Desicritics Category: Culture: Books

Growing Up With Enid Blyton

Shantanu Dutta — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:10:17 EDT

I remember the time I checked out four books out of our local public library and brought them home. My dad, who liked me to read and particularly read English books, was delighted and sad at the same time. He was thrilled to see me read but yet he wasn’t pleased to see who I was reading – the British author Enid Blyton. My dad, a literature student would have rather preferred that I read Shakespeare or Dickens but I preferred Enid Blyton. And today I find that though she has been dead since 1968, British voters have voted Enid Blyton at the top of a list of 50 all time favorite authors. And yes, she is ahead of Charles Dickens, Shakespeare and all those classic names.

Did Enid Blyton write classy literature that surpassed Shakespeare? Of course not. Shakespeare and the other authors are all masters of their genre and indeed if the entire world is a stage, then Shakespeare is one of its finest chroniclers. But what made her so timeless is that she journeys with you from childhood into adolescence – at least the choppy waters of turbulent adolescence if not the full course.

From the early childhood books of Noddy and Big Ears and onto the marvelously imaginative fairy tales, containing elves and fairies and gnomes and all manner of other characters- some good and some not so good, to the adventures of the five find outers, the secret sevens, the famous fives and others. It was a fascinating collection of racy adventure and fun and all anchored in sound family foundations and good food. Enid Blyton’s ability to describe a good English meal was particularly inspiring.

I suppose that part of the mystique of Enid Blyton is that there have not been that many writers of children’s’ books. In that list itself, there may not be more than four or five writers who were tremendously popular except for J.K.Rowlings, who did not write exclusively for children

Decades after I touched an Enid Blyton book, if I remember her with so much fondness, I suppose it is because her books taught my generation to live and enjoy life to the full and the skills for living she weaved in seamlessly in her books. In a value neutral world, her books could always be counted on to highlight the traditional or even old fashioned values of thrift, honesty, courage and integrity. Yet they also promoted the virtues of healthy curiosity, a sense of adventure and risk taking and problem solving, all good qualities to have as you entered into adolescence and subsequent adulthood.

Most of all the Blyton books celebrated camaraderie and friendship – between humans who worked together as teams bound together by love and genuine affection and equally importantly, she emphasized the bonding between humans and animals. Animals, particularly dogs were almost always a character in her books and the affection between animal pets and human masters was an abiding theme.

Close to forty years after her death Enid Blyton’s books continue to enthrall another generation today and that is good news for it reflects the enduring need for books that combine entertainment with education not in a pedagogical sense but in the sense of teaching people the art of living; not through any expensive course but simply through the pages of a book. But the British survey results are also bad news. For if a long dead author is still at the top of the charts, it goes to show that we are not producing enough Enid Blytons today…

Book review: The Stone Woman by Tariq Ali

Vinod Joseph — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:01:59 EDT

The Stone Woman is the third book in Tariq Ali’s Islam Quintet. Set at the turn of the twentieth century as the six hundred year old Ottoman Empire slowly flickers out, the Stone Woman revolves around the family of Iskander Pasha, who live in a remote palace ‘not too distant from Istanbul’. Iskander Pasha is a retired diplomat who had once graced the French court and the salons of Paris and is the descendent of Yusuf Pasha, a courtier at the Ottoman court.

The novel derives its name from an ancient rock in the palace garden, roughly shaped like a veiled woman, probably once worshipped by pagans as a goddess. Ali has each of his main characters make their way to the Stone Woman and pour out their feelings and emotions. In that sense, the Stone Woman is a collection of various personal tales of the various members of the cast. Unlike the first two books in the Islam Quintet, the Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and the Book of Saladin (, there is no single strand of storyline that runs from beginning to the end.

The Stone Woman gives its readers a feel of Ottoman society as it existed then. Iskander Pasha’s family cannot be classified as commoners, and just as in the case of the Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree , aristocrats and their servants form the main cast. Ali tells us of a dying empire where the Sultan and the mullahs or the ‘beards’ are in control and where innovation is frowned upon. Not just the printing press, but even clocks have been banned. The muezzin’s call to prayer is the only means of knowing the time. The reader is forced to wonder, can this be the same Ottoman Empire which in 1453 captured Constantinople (or Istanbul) from the Byzantines using the most advanced cannon of those times? The Ottomans were definitely the masters of innovation then. Tolerant Sunnis, they managed to run an inclusive empire where Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Bedouins, Greeks and Slavs were all invited to the party.

In the course of telling his tale, or rather collection of tales, Tariq Ali makes references to various historical events. The increasing animosity between the Kurds and the Armenians (which would later lead to the massacre of 2 million Armenians during the First World War) is brought out very well. To start with, it’s a simple case of the Armenians having some of the best land and the Kurds coveting the land. The inception of the Young Turks movement is also built into the storyline. A young officer named Kemal Pasha makes a few cameo appearances. The Young Turks have contempt for the decadent Ottomans. They want to create a pure Turkish state where there will be no place for Armenians or Greeks. Some of the minor stories are not really relevant to this story, but they are interesting as well, such as the rivalry and differences between the Ommayads and the Abbasids and the reasons for the defeat of the Ottomans at Vienna in 1683.

