It is easy to be stunned by the manifest foresight that a book like this can showcase. But the reader has to remember that in a magazine like The Econ It is easy to be stunned by the manifest foresight that a book like this can showcase. But the reader has to remember that in a magazine like The Economist, a number of contrasting ideas about the current world economy would always be sloshing around. To later make a selective compilation of those articles that proved to be 'prophetic' is an exercise in exclusion that is designed to present a false sense of confidence or analytical foresight. Just because a collection of articles from a magazine turned out to be quite close to the mark, there is no reason to believe that any random article you might pick up from this week's Economist will be of equal predictive value.
I have nothing against the magazine or the book. I greatly enjoy the magazine and to a more moderate extent liked the book as well. But the blatantly triumphant endnotes trumpeting the date of each article and a further note on how the world actually played out was grating to say the least. ...more
After having read Sen (Development as Freedom) and having been greatly influenced by his ideas, it was only fair to Bhagwati that I read one of his bo After having read Sen (Development as Freedom) and having been greatly influenced by his ideas, it was only fair to Bhagwati that I read one of his books next. But I decided to start with his collaborator's work before moving into his own. Having read Dasgupta's views on this recently helped in this decision.
Am planning to be reading the two new works by the contending clans next�
In this book Panagariya offers an analytic account and interpretation of the major economic developments in postindependence India along with a detailed discussion of where the policies currently stand and a road map of the future reforms necessary to accelerate and sustain growth.
The principal problem with such a specific and policy oriented book that is grounded on empirical data than on any purely ideological or theoretical grounds is that the stats need to be updated every two years or so to maintain relevance, not just of the recommendations but of the argumentative underpinnings as well.
I am tempted to write a detailed review on the policy recommendations and the outlines provided by Panagariya but I have to refrain till I catch hold of a decent book with a more recent treatment. ...more
I had been asked to read this in parallel with Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Unfortunately, I have gotten arouI had been asked to read this in parallel with Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Unfortunately, I have gotten around it more than a year late. But I kept the GGS open beside me as I traced the economic explanations for the trajectories of the various continents/regions - and it is true this book is a good companion volume for the enormously popular GGS. It can prove to be a useful aid to go beyond some of the simplistic assumptions and still arrive at some of the same conclusions. Which is a thrill, by the way.
A second reading, and an additional star to Allen's VSI. This really is a superbly concise summation of a lot of great ideas, well tied together and well presented....more
The largest part of the book is a lament (critique?) that Keynes took so long to get born and get going. The rest is a pining for a rebirth out of theThe largest part of the book is a lament (critique?) that Keynes took so long to get born and get going. The rest is a pining for a rebirth out of the 'wastelands' of monetarism. An entertaining read, but way too vague in terms of conclusions/solutions to be taking the high ground and criticizing the bulk of economic thinkers as being too divorced from realities....more
**spoiler alert** High class girl meets Low class boy. Falls in love.
Once the world used to be perfect, they believed. There was no High and Low clas**spoiler alert** High class girl meets Low class boy. Falls in love.
Once the world used to be perfect, they believed. There was no High and Low classes.
They believed in that world. That is why they fell in love. They don't believe in such differences. They can be overcome. Surely.
The Low class had a myth that once they were not so. Men were equal. They hoped for a cure that will come one day that will cure the society and save them.
"You can't dream." Vs "You can be whatever you want."
The Low class were seen as animals by the High class. Her dad would never allow this to happen. Besides the low class have their own crazed leaders. They would not allow it either. The odds were stacked.
One can almost feel the torture the author put himself through during his research, the interminable hours plodding through the old war diaries and th One can almost feel the torture the author put himself through during his research, the interminable hours plodding through the old war diaries and the endless newspaper headlines. While commendable, the approach has produced an at times too monotonous, too trivial a history - obsessed with the minutiae of an epochal phase.
At the same time, even as we see this, we can also see how Clarke tried hard to avoid doing the same to the reader, trying to alleviate the effects of an overdose of political trivia by giving (sometimes read-in) significance to even the daily routines and sleep habits of the delegates at the famous conferences that peppered the war. Maybe the author could not help it, maybe once you become familiar enough with the side characters through volumes of their personal diary, even these otherwise insignificant things might carry meaning.
The obsession with Churchill to the exclusion of much else is probably what reduces the significance of the book a few notches but, paradoxically, also increases the readability by as many and more notches. Perhaps this was intended or was an unfortunate editorial mandate? In either case, I for one wished Clarke did not indulge in this as much as he did.
