Who's reading what,when & the experience

batistuta

Before the battle begins, Krishna preaches Arjuna on the need to go ahead with the battle and some of the answers on why there is trickery in the battle can be found there. These teachings, a part of Mahabharatha, but is one of the main scriptures of India, is Bhagavad gita (Song of god).

A good translation of it is Christopher Isherwood, song of God, which has a foreword from Aldous Huxley. I like this translation of the Gita. Maybe other Posters can suggest other good translations.

capt_mahajan

Edward W Said, Reflections on Exile

Heavy.

setuniket

hey all..

i am looking for some good novels to read...would prefer romantic fiction and even humour also....no non-fiction stuff......

good stuff to read before i doze off to sleep every night ....read too much of agatha christie... now bored of it..
any suggestions....

all i have read was in school.....so plz recommend some good stuff....i have no idea about whats going on in this part of the world....

Nick-H

I have a translation of both Mahabarat and Ramayana by William Buck, University of California Press.

In fact the author, who was touched so much by these stories that they inspired him to study Sanscrit, insists that they are not translations, and should not be treateded, critically or academically as such, but retellings of the stories.

I've read a number of short translations (the full Mahabarata is about 15 volumes), and find that Buck's 'retellings' touch a place in me that the others don't.

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Darmabum

There's a new translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran that I plan to look into. I've read much of his translation of the Upanishads and like his style very much.

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clawhammer

"The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman
Describes various chapters from his illustrious life - his dad's contribution to his ability to think originally, his work on the Manhattan project, rubbing shoulders with stalwarts of Physics as a graduate student, making a presentation as a graduate student, with Einstein in the audience and lots of other stories
An entertaining and illuminating read!

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clawhammer

Since ppl are discussing translations of Indian epics ... can anybody tell me about a good english translation of The Vedas?

dhans

White Moghuls by William Dalrymple.

I love it, not in the least as it proves the the Kipling saying "East ios east and west is west and never the twain shall meet" utterly wrong.

Hans

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clawhammer

This question of good and evil has plagued me frequently. The victors are generally portrayed as good or is it the other was round? A few days back I came across this blog that looks into Mahabharata from a different angle:
http://suketu.sulekha.com/blog/post/...mahabharat.htm

global_yatri

interesting link, clawhammer - although it reads a bit like an attempt to analyze and scrutinize literally a work that relies on not being translated literally to squeeze out the essence and values from it - do you know what i mean? of course many of us ( in my experience anyway) who have read or heard stories from mythology (and technically myth just means story - not "made up" story, for anyone who wants to claim that mahabharata is not mythology and is true etc etc) have wondered about certain facts like the names of the antagonists or the whole thing with draupadi being married to all five brothers or even why the pandavas would be the rightful heirs to the throne, but these points are in there to show us that life is not straightforward i think - i read something interesting about how the "shruti" shastras were learned by absorbing them like music (not memorized) and later the "smriti" shastras evolved so that people could pass on values by memorizing stories which had in them complex values...

will check out buck's translation next - thanks for the recommendation!

and on a lighter note, for anyone who wants a bit of humor in reading - please give wodehouse a try - no, many tries - just watched jeeves and wooster and can't help thinking that wodehouse is really meant to be read and it's just not the same (sometimes pretty close) to see it on bbc! my personal favorite is "girl in blue" ( it's been a while but i think that's the title) - a hilariously complicated comedy of errors!

Nick-H

Mahabarat is all about making mistakes; monumental mistakes* that have catastrophic consequences for mankind. There are no perfect gods, no perfect people, no perfectly imperfect people either.

It is about every possible trait in human nature, all mixed together, as it is in reality. We can look at some of the things done by the great and good in Mahabarat and say that it is just silly, that even we wouldn't have made that mistake --- but perhaps we would...

Mahabarat is about life!

Richard Feynman ---- Love the guy! Years back I saw a couple of TV programs about him (while he was still alive) and later I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, his book, Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman?

*correction... the mistakes may be small: the consequences may be monumental.

ks_bluechip

Such a coincidence! .... just today I started reading this book "Surely You are Joking Mr Feynman.

KS

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Amyth

Mr Blue chip, remember the thread on Indian fetish for giving Unsolicited advice?! I stumbled upon another one – “The argumentative Indian”. It's a book by Amartya Sen and it discusses the “my way-or-highway” debating nature of Indians. Being argumentative has been very prevalent in India and our history and epics provide an ample proof of it. Sen uses the argument between Arjuna and Krishna from the Bhagavad-Gita to substantiate his point. There are other references too, but this in particular was an extremely fascinating essay in the book!

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clawhammer

Actually I was searching the net for some detailed information and interpretations of battle formations and tactics in Kurukshetra, when I stumbled upon this blog .... it analyzed Mahabharata with a mathematician's rigor! But I believe, many of the facts are open to interpretation .... Rajagopalachari in his book sometimes tries to present these alternatives and his inability to interpret certain things(like how ppl could cut down arrows and spears in mid flight or the exact formations like the chakra vyuha)

ks_bluechip

Hey Amyth,

Nice to hear from you. Of course, I remember well, the mistake of starting that fetish of a thread ... I had planned several "such" "Indian" topics ... but seeing the varied & patriotic nature of IM posters decided to keep out of trouble (now keeping those topics for the book that I may write ... maybe anonymously ... or maybe not at all).

You did (bravely) see my viewpoint on that thread. Will buy and read that Amartya's book on Argumentative Indians. Should be interesting ... and of course true!