A FRIEND AND ME
Steve and me in London
Steve contact me. Two photos of us in London that Don took. I would like to send you copies.
In London, near Dali Gallery
Steve and me in London
Steve contact me. Two photos of us in London that Don took. I would like to send you copies.
In London, near Dali Gallery
William Carlos Williams – a poet of great distinction.
The Hurricane here topical and succinct
The Hurricane
by William Carlos Williams
The tree lay down
on the garage roof
and stretched, You
have your heaven,
it said, go to it.
William Carlos Williams, (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was a family doctor and had a successful literary career as a poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer and an essayist. I most appreciate his economy of words, and the clarity and freshness of his work. He is a modernist and his works portray imagism, subtle and strong.
KUNAL BASU
AUTHOR POET
Kunal Basu is the Indian author of The Opium Clerk (2001), The Miniaturist (2003), Racists (2006) and The Yellow Emperor’s Cure (2011). The title story of his short story collection ‘The Japanese Wife’ (2008) has been made into a film by Aparna Sen, the Indian filmmaker of great repute.
TAKING QUESTIONS
Born in Kolkatato, he grew up in Bengal. He was brought up in a family steeped in writing, publishing and acting, a literary family that enjoyed books and the arts. He now lives in England and teaches at Oxford University.
KUNAL BASU
ENJOYING HIS FANS
His writing has taken him into a vast variety of subjects and deep research, from the study of opium to the Mogul miniature artists, from Africa to China and from a small village in Bengal to Tokyo. All his works are rich and deeply engrossing.
DOUGLAS KERR
AUTHOR WRITER
Recently at the HK International Literary Festival (5th to 14th October 2012) Kunal Basu gave several readings to eager crowds of Hong Kong writers and readers and was in conversation with Douglas Kerr, Director HK International Literary Festival Ltd.
The 12th Hong Kong International Literary Festival
Jeet Thayil
The 12th Hong Kong Literary Festival
6th October 2012
In conversation with Jeet Thayil, novelist, poet and musician
Jeet Thayil and Hugh Chiverton, RTHK Radio 3
Image 2821 Inconversation
Jeet Thayil and Hugh Chiverton
Jeet , born in India, educated in Hong Kong, Mumbai and New York, and talked about Bombay and Mumbai, the changed city, his experiences and writing of his first novel Narcopolis, short listed for the 2012 Booker prize.
The Crowd
Book Signing
Vicki and Nirmala
Another Nirmala, Nirmala Thomas
“Shuklaji Street in the bowels of Foras Road, Bombay’s squalid red-light district of reeking brothels and drug-dens, provides the setting for Narcopolis, Jeet Thayil’s debut novel.” Read on:
Vernon Ram’s review at The Asian Review of Books
http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1291#!
See my review:
Opening Ceremony
An energetic cocktail of champagne and books
The festival from 5th October to the 14th October started with the opening party at the British Consulate Reception Hall on the evening of Thursday the 4th October. Hong Kong writers and readers, cosmopolitan and vibrant, welcomed writers from overseas.
Opening
Christine Van, co-chair
Packed Hall
JEET THAYIL
“Narcopolis” shortlisted for Booker Prize 2012
Lindiwe Mabuza
Poet and short story writer
Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza has worked as a teacher, radio journalist and editor and was involved in abolishing Apartheid in S. Africa.
Tembi Tambo
Consulate General SA
Rapt Capture
Reflection
At hand was Dymocks with complete array of books from visiting authors.
Become a Friend of the Festival www.festival.org.hk
Today a Panda died
DAWN
Today a Panda died
We cried
We slaughter weeping Cow
We call it beef know not how
Today a Panda died
We cried
We kill bleating Lamb and Sheep
We call it mutton, and do not weep
Today a Panda died
We cried
We murder Pigs tearfully squealing
We call it pork we have no feeling
Today a Panda died
We cried
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Review
Narcopolis joins the array of novels bold, revealing the life below the surface of the beautiful thriving old city, Bombay. It deals with drugs and addiction, sex and love, violence and perversion, god and death. Not the type of raw book I would chose to read ten years ago. I have grown up.
