Fiction Reads: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Now Chil the Kite brings home the night 

That Mang the Bat sets free - 

The herds are shut in byre and hut 

For loosed till dawn are we.

This is the hour of pride and power, 

Talon and Tush and claw. 

Oh hear the call! - Good Hunting all

That keep the Jungle Law! 

                                                     NIGHT-SONG IN THE JUNGLE

We talk here, oh non-forest folk, of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Apart from the popular stories that feature Mowgli and his jungle friends, it also features other imaginative animal stories.

Even though there is the guise of a novel, the stories in The Jungle Book are singular short stories in their narration, each containing, either at story's start or conclusion - a poem. Kipling’s passion and hold over poetry is in all spark here, he writes with simplicity and playfulness, deft skill in rhyme.The book looks favourably at British colonial rule, the image is predominantly romantic.

Kipling's animals speak in classic English with a scatter of Indian slang. Yet it does not seem odd that the creatures are speaking. There is a Peter Pan kind of timelessness to their talk. Humans linger as a threat, his intrusive danger always lurking. Kipling gets his message across:

The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason , forbids every beast  to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. 

The first story, Mowgli’s Brothers chronicles the induction of a ‘man-cub’ to the wolf pack, introduces his friends Baloo, the jungle law teaching strict, kind bear and Bagheera, the inky-black panther. We are also introduced to the menace of Shere Khan, an able nemesis. The story ends with Mowgli’s decision to leave the wolf pack. Why does he take such a drastic decision? You have to read the book for that.

Kaa’s Hunting is another Mowgli tale that flashbacks to a confrontation between a giant rock python and the wayward Bandar-log: as monkeys are defamed here. Tiger! Tiger! chronicles the final face-off between Mowgli and Shere Khan. The Mowgli stories in the book end there. The Second Jungle Book contains other stories featuring Mowgli and his friends.

Moving on, The White Seal, fabled to be heard from a traveling and truthful sea bird that the narrator nursed to health on a ship, takes a diversion to the snow-frozen Arctic region. A relevant tale on the devastating role humans play in mixing livelihood with killing.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is the most celebrated of mongoose vs cobra stories, with a whiff of fairy-tale in its depiction of cobra as a cruel, merciless villain. One story where humans feature prominently as the ones protected by a valiant mongoose.

Toomai of the Elephants tells the tale of a young Indian boy mahout, who gets a rare insight into a secret ritual of elephants. Servants of the Queen serves as a parody of the imperial, all-conquering British army. The comic conversation between the animals is lively, as the night before the big parade, they enumerate their experiences to each other.      

Kipling and Mowgli

Much of Kipling’s writing for the book was sourced from his stay in India. Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay (presently Mumbai). Mowgli’s character is said to be inspired from Kipling’s isolation when, at the age of three, he and his sister were left by his parents with a couple in England for five years.The author has written bitterly about this five-year period in his autobiography. That Mowgli grows up with wolves, and there is no mention of his parents, except a sentence that he is a woodcutter’s son, seems the outlet of that memory, if not distinctly so.

Kipling returned to India at the age of 17, his experiences resulted in an astounding seven volumes of stories.  The writer had left India in 1889 and moved to London. He traveled extensively during this period, got married and wrote prolifically. The Jungle Book was an outcome of this lush period of youth, change and success.

Edition

Watch out for an omnibus edition that contains the duo - The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

Poetry Reads: The Firefly by Ogden Nash

Ahoy, Wolf here.  

It is certainly a surprise of momentous proportion 

that we hadn't yet featured on this blog, 

a poet of Ogden Nash's literary calibre and position. 

After all his poems are witty and funny, 

for Nash (1902 - 1971) had a talent for the humourous, 

a quality often found wanting in numerous. 

The use of rhyme that we attempt here in prose, 

the American poet created in verse. 

He could rhyme any word to another,

as if  words were tickling us to laughter - with a feather.

The following poem is just a sample 

of a prolific poetry collection that can be best described as ample. 

If you want to read more there is certainly a book that is handy; 

and it is titled - Candy is Dandy. 

The Firefly
by Ogden Nash

The firefly's flame
Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person's posteerier.

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(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

Fiction Reads: Delhi: A Novel by Khushwant Singh

In Khushwant Singh's inimitable style of writing, Delhi:A Novel is probably the most impressive of his works in fiction.

On its wide canvas he spreads lavish, bright-coloured strokes of a 600-year chronology of rulers, conquests, bloodbaths, poets, ravishment, monuments, greed, perversions and the late writer's favourite diversion - oodles of sex; erotic passages threaten to peg down the literary impact.

History sparks to life 

Two strands of narratives govern the tale, one of a 56 year-old narrator (clear sketch of the writer himself) in 'present day' Delhi (Culminating in year 1984), his eunuch lover, sexual adventures and irreverence (including a treatise on farting!). 

The other part, interspersed as separate chapters, has striking fictional accounts from the lives of Khwaja Nizamuddin, Aurangzeb, Nadir Shah, Meer Taqi Meer, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the city's architects, partition refugees and other denizens who were part of Delhi's making, unmaking. 

