Book Review : Miss New India

Title : Miss New India

Author : Bharati Mukherjee

ISBN : 978-0-618-64653-1

Anjali Bose or 'Angie' is introduced as a 19-year old, born in an orthodox middle class family in Gauripur - a small town in Bihar, India. This does not conclude her description, she also happens to be attractive - not the traditional Indian beauty though, very smart, ambitious, extremely fluent in English and with some streaks of rebelliousness. Her expatriate English teacher, Peter Champion identifies these characteristics of hers and encourages her to dream big beyond the almost predestined arranged marriage on the cards for her. From time to time he boosts her self-esteem and stimulates the desire in her to write her own destiny rather than watching her destiny being written silently without her consent. But finally it takes one disastrous experience in the marriage market which was enough to push her to take the extreme step of leaving the confines of her home to set off to Bangalore . Bangalore - one of the fastest growing cities in India, the new IT hub, the land of realizing the dreams.

Anjali sets her feet on the new promising land with Peter Champion's money and his introductions to a couple of contacts of powerful people who could help her in forming small footholds initially. She finds herself in a huge crowd of aspirants to be call-center service agents who are given American names, taught to speak like Americans, familiarized with America's geography - in short, trained to comfortably put up the garb of a regular American for specified working hours. Her Bangalore tryst turns out to be a huge roller coaster ride where - she is seduced into the freedom and modernity that the city has to offer to its inhabitants, the trickery of one of the co-residents pushes her into troubled waters and the gloomy side of independent life does not remain alien to her.

Some of the characters in the story just add more clutter and confusion without going anywhere and give an impression of half thought-out and half-baked effort. The character portrayal and the description of relationships that the protagonist has with her family, her teacher and her friends lack believability and depth.

Despite aiming to be a story reflecting the predicaments of many wannabes from small towns struggling to make it big in life, the narrative falters miserably. On many occasions it takes drastically melodramatic turns leaving the whole story line far removed from reality. The story spanning 300 odd pages bringing out the journey of Anjali Bose should have been able to establish some connection of the readers with the protagonist, on the contrary, the readers are left with no feelings whatsoever for a puzzled and lost Anjali.

Book Review : Elephant In The Tree

Title : The Elephant in the Tree

Author and Illustrator : Mallika Nagarajan

Publisher : Katha

ISBN : 978-81-89934-66-8

Story of a little girl Mahi who enjoys eating her favourite fruit - mangoes (who doesn't?) and while relishing the luscious fruit once, she wonders how it would be if there were no mango trees? And the same night, she could not believe her eyes when she spotted a seven-trunked elephant in the tree and soon enough the same elephant was standing in front of her with a unique request. The Tree of Life which makes all life possible everywhere, is sick and needs help and the elephant thinks Mahi can join him in saving the tree.

This request melts Mahi's heart and she embarks on the journey with the elephant to the most amazing world that she has ever seen. But everything everywhere in that world was pale, brown and sad.

They both quickly get to work and their relentless efforts start bearing fruits and soon the world which had become lacklustered because of dearth of water starts breathing life, the Tree of Life was colourful and bright again with leaves, fruits and flowers.

The magic had worked and they had accomplished their mission.

Through this exercise Mahi realizes the importance of trees in our lives and she resolves to use the same Tree Magic to make rain and save our world too. During her holidays she plants the seeds of each mango that she eats and later is joined by many of her other friends in this endeavour. She even finds a secret friend who visits her often.

Yes, we all can be miracle workers and join the mission of saving our world by planting more magic Trees.

Katha books always offer beautiful illustrations with riots of colours which are sure way to have dedicated young readers spending hours and hours savouring the details of each picture.

Book Review : Flute In The Forest

Title : Flute in the Forest

Author : Leela Gour Broome

Publisher : Puffin

Age Group : 12+

There are some rare books which stir some chords deep inside the heart and after reading such books, I just sigh and wish I could also write something so beautiful, something so pristine and something so soul stirring. Oh well, atleast I am writing about one here.