To come back to the structure of the book, Clarke uses an impressive reference list that comprises little-known diaries, long-lost newspaper and magazine pieces and the many writings of the day to put together credible character portraits and sketches of daily activities that form the background to the war that shaped the modern world.
It is intriguing reading for the most part but there is a caveat: it should not be read with a strict intention of understanding the history of the war and its aftermath, but needs to be approached with a keenness to go beyond the facts of the war and to the human element and the politics that shaped its policy decisions. This too is important to understand, for while the direction of the war might not have been altered much by a change of cast, the shape of the play was most definitely determined by their unique cast of flawed yet grand players....more
It is hard to put a finger on what this book tries to do but it does something important. It narrates history in a detached way without giving any und It is hard to put a finger on what this book tries to do but it does something important. It narrates history in a detached way without giving any undue importance to the 'major' events.
It is one of those rare instances when its brevity is the greatest strength of a historical narrative. It is not that it lacks in detail, don't get me wrong here. It does go on about how people did things to each other and developed theories about each other, about how people and nations thought and acted, about large numbers and statistics of war, and about how absurd it all was. It never says in so many words that it was absurd, of course. But it makes you realize that when history is told by someone who has (or seems/ attempts to seem) no agenda or alliances or a spirit of inquiry or even an interest in educating the readers (etc.) but is just told, told as if it is just something that happened - then that narrative has the power to show you how small everything was and how collectively we are a bunch of such magnificent buffoons. There is a touch of Douglas Adams in there somewhere, in that humor and in the sad irony that keeps on putting a half-smile on the reader’s face despite the subject matter being dealt with (Hint: I am not talking of Adamsâ€� sci-fi books here). It is only apt that OuÅ™ednÃk is also the translator of Beckett and Queneau and perhaps most pertinently, of Rabelais.
This should be required reading for students of History - even as we learn about the great nations and the of great wars and of the heroes and of the generals and of the great science and its advances and of turning points and tragedies, we should also learns perspective and learn that history was just about a large bunch of people making decisions that would always seem absurd (like the proverbial best-laid schemes...) to everyone but themselves - either to other countries or at least to posterity . And that would be a valuable lesson... I am not doing justice to this, as I said it is hard to put a finger on what this book does. Just read it?...more
To make the Indian experience more central to global debates is one aim of this book. Another, and perhaps greater aim, is to make Indians more aware To make the Indian experience more central to global debates is one aim of this book. Another, and perhaps greater aim, is to make Indians more aware of the richness and relevance of their modern political tradition.
After such bold claims, I was disappointed to find that the book is in fact an anthology of Indian political writing. I strongly feel a commentary would have been better to meet the professed aims of the book and could have been made more impact-full with short relevant extracts
The questionable set chosen as “Makers of Modern India� include nineteen famous and not-so-famous names: Rammohan Roy (Part I); Syed Ahmad Khan, Jotirao Phule, Tarabai Shinde, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Part II); M.K. Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, B.R. Ambedkar, M.A. Jinnah, E.V. Ramaswami and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (Part III); Jawaharlal Nehru, M.S. Golwalkar, C. Rajagopalachari, Rammanohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan and Verrier Elwin (Part IV); and Hamid Dalwai (Part V).
As a contemporary alternative to Argumentative Indian, I am not sure it succeeds - except by showing that a connected tradition built on boldness, challenge, contest and contrast existed in the vast correspondences that contemporary Indian thinkers were capable of producing. Guha illustrates this in a way by showing a connected series of thoughts evolving by bouncing around between the set of characters above, original thoughts arising and then being furiously debated and progressing in dramatic point-counter-point fashion (mostly Gandhian ideas of course, but still...) towards action and sometimes even more dramatic reaction in the crucible of Indian Democracy.
The essentially disputatious nature of this tradition is manifest throughout this book. The pity is that very little of this intellectual ‘tradition� was meant for mass consumption or was based on a focused and sustained attempt at analyzing and evolving systems of thought but seem to be individual contributions to individual problems - a method that has always plagued Indian political thought and has probably resulted in the poverty of thought post-independence.
That sort of integration is probably what is needed before India can submit the results of her social and democratic experiment to the world and from it evolve a new conception of democracy relevant to a more diverse world than that existed when democracy was originally conceived. Guha has taken a first step in this direction and I sincerely hope a more synthetic attempt will follow one day....more
I buy none of the characters Melville, and that is a first with you. The story is there though and it was a good adventure story - Sir Walter could haI buy none of the characters Melville, and that is a first with you. The story is there though and it was a good adventure story - Sir Walter could have told it better, and that too is a first with you. But, despite the cribs, the foretopman and the motley crew will stay with me, but not for the telling.
