Archive for February, 2008

25
Feb

palace of illusions

   Posted by: rads    in bookworm

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Palace of Illusions – By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

We hear Draupadi’s voice. It’s Draupadi’s life story, from her birth through her childhood, dreams, ambitions, and hesitations all through her decidedly sad life till the end. A fictional autobiography offering a detailed sketch of what could have been running through Draupadi’s mind as she plays a role in an epic. A role she accepts with trepidation and immense discomfort, and grows into ultimately reveling in the knowledge that such a dramatic fate is indeed her destiny.

If each of her thought and action was a pearl, then the silver cord that strings Draupadi’s life together is Karna. Not any of her husbands, not her brother [what a fine surprising character he turned out to be!] and neither is her part as a queen, but it starts with Karna very quickly in the story and ends with Karna. As huge as a surprise that came for me, I vaguely remember my grandma’s storytimes from a lifetime ago, when in passing she mentions Karna as suitor that Draupadi liked and had wanted as her beau, but destiny dictated that she married Arjuna and hence on. Maybe it was just a mention in the original epic, and this author ran with the thought as most writers do with a small figment that could potentially open up some grand avenues. In this case a whole 300 page novel. Or perhaps it is indeed written somewhere in the grand novel – Mahabharatha. With the sheer volume, intricate sub-plots and tales attached to each character, it is hard to keep track on the whos and whats where. Maybe Karna just got lost. But then again, highly improbable considering the importance he is given and a gentleman that he’s sketched out to be.

What spurred me on in the book was the style of writing reflecting the very modern thought process that Draupadi’s voice spelled. When I say “modern” I realize I use it quite loosely. There is really nothing modern or 21st century about her thoughts. Perhaps to a slight extent in the way she was expressed and not what she expressed. Fiercely independent, strong multi-dimensional, women characters have always stood around in our mythology. Women who stood for their husbands through loyalties and duties, women who stood against their husbands, women who ruled with their head and not their hearts and women who made a difference in the way history was shaped.

It is quite admirable to see how the author managed to squeeze in almost all of the notable small tales that are linked to the main novel. She also does an admirable job in keeping true to the theme of biography. If an event occurred without Draupadi’s presence, she’d raconte it to us in retrospect as in hearsay. Considering that Draupadi’s claim to fame is the court scene where she gets disrobed you’d think that the author would use that as a main central theme and spend a couple of chapters on describing details, but it will come as a surprise that what happens before Draupadi gets dragged off is told to us in a mere small paragraph. The emotions are vividly portrayed, but also what puzzled me was the order to disrobe and where it came from. All along in our epic and stories I’ve read and played on, it was Duryodhan who asked Dusshasan to do the needful, but here it showed Karna to utter the fateful words. Is this fiction? It should be. How else could a woman of such respect, dignity and caliber continue to yearn for such a person’s affection, and want to be an object of interest to him? Especially when she considers it to be the highest of insults and even goads Bheeshma up until the very end of his breath on why he could not prevent it, or at least condone his grand nephews.

A few situations deserving mention:
1. Draupadi and Kunti’s relationship and the typical mother-in-law, daughter-in-law tensions.
2. Her love and devotion to Krishna without understanding the whys
3. Her pride in the Palace she gets built according to her whims and fancies.
4. Loving portrayal of how Bheeshma became Bheeshma the hero, uncle and an object of envy and misunderstanding.
5. The kurukshetra and the vision she did not want.
6. Of course the grand underlying unrequited love (?) or obsession with Karna.

There are more of such little puzzles and Chitra does a fine job in filling gaps with imagination and brings in dimensional value to Draupadi. It is indeed a page-turner nevertheless, sketching a depth into Draupadi that may or may not have been there. An enjoyable read.

21 Comments
22
Feb

muse

   Posted by: rads    in fable

It was getting late. One last thing and she’d be out. Starts to hurriedly search for a number she knew was somewhere in the archives. Scans quick. A familiar name from the past. The cursor hesitates. The heart wins over and all reason fades through the letters. A knot in her throat. Eyes shut quickly, a feeble attempt to stop the racing of her pulse. A soft face pries through slit eyes.

Relenting, she plunges into familiar terrain. A luxury she indulged in now knowing time didn’t matter. The relic from the past was in no rush to be dispensed off hurriedly. Stifling shyness with a rapidly beating heart she narrows her gaze onto him.

