travel – Literature, Poetry and Reading.

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, tr. by Jennifer Croft

I’ve wanted to read Flights ever since it was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018 and since I saw a copy of the book at one of the stands at a bookstore inside Bangalore Airport. I was mostly drawn to the book due to its title and the plain cobalt blue cover, only later did I realize that Fitzcarraldo Editions has the same cover design for all their fiction novels.

Flights is a collection of vignettes- wayward and yet connected to anatomy, motion, psychology and travel somehow. I cannot say that I loved the book wholly and I cannot extrapolate the rules of synecdoche to this book since it was too different. I was indifferent to some parts of the book and the rest, I loved. It was difficult to understand her writing initially because, for the longest time, I kept trying to wrap my head around – what exactly is this book about? what is the purpose? But I think giving up on trying to find the “meaning or purpose” of this book helped me appreciate this a lot more. I just needed to let the book be, unfurl on its own and so when I ask you to read this with an open mind, please do. Don’t try to figure out what is happening or what is going to happen or the purpose. It’s a multifaceted book and an amalgamation of some visceral vignettes with brilliant prose. Some parts are so hauntingly vivid and some are just average or pointless but then again, the purpose of this book is that it honestly doesn’t have any, and I think that is pretty cool. It’s the kind of book that will either pull you into its lyrical and vivid prose or it will just confound you- for me, it did both. It was kind of like a flight taking off with exhilaration and then landing with some uneasy turbulence.

I’m in awe with the amount of research put into this book- I loved the bits about the Glasmensch by Franz Tschackert in the German Hygiene museum and the stories of the Dutch anatomist Filip Verheyen who dissected and drew pictures of his own amputated leg. I’m a fan of anatomy museums and I love watching carcasses of animals or human fetuses or other body parts float in glass jars, so this was 10/10 for me. I also love how Tokarczuk’s writing is embedded with compassion for the environment and animals (I loved ‘Ataturks Reforms’, ‘Whales or Drowning in Air’, and ‘On the Origin of Species’). A soft corner for the peculiar, the unfamiliar and the marginalized is at the heart of her writing [quoting Tokarczuk, “I’m not interested in the patters so scrutinized by statistics that everyone celebrated with a familiar, satisfied smile on their faces. My weakness is for teratology and for freaks. I believe, unswervingly, agonizingly, that it is in freaks that Being breaks through to the surface and reveals its true nature”]. One of my favourite vignettes is ‘Your Head in the World’ where she talks about her psychology degree, which also took me back to those two years when I superficially studied Psychology in junior college [quoting Tokarczuk, “What we learned at university was that we are made up of defences, of shields and armour, that we are cities whose architecture essentially comes down to walls, ramparts, strongholds: bunker states”].

Somewhere in the middle of the book, I read up on Olga Tokarczuk’s life and novels and also this particular novel and it kind of helped me appreciate the book a little more. As for the translation, I do not know Polish but I can say with some conviction that Croft’s translation does not disappoint. This book definitely calls for a re-read for a better understanding I guess!

‘FC road’ or ‘FC college road’, Memories from a place.

From L to R, Model Colony Lake, fuel for the day against the backdrop of Fergusson College, my first encounter with the ducks and their peculiar liking for Parle-G, Cafe Goodluck in all its glory (could not find a picture in the library so took it from here).

It is yet another uneventful day in my life amidst the lockdown that does not seem to end and I am suddenly reminded of Venus traders. For those of you who’ve been in Pune, you might know that Venus is every stationery hoarder’s heavenly abode. The two-storeyed building hidden away in the lush green by-lanes of FC road or as some like to call it, FC college road. FC college road would literally mean Fergusson College College Road so I really do not understand the need for college after FC. Anyway, some things, you just learn to tolerate.

For most punekars, going to FC road or JM road also comes with the perpetual fear of getting your two-wheeler towed. It has happened to me twice- once while I parked my two-wheeler right outside the lane between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks (apparently, my vehicle was outside the permitted confines of parking) and the second time, it was when I was so thrilled to go to Venus during one of my free periods that I parked my vehicle in the even lane on an odd day. In my defense, I was into paper-cutting back then and really needed those fancy tools to make stencils which are now pasted on my wall back in my college. I have no regrets whatsoever except for the fact that I could have been mindful but had I really been mindful, I would have one less towing story to tell today.

I spent a huge part of my day gallivanting in and around FC road. I rarely read Pune Times but this one time, just once, I was lucky to have come across Radhika Apte’s interview in the newspaper about her growing up in Pune’s Model Colony (again, very close to FC road). I love Model Colony and Model Colony Lake was a gem of a discovery I made that day, thanks to Radhika Apte. Soon enough, I started to go to the lake almost every day and my favorite part of the whole experience was feeding the ducks. I always carried some Parle-G biscuits with me so that I could feed a stray dog wherever I go and once, a line of ducks started to surround me while I was breaking the biscuits into little pieces for the dogs to eat inside the park’s premises. Now, I do not know if ducks are allowed to eat biscuits, but I was definitely prohibited from feeding the ducks. I fed them anyway. I had something extra to carry in my bag now- oats for the ducks along with biscuits for the dogs. I never carried lunch to junior college, so I did not mind the extra weight.

If there is something I remeber very fondly about Pune, it has to be this- decent weather that Pune promises, noon, too many trees, too many birds, model colony lake and feeding ducks alone. I also bunked classes sometimes, to feed ducks. Now that I think about it, I may have bunked classes to go read in the British Library or walk around FC road, grab the best vada pav from Chotu’s on JM road, to eat a Rajasthani or Gujarati thali from Panchavati (ah the aamras!), to meet friends at Goodluck for the best bun-maska and chai, to make the occasional visits for lunch to Subway on FC road or German Bakery on Law College Road and to study at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks before exams. There was also this misal pav place near the signal that I love, ah yes- Sir Misal. (The things I would give up to go have a plate right about now!) Some of you may disagree with me here and think Katakirr is the best misal place but for me, its way too spicy so the award goes to Sir Misal. It does not matter to me whether someone calls it ‘FC road’ or ‘FC college road’, it will always hold a special place in my heart except for the unwarranted towing. Actually, scratch that, the towing too.