Reflections: Luka and The Fire of Life

Since I loved reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories, I began reading its sequel, which is also Rushdie’s latest book, Luka and the Fire of Life. This book is a sequel in that it has the same core characters and settings, but is not an extension of the story of Haroun’s adventure. Luka is Haroun’s younger brother and is the apple of his parents' eyes (especially his father’s), as his birth seemed to have stilled the notion of Time for the aged couple. Luka yearns to go on a magical adventure similar to Haroun’s and eagerly awaits such an opportunity. Little did he realize that he had to be careful of what he wished for. When his dad, the famed story-teller Rashid, falls ill, the onus of reviving him falls on Luka’s shoulders. Luka desperately races into the World of Magic to steal the Fire of Life for his father.

This is again a fun, fantastical adventure on the surface. Salman Rushdie creatively incorporates the notion of virtual reality in this adventure, as Luka’s quest for the Fire of Life is represented as a game he has to play in the World of Magic. In this age, most of us have gone through several vicarious experiences of traveling in magical/dangerous lands, taking the avatar of heroic princes, intrepid warriors and ruthless soldiers and battling our way to win the precious gem, treasure or the beautiful princess! The real-to-life experiences are sometimes so vivid, it becomes hard to separate our real identity from that of the virtual avatar. I got the sense that Rushdie was hinting at the possibilities of Life if we started focusing on the virtual platform as being more real than our “real” lives. If so, we would start viewing most things in our “real” life in terms of virtual-symbols and elements of fantasy, thus causing our perception of reality to be colored by magical/fantastical hues. Luka’s adventure to save his father seems to be a combination of Luka’s and his fathers’ vivid imagination, since the boy is an avid gamer, and the dad is a brilliant story-teller.

However, the core theme of this story is not as straightforward as I found its prequels’ to be. Perhaps there is no new theme other than the importance of story-telling and imagination (just as its prequels’), and this is meant primarily for young adults (as some reviews seem to say). But I find it hard to agree...if it’s magical realism, I am bent on finding the abstractions to “realism”. If anything, this book has a lot more convoluted and deep references to reality than the previous book. And I don’t think they are mere word plays on Rushdie’s part.

My hypothesis is that the Fire of Life is the symbol for the ephemeral spark within us that defines our unique Life. A certain crackle of spark and fire within us fuels our drive to live, and keeps us alive. When Rashid’s fire (and life) was receding, his son tries to bring back that fire. But where is that fire located? Is it in the depths of our mind? Or locked at the bottom of our heart? Perhaps we can learn about this fire only during that defining moment in the past when we came to life? If so, can we travel back the River of Time to get to that moment? Our memories get us only so far into the past... beyond that we get stuck in oblivion. How do we cross that chasm? Luka seems to travel into that point of Infinity beyond the realms of memory, to fetch the Fire of Life. And this entire journey happens within Rashid’s mind (at least that’s what made the most sense to me). Rashid’s mind wills him to fight through his illness by imagining a magical adventure that takes place in a world he created in his mind. The adventure makes him focus on the aspect that matters most to him, and that energizes his will to survive. To Rashid, the Fire of his Life is Luka himself - the apple of his eyes, who seemed to have coagulated Time for him. It can also be argued that in addition to Luka, Rashid's unparalleled talent to tell stories is what keeps his Fire burning.

Salman Rushdie hence applies Einstein’s notion of Time, as a dimension that is relative. If we choose to not let Time hang on us and learn to live in the moment, notions of past and future don’t constrict us anymore. At the end of the day, all our life’s battles are against Time, aren’t they? All of Rushdie’s word plays are quite a treat as he explores the various phenomenon of our mind - the source of knowledge, wisdom, creativity, imagination, dreams, memory, identity and ego. I am not sure if I’m viewing everything as related to the mind and the psyche, but the last two books of Rushdie’s definitely seem to explore the depths of the human psyche. Again, I may have read too very much between the lines, as always.

Digested Thoughts: Although I’m giving this book the same rating as Haroun and The Sea of Stories (due to the obvious limitation of employing a rating heuristic), I enjoyed the former much much more than this book. I liked the simplicity of Haroun’s adventure. While Luka’s was interesting as well, I found it a little more murkier to decipher. I still am not sure if my understanding of the book and its themes are anywhere close to Rushdie’s intentions! But according to me, it sends an optimistic message that we can conquer our fate, and win the battle against Time, if we can keep our inner Fire fueled.

Reflections: The Land of the Blue Flower

I think I’m going to start sounding like an old broken record when I write about children’s classics. But I can’t help marveling at these authors and wish so dearly to go back in time and relive my childhood days with books such as these teaching me wonderful little principles of leading my life in such simple and enchanting ways.

King Amor’s father was a selfish and greedy ruler of his beautiful land. His foul temperament reflected on his people too, for a shaky, ruthless governance leads to conflicts within locals. When Amor was born, his father got killed in a battle, and  his mother, the Queen didn’t wish her son to grow up in a place filled with hatred and vengeance. She handed him over to a wise old man who lived in the nearby mountains. She asked him to raise him well and bring him to his rightful throne when he was old enough to be King. The old man took the child to a serene palace up on the mountains, and taught the child how to commune with Nature, and to regard every animal and plant as his own kin. The child was infused only with good and positive thoughts and energy, that he never experienced any negative emotion such as hatred, anger or pain. When Amor grew up, he was as peaceful and wise as the old man himself. The tale is all about how this young prince goes to his kingdom and reforms his land and people - using his refreshingly positive attitude and clean and peaceful spirit.

If you’ve read Burnett’s The Secret Garden, you must be familiar with the themes she teaches kids. This tale has the same themes, but is conveyed through a slightly different story. She warns kids against harboring negative thoughts, gently showing that negativity only depletes our energy and prevents us from doing anything constructive. If we focus on creating something beautiful, and put our heart and energy into it with an open and positive spirit, we can create magic.