A varied cast populates the unfurling opium smoke – a murderer, businessmen, pimps, prostitutes, thugs, poets, painters, all drowning in degradation, lust and crime. We are drawn into a languorous world of shocking low life in and around Rashid’s opium house on Shuklaji Street sometime in the 1970s, place of alleyways, and villages and old buidlings. We meet Dimple, the eunuch who prepares the pipes for the regular clients, the preparation an art like a sacred tea ceremony. He shows up as a beautiful lady who enjoys reading, goes to the cinema to watch lengthy Bollywood movies and listens to stories Mr Lee relates. Mr Lee, a Chinese refugee, a former soldier who fled communist China brings us a glimpse of the Mao era. Gritty Rashid, owner of the den, protects his family, especially his young son, from exposure to low life of drugs and alcohol and prostitution.
The drifting characters give the novel a historical perspective as it moves in a haze with the arrival of hippies and an international groups seeking cheap solace. Indian politics and religious uprisings and violence are touched upon.
The tale moves to the present. After an absence the narrator returns to find a very different Bombay (Mumbai) in 2004. He comes seeking his friend Rashid, and others he knew. The old place has disappeared giving way to proper roads and tall steel and glass buildings. He manages to contact his friend now old and sad and disillusioned and under the control of his educated son. His son a fervent Muslim with flexible morals sells cocaine to the infidels, associates with women, and enjoys porn magazines. If necessary he might consider becoming a suicide bomber.
Narcopolis read on the Kindle
I found the novel stark, tragic and beautiful except when the focus shifted to China and Mao. I found this section trailing into distraction.
Author Jeet Thayil
The author, Jeet Thayil, a poet, had at one time succumbed to addiction.
Man Booker prize short list
Jeet Thayil Narcoplis
Hilary Mantel Bringing Up the Bodies
Tan Twan Eng (one of my favourite writers) The Garden of Evening Mists
Deborah Levy Swimming Home
Will Self Umbrella
Alison Moore The Lighthouse
MOVING ON
Flash Fiction by Laura Besley
His scent carries on the warm evening air, floating towards me like a petal in the spring breeze. I haven’t seen him in twenty years, but it is definitely him.
Earlier this evening, getting dressed in my cramped bathroom, I couldn’t decide which side of smart/casual to fall on for this twentieth College reunion. I hadn’t been to the tenth as my second daughter, Jessica, had just been born. At the time it hadn’t seemed important either. Now, Dave gone, reconnecting had become important. I decided on a loose, floor-length, lavender-coloured dress, which accentuated my strong shoulders and toned arms. I slipped on a long beaded necklace.
The school gym – how clichéd – is decorated with long, stretching banners and glossy silver balloons. I realise, suddenly, that the college hosts this party every year, but for different graduates.
I pick up my name badge from the table just inside the door. It’s not like people won’t recognise me, I’m still too short, too freckly, with long wavy hair. I tried wearing it shorter and styling it every morning, but soon gave up on the impracticality.
“Janet!” a woman with a perfect bob calls out. “It’s Dana.”
“Of course,” I enthuse, falsely, “how are you?”
“Great! What’ve you been up to?”
“You know, the usual,” I take a sip of the lukewarm white wine. “Marriage, kids, divorce.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She isn’t. She tips the glass of juice allowing the light to catch the cluster of diamonds in their various settings on her left ring finger. Why did I talk myself into this? I drain my wine and say I need another. That’s an understatement.
And then he is here, in the building, in the room. My hand is shaking and I put the bottle down with a clunk. I turn and face him. Eerily unchanged. Smiling. God, we used to laugh so much together. He makes a beeline for me and I put my drink down, anticipating correctly that he’ll give me a hug. That smell.
“Janet! Look at you – you look great!”
“No, I don’t,” I slap his arm playfully, “but thanks for saying it. You look just the same.” I don’t know what to do with my hands, so I play with my beads.
“So do you.” The sudden silence hangs suspended in the air. The reasons we broke up, the pain, the years moving on.
“Is,” I look at my silver sandals, “is your wife here?” And just for a moment I pretend it will all work out. I’ll get my happily ever after.
“No, she’s at home with the boys. They’re ten and eight.”
“I’ve got two girls, twelve and ten.”
“You’re separated now?” he asks, knowing the answer already.
“Divorced.”
“Jon!” Someone whose face I don’t see claps his hands on Jon’s shoulder, and as Jon turns round to greet him, I quietly slip away.
Laura Besley
Laura Besley is writer of fiction and non-fiction. She is currently writing a daily flash fiction. Posts ‘the best of the week’ appears every Friday as well as musings on life and living in Hong Kong at:
www.laurabesley.blogspot.com
Write What You Don’t Know
The last eleven years of learning to write and writing while learning I have been told over and over again ‘WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW’.