The main or rather only the problem I have with this story is the same problem I had with the Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and the Book of Saladin . In this story, Ali’s cast lead a life that would be called ‘liberal’ by even modern-day standards. Iskander Pasha’s brother Mehmed and his gay partner, a German Baron, have an open relationship. Iskander’s third wife is Sara, a Jewish woman. Sara was in love with Suleman, another Jew, but could not marry Suleman. After she was betrothed to Iskander, she made sure she became pregnant with Suleman’s child before marrying Iskander. Iskander eventually gets to know of this, but does not really mind, because he is a man for whom ‘blood relations don’t matter in the least’. Iskander loves Sara’s daughter Nilofer as much as any of his biological children. For the same reason, when Iskander gets to know that woman he had an affair with in France (during his diplomat days) had his child, he does not particularly want to meet that child.

Nilofer is allowed to marry Dmitri, a Greek school teacher. Nilofer’s love for Dmitri cools after a few years and she abandons him for her father’s palace. When Nilofer is at the Palace, she has an affair with Selim, the family barber’s son. At that time, Dmitri who is alone in Konya, is killed by Turkish fanatics. Very soon, Nilofer marries Selim (who made an officer in the army by her brother, a senior army officer) and they seem to be all set to live happily ever after. One of Nilofer’s brothers marries a Coptic Christian in Cairo and another brother marries a Shia Muslim. Also, in the course of the story, when Iskander Pasha loses his voice (please read this book to find out how and why) and later regains it, he thanks August Comtẻ and not Allah.

I am not too sure if families as liberal as the one described in this story ever lived in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the twentieth century. May be they did. If they did, Ali would have done well to have told his readers the source of his information.

Book Review: Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture

Sunil — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:01:41 EDT

Warning: This book might be dangerous. It has the capacity to make the reader think.

When I was a kid growing up in India, it was some sort of dream of mine to have my own little secret chemistry lab. There were all these stories in books about kids having their secret dens in their basement, where they made fascinating discoveries or invented cool compounds. Except there were two small problems; we didn’t have a basement (or too many extra rooms) and, more importantly, there was no such thing as a “home chemistry set” to be found in any store in India. So it was with absolute wonder that I imagined every smart or curious kid in the US to be working away into the night in his or her own little lab.

Of course, I learned that it wasn’t really true. But it certainly was true that at least till the eighties many, many kids in the States got a home chemistry set as a Christmas or birthday present sometime in their lives. And many of them had the time of their lives creating colorful solutions, horrible stinks or flashing explosions, even as they learnt the scientific method and gained a love for chemistry. Somehow, this love for “do-it-yourself” science died in the US in more recent times. Perhaps it was because companies became too worried about liability issues that could come from some kid getting injured. Perhaps it was because the state became a big nanny, and people live in constant fear about the next potential chemical weapons attack. Perhaps because of this it became harder to get chemicals. Or perhaps it was because of all these reasons and more. Anyway, the concept of home chemistry kits was slowly lost, and that sadly might have killed the potential scientist in many a kid.

But it looks like there have remained some die hard enthusiasts of home chemistry experiments, and Robert Thomson, the author of the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture must be amongst the foremost enthusiasts of those. In writing this book, he has thought through every little detail to help anyone, from a high school student to the adult diehard, in establishing a complete, very effective home chemistry lab.

In a world where everything comes in a nicely over-wrapped package, Thomson doesn’t expect you to rely on any kit. On the contrary, he points out how most of the kits out in the market presently have been dumbed down to ridiculous proportions, and also avoid selling any chemical that could be slightly toxic or dangerous (which pretty much leaves only salt and sugar to sell). The book starts with the very basics; the equipment you need, the space you’ll need, and the source for chemicals, and goes through seventeen comprehensive chapters of chemistry. There are simple chapters on making and separating solutions, chapters covering important chemistry basics like redox reactions or acid-base reactions, chapters on chemical stoichiometry and then electro and photochemistry, qualitative and quantitative analysis and finally even a pure fun chapter on forensic chemistry. In all of these chapters, Thomson has been very meticulous in explaining basic chemistry concepts (using simple definitions and very effective examples), providing details on the equipment, and finally, some excellent experimental details. The first chapter draws you right into the book, as Thomson explains how he became interested in home chemistry. He describes how to convert anything, from a kitchen to a garage, into a suitably safe and convenient chemistry lab.

He provides plenty of information on obtaining equipment and reagents that are surprisingly extremely cheap. I was very surprised not just at how many chemicals I could get at the local pharmacy or hardware store, but at how pure many of them were. Many of them were an order of magnitude cheaper than the stuff my own lab buys from Fisher and Sigma-Aldrich, but just about as pure. Perhaps I should tell our lab manager to get our stuff from the retail market. Home chemistry can be very effective and very cheap. And he also makes sure to tell you how you can get stuff that is safe, and will not get you into trouble with paranoid agents. Importantly, Thomson tells you how to avoid serious trouble by avoiding any discussion of making stuff that could blow up (which is a little bit of a pity, since some of the most fun science experiments start or end with a pop and some nasty smells sure to amuse kids).

