Inferno

Title: Inferno

Author: Dan Brown

Publisher: RHUK, 2013 (First)

ISBN: 9780593072493

Pages: 480

Reviewing a popular Dan Brown book is not in the spirit of my policy of not attempting reviews of fiction in this blog. But, once in a while you need a break from routine and try something different and refreshing. ‘Inferno’ has been in my ‘to read’ list ever since it came out right back in 2013. I managed to obtain a PDF copy from the Net, but couldn’t bring myself to read it. The experience of reading a work from Dan Brown includes a pleasurable perusing experience of a well researched tome. Readers cherish the notion of holding the book in their hands and quietly retiring to a comfortable place for an hour that feels like nothing longer than a few moments. That’s why I couldn’t convince myself to read the soft copy.

Brown attained instant fame and international repute after the release of his fourth book, titled ‘The Da Vinci Code’, twelve years ago in 2003. The reading world stayed addicted to his works ever since. The chase of the main protagonists of the novel, following cryptic clues embedded in medieval imagery or symbolism through an urban setting has been the central theme of his best selling books such as ‘Angels and Demons’ and the ‘The Lost Symbol’. Like James Bond, the hero Robert Langdon, a professor of art history goes in search of a lost secret or to prevent a catastrophic incident engineered by a maverick genius, in the company of a beautiful young woman. It is curious to note that when Brown deviated from this formula in ‘Deception Point’ and ‘Digital Fortress’, the results had not been spectacular. The world looked like yearning for more in the proven style. Brown quickly took notice and ‘Inferno’ is a fitting response to that demand from readers.

Art for Langdon is Renaissance art and which place is better suited to be the stage than Florence itself? The Italian city has been fortunate to be the working arena of stalwarts in art such as Michelangelo, Vasari, Brunelleschi, Cellini, Bandinelli and others. Dante Allighieri was also a native of the city, whose ‘Divine Comedy’ assumes centrestage in this book for providing the rich symbolism and literary detail for the readers to fully immerse in. Dante sings about his journey through the hell, then through purgatory and finally to paradise. This imagery is borrowed by the villain of the piece, a genius in genetic engineering who surpassed his peers by a few years in advanced research, to compare it with the plight of the world that was said to be languishing in hell due to excessive growth in population. When the number of people on the face of the planet increases, the increased competition for scarce resources takes away refinement from each of us, forcing us back to uncivilized ways – a hell, in other words. To tide over this, the scientist creates a virus vector that quickly spreads across the globe and affects all humanity. Langdon and the WHO’s task is to stop the pathogen from breaking out, which they do by following subtle hints dropped by the scientist in cryptic references that are modeled on Dante’s masterpiece. In the end, the mission fails to prevent the spread, but the outcome is far more interesting and easier on the conscience and in a way in line with WHO’s mission to control the population growth.

Readers are rewarded with a virtual tour of the artistic wonders of Florence, along with the protagonists of the story. Brown’s narrative is so realistic and absorbing that we get a feel of being actually there on the spot. Florence, rich in art as it already is, has an excellent promotional in ‘Inferno’. Many readers would’ve planned a trip to the city after reading about the Vasari Corridor, Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti and the Cupola of the Dome. Readers also get a free trip to Venice and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The book enriches the readers with lavish references to history and art.

Like most western books, this one also exhibits a point of view bordering on chauvinism against the perceived inability of Asian societies to fully comprehend and rapidly respond to a serious situation unraveling in their midst. In the final chapters of the book, the action moves to Turkey as it became evident that the release of the pathogen would be at Istanbul. The WHO team keeping surveillance of the process with armed soldiers in Hazmat gear chooses to conveniently ignore the local authorities because convincing them at the late hour would be cumbersome and delay the plan! They go on their own and do the work. This attitude is way too evident in several books of the genre.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Shimla on Foot

Title: Shimla on Foot

Author: Raaja Bhasin

Publisher: Rupa Publications, 2007 (First)

ISBN: 9788129112156

Pages: 145

This book is quite unusual in the genre followed in this blog. This is actually a travel guide which serves the tourist well on the spot. It narrates in detail ten walks a traveler can do in Shimla. Raaja Bhasin is a lecturer, journalist and a historian of Shimla.

