Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz By L. Frank Baum

The only word I can associate with this book is 'sweet'. Dorothy (the little girl) and her dog Toto are parted from Dorothy’s Uncle and Aunt, thanks to the cyclone which takes the whole house away. Uncle and aunt are left because they hide themselves in the cellar while Dorothy gets late to get in. The house lands up in the middle of a beautiful country. The country is called the ‘The Land of Munchkins’. Since the house landed on the wicked witch of east and she got killed, the people (dwarfs) of the country are very grateful to Dorothy as she freed them from witch’s slavery.

She is told that there are four witches in the Land of Oz: North, East, West and South and that the witches of North and South are good while the other two are evil. Dorothy gets scared by what is told to her and wants to get back to Kansas where her uncle and aunt live. The munchkins give her the magic shoes of the dead witch and ask her to go to the Wizard of Oz, who might be of help to Dorothy.

Dorothy starts her long journey along with her friend Toto. After a few miles, she finds a scarecrow who tells her how bad it is to be stuck on a pole. Dorothy tells him about the Wizard and his powers. Scarecrow shows his inclination towards accompanying her to the Wizard. He expects to get a brain from the Wizard. Now the three of them carry on with their journey when they meet a Tin-man. The Tin-man can’t move because whole of his body is rusted. Dorothy oils his body and he can move now. He tells her, how the wicked witch of East had his axe cut his body parts. To get his body working, he had to get those parts replaced by tin parts. He requests Dorothy to take him along to the Wizard, so that he can ask for a heart from him.

Now the desperate Dorothy, her dog Toto, brainless scarecrow and heartless Tin-man start moving together. As they go ahead they encounter a lion, who tries to scare them but Dorothy slaps him when he tries to attack Toto. He gets afraid and confesses that he is a cowardly lion. He wants to come along to get courage from the Wizard.

The five of them after countering many problems reach the Emerald City, where the Wizard lives. He asks them to meet him one by one. First, Dorothy goes in. The Wizard who has the ability to take different shapes and forms meets her as a mask. He says that he would help her reach Kansas if she kills the wicked witch of west. Dorothy starts crying thinking that she is incapable of killing the mighty witch but the Wizard does not budge.

Then he asks all the others to help Dorothy in achieving what she has been asked. As they head towards the west, the witch tries different methods to kill them but they are saved because of their bravery and brains. The witch now asks the winged monkeys to capture them. She sees the silver shoes in Dorothy’s feet and wants them but Dorothy refuses. She gets annoyed and puts Dorothy to sweep the floors. One day Dorothy stumbles and one of her shoes comes off. The witch grabs it.

Dorothy, out of anger, throws a bucket full of water and the witch turns into a brown shapeless puddle. Now they head back to the Wizard of Oz and find that he is no magician. He is a normal person, who because of the fear of the witch pretended himself to be a Wizard. The Wizard, now, does everything he can to satisfy all of them. All are satisfied with what the Wizard provides them, but Dorothy is still upset. She is unable to find a way to get back to her uncle and aunt.

The Wizard arranges for a balloon which is supposed to fly Dorothy to Kansas, but Dorothy again gets late and the balloon after breaking the ropes goes up without Dorothy. Now they have only one hope: Glinda, the witch of south. All her friends accompany Dorothy to the south. They face a lot of troubles but finally reach Glinda, who tells Dorothy that the magic shoes she is wearing have the power to take her wherever she wants to go.

Dorothy gets happy and does what she is told so that the shoes fulfill her demands. She reaches Kansas and is really happy.The book has been written in an engaging fashion and has everything to interest the children. It also projects the power of good over the evil which is a very nice lesson for the children to learn early on. Moreover, as you progress in the book you feel nice that good wins over evil regularly though after a bit of struggle. There are a lot of morals to be imbibed by the readers. All in all, a soft read with interesting moments and loveable characters.

Book Review: Mr God, this is Anna by Sydney Hopkins

Few books can haunt your thoughts once they are over. This one does. The look of the book is sufficient to entice you to go through a couple of pages and that is when you feel you should not drop this one down. The first sentence of the book starts with a spelling mistake – “Difference” is spelled as “diffrense” and you feel like having a look at the publisher’s name, but … Wait a minute! The whole sentence is wrong. It hardly makes any sense. You try to read the next one, so that you can decipher what this excellently titled book wants to convey and it is there that you fall into the trap of reading it cover to cover.

The first sentence (in inverted commas) is a statement made by a six-year old child Anna. The author captures the innocence of a child by spelling certain words incorrectly. That is his way of showing lisp in the child’s pronunciation.

