The Man who Never was

The Other History of the DC Universe by John Ridley My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews In many ways ‘The other history’ feels like a story written by someone who has taken pages from their own life and experience and used it to paint a picture, on the other side of the rose tinted world of superheroes. By exploring several themes and practices, in story and out, to bring to focus an endemic problem which has always plagued comics especially in the western genre. It is largely a white man’s game, and worse it is written for, and by the majority, which over the years has resulted in some very questionable inclusions into the roster, which, in hindsight was not at all tasteful One has to appreciate DC for venturing into such political and socially charged commentary, which, more times than often, points a finger, and tears down the pantheon of some of its most popular characters, when viewed through the eyes of those ‘token’, or supportin...

ഇനി ഞാൻ ഉറങ്ങട്ടെ | Ini Njan Urangatte by P.K. Balakrishnan My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews A deconstruction piece of Mahabharata, much along the lines of ‘Randamoozham’, but this time focusing on the character of Karna, through the eyes of Draupadi. Discussing the right, wrong and morality of actions on both sides. How Karna, while being more than qualified and deserving, was given a shitty hand by fate. Despite being a demigod, and son of the Sun god, he was looked down his whole life, which bred resentment in him. Which caused him to pledge eternal friendship and support to the first person who treated him like a human being, who happened to be Duryodhana. His own rigid, unflinching sense of morality and dharma, made him fight at the Kaurava side, even when Krishna, Kunti and Bheesma all revealed to him his heritage and begged him to advise Suyodhana to coexist. Even when promised the chance to be the supreme king, which being his...

ഒരു തെരുവിന്റെ കഥ | Oru Theruvinte Kadha by S.K. Pottekkatt My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews Oru theruvinte kadha (The story of a street), as the name implies is the tale of a street, located in real life as Mittayi theruvu (Sweetmeat Street), in the Kasaragod district in Kerala. Malayalam writers, like their counterparts in India, as well as around the world, have a penchant of falling in love with a particular place or local where they were born or spent a lot of their life in. Be it the fabled land of Khasak in O.V. Vijayan’s ‘Khasankinte Ithihasam ഖസാക്കിന്റെ ഇതിഹാസം Khasakkinte Ithihasam (The Legends of Khasak)’, or current day Mahe, immortalized by M. Mukundan in ‘ മയ്യഴിപ്പുഴയുടെ തീരങ്ങളിൽ Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil ’ (On the banks of the River Mayyazhi). Add to that another, from Malayalam’s beloved globetrotting travel writer S.K. Pottekkatt. Strangely I’m reminded of a phrase from the 2012 cult classic ‘D...

I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews Sometimes there are comics, which, instead of taking you on a power fantasy, or journey of cosmic proportions, or being a contemplation of good and evil, allow you to come to terms with the harsh realities of life. It allows you to, through the medium of storytelling gain empathy and understanding of the human condition. 'I kill giants' by Joe Kelly and artist Ken Niimura is just right at this, at what it does. It doesn't need to be anything more, because it is perfect, comfortable in its own skin. Barbara is a girl who has been dealt a bad hand by fate. And, in trying to deny the reality of her situation, she withdraws into her own impressive imagination. Turning intangible problems, to tangible adversaries, she tries to combat and get rid of them, in the vain hope that things will return to a time, when everything was well in life. But in time, wit...

