A Work in Progress

A Suitable Boy: Part 11

Whew.  A few little milestones.  Not only have I finished another section, part 11, but it was one of those slower going parts that was a little bit of a struggle for me to stay on task.  Way back when I was first reading in earnest, lugging such a heavy book around made me want to leave it at home more often than not, so I literally cut the book into more manageable pieces.  I know, I know.  Very destructive behavior.  I am very particular about my books, trust me.  However, in this case it has helped immensely, and it is so much easier to tuck a thin part of the book into my bookbag.  I have also finished reading the third of five 'pieces'.

And just in time, too, as that third chunk was beginning to look a little tattered.  Now that I have moved on to another piece I see that part 12, which I am already into only has about 25 pages left.  Happily I am back with the Mehras and Kapoors.  But first, a little overview of where I have been.

Part 11 focuses mostly on political and religious aspects of the story.  I know these are important events in the story since it encompasses not only the lives of several families but it takes place against the backdrop of post-Partition India, but the action slows a bit for me. 

The drama takes place first in the courtroom.  At stake is the Zamindari Abolition Act.  "If the courts decided for it, it would stand.  If not, it would be as if it never existed."  Zamindars are landowners.  They might control a large area on which peasants live and work the land, and from whom the landowners can collect taxes.  Not a very happy prospect if you happen to be a peasant.  Firoz Khan, good friend of Maan Kapoor (whose brother is married to Lata's sister, and who is having a steamy affair with a courtesan, which if you recall from the last section was the cause for his being sent to the countryside).

It is another drama that had me more engaged in this part.  I  must admit ignorance when it comes to the Hindu religion, but there is an annual (?) pilgrimage that takes place during the New Moon and on a particular day the pilgrims bathe in the Ganga River.  During this Pul Mela there were so many pilgrims, and a bottle neck of people causing a massive stampede resulting in the deaths of many.  It becomes more personal when Maan's sister, Veena becomes separated from her son, Bhaskar.  She is there with a friend and her mother when chaos erupts.  

It is Lata's not so suitable boy who comes to the rescue.  Despite being Muslim, as a student he is called to help in the disaster.  He knows young Bhaskar and spots him in the melee.  It is sheer luck he is able to take him to safety.  The boy, is in shock but not too physically harmed.  So here we have a promising intersection of characters.

My favorite part of the chapter is Lata's mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra's reaction to the knowledge of Lata's suitors (and unfortunate love interest, Kabir) that everyone else except she seems to have.  Why have so many run into the shoe salesman, Haresh, and now Kabir's presence at the Pul Mela, yet she is the very last to know!

Things are starting to come together and I am happy to be back with the Mehra family.  This chunk of book that I am now starting runs from part 12 through part of part 15 and I will soon be passing the page 900 mark.  Onwards.

Midweek Mishmash: Alternate World Ed.

There have been some issues regarding leaving messages here, and I believe it has been going on for some time but has gotten worse of late.  I have gotten a little help from Typepad and it sounds like there is a coding problem occurring behind the scenes in the way I have my comments set up--and how they display on various browsers.  I have turned off the type of commenting which allows me to respond per comment (nesting?), but that should hopefully enable everyone to leave a comment more easily.  If there continue to be problems, please do let me know ([email protected]).  I will just create one comment/response going forward, so you may need to scroll down to find a reply). 

I am contemplating changing my blogging platform.  Aside from needing a fresh look, and wanting to change my URL (Torres went away as my surname a long time ago), I think there must be other places I can blog that will be easier and perhaps more intuitively friendly for what I want to do these days.  If you are a blogger and have any suggestions, I would love to explore the possibilities!

In search of . . .  Yes, I need a grand, good, new reading distraction.  I am becoming increasingly disturbed by the news and what is happening--the total lack of civility and honesty in the way things are going these days.  Living in a pandemic is already challenging, but watching all the shenanigans (ad nauseam) on every channel and news outlet is becoming increasingly toxic, and I can't take anymore in.