Singh uses his journalistic knowledge and vivid imagination to best effect here. As mentioned in the author's note,"History provided me with the skeleton. I covered it with flesh and injected blood and a lot of seminal fluid into it." Some accounts are remarkable in lending defiant voices to those generally regarded in history as antagonists or villains.

Khushwant Singh's best? 

Singh's own bitter-syrupy relation with the city is revealed, with a stark, hostile mockery of its state. Much is salvaged through humour. 

The writer's mastery shines in detailed, disciplined and arresting prose. When he cuts down the distractions and goes deep into the tale, which is often, there are few novels as straight-forward and readable as this one.

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)    

Khushwant Singh (1915 - 2014)

Poetry Reads: Romance by WJ Turner

WJ Turner (1889-1946) grew up in Melbourne, he later moved to London where his first collection, The Hunter and other Poems (1916) was published. The book begins with his most famous and enduring work - Romance.

The poem left me blank on first reading it in my preteens. Yet an image rose like a halo back then, conveying a rush that went beyond words. It emanates of that feeling, where a poem writes itself down, rather than a poet consciously composing it.

Romance, be deceived not, dear Romeos and Juliets, talks of travel, childhood, daydreaming and three scenic volcanoes. To quote the WordWeb online dictionary, apart from the apparent meaning:

Romance

(Noun)

2. An exciting and mysterious quality (as of a heroic time or adventure)

As the verse reveals, WJ Turner had this constant daydream or vision when he was 13, doing his school-home-school routine. He had already lost his father and younger brother, as is mentioned in the poem. Prominent in these dreams, as clear as day were Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, Ecuadorian volcanoes. The former, at the time of writing, is inactive and the latter, a potentially active one. The third volcano, Popocatapetl, is located in Mexico and presently active.

Either the poet had visited these places or heard vivid descriptions of them, there is no definitive proof on either aspect. But whatever unforgettable and soul-stealing it conveyed to Turner, his verse has passed it on, for posterity.

Romance 

by WJ Turner

When I was but thirteen or so

I went into a golden land,

Chimborazo, Cotopaxi

Took me by the hand.

My father died, my brother too,

They passed like fleeting dreams,

I stood where Popocatapetl

In the sunlight gleams.

I dimly heard the master's voice

And boys far-off at play,

Chimborazo, Cotopaxi

Had stolen me away.

I walked in a great golden dream

To and fro from school--

Shining Popocatapetl

The dusty streets did rule.

I walked home with a gold dark boy,

And never a word I'd say,

Chimborazo, Cotopaxi

Had taken my speech away:

I gazed entranced upon his face

Fairer than any flower--

O shining Popocatapetl

It was thy magic hour:

The houses, people, traffic seemed

Thin fading dreams by day,

Chimborazo, Cotopaxi

They had stolen my soul away!

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(Article by Snehith Kumbla) 

Book Excerpts: Round and About by Busybee

Few know him as Behram Contractor (1930 - 2001). For the reading world, he was and always will be - Busybee. A casual observer of public life and its spontaneous commentator, Busybee wrote for the Bombay editions of The Times of India, The Free Press Journal and finally The Afternoon, his own newspaper.

Round and about was the famous column series that Busybee wrote. Many call it a newspaper editorial; Busybee did express his opinion in the column, but always for the laughs. There was a simplicity in the humour and a motley group of additional characters (dog, children, wife) added to the appeal. As adorable were the accompanying sketches by cartoonist Mario Miranda (1926 - 2011).

You may read more about Busybee in this striking obituary (click link & scroll down to read) by the mercurial Khushwant Singh (1915 - 2014).

The following extract is from a 1972 edition of Round and about (a collection of previously published articles). The Indian cricket team had recently registered historic test series wins in England and West Indies. Here is Busybee on the cricketers:

One of the problems that the big employers of our Test cricketers are facing is what to do with them when they are not playing cricket.

And it is not the fault of the cricketers. They have been playing so long and so well that they have forgotten how to work. Some of them have even forgotten who they are working for. 

For instance, I am told that the day after the team arrived, Wadekar went to the Bank of India instead of the State Bank. Asked what he was doing there, he said,"I know I am employed by a bank, but I have forgotten which bank."

Solkar's case is even more to the point. It seems that all last week he has been either standing like a rock or falling all over the Mafatlal offices, depending on whether he is under the impression that he is giving stand to Bedi at Lords or fielding at the Kennington Oval. 

And a director of the ACC was telling me: "You may be surprised to hear this, but Sardesai has forgotten how to make cement."            

I am getting similar reports from all over the country. Some of the cricketers are still walking on red carpets, others opening gifts that have received from all sorts of manufacturers. And it seems most of them stay away from work every time it rains.       

(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

Book Excerpts: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's foray into adventure began even before he was twenty. Post a cub reporter stint at the Kansas City Star, Hemingway volunteered for a ambulance driver job at the Italian front during World War I.

A Farewell to Arms (1929) is a fictional take on these early intense experiences with violence, love and death. The book established Hemingway's reputation as a writer of captivating fiction in the public eye, adding on to the praise that Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (1926) got him.

