INVISIBLE CITIES-book review

Of all coffee table books, Tete a tetes  over latte and mind trips on weed, this is an excellent tangible record of the same. Italo Calvino has so sublimely described in tactful detail a myriad of imaginative cities each having a single strong identity or character.

Through the cities the author compels you to think of one’s own city or one’s perception of a city.

The book is based solely on the interaction between the great emperor Kublai Khan and the Venetian traveler Marco Polo. Marco Polo teases all the senses of the emperor by describing his travels not only through words but also by mimes, artifacts, souvenirs, dramatic gestures and expressions.

He keeps the Emperor constantly guessing an ultimately arriving at the question “what defines a city? “

Paradigms about the purpose of governance, attitude of a city and the origins of life are discussed and leave the reader thoughtful. He speaks of cities of the dead, transitory cities, cities under perennial construction and even cities that reflect themselves.

From cities inspired by spiderwebs to cities made only of plumbing pipelines, Marco Polo lures the reader into an ethereal world.

 I was particularly impressed by his rendition of the city of Thekla. A city that is always under construction and is literally work in progress day after day, year after year. It captures the essence of every living city where the only constant is change.

'Why is Thekla's construction taking such a long time?' the inhabitants

continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down,

as they answer, 'So that its destruction cannot begin.'

By the above lines, he reinstates the law of life, constant propagation. The deep rooted attachment of the inhabitants of a city to the city itself is also brought out.

With each unique he describes, Calvino delves deeper into human psychology, urban temperaments and succeeds in bringing out the flavors of life.

INVISIBLE CITIES- as i see them

ISAURA

BAUCIS

VALDRADA

SOPHRONIA

ARMILLA

Book Review (Theory of settlement)

Book - ERAGON
Author - Christopher Paolini

Eragon is a fantasy novel written by Christopher Paolini. It is the first book of the inheritance cycle.the book focuses on the protagonist Eragon who lives in a fictitious world called Alagaesia. The book has characters such as elves, dwarves, dragons, dragon riders, shades etc. the settling which captured me the most was the mountain city of dwarves, Tronjheim.the whole city is built by the dwarves and it shows theie mastery on stone.there are tunnels running through and through the mountain making passageways. Since the plot is centred on battle between the good and the evil, the architecture of the tronjheim is much more like a fort. The tunnels are broad but high only in the centre so that a person riding a horse can ride only in the centre and thus it slows down the attacks. The city is actually in the heart of the mountain and the rest of the mountain consists of flawless tunnels with the angles at the base of the wall are perfect right angles. Tronjheim is located inside a massive volcanic crater.a soft beam of light falls through the aperture, illuminating the craters centre. Since that is the only natural light available, the rest of the places are lit by thousands of lamps hung on the grand pillars in the tunnels. The ceiling is capped by a dawn-red star sapphire of monstrous size. The grandeur displayed in the mountain city shames anything every built by any other living being. The dwarves took this city as their home when they were forced underground by the evil immortal king Galbatorix and his dragon. The tunnels in the mountain were originally built to dig gold. The mountain city also houses Varden, the only resistance left in the whole of alagaesia. Nobody from outside world is allowed inside unless they know the entrance keywords which only a Varden can tell to another person. 
The imagination of the author and his concept of a mountain city should be lauded. I would love to visit such a place in my lifetime.

the journey from leh to srinagar(theory of settlement)

the guest house at drass

the snow cladded hill in the centre is the tiger hill

the road to srinagar

house boat OLYMPIAS

I have fond memories of a place I visited around 9 years back. More than the place itself, it was the journey that I can’t forget. I went for a trip of 15 days with my family to leh ladakh in the summer of 2001. I found the place strikingly beautiful and I was astounded by the beauty my country had to offer. The landscape varied from desert to Rocky Mountains to snow capped mountains to water bodies. Every inch of the ground was covered by snow and after a point of time my eyes got tired of seeing white sheet of snow spread all around and were longing to see some greenery. After 8 days of living in ladakh in the zanskar valley, we hired a cab from leh to drive us to Srinagar. The next stop on our trip was this journey from leh to Srinagar that left a strong imprint on my mind. I remember it so vividly because I was amazed by the landscape and the scenic beauty. We first came across the magnetic hill which left me speechless.  The driver showed us that the SUV was moving against the gravity all by itself on a hill. It was later that I understood that the mountain just opposite to that road was rich in magnetic content and it was that mountain that was pulling the SUV towards it. Later in the journey, I came across a road cut through huge gigantic layers of snow turned ice. The ice was so loosely packed and precariously place that I thought it would collapse. After that our journey took us to a small village called Drass.  Its major inhabitants are Muslims and it is the last village in the zanskar valley. We were allowed to stay in a reasonably well furnished guest house. The caretaker was so excited to show us the then exceptionally famous Tiger Hill (the kargil war had just ended) which was clearly visible from the guest house. The next adventure came the same night when the caretaker woke all of us at 2 in the night and told us that it was time for us to leave for srinagar. He then explained that the vehicles are allowed to cross the road and go to the Kashmir valley only between 2 and 4 at night and that too with the head light switched off or else the enemies across the border would try and shell the vehicle since the road was very much visible from their bunker. I was a little scared when I heard that but I was too sleepy to be bothered by it. i hardly remember anything that happened during the journey from Drass to Srinagar. The next thing I saw was the beautiful valley of Kashmir. The chinar and the pine trees on the mountains are still fresh in my mind. We stayed in a houseboat in the Dal Lake. The caretaker was so considerate that one day when we asked him to cook typical kashmiri food, he took us all to his home so that we could eat the world famous kashmiri rogan josh. I can never forget the old caretaker of the housebat ‘OLYMPIAS’ and his kindness. It was the trips of a lifetime. I believe that everyone should drive down from leh to Srinagar once in their life.