Question Ably - 28: Answer

Skoda Auto and Volkswagen are the two brands. Skoda Auto was hived off from Skoda Works.  I found a nice picture of what look like gun turrets being made at Skoda Works.

Question Ably - 28

For many decades this brand was associated with the largest industrial works in Eastern Europe, mostly manufacturing a wide array of armaments. During the inter-war years when Churchill was impressing upon his government about the impending Hitlerite threat, he specifically mentioned this industrial plant as a key strategic element which the British would give up if they allowed Nazi Germany to acquire the country in which it was situated.

After the Second World War when the Communists took over the country, they nationalized this factory and dismembered into various specialist plants.

Today this brand is associated, at least in India, with something completely different from munitions. Somewhat ironically, another famous brand from what was once the aggressor-country now owns the brand we're talking about.

Which brand?

Theodore Boone: The Accused - Review in DH

My review of John Grisham's latest Theo Boone novel was carried today by the DH.

 

Theodore Boone: The Accused, John Grisham, Hachette India, Rs.250.

As they say, when it Grishams, it pours.

I reviewed John Grisham’s baseball novel ‘Calico Joe’ in these pages not too long ago and found it a trifle pedestrian. So it was that I picked up ‘Theodore Boone: The Accused’ with nothing approaching tremendous anticipation. But now that I am done with the book, I must admit to being happily entertained for a few hours.

Grisham told The Telegraph, probably only half in jest, that with the arrival of Harry Potter, he was displaced as the number one author in the world and missed occupying that slot. Then, in what was an ‘a-ha!’ moment, he hit upon the character of kid detective Theodore Boone.

Since then Theo has had three outings. ‘Theodore Boone’, ‘Theodore Boone: The Abduction’ and now, ‘Theodore Boone: The Accused’.

By now, readers familiar with Theo will know he’s the thirteen-year old son of lawyer parents and lives in the small town of Strattenburg. He’s an only child with a dog named Judge for company. Happily for his fans, he combines a nose for adventure with an eye for the law, attending the local courthouse often enough to be friends with Judge Gantry - this time, the one with a mild temper, not distemper.

Initially, the accused in ‘The Accused’ is a wealthy inhabitant of Strattenburg charged with the murder of his wife. When he jumps bail and absconds, everybody in town, Theo included, is intrigued. But Theo is robbed of the pleasure of following the course of the law from the side lines, when, in a cruel perversion, he becomes the accused himself thanks to an elaborate and devious plot. Laptops and other electronic items are stolen from a local store and all the leads point to Theo. Laced with a spine tingling dose of malice, this is no ordinary prank, as the plotters spare no effort to malign Theo’s fair name in the local media. Overnight, Theo’s world not only turns upside down as he finds himself at the centre of a controversy he has no clue about, there is also a hint of possible physical harm. The pressure on him is so intense that he thoughtlessly gets into a brawl in school, something from which he stays usually away.

Theo’s allies in such testing times are his maverick uncle Ike, a couple of schoolmates and thankfully, the principal of the school. They provide him with crucial information, analysis and moral sustenance which all help him come through the ordeal.

While he battles to find answers to this dangerous riddle, Theo gets a welcome break by appearing in Animal Court, a petty judicial forum so casual that even a student like Theo can represent litigants. This time, his client’s pet llama, Lucy, has landed her keeper in a spot of bother by spitting at unfriendly security personnel. Theo convinces the judge and the parties to come to a most agreeable compromise.

While I enjoyed this piece of YA fiction from Grisham much more than his regular fare for the not-so-YA, my bright young friends may find a few loopholes in the plot. For one, what detective work did Theo actually do in this story? To me, it appeared he managed well only because of some convenient coincidences and some inspired work by friends. ‘Kid Detective’ didn’t seem too apt a sobriquet for our young friend, at least not in this adventure. For another, the yarn about the missing murderer didn’t seem really relevant to the rest of the story.

