The Soldier who Annexed 3 States for 3 Daughters

Harish - there are a few times I am glad I look up FP. And these days it si the case that i am looking forward to your series. A few misgivings (who doesnt) but over all excellent. Story telling is cool. I am sure you have, but to me I seem to get the smell of India - whether its the corect one or the right one I cannot say.

So a neat collection of stories ..... how many more in the set...and have youfound a pulisher for them (as in a collection of short stories)

harish:

good storytelling:)

some repetition needs to be eliminated...formatting!...oh well... rest others have covered already...will just add this...you must have been made to ride stone lions as a child...

:)....riding rodin!

nadeem:

re: banglore then and now...like any other town it has changed too...more people...more...

rgds

t

Tell me Harish, the last time I visited Banglore (back in May 1985), I found it to be lush green, clean and rather lovely compared to Mumbai (then called Bombay) and Karachi. Today`s Lahore reminds me of the Banglore I saw as a hippie student drifter now almost twenty years ago. Someone was telling me Banglore is now as bad as Karachi and Bombay. Well? I ask this because I`ve always wanted to go back for a spin.

rgds,
NfP

Harish:

This has been an excellent series of articles and I look forward to the next ones!

Ciao

Well written, Harish! I like the Chutzpah of Rohan. (So which one is it? Birds of a feather hanging together, or opposites attracting?)

Minor notes:
[He was not a man to hide his pride over the masculine tendencies of the bike he considered his son.]
Should we feel sorry for the motherless son?

[But they all have a good education. And often, the right accent. That helps them get glamorous jobs. And these jobs they project as both the evidence of their individual merit as assessed by an outside non-services world, as well as substantiation of their total and complete disdain for the overly glorified and severely underpaid hierarchy of the much hyped business of defending the national borders.]
I would be scared to be one of your friends, the way you take them apart!

[Nationalism hardly sells among the English speaking youth of India.]
I personally think that nationalism has never been a marketable commodity except among the group that does all its fighting from the armchair.

Harish:

I am glad you chose a hawaldaar instead of a higher-ranking soldier. I would have liked you to have gone more into his mind, but then Maggie was on yours! Or, perhaps, very likely, you are trying to use her - independent yet not forthcoming enough, rooted in her ethos yet wanting another identity -- as a passage towards a continuum of sorts...the postings being in effect intellectual/emotional milestones.

The 3 daughters, 3 states `annexation` imagery is potent in its guilelessness. A simple soldier doing big things. You have also taken the Ramiah family away from the cantonment carousel. (Did he need to have that handlebar moustache?!)

A few superficial observations...
1. Did you ask Raaji how much she weighed? (60 kgs) Not done...besides, did her falling on you ``displease`` her family?
2. Why did you use Rodin`s Thinker as a simile for a rock? Why would anyone ride on a scupture?
3. Why is plastic ``pretentious``? I thought it is openly, brazenly, unapologetically just that - plastic...

This piece really was (besides the things I mentioned) a great diversion for me:)

Harish:

I am glad you chose a hawaldaar instead of a higher-ranking soldier. I would have liked you to have gone more into his mind, but then Maggie was on yours! Or, perhaps, very likely, you are trying to use her - independent yet not forthcoming enough, rooted in her ethos yet wanting another identity -- as a passage towards a continuum of sorts...the postings being in effect intellectual/emotional milestones.

The 3 daughters, 3 states `annexation` imagery is potent in its guilelessness. A simple soldier doing big things. You have also taken the Ramiah family away from the cantonment carousel. (Did he need to have that handlebar moustache?!)

A few superficial observations...
1. Did you ask Raaji how much she weighed? (60 kgs) Not done...besides, did her falling on you ``displease`` her family?
2. Why did you use Rodin`s Thinker as a simile for a rock? Why would anyone ride on a scupture?
3. Why is plastic ``pretentious``? I thought it is openly, brazenly, unapologetically just that - plastic...

This piece really was (besides the things I mentioned) a great diversion for me:)