Cyclopic got me started on this idea. His post was the first one I read. When I was growing up, we did not have TV or the Internet, TV started sometime in the eighties in India with only the National Channel. We got ours in 1984 so we could watch the Asiad Games that New Delhi hosted that year.
We were also growing up in the remote north eastern jungle regions, so we were not taken out for movies, there were no shopping malls. Children were not allowed to attend occasional Army/ Airforce parties.
Nature was our best friend and we lived vicariously through books, sixty percent of these impressionable years. Later, in my twenties too, life was limited to college, university, home, television (with one channel - Doordarshan) and BOOKs (the American Center Library Kolkata then had free membership - that is where I found books on AI and May Sarton and The Confederacy of Dunces by Toole)
And of course there was the British Council Division Library, expensive fees, but huge collection, more importantly, unlike in Indian college lib you could walk amidst the shelves, touch the books, settle down in a window seat in the airconditioned fragrant cozy redaing space and be lost - Keat's biography called ABBA ABBA is the first one I had picked up herealong with the biography of Coco Chanel and had learned she is the one who invented the color magenta - one color I love to wear and look at.
So here goes the list of fifteen I would choose if I could have only twenty.
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran ("Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding" ,the Prophetsaid of Pain - isn't it lovely?)
Men and Women by Robert Browning (an old, old copy the leaves of which smell of far away places and distant times). I love the characters of Fra Lippo Lippi and sad, submitting artist Andrea del Sartoand their 'voices' mingle with my professors in my head when I read them and the drak mysterious corridors of Calcuttauniversity come alive in my mind, like you can step into that world any minute... my twenties are associated with these books in the first set -Horcruxes as it were of my twenties soul (I love Harry Potter :) don't laugh plesae)
The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier about the surreal 'contact' between two worlds or perhaps the same one on two different dimensions in time? This shapes my mind for sc-fi to come.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.
Anandamath by Bamkim Chndra Chattopadhyay (a song from this book, Bande Mataram, became our National Song - not Anthem, which was by Tagore) , a classic tale of how fiercely she loves, how tenderly she hates and how creatively she can destroy - what a woman can do and be, given the opportunity.
Shoroshi by Sarat Ch Chattopadhyay, another classic novel about a powerful woman from rural Bengal who knows what she is and can be and fights the repressive bourgeoise world in her village all alone.
Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee came to me when I was in class three, made me fall in love with the beauty of rural Bengal, its tender gentle loving ways. Later, this book gets made into a world famous film in the hands of Satyajit Ray. The author was a civil engineer by profession and you couldthink of him as the Thomas Hardy of Bengal. If you want access to the soul and spirit of my community, Bengal, then these are writers to read...,
Rajkahini by Abanindranath Tagore, same year another class book filled with beautiful drawings by the author in his inimitable style accompnying tales about the fierce warriers of the Bhil, Gond, Rajput Gehlot tribes of Western India, their lovely queens (Rani Padmini who was imported from Persia) that jumped into the fire and killed themselves when they perceived their honor was at stake (the famous Jawahar Vrat) or mounted on their Arab steeds drew a sword to give battle to the ambitious and mighty Mughal Emperors.
The Adventures of Professor Shanku by Satyjit Ray shaped my scientific temperament. The writer is the same one that won the lifetime achievement Oscar on his deathbed.
Ganodebata by Manik Banerjee was my first taste of what the dilemma of a man can be, when faced with choices between individual and community welfare, love and conventions, family and friends ... I consider this one to be the Steinbeck of our country.
The Adventures of Rijuda by Buddhodev Guha is responsibe for the love and understanding I developed of our jungles and nature. I travelled with Rijuda in my mind and learned about my country through his lens.
The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, in lovely Bangla translation in Anandamela one of the most popular children's mags in Bengal, is the medium of my first contact with the Picaros of South America, the American Indians and how they were exploited for their land and resources, about ancient Egyptian wealth and treasures, about life on the high Seas, about how the inside of a space research center could look like - I simply adore Herge's pictures. I can spend hours with a Tintin comics even now although they are so expensive I never owned any - I only own two, bought second hand, another one was a birthday gift. People do not realize the value of these books znd were reluctant tobuy them -it is for these books that I often wished - me and my bro, that we hda some benevolent uncle or aunt whom we could ask - to buy books for us.
Running From Safety and the Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach arebooks that empowered me to strive to fulfill all those promises I had mdae to little wondering Nabina years ago - in fact everytime I read the Metaposts by Michael and Meliss, am reminded somehow of this author...
Jonathan Livingstone Sea Gull - and I read the edition with the blue cover, owned the one with violet cover but gave it away in afit of spontaneous generosity and regret it sorely because I cant find the same cover - by Richard Bach again - today if I could battle hostile waves to keep to the course of my dreams it is thanks to this one book.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that taught me the whole conspires to get you going when you know your destiny and allow yourself to follow it...the actual lines say something else - it talks of love - but this is what stayed in my mind.
With that ends this journey. To, whoever actually started this meme, thank you, I enjoyed the trip - hope I didn't bore my blogmates too much with this. Would love to read your Fifteen - if you would care to give it a thought
Posts
