The Man Booker Prize.

The Man Booker Prize.

'The Man Booker Prize' award (Booker Prize) is considered ‘Oscars for Novels’. First time ‘The Man Booker prize’ was awarded in 1969 to P.H. Newby’s novel ‘Something to Answer For’.  The Man Booker Prize is given to fiction work/novel in English every year by the citizen of Commonwealth Nations and Ireland. The award originally known as Booker –McConnell Prize, after the company Booker McConnell started sponsoring the prize way back in the year 1968. In 2002 administration of the prize transfer to Booker Prize Foundation and sponsor became the investment company ‘Man Group’ and chosen to retain ‘Booker’ as part of official title of the prize.

                This year ‘The Man Booker Prize-2012’ award will be declared today in short while among six shortlisted Novels. Among these six shortlisted we have nomination from Indian writer Jeet Thyil for his debut novel ‘Narcopolis’. Other shortlist authors are Tan Twan Eng for 'The garden of Evening Mists', Deborah Levy for 'Swimming Home', Hilary Mantel for 'Bring Up the Bodies', Alison Moore for 'The Lighthouse' and Will Self for 'Umbrella'.

Salman Rushdie- 'Midnights Children', Arundhati Roy-'God of Small Things', Kiran Desai-'The Inheritance of Loss' and Arvind Adiga- 'The White Tiger' of India who have won the prestigious award in past.

Whereas Man Booker International Prize is international literary award given to living author of any nationality for book published in English or available in English form after translation.  The Man Booker International Prize first time held in 2005 and awarded to Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare.   

Sl No	Year	Author	Title	Genre	Country
1	1969	P. H. Newby	Something to Answer For	Novel	United Kingdom
2	1970	Bernice Rubens	The Elected Member	Novel	United Kingdom
3	1970[a]	J. G. Farrell	Troubles	Novel	United Kingdom
					Ireland
4	1971	V. S. Naipaul	In a Free State	Short story	United Kingdom
					Trinidad and Tobago
5	1972	John Berger	G.	Experimental novel	United Kingdom
6	1973	J. G. Farrell	The Siege of Krishnapur	Novel	United Kingdom
					Ireland
7	1974	Nadine Gordimer	The Conservationist	Novel	South Africa
8		Stanley Middleton	Holiday	Novel	United Kingdom
$	1975	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala	Heat and Dust	Historical novel	United Kingdom
					Germany
10	1976	David Storey	Saville	Novel	United Kingdom
11	1977	Paul Scott	Staying On	Novel	United Kingdom
12	1978	Iris Murdoch	The Sea, the Sea	Philosophical novel	Ireland
					United Kingdom
13	1979	Penelope Fitzgerald	Offshore	Novel	United Kingdom
14	1980	William Golding	Rites of Passage	Novel	United Kingdom
15	1981	Salman Rushdie	Midnight's Children	Magical realism	India
					United Kingdom
16	1982	Thomas Keneally	Schindler's Ark	Biographical novel	Australia
17	1983	J. M. Coetzee	Life & Times of Michael K	Novel	South Africa
18	1984	Anita Brookner	Hotel du Lac	Novel	United Kingdom
19	1985	Keri Hulme	The Bone People	Mystery novel	New Zealand
20	1986	Kingsley Amis	The Old Devils	Comic novel	United Kingdom
21	1987	Penelope Lively	Moon Tiger	Novel	United Kingdom
22	1988	Peter Carey	Oscar and Lucinda	Novel	Australia
23	1989	Kazuo Ishiguro	The Remains of the Day	Historical novel	United Kingdom
					Japan
24	1990	A. S. Byatt	Possession	Novel	United Kingdom
25	1991	Ben Okri	The Famished Road	Magic realism	Nigeria
26	1992	Michael Ondaatje	The English Patient	Historiographic metafiction	Canada
					Sri Lanka
27		Barry Unsworth	Sacred Hunger	Historical novel	United Kingdom
28	1993	Roddy Doyle	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha	Novel	Ireland
29	1994	James Kelman	How Late It Was, How Late	Stream of consciousness	United Kingdom
30	1995	Pat Barker	The Ghost Road	War novel	United Kingdom
31	1996	Graham Swift	Last Orders	Novel	United Kingdom
32	1997	Arundhati Roy	The God of Small Things	Novel	India
33	1998	Ian McEwan	Amsterdam	Novel	United Kingdom
34	1999	J. M. Coetzee	Disgrace	Novel	South Africa
35	2000	Margaret Atwood	The Blind Assassin	Novel	Canada
36	2001	Peter Carey	True History of the Kelly Gang	Historical novel	Australia
37	2002	Yann Martel	Life of Pi	Fantasy novel	Canada
38	2003	DBC Pierre	Vernon God Little	Novel	Australia
39	2004	Alan Hollinghurst	The Line of Beauty	Historical novel	United Kingdom
40	2005	John Banville	The Sea	Novel	Ireland
41	2006	Kiran Desai	The Inheritance of Loss	Novel	India
42	2007	Anne Enright	The Gathering	Novel	Ireland
43	2008	Aravind Adiga	The White Tiger	Novel	India
44	2009	Hilary Mantel	Wolf Hall	Historical novel	United Kingdom
45	2010	Howard Jacobson	The Finkler Question	Novel	United Kingdom
46	2011	Julian Barnes	The Sense of an Ending	Novel	United Kingdom
47	2012	Hilary Mantel	Bring Up the Bodies	Novel	UK