Brown tee with sleeves rolled up to show his lean forearm. Long bony fingers clasping a blue blackberry. A forefinger that would caress her lips. “Have I told you how kissable your lips are?” Scores of little touches, tips on fire as she’d imagined them.

The jugular vein branding across a smooth neck. May I kiss you there, she’d asked once. A gentle nibble on the adam’s apple. A scent soaring to dizzying heights she was sure of.

Rounded chin, smooth and clean shaven paving into a small contoured nose. No 5 o clock shadow? She smiles as a conversation floats in on the contents of his drawer. That’s why!

Intent hazel eyes smile back through the lens, at her. An excitement brimming with happiness, flirting with acceptance and desire. Care and tenderness jostling for equal spots. Playing peek-a-boo with her own. Eyes that had roved over her wanton self. Creamy. Smooth. Teeth on skin. A sigh filled with passion and longing.

Lips. Full and pink. Quite unlike any she’d seen in a while. The hint of a smile waiting at the slight upturned corners, one he’d denied her despite many pleas. “I smile with my eyes” he’d replied haughtily once.

Her eyes gazed further on, touching. With a rush of emotions avalanching, she sped along his moles, the hollow of the collar bone, the soft hair on his wide chest. The strength of his muscles underneath his arms, the rhythmic drip in his veins. The heat in his palms matching the ripple of his voice.

Like various bodies of water, from the smooth gentle stream through the fierceness of a waterfall, and the finality of a vortex, she let herself go. Drowning in the past, savoring the nostalgia, she smiled and laughed, until she tasted salt. Sitting up straight, she focused again. The mirth had vanished. Eyes that said it all yet hid behind fear. Frustrating screen ahead quite like a myopic without glasses. Lips that spoke tired harsh words. Pride.

Lips curve in contempt, the fingers snarled at her throat, and the eyes looked back at her with disdain. She recoils with the intensity of it. Hatred.

As she shut 1607_003, she murmurs aloud to no one in particular “Hate is still a feeling, no?”

29 Comments
19
Feb

tag 11 – abc

   Posted by: rads    in tag

So priya tagged me and here I am. Ain’t I the best? Someone quick give me an award for the fastest tag-turnaround there is in blogsphere!! Lightning speed and being so prompt…

The ABC tag.

A -Available?

Me? As in am I available? Eh, let’s define ‘available’!? Oh ok, to talk or chatter or a smile, sure, am available, always!  

B-Best friend:

O Lord, do we have to go there? I am rightly supposed to say Husband, Sister, Mother and then a bunch o names right?  Okay fine. Why disappoint you the reader? Yes, in that order. :-)

C-Cake or Pie?

Cake. Black Forest cake. I can’t bake, but eat I can. Till am blue in the face and the scale tips over dangerously to the high digits. Pies are fun to throw.  At people. They make good missiles. Especially If I baked them.

D-Drink of choice:

Cocktails. All sorts. If I were a free bird and didn’t have to be a responsible mommy and all that heavy stuff on my shoulder, I’d drink like a fish. [Do fishes drink at all? Always wanted to use the line, so there.. ] So let’s be safe and say ‘Coffee’ oh okay, once upon a time it was desi elaichi chai. The funny thing about chai is that it kicks in only when it’s accompanied by one of these: Samosa/bhel, rain or some good light hearted banter.

E-Essential thing used everyday:

Essentials? As in like a deo? Oh okay, lipstick perhaps? The popular essential seems to be the internet, and well, I thought about it and decided all loftily that I didn’t want to say “Yeah, same here. Throw me on a desert island but don’t forget to toss in the wifi behind and you wouldn’t hear a pip from me.”, but who am I kidding!

F-Favourite colour:

How can there be a single favorite color? Don’t colors change with moods? When am feeling adventurous and sultry it’s Red. Not tomato red, but blood red. Maroons. I also feel particularly nice in blacks. In outfits I mean. As for the palate around me, pastels rock.

Added on feb20th:

G-Gummi bears or worms: ugh! I’d say gummi bears as I pop them into reluctant mouths everyday, but worms. They are fascinating. Creepy, but fascinating.

H-Hometown:

Hmm.. how is a hometown qualified? If you stay at a town as long as 10 years, or did you have to be born there? Either way you define I guess I don’t have one. Back in desh – it was Madras, but originally somewhere deep in Andhra, where the jasmines grew and the air smelt of cows and farmlands.

I-Indulgence:

Saris. Can never have enough of them. See, am easy to buy a gift for!

