Day of Remembering: Annamaria's Story

Our history books are full of stories of massacres and of persons forced to leave their homes and become refugees. Such stories have a special resonance for me because my mother's family was forced to leave their homes and lands in 1947, when that part of India became a new country called Pakistan.

Recently, I met Annamaria Marussi who told me her story of massacres and becoming a refugee from Istria, a peninsula at the north-eastern border of Italy, which is now a part of Slovenia & Croatia. Annamaria was born in a tiny town called Isola (Izola) in Istria.

This post tells her story. The image below has Annamaria with her son and grand-daughter.

Let me start by briefly explaining the location and history of Istria.

Istria - The Land and Its History

Istria (Istra in Slovenia and Croatia) is a peninsula, a thumb like stub of land jutting out into Adriatic sea close to the border between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. This land is part of Karst region, a geographical area characterised by a plateau with steep cliffs overlooking the sea, extending from north-eastern Italy to Croatia. The area is full of caves and deep sink-holes (foibe).

This part of Europe, today marks the meeting place of 4 countries - Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy and this explains its chequered history. 

By 5th century AD, it was part of the Roman empire, which gave it the name Histria. Then for around 400 years, it passed under different rulers, from Byzantines, to Longobards and Slavs. Around 900 AD, for about 800 years, till around the end of 18th century, Isria/Istra was under the Venetian republic and therefore, the winged lion symbol of Venice became a common sight in this area.

Around 1820 AD, this area came under the Austrian-Hungarian empire till the first world war, and then it became part of Italy. After the second world war, the area was occupied by the partisans of Tito and became a part of Yugoslavia. Finally, after the end of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia broke in different parts and now it is divided between Slovenia and Croatia.

The map below (from Wikipedia) shows how Istria is divided between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia today. The purple arrow near the top left part of the image shows the location of Isola (Izola) where Annamaria lived as a child.

The Foibe Massacres & The Ideologies

In 1945, as the German forces retreated, the partisans of Marshal Tito occupied Istria. As a lot of its inhabitants were Italians, the Slav origin partisans wanted to send them away and the fastest and least costly way to kill them to push them down the foibes, or the sink-holes, some of which were as deep as 300 metres. These killings were justified by the partisans as a just reprisal of the Slav deaths caused by the fascist German-Italian regimes. Many persons deny that civilians were killed and justify it as political vendetta.

Apart from the persons killed in the foibe, between 1947 and 1954, around 350,000 persons of Italian origin left their homes as Istrian refugees to escape the communist regime of Tito.

How many persons were killed in the foibe-massacres? There are contested claims from the two sides, varying from a few thousands to 10-20 thousand. Istrian refugees say that a lot of innocent persons were killed and present names and stories of some of them to prove their point. Yugoslavians downplayed the killings, saying that only the fascists and their collaborators were killed. 

Every year, 10 February is the Day of Remembrance In Italy for the Istrian refugees and the persons killed in the foibe-massacres. 

Personally, I believe that extreme left (radical communists) are the mirror images of extreme right groups like fascists. Examples from Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, show that communist violence was no less brutal then the fascists', though communists sometimes ignore those while fighting the different fascisms.

Story of Annamaria Marussi

Annamaria was six years old when her family was forced to leave their home in the tiny seaside town of Isola on the Istrian coast. According to her, out of the 32,000 persons living in that town, 28,000 had left as refugees. She talked about that experience with the following words:

"I come from the town of Isola in Istria but my father was from Fiume (Rijeka in Croatia). He had come to work in Isola. My mother's family, all her relatives, were from Isola.

I was born in the house of Domenico Lovisato (NdR: a well-known geologist and palaeontologist, born in 1842 in Isola in Istria) and then our family had shifted to another house. In those days, Isola had only 2 main roads and our house was on one of those. We lived on the first floor and as you came down the stairs, there was a atrium and the main door. At the top of the door was a crescent-shaped window with glass in different colours. After many years, when finally we had our house, I asked to have the crescent-shaped window over the door, with glass in different colours, to remember that house in Isola.