Anna, presented as a special child, has a different kind of relationship with God. Her understanding of God is different from that of ours. She thinks about life every moment and it is her understanding of life which leaves you mesmerized. She doesn’t believe in reading Bible or any other religious text. According to her, religion was for doing things and not reading about doing things. She sees God’s hand in every aspect of life. Her way of talking to/about Him brings a smile to your face.

More engrossing than the intellectually stimulating conversations are the portions covering the relationship between the author and the girl child. They share a special relationship which tickles your emotions and succeeds in giving you goose bumps. There are at least hundred philosophical notes in this emotional yet practical symphony. Be it the meaning of life, definition of God, difference between being safe and being saved, positives of night life or relation between facts and meaning, ‘Anna’ lets you have a look from a different perspective.

The end again is very emotional and you are bound to have wet eyes. The only negative, I could find in this book is the inconsistency in terms of comprehensibility. There are certain parts which really go over your head and you have to re-read to grasp the meaning. The use of spelling mistakes for projecting lisp sometimes makes you struggle to comprehend the meaning. But considering the book’s ability to touch hearts and change lives, these flaws can be easily overlooked. A must read!!!

Book Review: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, had been writing since 1904. It won’t be wrong to say that his writing career had two innings. In the second innings his writing was inclined more towards individual’s search for self-fulfillment. Siddhartha, which he wrote in 1922, throws light on Eastern spiritualism. It depicts the journey of a young man who leaves his family on a quest for the Truth.

The story starts with two friends Siddhartha and Govinda. Right from the childhood, Siddhartha shows the urge to find the Truth. The first few pages are enough to capture his keenness to search the innermost self, the Atman. Govinda is projected as a follower of Siddhartha. Though Siddhartha follows all the rituals done by a Brahman family, he is not content with the level of wisdom he expects to get out of these. He wants not only to achieve the deepest wisdom but also live it.

While his search for the sources of deep wisdom is going on, he comes across a group of ascetics called Samanas. The Samanas wander around naked in search of wisdom and project absolute self-denial. Siddhratha convinces his parents and joins the Samanas. Govinda, who is in love with Siddhratha, also joins him. Even after spending a good amount of time with these Samanas and learning quite a few tricks, Siddhartha is not satisfied.

Now they come to know about Buddha and decide to leave Samanas. Both of them come across Buddha and listen to his teachings. Govinda joins the Buddha community but Siddhartha is not satisfied. Govinda implores him to stay but Siddhratha leaves.

Siddhartha, who now realizes that he has become a man, one day, awakens to his surroundings. He enjoys the colours and feels the tangibles. He doesn’t feel like an ascetic anymore. Now he meets a ferryman, Vasudeva, who takes him to a village across the river and doesn’t charge him anything. In the village, he meets a woman and first time in his life feels a sexual desire. Then he moves to a city where he gets attracted towards a beautiful girl Kamala.

He wants to have her and learn the joys of love from her. Kamala asks him to follow goals, which are material in nature. He has to come back to her with clothes, shoes and money. He starts working for Kamaswami, the richest merchant in the city. Though Siddhartha’s methods of doing business don’t suit Kamaswami, they continue with each other. Siddhratha comes and enjoys with Kamala regularly. He owns a house and other material goods. He also feels bad on loss of money and his possessions. But sometimes, a pain arises in his chest. He compares that life with this. He gets upset. One day he realizes that all this beauty and lust are but ephemeral. He feels the vacuum and wants to resume his search for eternal bliss. He leaves everything and everyone and goes back to the forest.

Weakened by hunger, Siddhartha collapses under a tree and wakes up to find a monk who is none other than Govinda. Now, he thinks of everything around and feels content. Even the regret of leaving his search vanishes and he feels nice that he has had a feel of everything. He, somehow, meets Vasudeva and shows his interest of serving him as assistant in ferrying the boat. He is amazed by Vasudeva’s wisdom. Vasudeva teaches him to learn the wisdom from the river.

Siddhartha and Vasudeva become friends and start staying together in Vasudeva’s house. Years pass by and one day Vasudeva gets to know that Buddha is not well and will soon follow his path to salvation. There is a rush of people who want to have a look of the enlightened face. Kamala is also one of the pilgrims traveling. She has a son now, whose name is also Siddhartha. Kamala dies of a snakebite one day and leaves her son with Siddhartha. Before dying, she tells him that he was Siddhartha’s son. The boy doesn’t find the surroundings and people compatible.