'Flute in the Forest' is one of the most sensitively written stories of a thirteen-year-old girl - Atiya Sardare, the only child of her estranged parents. Her mother, a famous dancer succumbed to the lure of exciting stage, left the family behind when her hopes of seeing Atiya as a world renowned dancer got shattered following the polio attack that left Atiya physically handicapped. Now Atiya lives with her father - the forest officer in a jungle in Southern region of India.

But her handicap or her loneliness does not hamper her adventurous spirit in any way rather this spirit of hers often encourages her to explore the paths inside the sanctuary many times even without the knowledge of her father. She feels most comfortable in the natural surroundings amidst lush green silent trees and the world of big and small animals. She is well conversant with the ways of jungle and its innumerable creatures.

While on one such secret trips, she gets to hear the most mellifluous music of a flute being played in a distance which enthralls her so much that she resolves to learn to play flute herself. But she knows her father detests any kind of music in the house in the fear of losing another loved one to the temptation of the stage.

Atiya soon finds out that the player of that sweet melodious flute was none other than a very bad tempered mean old man whom she likes to call as 'Ogre Uncle'. As the fate would have it, she starts learning to play flute from the same Ogre Uncle and surprisingly these teaching sessions lend a blissfully calming influence on the dreaded rogue elephant - Rangappa and Ogre Uncle himself - the physicallt dissimilar yet very similar duo. Atiya finds a loving patient friend in Ogre Uncle's daughter - Mishora. Atiya's flute-playing adroitness brings an unprecedented inner peace to herself and manages to transform the opinion of her father too. It feels as if the magic of the musical notes originating from Atiya's flute weaves a blanket of calm, peace and love everywhere and everyone seems to find the answers to many personal unanswered queries.

Despite having dealt with a few sensitive subjects in the narrative such as - a physically handicapped girl as the protagonist, the mention of her mother leaving the family to follow her passion to dance, a terminally ill Ogre Uncle and finally a death - the book is very positive. The story is the true celebration of 'The Happy Spirit'. I was reading the last chapter on my way back from a very satisfying trip to Rishikesh and I still can feel

the same goose bumpy feeling that I experienced then while reading it. This is what a perfectly well-written moving stories do to the readers.

I am sure this charming story will touch the same inner chords of young readers as it did mine.

Book Review : Journals of the Big Mouth Bass

Title : Journals of the Big Mouth Bass

Author : Debbie Sue Bass Williamson

Publisher : Souper Publishing

ISBN : 978-0-9801234-1-8

Debbie receives a journal from her mother as birthday present and this particular present catches her fancy more than anything else. She is a girl who is well aware of her incapability of keeping secrets to herself and this nature of hers has already earned her the title 'Big Mouth Bass'. So the journal functions as the perfect rescuer for her - a perfect place to pour out her heart's secrets, her experiences, feelings and thoughts, without holding anything back. She decides to address her journal entries to God with the confidence that God won't let her secrets out. She confides everything here - her (mis) adventures as part of the Sunny Side Gang, her failed attempts to behave in a more girly manner, her struggle to be accepted in certain groups, her misery of being last to be picked up for the games of dodge ball and her first crush - are just a few of the issues that she has to deal with.

So the whole book is in the voice of a nine-year old who thinks herself as a - 'sort of dorky with buck teeth, red hair and lots of freckles'.

Debbie Bass is a suburban girl growing up in 1960s and through her journal entries she gives a glimpse of the journey of a girl trying to make sense of the age old traditions, values and family restrictions while keeping her eyes on the wider promising unfathomed world.

