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When a Battle with Destiny Turns Deadly-An Excerpt from ‘Roses Are Blood Red’

Posted on by Penguin India

           ‘I’ll gift you a love story that every girl desires, but few get to live.’

Ensnared in the gossamer web of a dreamlike romance, Aarisha is blinded by a passion she can feel in her soul. She is head over heels in love with a man who seems too good to be true. But there are questions about her past that her beating heart cannot silence. Will she ever find the answers?

     ‘I’ll fight. I promise I’ll fight all the beasts that come our way’

Vanav is a man in love. His very life breath is a testament to his resolve to be one with Aarisha.  For this, he can move mountains. For her, he can make the impossible possible. She has promised she would fight all the beasts that come their way. But in this battle with destiny, what if the lover becomes the beast?

Here is an excerpt from this riveting saga of love-

————————————————————

The Thakur family was ushered outside along with the rest of the ladkiwale (the bride’s side), to await the stately procession of the groom’s family and friends. Vanav remained behind alone, watching the pomp and splendour as the groom and his family marched in. After much ado, both Aarisha and Shubh were made to sit on decorated chairs on a small stage as it was time for them to exchange the ceremonial garlands.

Vanav found himself a quiet place in one of the common restrooms and crouched. He could hear loud crackers and gun shots, and people making merry, but he knew that he couldn’t bear to witness the ceremony anymore. Hours later, his trance was broken by someone pushing open the door. He was surprised to see Aarisha.

‘Ranisa,’ he immediately stood up.

‘Thakur sahab, what on earth are you doing here?’

‘Nothing. I just . . .’

‘I have to use the loo.’

‘Oh, sorry. I’ll leave.’

As Vanav was about to step out, she stopped him. He turned around. She leaned over, her fragrance filling his senses, and whispered, ‘I know, Thakur sahab. I’ve always known. I always will. But know this, Thakur sahab, within this knowing of yours and mine, our story must live and die.’

Vanav, looked down at the floor, fighting back tears as each of her words resonated like a death knell in his heart.

‘I had to agree to this marriage now that my whole family has seen how appalling my choice of a husband was. Shubh is their choice, my father’s choice. As I agreed to the wedding, he is also my choice from now on. Shubh may not love me, not yet at least, but he has rights over me. Love doesn’t bestow any rights, Thakur sahab, but a relationship does; and a socially accepted relationship even more so. By choosing Daksh I fell so far down in everyone’s esteem, especially my father’s, that I can’t afford to refuse his choice. I’m sure that I too will eventually fall in love with Shubh over time . . . at least, I’ll try to. And if not, I’ll pretend, for marriage is a duty-bound exercise—and a woman is a slave to duty. Especially a married woman. You’re too young right now, Thakur sahab, to understand much of what I’m saying. But one day you’ll understand and then you’ll understand why sometimes loving someone with all your heart and soul is simply not enough to be with that person forever. It’s sad. It’s depressing. It’s soulsearing. But it’s the truth. I’m sure you’ll get over me.’

Vanav raised a woe-begone, tear-stained face, ‘Won’t we ever meet again, Ranisa?’

‘We didn’t know we would meet to begin with. It was destined. So, let the possibility of our meeting again be decided by destiny itself.’

‘Aarisha! Aarisha!’ she heard her friends calling out to her. ‘Be quick! Everyone is waiting!’

Vanav turned away slowly and left.

 

Will Vanav put together the pieces of his shattered heart to find love again?

Author of the hugely successful Forever series, Novoneel Chakraborty creates a spellbinding story of love, longing and loss in Roses Are Blood Red.

To find out whether destiny triumphs over a dangerous obsession, read Roses Are Blood Red!

 

Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess- An Excerpt

Posted on by Penguin India

Hailed as the first pan-Indian female superstar in an era which literally offered actresses crumbs, Sridevi tamed Hindi cinema like no other.

Sridevi-The Eternal Screen Goddess by Satyarth Nayak is the superstar’s journey from child star to one of our greatest movie luminaries who forever changed the narrative of Indian cinema.

Get a glimpse into the story of her life from the excerpt below:

The theatre had come alive. Halfway through the film—during the intermission—Tamil chartbusters were blaring from the speakers. A four-year-old girl had got up from her seat and was dancing in the aisle. Her face cherubic, eyes luminous and feet frolicking. Her parents gaped as the audience cheered her on. Oblivious to all this, the girl danced with abandon, casting a shadow on the blank cinema screen. Sharing this childhood memory with me (author) in our only meeting in 2012 at the Delhi premiere of English Vinglish, Sridevi had said, ‘I danced and danced until someone pulled me back.’