Siddhartha is not very happy with the behaviour of his son. Vasudeva makes him understand that he should let the child have his way but Siddhartha, blinded by the child’s love, never listens. One day the child disappears with money and boat. Siddhartha, scared that the forest would gulp the child, runs after him. Then he realizes that he should not follow. He comes back but is not happy. Life continues and he again ferries people across. Everything turns normal but he feels the kind of pain his parents would have felt when he left. Soon, he stops fighting his fate and the suffering ends. Now Vasudeva leaves for the forest stating that he stayed to see the suffering end for Siddhartha.

According to him, Siddhartha has achieved what he was yearning for. Now Siddhartha, who has achieved the wisdom meets Govinda by chance and tells him that wisdom can’t be passed; it has to be realized on one's own. Overall, Siddhartha is an above average book, which is easy to comprehend. The conversations of Siddhartha with Vasudeva and Govinda are the highlights. Some emotions have been depicted very nicely. So, if you are searching for a light book, which can leave some food for thought, go for Siddhartha. It is worth its price.

Review: The prince & the pauper by Mark Twain

The Prince and the Pauper is a lucidly written masterpiece by Mark Twain. Easily comprehensible, the book is a display of sheer genius. All the characters have been thoroughly explained and as you go along, you fall in love with most of them especially the Prince and the Knight Miles Hendon. The former is a personification of pampered innocence while the latter is an epitome of self-less generosity.

The story doesn't take long to shift gears and as soon as the two protagonists shift places (by mistake, of course), things start to get interesting. The author succeeds in raising antipathy towards some characters especially the head of the Canty family (Pauper's family). The characters are so plainly black and white that even children can comprehend the book with minimal effort.

The book also tastes success in creating the milieu of the era. The concept of whipping boy is queer yet believable. For trivia, whipping boy is a person in the kingdom who takes the punishment on behalf of the prince if the latter is not doing well in studies. Teachers, afraid of hitting the would-be king, hit the whipping boy and his earnings are commensurate to the whipping he gets.

The end again is very happy, despite the death of the King. Despite the trials and tribulations the young prince goes through, one constantly gets the feeling that it is only for the time being and everything will change for good. This makes it even more loveable. The apprehensions of the pauper in the kingdom have also been captured well. All in all, a good read for those looking for a change from the run-of-the-mill preaching fictions. The story has been plainly stated and it is up to the reader to extract the morals. No explicit attempt has been made to do the same.

Marketing: India has SOME sense of humor

A lot has been said about India and her peculiarities. Marketers from all over the world, when dealing with India, are advised to unlearn whatever they have learnt and learn it again with due consideration to the 'idiosyncrasies' of Indians. 

Be it Audi that has decided on separate horns for India (the horns they make globally can't survive the constant honking Indians subject their horns to) or Kellogg's that realized that corn flakes as breakfast alone can't succeed in India, various companies have experienced devising brand new strategies for the Indian market.

The famous India-Bharat divide is commonplace in all corporate strategies. Arundhati Roy summarised this divide beautifully when she said, "India lives simultaneously across 400 years." So, while the 'New' India aspires to fly every morning, the Rural Bharat is content listening to prayers, ensconced blithely in their beds. The progression, though, is that the Rural India too is listening to prayers on their mobile phones.

Telecom researches show that people in Punjab (A relatively prosperous state in North India), dial numbers to have access to Gurbani, put the phone on speaker mode and listen to the prayers for hours together. Now consider this fact with a backdrop that the call charges for this kind of a facility range between Rs 3 to Rs 8 depending on the service providers and time of the year.

This is about telecom. Let us consider a snack now: Nestle Maggi. Maggi, in its earlier days, struggled to set its foot in India as mothers were not content serving the kids with something that could be cooked in JUST two minutes (such short timing was seen as depriving the food of the love that a mother puts in the food she cooks). Nestle had to work out various strategies before Indian tongues could attune to this "now India's favourite" snack.

Horlicks wouldn't have imagined that the cattle population can have an impact on their sales. In some parts of the country, Horlicks (the famous health drink) is used to fatten up the cattle. Our kindness on animals doesn't end here. We also massage the animals with Iodex to relieve them of the muscular pain after a hard day. Godrej Hair dye is used, in some parts of the country, to color buffaloes so that they can be auctioned at a higher price.

Now Television (Ah! we love it). TV arrived in Delhi (the capital of India) in 1959. Till 1992, India had just two channels. Today there are more than 500 channels available for the audience to watch. And as you read, some new ones are being added at almost a weekly basis. Our love for television goes to the extent that today in India we have more television sets than the number of toilets.