Thomson also is very clear in telling you how easy it is to hurt yourself (or someone else) by not taking the right precautions at home, and then goes on to tell you the precautions you should take for a safe working environment. Home science is a serious pursuit, but while you have to be careful, you can and should have fun doing it. Thomson remembers that throughout the book. I was particularly pleased with his emphasis on good book keeping, and the importance of a record notebook. Without carefully recording experimental detail and results, science quickly deteriorates from reproducibility and substance to entertaining but irreproducible anecdote.

This book is almost a must have for a high school chemistry enthusiast (any AP Chemistry major), but will work just as well for any kid with a love for experiments, or the adult who has time for a hobby and a passion for science. There’s a lot of learning to be had by doing experiments yourself. This is a book that should be whole-heartedly recommended, and is something I hope many high school chemistry teachers will adopt enthusiastically in their classes. It is also my dearest hope that this book reaches India, and at least some school teachers there get their hand on it. It is a book that can actually make you think.

If you are one of those closet home chemists, this is the book for you. Go get it. Meanwhile, I’m off to observe some copper turning turquoise blue due to oxidation.

Pathanjali's Yogasutras

Blokesablogin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:24:18 EDT

I am currently reading the twelfth volume of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies on Yoga edited by Gerald Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Given the encyclopedic proportion of the book, I cannot in all truth review this without reading it cover to cover. However, given the two-sound byte lifestyle we live in, it will take me a few months at the very least to read and then review. As to whether I will ever be able to do justice to the treasury of texts carefully catalogued herewith and assimilate it enough to "give my opinion" is unreasonable. I feel honored and blessed that this book came my way.

It so happens that I am watching the commentary on Pathanjali's Yogasutras as given by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on DVD. Quite serendipitous, I must say. The book came for review after I had committed to showing the DVDs. This past week has been an amazing exploration of the epistemology of Pathanjali.

The first sutra begins: Atha yogaanushaasanam. Herein begins an inquiry into disciplined meditation based upon past tradition (translation provided by Larson). Sri Sri begins his commentary defining shaasanam versus anushaasanam. Shaasanam is a set of rules enforced on an individual by society or a body of law. Anushaasanam is a set of self-imposed discipline in this case, it being in the field of Yoga that Sri Sri defines as living with skill.

The choice of words and the brevity of Pathanjali is simply brilliant. It is interesting that so many people have given their commentary on Pathanjali for centuries, interpreting his simple aphorisms with their temporal realities and the text holds well.

Verses 2 through 16 deal with chitta or "Ordinary Awareness". The definition of observation and cognition of this world through perception, inference and testimony is juxtaposed with the experience of sleep and memory to define chitta only for the later verses to teach how you can move beyond it through cultivating dispassion as a cognitive realization.

The next set of verses from 17-51 deals with Samadhi, translated by Larson as Concentration while some commentators define it as a state of consciousness that is achieved where identities are dropped. I do not agree with some of Larson's choice of English words like the word depression for daurmanas. I would have preferred "embittered mind" or "darkened or misfortunate mind".

As a student of literature trained to analyze texts, I am constantly amazed by the sharpness and clarity of Pathanjali. I thank my Indian education system that forced me to learn Samskritam that I am able to read the original text and cross refer it with the translation. Who knew that I would acquire a taste for reading Pathanjali some day when I wanted to read racy novels in English as a child?

I find the study of Yoga and Pathanjali very useful in today's world of consumerism. Knowing the nature of my mind, its attributes, its afflictions and strengths gives me the "inside track" on how to live a life devoid of feverishness and suffused with enthusiasm. A focussed mind makes me more centered and unperturbed by sudden changes in my immediate surroundings while it gives me creative skills to deal with such.

I once thought that I had to go to the Adyar Library and sit in its cool, musty interiors to access some of these texts. This encyclopedia in a sizable 14 point font makes for easy reading and the structure of the articles followed by the actual texts make it easy to navigate. One drawback: I wish the text was printed in Devanagri followed by an English transliteration and translation. It felt unnatural to read the English transliteration without the Devanagri script.

There are several texts, the names of which I have never heard, that are catalogued here. The paandithyam (intellectual brilliance) displayed here by way of articles by several contributors makes me realize even more just how much I don't know. As a child, I loved the quote of Avvai that said "Katradhu kai mann alavu, kallaadadu ulagalavu"- What I have learned is but a fistful of sand, what I haven't, is the rest of the world. That is certainly the case with this Encyclopedia. Certainly a great value for research and general reading. A must for all university and college libraries.

This encyclopedic volume has left me salivating for more. I did some research to discover that the fifth volume in this series deals with the Philosophy of the Grammarians. It includes Panini, Brthhari and others who have fascinated me since I did my classes in Linguistic theory as part of my Masters. My next trip to India will include this volume on my shopping list. It is tragic just how modern books on linguistics, psychology and education have no mention of these all-time greats.

