Blog 134 - Marine Musings - An Ode to Books and Writing

An Ode to Books and Writing

This is Part I of, what I suspect will be, several parts.

There have been many articles on books, book shops and the like with one article enumerating the good things that happen from reading books.

Empathy and Perspective: Stepping into the shoes of fictional characters allows you to develop empathy and gain a deeper understanding of different perspectives.

Enhanced Creativity: Reading exposes you to new ideas and thought processes, potentially sparking your own creativity and problem-solving skills.

Stronger Writing Skills: Immersing yourself in well-written prose can improve your writing style, sentence structure, and overall communication clarity.

A Portal to New Worlds: Books transport you to different times, places, and realities. Experience thrilling adventures, historical events, or fantastical journeys from the comfort of your armchair.

Lifelong Learning: Reading is a journey of continuous learning and self-discovery. There's always something new to learn, regardless of your age or interests.

All are well taken, each possessing particular relevance to me.

Talks about empathy. At a very young age I came across Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. Looking back, I think it was then that I began to understand the depth of meaning to the words ‘empathy’ and ‘racism’. Before then, the concept of ‘racism’ did not exist in me. After that, I began to feel the racism in the air and would quietly remove myself from there.

We think of 'racism' more in the international context. But, in real life, I found that it exists next door, between communities, between pigmentation of skins, between different modes of dress, between classes based on income, snobbery bordering on racism.

The paradox is that - where one would expect camaraderie within the same community - all the above listed criteria are prevalent within the same community. Why, sometimes the way we look at our own relatives or our own friends, will have shades of 'racism', if we have the courage to look within ourselves and admit to such thoughts.

Of course, the insights gained into racism whilst travelling the world, has tempered the way I look at people.

Although I read many of AJ Cronin’s books, the one that influenced me the most was ‘Adventures in Two Worlds’. It instilled in me the feeling that you don’t have to be famous to gain happiness. Happiness comes from the little things around you. You can do your bit - of good - without the cloak of greatness.

And then there were Lloyd C Douglas books, especially ‘The Robe’ and ‘Magnificent Obsession’.

Although all of Lloyd C Douglas were Christian themed, the essence was human. With ‘The Robe’, I started looking at my own faith with renewed respect. The movie, with Richard Burton as Marcellus was enthralling.

Any one having seen the movie 'Ben Hur' will also identify themselves with 'The Robe'. I refer to the scene where Ben Hur's mother and sister are cleansed of leprosy from the sudden downpouring of rain, as they watched Jesus shouldering the Cross on his way to Mount Calvary.

‘Magnificent Obsession’ instilled the thought in me to - when I start earning - to help others on the quiet. The main theme of this book is, once again, Biblical.

Jesus says: Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.(Matthew 6:3-4).

Hindu texts see this 'giving' or 'helping' as a slightly different concept.

Atharvved, “My one hand is God, the other hand that gives is greater than God’’.

Once, all the progeny of Brahma (ब्रह्मा) ,the creator, [the other two of the trinity are Vishnu (विष्णु) the preserver and Shiva( शिव) the destroyer] visited him to seek wisdom, that is, gyan(ज्ञान). Brahma uttered just one word ‘da’(द). The Daanavs demons (दानव) thought it meant Daya (दया) Mercy. The devta, demigods(देवता) interpreted it as Daman(दमन) suppression of the desires of enjoyment; the humans took it to mean ( दान)charity (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad5/2).

Humankind was meant to always give 'Dhaan'.

Finally, there is the French author Andre Gide - "Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."

The insight into cultures that Pearl S Buck brought with her books were astonishing and left a deep imprint on me. My knowledge and understanding of the Chinese psyche, right or wrong, was mainly through her ‘Good Earth’, although set in a more impoverished, rural China. I was fascinated with ‘Dragon Seed’ and ‘Come, my Beloved’.

End of Part I

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Ode to Books and Writing - Part II

PG Wodehouse brought tons of humour into my life, this in my teens. I was a dour, serious young boy till then. How can a pig be the hero of a book?  His ability to write a paragraph in a sentence and the command over the English language inspired me. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves pulled the rug from under the British aristocracy. If there is an author whose books I have read by the hundreds, it must be PGW. 