I remember the times when we would go for vendemiare (grape-collection for making wine). The family of my maternal grandmother had vineyards. They had some containers which were hung on the mules and donkeys and they would put small children in those containers. So I would go to the countryside sitting inside a container hanging on the side of a mule.

I also remember when it was time to collect almonds, or when I went with my father in a small boat because he loved the sea and fishing. Sometimes in the evening he took me with him for fishing. Later, after the exodus, when we were living in that rundown house in Trieste, some evenings I went with him to the Audace wharf for fishing, and I was supposed to not make noise because otherwise the fish didn't come near.

Our family, I, my parents and my brother, we all had to leave our home. My father had left earlier, while the remaining three, we left in 1947, when the Paris Peace plan offered us the possibility of leaving. We were allowed to take only our furniture, we put them in trucks which took them to store-houses as the refugees didn't have homes or spaces in refugee camps to keep them. We took the boat which was going too and fro to take the refugees to Trieste in Italy.

We were more fortunate than other refugees because my father had already found a place for us in the old town of Trieste. It was bare, small and poor but at least we had a home and we could all stay together. Trieste had an enormous refugee camp, created in the silos, an old store-house building near the railway station. It was divided into small boxes, each hosting a family. There were around 2000 persons living that building.

Over the years, the Istrian refugees have created some associations, which promote the organisation of the Day of Remembrance, so that we don't forget the Istrians. Out of the 350,000 refugees, around 70,000 left Italy to emigrate to north and south Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. They can be found in every part of Italy.

I remember when we had put our stuff in the truck and said goodbye to our relatives. My grandparents were still there when we left in 1947. One of my traumatic memory is from 1945, when the German soldiers, while retreating had blown up a dam and we heard this terrible sound of the bomb.

I went back to see my old house in Isola and it was such an alienating sensation. It has changed a lot. To see that house which was my house and to see other persons living there, to think of the memories of that place of how it was, it was traumatic.

After so many years, the impact of that exodus, of leaving that home is still strong, I have nostalgia for those days. It is a wound, because it was not just leaving our old home, but it was that life in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, all that lost. For example, the sister of my father, they emigrated to USA. My paternal grandmother used to live with their family, she could not go with them to USA because they said that she was too old, and she suffered from this separation. Other relatives were sent to Sanremo. My husband's family some were sent to Perugia, we were all thrown apart in different directions, so many lacerations in our hearts."

Conclusions

Talking to Annamaria brought back my childhood memories of talking to my maternal grandmother and her lingering sorrow about the land and persons, as well as the trauma of partition of India and Pakistan. In those days we were living in the house of a Muslim trader who had gone as a refugee to Pakistan and I remember wondering if he knew that we were living in his house.

The real issue about becoming a refugee, as in Annamaria's story, is that of facing forced eviction and violence, as well as, loss of property, dignity and family relationships. That is the pain we carry in our hearts for ever.

The image below has Annamaria Marussi and Gianni Bevilacqua, two persons who were forced to leave their homes in Istria and become refugees, at the Day of Remembering exhibition on 10th February 2025 in Schio (VI), Italy.

I also remembered an encounter with a Pakistani girl in Washington DC, after watching a play, "A Tryst with Destiny" written and directed by my sister, which was about the India-Pakistan partition. She had said, "I understand the trauma of my elders about leaving their homes and becoming refugees and having nostalgia for the past. But I was born in Pakistan and that is my homeland."

I can imagine the lives of the persons now living in the house in Isola where Annamaria lived as a child. For them also that house, the community of Isola and the Istria region, is now their homeland. If and when, they will leave that house to go and live somewhere else, they would also miss it.

I think that is the story of all refugees. The first generations miss what they have lost and carry that hurt all their lives. But the second and third generations, hopefully, they can stop being a refugee, they can make new memories about their new homelands, and the old stories lose their power of hurting us and keeping us as a prisoner of the pain. 

*****

Caste & Women in India

These days I am listening to an old TSATU podcast of Amit Varma (AV) with the economist, Prof. Ashwini Deshpande (AD). This podcast, raised a couple of questions in my mind. This post is to explain those points.

