Strings Of Life

While browsing through newspapers & literary websites, I often find crappy books such as, '5 point someone', 'Twilight', 'Harry potter' etc etc.. in the bestsellers list. Which implies that most of the people are reading crappy stuff. And why not?, these books are easy to read, spicy, unrealistic and full of fantasies. What does a reader get out of all this?, nothing.

Why do we read something which does not portray reality?, the kind of world we live in?, the kind of feelings a normal human being goes through?.

25 years later, when our kids may want to know about ‘our times’, what shall we gift them? 5 point someone?, or Harry potter?.
Writers are writing what the public wants, I think this is the very death of literature.

Aaiye Sahab, Aaiye. Welcome to BookTroniks, we are one of the best book stores in Dilli. Myself Mr.Mishra, you can ask for any kind of book.
That's interesting, I interrupted. Do you have a copy of "One hundred years of solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
Arey Sahab, Kya baat kar di aapne? Mere hote hue aapko foreign author ki book padhni pade?
And he immediately handed me a copy of "My Spouse" by Dobha De.
I was scanning through the pages and the chatter box started: Sahab, Dobha Ji kya likhti hain!. You won't get a better book on male-female relationship than this one.
Upon this I asked: But Mishra Ji, I have heard that she had some problem with her first husband and she got divorced?
Arey Sahab, Aap bhi kamaal karte hain? If she is a divorcee, that means she is quite experienced in this field?.
Valid point. But I declined to go for it and asked,
Mishra Ji, can you suggest me a good book?
Mishra Ji to his helper: Arey chotu, go and get a copy of  "Kamasutra" from the top shelf.
Me: Arey nahi nahin Mishra ji, you got me wrong. All I'm asking you is to recommend me a popular book. I mean a book which is much in demand.
Mishra Ji: Arey Sahab, this book is never out of demand and you know we have only three copies left?.
Me: Mishra Ji, try to understand, I'm not yet qualified enough to contribute to the India's population.
Mishra Ji: Kya Sahab? When I was about your age, my third child was in the first standard.

Mishra Ji was about to speak more but a lady entered the book stall and asked for a copy of "The monk who sold his TATA Safari".
She was going through the index page and I interrupted, Excuse me madam, If you like fiction then I think there are much better options than this one. This book is more of a self help kind of stuff.
The lady agreed and asked the shop owner: Mishra Ji, can you suggest me a Good Book?
With the copy of "Kaamasutra" still in hands, Mishra Ji glanced towards me.
And I immediately left the book store.......

» The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Revolving around the New York's mafia gang wars, The Godfather is Mario Puzo's ageless work. The thing I liked about this novel is its capability to grip your mind and stay there forever. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse" is one of the most quoted statement of this amazing novel. If you are new to reading you can start with this novel but beware, you might get addicted.

» The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger

The Catcher in the rye is the protagonist Holden Cualfield's narrative of what he goes through when expelled from school. When you pick this novel you feel like reading it at one go because right from the very first page you feel connected with the author's blunt narrative. Though this book has remained bit controversial, I feel it's a literary masterpiece.

Excerpts from the book:

• I was half in love with her by the time we sat down.  That's the thing about girls.  Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.  Girls.  Jesus Christ.  They can drive you crazy.  They really can.

• I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it.

• I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.  It's awful.  If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera.  It's terrible.

Got late this time, was busy with exams and their aftershocks {marks:)}.
In my previous post I shared about the change I’m experiencing in my reading habit. So thought why not encourage friends into reading!

Let me start with a real incidence. Former U.S president Theodore Roosevelt found persons stealing his row boat. He followed them in other boat and finally caught them at the point of his gun . While returning back he was 60 kms away from his place.
Now you might be wondering about: what makes this incidence worth quoting? Well in the meantime he covered 60 kms, he completed Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Isn’t it great?
Normally a person is not much involved with literature (though he/she might have scored highest in college or school). But read we must. Read for fun, read for entertainment, read things which suite your taste and with passage of time you’ll realize that you read not only because books are men’s best friends but also because it’s food for soul {thoughts}.
Once a great man handed his son a poetry book by T.S.Eliot with a complement: “with a great person in your pocket you’ll never be lone in life”.