Grisham weaves into the plotline situations where Theo’s sense of ethics is put to the test. But in welcome contrast to the monochromatic fulminations in ‘Calico Joe’, Theo’s dilemmas are presented in a more nuanced fashion.

All said and done, I would pick the Theodore Boone series over the fare Grisham churns out these days for us adults. After all, it’s not often that I get to meet spitting llamas in Animal Court.

 

Leh Lehters - 3

All roads may lead to Rome but only two roads lead into Leh from the rest of India.

National Highway (NH) 21 connects Leh with Manali in Himachal Pradesh. This route takes the traveller through the passes of Rohtang, Baralacha-la and Tanglang-la ('la' = pass). The distance of 480 kms takes anywhere between 12 to 18 hours to cover, depending on the weather and the road condition. The route is supposedly very scenic and worth the drive. We briefly skimmed this route on the way out of Leh to Lake Tso-Moriri, deviating from it well before the scenery began.

The other highway into Leh leads from Srinagar after crossing the passes of Fotu-la and Zoji-la. This is NH 1D, something like a branch line of NH 1 that links New Delhi to the border town of Attari in Punjab. If you want to show off, you must call it a 'spur' of NH-1.

We saw more of NH-1D than NH-21. First, we got to travel quite some distance on this highway to reach the important village of Temisgam (or Tingmosgang). After joining our friends in Tingmosgang, we drove back on the same road, this time all the way to Leh.

Many parts of NH-1D were still work in progress. Only one short stretch was a bitumen carpet. As a bonus, this excellent stretch passed right beside the Indus as that great river took a turn round the mountainside. Those few minutes were so exhilarating that our Innova hummed a few Ladakhi folk tunes.

Even on the not-so-great stretches of the road, the landscape was stunning. The photos I've added to this post don't do justice to the panorama that was before us. Maybe a better lens and better technique would help.

For those who're curious, the lens is a Tamron 18mm-270mm walkabout. So no changing lenses on the move, but no great optics either.

If we had started back from further up the road beyond Tingmosgang, we would have passed through Gata Loops or the 'jalebi bends', a serpentine stretch of about 20 hairpin bends on NH-1D from Fotu-la to the monastery town of Khalste. Next time maybe.

Click to enlarge the images. I've resized them to 60% of their original.

(A bend in the river - Indus on NH1D)

(The Zanskar River)

(Somewhere on NH1D between Saspol and Basgo)

(On the outskirts of Leh)

John Grisham's 'Calico Joe': my review in DH

Today, the Deccan Herald carried my review of John Grisham's 'Calico Joe'.

Beanball as sin

John Grisham, “Calico Joe”, Hachette India, Rs.350

It is the 70s. Baseball fans, like those in Calico Rock, Arkansas, tune in to the radio to follow the game. Televised games are few.

The people of Calico Rock usually root for the St. Louis Cardinals. Naturally, they hate the Chicago Cubs, the long-standing rivals of the Cardinals. But when the Cubs beat their favourite team, the locals celebrate the loss, for their local boy Joe Castle is on the winning side.

‘Calico’ Joe is the boy next door who becomes a sensation without losing his taste for home cooked food. In a game against the Giants, Joe celebrates with dignity after rewriting the record books. The lone tear he sheds only endears him all the more. By the time the Cubs take on the New York Mets at Shea Stadium in New York City many records have taken a beating from his bat; the fans are hungry for more.

Pitching for the Mets is Warren Tracy. In contrast with Joe, whose star is on the ascent, Warren’s career is flickering towards an unremarkable end. His sole entry in the record books – as the pitcher who has hit the most batters – is, obviously, not a happy one. His bland career on the plate is made only worse by his foul temper. He has an ego disproportionate to his meagre accomplishments. He acts pricey when requested for autographs. At home he often drinks and abuses his wife and kids; womanises too. In short, Warren is a foul tempered loser and a bad man.

