Review - SALVATION OF A SAINT by Keigo Higashino

Keigo Higashino, who teased readers worldwide with his novel THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X about a year ago is back again with a new novel to tease again, intrigue again and keep readers turning the pages until the very end. The author known as 'the Japanese Stieg Larsson' has a reputation to maintain and he's certainly doing a good job of maintaining it.

True, it was an English playwright, Congreve, who said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But this is a universal phenomenon.   When the person you love stops loving you, it's a betrayal of all you've shared.  When that person is about to leave you for a friend of yours and tries to twist things round to make it look like it's your fault, the betrayal can be absolute and unforgiveable.  Ayane's husband Yoshitaka had told her that without children, their life together could not go on. For Ayane, grieving inwardly for her failure to bear a child,  the fact that her partner turns away from her rather than standing by her in that dark moment makes a terrible retribution inevitable.  Yoshitaka is found dead and Ayane is far from the scene.  Who poisoned this man?

Who knows the truth about this apparently happy couple and their life together?  Their friends Yukiko and Tatsuhiko who had recently produced their first child and had received a beautiful, handmade gift from Ayane, a talented crafter?  Hiromi, Ayane's assistant and Yoshitaka's secret lover?  Yoshitaka, the victim, elicits no sympathy, the arrogant male who was so ready to cast off his hapless wife for a newer , younger model, as one would trade in a car. As a woman, it made me furious.  Why is it that in every society in the world women seem to have a 'use before' date?  Ayane, the woman betrayed, seems so vulnerable.  But is Ayane really what she  seems to be on the surface? The answers, which must be unraveled by Detective Kusanagi, may not be be as simple and straightforward as originally envisaged.

We meet an assortment of complex characters.  What sort of man can be so unselfish that he turns away from a loving wife because she has failed to bear a child?  What sort of woman can betray no emotion as the emotional blows are dealt out and treat revenge as a dish eaten cold?  What sort of girl can cold bloodedly steal the husband of a woman who has befriended her?  Detective Kusanagi has his work cut out for him.  Detective Kusanagi's assistant, a female detective, is a delightful character, providing feminine insight into the whole sorry business, a crime involving two women.  I do hope what I'm hearing is the author's original voice.  Translated works may be technically perfect but they sometimes lose their fresh originality. I very much enjoyed the light touches of humour in the dialogue.

This is the second novel I've read by Keigo Higashino and I can honestly say that along with a talent for telling a story with layers and twists aplenty, he gives a fascinating glimpse into Japanese society, often considered complex and inscrutable by outsiders. A society where people are struggling to find some happiness and some meaning other than going about the daily grind. Would a child have given meaning and joy to the marriage of Yoshitaka and Ayane?  Who can know that? Once I pick up a book by this author, I cannot leave it down.  I generally  like to wait until I have at least two or three free hours, which has been impossible lately owing to problems with work and family.  Yet once I picked this up I couldn't leave it.  This book has the same fascination as THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X.  The same adrenaline rush as the book hurtles towards its inevitable - yet unexpected - conclusion.  The word 'compulsive' springs to mind.

As in the case of the previous book, I found the cluster of Japanese names a little less than easy to get my head around and repeat to the publishers that a character list at the opening of the book would be  great, if they could arrange it for future editions.  .

Yet in the end one can only say that east or west, Europe or Asia, society to society, ordinary men and women deal with the problems of life as they see fit, depending on their circumstances and cultural backgrounds.  The local can very much be the universal, depending on which way we view circumstances.

Do I recommend this book?  Yes, I do.