I would like to point out a problem which I faced in my initial days of reading as a hobby. Main problem is perplexity about what to read and what not? As per I feel, conventional novels like those of Sidney Sheldon are nothing but a mere time waste & all they give you in the end is 2-3 more words in your vocabulary. So don’t waste time on such craps.-I did and when I came across classics and good novels I thought why didn’t I read them earlier?
Reader’s Digest defines a classic as a book which remained in print for a long time span. So if you think you have your own philosophy, start reading classics & philosophies. To name few:
-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy,
My experiments with truth by Gandhi ji,
Riot by Shashi Tharoor,
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy,
Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky,
Hunch back of Notre dame by Victor Hugo

One more thing I would like to point out is that many people view a novel as a mere story & read it as a story. A novel {good ones only} is much more than a story. Its imagination (universe) bounded between two covers. And if you feel that the novel at hand is a mere story, just drop that.
So if you are not a regular reader, take a start and one day you’ll love yourself for loving books. Just be voracious reader and read what ever {relatively good} comes your way. Just discover the undiscovered horizons.

Books are men’s best friend.-truly said.
Since the time immemorial, I’ve been highly attracted towards literature & to be precise enough books attract me more than anything else. During the initial period of this realm I was not much clear about what to read & what not to. As the time passed I adopted an approach: access all the newspapers & magazines and learn more about books (precisely bestsellers) & fetch the attractive one. Now having read more than two dozens of them, I feel a change in my attitude towards literature.

Now the conventional fictional bestsellers do not attract me (recently tried 2-3 novels but my efforts were in vain). Now I feel an urge to read the everlasting literature (My current experiments are, Anna Karenin by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Crime & punishment by Dostoevsky).Now I feel that a conventional novel- depicting greed, betrayal, murder etc is a time waste. And here we have nothing to appreciate except than that the plot of the novel.
I think that this new change is good & its open handedly welcomed.

Desiderius Erasmus once said: “When I get a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes”.
This thing holds true in my case also. So today I’m sharing views & memoirs about my all time favorite novel- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
In the present era, novels are written as an article for any monthly magazine-It looses its importance in a month or so. But when it comes to everlasting literature, THE FOUNTAINHEAD is the name everyone is aware of. Written more than three decades ago, The Fountainhead was turned down by more than a dozen publishers naming it as too intellectual. But a masterpiece can’t be locked & kept in backyard for a long time, one day it’s bound to accomplish the purpose it is made for. After such a fierce competition in the market Fountainhead managed to survive in the all time bestseller list.
In the words of Ayn Rand:
“This is the motive and purpose of my writing; the projection of an ideal man. The portrayal of a moral ideal, as my ultimate literary goal, as an end in itself—to which any didactic, intellectual or philosophical values contained in a novel is only the means”.
“I write-and read—for the sake of the story….My basic test for any story is: Would I want to meet these characters and observe these events in real life? Is this story an experience worth living through for its own sake? Is the pleasure of contemplating these characters an end in itself?”

“Since my purpose is the presentation of an ideal man, I had to define and present the conditions which make him possible and which his existence requires. Since man’s character is the product of his premises, I had to define and present the kinds of premises & values that create the character of an ideal man and motivate his actions, which means that I had to define and present a rational code of ethics.
But neither politics nor ethics nor philosophy is an end in itself, neither in life nor in literature. Only Man is an end in himself.”

The main idea behind the novel is Ayn Rand’s portrait of an ideal man. -A man’s ego is Fountainhead of all the progressions in world.
Howard Roark an architect student is thrown out of Stanton Institute of Technology because of his nature of experimenting with his architectural work. With a strong heart and egotist mind he starts his struggle in the professional world. He remains unaffected by the moments of penury & frustration because of his even-minded approach towards life. A twist comes when the woman of his love-Dominique Fracon marries his worst enemy-Peter Keating.
Each and every piece of architecture created by him is criticized by the newspaper dailies but people with an eye for architectural master piece(only) appreciate his work.
Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead is a philosophy comparing two kind of people in society, the first kind: Egotist & dedicated towards their work-Howard Roark. Second one: Altruist & could do any thing in order to enjoy pleasures of world, having no moral characteristic-a reprobate-Peter Keating. It shows that a person of uncompromising wit is the final winner in any walk of life, & the path is strewn with thorns and hardships but finally it’s only the way worth living.

Answering the internal quest of a common person, The Fountainhead is truly a master piece created not for once generation but entire mankind. Victor Hugo once said: “If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.”
Philosophical books available today in market are in the form of advices where as the life of the author him self is controversial. Regarding this Ayn Rand quotes: “The essence of the bond between me & my husband is the fact that neither of us has ever wanted or been tempted to settle for anything less than the world presented in The Fountainhead. We never will.”

There are a rare breed of quality books available in the market today and The Fountainhead is a must read for every individual aspiring to be perfect in whatever he or she does.