Gora

Recently I re-read one of the old classics which I had already completed as a child. Gora by Rabindranath Tagore. this brings the line in one of the animation movies to my mind. something about a story worth telling once is worth telling once again. the rule goes same for reading a story too. Have you ever tried reading a good book across ages. I think I have said this sometime back. your reading, understanding and enjoyment of a good story changes with your age. I could feel the difference in the case of Pride and Prejudice between when I first read it at 11 yrs and now. The same goes for Gora. The story of how a rich high class bengali child-less couple happen to help a fleeing english aristocrat's pregnant wife. It was the time when India got its independence from British. the story is based between then and sometime 27 years later. The pregnant wife dies giving birth to a fair son. The bengali couple adopt him, never tell anyone about its origin, name the boy Gora and he grows to be a strong, orthodox Hindu. it was also the time when Brahmo samaj was getting famous and orthodox bengali society was reacting against this samaj and its doctrine of widow-remarraige and a class-less society. Gora was too orthodox even to the point that not only his elder cousin and his father, but the entire society sorrounding him holds him in respect. Also, his structure and color (so different from the rest) gives him the added advantage. He has a happy go lucky friend who comes across a family associated with Brahmo Samaj. Gora's interest in this family is to vociferously argue against the doctrines of Hinduism and his philosophy of the way of life with a staunch follower of Brahmo Samaj. (People were actually in awe of his fiery arguments). But Gora's friend has a more romantic interest with this family. Both Gora and his father follow their philosophy so rigorously that they do not even eat food cooked by Gora's mother.
I like the characterisation of Gora's mother at this point. Having known the secret of her dearest son's origin, she on the spot sacrifices her religious believes on the alter of motherhood's eternal love. Her sorrow is well depicted here. A mother whose son, even though loves her very deeply, will not eat the food cooked by her hand nor enter her room to talk to her. But her sorrow is open only for the view of her servant Lakshmi.
Gora's friend predicament is also quite enjoyable. A happy go lucky youngster. He had just graduated. does not have a definite idea about what he is going to do now so he is taking a break at the time of this story. He is an orphan so he considers Gora's mother as his own and fills up the gap ever since Gora refuses his mother's ministrations. This is admitted by Gora's mother in her admonishments to Gora for forbidding his friend to eat her food. Gora's friend is caught inbetween his loyality to Gora and his thirst for a mother's love. His one-sided romance with the daughter of the elder from Brahmo Samaj actually helps him to come to terms with Gora's mother's doctrine. the part where he loses his battle to be loyal to his friend quite nice, where he rushes to Gora's mother and surrenders to her love and begs for food cooked by her.
the hallmark is Gora's self realisation of himself, his society. Gora's world as he knows it comes to an end with his father's death. Krishnakanth in his belief that he will not attain moksha if his last rites are done by Gora, calls him to his death-bed and explains why Gora cannot perform his last rites. The world as Gora knows comes to an end. With his very identity, name even his nationality put under question, he realises that he has lost everything and his self realization of his own identity brings him to change his view towards his society. After his struggle with self, he returns to his mother's love and reforms to work towards the doctrines of class-less society where man has to realise only love, compassion and brotherhood towards his fellow human being instead of talking about untouchability and other such pains that deny him simple yet costly pleasure in life - like in Gora's case, his mother's selfless love.
Every character in this book lives with an aim, a desire and a goal. somehow I could see that each person has reached his desire in the end. the elder from Brahmo samaj got newer members to his society. his daughter and his neice (radha and lolitha) both are helped through life to face a difficult time and receive the attentions of two good men in their life - Gora's friend falls for Radha and in then end with a changed attitude the reader is left with Gora accepting the elder and his doctrine along with his niece lolitha in his life. Gora's father gets his wish to have his nephew to do the last rites for him thereby maintaining his tie to his belief. Gora's friend will continue to enjoy the motherly affection from Gora's mother and yet be accepted by both Radha and Gora. Gora himself finds true contentment at a time of need at his mother's side. A life without a philosophy is very difficult for Gora to envisage. At a time when his very identity is taken away from him, Brahmo Samaj gives him a direction to return to the blend of society, to his mother and to his lady love.
Its a good reading much more simple than the sahitya academy award winning serpent and the rope of raja ram. That too was read when I was a child of 13. I took a long time to complete it and make sense out of it. But that is for another day.

