HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a coming-of-age story that’s also a tribute to the Indian rock scene, a new English translation of what is perhaps the first political novel of India, and a book that attempts to capture what is happening to the world around us
A hat tip to the legends of Indian rock
Nirvana’s life is a mess -- he is a jilted lover, a bored addict and a disillusioned journalist. Nothing, it seems, can get him out of his funk.Until one afternoon, when he discovers a pile of back issues of India’s premier youth magazine from the 1970s, Junior Standard. An article on a famed rock contest of the time catches his eye. It mentions a band called The Flow and their frontman, Max Bulandi, hailed as India’s answer to Jim Morrison. Nirvana is consumed by the article and when a chance meeting with an old Bombay rocker whets his appetite further, he embarks on a search for the mysterious Max Bulandi and the early pioneers of the Indian rock music scene. As he traces the lost history of The Flowacross Bombay, Calcutta, Shillong and Benares, it opens up to him a world of riffs and beats that transforms his life quite completely.Exhilarating and utterly original, The Extraordinary Life of Max Bulandi is at once a coming-of-age story with a twist and a much-awaited hat-tip to the legends of Indian rock music.*
What comes from noticing
In these pages, author Amitava Kumar shows us that great literature often begins as jottings made in writers’ notebooks. His examples extend from Virginia Woolf and John Berger to Mohandas Gandhi and Shiva Naipaul. In Kumar’s own notebooks, we find written accounts and drawings of travels across continents: among mountains and rivers, walks in parks and journeys on highways, even a visit to a prison. In each instance, we discover what comes from noticing. There are many ways of seeing –-but seeing is, in fact, being.The third book in the series that started with The Blue Book and continued with The Yellow Book, The Green Book gives us a profound insight into the mind of a writer who observes closely and attempts to capture in images and words what is happening to the world around us.*
A new translation of an old classic
In the year 1741, King Marthandavarma would create history by thwarting the expansionist ambitions of the Dutch colonists in the decisive battle of Kolachal. But we meet him here as a young beleaguered prince — one who must defend his right to the throne of Travancore. As he navigates the web of courtly intrigues and personal vendettas spun by his cousin Padmanabhan Thambi and the influential Pillais of the Eight Houses, help comes from all directions — from the crazy Channan, the courageous Subhadra and the loyal Mankoyikkal Kurup. At the same time, having been accused of murdering his friend Ananthapadmanabhan, Marthandavarma must now not only prove his own innocence but also rise to the occasion as a ruler capable of defeating foreign imperialistic forces.
CV Raman Pillai’s Marthandavarma is not only one of the earliest novels in Malayalam but is also perhaps the first political novel of India, unique in its depiction of a history-making people’s movement. Pillai’s deft use of the prevalent idioms of the time, his nuanced characterisation of women and his sharp observations on sociopolitical events set this novel apart as a milestone in the development of Malayalam literature. Preserving the essence of the original, while also making it accessible to readers unfamiliar with Malayalam, this new English translation by GS Iyer opens the doors to Pillai’s work to a global audience.*
* All copy from book flap.