JNU: Nationalism and India's Uncivil War by Makarand R. Paranjape (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

  

13^th Book of 2022

 

I don’t generally read books which are written on very heavy topics or are too historical or contains stuff that might make more than 50% of the book not comprehendible to me. Hence, I never pick up such pieces in either of the genres- fiction or non-fiction. Luckily, there are few topics which are of such character that you wish to know about them – either because of curiosity or to understand what exactly happened which made it so famous or relevant. One such topic for me has been about JNU – the college, what happens in its premise and what is the reason that makes the environment there so political and leftist rather than academic. I had no idea about the institution until 2016 until we know how a boy named Kanhaiya Kumar launched an agitation which became the talking point country wide; well, in international media too. I just completed reading the book named “JNU: Nationalism and India's Uncivil War” written by one of the oldest and prominent professors from the same university, Makarand R. Paranjape.

 

I am ashamed of myself that I didn’t hear his name or got to know about his stance against the Leftist crowd and particularly, Kanhaiya Kumar. It is only through this book that I went online and checked a lot of content which involved the author. This 270-odd pages book published by Rupa Publication is a combination of two aspects – Paranjape's memoir as an insider and personal journey at JNU and his stance and opinion on the activities that takes place in the JNU premises which gives it enough negative limelight. The book starts from his own journey – how he joined JNU and what made him leave IIT and move to this place which is always full of controversies and is completely different from what IIT offers. Then, author takes the story forward and explains how he got involved in the JNU row.

 

There is an extensive chapter where author shares a lot of open letters and how he responded to them vs how his responses were accepted. It is fun and exploratory to understand the viewpoints and opinions of both the sides – left and right and try gauging ourselves which side we want to stand with. It makes you question a lot of things – if favouring state and system completely is good or going extremely against them and bringing things on standstill a right choice. Author tries to give us a deep account of how typical JNU crowd thinks, what they need, what they do to get what they need and what is their agenda behind this. Everything that author mentions are highly debatable and controversial. You will definitely find complete support to this piece of work or a complete disregard- there's not going to be a normal reaction though author keeps insisting that he falls somewhere in between the left and right wing of our nation.

 

In a chapter, author gives a nice brief of the lives of Tagore and Gandhi – as their professional work and personal opinions at times stood completely with nation or it questioned the moral of the state. I really enjoyed reading this as I never knew much about Tagore’s various aspects of work and his opinions about our country. Few things really opened my eyes towards the history of our nation and how we have always been handling the extreme opinions and standing tough with all these voices roaring around us. Author speaks of how JNU has also produced great alumni's like Nirmala Sitharaman, S. Jaishankar, Abhijit Banerjee etc. and raises an expectation as well as question if JNU will produce such likeminded productive and nation-builders in the future considering its current opinionated and politically-influenced crowd. 

 

Author doesn’t shy away from narrating how JNU students run away from studies and want to protest on meagre issues even when it is something like rise in fees by some hundred-odd rupees or mandatory 75% attendance rule etc. He tells how students want the institution to be closed or lecture not happening for more than half of the year hence they find some issue to revolt against and ensure the whole attention is towards the same than studies. Lastly, author discusses how JNU can be further saved from such toxic and extremist culture and what needs to be done to make it an institute that can bring change and reform to our country in a positive manner and gets mention for great things happening than the reasons why it is currently mentioned regularly. Author’s hope and genuine care towards the institution is evident in every sentence that he’s written. The research work and documentation of all the JNU events since 2016 displays the hard work author has put to give this book a proper shape. 

 

Overall, if you have always questioned about JNU, leftists, anti-nationals, tukde-tukde gang and what the whole 2016 azadi slogans were all about, you should definitely pick this book up which has an equally sensational cover page. For a beginner, the language is tough as there are instances where you’ll have to refer to dictionary 7 times in just one sentence. Haha! So, pick it only if you have been reading journalism content since a long time and have good vocabulary prowess. I loved deep-diving into this complicated and controversial subject through Makarand Paranjape’s lenses. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. I have learnt a lot about the other side which I was looking forward to know since long.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

His Voice by Rima Pande (Book Review: 4.25*/5) !!!