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REVIEW - BUSINESS SUTRA by Devdutt Pattanaik

A few months ago, I ran into a slight problem.  I had a bit of a misunderstanding with Mrs. Asha Singh (not her real name), a neighbourhood friend of mine, someone I've known since I arrived in India about two decades ago.  We'd gone for a bit of shopping. Mrs.  Asha Singh, I'd come to understand, had been collecting discount coupons for a very large chain store.  Her husband would go there, buy the monthly provisions and pay for them and he would hand Mrs. Asha Singh these discount coupons every time he returned with the shopping.  She would save up these coupons with the hope of buying something nice for herself.  However, the discount coupons scheme was about to come to an end in favour of a card/point system.  So Mrs. Asha Singh was anxious to encash these coupons in order to get their full value.  That, however, proved to be easier said than done.

For starters, she wouldn't go to the local branch of that chain but insisted on going to the city centre branch of it, which was, to say the least, very inconvenient.  The Indian traffic on a hot day is nothing less than a nightmare.  I wondered why she was doing this.  I soon found out.  The city centre branch had a jeweller's shop on it's premises.  Mrs. Asha Singh entered the shop, produced her coupons on the counter and insisted on redeeming their value in gold jewellery items.  Not surprisingly, she was immediately dismissed.  This shop was not a part of the chain store, it simply rented a premises there and was therefore not a part of its schemes.  Mrs. Asha Singh had thousands of rupees worth of these coupons.  Moreover, as I tried to explain to her,  the coupons were not money.  They were simply pieces of paper which, under certain circumstances, could be exchanged in order to benefit the user with discounts on certain items.  None of these items would be anything like gold jewellery, they would be consumer goods like clothing or electrical items.  I tried to explain to her that no item could be purchased completely by coupons, actual money had to pay a role in each and every purchase.  As we shopped around a bit, Asha soon got the hang of using the coupons and even purchased some bowls and dishes.  But obviously, it was nothing like the shopping she'd originally  envisaged.  I purchased some items too,  an electric kettle and some clothing items and was pleasantly surprised when Asha insisted that I use the coupons to avail of discounts.  I made a saving of six hundred rupees that day, which was great.  Of course, I made sure to thank Asha for her kindness and also made a point of paying her fare home in the rickshaw and the buses we travelled in.  I also paid for what she ate and drank when we stopped somewhere for tea and snacks.

So it  came as a bit of a surprise to me when my daughter handed me a handwritten bill from Mrs. Asha Singh a few months later.  As neither  my Hindi nor Mrs. Asha Singh's English is very good, the lady had resorted to communicating her message through my daughter.  It turned out that, knowing I'd made a saving of Rs.600/- with her coupons, Mrs. Asha Singh was insisting on my paying half my discount back to her in the form of cash.  And very indignant she was too, about my being slow to repay 'her' money.Naturally, I was shocked.  I had paid her back, I thought.  Hadn't I picked up the responsibility for our fares and refreshments that day?  Moreover, coupons are pieces of paper which, under certain conditions, can be redeemed for discounts. They're not actual cash. Besides, the coupons had been about to expire.  I've shared coupons of my own with friends many times and was only too glad to help them out.  I certainly didn't see myself as having given away cash.

None of this reasoning cut any ice with Mrs. Asha Singh.  Nope!  She wanted her money back. All Rs.300 of it, exactly half of the discount  I'd received.  When I pointed out to her that I'd incurred about Rs.100 expense on her fares and refreshments, she cut the 'bill' by Rs.100, but dug her heels in, threatening to 'complain' to my mother-in-law and husband if I didn't repay 'her' money.  That did it.  I dug Rs.200/- out of my purse, sent it via my daughter's hand and my friendship with Mrs. Asha Singh is now reduced to nothing more than a cold nod by the garden gate.  BTW, my husband and mother-in-law, both Indians, had a hearty laugh about this later on.  I told them about it.  Don't mind that foolish woman, the mother-in-law told me, she and her people are just greedy for money.   My husband pointed out that Mrs. Asha Singh, although the same age as myself (fiftyish!), had been married at a mere sixteen years and while she was now a mother, a mother-in-law and a grandmother, she had very little actual experience of the world of commerce.  Well that made sense.  My doctor sahib (my husband) is quite a rock of wisdom.  Yet I couldn't understand, for the life of me, how Asha could make the mistake of turning the gesture of helping a friend into a business transaction.

