My review :Nine Lives

The only book of his that I read before is 'The Last Mughal' and if you have been following my blog you would have realised how totally un-inclined I have been to history and I hate to admit Mughal history.I was almost pushed to read this book 'The Last Mughal' by all in the family (all history lovers!)...and I am so glad I paid heed to them.My fascination to read more about the Mughal history arose after reading this beautifully written book.This book was of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.His fall from grace,the end of an era.What came across after reading this book was Dalrymple's immense knowledge of history and more so the Indian history.
After reading that book I was eagerly looking forward to his next (I have in the meanwhile read 'Age of Kali' and 'The White Mughals' written by him which are also very well written).So Nine Lives as soon as it hit the stores was bought and read in 2 days flat.With this book Dalrymple has proved himself to be an accomplished travel writer.
This book has nine different stories,as he puts it are tales of the sacred in Modern India. Dalrymple goes deeper and deeper into the landscape of India in order to return with clearer images of the people who live there. And in trying to appreciate their lives, we enrich our understanding of our own, and this is why Nine Lives might well be William Dalrymple’s most important book to date.
The book starts with The Nun's Tale where he explores the Jain religion and also gives us an insight on Jainism through the eyes of a digambara nun.Non-judgemental and sensitively handled.Jainism was also extensively covered by Suketu Mehta in his book The Maximum City

The second story is about The Dancer of Kannur from Kerala the story comes alive through Hari Das who is an accomplished theyyam dancer in the area who during the months from December to February trades his job as a jail warden to a theyyam dancer playing the part of Lord Vishnu.He is a dalit (backward caste)and comes from a very poor background who becomes a temporary god during the theyyam season and gets the kick out of having the brahmins come and seek his blessings during the season.Dalrymple handles the caste divide which is prevalent in Kerala again very honestly without looking down at such practices.Just an in your face account of it.

The third story is The daughters of Yellamma which is personally my favourite.It is so heart wrenching and beautiful.It is the story of devdasis,the women are dedicated and 'married' to a god or goddess and then these women are pushed into flesh trade.This story is of Rani Bai who was dedicated by her parents to god at a tender age of six by the time she turned 14 she was sold to the highest bidder..She continues her life as a devadasi and how she dedicates her daughters to the same practice and ends up losing them to AIDS.
The devadasis are considered auspicious as well and are seen as symbols of fertility in Karnataka.Though there are acts put in place by the government against this practice it still prevails in rural and poverty struck interiors of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The other stories are also uncovers some facets of India that we as Indians are largely unaware of ...his story the singer of epics is of Mohan the bard (a bhopa) and a village shaman and his wife Batasi.they both are completely illiterate but are few of the last singers who can sing a 4000 line poem by heart!the poem is 600 year old.the poem is performed in front of a phad and the audience is usually the nomadic and cattle herding Rabri caste.His 5th story is from rural Sindh called the red fairyit is the story of lal peri who lives in a sufi shrine.It beautifully explains sufism. There is the monk's tale after that which is the story of a tibetan living in exile in Dharamsala in India.Did you know that some of the tibetans who were living in exile during the 62 war against China were taken into the Indian Army?This secret force,Special frontier force were trained by the CIA and India in a camp near Dehradun.Fascinating indeed!
These stories are followed by equally fascinating tales from different parts of the country there is 'the maker of idols' from Tamil Nadu,'The Lady Twilight' from a cremation ground at Tarapith in Bengal one of the most holy places in India and the home of the great goddess Tara.'The song of the blind Minstrel' is a story again from Bengal its the stpry of the Bauls meaning mad or possessed in Bengali.

Lovely and fascinating stories which show us how rich the Indian culture is and how while forging ahead in the world we as a nation are still bound by our beautiful and fascinating past!!Must read for all Dalrymple lovers!

What others say about Nine Lives

This is the reviews I picked up from Amazon from various noted authors.I'll put up my review soon!


Review
`William Dalrymple's Nine Lives takes the charm and natural verve of City of Djinns, marries it to the intellectual and spiritual engagement of From the Holy Mountain, and brings it off with all the narrative skill developed in his history books, combined with his ever more profound understanding of India.'
--Maya Jasanoff

"Any of these stories could make a great film or play, they are so full of passion, tragedy, violence, compassion, and religious fervor, and so vividly evoked; . . . Their human concerns, not unlike ours, melt seamlessly into the bizarre, almost unimaginable circumstances of their ritual life, and eventually we see that that,too, is quite human, that there is nothing weird at all about drinking
warm blood or pulling out your hair by the roots. Only a brilliant writer like Dalrymple could bring off this astonishing and unprecedented revelation of the humanity of people on the farthest extremes of religious ecstasy" --Wendy Doniger