Books and movies have long been my release and place to hide away and be part of something better and different (or maybe not better but with a happier outcome).  I am very much enjoying my current stack of books, but I was thinking that maybe a novel in the fantasy genre would be a good outlet for my emotions these days.  I am thinking of an alternate world perhaps, or maybe one not so unlike the one we are living in.  A world ruled by darkness where there seems to be no light, but a hero (or better a heroine) comes along and must fight a battle to overcome the evil that has taken control of the world.  What first came to mind is Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series.  I read Over Sea, Under Stone years ago and bought the second book in the quintet of books but never got around to it.  So I have pulled out Over Sea... and will reread it while I try and track down where I put the second book!

As I am not a regular reader of the fantasy genre, I would appreciate suggestions.  I like the Arthurian tone to the Cooper novels, but it can be anything.  I do have the epic, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, but I think it might be too much to try and read it along with my other books at the moment.  

I've also got some time to think about what to read for the Margaret Atwood Reading Month this coming November.  I have been so out of the loop this year with the virtual reading world that there have been numerous readalongs I am sorry I missed out on, but this is one I can plan for.  Maybe a reread of The Blind Assassin or one of her other earlier novels, or maybe some short stories or essays.  This is the kind of planning and things I want on my mind these days!

Happy news.  I finished another section of A Suitable Boy!  These two sections have been more uphill going and tackling them has been an accomplishment in my reading life (silly as it sounds, but you have to appreciate these small battles, right?).  One section was about a character's banishment to the countryside, and this last section taking place in part in a courtroom.  There were some quite dramatic moments which pulled me in, and I will write about section 11 in the next few days.  However, now I am back with Lata and her mother and sisters and am turning pages quickly and moving right along.  

My other good distraction is movies!  I am looking forward to some new and forthcoming films and series as well as an older movie or two.  I am excited to watch Enola Holmes this weekend.  You can see the trailer here.  I think the film is based on YA books?  But visuals have a lot to offer in this case!  I am hoping to be able to stream Ammonite with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan (another book adaptation?--already pulled my copy of Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures).  We are in a weird place now with theatrical releases as some movie theaters are open, but not all.  And I won't be going to the cinema anytime soon as covid cases are on the rise.  But Nest looks fantastic and it seems to be in theaters only?

I'm excited about PBS's forthcoming Flesh and Blood.  And yay, another season of the Great British Baking Show (how they managed to film with the pandemic is amazing).  Optimistically I hope to be able to watch the film adaptation of A Suitable Boy (when I finish reading!), and I have been quietly (in the background) been reading Junichiro Tanizaki's The Makioka Sisters (so good, but an undertaking, too).  I can't wait to finally watch the 1983 film adaptation.

So, the world outside might be topsy turvy but inside my own little bubble I can just let in the better things.  I hope you are finding inspiration or distraction from your books and movie watching, too.

A Suitable Boy: Part 10

Picking up the threads from a book I lasted visited (ouch, I know!) some two years ago, hasn't been as difficult as I was expecting.  It helps that I had been writing about each section as I went (maybe in my subconscious I knew I would need these notes to keep track of everything going on in this massive story.  Here I am back with a few (as of yet but more to come) characters of Vikram Seths' multilayered novel, A Suitable Boy.  If I am still in semi-quarantine still, why not have a serious project for the long haul?  If I can finish finally it will be a happy accomplishment.

Untangling a few threads now.  I am at page 740 having just finished section 10 of 19 (and 1,474 pages).  This story is about so much more than a young woman who has fallen for a very unsuitable boy and whose mother and family are looking for a much more suitable match.  There are four families involved, so many different plotlines and family dramas--mostly interconnected in some way.  It is, however, set against the backdrop of post-Partition India ca.1951.  There is so much going on politically and socially.  There are two main religious groups and a caste system and all kinds of conflicts both within the disparate ethnic groups and familially.

Lata Mehra is our main character, and I thought she would remain far off stage for a while, but she does make an appearance through the pages of a letter received by Maan.  Nothing we don't already know--Lata had gone to Calcutta and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra to Delhi.  It is Maan who takes stage in this section.  Maan is the younger, rather dissolute, brother of Praan Kapoor, the husband of Lata's sister, Savita.  Yes, I do have a print out of the various family trees (along with notations) to keep them all straight.  Well, just a sideways glance, Lata.  I hope we can get back together soon!

