Month: March 2015

Viagra and Condom Buying Spree-Prince and Friend

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9781482817133 Maree and the Prince —Book Review A newly published eBook—Maree and the Prince deals with the subject of faith while telling the tale of a roguish writer who is a Prince given to excessive drinking. The Prince and His friend pursue members of the oldest profession with a vengeance. Maree is his involuntary secretary and driver. The Prince is possessed by an English ghost. The book also explores Christianity through a devout Maree. The ghost leads us on a journey to London, a sea voyage, Karachi, Lahore, Umballa and Simla in the 19th century. The book also takes us into an unexplored chapter of British-Indian history—that of Lascars—native sailors who were the first Indian immigrants in England. The book is a search for faith with the help of a saint and a faithful servant. http://www.amazon.in/Maree-Prince-Resident-Ghost-ebook/dp/B00I09DNF2 The eBook is available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Google books. Flipkart.com. An unwary and drunk poet tempts fate once too often and gets possessed by a vengeance seeking English Ghost. He gets lost in a haze of spirits both the bottled kind and those that rise from the grave. Time spins into a mist of non sequitur existence in a soul searching quest. This is a strange tale about a poet who writes only when drunk. His drunken scrawl can be deciphered by Bible reading Maree who works as his aide de camp. The poet is also a Prince from the House of Lipatia. The poet is possessed by a ghost from England. The story traipses through Lipatia, Chandigarh, London, Toronto, Karachi, Lahore, Umballa and Simla. The Prince is buffeted through life because of his own debauched existence. The ghost from the past is seeking its own answers. The voyage of the Prince with Maree and the ghost leads to a journey of personal discovery. The surprise in the novel lies in the religious angle as portrayed by Peer Baba. He is the head of a Mazhar a mausoleum where miracles and exorcisms are witnessed. There are many Mazhars near Chandigarh built around the graves of respected Muslim Pirs/Peers. One famous Mazhar exists on the national highway to Delhi from Chandigarh. All truck drivers stop here to pay their respects and pray for a safe journey. There are many such religious places all over the Punjab and many Pirs are credited with miraculous powers. The book also takes a look at the polytheism of Indian believers and their innate tolerance of religions other than their own. The author has used the story to encapsulate the life of Chandigarh and its surroundings as of today. It is a statement of our sexual mores bound in hypocrisy (as observed by G-1). This book can be categorized as historical fiction with a pinch of religious salt. The book gives surprising answers to modern problems which are embedded in our lives and thus endured although with disastrous results. The book persists in affirming and offering a path to singular faith in religion; which is but one thing seen through different prisms. Man cannot survive without religion.

BUY THE BOOK HERE:-

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/180-8946833-4801729?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=amazon+amazon%2Bmaree+and+the+prince+%2Bchander+malhotra&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aamazon+amazon%2Bmaree+and+the+prince+%2Bchander+malhotra

http://www.flipkart.com/maree-and-the-prince/p/itmdsnj8fuezn2te?pid=DGBDSNJ7WVJVSQP6&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=maree+and+the+prince&ref=da3eaa43-79cd-4a51-b151-c2335c6ea490

Cloud Atlas-David Mitchell– Book Review

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Cloud Atlas—A Book Review

I think I am not made out for long novels like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I begin to think of the futility of it all as I did in ‘A Hundred Years of Solitude.’

I suppose I should stick to crime novels of the Agatha Christie kind. Getting too old for these tongue twisting novels.

Of course I loved the first six stories but then the pidgin English of Zachry exhausted me. I just could not pick up the glass again. It was ‘enough no more it is not so sweet as before.’

I loved Timothy Cavendish. I loved Robert Frobisher. I loved Zachry and the Prescient Meronym.

The magician in David Mitchell; the Merlin of literature just sort of monopolized the conversation. It was like a brilliant school play that would not end.

I think if I get younger, I will read it again.

Horse Trading

Posted on Posted in My IndiaTagged ,

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I looked for my horse statuette on reading the background WordPress blog (Broadside). I bought this thirty years ago. I got a good price because the statuette was a bit chipped on one side. I bought this from a pavement seller near Lakad Bazaar of Simla. Great memories are attached to that Simla trip with my wife and kids.

I hope Lakad Bazaar is still there. It was a great place for hand sculpted and hand made toys and gifts. The toy train was a children’s favorite and the rolling Trojan Horse.

You can read about Simla here on my other blog:-

http://meditationguru.over-blog.com/article-british-raj-s-summer-capital-shimla-85880354.html

Holi Hai !!

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Holi is a festival of colors and group madness in India. People celebrate the departure of winter and onset of early spring and death of mythological Holika by lighting a bonfire on Holi eve. Holi is a much awaited festival for children. Water pistols and spray guns shaped like ray guns from science fiction abound and everyone has to be sporting about being sprayed with colored water or powder.

In some parts of India people virtually go mad rubbing color on each other. It is a time for fried food laced with bhang and milk and cane juice laced with bhang (paste made from cannabis leaves and flower buds) and whisky and beer. The Punjab is at the forefront as always when it comes to the beer and whisky drinking part.

Cities become riotous with boys riding around on scooters and motorcycles. Girls too join the fun. The police keep a close watch on the proceedings and some young men find themselves in custody when they get too familiar with unwilling girls. By lunchtime everyone is sozzled good and proper. Everyone of course means the celebrating populace. Ninety percent of the citizenry hides behind closed doors avoiding the messy powder and water colors.

Peace begins to prevail at about three in the afternoon. The rest of the day finds the roads slowly emptying of rejoicing people. Peace and calm prevail by evening.

Holi is like many world festivals that witness group madness. Examples being mud festivals in Spain, Switzerland, Michigan, Boryeong, South Korea; Garma festival in Australia; Haro wine festival in La Rioja region of Spain; La Tomatina in Italy where tomato fights abound on that day.

One more year before we hear the joyous shouts of ‘Holi Hai.’

Hands Up–Wiper Signs

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Hands Up- Wiper Language
The car wash boy raises the wipers of cars he has already done to tell the sleeping owners that he has done his work. It is a form of attendance marker. If he leaves one wiper up it means he has wiped the car with a wet clean cloth but not washed the body and tyres.
Sunday morning all the wipers are up for a long time as people sleep late.

God and Job? What are my Questions?

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God? What are my questions?

Why am I seeking answers about God? Why don’t I just go to a temple or a church and be content with it. Why do I want a one on one equation with God?
My questions are those of Job. The first one though is that of Zophar the Naamathite ; one of the three friends who ask job to seek forgiveness from God.
‘Canst thou by searching find out God?’ Zophar asks Job. So do I ask myself. (JOB IN ISLAM IS KNOWN AS AYYUB-SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE)

I ask like Job, ‘In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?’
‘If a man die, shall he live again?’
This one is for all us writers:-
‘Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!’
‘Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.’
‘But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?’
Here Job does give an answer:
‘And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’
Job rants on and at last God deigns to appear and show Job his mighty works. Job is overawed by God’s appearance and his doubts are gone.

Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

‘I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.’

‘The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.’
‘So Job died, being old and full of days.’
The thing is Job got to meet God. Will I get to meet God while I am living? Job had extreme faith and courage to question God’s fairness in dealing with people. Do I have that faith? This is really the beginning of my search for undivided faith.

“Why no! I never thought other than
That God is that great absence
In our lives, the empty silence
Within, the place where we go
Seeking, not in hope to
Arrive or find.”—RS THOMAS- VIA NEGATIVA

JOB IN ISLAM IS KNOWN AS AYYUB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_in_Islam