Book Review: Alphabet Soup for Lovers - Anita Nair

Not everyone loves a chilly morning in a wet countryside with laziness clinging to your side. You don't want to shake it off as the warm comforter refuses to let go. But then you need something that puts you out of this pleasant misery. A good cup of hot tea can do the trick but a hot soup is my favorite. A hot steaming soup that slowly crawls into your mouth greeting your lips, lighting up your palate, clearing your windpipe and literally waking you up is the one we love. Alphabet Soup for Lovers by Anita Nair one such wake up call for all our settled lives. 

Set in a picturesque backdrop of a tea estate around a majestic house built in British architecture and lots of openness that lets you explore, implore and gives you the space to relax, think, evaluate. For hosts you have the young accomplished lawyer - KK, his wife Lena who finds it interesting to follow her own pursuits in decorating, teaching, taking care of kids at the crèche and finds peace in her routine walks. Everything is wet, warm, damp, cozy and comfortable in its own way. 

In comes the superstar who wants a break from his exciting routine that came to irritate him and finds this place offers him exactly that. At least that is what he was expecting. What happens next is what you need find out in the novella. Set to the theme of food and following what seems to be a trail of alphabetic order, the story presents you chaos in a warm tea cup. Many a time we choose to ignore what is there for us and take things for granted. This story narrated by the elderly, all observing Komathi who is fierce, motherly yet handles her role of the self-appointed caretaker well.

The story is narrated in quick matter of fact way but with the right ingredients of love, passion, beauty and what nature can do to you if you allow it to play with your emotions. Something as morbid as a cemetery can turn into a cauldron of inhibitions and enormous possibilities. The fallen angel in a calm cemetery speaks volumes of the state we are in sometimes. Some dishes are to be relished when hot and can be tacky when they get cold, old and forgotten. The story of Komathi and Rayar is one such tale of a spicy beginning yet calm eternity while Lena chooses to add tadka to her life in her own terms. 

While this can be called another love story, Anita chooses to add spice to an exciting Malabar sojourn in a sweet way. The reader is left guessing for his own interpretations of the story and characters and where they would end up. The flow is smooth and creamy while the protagonists choose to stand out with their own textures adding character to this hot bowl of soup. At the end you are left refreshed but wanting for more. Say hello to possibilities and second chances.

Pick it up today from here.

Book Review: IDRIS - Keeper of the Light

Life is a journey and it becomes a joy when you travel with someone you love. It turns out great when it is an adventure and in the process you discover the joy of being with your loved ones and grow closer. Anita Nair's new book - Idris: Keeper of the Light is a close account of one such journey.

Anita Nair explores one of the most revered yet very rarely celebrated relationships between a father and son. How does the son grow to fill his father's shoes and start taking his own decisions and move ahead in life? When does a father start realizing his kid is no longer a small child and a grown up man
? What is the father has a lot to tell and but very little time?

Idris takes you on a personal travelogue from the cold harsh deserts of Ethiopia to God's own country. When you feel the story is settling and get ready for action, Idris whisks you away on a ship across the turbulent sea to the east coast in search of the glittering stones. Idris, though acts stoic and poised, fights his own demons throughout the story and remains the anchor to the story. His realizes the fire in him melt down to the warm mystery of Kuttimalu and the wall of poise melt down to the innocent and rather stupid briskness of his son Kandavar. Further in his journey Idris is finally comforted when he embraces the challenge of letting his guard down and finds comfort in the reality of life, the futility of chasing for the unknown and the joy of forgetting yourself in Thilottama. He may be a mysterious firefly to Kuttimalu but he will remain as dear Aboo to his Kandavar.

Kandavar is a joy to watch like a young puppy he jumps at things with a jest and fervor that reminds you of your childhood and grows easily under the guidance of his Aboo. His love for animals shows his ability to share, care and win over other people's hearts. He adapts easily to the things around him and takes them in his stride. You find traces of his warrior/kalari blood from his mother boiling and the calm demeanor of his Aboo which can be a deadly combination knowing his life's dream is to fight and avenge something he doesn't know. It is a joy to watch him grow in to a man and in an otherwise serious story Kandavar is like a cold breeze on a summer night.