 

12^th Book of 2022

 

Not every time you pick up a book which can take you through several emotions. One such book I completed reading last month is “His Voice” written by Rima Pande and published by The Write Place publishers in around 160-odd pages. This is a daughter’s ode to her father where she speaks in his voice to tell the story of a man who has struggled with physical issues for almost 2 decades out of which last two years has been under paralysis – the situation where he can see and feel things but can’t express himself. Author, Rima Pande, has grabbed this vacuum and tried to give his expression the voice she always could see in his eyes. I understand that just by knowing the theme of this book there must be a lump in your throat – the reason why I started my review with that sentence.

 

Rima Pande’s writing is very Indian – when I say this – I mean to say that she is completely desi by heart and therefore everything she observes or mentions about her father’s life has a lot of emotions, love, respect, sympathy, empathy, tribute attached to it. You can understand the kind of passion with which she describes everything about what her father is feeling about his deteriorating health, his wishes, his helplessness, his pain to see his caregivers giving their all to keep him well. I could relate very well with her with respect to where she is coming from. The narration is very nicely managed as I thought author would talk only about his disease but the way book takes us through two different timelines- right from the protagonist’s early life to the current scenario keeps the interest alive. I love reading books written in this format.

 

The story teaches you a lot about gratitude – every page and sentence reflect how it would have been if we were in Agastya’s situation and seen life through his lenses. You start appreciating your health, family and everything you have received in life. Similarly, you start finding positivity everywhere. You understand that there could have been worse than this. You start understanding how life works. It always gives you the best you deserve- it is just about realization which this book makes you recognize and embed in your attitude. Author also pinpoints through her narration about the game of patience. How tough it is to keep waiting for results with a hope that things would get better. Being patient is challenging but eventually, it gives you the path that you need to reach the destination.

 

It is tough to guess where author is speaking in fictional tone and where she is talking about the real suffering of the character – and that’s the beauty of the book because it makes your imagination create a lot of mind maps and think what if this must have really happened with someone. In Indian culture, family and the bond between its members is one of the most celebrated things which has almost been taken granted these days as the lifestyle has started becoming busy and self-centered. Author’s pen makes you feel love and concern for your parents as well as other family members too. You understand how their presence is subconsciously keeping our mental health in check.

 

Author says that even if you don't read the book, please call your parents. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, don’t postpone, don’t judge, just call. Call them today - and listen, for as long as they want to speak to you. And be there when they need you - physically and emotionally. Don’t wait till they need a caregiver. Connect, don’t regret it. This is enough for you to understand the reason behind why author went ahead and took this tough decision of going through the pain and suffering she saw her father go through for years again. This book needs to be read specifically by all the youth below 45 age who end up ignoring parents for career, friends and goals. I give this book 4.25* out of 5. I wish author keep writing to make the readers realize what actually needs to be prioritized in life.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

Gods in Shackles by Sangita Iyer (Book Review: 4.75*/5) !!!

  

11^th Book of 2022

 

Many of us keep seeing videos of human kind torturing animals – generally with dogs, cats, monkeys etc. All we do is like the video and scroll to the next one. We never feel the pain that an animal must be going through during such physical and mental trauma on daily basis by some wicked soul. Few of us are really caring who go a step further and try to save the animal from such owners or criminals and gift them a new life by making someone among us adopt and give them a better livelihood. And then there are few like Sangita Iyer who make this a purpose of their life. I am numb after completing her book named “Gods in Shackles” which basically talks about what elephants can teach us about empathy, resilience and freedom and her journey with them.

