Urban Shots

From a gigantic canvas to small shots of love, relationship, longing, friendsip & angst. I also got this book as a gift (Santa had loads of books for me, even the next book I am reading is a gift – Thx Santa :- )) It is a collection of 28 stories written by 13 budding authors / new writers.

I started reading with apprehension and as filler between River of Smoke & Steve Jobs which I guess will be a heavy read looking at the size and the weight of the book. It was a mixed bag collection. Some of them were too short at least for me to comprehend but many of them were nice and brought out the life style and the related situations which all of us are going through very nicely.

But I guess it was too close to reality in which we live in and hence brought back conversations, articles, news which we read day in and day out and hence didn't excite my senses like some other books did.

Which brings back the question on "Why we read, What we read ?". Too big a question to cover in this post, maybe some other time......but yes few answers can be found in Orhan Pramuks Other Colors.

It was also a nice introduction to the craft of writing. For someone who wants to write it gave a representation of what to write and what not.

I can't end this post to congratulate all 13 writers on their journey from thought t0 blog to publishing to being read to being written, spoken and maybe seen (in a movie/serial) very soon.

Lage Raho bhai log....More on Urban Shots at http://www.greyoak.in/urbanshots.htm

River of smoke

Why do people do not release paperback? This was/is my biggest grouse with the publishers of River of Smoke by Amitava Ghosh (the same with Murakami’s new book IQ84). If I am not wrong the book got launched almost a yr back but although he is one of my favorite author & I could very well afford it. Somehow at time my socialistic side perhaps takes over. And I can’t make myself spend 600+ on a book like I cannot spend 10 k on a running show. Anyway that’s me.

So when my mom gifted the same on my birthday I could not wait to start & finish, when I start these books I read cover to last page over 2 or 3 nights. I cannot read anything else even magazines or newspapers.

But this time I was a bit disappointed with the length of the book and especially many detours it takes on botanical lessons n history plus the Chinese words and language usage which is integral part of the book. The real raison d’être of the book is actually covered in last 2 sections on how the opium wars started in China. I actually realized the importance of the book and got a better understanding when I read about the opium wars 1 & 2 in Wikipedia. I am unable to provide the link because as I write the site has blacked out.

It had the usual large canvas of Indo-Chin-brit historical relationship in the centre of which was opium which linked them and actually started a change process whose impact can be felt even now. As a coincidence I was in Hong Kong & Macau in March and I was pouring through the maps in 1800’s to understand how it looks.

Other thing which sort of bugged me is this new fascination of writing 3 book series. I mean I am all for it and I am sure the canvas he has chosen justifies the same and maybe it makes lot of marketing sense as well. But the gap between the first & second book was too large at least in my case and most of the characters in the previous books were wiped out of my mind completely and I really did not see a strong link between the two.

All in all, a bit disappointed Amit da : - (

PS: If you are Amitda's fan log on at http://www.amitavghosh.com/