The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I have been meaning to read The Reluctant Fundamentalist for a long time, I have again and again picked it up and left it unopened. But today when I picked it up, I couldn’t keep it down. I finished it in one go… guess the book deserved it. It speaks on behalf of the most under represented group of all… a genuine muslim… and a true Pakistani who is up in arms against the US

The book does not attempt to provide answers, but has managed to raise a lot of questions. It attempts to ask if a successful Princeton Graduate comes back to Pakistan, disgusted by US policies, is he a fundamentalist? We have perhaps not formally labeled Pakistan as a terrorist state but the socially we have tainted Pakistan and all the muslims in it. Is this a step towards curbing fundamentalism or encouraging it?

In just the story of one life, one person the book has managed to question the collective wisdom of our world leaders. It talks of identity crisis, nostalgia and the extent to which human mind feeds on it. Through love and passion, it conveys the dangers of hatred.

Final Verdict: the book has manages to alarm you and make you think. It’s not meant for a break, it’s a serious book in search of serious answers.

GONE WITH THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always thought I loved reading, but suddenly I realized I loved characters. I loved the people who were neither good nor bad nor ugly, but transparent. I loved the fact that I could crawl inside their skins and feel what I have never really felt; at times it was love, sometimes deep sadness and sometimes a passion I never knew existed in me. But whatever it was that I feel it always made me feel amazingly alive… ironic how fiction can make u feel more alive, but that’s how it was.

Some characters or people, as I like to call them, have affected me more than the others. But when I talk about Scarlett O’Hara, I`m not sure if I crawled under her skin or she crawled under mine. It surprises me sometimes how can someone be so real and so relevant in one’s life. I love her because she brought me face to face with what I always didn’t want to believe I was. She showed me my courage and I was possibly the only person who could relate to her so strongly.

“The worst that can happen to a woman is that she is no longer afraid of anything”- it scares me, to see myself reaching that point where I would not be scared of anything. That’s how strongly it pulls me. It talks about a woman’s strength when driven against a wall. The book has a certain honesty and truth about it which can be felt through the pages.

Certain portions in that book has affected me deeply and has made me into a better person. People read gone with the wind as a romantic novel but I believe that book is so much relevant even in the time when people are struggling so hard to be relevant again in their own lives. It talks of the times which are changing and it talks of the strength it takes to cope with the change. It’s a book so removed from and yet so significant in the present scenario, it makes u believe in the power of imagination, in the power of human mind.

Day and again I have seen that book and the kind of passion it evokes in me is surprising. I have seen people discard it as another romantic novel, my advice to all of them is even if just for once see the bigger picture, it might not be beautiful but it is a view which makes u feel alive and powerful.

ALCHEMY OF DESIRE

Alchemy of desire- a book I picked up out of curiosity to see what the master of sting operations has to offer to us, and guess what, I was not at all disappointed. The book was well paced and lives upto its name. It gives the feel of a sting operation inside the protagonist’s bedroom and his sex life. Prem, Karm, Arth and Satya all have a central theme of Kaam. The book does have its moments… but mostly it seems to be an extension of “booker’s award” style of writing (I would reserve my comments on this one)…. Some where in our daily middle class lives, profanity has become an artistic expression… my ‘vocabulary’ has been more enhanced by reading and watching movies in the last few years, than it was living and studying in an engineering college in faridabad… and those who know how it is can understand what I mean.

The element of desire is provided by a hindu muslim marriage… being a ‘victim’ of a similar relationship I watch them enviously making a beautiful life of their own. I wish to enjoy that relationship but I know that’s a utopian world….

The book’s starting is a clincher… it starts with perhaps the most profound statements and goes on to prove it with laws of physics… perhaps this is there first meaningful demonstration for me… but again I think sex is a bit over-rated…. May be not… but to build a whole relationship on it still seems a little far fetched…

Final Verdict: All in all not a path breaking stuff but still you will enjoy it… mainly for the erotic lines and fast paced story line… not bad for taking a break….