 (Novel's Title linked will be activated  (for Novel)with review details as and when I complete the reading of the novel)   

 Thanks and Regards

Amol Pralhad Nakve. 

Valley of Flowers.

Valley of flowers is a beautiful alpine valley resides in Himalaya located 300 km from Rishikesh.  The Valley of Flowers declared as a National Park in 1982 and now it is a world heritage site since 2004. The valley covered in snow in the winter season and converts to youthful beauty in warm summers. Valley has been brought to world’s eye by British mountaineers Franks S. Smythe and R.L. Holdsworth.  The picking season to visit the valley is from July to August when the plant as are in full blossom season.

I started my journey towards Valley on 8^th Sept 2012 from Ahmedabad and reached Rishikesh at evening hours on the second day. I have started the further journey to Ghovindghat from Rishikesh which is around 10 hr journey the duration also depends on the landslides and rains. Buses are only available from early morning hours i.e. from 4 am to 7 am. Govindghat is on way to Badrinath i.e. 24 Km before. One can reach Govindghat by reaching Joshimath from where we have to travel another 21 km towards Badrinath. I reach Govindghat on 10^th Sept 2012 at 5 pm. Govindghat is a small place resides between massive mountains. The place is full of Sikh pilgrims who are on their way to Shree Hemkund Saheeb and trackers of the Great Himalaya. During the winter season the place is almost covered with snow. And dry for almost 8 months for the purpose of tourism.  On second the day my next destination was Ghangaria 12 km away from Govindghat. At Govindghat river Laxmanganga confluences with Alaknada river adding more strength to massive flow.   Deccan Air is providing Helicopter services to Ghangaria which costs around 3500/- INR. Other economic routs are also available in the form of trekking, Doli's and Ponies.  Of course Trekking comes with no charges whereas Ponies cost 720/- INR( through govt. booking centers) and Doli which will cost around 5000/- INR. Here we can test our bargaining skills. 

It took 5 hrs me to reach Ghangaria on pony. Let me tell you the fact that trek on pony really exhausting affair. The whole body is shaken up on the pony. Quite painful but accompanying river Laxmanganga acts as antidote for the pain you bear. The path becomes really wonderful with the sound of river flow.  The rocks in the river are playing havoc with water creating the melody for human ears.        

I reached Ghangaria at 11:30 am. Ghagharia is a base camp for Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Saheeb. At Ghagharia and Govindghat good accommodation facilities are available through the costing part is variable with tourism in-flow. At Ghagharia, Pushpavati river confluences with Laxmanganga.   The govt administration is allowing tourists to enter into the valley between 7:00 am to 2:00 pm, we have to return back to Ghangaria by 5:00 pm or otherwise, the administration will penalize you with 10,000/- INR. I went deep to find out the main cause behind such negative incentives, the area is having the presence of wild animals and there might be the chances of misshaping and during low light trekking becomes quite tough.  The entry ticket to visit the valley is valid for three days by paying 150/- INR for Indian citizens which can be renewed in those days by paying 50/- INR.

