'Gahire Pani' by Ratnakar Matkari

Pages: 206
Goodreads, Amazon

Last month, I asked my Twitter followers if they'd be interested in gifting me a book for my birthday. Though a few fell prey to this sentimental yet evil appeal, I backed off thinking that it wasn't too nice of me to do something like this and didn't go back to this request until the day arrived. However, Abhijeet insisted on sending a book even though the birthday had almost left the calendar. Many thanks to him for gifting me 'Gahire Pani' ('Deep water' in Marathi).

After the heavy duty Hindi dose of Rashmirathi, I was a bit uncertain about whether to read 'Gahire Pani' without a Marathi dictionary. The author's introduction wasn't too helpful either since, strangely, he had written only about the TV show based on this book.

The book is a collection of horror and thriller short stories. The author is blessed with a weird mind (which I like!) that has him all sorts of supernatural ideas. The stories belong to various genres predominant among which is horror.

Though the stories aren't very scary, they are definitely thrilling. I found myself thinking about a few stories long after I had read them. The first story about a boy being able to predict anybody's date of death when he is told that person's birthday is definitely one such story.

Though most of the horror stories score high on the thrill quotient, the ones about time travel. murder plot and witchcraft are forgettable. An impressive narrative in this maze of thrill is the story of a girl who keeps getting flashes about an assault in her previous life. Though the plot's climax is not much to speak about, the story has been told in the form of letters from the protagonist to herself. It was a really interesting way of unfolding the events.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and will gladly read anything else by the author. I thank Abhijeet again for giving me the chance to read something so out of my reading span. Without this gift, I would have been a stranger to a Poe-sque Marathi author. 

'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling(?)

Pages: 327
Goodreads, Amazon

The "Harry Potter" series holds a special place for me because it introduced me to the world of fantasy. I read the series quite late after all the books were released. I even ignored all the movies considering them as imbecile. Credit to a niece who challenged me to give the first book a try and then stop myself from reading the rest of the books. Like innumerable people across the globe, I was smitten by the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

The buzz around the new play in the Potter series was quite strong since last year. Of course, it would have been wonderful to watch the play especially since it featured actors besides the ones in the movies. However, since the play is currently playing only in UK, one had to take solace in the next best option - the play's screenplay. Having read the main series and having watched all the movies based on them, I bought the screenplay without reading about its reviews. 

The plot revolves around Harry Potter's son, Albus. It portrays Albus' pain of bearing the burden of expectations that the world has thrust upon him simply because he is the son of a famous hero. In his journey of finding his own identity, Albus comes across and befriends Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius. While Albus is nothing like Harry when it comes to magic, Scorpius' personality is extremely different from that of his evil (until the previous book) father, Draco. The villainous touch to the plot is lent by Voldemort's daughter, Delphini. 

The plot relies heavily on time travel in order to take the readers and the characters back to the plots of the previous books. Like the characters in the main series, Albus and Scorpius are consistent at making mistakes, stick to love and friendship, and recover from their setbacks after receiving help from unexpected quarters. Finally, they also overcome their opponent and everything ends up being well. The added theme of children trying to find themselves by coming out of the shadows of their parents has been well portrayed. 

As the book is a screenplay (not sure what 'special rehearsal edition' is), it obviously doesn't read like an ordinary book. However, my main complaint is regarding the characters. While a play may not give the writers the liberty of developing characters as well as they'd like to, there was a distinct disconnect in this book from how the characters behaved in the main series. Especially, Ron was presented as a joker who is mocked by everybody. I found myself saying, "This is not something this character would say," several times. Though I have my set of complaints about the main series, this botheration about characters in this books, shows how well the previous books were written and presented in the movies. 

I'd like to forget this book quickly and let the special place of the main series remain intact with me. But will I miss the chance to watch the play? Book the best seats please. 

'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury

Pages: 227
Goodreads, Amazon

I rarely add books to my Goodreads "To-read" list because, firstly, I'm too lazy and, secondly, I try to read books based on chance encounters and leisurely discoveries rather than as a plan. Besides, being almost always confused about things doesn't help a reading plan much. But there are a few books in my "To-read" list based on someone's kind recommendations or the times when I stumble upon a book and liked it so much that I had to keep it in the list (only to be forgotten at a later time). Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 found a place in the list based on one such quirk.

Yamini was kind and smart enough to look up the list and gift it on my birthday after I quite shamelessly and repeatedly kept on asking her for a gift. By the way, I am so ignorant towards my "To-read" list that I deduced that this book existed in my list based on Yamini's tweet on blessing these lists for helping one decide a gift.

The fast-paced book is based in the year 2052. The world has achieved advancements in technology (there are four-walled televisions and TV shows in which one can participate as a character right from the comfort of one's home) but not so much ideologically (people are busy having fun by indulging in TV shows but nobody has any individuality of actions or thoughts). The administrative state seems to have grown extremely powerful in its endeavour to clamp down on any form of questioning thinking. There is a team of Firemen which is always on its toes promptly performing its duty of visiting homes and burning books. (451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns.)

The book is about Guy Montag, a Fireman who is on the verge of awakening from his ideological stupour. Deep down, Montag knows that something is wrong with everything. His wife is happily floating in the pleasures of TV and the company of her equally brain-dead friends. Montag's world changes when he comes across a free-minded girl (Clarisse) and an old man (Faber), both of whom are free souls, and who psychologically shake Montag up and inspire him to revolt against the system. Montag runs away from everything with the ambition of reestablishing a freedom of thought in the world.

Bradbury doesn't devote many pages to world or character building. He is out there to convey an emotion and he does it well succinctly. Montag seems torn between two worlds but we don't know much about him till the end. I didn't really feel much for Clarisse when she disappeared whereas Montag was terribly disconsolate.

The book touches upon the aspects of a grim future world, freedom of thought and most importantly, how books shape people. It is an expression of the author's love of books and I was blown away by the way that has he chosen to pour it into the words. It kept reminding me of the Matrix trilogy with Montag as Neo, Faber as Morpheus and Clarisse as Trinity.

The 60th anniversary edition of the book (with the above cover) has a history, context and criticism section which makes it a far more interesting read. Since the book itself is shorter than 200 pages, this section is not worth skipping as it has views of the author himself and famous reviewers about the book itself and its adaptation as an audiobook, a play and a movie.

Since the book was written and published in the 1950s, the narration is somewhat different from what I have come to know as modern literature. There seem to be occasional bumps in the flow of the narration because of the jumpy nature of the plot. There are a few instances, especially when Montag moves from one location to the other, when the characters seems to be daydreaming or on a psychological trip. I lost the narration completely at these points, however, it didn't matter much.

I loved every bit of the book and the fact that it makes books seem all the more important to people made it even more special to me.