Kuttimalu, Thilottama, Golla, Sala and other characters remind you of someone you know very closely. I loved seeing animals from cats to oxen being given prominent roles in the story. Maccanto, Musa, Vajra and Aamira come in and lighten the burden of the travel with their innocence.

I can see how much research has gone in to the creation of Idris as you are taken on a picturesque treat with a lot of detailing from the livelihood, culture, language, custom, traditions, way of conducting business, seafaring, astrology, celestial navigation and the art of writing. Even a long-lost story of amputation on a ship recorded during the period is given an important place in the journey.

Will Idris manage to build a character and strength in his son? Will he ever be able to grow in to someone Idris would be proud of? Will he learn the ways of the world? Will he be a survivor or a leader?

Will Idris ever end his journey and find peace? Will his quest for rare diamonds end fruitfully and will he find his crown jewel? You have to read to find out.

What can you expect from Idris: Keeper of the Light?

A wonderful treat to read and discover the joys of the seventeenth century South India and the changing customs, traditions and life.  When it is an unexplored and unfamiliar territory that you want to venture into, when you are about the little nuances of the four hundred year old traditions and when you realize life is an arduous journey you wish you were with Idris: to be safe, alert and engaged and safe.

Only Anita can make you sit down and wait while a traditional dinner with chicken curry, spices and butter is cooked and then lets you dine in peace on a whirlwind tour which is why you must trust me when I say the book is like that delightful savory your grandmother used to make. Can't wait for two more years for the next part to come!

Rating: 4/5.

Art by Bindu.

Book Review: Cut Like Wound

Isn't it textbook for a police officer to solve a case when he is suspended? Isn't it true that children end up doing what you tell them not to do? Isn't it funny that you have all the films of a police officer who is rogue, cares little about the rules, ignores his superiors and has a devoted family or has a problem at home? Isn't it text book to have a villain who is mysterious, powerful and cunning that you cannot find out who he is when he is standing right next to you? Well, take all these regular recipes and try to cook something new or you have an option to create a similar recipe but make it into a pleasing familiar dish that takes you to a nice place.

Anita Nair is a wonderful writer. In fact, hers would be one of my first choices for a weekend with a book, coffee and chips. I love the way she can bring out words and play with emotions easily out of the unknown. Her understanding of the human psyche, especially women psyche, is beautiful. Here in "Cut Like Wound" she comes out with a familiar story without delving in to what she can actually do. "Introducing Borei Gowda" comes as an early warning and sets out the course clear in this story. May be I should have known...

Anita Nair’s Inspector Borei Gowda, “soft in the middle, blurred at the edges” who knocks back shots of Old Monk, lovingly tends to his Bullet, and is blessed with superior deduction skills, that superpower of every hero detective from Poirot to Dalgliesh, is an anomaly in the Bengaluru police force and therefore a perfect protagonist.  Borei Gowda is a middle aged father, husband who fails on both parts, at least on what he feels she should be doing for them and is a old football-you-bought-and-used-for-a week in the police department. Known for his keen ability to excel and propel himself into the strongest and unclear situations and is ruthless Dabang attitude, Borei forms what you look for in a middle aged hero contemplating a divorce while wooing his high school sweetheart who is rich but conveniently divorced.

The plot is simple and tight. First a dead body appears of out no where. And sometime later another. Soon there are bodies every Friday night. All of them seem to be linked but there is no common link. Only Borei seems to have a link established between them and chases the ghosts of his own imagination while fighting with the system , authority, drug dealers, a powerful corporator, and himself. I like the way he personifies his bike and draws immense pleasure from simple situations that usually are the solace of a tired lonely soul. Nair's characterization runs with Borei and captures him in many angles and she has done a wonderful job of keeping the story simply attractive and with in a short span of 38 days. The rest of the story is about how Borei and his team finds out the mysterious murders and brings them to justice.

