Non-Fiction Reads: Sunny Days by Sunil Gavaskar

We think this to be an apt year-end post, bookworms, for December saw two developments in the cricketing world.

Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from the game format he had made his own - One-day internationals. Meanwhile, former England captain and TV commentator, the legendary Tony Greig passed away on December 29, 2012. He was 66. Now on to the book. Let me start with an excerpt, a scene that tells of simpler times when cricket was a game, non-commercial, unhurried and joyous. England are playing India away from home in the 1972-1973 season. Over to Sunil Gavaskar: 

During my innings there was a funny incident when I survived a leg-before appeal off Arnold.Greig walking past me at the end of the over remarked, "It was close, wasn't it?" I replied, "Yeah, sure. But the umpire is my uncle!" Greig then asked what his name was. I said, "Gothoskar, but he had changed it, or else he would never get to be a test umpire." Within minutes word had gone round and I was asked with much consternation by quite a few people whether umpire Gothoskar was really my uncle. 

An autobiography at 27? 

Sunny Days is an autobiography that is unique in many ways. The book was published in 1976, Gavaskar was only 27 then, hardly five years since he had made his sensational test debut. As Gavaskar confesses in the preface - It is always hazardous for an active cricketer to venture into the realm of authorship,...

But as the words unfold it is clear - there is a story to be told. Sample this, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was misplaced after birth at the hospital, and had it not been for an 'eagle-eyed' uncle, he would have grown up as a fisher woman's son.

From his childhood initiation into cricket, playing for St.Xavier's College, a winning season with the Bombay Ranji team, the book zooms to his landmark 1971 Caribbean debut as early as page 28. From then on, each chapter concerns accounts of almost every international and national match played by the writer until the end of the 1975-76 season. This is where the book becomes a cricket lover's and historian's delight. 

Nostalgia

Delve into carefree days of doubtful umpiring, whirlwind bowling, lack of protective gear, on field chatter, dressing room antics and cricketing greats. This is a cricketer's perspective, not his memoir. So we do not get to know how Gavaskar met his wife, the proceedings documented here are all of the cricketing field.

Gavaskar writes with flair, his style is breezy, much like the cricket commentator that he is now, outspoken, matter-of-fact and brimming with anecdotes in between.For those who love their Wisden and Sportstar, here is a slice of a cricketing world we may never see again. That is what this book is, 'autobiography' stands as an afterthought, a tag line.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Fiction Reads: Classic Sherlock Holmes

The front cover seduction 

We all have our stories of been had in purchasing goods, of shelling out way more than what the product was worth. But for us bookworms, it is another thing altogether. 

A book may seem unreasonable to procure, too expensive, but once one calls out to us in some ultrasonic scale of the Sirens*, nothing much can be done about it. 

Once upon a seduction  

I narrate here of the most unlikely siren of a book that lured me from a bookstall as I alighted from a Pune-Mumbai bus, a few years ago on a May morning. 

Despite its dictionary-like bulge and paperback status, this one flashed a bright red cover with an enlarged image of a smoking pipe on it. 

The title proclaimed - Classic Sherlock Holmes. 

Would you blame me? 

This edition had all the 56 short stories and four Holmes novels that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote. 

Nine books compiled into one, to be more precise, the complete Sherlock Holmes. 

All of 1122 pages, stories arranged chronologically, and comfortable in the hand, not heavy. The bus had halted for fifteen minutes that the passengers intake breakfast. I bought the book, ate little, gulped down tea.

Once the geek clouds cleared, I noticed that:

1. The text font size could have been a couple of points larger. 
2. The edition could easily have been divided into three slicker volumes and peppered with illustrations.
3. The volume could have been in hardcover.
4. My stomach was growling its emptiness. 

Apart from these complaints, Classic Sherlock Holmes is a steal. 

A complete edition is the pride of any bookshelf, a ready pick whenever the inclination to read any Holmes story seizes the reader.

Chronologically speaking, my dear Watson...

