Yayati: A classic tale of lust by VS Khandekar

Tales from Mahabharata have this quality that you can read them over and over again and every time you read them you get more drawn to them. They are simple stories of characters whose lives are intertwined, leading to a whole set of dilemmas at every point in time. Characters have to make choices all the time, between what they want and what duty calls, between good and bad, between bad and worse, between good and better, between ego and devotion, between family and society, between themselves and their partners, between now or later, between eras and everything that comes in between. The stories are always multilayered and no character is completely white or black, every character has certain things that should have been done, or could been done better, just like they have stories that glorify them. There are all the rasas or emotions that you can feel. You can feel what is going inside each of the characters as they make their choices. You feel for them, identify with a lot of their dilemmas and wish you had the wisdom to take decisions like them and sometimes you wish you never have to face the situations like them where you have to take such tough decisions. What I particularly like about these stories is that they are well rounded and have no morals, they do not preach anything. They are like case studies without the analysis, just read them and have your own interpretation.

This book tells the story of Yayati, an ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas. Yayati had everything that one can dream of, born a prince in the most mighty empire of the time, brave, went around the world with his winning horse establishing himself as the greatest warrior of his times, married the daughter of the most influential sage and had another princess as his wife, had sons that any father can dream of, but could never lead a happy life owing to a curse that was given to his father. At times destiny chose him and at times he chose his destiny. He was played around by his first wife Devayani, who married him but never loved him, but he also got a devoted wife in Sharmishtha. He had a weakness for wine and women and it is in wine and women that he sought answer to his problems or disappointments. We went so ahead in his addiction that he lost account of women who gave up lives because of him. And the nadir of his lust is when he asks his sons to exchange their youth with his old age so that he can go back and enjoy bodily pleasures. On the face of it Yayati is a character you would want to hate, but the story has been told from so many dimensions that you can not do so.

Author claims that since there are not many references available for Yayati and his life, he has woven the story from his own imagination, and hence is a piece of fiction. But of course whatever has been found through the references is depicted as such in the story. The story is told in first person, by the three main characters Yayati, Devayani and Sharmishtha. Each of them give their own view of things as they happened in their lives, driven as they were to various acts and how they felt through the life. There are not too many characters in the story so the story keeps revolving primarily around these three characters.

It is an excellently written book by the noted author who for sure has a well deserved Sahitya Akademi and Jnanpith awards, and has been awarded Padma bhushan way back in 1968. The original work is in Marathi and I happened to read the English translation by Y P Kulkarni. Look forward to locating more such books.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading quality Indian literature, and anyone interested in India’s historical literature.

Delhi Darshan II - Garden of Five Senses

I am back in Delhi, Gurgaon to be precise, almost after seven years and the place has changes beyond recognition. I often find myself struggling to make my way through the maze created partially by time and partially by upcoming constructions especially the metro. During my last stint in NCR, I do not remember exploring it too much, the reasons I am unable to think. But now after having a taste of wandering in the south, coupled with the fact that I have bandwidth on hand, I keep looking out for interesting things that can be done in NCR.

One such search led me to Garden of Five senses, that I visited almost a month back when it was hosting a festival and appropriately a flower festival. This relatively new garden is located in Said-Ul-Azaib village, in the Mehrauli heritage area, and to reach this place you have to crawl through a quite a bit of traffic, and apparently some time down the line, a metro line should take you straight to the garden. It is spread in about 20 acres of land, not too big for a garden, but then not too small considering the location it is in. There are interesting animal figures created with steel and hedging plants, displaying the topiary skills. There is bit of touch of Mughal era, through terraced garden with slow flowing water, there are walkways that spiral across the garden and at times can create the feeling of being lost and loosing your way and there are various variety of plants. There are paths created to pamper your sense of smell, where you can walk and smell the surrounding plants. The natural terrain provides a good backdrop of rocks, you can actually climb some of them and get an over the top view of seemingly distant Delhi. There are occasional art pieces scattered around the garden, mostly made out of metal, and times of clay and stone. There is a solar park that displays various vehicles and equipments that run on solar energy.

Garden of Five senses is not only interestingly named, but it has also been planned as a venue for public functions like hosting musical shows in the perfect natural surroundings. There is a small amphitheatre built with rustic sandstone tiles which can be used for events with small audience. There are fountains that can provide respite from heat during summers and also provide a romantic backdrop for musical evenings. Besides cultural events, this place is also popularly used for food festivals, tourism festivals and dandiya.

To make the place commercially viable, there are a couple of high end restaurants in the premises and retail space which is still under construction. A few stores already operating out of this place are up market ones, belonging to designers and some with interesting concepts. There was one store with had merchandise made out of old newspapers, all kinds of things including curtains and stuff for daily use. I would look forward to more such concept stores, though they are awfully expensive for an average pocket.

There is an entry ticket which is quite nominal, but once you are inside the place appears to be designed to cater to the upper section of the society leading to a bit of dichotomy. As we went when a flower festival was going on, we got an opportunity to see and click a lot of colorful flowers which were in full bloom. On a lazy day, if this area is not too far from where you stay, you can go for a stroll or to have a nice meal in the natural surroundings.