I only wish I'd read BUSINESS SUTRA by Devdutt Pattanaik sooner.  It might have made things so much clearer for me.  I was fortunate enough to get a copy of this most enlightening book recently and it has done a lot to explain to me why the 'Western' (i.e. USA and western European) approach towards business transactions  is so very different from the subcontinental (or Indian) approach.

Wasn't it Kipling, the wise old man,  gave us that awful adage that east is east and west is west and 'ne'er the twain shall meet'?  He was a bit of a pessimist, if you ask me.  If only he'd dug a little deeper, he might have understood that the very different approach Indians have to business, among other things, is because of their very mindset, which is part of the cultural baggage they have inherited.  For people of Western origin, it's the same.  We're all only human and the twain have been meeting forever (doing business together, getting married, producing children and doing any number of things) but in order for the encounter to go smoothly, understanding, awareness and  insight are required - these things are so essential.

Devdutt Pattanaik, is a terrific teacher and storyteller.  Using clear language, simple illustrations and apt examples, he shows us how the Indian approach to business can be interpreted from an attitude which is rooted deeply in the psyche and can be interpreted using clues from the rich treasure house of Indian mythology.  He rightly points out that western approach is rooted in Biblical (to some extent) thinking or rather a form of it, on one hand and by classical Greek thinking on the other.  The Biblical approach glorifying,  but eclipsed by Greek thought which glorifying man.  He shows us how the Western approach is always concerned with 'what'.  The Indian approach, rooted as it is in it's mythology, is more concened with 'why', while the Chinese approach, rooted in its own peculiar mosaic of philosophies, is supremely concerned wth 'how'?  Basically, Devdutt had decoded mysteries that it could have taken many a scholar a lifetime to unravel.

I'd been offended at the thought that Mrs. Asha Singh was treating me as a mobile cash dispenser.  But I now realize that that wan't the case.  Heck she was putting me at the level of a goddess.  Devdutt Pattanaik explains clearly in the book how ubcontinental people  approach an investment or business transaction as they would a religious ceremony.  The investor (yajaman!) gives an offering (svaha) which they hope the 'devata' (god) will accept and return in the form of a gift (taathastu).  In this case, Mrs. Asha Singh was the devotee, I was the goddess, her 'svaha' was the discount coupons and no wonder she was displeased when her taathastu was not only delayed, but reduced as well!

I'd originally thought we were two friends supporting each other but that the whole exchange had turned sour because of Mrs. Asha Singh's greed.  I had no idea that the whole situation was imbued with spiritual significance.  Oh, I'll smile more warmly at Mrs. Asha Singh next time I see her.  But no way am I taking it for granted that her approach to variou interactions should be to mine in future.  The differences, of course, being rooted in our cultural backgrounds.

BUSINESS SUTRA is an ideal read for any Indian person who has studied management science, of which  a western model is prevalently taught  They will discoer how belief influences behaviour and therefore, business.  This will help to give them the Indian approach to management and business and give them a more balanced east/west  view.  It would also be a terrific addition to the library of any business person of western origin who has regular business with Indians or businesses based in India.  Even for readers who just enjoy studying the significance of mythology and who are particularly interested in studying the effect mythology has on the lives of people - this book has something for them too.

If it comes out in Hindi (I'm not sure if it has yet) I might consider purchasing a copy of this book and giving it as a gift to Mrs. Asha Singh?  But will she 'get' what I'm trying to convey?  Well, to answer it in a typical Indian style, 'that depends".

I can live with that.