Being an assistant to the School Librarian, I had access to a whole new world of old - read ancient (as my school was nearly a 100 years then) books at the age of 12. A 1920s author, Dornford Yates drew me a road map into murders and mysteries from which I am yet to emerge. Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and many more followed.

Thanks to my Army brother, who would come home about once a year, who would dump a box load of books at home, before disappearing within a fortnight, I came across the love of my life, Science Fiction. 

Isaac Asimov and his ‘Foundation’ series, starting from ‘Caves of Steel’ and continuing with Danny. His short story ‘Nightfall’, later a full novel of the same name, were intriguing, inspiring, unforgettable even after 6 decades. ‘Caves of Steel’ made me think of an alternate kind of life for humanity, had we gone that route - not that we may not go that way even within the foreseeable future - and how the protagonist, a human being subject to the all the deep rooted fears that we carry through our lives - overcomes primordial fears instilled by society, not fully but enough to become the custodian of a greater change to mankind that takes place in much later years.

I would recommend ‘I Robot’, ‘Caves of Steel’, ‘Naked Sun’, ‘Robots of Dawn’, ‘Robots and Empire’ etc before plunging into the ‘Foundation’ series, because all the former books are actually preludes to his famous ‘Foundation’ series.

Actually, practically none of his books would have had much of a connection with each other, till he was asked a question 20 years after writing ‘Caves Of Steel’. It set him thinking and the later ‘Foundation’ books were the result, which connected all his previous novels and wove a garland of a grand scheme of things on a galactic scale. It is the read of a lifetime. An author par excellence. Readers of normal fiction are missing out of something grand in their reading experience if they miss out - in their short lives - Isaac Asimov’s books, let alone other science fiction authors. Their reading ensemble will be incomplete without this kind of foray. Read with an open mind - wonders will you perceive. 

Arthur C Clarke and his unforgettable ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Rendezvous with Rama’. ‘Hal’ put the jitters into me, as does the AI of today. Maybe we humans are reaching a bit too far. Or it could be the harbinger of travel beyond earth. My jury is still out.

How did the perception, the conceivability of satellites in space - for communication, for navigation, for transmission of any kind of data, all almost instantly, come about?

In October 1945, Clarke published in the British magazine Wireless World a technical paper entitled “Extra-terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?” It established the feasibility of satellites as relay stations for Earth-based communications.  (See sketch)

The first satellite - Sputnik I - was launched by Russia in 1957. It had a radio transmitter. We have come a long way since then, but somebody had to conceive it first.

In fact, the famed NASA may not have been where they are today, had it not been for a ‘think tank’ of scientists, engineers and science fiction writers, of which Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke were prominent members in the 1950s and 1960s. The engineers, scientists and administrators are alleged to have told the science fiction writers “We don’t have the imagination to conceive of things beyond the physical laws, nuts and bolts. You conceive it and we’ll turn it into reality”. So did NASA progress.

The rest is history.

End of Part II

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Ode to Books and Writing - Part III

I’ve never been astride a horse, so I don’t know how I latched on to Dick Francis. But latch on I did and learnt what doing good is all about. ‘To the Hilt’ was my favourite.

Robert A Heinlein and Kurt Vonnegut were others.

An Ode to Books will not be complete without mentioning Manohar Malgaonkar. His novels “A Bend in the Ganges”, “Distant Drum”, “Combat of Shadows”, “The Princes” - all squeezed all the raw emotions out of you, leaving you pensive.

One of the books of Nevil Shute - “In the Wet” - was an intriguing novel, where he suggests the use of Seven Votes. Each person has one vote. As he gains more and more knowledge, the number of votes that he can cast increases, till he reaches the highest, the Seventh Vote.

In most minds, espionage is synonymous with Ian Flemings James Bond - the flamboyant womanising famed 007 of her majesty's secret service. Not many know that the precursor to the espionage novels of Ian Fleming was a little known book titled 'The Thirty Nine Steps' 1915 novel authored by John Buchan.

But the many twists and turns of actual espionage was brought out by John Le Carre'. His books, 'The Spy who Came In from the Cold', 'Tinker, tailor, Soldier, Spy', 'Smiley's People', 'The Honorable Schoolboy' and many more - all took us deep into the machinations of the KGB and MI5, deep into the Cold War and all done through a diminutive hero- Smiley. Fascinating stories, just bordering the realities of that period. They are all books that are not 'put downable'.