The next day I woke up early and entered the track at 6:50 pm. The path is created on beads of rock on stones making tracking a little bit hard. On this journey the accompanying partner is Pushpavati River.  Pushpavati the name is self indicating vis means  ‘flowers bringer’.  I and Pushpavati were flowing in exactly opposite directions. Pushpavati flowing to meet her destiny from her destination and I am searching my destiny from my destination.  The collision of water with rocks in a flow giving milky color to the river.  Neonate waterfalls of the recent rains are adding extra whiteness to nature’s extravagant orchestra. The beauty is purely unbeatable. Waterfalls veined from mountains like blood runs through your wrist or sap passes through the leaf of piple tree and mountains has become indicator of animate thing standing there since unknown era. On 12^th Sept 2012, I was the second person to reach the valley first. It took me exactly 2 hrs 28 min to cover the trek.  The only eyewitness of the millstone is the valley of flowers. This is the autumn season where plant started shading their leaves, flowers started shading their petals and giving efforts to make seeds for next season. Butterflies and Honey bee’s helping in transporting the pollen from their destination to source. I eyewitness the entire show where myriad flowers are busy in preparing themselves for reincarnation.  The massive mountains are standing likes guard to the valley like a protector to the flowers. The glacier of Tipari is a jewel to the valley of flowers along with milky waterfalls. For those who believed in nature God, the Valley of Flower is the perfect place to visit. 

I could see the flowers of various colors, pods, and seeds of the plant.  When you cross the first small wooden bridge you actually started to enter from this point into the valley.   Sunlight, massive mountains and clouds are playing havoc with each other and wanted to prove their superiority with each other. Valley is 8 km pavement supporting the survival of 500 types of flower varieties.  I trek and moved ahead another two km to explore the beauty of the valley. It was the mesmerizing experience for me to visit the Valley of Flowers especially in the autumn season. Really Flowers are living larger than life.                                           

Faith 

Amol Nakve.

      

 

   

In An Antique Land

Hi,

I just read the 'In an Antique Land' by Amitav Ghosh, The novel is the story of two Indians,  Amitav the doctoral scholar who went to Egypt in 1980’s  and  his  search for the Bomma  Indian slave of Ben Yiju an Arab merchant, way back in 1140’s. The book is based on the letters send by master Ben Yuji to his people in Aden(Egypt). Amitav's quest for tracing the Bomma's life through letters and on field visits in India and Egypt has been very well appreciated. Amitav has beautifully pictured the life of rural Egypt in this book and the trade scenario in medieval period. You will find lot of similarities in Egypt and India  The book is highly  recommended to read.

Happy Reading! 

Faith

Amol Nakve.

Veraval.

I happened to visit Fishing Harbor, Veraval- Gujtath i.e. on western coastal region of India. Here I meet Mohan Bhai owner of one of the boat among more than 3000 boats. (population of boats has increased so substantially  that boats are park on land using cranes services.) Monsoon season is very down time for fishing business. According to Mohan Bhai now competition has become too fierce as too many people have entered into this arena. One boat cost around Rs. 30 lakhs INR. 

He is getting labour force( Fishermen) mainly from. Daman-Div, Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra.

15 days work in deep sea is costing him around Rs. 1 lakh which include the cost of 3000 litre diesel. While the estimated earning is around Rs. 3 Lakhs from the 15 days work. But the earnings are not exactly predictable and sometimes it gone upto Rs.  4 lakhs to Rs. 0. It all depends on the seeds available in the sea.

The marine products are later on transported to other part of country, majorly to Mumbai and there are exports of marine processed products to Japan, USA and Gulf countries. 

  Veraval is also famous for Boat making. Many enterprises are engaged boat making. Veraval is providing livelihood for coastal Gujrathi's. 

Regards

Amol.

Economic figures may recover in future, but his childhood cannot.......

(Source: picture captured at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India on 18th July 2012)

Economic figures may recover in future, but his childhood cannot.




Regards
Amol Nakve.

The Thorn Birds

From the very first page of novel -The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. 

There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and GOD in his heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain…..or so say the legend..

-Amol