ARTHUR C CLARKE's MYSTERIES

Authors: JOHN FAIRLY and SIMOW WELFARE

What do you think about the doomsday conspiracies? Do you feel that unexplainable things are signs by Aliens? Is Bermuda triangle an enterprise run by ghost ships to absolve men and material into the swirling depth of sea? Or is it because of a heavy magnetic current in that region? 

What real? What is more alluring? What will you choose? Do you think fiction is more romantic and therefore more meaningful? Should all things unexplained on earth be on a grander scale? 

Hear this story then! 

Darkness always scared me when I was a child. I put on a brave front before others, but inside the heart of hearts, I was always looking for a monster in the closet!  Especially after 8 PM, I dared not go near our balcony, because I had found a monster's torch! 

A round disjointed ball  of light used to shine at the edge of our compound after dark. It cast an eerie glow when seen from our balcony. I made a careful inspection of compound after school each evening. But there was no light source in the compound; nor any monsters. The fear drew me like a magnet towards our balcony every night, and I scratched my head over the reason. That orange ball of light occupied my thoughts every evening and my nights turned to nightmares. 

Many months later I finally hit upon the reason behind that spectral glow - a glass piece laced on our compound wall reflected light from some faraway source. The mechanism to prevent intrusion was transformed to a monster's torch with my fertile imagination. From then on I realized that the mysteries are not really mysterious once we know the truth behind them. Of course a monster's torch made a more fascinating story, but I'm more glad with the truth! 

What if you got a book which took the most baffling mysteries/superstitions happening around us and cracked the truth behind them? Compiled by John Fairley and Simon Welfare, the book "Arthur C. Clarke's mysteries" analyzes the truth behind some of the dramatic phenomenon happening around us. This book has all the thrilling components of a whodunit novel; each story has a proper build up, and the spookiness added in the narration keeps us on toe till the end of the chapter where facts are explained. 

Building up over the TV series by Arthur C. Clarke, this book contains the probable facts by the master SF writer himself. This book made me believe that though this world is strange, it is still logical! 

So does the end of Mayan Calendar in 2012 mark the end of the world? Or did the Mayans stop counting after that? Food for thought!

Arranged Marriage

Author: Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

Eleven short stories, each one engrossing and enlightening.  That is Arranged marriage in one sentence. I began to read the book hesitantly, for my first impression was a boring title by an NRI who had no other work . First impressions are not necessarily true, in fact I was blown away by the eleven stories.

    
Chitra Bannerjee brought alive two places, the suburban America and the crowded Calcutta , two places I have never been to. I can never go there, for the stories are set in the recent past. The characters in the stories are real, be it the helpless heroes, the chauvinistic old world men or the capricious, yet unafraid women; they are very real and vivid.

   

Magical titles; at least the titles gained a magical touch after reading the story; they gained a different shade at the end of each story.  What did you think the titles were? Philosophical? No, just mundane titles: The bats, the clothes, the door, what does it have to do with arranged marriage? Whatever it is, I cannot think of bats or clothes without thinking about Chitra Bannerjee's Arranged Marriage.

  

That perfect life is only an illusion; the women who are living in the developed nations have no better conditions than those living in India is the underlying theme apart from the Arranged marriages in each story. How far it is true? How far is it the author’s imagination? I have no answers for that. Times have changed, but the minds may not have.

  

The book is honest, so honest that it is shocking and pricking at times. It made me wonder if I would have done anything different had I been part of the story. Probably not. So strong is the characterization and attention for details that it is easy to fall into the mood created by the book.

Sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Just like an Arranged marriage.