Maan has been sent to the countryside by his love Saeeda Bai, who feels he is too much of a distraction from her music.  Her younger sister's Urdu tutor, Rasheed, has taken Maan under his wing so to speak.  They are an odd pair really.  Maan is trying to learn Urdu to be able to communicate more fully with Saeeda.  Whereas he is of a wealthy and well-connected Hindu family, Rasheed is a moral and progressive Muslim who has had to take responsibility for his brother's wife and child after his brother's death.  Curiously Maan has become quite a fixture in these small communities--villagers and family members coming to unload their problems and worries to him.  Maybe is such an outsider that he is simply an innocuous listener.

Just when Maan finally receives a letter from Saeeda and prepares to return to her--we are literally left hanging at the end of this section, the letter unread as Maan's Urdu reading abilities lacking.  Rasheed has been thrust into disgrace by his political and social overtures.  His father is a landowner (if I have all the threads straight), and Rasheed cannot support a system where those who work the land have no rights to it.  He has made some family decisions and overtures with those workers without family approval and has gotten a thorough dressing down.  Just as Maan hopes to engage Rasheed in some letter-reading-translating, Rasheed stalks off in anger from the family home.  Maan left in ignorance with letter in hand . . .

Drop curtain.  End of Act 10 and onwards to section 11.  Whew.  I did it.  I managed to get past one section that just sat like a boulder in the middle of the road.  I am not sure if section 11 is actually going to be as engaging (or, hopefully not, less so), but I press on now.  Taking a peek ahead I see we are moving from the countryside back to Brahmpur (even though Lata is in Calcutta) and into a courtroom.  So, more political maneuvering!

Way back when I was struggling with toting such a chunky book around (because you know, of course, that I always have ore than one book in hand at a time), so I took a knife to it and literally cut it into five mostly equal size sections.  So much easier to carry about a few hundred pages than more than a 1,000.  I am on the third section and am looking forward to moving on to the fourth physical section.  My treat at the end?  I will try and get my hands on the film (or maybe it will air here on PBS in the Winter?).  Something especially nice to look forward to (and an accomplishment long in the making).

A Suitable Boy Re-Redux (Is this the year?)

Has something you have watched ever inspired you to pick up a book and read further on a subject?  Or you just want to continue on a theme and remain in a particular time or place?  Many years ago, way back in 2016, I picked up the novel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and even then it had not been the first time I attempted to read it.  However, I was determined that 'that' was the moment I would master it.  Fast forward a couple of years and I was still at it, trying to kick start my enthusiasm.  It wasn't that I was not enthusiastic, but I was simply bogged down in a particular spot.  And still it languished.

Fast forward a couple more years and here we are in a strange world indeed.  One where I look for any good distraction on TV to take me out of the current moment.  I have spend the last couple of weekends binge watching a few Netflix series.  One I am nearly finished watching is Indian Matchmaking, which follows several people who have decided to try their romantic luck with a matchmaker.  I am not generally keen on 'reality TV', but this is the sort that I do like.  It is part documentary and part drama.  Will these couples eventually marry (I suspect probably not), but I have been pretty well engrossed in their journey.  This is contemporary matchmaking both here in the US and in India--a world pretty much unknown to me.

The next step, of course, is to notice my copy (actually split into sections!) return to A Suitable Boy, which in its way is also about matchmaking.  Remember Lata and her three potential love interests?  I was reading and writing about each section, but caught on a snag somewhere on page 672!  (Basically mid-read).  It's a shame to leave a book like that unfinished.  Is it strange to pick it up again after so long and just continue where I left off?  Handy were my posts as I read them and made notes and feel pretty good about just diving back in.  

I am on section ten, which finds Maan, the brother of Lata's brother-in-law sent away to the country--to this village called Debaria where his tutor is from--in order to separate him from his unsuitable lover.  Maan is a rather dissolute youth and this section ventures back somewhat into the world of politics.  I think he is going to be drawn into some kind of a hunt, and really all I want is to get back to Lata's story, but I must persist through these 60 pages until the narrations switches again--if not back to Lata, at least back to the city.