Adieu, Rights of Man! No irony intended, only Paine! Or not....more
Sometimes the only force that can take you through tabductso the end of a book this bad is the sweet thought of revenge: How to Define Dangerous Books
Sometimes the only force that can take you through tabductso the end of a book this bad is the sweet thought of revenge: of how you are so going to maul the author in your review once the book is done and dusted.
This is a book that is so painfully badly written (500+ pages of tripe!) that ordinarily it should not merit much thought, but the fact that it tells a story that so many would want to hear, and might believe too easily, makes it dangerous nevertheless, and worth discrediting.
Also, the idea of giving voice to the victims, of inverting the historical bias of “history is written by the victors� is quite interesting. This was the reason I could not resist picking up the book.
The Tale Of The Vanquished:Â The story of the Ravanayana has never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.
Written through a distorted prism of historical victimization, this book is simplistic beyond imagination, is replete with misprisions, and makes no attempt either to capture the poetry of the original epic or show any sort of fidelity to its philosophy. Instead it mangles every aspect of it.
The author is clearly a Dravidian fanatic and tries every angle to work his fever-pitch hatred into the epic and its ‘historical atrocities�.
In effect, the author wants to fan the North-South Divide (the Aryan Vs Dravidian political flame) and the caste divide, and is extremely vitriolic in his language throughout. The hatred is obvious in every page.
The two main threads running through this atrocious and fanatical novel are:
1. Hate the North Indians, they brought all evils into society.
2. Our only weakness is our lack of unity, let us band together, Brothers, we are the original rulers of India before these intruders came into our lands.
The basic thesis is this:
India was originally ruled by the Asura kings and Tamil was their language and it was high culture and complete equality and what not - a la Mahabali’s paradise - celebrated through the Onam festival of Kerala - the book assumes that fable to be the default condition of India. In a classic nostalgic narrative, this Mahabali’s India is evoked throughout as the Golden Age of India. According to the author, then the ‘Aryan Invaders', a bunch of uncouth barbarians came and overthrew the Asura kings (all due to their own lack of unity) and established an uncultured primitive society throughout India. Yes, the barbarians not only won every war but they conquered the whole of the sub-continent - and this is in spite of the fact that the Asuras were so advanced in technology that they even had flying chariots (the Pushpaka Vimana) and stuff. Go figure.
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Then the main narrative takes over - Ravana, an ambitious youth, rebuilds some semblance of the original glory of the Asura’s and eventually starts capturing back the mainland from his base off it - in Sri Lanka. During one of his conquests, he fathers a girl child who was abandoned and then adopted by the king of Mithila - yep, Sita is Ravana’s daughter in this narrative - can’t have the good guy indulging in random abductions, can we?
Then Ravan watches with great sadness as Sita marries Rama later in life and decides one day that her life with Rama will never be really cool and abducts her - in her own best interests, mind you - because the Aryan society mistreats women and Ravana doesn’t want that for his daughter. So in keeping with the high moral principles of the Asuras, he kidnaps her and keeps her captive against her will - way to treat them equal, eh?
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Rama launches an attack and as usual (but not before Lakshman disfigures and rapes Ravana’s sister, provoking the now pacifist Asura king), the lack of unity is the undoing of the Asuras - Ravana’s own brother plots to dethrone him.
Eventually Rama triumphs and then institutes the caste system, Sati system and every known evil - all dictated by the Brahmans. India degenerates into all sorts of chaos and loses her position as a moral force and a political force in the world. The dark ages descend and Rama was the initiator, Ravana was the last hope for the Tamils - the golden age was lost forever.
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Now the funny thing is that the whole novel is written at a time when the whole Aryan Invasion theory has been thrown out of the window, more or less. It was part of the ‘divide & rule� policy and this author wants to bring back those heydays of old. It is politically motivated twisting of facts. There is hardly any justification for the inventions that the author has indulged himself in.