This review is a part of the biggest http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews" target="_blank"> Book Review Program

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Review - THE SECRET GOSPEL OF IRELAND by James Behan and Leo Behan

One of the things which some people here in India love to tell me is that: 'your Christianity is only two thousand years old, while our Hinduism is over five thousand years old'.  As if Hinduism, being more ancient, somehow has more legitimacy than the Christian faith.  So the first thing I always say when I hear something like that is that the roots of Christianity reach further back than two thousand years until the beginnings of mankind.  The Old Testament which traces the history of mankind's fall and God's gathering of the Children of Israel to be His people goes back into the mists of time and if age validates religion, then the Judaeo-Christian faith would not be found wanting.  However, I'm not in competition with anyone to prove 'my' faith is better than theirs.  I've heard the message of Jesus Christ and I believe in it.  Amen.

The life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the culmination of God's promises to his Chosen People throughout Old Testament times.  When the Saviour was born and made the ultimate Sacrifice, all the promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled.  The first followers of Christ ('Christians' as they became known) were in fact members of the Israelite (Jewish) community.  But that community, as a whole, did not accept Jesus as the promised Messiah (Saviour) even though there are Jewish followers of Jesus today, known as Messianic Jews. The early Christians, being Jewish or Greek converts to Judaism, simply explained the Christian message in terms of the Jewish/Israelite vision, that man disobeyed God and fell from grace.  God made a Covenant with Israel and promised to send a Saviour.  They accepted that message and were absorbed into the early Church, which is the collective term for Christians.  Eventually, Christianity spread its influence and after time,  became the official religion of the Roman Empire.  There were many new followers to the faith but most of these would not understand the Christian message in Jewish terms.  As the message of Christ spread, people, through ignorance of the Scriptures, didn't even properly comprehend the faith, nor what it really meant.  Christianity became just another religion with rules and regulations.  Astonishing, considering the fact that Jesus Christ Himself detested religion with it's trappings of rules, regulations and hypocrisy.  The Word of God was falling on thin soil indeed.    Not to mention the fact that Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity separated from each other.

This book THE SECRET GOSPEL OF IRELAND, traces the history of the Christian faith from its obscure beginnings.  In clear, layman's language, it shows us how an African man named Augustine went from being what Christians would have considered as a sinner to  one of the greatest saints of his time.  He shows us how Augustinian thought shaped Christian theology. I'm afraid I'm not overly impressed by Augustine nor his mother Monica.  My local priest often pointed out my similarity with Monica in the sense that I'm married to a man of another faith and mentioned that thanks to Monica's prayers her husband and son ultimately adopted  Christianity.  I'm appalled by Monica's handling of Augustine's life.  Augustine had a concubine, an African woman who bore him a son.  That woman followed him faithfully from Africa to Italy.  Yet Monica cruelly dismissed her from Augustine's life.  Augustine, who was of quite a mature age, sadly bade his concubine goodbye, keeping their son with him and agreed to marry a young girl his mother had chosen, who was yet not old enough to marry.  I find St. Monica's behaviour most inhuman and unChristian.  Ultimately, Augutine didn't marry the young lady, choosing to become a priest instead.  As the body of  theological knowledge grew, the Christian faith spread to beyond the borders of the Roman Empire.  That's where Ireland comes in.

When St. Patrick brought Christianity to the remote island of  Ireland, Ireland adopted a great monastic tradition, which had actually spread that far from the Egyptian desert.  The Irish monasteries were universities of knowledge and the Irish took to Christianity and learning like ducks take to water.  Ireland's location on the remote outskirts of Europe may have cut it off from mainland Europe, but their Christianity, their knowledge of Augustine's theology and their Latin was infinitely superior even to that of Rome.  In time Irish missionaries were going out to Europe, spreading Christianity throughout the continent.  Apparently, one of the great contributions of Irih monks  to Christianity was their emphasis on penance and good works to bring one closer to God.  The Irish stood out among European Christians because their tonsure was distinctive and different.  Also, they celebrated Easter at different times, which was later brought into line with that of the Roman Church.