I'm not entirely sure I can do this, but it might be the last real attempt.  Part of my desire to finally tackle this is also due to the film adaptation.  I knew way back when that one was coming . . . sometime in the distant future, and here we are.  I saw it on the list of movies that will be showing at the Toronto International Film Festival.  And I watched the trailer and was suitably impressed and really want to finish the book before (whenever it is due to arrive in the US!) watching the adaptation.

Taking a deep breath and diving in.  Please Maan, grab my attention and make me want to keep reading . . .

A Suitable Boy Redux: Lata Waits

Remember Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy?  I've not forgotten this book (which I even cut down into five very manageable sections), but which I hit a snag at about page 672 almost a whole year ago.  Lata and her suitors have been waiting patiently in the wings.  I've been thinking a lot lately about what a mess my reading has become and all the growing pile of languishing books (ASB is the sore thumb of the pile).  I feel I should just allow myself two (okay maybe three) books at once and shift a new (as in something else partially read) into the pile as one gets shifted into the finished pile.  Part nine, where I left off was something of a slog of a chapter and so I set it aside.  If I can just make myself read through it . . .

It's Susan Hill who gave me the (notsogentle) nudge to look at my pieces of ASB.  One of the recent essays I read in her book is all about the books we try to read but can't seem to manage.  How can I read Anna Karenina and War and Peace and Don Quixote (for heaven's sake) but not read A Suitable Boy?  Where has my concentration gone off to?  So the third chunk of the book (half way through even) was tucked into my book bag today.

A Suitable boy: Part 9

I think that Haresh Khanna is most definitely the 'Suitable Boy' that her mother has in mind for Lata.  Lata seems somewhat unenthusiastic about him, but she does not appear completely indifferent to him. 

"Mrs. Rupa Mehra had indeed liked Haresh.  She had liked the fact that he was energetic, that he was independent of his family (though affectionate towards them), and that he clearly took great care with his appearance.  Nowadays, many boys looked so scruffy.  And one crucial point in Haresh's favor was his name.  Being a Khanna he was bound to be a khatri."

Khatri meaning that he comes from the right caste, which she can tell by the name and region from which he hails.  We met Haresh some chapters back, if you recall:

"Haresh was short, well-built without being stocky, fair in complexion, with a squarish rather than oval face.  His eyes were not large, but they had a directness of gaze which she believed was a key to straightforwardness of character.  Silk shirt and agate cuff-links . . ."

But he has this habit of eating paan . . .  The description of Haresh above comes from Lata's sister's inlaws.  In reality, Lata has a different first impression!

"Her first impression of him was that he was shorter than expected.  The next -- when he opened his mouth to speak -- was that he had been chewing paan.  This was far from appealing.  Perhaps, if he had been wearing kurta-pyjamas, a red-stained mouth would have been appropriate -- if not acceptable.  Paan did not go at all well with fawn gabardine and a silk shirt.  In fact paan did not go at all well with her idea of a husband.  His whole mode of dressing struck her as flashy.  And flashiest of all were the co-respondent shoes.  Whom was he trying to impress?"

Of course he does work with a shoe company, in his defense.  And when you are pining away for someone else, how likely is he to impress her anyway.  A mother's dream perhaps, but a young woman's?  There has been match making abounding in this part.  Lata and her mother have traveled to Dehli, ostensibly to visit some old friends, but her mother is on a mission--to look for a prospective husband.  Kabir aside, Lata was spending far too much time with that poet, Amit.

So, let's get this all straight, yes?  First it began in Brahmpur where Lata was at university and meets a very unsuitable, but highly appealing cricket player named Kabir.  Being Muslim, he is not only wholly unsuitable, but the match would not even be considered by her family.  So, exams over, she is whisked away to Calcutta where her elder brother lives with his wife and family, only to become involved with the Chatterjis (the family her brother Arun married into), where she meets Amit.  Apparently poets are not suitable either according to Mrs. Rupa Mehra, and Lata was having far too much fun with those Chatterjis (Arun's wife Meenakshi is having an affair if that helps set the tone).  So, off to Delhi.