Mobile phones, similarly, outnumber the total bank accounts in the country. The SIM cards outnumber the mobile phones. In fact, a lot of people in the lower stratum own multiple SIMs from different service providers to optimize their usage and maximize the benefits. E.g. if one service provider offers per second billing, the people would use it to inform their dear ones on their reaching the destination. "Pohanch gaya" (I have reached), they will say and disconnect. If some service provider gives good options on high talktimes, people would use it to chat and romance with their beloveds.

Washing machines are not used for washing clothes only. In Punjab, washing machines are used to make lassi (drink made by mixing curd with water and sugar/salt) in bulk. In South, talcum powders are not used to counter perspiration only. It is used as a whitener and is applied on face so increase one's marketing value in the marriage market.

These are just some of the eccentricities that we Indians are proud of. This can become an article which refuses to end for a simple reason: We, in India, love doing things differently - fashionably or otherwise.

Please contribute to this article. Whenever you come across oddities of our dear country and her people, please proudly write it in the comments. I shall ensure that I update the article with your inputs.

If you liked reading this, something's waiting for you at www.scoopydiary.com

References:

Bijapurkar, Rama, We are like that only, Penguin Portfolio, 2007: pg 23

Gupta, Sumit, The Challenge for an Indian MBA: Bridging the gap between Philip Kotler and countryside India, www.brandchannel.com

Movie Review: Paan Singh Tomar

Imagine yourself being a mentor to somebody (let us name him X). And being one of the most respected people in the life of X. Imagine X confessing to you that he can happily give his life for you. Imagine the kind of pride you will feel to have a disciple like X. 


Cut to that one day, when whatever you have taught X needs to be applied in life. The stage is big, stakes high. You have all the hopes and confidence that X would use each of the nuances you have taught him and would win you pride. That he would get you the victory you have so aspired for. Suddenly, you realize X is not giving his 100% and you are disgusted. With right, and with authority you tell him, "You Bastard! If you lose today I am going to bury you in the venue only. C'mon, win it for me!" X is shaken, he suddenly wakes out of his lethargy and starts pushing hard. He gets you the victory you so desired. You are celebrating. You rush to give him one tight hug. But he looks dejected. You inquire on what is wrong. He comes touches your feet, kisses your hands and tells you, 'Sir, I respect you a lot but please don't call me a bastard again. I shall kill you." SHOCK!


This is the kind of staggering narrative, Tigmanshu Dhulia has used in Paan Singh Tomar. If you are emotional, chances are that you would come out of the hall with goose bumps all over your body. That is the power of PST. 


Despite the fact that the Hindi used in the movie is not the one we are used to in our daily lives, the story line ensures that the audience is stuck to their seats for the entire duration of the film. 'Kaho Haan' as a leitmotif is charming and makes you laugh in between the tense scenes. Irfann (please note the extra 'n' and he no longer writes Khan to promote secularism) is superlative. Mahie Gill is good and does justice to her role. So do all the other characters in the film. Three cheers to the make-up team of the movie who have made the movie look so real. 


The editing is exemplary and so is the cinematography. The 'Beehads' have been captured in a way that would give competition to Mr Bachchan's 'Kuch din toh Guzzariye Gujarat mein' campaign. 


Overall, PST is an outstanding piece of cinema which strikes all the chords possible in a human body. A movie which reaffirms our belief that movies win or lose because of the script and not because of the stars. Ten Stars! or May be a Hundred...

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Arts: To be a Ghazal

All of us in India have listened to or heard about Ghazals. Few of us though understand what exactly is a Ghazal. The points below throw some light on the definition of a Ghazal.

1. To begin with, a Sher is a poem of 2 lines.

2. Ghazal is ‘necessarily’ a collection of 2 line poems called shers. But just being a collection of shers is not enough. Here’s a list of ‘must-haves’ for a ghazal to be a ghazal:

a.Beher: Length of the sher. All shers in a ghazal must be of the same beher

     b. Radif: A rule which states that second line of all shers must end with same words for a ghazal to be a ghazal

     c. Kaafiya: It is the rhyming pattern which the words before radif must have

     d. Matla: The first sher of the ghazal is called Matla. The first sher (Matla) must have the same last words in both the lines

     e. Maqta – Takhalus – Names of writers of shers in the last sher.


Now that you are aware of what a Ghazal is, I hope you would be able to appreciate it better. Happy listening!

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