Rajat Narula's Blog, page 3

The Book of Jakarta: Edited by Maesy Ang and Teddy. W. Kusuma

“The Book of Jakarta” is a lovely anthology of short stories the celebrate the city. The stories cover a wide range of subjects from ill-fated love to class prejudices to 1998 riots directed against the ethnic Chinese to the struggle of the traditional tolerance in society with increasing fundamentalism – but all of them capture Jakarta as a soulful, living, breathing city. The city is an important character in every story. The vivid imagery of Jakarta and the indomitable spirit of its people – charming and endearing – shines through each story. Having lived in the city for many years, I grew nostalgic for a place that I miss dearly. At the same time, the book made me realize how little of Jakarta I had come to know in my time there and how much more I should have explored. The short stories have been translated from Bahasa Indonesia to English – but the quality of translation is so good that the translation never becomes a barrier. Many a time, I found myself slowing down the reading to make sure I savored every word. A lovely book indeed!

It’s not over yet, folks!

If you looked at the busy streets and choc-a-bloc restaurants, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s all over. That the virus that changed the face of the earth in the last year and a half is gone for good.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The 7-day average of new cases in the US that touched a low of 4,111 on June 11, 2021 was back at 39,155 on July 16. That is a substantial increase in numbers. The global situation is not great either. The 7-day average stands at over 550 K cases a day. Indonesia is the latest country to be devastated. Horror stories are emerging of full hospitals, oxygen shortages, and people dying in their homes for lack of medical care.

While the vaccination rates have been good in some countries, there is still a large part of humanity that hasn’t been vaccinated. Even in the U.S, only 49% of the population has received both the doses. Globally, only 26% of the population has received one dose. The number is as low as 1% for low-income countries.

So why is there this disconnect between the pandemic and the human reaction to it? Are we so fed up of being at home for such a long time that we don’t care any longer?

Top Ten Writing Idiosyncrasies of famous authors

#10: Roald Dahl had strict writing timings. He wrote for two hours in the morning from 10-12 and then again for two hours in the evening from 4-6 – never deviating from these timings.

#9: Haruki Murakami was inspired to write fiction after attending a baseball game. Even though he had never written a novel before, Murakami intuitively knew he could write a great story as he watched Dave Hilton bat a double. He started writing Hear the Wild Sing that very night.

#8: D. H. Lawrence is rumored to actually climb mulberry trees totally naked to help stimulate his imagination.

#7: When asked where she came up with the plots for her famous murder mysteries, Agatha Christie said she liked to think out her stories while eating apples and relaxing in a warm bath.

#6: Truman Capote only wrote while reclining on a sofa. He wrote in pencil with one hand and used his hand to smoke a cigarette, sip a cup of coffee, or pour a sherry. Capote also steered clear of starting or finishing his writing on any given Friday. If the phone number of the hotel room he was staying in had the number 13, he would change rooms.

#5: Jack Kerouac wrote ‘On The Road’ in one feverish burst, pouring his soul onto paper in one long strip — a composition  he believed lent itself particularly well to his project, since it allowed him to keep up  his rapid pace without having to pause on order to reload the typewriter at the end of each page. After completing the manuscript he went into his editor Robert Giroux’s office and proudly spun out the scroll across the floor.

#4: Sir Walter Scott wrote most of his epic poem Marmion while on horseback. Scott was a member of the Light Horse Volunteers, which were preparing for a possible French invasion of the British Isles. Most likely Scott drew inspiration from the horsemen he saw around him in Marmion‘s description of the 1513 Battle of Flodden.

#3: Lord Byron always traveled with his dozens of animals. Just a few of the pets that made it from Byron’s English estate to Venice include ten horses, three monkeys, three peacocks, eight dogs, five cats, one crane, one falcon, one eagle, and one crow.

#2: As a souvenir from his trip to the Middle East, Gustave Flaubert brought home a mummy’s foot and kept it on his working desk.

#1: John Steinbeck preferred writing in pencil and had a specific ritual. He would begin by sharpening 24 pencils and placing them point up in one of two identical wood boxes. As soon as a pencil became dull, he would place it in the second box tip down. After all 24 pencils had been used, he would resharpen each pencil and begin the cycle again, sometimes four times or more in a single day.

Chincoteague Island

Sharing a few photos from a weekend getaway to Chincoteague island.

Surrender: Marylee MacDonald

Surrender is an engaging memoir set in times not too far back in time and yet so different from the present. Marylee tells us of her life as an adopted child, of living with an emotionally unavailable mother and an abusive father. Life turns full circle for Marylee when she gets pregnant at sixteen and has to put her baby up for adoption. It’s an eventful life indeed and Marylee does full justice writing about it. She does a particularly great job in painting a vivid picture of her surroundings and events happening around her. Her account of the time spent in the home for unwed mothers in Phoenix is particularly engrossing. It’s a book to savor.

