The Roads Less Travelled …

Yeah, I know Brazil are the favourites; and that ever since 1986, when the Hand and Feet of God performed in sync, there has been only disappointment. Anyway past history is not going to stop me from favouring the team with talents of Riquelme, Aimar, Messi and Tevez in it’s ranks.

The team itself looks balanced: except ofcourse the Zanetti fiasco. I still cannot understand how Pekerman could leave Javier Zanetti behind and take Lionel Scaloni in his place. There are arguements saying that since Scaloni can play in midfield or defense, he is a better bet. Utter rubbish !!! There are few wingbacks other than Zanetti who have so much attecking verve and yet are resolute in defense. I believe Zanetti’s omission has more to do with player dynamics rather than individual talent or team strategy. Of course all will be forgotten if Peker-boys come out looking good. But still it is a sad ending to one of Argentina’s longest serving players, who is still performing at the highest levels.

Other than that, I think the Confederation Cup final against Brazil showed that a 3 man defense is not a great idea when the other team has players who can hit you fast and sharp on the counter. So we would probably be seeing a standard 4-man defense with 2 central defenders (Ayala, Heinze) and two wingbacks (Sorin, Colcocinni/Scaloni???).

It is in midfield and attack that Pekerman has his tactical playground. He can go either with: a) 4-3-1-2,  b) 4-2-1-3 or c) 4-2-2-2 formation. It would depend on the opposition as to which of these is actually employed but against a team like Brazil, I would prefer (c), with two genuine playmakers playing behind the 2 strikers. Of, course if Pekerman is feeling adventurous he could still go for a 3-3-2-2 or 3-3-1-3 formation, bringing in another midfielder for a defender; but that looks unlikely.

The defense being accounted for we turn to the midfield, where Mascherano and Cambiasso are set to start with Juan Roman Riquelme as the schemer. In formation (a) we would have mostly Lucho providing some extra defensive cover. In (c) we would have Pablo Aimar playing alongside Riquelme; an ambitious formation with two gifted playmakers, both of whom are not great defensively.

In a front 2 lineup, there would be crespo as the hitman with Tevez/Saviola playing just off him. The front 3 formation would probably see Saviola/Tevez, Crespo/Tevez/Cruz and Messi lining up. I personally am of the opinion that in a front 3 scenario it should be Tevez in the middle, flanked by Saviola and Messi. Crespo is not that great running with the ball or shielding it.

The team’s greatest drawback I think lies in its lack of genuine width; with this crop of players the play will go through the centre. Crespo as a striker thrives on crosses and wing-play; while Tevez, Messi, Saviola, Riquelme, Aimar, his attacking foils, all prefer cutting in and chipping the ball or sliding through a pass. The onus is defnitely on Sorin to provide some bite on one side of the pitch atleast and this is where Zanetti will be sorely missed.

Notwithstanding the Group of Death, this team has the talent and balance to go through to atleast the semis; I of course would be backing it to win the cup itself.

Technorati Tags: soccer, world cup 2006, argentina

From the outset, I will clarify one thing - I am not against the instrument of positive discrimination called Reservations, and yet deeply disturbed by the ways this instrument is being and has been handled by the Indian polity - present and past. I would also not be quoting any numbers here except where I am sure that they answer the question I am asking; statistics do not lie but they illustrate trends only for the questions asked which makes them easy targets of appropriation by vested interests (any numbers affirming or rejecting my conclusions will be greatly appreciated). Lastly, I am not social scientist; these are merely personal observations and analysis and are limited by the range of my experiences.

To express oneself in completeness, I believe is the basic fundamental right of a human being. India has a problem; a vast section of the society continues to be denied this right. The fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution, are an attempt, I believe towards this specific end. Yet 60 years after independence we continue to grapple with the fact that for a considerable chunk of Indian population these rights remain black ink markings on paper. I have also no doubt that some form of affirmative action will play a major role in the amelioration of the current state of affairs.

Positive discrimination or Affirmative action try to remedy the existing status quo, by forwarding the case of individuals or groups disadvantaged under the existing socio-economic setup. Reservations in education or professional sectors as practiced in India are examples of such actions. The success of any such instrument, including reservations, are contingent upon how well have the twin questions - who are the disadvantaged and why are they disadvantaged - answered. Any measures implemented after answering the above should primarily be graded on how well they fare on these counts for the targeted audience- how many have they affected and to what level have they affected.