Catch Holmes and Watson been introduced to each other in A Study in Scarlet (1887), watch Holmes fall off a waterfall with his nemesis in The Final Problem (1893), read one of the most contrived stories that brought Holmes back from the dead on public demand - The Adventure of the Empty House (1903) and end with the final Holmes story ever written by Doyle, The Adventure of the Shoscombe Old Place (1927).

If you are looking for the ultimate Sherlock Holmes one-book compilation, this is your best bet.

Otherwise, look for editions that feature the complete novels and every Holmes short story in separate editions, and have your fill. 

Long live the science of deduction!  


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

     

*See Ulysses by Homer

Book Excerpts: Bluebeard's Egg and other stories by Margaret Atwood

First published in 1987, I have just begun reading Margaret Atwood's collection of short stories. The author dedicates the book to her parents and the first story is a remarkable one, titled as it is - Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother.

Atwood's mother grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. These were conventional times, a time when women's fashion was still evolving and there were dangers of your attire (including undergarments) slipping off you in the most unguarded moments. Then there were boys, girls and flirtation, as the following excerpt from the story will tell you.

This was a world in which guileless flirtation was possible, because there were many things that were simply not done by nice girls, and more girls were nice then. To fall from niceness was to fall not only from grace: sexual acts, by girls at any rate, had financial consequences. Life was more joyful and innocent then, and at the same time permeated with guilt and terror, or at least the occasions for them, on the most daily level. It was like the Japanese haiku: a limited form, rigid in its perimeters, within which an astonishing freedom was possible.  



(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

   

Graphic Novel Reads: Kabul Disco by Nicolas Wild

Expatriate (Expat, in short)

n. a person who lives outside their native country. 

Kabul Disco is a humorous, irreverent and tongue-in-cheek account of a young French illustrator who, as a knee jerk reaction to financial penury and boredom, opts for an initial two-month stint as a comic book author in Afghanistan. The assignment - Co-write and illustrate a comic book version of the Afghan constitution. Target audience - The children of Afghanistan. The year is 2005 and apparently the war against terrorism is over. At least, that is what Wild presumes before arrival. The spirit of Kabul Disco is of the travelogue, caricature and anecdote. It can also be read as a comic artist's journal.'Comic Take' are two words that underline the treatment.

Expat is a much bandied word here. Apart from Wild, his colleagues and trio of bosses are all expats and make lively cameos. For them it is business as usual, as they try creating a mini France in a remote country. News of a kidnapping and suicide bombing bring home somber realizations. Even then, there are seldom any grim, reflective moments, so if you are looking for deep insight this isn't that book.

Kabul Disco is not a classic of its genre, it doesn't become something more than fun and breezy documentation. That is not a grouse, it is damn funny. Thumbs up for all the smiles it induces. Like all well-interpreted first-hand accounts, the illustrations and text illuminate with the glow of the writer 'having gone through it'. In other words - Experience. 

Endnote

The FICTION tag on the back cover seems appropriate. For as the photographs at the fag end of the book tell us, the whole thing pretty much occurred, except that Wild went and had fun with the real people and himself. We thank him for that.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Comic Book Reads: Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins

Comic books are not meant for children alone.

Ask the creators of Watchmen: Writer Alan Moore, illustrator Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. There is violence, sex, numerous brutal deaths and superheroes who come off worse than humans. The cruelty of war and supplementary text adds more steel to this graphic novel/comic book.

First released as a 12-issue series between 1986 and 1987 by DC Comics; the complete Watchmen was published soon after.

Engaging, disturbing and the darkest comic book I have yet read, Watchmen triumphs in telling a complex story with astonishing effectiveness.

Legend has it that the writer’s (Moore) proposed plot would have ended the career of established comic heroes. He was thus asked to create new, original superheroes.

The story? In an alternate take on American history, a rising band of superheroes during the 1940′s and 1960′s help the US win the Vietnam war. But their unpopularity during the 70′s leads to the 1977 Keene Act, declaring all superheroes illegal.