And yet, in a 1985 interview with Cine Blitz, Sridevi also described her younger self in these words: ‘I was a very shy and lonely child. Ihated crowds. The minute I saw more than three or four people in the room, I would run and hide behind my mother’s pallu.’

Reconciling these two childhood versions of Sridevi, so seemingly incompatible with each other, is difficult, but perhaps it was this fascinating dichotomy that spun the aura and mystique around her. People close to the actress vouch that she was not one or the other; she was both. Both the personas merging into one. That girl withdrawing behind her mother’s pallu could also streak through the silver screen like a bolt of lightning.

Sridevi was unquestionably to the movies born. The episode at the theatre ticked all the boxes for a star in the making—someone who is naturally drawn to the spotlight, and who can easily insulate oneself from the reality around, instead finding sanctuary in a world of her own. A being so truly dazzling that all those who watched were sucked into the fantasy she created on screen.

Sridevi was born on 13 August 1963. Her parents K. Ayyappan and Rajeshwari were residents of Meenampatti, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. Her younger sister Srilatha and stepbrother Satish, from Ayyappan’s first marriage, completed her family. Director Pankuj Parashar reveals how the actress got her name: ‘She once told me that when she was born, there was a bright red mark on her forehead, like a tika. Everyone started saying that a devi had taken birth and they named her Ayyappan Sridevi.

…Today, it is all the characters she has left behind who will keep flashing her magic. Some of us would be content with just those cinematic versions of her. But some of us might look beyond those avatars to seek out the real Sridevi, try to locate her in that twitch of the lips or that flutter of the eyes, in that laughter that never ended or that teardrop that never descended, in her every cadence and every silence, in her infinitesimal moments scattered throughout celluloid. We shall wonder whether the actress, who kept playing ‘others’ onscreen, ever got to be who she truly was. And having spent a lifetime creating ‘Sridevi’ for others, if the real person lived somewhere in her own fantasy.

In an interview with Cine Blitz in 1994, when asked what creature she would wish to be, Sridevi had replied: ‘A bird. I would love to fly free.’ Perhaps it is this unspoken longing in her eyes which a fan like Harish Iyer recognized that makes him say: ‘Many of her admirers keep tweeting “RIP—Return If Possible.” It is not easy for me to say this but I don’t want Sridevi to come back. I hope she is happy and at peace wherever she is. I just want her to rest.’

We can only thank her for those countless moments when she touched our very core with her art, we can only be awed by her immense legacy that generations will continue to discover, we can only be grateful to her for being that life on-screen who inspired lives everywhere. And we can only forever stare at the irony of her last words on celluloid. When walking away from all of us in that scene in Zero, Sridevi giggles and says: ‘Next time!’

Such was Sridevi’s megastardom that she emerged as the ‘hero’ at the box office, towering above her male co-actors. Challenging patriarchy in Bollywood like no other, she not only exalted the status of the Hindi film heroine but also empowered a whole generation of audiences.Find out more about her in Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess.

Is Policy Impeding India’s Tryst with Destiny? An Excerpt From In Service of The Republic

Posted on by Penguin India

Etched in India’s history as a period of remarkable growth, the decades spanning 1991 to 2011 saw a surge in wealth creation for the rich, considerable advancement in material comforts for the middle class and a noticeable decline in the number of people below the poverty line.

‘There was an optimism in this period of a kind that was perhaps last seen immediately after Independence. Finally, to many of us, India was getting on its feet,’ write economists and authors Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah.

Post 2011, the slump in the high growth performance of those two decades raises important questions about Indian economics and policymaking. In Service Of The Republic investigates policy and its impact on nations.

***

In mature countries, one element of the privacy problem is well established: the need to restrict government access to information about individuals, i.e., to tie down surveillance by the government into rule-of-law procedures and limit the extent of surveillance. This has evolved in the UK and in Europe over centuries. The conflict between state access to personal information, and human freedom, is particularly seen in the authoritarian governments of the twentieth century. This is the prime problem in the field of privacy, and is a largely settled matter in mature democracies.

