Book Review: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Despite the red communist flag, soldiers and rifles on the cover and the mention of “revolution” on the blurb, The Lowland is the story of a woman who is unable to love her daughter. It’s not very clear why Gauri is unable to love Bela, though towards the end, Lahiri suggests that it could be on account of the betrayal Gauri suffered at the hands of the man she loved. As one has learnt to expect from any Lahiri novel, The Lowland revolves around a Bengali immigrant family in the United States (the Mitras) and the Indian sections serve as a background to the story as it develops. There’s elder son Subhash, studious and not very brave, his younger brother Udayan, who is tougher than Subhash and takes to the path of revolution, Udayan’s girlfriend Gauri, who later becomes his wife, Subhash's and Udayan’s parents, Bela, born of Udayan’s love for Gauri, but brought up by Subhash who marries Gauri after Udayan is killed by the police and finally Bela’s daughter Meghna. There are a few more American spouses and lovers, but they don’t really matter.

Usually, when I review a novel as good as The Lowland and a very good read The Lowland definitely is, I list out the pros before I get to the cons. However, in the case of the The Lowland, I am going to make an exception and deal with the negatives first. This is mainly because lots of things in the The Lowland didn’t work for me, despite Lahiri’s exquisite writing.

Subhash and Udayan are sons of a railway clerk who sends them to a Bengali medium school. The boys are nice, but naughty. One sees them, Udayan in the lead, trespass into the Whites-only Tolly Club and get beaten by a policeman for their pains. One sees the mother take in extra-sewing to supplement their income. There is no mention of the caste the Mitras belong to and one neither sees nor hears of any discrimination suffered by the Mitras on account of their caste. However, the Mitras just don’t come across as Brahmins or any other high caste. At times, I got the feeling that the Mitras were working class and at times I felt they were not. At one point, we are even told that some of Tipu Sultan’s descendents lived next to the Mitras and that the Mitras were invited to visit them.

School boys Subhash and Udayan play games by tapping out words in Morse code. As they grow older, they fool around with a shortwave radio which they rigged up using spare parts scrounged from "Indian army surplus". I was left wondering if the boys were living in Edison or in Kolkata. As we all know, the average Indian school boy doesn’t access army surplus and build short wave radios.

When Subhash moves to the US, we don’t see him miss India much. In particular, there is no hankering for any particular type of Indian food, though he does meet a South Indian who offers him curd rice. We see Subhash cook “curry” and boil a pot of rice for himself and his house-mate Richard. What curry did Subhash cook? Surely there are curries and curries. Granted, The Lowland has been written for an international readership who would be satisfied with a generic “curry”, but I still wanted to know if it was difficult for Subhash to get hold of ingredients for his curry. Surely Rhode Island supermarkets in the 1970s were not stocked with curry powders! A few pages later, when Subhash has a solitary meal at a restaurant, we see him go for an Eggplant Parmigiana. Lahiri doesn’t tell us if Subhash enjoyed the meal or if he liked eggplants in particular. She only tells us that as Subhash ate the “heavy dish”, he watched American football on TV and drank beer. I did find the Eggplant Parmigiana difficult to digest – a Bengali who we know is not a vegetarian, ordering Eggplant Parmigiana at a restaurant rather than a meat dish!

When Gauri becomes a widow, her in-laws take away the meat and fish from her plate. Subhash protests and later rescues her by marrying her and taking her away to the US. However, we don’t see either Subhash or Gauri relish a single meat dish, while in the US, though we are told that Gauri did a fair amount of cooking while still married to Subhash. There is no specific description of what’s cooking. I never saw the Mitras eat beef or pork or otherwise make a conscious effort to avoid either. Towards the end, we see Gauri being served mutton rolls while visiting Kolkata and at the fag end of the novel, when Subhash and his second wife Elise honeymoon in Ireland, there is a reference to sardines from a supermarket. For me, the absence of better foodprints throughout was a big damper.