Kalpana, the family friend "tried her best to ferret out likely prospects."  Haresh is a friend and former fellow student.  He and Lata actually have one big thing in common as he is in love with an "unsuitable girl"--a sikh girl, but the two have called it all off and know they must find their happiness and spouses elsewhere.  We know what Lata thinks of Haresh.  Here is how Kalpana describes Lata to him:

"She is 5 ft. 5 in. tall, not very fair, but attractive and smart in an Indian sort of way [I wonder what that means!].  She looks forward, I think, to a quiet, sober future.  I have played with her as a child--she is like my own little sister, and has gone so far as to say: 'If Kalpana thinks well o someone I'm pretty sure I will too."

"She is a decent girl (if you are interested) and deserves a steady, honest, sincere type like her late father was."

So, this is where things stand.  Mrs. Mehra is sold.  Lata is pretty indifferent, but I would say not rather than yes--Haresh is not for her.  She thinks any idea of them marrying is ridiculous and that Haresh is not properly westernized for her sensibilities.  In the twenty-four hours or so they know each other Mrs. Mehra is already asking for Lata's decision, but Lata puts her off as much as she can.  I suspect she is happy to be going home, particularly since she had a rather unsettling experience aside from having to meet Haresh.  Kalpana's father came into her room one night, and then made inappropriate comments to her.  Is he elderly and not aware of what he is doing, or just nasty and taking advantage.  In any case as the section comes to a close Lata is feeling sullied and tired and ready to leave.  Mrs. Mehra thinks she has found a solution.  And Haresh is ready to move forward on this potential romance.

I think I am ready to see what Kabir has been up to.  It seems, however, that section ten is going to take us back to Maan (and his massive crush on Saeeda.

I do have some fun news--the BBC is going to film A Suitable Boy--apparently a first as they are using a non-white cast.  It is the same director who made the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice.  The series will be in eight parts, which means it should get into the story pretty deep.  I am not sure when it will air--likely not for a very long time, but truly I am determined to be well finishing reading the book before then!

A Suitable Boy: Part 8

Did you think I had forgotten about Lata and her (rather her mother's!) search for a 'suitable boy'?  I have been reading (slowly) and finished part eight last week.  After a lengthy part seven the next section was a quick breath of fresh air.  Well, mostly.  With each chapter some new thread is picked up and moves the story along from a different vantage point.  There is a large cast of characters really but it curiously does not feel that way.  Or I just am used to the different families.  I keep a copy of the family trees tucked into the book and add notes to it as I go (I might be lost if I ever lose it!).

Part seven was spent in the household of the Chatterjis (Lata's older brother Arun's wife's family), but Lata's mother went off to Delhi and the story pivoted back to Maan Kapoor.  Maan is the younger brother of Pran who is married to Lata's sister Savita.  (Yes, get all that--lots of family connections).  Maan is kind of the dissolute younger brother.  You may (or may not!) recall he got involved with a courtesan, so his family sent him off to cool things off. 

Oh, the things you don't tell your parents!  His family was not happy about the liaison not only because she is an older, 'experienced' woman but she is also Muslim.  It all gets a little tricky when class and religious lines are crossed and keeping in mind this is newly Partitioned India!  Saeeda Bai is actually a performer of Ghazals--she is a singer, who is not against getting a little extra on the side (attention, gifts, if you know what I mean).  She, however, sings and writes in Urdu, and if Maan wants to communicate with her in an epistolary manner--send her love notes, read the poetry she sings, then Urdu must be learned.  His trick is to go with his tutor to learn Urdu.  All well and good though I don't think his family has made the connection that he wants to learn the language not simply for a little educational edification but to schmooze a little and win Saeeda's favor. 

Now this all sounds like a little idyllic aside, doesn't it?  But really the point is to show the differences between class and religion, city and country and then there is the bill going through parliament in the hope of getting rid of the zamindar class.  Zamindars are the wealthy landowners, so Seth is throwing some politics in the mix in a nice juicy, dramatic manner. 