This is where my disenchantment with the existing model in India stems from. Reading the transcript of our HR Ministers’ interview and the resignation letter of Mr Pratap Bhanu Mehta, as Member-Convener of the National Knowledge Commission, has left no questions in my mind that the questions outlined earlier were not even attempted to be answered by the government before pushing through the current decision. India has been implementing positive affirmation in form of reservations for over half a decade now. The nation, I think, deserves an answer on the success of these programmes. That I, sitting here in my comfortable room in Bangalore, am cognizant of the fact that a huge chunk of the population continues to disempowered, makes me question the efficacy of such programmes. That caste system continues to be a grotesque reality in this country 60 years after Nehru uttered the words Tryst with Destiny, engenders questions on the success of the various social upliftment schemes into which hundreds of crores of public money have gone. There are no solid numbers; there are merely words that can only convey so much. The Mandal commission report on which most of the reservation policies are based talks of many forms of affirmative actions and not only reservations. Yet the polity has continued to ignore these. The numbers used in the report are grossly outdated and do not provide the necessary framework to take decisions. There has been no attempt made to take a fresh look at these numbers. Since these are numbers without context, they are bandied about with ease in situations that are completely out of context.

Higher education in form of getting into the IITs or the IIMs in India is, I dare say, a dream (as with all dreams turned realities they do not deliver paradise - they have their set of limitations). A vast majority of population in India is not empowered enough to dream this dream - some for economic reasons (I do not think banks give easy loans for studying in Kota) but lot many more because they simply lack the vocabulary to ensconce their hopes of making it big into a dream of getting into these colleges. You might be giving everything to a person on a platter, but how will the person avail it if he does not even know about it. It is in this light that I believe that if any sector we need to turn our immediate attention to, it is primary education. The crores that the government is planning to put into IITs and IIMs increasing seats to placate the general candidates, I believe, would be better utitized in a well implemented primary education scheme.

So who are the beneficiaries of the existing schemes; a small section amongst the officially backward who can now be called ex-backward; a section whose children enjoy all the amenities that an average middle class child gets; schools, teachers, coaching. This section has usurped the voice of the masses and now speaks through it of its own vested interests. This section is primarily responsible for the failure of the existing schemes. Unless they are taken out of the equation, measures such as reservations will continue to fatten them at the cost of the actual targets and beget renewed casteism in the society.

I would not, however, tread on the path of meritocracy to augment my argument. JEE and CAT are not the only indicators of merit. I would go as so far as to say that they are not even proper indicators for the task concerned. As for the quality of the institutes in question is concerned, they are facing much greater problems than the quality of incoming students in terms of faculty and infrastructure; and owing to the skewed supply and demand of seats in these places, they will in probability continue to get good students even with reservation implemented.

All said, the current step by the government seems like a political gimmick - that will neither address the real concerns nor empower the underprivileged masses, but is rather a short sighted attempt to garner some votes. All I see this retrograde step achieving is to continue the legacy of divisive caste based politics in India for years to come.

Apurva has here (and here) some of his views on this issue. A search on Technoratii will take you to numerous other posts discussing this issue and there are far too many to list out here.

Technorati Tags: Reservations, Positive Affirmation, Caste Politics

Though both, The Google Story (David Vise, Mark Malseed) and The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (John Battele), talk about Google, the first comes off as a rather amateurish attempt at piecing together newspaper clippings and a few interviews chronicling the birth and the rise of Google; the second on the other hand gives a much better perspective of why and how of the Google phenomenon.

Vise in his book merely traces the history of Google and its founders from Stanford dorms to Googleplex; it does nothing to establish the context in which this radical transformation has happened or how this transformation has affected the culture and economics around it. Google today is seen as a media company; Why? Vise’s book won’t tell you that. Batelle atleast tries to answer it or atleast prompts the reader to think about search in a different manner. Also it is not a ode to Google’s greatness; it puts Google’s successes in perspective bringing in other players of the market. While Vise’s book will make you think of Googlplex as the next best thing to heaven, Battele does not flinch pointing out the dark clouds on the horizon.

In short, if you want to read about Google and search, my vote would go for Battele’s work.

Technorati Tags: books, Google, Search

If the just concluded Champions League final would be remembered in history it would not be for the players but for the referee - Terje Hauge. The Norwegian disallowed a Barca goal and sent an Arsenal player off because Lehmann the gunners’ goalie had fouled Eto before Guily had slotted the ball home. By the rules, he was right; an infringement has to identified immediately and play stops there; the foul was genuine and Lehmann was the last man; straight red. This however ensured that a possibly great football spectacle was ruined.

