Reading between the lines

I don’t read much nowadays which is something I regret. Besides my day job, I have several side projects and rarely do I have my evenings free. The only time I am able to read is when I am traveling. On a recent road trip to Toronto, I was able to read “The Red-Haired Woman” by Orhan Pamuk. If you are reading this, please note this warning “Spoiler alert!”. This post will give away what happens in the book, so if that stops you from reading a book, please go no further! Despite the title, the book is about father-son relationships. The book portrays Cem from his boyhood years until his middle age when he is murdered. As a boy, Cem’s father was largely absent, either because he was arrested due to his left-wing political activities or because he was a womanizer. Though he resents his father for the hardship he and his mother had to endure, his feelings for his father don’t border on hatred. His father was not a hard man and was never harsh to him or his mother. As a

Though not much might be in common between these two men and their principal works, I found these two books and the men who wrote them greatly admirable. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a crusader against the caste system in India, a man born in the lowest caste and attained the highest educational degrees despite being denied opportunities to learn, he is a symbol to so many Indians and yet quite sadly still looked down upon by upper caste India. Niccolo Machiavelli, who held public office in turbulent times in Italy, was forced out of office due to a change of regime but spent his days in exile writing The Prince in th hope of gaining favour with the new regime and getting his position back. Both were great thinkers, visionaries, way ahead of their time and quite sadly both men died disappointed and bitter. Ambedkar was never able to see the caste system set aside and Machiavelli never got his position back and Italy was as divided as ever. Annihilation of Case: What rep