Subhash and Gauri never worry about money, especially when Subhash is a research student in the US. I don’t know how well research students at US universities are paid, but I found only one reference to money worry, when Gauri proposes that they hire a baby sitter for Bela and Subhash objects on account of the cost involved. However, one does get the feeling that on the whole, Subhash and Gauri are frugal, but it’s as if Lahiri is too polite to mention how tight their finances are. And then there are statements like this: “She made a little routine of it, following the wave of students after the class let out to eat her lunch at the cafeteria of the student union, ordering French fries at the grill, bread, butter and tea, sometimes treating herself to a dish of ice cream.” I just couldn’t believe that an Indian wife, married to a research student, would make a routine of eating out at the cafeteria frequently on her own, when home was close by.

There’s no racism whatsoever in Lahiri’s America. Neither Subhash, nor Gauri nor any of their progeny face the slightest hostility from anyone on account of being Indian or brown, in the entire novel. The bit that got me chuckling was how, just after Subhash and Gauri got married at a Registry, ‘Subhash took her to apply for her passport and then to the American consulate for her visa.’ The visa officer has only kind and pleasant words for Gauri, promising to speed up the visa. Lahiri doesn’t tell us if Gauri got her passport the day she applied for it or if she applied for a visa without a passport. Maybe in those days, we are talking about the early 1970s here, it was not such a big deal to get an American visa and maybe interviews for spouse visas were pleasant experiences. In any event, the pleasant atmosphere continues throughout the novel. Which set me thinking - aren’t all of Lahiri’s previous books written in the same vein? It’s been a while since I read The Namesake and The Interpreter of Maladies, but I don’t think any Indian has encountered any racism anywhere in Lahiri’s America or has had much difficulty in fitting into the US of A. The same holds true for Unaccustomed Earth which came out in 2008.

Lahiri’s descriptions of the main characters made me want to know a bit more about them. I got the impression that Subhash and Udayan are tall, but how tall were they? Was Subhash tall by American standards? Before marrying Gauri, Subhash had an American girl-friend, a single mother who was older than him by many years. Was Subhash as tall as Holly or was he even taller? And what about Gauri herself? Was she as tall as she was attractive? Did Bela come across as a typical puny Asian child when in the midst of her American friends? Or was she as big as her friends were? Was Meghna much bigger in size than her mother since she had a Caucasian father? Lahiri left me guessing.

Subhash and Gauri cruise through America without the slightest hiccup or any disadvantage, but then Lahiri suddenly wakes up and reminds us that Gauri, despite having so gelled into America, has retained her Indian passport and her Indian accent. We see that Bela’s daughter (born out of wedlock to an American father who has moved on) has been named Meghna, at Subhash’s suggestion.

That’s enough cribbing about what’s essentially a great novel and so, let me move on to the positives. I loved Gauri, a woman who married for the second time in order to get away from her cruel in-laws and found it difficult to love her husband or even her child. We see Gauri slowly give up responsibility for Bela. She transforms herself into a go-getting American academician, shredding her Indian clothes and long tresses, though her chosen field of study is philosophy, not a subject with a low access threshold. Lahiri doesn’t offer an easy answer for Gauri’s behaviour, but the betrayal she suffered, details of which emerge only towards the end, points towards a possible explanation.

I also liked Bela, an all-American girl who rejects the ways of her parents in a silent rebellion, becomes a farm-worker and chooses to have a child out of wed-lock when she is thirty four. When Bela runs into a group of Bangladeshi workmen in New York, there is only a mild curiosity about men who are from the same neck of the woods as her ancestors and whose language she has a passing familiarity with. I also liked Udayan, especially how, despite being a tough Naxal, Lahiri endows him with a mild trembling of his hand and vertigo. However, Subhash didn’t work for me, his values and attitudes suddenly all-American with no explanation for losing his Indianness, other than that he wanted Bela all for himself and that he didn’t want to meet people who knew that he was not Bela’s father.

