Minutes from Dept. of Speculation

I have been reading Dept. of Speculation as one last quick read this year. Well it's the last day. The book feels very soft, lullaby like, narrated as a stream of consciousness, almost lyrical, poetic. It is Bouba not Kiki. It's really somehow soft and warm. Warm and mildly depressing, if that makes sense? 

At times I can relate to it in weird ways. But in Chapter 20, the sentence caught my eye:

My husband is hunched over his computer, just as he was when I went in. All day long he has been following the news about an earthquake in another country. Every time the death count is updated, he updates me...

This is exactly where I find myself sometimes. Obsessed over some incident which doesn't affect me at all. It's not sympathy, not even morbid curiosity. It is just what it is. Perhaps it's Kabir-esque :

कबीरा खड़ा बाज़ार में, सबकी मांगे खैर

ना काहू से दोस्ती, ना काहू से बैर

Not that too. This is just Sant Kabir simplifying कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते for the common man. I am much below that level of detachment. I care about outcome. It might even be playing a Watcher as in MCU. Perhaps not, I discovered the concept of Watchers much later in life. BR Chopra's Mahabharat' Main Samay Hoon will be a much earlier, more connected and likely influence. Anyway I like the feeling of detachment. It's the same- warm yet mildly depressing. It's not vedantic detached observer, I have too much vainful pride in my knowledge. And the mere act of knowledge provides me joy. I am the one Adi Shakar warned सम्प्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले, नहि नहि रक्षति डुकृञ्करणे . I should really finish Kathopanishad along with Swami Sarvapriyananda's lectures that I have started earlier. Long back. Back when home was like home. 

It could be ward election is some random city of a state I have never visited. Or it might be a war in the Caucasian region. Or even Japanese aid to Central Asian nations. I will haunt the subreddits, lurk on the Twitter spheres, dig into JSTOR and devour PhD theses. 

Unlike the husband (Offill hasn't named him yet, and I don't think it is required, why do we even name our characters? This though and the foggy cold Faridabad morning reminds me of Dwivedi's Kutuj. He writing escaped me at forst - good typo? But it should be first- but later when I understood it it provided me with much warmth, icy cold Himalayan warmth) I don't share this with anyone. Not that I don't want to. I have no one. Who will watch the watcher? The wife is stuck. I have no wife, no love life either. Perhaps this is why I started the blog. Indeed that's the reason. I can at least scream into void that Government says 23 dead but the local press are reporting between 50 to 64. Nobody would care, I won't get a polite hmmm mandated by the Agni. Still it's better than something. This is not depressing, it's the opposite infact. 

Earthquakes are interesting things. Certain animals can feel them in advance. DD have a talent to feel one even if miniscule. My mother, on the other hand, can feel one even if it is not there lacking! 

I have been off Reddit for some time. PhD eats away your time. Well, we are JRFs, employee of Department of Atomic Energy now, can't blame them. Hopefully SRF soon. It matters, for apparently seniority matters even for missiles. But technology have been progressing. The Japanese can now predict earthquakes. I never bothered to read how they do it, but it sounds mind boggling. But they are Japanese, and as the old Indo-Japan joke goes, they say "Of none can do, I will do it." Something worth learning rather than that the normal punch line. Perhaps observe them, with the regular earthquakes. 

Review: 1808: The Flight of the Emperor: How a Weak Prince, a Mad Queen, and the British Navy Tricked Napoleon and Changed the New World

1808: The Flight of the Emperor: How a Weak Prince, a Mad Queen, and the British Navy Tricked Napoleon and Changed the New World by Laurentino Gomes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I will be upfront that I picked the wrong book. I wanted to read Flight Paths of the Emperor but mistakenly got this. I was a good mistake though. It is a very well written, well researched book.

The flight (apparently the correct word is a hotly belated issue among historians but the author makes a good case for flight) of the Portuguese court to Brazil is the only example of a European monarch reigning from the new world. The arrival was nothing grand like the Delhi Durbar (as seen in say A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur) but still equally or perhaps even more monumental moment in history of the respective countries.

The author patiently sets the stage for the flight: the decay of Portugal, the menace of Napoleon, and the political and military climate of Europe at the time. Everything is presented clearly enough that even readers unfamiliar with the circumstances can easily grasp them.

The scene of arrival to the port and the journey itself is very vividly recalled directly from the logs of the British Navy ships which escorted the royal family of Portugal. Many academic debates are brought up and most plausible (in eyes of the author) theories are put forward.

As the court arrives in Brazil, the references start to be Portuguese and cross-checking becomes difficult. But this is a good thing. They are still numerous and a mix of primary sources as well as more recent research as far as I can decipher. Brazil was far from a United nation when the court arrived, it's various parts were deliberately isolated from each other by Lisbon. But as Lisbon fell, there was no choice but to raise Brazil to the status of a united Kingdom. The author paints detailed pictures of the country at eve of the arrival and one can't help but notice the lack of development. It is afterall a colony. There is a comparative study of state of medical knowledge between Europe and India in the 16th and 17th century in a chapter of Science In Saffron: Skeptical Essays On History of Science

, and despite all the medical revolutions in Europe, the state of healthcare in Brazil is rather primitive. Much more primitive than India of the time, whose own medical tradition was but stagnant for about two millennia. Bloodletting was the main, and in places the only, form of treatment in Brazil. Another case of European inventions, fueled often by the spoils of the colony, not reaching the colonies.

