First Impression

THIS is a double action book, two stories overlapping in time, set in two different periods with different sets of characters. But their lives are intertwined because each set is in the same pursuit. That of the Incan idol, that is made of a strange compound not found on earth. One wants it for reasons of religion, death and destruction, the other to be the first to become a super power. However there are some "doors that are meant to remain unopened," as the blurb for the book announces. And so when Professor William Race, a linguist is suddenly called upon by the U.S. Army to try and translate an old Incan memoir that could lead them to the exact location of the idol, little does he know what is in store for him. Before he can blink an eyelid, he is whisked off as an appendage on the high-powered mission to the forgotten citadel of Vilafor where the idol is said to have been kept. As Race familiarises himself with the long forgotten text, written by a Franciscan priest, he finds sudden similarities in the present day situation. Horror on horror climaxes, as the special mission sets out to look for the idol.

Meanwhile, Race, confronted with not only the earlier version of events that led to the Incan idol, but also the present day machinations of the Germans (who incidentally are also after the idol), finds himself being drawn deeper and deeper into a role that he really does not relish. As Race comes to realise that his position is quite similar to the monk of yesteryears who saved the idol from destruction, he finds it is too late to draw back. The mission leads Race and his companions to a mysterious stone temple hidden in the foothills of the Andes, a carefully contrived sanctuary seething with terror and menace. But not one of them is prepared for the onslaught that follows when the silence of the temple is breached.

Temple, Matthew Reilly, Pan, œ5.99.

SOME bonds are made to be broken. But young Meggie Singh does not know that till she is ready to fall off the edge with her father in his desperately mad quest for light. He who is the "Professor of Light" - that charming, somewhat dishevelled man, who, with his soft, mesmeric, lilting tones can actually hypnotise an audience into listening to his theories. Professor Singh is Meggie's father who shapes her childhood, her thoughts and her ideas in his own mould, so that as she grows older Meggie is able to potentially realise what it is she has to ask him, for him to be able to carry on in singleminded concentration.

But what she has not bargained for is the unexpected presence of people who may or may not be able to so idolise her father. One of them being her mother, who feels left out, peeved and lost in her relationship with her husband. Meggie watches as chapter after chapter of her parents non-marriage unfolds in various different sequences before her eyes.

Sometimes she is the traitor, sometimes the jealous spectator. But each time she forgives her father because she believes that eventually he will find the answer that he has been looking for all these years.

With a family scattered all over India, Guyana and America, Meggie is also brought up on a diet rich with superstition, folklore and most of all, family takes, tales that beckon back into the family fold. Such is the power of persuasion, that even Meggie cannot help but feel the pull.

As meggie prays and hopes for a happy family, for her father to eventually write the book that he has been working on, she realises how much is at stake. Eventually her father looses tracks and finally one day, follows the family tradition, turning himself into an object of ridicule rather than respect. Marina Budhos, has written a beautiful book - a story about how some little girls have to eventually grow up and snap the bond because growing up can also mean growing apart. This is a must-read book, one to be read slowly, savoured to the last page, waiting to fall over the precipe.

The Professor of Light, Marina Budhos, IndiaInk, Rs. 250.

AS always, Lee Siegel trapezes between reality and illusion. But after reading his stunning Love in a Dead Language, this book on magic pales into ordinariness. So strong is Siegel's desire to intertwine texts, to prove the real, to call off the fake and to be able to build an interesting venture, that he has lost track of his goal.

This is the story, then, of impoverished Indian magicians, who practice their art seductively, desperately seeking maya even while publicly denouncing it. There is no respectability left in the trade and Siegel, who encounters not only Muslim street magicians in Shadipur, Delhi, but also P. C. Sorcar, finds

himself somewhat outwitted by the fictious Prof. M. T. Bannerji. Even as Siegel's narration moves from present to past, to past imperfect, he keeps no formulas for guessing. The plot hinges on fiction, reality, history, travel and a little bit of everything else. There is of course loads of deception, not unlike the magicians who perfect the art of creating deception into a universal truth. However for Siegel, unfortunately, the bunny refuses to pop out of the hat despite the magic wand.

Net of magic, Lee Siegel, Harper Collins, Rs. 295.

THESE are eternal classics. The new publications of Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita and the Mahabharata are welcome. Finally younger children get to read their classics in easy to understand language and without the glaring omission that often made for incomplete and headless stories. The epics are well illustrated and colourful enough to captivate the attention of younger children, while the text can be read by any age group. It is never an easy job to condense epics of this size, specially without losing focus of the main story. Har Anand publishers have managed to put together a neat and well presented text which will attract all age groups.

Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita, Mahabharata, Har Anand, Rs. 150 each.

SUCHITRA BEHAL

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