The best thing about The Lowland is Lahiri’s hallmark economy with words. Transitions are always very smooth. For example, Subhash studies chemical engineering at Jadavpur, but when he goes to the US, he studies the effect of chemicals on marine life. The switch from swishing chemicals in a test-tube to pottering around the sea-shore at Rhode Island is quick and accomplished efficiently with an explanation not exceeding a couple of sentences.

Let me end my review with a crib. Though Udayan’s execution by the police is well-written, I am still struggling with the fact that after the police captured Udayan and took him away, they killed him at a place so very close to his house that his family could see him being killed. I also didn’t like Udayan’s contingency plan for escaping from the police if ever they came for him. I mean, I expected something a bit cleverer from the man who used to fool around with morse code and shortwave radios when he was younger.

Book Review: Paths To Peace – Religion, Ethics and Tolerance in a Globalizing World, by Dirk Collier

I normally don’t read books on spirituality or morality or suchlike values. However, I made an exception in the case of Dirk Collier’s Paths To Peace – Religion, Ethics and Tolerance in a Globalizing World, mainly because I have read Collier’s treatise on Akbar, The Emperor’s Writings and was deeply impressed by Collier’s knowledge of India, Indian culture, Islam and Hinduism, not to mention his simple, but elegant writing style.

I was not disappointed. Paths To Peace is a masterly exposition on various strands of religious thought, the direction(s) we are being led in on account of the various organized religions we follow and Collier’s thoughts on how we may all live harmoniously amongst so much diverse thoughts and beliefs, not to mention the prevailing distrust and hatred in today’s world.

Collier analyses and compares Pakistan and the European Union. The former was created on the basis of religion and has drifted off to become an Islamic State, something far from its founder’s ideals. Currently, Pakistan is undergoing tremendous upheaval in terms of violence against the Shias, Ahmadiyyas, Hindus and other minorities. I wish Collier had commented on Israel, another state created on the basis of religion and which faces a number of unique problems, but Collier doesn’t talk about Israel. Collier tells us that unlike in the case of Pakistan, creation of the European Union has brought peace to Europe, a continent which saw extensive warfare on account of religion for many centuries between its various nation states and with neighbouring powers such as the Ottoman Empire.

Collier deals with a number of questions and issues which I am sure have perplexed almost everyone who has considered the existence of God and the relativity of moral values. Are all values relative to something else? Is it possible to argue that Hitler’s goals could be considered acceptable by some?Are moral choices avoidable? Is interreligious dialogue possible at all? Would there be any pre-conditions to such dialogue? If yes, what are they?

Collier advocates the universal principal of reciprocity as a panacea for most ills – Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. Collier argues that even if we are sure that our point of view is right, we ought to be modest enough to admit that we might have something to learn from other people’s insights. Failure to admit others’ views leads to fanaticism, which in Collier’s view (and mine) is responsible for most of the problems faced by the world.

One of the best bits about Paths To Peace is the part (Part II) in which Collier compares three of the world’s leading religions – namely Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Collier notes that Christianity has so many plus points, in particular, its central tenet that we should love our fellow human beings. On the flip side, Christianity has created feelings of unworthiness, ineptitude and guilt in so many people, driving them to the greatest despair. Also, despite its avowed pacifism, for ninety per cent of its history, Christianity has behaved as the most violent, most imperialist and least tolerant of all religions. Christianity propagates the view that it is the only path to salvation and unlike Judaism, Christianity has always sought to convert the rest of the world. In this context, Collier looks at Pope Francis’s attempt to reach out to people of other faiths with approval, saying that ‘doing good is more important than adherence to dogmas.’

