January 2019 Readings

January 2019 Readings

January 2019 saw me make a great start to the year by catching up on my reading, making up for lost time so to speak.  

The first book I read was Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig, my book club's monthly read.  While the writing was not the most gripping, the insight one got into the complexity of Burma's history kept me hooked.  Till now I had no idea that Burma had so many different ethnic groups and that the Burmese were just one of many.  Furthermore, Burma was another victim of the British divide and rule policies.  The British, as has been their tradition, in the end betrayed their loyal supporters so as to have a bulwark against the communist threat posed by China.  Burma too was a victim of the Great Game politics of the West.  This book made me realise how little one knows about the outside world.  Moreover, after learning about Aung San from this book, Aung San Suu Kyi's actions against the Rohingyas does not come as much of a surprise. This book was a fictionalised account of Craig's mother, who was an extremely interesting character.  Unfortunately, I wish the book had focused on her life with the rebel forces, rather than ending there.  The plot of the story was quite engrossing so much so that when the book ended, I wanted to know what exactly happened to all the main characters of the book and was quite frustrated when those details were not really available online. Read for a History of Burma 101.

From Burma I shifted to the Arab Spring in Egypt with Chronicle of a Last Summer, a novel by Yasmine El Rashidi.  This book was structured around three summers in a woman's life in an attempt to chart the impact of Egypt's dictatorship on the both its citizens and its capital—Cairo.  At the end, one was left with a picture of just how stifling life in Egypt is, resulting in a sense of despair and futility.  Read to gain a sense of Egypt's trajectory over the last 30 years.

I then made my way back to India with Mahasweta Devi's short story "Draupadi".  Hmmm, just another tale of Naxalites I thought after the first page.  Clearly, I forgot that here was a master at work and therefore it could not be just another story.  Totally recommended, if you want to read a story about a feisty woman!

Continuing with the theme of epics, I picked up Anand Neelakantan's Vanara. I loved his Asura and therefore could not resist this book, a retelling of episodes from the Ramayana.  Neelakantan certainly did not let me down, for once again his narrative had me hooked.  Sure there were editing mistakes and perhaps the writing was not so fine, but here is a gifted storyteller whose tale just whisks you to another land in another time.  And yes, I must confess I was teary eyed at the end even thought there are no surprises there.  Recommended for an alternative take on Indian mythology.