Facts:
1. Ravana’s father was Visravas - Ravana was an aryan himself in all likelihood. (+ He is known to have followed the Vedic rituals that are so derided in this book - and technically that was the criteria for Aryanhood, just as Vibhishan in this book does)
2. Ravana was a North Indian himself too, before traveling down south and capturing the kingdom that belonged to Kubera (who is himself supposed to be Ravana’s brother - an earlier wave then?). So if anything, he must have been one branch of the Aryan Invasion that spread across India (as per that theory)
3. Dark skin is not a characteristic of Non-Aryan, nor is white skin a characteristic of Aryan:
- Rama was himself dark-skinned.
- So was Krishna, later (and Arjuna, for good measure).
- So was Vishnu himself, the supposed god of the ‘white-skinned� Aryan race (btw, Shivites Vs Vishnavites is another virulent theme of this book - Vishnu worshipers are shown as the uncouth Aryan stock while Shiva worshippers are the Dravidian stock, according to the author.)
4. Sita is Ravana’s daughter purely because she is dark-skinned? By that logic, Rama too could have been an Asura prince? What, if any, racial conflict is the Ramayana supposed to portray then?
5. Plenty of Rakshasas were fair skinned and hence cannot be a simplistic racial characterization.
6. Dravidians are not always dark-skinned - stereotypes are for idiots, surely?
7. Recent genetic studies have shown the racial stocks to be hopelessly intermingled throughout India and gives no evidence of any distinct racial divide between North and the South.
8. Except for the language, not much divides the so called Aryan and Dravidian culturally, genetically, religiously or historically. Even the linguistic divide shows the potential for being bridged as a common ancestor for proto-Tamil and Sanskrit is investigated.
9. One more thing, the book boasts of being 'Ravanayana.' The name 'Ramayana' is formed from 'Rama' and 'ayana', translating to "Rama's Journey," not "Rama's Story." Shows the level of knowledge that was brought into this 'rewriting' of Ravana's (and his people's) story.
A Note to the Readers
Dear Readers, the author is clearly misguided and the book is clearly a fanatic’s attempt to rekindle old hatreds. Please do not take it literally. Take it as an inventive, if extremely badly written, exercise in reversing the so called historical bias of victors, and leave it at that. It merits no historical discussion, and is definitely of no political relevance.
This book is a blatant attempt to fan anti-brahminism, North-Indian hatred, and basically blame every ill of society on this ‘historical injustice�. It does have a call for caste-solidarity, but even that is not a noble call, considering that it is caste and not class that is being called to unite.
For me, the scary thing about this is that such sentiments are already high in many cities. So many North Indian friends of mine complain about the increasing xenophobia towards them in South India, even in metropolitan cities like Bangalore. Speaking in Hindi in Chennai is a sure fire way of being discriminated against. Similarly, the North Indian cities too are treating the South Indians in a derogatory manner and treating them as encroachers.
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The stereotypes that are popular about â€�Tam-Brahmsâ€�, â€�Mallu accentâ€�, â€�the gali-speaking Delhiiteâ€�, â€�chinkisâ€�, â€�Yuck, South Indian idli-dosa??â€�, â€�the uncouth Bihariâ€� etc., are all manifestations of this. Not to mention the crudeness of delusional movies like Chennai Express:Â
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This mutual alienation is very dangerous and could easily be the cause for major riots in our densely packed cities. This sort of fanatical historical narratives only add fuel to this fire and should not be encouraged.
Instead of banning books that ‘offend� religious and racial sentiments, we should be more careful of such works which provoke those sentiments and tries to convert them into blind hatred. Those are the dangerous ones.
A subtle paean to Engels. Paints a picture of Engels as the precursor, refiner and ultimately the author of most of what today bears Marx’s name. I ex A subtle paean to Engels. Paints a picture of Engels as the precursor, refiner and ultimately the author of most of what today bears Marx’s name. I exaggerate but it is only because this take amazes me. The book is a great intro to Marxism and takes special care to interpret Marx on his own terms and to stick to all his terminologies and conventions and thus resolve some of the apparent contradictions. This is definitely a work I will keep in mind during my soon-to-begin exploration of Marx’s works and later interpretations.
When the conclusion has a passage like this, it makes the book so worth it! -
The Marxist constituency has remained as narrow as the conception behind it. The Communist Manifesto, written by two bright and articulate young men without responsibility even for their own livelihoods—much less for the social consequences of their vision—has had a special appeal for successive generations of the same kinds of people.
Not to Mention:
Despite the massive intellectual feat that Marx's Capital represents, the Marxian contribution to economics can be readily summarized as virtually zero. Professional economics as it exists today reflects no indication that Karl Marx ever existed. This neither denies nor denigrates Capital as an intellectual achievement, and perhaps in its way the culmination of classical economics. But the development of modern economics had simply ignored Marx. Even economists who are Marxists typically utilize a set of analytical tools to which Marx contributed nothing, and have recourse to Marx only for ideological, political, or historical purposes.
In professional economics, Capital was a detour into a blind alley, however historic it may be as the centerpiece of a worldwide political movement. What is said and done in its name is said and done largely by people who have never read through it, much less followed its labyrinthine reasoning from its arbitrary postulates to its empirically false conclusions. Instead, the massive volumes of Capital have become a quasi-magic touchstone—a source of assurance that somewhere and somehow a genius "proved" capitalism to be wrong and doomed, even if the specifics of this proof are unknown to those who take their certitude from it.
It is but folly for me to attempt to review a book so close to my heart. But, on my third reading of this book, it is time to finally go beyond the be It is but folly for me to attempt to review a book so close to my heart. But, on my third reading of this book, it is time to finally go beyond the beauty of the prose and the elegance of Nehru’s presentation. It is time to see if the book achieves the objectives it sets out to achieve and judge it thus. I will let my earlier one-line review stand. Here goes�
The following passage reflects the objective of the book.
To know and understand India one has to travel far in time and space, to forget for a while her present condition with all its misery and narrowness and horror, and to have glimpses of what she was and what she did. 'To know my country', wrote Rabindranath Tagore, 'one has to travel to that age, when she realized her soul and thus transcended her physical boundaries, when she revealed her being in a radiant magnanimity which illumined the eastern horizon, making her recognized as their own by those in alien shores who were awakened into a surprise of life; and not now when she has withdrawn herself into a narrow barrier of obscurity, into a miserly pride of exclusiveness, into a poverty of mind that dumbly revolves around itself in an unmeaning repetition of a past that has lost its light and has no message for the pilgrims of the future.'
Does it achieve such a grand objective? It sweeps across Indian history on very able wings and the history unfolds with irresistible drama and with the glow of a golden splendor. India of old comes alive for the reader in all its old grandeur. But this is dazzle. Does the expedition go beyond that and ‘discover� India? It does and it doesn't. The India glimmers and fades - reappearing every time Nehru takes an unbiased look back and disappearing every time he turns his gaze eagerly to the present.
The second half of the books quickly descends into a political commentary from being a historical study - and in this transition from history to the present, the ‘discovery� is left incomplete in the urgency to expostulate on current happenings. This is a minor failure and Nehru is quite aware of it. He has to go back to the vagueness he started with to end his quest:
Nearly five months have gone by since I took to this writing and I have covered a thousand hand-written pages with this jumble of ideas in my mind. For five months I have travelled in the past and peeped into the future and sometimes tried to balance myself on that 'point of intersection of the timeless with time.' These month have been full of happenings in the world and the war has advanced rapidly towards a triumphant conclusion, so far as military victories go. […] Because of this business of thinking and trying to give some expression to my thoughts, I have drawn myself away from the piercing-edge of the present and moved along the wider expanses of the past and the future. But there must be an end to this wandering. If there was no other sufficient reason for it, there is a very practical consideration which cannot be ignored. I have almost exhausted the supply of paper that I had managed to secure after considerable difficulty and it is not easy to get more of it. The discovery of India � what have I discovered? It was presumptuous of me to imagine that I could unveil her and find out what she is today and what she was in the long past. […] Yet something has bound them together and binds them still. India is a geographical and economic entity, a cultural unity amidst diversity, a bundle of contradictions held together by strong but invisible threads. Overwhelmed again and again, her spirit was never conquered, and today when she appears to be the plaything of a proud conqueror, she remains unsubdued and unconquered. About her there is the elusive quality of a legend of long ago; some enchantment seems to have held her mind. She is a myth and an idea, a dream and a vision, and yet very real and present and pervasive. There are terrifying glimpses of dark corridors which seem to lead back to primeval night, but also there is the fullness and warmth of the day about her. Shameful and repellent she is occasionally, perverse and obstinate, sometimes even a little hysteric, this lady with a past. But she is very lovable, and none of her children can forget her wherever they go or whatever strange fate befalls them. For she is part of them in her greatness as well as her failings, and they are mirrored in those deep eyes of hers that have seen so much of life's passion and joy and folly, and looked down into wisdom's well. Each one of them is drawn to her, though perhaps each has a different reason for that attraction or can point to no reason at all, and each sees some different aspect of her many-sided personality.
