So here we are, at the end of 2020, and what is there to show for it? Let me retrace the last twelve months to recall how I had ended 2019, looking forward to 2020: “I have always felt a little excitement at the prospect of reaching this millennial milestone; it has a touch of magic and conveys a sense of balance and equanimity, and not just in terms of vision.” It began well but then came the pandemic and everything changed; we are living through it for god knows how long? So the past year has been dominated by Covid-19 and my formulaic recounting of what I did during the year has to be modified accordingly. Looking back however, it has not been that bad; it could have been worse! Anyway, I will begin with books read as usual:
2020 Diary – Books
1) `This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor` by Adam Kay – Picador p/b - isbn 978-1-5098-5863-7 – © AK 2017/18 – 280 pp – simply brilliant – an insider`s account of a so-called junior doctor`s gruelling journey as he rose from a House Officer through intermediate ranks (Senior House Officer, Registrar, Senior Registrar) to near consultant status until it all became too much and he just gave up - in the process we learn about the goings-on in the gynaecological & obstetrics wards, with intimate details of the patients` conditions, the constant relentless pressures on him and the nursing and auxiliary staff – just to extrapolate from the book`s blurb: “97-hour weeks … Life and death decisions … A constant tsunami of bodily fluids … sleepless nights and missed weekends … (a) no holds barred” look into the day-to-day working of the NHS – all this duly authenticated from the author`s diary entries from August 2004 to July 2010 – one feels humbled – EXTRACTS:
(entry for Sun 21.01.07 at p 82/83 = “Just when I was thinking it had been a while since the last episode of `unexpected objects stuck in orifices`, today a patient in her twenties presents to A&E unable to retrieve a bottle she`d put up there … ask her to enlighten me … [it] turns out she has to provide her probation officer with clean urine samples, and so … has her mother piss in a pot for her, which she then smuggles in vaginally and decants into the sample pot she gets given by her probation officer”. And there are many other bizarre instances of strange objects finding their way into the patients` orifices – back and front – that are recounted in the book, as are all sorts of other experiences, eg. the case of the elderly Sikh visitor (at p 76/77) from India with no English (assisted by a relative “who also speaks no English”) who was bleeding from `down below` but his complaint was lost in translation and the real cause of his ailment only emerged when it was discovered that he was a haemophiliac and not a hermaphrodite! He also gets physically assaulted by an angry patient who turned out to have phantom symptoms (at p 149/151). “ … the nature of illness means more bad things happen at work than good.”) There is lots more!
2) `Lullaby` by Leila Slimani (translated from the French by Sam Taylor) – Faber & Faber p/b ISBN 978-0-571-33754-5 – 207 pp – winner of the Prix Goncourt, critically acclaimed and much hyped international best seller in such superlative terms as a “gripping psychological thriller” (Amy Chua), “Compulsively readable” (The Times) “Thrilling … Intelligent and unerringly humane” (Julie Myerson) and so on - I however found it unpalatable … the plotline is not that original: a young professional husband and wife find a nanny for their two very young children; the nanny could not be more perfect; she not only looks after the children but takes over the running of the whole household – cooking, cleaning and much more - becomes indispensable, but beneath all the niceties and appearances there lurks someone with a deep psychological condition that turns her into a monster – but how come that the critics found superb qualities in the writing and characterisation? As far as I am concerned, the book lacks a moral compass, but more than that, there is not a single character whom one can relate to – they are all negative portrayals – to call “unerringly humane” is going overboard – I found the whole experience of reading the book a trying exercise.
3) `Figures In A Landscape People & Places: Essays 2001-2016` by Paul Theroux – Penguin Random House - h/b isbn 978-0-24126-647-2 – © PT 2018 – 386 pp – a fascinating kaleidoscopic account of his encounters with literary, historical and other noteworthy figures and his take on various places; in particular the last four or five chapters are the most revealing and riveting, covering `My Life as a Reader`, `The Real Me: A Memory`, `Life and the Magazine` about his life in Hawaii and above all `Dear Old Dad: Memories of My Father` and finally `The Trouble with Autobiography` explaining why he has never attempted or been tempted into writing a conventional autobiography – an absorbing read – of my first full book during the Corona lockdown, finishing just in time to embark on my next, a welcome study of the life of Ravi Shankar!