In contrast to Christianity, Islam has a simpler ideology. Also, throughout the Middle-Ages, Islam has been more tolerant and progressive than Christianity. On the flip side, Islam has the concept of naskh, whereby certain verses of the Qur’an have been revoked by others – Collier finds this problematic. Analysing Prophet Muhammad’s life, Collier finds the Prophet to be absolutely sincere and of good faith regarding his divine mission. On the other hand, the Prophet did lead many wars and raids on rival tribes, married many wives, including underage children. In short, ‘the Prophet Muhammad was very much a seventh-century Arab, whereas Jesus of Nazareth truly comes across as a timeless, almost unreal, radically peaceful prophet, whose Kingdom, as per his own words, is not of this world.’ Collier asks a number of tough questions regarding Islam, in light of the recent actions of its proponents who have taken an extreme and fundamentalist view of its tenets. The responses to his own questions from moderate Muslims, as collated by Collier, do make for interesting reading.

Collier, the humanist, has a large, warm spot for Hinduism. Even as he takes note of issues such as the caste system and the recent phenomenon of Hindutva, Collier comments that Hinduism is remarkably inclusive and pluralistic, much more than Islam or Christianity. Hinduism’s Sanatana Dharma is much more pre-occupied with attainment of freedom or liberation, through re-unification with the Divine, than with any particular set of beliefs. Hinduism is unencumbered with thoughts of apostasy, heresy, blasphemy and other ideas which still plague Islam and Christianity.

Towards the end, Collier reveals his own preference in matters of divinity, one which avoids the Paradox of Evil (if God is all powerful and all-good, how can evil exist) and the Paradox of Predestination (if God is all-knowing and knows beforehand what’s going to happen and God is all powerful, how can evil occur?). Rather than reveal anymore, I’ll leave it to you to read this wonderful book and discover Collier’s prescription for avoiding much of the evil, hatred and violence that plague the modern day world.

More an essay than a book, Paths to Peace runs to just under 200 pages in large print. I finished reading the entire book in around four hours without any break. Paths to Peace has been published by Vakils, Feffer & Simons Private Limited. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, has written its foreword.

The Teacher From Kerala Who Became A Project Manager At NASA

Dr. Philip Varghese, an India born scientist who once taught Physics at the Fatima Mata National College in Kollam, Kerala, worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab for close to a quarter century, during which time he worked on no less than six deep space missions, including the prestigious Mars Odyssey Project and the Mars Reconnaissance Mission. I thought it would be interesting to quiz Dr. Varghese about his achievements at NASA and his views on India’s Mars mission, for the benefit of Winnowed’s readers. Dr. Varghese very kindly agreed to answer all my questions not because he is now retired and has some free time on his hands (he is actually busier than ever) but because he happens to be my maternal uncle.

Winnowed: Dr. Varghese, what made you move to the US in the first place?
Dr. Varghese: I was working as a Physics lecturer at the Fatima Mata National College in Kerala when I applied for and received the Fulbright Fellowship. In those days, research opportunities within India were few and far in between and my primary objective was to do cutting edge research and work with the best in the field of physics. With my scholarship, I spent 6 years at the University of Oregon doing my Ph.D. program in physics. After I got my doctorate, I started to work for a privately owned company (Telos Corporation) in the computer systems field.

Winnowed: How was life at Telos? What exactly did you do there?
Dr. Varghese: At Telos, I was involved in developing software-intensive computer systems for earth-orbiting satellite systems, mainly for communications satellites. I managed the development of ground systems and then moved onto becoming business acquisition manager. In 1989, when the Division of the company I worked for moved to Washington D.C., I transferred to another Division within Telos that was supporting the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL is a Federally Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC) of NASA and is managed by California Institute of Technology (Caltech). It is the world leader in developing and conducting deep space missions. So this became a great opportunity for me to work in deep space exploration.