This book is basically a short history of Christianity, from its inception to the present day, with special emphasis on the role the Irish monks played in the Church as a whole.  The language is accessible and iteh book reads like a rather interesting article - you don't feel you're reading a book at all.  One of the things I found slightly irritating was that it kept on referring to the Church  in pre-Reformation days as 'the Roman Catholic Church', which it wasn't, well not yet anyway. It tells us of St. Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus and their role in shaping Catholic thought.  It gives a clear account of how Martin Luther began a crusade against the abuses of the system of selling indulgences and ended up leading the Reformation in western Christianity.  This story doesn't have a lot to do with Ireland, but it makes enjoyable reading.  Ireland has always had a symbiotic relationship with the Romanc Catholic Church, a relationship which has, incidentally, shaped our national identity in many ways, although that statement may not please the minority community of Irish Protestants.  Ireland is currently trying to escape it's Catholic identity, it seems.  The words 'Ireland is a Catholic country' resounded around the world recently and almost convicted us of bigotry and racial discrimination, even though the words were a well meant way to describe why Ireland in general has always followed the pro-life ethos.

People interested in Irish history, lay people and students alike, as well as people interested in reading about Church history, would find this book fascinating.  As the authors declare in their summing up: 

It started as a vision of heaven, infinite and eternal, in the mind of an African bishop who didn't know peace until he rested in God.  Soon, however, the Word became flesh as  the monks of Ireland endeavored to imitate Christ in body and mind.  They built monasteries and schools and hospitals.  They cared for the sick, comforted the poor, and educated countless generations.  They did penance and followed Christ from earth to heaven, bringing forth an esthetic transformation of the Western mind that changed the world.  They built a civilization like the sculptor who toils in silence to give voice to a stone.  We wear their legacy like a halo.  And even if many people today don't believe in God or Jesus Christ, we are free because they did.

Somewhere the Irish monks are smiling.

Indian Fiction - Tantra by Adi

This is by far the darkest piece of Indian fiction I've picked up for a while.  A paranormal thriller with thrills and chills galore, it has that peculiarly Indian feel to it.  The author doesn't seem to want to come out publicly, simply going by the nickname 'Adi', obviously the short for 'Aditya', an everyday Indian name.

Anu, the main characater,  is a young woman who can look after herself.  Recently arrived in Delhi from New York, she's no sheltered Indian princess.  She's walked on the wild side since she was young, having the unique gifts and training which make her a vampire hunter. She stalks the night in black leather with an impressive array of weapons hidden about her person, not to mention the ability to shift and give chase across rooftops in the dead of the night.

But now, the East/West culture shock kicks in.  Her aunt insists she do the 'dekhan dekhai' custom like a good Indian girl and meet eligible young men from 'good' families (whatever 'good' means), with a view to settling down.  The heat is too much.  She's forced to ditch the black leather in favour of  black kurta pyjamas.  What's even stranger, is the fact that in India, the lines between good and bad are blurred.  Back in New York, the vampires were the bad guys and always the target. In India, things are slightly different.  The vampire hunters and vampires are inclined to do deals here, being very often on the same side.  I'm not sure if that's so strange.  As a reader who occasionally reads paranormal, I'm familiar with the tortured vampire hero who isn't bad at heart but who tries to keep his need to feed limited to preying on the scum of the earth, the wicked, underworld members of society who prey on innocents.  But for Anu, it's something of a culture shock.

The common enemy of the vampire hunters and vampires is a seemingly innocuous guru, Baba Senaka, who runs an ashram in Delhi and who is a brand in himself..  Anu senses the evil atmosphere emanating from the Baba's ashram.  While investigating a spate of  kidnapped and murdered children, all clues lead the Baba.  Is the revered guru is actually a practising tantrik underneath, someone who use the black arts for his own aggrandisement?  Anu goes into training under the watchful eye of a couple of experts, learning sattvic mantras and exercises to counteract the evil influence of the Baba as vampires and hunters alike gather for the final showdown just before the Holi festival, when pure psychic power permeates the atmosphere.