Hemingway remained obsessed with various forms of violence until his death, from boxing, bullfighting, war, deep sea fishing to big game hunting. 

Many writers have imitated the matter-of-fact detailed style of writing, but they all lack the first-hand flame of experience that Hemingway conveyed. Here are the first lines from the novel that still hits you with its straight forward description of war and human nature: 

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.


(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

The Lord of the Rings Eagle Theory: FLY, YOU FOOLS!

With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. 'Fly, you fools!' he cried, and was gone.    

- The Lord of the Rings / The Fellowship of the Ring / The Bridge of Khazad-Dum

This is the theory, the ultimate, alternative The Lord of the Rings theory. It makes much of an alleged plot loophole. Consider it closely, dear bookworms. I won't vouch for it, nor discard it, but present the case to you.  

The Lord of the Rings eagle theory has been around in various forms on the Internet for some time now. There seems to be no one person who can be solely credited to it. There are various long winding scrapes of it, posed by different readers. 

Fly, you fools!  

The whole crux of it lies in the opening extract of this blog post. Three words uttered by Gandalf, his last words as he believes them to be - Fly, you fools!

As the theory, credited to one VulcanDeathGrip goes, it all began in the opening pages of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Gandalf rides to Isengard to meet Saruman, having entrusted Frodo the ring. Unfortunately for the grey wizard, Saruman has turned to Sauron's side and imprisons the unrelenting grey wizard. It is then that Gandalf takes aid of his friends, the eagles to escape. This is where the theory wedges in: 

It is when the eagles bear him away from Saruman's clutches, that Gandalf seriously considers the always evident possibility - that he will have to take the onus of destroying the ring.

Running out of time, perceiving the impossibility of Frodo's mission, Gandalf seriously considers the use of eagles. What better than Frodo to ride with the eagles and drop the ring, airborne, into the volcano of Mount Doom? Yes, it is risky business, but there is an advantage to it. Sauron has not yet contended with the use of eagles. 

The eagles are elusive, aloof creatures, friends of no one but Gandalf. So before turning up at Rivendell, Gandalf meets the eagles at their lair (as marked in The Hobbit - Up north in the Misty Mountains) and discusses the ring dropping plan with them and the eagles consent to it. A secret pact is made between them, that NO ONE ELSE will know of the plan until the time of its execution.

Top secret  

Gandalf now arrives at Rivendell and agrees to the forming of the fellowship. He finds it most appropriate to keep the fellowship clueless of his plans and somehow lead them, slipping past Sauron's ubiquitous spies to the eagle's lair.

Finally there, Frodo and the company (as distractions, while Frodo drops the ring) would be carried out to Mordor in a swift surprise ambush. Gandalf now considers the best route to the eagle's lair. This is his most intimidating hurdle. Just how inconspicuously can he get the fellowship through to his winged friends and then arrange a swift secret flight to Mordor? 

Gandalf thinks of the High Pass, the fastest route to the eagles, but he knows that Saruman would be keeping watch on this route. Infested as it was with orcs and goblins, it was the also the most dangerous route to take. Gandalf may have dared the route with Frodo and Sam for company as it had been originally planned. But loaded with additional company, it was too much of a risk to be seen.

The Redhorn Pass or the Northern Pass was Gandalf's best bet and this is where he leads the company. But Saruman impedes their steady progress early with storms. Reluctant to take the Gap of Rohan, a route that will take them too far from the eagle's lair and too close to Isengard, there is but no choice left but to go through the mines of Moria, despite its dangers.  

Out of time and options 

Thus cornered out of options and running out of time, Gandalf hopes to get the fellowship through Moria and then through the High Pass to the eagles.

He almost gets through, only to be taken by the Balrog. It is as he is desperately clinging to the cliff, Gandalf utters his well-chosen final words. He encodes his message cleverly, such that the nearby goblins and orcs do not figure its import. "Fly, you fools!" he says, and falls, hoping that any one of his companions figure out what he has implied.

But nobody comprehends the meaning of these final words and the fellowship is soon broken. 

Rebirth, amnesia  

Gandalf returns in The Two Towers as Gandalf the White. He has seen death and revival; he no longer remembers things, not even his name! So it is no wonder that he has forgotten the plan with the eagles.

Only when the ring is destroyed, and Frodo and Sam are in need of aid that Gandalf recalls the eagle plan. By that time, there is no need. 

Other factors  

• The eagles could have been easily lured by the ring, so they are not solely entrusted to drop it. 
• Gandalf has seen Bilbo's extraordinary will in forsaking the ring, hence he trusts that Frodo will follow suit. 
• Gandalf himself couldn't destroy the ring, for he feared, rightly so, that the ring will wield a power far too great to imagine in his hands. 

Tolkien thought of umpteen things for The Lord of the Rings, so it is obvious he must have thought of the eagles.

As a counter to the theory, the eagles never cared for anyone but Gandalf who had discarded the airborne ring dropping idea long ago, considering that it was too obvious to guess for Sauron. In such desperate times, it was too much of a risk.   


(Article by Snehith Kumbla)

A gif image from the  Peter Jackson movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)