The Buddha of Suburbia, by Hanif Kureishi

I've just finished reading the book, and am frantically looking for the video. BBC had made a 4 episode series out of this book by Hanif Kureishi in 1993, which was probably shown only to the British TV viewers. The video is being sold in Amazon.com, and I have placed an order right away. They say it would be dispatched by 28th July from the USA, and would reach here in India between August 21 and September 11, 2008. I'll wait.

The Buddha of Suburbia, written in 1990, won Kureishi the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, and indeed deserved to be made into a motion picture. The characters are extremely strong. Karim Amir, the narrator and protagonist, is an Indian, born and bred in South London. This novel is about the life led by a normal Indo-British family in London, the problems faced and the heights reached. It's a chain of incidents engulfing Karim, his father Haroon, mother Margaret, Haroon's love Eva, her son Charlie, Haroon's long time friend Anwar, his daughter Jamila, son-in-law Changez, and a multitude of other characters making their presence in the life of Karim.

Each character is very well defined, and their actions accurate and distinct. After somewhat progressing through the novel, one could clearly visualize their expressions, and possibly predict how they would react to a certain incident or dialogue. This inherent depth of the characters, and the way they change over a period of time, following natural human tendency, is brilliantly brought out by Kureishi.

On the cover of the book is a comment by Salman Rushdie: "This is exactly the novel one hoped Hanif Kureishi would write: utterly irreverent and wildly improper, but also genuinely touching and truthful. And very funny indeed." This quite aptly sums up the essence of the novel. A marvelous read from one of my favorite authors.

License to kill?

Driving never really attracted me. That's the way it had been from my teenage, when Dad had once made a futile attempt to teach me driving, and had dropped it few days later. Later, I would rather board an 'Auto' with my earphones plugged in, or the train with anything to read, to reach my destination. That's the reason I couldn't even get myself to ride a bicycle over these years. However, life went by, and the recent odd behavior of Auto drivers, their unreasonable and illogical quotation of fares, apparently forced me to think of buying my own car, more as an independent alternative to escape from the clutches of the not-so-convenient public conveyance of the present Hyderabad.

Then really came the need to learn driving. One fine evening, while strolling through the City Center Mall, the latest favorite destination of the city youngsters, I did a Google search from my mobile phone for 'Driving Schools in Hyderabad'. The first result contained a phone number. I inquired their rates: Rs. 2,000 to teach using a Maruti 800 model, plus an additional Rs. 1,000 if I would consult them for getting the license done. Good enough! My driving classes started the following week.

I started getting up at 6:45 AM (quite early to my standards), and the driver used to be there sharp at 7:30 with the white colored Maruti 800. It was an old model, even the seat belt was torn. It was learning that mattered, so I ignored the fancies. The classes went on for around three weeks covering a distance of 130 kms, through the same route every morning. The trainer had an extra pair of accelerator-brake-clutch near his feet. Not being very confident at the end of three weeks, I decided to top up for an additional 65 kms.

Meanwhile, I decided to apply for the learners license, facilitated by the driving school and reached the Trimulgherry RTA (Road Transport Authority) office one fine Saturday sharp at 10 in the morning. The school authorities had said that I didn't need to go through any test there, because of which neither did they provide me any theory lessons, nor any book or study materials. Meaning, they taught me driving, without teaching the traffic rules in detail. There were many in front of me at the RTA office getting their learner's licenses done. Some for drivers jobs, some probably for private vehicles.

I got into a room when my turn came, where I saw few uniformed men with pre-assigned tasks. One of them checked my name in the list of applicants, the next person captured a photograph using a webcam. Then I came to a computer where an online test was being displayed on the monitor. I became a bit puzzled at this moment, as the driving school guys had specifically told me that there wasn't going to be any test. As I was trying to figure what to do next, a man in uniform came to the computer system, and started the online test, he himself answering all of the twenty questions that were asked. I, spellbound, was directed towards the exit door. I went out, waited, and got the learner's license after 5 minutes.

Later I heard that escaping from the test costs the applicants a mere Rs. 300. And a nice way for the authorities to make some money. What a shame indeed! Hundreds of people hit the roads everyday without any proper knowledge in driving, their basics remaining unclear for the rest of their lives.

Drink, don't snore!

Euro 2008 Finals, Spain - Germany, June 29

Three weeks back, I had become mesmerized by Spain's football, and had casually predicted in my post the possibility of Spain being the champions. At that time, I did not have an inkling about Netherlands, Germany, France, all the other teams. In the initial rounds, I was especially fascinated to watch the wonderful football played by Croatia, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Unfortunately, three of the above four could not go further than the quarter-finals. Spain made it, alongwith Russia, Turkey and Germany. And they beat Russia in the semi-finals, and finally Germany, to become the European champions.