Winnowed: So Telos was your stepping stone to NASA? When exactly did you join NASA?
Dr. Varghese: In January 1989, . I started my career at JPL as a contract employee working on the Mars Observer mission, the first of the Observer series of planetary missions, designed to study the geoscience and climate of Mars. I started my association with the Mars Observer project as a systems engineer for the development of its missions operations system. Mars Observer spacecraft was launched on 25 September 1992. Just before the launch, in August 1992, I joined JPL as a full time employee and was assigned to the Mars Observer project as the Assistant Flight Engineering Office Manager. Unfortunately, the Mars Observer mission ended abruptly when contact with the spacecraft was lost on 21 August 1993, three days before the scheduled insertion into the Mars orbit. It was a very big disappointment to me personally, since this was my first deep space mission. JPL had to reassign a large number of personnel from the project to other jobs and I became a Group Supervisor in the Engineering & Science Directorate, a position I continued for 2 years. After a few other assignments, I joined the 2001 Mars Odyssey Project as its Project Manager. Odyssey is a Mars orbiting mission. In June 2010, I took over as Project Manager of the Mars Reconnaissance Mission, another Mars orbiting mission. During my tenure as the Project Manager for these two Mars missions, I also supported the on-going twin Mars Exploration Rover missions and the Mars Curiosity Rovermission which has been roaming Mars for more than a year now. I retired from JPL in February 2013 and ended a career that spanned 24 years and working on at least half a dozen deep space missions.

Winnowed: Wow! And has JPL been a good employer? Do you feel your efforts and hard work have been recognized?
Dr. Varghese: JPL is a great place to work and grow your talents. It is quick to recognize good work and leadership capabilities. I received promotions rapidly and received much recognition for meritorious performance. This year, JPL selected me for the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for my leadership of the Mars Reconnaissance Mission. This is the second time I was bestowed with this very prestigious award. The previous Outstanding Leadership Medal was for my work on the Deep Space One mission as its Mission Operations Manager.


Winnowed: Could you describe a typical day for me, say when you worked on the Mars Odyssey Project or the Mars Reconnaissance Mission?
Dr. Varghese: Interplanetary mission operations require round-the-clock attention and, although my workday started at 6:30 AM and ended at 4:00 PM, (that is being in the office) I was, for all practical purposes 24/7 all the time. . But we found ways to reduce the load on each individual, by sharing responsibilities and trusting the people who were in charge while I was not physically present at the Lab. My job required a lot of coordination among various support organizations at JPL (e.g., the Deep Space Network, our telemetry & tracking stations) as well as within the MRO team. There were a lot of meetings everyday, discussing various aspects of the mission and deciding courses of action. We plan our operations on a 2-week cycle and design and implement the spacecraft & science instrument activities to accomplish that plan. It requires very intensive work involving several dozen engineers and scientists, and careful integration of the activities to not violate any spacecraft & instrument operational restrictions. A serious error could lead to potential harm to the flight system and even to end of mission. It is pretty stressful!

Winnowed: What was your happiest day at JPL?
Dr. Varghese: There are several: The day we launched the Mars Observer spacecraft. The day we successfully started the Ion Propulsion System on the Deep Space 1 mission. The day we recovered the Odyssey mission from a mission-ending catastrophe. The day the Odyssey mission received signals from the twin Mars Exploration Rovers indicating they landed on Mars successfully and the Mars Reconnaissance Mission received signals from the Mars Curiosity Rover indicating it landed on Mars successfully.

Winnowed: And your saddest?
Dr. Varghese: It was the day we lost the Mars Observer spacecraft. It happened all of a sudden. The spacecraft was about to begin pressurizing its fuel tanks in preparation for the Mars orbit-insertion maneuver when contact with the spacecraft was lost. We never heard from it again and we never found out definitively why we lost contact with the spacecraft. A lot of us put a lot of effort (Herculean, you may say!) to do that mission. It would have been the finest mission if it hadn’t failed.

Winnowed: Tell me Dr. Varghese, why do Mars missions? Do you think it’s worth it for the taxpayer, considering the expenses involved?
Dr. Varghese: Mars has been the object of human fascination for a very long time. With the invention and development of the telescope during the 1600s, increasingly detailed views of Mars from Earth became possible. These early observations revealed color changes on the surface of Mars that were erroneously attributed to seasonal vegetation.These observations also indicated some apparent linear surface features and these were attributed to intelligent design, leading to the belief, right or wrong, that there must be life on Mars.Further telescopic observations led to the discovery of the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, the polar ice caps, and the feature now known as Olympus Mons, the solar system's tallest mountain.

