Go, September

Sriman Aveek, who is currently interning to be a doctor, has of late become my chief supplier of books, and none of those he gives me disappoints. Stephen Alter’s book on Jim Corbett, In the Jungles of the Night, was a delight to read: he has immersed himself so deeply in the little-known details of Corbett’s life and persona that though this is a work of fiction, it could all have quite possibly happened. My only grouch would be that it ends too quickly: one mystery story, one tale of the killing of a tiger, one piece of a fictional diary, and that’s about it.

Equally gripping is the new edition of Rajmohan Gandhi’s magisterial biography of Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, released this year. A fat tome that runs into 500-odd pages of small text, it is so felicitously written that it reads almost like a thriller, and having begun yesterday, I am past page 117 already. I shall probably write a review of it later on (or add to this post: keep an eye on it), but I am glad that a large and embarrassing gap in my historical knowledge is being rapidly filled. Unlike with most of the other great stalwarts of the freedom struggle, I had known too little of the Iron Man of India. But I am already bemused to have learnt that he had a sharp tongue, an acid wit, an aura of aloof superiority, and a taste for humour that sometimes bordered on the vulgar (though the author has held back samples of that from us)!

The monsoon this time, long as it has lasted, is going out with a bang. These last few days, it has been raining torrentially, so much so that my whole garden was flooded, and the water flooded into the space below the stairwell. Can’t remember when that sort of thing last happened. Mercifully the water drained out soon, but it was a scare, and a reminder of how so many people suffer in this country: not all of them the poorest either.

This year, for a change, I won’t be travelling anywhere far during the pujo days, so I am hoping that a sizeable number of ex-students will drop in to say hello. And also that I might be able to sleep of nights.

It has been a painful year. May the Lord help me by easing my woes in the last quarter.