The solitude afforded me on ships made me take with me one of the “Complete Works of ….” (read Shakespeare / Dickens / Poems), history and geography books - anything that interested me.

Both my sons have taken after me and have read the full library of books that I have managed to collect over the years. 

Australia has played a big part in my reading. My ships - I am a Marine Engineer - had regular runs to Australia. Almost all cities and small towns had second hand book shops, where you could buy any book for A$ 2 and get a dollar back were you to return the books. They - the second hand shops - were veritable treasure troves of all genre of books, of all periods. I was surprised and perplexed to see the wealth that the average Australian threw out.

But my first love was browsing through the shops in Moore Market, Chennai, buying up dog eared classics and reconditioning them, binding them.

Unfortunately, in 1985, a fire destroyed Moore Market. It was razed and is now part of the Railways complex.

So, the collection of books grew.

And then, disaster struck. My eyes faded. The small print of books became a worrisome barrier.

But along came technology, on a white steed, with something to do with medicines. Yes, it was the ‘tablet’, which lets you store any number of downloaded books and the Font can be adjusted to your eyes’ capacity. Back I went to books.

In my second avatar, I managed to read all my favourites once again and added a few more authors like David Weber. His books have a heroine, Honor Harrington, at the helm of a fleet of ‘ships’ that glide in and out of ‘wormholes’ in the pursuit of enemies in inter galactic wars.

These were better than CS Forester’s ‘Horatio Hornblower’ series.

And, not necessarily finally, how can I neglect to mention the hero who was a Marine Engineer like myself, Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt?

End of Part III

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Ode to Books and Writing - Part IV

Sometimes the measure of one’s self is in rereading a book after decades. You can then compare your reactions to the book in question, when you were a teenager, a middle aged adult and a senior citizen. Some of the changes in you, which you  can discern from the reading, can be startling, if you have the courage to admit that changes have taken place.

In many instances, idealism has given way to pragmatism. Optimism has given way to cynicism, not necessarily pessimism. Your ‘head in the clouds’ has dropped with a thud on to the earth. You find that your open, trustful attitude, has given way to looking over the shoulder and trying to look around corners at what may be lurking ahead.

But the best part is, as several decades pass and you enter your seventies, you find yourself more and more tolerant and invent reasons to yourself in which you dust off a slight that, decades ago, you would have stood and fought every inch of the way. Maybe your ‘acceptance’ levels are high. Or maybe your energy levels are low.

Which leads me to my present passion - writing. 

After complete retirement from the world of shipping. I tried to get into the teaching circuit, but I quickly found that it is a closed circle, which allows only a coterie of insiders. Even inside that coterie, there was infighting, which led to favouritism and other nefarious practices. I quietly left.

I was now twiddling my thumbs , not knowing what to do. I thought I’ll try my hand at writing a novel. I found I could not summon up the imagination required to conjure up a short story. I felt I was devoid of the attributes required to be an author. 

Into this world of frustration, my elder son threw in a spanner. He suggested I start a Blog and write about my experiences at sea. His exact words were “Appa, you’ve been telling us stories of the sea, many of them repeated again and again. Why don’t you write them down? I’ll help you set up a Blog.”

That is when I started writing. Every memory of my childhood days, about my College days, each ship then started coming into focus. I found that if I transported myself to that time or place, I was able to recall most of the incidents, starting from when I was 4 or 5 years old.

It is as if a tap had opened and, instead of water, words came pouring out. Except for some lazy stretches, which periods I would attribute, pompously, as ‘writer’s block’, I have been writing for the last three years. 

My Blogs are each sized to a 10 to 15 minute read, which I would then publish. I am afraid I had very few readers, sometimes none. I foisted my Blogs on to some of my sea faring friends, many of whom have steadfastly stood by me, read my Blogs and commented on them. But the lack of readership did not deter me, as I was enjoying the writing, the editing, the revamping, shortening some events, giving free rein to others, be they technical or personal or human related. 

Till date, I have managed to write 133 blogs , each of an average of 10 minutes duration. When I ran out of ship related subjects, I let my mind roam into subjects that have interested me, fascinated me. Google, research papers, other author’s assertations have helped fuel this journey.

I intend to keep this going as a tether to Life. Otherwise, Life has no meaning or purpose.

The End