One Week, One Book - 04

Stepping away from fiction into non-fiction is a different kind of feeling.

Fiction allows us to imagine pain, while non-fiction places it before us without an inch of distance and does not soften reality. That is why I find myself drawn to autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs.

In 'I Am Malala (The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban)', silence is not just a condition instead, it is an expectation, especially for a girl growing up within a deeply conservative space shaped by fear, politics, and rigid control. Yet from within that silence she emerges a voice that cannot be contained. Malala’s courage carries the echoes of histories we have already encountered in literature.

The reader quietly witnesses the transformation. The term “Talib,” once meaning a religious student, shifts into something darker through slow and almost invisible ideological influence. It begins as belief, then gradually hardens into cruelty. It is, ultimately, manipulation.

While reading this book, it was difficult for me to keep my thoughts in one place. They moved from Malala’s Swat Valley to Midnight's Children, to Train to Pakistan, and to Cracking India. Different narratives and different forms that share disturbing reality.

This is a real story of a small but immensely brave girl, not written to entertain us, but to awaken us. 🙂

One of my favorites 👇👇

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was not a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me. 

                                                               - Martin Niemoller- 

Tharushi
05.05.2026

One week, One book - 03

 

I was fascinated reading Rosarita by Anita Desai. 💐

Once before, I had entered Anita Desai’s imaginary world through "The Village by the Sea". Rosarita, for me, was a huge turn from that world. From the simple language to the lyrical richness of the vocabulary, and more than that, the mind blowing story itself truly deserves to be praised as “Desai’s transcendent late gift.” 

It is really a gift. 😌

The story begins in Mexico, in a park in San Miguel. There, a strange woman, who introduces herself as Victoria, sees a young girl who looks very much like her old friend Rosarita. Years ago, Rosarita had come to Mexico to learn painting, and now Victoria approaches the girl with so much happiness, believing she has met the daughter of her beloved friend. But the girl, Bonita, who is clearly Indian, rejects her completely. She says her deceased mother’s name was Sarita, not Rosarita  and that she had never come to Mexico or studied art.

From one situation to another, the novella increases the breathing rate of the reader, making us constantly think what the reality is.

Did her mother come to Mexico and learnt painting? Is Victoria telling the truth?

Or? 

Whatever the truth may be, the long lasting absences in Bonita’s life, the experiences she had in her grandparents’ house, the silence around her mother, and the emptiness of her own home, make her travel with Victoria, the woman whom she calls “The Trickster” (brings the archetypal meaning of Trickster) to reveal the secret. It happens with Bonita's deep need to find the real identity of her mother: Rosarita, whom she has  known as Sarita.

More than that, as readers, we engage with the journey because Desai has used the second person point of view, making us Rosarita. We are not only readers, we search. 

Since the writer has touched both the Indian Partition and the Mexican Revolution, the story strongly presents themes of partition, identity, and belongingness.

Furthermore, Desai has carried rooted Indianness throughout the novella: from the rejection of Victoria, to the University of Benares, to Rosarita’s role as a wife and mother, and the interventions of Bonita’s grandparents. 

Even Bonita’s wish to learn language beautifully suggests another bitter truth of many Asian countries which is the desire of youngsters to escape to Europe hoping for a better life, just as people once chased the American Dream.

A magical literary piece. ♥️♥️

Tharushi
23.04.2026

One Week, One Book 02

“One morning, without having done anything wrong, Joseph K. was arrested.”

Franz Kafka always begins his writings in a way that shakes the reader. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up as a vermin. ("One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a vermin") In The Trial, Joseph K. wakes up to find himself arrested for no reason, no explanation, no clear accusation or no justice. Only fear and confusion.

The story runs with Joseph K. as he tries to understand what is happening to him. He goes from place to place, meets strange people, enters dark courtrooms and endless offices, in order to find one clear answer. But the more he searches, the more lost he becomes. He never truly reaches the center of the system that controls him, neither the Judge nor the High court.

What touched me most here is, how real this feels. Maybe it is not the arrest itself, but the feeling of being trapped by things we do not understand such as rules, expectations, society, anxiety, even our own thoughts. Kafka has turned that silent human fear into a story.

Some say that Kafka has penned about the meaningless world being an atheist, dealing with absurdism, or influencing from the thinkers like Nietzsche. But Kafka is beyond labels. He writes the emotions we struggle to name!

Even though this novel was written long ago, it still addresses us. His world is strange, uncomfortable, and sometimes painful, but it feels close to our own. So, the world is Kafkasque. 

Sometimes life itself is a Trial. 😌

Tharushi
19.04.2026

One Week, One Book 01

Siddhartha, as a person on a self-pilgrimage, feels very connected to the modern era in an interesting way. At first, when we start reading, we are almost pushed to think that this is similar to the story of Gautama Buddha. But as we go further, it slowly opens into something else. The introduction of Gotama as a separate character creates a shift, and Siddhartha steps into his own journey.

Hesse seems to move between the outer world and the inner self very smoothly. It feels like he is also touching on something very modern, the way people keep searching for meaning and trying to understand themselves. There is this sense of a divided self or restless human nature, and Siddhartha’s journey brings that out in a simple but deep way.

Even though the story, on the surface, may feel like a loose or even distorted version of Buddha’s life, Hesse’s use of Eastern philosophy gives it a different layer. It becomes more about how the modern mind understands life and meaning rather than just retelling a spiritual story.

To me, Kamala’s death feels like the end of a certain phase (maybe desire, love, or attachment)which marks a change in Siddhartha. And characters like his friend: Govinda, the ferryman, and even his son somehow act like bridges, helping us see different sides of reality through his journey.