Book Review: The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali

Vinod Joseph — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:00:52 EDT

In The Book of Saladin, Tariq Ali goes back a few centuries from his first book, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. This second novel in Tariq Ali’s Islam Quintet is set in the 12th Century and is narrated by Ibn Yakub, a Jewish scribe retained by Saladin to pen his memoirs.

As the name suggests, The Book of Saladin revolves around Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the Sultan of Egypt and Syria. All most people know, Saladin’s biggest achievement was the recapture of Jerusalem from the Crusaders and its defense against subsequent invasions. Tariq Ali has done an excellent job in portraying Saladin’s character. Saladin is not your average, run-of-the-mill brave King who dashes off into danger without a second thought. Instead, Saladin is shown as a schemer and a planner who has only one objective in mind – the re-capture of Jerusalem from the crusaders. A Kurd from the mountains, Saladin lives by the Kurd’s code of honour. He will do anything to honour his word. A simple man, he leads a non-ostentatious life, eats simple food and gives away most of his wealth to charity. He leads by example, albeit in a calculated manner. He avoids giving battle unless the conditions favour him. He is cruel only when necessary and treats his defeated adversaries generously.

Ali does not gloss over Saladin’s weaknesses. Saladin can be indecisive at times, taking his caution to an extreme. Many a time, especially towards the end of his life, Ali shows how Saladin failed to seize the moment.

At the beginning of the novel, Ali uses Halima’s story to tell us the sort of man Saladin is. Halima is a beautiful women sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Saladin manages to save her from the jaws of death, but uses her for his own ulterior needs. I’ll leave it to you to read the book and find out what exactly Saladin does with Halima.

Unlike in the Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, where Ali mentions only the Arabic versions of place names, in this book Ali uses English names, slipping in the Arabic version (such as Al-Kuds for Jerusalem) occasionally. I do think that Ali ought to have followed the practice of using Arabic names as he did in his first book, for they helped create an ambiance which is lacking in the second novel from his Islam Quintet.

In addition to portraying Saladin’s character, Ali gives his readers a feel of the sort of society that prevailed in the Damascus and Cairo of those days. Not only are the ruling elite and the nobility shown to be extremely promiscuous, the multitudes are also shown as having a very relaxed attitude towards prostitution and homosexuality. Ali’s female characters are strong-willed, just as in the Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. As I had mentioned in my review of the earlier book, I do wish Ali has given some indication of the sources from which he has obtained his back-ground information.

A few things in this book, I didn’t like at all. Saladin is a Kurd and Ali depicts how tough it was for an ‘outsider’ to climb the sleazy ladder of power in an overwhelmingly Arab world. However, Ali refers to the Kurdish language as the ‘Kurdish dialect,’ implying that Kurdish is a dialect of Arabic. This I find to be totally unacceptable. Kurdish is a language in its own right and not a dialect. It is a part of the Iranian family of languages, while Arabic is a Semitic language. A historian of Ali’s calibre should not, nay, cannot make a mistake of this nature.

Even though this novel is very much non-Euro-centric and looks at the re-conquest of Jerusalem solely from Saladin’s point of view, Saladin does introduce to his readers, two crusaders, namely Raymond of Tripoli and Reynald of Châtillon. According to Ali, the former is the good guy, whilst the latter is pure evil. In order to emphasise how evil Reynald is, Ali says that Reynald ‘led a raid on Mecca and desecrated our Holy Shrine. His horses defecated in the Mosque.’ Raymond and Reynald are both historic figures. It is widely accepted that Reynald was quite evil (though quite successful in many of his endeavours) and that he did launch ships on the Red sea that sought to threaten Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holy cities, a sort of tit-for-tat response to Saladin’s attempt to retake Jerusalem. However, to make the case that Reynald desecrated the Mosque in Mecca is taking fiction too far. There are no records of Mecca ever having been desecrated by any crusader, let alone by Reynald. If such an event had happened, I’m sure it would be talked about and never forgotten. In fact, the narrator of the tale, Ibn Yakub himself doesn’t know about this desecration until he enquires why Saladin hates Reynald so much and finds out.

Tariq Ali does something very similar in order to show Saladin’s high regard for Raymond, the good guy. On his way to Jerusalem, Saladin captures various coastal towns held by the crusaders. However, at Tyre, Saladin hesitates and he eventually by-passes it. When his emirs press him, Saladin’s tells them that the cost to human life would be too high to be worth it. Ibn Yakub tells us the real reason for Saladin’s behaviour - that Raymond is holed up in the castle at Tyre and, if there’s a fight Saladin will have to kill Raymond (whose sense of honour will not let him surrender). If Ali wanted to show Saladin as a man who put friendships above his mission to capture Jerusalem, he does succeed. However, this story doesn’t ring true and it is an accepted fact that Saladin, wily man that he was, preserved Raymond’s life in order to encourage in-fighting among the crusaders.