രണ്ടിടങ്ങഴി | Randidangazhi by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews കുട്ടനാടിന്റെ ഫലഭൂയിഷ്ഠമായ ഭൂമി കിളയ്ക്കുന്നതും വിതയ്ക്കുന്നതും കൊയ്യുന്നതും മണ്ണിന്റെ മക്കളായ പുലയരും പറയരുമായ കർഷകർ. അതിന്റെ സിംഹഭാഗവും കൊള്ളുന്നതോ, സ്വയം കർഷകൻ എന്ന് വിളിപ്പേരുള്ള മുതലാളികളും ജന്മികളും. നമ്മൾ ഇന്ന് സർവ്വവ്യാപിയായ അംഗീകരിക്കുന്ന പൗരാവകാശങ്ങളും വേധനങ്ങളും അന്യമായ ഒരു കാലഘട്ടത്തിലേക്കാണ് തകഴി അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ കൃതിയിലൂടെ നമ്മെ കൊണ്ട് ചെല്ലുന്നത്. തലമുറകൾക്കപ്പുറത്തെ ഊഴിയവും സുപരിചിതമായ നാട്ടു നടപ്പുകൾക്കും അധീനരായി ഒരു പറ്റം മനുഷ്യർ, കരഷകർ ദയനീയമായ ഒരു ജീവിതം നടത്തിക്കൊണ്ടു വന്നു. പതിനായിരം പറ നെല്ല് കൊയ്ത പാടത്തിന്റെ കർഷകൻ വയറു നിറക്കാൻ ഒരു പിടി നാഴിയരി കിട്ടുവാൻ പാടുപെട്ടു. അവന്റെ നെല്ലെന്നല്ലാം മുതലാളിമാർ കള്ളവിലയ്ക്കു വിറ്റു പൊന്നു. കര്ഷകന് പട്ടിണിയും പ്രാരാബ്ധവും ബാക്കി. ഒരു കണക്കിന് നോക്കിയാൽ ഇന്നും കർഷകന്റെ അവസ്ഥ വ്യത്യസ്‌തമല്ല. ചൂഷിതരും ചൂഷകരും മാറി, ചൂഷണം മാത്രം നിലകൊണ്ടു. ഗദ്യം ഇന്ന് കേരളത്തിൽ വിരളമായി കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന, അ...

Slaughterhouse 5: The Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance With Death by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. My rating: 5 of 5 stars Billy Pilgrim is someone unstuck from time, and experiences it non-linearly, all the same time, travelling back and forth to his past and future, and is aware of all that has been and will be. He is indifferent to his actual life, with a successful career and family, and chooses to instead sleepwalk through it in daze of his past trauma. Billy was a soldier who fought in the second world war. But he and many of his compatriots were essentially infants playing at a ‘children’s crusade’. That war, much like those before, was planned and orchestrated by the whims of old men, who sent out inexperienced young men to die. Much like the 12th century monks who gathered impressionable orphans off the street, trained them to be soldiers, and sold them for wars to be fought far away in Africa. Or in the current day, a generic African warlord, who t...

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear My rating: 4 of 5 stars Things which I appreciate about the book: 1. Atomic habits have useful, practical and implementable methods for habit formation, with anecdotes which keep you interested. 2. The author tries and keeps his methods simple, so that there is little friction when trying to implement them. At the end of each section, method or process, it is summarized in one line or process flow. Which I found easy to follow. 3. It explains why many people start with new habits, but aren’t always able to achieve success in implementing and internalizing them. 4. Methods which touch upon related concepts in behavior, cognition and learning (e.g. Willpower is a limited resource, which can run out during the day) 5. The author tries to cover all possible scenarios when it comes to the positives and negatives of habit formation. The book goes one step further, in ...

ദൈവത്തിന്റെ വികൃതികള്‍ | Daivathinte Vikruthikal by M. Mukundan My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews Choosing the third seat on the row adjacent to the side road, overlooking the beach, I opened the book currently in my reading list. It was Mukundan’s book, ദൈവത്തിന്റെ വികൃതികള്‍ (God’s mischief). Like his masterpiece മയ്യഴിപ്പുഴയുടെ തീരങ്ങളിൽ Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil (On the Banks of the river mayyazhi) the man has a keen ability to get into the nitty gritty (निजी ) lives of the people of his land. In other words, the story of mayyazhi is the story of her people. And in this novel, Mayyazhi’s own writer explores his favorite muse in further detail. A sequel to the previous mentioned books, in many ways Mukundan’s work is not centered on a few characters, rather, it is the retelling of the collective memory of the land through the ages, through revolution, through socio-economic change. He also has that whole ‘existence is suffering’ vibe coming from many of the PO...