Today I made a momentous discovery.
Toni Morrison says: ‘WRITE TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW’.
Now that is a new concept. She goes on to say stimulate the imagination. Explore unusual characters who become involved in unusual events.
You might call me a Toni Morrison fan. Have read eleven T.M.books in all and several I have read twice:
The Bluest Eye
Sula
Song of Solomon
Beloved
Paradise
Jazz
Love
A Mercy
Home
… all portray unusual characters in unusual situations except for
Conversations which is a book of interviews, and Remember, the Journey to School Integration, a book of photos that captures the pain and joy of integration between blacks and whites.
She also says don’t base characters on real people. Using real people make writers literary vampires.
CLOUD ATLAS
I became a David Mitchell fan years ago when I met him and since then started a collection of his books. Recently while chatting about books Indra mentioned reading Cloud Atlas and rekindled my interest and I am now reading Cloud Atlas again, on my Kindle.
Books being turned into movies. A short list below.
“Cloud Atlas,” by David Mitchell
Trailer on Youtube
Plot Summary: The book follows six separate stories, going from the far past to a future postapocalyptic world, in which each story is suddenly cut off to follow the next character who somehow connects to the previous one: an unenthusiastic voyageur crossing the Pacific in 1850, a poor composer living in Belgium, a journalist from California, a publisher trying to escape his creditors, a genetically altered “dinery server” on death row, a young Islander watching the death of science and civilization.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Halle Berry have all taken roles in this movie.
Release date: October 26, 2012.
“On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac
Plot summary: Kerouac’s classic novel captures America and the Beat Generation as he tells the story of his years spent traveling America with friend, Neal Cassady. The two wander through the country searching for self-knowledge and life experience. This classic novel about the yearning for freedom and longing for something more has long defined what it means to be “Beat” and has been an inspiration for many generations since.
Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart.
Release date: 2012, yet to be announced.
“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Plot summary: The novel is set on Long Island during the roaring 1920s. Nick, just returned from the war, rents a house in West Egg where he is invited to the extravagant parties hosted by his guarded and mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Nick eventually learns Gatsby’s story – the tale of a young man who corrupts himself in seeking to attain the American Dream and gain the love of the idealized, and unattainable woman, Daisy.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio is starring as Gatsby, and Carey Mulligan is playing his ex, Daisy.
Release date: December 25, 2012.
“Life of Pi,” by Yann Martel
Plot summary: The novel follows young Pi Patel, a 16-year-old whose family moves from India to North America on board a Japanese cargo ship, along with a number of his father’s zoo animals. When the ship sinks, Pi is left alone in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger.
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, and Tobey Maguire.
Release date: November 21, 2012.
Maeve Binchy the well-known Irish writer has died at 72 (30 July 2012) Most of her works were set in Ireland. A prolific writer of novels and short stories, her work has been translated into 37 languages.
I have not read any of her books though a friend had given me Circle of Friends many years ago. I would like to read Tara Road.
MAEVE BINCHY
Though I have not met the author I saw her at an interview – she had a beautiful personality, was down to earth and quite jolly.
Novels:
Light a Penny Candle (1982)
Echoes (1985)
Firefly Summer (1987)
Silver Wedding (1988)
Circle of Friends (1990)
The Copper Beech (1992)
The Glass Lake (1994)
Evening Class (1996)
Tara Road (1998)
Scarlet Feather (2000)
Quentins (2002)
Nights of Rain and Stars (2004)
Whitethorn Woods (2006)
Heart and Soul (2008)
Minding Frankie (2010)
Pousada de Coloane
Dream
Balcony
On balcony white, muffled
Greening branches hushed,
The lush summer rests.
In absorbent light
Breath
Gives rise to a dream.
Paved Path
Along stone paved paths
Crotons nod yellow red
Spreading creepers invite
As silently mists fold in,
Float
Leave behind the dream
Mist
Go beyond. Sun umbrellas
Blue-fringed flap in air warm
Beach mats on black sand
Shells listening, humming,
Absorbent
A lapping sea froths.
Boats in steady bob
Rustle, nod to waves
Dancing, lifting, easing
Breeze
Flutters here and beyond.
I stop and watch fish smile.
The Roundabout
Taken from the first floor of Boathouse Restaurant, Stanley Main Road, Hong Kong.
On Sundays the road is closed to vehicles.