I must say it is quite fun to watch all the intermingling of characters and love interests and affairs and drama.  This is about Lata and her suitable boy but it is about so very much more.  If you like long epic detailed historical reads, I bet you would enjoy this story as much as I am.  Even though I am taking it all at a most leisurely pace--I think if I did not have so many other in progress books I could see myself losing myself for long hours in this story!

As for Lata.  I have started a list of suitable matches, but I fear I might have missed one or two.  I will have to tell you more about the men next time, but so far there is Amit Chatterji (the poet from the last section) and now Haresh Khanna who Mrs. Rupa Mehra, Lata's mother, just met (though . . . did they already meet earlier in the story--must look back).  He works for a shoe company but would like to find better employment possibilities.  Alas, Lata was just reflecting, as she sat on the train (her mother is having her rush to meet her as she wants to throw her in Haresh's path) that she is still in love with Kabir (our cricket player who has been off stage for far too long now) even though she is not feeling terribly optimistic about their chances.

So, I've just started getting into section nine (another short-ish section) and I think things will be getting back to Lata and her mother, and flipping ahead I see some new names and Haresh seems to be present, too . . .

A Suitable Boy: Part 7

It's been a while since I've written about Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, but I have finally managed to finish part seven, which was more than 150 pages long.  I've already started part eight and with just under 50 pages I hope to make quick work of it.  It will also be the second of five "slices" of the book (if you recall I cut the book into smaller portions to make it easier to carry about) finished.  Reading through that middle part (third slice) will mean I am more than halfway through this chunkster of a story.  I am quite enjoying it, but I had some distractions over the last couple of months and now hope I am back in a normal reading routine with it.

So just a  little refresher since enough time has passed for details to begin fading (and this is likely more for me than anyone else, so feel free to skim over this bit).  There are four families that the story is mostly concerned with: the Mehras (and it is Lata Mehra the university student who has fallen for a Muslim cricket player, Kabir Durrani, and whose family wants to find a 'suitable boy' for), the Kapoors, the Chatterjis and so far a bit less of the Khans.  Two of the Mehra children are married into the Kapoor and Chatterji families.  It is ca. 1950, post-Partition India with most of the action happening in Brahmpur and Calcutta, and there is a lot of civil unrest at the moment (clashes between Hindus and Muslims and wealthier class and lower class/caste).

In the last section most of the time was spent with the Kapoor family (Lata's sister Savita is in a happily arranged marriage with Pran Kapoor who is in the English faculty at the university Lata attends), but now in section eight Lata and her mother take center stage once again.  Mrs. Rupa Mehra whisked Lata away to Calcutta after discovering her romance (just at its beginning) with Kabir.  Finished with her final exams for the year it is hopefully just the break Lata will need to forget the cricket player (doesn't really happen I'm afraid).  Her elder brother Arun, wife Meenakshi and their daughter Aparna are in Calcutta along with her other single brother Varun. 

Arun is a terrible snob and an awful bully and Meenakshi is not much better.  He gets along reasonably well with Luts (Lata) but generally glowers at younger brother Varun.  But things have gotten interesting, and I am going to get gossipy here . . . Meenakshi is having an affair with one of Arun's British colleagues.  Naughty, naughty, and of course Arun hasn't a clue.  I think the gentleman in question would like to cool things off, but Meenakshi can be pretty persuasive (something of a seductress and likes nice clothes and is most certainly trendy).  Arun is referred to as a 'domestic tyrant' and boy is that a very apt description.  He is quite affable with his British colleagues and wants to please and excel at Bentson and Pryce, but he is pretty awful to his family.  He and Meenakshi make the social rounds and are not often home in the evenings.

Varun is really his own best enemy.  He does not know how or have the courage to stand up to Arun who thinks he is a lazy, good-for-nothing.  Lata tries to smooth things down between the two, but Varun plays into his hands since he likes to go off and drink and gamble and not attend to his studies.  Even Mrs. Rupa Mehra cannot escape his scathing remarks.  When her daughter Savita sends her mangoes (she is quite fond of them and rarely can stop at just one) he criticizes her for eating too many and the sugar has an ill effect on her diabetes.  