There are some portions which are straight from the heart of a girl who is going through the difficult phase of growing up. However, after reading the whole journal, I am contemplating whether it is the kind of book I would give to my nine-year old son to read or not. There are a couple of chapters I have objection with - one depicting the magic and visualization and another is towards the end when the death of a certain character can jolt the young readers. So I would urge the parents to read this book first and then take the decision. The last chapters brought back the memories of 'Bridge to Terabithia'

Overall an engaging and entertaining book. The short abrupt sentences completely reflect the distracted mind of a nine-year old. Girls will be able to relate more to it simply because the protagonist is a girl and has described the experiences of transitioning from a little girl to the pre-teen phase of life.

Book Review : Tasting The Universe

Title : Tasting the Universe

Author : Maureen Seaberg

Publisher : New Page Books

ISBN : 978-1-60163-159-6

I must confess that I did not know what Synesthesia mean before I received this book to be reviewed. And the first thing I did after having picked up this book to read is to look up the meaning of Synesthesia. One of the simpler explanations about this term that I found online is - 'This is a peculiar condition in which the senses get cross-wired. For example, a person with synesthesia may see colours when he/she hears a sound or can actually taste words; stimulation of one sense, it seems, causes an inappropriate stimulation of another. The most common form of synesthesia is when people see or hear words in colour. The condition affects about 1 in 25,000 people and is found more commonly in women than in men. There appears to be more left handed individuals among synesthetics than in the general population although the significance of this is unclear. Often synsethetics have exceptional memories, have a tendency to unusual 'psychic' experience, but may have problems at maths and navigation. '

The author Maureen Seaberg, a Synesthetic herself, very early on realized that her aberrant perceptions of letters and numbers sound rather strange to people around her, so she preferred keeping the same to herself. But later inspired by 'the present day climate of inquiry into and wonder about this nearly forgotten gift', she took upon herself to explore this amazing alternate world. In this book, she watches, questions, interviews and tries to experience the experiences of Synesthetic rock stars, violinists, neuroscientists and quantum physicists in her endeavor to understand the amazing patterns made by the mind in collaboration with the senses. As observed by the owners of these rare gifts, often this unique intermingling of senses indeed empowers the person to open a whole new vista of creativity, sensitivity, divinity and an unmatched, unparalleled vision and eventually to establish connection between all these diverse faculties.

People who are familiar with this form of perception and understanding of things will be able to relate to this book and to the experiences of others mentioned in it, and for other readers who are completely alien to this unknown world, this book opens a small window for them to peep through the colourful, magical, mystical and fancier world. I specifically liked the part where Seaberg has listed the criteria to test whether a person is indeed a synesthetic or not. This criteria is propounded by Dr. Richard E. Cytowiz who is accredited with the success of bringing synesthesia back as one of the topics of deep research and discussion.

Overall a fascinating read.

Book Review : Dear Max

Title : Dear Max

Author : Sally Grindley

Publisher : Aladin Paperbacks

ISBN : 978-1-4169-3443-1

'Pen is the tongue of mind' - I cannot agree more. I am one of the many strong admirers of letter writing. Its charm and charisma can never be replaced by the whole array of modern means of faster and quicker communication. Letter writing is truly an art. It is the most personal gift that we give to our loved ones.

'Dear Max' is a story narrated through a series of letters, postcards and cards that are exchanged between a nine-year old boy Max and his favourite author - D.J.Lucas. After having read one of his books, Max decides to place the first stone of the foundation of a friendly relationship between an author and a young reader.

"Dear D.J.Lucas,

My uncle bought me one of your books for Christmas. Its called Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Boys? Have you written any other books? I want to be a writer when I grow up.

Love from Max,

Age 9"

D.J. lovingly replies back to her new pen-pal and thus commences the wonderful journey of their sharing their lives with each other through the letters. Max writes about his challenges in life, the bullies he has to face in school, his life after his father left them, his struggle in forming a story and his medical issues. D.J. shares the events and happenings from her life, her progress in story writing and about her other engagements.