Set during the cold war period of the mid-eighties, the book starts with the murder of one Edward Blake. Wanted masked vigilante Rorschach makes his own investigations. He discovers that Blake was none other than The Comedian, a former superhero who was still working for the US government.

Meanwhile, with US superhero Dr.Manhattan (The only one in the book with superpowers) forced to self-exile, war clouds loom large. The Soviet Union has entered Afghanistan. This is just the gist of a plot that has various threads, characters and grimness, and yet there is a convincing completeness rarely seen in a comic book story of such ambitious stature.

Of all the various strands, bordering on devilry is the ‘comic book within the comic book’ story of Tales of the Black Freighter. A sole survivor of a decimated ship rushes back to save his town from a pirate ship invasion, only to be felled by his inner demons.

One hell of an achievement in its writing and apt in its old-school illustrations, Watchmen is a path-breaking comic book.

Devoid of lightness and easy humor, the creators of Watchmen walk a less trodden path in robust, layered, grim comic book storytelling and surprisingly makes it through in grand style.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Comic Book Reads: My Comic History

Garfield by Jim Davis

This is my first post on comics and by default I feel duty bound to narrate my history with comic books. The risk, dear reader, of you falling asleep or diverting your limited attention span to narcissistic social networking activities is always there. But this can’t be done without. Here goes.

Phantom by Lee Falk 

The introduction to this colour candy (sometimes black and white) world occurred during my adolescent years. 

By happy incidence, my dad's colleague was allowed a separate desk built with multiple drawers at the workplace, overflowing with comic books. It was his personal collection that was lent to staff members for the maximum period of one month. 

Each book cover was marked with a serial number, and a heart shape design as the number’s outline, in red ball pen ink. Written above this number, in red ink again, was the legend: The Comics Club.

In all my visits, the proprietor of The Comics Club never spoke much. Instead, he had a thing for grand effect. I recall the first time, as he led me to the desk and pulled open all possible drawers with an unhurried air of a magician displaying his wares. 

In moments, my textbook-sick childhood found a happy refuge. Over the next two years I gorged on Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Asterix and Obelix, Tintin, the Commando Series (Pro-US World War stories), Archie Comics and the sole Indian comic magazine Tinkle (They had some great illustrators back then).

                                    Mandrake the Magician by Lee Falk

Sometime during my teenage years, my reading interests diverted to English literature, the likes of Mark Twain, Somerset Maugham, Agatha Christie and P.G.Wodehouse, among others. It was only recently, with the advent of Manga comics and graphic novels that comic book interest has found its fountain again. In between, there have been the newspaper comic strips, of course.

Comic strips have been a fascination in this second coming: Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield (The lazy bum!), The Piranha Club, The Far Side, Beetle Bailey…such that I maintain now, a couple of glue-stuck volumes of my favourite comic strips. Collecting and reading graphic novels, panel to panel, end to end is a new, rewarding pastime.

On other aspects of comic books and graphic novels and why they are not meant for kids only: that will take another post. Meanwhile, I thank the comic book makers for livening up my childhood.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Archie Comics -  Created by John L. Goldwater, written by Vic Bloom & drawn by Bob Montana

Beetle Bailey by Mort Walker 

Tinkle - Founded by Anant Pai

Tintin by Herge

Graphic Novel Reads: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is a memoir drawn and lettered in the graphic novel format by Marjane Satrapi. The memoir was first published in year 2000 in French, and has since been translated into several languages including English.

Satrapi uses decorous, simplistic black & white illustrations, humour, lyricism and witticisms to conjure up a memorable childhood. After all, Satrapi grew up in Iran, where the 1979 Islamic revolution imposed the veil and other stringent rules. The regime protesting parents, a grandmother, revolutionaries and god play an important part in Satrapi's imaginative, dreamy adolescent years.