While that maybe so, this too is pardonable as even the political statements soar to heights sometimes and is amazing: (more in updates section)
The tragedy of Bengal and the famines of Orissa, Malabar, and other places are the final judgment on British rule in India. The British will certainly leave India, and their Indian Empire will become a memory, but what will they leave when they have to go, what human degradation and accumulated sorrow? Tagore saw this picture as he lay dying three years ago: 'But what kind of India will they leave behind, what stark misery? When the stream of their centuries' administration runs dry at last, what a waste of mud and filth they will leave behind them!'
The conclusion is a fitting one (though this passage is not really the conclusion). It was ultimately not about the Discovery of India as India is too diverse and manifold, it was an inquiry into the soul of a generation, a Discovery of their India, of the India then, of that generation, the greatest generation perhaps in our living memory:
My generation has been a troubled one in India and the world. We may carry on for a little while longer, but our day will be over and we shall give place to others, and they will live their lives and carry their burdens to the next stage of the journey. How have we played our part in this brief interlude that draws to a close? I do not know. Others of a later age will judge. By what standards do we measure success or failure? That too I do not know. We can make no complaint that life has treated us harshly, for ours has been a willing choice, and perhaps life has not been so bad to us after all. For only they can sense life who stand often on the verge of it, only they whose lives are not governed by the fear of death. In spite of all the mistakes that we may have made, we have saved ourselves from triviality and an inner shame and cowardice. That, for our individual selves, has been some achievement. 'Man's dearest possession is life, and since it is given to him to live but once, he must so live as not to be seared with the shame of a cowardly and trivial past, so live as not to be tortured for years without purpose, so live that dying he can say: "All my life and my strength were given to the first cause of the world � the liberation of mankind."'
If only we could also figure a path to save ourselves from triviality. If only we too could Discover the moving spirit of our own Generation....more
A funky mix of pseudo-science, pseudo-history and pseudo-mythology, The Oath of the Vayuputras marks a new low for this trilogy. Amish ensures that an A funky mix of pseudo-science, pseudo-history and pseudo-mythology, The Oath of the Vayuputras marks a new low for this trilogy. Amish ensures that anyone reading this book will emerge with a thoroughly muddled conception of Indian mythology and pre-history. This would be a valuable asset when the movie comes out.
I had criticized the plot mechanism in my previous review by comparing it to an Amar-Chitra Katha. I have to take that back. Amar-Chitra Kathas were really good, in fact. No I would venture to say that the plotting, the characterizations and the dialogues are in the time honored tradition of the beloved saas-bahu serials of India. You cannot go wrong with that.
I clenched my teeth and read through this one. And guess what, the book ends with a threat that Shiva willing, there might be more!
PS. I have so many rants, especially factual ones. But unless someone wants to contest me about the virtues of the book, I am not going to bother.
PPS. The Star Progression for the trilogy = 3,2,1....more
The Gilgamesh epic is one of the great masterpieces of world literature. One of the early translations so iHe Who Saw The Deep: A Hymn to Survival
The Gilgamesh epic is one of the great masterpieces of world literature. One of the early translations so inspired the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1916 that he became almost intoxicated with pleasure and wonder, and repeated the story to all he met. 'Gilgamesh,' he declared, 'is stupendous!' For him the epic was first and foremost 'das Epos der Todesfurcht', the epic about the fear of death.
This universal theme does indeed tie together the various strands of the epic poem - it tells of one man's heroic struggle against death, for eternal life - first through immortal renown through glorious deeds, then for eternal life itself.
It then goes on to describe of his despair when confronted with the inevitable failure, and of his eventual realization that the only immortality he may expect is the enduring name afforded by leaving behind some lasting achievement.
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The epic is also a work from which one is expected to learn from: the poet enjoins us in the prologue, to read about 'the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through!' The lesson is that maturity is gained as much through failure as success. Life, of necessity, is hard, but one is the wiser for it. Thus, it is also a story of one man's 'path to wisdom', of how he is formed by his successes and failures.
It also deals with profound debates on the proper duties of kingship, what a good king should do and should not do - in the end, Uta-napishti’s lesson to Gilgamesh is of the duties of kings and discourses on the inevitability of death and the fleeting nature of life.
The wisdom he received at the ends of the earth from the survivor of the Deluge, Uta-napishti, enabled Gilgamesh to restore civilization to its earlier splendor. The quest has taught Gilgamesh how to build his city back to its antediluvian glory.