Burnett loves gardening and growing flowers (my kindred spirit!). So she uses the same example to show us the world of good that can come out of going out in the Sun and interacting with Nature. If we truly appreciated Nature and lived one with it, Nature and her children will reciprocate our kindness. And the best way to reform people is through kindness and compassion. 
 
Can a children’s book that covers themes on peace, the importance of respecting Nature and our environment, the power of positivity and the human will, and the futility and risk of negative thoughts, get any better? Plus, it’s all spiced up in a cute fantasy story that flows with Burnett’s wonderful prose. Children should not miss this book.

Reflections: The Secret Garden

After all these years, I still keep discovering so many more truly timeless Children's Classics. Enid Blyton's books reigned supreme as children's books in India, that people like me somehow never got around to reading other classic books as kids. The Secret Garden is quite easily one of the most wonderful and charming books that I would heartily gift to little boys and girls. I would lovingly mandate all my little cousins, nieces and nephews to read this before they hit their teens. As a matter of fact, I would be that annoying lady who would insist on shoving books in front of children who haven't taken to reading yet. And if I come across an adult deeply wallowing in their furrowed discontentment, this is a book I would give to rekindle the child within them and bring a little smile and hope.

Mary is a scrawny little girl, who is completely abandoned and neglected by her parents; so much so, that sometimes people even forgot she existed. Not knowing what it means to be loved or cared, Mary grows up as an indifferent, obstinate girl. Following her parent's death, she is shipped off to live with her uncle - a supposedly grumpy and ill-tempered man with a hunchback. Her uncle's house is a sprawling mansion housing its own mysteries and secrets. Despite living by a beautiful Yorkshire moor, the mansion exudes an eerie air, with its locked rooms, unused corridors, mysterious cries... and a locked garden. Mary slowly gets used to her new environment and unravels a few mysteries. Her gripping loneliness makes her reach out to people, animals and even plants. The locked garden piques her innocent curiosity and she sets on a little adventure to battle her boredom. She finds the key to the mysterious garden and works hard on replenishing it, till it thrives with beautiful flowers. She hoards her little secret with two other young boys and together they discover how simple pleasures in life and positive thoughts can create Magic.

I expected this book to be about fantasy and magic, with elves, pixies and fairies leading the children on a little ride into their fantasy world, but what a pleasant surprise the book was! The book teaches kids that we all can create magic and miracles without the need for pixie dust and powerful wands. Burnett carefully guides children into the realities of our world, but without ripping apart their delicate and rich imaginations. The children find out that magic lies within them; "good magic" is about invoking good, positive thoughts of what we would like to see happen, and then trying our best to act on them. Magic is that fleeting power that combines the forces of Nature along with human will and unadulterated faith, to bring those things which we resign as being impossible, to fruition. Burnett beautifully expounds a weighty topic dealing with the power of the human mind, with simple and intelligent grace. She slowly builds a little mystery in the story, gently tugs thought-provoking questions and explains it all in an endearing tale of optimism and hope. The book also intersperses little morals on kindness and compassion. The story reaffirms that laughter is a wonderful medicine for the mind, and that the world can be viewed in a different light if we called out to the child inside of us. I marvel at how eloquently the book is written to appeal to children and adults alike.

I loved how refreshing the book was, with its beautiful and vivid descriptions of a garden blooming to life, and the promising revival of the children into healthy, happy kids. I couldn't have found a better time and season to read this book. With Spring marching its way into our gardens, the book would egg any reader to go out into the sunshine, revel in Nature's bounty and free their mind of clutter and negativity with every caressing breeze. The book is a bundle of happy, positive vibes sure to cast a spell on any reader.

Reflections: The Old Man And The Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a very simple yet powerful tale about an old, withered, Cuban fisherman, and his epic struggle with capturing a great Marlin. Santiago was known for his fishing skills and gigantic conquests, but he was going through a dry phase with no luck in snaring any fish. While his peers pitied him, branding him as old, rusty and unlucky, Santiago brushes off his failures and goes on to fight for his survival through sheer will and determination. He casts off the notion that luck plays an inherent role in one's success and sets out to give every inch of his very best - body, mind and soul, to prove himself. It only seems fair that a man of such undaunted determination should meet his match in the ocean.

The tale and the struggle between Santiago and the fish can be viewed as metaphors representing many facets of life. The sea and nature itself presents the unconquerable uncertainty in our lives that teaches our place in the vastness of the universe, the ambition to hook the biggest prized fish translates to some of the gargantuan materialistic ambitions we set off on, the battle itself represents our mind-numbing chase through life to acquire such possessions, while the will to succeed and to achieve a self-fulfilling experience symbolizes our inner, deeper spiritual quests. In the end, what matters is not the materialistic possessions of our chase, but the lessons learnt via the journey - knowledge, wisdom, humility and magnanimity. As the fisherman perseveres his battle, the kinds of questions he ruminates on are thought provoking; between him and the fish, who is the enemy? Is it justifiable to hunt down a magnificent fish just because it will feed a few lives and earn him money? Is his battle for survival or for self-preservation? Is it possible to elevate to a higher spiritual plane by demonstrating such courage and determination? The thoughts maybe rhetorical but it's amazing that Hemingway could weave in so many levels of metaphors and thoughts into a seemingly simple scenario.

The writing is very succinct and simple. Hemingway's brevity still brings vivid images of the fish's battle, the fisherman's relentless struggle, the greedy predators, the rickety boat and the raging waves.

This is surely an inspirational book on courage and unbridled determination. It reminds us that success, in it's true sense, is not defined by material conquests alone; for each of us to realize ourselves, our determination needs to be tested to its limits.