Little Paul Tracy is like any American kid who is mad about the game. He memorizes every statistic worth noting, he collects every picture and story of every baseball star worthy of adulation. He even plays the game in the Little League, that is, until one day when his father takes it out on him for being sissy enough not to hit a batter. Not surprisingly, while he is proud that his father plays for the Mets, Joe Castle is Paul Tracy’s true idol.

The boy is in the stands in Shea Stadium, waiting for that moment when his hero faces his father. That moment arrives, only to result in tragedy and trauma. Joe’s career ends abruptly. Warren Tracy becomes a toxic name, though he stoutly denies he did any wrong. Only Paul knows for sure that all along his daddy meant to do what he did.

Seguing between the early 70s when the ‘incident’ took place and sometime thirty years on in the present, John Grisham’s ‘Calico Joe’ is the story of how Paul Tracy seeks redemption for his father’s deed most foul. Taken at face value, it is a light, pleasant read. The baseball primer at the beginning of the book is both educative and enjoyable, and in the context of the novel, a must-read even before starting the story.

However (there had to be one). It may not be too far-fetched to read ‘Calico Joe’ as the quintessential Christian parable. After all, John Grisham was raised a devout Christian and continues to abide by the faith, teaching Sunday School at Oxford, Mississippi. He has acknowledged that his Christian upbringing may influence his plotlines sometimes. ‘Calico Joe’ is certainly one such time and this is the problem with the novel. As with all plain vanilla morality tales, there is no greyness to the characters. Joe Castle is virtue personified. Warren Tracy lives in darkest sin until, thanks to terminal pancreatic cancer, he sees the light. Paul is the good shepherd who saves his father’s soul by taking him on a road trip to redemption. Like the truly noble, Joe gets boring after a while and is promptly consigned to the margins of the plot. Like most of the fallen, Warren Tracy has much more to say and do in the story. And like most insistent moralisers, Paul Tracy is nauseously self-righteous and heartless.

It all depends on how we read.

Leh Lehters - 2

Leh town has two distinct parts. The old town, seen in the photo in my first post of this series, is squalid. Changspa, which is regarded as an agricultural suburb of Leh, is quite green. This is the area which boasts of one of the popular tourist attractions, Shanti Stupa.

Here's Changspa and the Shanti Stupa as seen from the Red Temple.

Leh Lehters - 1

(A view of old Leh town from Leh Palace)

Been a while since I posted here. I spent the last ten days in Leh and that part of Ladakh. Over the next few weeks I'll write a bit about my trip.

When I mentioned to friends and family about the trip, some common questions were: "Going to Leh? What about Ladakh?", "Leh? Then you can see Ladakh also." If I said I was going to Ladakh, then the response would vary on predictable lines: "Ladakh? What about Leh?" You get the drift.

So, let's try and clear the air about Leh's relation to Ladakh. Till a few days ago, I thought Ladakh was the district and Leh was its headquarters. Turned out my understanding was correct, but not after 1979.

This gap in knowledge is easily explained. I read voraciously about Leh and Ladakh till the age of five and then moved on to other states and UTs of India that is Bharat.

If you're bored with this post, go ahead, take a break and work out my age as of 2012.

Ladakh was indeed a district till 1979. In that year, it was redrawn as two districts: Leh and Kargil, and Ladakh ceased to have an independent administrative identity (like a district or taluka). Wiki told me in hushed whispers that Leh is in fact the second largest district in the whole of India after Kutch, Gujarat.

So how do we understand Ladakh today? Perhaps as a region comprising of the districts of Leh and Kargil. However, that is a narrow way of looking at it. A wider view would be to see Ladakh as the sum total of the geography, ethnicity, culture, and religion of Leh, Kargil, Zanskar and the Nubra Valley (all of them in J&K) and Lahaul and Spiti ('Lahool-iSpiti as it is pronounced locally) (in Himachal Pradesh).

To make the picture really complete, Ladakh would have to include Gilgit - Baltistan in Pakistan and the Aksai Chin area under Chinese control.

More Leh-ter.