J-January or February: 

February of course! Birthdays and romance. Can’t go wrong there!

K-Kids and names:

I have three kids. If you are reading me for the 1st time and have swooned, no rush, take your time, am going nowhere. Please don’t bump that head again. My children are named K1, K2 and K3. What? Did we plan it that way? Are you crazy? Hello, do I even look like a planner to you?!

L-Life:

Is what you make it to out to be. I believe in making the most of what’s dished out to you. Changing perspectives helps. Just like with the Starbuck story, there is always a way to make a bad thing good. Staying in the past is just not worth your present. The future would royally be scr*wed over.

M-Marriage date:

6th June . We believe in repeating numbers. 02-02, 06-06..

N-Number of siblings:

One sister. She used to be my little sister I dragged through buses holding her sweaty hands but now she’s much ahead of me in all respects. A total wower.

O-Oranges or apples:

Can I say clementines instead? Apples were juicy and tasty in Europe. They absolutely taste like God-awful paper here. So yes, shall stick to oranges.

P-Phobias:

Heights. Easiest way to get rid of me is to send me up 10 floors and ask me to look down. By the time you say ‘boo’ I’d be on the floor passed out. ..and I thought all the dizziness on Eiffel tower with the dear husband was coz of the tingling and romantic evening he planned out.

Q-Quote:

Quote what, who? Oh, each day a different quote and a different person appeals. Considering what’s running in your head at that time. There are some wise folks out there, witty and make a lot of sense, but you know just as there can’t be one perfect pair of shoes, or outfit or book, or author, there can’t be one quote that I’d like to live my life by.

Metlin has this as his gtalk status: “The future is inevitable and precise, but it may not occur. God lurks in the gaps”. Makes sense for now. Both of us are on either side o the fence though :-)  

R-Reason to smile:

Reason? Why would anyone need a reason to smile? One just smiles coz of the blessed life one is living. I am alive and kicking aren’t I? Oh ok, if you had to have reasons – hmm.. love, to be loved and respected, my kids, my family and the mirror.

S-Season:

Considering all the global warming that’s happening are there even gonna be seasons by the time I am eligible for Medicare? Right now, its Fall/Spring. I love winter for its crispness and the pure air, the summer for the greenery and the games outside. But Fall and Spring rock.

T-Tag three people:

As in put a label on them? :D

What’s the point, I tag folks and nobody cares. So am not gonna tag anyone I know. Yeah. It said 3 people, so am gonna say – Jasmine of Aladdin fame [munchkin's current idol], Obama [coz he is one heck of a dude and very cute too] and Rumi [his poems stir deep emotions in me]

U-Unknown fact about me:

U kidding me right? My blog’s an open book on my life. Don’t be greedy now.

V-Vegetable you do not like:

I am a mom. I cannot afford to not like a vegetable. It’s a rare day when I can open my mouth and give leeway for my kids to say “…but you don’t like this vegetable, so why should I like mine?’ But see, I have an answer for that. I tell them in my best sweet irritating mommy tone ” Who asked you to like it, don’t like it. Please, I implore you. Just eat it!”

Karela. Kakarakaya. Bittergourd. Can’t take it. I cook it to perfection that the husband is my slave for the next day or night [whichever comes first], but you’d have to knock me unconscious to get me to open my mouth even a mere cm.

W-Worst habit:

Not according to me right? I mean, am perfect! One that annoys my neat husband is that I do not return the coffee cup to the sink after draining it. Husband still thinks there’s hope, but the poor man likes to believe his shouts, cajoles and constant nags will make me a better person. It bothers him as much as it doesn’t faze me a bit.

 X-x-rays you have had:

Wonder why anyone would care about this? Only coz there’s no other X to ask about? How about asking if we’ve ever fantasized about being Xena the warrior princess? That would make it spicy. No?  Okay, I’ll be good. X-rays I’ve had. Chest, Ankle, Foot, Mouth. Look closely, and you’d see a pattern. Foot, mouth.. yea.

Y-Your favorite food: 

Good old andhra food. What? It’s comfort food people!! I can go on, but I better shut up, coz I think I speak more about food than Dr. Phil on relationships!

Z-Zodiac:

Aquarian baby! Water sign, Air sign. Free spirit, independent, unconventional, can’t be bogged down by emotion too long, creative[I'd like to think], eons ahead than the rest.. yeah Typical. Very.

Yay! :-)

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