CREATe
Create leads to creative. Moving empty vegetable-delivery baskets and chill boxes from restaurants to a parked truck. No parking or stopping in many busy streets in Hong Kong.
Silent work behind the monument
Dear Shobha, this is in appreciation of the tremendous hard work that I know went into your thriller. Three hundred and three pages of letters made words, led to ideas that made one novel. A big cast of characters remembered and developed, a story line that did not lose its way. Plucked from imagination ‘The Silent Monument’.
This is a big achievement for any writer and my friend did it. Thank you for an interesting read. More success with your writing…
Happy Birthday, Shobha!
The Silent Monument by Shobha Nihalini
Book Review:
Salmon Fishing in Yemen by Paul Torday
Belief in the impossible and the impossible accomplished.
An interesting concept introducing Salmon Fishing from the misty cold wet highland rivers of Scotland to the hot dry treeless desert wadi that sees water sometimes. This is the vision of the Yemeni Sheikh His Excellency Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama and the task presented to the British Dr. Alfred Jones, working for the civil service at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence.
The unbelieving scientist Alfred Jones who thinks this an impossible task is reluctantly converted over a time and after meeting the spiritual Sheikh who believes and is focused. In the end Sheikh’s dream becomes the scientist’s dream and together they make it a reality.
Humorously related the story takes on an unusual structure, presented as part emails, part letters and part diary entries, giving voices to the many characters. These take the form of conversations – between the Alfred Jones and his ambitions career-wife who thinks the salmon project is a harebrained idea and her husband a ‘no hoper’; insights in the dealing between the scientist and Anita Brookner who is a high powered agent for the Sheikh; and what goes on between various other characters in the civil service. The many voices and points of view can be confusing at times and sometimes there is more telling, and less showing.
Most interesting and hilarious part for me was the true hipocrisy of the civil service, how governments work. Officials with an eye on foreign policy take credit for ‘all’ when all goes well and wash their hands off the project when things do not.
There are breath-taking descriptions of salmon and water, interesting fishing scenes and without being boring much information on salmon and salmon vocabulary.
I found the end of the story a little disappointing and also found the Sheikh’agen a little weak in the end. But in spite of my view of the end Salmon Fishing in Yemen novel is a great read. Humorous, insightful, and full of interesting facts woven in seamlessly.
Salmon Fishing in Yemen confirms the idea if one believes in something wholeheartedly, however difficult the project, however impossible the project seems, it can succeed. And that is my belief too.
PS: The movie is about to come to the Hong Kong circuit.
“In 1933, thirty-one year old author John Steinbeck newly famous and living near Monterrey, California, with its unmatched views of the Pacific Ocean, began to notice the strange appearance of rundown vehicles from Oklahoma. By 1938, he was watching destitute fathers cooking rats, dogs and cats as food for their children while working on what would become The Grapes of Wrath. Though it became a best-seller, and was almost immediately recognized as an American classic, it was also reviled, accused of being “a lie, a black infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind” by Oklahoma’s Congressman Lyle Boren, and banned by school boards in New York, Illinois, California, and elsewhere”
Jay Parini
Steinbeck titles read twice each:
Grapes of Wrath is set in the Great Depression of the 1930’s is the story of a family of sharecroppers who had to leave their land now a ‘dust bowl’ seek to live elsewhere and still suffer extreme hardship. Winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction (novels)
Of Mice and Men – This tragic play written in 1937 is about George and Lennie, two traveling ranch workers and their desire to save enough money to buy their own farm. A story also set in the times of The Great Depression it portrays much hardship and the struggle against racism and prejudice, and against the mentally ill.
East of Eden – In this novel set in the Salinas Valley Steinbeck deals with the nature of good and evil. The story the Hamiltons and the Trasks is partly based in his own family background, published in 1952.
Waiting to read: Steinbeck’s
Travels with Charley and In Dubious Battle
Kasha and Esina my grand daughters and Shanta, my daughter.
Kashna, Sacred Dancer – amateur photographer and anime fan.
Esina, Wisdom Embracing Moon – amateur scientist and excels in French.
Shanta Ranee, Queen of Peace – artist, photographer, studying for an MA in ‘Curatorial Practice’ at Bath Spa University.
photo by Mark Bosley
Spell Check Gods
The Spell Check Gods are not taking kindly to Insult Throwing Republicans in America:
Rick Santorum sent out emails to reporters: Santorum’s “Publc” Schedule
Jon Huntsman issued press passes: with his name as “John” (misspelt)
And now our very own Romney App: A Better “Amercia”
Boys, boys! Is it too much Partying? What did they put in your Tea?