There are enigmatic characters aplenty.  Anu, one senses, is one step away from turning rogue.  Although she's clearly on the side of the good and the innocent, she has scores to settle.  Her lover in New York was murdered and as she was able to trace his killer back to Delhi, this is what motivated her to return to her place of origin.  The powers  who control the vampire hunters would clearly not approve of her using her skills for revenge so she keeps quiet.  There's Amit, the Indian vampire hunter who is fully aware that the dangerous nature of his work means that he will never live out his lifespan.   There's Chandra, the charismatic commander of the vampires who has lived longer than any of them.  Pandit Grover, Dr. Sharma and the enigmatic Karta, powerful, psychic characters who inspire and encourage Anu as she readies herself for the confrontation with the naked power of evil.

What does it mean when all the questions are not answered at the end of a story?  It means you have to wait for the second part.  So that's what I'm doing now.  I'm waiting for Part II of this dark and fascinating tale.  I want to know who killed Anu's lover.  Will Anu become Chandra's lady or will she get with Gaurav, a young man who attracted her since she arrived in Delhi?

I shall never think of Delhi in quite the same way again.  City of tombs? Indeed!

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Soldiers for Women

As a foreign woman living in India, I'm very much aware of  the negative publicity India has received with regard to the area of the position of women in society and the security of women in this country.  The truly horrible story of a young woman literally gang raped to death while out for an evening with her boyfriend has resonated with right thinking women everywhere.  The 'honor killings' where young women have been brutally done to death to save their family's honor have horrified the world and don't get me started on female foeticide......

The truth is, it's impossible to generalize about a whole society because of certain, negative news reports.   Even though there have been horrific crimes against women in India's recent past, I know for a fact, having lived here for eighteen years, that India is not necessarily a nation where women are under constant threat of misogynistic crimes and hatred.  There are many Indian men who stand up for women all the time - in their daily lives, in small ways and in big ways.

For an example of a man who stands up for women and values them, I need look no further than my own husband, Dr. Mukesh.  Mukesh, although married to an English speaking woman (me), didn't start studying English himself until he was twelve years old.  He's as genuinely Indian as can be, educated through Hindi. He certainly didn't end up with me because of Anglophile tendencies and was not looking for a passport to living in the west when we decided to get married.  I had to come to India to be with him.  He's a biochemistry professor and has guided many students, both male and female, in postgraduate studies.  He encourages all his students, regardless of gender, to make the most of whatever educational facilities are available and to use their education for the betterment of themselves and for society.  Having a long track record of teaching at university level, some of his former students have done extremely well career wise.  Yet one of the former students of which he's most proud is Anjali, a postgraduate who works in the outreach section of a government research agency.  Anjali's job is to communicate with women at village level and teach them how to use kitchen gardens to grow useful herbs and plants which are an asset to their lives, both from a financial and a therapeutic point of view.

One of the things I value most about Mukesh is the fact that like me, his wish for our daughters is not to 'marry them off' with a bundle of 'dahej' (dowry), but rather to make them responsible, educated women who will have the ability to earn their own income and take decisions for themselves.  Including the decision about whether or not to marry.

Another example of a man who is a true 'soldier for women' is my brother-in -law, Rajeev Mohan.  Rajeev works with an NGO (non-government organization) which is dedicated to the betterment of women, the NARI SEVA SAMITI.  Founded in the last century by Padmashri Mona Chandravati Gupta, this Lucknow based organization works in the area of  education and empowerment.  They run an institution which provides education to girls from nursery to post graduate level and also provides vocational skills.  The organization also provides free legal aid and family counselling to women in distressing family situations.  Working in the area Family Counselling, Rajeev had handled many cases throughout the years.  Many women and families have benefited from the support provided by this organization. Although the media is very quick to highlight negative reports about the position of women in society, it's important to emphasize the very worthwhile work done in by various organizations and the individuals who work in them. Individuals like Rajeev who have put their whole professional lives into taking care of the problems of others have given an invaluable contribution to society.

