Book Review [71] : In an Antique Land

I never read Amitav Ghosh before but heard about his novels like Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke etc. His genre is mainly historic fiction and travelogue.

In an Antique Land is one of his earliest non-fiction works, mainly records his stay in the hinterland of Egypt in the 1980s and his research on Jewish merchants and their Malabar/Mangalore connections. Throughout this book, Egyptians make fun of his culture, religion and customs by asking silly questions like -- "Does he burn his deads, does he worship cows, does he circumcise?" and Amitav Ghosh finds extremely difficult to explain the peculiarities of his faith and sometimes he becomes too apologetic about his faith to easy going but ignorant, parochial and insular Egyptians. In so many ways Egyptians in this book are similar to the rural Indians. Certainly ancient civilizations have some common genetic disorder.

I never thought that Misri (name of crystalline sugar in north India) is called after Misr (Arabic name for Egypt) in northern India. The two ancient civilizations that were so close 500 years ago are  too distant now. Egyptians are completely unaware of any religion apart from Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and any tradition/culture apart from middle east culture, but on other hand they are very welcoming and friendly. Their ancestors were great traders and agile persons and one single family could have members living in Sicily, Aden, Egypt and Mangalore (as this book informs us).

Recommended (7/10)

Book Review [46] : Nefertiti

Nefertiti is an amazingly intriguing historic fiction based on the life of Nefertiti of ancient Egypt, much before the era of Ramses and Moses. Its a brilliantly researched work and its very close to the the reality of Bronze age Egypt. This books details the story of the rise of Nefertiti as the Queen of Egypt and her adventures and misadventures, her beauty and her lust for power, her cruelty that even devoured the first son of her dear sister in her womb. The religious revolution that she and her husband (Amunhotep) started ultimately consumed these co-regents clearing the path to the crown open to the son (Tutankhamen) of her arch-rival queen. Its a must read to anyone who is interested in ancient Egypt and who think that Cleopatra is not the end of Egypt. 
Highly Recommended (8/10)

Sometimes i think i am very lucky to live in this era where you can get a book by click of a button at your doorstep, i always dream to see myself busy in the stack of books and that wish is coming to reality in many ways. I have also made a sort of commitment that i will not watch any political news on TV, utter waste of precious minutes, May be i should boycott all the news channel.

And the Sphinx roars

I have always loved Egypt and i will always love it. Egypt to me means a nation with superb mythology, great pyramids, great history and great culture.Pyramids are almost 5000 years old and are more gigantic man made structure than any structure produced by any other Neolithic or Chalcolithic civilization. Egypt was known as bread basked for Roman empire and the mighty Julius Caesar and Mark Antonius used to pay their obedience to the sheer beauty of sensuous Cleopatra. The Pharaohs were so great that they even forced Moses to part the Red sea. Every conqueror in the history of mankind had tried to conquer Egypt (and almost all were able to conquer it)) and that list is tectonically impressive with people like Alexander, Julius Caesar, Saladin, Ottomans, Napoleon, Britishers, Hitler and others. The pride of all conquering Mongols were broken by Egyptians only.
Alexandria was the capital of human intellect and its library was the saturated solution of human civilization. Almost all the major empires of world enriched Egypt and also got enriched by it. The golden period of Indian commerce, from the days of Hellenistic kingdoms to the onslaught of Europeans depended very much on the ports of Egypt on Mediterranean and Red seas.

The situation has changed a lot in few decades and once again Egypt is attracting attention of entire world in their struggle for "Independence" and "Prosperity". Nothing is more worth than fighting for a just cause and all Revolutionaries have a duty and a moral obligation to make sure that their revolution is not hijacked by opportunists. I am praying for well being of common Egyptian on one hand while at the same time i wish this revolution should not result in further restriction on freedom or anarchy. Mr. Hosni Mubarak should step down and should propose a framework for the orderly transfer of power to the people. Revolutionaries should have patience of Mahatma Gandhi and courage of Che Guevara. Some times its better to retreat and wait than to become fodder for the anarchists and counter revolutionaries. Let Truth and Freedom prevail. Amen