With a clown stepping in with support Mr Mitt Romney does not care how he gets there: “Just get me there, give me that 50.1%”
What next for the Presidency to be! The world is waiting with abated laughter.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Movie
The answer by one of the characters to the question – ‘What do you see in this country?’ sums up the movie:
‘Light, colours, smiles, all life is here!’ And I will add to it loads of laughter. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is funny, witty, full of dry humour and is inspiring
Seven British actors Judy Dench, Maggie, Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Tom Wilkinson, and Ronald Pickup, all with much film, theatre, and television experience, team up with the young Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) mesh well to give a brilliant performance.
Outsourcing at its best. All seven, retired and retiring men and women, who for various reasons can’t afford or don’t want to go into ‘homes’ and who have never been to India (except for one) make up their minds with great leap of faith to retire affordably at the this palace hotel in Udaipur, in Rajasthan, India. Besides the culture shock that awaits them the best exotic Marigold Hotel is a run down, dirty, dusty establishment that the young Sonny is trying to put together. Nothing like the much ‘photo-shopped’ brochures and TV ads portray. These seven are Sonny’s first paying guests.
What follows is a hilariously funny story.
Evelyn (Judy Dench) is stable and is open to new experiences. Financially depleted she even manages to get a job to work with young people at a telephone outsourcing company when she get to India.
Muriel (Maggie Smith) is very ‘English’ and is in India for a quick and cheap hip replacement. She has brought her own biscuits and pickle: If I can’t pronounce it I don’t really eat it’. On her arrival at the hotel, she turns around and says, ‘There’s an Indian there.’ She makes a brilliant racist.
Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) whose marriage is falling apart can ill afford anything back home having given their savings to their daughter for a business venture. Douglas goes with the flow and Jean absolutely hates her life and India.
Graham (Tom Wilkinson) a dignified gay gentleman, a retired high court judge, the only one who knew India,a very different India, as a young man. He ventures out to look for his lost love and finds a beautiful and touching end.
Madge (Celia Imrie) is on the look-out for a rich Maharaja, and I do believe she succeeds in finding one.
Norman (Ronald Pickup), an outrageous rake, is desperate for that last sex fling with help of Viagra and a paperback copy of Kama Sutra. He succeeds without Viagra.
The totally optimistic, energetic and hardworking Sonny is the young manager who has great vision for his hotel for senior citizens. He is also in love with the beautiful Sunaina (Tena Desae). His mother tries to put a stop to his ambitious dream of succeeding with his plans for the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as a place ‘where it could be so wonderful that people will refuse to die.’ She also tries to crush his desire to marry the girl he loves.
A brilliant movie directed by John Madden, director of many other brilliant movies and television series.
The well-written script is adapted from the novel ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ by Deborah Moggach.
And the gist of it all: Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, then it’s not (yet) the end.
I will be posting stories from my Floating Petals collection.
The inspiration for “A Piece of Bread,” my very first story and the first story in the collection, came from the fact I liked the smell of pencil wood resin and sharpening pencils long before I started school. I still love sharpening pencils.
A Piece of Bread
Now I am tall.
I lean over the sink as I suck on a large yellow mango stone. There are bits of mango flesh around my mouth and on my cheeks. Mango juice runs in rivulets down my chin and drips into the sink. Ugh! Now it runs down my arm and drips off my elbow.
I pause, I remember.
Click to read the rest of this story.
If you’d like to read all 14 short stories in Floating Petals, you can order the paperback at Nanadon Publishing, or download the eBook at Amazon US or Amazon UK.
In Central on a Wet Day
It has been several long wet weeks in Hong Kong; much thunder lightning and storms. To enjoy some of the rain Don and I decided on a city walk of exhibitions last Sunday. We took in ‘Transforming Minds’, the great Buddhist Exhibit of sculptures at the Asia Society, and made a trip to Sundaran Tagore Gallery showing Annie Leibovitz photos and visited my friend, Karin, at the Karin Weber Gallery exhibiting Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi works.
Along the Bridge Asia Society
Long and Wet
A still fountain reflecting green and high-rise
Image Buddha above city scape. Sculpture by Zhang Huan
Fountain Hong Kong Park
Roots in City Street
Escalator Pacific Place
Bananas in Graham Street
Famous Causeway Bay Flower Man in Central
Chempak $10, and $20 Gardenia
A May day. Sunday. Thirteenth.