 

Before writing this 300-pages book, Sangita had also created a 90-minute documentary based on what elephants have to go through in India – majorly in the state like Kerala. This book speaks about her journey towards identifying with this problem and then the challenges see faces in order to speak about the unjustified treatment towards elephants by temple authorities as well as zoo keepers. I had got this book in my shelf from sometime but I was skeptic about if I would enjoy it or not considering that it spoke about animals. Somehow, I thought of giving it a chance and after reading, I just feel that we, human beings, don’t deserve the kind of privileges we are provided over other beings on this planet.

 

Sangita makes you feel the pain an elephant suffers when it is taken into custody for the first time and tortured for next 72 hours and even more at times so that the mighty creature just gives up and surrenders. The way they are tortured with sharpened weapons and incessant thrashing and beatings make you move uncomfortably in your bed. Elephants are then kept captive by tying them with strong shackles made up of iron and metal. Sometimes, the size of the shackles is so small that it tears up the flesh of their ankle skin but no one ever tries to treat the wound or provide them with a comfortable shackle- even if the agenda is to keep them captive. They are made to stand throughout the day within those shackles under scorching heat all alone. When I say alone, I mean to say away from their breed which eventually makes these elephants fall into depression.

 

Many of them end up suffering with arthritis because of standing regularly without a minute of relaxation. Even if they do, the shackles are so strong that they end up hurting their skin, flesh and oozes blood out. Similarly, they go through lot of physical hurt when they are loaded/unloaded while taking for a festival in temples etc. They are not provided even 20% of food and water as per their daily requirement and made to do stuffs like standing at a temple regularly in scorching heat to make devotees feel excited or make 2-3 people sit on their spine and give them a walk – imagine doing all of this while being undernutrition. They are made to sit and stand on their urine and excrement without anyone cleaning it for them. They are sometimes not even taken to lakes for bathing for months. Many elephants are always found in tears under such atrocities but they have no other option than spending their life in such unjust environment. During festivals, there is fire and sound around them against which elephants are very allergic but unfortunately, they have to suffer all of these getting scared every minute. Author talks about this in detail while speaking about Thrissur Pooram – the festival celebrated in Kerala.

 

These are just few pointers I have mentioned out of 100 such problems Sangita has mentioned in this book that we have created for elephants out of our selfishness and commercialization. She touches your heart with her politeness towards elephants and the way she finds attachment with each one of them whenever she is on visit for this mission. I liked how she calls every Elephant using their name such as Lakshmi, Shiv Sundar, Rana etc. She treats them just like us – in reality and even when she writes about them. It tells how harmoniously she has worked on their documentary and this book. Every page is a reflection of it otherwise the pain of elephants would not have transferred into our hearts while reading it. I just couldn’t manage to complete more than 30 pages daily because of how traumatic, corrupted and ashamed I felt after reading about how we just think about ourselves on the planet and no one else.

 

Along with atrocities of the elephants, the last one-third of the book is majorly about author’s struggle with creating the documentary on this topic, taking requisite permissions and finally getting the access of having this being screened not at one place but multiple places. Her hardships when it came to finding members to work on this or the challenges where the whole day effort got wasted when the camera couldn’t adjust to the new environment and all videos got blurry or how the computer systems couldn’t support the large media files recorded for the documentary. Iyer also shares how she felt gratitude towards Universe at it helped her during the whole journey by joining the broken pieces which she couldn’t have done by herself alone if these invisible energies didn’t support her.

 

Overall, I would say that this book is an experience which will change your perspective towards how we live on this planet – how we treat others and what we think of ourselves after letting all of this happen in our presence. You will also be able to relate a lot with your conditions in your life the way author was able to relate it with women issues in India where they are suppressed to express their emotions due to patriarchal upbringing. Though I felt author generalized this issue as it isn’t like that anymore in most household as women are given as many opportunities as men otherwise such great women achievement stories wouldn’t be coming out every now and then. Secondly, I feel author could have cut short the book by at least 70-80 pages with more crisp chapters or arrangements. Otherwise, this book is very beautifully written which serves the intention and purpose with which it has been brought together. I give this attempt 4.75 stars out of 5. Yes!

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WRITING BUDDHA