During my professional life, I have also worked in the areas of exclusion and discrimination in different parts of the world (ASHA workers, most of whom belonged to SC groups in the image above). However, compared to AD, I have much less experience with quantitative view of these issues based on data.

With this little introduction, let me go to the points raised by AD which raised questions in my mind.

Creamy Layer & Affirmative Action

The first question came to my mind was when she spoke about the creamy layer controversy in the SC reservations. She asked, why do we raise this question about the exclusion of creamy layer only for SC reservation and not for exclusion of creamy layers for other caste groups. I could not understand this point.

Are there reservations for general caste groups from which creamy layers should be excluded? Which reservations?

Did she mean that persons from rich or privileged backgrounds should be excluded automatically (not allowed to participate) in some competitions or jobs? Won't that be considered a reverse-discrimination, and can it be done legally?

On the other hand, I am aware that in areas like disability, no one would ever say that disabled children of a disabled person who has already benefited from an affirmative action should be excluded. But to apply that logic to caste-reservations, would mean that caste is like a disability in a way, a physical marker or a deeper social marker, that does not go away with education and material well being? 

My understanding has been that by excluding creamy layers of SC would provide more opportunities for SC persons from less privileged backgrounds and would enlarge the base of SC persons in better jobs. However, I can see that only a small percentage of SC persons are able to reach high school or university level and if we exclude creamy layer, those seats will be taken over by non-SC candidates - so, we need to understand the lack of competitiveness in the creamy layer persons.

Reasons of Lack of Competitiveness Among persons from Creamy Layer

AD said that 3-4 generations of better jobs and incomes for creamy layer families are not enough to compensate for their backwardness lasting for centuries. So I think that the issue here would be to understand the nuances of why children from well-to-do families, going to good schools but belonging to SC, continue to need affirmative action? What determines their lack of capacity to compete with others? Can there be other kinds of interventions to support them?

I am also curious to know if there is data about the children of creamy layer of SC? For example, are their studies comparing economically better-off SC families to non-SC poor families? How are the two groups different? For example, is it a question of internalised stigma due to caste which is stronger than stigma around poverty? If yes, how does stigma affect them and which additional barriers do they face?

Names and Surnames

During the podcast, there was some discussion about the way Dalit persons can be identified by their names and thus face discrimination.

Perhaps, one way to deal could be to have a law where any SC family can legally change their family names and choose any names from other castes. If people can't identify the castes from the names, perhaps the caste system will be weakened?

Women engaged in family-based economic activities

AD said that a lot of "non-earning" women are engaged in and contribute to home-based economic activities, but they are not recognised as earning members of the family. I have talked about this issue to women groups in a few states, especially in Karnataka and Maharashtra. I found that the women engaged in such activities are very much aware of their economic contribution to the families, their families recognise it and women used this recognition to negotiate roles, benefits and activities that they desire for themselves or their families. However, it is possible that this is not quantified in the data. We did not do a quantitative survey about it.

It was a similar experience while talking to ASHA workers in some states - they may not earn much money, but they gain the power to use their roles to improve their social standing and for negotiating greater powers inside their families and outside in wider communities. Again, we did not make a proper survey about their castes, but from my interactions with about 10 groups of ASHA workers in 2 districts of Maharashtra, around 60% were SC and about 15% were ST. While talking to them about the challenges of doing the ASHA work, I don't recall any of them ever raising an issue of their caste.

So, IMO, there are many aspects of this subject which need greater data and understanding. However, I think that it is time to stop talking about eliminating castes. As long as we have to ask people to get certificates of their castes so that they can access benefits, we are strengthening the caste system. A more realistic aim can be to eliminate inhuman treatments forced on specific groups of untouchable persons through precise and targeted interventions.

Conclusions

During the podcast, AD did not say anything about issues of hierarchies and discrimination among the different SC groups themselves, about which I had heard during the field work in India. What role does that play in the overall scheme of things?

In my experience about caste-related-research, another problem was that it was never clear which groups persons are talking about when they talk of caste oppressions or use terms like Dalits. Often, they put together all the persons doing manual work, and not just the untouchable castes. Their aim is to create a wide coalition of marginalised groups and not to ensure the improvement in life-conditions of specific marginalised groups such as untouchable caste groups, which I feel should be priority for all caste related work.