In recent years, there is fresh concern about the abuse of information about individuals by firms such as Facebook. European policymakers have pushed to the frontiers of the field with the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) in the EU.

A simple reading of the contemporary literature on privacy in mature democracies is, then, quite misleading. Such a reader would see the bulk of the contemporary policy discourse as being the debates around GDPR and its enforcement. A reader of this literature would think that Facebook is a major problem in the field of privacy. Policy recommendations in India may flow from this study of the international experience that we have to block information access about Indians by Facebook using a legal instrument on the lines of GDPR. This position would be treated warmly by persons in India who are hostile to foreign companies.

Such transplantation of the international experience would, however, be incorrect for two reasons. First, access to personal information by the state is far more dangerous for individuals as compared with access to this information by private firms. Second, a law like GDPR makes assumptions about UK or EU state capacity. To favour creating a new privacy regulator that will coerce private firms on the question of privacy, without the checks and balances prevalent in the EU, would work out poorly in India.  In the Indian discourse, we have rapidly run ahead to proposing criminal sanctions, in the hands of the proposed ‘Data Protection Authority’.

***

Having developed a nuanced perspective on economics, political philosophy and public administration in their careers as professional economists as well as former civil servants, Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah offer remarkable clarity on the art and  science of policymaking in the meticulously researched In Service of the Republic.

 

An Interview with Kabir Khan- An Excerpt from ‘Directors’ Diaries 2’

Posted on by Penguin India

‘One of the primary principles of directing is making choices, you have to make one about whether something is right or wrong, because there is no middle ground. As a director, you make a choice and then stick with it, all the way.’

Directors’ Diaries 2 is an anthology by Rakesh Anand Bakshi that features the voices of some of India’s greatest film makers – -Shyam Benegal, Tanuja Chandra, Kabir Khan, Abhishek Chaubey, Nandita Das, Shakun Batra, Prabhu Deva and Mohit Suri-as well as significant but often overlooked behind-the-scenes crew such as spot boy Salim Shaikh, make-up artist Vikram Gaikwad and sound designer Rakesh Ranjan.

The book gives a peek into the lives, souls and motivations of these icons and can be a truly wonderful resource for young film-makers.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

Kabir Khan

FILMOGRAPHY: Kabul Express (2006); New York (2009); Ek Tha Tiger (2012); Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015); Phantom (2015); Tubelight (2017)

 

What made you script Kabul Express as your first feature film?

KK: After the 9/11 terror attack in New York, I found myself doing a lot of documentary work in and about Afghanistan. Eventually, I shot two or three documentaries in Afghanistan, as guerrilla short films. I had a huge number of real stories and anecdotes from my personal experiences in Afghanistan, which would churn in my conscious and subconscious mind, and I realized what I had experienced in Afghanistan would make a great story by itself. Thus inspired, I sat down one day to write the story of Kabul Express. In hindsight, it was easy to put it all down as a screenplay, because I basically just had to string together our experiences. I wrote the script within two or three months, which, I think, has been the fastest that I’ve written a script to date.

Considering your films may reflect socio-political themes, do you make them to raise questions or answers?

KK: Neither. Primarily, I just want to tell a story. But I do like to tell a story against a certain socio-political context, which has some sort of resonance, first within me, and then, in society. Having said that, my storytelling is neither agenda-driven nor thoughtdriven. But, yes, I think, I would like to say that I make films that raise some questions and may sometimes give a few answers that have not been heard before.

How did you get someone to produce Kabul Express?

KK: I was married by then and Mini was a VJ with MTV. So, she had a bit of an ‘engagement’ with Bollywood people; MTV VJs were celebrities back then. Mini knew some well-placed people and got me some important numbers of people I could pitch my script to. Jaideep Sahni, a screenplay writer who had written Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), was a friend, and helped me procure the numbers of actors and producers. I started contacting them.

However, whoever I narrated the story of Kabul Express to reacted with, ‘Wow! What a lovely story! But it is a very “different” film! Difficult to make.’ They felt there was no market for such a film. I was clear that I would be able to shoot it in Kabul, because for me, Kabul was not a location, it was a character in my film; and I had already shot two documentaries there and survived. I was confident that I’d be able to pull off a feature film there.

Meanwhile, I never gave up on trying to cast well-known actors. I went to all kinds of producers and production houses— new, old, semi-old, semi-new, small, very small, medium, big, very big. But I never approached Yashraj Films, because conventional wisdom told me, ‘Yashraj? To produce this kind of film? No way! Are you crazy!’