4) `Indian Sun: The Life and Music of RAVI SHANKAR` by Oliver Craske – Faber & Faber h/b – isbn 978-0-57135085-8 – © OC 2020 – 658 pp – and so I embarked on reading this on 4 May, finishing it in record time last night, 4 June! Needless to say it is an absolutely superb biography. It made easy bedtime reading, absorbing and enchanting, with every page speaking volumes about Ravi`s `life and music` indeed. Very early on, at page 29, we learn that “(a)t age seven a nightmare began that violated his innocence and abruptly curtailed his childhood” when he was raped by an `uncle` “a hitherto loved and trusted figure” and the assault was repeated on other occasions in later years. That was to remain a secret buried within himself until his seventies when he revealed [it], “and then to only one person, Sukanya.” But of course we get the whole measure of the man, his complex family background, his artistic and musical flowering as he grew up in Paris in the shadow of his famous brother Uday, whose tours across Europe and America broadened his education all through the 1930s, from the age of 10 until they returned to India on the eve of WWII – and then how he matured to in his own right. There is so much more in the book – about all the many people who interacted with him and shaped his musical genius and quite frankly an incident filled life. The author`s descriptions of the technique of music-making in terms of composition and performance are a testament to his expertise in the field. I contacted him and we had some interesting exchanges later in the year.
5) `Reading Cultural Representations of the Double Diaspora: Britain, East Africa, Gujarat` by Maya Parmar – palgrave macmillan – ISBN 978-3-03—18082-9 – © MP 2019 – 215 pp - a closely constructed and highly accomplished academic work which I read from start to finish during the Corona lockdown. To include this in my annual list of general books is somewhat of a departure but this has been an exceptional year and I had met the author at a couple of conferences. She was gracious enough to send me a signed copy of the book and we had a longish conversation around that time. Here are some extracts from the book to give a flavour of its broad stated theme:
On the quintessentially Gujarati phenomenon of the Navratri dances (as a marker of identity) : “There is a construction of nationalism through these community dances” (p 27); “Testament to these dances` embodiment of multiple traditions and knowledges is [M G] Vassanji`s inclusion of garba in his novel The book of secrets (p 112). In Vassanji`s garba scene the female dancing body as sensual and erotic is highlighted, yet it is the body enacting a religious ritual and worshipping the Goddess that is also described (113).
One of the book`s running threads is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown`s writings, such as The Settler`s cookbook and other life experiences, including her being ostracised for acting in a school production of Shakespear`s Romeo and Juliet where she played Juliet to a black Ugandan Romeo in Kampala (p 50).
6) `Common Threads: Fabrics made-in-India for Africa` -Authors:
M Venkatachalam, R Modi and J Salazar - ISBN: 978-90-5448-179-9 –
another academic work that I have included here during this Covid
interregnum! This is what I posted on
the N/A forum on 14 July by way of a preliminary review:
“This is a highly accomplished academic work - a truly
fascinating account of the historical Indo-African trade in fabrics and its
cultural links and off-shoots across the seas over some five centuries. The
book is beautifully produced, with a mass of colourful graphics, photos (143),
maps, illustrations and other documentary material. Above all, what impresses
is its clear text and narrative style, complete with a lucid glossary of terms
and end references. There is so much packed into it that it would
take weeks to digest it all. Here below, then, is set out the Table of
Contents to whet the appetite of the reader. It gives an insight into the
depth and range of the study and its broad subject matter. I propose to
follow this up with a considered critique in due course. For now, just
savour what the book contains and also have a look at https://www.ascleiden.nl/news/common-threads-fabrics-made-india-africa“. Have done a fuller review for the AwaaZ
magazine, Issue 2/2020.
7) `The Lieutenant`
by Kate Grenville – Text Publishing, Melbourne, Australia – p/b – 307 pp isbn:
9781921656767 – © KG2008 – by the author of `The Secret River`, dramatization
of which in opera form we saw at the NT last year; this is in the same genre,
“a work of fiction … inspired by recorded events” in her own words – a
fascinating insight into how New South Wales was settled following the `First
Fleet that brought convicts to Australia in 1788”, based on the account of one
young lieutenant of marines, William Dawes, and in particular his dogged
persistence in learning and recording the lingo of the natives, his friendships
with them formed during the process and the ultimately sad denouement
(involving betrayal and death) of his departure when his tour of duty had
ended, never to return, after which he devoted the rest of his life to the
movement for abolition of slavery - in London, Africa and the West Indians where,
in Antigua, after abolition he established schools for former slaves and lived
there until his death in 1836.
8) `American Dirt` by Jeanine Cummins – Tinder Press – isbn 978 1 4722 6139 7 (h/b) – 465 pp © JC 2019 – author has been accused of `cultural appropriation` - I didn`t find any basis for it … her literary imagination finds perfect expression in this extraordinary tale of the trail of migration across the Mexico border into the US followed by the characters at the centre of the narrative, a mother and 8 year old son, described in the blurb thus: “Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop. Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist. Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved most in the world. Today, her eight-year-old son Luca is all she has left. For him, she will carry a machete strapped to her leg. For him, she will leap onto the roof of a high-speed train. For him, she will find the strength to keep running”, pursued by a murderous cartel chief responsible for the deaths of 16 of her family members, joining in with a bunch of desperate stragglers seeking ultimate sanctuary in el norte, through a succession of gruelling escapades. The dramatic opening sequence of the book is so gripping that one is compelled to follow it through the narrator`s desperate flight to seek a sanctuary in `el norte`.