The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan

This is a first book by the author, who happens to be from the corporate world and that too from a flamboyant one, and like lot of current authors, she also derives the book out of her professional life and from people around her, in fact she has literally borrowed all the names and surnames also from people around her.

The book makes a fast paced reading, with all the ingredients of a Hindi movie, a romantic story line with a backdrop of world of cricket and advertising, both of which seem to co-exist. It’s a Mills and Boon kind of story, where a average girl’s path crosses with a rich most sought after guy and he falls in love with her, but throughout the book the girl is unable to make out if he loves her or not. And finally in the last chapter and on the last page the boy appears before the girl, this is of course after she has lost all hopes of getting him, and sweeps her away with the sweet nothings.

To this story, add the fact that it is based in India and the rich guy happens to be the captain of Indian Cricket team, now you can not be more sought after than that in this country. And the girl is someone from the author’s world, an ad agency executive who happens to meet celebrities for work, and that’s how she bumps into the Indian cricket team. Top it up with the masala of superstitions that the cricket players are known for and in the protagonist they find a lucky charm. They make way for her to accompany the team for world cup and in turn make her a celebrity in the process. Having been with the company that is associated closely with cricket and world cups, author has been able to capture the madness that cricket evokes at all levels in the country pretty well and something that most readers would identify with.

Except Pepsi that she has disguised as Zing!, most of the other brands, stories, people have been picked up from real life including the ad of an undergarment that is not so great but has a huge recall value. My view is that using lot of current point in time incidents, merchandise makes the book also point in time that ten year down the line may not look very relevant, but at the same time the other view can be that they become the mirror for the current time for future reference. It also captures the essence of Delhi, at attitude of girls who grow up here in the by lanes and then move into so called professional world and keep trying to move between the two identities.

I think Anuja would make an excellent scriptwriter, as she loves to use the colloquial language, does not leave space for any subtle messages and captures feelings and emotions very effectively and can give them witty words. I liked the book as well, though I prefer slightly deeper kind of books. But you have to give it to the author for all the funny one liners that keep popping up throughout the book, after all she is the one to pen down ‘Yeh dil maange more’ for Pepsi.

Recommendation: Light, funny, interesting, one-time read. I would not be surprised if you see a Hindi movie based on this book very soon.

What is Real India?

After reading so much of written word on Slumdog Millionaire, I finally did watch it. There were endless debates that I had read before I saw the movie, debating if this is poverty porn or if this is just showing the real India, which the few of us would like to shy away from. This post is not a review of the Oscar winning movie, but my views on real India and the questions that I have pertaining to the same. I have had these views for sometime now, and all the current debate just provided the required trigger for me to sit and write them down.

Media and to some extent travel industry tries to call the India that lives below the poverty line as real India. India that cheats, India that is ready to do anything to amuse a foreigner and India which is supposedly suffering all the time is more often than not called real India. Without saying so, they say that the rest of the India is unreal and though it may exist, you may not count it in India or lacks the so called Indian ness. This springs a few questions in my mind:

Do the girls who were assaulted for drinking in a pub does not form the real India? I think most of them have never stepped out of India, have lived within the confines of their families for most part of their lives, have made their way through the not so women friendly atmosphere of this country and have carved out a place for themselves where they feel independent enough to go out and do what men have been doing for ages and have never been punished. What makes them less Indian or what is unreal about them?

Are the busy executives and entrepreneurs who are creating and running businesses not real India? Today they may be zooming on Indian roads in their fancy cars, living out of suitcases and airports across the globe, but they have slogged their way through the same system which after all the liberalization still remains a difficult one to go through. Just because you can see only what they have earned for themselves and not the hard work that they have put through to get them, does it make them less real.

Are our film stars not for real? Just because we get to see only the well managed glamorous image of theirs, and we never get to realize the effort they have to put in to come on top of a highly competitive industry with no job guarantee, and no privacy, does it make them less real? They work as Indians, primarily for Indians, earn their livings from Indians and create the visual imagery of various shades of India both for us and for the world. What makes us feel they do not exist for real?

Are the kids working in our sprawling call center not real India? These kids are slogging for hours, doing some not so exciting work tirelessly at absolutely odd hours, something that does not come naturally to them and to their families. We may not like all their mannerisms, but they are as much Indians. They had the courage to put themselves into something that they had no idea about, the country had no precedence of and they are dealing with people they do not see and cultures that are completely unknown to them and still are raising the living standards of their families.

The politicians who are supposedly leading this country and are often give the impression of being corrupt, power mongers and misleading instead of leading are as much Indians, they thrive on their acceptability by the rest of Indians, and incidentally are the official representatives of India. They are very much for real.

Yes, the poverty laden India is also a part of India, as much as these small shining communities. While we should work on moving people from first category to the second, we should not write down the second segment as unreal India. It is as much real India. A well educated global Indian who today has no inhibitions and wants to take on the world is as much Indian and represents a part of it.