Thierry Henry post match comments clearly indicated that the referee had somehow cheated Arsenal and its fans. I agree that Puyol and Marquez did misjudge their tackles on him once each, but he was definitely not kicked around as he seems to think. On the contrary the free kick that resulted in the goal, was result of a blatant dive by Eboue. That probably was the biggest mistake the referee did. I was also fairly pissed off at the way the commentators were casting aspersions on the character of the referee throughout the match. I felt like I was having a really good steak with a bad sauce.

But let us not take anything away from the Blaugrana. Though Frank Rijkaard probably got his initial formation - Eto on the left and Ronaldinho in the centre - and selection - Van Bommel/Edmilson in place of Iniesta - wrong, his substitutions were perfect. Larsonn gave a man of the match performance coming off from the bench while the introduction of Iniesta steadied up the midfield to a great extent. And another sub Belleti scored the winner; his first in a Barcelona shirt. Though the backline looked shaky and the stars, Ronaldinho, Eto, Deco et all, did not impress it just shows the depth of the squad that players of Larson’s calibre come off the bench.

And full credit to Arsenal too; though the free kick was not really one, they made the most out of it and defended very well to keep the Rolandinho and Co. out till almost the 80th minute. But by then their superhuman effort was starting to take a toll. They fought with 10 men, backs to the wall, and almost came within sniffing distance of the title only to see their dreams snuffed out. They will go out as proud (and a little bit sore) losers.

But looking at the entire match I believe Barca was the better team, especially in the second half and the best team won.

Technorati Tags: soccer, champions league

Collective Chaos screened three movies of the much acclaimed director Jim Jarmusch this weekend - Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law and Broken Flowers. While missed the Friday screening of the much acclaimed Stranger than Paradise (which I hope I will catch some other time), I did manage to catch the other two despite losing my membership card. I must thank the CC guys for letting me in without really any proof of membership. I had on earlier occasions seen two of his other films (Coffee and Cigarettes and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai) so it was great that CC showed these three.

Jarmusch’s movies to me have always seemed to me like snippets of a journey; starting at a station and end on another: none of them is either the start or the end for the they are fixed at birth and death of the individuals. It is when the paths of more than one such traveller entwines that we have something akin to a plot. The plot and the setting therefore is not something which shapes the characters but it is other way around. If even one of the participating characters were different it would probably lead to different plot. Jarmusch is a master of setting situations and bringing in the main players (often characters from the edge of the society) together as a result of which all his movies have an air of inevitability around them. And then there is a comic vein running through the body of all his works; sometimes ironic and satirical but mostly plain humour, when you laugh because somebody just touched that cord somewhere. Both Down by Law and Broken Flowers, though separated by a couple of decades bring out these aspects.

The first can alternatively seen as humanist comedy or an harsh indictment of the justice system. Apurva’s post on this says almost everything there is to be said about the second issue. However I do not believe that Jarmusch wanted to deliver a strong message here. What transpired in the courts, what course the law took or what crimes any of the main characters are charged with are not known to the audience. The prison in my opinion is merely a device (why he chose such a device is another discussion) to bring the characters together; it is the station where the story starts unfolding. The characters in the beginning are shown to be somewhat self-centered; Zack (Tom Waits) and Jack (John Lurie) not listening to their girlfriends and each other and Roberto; and Roberto (Roberto Benigni) not really wanting to understand what an English word really means or if anyone is really interested in what he is talking about. The prison cell mirrors their close minds about themselves and others. The turning point in the movie was when Roberto draws a window on the cell wall, showing an willingness to explore and to see out. Soon they escape and on their first stop - a bunk in the swamp - is a replica of their cell but with a real window indicating that the tranformation has started. By the end the only character with any sort of a proper denouement seems to be Roberto who has decided to settle down in the wilderness with Nicoletta; but others too have reached their ending stations for the last scene shows them taking a decision amicably the only time in the movie. Their journey has not ended but a milestone has been reached.

