Books by Indian(Mallu) Authors

I had picked up a tag from Asha. It's time to put the post. The post is supposed to be about books by Indian authors. In my case, when I list out the favorite ones, they end up being all by Malayali authors. It doesn't matter anyway.

1. Driksaaskhikal (Eye Witnesses): By Unnikrishnan Thiruvazhiyodu. The factual fiction is a story which starts on the day Indira Gandhi was murdered. He describes well how things started going wrong after her death – about the riot. I want to read it again. He even mentions about the initial inability of the "Chief of Crisis Management Department" at this crisis… in a nice way.. (a small incident in the novel).
   
2. Randaamoozham (Second Chance): The celebrated novel by MT. The novel which changed the way I (and many millions in Kerala) interpreted Mahabharata and especially Bhimasena. Wonderfully written… Can't explain more.
   
3. Oru Sankeerthanam Pole (Like a Symphony – actually I can't say what a Sankeerthanam is… so I say symphony): One of the best novels ever. I was doing my Pre-Degree Course. One afternoon I saw the book with Sujith, I borrowed it. I started reading while I was in the bus to home. I didn't stop reading until I finished the book. It had this wonderful flow.
   
4. Yanthram (The Machine): The IAS case diary kind of stuff – written by a late IAS officer – Malayattoor Ramakrishnan. I wouldn't say that it is that great or anything. But it still stays in mind.
   
5. The God of small things: Read the English version itself. The author is Indian, happens to be Malayali too – Arundhathi. This was really a wonderful novel. More than the novel/plot/theme, what I liked was the way she explained things, the description, and the imagery – simply too good.
   

I'd say that this list would do for the time being. Except the first and the last, I've read all of them more than once.

All regular reader of mine are encouraged to leave a note and take the tag! ;)

Signing off, Sands.

Notice

For some time in future, this blog might not have very frequent posts. I am not saying that I'll stop altogether. The frequency might go down a little bit. Then I shall be back with full power.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: In case I feel like blogging, I might as well post more than one entry on a single day itself. But chances are less.

Am I being Human?

It must be certainly a human tendency to feel that what others do are so simple and silly... what I do is the most important and difficult thing.

May be it is what makes me feel that German is the most difficult one of all the languages. The only relief is that every other student of my German class too agree with this (WOW, they too human!).

There are situations when you feel that you are almost done, and then you figure out that there is a whole lot of stuff more to be done. Something like you are cleaning your room and are happy that cleaning is almost at an end.

Alas, then you open the almirah and realize - there is just another universe of chaos inside it - yet to begin with. This is what I feel, just in a large scale.

I was happy when I could understand quite a bit of the news which I found in the newspaper. I was excited when I understood the whole of the notice pasted in the hostel. I was beginning to think that it is time I am more or less finishing with the German course.

Unfortunately, the good feeling did not last long. Daniela started with the a new topic yesterday. And as usual, the topic is completely logic-less and full of exceptional cases to be learnt by-heart! Of course, pretty important too, if you don't want to look like a fool while speaking in public.

Then I knew, the end of my course is still very far. I have quite a long way to go before I reach there.

Well, I am concentrating more in reading/writing. Converstions will automatically follow. Time to update my German blog.

That's all then.

Signing off, Sands.

~

National Language and Malayalam

A quick post... but might be long!

Karthik was here during the weekend. It was great. I am again filled with lot of energy. Real positive energy. As he says, it's true that the chances to pick negative energy is very large here in Europe. I guess that I have been taking up lot of negative energy lately. Anyway it was always unnoticed. Now since I am aware of it, it wont happen anymore.

A lot of my questions were answered. Or I realized that some questions are not to be asked ;). More about that later.

Now to the topic. As a matter of fact, Hindi is NOT the national language of India - as every (north)Indian says. [hey, no grudge against anyone here... just wanted to write the fact]. Hindi is the official language of the central/union government. It is one of the national languages of India - just like Tamil/Malayalam/Kashmiri/Punjabi etc.

Have a look at THIS_PAGE of a government website. Specifically read the 1959 and 1963 developments in the event list.

And incidentally, Tamil is declared as the classical language (See 2004) - actually it deserves the honor.

A little about Malayalam too - I used to profess that Malayalam is a very easy language to learn(ONLY from grammar point of view) - because of the lack of gender-cases and also because of the absence of conjugation depending on gender/respect etc. (There is actually conjugation based on respect, but not that important)

But, I am changing my opinion here. Malayalam could turn out to be the horror of horrors to a language student - just by the way we connect words together - two things called Samaasam and Sandhi - could turn out to be the most complicated stuff ever to learn.

Readers who can read Malayalam might want to have a look at THIS_LINK. The author explains a lot of Malayalam grammar - with the support of Sanskrit scriptures and the history of words too. A treasure among Malayalam websites.

Thanks for reading till here.

Signing off, Sands.

~