The Chatterji family, however, seem to have appeal to Lata.  She is befriended by Meenakshi's younger and also very sociable sister Kakoli (Kuku) and her brother Amit takes a particular liking to Lata.  Could he be the suitable boy?  He is a writer and poet and things click nicely between he and Lata.  They spend time with each other, but as they are practically family it is acceptable.  She, a lover of English literature, and he a writer might make a perfect couple.  Mrs. Mehra, however, frowns upon the idea of losing another child to the Chatterji clan.  They (the girls anyway-Meenakshi and Kuku) have a rather annoying habit of talking in rhyming couplets.  Usually it is a lot of silliness and plays on words, but it even grates on Arun at times.  But the Chatterjis are most welcoming to Lata including her on their outings. 

Perhaps Lata will get a bit of independence since her mother is returning to Brahmpur by way of Delhi as Savita is expecting her first baby.  Unknown to her family Lata received a letter from Kabir at the outset of this section.  As much as she might be enjoying Calcutta, hanging out with Amit and going to parties, she finds her mind going back to her cricket player often.  Since the letter is rather provoking I will end with mention of it--it annoyed Lata with its flippant tone!  Even towards the end of the section when she thinks of it, it is with a rush of anger.  But does she think of Amit in romantic terms?  Hard to say (and he can be somewhat condescending at times), but things seem to be much more open in Calcutta-mixed parties and the women showing so much more skin.  Not that Lata is nothing but modest. 

Now it is time to return to the Kapoors in section eight.  Now Maan Kapoor is also being whisked away from his inappropriate affair with the older Saeeda Bai who is a ghazal singer and a courtesan.  Ostensibly he is going to (he feels like it is exile!) the countryside to study and learn Urdu (the language of Saeeda who recites/sings poetry).  He's going to stay with his tutor and tutor's family (who begs him not to embarrass him, but after saying of course he would never do such a thing, he instantly regrets it--knowing his downfalls and limitations).  It should be an interesting section, I think.  And I hope to tell you about it at this time next Friday!

Just to keep things tidy and in order (for handy reference): an introduction, part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six.

A Suitable Boy in (five) Parts

Remember this book?  I knew it would be a carryover from 2016 to 2017 but it has been sitting and waiting for me to get back to the story.  I've been reading part seven since early in December.  It is definitely time for a jump start.

The problem, you see, is it is a very very chunky book.  I like epic reads, there's more to love, right?  But I am finding the book itself to be very unwieldy.  When I pick it up to read I enjoy it and fall back into the story without hesitation.  The problem is every time I look at my reading pile with the intention of choosing something to read I look past it for something I can easily slip into my bookbag or prop on the treadmill, and A Suitable Boy is jut not a suitable book for ease of carrying around. 

Now, see that section there--about 300 pages or so?  That is approximately the length of your average book give or take a few pages.  I keep thinking how nice it would be if this book was split into sections and then housed in a nice slipcase.  Or, if I could read an ebook (which if I was in the UK, I could, but there is not one available to US readers it seems).

So I have done the unthinkable.  I feel like I need to apologize to someone for doing what I did, and indeed it did pain me as I literally took a very sharp knife, pressed open the book at 300-ish page intervals and sliced each section away from its peers.  The first cut was the worst, but by the last I was amazed at how easy it came.  (Don't worry, I have no intention of turning my long reads into more manageable bite size pieces).

Gah.  Yes, here it is.  Or . . . here they are.  Five sections so very compact and easy to carry.  I can just about slip each section into a pocket, to say nothing about my bookbag without making the load interminably heavy. 

And do you know . . . here it is and I have been reading away.  The second of five sections.  I am having visions of reading one section a week or so and finishing the whole 1474 page tome (easily?) by the end of February.  And just in time to join in with Stefanie with my next big read, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.  My copy weighs in at just a few pages over 1100, and curiously while slightly larger than ASB seems to actually weigh less.  My copy of ASB is somewhat compact but quite dense and heavy!  I just was not enjoying carrying it about.  But now, I will have it in hand frequently.  And when I am done it will get taped or rubber banded together again.  Who knows, now that it is in parts I might even pick it up for a reread someday.

