love me' I beg, you walk away, we start again.

I resign everyday to a life without your love, and the damn thing just grows stronger.

This is love. (Laugh out loud.) Exit.

Maid in Singapore by Kishore Modak: Impressions

Despite telling a complex grey tale, Kishore Modak's is one of the coldest voices I've ever read. A lot happens in the 239 pages of this short novel, yet the author remains impassive, failing to draw the reader in. It's more like reading a newspaper than a novel with no emotions evoked, and no connect made. I read the book in a day; not exactly sucked into the vortex of the tale, but like a rooted bystander observing its morbid goings on.

But 'Maid in Singapore' has a plot that one will not forget in a hurry. Kishore Modak writes about a modern nuclear family with an Indian wife Rashmi, a British husband, David, and their adolescent son of mixed ethnicity, Jay. When they are forced to move from London to Singapore, their life takes an unexpected turn. The presence of their new Filipino maid, Mary, triggers off a chain of events stemming from infidelity. The lead up is rather complex but it will be safe to mention that the plot has a lot of meat in it involving kinky sex, bastard children, cancer, homosexuality and even a gender change operation thrown in for good measure.

The story is apparently based on true events (gulp), and it chills one to think this is more than fiction. Like I've mentioned above, despite the intrigue of the plot, Modak's style of writing is strangely sterile. It is difficult to put a finger on what exactly is lacking in the style, but it's somehow clinical. Despite the shame, anger, blame, resignation and acceptance the protagonists go through, they fail to touch you. Here you're reading about a  man-wife relationship gone bad, a terminal illness, even sexual deviations, but you never once feel anything on the left side of your chest, or the corner of your eye.

And then there are times, when the author gets into a philosophical mood and leaves you with a mouthful of words and little else. Sample these lines:

Time, it simply moves away from us, leaving us in a rut of petty, personal tangles, forcing us to look down, down where there is nothing but the mundane to toy with, while on top things move steadily away on the waves of time, reaching the horizon before moving out of sight, forever, never once waiting for us to look up. 

OR

Isn't marriage supposed to enliven our sexual fantasies, keeping us physically contented in its holy circle, nuptial gravity ensuring that we don't waver outwards, tangentially away from the circumference into the realm of infidelity?

You feel like slapping the editor at these points, but then the next murky turn distracts you. So, Maid in Singapore is a twisty story of human frailties - convincing, well-told even, but one with no heart in it.

   

50 Shades of Grey by E L James: Impressions

I'm very late for the global kinky party, but I finally read 50 Shades of Gray by E L James. And no, I'm not going to act like a literary elitist a-hole and say things like oh, this book is such a load of bull. Because it isn't, and I, ahem, lapped it up while it lasted. That, however, doesn't mean I'm rooting for it to get a Booker. I read it like millions of women (and men) in the world because hey, everyone needs a trashy break. That, and everyone has secret voyeuristic needs to satisfy. Oh, admit it already.

So 50 Shades of Gray is apparently, a what they call, a mommy porn book. I don't know about the mommy bit, but it is definitely like porn - exciting and boring, if you know what I mean. Actually, it's like an advanced M&B that struck gold. After the first three times of reading about Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele's kinky sexcapades, you're like 'yeah, okay, get on with it already'. Exciting, boring.

For the 30 people left in this world who still haven't read the book, it is the story of super successful-rich-handsome young industrialist, Christian Grey and nubile little Anastasia Steele, who get into this kinky dom-sub (dominant-submissive) agreement, resulting in a stormy relationship, BDSM sex, emotional turmoil, yada, yada. I was reminded very much of 'Pretty Woman' while reading the book - obscenely wealthy guy meet charming regular whore girl, except Christian Grey is young, has a dark past, and twisted in the head, and Anastasia Steele is a student and not a whore.

James writing is nice and pacy, and she tries hard to let the reader know how much she has researched wine, obscure music and the ways of the filthy rich. But the same cannot be said of her vocabulary, because by the end of the book, all you seem to have read are the words 'flush', 'dark', 'orgasm' and 'oh my'. Her use of  dialogue using Anastasia Steele's 'inner goddess' and 'subconscious, though' irritating at times, is mostly amusing. Her characterization is also good, making Christian Grey very believable and oh-so-desirable. And yes, Anastasia too.

I'll remember 50 Shades of Grey mostly because of the *cough* new things I've learnt from it, but will I read the remaining books of the trilogy? No. I'd much rather wait for Hollywood to make a movie and dish it out to me, and perhaps do the following. :D

Not a goodbye yet

Blow away you say?

Blow away all preciousness

Blow away everything

that truly matters to this heart?

Poked, probed, pricked, pinned

Broken, tattered, worn thin,

Whatever its state or shape,

It is an object of my love.

How can I wish away

the fire to my cold,

the rain to my drought

the rhythm to my heart?

The waiting never ceased

The wanting never ceased

I may have turned my face away

But I never stopped loving

Invitation for destruction

(A Bill Jones painting from http://www.painters-online.co.uk)

Yes, love

rain again, flood again

even nature isn't cruel this often.

Why you? Why me?

I've held in my palms

long lonely nights

fingertips shriveled

with wiping tears.

I've held in my palms

a hope that wouldn't die

a hope that bloomed

even in hatred's Sahara.

Yes, rain again cruel one

One drop, a million drops, 

until this deluge

destroys me once more.

Stricken

My mind had been still, like a clear night sky.

Some stars sprinkled even.

So I slept in peace, unsuspecting.

But I awoke, in the 'middle of the night' mahurat

The way they have in stories of myth.

