ಮನಕ್ಕೆ ನೆನಹಾಗಿ...

I was happy browsing through blogs and watching the nice game that was going on.

One was really unlucky to have run out of enough good bloggers ;). One had to tag me.
Anyway, thanks a lot PrufrockTwo for this unexpected yet nice trap. :)

I guess it all started with Sampoorna Ramayana (in Kannada). 'Legend' has it that when I was 4 years old (had just learnt reading Kannada) I was asked if I wanted a toy or a book as a present. Out of apparent stupidity I chose a book ;). So, I got the aforementioned book and read it greedily. I guess I was a pretty avid reader when I was younger. As I grew older due to the stream I chose (computer science engg.) and other reasons I don't read as much as I would like to. Nevertheless, times seem to be changing again. I seem to have reached a stage and chosen a path where I can be more independent. I will be pursuing a PhD. So, along with my research work I wish to read all those books that I always wanted to read (and more).

Alright! Now the questions -

The number of books I have: Well, right now, here in Bangalore hostel room, about 20-25. This number is increasing at a healthy rate. I suppose that it will reach three figures very soon. But I guess I can count the books that are back at home. Many of them were bought by my father, some by me. However, since I have read most of them I'll claim to be mine. That will make my number to be around 1000.

Last book I bought: For me this is the easiest of the questions. I do buy books regularly. But, owing to the limited stipend I get (as a PG student) I could not afford to spend lavishly on books. So, working against my instincts I used to buy only one book at a time (that too after finishing the previously bought books). The last book I bought was Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum.

Last book I read: Every time I start reading a book I promise myself not to pick up some other before finishing the first. I fail more often than not. I can't deterministically tell you which is the last book I read. The last few books I read are - Mattobbana Aatmacharitre (Kannada) by A. K. Ramanujan, Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez, Innocent Erendera and Other Short Stories by Marquez. I am currently reading The Tin Drum.


Five books that have meant a lot to me: Hmm.. let me interpret and answer it in my own way.

Modernist Kannada Prose (Masti, Ananthamurthy, Lankesh, Khasaneesa, Chittal and many more). This is where it started. Specially the modernist short stories and novels showed me the various techniques of story telling in liaison with the existential angst. I'll mention those that strike me at this moment. Ananthamurty's short stories (Kannada) - Navilugalu, Clip Joint, Suryana Kudure. His novel Samskara. Lankesh's Mussanjeya Kathaprasanga. Allauddinana Adbhuta Deepa by Khasaneesa.

Translations specially from Malayalam and Bengali. Horizons were widening. Mentionworthy are Oru Desattinte Katha (Story of a Land) - S K Pottakkat, Nalu Kettu - M T Vasudevan Nair, Asamay (Belated Spring) - Bimal Kar.

Mahabharata - For what it is. True it is an epic. But no. It has never been a holy/religious book. It is a political drama of the highest class! Ramayana is good as well. But it seems all too bland compared to Mahabharata. The characters in Ramayana seem too simplistic compared to those in Mahabharata. I had read Mahabharata when I was much younger and had not thought much about it. But now, when I regard it seems incomprehensibly enormous!

19th Century Russian - I have always loved this. Haven't I? The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy simply fascinated me. That lead me into 19th century Russian. Mother by Maxim Gorky was another work I loved. Tolstoy's short stories, Chekhov's plays all had me. However, the real blow was rendered by Dostoevsky. The characters he created are perhaps unmatched. If I have to select one particular work by him, I would go for Possessed. Let me pick up The Idiot as well.

Magic Realism etc.. - 19th century Russian seemed so realistic that each and every line of prose could be proven in a court of law! But I didn't mind. Life was all about realism until I read Marquez. Then I pondered, reality isn't real unless there is some magic! Or is it? I will pick up two of Marquez's works among the ones that I have read - and One Hundred Years of Solitude and No One Writes to the Colonel.



There are so many other books that I want to talk about. Let me pacify my urge by mentioning just a few more. Sakheegeeta - Bendre; Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; Egyptian Earth - Abdel Rehman Al Sharqawi; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera; Four Quartets - T. S. Eliot; . . .

STOP.

Tag five people and have them do this on their blog: This is a very tough ask. I would love to tag many. But hardly any of them visit my blog. Anyway, let me see how many I can tag and actually hope/wish/expect them to continue this meme.

Mandar aka Mandy (I can count on him)

Truman

aNTi

Sids

Krishna Kumar

OK. Done. :)