Waking to perfumed oils and
candles smoky snuffed. From a
a starless dream that belonged
to a night not spilling secrets.
A village dawn no sky, no sun
just storm. Lightning flashing blue
thunder crashing. Blossoms blown.
Seeds sent to other gardens.
Magenta Rain
From above morning sun stolen.
Patio magenta, bougainvillea strewn
Delighting wet film of grey.
Frogs greeting from tunnels hidden.
Rhythmic. Answering calls come
echoing from friendly frogs.
The Fear Index
From Dickens of two hundred years ago I jumped straight into a future thriller ‘The Fear Index’ by Robert Harris on Kindle e-reader. I also listened to the unabridged audio book version, narrated by Christian Rodska.
What I admire most about Robert Harris is the extensive research he does for each one of his books, whether set in the past historical Pompeii or in the port city Archangel in Russia or into the computer world.
The Fear Index reminded me Bill Gates’ talk of 1999 ‘Business at Speed of Thought’.
‘As I was considering these issues…a new concept came into my head: The digital nervous system. A digital nervous system consists of the digital process that enable a company to perceive and react to its environment, to sense competitive challenges and customer need and organize timely responses.’
The Fear Index: Dr. Alex Hoffman and Hugo Quarry are partners in an investment company in Geneva – Hoffman Investment Technologies. Alex, the physicist is the brains of the operation. He programs his smart computers to generate huge financial returns for their clients. Hugo Quarry, an Englishman, is the financier who takes care of the business side. The success of the company is due to the vast sums the investors are able to reap due to the company’s digitized programme, VIXAL-4’s calculations of the money market.
The operation moves along well allowing both men the means to enjoy expensive life styles. Alex pursues his hobby acquiring Antiquarian books. Being a paperless advocate he insists on a totally paperless office and so he keeps his antique book collection a secret. Alex’s wife is well provided for and is a high-powered artist who converts body scans into glass sculpture. Hugo follows an expensive decadent life-style with yachts, fast women, and faster cars.
Soon fear on fear mounts. The super computer develops a personality of its own. The artificial intelligence evolves its own algorithm and starts to work for itself. It begins to virtually stalk the creator. It rearranges Alex’s life dangerously. Alex receives the first edition of Charles Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, with the bookmark on the page about fear. It appears he purchased and paid for it. The super computer takes over his life and his business. It begins to work on the financial market. The out-of-control computer disseminates information in nanoseconds and sends out ‘buy and sell’ messages. It creates price shifts that cause volatility and fear in the financial market. Neither Alex nor his team of computer experts is able to control the output of the VIXAL-4’s “brain”. Considerable tension builds up. The rest thrilling and nail-biting, and I am not revealing more.
The plot is riveting. One does not need knowledge of high technology or of hedge funds and stock markets to enjoy this thriller which is part sci-fi and part mystery. Yes, there is murder too. The ending leaves one imagining a sequel.
‘The Fear Index’ had me contemplating on our super technology assisted lives. Artificial intelligence has already taken over the many tasks we did for ourselves and much is now taken for granted. I am thinking about my own electronic future. Will computers move beyond my control?
Stressed Distress
When I first went to Britain I heard the statement buy black, black does not show dirt. I was quite taken aback with this. Having been brought up in the tropics, where we change clothes a few times a day, not only because we sweat but dirt is dirt. Just because dirt is not seen it does not mean the garment worn over a period of time is not dirty.
But recently when I went to Japan more of that dirt situation came into focus. My friend, TJ believed in travelling light. On a ten-day trip my TJ wore the same pair of denim jeans. Ten days in Tokyo and two days of travel there and back, twelve days in all. I was quite appalled.
Then I came to hear the story of denim jeans not being washed for six months. Six months for the lived-in look to create your own body fashion. The lived in jeans gives you ‘whiskers, honeycombs and stacks’… big body fashion statements and your very own too. Your own body distressed denims. Denim fades not only with wash but also with wear. Jeans not washed but worn over a long period of time creates whiskers on the upper thighs, honeycomb behind the knees and stacks around the ankles. For the last you need to buy a size long in the legs. One could try to look even more distressed by creating one’s own raggedy fashion ripped with a pair of scissors.
Weighing The Distress
Jeans fabric originally came from Nimes in France, a serge, Serge de Nimes. It became popular in America in the late 18th Century. Mostly miners and construction workers found it to be sturdy due mainly to the weft supported by more than one warp, which can be seen on the reverse side.
