Farewell Waltz

Just completed 'Farewell Waltz' by leading Czech author Milan Kundera. The 'Farewell Waltz' is a dark comedy at the outer layer, but, underneath, is a very poignant, political novel with a touch of magical realism. The original Czech version was published in the early 70’s but was banned during the communist regime for the political undertones in the narration till 1989.

The story unfolds over five days in a small spa town with 8 contrasting characters and has commentaries on relationship, religion, politics –all with lightness and a searing satire. The end was a bit sudden and sad (although Mr. Kundera does not delve on the sadness) but overall the book was a fine read. This is my first Kundera and surely not going to be the last.

Couple of quotes from the book (all of these are dialogues between the characters):

- 'To come to the conclusion that there is no difference between guilty and the victims is to abandon all hope. And that, my girl, is what is called hell.

-'There isn't a man in this world who isn't capable, with a relatively light heart, of sending a fellow human to his death. At any rate I've never met one. If men one day come to change in this regard, they'll lose a basic human attribute. They'll no longer be men but creatures of another species'.
'You people are wonderful!'... 'When you turn everybody into murderers your own murders stop being crimes and just become an inevitable human attribute'.

Both the quotes are in reference to the political situation in Czech during the 1970s; when uprising and suppression of these uprisings thru capital punishment was a norm. After a while the roles reversed the revolutionaries moved to power and persecution of the earlier rulers started, hence there is a blur of victims and the guilty.

Second quote is a dialogue between 2 characters when they discuss about human nature and how we will punish a fellow being with certain happiness (sadistic pleasure if you will); History is strewn with people who stand testimony to this statement.

And finally the most interesting, “All I know is that I could never say with complete conviction: Man is a wonderful being and I want to reproduce him”. Again, this is a dialogue between 2 characters in the book where one gives out reasons why he will never sire a child! What a powerful reason -I have tried this life, but do not find in good enough that I will recommend for someone else!

Feeling an emptiness that follows the completion of a good book!

Following Fish by Samanth Subramanian.

Travel and cooking are 2 of my (many) passions! I just love travelogues. I have already written about Bill Bryson here, the other writer I recently discovered and loved is Paul Theroux. An unexpected but good read was Che Guevara's ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ - of course that is not just any travelogue.

Travelogues just take you to distant and mystical lands for a few hundred rupees and you could do the journey by just sitting on your couch and without the travel fatigue.

I picked up 'Following Fish', without any knowledge about the book or the author. I was a bit skeptical, given the drab cover and a fishy title :)! Since it involved both travel and food, I could not resist. To my pleasant surprise, it indeed turned out to be a wonderful read for a weekend.

The book is divided into 9 essays and it starts from Kolkata and its famous Hilsa and rightfully so, as Kolkata is the food capital (at least for seafood and sweets) and Hilsa is the queen of fishes.

The journey takes a detour inland to Hyderabad where Samanth visits the Goud's family for the famous fish treatment for his Asthma and returns skeptical than before.

The best part of the book is the essay in search of the best toddy and karimeen in Kerala and the one about the Mangalore fish curry comes a close second. The journey continues to Goa (of course), Mumbai and ends at Gujarat. Befittingly, for Gujarat, the last essay talks about the huge fishing boat building industry rather than the cuisine.

The writing is easy and almost like a note from a friend and lyrical at times and sparkling with humor all the time. The author draws in from a host of other great writers and sprinkles their quotes throughout the book. The essays are full of colorful characters and their interesting stories - this is the book's greatest strength.

The book also touches upon the cultural, ecological issues of the day, talks about the dwindling fishes in our seas, and the sandless beaches of Goa, where the tourist industry is eating into the fishing industry. 'Goa - A state that had come to be unfortunately infected with the idleness of its guests'.

This is Samanth’s first book and I hope he continues to write in this fashion for a long time. May he continue to be the 'discoverer of people, a finder-out of stories'.