Broken Flowers reminded me greatly of Sophia Coppolla’s excellent Lost in Translation; not as much in its theme but in how the entire script is written to fit Bill Murray’s personality; and Murray does deliver a stellar performance as the newly rich ex-computer-geek with with slew of girlfriends who have deserted him. The film’s trailer starts with the journey of a letter from the drop box to the delivery address and the film’s story starts with the Sherry (Julie Delpy), leaving Don (Bill Murray). A just arrived letter in a pink envelope seems to be the last straw for her, and yet for Don is the start of a new journey of self-realisation; for the letter informs him of his son with a long forgotten lover. As Don visits his previous flames one by one, it dawns slowly on him that he is not really made a mark on anyone’s life; each of his exes have continued their lives without him and slowly discarded him. This dawning realization furthers the feeling that somewhere there is someone who could never forget him for he is his father and increases the ache of meeting him. This pushes him further in his journey ultimately ending unsuccessfully in a graveyard in front of the grave of now dead ex-lover. The success of this journey is open to interpretation. The ending shows Murray standing alone looking ahead into a road into which a roadie he mistook for his son has just disappeared and he seems all alone in the world; but there is still hope for Sherry has written saying she still loves him. The letter itself is merely a device (just like the prison cell in Down by Law) - the audience can neither deny nor affirm its authencity till the very end. That Don says to the roadie, “Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future isn’t here yet, whatever it’s going to be. So, all there is, is this. The present. That’s it.“, made me think that his journey was worthwhile.

Technorati Tags: movies, jim jarmusch

Soccer weblog has here, a very comprehensive review of England’s squad for the WC.

I differ with the analysis above on a few points,

a. Unless Rooney starts England are much better starting with 5 in the middle and leaving Owen (if fit) or Crouch to plough the lone furrow ahead. This will allow for the inclusion of a specialist defensive midfielder - Carrick and will free up Gerard and Lampard to make runs into the box from the middle as they do so successfully for their clubs all season.

b. One cannot have two players (forget top class) for each position. The argument of the defense (especially the right side) being undercovered sounds too much of a concotion. One can always create a hypothetical situation for failure.

c. However taking both Jenas and Hargreaves was overkill in the midfield and he should have opted more one more striker - one who has been regularly pumping in goals this season i.e. Bent.

Other than this I should say the analysis is spot on.

Technorati Tags: soccer, world cup 2006

I picked up the following from Apoorva’s blog and bizarrely both of us seem to have similar tastes … may be thats why I read his blogs
Heck one of these days I might end up writing something on the nature and popularity of these “What you are?” tools

Your Quirk Factor: 82%

You’re beyond quirky… You’re downright bizarre. You’ve lost touch with social norms and what’s appropriate. And you’re loving every minute of it!

The Movie Of Your Life Is Film Noir

So what if you’re a little nihilistic at times? Life with meaning is highly over-rated. Your best movie matches: Sin City, L. A. Confidential, Blade Runner [shit ... I really like all of these ]

What happened and how it happened was what everybody expected; Chelsea won the English Premier League title. They became the first side to successfully defend their title after ManU. Though this was expected by many, some hopeful ones (including yours truely) had hoped that at least one of the other pretenders to the throne would push Chelsea to their limits. Sadly this was not the case; such was their dominance that people were talking of any challenge being over ahead of Christmas.

The incredible achievements of Chelsea FC are as much due to their owner and godfather Roman Abrahmovich, as due to their dour steward Jose Mourinho. After Mourinho took over they have yet to lose a match at home in the league. Though Chelsea pay millions, most of the time outbidding the rest of the suitors, for players they want, rarely have they gone for so called stars. Instead the team is built around people such as Terry, Makalele and Lampard who, talented as they might be, are not Beckhams. It also helps that Mourinho has fostered a seige mentality in the team: mostly by making them feel that everyone hates them because they are so good. After winning their second consecutive title the focus for this team next year has to be Champions League where they went out this year to Barcelona FC. With Michael Ballack coming in, Chelsea might be finally signing their first star. And their search for a top quality striker continues with Shevchenko again being consistently linked with them. However there might some warning bells for this team. News is that, Gallas and Carvalho are going out of the club this summer, which basically takes out half of their water-tight defense. However one can be fairly sure that with the money from Russia, the stars may never - or in the very near future - stop shining down on Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal can also, finally, feel happy about their season. Their amazing run to the finals in the Champions League notwithstanding there was always a doubt that they might not achieve the fourth position and qualify for CL automatically next season. The departure of Patrick Viera alongwith injuries to several first team regulars hit them really hard in the first half of the season. However their hero in the final season at Highbury has to be the 17 year old Spaniard - Cesc Fabgregas. Given the task to fill Viera’s, rather large, boots the young gunner admirably shouldered the burden. Especially in Europe where he gets a little more time on the ball he bas been stunning. And while in the first half of EPL he looked like being physically cowed down, after Christmas he looked already like seasoned pro. More than Ronaldo, more than Messi, and I would say more than Rooney, he is the player to look out for in the next decade. Next season the Gunners are moving to their new stadium at Ashburton Grove, but the catch is they might do so without Thierry Henry, who has been their talisman. Also almost certainly they are also going to move without Dennis Bergkamp, who in my opinion is amongst the most graceful and intelligent players ever to grace the football turf - a true legend of our times. With him gone,  football would lose not a player but an artiste, or as Arsene Wenger calls him, a scientist. However even with their CL successes, next year might be too soon to to expect this young Arsenal team to achieve the Premiership crown.

