Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories - Ruskin Bond

Short stories, since I was in school, have always had a special appeal for me. I loved reading English Text books because all they had were short stories and poems. I do wish I had preserved those books.
Anyways, Ruskin Bond, in the introduction to this book, claims his love for short stories as well, and admits unabashedly his unwillingness, and inability to write the more adrenalin generating stories. And most endearingly begins his introduction with, and I quote:

Gentle reader,

I use the old fashioned term to address you, because I like it, and because I know only the more gentle kind of person is likely to care much for my stories.

That captures for you, the tone and the heart of the book. Each of the story has something poignant about it which will touch your heart. And yes, if that kind of writing is boring for you, keep your hands off it. But there is a message about humanity in each of the stories. And really, you don’t have to be extra-sensitive or extra-intellectual to get that message.
I have always believed that the kind of stories Ruskin Bond writes, are best suited to the shorter version, that much he too believes. The problem is that a whole bunch of writers don’t get that and end up writing whole novels on this theme, which are invariably slow and boring.
A lot of the stories are autobiographical in nature. But not all of them. And Ruskin Bond covers a wide range of human life through the stories, including writers, of course, thieves, flute players, army people, commercial sex workers, and a lot of children. Nothing is too dramatic in any story. Rather, there has been no attempt to put drama in anything. It is a very simple, heart touching narration.
My favourite story, undoubtedly, is “The Boy who Broke the Bank” which I had also read during my school days. And it carries as much charm for me today as it did when I was twelve. That’s Ruskin Bond for you. He takes you away to the hills, amongst gentle breeze and flowers, and from there to an overpowering flood, and then to a waterfall where lovers might escape the wicked eyes of the world… all of it, in one book. And even if not all stories are fantastic, the book as a whole is immensely enjoyable.

The Small Bachelor - P.G. Wodehouse

I wonder if anyone would ever use the phrase “small bachelor” for anyone in real life. But this is a Wodehouse book we are talking about. And as always it depicts life in the rose tinted glass with an attached oxygen mask that really contains laughing gas.

George Finch is the small bachelor in this case. At least I think so, because there were in all three bachelors in this book, but the smallest one of them seemed to be George Finch. One of the other two, is the imposing, intelligent author of self help books, Hamilton Beamish – Jimmy for his near and dear ones – and George’s butler, Mullet. George falls head over heels in love, as usual, at first sight with a girl named Molly Waddington. The girl has a villainous mother, of course, who objects to the marriage and a father who dreams about the west and is generally ignored by everyone. Mullet is in love with an adroit pickpocket, Fanny Welch, who is in the business as much for the fun as for the cash. And then there is a police officer, Barroway, with an especially large adam’s apple who is a budding poet receiving training from none other than Beamish. See how the threads begin tangling? This is not all. Fanny Welch tries to steal a pearl necklace from the wedding of our Finch and Molly. Mr. Waddington is looking for Barroway because the former has sold substantial stock of a company he thought to be worthless to the later, and it eventually turned out to be quite a fortune after all. Mrs. Waddington is out spying on Finch because she thinks him to be what I would call a womanizer, but Wodehouse finds a bunch of other very amusing adjectives conveying the same thing. And while on her espionage mission, she messes with the law and hot on her trail is who else, but Barroway. Oh this is complicated, isn’t it? And believe me, I have left out a bunch plot threads out here for the sake of simplicity of summarizing. Needless to say, ending is happy as always.

This book is loosely based on a play co-written by Wodehouse. How would I have loved to see the play! The book also has a very honest preface to it, which is a delight, to be able to peek into Plum’s simple way of thinking.

Another highly recommended book for Wodehouse lovers!

A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar

It would be exaggerating to say that I have read a lot of biographies, but the fact remains that I do love reading them. The objective of reading a biography is not just entertainment that you would seek from a fiction novel, nor general knowledge of topics that interest you that you gather from non-fiction books. A biography gives a peek into the subject’s life. And a good biography will not just narrate the events of a subject’s life chronologically but will present the most significant events with sufficient background and detail to convey a message that is a learning for a reader to conduct his life. It is like reading a real live fable. Only the moral is a lot more complex and multi faceted than say “slow and steady wins the race”.

Whose life merits a biography? I guess no right answer there. Everyone’s life is interesting, noble laureate or not. But there are some who are capable on inspiring the readers with the tale of their lives like no self-help book ever can. Some are great exposes of political and other machinations which a layman will never otherwise learn. And these books more often than not end up being banned. Some are funny. And some are poignant and serve to sensitize the readers to things that they would be very indifferent to. A Beautiful Mind falls in multiple categories depending on your perspective. John Nash, by no means, is an inspiring character really. But his wife Alicia is. And the life of a schizophrenic person is something that people who have not encountered it will never understand. And making movies stereotyping schizophrenia forms a very harmful image of the disorder in the society. It’s a topic which needs to be tackled sensitivity. Something that the book conveys extremely well. And the rallying of Nash’s colleagues around him in his time of despair that just gives me so much hope that the world isn’t as bad a place as I sometimes think it is.

The story of John Nash’s life plays out like a novel. I will not comment about the research since I am not qualified enough for that, but as a lay reader, the entertainment quotient, for the want of a better phrase, of the book was like a fiction drama. No wonder it made for such a great movie adaptation. Nash’s history, his blossoming as a mathematician, decline during his disorder, and finally his recovery has been depicted beautifully. His relationships with his family, colleagues, students and how they impacted his life in both good ways and bad is borne out clearly. Nash is not played out as the hero. He only is the central character is the book. The author tells all about his life without trying to bring John Nash out as the good guy all the time. His flaws are plentiful, and there is no mincing of words while bringing them out. Most importantly, his paranoid schizophrenia is not over dramatized for the sake of gripping the reader. It is tackled with sensitivity and treated as an affliction that John Nash and the people in his life together battled out, not always agreeing about the course of action, but with a single aim nonetheless.

I will highly recommend this book for people who like biographies. If you don’t, maybe the movie will suffice, but be warned that the movie captures one-tenth of what the book has to offer. And if you think John Nash was just another scientist or just another schizophrenic patient, you are gravely mistaken. The fact that he is both together, and the fact that the scientist Nash won against the schizophrenic Nash, is what sets his life apart. If we can help anyone achieve that, you would have done your bit for humanity.