Tariq Ali’s depiction of battles in this novel is not very good. Even after making allowances for the fact that the narrator is a scribe who is not present at the battle scene, I was disappointed at the way the actual battles are described. In a book of over 360 pages, just a small chapter is devoted to the battle of Hattin in which Saladin destroyed the crusaders as a prelude to taking Jerusalem. The siege of Jerusalem and its capture gets done in a few pages. I do wish Ali had taken a page from Andrew Wheatcroft’s book Infidels which describes battles between crusaders and Muslim armies in an exemplary fashion.

A lot has been written about the mutual admiration and appreciation that supposedly developed between Saladin and Richard the Lion-hearted who never met. Ali however does not take the beaten path. Saladin is shown to view Richard with contempt.

As a final comment, I ought to mention that Tariq Ali has devoted some space (in the initial part of the book) to the destruction of the Fatimid Empire by Saladin as he consolidated his power in Egypt. The Fatimid Empire was in its final stages of decay when Saladin finished them off. The most important aspect of the Fatimid dynasty is that it was Shi’ite. Saladin hated the Fatimids for splitting up the Caliphate (and thus contributing towards disunity amongst the Ummah). He is also shown as viewing the Fatimids as heretic Shi’ites. This portrayal of Saladin’s approach to the Fatimids is not exactly in keeping with Saladin’s character as shown in the rest of the book, where he is (very rightly) shown as an extremely tolerant ruler for his time. At the height of their glory (much before Saladin’s time), Cairo under the Fatimids was a centre of learning and culture. The Fatimids were very tolerant of other faiths, including that of the Sunnis. But alas, Tariq Ali’s description of the Fatimids does not show them in a positive light. After Saladin extinguished the Fatimid Empire, Shi’ites never held any real power in the Arab world (other than in Syria where the Shi’ite Alawi sect is in power) until very recently when George Bush’s largesse has allowed them to acquire power in Iraq.

Book Review: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali

Vinod Joseph — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 00:30:03 EDT

Tariq Ali is a very well known left-wing historian of Pakistani origin based in the UK. The first four books of Ali’s Islam Quintet tell the story of how Islamic Empires rose and fell in a non-Eurocentric manner. All the books are unrelated and can be read independently from the others. The fifth book, to be set in the modern world, is yet to be released.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is set in Granada after the Re-Conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Moors are defeated but not out. When Granada surrendered without a fight, the last Moorish bastion to fall to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Moors living there were promised the freedom to practice Islam, speak in Arabic and live as they had always done for generations. Archbishop Talavera who is responsible for Granada is a tolerant man who releases an Arabic-Latin dictionary and tries to win over the Muslims by the force of his argument. Yes, the Catholic Church does desire the conversion of all Muslims even then, but it is to be done in a peaceful manner. Talavera does not make much headway. And so, a few years after the re-conquest, Talavera is replaced by Archbishop Ximenes de Cisernos, a fanatic if ever there was one.

The book opens with a heart-rending scene in which Ximenes orders the burning off all books in Granada in order to destroy Moorish culture. The Moorish populace is shocked and sickened, but helpless. The books contain advances in medicine, science and astronomy that European Christians have no clue about. A few hundred medical books are kept aside by Ximenes who is aware of what he is doing. Individual acts by Christian soldiers save a few more books. But most books are burnt.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree revolves around the Hudayl clan, migrants from Damascus, who have lived in a village on the outskirts of Granada for many generations. The Hudayl’s are portrayed as good, fun-loving people, with all the vices that ruling aristocracies normally possess. They drink, womanise and philosophise – not necessarily in that order. The only problem here is that the Moors are no longer in power. Also, the Inquisition is in full-swing in Granada. Ximenes uses every trick in the book to convert Muslims and Jews to Christianity. Many Jews convert, as do a few Muslims. However, Ximenes does not trust the converts. He knows that many have converted to save their lands. Such converts are persecuted by the Inquisition.

The Hudayls and other Moorish nobles are aware that their time is up. There is vain talk of an insurrection, but the Moors have gone soft and they are incapable of martyrdom. In all probability, this is an accurate description of all empires in their twilight. The Romans and the Mughals are unlikely to have been much different in their respective periods of decline. They make various plans, including a plan to assassinate Ximenes, but one does not see any action. However, towards the end, Ximenes puts them in a situation where they have no choice but to revolt. The revolt is doomed from the start, individual acts of bravery notwithstanding. As the history books tell us, the surviving Moors leave Granada for various places in northern Africa.

There are so many things about this book that I liked. To begin with, Tariq Ali’s non-Eurocentric approach means that the focus of the story is very much on the Moors and not on the Europeans. Ali uses Moorish names throughout. Therefore, Granada is Gharnata, Cordoba is Qurtuba, Spain is Al-Andalus, Seville is Ishbiliya and the like. The names give the reader a feeling of authenticity. Ali is a historian and story-teller par excellence, of a caliber not much inferior to William Dalrymple.

In fact, sections of this novel showing how Moors, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony until Ximenes arrived in Granada reminded me of the White Mughals whilst the bits about the decline of the Moors have a lot in common with the Last Mughal.