Recent interest to explore Mars is rooted in human curiosity to understand what happened to Mars over the years.We now know that Mars is a rocky planet, like Earth. It was formed around the same time, yet with only half the diameter of Earth.It has a far thinner atmosphere and it has a cold and desert-like surface. It is believed that a few billions of years ago, Mars probably looked more like Earth does now. The present-day atmosphere of Mars, composed mostly of carbon dioxide, is extremely thin, with atmospheric pressure at the surface just 0.6% of the Earth's surface pressure.Today, Mars is quiescent geologically, but its atmosphere breathes and changes from year to year, interacting in complex ways with the water sequestered in Mars' ice caps and permafrost. One of the goals of current Mars exploration missions is to learn how the modern Mars works– how the geological processes of Mars created its unique composition. Comparing the same geological processes of Mars and Earth should help us to understand how Mars’ history has influenced its present state, leading us topredict what to expect on Earth in the future.

Since 1996, Mars exploration has undergone a Renaissance, with data from multiple Mars orbiters and landed missions providing a revolutionary new view of Mars as an Earth-like planet with a complex geologic history. We now know Mars better than any planet in the solar system other than our own, yet we have more questions than ever.

Evidence suggests that Mars once had a much denser atmosphere.The Martian landscape retains channels that were evidently cut by abundant, flowing water - proof that the planet had a much denser atmosphere in the past.The planet was likely shrouded in a thick blanket of gases that supported the presence of liquid water at its surface. Today, the air pressure is so low that free water would instantly boil away. The most likely explanation for the loss in Mars atmosphere is that the solar wind - the great outflow of energetic particles from the Sun - has simply eroded it through time. This has been possible because, unlike Earth, Mars lacks a protective global magnetic field, which is capable of deflecting the energetic particles from the Sun.

We know that water does not flow on Mars today, but it evidently has in the past. So one of the most important questions behind Mars exploration is: has there ever been the right combination of liquid water, available energy, and time to permit life to begin on Mars?

Winnowed: And for a country like India, which faces a number of other challenges, such as the need to uplift a large percentage of its population from poverty, do you think it makes sense to invest in a Mars mission?
Dr. Varghese: Of course it does. Any scientific and engineering endeavor like the Mars mission adds not only to the prestige of the country, but also to the development of technologies for progress.

Winnowed: What are the main challenges in doing Mars missions?
Dr. Varghese: In general, engineering interplanetary missions is very difficult and complicated.Mars has historically been unfriendly to human attempts to explore it. Although more missions have been attempted to Mars than to any other place in the Solar System except the Moon, nearly two-thirds of all Marsexploration attempts have failed before completing their missions.Phrases like "Mars Curse" or "Martian Curse" were introduced to explain away the high failure rate. Fictitious space monsters, such as "Galactic Ghoul" or "Great Galactic Ghoul", that eat away Mars probes, were invented to "explain" the recurring difficulties.

Winnowed: What advice would you give a youngster who wants to become a rocket scientist? What’s the best way to go about it?
Dr. Varghese: Do good school work. Have a great ambition and aspiration. Concentrate on engineering and science studies. Have a great attitude to conquer new areas of human development.

Winnowed: Would you have any advice for Indian policy makers?
Dr. Varghese: India has done exceedingly well in developing a smart space program. It must continue to invest in this endeavor. There has been a greater emphasis, it appears, on the military aspects of its space program. Civilian space applications should be given equal priority. Policy makers should do all they can do to retain the talent in India and they should channel enough resources into R&D. India should do more to strengthen fundamental scientific research at the grassroots level, I mean in colleges across the country.