Then comes the war with Iraq and even as things become grave, grim and threatening, a 14 year-old Satrapi is send to a French school in Austria by her concerned parents. Thus begins Satrapi's journey to adulthood, even as she hilariously describes her physical transformation. At first, Satrapi pretends to be French, but a overheard taunt makes her declare fiercely that she is an Iranian and proud of it. Then follows love, disillusion and a brush with death...Satrapi recreates her life, family, friends, lovers and enemies with mercurial craft. This is a book I love returning to.

Soft, hard?  
Now there are two published versions of the book. One is a paperback edition that comprises of the entire book. The second version is in hardback and available in two volumes: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis: The Story of a Return. We would recommend the latter version for its durability.

While the 2007 animated movie version does not cover the entire book text, it is certainly watchable, co-directed by Satrapi herself. The movie review can be read here.    

(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Non-Fiction Reads: Zimmer Men by Marcus Berkmann

Welcome to the real, decaying world of Zimmer Men - A world where the team fielding post a delicious tea break is destined to lose the match. Stiff fielders find running after the ball and consistently ending up second. The best bowler the team ever had, calls on match day to inform that he is obliged to take his wife out shopping. Team members have a thing for convertibles, even as the men battle middle age and heavy defeat margins.

Zimmer Men is the 2005 sequel to the writer's 1995 book Rain Men. The latter was more concerned with the travails of a English cricket team fan, the former follows Berkmann's cricket team and the idle, languid playgrounds of English village cricket. 

The trials of a middle-aged English village cricket team is depicted light-heartily, even as the team plunges from one defeat to other on weekend matches, struggles to assemble a playing eleven, and deals with aging legs and vanishing dignity. Berkmann, the captain of the ill-fated team, maintains his sense of humour through the humiliating defeats and paints resilience  - that one may be down but not yet out. Due to the lack of options one may laugh it off too.

A hilarious book on life and cricket, and I don't see why those who do not play or follow the game wouldn't enjoy it too!


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Non-Fiction Reads: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood grips you from the start. For it is a real story retold with every detail pinpointed and outlined. When first published in the 1959 New Yorker as a series, the work was regarded as a first non-fiction work to be written in the garb of fiction. Rest assured, this word dressing doesn't affect the razor-edge atmosphere that the whirl of words create. 

Right from the shocking murder of a farmer's family at a sleepy American village to the arrest and execution of the murderers, Capote has painstakingly covered every detail. The result is a amazing study of the murderers and their psychology. The book is our recommendation as the crime reporter's handbook. As a reader, haven't read non-fiction crime literature as focused and dedicated as this one. The book we bookworms will always remember Capote for.      

(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Fiction Reads: The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

First published in 2004, The Hungry Tide tells the story of Kanai, the owner of a Delhi translation firm, Piyali, a US based Cetologist (One who studies marine mammals), and Fokir, a fisherman who navigates the deceitful waters surrounding the Sunderbans - a group of islands off the Bengal coast. It is in the meeting of these three distinct worlds that much of the beauty of the novel lies, along with the studied, visual detailing of  flora, fauna and life in the Sunderbans.

Amitav Ghosh writes with deliberate verbosity, the words do not seem wasted, they only kindle a sense of both mystery and surprise - especially in the relation between Piyali and Fokir. It is a depiction rarely seen in modern literature, of how two different people can still form a deep, silent relationship without ever understanding each other's spoken language. Evoking a sense of tragedy, despair and wonder, the book is a treat for literature lovers.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Book Excerpt: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta

The vadapav poses for one last click

Finally delved into an increasing pile of books - to be read and reread. Books bought at various clearance sales and second-hand selling footpaths.The first on the list is one by the name of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. Here is an extract from the non-fiction book about the most economical and popular snack of the city - the vadapav.

Nobody seems to be ordering just one. Not everybody will get their vadapav from this batch; the timid will have to keep waiting. The assistant serves the women first. The stacks of pav have been sprinkled with chutney – the top half of the inside of the bun is bathed in green chutney, the bottom with red garlic chutney – and the assistant reaches out with one hand, in one continuous arc of his arm opening the pav, scooping up two of the vadas, one in each nest of pav, and delivering it to the hungry customer.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla)