Book Review - The feast of roses by Indu Sundaresan

In The feast of roses, Indu Sundaresan paints a deeply romantic epic on the canvas of early 17^th century moghul era. Her story telling style is just as captivating as her poetic description of every scene. Quite uncharacteristically, I found myself reading the descriptive parts more than once, just to savor her creative portrayal. Indu has stayed true to history for the most part, while weaving an intricate story of empress Mehrunnisa, Jahangir’s twentieth wife. Mehrunnisa defied social doctrines of the moghuls, which held women essentially as objects of pleasure, to become the most powerful woman in moghul history. Indu takes us on this amazing journey through space and time and makes us feel like we are watching the drama unfold, much like Dritirashtra’s charioteer Sanjay was able to watch the war of kurukshetra with his special boon.

Mehrunnisa was the only woman Jahangir married for love, and the only person in the world whom he trusted. This boundless love between them endures through their lifetime, despite an uproarious squabble that Indu describes with flair. When they made up after this fist fight, Jahangir staged a fairy tale-like public show of reconciliation. On the pathway in the central courtyard of the zenana, he arranged for a beautiful carpet of scented pink satin rose petals to be laid. With all nobles watching, Mehrunnisa and Jahangir walked from opposite ends of the pathway towards each other, on this carpet of roses, for a tender, amorous union at the center. This demonstration of love made a lasting impression on every woman present, and left her dreaming of the day their husbands would set such a feast of roses for them. This imagery was symbolic of the undying love between Mehrunnisa and Jahangir and it is from here that the book gets its name.

So smitten was Jahangir with Mehrunnisa, on whom he had bestowed the title Nur Jahan (light of the world), that when she boldly sought more power, he willingly made her a true partner, by sharing with her all the major powers of sovereignty. She struggled against other powerful men around her, who did all in their might to stop her from having a say in running the empire. The story describes how she cleverly maneuvers the empire with her schemes, punishing those who went against her, and rewarding those who showed her allegiance. She used her power to raise the status and income of her family members, while curbing favoritism shown by other nobles.

Though Nur Jahan managed state affairs valiantly, the motive behind her every step was to ensure that her power in the empire remained in tact. She had got her niece Arjumand (Mumtaz Mahal) married to Shah Jahan, Jahangir’s son, to keep the power base within her family. Later, when her own daughter Ladli came of age, Nur Jahan wanted to get her also married to Shah Jahan, to become the future emperor’s wife. Arjumand was able to discern that this was Nur Jahan’s ploy to stay in power even after Shah Jahan became the emperor. She discreetly stood in the way of that union, though Shah Jahan was quite taken with Ladli’s beauty. (It was common for moghul emperors to take multiple wives and Shah Jahan indeed married other women later.)

Nur Jahan battled bravely and held her supreme power for over sixteen years. But, in the end, she lived in exile, with only her daughter and her aide by her side. On her deathbed, Nur Jahan intensely regretted her failure in getting Ladli married to the one person she loved, Shah Jahan. As she introspected her life, she figured that for her to have been successful in her struggle against the bigoted men, she should have consolidated her power with support of the women around her, instead of alienating them by neither consulting nor taking advice from  of them. This sentiment comes through piquantly in her dying statement “I wish I could live my life again.”

After Shah Jahan became emperor, Arjumand did not participate in ruling the empire. She was mostly busy bearing children for Shah Jahan, about one a year, and passed away during the birth of her fourteenth child. Shah Jahan himself was quite power crazy through his adulthood, so much so that before taking the crown, he killed four people, including two of his brothers, who could potentially lay claim to the throne. It is ironic that because Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for Mumtaz Mahal, it is only her that the world remembers among moghul empresses and it is the love story between Shah Jahan and her that much has been written about.

Book Review - The Madras Quartet - By Indira Menon

At the outset, I would like to say that Indira Menon’s knowledge of carnatic music history and her closeness to several stalwarts in the field shines through her entire book, the Madras Quartet. Though I had read a little about the lives of MS amma, MLVasanthakumari, and DKPattammal, I knew little about T.Brinda’s background. I was impressed to learn about the astoundingly rich carnatic music heritage of Brinda from Indira, who was a disciple of Brinda.

I was charmed by the way the author has crafted the book in three major segments like the three segments of a krithi; pallavi, anupallavi, and charanam. In her “pallavi”, Indira talks about the bhakti movement of medieval times, about Tanjavur becoming the seat of Carnatic music and then she moves on to focus on the fundamental contribution to carnatic music made by the eminent trinity, Thyagaraja swami, Muthuswami Dikshithar, and Shyama Shastri in the 17^th century. The author also touches on women’s contribution to the Bhakti movement and how the trinity’s music format helped, even if only to a small extent, in the emergence of women as carnatic musicians.


This segment is followed by anupallavi, the transition phase in the 19^th century, where Indira describes how art and culture were nurtured by devadasis and how the anti nautch movement towards the end of 19^th century decimated the devadasi culture and their sadir dance that they had developed and evolved, under the patronage of royalty and rich businessmen. She comments briefly, without delving on it, on how sadir came to be known by the name bharata natyam in later years and how it gained respectability.

Indira takes us through the lives of floundering, poverty-stricken devadasis, who were forced to channel their energy into music, if only to carve out a living. Some renowned proponents (like Gowri ammal), made ends meet by teaching music and died in abject poverty. In some ways though, carnatic music became an accidental beneficiary of these developments. Indira describes the emergence of some brilliant female musicians, who were marginalized and kept at bay by the social and gender hierarchy of those times. Veena Dhanammal, for example, rose to such great heights that she was acknowledged as an equal by her male peers. This segment also describes how the seat of music moved from Tanjavur to Madras during late 19^th century.

The last and the main segment, like the charanam of a krithi, is the main focus of the book. It expounds on the dramatic, yet graceful entry of daughters and granddaughters of the early women doyens, into mainstream carnatic music. These women daringly challenged their male cohorts, and the prevailing social system that prohibited them from exploring manodharma (creative) aspects of music, like raga aalapanai, kalpana swaram, neraval, pallavi etc., which were considered too cerebral for women! These illustrious women galvanized a social transformation that led to women performing as consummate musicians, on an (almost) equal footing with male musicians. (I say “almost” since prejudices still continued to exist. Famous accompanists, like Lalgudi Jayaraman, continued to balk at playing for women singers, however great they may be.) Technological advances like the microphone, radio and the gramophone were timely in propogating music of these talented women to the masses. The burgeoning nationalistic spirit at that time, Gandhiji’s call for equality of women, and the spirit of pre-independence India, inspired these exceptional women to excel and flourish in their field.   Prominent among these are MS amma, T. Brinda, MLVasanthakumari, and DKPattammal, who reigned the world of carnatic music for over half a century. DK Pattammal, a Brahmin amongst these, overcame social prejudices against women of higher caste singing in public, and set a glowing example for other Brahmin women to follow.

All these exemplary women, while steeped in the rich cultural heritage and traditions, gave a new direction and freshness to Carnatic music, by developing their own banis. These women broke the shackles of the social system that held them back, without protests, by their sheer music genius, and became legends in the field and a force to reckon with. At the end of reading this book, one is left with a sheer feeling of awe, with his/her head bowing with utmost respect to these idols.

The author Indira Menon has done a great service by researching the history of music and the struggle of female musicians, a less charted territory in music literature. The information packed in less than 200 pages opens the eyes of the reader as it provides a wonderful journey into the lives and times of the past.

The only minor criticism I have is in the flow of the content of the book, for Indira’s writing style seemed a little staccato. I was also a bit distracted by occasional irrelevant duplication of facts across chapters, which led me to believe that the editors did not edit the book in one go. (I, myself, did not notice this in my first reading. It is only when I decided to sit down and read the book at a stretch that I noticed it!)

All in all, I am grateful to Indira for her chronicling a piece of musical history for a larger audience, and to my friend Hari for gifting me the book, knowing I will enjoy it. 

Book Review - The unaccustomed earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (spoiler alert!!).

The quote in the beginning of the book by Nathaniel Hawthorne “.. so far as my children’s fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots in unaccustomed earth” gives a peek into the theme of the stories. All the stories talk about (Indian) immigrants who are trying to assimilate into the land that they have struck their roots in. Jhumpa’s writing ilucid and fluid, which makes her books easy to read. Her nuancical analysis of various  characters is laudable. Her writing style makes you get into the stories. However, with every new book, her stories are getting more melancholic leaving you in a cloud of sadness after reading them.​

The first short story, after which the book itself has been named, is the least morose of all. It is about a recently widowed, retired, Indian father living in the US and his interactions with his daughter and her American family. It is about the daughter’s discovery of how her father decides to lead his life in his old age, in the country of his choice. I felt it had a “O.Henry-esque” feel to this story. It certainly makes you want to read the rest of the book. Lahiri made the right choice in making this the first story.

The second story “hell heaven” captures accurately the loneliness of Indian women, who were whisked off in the seventies, to a foreign land that they could not relate to. It portrays their forlorn lives at home, tending to their children and chores. It depicts their yearning for attention and how they get devastated when that attention ceases to exist. This story also highlights prejudices against American wives and exposes how baseless they can be. It is a well narrated poignant story.

