Love, Loss And What We Ate - Padma Lakshmi

A beautifully designed cover and a write up on The Hindu - I couldn't find any other reason to read this particular book. I was not aware of the Padma Lakshmi in any way - be it as a super model or a celebrity or Salman Rushdie's wife. 

Social media today allows us to stalk and peep into anyone's life even without without their consent and make judgments, which often makes no sense. So when some one pens down certain events in his/her life and publishes it, we are given an opportunity to see the world through their eyes. A memoir or an auto biography, for me provides glimpses to those moments which someone hold close to their heart and cherish through out their life, in a legitimate way. 

I wouldn't say this is a great book, it's not bad either. There were moments when i felt bored, especially in the second half where she is caught in dilemma with her relationships with two men and her daughter. What makes it different from other memoirs which I had read in the recent past is her brilliant interweaving of food recipes relating to/ or having significance at that particular moment in her life, described in the respective chapter. Be it Motorcycle Diaries or When Breath Becomes Air, the photographs attached with the writing made it special whereas Padma Lakshmi had replaced them with food recipes making the book, one of its kind.

The author has also devoted a significant portion of this book to raise awareness about endometriosis, a chronic illness in women, through her own personal experiences and I feel this needs a special mention.

The Gospel of Yudas - K.R.Meera

This is an extra ordinary tale of love set against the backdrop of Emergency and Naxal period in the state of Kerala. The protagonist Das, a survivor of the notorious Kakkayam camp during the Emergency, lives or rather exists with a remorse of being a traitor to his fellow comrades. The narrator Prema, daughter of one of the policemen at the same camp, owing to the atrocities of her father, develops an attraction towards Das and his Naxalite philosophy and sees him as a key to her own independence, happiness and life. Das, on the other hand, unable to overcome the guilt, takes up the job of dredging corpses from water bodies and finds solace in ganja and alcohol.

The author, though takes great effort in describing the horror and brutality faced by the Naxalites in detail, does not take sides as she, through the voice of Vasudevan, one of the police chiefs at the camp, justifies the policemen as just tools in the hands of those who held the power and if not them, someone else would have done the task for the state.

The brilliance of K R Meera, the author can be seen in naming the protagonist as J.U.Das which is later transformed to Judas, the Biblical character to which he assumes similarity, naming the narrator Prema who falls in love with Das and the intense description of the period of Emergency through characters like Vasudevan, Ittiachan and Sunanda.

"Power is a magician's hat. Humans who wear it inevitably transform"

Also, the cover design and illustrations are simply awesome.

Eulogy For A Housefly

Since the day Kevadiya received its first rain of monsoon, I was being pestered by this housefly, who leaving all other employees at office, choose me, an intern who was supposed to be there for just 45 days. He started making daily visits, just like the managers, an hour or so after I had made it to the office. I wondered at how it managed it's way to a closed air conditioned space and yelled at the office boy whenever I saw any door or window open. I knew I was harsh at him, but I couldn't stand this fly. He made his exit just like his entrance, leaving no clue but made sure to show up the every following day. He would first fly in and sit on my laptop screen, then to my keyboard and then to the sheets of paper on my desk, with a catch me if you can attitude. All my attempts to get rid of this nasty creature went in vain and every time I could see him victorious, looking at me with his brown compound eyes and transparent wings which kept vibrating all the time. The buzzing sound of its wings and the rubbing of his hands on every surface it sat made me sick. I made the office boy clean my cubicle twice a day, called my mom for solution toget rid of him and even Googled. Whatever I did was just not enough to get rid of him. I was even skeptical about my personal hygiene and doubled up the use of hand wash and sanitizer just to get rid of this pest. Many at times, I have been subjected to bizarre stares from my colleagues for the way I get annoyed in it's presence. They made fun of me and even called me mad.  This continued for around two weeks and I am sure he has read almost every single word of my internship report. 

Today, it's the last day of my internship. With my report ready and manager on leave, I had nothing to do but waste time surfing Internet. I felt so bored and asked the office boy for a cup of coffee, making sure my friend is nowhere near me. The office boy was surprised to hear this as I always made it to the pantry room, whenever I wanted to have coffee, thanks to my friend. He brought me a cup and to my surprise, along the boy came my friend, as usual with the buzzing sound of it's vibrating transparent wings. The very sight of him took away my interest in that cup of coffee. I left it on the desk and returned my glance back to the laptop screen. A few minutes later, I was not hearing that buzzing sound anymore and as I looked into the cup, I could see him laying there, dead.

Seeing him dead in the cup of coffee, I was happy. I got rid of him forever. I was overjoyed by the fact that I need not feel any  guilt as I had no hand in it. He did it himself. I clicked the pic and looked at his as an achievement of finally putting an end to a 15 day old rivalry. But then, what did this little fly do to me to make me hate it? It was not different from any other housefly. I am not sure even if it was the same one who came in everyday. What is right from my part to click a pic of it's dead, motionless body in a cup of coffee and post it on a social platform?  What is happening to me? Why am I writing all this crap when I can make use of this free time and read a book or do something productive?  

Maybe he wanted to tell me something, to build a friendship with me, give me company or something else maybe..