About the Blog

This is my diary....what I make sense of, around me. You'll find short prose on contemporary topics that interest me. What can you expect - Best adjectives? …. hmm occasionally, tossed around flowery verbs ?…. Nope, haiku-like super-brevity? … I try to. Thanks for dropping by & hope to see you again

October 19, 2009

A case of exploding mangoes

The scene is set among the final days of General Zia and his set of cronies protecting him from what they believe are a bunch of his own aging military generals waiting in the wings out to get him. He comes across vividly as a guy in some sort of dementia (what the author describes as a man self marinating in paranoia). Gen Zia believes he has become a prisoner in own Army house, a 5 mile security cover surrounding him is not enough, there is a fear that someone might be digging a tunnel underground to reach him! And even the itching in his back, which the doctor ascribes to intestinal worms tunneling out reminds him of his forlorn fate. Zia’s portrait as a shrewd but bumbling character is captured vividly and makes for interesting read but that appears only in alternate chapters, in the rest the author meanders listlessly among other unrelated topics (Blind Zainab, Underground cell in Lahore fort, American jaunts in Pak etc).

Characters like General Akthar, Chief of staff Beg, Major Kiyani ( i thought it was the current chief of Army but this guy goes down with the plane), Brigadier TM all appear to be some characters straight out of a typical Pakistan bashing Hindi movie that we are familiar with (the ones Ajay Devgan or Sunny Deol have wrestled with). There is no dearth of similar perception of India/Indians there....Land of Lentil eaters where Gandhi is described as banya while Nehru is a Fornicator, even Lata & Asha are not spared (fat ugly Indian sisters who sing like sex kitten); its all quid-pro-quo feeling across the border reflecting in the book.

Zia-ul-haq is the central theme of the book & he doesn’t disappoint, sample this ..
Without his uniform & presidential paraphernalia General Zia seemed to have shrunk. His moustache always waxed & twirled, drooped over his upper lip . His hair always oiled & parred down the middle was in a state of disarray, like a paraded squad on tea break.

General Zia’s eyes normally crossed, the right one looking in one direction while the left one wandered away to take in something else were for once focused in the same direction on the same objects (the chest of foreign correspondent Joanne herring). The angle of his stare was so obvious that if she drew two lines with a pencil, they would connect the iris of his eye straight to the two white spheres pushed up & pulled together.

He had almost made up his mind to reverse the crescent on the national flag after an Islamic scholar pointed out that it was a descending moon and not an ascending one, but then his advisers reminded him that the flag had been around for 40 years & since nobody actually had any problem with the direction of the crescent, it was better to leave the flag alone.


Mohammed Hanif’s novel exposes the bigotry & intrigue within Pak’s most powerful establishment with his heavily influenced westernized English language .

7 comments:

Anand said...

nice topic for a blog take...interesting inputs as well. I loved reading the book and had a hearty laugh many times..

Nona said...

I have come across this book. The title sounded like a B-grade thriller. But the titled combined with the photo made it very attractive. Now that you have give a positive review, I will mark it for reading. :)

Vasant Prabhu said...

@ Anand - thanks to your mini library that I was able to lay my hands on the book. Had a good laugh too.

@Nona- the book is a bit like B-grade thriller minus the songs & dances.

Michelle said...

Gee... I haven't been here so long you have a new blog template! :-|

I'm so behind on reading blogs. I'm trying to catch up today. :-)

I can't remember... do you know about Blogblast for Peace day? It's Nov 5th and last year we had hundreds of bloggers participating. I hope you'll be joining us and adding your name to the list. :-)

http://crows-feet.blogspot.com/2009/10/peace-globe-day-countdown.html

రామ ShastriX said...

Vaz, i haven't read the book, but i want to share a nugget that happened the night of 17.AUG.1988 at Crescent (!) Court, while i was working with NIIT.

We had a bunch of pals getting ready to celebrate the b'day of one of the guys the next day when the news came on the TV (it just made it to the English one at 9 PM, i think) that Gen. Zia was blasted out of the sky. We all did an impromptu jig.

Vasant Prabhu said...

@ Michelle - Good to hear you. Thanks, I would certainly be glad to add to the list

@Shaz - Ha ha, I can imagine you doing 'impromptu jig', you have no love lost for this guy I guess :)

R. Ramesh said...

thanks 4 passing by friend.. best wishes to u..

Feedburner Count