I loved listening to AD and to her insights and hopefully I will look for her publications and read them as well. It is a great podcast and if you are interested in development issues related to caste and to women in India, do listen to it.

***

Sonali SenRoy's Book

I had first heard about the Sonali - Rossellini story in 2008, when Dilip Padgaonkar's book, "Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India" had come out. 

Over the past 17 years, I have spent numerous days in libraries and archives, collecting information in English, Italian and French about their story. For example, you can read my article about this story written in 2008. You can say that I am obsessed with it.

Today I received a book written by Sonali in 1961, that I had ordered. There was a surprise hidden in it. This post is about her book and the surprise. The image below shows Sonali from the back-cover of her book.

Let me start with a brief background about the Sonali-Rossellini story.

Brief Background About Sonali-Rossellini Story

The 1945 film, "Rome, Open City" created the legend of Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. At the end of 1956, Rossellini arrived in India to shoot a film. At that time, he was married to the Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman.

In India, he fell in love with Sonali Dasgupta, wife of film director Hari Dasgupta. There was a huge scandal. In October 1957, Rossellini and Sonali escaped to Paris with her younger son.

4 years later, in June 1961, Sonali wrote a book in French & Italian titled, Altro Mondo (the Other World).

Sonali's Book

I had heard about this book, but had not managed to lay hands on it. After so many years, a few days ago, while re-reading my old notes, I was reminded of this book and thought that now it might be possible to find it on internet. I found it straight away, and ordered a used-copy for a little more than three Euro.

Today morning that book arrived. It says that it was originally published in French and translated into Italian by Sonali herself, with the help of Mr. Dominique Aubier. It was published by Longanesi & C., Rome in June 1961. The cover has the picture of a woman from the Ajanta caves.

On the book, the author's name is Sonali Dasgupta. The first question in my mind was - why did she use this name for her book?

Sonali's maiden name was Senroy, and after her marriage to H. Dasgupta, she had become Sonali Dasgupta. When she had reached Paris in the beginning of October 1957, Roberto was still married to his second wife, Ingrid Bergman, and their legal separation was ratified in Rome in early November 1957. At the end of November 1957, their daughter Raffaella was born.

Thus, her choice of publishing her book as "Sonali Dasgupta" in 1961, probably meant that she and Roberto were not yet formally married. May be, at that time, her divorce with Hari Dasgupta was not formalised and thus she was forced to use that name, because it was on her official documents?

Surprise in the Book

I was surprised that the used copy of the book I have received, has a hand-written note in Italian by Sonali (click on the picture for a larger view): 

 "Questo libro non è l'opera di uno scrittore ma l'esperienza di una donna. La sincerità in esso racchiusa è la prova della simpatia e amicizia per tutto e tutti. Maggio 1961, Roma, Sonali Dasgupta."

(Trans.: This book is not the work of a writer but the experience of a woman. The sincerity in it, is the proof of sympathy and friendship for everything and everyone. May 1961, Rome, Sonali Dasgupta)

Sonali and her elder son Raja

The book is dedicated to Ragia (Raja), her elder son. In the book, the spellings of Raja are "Ragia", because Italian does not have J and it uses "gi" for the J sound. It is possible that she had given verbal instructions about the dedication and the person transcribing it had used the Italian spellings of the word. I feel that she must have been disappointed that her son's name was not spelled properly.

When I had first read about the Sonali and Roberto story, I had been greatly struck by her leaving of her elder son, Raja, in India, who was around 5 years old at that time. It had seemed to me like a "Sophie's Choice" kind of situation because a mother had been forced to take one child and to leave behind her other child.

I think that by dedicating this book to Raja Dasgupta, she was expressing her regret and pain at that separation.

Contents of the Book

The book is composed of 13 chapters. The first chapter starts with her days in Bombay immediately preceding her departure from India for Paris, with her young son Arjun (later he changed name and became Gil Rossellini). A couple of chapters have brief glimpses of her life in India such as about her birth in Banaras/Varanasi and her father's work as a doctor and about her journey to Europe.