9) `Naoroji Pioneer of Indian Nationalism` by Dinyar Patel – Harvard University Press 2020 – isbn 9780674238206 – 352 pp – a simply superb biography of someone whose name had always featured in my political imagination from an early age but about whom one knew little other than that he was the first Indian to be elected to the British Parliament in 1892. This is a brilliant piece of work: comprehensive, well researched – with a rich array of endnotes and references – and artfully presented. Hope to write a proper review later, but suffice it to say here that what comes across is Naoroji`s passionate commitment to the cause of Indian nationhood within the confines of British rule at the height of Empire and that his dedication and activism in this regard did bear some fruit after years of persistence and many setbacks and rightly earned him the accolade of `Grand Old Man of India`.
(Note: As usual, an eclectic collection but with the difference that
this year it is not so much quantity as quality that has mattered more; plus I have had some positive exchanges with the authors of four of these books! The local library was shut for nearly nine
months from March, though Amazon are delivering books within 2 days! Also, while the
whole Covid related curtailment of normal life has resulted in a kind of mental
inertia and lethargy, my other reading
habits – the London Review of Books and online material - continue unabated So intellectual life goes on in
much the same way as before).
2020 Diary - Films, Plays, Concerts etc
1) Sun 05 Jan – Odeon Epsom - `Little Women` (Dir: Greta Gerwig; Saoirse Ronan as Jo March + a galaxy of other stars – USA 2019) based of course on Louisa May Alcott`s celebrated novel – we`d visited her family house in Concord MA in 1999 – the story and her bio reverberated throughout – at times too much of merry making and family togetherness of the girls and partying etc – not as fulfilling as had expected but time passed.
2) Fri 17 Jan – ICA - `Uncut Gems` - dirs.: Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie – USA 2019 – 135 mins - about a charismatic Jewish New York jeweller with a gambling instinct always on the lookout for the next big score; the sheer pace of the action throughout is breathtaking, particularly his interactions, bordering on the physical, with his black clients – their exchanges are in the classic New York blunt and brash style – we see him (forever balancing the demands of business, family and adversaries) place a series of high stake bets that could lead to the big win, but the tension really reaches a boiling point when the final deal is about to be completed … we are left on tenterhooks throughout.
3) Sun 26 Jan – Odeon Epsom - `The Personal History of David Copperfield` - dir: Armando Ianucci – UK 2019 – 159 mins – Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw, Peter Capaldi et al – a fantastical adaptation of the classic Dickens story – pitched at the level of the 21 century juvenile – it failed to impress – perhaps am being too critical.
4) Fri 07 Feb – ICA - `Parasite` - dir: Bong Joon-ho, South Korea 2019, 132 mins, Korean + English subtitles – an unemployed family of 4 living in an urban squalor ingeniously attach (inveigle, really) themselves, parasitically, into the prosperous household and lives of an upper middle-class businessman`s family, also of 4, with tragi-comic consequences in the form of a series of near misses and ultimately a dramatic denouement – critically acclaimed winner of the Palme d`Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and of two BAFTAs – nominated for the Oscars (and won 4, including one for Best Picture) – regarded as an indictment of social and economic inequality in Korean society and by implication on the global front as well – for me however it was lacking in a moral compass.
(Then came lockdowns and isolation, and so there were no more outings to the cinema thereafter).
5) Tue 14 Apr – NT LIVE - `Jane Eyre` - dir: Sally Cookson - a collaboration with Bristol Old Vic, filmed by National Theatre Live at London's National Theatre in 2015 and re-broadcast nationwide on UTube on 9 April 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic – completed watching the 3 hour recording today) - absolutely brilliant, superb acting!
6) Thu 07 May – NT LIVE - `A Streetcar Named Desire` with Gillian Anderson – again superb.
Both the above NT Live performances were online.
2020 Diary - Lectures, Talks, Events etc
All this activity ceased once the Covid reality struck in
March – see Corona Diary 1 above – but I have done a few zoom webinar and other
sessions of the academic and professional variety.
2020 Diary - Miscellany
Well, the above speaks for itself really. It has been a trying year certainly but the good thing is that we are still alive and kicking. And oh, I was pleased to receive my first royalty cheque in August! That said, right now what is uppermost in our unconscious thoughts is survival – to carry on living in a self-protective mode – unconscious because it has become sort of second nature to daily existence and routine, to have a mask handy when stepping outside the home and make sure to take other precautions while out shopping or doing whatever else that involves contact or being near with other people. So far so good. Best wishes for a better 2021 all round.
