Laments and Virtues

Hello, everyone! apologies for not being able to update any blogs since long. Not that I didn't feel like blogging during the interim, with so many things going right from the Rio Olympics to the election of Donald Trump to demonetization of the Indian currency with higher denominations to the issue of the Cauvery water distribution. there indeed were many things that needed writing about, but as it turns out, I was pretty preoccupied with the publication of my first book. Yes, my prolonged struggled to get myself published is finally coming true with the publication of "Laments and Virtues" my collection of poetries and short stories.

With the arrival of my book due December, I finally have some time to spare to write update my blog and highlight some points about the book which may not be possible to convey through my facebook page, twitter or Instagram. So here it is:-

LaV is a collection of ten poems and three short stories. The essential theme that binds them together is the plight, dilemma and laments that seem to engulf us during our day to day lives. Sometimes, we feel like breaking free and escaping, sometimes we stay and fight, sometimes we succeed while in other times, we fail. Whatever might our decision be, or whatever be their consequences, we always find them become part and parcel of our lives insomuch as they end up being the defining elements of our lives. We find some virtues in our laments. This is the heart of the book to be realised through every piece of writing.

LaV was not incepted the way it has turned out. My first book was supposed to be a collection of short stories for middle-grade children and the poetries were not to be published anytime soon. But as it turned out, I found that many of my poetries seem to be telling more or less the same thing in ways more than one, yet each having its own way of expressing its meaning. It was then I came up with the idea of getting them published under one title. And the result was the emergence of 'Laments and Virtues'.

So, till the time it comes out and reaches your bookshelves, KEEP READING, KEEP LOVING.

The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An eye opening account of our negligence to the most important and influential factor of our very existence-Climate change.
It urges the writer in us to question the established norms of narration and wants us to encompass collective narration involving greater and richer literature, because what else has the world recorded its history in but literature itself. It's imperative for us to leave a mark and ask questions and write about the prevalent issue of climate for the future generations as witnesses in our justification for our negligence amidst politics war and other issues.


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The DESIRE PATH

The government made the roads for tourists’ convenience. They spend a great amount and labour trying to maintain them. Every year, tonnes of tourists can be witnessed in their polluting vehicle marching up and down the hilly roads, risking their lives, just to get a glimpse of a well-known lake which contained water only for a certain period in the whole year. The toils of the local people can be realised in the very rubbles of the previously fallen boulders. The song of nature can be heard in the rumblings of the clouds hovering upon the mountains.

Amidst all these painstaking efforts to give a pleasant experience to the tourists alongside maintaining the serenity of the very mountains, the lives of the local people often go unnoticed. As it always is the case, any place is known for its beauty, but always it is remembered by the people who inhabit the place.

When people were busy in their vacation from their daily jobs appreciating the nature only to forget it upon their return, the locals chose the desire path for their daily jobs, collecting wood, nurturing tea gardens and preparing steamed food in their shops for the resting tourists.

Being a tourist one can know the beauty of the place, but looking at the same place from a residence’s point of view, one can realise the place much more than any prolonged tourist can. To work, make a living, raise a family amidst the uncertain weather and roads, are the things that make life really challenging and unveils the true nature of nature. The extreme at which it could go is beyond the predictability of mere mortals.

So next time, we visit any hill station or any other mountainous place, along with appreciating the nature, we also need to keep in mind the people who make this place what it is. We can talk to them, know their culture, their problems. We don’t have to bring them up from their drudgery, but at least we can take some time to appreciate them. For without them, the place won’t be the same.

THE CIRCLE OF REASON, BY AMITAV GHOSH

The Circle of Reason by Amitav Ghosh
My rating: 1 of 5 stars




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The AUTORPRENEURS and their era..

“Literature” has, in both form and way it reached the readers, evolved during its course of history. The long dramas of Shakespearean Era refuting the dogmas and structure of the erstwhile Elizabethan Era, the emergence of various forms of poetries and establishing certain conventions in the usage of symbolism and appreciation of beauty of the Romantic Era, the rise to prominence of the ‘novel’ genre in the Victorian Era (which still continues as one of the foremost genre), cite only one thing- that Literature, like any other thing in the universe, follows the only constant thing “Change“.

With the evolution of lifestyles, has evolved our literature. There was a certain time writing was seen as a non paying profession. Unless the current time when some writers who by employing certain celluloid-inspired methods to promote their books, garner greater readership and hence make huge profits in this “dying business”. They treat their book as a “startup” or business and go on to profit from it. This group of authors who run this enterprise are known as “AUTHORPRENEURS”.

These authorpreneurs have given a new dimension to modern literature. We can find many a newcomers taking up writing as a profession. The authors who reach the level of stardom can boast of having readership equivalent to that of fans of any superstar.

Why do we need authorpreneurs?

Often there were instances of many good books never see the light of the day or even upon doing so, they barely reach beyond a handful number of bookshelves. These authorpreneurs take it to themselves to make it reach satisfactory number of readers. The number of bestsellers has increased, so did the number of readers. His is certainly a positive sign for those taking up writing as a profession. They no longer have to worry about money to some extent.

But how far does commercialization of literature help literature?

As a matter of fact literature was never bereft of commercialization. Shakespeare never out rightly opposed Elizabethan beliefs so as to maintain the number of audience visiting his theatre. Dickens began serializing his novels to keep the readers always in want of the complete story.

In the current times however obtaining better profits from books has become more prior to coming up with better books. We know how a product rightly advertised sells irrespective of its quality. So will looking at a form of art as a product mean the decline of its quality imminent? Well to some extent it does so. Many writers without putting in much research and hard work bring out their novels.

This situation gives rise to two different segments of readers. On one hand we have selective readers (the class) who settle for nothing less than good, on the other hand, we have the mass, who give in to popular fiction without considering about literature. The readers of belonging to the class feel low towards the mass and look down upon them as mere less educated. This causes dissent to the writers of the mass. This gives way to “LITERAL DISCRIMINATION”.

Moreover the business these books do currently in the market has no indication whether it would go down in the history as “classical”. Whether our era of authorpreneurs will be regarded of as highly in future as the erstwhile eras are? Well it will be better to leave these questions for time to answer.

As it has always been difficult to identify something as black or white distinctively for everything is to varying extents “grey”. We have to accept the two sides of the coin. Being literal about literature, if thorns could be appreciated in spite of bearing thorns, we must all see the good about our era thus adjusting ourselves to the thorn. We as readers, pivotal to the whole scenario, must understand the difference and appreciate the good. We must not allow someone to take advantage of our aloofness and misguide us towards having a bleak conception about literature.

Hope to see better days in future. Keep reading, keep loving.