One of the reasons women suffer so much in society, not only in Indian society but everywhere in the world, is that their contribution to family life is very often taken for granted and not even valued very highly. In the marriage commitment, two people agree to live together in a bond which literally dedicates them to each other's welfare.  Yet while the woman is automatically expected to sacrifice everything for the welfare of her husband and his family, the man is not necessarily expected to do the same.  Yet here in India, I know a man who literally sacrificed his high flying career for the welfare of his wife. I'm talking about my rakhi (adopted) brother, Ramana, the blogger from Pune.  Two decades ago, Ramana's late wife suffered a stroke which left her in need of full time care.  Ramana, instead of hiring a nurse to care for her and carrying on with his career as a management professional, took early retirement and cared for her full-time for the rest of her life.  He was just a little over fifty at the time and certainly very young to retire.  Yet the time he spent caring for his wife and being with her is a time he wouldn't have missed for anything.  And he never brags about it either.  I'm doing that for him.  Ramana is a follower of the vedas (hinduism), but as a Christian, I see his example as living out the Biblical injunction to husbands to care for their wives and go all out for their welfare.  While everyone seems to know  heroic women who have made sacrifices for marriage and family, I'm proud to know a man who has done exactly the same.

I'm sure there must be more men like Mukesh, Rajeev and Ramana in Indian society.  But these are the ones I know.  That's why I'm sharing this post.

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Review – CHILLI, CHICKS & HEART ATTACKS (The Misadventure of an intern by Dr. Manjula Mendis) by Sanjaya Senanayake

This novel is the story of a non-resident Sri Lankan doctor,  in his first year on the job in an Australian hospital., fresh from his graduation from medical studies.  Sri Lankan by ethnicity and culture, Manjula has lived and been educated in Australia, and although Australia may be ‘down under’ in geographical terms, it’s pretty much a prosperous ‘western style’ nation to all intents and purposes.  So this is the classic ‘east meets west’ tale in a slightly different setting.

Manjula is not completely eastern. He’s sensitive enough to know that his roots are Sri Lankan, but at the same time, he’s not blind to the nuts and bolts of modern, urban living.  He speaks with particular insight about the dilemma faced by the children of Asian immigrants, coming to terms with life in the ‘new world environment’ (for want of a better term) as well as trying to live up to the expectations of  Asian parents.  He blends in well with his fellow interns, who are a bunch of people of varied ethnic backgrounds.  The novel covers that year of internship and charts the joys and sorrows of the interns, Manju in particular.

There’s a ‘good versus evil’  pattern  story, with the somewhat naïve interns growing up fast as they find themselves pitted against the big, bad, corrupt specialists, who are on the make and trying to get as much kudos and money as possible, walking over patients and interns included in order to achieve their aims. 

Some of the characters are named with comic aptness.  We have the television presenter Fabulus Hipz, longing to be taken seriously as a journalist  rather than as an attractive television presenter, who stalks St. Ivanhoe’s Hospital for a scent of a scandal.  There’s the misogynist homophobe, Professor Monty Bonkzalot (I’ll bet he does) and the sympathetic Dr. Precious Thyme.  But the real humour reveals itself in a series of hilarious stories about life on the wards, most of which involve our intrepid hero, Dr. Manjula Mendis.  Take the time Manju takes  sleeping medication to knock himself out after a night shift and accidentally takes some ‘happy pills’, waking up early in what could be described as ‘one hell of a pre-dick-ament’.  I’m not going to reveal what it is, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Manju comes across as a lovable if sometimes overly smart fellow.  The kind who everyone thinks is very simple but who is extremely insightful underneath.  His concern for the culturally misplaced intern Lucky King, who  disowns her Indian heritage warms the heart, as does his friendship with the lesbian intern with schizophrenic dress sense, Dr. Alternaria Molde.  It’s Alternaria’s wisdom which helps Manjula make up his mind about his love for Sundari, a Sri Lankan girl whose background is not good enough for his snobbish mother.