The Flood: A Hymn to Survival
Through Uta-napishti�, the epic also artfully weaves into Gilgamesh's own story the traditional tale of the Deluge, the great flood that permeates most ancient myths.
Here, Gilgamesh brings home an important meaning of the ever-present flood myth. It allows us to see that the conquering of death is impossible but that preserving of life (and culture and civilization - ancient myths like to personify entire civilizations in its heroes) is the most important challenge. And it is achievable.
Gilgamesh has always been thought of as a life-affirming epic that asks us to live life and abandon the quest for avoiding death. But look once again at the advice of the flood-surviver, Uta-napishti:
‘O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu,
demolish the house, and build a boat!
Abandon wealth, and seek survival!Â
Spurn property, save life!
Take on board the boat all living things' seed!�
***
‘No one at all sees Death,
no one at all sees the face [of Death,]
no one at all [hears] the voice of Death,
Death so savage, who hacks men down.�
***
'Ever do we build our households,
ever do we make our nests,
ever do brothers divide their inheritance,
ever do feuds arise in the land.'
***
'Ever the river has risen and brought us the flood,
the mayfly floating on the water.
On the face of the sun its countenance gazes,
then all of a sudden nothing is there!�
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Gilgamesh does not ask human kind to avoid the fruitless quest. It was in fact his quest for the unreachable that allowed Gilgamesh to find his way, to find himself and to restore life/civilization. The quest is as unavoidable as Enkidu’s death that prompted it.
As long as Enkidus die, Gilgameshs will try to soar beyond human capacity. This is the cause for great hope. Gilgamesh celebrates an hopeful view that even mighty floods and decay cannot completely wipe out human civilization. It comes mighty close and it takes a wise king like Gilgamesh, but it is possible to overcome, to prevail. That is the hope that Gilgamesh holds out to us.
*
Post Script: A Damaged Masterpiece
This edition is probably the most comprehensive and scholarly version of the epic yet published. It is not dumbed down for the general audience and is not easy reading. The translator has opted for the integrity of the text over the ease of the reader. The text presented in this translation is fragmentary at best and could be frustrating for the reader. It takes patience and imagination from the reader to work through passages such as this (�. indicate missing text) :
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In spite of all the difficulties, it is worth persevering. For this translation is definitely more rewarding than the 'freer' translations such as Stephen Mitchell’s. However, a cautionary note for the reader (from the translator):
While there is a temptation for a modern editor to ignore the gaps, to gloss them over or to join up disconnected fragments of text, I believe that no adult reader is well served by such a procedure. The gaps are themselves important in number and size, for they remind us how much is still to be learned of the text. They prevent us from assuming that we have Gilgamesh entire. Whatever we say about the epic is provisional, for new discoveries of text may change our interpretation of whole passages. Nevertheless, the epic we have now is considerably fuller than that which fired the imagination of Rilke. Approach what lies ahead not as you might the poems of Homer but as a book part-eaten by termites or a scroll half-consumed by fire. Accept it for what it is, a damaged masterpiece....more
You start your reading of Calvino’s explorations. You do this mainly to get to know a wonderful list of classics to tackle, of the thoughts of a loved You start your reading of Calvino’s explorations. You do this mainly to get to know a wonderful list of classics to tackle, of the thoughts of a loved author, and to know of how to approach these sometimes daunting works. After the masterful first essay which defines ‘classics�, you realize that Calvino is up to something here. You look at the long list of books and realize that too many of them fall in the invented category of ‘personal classics� (‘his own classics� in other words), the choice of which are artfully explained away by his irrefutable first essay. You are now sure that the book would be an interesting window to Calvino’s literary world and his evolution but not to the vast classical education you were hoping for from the book. You put off the book many times over the year but eventually get back to it.
But as you finally read through the rest of the essays, you realize that it is more fun than anticipated to hear Calvino talk of the books you have already read and enjoyed and just infuriating to read of ones that you haven’t. So you quickly buy the books as Calvino talks of them. Then you vow to read again his short essays on Anabasis or Pliny before you delve into these books, which might have been postponed indefinitely if not for Calvino’s gentle (but at the same time caustic) coaxing. Of course, you know that you would have to read the essays before you read your new acquisitions and then again a month after the reading is past just to compare experiences with Calvino, which as you already know is great fun.