While I waited for producers to revert, I began to look for actors myself. I approached Arshad Warsi. Arshad’s wife is my wife’s friend so it wasn’t that difficult to meet him. He read the script and was immediately on board. Then, I met John Abraham and he too agreed to be in the film. With these two in, I thought my chances of getting a producer would increase exponentially. However, I was proved wrong. I still could not convince anyone to make the film.

An executive producer friend of mine, without my knowledge, had given the script to Adi [Aditya Chopra of Yashraj Films], because, at that point, he was looking for films outside his comfort zone. This friend knew about it because he was working with Adi. I received a call out of the blue from Yashraj Films. The caller informed me that Aditya Chopra wanted to meet me. I thought it was a prank. I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure. Like, hell! Adi Chopra would want to meet me, a first-time film-maker whose script is nowhere close to the kind of films Yashraj makes!’ However, I eventually realized the caller was serious and was indeed calling me from Yashraj Films!

Within five minutes of that call, Jaideep Sahni called me. He had read my script long ago, because I had bounced it off him as a friend. He said Adi wanted to meet me because he had read my script and liked it. Later, I found out that when Adi had mentioned my script to Jaideep, he had replied that he already knew about it because he had read it long ago and liked it too, and had even suggested changes. Adi had then asked him about me and Jaideep had told him, ‘Kabir’s a friend and he is capable of directing this film.’ And that’s when Adi decided to meet me and his office called me.

It was a momentous feeling when I entered Yashraj Films’ office to meet this mythical character, producer and director called Aditya Chopra. When I met him, he said, ‘I have read your script, it really moved me and I want to produce it. When can we start?’ And that was it! Adi stood by me like a rock, from day one.

Can you tell us how you usually direct an actor?

KK: Like I said, I believe in giving minimal directions on the first take. I just convey the context of the scene to them, tell them about the backdrop of the moment they are in at that point of the screenplay, where it’s headed, and that’s it. Once I give them that information, I wait to watch what the actor is going to give me in the very first take, or the rehearsal, building on whatever little I have told them. From that a few questions get answered. For example, are they on the same page as me? Have they gone somewhere else? Is the path they’ve taken more interesting than mine? Should I explore that zone, their intuition, their understanding of my scene? Or have they missed the mark completely? Then and only then do I start putting in or pulling out from their understanding and performance.

Frankly, I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, the way I function with my actors, and I do not know how others direct. It’s worked for me so far, or so I feel.

Grab your copy of Directors’ Diaries 2 today to discover how they were first drawn to the craft of film-making to how they got that elusive first break.

Immigrant Lines from ‘Translated from the Gibberish’

Posted on by Penguin India

The people who migrate to a foreign land are often swathed in nostalgia of a place they call their own – their home. But what is really a home for an immigrant? Is it a place they inhabit or the land where their heart belongs?

Anosh Irani moved to Vancouver to pursue a degree in fine arts. It has been over two decades since he left the bustling streets of Bombay (as he prefers to call it). His latest book Translated from the Gibberish is a result of his many visits to the JJ Bridge in Mumbai, overlooking the houses lined nearby, as he expresses that, “The bridge allows me to be so close to their windows that I can literally smell their lives.”

The excerpts below reveal the everyday realization of life as an immigrant, through the lens of different characters from Translated from the Gibberish (Part One).

 

Abdul, a chef in Vancouver encounters a rat scurrying in his restaurant…

“That rat had found a way in but could not find a way out. That rat was him.” … “Abdul was a passport-less creature; he had used a tourist visa to enter Canada, and was now one of the invisibles.”

~

The only place where Abdul felt happy was at the cricket ground where –

“The soft carpet of grass had been a revelation. Unlike the dusty maidaans of Bombay, which sent him home with cuts and bruises, the grass was a homely rug— gentle and inviting. He had literally gone to sleep on it, feeling it against his back. He had been in Vancouver for more than a year by then, but this was the first time he had smiled. And the grass had smiled too. No one in Vancouver had smiled at him, but the grass did.”

~

Sujoy, an immigrant in New York, overcome by memories of his mother’s authentic recipes…

“He cooked the only way he knew how, the way his mother had taught him. But after he had eaten at some Indian restaurants in New York, the meaning became clear. Some of the meals had been great—but that was like saying the music in an opera was superb, except for when the soprano hit the wrong notes.”