That time of ghosts and ominous things.

It must have been like a loudclap of thunder

or blinding lightening, just behind my lids

Amplified millionfold in the land of Hypnos

Like an Indra lying in wait,

sharpening his quiverful of bolts

on a trumpeting Airavat.

No, like a hundred angry Indras

on a hundred angry Airavats

Lightning, trumpeting, lightning, trumpeting

My eardrums shattered, my world ripped,

I lay there, perfect darkness about me.

Then, out of the skies of my past

the first drops came.

A big thought of you,

and another, and another

until my face was drenched, with salty rain.

Before I knew, what pillar to hold

Drops became walls of water.

There was no stopping the deluge that night.

There was no saving my dams that night.

I would have to sink or swim,

Through this flash flood of emotion.

My heart shook, my limbs too,

I perhaps genuflected in bed too.

But memories were in no mood for mercy,

So I waited and let wash upon me

wave upon wave of our time together.

Your smiles flickered across the skies,

teeth flashing amidst rolling clouds.

Past happinesses projected now

in tear-jerking shades of grey.

While the storm of 'us' danced the tandav dance

breaking my walls like dominos.

In the churning oceans of thought

I tossed about and counted hours

till the sun of my present rose again.

I started all over again,

with the stricken remains of my will to forget.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel: Impressions

Long before the (apparently) brilliant film was made, long before everyone was talking about Yann Martel like he was their friend from next door, my then boyfriend had recommended I read 'Life of Pi'. Of course, I didn't. But when the Universe brought me a recommendation this second time around, I decided to. And WHAT.A.BOOK! Yann Martel owns you with his dazzling writing through the 319 odd pages of the book with effortless, photographic writing, making the reading of this book no less of an experience than watching a 3D film on a 70mm screen.

'Life of Pi' is a wonderful, whimsical story about Piscine Molitor Patel - 'known to all as Pi Patel' - and his journey across the Pacific on a lifeboat with a tiger! The 16-year-old protagonist thinks he is the sole survivor of a sunken ship, until he finds himself aboard with four animals from his father's zoo - a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and Richard Parker, the Royal Bengal Tiger. The other three animals get eaten and Pi is left alone on the lifeboat with the tiger. The story proceeds to tell us how he survives the endless Pacific, keeping the tiger and his sanity alive for more than 200 days. Teetering of the edge of life and death, Pi learns the many secrets of animal life, in a bid to survive among them.

Parable-like, 'The Pacific' is the second and the largest section of the book that talk about Pi's life at sea. It is here that the meat (and a lot of astounding special effects in case of the movie) of the story lies. However, my personal favourite is the first part of the book, which is called 'Toronto and Pondicherry'. This part is about the teenager's life before the wreckage, and his finding a love for God in all religions. Martel slips in simple, insightful messages about harmony in religions, about finding divine comfort in small places and things like prayer rugs or church bells or incense sticks. This part also talks about the nature of animals, within and outside of zoos, and the author's thorough research throws delightful little tidbits of information your way, without ever preaching.

The third and last part of the story 'Mexico' is when Pi washes aboard the Mexican town of Tomatlan, parts ways with Richard Parker and returns to human habitation. The most striking part of this section is Pi's retelling of his story to two Japanese officers, who refuse to believe that Pi lived and survived with wild animals on board. Martel, through Pi, substitutes the animals with human characters and recounts his tale, leaving the reader wondering if the story was a parable all along.

'Life of Pi' is a fantastic book, and one page after another, you realise why the work won the Booker, so much acclamation, and a place in cinematic history. Readers of all kinds and ages will find this book appealing for its simplicity, brilliance and unforgettable story. It is definitely going into my 'ask-son-to-read' list of books.

         

With great power...

 Think about this, won't you dear men?

Aroma Therapy made easy by Nirmal Minawala

Aroma Treasures functions tirelessly in its bid to transform Aromatherapy into a household name in India. To educate people and spread awareness, proprietor Nirmal Minawala has written a book titled ‘Aromatherapy Made Easy’. This book has received several accolades and has been accepted very well in the industry. Many beauty institutes use it as a textbook.

At 52 pages, Aroma Therapy Made Easy is a slim little edition, but don’t be fooled by its size. The book is a fairly comprehensive one, and covers the width of the alternative medicine of aromatherapy.  The first two chapters – An introduction to Aromatherapy, and Holistic Approach, introduce in easy language the principles upon which Aromatherapy is based. It tells us how and where this form of medicine can be used. Additionally, it stresses on the other ways in which general health can be maintained.

The third chapter throws light on the methods of extraction for essential oils while the fourth discusses in detail the properties of essential oils. The fourth chapter is the longest, with the author describing the properties of more than 80 kinds of oils. The descriptions include attributes, indications, and sometimes, contraindications.

Chapter five and six of the book focus on the limited number of carrier and macerated or infused oils, and Minawala very helpfully mentions exactly what uses and dilutions for each of these oils is. Blending techniques are also discussed briefly, with an important warning about patch tests. Then come the methods of use, that include terse descriptions of vapourization, steam inhalation, usage on tissue, bath, massage, hair treatment, skin treatment and additional uses.

The eighth chapter on Formulas is the one that therapists will find most useful, as it has formulations for a number of common ailments like colds & coughs, muscular pains, stress, depression, and hair fall among others. The book ends with a handy therapeutic index and finally, a note on Safety and Precautions.

A thoroughly recommended book for anyone running a spa or offering spa services within their salon setup.

This article appeared in the November 2012 issue of StyleSpeak - the salon & spa journal and the November-December issue of Spa Mantra 2012.