Life in Darkness

Back on line due to popular requests. At least more than one person has requested me to continue writing. More than the ability to write, it was the sheer laziness to pen in something. Inability to sit at one place and give the due deligence required to attain the level of concentration was one thing. What should I write about became the next problem.

Then came to mind a recent experience. powercuts are common in india. but recently, there was one that was a clear damper. But as they say, there was a silver lining to even this cloud. Here is how it went. we had very good rains this season. and i mean it when i said very good rains. it was pouring even in december when it was not expected to. result was, we lost power one of those times. i thought that was a common experience and it will be back on when the rains come down a bit. maybe 24 hrs or so. but later we realised that 2 houses, ours included lost power due to a short circuit. The EB department had to re-lay the lines and they kind of took 2 or 3 days to do it. These days were real eye-openers. most days i come home late from work but my home is always lit with light and noisy with the sound of whichever serial or reality program that was going on at that point. one night i was very late and it was pouring at my place. called up dad and told him the situation as soon as i got down at my station, least my parents worry and he said he will pick me up from the station. i had to wade through pure rain water. it was just ankle deep water but packed quite a current while roaring down the street. it was this 'flood' that i had to 'cross' to reach a dry bank of road. i came home wet and shivering in the cold doubled by the customary december climate and the added rains. and here is how the house looked. it was plunged in darkness. candle-lit rooms. songs through the FM radio in cell phone. we could not do much in the evening. we ate and went to bed early. no net, no work from home at night meant no mails or calls at night. i actually realized what a good few hours of straight sleep can do for you. refreshed in the morning? yep. One would have thought i might have learnt my lesson with this? nope. i suppose it is difficult to give up a life-time habit of reading before going to bed. but life even though it was difficult during those 3 days was sure simple and straight forward.

Sometime back, I started reading what I called ' a different variety' of content from the publishing world. Thats when I came in touch with some innovative re-telling of favorite stories. What is popularly called Fan-Fiction. I learnt that die-hard fans somehow want a different interpretations of their favorite works - be it books, tv serials or movies. I came across fanfictions of a variety of entertainments - Jane Austen books, Star Trek and Inuyasha from the world of visual media. I am not very sure about the merits of Fanfiction. Earlier, I used to think 'they can't write something original themselves, but they want to write over what is already written' - this was some years back. Tell you, some of them really made me re-think my thoughts on these writers. some works were really quite good. (Unless it is offensive, I generally encourage any creative endeavour). As far as fan-fiction was concerned, my bone of contention was that these writers are picking on the works of original authors. Copyrights of the work, credits to the author, the original idea etc were all worry points with me. I found that almost all fan fiction writers, not only gave due recognition to authors (some of them were real devotees to these authors and their beloved works), they also acknowledged that these characters and the base story line is from the original author. Which made me think, is this obsession the reason to re-hear the story in a way they would have wanted? But I have to say, its one way to start off your practice on writing. What ever may be the reasons that might encourage fanfiction writers, as long as you know what you are doing and what you are due to whom, I am ok with it, otherwise I will have to call it plagiarism. Having said that, I somehow have to admit to some of the innovative creations that have come out of this variety.

some time back, I discovered an author. She was the first one of her kind to me. I thought it would be another religious rumble. Very interesting..Her works grew in strength and character. and of course, she had a very unique style of writing. I am someone who is always watching new styles of writing. She was new. she had a story to tell and she told it in a different way. I still follow her. She is what we call 'inspirational romance writers'. Her books have quotes from her religious books. As that wise monkey in Lion King series says, a story worth telling once is worth telling again. I started out of sheer curiosity. Now I wait for all her works. She writes as Judith Bronte. She has now become my friend.