There is one aspect of the book that disappointed me. Ali’s description of Moorish knights invariably shows them with red beards and blue eyes. It is well-known that the Moors in Spain were a mix of Berbers and Arabs who came in replenishing waves from Africa. For example, the Almoravids came to Spain in 1086 and they ruled an empire which extended well into sub-Saharan Africa. They were followed by the Almohades who arrived in Spain after conquering Libya. That being a case, it would have helped to have a few characters with swarthy features.

I was actually looking forward to a few descriptions which showed a world where white skin was not a sign of superiority, a world where people of colour mingled on equal terms with those of fair skin. Unfortunately, this I did not find. In fact, there’s a scene where the characters say (this is not necessarily Ali’s view) that whilst Jews look different from the others, Moors and Christians look the same. True, there were Moriscos or Moors who had converted to Christianity and Marranos or Jews who had converted to Christianity, who must have been identical to the Moors and the Jews. And there were many Muwallads, Christians who had converted to Islam. But to project a picture of a homogenous looking population is suspicious to say the least.

While reading this book and afterwards, the main question that struck me was, is this book an accurate depiction of Moorish Spain? Not only are the men highly educated creatures of pleasure, the women are not much far behind. For example, one of the daughters of the Hudayl clan is shown to be having sex with her betrothed a day before her wedding with the semi-approval of her parents. Later when the Moors revolt, the women fight alongside the men, and they fight to the death. Did the Moors of Spain subscribe to values that would be called ‘modern’ even in today’s world? This is something I am not in a position to pass judgement on. However, I do wish that Tariq Ali had inserted a few citations of authority or directed his readers to his sources of information.

Also, in the various references which the Moorish nobles allude to their past history, the picture painted is a mainly rosy one. There is no mention of the persecution of Christians or Jews, though Wikipedia tells me otherwise. It is an accepted fact that Jews were treated better in Muslim Spain than in the rest of Europe, but that doesn’t mean they were not persecuted. For example, in 1066, a Muslim mob slaughtered over 1,500 Jews in a single day, an event referred to as the Granada massacre. Islamic rules on blasphemy meant that the Christian faith could not be practiced freely most of the time.

There are a few instances where the characters in this story talk of Moors fighting each other, but these references do not project a clear 3-D image. From what I know, infighting amongst Moors was rampant. For example, the ruler of Granada co-operated with Ferdinand in his capture of Moorish Seville in exchange for Granada’s independence.

But hey! This is a work of fiction, and fiction is something to be enjoyed without too many questions being asked, isn’t it?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: (Dec. 11, 1918 - Aug. 3, 2008)

temporal — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 13:24:17 EDT

Even in chains we ourselves must complete
That circle which the gods have mapped out for us- Vladimir Solov'ev:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died late Sunday evening at age 89, his son said in a statement.

Solzhenitsyn's unflinching accounts of torment and survival in the Soviet Union's slave labor camps riveted his countrymen, whose secret history he exposed. They earned him 20 years of bitter exile, but international renown. And they inspired millions, perhaps, with the knowledge that one person's courage and integrity could, in the end, defeat the totalitarian machinery of an empire. LINK

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was the oldest living Nobele Laureate.

He has written over thirty books beginning with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962,). In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, he said:

So also we, holding Art in our hands, confidently consider ourselves to be its masters; boldly we direct it, we renew, reform and manifest it; we sell it for money, use it to please those in power; turn to it at one moment for amusement - right down to popular songs and night-clubs, and at another - grabbing the nearest weapon, cork or cudgel - for the passing needs of politics and for narrow-minded social ends. But art is not defiled by our efforts, neither does it thereby depart from its true nature, but on each occasion and in each application it gives to us a part of its secret inner light.

And then like a neuro-surgeon's scalp he wielded his words to speculate further:

But shall we ever grasp the whole of that light? Who will dare to say that he has DEFINED Art, enumerated all its facets? Perhaps once upon a time someone understood and told us, but we could not remain satisfied with that for long; we listened, and neglected, and threw it out there and then, hurrying as always to exchange even the very best - if only for something new! And when we are told again the old truth, we shall not even remember that we once possessed it. LINK

A man of letters, a man of arts he never minced words. Others accused him of being anti-Semite, anti-Soviet, anti-West, anti-US. He ignored the epithets and ploughed on. His three-volume The Gulag Archipelago earned him an exile in 1974. He was invited to move to the US in 1976 and he remained there until his return to Russia in 1994.

