The "Pedestrian" Pilgrimage

Finished another book today. The Pilgrimage. Paolo Coelho.

Note - this is the first Paolo Coelho book I read (no I haven't read the Alchemist - and after this - don't intend to!). And I was disappointed.

When I read the description, I was excited. It's about Paolo's journey through Spain on the legendary road of San Tiago towards Santiago de Compustela. I was expecting a rich account of what he saw through his journey and his spiritual upliftment through real life experiences.

Instead, it's a book where the author can't get enough of himself and how spiritually superior he turned out to be! It's a book about Paolo trying to attain his "sword" (maybe I'm not smart enough - but I think this was a spiritual reference to his attainment of kind of a "nirvana") by completing this 700km journey on foot. He has a guide - Petrus - who leads him into a number of other-worldly challenges (like repeatedly fighting a rabid dog - a reference to his personal demons I think) and how he overcomes.... well.... everything.

It's just a self-help money-spinner in my opinion.

To be fair - it's tough writing a book about one's own spirituality without sounding like you're calling yourself God. But then one's own spirituality is such a personal thing - if you really believe in it, don't write a book about it and end up sounding like a pompous ass.

Net - I didn't enjoy it!

Need to stop by at the book store for another one tomorrow!

Over the edge!

Phew! I've been reading Over the Egde of the World for a long long time!! First - thanks to my lovely sister-in-law who doesn't even know that her sister passed her book on to me! So thanks D!

Now - I haven't taken long with this book because it's boring - I've just been lazy with my reading!!! But hospitals provide a particularly reading conducive environment strangely enough!!

The book, by Laurence Bergreen details the (mis)adventures of Magellan in leading the first ever circumnavigation of the globe! Bergreen, apparently, has also written biographies of diverse set of figures like Al Capone, Louis Armstrong and so on (haven't read any of the others, but after this one - I think I will!).

The scene - early 1500s - a time when the Portugese and the Spanish were both looking for world domination, an important component of which would be the domination of Spice Trade. Now Magellan, an ambitious Portugese explorer, was looking for backing for an expedition to look for the Spice Islands via a route never before explored - Across the Atlantic, around the southern tip of South America and across the Pacific to the Spice Islands (present day Brunei and surrounding islands). He was rebuffed by the Portugese king and so defected to Spain, where he found the backing to set out on such an expedition.

The journey started with 5 ships and more than 250 men but ended with 1 ship and 18 people on board. Even Magellan was killed in a rather unnessecary war in Mactan in southern Philippines.

Bergreen's book is based on records from the journey, mainly the account maintained by Pigafetta - the Italian who was on the expedition as the official chronicler. He details the ups and downs of the journey, including what happened to the 240 odd people who didn't make it, Magellan's death and the other 4 vessels. His account of the lands and people they encountered along the way is stunning!

It's an amazing account to read at a time when circumnavigating the globe is just a couple of flights away - even I've done that a couple of times flying from Singapore to New York to Frankfurt to Singapore!!

The 4th thing I hate about Harry Potter

Carrying on from a few posts ago (3 things I hate about Harry Potter) - now JK has just given me a 4th...

Her announcement that Albus Dumbledore was gay. Where did that come from??? Why does it matter?
(a) It had nothing to do with the story.
(b) The series is done and dusted.
(c) The guy was dead before the last book came out.

Few possible reasons she did this:
(a) She was bored (looks a likely theory given she doesn't have much to write about after Harry had his babies)
(b) She wanted me to make Mahogany react to her announcement, put up a great post loosely related to discrimination against gay people, so that I could make a point to Shrenik in the comments of my last post (something tells me this theory is unlikely)
(c) She's branching out into her next series which, staying true with Hollywood trends will be kind of a prequel to Harry Potter - a throwback to Dumbledore's younger years - Discover Dumbledore!

Whats next..... Snape and Date Rape - scandal - Harry is really Snape's son!??

Well - I guess this blog post is testament to the fact that she's keeping people talking about it.

3 things I hate about Harry Potter

Ok - Don't get me wrong. I like the series and all that. But there are some things that pissed me off in the course of the adventures of this young wizard!

1) HERMIONE THE HERMAPHRODITE. I can think of 3 different girls from my own version of Hogwarts (well it was Christ Church School, Byculla, Mumbai - no wands allowed. Brooms optional - but we'll let that pass, won't we) who annoyed the poo out of me. Teachers pets. Hands always raised before the question is done. Prim, proper and haters of all things male. Didn't really get along with the cooler chicks either. They're the kind of people who should be cursed to a life devoid of sex - with men or women. We have some of them at work as well... but we won't go there. Clearly, school scarred me (wasn't a lightning shaped scar on my forehead though).

2) HARRY "PRE-PUBESCENT-WHINING-PRICK" POTTER (EXCLUSIVE TO BOOK 5). JK got it wrong in Order of the Phoenix. Strayed close too close to reality with Harry's pre-pubescent issues. She might as well have called him WHINY POTTER in that book... Boo-hoo... nobody loves me. No one will snog me.... Kinda reminds me of the WORMS song...

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Guess I'll go eat worms, Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,
Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

... except WHINEY POTTER wasn't funny! On the upside, it's good JK never got to Harry and Ron discovering masturbation!

3) QUIDDITCH AND ITS SEXUAL CONNOTATIONS. Bunch of wizards flying around on brooms, chasing a snatch (yep - I know it's snitch, but you know the connection I'm trying to make!). And those who're not chasing the snatch are called beaters... like they've given up chasing snatches... resorted to beating the monkey!??!! OK JK!

Feel free to add.

Bombay Duck / Bombay Blues

I couldn't decide between the 2 titles for this post... so I went with the power of AND!

Don't know if this is true or just my imagination, but there seems to be a deluge of books about Mumbai recently. I, for one, have read three and am going through my fourth one in the past year or so - Black Friday, Maximum City, Shantaram and now Sacred Games. The scary part is the one common element among all of these - the notorious Mumbai underworld.

Black Friday, also turned into an interesting-without-being-very-gripping movie, deals with the meticulous planning of the Mumbai blasts in '93. The fact that it's so fact based is scary.

Maximum City is probably the one I related to the most. It's Suketu Mehta's narration of this experiences and attitudes to being a born-again Mumbaikar. It's a very colorful and rich description of the pot boiler Mumbai is. It's sets Mumbai up to be a masala flick with all the ingredients - right from mudane issues like lack of sanitized water coming through the tap (yep - for us Mumbaikars this is a mundane issue), to the role of the underworld in Bollywood (I love this word - I don't give a fuck if half of filmdom thinks this is a derogatory word - I think it's cool).

Shantaram, on the other hand, is a page turner. It's a brilliantly told real story with what I think is significant (and well used) creative freedom. I'll say it - it's one of the best books I've read. I love the juxtaposition (another word I love) of a great story (escaped Aussie convict living in Mumbai slums getting involved in the thick of the Mumbai underworld and fighting a war in Afghanistan), rich characters (religeous mafia don, indian cowboy who is also our hero's man friday, slum folk with aspiration of the world and the standing babas) and philosophical detours (especially love the conversation about right, wrong and the ultimate complexity - God).

I'm now reading Sacred Games. 150 pages into this 900 page epic, it's a movie screenplay with gore, personal struggle and love as key ingredients. More about this when I finish.

Net - While I'm happy Mumbai, being the manic wonder it is, is getting it's due in pop culture, I wish we'd see more of a balanced perspective about the city. It's not all about the underworld you know! It's also about hope, millions of personal struggles everyday and basically the joie de vivre.

Let me know if you've read any other good books about a different side of the city.