Such a long journey
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey ...
T.S. Eliot, 'Journey of the Magi'
Inspired by Prof. Ravin Balakrishnan, I decided to read "Such a long journey" by Rohinton Mistry -- a book painted scenes so vividly with words.
Just like its name, it was quite a journey to read it. It took over one year to flip through its 413 pages, and through which the papers light browned and the edges curved. The story slowly evolved around Gustad Noble -- a mid-aged Indian bank clerk in Bombay. His laughters, and mostly his sorrows and struggles together with his wife, sons, daughter, and friends in the tidewater of internal corruption and external threats in an enormous developing nation.
The language is beautiful, attractive even to a person who normally treat English books as sleeping aids. Here comes the rain:
"Rain had started in the early morning: great sheets of water pouring out of dark skies ... The rain crashed deafeningly on the bus shelter's corrugated metal roof. The air was heavy and disagreeable. Traffic lay like a soporous monster on the shiny wet surface of the road, throbbing and spewing out its effluvium, rousing itself now and again to move a little, sluggishly. The petrol and diesel fumes were strong and noisome; they seemed to have disolved in the very moisture; and the moisture blanketed everything".
It took a year to read a book, and a lifetime to learn the language.
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey ...
T.S. Eliot, 'Journey of the Magi'
Inspired by Prof. Ravin Balakrishnan, I decided to read "Such a long journey" by Rohinton Mistry -- a book painted scenes so vividly with words.
Just like its name, it was quite a journey to read it. It took over one year to flip through its 413 pages, and through which the papers light browned and the edges curved. The story slowly evolved around Gustad Noble -- a mid-aged Indian bank clerk in Bombay. His laughters, and mostly his sorrows and struggles together with his wife, sons, daughter, and friends in the tidewater of internal corruption and external threats in an enormous developing nation.
The language is beautiful, attractive even to a person who normally treat English books as sleeping aids. Here comes the rain:
"Rain had started in the early morning: great sheets of water pouring out of dark skies ... The rain crashed deafeningly on the bus shelter's corrugated metal roof. The air was heavy and disagreeable. Traffic lay like a soporous monster on the shiny wet surface of the road, throbbing and spewing out its effluvium, rousing itself now and again to move a little, sluggishly. The petrol and diesel fumes were strong and noisome; they seemed to have disolved in the very moisture; and the moisture blanketed everything".
It took a year to read a book, and a lifetime to learn the language.
posted by Shen @ 2:05 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:46 PM,
S said…
well, I think "such a long journey" is a gripping book. I realised that I am gradually turning to be Mistry's fan after my experience with "A fine balance", "ferozshah bagh..." and this. Mistry has a typical style of narration... in which he can elicit some amount of humor in the reader at any given situation. Perhaps that is what makes his books interesting reads....
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