Book Review

Harry was used to surviving on leftovers of the Dursleys, his guardians and only relatives. He never even experienced the luxury of a full meal of his choice, because his plump bully cousin could never see him getting what he wanted. Of places to live he only knew sleeping in a cramped wardrobe under stairs. Nothing even close to a decent bedroom had ever been in his life, till that fateful day, when he entered Hogwarts. The school of magic with its towering castle, magnificent halls, magical people, who actually took notice of him, had left him amazed and he wondered if he was dreaming. His first encounter with the place was the entrance hall where the first years gathered to meet professor McGonagall. He was immediately awestruck by its grandeur. Comparison with Dursely’s house was inevitable, and Gringotts was the only other grand building, which he encountered recently. His brief description of the place gives the reader a clear picture of how the hall was like. Old sturdy stone castle room with primitive lighting system, with display of radiance in form of “magnificent” marble staircase, and rough flag-stone flooring.
After their encounter with the professor they entered the Great Hall which seems to surpass the Entrance hall in grandeur by several times. The whole lot of first years enter the great hall through massive double doors, which is another instance in the old world appeal of the castle. Here we come across the magical lighting system, which comprises of several million lit candles hanging mid air. The furnishing consisted of four long tables with seating, each accommodating about seventy students, and a long table at the top of the hall for teachers. The next thing which caught Harry’s eye was the golden goblets and plates laid on tables, which give us a clue of how affluence of the place captured his attention. In the next few lines the hue of the place enters imagination, and we can clearly picturise the pale yellow candle-light reflected by faces of hundreds of students sitting in the hall. It also accentuates the nervousness of the students as they stand on highest platform in the hall awaiting judgement. The silvery white ghosts dotted here and there provide a break from the formal, old day look of the place due to candles. The nervousness in Harry draws his attention away from the crowd and towards the ceiling, which is the most stunning aspect of the great hall, ignored till now, due to the many other things about the hall stealing Harry’s awe. The ceiling was bewitched to look like the sky outside. So instead of the conventional description of ceiling, which can be plastered, pitched, vaulted, dome, etc. we come to hear of a ceiling dotted with millions of stars! Harry’s feelings on watching the ceiling take the reader to an entirely different world. We can feel that he must have stopped breathing gazing at the night-sky inside the Great hall. Describing it as “Opening up to the heaven..” is a silent indicator of how grateful Harry must have felt upon being rescued from his miserable life. He is very hopeful about his future now that he has come to this place called Hogwarts, its ceiling seems to him to be opening up to heavens of opportunities.

Childhood memories of a Public space: Birla Temple, Bhopal

Since I was a small kid I have remembered spending a few days of every summer vacation at my maternal grandparents’ home in Bhopal. My home being in a smaller town, Bhopal with its capital city stature used to fascinate me. Every trip to Bhopal used to be incomplete without paying customary visit to the famous Birla temple. Dedicated to God Lakshmi-Narayan and his incarnations, this temple was styled like old stone temples, but was a fairly modern building. Like many of the city’s attractions, this temple was situated on the top of a hill. I clearly remember the auto ride up a roadway to the temple, which was surrounded by trees only. The huge impressive entrance to the temple premises, in red and yellow used to be surrounded by shops and flogged by devotees. It used to completely hide the large staircase which would lay beyond. Reaching on top, I would be awe-struck gazing at the beautiful building, like a crown on hill’s head. it had several ‘shikharas’ but the largest one, in centre, was most decorated one. Its windows were in red stone, intricately carved and each one with an ornate shade. The walls were thick and strong, all yellow, made of stone blocks. Going up the marble steps, we would enter the large temple hall. At the farthest end of the hall was where God and Goddess Lakshmi-Narayan were idolised in a small chamber. Near that main chamber there were smaller such chambers dedicated to other deities in Hindu religion. We would bow in front of every deity and circumambulate the main shrine. The fat priest would give us ‘prasad’ and put ‘tilak’ on our foreheads. After this when the elders usually sat in the great hall to meditate or to pray, I would get myself busy in the explorations of the place. I would run and slide across on the granite floor, while running count the ornamented pillars on each side of the hall. To gaze properly at the vast ceiling I sometimes had to lie down on my back. It had glittering chandeliers, and glazed tile patterns which I was sure I could have stared all night. Then we would come outside to explore the rest of temple premises. A wide stepped  water channel with many fountains, would run in the centre of the premises. At its end near the temple, there was a large shankha replica in stone, almost the size of four footballs. The pathways along it were in stone, and lead to Birla museum and art collection gallery. But apart from the giant ‘shankha’ I was only interested in something away from the stone pathways and water channels. It was the wide unpaved unvegetated space at the back of the temple, which offered breath-taking view of the whole city of Bhopal. Our visit to the Temple always ended there on a few scattered stone pieces munching popcorn and peanuts, feasting our eyes with a grand sunset.