Both Manchester United and Liverpool do not give me too much write about. They were neither too good nor too bad. However both of the clubs finished the season strongly inspiring some hope that next year it will be a tighter affair with Chelsea. While Sir Alex in Manchester has to look for atleast one top class midfielder in the summer, Rafa Benitez on Merseyside has to balance his strike force. Both the sides are approaching a maturing period as far as teams go and the next couple of years might be theirs if the proper ingredients are thrown into the mix. Personally as a fan of ManU I would like to see one or more of Diarra, Mascherano, Michael Carrick or Daniele De Rossi in the midfield of the Old Trafford side next season.

If you are a Spur’s fan, you would still be nursing a broken heart - so close and yet so far - that elusive Champions League spot. While arch rivals Gunners nicked the 4th position from them on the last day, they should look back at this season with satisfaction. Martin Jol has in a short period been able to build a team that looks destined for greater things. They like Arsenal are young and their game is a mixture of European finesse mixed with British directness. With Michael Dawson, Ledley King at the back, Michael Carrick, Jermain Jenas in the middle and Aaron Lennon bursting down the right wing they have quality players everywhere on the pitch and their performance this season is not a flash in the pan in my opinion. While they may not have a really top class striker (with due respects to Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe) at the moment, Martin Jol should be looking to correct that in the summer market. Next season I believe they will push for a top four finish again.

Last season it was Everton, this season it was Wigan. Everybody’s favourite bet at the start of the season to get relegated, Wigan stunned both their detractors and supporters alike by finishing in the top half of the table. Coming from a place known more for its pies than for soccer clubs and where Rugby overshadows soccer; a team shorn of any players with Premiership experience and built by picking relative unknowns from second divison club sides this is not an achievement to be mocked at. With all his successes I do not think even Jose Mourinho would be rueful if Paul Jewell were to be given the Manager of the Year award by PFA. They epitomized teamwork and showed sides like Middlesbrough that buying costly players only does not ensure success. Sadly though the team is starting to scatter away, with their top performers - Jimmy Bullard and Pascal Chimbonda - planning to move to richer pastures.

Though Chelsea won the crown fairly comfortably in what seemed like a one horse race, other teams showed enough to give me hope that maybe next year there will be more people fighting for the top honours. And itself is a good thing for football.

Technorati Tags: football, soccer

Reading this post (picked up from Desipundit), I was suddenly transported to an age when the world used to revolve around waiting for the next batch of Raj Comics series to come out. This was before Superman, Spiderman, Batman were known to me; and Tintin and Asterix would have then sound like Greek and Roman philosophers. I had grown fairly bored with the Amar Chitra Katha stack in my house and had completely missed the Diamond comics revolution. So I had jumped straight into the Raj Comics bandawagon - Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Bhokal, Paramanu and later Doga became the super heroes of my childhood.

As with most super heroes - most of these had fairly angsty beginnings; Nagraj was a mutant developed to be a hired killer, Dhruv had his parents killed in front of his eyes (Batmanish I know, but who really cares), Doga had his entire akhada wiped out by a rival gang and so on. Somehow all these incidents made them mentally indestructible endowing them with a will and powers beyond mere mortals. Most of these guys were based out of Rajnagar, except Bhokal who displayed his powers in the ancient world. I personally liked Dhruva the best, he had no special powers per se (except that he could communicate with animals) and succeeded mainly because of the agility of his body and mind. Nagaraj was what I started with; but the series became drab after he went around the world eliminating the different villians who had gathered in the first comic bidding for his services as an assasin. Dhruva series on the other hand continued to be interesting for a much longer time.

