Indian Readers discussion
COZY READS - IND. REGIONAL.TRANS
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Ibis Trilogy - Arvind, Syl, Jaya, et al.
*raises hand for voluntary participation and giving two-bit opinion*
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Yay... welcome aboard.
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Already stumped by the various terms like paltan, bomoy, sakubai, etc..
Eagerly turned the pages to look for an appendix, but Nada... :/
We had a paper on laskars, imagine reading texts like that for academic purpose O.o
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Jaya, are you in the field of English literature? Forgive my nosy parkiness, and don't answer if you want your occupation to be mysterious :P
Hahaha no no, did my masters in history, in fact the same paper's prof was acknowledged in the book :DThese days i pretend to be a Pr/corp comm professional (which is debatable)
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http://www.amitavghosh.com/chrestomat...
Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "This lovingly called as Ibis Chrestomathy is for Sea of Poppies , I guesshttp://www.amitavghosh.com/chrestomat..."
This is a treasure! Iv bookmarked it. Thanks :)
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perhaps I will come across the terms from this book when i start Flood of fire :P
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Wish I could time travel and accompany Deeti and gang to their shrine worship and following dinner.
Great to see that u started today itself. River of Smoke is my 6th Ghosh book. So far have loved d odd ones (The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies) and hated d even ones (The Shadow Lines, Circle of Reason), hope this series will be broken now.
I am re-reading it now, all the updates made me want to revisit the book...though i cant recollect anything that I read before :(
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I have a beautiful hardcopy of The Glass Palace, yet to be read.
So far no-one I know understood d Calcutta Chromosome's ending :)
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It happens a lot with me.
I have a signed copy of The Shadow Lines, which i never finished. Glass Palace and Hungry Tide are personal favourites :)
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Glad to know that my grey cells are not as bad as i thought them ro be. :-)
Also, Amitav Ghosh was my first Indian English author (not if u consider Chetan Bhagat etc) and I started reading ebooks bcoz I wanted to read 'The Glass Palace' in all my spare time. And this was just 2 yrs ago. A couple of firsts.
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At the end of the first chapter, where deeti and neel were describing their escape and deeti's depiction of it on the walls... They said she coudn't have seen what she did during the storm/ cyclone, but she claims that she could... What do you think had happened? Or i am overthinking things? ;)Syl, he writes with such ease or should i say his writing makes it such a smooth read? So much information but one ( alteast I) dont feel over burdened with them...
I dont read indian authors for the reason that i find their style a bit difficult to understand/ appreciate. Not so with Ghosh...
And il stop rambling now :D
Done with Chapter 2. New ppl being introduced in completely new settings. Ghosh has really worked on this. Loving this although cant sense where d story is heading. From Mauritius to Singapore, how will the characters come together ?
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How much of It to be attributed to the extreme mental stress and hysteria, am not sure.
How is it that Ghosh doesnt seem pretentious and boring while talking of botany in this book or the differences between sea-water and fresh-water dolphins in 'The Hungry tide' ? Maybe I m in awe of him !
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Maybe like the difference between good teachers and average teachers.
At around 11.30 I fell asleep (not due to boredome) while coming across the botanical pics drawn by Paulette.
My defence is that I barely slept yesterday. Actually I was snoring away at around 11 or so but Gautham who was watching IPL was frequently waking me up with statistics, and finally around 1 am I was fully awake that it took a cup of hot milk and reading "Midsummer's equation" to put me to sleep again. And woke up today at 5 am as my husband had an early flight to catch.
I would have loved to be taught by him... He did visit our universirty a few times but never got around attending those talks... My loss, i suppose...
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:) ahh not really, one of my friends works at Penguin, so she got a copy for me
I have read hungry tide glass palace sea of poppies...:)
and i think i read river of smoke first then sea of poppies ...totally ulta...:P
Whenever I see a book by him..I do think abt dark corridors...dim lanterns....smell of smoke....and sound of some river....and ofcourse crickets too (bug cricket..:P )
I have heard a few of his lectures and interviews on youtube. Equally delightful and his insights r so refreshingly different. That reminds me - his non-fiction 'In an Antique Land' has recd a lot of praise.
Arvind wrote: "I have heard a few of his lectures and interviews on youtube. Equally delightful and his insights r so refreshingly different. That reminds me - his non-fiction 'In an Antique Land' has recd a lot ..."Ohh must check out those then...
Done with Chapter 4. Read ~ 125 pages. Too much flashback , and d story seems to be stuck. Hopefully things get moving soon as new characters have been sufficiently well-introduced.
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I am at 100th page or so... The story is moving at a snail's pace...
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Chapter 5 - So much background info on a certain George Chinnery was given; I checked google to see if he was real !Why am I getting impatient for d story to move. Completely different mindset from yest when I loved botany etc
So, have brought hard-copies of River of Smoke and Floods of fire from d library, and am already feeling my interest rejuvenated. Also, since Bahram & co have reached Canton, it should be very interesting. Bahram is an excellent addition d book.It seems a mistake to read this on and off on a trip with kids, should hv picked something light.
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My ship too is sailing very very slow, perhaps a mile or two a day, but the journey is so enjoyable.
Hello Col. Hello ArvindI havn't managed to read much since my last update, have guests at home so not getting enough time. This book needs to be read savored properly, I feel, so havn't managed to read even while am commuting back and forth from home to office and vice versa...
Will catch up with you both soon... :)
P.S. parts of it is coming back to me in fits & starts.
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How I wish I could be invisible and time travel or just get into books at will.
Daily, when alone, I would wander off to varying places - real and fantasmic.. and enjoy myself
Yes. Chapters eight and nine have been interesting as Barry and Paulette have reached China.Hello, characters of Book #1 - Zachary, Burnham, Taramoyi's soul, Serang Ali, Kalua - Long time not heard from u.
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Glass Palace (other topics)A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India (other topics)
Letter From Peking (other topics)
The Good Earth (other topics)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (other topics)
More...
Now marching forth to Book 2 - The River of Smoke.
All interested, please feel free to join in. :-)
BLURB
In September 1838, a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower have thrown together. All struggle to cope with their losses—and for some, unimaginable freedoms—in the alleys and crowded waterways of 19th-century Canton.