Max makes sure to add his creative drawings in all his letters and this is one of the reasons he likes writing letters than any other ways of communicating with his favourite author. For the readers, these drawings simply raise the fun factor of the book.

Dear Max showcases a beautiful relationship in which it feels so easy and right to share many inner feelings and emotions with ones who do not judge, who have similar vulnerabilities, despite them being complete strangers initially. While reading this book, I could actually peep inside the mind of Max and feel his jubilation on having another confidant in his life besides his mother, another person who he happily includes in his inner circle. I like the way Max tries to incorporate the ideas or suggestions given by the author for his writing, behaviour and life in general. Throughout all the author's letters to Max, she does not sermonize or preach anything to Max, she just offers another perspective and different angle of viewing things which works wonders for Max and I am sure it will appeal to all young readers.

Book Review : Still Alice

Title : Still Alice

Author : Lisa Genova

Publisher : Simon and Schuster

ISBN : 978-1-84739-624-2

What happens when somebody loses his/her complete identity while still very much alive?

'Still Alice' is the story of Alice Howland - a successful academician, an accomplished Harvard Professor, who is diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's Disease soon after she celebrated her 50th birthday . The doctor's verdict comes as a rude shock in her otherwise extremely active life, which she loves dearly and which is part of her real identity - full of travel, giving lectures, mentoring students besides being a loving wife and a mother of three.

It does not take long for her condition to deteriorate. The story is the third person account of how her disease progresses and the preventive measures she takes in order to extend the period of her being aware of who she actually is. Some of the parts are really touching and very sensitively handled - her being lost inside her own home looking for the bathroom, her forgetting everything about her actress daughter, her loneliness amidst her own family, her interactions with her youngest daughter and her heart-wrenching speech as an Alzheimer patient. These are the portions in which the author excels brilliantly, successfully invoking the right feelings in the readers.

But there is much that is left unripe, unbaked and amateurish.

The author keeps dwelling on the fact that Alice is a smart Harvard Professor umpteen number of times. The early onset of Alzheimer is a tragic development for any person engaged in any occupation. In the beginning while introducing the protagonist, the mention of all her details are expected but too much of the same piece of information is definitely unpalatable.

Interaction among the family members on many occasions fall in the category of being artificial and superficial. While reading this kind of story I was expecting the handling of the close relationships in much more sensitive fashion. Characters should have been etched with a little more detail and warmth. The elder two children and even Alice's husband John come across as dry and shallow individuals.

This story had all the ingredients of being a great read but the lack of proper handling makes it fall short on many fronts. Despite all this, it is still an engaging book as it offers a close to accurate account of how it feels to be the patient of such brutal unforgiving disease.

Book Review : Children Of A Better God

Title : Children Of A Better God

Author : Susmita Bagchi

Publisher : Penguin India

ISBN : 978-0-143-06642-2

Anupraba returns back to India from US with her family leaving behind a fulfilling job as an art teacher and a comfortable life in the much sought after land. She has her own doubts and apprehensions about the big move while she busies herself in making arrangements to settle down in Bangalore. A chance meeting with one of her old college friends brings even bigger change in her daily routine as a homemaker. Through this friend of hers, she gets introduced to Asha Jyoti and the children studying there, children suffering from cerebral palsy. Anupraba is requested by the principal of Asha Jyoti to guide the children of the school as a temporary art teacher for the upcoming exhibition. Initially she had many doubts and apprehensions of teaching such children but eventually she manages to overcome her anxieties and prepares herself for this short term project. While teaching them the techniques of shapes, figures and mixing colors, she was actually getting to learn some life lessons from these children. She witnessed love amidst hatred, laughter amidst deep sorrow, perseverance amidst disability and above all hope amidst hopelessness.