Each of us are different threads that are woven together to make a fabric called India, and that fabric would not be complete without any of them. I do not like it when people feel I or people like me are not ‘Real India’. Like an old Daler Mehandi song, we are all different colors that make this colorful country, and without any of us, this place would be little less colorful.

Do not discard some colors because they are shining, but do work towards making sure that every color is bright and smiling. Economic conditions are not a complete indicator of the happiness, they do play a role and at times a pivotal one, but not hundred percent. Economic disparities exist in every society, have existed ever since the human kind has existed and would continue to exist. We all need to learn to be happy regardless of where we are born and to whom we are born, and similarly respect the existence of others as they are, and not judge them relative to your existence.

PS: My view on ‘Slumdog Millionaire’: It is just another movie, which picked up lot of usual masala from our Hindi movies, is illogical at lot of places like them, establishes no identity for its characters, who switch from Bambaiya Hindi or accented English back n forth. While ‘Jai Ho’ may have brought Rehman a wider recognition, I think he has a body of work which is far better than this one, I love his haunting music in Dil se, his folk based songs in numerous movies. But then this is my personal opinion and am not someone who has seen too many movies to be able to criticize.

Royal Rajasthan – I: Neemrana Fort & Palace

Neemrana is a sleepy village in Alwar district of Rajasthan, off the Delhi Jaipur Highway, approximately 100 kms from Delhi. It has a centuries old fort, built sometime in 15^th century by the descendants of Prithviraj Chauhan. It has become a popular weekend gateway for Delhites, as it is one of the closest places one can visit for a weekend. Apart from Neemrana, there are not many weekend gateways close enough from Delhi / NCR। If there are any please do let me know, and my definition of weekend gateway is a radius of 100 kms or so.

Neemrana fort is spread across eleven vertical levels, intertwined with each other, making the place look like a maze for a first time visitor. As you take the diversion from the Jaipur Highway into the Neemrana village, you do not see the fort till you actually reach its gate, probably the way it was designed on top of a small hill. As you reach the fort, you go through its circular walls till you meet the huge gate that stands almost as it would have been when it was originally constructed. You climb a few levels through the ramped pathways which are surrounded by walls adorning the various artifacts from the times and era seen by the fort. There are about 55 rooms in this property which calls itself a non-hotel hotel. All the rooms are named as ‘some’ palace and the staff refers to the rooms as palace only and not by some impersonal number, which for a moment can give you a feeling that you are actually living in the palace and ready to be treated royally.

The rooms are nice, have an aura that ports you to another era or at least takes you away from the current era where only gizmos surround you. There is basic lighting in the room and there are no phones or televisions. After all you do not come to live in a fort to be watching the same idiot box. The upholstery in the rooms and elsewhere in the fort carries the essence of Rajasthan, with Sanganeri prints and typical bright colors from Rajasthan. Food served is a combination of Rajasthani and continental and is served exclusively for the people who live in the fort. They serve evening tea on a terrace which makes fort the backdrop. You can enjoy the tea sitting on the colorful cushions on the parapet of the fort overlooking the Neemrana village while the sun is getting ready to retire for the day. There is Rajasthani music in the late evening by the local artists, which repeats itself and can probably have some diversity. Artists try to involve the guests in the music and dance and lot of people do enjoy being involved. Dinner is set in a romantic setup with light music and the staff taking care of all your needs. The fort gives an entirely different look at night with interesting lighting highlighting some parts that you may overlook otherwise.

If you pay some attention, you would see the photographs of the fort as it was before restoration, and you would appreciate the work that has been done to restore the fort. The fort actually is proud of various awards it has won for the fantastic restoration. The legend is that the king who owned the fort wanted to sell it for mere one lakh Rs sometime in 1980s, and it was ultimately bought by the current owners for about 7 lakhs and then restored to its current state. There is another wing that is being added to the fort. The amphitheater that is hidden inside the fort makes a perfect picture from the poolside. The design of the fort is intricate and intriguing. You would enjoy going up and down through its pathways, stairways, ramps or just the walkways. You can look at various views from the holes in the walls, windows from the rooms, parapets and from the beautiful rooftop arches. Some of the loos too have views.

This non hotel resort is available for personal stays, banquets, corporate events, and music & art events or as a wedding venue. They actually have a complete brochure explaining the exotic and fairy tale weddings that they have arranged. No need to say, all the weddings were hosted by the ultra rich. Like a well managed tourist place, the fort has an audio tour, swimming pool and health spa, a high end shop selling handicrafts & artifacts from India, tie up with an NGO that supports the local community, tie up with an adventure company which takes you for light treks, camping or flying on a wire (aerial zipline). The place is usually sold out, so you have to plan a bit in advance especially if you plan to be there on a weekend.

Neemrana fort and palace is a good example of heritage that is not only restored and preserved, but is also well marketed to sustain itself and the people who take care of it. Definitely worth a visit and stay.