Burning Night Oil

Glancing at the newspaper while gulping down a hot paratha and breaking the fruit i yell "COOOVING!!!". (i've half a mind to call this the 'Mumbai effect') The headline, predictably, brings me some more (mis?)information about the captive gunman.After reading ad nausuem about the terror attacks in Mumbai over the past several days, i have successfully resisted the urge (somewhat selfishly) to write (more than 3 sentences) on the subject. With a hope that we will see no more such dastardly incidents, let me move to another topic.

I'm currently reading the much controversial ' Freedom at Midnight' (FAM).
At the outset i wish to say that this is a book every literate Indian must read. And people of other nationalities would do well to read it too.
This is because i feel that FAM has been written with an astonishing and laudable degree of impartiality. It is not difficult to see why it was banned in India; we still have to learn to accept the existance of faults in our venerated freedom fighters that FAM does not hesitate to delineate.

At the same time, it does not strike me as a ruthless piece of literature.A genuine desire to record the minutae leading upto India's freedom and the horrors thereafter is apparent.In this effort, no one is too small to find a mention.Unlike textbooks or other lofty works, Messrs Collins and Lapierre do not limit themselves to the likes of Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah or Mountbatten. First person accounts of countless peasants, policemen, shopkeepers and British officers make the narrative real and poignant as opposed to the dry, unemotional perspective of history textbooks that we're accustomed to.

One more striking feature of this work is that it furnishes one with innumerable names, facts and anecdotes (both funny and macabre). A Nawab's obsession with his pet dogs to the extent of providing them with luxury kennels equipped with hot water, bath tubs, electricity ( in 1945, remember), and other such diversions lend light moments to a most grisly and heart rending saga.

I haven't finished with the book yet, so i have no idea how it ends.
More on this later...