Despite their peculiar (dis)abilities, she noticed something special in the children and their drawings - perhaps it was the result of permanent impairment or the frustration of being captive in the uncooperative bodies. She could see their inner lively selves brought out through the medium of paper, pencil and colours. 'When they painted, they used a profusion of colours, they used bright hues, and their flowers cheerfully dominated the entire are of whatever size paper you gave them. Their characters were always smiling and doing happy things. They were at play, they were cycling, they were dancing and in most paintings they were about the stuff normal children did everyday, but would require a miracle of God for these children.' While actively guiding the children for the exhibition day, she often wondered what is in store for such children and who will take care of them when they have to fend for themselves, but wanted to believe 'surely the same creator who brought them in this world will look after them. They are children of God, hopefully a better God than the one who looks after us.'

A touching and sensitively written book which brings out the agonies and pains, and threats and challenges of people suffering from cerebral palsy. This is also a tribute to the loving caregivers of such individuals who work behind them and with them so as to enable them to lead respectable independent lives as much as possible. The only thing not coming up to the mark was the narrative, which is a little too simplistic, overlooking a lot of nuances of this subject which demand deeper attention and complete justice.

Book Review : Quantum Angel Healing

Title : Quantum Angel Healing

Author : Eva-Maria Mora

Publisher : Synergy Books

ISBN : 978-0-9845040-1-5

Eva Maria Mora, the author of 'Quantum Angel Healing' begins the book by first showing us a mirror - the mortal human beings in search of solutions to innumerable problems - ranging from physical discomforts, illnesses to mental and emotional stresses. And for these problems, we tend to blame others or look for some external reasons, this is our way of justifying our miseries or finding excuses for the same. But in all this exercise we miss out on the real cause, the fundamental root of the problem which is - our belief that we are different from others, we are away from our true selves and we are separate from the almighty. Perhaps that is what we view from behind so many masks that we don from time to time while on this earth in one particular birth.

Then the author proceeds onto guiding the readers that the solutions can be sought and the problems can be alleviated by some simple breathing and meditation techniques. What these techniques empower us to do is to generate a high energy field and connect the same to an even higher energy field. This is exactly what the Quantum Angel treatment practitioner enables the clients in pain to achieve. The undiminishing source of the highest energy level is none other than the divine energy of love which is transferred through the messengers of God - the Angels. The author talks about many miracles that she witnessed happening in front of her eyes.

Pain of any form that we experience in life is a direct indicator that our mind, body and soul are out of balance and are struggling with each other at some level. All human beings have seven main chakras which spin and move energy up and down the body and play a critical role in keeping both the physical and energy bodies healthy. The expert practitioners of Quantum Angel Healing can aid the clients in channelizing the energies from the chakra system and clearing the blocked energies in the system to create a clearer energy fields. The clearer energy fields start vibrating at the frequency appropriate to receive the messages from angels. Ms. Mora talks about many techniques to make connection with the angels and she has actually listed down the particular angels

After having talked about the different techniques, which she compares to the new recipes of a cookbook, she moves on to encourage the readers to even refurbish the kitchen by bringing in some new pots, pans and some fresh ingredients to try the new recipes with.

All these new items are actually positive steering of the thought process - cleaning up the blocked energies, checking the past emotions, experiences and beliefs, identifying whether we fall in any of the categories of - 'a victim', 'a judge', 'unable to forgive', or 'love hurts' and if so, following the program to clear that particular part of our personality.

She elaborates upon the most important steps of the Quantum Angel Healing formula -

1. Opening yourself to the flow of the angelic healing energies
2. Forgiving
3. Letting go of and transforming old emotions and harmful energies
4. Visualizing
5. Accepting love, new energies and new belief systems
6. Feeling gratitude

Second part is dedicated to different illnesses and their respective symptoms and which program works the best for healing these health issues.

This book definitely motivates the readers to first critically analyze own self, identify the problem areas, cleanse the energy levels internally as well as externally and apply the natural healing procedures. I found it very exciting and some of the techniques are easily to follow but I guess many need to be practiced under an expert practitioner. Through this book the author offers a peek into an intriguing world of energy levels and how the same can be manipulated for greater benefits.