When the British established footholds on the coasts of India, its heat and dust proved to be quite a challenge which claimed the lives of many early officials. It was only after annexing the interior kingdoms could they gain entry to hill stations which offered a salubrious climate somewhat similar to what they were accustomed to back home. If India was the jewel in the crown, Shimla was the adhesive with which the jewel was affixed on the diadem. There were several such asylums against heat in the Indian heartland, such as Ooty and Kodaikanal in the south and Nainital and Dehra Dun in the north. But Shimla was undoubtedly the queen among them all, which was also the seat of the government during the summer months. The administration transferred its seat, along with paperwork and employees in the month of April every year to Shimla and returned to the plains in October. The viceroys contemplated the decisions which affected a fifth of humanity in the cool and elaborately built mansions in Shimla while the plains sweltered in the scorching heat and drenched in immense sheets of monsoon rain.

Many parts of Shimla is recognized as heritage zones and closed to vehicular traffic. A leisurely walk through these areas provides a memoable experience to visitors. Almost all of the walks described in the book originate at Scandal Point near the Mall, which is the most famous landmark of Shimla. The walks are a few kilometers long through undulating terrain alongside great vistas through wooded forests of oak, cedar and spruce trees. The walks are designed in such a way that travelers can interrupt one and continue with another one, according to choice and circumstances. A route map is provided along with each suggested itinerary. Major attractions, mostly architectural, along the route are described and photographs included. Anecdotes related to the locations on the way are also described in a pleasant manner. Bhasin’s narration is authoritative and full of confidence arising out of a long experience gained through living in this hill station, which is also the capital city of the state of Himachal Pradesh. What is noticeable in the post-independence period of the city is that whatever was in the hands of the colonial administration changed hands to the union government at Delhi and that of the British armed forces to that of Indian. An exception to the rule is the Viceregal Lodge, which was the abode of viceroys. Naturally, it fell to the office of the President of India. In 1964, Dr. S Radhakrishnan, the philosopher-statesman handed over this building to house the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, an institution set up to research in areas which have deep human significance through an inter-disciplinary approach.

The included route map with each walk is rather simplistic and not to scale. Only a few landmarks are indicated along the way and there seem to be a little difficulty for a novice in finding his way, especially if one compares the route map with that of Google Maps which is complicated. I would like to stress here that this opinion is from a person who has never been to Shimla. The route map does not follow the conventional directions either, with the East shown on top in some maps and towards the bottom in many others. This is a great source of confusion, as the walkers may find placing landmarks on the correct side of the road. Many of the photographs are not given captions, making it again difficult to identify them. A good index and collection of tips for visitors add value to the book. Printing and layout of the book is superb, especially the good quality colour plates.

The book is highly recommended for the traveler to Shimla.

Rating: 3 Star

Spice

Title: Spice – The History of a Temptation

Author: Jack Turner

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005 (First published 2004)

ISBN: 9780006551737

Pages: 408

From time immemorial man went in search of taste. Appeal to the palate was his prime motive in scouring the face of the planet and coming up with spices that attribute a strong flavor to food. The origins of spices are shrouded in mystery, but equally amazing is its discovery. Even before navigational aids and maps came along, ancient man found out that pepper grows only on the Malabar Coast of India, cinnamon in Sri Lanka alone and nutmeg on the Tidor and Tarnate islands of the Indonesian archipelago. They collected it from there and sold it in an international market that never seemed satiated. Global trade was an established phenomenon even before national boundaries solidified. Spices were widely used in ancient Egypt and Greece, where they were used for flavouring food even though not possessing any nutritional value, for medicinal purposes, as aphrodisiacs and for flaunting one’s wealth in view of its astronomical prices. Spices were sold for the end user at a multiple of nearly ten times what it was worth in its original home. The huge profit earned by the middlemen was the real reason for the spirit of exploration that gripped Europe at the end of the Middle-Ages. The voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan changed the course of modern history. Jack Turner, who is an Australian author and a television documentary host, narrates the tale of what spices are, how they came to the prominent position which they occupied till the early modern period and finally, how they lost their relevance in a world increasingly in possession of other exotic varieties of foods that flowed from the New World.