The number of indigo (natural or synthetic) dips gives the fabric the different blue shades, and stretch fabric is created with the introduction of elastic to the fabric.
Denim jeans, distressed or not, is now universal wear.
Dirt Fashion.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Each time I read and reread Dickens I find his writing more interesting, more humorous, and revealing more layers.
In February on Charles Dickens’ 200th anniversary Don and I read ‘Great Expectations’ at the same time on our kindles. It is the second reading for me having read it the first time many years ago. Our reading took us a little longer than most modern books do, but it was much fun. Most nights we compared what we had read during the day and came up with humorous incidents that had us laughing again. We were filled too with much appreciation for this 200-year-old author.
Dickens is satirical of his times, looks deeply and critically into the foibles of his society but 200 years later we find the same foibles in our society. Great Expectations at first seems simple but it is a complex novel of love and cheer, loyalty and betrayal, guilt and innocence, and sympathy, sentimentality, and much wry wit.
The story is full of forebodings and dark too from time to time, but keeps the reader engaged throughout. We get great insight into the lives of the ordinary people and high society, into the lives of the poor and rich. The language is a little archaic but does not slow the reader. Much of the text is beautiful.
Expectations are several. We follow Pip’s character as he grows from a village boy to a young man lost to a man sensible and cultured and with good values.
A very strict and nasty older sister and her husband, Joe, bring up the orphan Pip. Joe, a kind mild mannered blacksmith, is a good influence in Pip’s life. His first expectation is to get a good education. But he is soon contracted by Miss Haversham to serve his apprenticeship with Joe with a view to becoming a blacksmith. Becoming a blacksmith is not part of the Pip’s ambition. His expectation is to be part of high society. The young boy wants to be well educated and move away from the village, move up to high society. Soon a mystery benefactor arranges through a prominent London lawyer to buy him out. Circumstances change immediately and Pip is sent to London on his way to becoming a gentleman. That comes at a cost. He is in Iove with a highly placed young lady in Miss Haversham’s care. And he knows nothing of money management and gets into debt squandering his quota of money from his benefactor in high living. Due to even more higher expectations he’s deeply disappointed when he finds out his benefactor is no nobleman. His fierce anger towards the man who is a criminal, whom he at first found not up to be to his expectations turns into kindness and love. This love for the stranger nearly costs his own life.
Towards the end he realizes that many of his expectations were merely superficial. He sheds his false values and looking for deeper meaning in life finds happiness and love.
Humour in the first chapter: Pip as a young boy is in the churchyard on a foggy evening and walks about looking at inscriptions on the tombstones, one of them is his parents’, both his father and mother buried in the same plot.
‘At the time I stood in the churchyard reading the family tombstones. I had just enough learning to be able to spell them out. My construction even of their simple meaning was not very correct for I read “Wife of the Above” was a complementary reference to my father’s exaltation to a better world.’
And Dickens has such witty and clever way of saying things. When Pip is a young man of means he says of his housekeeper and her niece:
‘They both had weak eyes, which I had long attributed to their chronically looking in at keyholes, and they were always at hand when not wanted, indeed that was their only reliable quality besides larceny.’
Love it.
My Collin’s Classics
Note: About Collins
In 1819, Millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set p a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymnbooks and prayer book. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperColins Publishers as we know it today.
The Snake Temple
Temple of Azure Clous
Penang
The Temple of Azure Cloud built in 1850 perches on a small hill in a lush setting with a magnificent back drop of trees and a tropical sky.
Later the temple was dedicated to the Buddhist monk Tan Chiau-eng (Hokkien name), honorific title of Chor Soo Kong. He was born in southern China on the 6th day of the Chinese Lunar calendar, some time during the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279). He dedicated most of his life as a healer in Penang and was ordained as spiritual leader at the age of 65.
Compasion
In central position at the temple is his statue, built in China and brought to Penang. He is portrayed with a black face, some believe his face turned black on eating poisonous herbs and others that he escaped from demons that tried to burn him. But his black face has now become a symbol of his compassion.
What is unique about this temple is it’s the abode of pit vipers. In his life time the monk gave shelter to snakes and when the temple was dedicated the snakes from the nearby forest and hills moved in.
Pit Viper
Everywhere one looks one sees green and yellow diamond headed pit vipers coiled around images, incense burners, offerings and lamps and furniture.