A Suitable Boy: Part 6

Moving right along.  Part 6 already.  Or, twenty pages just shy of part six, though in all truthfulness I should have been writing this post last week and by the end of the coming week (had I not strayed from my mental schedule) I should be telling you about part seven.  Still, let's look on the bright side and note that I am almost 400 pages into the novel now meaning there are just over a thousand pages left.  (Maybe I'll just consider that a little comic relief, but 400 pages is still practically a whole novel in and of itself, right).  My reading went all wonky in November but I am hoping to bring it around this month.  Alas, I am not off to the best of starts, but thankfully it is not a race, so let me tell you about part six of A Suitable Boy, which will help reorient me and get me back on track.

Last section I met some new characters, got in the middle of a riot, listened to a few impassioned speeches in a court inquiry (which came about thanks to violence during said riot), and was witness to some nasty family rivalries.  This story is nothing if not dramatic.  Lata, where are you Lata?  How is it going in Calcutta?  I heard about you through a letter from your mother, but more about that in a moment.  There was just a small reference or two to her, and I do hope to catch up with her news soon. 

But is is mostly the Kapoors who have been center stage this section, and in particular Maan who is besotted with the courtesan Saeeda Bai.  Actually he is more than a little moonstruck over her, silly boy (doesn't he know she may be toying with him, but she is a working girl, more or less, and must look after herself and her younger sister).  The affair is being talked about and it is becoming something of an embarrassment to his family.  He does have a suitable match lined up and I think his family is ready to move things along so it might all get pretty interesting on that front very soon.  He is actually learning Urdu in order to speak her language and be able to read poetry.   Now that is a serious crush indeed.

This is where the story gets interesting and complicated.  Here are where some of the nuances of Indian culture are coming out (and I am still trying to understand it all and sort it out in my mind, so forgive me if I make a misstep somewhere).  Maan is Hindi, but Saeeda is Muslim and while they can communicate fine, they each know different languages.  I suspect they are also perhaps different caste, but I have not quite figured all that out yet.  I think in this culture, and at least at this particular period in time, to be cultured is to not only appreciate fine music, and ghazals, but to be able to recite the poetry (so ghazals are a form of poetry and Saeeda sings them) but to be able to respond and know the references.  And I think part of it is the rhythm of the language and the play on words. 

There has also been more talk about the zamindars (which to put it into a context I am more familiar with--they are the aristocrats and landowners of Indian Society) and the Abolition Bill which is being negotiated in parliament.  I'm glad that I am not the only one confused by it all, as even some of the characters have expressed bewilderment by what it all means.  It may not be fair that a few own so much when so many have so little, but they do serve as patrons of the arts--including helping the musicians and performers stay afloat and make a living. 

Maybe we'll let Maan continue mooning (in his annoyance at being turned away from Saeeda's door not just once but several times this section) and hope that he behaves himself when he decides to spend time in the Tarbuz ka Bazaar, where there are singing girls (of the lower orders, like Tahmina Bai--no relation to Saeeda) and gambling to help Maan in his dissolute pursuits, and check in with what Lata's mother had to say in her latest letter to Savita and Pran:

"Lata is now spending a lot of time with Meenakshi's family.  Meenakshi's father Mr. Justice Chatterji things highly of Lata, I think, and Meenakshi's sister Kokoli is also fond of her."

And:

"Lata I fear was very angry and hurt with me when we first came to Calcutta and also worried about her exam results and not like herself at all.  You must telegram the results as soon as they come, no matter whether good or bad.  It was that boy K of course and nothing else whom she met in Brahmpur and he was clearly a bad influence.  Sometimes she made a bitter remark to me and sometimes only gave me minimum answers to my questions, but can you imagine if I had let things go in that way?  I had no help or sympathy from Arun at all in this but now I have told him to introduce Lata to his covenanted and other friends and let us see."

I do hope we get back to her in the next section as I am eager to see how she is getting on and whether, if indeed, Arun has been bringing suitable boys her way!