The book is extremely detailed and takes many detours into anecdotes and personalities. Entire chapters are devoted to a single letter, a single meeting between the king and his daughters, the archivist, the chief of police, and more. Yet slavery (except for chapter 20, which is devoted entirely to it) is mostly mentioned only in passing. Data presented as of it were any other economic activity, say gold mining or grain growing.

Even in that chapter, the moral qualms about slavery come not from the author directly, but from quotations drawn from British sources. The author in fact seemed to very matter of fact finding the whole slavery business a normal routine. It is written, despite profits it was a very risky business. "Moonlighting Slavery" is supposed to be a model "equally convenient for the master and the slave". While there are not author's own words this is what she cites and reproduce without any comments. And these are modern scholars from South America, not 19th century slave traders. The author's own views is that sometimes freedom was not worth the quality of life degradation as the regulations about treatment of slaves were generous. In view of author, many of Brazil's modern social crisis like poverty and housing crisis can be traced back to freed slaves! The author have even written a trilogy about slavery in Brazil starting with Escravidão – Volume 1: Do primeiro leilão de cativos em Portugal até a morte de Zumbi dos Palmares, while I can't read Portuguese, the reviews on GR seems to suggest that the author have taken a much different there so perhaps one should not judge the author too harshly due to the single chapter. Still, I started to skim mostly last this chapter. The writing also seems to have picked pace and events leading to the revolution just quickly summarised. But the author has to sell his 1822 Still this trick suits more to romcoms like Flossed In Love (the book which most harshly tried to sell the sequel among my recent readings) than serious non-fiction. But it is what it is.


That being said, the book is still a very well cited resource, written with accessibility of pop history, for the incident and the time in aims to cover

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Review: Flossed In Love

Flossed In Love by Angela Pearse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very fast paced book book that ends on a major cliffhanger, which was perhaps my only complaint. Aside from that, it is very well written.

There is a dual timeline, one which follows the life of Florence in the past and other in the present. The present timeline has two narrators- Damain the Dentist and Floss (as Florence prefers to go as now). 'A dentist with a girlfriend called Floss', the coincidence is not lost to our Dr Rhodes. I found Florence's voice from the past when she was newly turning into a Vampire most interesting. In particular, the chapter where she discovers her flying powers offers a lot of insight into her character. The voices of the past and present are different (the present voice has retained the use of Moi from her past stay in Paris) and the dialogues are well written and show the difference in norms of time as well as growth of Floss' character. The inner monologue still had a 'modern' voice in the 19th century which breaks immersion.

Unlike me - who has only read A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor and A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians if you take a very liberal definition of the genre - Floss’s guilty pleasure is paranormal romance. While I am not deeply familiar with the genre, I did not find the book to have “too much witty banter and not enough blood-sucking.” Instead, these elements felt well balanced and often cleverly intertwined.

That said, given that this is a relatively short, the author could easily have completed the narration rather than ending where she did.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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इज़हार के बाद

 पत्र वत्र लिखने के बाद

प्रेम के शूर से हया के

मोटे पर्दे चीरने के बाद

ये पल हैं अब दया के।

दया करनी है पल पल के बाद

पल पल से भी है वही आस

दया करे वो भी पढ़ने के बाद

उस पल तक तो अटकी रहे सास।

सास फूली गाल लाल, कहने के बाद 

सर चकराए, हाय, जी घबराए 

अंतहीन एक मौन के अंतिम पद के बाद

अब तो बस जी घबराए, मचलाए।

मचलाए क्यों ना हम इन सब के बाद

परीक्षार्थी को ना होती है क्या कुंजी की खोज?

इज़हार ए इश्क़ भी एक इंतहाम है, और उसके बाद

ना सुहाते भाई बंधु, हूरें, निद्रासन या छप्पन भोग।

भोग धूप आरती सब तरह के पूजन के बाद

विनती है कि हे माँ! अब तेरी ही सहारा है 

ये जो तेरी बिटिया है बोल इसके सोचने के बाद

दिल ए आवारा को इसका क्या अब इशारा है।

इशारा समय जो बीत चला नित नित दिन के बाद

करता एक ही ओर, ये नहीं अब केवल नारी  है

बनी है ये मेरी भाग्यस्वामिनी इज़हार के बाद

ये ही अब दारोगा, कलैक्टर और पटवारी है।

Review: Worthy of Her Sword

Worthy of Her Sword by E. M. Epps
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a adventure/fantasy short story/novella following Tinsa on an undercover mission as a maid so as to earn her role as a 'Heroine' officially which in proper career part with various levels of certifications in the universe. The language is contemporary but still the prose (excepting the dialogues) have a certain charm. That said, dialogue attribution is occasionally unclear, disrupting narrative immersion at key moments. The actual operation, the mental breakdown following the mission as well as the little romantic plot all seemed to be rushed. Perhaps it was a prequel and not reading the earlier parts made it seemed rush, but still the work stands as a standalone. The world building however was interesting enough and enough (deliberate) opaque refrences to House Gaurjo to warrant reading A Winter of Fish and Favor.

This review was in exchange for an ARC.

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