BOOKS AND LIFE - Part 1
Started reading story books from third standard onwards. In Wellington borrowed "Gokulam" from neighbour's house to read. At a very young age ,in my native village,borrowed a paper back novel from an elder girl, the novel being "Charulatha " of Ranimuthu series. The cover picture was, two youngsters- lovers sitting on the beach sand. ( As usual side-story:- I knew mysterious deaths of two women, ?girls in my village. One was that of the girl who gave me this novel. She was a slightly handicapped girl,adapted child of an innocent couple, who got married and expired after a few months or might be within an year. I do not know the exact time duration between her death and her marriage. What I came to know by listening to a conversation between my mother and one of the relative was that she was unwell and died. Even at that young age, I could not imagine how such an energetic and pleasant young girl, who was kind to me could get so sick within a short period that could warrant death. And another one death of a young girl was said to be due to ghost killing the girl, when she went out for nature's call outside her house. This also was completely unacceptable for me, because I was already taught that ghost stories are imaginary. In both incidences, I was not able to decipher out my questions even to my mother, because I was so small that I did not know how to frame the questions within my mind to put into words. The reason for my not questioning of these came to my realisation only at a later age , but these two deaths are making me sad and angry whenever I happen to think or tell about them).
In Coonoor, used to collect money and buy children's small story books which would cost 30 paise each. And reading whichever book was available. School books, religious books,story books,weekly books, booklets, separate papers,anything. Kumudham was my favourite weekly . And other weeklies like Anandha vikatan, Rani(Varandhari rani), later on Kungumam,Savi, Devi,Kalkandu and big novels. In college, read so many books of James Hadley Chase followed by Sidney Sheldon and other authors.
The period of life from twelve to twenty-five years of age was encircled by books - school + college subject books and other books. Afterthat, there was about 12 years gap. In this meantime, no other books, except professional books. The years were utilised for marriage, babies care, house-chores, practice and post graduation .
Many people in my contact circle are book readers. Here I tell about a few books.
The other side of midnight - by Sidney Sheldon. - In this story Sheldon focuses mainly on two women - Catherine Alexander and Noelle Page. I will not detail this,because many would have read this.
The world in my pocket -by James Hadley Chase - In this story ,4 men and a woman hijack a truck with money. How they plan, execute and been found out- a really thrilling thriller.
A book titled 'CUJO'
-by Stephen King
This book is presented by my elder daughter.
The story begins as 'Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town ... ...' depicting a serial killer who was found out and the killer committed suicide ,so that the nightmare of the little town came to an end. And again starts with ' The monster was gone, the monster was dead.... ...,Except that the monster never dies.' (After about 10 years later). Now the monster is not human, but a dog - Cujo- which gets infected with rabies virus. It gets rabies by biting a bat , by chance ,and the bat biting it back.
And the story revolves around 2 families. One is of the master's of the dog, where the dog was given as a present for a mechanical work done by the 'boy' 's father. [The dog Cujo recognizes them as the man, the woman & the boy. It was an obedient dog (St Bernard breed) and very big in size - 200 pounds -about 90 kgs.]
And another family is of a man having an advertising agency, which is not making much profit and the wife and son whose car is having a problem, so that she goes to the mechanical shop of the first man to get it repaired, going there with their son, since the advertising agency husband goes out for his entrepreneur. This family's boy's name is Tad and he uses to be afraid of the invisible monster and at one time he fears the dog Cujo as the monster. The other family's boy's name is Brett.
And, unfortunately ,the dog has already killed Brett's father and when it sees the car with Tad and his mother, it tries to attack them. So,they are forced to remain inside the car for more than 40 hours and the boy gets very exhausted. So,she tries to get him out of the car and into the house and in the meantime with repeated dangerous encounters she kills the dog. But,due to dehydration, (the car stands in hot and bright sunlight during the day),fear and what not, the boy -Tad -who is only four years old, dies.
In between ,in the book, there are many character description of the individuals , rifts between husband and wife, mentions of other people and incidences. And finally ,when the father comes in search of them, he finds his wife and dead son. The story ends then with some more epilogue.
The above one- Cujo, is published in the year 1981.The next book I am mentioning is an old one, written by Jules Verne.
JOURNEY to the CENTRE of the EARTH
The author takes you to places unimaginable (of course all imaginations only), and makes your imagination gets wings.