In an interview he gave SPIEGEL when asked if he was afraid of dying he replied: "No, I am not afraid of death any more. When I was young the early death of my father cast a shadow over me -- he died at the age of 27 -- and I was afraid to die before all my literary plans came true. But between 30 and 40 years of age my attitude to death became quite calm and balanced. I feel it is a natural, but no means the final, milestone of one’s existence."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn bibliography

Book Review: Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers by Mark Richards and John Alderman

AJ — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:41:20 EDT

Remember your high school computer theory class? References to the "ancient" (in computer innovation time) machines which utilized vacuum tubes, drum memories, ferrite rings? Remember ENIAC, UNIVAC, EDVAC etc? If these terms bring back nostalgic memories of your high school computer course and the thoughts imagining what these machines looked like, then Core Memory is the book to refer.
Core Memory, named after the Ferrite Rings or Magnetic Core Memory, is a photographic journey by Mark Richards accompanied John Alderman's informational text. The coffee table sized book travels through the major developments in computer history via a series of high definition, glossy photographs. The photographs cover both the computer systems themselves and some of the more innovative (for that time) technologies used in those computers.Most of today's generation identify computers as the beige boxed PCs or the candy colored iMacs. But computers were not always the basic 4-piece combination of monitor, cabinet, keyboard and mouse. The computers of the beginning of mankind's trysts with electronic calculation and computation were as varied as they got. Room full of equipment, weighing tons apiece, most of the early computers cost millions of dollars to construct and provided computational power to perform a few hundred or thousand calculations per second.

One of the first was the Alpha Z3, constructed by Germany prior to World War 2. The computer was unfortunately destroyed during the Allied bombing of Berlin. Around the same time, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was being constructed to compute the trajectory for missiles and other airborne weaponry. Though it was not completed in time to be used in the war, ENIAC, along with its successors EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) started the revolution of electronic computing machines. Core Memory traces the humble beginnings of our tryst with computers and leads up to the modern, ultra powerful computers we use today, the most basic of which are more capable than the costliest systems of that time.
The high quality photographs of this book show the history of computers in a different light and the text provided by John Alderman enhances the value of the book. The text usually described the manufacturer, the purpose, cost and basic architecture of each of the computers to provide context to the computers against the others. That said, none of the images have an informational blurb. So when an ultra close-up of a component is shown, the reader only can guess what it might be. This sometimes is quite frustrating and would have greatly enhanced the value of the photographs since the readers would be able to connect to the images in the book to a more intimate level.

The information contained within the book is quite basic and not a comprehensive history of computer systems. In fact it does not cover all the systems that have changed computing landscape over the course of history but only those which are on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Also, while the images are quite detailed, there is no sense of scale. Shots of computer systems are placed along with full-page images of Vacuum Tubes. Also there is no consistency in the types of shots. While showing detailed component level images are good, at least one shot of the full system should have been included for each of the computers to give a better idea to the readers. Obviously, the images have not been chosen to give a overall view of the system but more for their artistic value.Don't get me wrong. This book is good. Very good and evokes a strong sense of nostalgia. The images are of a very high quality and give great detail. But it is not very comprehensive. So approach this as an photography and art book, not as a descriptive manual or a tome of history. But for the sheer pleasure of its contents, I highly recommend this book, both for your personal library and as a gift to your "geekier" friends.

Book Review: Ramana Maharishi's Philosophy of Existence and Modern Science

Blokesablogin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:36:18 EDT

I know, it is a long title. It has a sub title too- The Convergence in their Vision of Reality. However, the title should tell you what the book deals with. Speaking of the title, I would have preferred it to have been simply Convergence of Modern Science and Maharishi's Vision or some such.

Coming to the book itself, Dr. Sithambaranthan, a scientist, correlates the principles of quantum physics with the Advaitic philosophy as expressed by Ramana Maharishi. He clearly explains in his Preface why he chose Ramana over other Saints and Mystics of India owing to his recent existence on the planet with his teachings being authentic without distortions or dilutions over time.

The entire text reads lucidly as behooves a scientist, trained in reason and logic. Unfortunately, his great love for the Saint Ramana may just prevent people who place no faith in "Rishis" and 'Gurus" from picking up the book and reading it. And that, I believe, is tragic as this book can appeal to an entirely secular, scientifically minded and trained readership that would otherwise never pick up a book on Indian Advaita.

I wonder aloud just whom the author was trying to reach with his oevre. Ramana devotees will grab it and there will be nothing "new" as they already are well established in the Philosophy of Ramana. Of course, the congruence with quantum mechanics and theories would make for a delightful intellectual exercise for them. It is hoped that all 12th grade students in India at least get to read this wonderful book that puts in perspective all of their 12th grade Physics syllabus into one neat chapter and as an added bonus give them an insight into how they can look at life experiences through the wisdom of the Mystic's vision. What a great way to start their adult life that could be rife with anxiety and worries!

I have always admired Ramana as he spoke very little. When his devotees kept insisting that he give them some "knowledge", he gave the Upadesa Saram (Essence of Teaching), a set of 40 verses in Tamil first and later in Sanskrit. They of course collated several of his talks and compiled them into a few texts.

Dr. Sithambaranathan uses these frugal texts in plenty all across the book juxtaposing them with scientific principles to show the convergence glaringly. His love for Ramana and science is self evident. The passion overflows making us read at a slower pace. The 180 pages of actual text makes for reflective reading. It is certainly not a breezy summer read.

Quantum Physics has proved the dual nature of light and sub atomic particles that can express a particle and wave nature. This throws out all possible use of Newtonian Physics out of the window that relies on absolute space and absolute time in the macro and micro universes. The 4th dimension of Space-time as a continuum rather than individual events has shaken the understanding of phenomena, cause and effect and material reality itself.

