Harry Potter

Dressmakers and Doctors @ BYOB Party in Delhi in October 2016 (Part 2)

While history can not hide the truth, books can make the truth bearable.

51eV2VYLGfL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg (333×499)Nidhi spoke about The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. The story revolves around the life of Kamila Sidiqi, a woman who lives through the Taliban regime, faces the loss of the men in her life and is forced to find a way to make ends meet. This is a true story of entrepreneurship. “I like books that tell us about people who find a way. There is sadness in the world- that’s a given, but how do people live through it? In this book the protagonist is bombarded with restrictions and yet there is only so much that oppression can do to the human spirit,” Nidhi said.

This reminded Eklavya of a book called In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta Ahmed. This is another book that talks about how life thrives in spite of restrictions. The author is a Western trained doctor who in a strange twist of fate is offered a job in Saudi Arabia. Her observations are delightful and reveal much about this much misunderstood kingdom.

 

Aadit, a youngster, talked about the book Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. Aahan, a ten year old, spoke affectionately about his favorite illustrator, Quentin Blake. The book he mentioned was The Boy in a Dress by David Williams. He is also busy creating a Pani Hotter (the transposition of alphabets is intentional) series. He spoke at great length about how his collaborative effort includes a bit of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, an array of Greek Gods and a Chinese dragon. You can read more of what this youngster writes here: https://aahansinha.wordpress.com/.

With this, we come to the end of our Delhi chapter this 2016.

Graphic Novels and Pottermania @ BYOB Party in IIIT-Delhi in September 2016 (Part 3)

green-lanternNot surprisingly some graphic novels and fantasy made an appearance at this BYOB Party. Siddharth got  Green Lantern/ New Gods Godhead by Robert Venditti. To understand Green Lantern, you need to know a lot of back story. For instance you need to know about Highfather who is the high priest of the DC universe.

 

 

Aniket talked about the bestselling manga series (over eighty books in the series) One Piece written and illustrated by Eiichiroone-piece Oda. The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a man who has the properties of rubber because of a fruit he ate. He teams up with a crew of pirates to find the world’s greatest treasure called One Piece. The manga series has been adapted in an animation, a card game, video games, etc.

wardstone-chroniclesArpit spoke about The Wardstone Chronicles, published as The Last Apprentice in the US. It’s a dark fantasy series by Joseph Delaney and the theme is about the seventh son of a seventh son apprenticed to John Gregory to become a figher of supernatural evil. In other words he becomes a Spook. What Arpit liked about the book was the way Delaney approached the topic in a highly original way with his knowledge of chemistry.

harrypotterandtheprisonerofazkaban

Fantasy is a favorite, with Riya talking about the Harry Potter series and how JK Rowling gets her formula right because she talks about the importance of love- be it between friends, teachers and their students, parents and their children, the crux of the world is based on this. There was mention about how Harry Potter was probably the most under-developed lead character of all time, as he hardly ever changed. Things always happened to him without agency on his part. Of course, this led to an overheated discussion about Harry Potter characteristics.

More books in Part 4.