You also begin to discern a few jarring notes� but they do not put you off - a reading life is not complete without an explanation of the spirit that animates the reading quest. Calvino’s obsession with how history and its enactment is to be viewed begins to shine through. And, sometimes to your disappointment, he examines many of the authors primarily from the lens of how they tried to invent history and their own conceptions of it - slightly distorting his analysis in the process but with a distinct purpose. To you, some of these extrapolations seem like inventions but, it becomes difficult to draw the line between serious experiment and play. You console yourself with the fact that, luckily, Calvino’s obsession is a favorite pastime of your own as well.
In the end, you scribble a quick one line review before moving eagerly to the heady pile of books that Calvino has collected for you on your desk: This book is a treasure.
A Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Corollary:
Classics are those books which when you rate them, you only rate yourselves....more
Brilliant artwork, simplicity throughout. A delight to read. Some pages soar to artistic expression that thrills while others seem like a kid playing Brilliant artwork, simplicity throughout. A delight to read. Some pages soar to artistic expression that thrills while others seem like a kid playing with his favorite hero models. The text feels almost like an afterthought and I feel that I might just have enjoyed the book more if it was a set of silent stills and graphics with all meaning to be derived from your past readings while the imagery is being supplied by the author/artist.
Hardly anything is given any space in the book and it barely touches on the drama that is latent in it. This adds to the sense of a dreamy retelling that is not meant to amuse or to entertain but simply to lull you into a gentle nodding ascent, like how you used to listen to your grandmother tell these stories - the details never were to be told, they were to be enacted later in your imagination. The story plays out again and again only adding to itself by the dance of repetition and of adumbration. Abhishek has transmitted this sense of reading/listening into his artistry and catches us in that spell. This is certainly a rich successor to his previous works. ...more
- Read Rees' book thoroughly. - Write an essay in appreciation that elucidates the Cosmology 101
[Strictly for Cosmology amateurs]
Syllabus as follows:
- Read Rees' book thoroughly. - Write an essay in appreciation that elucidates the crucial importance of physical constants. - Submit three reports on the current state of understanding and how they have evolved in any of the major constants touched upon in the book - Bonus assignment: Search out one popular science book that has managed to cover in 100s of pages what Rees covers with lucidity in a few scores. - Extra Bonus Assignment: Pop over and read Prof. Manny's and Trevor's goodreads pieces and present your thoughts concisely (in less than 100 words) as comments. If either of them considers your comment intelligent enough to reply to, you can be sure of an A.
Not a word in the dictionary to rest your head on. How can a true lover of language endorse it? How can a Grammarian escape himself? Hanuman watches t Not a word in the dictionary to rest your head on. How can a true lover of language endorse it? How can a Grammarian escape himself? Hanuman watches the city he will destroy - first by naming and then by fire; Paz observes the Noble Monkey and destroys him by writing about him; and then sets himself down on paper, to be destroyed by the reader as he reads. The words flowing into meaning, the meanings flowing out as they do. Paz reads about Valmiki who had read Hanuman's readings of the battle of Lanka. Valmiki erases, Hanuman erases, Paz erases. Only Splendor survives.
This is one of those books that is humbling and infuriating at the same time. The reader becomes the author and then the actor and then again a mere reader. Then a review is to be written that makes no sense to anyone else. That is the end of this reading. Thank You....more
What was that Mr. Ghosh? An attempt at a new genre? A bold stroke at creating a uniquely Indian view on science and how it would have been if science What was that Mr. Ghosh? An attempt at a new genre? A bold stroke at creating a uniquely Indian view on science and how it would have been if science research was driven by mystics and cults? A spi-sci-fi book?
(view spoiler)[The mystical nature of transmigration intermingled with the mundane everyday of exchange of chromosomes? The explanation that this is found only in the brain cells? (hide spoiler)] It is a pity that all the science falls flat the moment it wanders beyond the known and the proven. It could have been so much better. However, because Ghosh keeps all the science strictly to the unreliable Murugan, it seems acceptable or at least pardonable - even when it is utter nonsense, we can take it as a man's eccentricities and carry on in the ride he has created for himself.
If the narrator had not climbed aboard the same train for the ride, not to mention adding the unnecessary ghost train (or did I miss its significance all together?) and the comic book ending, I would have given the book an additional star to complete a fiver - it entertained me that much, and when unexpected entertainment finds you, it is exhilarating. The book under-delivered on literary merit but over-delivered on pure fun and that works, sometimes.
I fully expect it to be the worst of Ghosh’s works but I also know that I will not approach anything by him with the faint dread-steeped respect with which we approach most modern literary giants for the first time....more
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