Talking of super heroes, can we not talk about super villians? Nagraj’s villians had a global flavour; american gangsters, african poachers, egyptian mummies included. Their motives were mostly power and rarely destruction; they were almost never competent without their armies and henchmen whom Nagraj quickly and efficiently dispatched with the snakes out of his hand or when stretched with that ultimate weapon, Visfoonkar (poison breath). Dhruvas’ were more classy (at least after the first few ones). They were mainly scientists gone mad (Dr. Virus, Grand Master Robo, Bauna Vaman, Chumba) or insane protectors hunting for the objects of their affections (Kirigi, Samri); they were people who had merely flipped, not necessarily born bad. Sometimes these heroes (primarily Nagraj and Dhruva) came together to fight a common evil (Lady Killer). That was a lot of fun. You would two for the price of one !!!

When I started, these comics were priced at Rs. 7 /- for the normal ones and Rs. 15 /- for the digests which were thicker, involved the more glamorous and deadly villians and had glossy covers. Every month five of such issues would come out and the local bookshop would lend out each for a day at Re 1 /- or Rs 2 /- for the normal ones and digests respectively. I still remember me and my brother tossing coins as to who would get to read first. Another vivid memory is that of us playing the comic vs comic game. We would each pick out one comic and pit the characters of each against the other in some kind of battle in our minds and somehow come come to conclusion that one character would win. Almost always the person who took “Kirigi ka Kahar” won; primarily because it had duplicates of the major characters.

I remember reading these till 10th standard but seriously followed the series till around 8th. First Hardy Boys and then the Forsyths, Archers and Ludlums took over their places in my bookshelves. And though it has been close to 10 years since I picked up one of those, the images remain vivid in my memory and only a small push is needed to trigger a wave of nostalgia.

Dystopias about totalitarian states are often set in the future; as if assure the readers that while they might be seeing the reflection of the present or the past, they are not really living in one. In Kadare’s The Palace of Dreams there is a dream describing a hell, where not only people but empires also lie down before being reborn on the earth as another avatar; the empires of Herod and Hitler according to this vision might just be different manifestations of the same entity and there is no assurance that the empires of the future will be any different. A hellish prospect indeed.

The Palace of Dreams according to the author was indeed born out of a need to invent a personal vision of hell; an exercise that has lead to the most personal of works and yet reaching out to the emotions and feelings of a globalised mass. The Ottoman empire is yet another empire; huge, bureaucratic and decaying. Of all the institutions it relies on to ensure order in empire there is none more important that the Tabir Sarrail; the Palace of Dreams; a place where the subconcious of the empires’ population is shifted through and analysed for patterns that point the powers to be about the revolutions, coups and massacres of the future. Kadare implicitely (and never explicitly) toys with the idea that by playing with the future, are we not changing it? The most critical rule of the Tabir Sarrail is secrecy and yet as the events unfold in the book we realise how little the rule meant. The dreams are fabricated and manipulated by those with influence to advance their own causes; immediately raising the question of whether any of the so called impartial institutions of the state are really impartial?

Mark-Alem’s (the protagonist of the story) hell however does not end with the Palace of Dreams where he is an employee. He is a Quprili, a scion of the most illustrious of families in Europe, one that has given the empire five Gran Viziers and numerous other generals and ministers. The family name comes from the fact that one of their ancestors had built a bridge and had walled a live man inside the foundations to ensure that it withstood the test of time. The Quprili name from time immemorial has demanded such sacrifices of blood from the family and our protagonist finds himself inexorably drawn into this whirlpool of deceit and violence. His meteoric rise in the hierarchy of the Palace of Dreams he feels, is as much a function of the machinations of his uncle, the Vizier, as it is of fate, fattening a lamb before its slaughter.

Kadare masterfully blends the public and private hells of the protagonist; the plot has the drama and the action of a coup with the intricate designs of the various players and yet it does not compromise on communicating the feelings and emotions of the main protagonist. The lanaguage is spare, the imagery Kafka-esque and the plot taut. The cold and dark interiors of the Palace of Dreams create at once an atmosphere of fear as well as decay. Kadare’s vision of hell is physically manifest as much in the description of the Palace as it is in the mental state of the protagonist.

The metaphorical depiction of the totalitarian state is so damning that the novel was banned by the communist government on its release in 1981. But Kadare never insults or disparages the state directly. The book itself can be read as a nightmare - broken, hapazard and without any singe meaning. That the state interpreted this dream as it did probably tells us something about its nature.

Technorati Tags: books, literature, dystopia