January 2008
Alas! Our first-quarter elective is now over! But, you can still discover India, with the huge list of things we would have read were this a year-long course.
Read:
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. This may be one of the top five books I've ever read, and that's saying something. (It also won a Booker Prize, and that's saying something too.) Roy follows the story of caste and political upheaval through the eyes of a set of young twins. The text covers the issues of gender and British influence as it relays the tragic story of one untouchable's life.
The Interpreter of Maladies or The Namesake, both by Jumpha Lahiri. The Interpreter of Maladies is a Pulitzer Prize winner--a brilliant collection of short stories about modern Indians both abroad and in the United States. The topics range from lost love to Partition to a great little piece about Hindus moving into a house laden with Catholic icons. The Namesake is Lahiri's first novel--an excellent glimpse into the conflict many Americans of Indian descent feel today as they struggle both to embrace their family's culture while assimilating into their own. It's also a fricking great rentable movie, but the movie is quite different from the text.
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie. Do not read this yet if you are at all squeamish or have not already become inured to horrible violence. This book is about the creation of an extremist assasin/terrorist, forged out of the trials of the Kashmiri people as they are pulled by Pakistani and Indian agendas. Again, really, don't read this unless you can stomach horror films. Having said that, it's amazing.
Watch:
The Namesake. As I mentioned above, it's only a little like the book, but brilliant in its own right.
Water. This is the movie I want to watch together when we get back, but if you want to see it twice (or don't plan to make it to our gathering), rent it. It's an amazing tale told from the perspective of a child-widow about the transitions during pre-Partition. It starts with an excerpt from the Laws of Manu and hits basically everything we've discussed except for the Indus River Valley.
Gandhi. A classic, of course, starring F. Murray Abraham as Mohandas Gandhi. If you were fascinated by his life's tale, this is an excellent, sweeping account of the man.
Asoka. A phenomenal Bollywood film about the amazing Buddhist ruler. If you've never seen a Bollywood film, be prepared for the movie love-child of soap opera, musical, action, and romance.
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Teachers, check this out:
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