It is often said the snakes are drugged by the joss stick smoke but whatever the reason there has been no report of anyone having been bitten by any of these venomous snakes in the temple.
Much of the offering consist of fresh chicken eggs food for the snakes
For a time when the temple was being renovated the snakes left the place and came back later, no doubt unhappy about the new concrete and paint.
Spirituality
Chanting of sutras begins at dawn but by late morning the nuns, monks and worshippers are out-numbered by other visitors who flock to the temple more interested in snakes than in worship or spirituality. The interest of tourists has given rise to souvenir and soft drink stalls.
Behind the temple lies a garden of herbs and lush fruit trees and here too snakes abound, coiled in the branches and around garden ornaments.
Garden Snake
To the side separated from the temple, a hall houses other snakes and large pythons. And for a small fee at the snake hall one can have a sad python weighing close to one’s own weight wrapped around shoulders for photo opportunity.
Visitor Information: The Snake Temple is open from 6 am to 7 pm.
From the city George Town one can get to Sungei Kluang which is not far from the Penang Airport in Bayan Lepas. It takes about 25 minutes by taxi. Buses are available from Komtar.
No entrance fee is charged. The temple is run on donations.
Movie Review: THE LADY
‘The Lady’ – the love story of Aung Sang Suu Kyi, directed by Luc Besson is set in political turmoil of Burma (Myanmar). Michelle Yeoh gives a brilliant and elegant performance as Aung Sang Suu Kyi, and David Thewlis as her noble husband.
A touching movie of love and sacrifice and choices made. Aung Sang Suu Kyi has to choose between her loving family – husband and sons in England, and her love for her people in Burma. Two loves, two countries.
Without doubt this is one of the most realistic portrayal of a living heroine by an actor. Michelle Yeoh, has an uncanny resemblance to Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Her acting – her body language,and intense facial expressions bring out compassion and strength, confusion and determination, and longing, timidity and boldness. She is all of these.
Being a linguist Michelle learned the language. Her speeches are beautiful. It was during my visit to Burma many years ago that I had heard Burmese spoken and had forgotten how rounded and soothing the language is. Michelle’s sylph like figure in Burmese attire and flowers in her hair make her a gracious lady. The old home by the lake that we have seen so many times in news reels, the home where Aung Sang Suu Kyi spent her time under house arrest, is perfectly re-created that it is difficult not believe it is the same one. The Burma scenes were shot in Thailand. The portrayal is realistic. During filming some of the Burmese actors were so overcome by emotion, the story and the plight of the Burmese people, that filming had to be suspended for a short time.
The story moves from England to Burma seamlessly. There is no confusion with the shifting back and forth from cold England to humid hot Burma, from mist and snow of Oxford to the monsoon deluges of Rangoon, from contentment and joy of a happy family to devastating sadness of oppression and student uprising.
Luc Besson likes making films of strong women and in ‘The Lady’ he has excelled himself. It was during the filming of the movie that news of the lady’s release from house arrest was announced. The director and crew found it difficult to believe that it had happened at last.
The film script is beautifully written by Rebecca Fran. She and Andy Harris spent time in Burma. They never met the ‘Lady’ but interviewed many who knew her. Andy Harris researched the happy times of Sui Kyi’s life in England with her husband. Much of the English outdoor scenes were shot in front of the house they had lived in.
This is truly an inspiring film. Through her sacrifices, faith in her people and her steadfastness in her beliefs Aung Sang Suu Kyi is on her way to achieving the vision her father had for Burma: Democracy.
All who do not cry in cinemas please take your fathers’ large handkerchiefs.
PS: ‘Wild Orchids’ in Bathing Elephants, my second short story collection, is set in Burma and lightly touches on Myanmar politics, the student uprising and on Aung Sang Suu Kyi. It is a fictional story of two simple young people who fall in love and marry but due to the political situation are separated.
‘Minh Thida slid away silent as a shadow. Fireflies floated in the dark space between the trees through which he disappeared. Bats swept the air. All fell silent. Thura Khin heard no noises, no birds, no small animals rustling in the bushes. She remained still for a long time, uncertain. Had he been there in person or had she hallucinated? As she turned back to go into the hut she felt something drop to the ground, by her feet. She picked up the bunch of wild orchids he’d placed in her hair. She did not go back into the hut but sat on the log by the fire holding a spray of wilting wild orchid. Dreams of a dead man not dead.’
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