| ஒத்திசைவு | प्रत्याह्वय | resonance |

James is a guy better known for his novel – Shogun and a few others – not that these novels are great pieces of world class literature.  With some effort, one can read them once, that’s all.

But, I had read this rather unusual short story –  The Children’s story of his, a few years back  and I remember to have been very pleased with it – and thanks to the efforts of good ol’ Arvind Gupta, this is available online and I read it again,

Oh, the horror, the horror…

With shades of the ‘animal farm,’ ‘keep the aspidistra flying’ and ‘1984’  – and even that of that fascist & crazed maniac Pirabakaran’s very own ‘Tamil’ Eelam, if it ever does shape up — this story makes one shudder.

TCS  is a very short *horror* science-fiction (or is it?), bereft of blood & gore or hi-tech hijinks and so please read it – it would take just 10 minutes for you, max.

It is also a telling comment on what ‘education’ can do to our thoughts and ourselves.

This brings up the topic of my dear Dharampalji and his painstakingly developed thesis – ‘The Beautiful Tree’ –  one of the not-very-many  fundamental treatises on Indian Education, but would reserve it for later…

JournalEntry: April 13, 2006