"I was enchanted by these poignant and magical stories. By artfully weaving together travel, history, and legend--all without guile--he creates a compelling narrative, reminding us why India is one of the world's greatest story telling cultures, and why he is one of its greatest story tellers" --Gurcharan das

"Any book by William Dalrymple is good news, but a travel book after close to a decade calls for a dash to the bookshop instead of a click on Amazon. Nine Lives, Dalrymple's first travel book after two exhilarating expeditions into Indian history, is a risky enterprise.
It is difficult for anyone, let alone "Westerners", to write about Indian religious traditions without slithering into Orientalist, New Ageist or Hindutva tropes. It is even more risky to narrate Indian religious beliefs against the template of today's India, which is itself a half-mythical being in the throes of constant change. But Dalrymple has managed to do so, and with aplomb." --Tabish Khair, Hindustan Times

'His most ambitious yet, taking the reader into lurid, scarcely imaginable worlds of mysticism ... Dalrymple has an inimitable way of conjuring the Indian landscape' -- Financial Times

`This is travel writing at its best. I hope it sparks a revival' -- Observer

`Beautifully written, ridiculously erudite and, more than any of his previous work, reveals Dalrymple to be remarkably warm - and open-hearted ... a towering talent' -- The Times

`William Dalrymple's Nine Lives takes the charm and natural verve of City of Djinns, marries it to the intellectual and spiritual engagement of From the Holy Mountain, and brings it off with all the narrative skill developed in his history books, combined with his ever more profound understanding of India.' --Maya Jasanoff

'Full of passion, tragedy, violence, compassion, and religious fervor, and so vividly evoked...
Only a brilliant writer like Dalrymple could bring off this astonishing and unprecedented revelation of the humanity of people on the farthest extremes of religious ecstasy.' --Wendy Doniger

`I was enchanted by these poignant and magical stories. By artfully weaving together travel, history, and legend--all without guile--he creates a compelling narrative, reminding us why India is one of the world's greatest story telling cultures, and why he is one of its greatest story tellers.' --Gurcharan Das

`His characteristic wit and sympathy are fully evident in the interviews he has conducted ... as are his love and knowledge of the sub-continent ... this fascinating book ... beautifully illustrates the relationship between tradition and modernity in India.' --Lewis Jones, Spectator

`Beautifully written, ridiculously erudite and, more than any of his previous work, reveals Dalrymple to be remarkably warm - and open-hearted ... a towering talent.' --Brian Schofield, The Times

My review :My name is Red

There is a store I frequent often which is close to home.He has some awesome collection of books at very affordable prices.These copies are not pirated but I guess second hand thats why so affordable!I picked up Orhan Pamuk's book from there.So here is my take on the book.Good read but not an effortless read...It is sometimes very slow you almost want to read the end to know who the murderer is...(Yes, the novel is a murder-mystery -- though not a typical one.)

My Name is Red is written in many voices and from many perspectives. The short chapters are narrated by more than a dozen different characters.The first voice is that of a dead person, the just-murdered Elegant Effendi.

The setting is the late 16th century, in Istanbul. Elegant Effendi -- and his murderer -- are artists: miniaturists and illustrators. Other central characters include Enishte Effendi, a master artist, his nephew, called Black (also a painter), and his daughter Shekure. Twelve years earlier Black had fallen in love with Shekure, but Enishte did not agree on the marriage; Black left Istanbul and only now has returned. Shekure married three years after he left, and now has two sons, Orhan and Shevket but her husband disappeared years ago and is presumed dead. Now her husband's brother, Hasan, is pressuring her to marry him (as Black also renews his suit).The go-between in all the communication between the trio is a lady called Esther.

The premise is that there is a group of people who are working on a secretly commissioned work by the great ruler which is influenced by the European paintings.It is also a very confidential and secret project.While there is another group which feels that it is an attack on the philosophy long followed by the miniaturists and illustrators.So the miniaturist Elegant is killed by one of his colleagues who has started feeling that the series of paintings ( that they are working on ) commissioned goes against their lord and basic tenets of Islam.
My Name is Red is very much a book about art and reality, about what the purpose of art is -- and about its dangers. There is a good deal of discussion about painting and art, and about what makes real art . The book offers some splendid detail here, from what the miniaturists do to avoid going blind (face away from the sun when it rises, among other things) to the idea that only in blindness does pure art exist. The novel is the contest between the old and new, and tradition and change.

His narration is very descriptive almost gives you a feeling of being there and watching the events unfold.

My Name is Red is an enjoyable and often fascinating read...but very slow.Very different style of writing that I have never read before.Sensitive,beautiful,descriptive and informative.