Reading, Istanbul and Short stories: collected thoughts

Reading

One of the myriad things I love about reading is how it helps us gain a perspective on things we could hardly even dream about otherwise. From the islands of Sunderbans to streets of Boston to the New york subways and a million obscure places! Fiction never claims to be a complete and detailed work of study, what it does give us though is a rich and authentic aroma of varied places and emotions. From the exotic delicacies to the mundane musings, fiction offers us an irresistible palate of colours, flavours and romanticism.

Istanbul

Istanbul is one of the very few surviving cities in the world which can claim to be fiercely secular and richly Islamic at the same time. It is perhaps the only place where you can sit in bars and talk about Allah without exuding even an iota of hypocrisy. Istanbul does not claim to represent the purest form of Islam, it is caught up in between the east and the west, the old and the new and poses tough ethical, moral and religious questions for a purist. Reading Elif Shafak has convinced me to put Istanbul as one of my favourite cities in the world to live in, even though I have never visited it!

Short Stories

One of the things that I look forward to these days is the half n hour bus journey from my home to my workplace. I get in the spanking red AC bus, choose a quiet window seat one or two rows from the back and start reading a short story collection. These days I'm well into Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Interpreter of Maladies'. The spectrum of emotions are astounding and yet the common thread of pain, longing and nostalgia among all the stories is beautifully woven. There is something too delectable about short stories which make it more powerful perhaps than voluminously profuse novels.

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