Book Review : Freedom in Exile

Title : Freedom in Exile - An Autobiography of the Dalai Lama of Tibet

Publisher : Hachette

ISBN : 978-0-349-11111-7

Born on 6th July, 1935 in an ordinary Tibetan home, a little boy at the age of 2 years in 1938, was recognized as the reincarnation of previous 13 Dalai Lamas based on the traditional process of discovering the spiritual and political ruler of Tibet. At that tender age he was taken away to a monastery and was educated, conditioned and groomed for the great responsibility of assuming the role of supreme leader of Tibet.

He was enthroned as the absolute spiritual leader at the age of seven and at fifteen, he was made the head of the state - the undisputed leader of 6 million Tibet people facing the threat of a full scale war with China. Yes, that was the period 1949-50 when China invaded Tibet and Tibetan people, their culture, religion, faith and even their existence came under direct threat of Communist Chinese Government. The era of troubled times began for Tibet.

The Chinese Government offered a 17 point agreement to Tibet in order to merge Tibet to China. This agreement was nothing but their evil designs in the garb of the philanthropic objective of uplifting the backward Tibet in tune with the main parts of China. What followed was a violent period of brutality and savagery and in 1959 Dalai Lama was forced into an exile with some Tibetan followers. Subsequently a spate of bereaved refugees were helped by the then Prime Minister of India - Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in settling them in one of the places - Dharamshala in Himalayan region and later near Mysore. Similar hospitality was offered by the next Prime Ministers and Presidents in India in helping and supporting the cause of Tibetans. It has been 51 years since the time when Dalai Lama opted for political exile but the pleasure of being in one's own land and own country is still eluding him and thousands of his countrymen who are scattered over many places in India and in some other countries too.

But all through his life he dedicated himself to the task of - guiding his people in this dark period that has dawned on their native land and keeping the faith and culture alive despite being in an alien land. Having deep reverence for Mahatma Gandhi, he has been instrumental in promoting world peace through the unmatched weapon of non-violence.

He is working towards the sole objective of preserving Tibet and his people otherwise 'Tibetans will soon be no more than a tourist attraction and relic of a noble past'. For this he offered a Five-point peace plan for Tibet to Chinese Government in 1987 which includes -

1. The transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace.
2. Abandonment of China's population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of Tibetans as people.
3. Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms.
4. Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping the nuclear waste.
5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between Tibetan and Chinese people.

He gives a sincere glimpse of his own life through this book right from the early days of his life when he craved for all those things that a regular child does, his experience of being revered by his own people, his understanding of the Tibetan Buddhist faith and how and in which terms is it different from other faiths of Buddhism. Being a well read and well travelled person, he offers his frank opinion about the different countries and their political systems - 'in some ways, the American political system does not live up to its own ideals'

His openness to travelling and meeting people and his strong faith in goodness of people is neatly summed up here 'I welcome the opportunity offered to travel to meet and talk with people from different walks of life - some poor, some rich, some well educated, some ill educated, some who are religious, many who are not. So far, I have received only support for my belief that wherever you go people everywhere are basically the same, despite certain superficial differences. They all, like myself, seek happiness : no one wants suffering. Everyone appreciates affection and at the same time has the potential for showing affection to others'

I do not want to miss quoting some pearls of wisdom which Dalai Lama (literally meaning Ocean of Wisdom) has shared with his readers through this book -

'pain is what you measure pleasure by', 'make friends not by force but by compassion',

'no matter how bad things become, they will eventually get better. In the end, the innate desire of all people for truth, justice and human understanding must triumph over ignorance and despair. So if the Chinese oppressed us, it could only strengthen us.

After reading this book, I could not help pondering over the fact that we indeed live in a very imperfect world and while leading our individual lives in a small sphere, we forget what magnitude of unjust and unfair elements coexist in this same world.