Rest of the book is about her encounters with Europe, first with Paris and Saint Remy in France and then about her life in Italy. These encounters include linguistic difficulties, challenges of adapting to the western clothes, and the curiosity of people about the sari-wearing woman. In the parts about Italy, there are also different episodes of dealing with journalists and other curious persons.

The book does not touch on her love-story with Roberto and her life with her first husband. It reads like a series of vignettes, as if she was talking to someone about what it means for her to be an exotic Indian in Europe and to explain the peculiarities of India to the Europeans. The first draft of the book was probably written by that interviewer (Dominique Aubier), at a time when she didn't have a good command over French or Italian.

The book also shows her desire for dignity and privacy, for not giving in to journalists looking for melodramatic stories and scandals.

Conclusions

To find this book with her handwritten words in my hands was an incredible sensation. Suddenly, I could touch the words she had written and imagine her sitting at a table in a bookshop, writing dedications.

It seemed to me, as if across time and space, she has decided to extend her finger towards me, daring me to touch her.

I had written to her once to ask for an interview, but it was a time of bereavement and she had withdrawn from all public contacts at that time. She died in 2013.

I have been obsessed with this story for almost 2 decades. I have already written about it a few times and have been in contact with Raja Dasgupta, her elder son, as well as with a few other persons who knew her.

With all the material that I have collected about this story, I know that one day I will write a book about it. When I saw her handwriting today, I felt as if she is herself asking me to do it.

***

"Still Life" Art Exhibition Schio 2024

During Nov.-Dec. 2024, the Schio artists' group organised its annual exhibition. The theme for this year was "Still Life". The Italian word for "still life" is "Natura Morta" (dead nature), which I think that describes the subject better than the English version. Somehow, the words "still life" make me think of the game "statue", in which you are supposed to stand still like a statue.

Here are a few works from this exhibition that I liked. Click on the images for a bigger view.

Giuseppe Fochesato

I really liked this more contemporary interpretation of the theme by Giuseppe Fochesato, two paintings with a limited palette of colours, giving impression of the early morning on an autumn day and the coffee cups waiting for the persons to wake up and to begin the day.

His Facebook page has some other examples of his work in the same style - washed out colours and light beams illuminating the spaces. You can also check some of his works on his blog.

Daniela Baroni

Daniela had only one work in the exhibition, a painting with two dried sunflowers and a dead robin. The sombre theme of the painting clashes with the bright red feathers on robin's breast and, the purples, greens and the pale yellows of the background.

Gianbattista Clementi

Clementi had two artworks in the exhibition. While one was the classical still-life painting with a flower vase and autumn berries, the other was more abstract and I spent some time looking at it. With winter trees, a small cup and some drying leaves which look like dying fish, I found it more unsettling. 

Antonio Capovilla

I am a great fan of Antonio's long-limbed clay statues. I was surprised to see his two artworks in the exhibition, because I had no idea that he made that kind of work. However, he informed that he makes all kinds of art, from sculptures to mixed material collages and oil paintings.

I know that Antonio's wife is a poet and I told him that I would like to interview both of them together to learn about their reciprocal influences.

His two works in this exhibition included a collage of dried leaves from his garden against a white resin background and a composition made from different kinds of leathers in which he made swirling-holes to create geometric patterns.

You can check Antonio's Instagram page and Facebook page to see his other works, including his beautiful sculptures.

Livio Comparin

Livio had only one work in the exhibition but it is beautiful, though I am not sure if it can be called "still life" because it includes a sparrow and a dragonfly, which are attracted by the ripe fruits - black and white grapes, plumpy peaches, a few fat plums and some autumn-tinted vine-leaves. Just looking at the painting, makes me feel hungry. I think that it will be a good painting to have in the kitchen or next to our dining table.

Livio is a well-known artist of Schio, he has been active over the past 6 decades with water colours, graphics and even comics.

Lanfranco Dalle Carbonare

Lanfranco had 2 classical compositions of still life in the exhibition, one with flowers and the second with a mix fruits, dominated by a green-striped melon. I like his straight forward compositions, almost minimalist with plain backgrounds. You can check his Facebook page for some more examples of his works.