From the book:-
1. (from the summit of a peak)
- the optical effect observed at all heights made the horizon higher than it should be while the central portions were correspondingly depressed.(true)
2.( while gazing down into the opening of an extinct volcano)
- There is nothing more irresistible than the attraction of the abyss.
During college time,used to go to Townhall( in Coimbatore) with one hostelmate and buy secondhand novels. Out of those, I brief about The Second Lady, by Irwing Wallace.
As the name depicts the Second Lady is a duplicate of the First Lady of America.In this story, the Russians try to replace the First Lady of America with a Soviet girl, because there will become a critical time about the political and internal turbulence in Korea, Iran and Boende- which is an African country. And they need to know the plot US is going to make. Wants to know the details of arms and ammunitions and armymen, deployed by US to Boende. America wants to contol the country, which is in Central Africa,and by this ,plots to influence the political scenario of all African countreis. And, Boende has much uranium. That is one other important attraction. The USSR and USA have accepted to conduct a summit in London, in which one important discussion is regarding Boende. So, in height of espionage work the KGB plans to replace the First Lady with a Russian actress, who looks similar to the First Lady of America, so that the plan and plot of USA can be found out first hand.
The lady is given training for three years- she has to undergo a few plastic surgeries, learn the mannerisms and past history of the First Lady. The Second Lady and her trainer- who is a KGB agent, starts loving each other. And there comes a time when the First Lady has to visit Russia. A women's conference is arranged in Mosco, before the London Summit and when the First Lady attends the conference, she is abducted from inside of her room secretely even with out the knowledge of the security men guarding outside the door and when she comes to know , she accepts the inevitable and hopes the Soviet girl- the Second Lady will make some flaw and gets identified to be a fake one.
As the days proceed and as the London summit is nearing, the First Lady is watching the US news regularly to hear that something will happen so that the Second Lady will be exposed atleast by her husband, the President. But,it never happens and also the London summit begins and both the American President and the Second Lady go to London. And also the Russian delegates, including Premier's wife.Two White House employees, who are close associates of the First Lady find out that the woman pretending as the First Lady is a fake and when one tries to tell the President, the President does not believe and warns against further talks like this.
Somehow or other, the Second Lady comes to know about the big secret,which will direct the Russia's decision about Boende, and as the Second Lady is about to meet the USSR President, she comes to know that she will be terminated after the secret is revealed. So, she negotiates and it is decided that the First Lady will be terminated,and only after she knows for sure about the termination of the First Lady ,she will reveal the secret and the Second Lady will remain in USA for ever.
Here comes the role of the trainer of the Second Lady who is also her lover. He is a Russian American, his father being Russian and mother being American. He is born in USA and leaves for USSR at his 15th yearof age,when his mother dies. He always wants to go to USA, and in the past once he visits US as a press reporter, and at the sametime, an American spy is arrested in USSR. The US wants to gets the spy back. So, FBI frames this Russian American press man to be a spy and arrests him. Then, both men get exchanged and because of this, the Russian American trainer is banned from entering into the country where he was born.
So, from White House, it was informed secretely to the trainer, that the First Lady is to be executed in Mosco and the Second Lady will remain in US for ever. But, in actual fact, it is previously arranged that the trainer and the Second Lady will get married once the assignment is over and she is brought back to Russia from London, while during the Summit and the First Lady is replaced there secretly. Because of this and also for the fact that he does not want the First Lady to be harmed, he brings her back in an airforce plane from Mosco to London. The USSR gets angry and arranges a person to kill both of them by a powerful bomb.
Meanwhile, the trainer informs the Second Lady- again secretly, to come to the airport and enter into the plane, where things can be negotiated to make the Second Lady and her trainer get citizenship in America following plastic surgery for both of them to remove their identity. So,finally both the ladies meet inside the plane. And,as decided they have to reach the hotel in London, where they stay - one at a time. So,the trainer brings one down and the Russian man throws the bomb and one lady and the trainer die.
So, one lady is left.Is she the First Lady or Second Lady? If the alive one is the First Lady, she will not tell the truth,because who will believe when even the President in not willing to believe and it will be a shame to reveal the truth. And,if she is the Second Lady,what is the necessity for her to tell the truth, now she has lost her lover and having a very luxury life with a powerfull position. The story ends like this. The employee who finds out will tell to the other one , " no one will ever know the truth.Not the President. Not the country. Not the world. Only one person knows.
SHE KNOWS".
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