Republicans and Trump

Me – trying to understand why Republicans are sticking with Trump

It doesn’t happen often. The vanquished candidate of a Presidential election generally makes way for another emerging leader to take over the stewardship of the party – be it Democrats or Republicans. Hillary Clinton stepped down after 2016 as did Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. And before them, John Kerry, Al Gore, Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush did the same.

But then, everything is different with Trump. He has broken all previous patterns and is set to break this one too. However, it’s one thing for him to want to lead the party, but quite another for Republicans to stick with him.

Is it because they want to continue with his brand of politics – populist, majoritarian, and espousing half-truths? After all, that style served the party well for a certain period and if it wasn’t for COVID mismanagement – may have given them another term. But if that brand of politics is what they are after, why not flock around another candidate who can wield the same sword. They would have the advantage of the same brand of politics minus the considerable baggage of Trump’s personality.

Even harder to understand is the phenomena of their sticking to Trump’s story that the election was unfairly stolen from them. Surely they don’t really believe in it?

I am sure there are a number of aspirants waiting in the wings. Perhaps, they are waiting for Trump to make one fatal error that demolishes him politically – so that they can then stake the claim for his legacy. They are not great choices, but surely they are all better than him?

The Midnight Library: Matt Haig

Matt Haig tells us a story with a message – live the life you have and stop regretting the lives you could have had. Nora Seed gets an opportunity to witness lives she could have lived and finds they all had their share of problems. While the concept is good and the message meaningful, the writing lets it down somewhat. Haig’s dialogs are ordinary and he repeats his message too many times like a self-help book. There are inconsistencies that are difficult to ignore. The concept of Nora entering a life and not knowing anything about it makes it inherently unfair for her to like and live that life. An interesting experiment nonetheless.

Read only if you really want to understand the message.

The Books that made you laugh

Humor is probably the most difficult of art forms; it is easier to make people cry than laugh. Humor seldom works for everyone. What I find funny, you may find banal. So, the writers of humor deserve an extra pat on their back when they make the world laugh.

My earliest memory of a book that made me roll with laughter was Jerome. K. Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat.” J, George and Harris are all delusional in their own distinctive ways and their boat trip down the Thames is full on unexpected accidents and difficulties that are just hilarious.

Charles Dickens also had a knack for humor. In books like “Oliver Twist” and “Nicholas Nickleby”, he creates humor scenes to offset the more somber ones. “Pickwick Papers”, his first novel, however, really showcases how funny he can be. Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller go through a number of trials and tribulations together and the reader can’t help but laugh at Dickens’ witty writing.

Joseph Heller wrote perhaps one of the greatest satire of all times. “Catch 22” is incredibly funny – a blatant mockery of patriotism, discipline and war. Catch-22 is a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

You cannot not mention P. G. Wodehouse in a post on writing humor. Bumbling, well-intentioned young aristocrats, smart butlers, damsels in distress, cunning secretaries, and comical situations. There was certainly a formula, but it worked most of the time. Even the names of the characters could make you smile. Remember Monty Bodkin and Gertrude Butterwick?

Amongst contemporary writers – I particularly admire two: David Sedaris and Jenny Lawson.

David Sedaris is irreverent and can be laugh out loud funny when he pokes fun at what he’s not. The conservatives, the people with shirts that say expletives – he can go ballistic at them and make you laugh hard. I love the way he describes random people he meets – we have all met them – but he brings them to life beautifully.

That the funniest people sometimes tend to be the saddest in their real lives. Jenny Lawson suffers from depression but makes a conscious effort to live it up when she is in a good phase. Her endless musings. paranoia and exaggerations create images and situations that are hilarious.

Several TV/film personalities have written humor books too. Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”, Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please”, Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone hanging out without me” and Jim Gaffigan’s “Dad is Fat” are notable examples. They are all good books – ranging from a moderately funny “Bossypants” to a hearwarming “Dad is Fat”.

What was the last book that made you laugh out loud?

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother: Amy Chua

An interesting book comparing the differences in raising children – Asian style Vs Western. It is less of a ideologue, and more of an amusing and amusingly told story of a mother of Chinese descent raising her children in US. It doesn’t conclude with endorsing either way as being right or wrong. A fun read.

Read

My Name is Red: Orhan Pamuk

A story set in the fifteenth-century Ottoman empire of miniaturists in Istanbul, ‘My Name is Red’ is an example of excellent storytelling. A notable feature was Pamuk’s portrayal of complex personalities. Shekure thinks something, says something else, now loves Black, now Hasan. A great job with creating intriguing, crafty, complex characters. The book ends on a high note too.

A must-read!