This heartwarming, hilarious and sometimes outrageously farcical story has found its way on to my keeper shelf and it shall stay there forever.  Get a copy and read it for yourself.  Actually, Manjula’s humour reminds me that laughter really is the best medicine.  I think he would agree.

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Nature Vs. Nurture - LBC Post

My eldest son, whom I refer to as 'Neill' for the purposes of blogging, was a little concerned one day.  He told me in all seriousness that in his adult life, he'd have to leave India and go and live in Ireland.   Without wishing to pry, but madly curious all the same, I feigned a slight disinterest and asked him why.

"I have to take care of my Naani," came the reply.  "Naani" refers to the grandmother who happens to be your mother's mother.  The similar sounding word 'nanny' is often used to refer to the grandmother in Ireland.  There "nanny" can be either of the two grandmothers.  I asked Neill why was he anxious about my mother.

"She's getting older," he explained.  "She has no son.  I'm her eldest grandson.  It's my duty to take care of her."

I asked him what about his father's mother and he replied that as she has three sons and six grandsons, she will always have someone to look out for her.  But his Naani only has him and as her other,  younger grandson lives in London, he felt that his Naani was his responsibility.

This is one of the thing that I love about my son.  He was born in India, but raised by Irish me and my Indian husband, Yash.  He seems to be a fair mixture of both cultures.  I'd like to think he's absorbed the best of both.

My two daughters were up in Delhi this week at a wedding.  I was unable to attend that wedding as someone had to stay home.  My mother in law had asked my husband to stay at home as the house should not be empty and as a show of marital solidarity, I decided to stay at home with him.  Neill was busy with this studies and I kept the youngest son at home as I was unable to go over to Delhi and deep a watchful eye on him. So I sent my daughters to Delhi under the care of my mother in law.

The bride at this wedding, Suneha, is the first of all my mother in law's grandchildren to get married.  She is the daughter of the elder of my husband's too sisters, so you can say that it's the first wedding in the family, especially for my children.  My daughters got the opportunity to participate in all the ceremonies and one of those ceremonies was the 'mehendi ceremony'.  This is when the bride and her female relatives have henna patterns drawn on their hands and feet.  As the younger sisters of the bride, my daughters were naturally expected to participate.

However, in my daughters' convent school, there is a rule that students must not come to school with mehendi patterns on their hands.  Feet are okay because when one is wearing shoes and socks, one could be wearing red nail polish on one's toes and it wouldn't matter.  But girls who come to school with the patterns on their hands can be suspended as long as the designs last, which could be as much as two weeks.

Had I been there, I'd have certainly prevented the girls from participating in the mehendi ceremony because of  the school rule.  However, the girls were in the care of their grandmother and she was unaware this.  When my daughter Mel explained that the mehendi patterns could only be worn to school for the marriage of  a  real sister, my mother in law simply replied "yes, she is your sister".  In India, cousins are considered as brothers and sisters.

So I shall have to make a visit to the principal of my daughters' school and explain the situation.  I just hope she'll be understanding.  Because of their Christian background (i.e. me) my girls are generally treated as Christians at school and as the mehendi ceremony is not practised by Christians - well, not widely, anyway, my girls need not expect leniency.

However, my point is,  point is, my children are a mixture of east and west.  Of Hindu and Christian, at least for social and family purposes.  It could be nature or it could be nurture.  Or it could be both.  They are neither completely Irish nor completely Indian.  As I said earlier, I hope they have got the best of both worlds.


This is my weekly post for my blogging group, the Loose Blogging Consortium. We post weekly (usually simultaneously) on a given topic and visit each other to see the different takes we have on the same topic.  We are, in alphabetical order, Anu, Delirious, Rummuser, Grannymar, Maxi, Magpie, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, The Old Fossil, Shackman and Will. If you have time, please visit my friends too.  This topic 'Nature Vs. Nurture' has been given by Shackman.