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The Awkward Age (Henry James) - February 2 2005
Quest for Kim (Peter Hopkirk) - January 7 2005
A little break from a horribly busy phase was enjoyably spent reading about Peter Hopkirk's quest for Kim. I was somewhat at loggerheads with Hopkirk. His interest in the Great Game seemed to pervade his interest in Kim. To me, the Great Game in Kim, seemed less than incidental. Whatever Kipling's original construction and thoughts that led to Kim, the book itself outgrew Kipling and, not just concepts like the Great Game, concepts of Imperialism itself seemed to be taking a backseat compared with a zestful exploration of the Geography and History of India that Kim seems to symbolise for a modern Indian reader.
But, I could travel with Hopkirk even with a partial overlap of our interests. The disappointment was with the relative sluggishness or disinterest that he seemed to have with following Kim's journey beyond Ambala. I think, the relative unfamiliarity with these regions also existed in Kim itself - Kipling having given much less clues of locations and people that inspired the latter half of Kim. But, Saharanpur and the Sahiba - journeys in the Himalayan foothills - how could all of these have been less interesting than Lahore and Ambala?
Phineas Finn (Anthony Trollope) - November 23 2004
The Redfort, Delhi (Louise Nicholson) - November 15 2004
Sunset at Blandings - November 10 2004
The Bubble (Mulk Raj Anand) - October 30 2004
I started reading this book, while hunting for a very tangential reference. A 1940s reference to an Indian Nationalist living in London, by George Orwell, in his defense of P.G. Wodehouse. Some detective work on my part seemed to indicate that the reference maybe to Mulk Raj Anand. And then, I came to know that "The Bubble" was more or less autobiographical work referring to that period in the life of Mulk Raj Anand.
Somewhat ignoble reasons for chosing the book to read? My original reason was swept away as I started reading the book purely for the light it throws on the life of a typical middle class Indian youngster who was making the mandatory visit of those times, to England, for higher studies. (I made a mental note to compare all other writings that reflected on this aspect - Gandhi, Nehru, Harivansh Rai Bachan (his visit was after Independance, but, still).
The phrase I liked the most, in the book, was "Bismillah hi galat". There are a number of Indian sayings that have connotations similar to this. The Hindi - "sir mudate hi Oley padhe". The Telugu - "Modate pappulo kalesaavu". None of them seem as powerful as Mulk Raj's construct - referring to things looking so awry at the very first tentative step.
Funny coincidence, that the very next book I was reading, after the Da Vinci Code, also referred to the Vitruvian Man :-)
(Unfinished reading, as yet)
Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - October 20 2004
I have no patience with secret societies, conspiracy theories and such. Much less patience with religious fanaticism of any kind. I, therefore, started reading the book rather reluctantly, but, did find it unputdownable. It isn't the best of thrillers one has read - but, it is gripping enough.
Most interesting in the book were the descriptions of the many interesting locations I have not visited. Louvre museum itself, of course. The St. Sulpice church and the Roslyn church. Westminister Abbey and the poet's corner. The kneeling pilgrimage. The Paris Rose line. One loses patience with religious meanings being read into simple geographical constructs. But, the one interesting point that was highlighted for me, from reading the book, was the fact that Greenwich and Paris are separated by an integral number of longitude lines.
The Pentacle of Venus. One reference that I found interesting and infuriating at the same time. Infuriating because of the nonsensical way in which it is discussed. Interesting because of the light it throws on the details of observations of the movement of Venus in the sky, by our ancients.
There seem to be many discussions in Amateur Astronomy groups - with people wondering where the pentagon comes from. No Planetarium software shows anything like it. Some Astronomy sites do discuss the underlying movements of Venus and Earth, around the Sun, which do define five roughly equally spaced points in space - points where Venus and Earth approximately (and very rarely, exactly) line up with the Sun. Arising from the fact that 8 revolutions of the Earth are about equal to 13 revolutions of Venus - every 8 years there is the approximate alignment and five such approximate alignments trace the pentagon around the Sun. These are just orbit coincidences - and the more interesting manifestation of these alignments being the Transits of Venus. If ancient observers had any inkling of these five positions of Venus in the sky, with every 8th year conjunction - surely they must also have speculated about possible transits?
For visualising the pentagon, visit this site -
http://www.astronomy.org.gg/venustransitsb.htm
which gives the best explanation of the orbital dynamics. But, please, no reading into any of these orbital dynamics - any astrological nonsense or religious symbolism.
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