To read or not to read

A passionate lament on Facebook by a friend of mine on the lack of reading habit amongst youngsters left me amused. Amused because the person (my friend) himself is in his mid-twenties, and then whom did he refer to as youngsters? No idea. It also made me think about books, what they have given me & my revulsion towards it nowadays. Though I’m not a well-read person I enjoy reading.My reading is erratic & the books I have left unread outnumber those which I have actually read. Reading has given me joy in fact loads of it .But why did I suddenly start to loathe it.Perhaps it has to do with my irritation with some well-read people with intellectual pretensions. They come in various shapes & sizes but have some common characteristics.

1) Regardless of their socioeconomic status they had access to good books right from their childhood.

2) Their reading pattern somewhat goes like this  Enid Blyton at five ,Dickens at 10 &  the likes of Shakespeare ,Shaw, Marx &Gramsci  as  they grew up.

3) They look down upon people with “impoverished” English &” low” intellectual quality.

4) They consider 90% of Indians as fools.

5) They are lament about the falling quality of Indian writing in English with the advent of the likes of ChetanBhagat, Ravinder Singh &Amish Tripathi

6) They have a “deep “understanding &” opinion” on everything under the sun

7) They don’t miss an opportunity to show off their erudition. Once I asked about Machiavelli to a friend the conversation went like this

Me-“who is Machiavelli?”

My Friend-“which Machiavelli?”

Me-“some thinker I suppose I’m not sure”

Friend-“the Machiavelli who wrote “The Prince”

Me-“I think so “

Friend- "I have read" The Prince" “

.Then she chose to give me a guided tour of her evolution as an intellectual & I was busy cursing myself. Another  instance, I was sitting with a group of friends we were talking about Anna Hazare’s fast  out of the blue someone recited “yedha yedha hi dharmasya” from Gita & everyone except me & another friend joined the chorus.

8) Finally almost all of them are big showoffs & even bigger bores

These people make such a big fool out of themselves that my revulsion towards them spills over to books too. What irks me the most about these self-proclaimed intellectuals is that never show the maturity one expects from a learned person. Reading gives you knowledge not wisdom. Wisdom comes only when you supplement your knowledge with experience. It is always better to take the advice of an experienced man than a well-read man,because the former knows what reality is. If  one had access to books quite early in life & if you are well read it just means one thing .You are blessed  to have got such an opportunity &  hats off to you for utilizing that to the maximum.  If you start believing & act like a wise man simply by reading a whole lot of books you are just a fool with loads of facts in your head. A man showing off his erudition is no different from another one who shows off his latest gadget or swanky new car. This is not to say that reading is a futile activity.On the contrary it has many benefits. Reading gives you information that will come in handy at some time or the other. It gives you a huge vocabulary that will help you to articulate your thoughts well. It helps you to maintain your sanity when life becomes tough. But limiting one to reading gives you severe limitations one has to travel, meet people & experience life to move to the next level. And the best reader is one who reads for the joy of it.And this is my free advice to those “youngsters” about whom my friend lamented, read if you enjoy doing it.If you don’t read you might be missing one of the biggest joys of life but that’s not the end of the world. And if you encounter any intellectual show off, just ignore them.

Encounters-a review

Diplomats & army officers have one thing in common; both will have a treasure –chest containing anecdotes by the time they retire. One of the many perks of the job of a diplomat is that they get a chance to interact with who’s who of the world. While most of them regale their near &dear with their anecdotes, Ambassador T.P.Sreenivasan went one step further & recorded them in a popular column for rediff.com.The book under review is a compilation essays the author wrote for rediff .From one of the most charismatic & longest serving head of a communist state to a god woman from his home state, the book profiles an impressive cast of characters. Many of the anecdotes on the well know personalities are amusing. Once Leonid Brezhnev addressed Indira Gandhi as Mrs. Thatcher on being told that it was Mrs Gandhi  he said “I know that, but my script says it is Mrs Thatcher”.Khrushchev  was struck  by the violence depicted in a kathakali performance of  “dussasana vadham “,he  turned to K.P.S.Menon  in horror & said ‘Mr Ambassador ,you still call yourself a non-violent nation”. Whether it is A.M. Nair renaming his Japanese wife as Janaki Amma or his desperate attempts to find a malayalee bride for his sons or author’s observation in an apparent reference to the king’s weight that everything in Tonga except king is in miniature there are many moments to laugh out aloud. The book also gives rare insights of the personalities profiled whether it is the usually indecisive Narasimha Rao’s firm stand on not allowing Burma’s return to NAM or virtually broken Mani Dixit’s side comment on the atrocious Sanskrit pronunciation of the priest performing his son’s last rites. But the best essays are on Ratu Mara & Sitiveni Rabuka whom the author had the privilege of working closely as India’s High Commissioner to Fiji .In these two essays he gives a glimpse of Fiji’s descend to chaos. Altogether it is a joy ride of anecdotes, insights & vignettes of diplomatic life.

Left Right Left- A review

If you are looking for a careful dissection of the anti-left propaganda of the film under review with surgical precision please stop reading, you may have better things to do. One that has been already done, two yours truly is totally incapable of doing it. In a land where intellectuals outnumber coconuts I can be safely called as an apolitical idiot who knows very little about  my home state’s  politics & even less about  commies .But if you watch movies for the joy of it please continue. Left Right Left tells the tale of three individuals who have very little in common. Roy or Che Guevara Roy (Muraly Gopi) a former firebrand communist leads a quiet life after a brutal attack that leaves him partly paralysed.He stays away from politics & teaches at an orphanage. Inspector P.K.Jayan or vattu(mad)Jayan  his neighbour   lives with his mother (sethulekshmi) ,he is in love with Jenifer (Remya Nambeesan)  a nurse with a slightly mysterious past .Though Jayan is dead serious about marrying Jenny ,she  considers him as a stopgap boyfriend. Trouble starts when Roy’s former comrades in arms Aliyar & Suresh unearth a scam which has the involvement of Kaitheri Sahadevan (Harish Peradi) the all-powerful state secretary of Revolutionary Party .In spite of Roy trying his best to dissuade them, Aliyar & Suresh   publish a report   that points fingers towards Sahadevan .On the very same day Jayan murders Jenny’s husband. How these two incidents change the life of protagonists forms the rest of the story.  The story moves at a brisk pace & is devoid of a dull moment.  .  The opening song sung by Muraly Gopi gives a gist of what the movie tries to convey. However it is in the background score department where Gopi Sundar scores, it complements the power packed performances of the cast .Amongst the performances MuraliGopi & Indrajit play their parts to perfection.Suraj Venjaramoodu & Ahmed siddique provide some comic relief .Another notable performance is that of Sethulekshmi who plays the role of Indrajit’s mother. But the person who leaves the biggest impression is Harish Peradi who plays the twin roles of Kaitheri Chathu & Sahadevan. With his powerful voice & mannerisms he breathes life into these two roles. This is one performance that will stay with you long after film is over. Trivandrum is another silent character in this movie & like his earlier film Arun Kumar Arvind has shown it beautifully. The famed Trivandrum dialect is shown in an authentic manner rather than the usual caricatured portrayal in movies. But for all its plus points the climax is a bit filmy. This is not a movie that you will remember after years but it is worth every penny & your time.