~

On a Sunday morning, in their house in Mumbai, Sujoy’s father grabbed an atlas he won at a radio quiz show –

“And when he touched his atlas, he traced his fingers along its pages as a blind person would, as if searching for something.”

~

Majid, the owner of a sweet shop in Canada named ‘Almirah Sweets’, which meant –

“A treasury of sweetness. It was borrowed from the Urdu word for cabinet, but for Majid it meant a treasure chest of the most delectable delicacies known to man, woman, or beast. Of course, he did not mention the beast part to anyone, but he’d had a dream the night before the shop opened in which a fantastical beast had towered above him, baring its teeth and fangs; Majid had offered it some mawa dessert, and the beast had eaten the delicacy gently, and had blessed Majid instead of harming him. Majid interpreted the dream as a sign that no matter how foreign these shores looked, no matter how threatening its people seemed, his sweets would bring them together.”

Each narrative arc in the book conveys the pathos of hundreds of immigrants – their longing to return to their loved ones and the comfort of foreign land. Grab a copy of Translated from the Gibberish (Part One) and indulge in some nostalgic trips of your own!

Q & A: HH The Dalai Lama on India, its Teachings and His message to our World Leaders

Posted on by Penguin India

How much has India and its ancient Indian texts inspired your thinking and teaching?

Tibet’s first contact with Buddhism occurred with the arrival of a Chinese princess in the seventh century. But, a century later, the Tibetan Emperor chose to introduce Buddhism from India. He invited Shantarakshita, a venerable monk, philosopher and logician, and the foremost scholar of his day at Nalanda University, to visit Tibet. He advised the Emperor to initiate the translation of Indian Buddhist literature into Tibetan.

We Tibetans have kept this tradition alive since then, with its emphasis on the use of logic and reason and its systematic understanding of the workings of the mind and emotions. As a simple human being, a Tibetan and a Buddhist, I myself am a student of this tradition—indeed, every cell of my brain is filled with Nalanda thought. We learn fundamental texts by heart, study classic Indian and Tibetan commentaries to them, and, on the basis of logic and reason, debate what we’ve learned with each other. This sharpens the mind and yields deep understanding.

 

In the foreword you mention ‘Eight Verses for Training The Mind’, how much has the book influenced you?

This short text the ‘Eight Verses for Training the Mind’ contains instructions not only for developing the awakening mind of bodhichitta, the cultivation of warm-hearted compassion, but also for developing a view of reality. I first received an explanation of it from the then Regent, Tagdrag Rinpoché, when I was a small boy; later I heard it from my junior tutor, Kyabjé Trijang Rinpoché. I’ve been reciting it and thinking about it daily since then.

The text reminds us that when we give to the poor we should do so respectfully; we should treasure ill-natured trouble-makers and give the victory to others, regarding enemies as precious teachers. We should cultivate the practice of ‘giving and taking’ and regard all things as like illusions, asking ourselves whether things really exist the way they appear.

In my daily practice, to review the entire path to enlightenment I use the ‘Foundation of All Excellence’, but to renew my practice of compassion, I recite the ‘Eight Verses for Training the Mind’. There are other times too, when a flight is delayed and I might feel impatient—this is the text I repeat to myself.

 

If there was a message that you would want to give to the world leaders of today, what would it be?

We need to remember the oneness of humanity, that in being human we are all the same. When I see two eyes, one mouth, one nose, I know I’m dealing with another human being like me. I’m like those young children who don’t care about their companions’ background so long as they smile and are willing to play. To emphasise nationality, religion, and colour just creates division. We have to look at things on a deeper level and remember that we are all the same as human beings.

As social animals, human beings depend on the community in which they live, and these days that community is the whole of humanity. To meet the challenges that affect us all, such as the climate crisis, we must work together. Scientists have been warning us for some time of the dangers we face. We cannot simply exploit this planet and its natural environment; we have to take care of it.

 

 

Angry Goddesses: 5 Lines that Showcase the “Badass Mothers” from ‘A People’s History Of Heaven’

Posted on by Penguin India

Mathangi Subramanian’s A People’s History of Heaven takes us to a thirty-year-old slum called Heaven, hidden between brand-new high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore. In this close-knit community, five girls on the cusp of womanhood – a graffiti artist; a transgender Christian convert; a blind dancer; a migrant who discovers a family secret; and the queer daughter of a hijabi union leader – forge an unbreakable bond.

