Reading Rybakov ....2

Yeah, this is my second post on Rybakov and his book "Children of Arbat". The first part in the trilogy: next comes Fear and then Dust and Ashes. And I must read the book, "The Thaw" by Ilya Ehrenberg. But lets come back to this book.
Well, as I said last time this is about a group of Moscow youths who grow up in a system which they idealize and which in turn, represses them. Unique! There is Sasha, who gets exiled for doing nothing wrong, but his exile is connected with arresting some other people. But you know, that part is the tragedy. Lots of people got repressed for no reason, for just being associated with someone the administration did not like.
The most fascinating aspect of the book is that it presents to the reader, two diametrically opposite views: that of the Soviet Man and that of the Administration. The Soviet Man is best personified with Sasha, Varya, Nina and their friends. They have the ideal within them to bring about a change: sacrifice for achieving something great, their faith in the Party and the ideals of socialism.

But what does the Party do? People like Sergei Kirov (who I think is depicted as a hero in this book) who understand the people and value their support continue to work tirelessly. But what can they do when Stalin is obsessed with the centralization of power? The book does paint a chilling psychological picture of Stalin by carefully analyzing his thought processes. Stalin was completely opposed to decentralization of power: all strings to himself,---a very dangerous game! But anyway, that's all history. But I just do wonder at times: that if people like Kirov had their way, not working at the very top, but among the people, helping and guiding them along, whether the experiment would have succeeded?
Did the rule of Stalin destroy the socialism in Russia? I think it did.

Simultaneously, we should remember that what the Russian people were also looking for was a complete change in society: where the individual would live, not only for self, but also for the community. The order matters, of course. Stalinist reversed the order, and committed numerous atrocities in that ideal. On the contrary, exploiting the other extreme, nations have become lousy capitalists.
A balance is necessary...but at which point? Next stop: The Communist Manifesto.

The book ends with two different points again. On one hand, Kirov is murdered by NKVD on the orders of Stalin (http://www.brushtail.com.au/july_04_on/kirov_assassination.html) and on the other Sasha realizes that he will probably never go back to Moscow. But in spite of that he has hopes: hopes for a life, a future, because for the first time, Varya has written him a letter.

Reading Rybakov

Very recently, I came across this book, Children of the Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov. Its a book about the Stalinist Russia in the mid-1930's when the socialist revolution was in full swing. An amazing book!
As you know, I do have a fascination for Soviet Russia. Primarily, because its so different from anything I have seen. Thats why I used to like the book, The Last Frontier by Alistair MacLean so much. I thought he was amazing when he wrote about the viewpoint of the anguished Russian leadership at Western Intrusion.
And now this! This book is a work of pure genius. It follows the life of several Muscovite adolescents, from the locality of Arabat which was considered to be a place of intellectuals in the monarchial and Soviet Russia. Pushkin had his house there. Remarkably, it also analyzes the thoughts and actions of Stalin and his other comerades during that time.
What Lenin did, what Stalin did, the Second Russian revolution (not called by that name, though!) and maybe why he did it are explained brilliantly in detail. What the new generations thought about their leadership, their society, their role and duty in forming what they thought be a new world order forms the backbone of the book. What is the individual and what is the society: it is a work of pure genius. Let me quote a paragraph from it that I liked:

"The criminals are scum," Vodolya said, "Degenerates and murderers. They'd betray their own comerade for a bowl of camp soup. They're the systems main support, they help our 'administrators'. Kill your wife and you get eight years, and then they knock off four for good behaviour. But take a pair of shoe soles out of the factory and they'll give you ten years."

Really, what an administration!

Catching up

Hi, ---Long time no see. Was busy in quite a few things. There was the trip to Rajasthan to attend the DAE- conference. What was most interesting was the three day holiday we took after the conference got over, in which time we visited Jaisalmer, the Desert and Jodhpur. Why I write "the Desert" separately, is because while at Jaisalmer we took a desert safari, in which we had a camel ride to see the sunset, and were able to spend the night in a hut in a camp in the middle of the desert; and could get up very early in the morning and go and watch the sunrise in the biting cold! This place was about 50 km from Jaisalmer, and it was a very memorable experience. Want to have a look at the pictures? Here is the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cygnus2/LandOfTheGoldenFort#
The last day of our stay in Jaisalmer was mainly spend in visiting the Golden Fort, about which there is a very famous film in bengali. Why its called the Golden Fort is a mystery I'll leave you to figure out! The visit to the fort, though short, was exotic. Once again, you should be able to see the pictures from the web-site.
The next place of visit was Jodhpur. The most remarkable thing about Jodhpur is the Mehrangarh fort. Even in this second visit to the place, I could not help but be awed by the royalty so deeply ingrained in the fort. Simply majestic; and superb! This time though I had a audio guide with me that helped to appreciate the fort and the things displayed in it much more. To satisfy your curiosity, without much trouble you can find out where the pictures are.
Then was the trip back to Jaipur and in the half of a day we had there, before catching our plane to Mumbai, we visited the Jaigarh fort and the Amber palace. Both very good, but seen before: the last time I had come there was in Quark Matter 2008; nearly 3 years ago.
The trip to these places in Rajasthan was extremely memorable. It was a short tour, very hectic but very enjoyable. All those days we were travelling in bus on the every other day. In retrospect, even the Jaipur stay during the conference was cool. Our hotel was in a very happening place in the town and we used to eat out nearly every day. In particular, there was this very nice kabab place, which we simply adored!

Back in TIFR was a time to complete applications and keep waiting. A very frustrating phase, punctuated only by the arrival of Arnab-da: the week in which I had great fun. Among other things, we would go out every day! The last day on which he left, he gave us a treat in Cafe Moshe; which had just amazing food. Kabir, Kusum and I went and it was a whole lot of fun! There was also one day spent at the WichLatte and one at ZafferBhai + Mocha, which was equally good.

All in all every thing has turned out well. I will finally be joining Bern as a post-doctoral associate. The group there is pretty good and I am looking forward to join there. In the meanwhile however, a herculean task awaits me: write the synopsis and the thesis and get the degree! And then in the months it takes to get me a work permit there in Switzerland, finish the remaining projects and maybe start new collaborations here.

Well, lets hope for the best!