What Anita has managed to do in the book is to explain the realities of the shady areas in any town and how people are so madly driven by the experiences they have in their childhood and every day. "Cut Like Wound" also tries to look at the changing phenomena of the acceptance of transgenders and the reality. I am thrilled with the way she explains the streets of the city in Shivaji Nagar which can be in your city as well and places where you cannot go or are usually advised to keep out. Cut Like Wound takes you there and beyond while keeping the hair on your neck raised, every moment of the way. There is more to come in the next adventure of Borei...

I have an author-signed-copy thanks to flipkart :)

Rating: 2.5/5

Lessons In Forgetting: A book review

What happens is that if she a woman starts asserting her individuality then the transition (from something else to her own identity) is easy. But someone who subsumes herself into the identity of her husband and allows her other roles to contain her will find it difficult and wouldn't even know how and where to begin.

I know so many women in their mid-30's and sometimes even in their late-20's who start getting this restless feeling and think 'what have I done with myself and where do I begin?' Some of them are even forced to start afresh, alone, like Meera.

I want to be honest with you here. I was knocked out of my slumber when I read Lessons in Forgetting and once I finished reading, I felt I was in the same room as Meera. Never in the recent times have I been touched, amazed, met not imagined as strong a character who remains to be cheerful. I had to re-read certain passages to actually understand if what I felt was true or not.

Anita Nair has a charm for writing and am very impressed with the range of topics she chooses to write about like female infanticide, widow remarriage, empowering women which are a strict no-no for the modernized Indian who loves to stay out of the so called avoidable areas. It takes guts to stand out and write such topics and address them to the audience and yet be commercially successful. It takes a tremendous commitment to come out with such a wonderful rendition to make the characters acceptable in all their blemishes and past and yet be endearing.

Lessons in Forgetting starts with Meera and how her life is set to a timetable, a calender that involves a methodic phase of setting to and how it revolves around the characters in her life her mother, granny, her daughter and son and husband who seem to take her for granted. Now if you think the character of Meera is very similar to a typical housewife whose life is resigned to socialite principles, then you are mistaken. Meera is like the sea - calm, composed and proud but just like the sea, there is a huge chaos of emotions and commotion that is concealed in herself. All hell breaks loose when her husband leaves her for another younger woman and her children start blaming her for it.

At another junction is Jak or J.A. Krishnamoorthy, a professor and expert in cyclones who is in search of some answers about his paralysed daughter who is just a shadow of the cheerful Smriti who met with a near fatal accident. All that JAK knows is that his daughter met with a freak accident in a remote coastal town in Tamil Nadu called Minjikapuram. Police and doctor’s investigations all point fingers at Smriti.A determined JAK decides to trace his daughter’s path on the days that lead to her accident.

Thus starts JAK’s journey to know his daughter which leads him to three of her best friends, friends with their own confused understanding of this girl who outwardly looked confused yet had her own stand on everything. Smriti comes across as an very strong opinionated individual who joins a small theatre group and in all her naivete looks towards changing society and its mores which her friends could never come to terms with. But then, at one point JAK’s search for truth reaches a dead end.

If you are strong enough to realise life isn't as rosy as it looks and can get turbulent in a jiffy just like the sea, then you got to read Lessons In Forgetting. May be you would be able to look at the warnings and predict the cyclone and be better prepared if not prevent it. Or is it all just a myth and you cannot do anything? Lessons in forgetting is not a sad story. It celebrates human spirit and shows how you can be victorious even in life's worst cyclones. All you need is just a cajoling support, few kind words and a determination not to let yourself give up. Life may not always be as colorful as you dreamt of but all you need is just a tinge of white hope to paint on a dark canvas.

Rating: 4/5.