Spices seeded the growth of modernity. Europe’s departure from the Middle-Ages to Renaissance is marked by Columbus’ travels in search of a new route to the Spice Islands by going west, as the eastern land route was controlled by hostile Arabs. He discovered America, but mistook it for Asia. A lot of spices, some even resembling the more familiar ones, were found in the new islands, but failure to keep his word on delivering it to the Spanish court eroded his credibility. He was restrained during one of his journeys and returned as a prisoner. King Manuel of Portugal, who was the son-in-law of King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, had other ideas of reaching India. Vasco da Gama attempted and succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reached India. Within a brief time, he transferred the bitter enmity that existed between the Portuguese and Arabs to the Indian coast as well. With the help of superior naval firepower, the Portuguese became the masters of the Arabian Sea. All traders needed to obtain a passport from them to ply their vessels. The foundations of colonialism that was to transform the world in the next four centuries were being laid. The Dutch and the English followed suit and successfully dislodged the Iberians. They established their trading colonies all along the mysterious archipelago of present day Indonesia, including Tarnate and Tidore islands of the Moluccas, which was the original home of nutmeg and in Bandas where clove originally grew.

We usually associate global trading to a modern phenomenon. Readers will be pleasantly surprised to learn that various parts of the globe were in continuous touch since a very early period. Spices from Asia were found in Babylonian and Egyptian remains from the early first millennium BCE. Hippalus found the monsoon winds ideal for navigation, for crossing the sea from Arabia. The spices followed two routes upon reaching the coasts of the Red Sea. One part went downstream through the Nile, reaching Alexandria and from there to Europe. The other part followed caravan routes along the Arabian Desert to reach Constantinople and other Black Sea ports. The trade suffered in the third century CE following the emaciation of the Roman Empire, which was the biggest customer of the spice trade. We read of Pliny’s complaint about the outflow of gold from the empire for a craze which he believed to be superficial. The Arabs stepped into the shoes of the traders once Rome was extinguished. As supply dwindled, spices acquired mysterious overtures and fantastic tales were spun to explain their powers and appeal. By the early second millennium, spice trade picked up again through Arab middlemen.

Turner puts in an impressive array of uses for which spices were utilized. Due to its prohibitive cost, poor people couldn’t afford it in their diet. The author’s research into medieval literature and cook books to unearth the varied applications of spices in the culinary pattern of Europe is quite impressive. The book disagrees with the common notion that spices were used to mask the foul taste of slowly decomposing medieval meat which had not seen a refrigerator yet. Meat was a delicacy only the rich could afford and they were not sensitive to the cost. Spices were also used as aphrodisiacs widely. Pre-Christian religions of the West extensively employed it for smoking as incense to fill the divine chamber with fragrance. Christianity at first denounced its use, surmising that it would evoke memories of a non-Christian past in its fresh converts. Later, when Paganism was completely rooted out, the Church didn’t hesitate to readopt them to fulfill those same roles which they had performed for the heathen.

Spices’ fall from grace was rather swift, which Turner explains in the epilogue. Many factors contributed to the decline, the most weighty being its loss of prestige and mystery owing to the extension of its cultivation to other tropical colonies of the western powers. Seedlings were smuggled out of the Spice Islands and successfully planted elsewhere. As the supply soared, prices fell and they became commonplace. With the appearance of edible crops from the Americas, the culinary variety of Europe widened and underwent a profound change. American chilli which grew vigorously in Europe as well, served as a replacement of pepper. Other vegetables like potato and tomato conquered fields further ashore. Tobacco and sugar provided other avenues of indulgence. On the medicinal front, invention of scientific procedures and new drugs proved the futility of spices. With the emergence of the nation state, the concept of national cuisine employing material available in the country became predominant. The diet of the aristocracy and the common man merged as ideas about man’s fraternity gained ground. With the advent of the modern era, farming preferences also changed. Modern Indonesia, in which the sole island that harboured cloves till the medieval period, now imports cloves!

The book is a delight to read, with witty remarks abounding throughout the text. A good set of photographic plates give a visual feel to the ideas expressed in the book. Caricatures of spice plants drawn by 16^th century artists add further depth to Europe’s affinity to spices. Turner has included an extensive list of sources and bibliography for interested readers to undertake further research. A comprehensive index adds to the book’s utility.

The book’s diction is superlative, in fact a little too good for some readers who might find it difficult to follow the argument. The author refutes the much widely known fact that spices were widely used in Europe to preserve meat during the long winter months, but don’t offer anything in place of it. Spices’ exotic appeal was the only thing that is being suggested for its extensive usage. A brief mention of the highly volatile chemicals which accords spices its distinct flavor would have added interest to the text besides giving it a solid anchor on science.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star