When the local government wants to demolish their tin shacks to build a shopping mall, the girls and their mother refuse to be erased. Here are 5 powerful lines from the book that show us the unshakeable strength of the mothers through the girls’ eyes:

 

‘Our houses may break, but our mothers won’t. Instead, they form a human chain, hijabs and dupattas snapping in the metallic wind, saris shimmering in the afternoon sun. Between the machines and the broken stone, our mothers blaze like carnations scattered at the feet of smashed-up goddesses.’

~

‘In our mothers’ eyes, in our eyes, it’s a war we have a chance of winning.’

~

‘When the bus pulls away, our mothers go about the business of managing a crisis. Gather blankets and soap and changes of clothes. Take turns using each other’s phones to tell their employers that they won’t be in tomorrow. Probably not the next day either. […] They are bustling and efficient, moving with a surety that surprises us.’

~

‘The first time the city tried to demolish Heaven, our mothers’ mothers and their husbands streamed out of their houses with rocks and crowbars and broken metal. A few of our mothers did too. Rushed toward the bulldozers like fire from a dragon’s mouth. Wedged open the bulldozers’ doors and pulled out the drivers.’

~

‘[Our mothers are] Angry, unforgiving goddesses, the kind with skulls around their necks and corpses beneath their feet.

The kind that protect their children.

That protect their daughters.’

Vibrant and heartwarming, A People’s History of Heaven dazzles in its depiction of female friendship amidst adversity.

 

Memorable quotes from India’s favourite storyteller, Sudha Murty!

Posted on by Penguin India

Sudha Murty has won the hearts of the young and adults alike with her inspiring stories and life-lessons.

The Sudha Murty Children’s Treasury brings together some of her most adored short stories in the form of a dazzling hardback edition. Here are some words of wisdom from the book, that would give you your daily dose of motivation!

‘As a teacher, I have seen that sometimes even a bright student may not do well because of the pressures of the final test. There are other ways to examine the depth of knowledge of the student, like surprise exams, open book exams, oral exams etc. The examination should not scare the students, instead it should measure knowledge fairly and give marks accordingly.’

~

Front cover of The Sudha Murty Children's Treasury
The Sudha Murty Children’s Treasury || Sudha Murty

‘When climbing the ladder it is very easy to kick those below, but one must not forget that you cannot stay at the top forever. The higher you go, the longer is the fall.’

~

‘It is not fear that binds you to your boss. Affection, openness and the appreciation of your qualities builds a long-lasting relationship. We spend most of our time at our work places. This time should be spent in happiness, not in blaming each other.’

~

‘What had I learnt from the hard journey that was my life? Did I work for money, fame or glamour? No, I did not work for those; they came accidentally to me. Initially I worked for myself, excelling in studies. After that I was devoted to Infosys and my family. Should not the remaining part of my life be used to help those people who were suffering for no fault of theirs?’

~

‘How long can you keep birds in cages when their wings are strong and they are ready to fly? We can give our children only two things in life which are essential. Strong roots and powerful wings. Then they may fly anywhere and live independently. Of all the luxuries in life, the greatest luxury is getting freedom of the right kind.’

From inspiring real-life encounters as a teacher to timeless stories woven from the memories of her own grandparents’ bedtime tales, The Sudha Murty Children’s Treasury is a must-read collection of all stories that have delighted generations of readers. Gift this to your friends today for their daily dose of inspiration!

Decoding the Spaces in Lisa Brennan- Jobs’ Life in Her Memoir ‘Small Fry’

Posted on by Penguin India

Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents- artist Chrisann Brennan and co-founder of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs- Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley.

‘That is my father and no one knows it but it’s true’, mused a young Lisa as she stared at the face splashed across newspapers and magazines. Struggling to find her place at the periphery of her father’s ever expanding life, Lisa gradually manoeuvred a winding path into the relationship that seemed to define her.

Read excerpts from Small Fry that give insight into her relationship with her father, Steve Jobs:

 

  1. Meeting the man who had fathered her made him real while not having him around left a gaping void. Oscillating between his presence and absence made young Lisa question the veracity of the reunion-

‘I hadn’t seen him for years, and I wouldn’t see him for years after that. The memory of this day, the outlandish house and my strange father, seemed surreal when I thought of it later, as if it hadn’t really happened.’