I really noticed the ambiguity. As with the modern narrations it reminded me that self is not something fixed it keeps changing. And this reading made me feel that finding meaning is not simple or direct. It is personal, sometimes confusing, and always evolving.

"Siddhartha, what are you waiting for?"

"You know what."

"Will you always stand that way and wait, untill it'll becomes morning, noon, and evening?"

"I will stand and wait."

"You will become tired, Siddhartha."

"I will become tired."

"You will fall asleep, Siddhartha."

"I will not fall a sleep."

"You will die, Siddhartha."

"I will die."

So, we search, we find and vice versa. We will become tired and die but we will not fall a sleep.

-Tharushi-
12.04.2026

GOALS!

              It was the time of the moon nor the time of the sun. I felt it as the time of death. Death to life. Life to death. The battle was crawling here and there with the groan sound.

"Bring me to hospital"

 
Finally she caught a breath and fired it out. This is how we spent countless nights with tears, fears and miracles.

 
I knew Amma was suffering from Asthma severely.

I still can remember the nights that we had to secure under neighbors roofs.

 
I have never seen her tears. But I will feel her pain till my last breath. She is the fairy mother of my life story. I thought she had a magical power to actualize the things what we needed, what we expected and even what we thought till I grew up.

She never meant 'no' and 'impossible' under our demands.

 
Finally, I accepted that she is having a super power and I realized it as her sacrifices.

Amma, literary I am crying.

I saw the way you got old. You are too older than your age. You are about to fragile. So, I hate myself!

I have seen the way you applying balm and oil to avoid your pains with a light whimpering.

I have seen the way you sleep being crook to make us more comfortable with a spacious bed.

I have seen thousands of incidents which my eyes get wet.

You have been facing unimaginable challenges and you handle them strongly. You didn't teach me how to live. But you showed me. You didn't tell me how much you are strong. But you proved. But you never showed your pains, feelings, expectations and willingness. Instead you hid them.

So Amma, 

I am on the way finding them out. ❤

                                                                                  (***********)

HORACE

          Quintus Horatius Flaccus or Horace who was the chief spokesman of the Ancient in the battle between the Ancients and modern was lived in 65 BC to 8 BC in the Glorious Augustine age. It was an age of peace and two Scholars of writing in those days; the old Latin and Modern Alexandrian such as Horace, Virgil, Livy etc. turned to literature to achieve distinctions.

 "Among Roman poets he was the best critic, and of all the Roman critics he was the best poet" is a quote  about Horace who ranked next only to Virgil and classed equal to Aristotle. Mainly he wrote two books of satires, four books of Odes and Ars Poetica / Art of poetry. This was his chief critical work which caused to begin a new tradition in literary criticism.

          When we consider about Horace's observation of poetry and drama Ars Poetica takes an inimitable place. It is a letter in verse by original Latin that offering advice on literary matters to a father and two sons of the naming Piso. It mainly about poetry, poetic style and drama using less than 500 lines in the Poetic form. Moreover it can be divided into three parts.

1. Poesis - Subject matter of poetry

2. Poema - Form of poetry 

3. Poeta - The poet

          His observation of poetry can be analyzed under several sections; its nature, function, subject matter, kinds, language and its nature and art.

          According to nature of poetry, he said that writing poem is not an inspiration it's only Madness. And he believed that poetry is not mere imitation alone. As well as he didn't like too much fancy due to too much fancy can make something unbelievable. Horace stated that the function of poetry is both instruct and Delight. Therefore, he moved one step ahead Plato and Aristotle. Its subject matter should be Universal and Poets should choose a theme suited to his powers, and should consider what weight his shoulder refuse to bear and support. Under his observation, poetry has "settled kinds" with an appropriate metre. When a poet use language that poet is free to use both "familiar words" and "new ones" with clearness and effectiveness. Finally he also examines the question of the place of genius and art in the success of a poem. Genius as the natural talent and Art was meant training.

          Then he studied drama broadly under the three-heads; 

1. Plot,

2. Characterization 

3. Style

 Plot should be borrowed from familiar material to the audience and only relevant events of the story should be joined into an unbreakable union. They cannot be Supernatural things and if dramatist use horrible things, all should be reported instead bringing them directly on the stage. According to him a plot must keep Ancient Greek tradition and take clear attention of length of a play. 

"Neither shorter no longer than 5 acts" 

          Further, one scene must use no more than three characters and drama should follow the order; start, middle, end without any flashback. Thus the dramatist could either draw on the Ancient Greek legends or they can invent new characters while to be true to their tradition, to themselves or to consistent. Then he considered iambic meter as the most suitable style for drama for both tragedy and comedy.

          However with these all we can understand that Horace has closely followed Aristotle. But surprisingly there is no mention of the satire in his Ars Poetica. Though he has dealt earlier with satire using his two books Lucilius in Book I and II.

                                             By,

                                   ❤  Tharushi ❤

BE YOUR OWN STIMULATION 💐

"The most difficult thing is not to continue something but to start." 

People will laugh at you, try to put you down, they will gossip about you. 

It's okay!  

Yeah.... It's okay....

Let them to be happy with their own preferences. It is not a matter, not a new thing to you. 

But, 

you don't care.

Listen! Listen carefully to your inner voice.

 "Yes it's possible, you can do it, you can manage yourself, you are the best one for it. Go! Go ahead................."

If these are the words from your good Angel, what should you do?????

Say thousand times - Yes!

Now anyone cannot stop you. There will be no one to pull your leg. 

Go ahead!

 Future is waiting for you. So, build up the power to reach it out everyday. Then only the hands which used to pull you down will clap on you. 

 

Don't be a same model of Adam and Eve. Try to be a unique one whome anyone can easily recognize even among thousands of people.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Kick on your weaknesses, and observe how they convert into your strengths.

                     

                                      -Tharushi-