This shift from absolutes to possibility or probability of existence jives well with what the mystics have always proclaimed about the nature of the universe, the mind and the physical world as experienced by the sense organs. The dyad of the observer, the observed when collapsed into the substratum (the field, here, the Brahman consciousness) corresponds to the relative "observation" in time and space that need to be overcome to cognize the truth of the field theory.

The "unbroken wholeness" is but an integrated whole made of particular contingent forms based on their relative existence in the space-time continuum. This is simply called Brahman in Advaitic lingo. The vedic verse Poornamadaha Poornamidam... comes to mind.

The author broadens his field of philosophy by using the term "Eastern philosophy or mysticism", I would recommend he boldly proclaim, Vedantic or Advaitic philosophy. There is no need to soft pedal for "wider" consumption or acceptance. The simple truth is, this is the best repository of Human Experience of Reality recorded and passed on in the annals of human history. If certain egoists wish to deny it or denigrate it, "My bad!" My compliments to Motilal Banarsidass Publishers who continue to take up publishing such works that further the preservation of this amazing world view for future generations which is finding confirmation from modern science.

Some chapters are completely filled with Ramana's sayings, that it appears to be an anthology of them. I would rather, the author was light handed in using his quotes. They become recursive and therefore tedious. After all, Ramana was a man of few words!

I would recommend this book if you love Physics or are just plain interested in looking at the world we inhabit from a different dimension. This should make you a believer- in science and therefore spirituality!

Book Review: A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren

AJ — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:49:14 EDT

I have secrets. So do you and everyone else. We keep secrets out of embarrassment, fear of hurting others or importantly hurting ourselves. But a lot of times we keep secrets because we just do not know how to express our feelings - elation, hurt, sadness, love. The liberating effect of letting a secret out is the focus of the community powered and supported PostSecret project.

In 2004 Frank Warren launched a social experiment in community art, inviting strangers to mail him anonymous homemade postcards with their secrets written on them. The only rule is that it has to be a true secret that you have never before shared. Be creative he told the masses. The response he received was overwhelming.

The PostSecret idea to ask the community to send their deepest secrets anonymously, written on postcards, decorated (usually as a collage) however the sender wants. Of these, Frank, as the editor of the PostSecret project selects the ones that touch him, and posts them on the blog, in a book (four books so far) or on the traveling exhibit. Warren doesn’t select for any particular theme just those which touch - some are happy, some sad; some are humorous, some morbid and some just of desolation. Almost all secrets are personal, many times an incident from the sender's life, while some are just how they feel towards the world and life. Most times, those that connect the most with readers are the simplest (like “I still love you” or “I am stuck in my marriage”) and the most profound.

Each Sunday the PostSecret blog is updated with all new secrets sent by readers from all over the world. Each week it's different set of secrets, which make the blogs readers laugh or cry, feel happy or sad and almost always empathize with the sender. PostSecret has become a social phenomenon in such a short time that it is one of the most widely visited blog on the Internet. The popularity of PostSecret can be explained by its therapeutic effect on the reader, the connection they make with the sender and most importantly the realization that others have deep, dark secrets too and hence they are not alone. Over time, the project has gained a cult following of readers of all ages - angst ridden teens, mid-life crisis affected women to the aged who miss their lost loved ones.

Over the course of the project, Frank has released four books containing a selection of the postcards sent to him over the years. The latest book, “A Lifetime of Secrets” is the most different. In A Lifetime of Secrets, Frank says “I've selected postcards that show how secrets can reveal a momentary impulse or haunt us for decades and arranged them by age to follow the common journey we all take through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity. Stretched over a full lifespan, the secrets expose the meaningful ways we change over time, and the surprising ways we don't.”

This fourth PostSecret volume, like the blog, is a collection of postcards. “A Lifetime of Secrets”, however, approaches the secrets a little differently, in that they are arranged chronologically, approximating the stages in one’s life. While the previous books were arranged thematically, this book is literally an attempt to present a progressive story — of life, a lifetime of secrets. Starting from childhood, the book span a child's fear in the kindergarten, to the teen who wants to spill their love, to the elderly who "Just wants to die happy" The predominant feeling, while reading this book, is like taking a journey through life, and simultaneously going through the changing experiences as we grow older.

I have been following PostSecret since 2005 and have always found it to be thought provoking and on many occasions therapeutic. The connection that I made with many of the PostSecret writers, the feeling of "I feel the same as you" when reading any of the cards is sometimes just overwhelming. When I received this book, I lent it to a cousin who had just gone through a traumatic experience in life. As she read it, she found comfort in reading the secrets and a little peace of mind connecting with the others. I heartily recommend this book to any and everyone, of any age!

While I have not written any secrets myself, if you have a secret, Share it! Let it go, write to the project and I'm sure there will be someone out there who will identify with your secret, or come to the realization that they are not alone nor life as unforgiving as it seems. Liberate yourself and send your own secret to

PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Rd
Germantown, Maryland 20874