Book Review: The Escape Artist: A Gibraltarian Novel, by M. G. Sanchez

M. G. Sanchez’s writing harks back to an era when writers (I am reminded of Thomas Hardy) wrote stories about real people who could have existed, for people who had the time, patience and leisure to read lengthy tales and the good taste to not expect a thrilling end. If you have read Sanchez before, you would know that he attaches no small measure of importance to his (and his characters) Gibraltarian identity, the “Britishness” of Gibraltarians and how a Gibraltarian is not, by any stretch of imagination, a Spaniard.

However, The Escape Artist: A Gibraltarian Novel, is not really about Gibraltar even though approximately half of it is set on the Rock. Rather, it is the story of a unique relationship between two young men from disparate backgrounds. Brian Manrique is a home-sick, working class Gibraltarian, plodding his way through Cambridge on a scholarship when he espies a fellow Gibraltarian, Henry Portas, amongst those hallowed portals. Henry Portas is very rich and very savvy, as different from Brian as chalk is from cheese. The resulting friendship between the two young men is one that’s meant for analysis by behavioural scientists. Even though The Escape Artist is a “realistic” novel, Sanchez does stretch his writer’s licence to the outer limits as he spins a yarn about the growing friendship between Henry and Brian and their various escapades.

Amongst the tussle between two diverse personalities of the same age, Sanchez’s angst about Gibraltar, its place in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its relations with Spain, constantly shines through. The border between Spain and Gibraltar, a little longer than a kilometre, is open for crossings these days, but it wasn’t so in the 1970s, the period in which The Escape Artist is set. When, towards the end of the novel, Brian needs to make a trip to Spain, he is forced to take a ferry to Tangiers in Morocco to get to Algeciras in Spain, a journey of many hours, which could have been accomplished in minutes if the border weren’t closed. Incidentally, the Spanish-Gibraltarian border crossing is in the news these days.

One of the best things about The Escape Artist is Sanchez’s portrayal of life in the 1970s in the UK in general and Gibraltar in particular. Brian Manrique might have acquired a Cambridge degree (in Modern Languages), but has very few career options at the end of it all, largely on account of his working class, Gibraltarian background. He returns to Gibraltar, to live with his mother and sister in their council flat, and embarks on a job-hunt which appears to be hopeless until he is interviewed for an assistant’s position in a library and the chief interviewer turns out to be a distant relative. Brian’s teenage sister does something which I assume was not very uncommon in Gibraltar in those days – to the consternation of her mother and brother, she dates a British soldier posted on the Rock and gets pregnant. Since we are in the 1970s, she does eventually marry her man and follow him around the world on his postings. On the other hand, the rich folks, even in Gibraltar, seem to lead very comfortable lives.

Sanchez’s writing is more functional and simple than flowery or ornate. At times I did wish that it was a little bit more of the latter – a literary work of this magnitude would not be badly served with a few dollops of literary flourishes, but on the whole, The Escape Artist reads well and gets you to the meat of the story in a direct fashion. The ending, when you get there, is unexpected, but realistic to the core. Sanchez does not pander to the galleys when he drops the curtains on yet another excellent book from his writing desk.

The Escape Artist: A Gibraltarian Novel is available on Kindle.

A Conversation With Sayed Ahmed Raza, My Friend From Bangladesh

My friend Sayed Ahmed Raza is a founding partner at Ahmed & Farooq LP, a leading law firm in Bangladesh. Raza, as we called him at the National Law School of India University, was a couple of years my junior and graduated from NLSIU in the year 2000. I haven’t seen Raza since 1998, the year I graduated, but we’ve always managed to keep in touch, thanks to emails, facebook and skype. Recently Raza conveyed some sound bytes to be posted on Winnowed.

Winnowed: Career-wise, what have you done since your graduation from NLSIU in 2000?