The third story “A choice of accommodations” is the least memorable of them all. It is about this couple, an Indian man Amit and his American wife of several years, going to attend the marriage of a girl he knew and respected from his boarding school days. He is constantly watched by his wife for any embers of love that may still remain for she (unreasonably) suspects that they must have had a roaring affair. It is about how in his drunken state, he strands his anxious wife at the wedding, without even proper means of returning to the hotel and how in the end they make up. This was just a reasonably well told story. But, it does not leave a lasting impression.

The fourth story “only goodness” left me wondering about the title. It is a story of this young Indian girl Sudha, which spans the period from her college days until she becomes a young mother. It starts with Sudha’s complicity in getting her younger brother to taste and enjoy alcohol, before he was of drinking age and how she was shocked to see him turn into an alcoholic and wasting his life. He becomes disrespectful of his parents and leaves home in a huff. Many years later, as a reformed man, he comes to visit Sudha in England, where she has been living with her loving husband. All is well and Sudha is pleased to have her brother back in her life and then something happens that brings forth her brother’s history with alcohol, which she had hidden from her husband. The husband is distraught to find the truth and even distressed that Sudha hid the truth from him. This causes a rift in their relationship. Sudha stands caught between the guilt mixed love for her brother and her loving husband. Lahiri has brought out the emotions in all the characters so well that they come to life in front of you. I found this story deeply moving.

The fifth story “Nobody’s business” is about a young attractive Indian girl named Sang, who shares an apartment with two Americans, Paul and Heather. Paul is taken with the girl, but does not show it, especially after finding out that she has an Egyptian boyfriend Farouk. The story is about how Paul finds out from a phone call that Farouk is a philanderer and tries hard to hide this from Sang. At her probing about the phone call, he hints lightly that the caller sounded emotional. Sang misinterprets Paul’s hint as a ruse to separate her from Farouk and Paul is left to prove that he was not making up stories. Sang is heart broken when she discovers for herself the man Farouk really is and leaves the country crushed emotionally. This was an intricate story of upheavals in ordinary people’s lives.

In part II of the book, Lahiri has artistically woven together three stories; the first where Hema and Kaushik are teenagers, the second with Kaushik as the protagonist and the third with Hema as the protagonist. The first one “once in a lifetime” talks about how Kaushik’s parents went back to India after immigrating to the US and then returned after several years. The story focusses on the many days that they lived with Hema’s parents while finding a house to settle down. Hema’s parents are unaware of the real reason that Kaushik’s family returned and are somewhat dismayed by Kaushik’s father’s “undue” devotion to his wife. It is only later that they find out why he allowed her several extravagances. A well-knit story of immigrant experience.

In the second one called “year’s end”, Kaushik is told by his father that he has taken a second wife, who came with two daughters. On a visit home during Christmas, he is repulsed by the presence of his “step” family in the home that his sophisticated mother had decorated with elan. He sees his father’s marriage as merely one of convenience, so he would have people to take care of his worldly needs. Kaushik cannot tolerate his “step” family even imagining themselves as “equals”. This sentiment bursts out when he catches his two young step sisters admiring some of his mother’s photographs that were kept hidden. He yells at the unsuspecting young girls, tells them what position he thinks they have in that household and storms away with his mother’s photographs, leaving the young girls alone at home. He just keeps driving up north, without a plan, wherever his car took him, across north eastern states. He finally digs a hole on a cliff near the Canadian border and buries them in the ground, not to be sullied by any human hand. He realizes later that his father has truly formed a new family, forever shutting the doors on his mother’s spirit.

The last story in this section “going ashore” was the most heart rending one. In this, Lahiri makes Hema meet the nomadic Kaushik in Rome, by a sheer stroke of fate. They fall madly in love with each other, even though Hema is betrothed to another man, one she hardly knew. It is when the reader hopes desperately for a happy union between these two lovers whom destiny brought together, that Lahiri drops the guillotine on any such hope. It is only after she ends the story that the reader realizes that Lahiri had given a lot of hints to let the readers guess what was coming. That illustrated how entranced the reader got with the story, not paying attention to “extraneous” details. But, in my opinion, the end of this story was unnecessarily tragic.

Though Lahiri is highly skilled at story telling, I find that her stories are just that – stories of ordinary people, usually Bengali immigrants to the US, much like her parents. I do not find scope for learning much from her books. Perhaps, non-Indians might learn about India and Indian lives in the US. But, I find stories that allow you secondary learning i.e. tell you on the side about life of moghuls in India Indu Sundaresan), or about the opium war and life on the sea (Amitava Ghosh), more appealing and certainly educational.