Moreno Dalla Vecchia

Moreno is the president of the Schio's association of artists. I have already written about Moreno's artistic journey in this blog.

In this exhibition, he had two watercolours, one predominant in blue and the other in yellow-orange. He has experimented with his compositions as well, one has an old lamp and a colourful flower-vase, while the other is focused around a piece of pumpkin, both are beautiful.

Lucio Mantese

Lucio is a wonderful artist. In this exhibition he had 2 works - one a beautiful copy of a famous still-life painting of a fruit-basket by Caravaggio. The second work was a wonderful composition of corn-cobs, old drying apples, a pulley and a bucket. I love the way he is able to bring alive the corn-cobs and the metallic texture of the bucket and the ladle (click on the image for a bigger view to appreciate this).

Apart from being a wonderful painter, able to copy famous painters, Lucio also teaches ballroom dancing (Liscio). You can check some of his other works on his Facebook page.

Mauro Marzari

The last artist that I have chosen is another person, Mauro Marzari, about which I have already written on this blog. Mauro makes wonderful abstract works. His two works in this exhibition have a yellow-metallic finish with rectangles presenting a still-life object - an apple in one and a skeleton in another. Both the paintings give an idea of brooding sadness, as if commenting on the short lives of their subjects.

Conclusions

It is wonderful that our tiny little town of Schio in the foothills of Alps in the north-east of Italy, has so many opportunities related to art and culture. This has given me the possibility of talking to some of them and to learn about their artistic journeys, which is a great privilege.

*****

Fiction Books 2024

Yesterday (5 Jan 2025) I had put the list of non-fiction books I had liked in 2024. Today, it is the turn of fiction books.

Over the past few years, my fiction-reading had declined and I found it difficult to finish reading books. Most often I stop reading a book around 50 pages, because it does not grab me sufficiently. Yet in 2024, I managed to finish reading 15 books, which are presented below. I have divided them into 3 main groups - mysteries, action-thrillers and general fiction.

Let me start with the general fiction books.

General Fiction Books

1. George Washingtom Black by Esi Edugyan (2018) is the story of a young black slave boy called George in early 19th century, who was known as Wash. The book traces his journey with a man called Christopher Wilde, or Titch. Wash lives at a plantation called Faith in Barbados and after the death of its owner, the plantation passes to Erasmus Wilde. New owner's brother Titch arrives in the plantation, dreaming of making a flying balloon and he takes Wash as a helper. He discovers that Wash has a real talent for making illustrations. As their friendship grows, a tragedy makes them run away in their experimental flying balloon, which crashes on a ship ... It is a strange story, a bit fable, a bit magical realism, but very readable.

2. The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury by Marc Levy: Marc Levy is a French author. The original title of this book was "L'Etrange Voyage de Monsieur Daldry", the book is about two persons, Ethan Daldry and Alice Pendelbury, who live in the same apartment building.

Ethan is a painter, who likes painting busy traffic crossings and Alice is a "nose", someone who invents perfumes. They go to Istanbul, in search of something they are not sure of, though Alice has nightmares which suggest hidden secrets in her past. The book is light and interesting with nice characterisations and great dialogue. Though the story has a darkness at its core, it is a a book full of hope.

It is also very European, very distinct from American and English books.

3. Travelling Light by Lynne Branard (2017): This is another book about a journey. It is the story of Al (Alissa) who goes on a road-trip to carry a box of ashes of dead-person to that guy's home town, half-way across the USA.

She meets people on the way who join her journey. There are some bits in the middle where nothing seems to happen and the book drags. It seems as if the journey has not really changed anything for her, till after the end of that journey.

The book is an easy and pleasant read, it did not grab me and there were bits where I felt a little impatient, but in the end I was glad that I read it.

4. The Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith (2022): AMS is a prolific writer of mystery books and has different series of books. I am a fan of his Isabel Dalhousie books based in Scotland. I don't like his series based in Botswana and I have yet to read any book from his Scandinavian series. This book can also be placed under the "mystery" category, however, the mystery element is a tiny part, so I have preferred to put it in the general fiction group.