Raza: Immediately after I came back, I worked as the co-ordinator for a project run by the Bangladesh Bar Council called “Human Rights Lawyering for Young Lawyers.” It involved coordinating the activities of 78 local Bar Associations and travelling to all parts of my country. I thoroughly enjoyed the job, which lasted for a year. I then started practising in Dakha and did a mix of criminal and civil litigation. More of the former than the latter. In 2002, I went to Khartoum in Sudan to work for the United Nations Development Programme for Refugees. I was there for two and a half years, helping Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees who had escaped to Sudan to escape the turmoil in their own countries. On my return, I resumed my litigation practice. I co-founded Ahmed & Farooq LP in the year 2007. These days, I do some non-litigation work – drafting agreements etc., but my mainstay is still litigation and arbitration.

Winnowed: Can you please cite an interesting case you have been involved in?

Raza: Recently our Supreme Court awarded the death sentence to one Abdul Quader Molla for his role in the 1971 genocide. Prior to his conviction, Molla had filed a defamation claim against certain politicians for the statements they made against him. I defended two of those politicians, namely Ms. Syeda Sajeda Choudhury, the Deputy Leader of Parliament and Ms. Motia Chowdhury, a Minister, against those defamation claims.

Winnowed: What made you choose NLSIU?

Raza: I come from a family of lawyers. Both my grandfathers were lawyers and my father is a leading Senior Counsel in Dhaka as well as President of the Bongabandhu Angibi Parishad. NLSIU is rather well-known among the legal fraternity in Bangladesh – even in 1995 when it was relatively new and the only National Law School in India. Students from Bangladesh have traditionally gone to the UK for their legal studies. I decided to give NLSIU a shot, just to do something different.

Winnowed: Did you consider taking up a job in India after graduation?

Raza: No. I was always clear that I wanted to return to Dhaka and practice law here.

Winnowed: Was it difficult to qualify in Bangladesh with an Indian law degree?

Raza: Not for me. In Bangladesh, just as in India, only Bangladeshi citizens can become advocates. One needs to take an enrolment exam for this purpose. Actually two exams, one to qualify to practice in the lower courts and the second one, which can be taken only if an advocate has at least two years’ post qualification experience, to practice in the High Court and Supreme Court. Since I had an Indian degree, I applied to the Bar Council for my degree to be recognised, which it did without raising any issue, after which I could take the first enrolment exam. I did that immediately on my return.

Winnowed: Please name a few people who have a made a big difference to your life.

Raza: My father, Abdul Baset Majumdar has made the biggest difference to my life. He has been my role model ever since I can remember.

Winnowed: If you were to advice other Bangladeshi students who are considering an Indian law degree, what would you tell them?

Raza: I would say that a law degree from a leading National Law School in India would give every budding lawyer a head-start in terms of developing analytical skills and learning the fundamentals of law, which are common for all common-law countries.

Winnowed: What’s your happiest memory from your time in Bangalore?

Raza: I have very happy memories of my time in the Men’s Halls of Residence. Every day was a special day. I will never forget my mates from those wonderful days.

Winnowed: And your saddest or the most unhappy experience?

Raza: I don’t remember any.

Winnowed: Your family?

Raza: I have been blessed with two daughters, Rifah Shahana Majumder and Rameen Shahanna Majumder . My wife Shahana Rahmatullah Annie is very supportive.

Winnowed: What are your hobbies?

Raza: Music, movies and reading Bangla newspapers

Winnowed: One last question - What do you think can be done to improve Indo-Bangladeshi relations?

Raza: India has changed a lot since the time it helped us win independence. The middle-classes in India do not hate Bangladesh. The Indian judiciary believes in fair play. For example, in the case of The Chairman, Railway Board & Ors vs Mrs. Chandrima Das & Ors [January, 2000], the Indian Supreme Court awarded compensation to a Bangladeshi girl who was raped in the Howrah Railway station. However, we also have instances like the case of Felani Khatun where no action has been taken. One gets the feeling that the common man in India does not have much goodwill towards us. To some extent, it is the politicians’ job to educate the masses, but I also understand that it is not an easy task. In Bangladesh, there is a big split between moderates like me who want democracy and have good relations with India and the supporters of the fundamentalist Jamaat e Islami who want Shariah rule.