 

  1. Meandering around his mansion on a bright afternoon, Lisa revelled in an elusive moment of Steve’s awareness of her presence as she drank in the quirks and features of her father’s physicality-

‘His face looked fresh against the dark, shiny hair. Being near him in the bright light with the smells of dirt and trees, the spaciousness of the land, was electric and magical. Once I caught him looking at me sidelong….’

  1. For Lisa, Steve was a puzzle and her endless curiosity to find all the pieces to their relationship made her wonder at all that was within him-

‘Steve . I knew so little about him. He was like those Michelangelo sculptures of men trapped in rough stone, half smooth, half rough, that made you imagine the part inside that had not yet come out.’

  1. Playing on a trampoline with her father, Lisa couldn’t bring herself to surrender to the joy of the moment. Unable to bridge the distance between them she was pitifully aware of the gaze of those around-

‘Twice we found ourselves coming down to land at the same moment. I prayed we wouldn’t touch; it would be too intimate. I was conscious of scrabbling away from accidental closeness in front of strangers.’

  1. Despite the indifference that rattled her, for Lisa, her father was a man of the world and her connection to a larger universe that she would eventually step into-

‘For me, it was the opposite: the closer I was to him, the less I would feel ashamed; he was part of the world, and he would accelerate me into the light.’

  1. For her first ever vacation, Steve took Lisa to Hawaii and in a moment where he realised they were anchored to predestined bonds of blood, he gave Lisa a glimpse of his awe at being her father-

‘Look how we both have eyebrows that come together in the middle,” he said. “And how we have the same nose.”

  1. Having lost out on her father’s presence repeatedly throughout her life, Lisa seemed determined to hold on to some tangible evidence of his being even as the final darkness crept forward to claim him-

‘Three months before he died, I began to steal things from my father’s house. I wandered around barefoot and slipped objects into my pockets. I took blush, toothpaste, two chipped finger bowls……’

When she was young, Lisa’s father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, he took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools.

Small Fry is a poignant coming-of-age story of a child growing up in disparate worlds as she grapples with feelings of illegitimacy and shame but also admiration for the father she yearns for.

8 Stunning Lines from ‘A People’s History of Heaven’ to Sear Your Heart

Posted on by Penguin India

Award-winning author Minal Hajratwala claims: ‘Everything about A People’s History of Heaven is wonderful: the lyrical, light touch of the narrator, the story, the humor, and most of all, the girls.’

Washington Independent Review of Books adds: ‘Mathangi Subramanian’s observations are sharp, witty, and incisive; her writing is consistently gorgeous. She is passionate about the plight of Indian girls subjected to a patriarchal system that ruthlessly oppresses and devalues them.’

Here are a few heart-touching lines from the book:

“Between the machines and the broken stone, our mothers blaze like carnations scattered at the feet of smashed-up goddesses. Angry, unforgiving goddesses, the kind with skulls around their necks and corpses beneath their feet. The kind that protect their children. That protect their daughters.”

~

‘What would it sound like, if you broke the sky? Would it be a jagged shattering of sharp-edged glass? A frayed ripping of overwashed fabric? Or would the sky break the way skin breaks, silently oozing, and smelling like blood?’

~

‘The world is full of almosts. Almost living, almost dying. Almost husbands, almost wives. Almost together. Almost apart.’

~

‘In Heaven, there are first families and second families. But there are other families too. Families born out of something more than blood. Families that cannot be erased with a new letter, a new story. A new neighborhood, a new wife.’

~

‘Neelamma Aunty had always thought of motherhood like marriage: a set of duties and obligations, a series of defined tasks. But clutching Deepa to her chest, she realized it was something more. Something she would have to learn. Not the way she had learned tailoring to bring in money but the way she had learned to raise herself.’

~

‘Her mother, who has lost a father. Lost a husband, a daughter, a son. Once, not so long ago, she thought she might lose herself. Somehow, after all of this loss, she survived.’

~

‘Padma knew then with frightening certainty that whatever her parents sought, it wasn’t here, in this granite metropolis that stared at her family with gravel-mottled eyes. Maybe it wasn’t anywhere.’

~

‘Thus far, her life had been a collection of the consequences of other people’s choices. But maybe it no longer had to be. Maybe, now, the choices could be her own.’

A People’s History of Heaven is a poignant look at the power of female bonding amidst adversity.

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