dessert rose | General | 09 July 2004, 12:11am
A beautiful collection of snippets translated from Bengali to English by the author, Rabindranath Tagore.
Pick it up anytime, read a few lines and its bound to leave you lost in thoughts. Short verses with profound meaning. Refreshes, if you are tired or dejected.
The opening lines:
STRAY birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.
You can read this online too. But the book doesnt really cost much. Rs 30 or 50. I'd say definitely worth it.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
dessert rose | Books | 01 July 2004, 7:32pm
This one ranks right up there in my faves.
Jean Louise 'Scout' is the main protagonist, and the whole story revolves around her. It is said the character Scout is somewhat autobigraphical. There are many things that arouse her curiousity- school, her neighbours, 'Boo Radley' [who keeps to himself and never steps out]. She has an aunt who is bent upon making her more lady-like, where as she loves to run play around with her brother and his friends. She loves to have her father read out stories to her and gets upset when her teacher asks her to stop reading as she is way ahead of her classmates. [Surely she would have grown up to be a voracious reader]
Atticus Finch, a defence lawyer living in the small southern town called Maycomb, is Scout's father. He brings his children up with unbiased and unprejudiced views. He is not afraid to tell the truth to his two young children. He brings them up to have their own opinions and to see people equally. Atticus tells them not to judge people until they "climb into their skin and walk around in it".
He is assigned the case of defending a black who is wrongly accused of rape of a white lady. The town expects only a token defence and residents of the town do not look on him kindly when he tries his best to see that justice is meted out. He guides his children to stand up for what they believe in by setting an example himself.
Apart from the central theme, the narrative is very lively, something all of us can definitely relate to. There are few more interesting characters but if I told you everythin, you prolly wouldnt read the book.
This one could do without my rating.
On a parting note, my fav quote from the book, Atticus's words to Scout
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Its when you know you
Permalink | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)