In this book there are Isabel Dalhousie, her musician husband Jamie, and their 2 sons, with a lot of moral dilemmas and witty one-liners. The mysteries they need to solve are not so big  - children who bite other children, an estranged family who thinks that their son is having a relationship with another boy, and an orchestra director who wants to give promotion to his lover, without antagonising other members of his orchestra.

It is a very gentle book and I loved it because of its ambience, characterisations and witty dialogues.

5. The Wolf Run by Kirstin Ekman: Kirstin is a 91 year writer from Sweden. For me her The Wolf Run (2021, origin title "Löpa varg") was the best book I read in 2024. I had taken the book from our library because it was a part of our reading group books and so I read it in Italian translation (Essere Lupo).

It is a little book and a simple story of a seventy year old man who has been a hunter all his life and on a new year morning he sees a wolf near his camper. The book is a meditation on life and on getting old. It is also about the bond between a couple, who have spent a life together, who understand that the season of death is not far when they lose their old dog. It is poetic and touching.

As I grow older, often I find myself thinking like this book's hero Ulff, so maybe that has influenced my choice of the best book.

Mystery Books

1. Bum Deal by Paul Levine (2018) is about a defence lawyer, who used to be a boxer, and is probably going to develop dementia. The lawyer is in love with his neurologist, and is asked to be the state prosecutor for a missing-woman case.

The missing woman is Sofia, wife of a "sawbones", an orthopaedic surgeon, with "cold reptilian eyes", who likes lap-dancers and blocking the carotids of his sexual partners till they fall unconscious. Sofia's powerful father is convinced that the surgeon has killed his daughter and would do everything to send him to jail. Except that nothing is as it seems. The book has a wonderful final twist. It is very well written with a lot of witty dialogues.

2. Winter Work by Dan Fesperman: I liked this old-style spy-mystery from 2022 because of 3 reasons -

(A) its setting, location and period - the story takes place on the two sides of the Berlin wall in 1989-90, when the wall has just come down, the East German system is coming apart but not yet destroyed and Americans are trying to get info from the East German secret police regarding the Russians; 

(B) the core characters in the book are very well drawn, with depth and distinct inner worlds with unusual stories. For example, Emil Grimm the retired East German secret police colonel, who can be considered as the hero, has an interesting love triangle with his paralysed wife in terminal phase of ALS and her friend, who is also her care-giver;

(C) and the story is well written.

3. Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg (2020): It is about a young homicide detective, Eve Ronin, in California and her first case of triple murders of a mother and her 2 children - someone had killed them with a knife and then dismembered them and hidden their bodies. The guy is caught relatively early in the book but it is difficult to find the evidence about what really happened and to link him directly to the crime. The book is a race against time to find the missing bodies and some evidence. The personality of Ronin and her relationship with her work-partner, who is waiting for his retirement in a few months, as well as crisp writing are all plus points.

The final parts of the book, about the superwoman kind of detective are a bit excessive, but the book is a good thriller-mystery.

4. The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan: This was my first book by the Irish writer and I am aiming to read more of her books. She writes beautifully with very richly imagined characters.

It is a police procedural about a detective sergeant Cormac O'Reilly who has relocated to a small Irish town and is asked to uncover the story behind a young girl and her brother, victims of child abuse, he had known 20 years ago. Book's bad man is a hidden psychopath, who goes about his merry bad ways without anyone guessing about his deeds for a very long time, almost like a superman.

In spite of such an unrealistic killer-hiding in the plain sight, it is to the credit of the writer that she can still manage to make the story seem credible and interesting. It really got me and I finished it in 2 days.

5. The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves is a beautifully written murder mystery set in a small community where everyone is connected with everyone else, so that even between the victims and detectives, there are links. The chief detective, Matthew is gay and his husband also plays a role in the mystery-story.

Each chapter of the book is written from the point of view of different characters (but not from the point of the view of the murderer), which gives this book an interesting variation as you can see the issues from detectives' as well as from other persons' point of views. The only chapter which seemed cliched was the one in which the murderer explains the hows and whys.

Action-Thriller Books

My action-thriller books also has 5 books, including two action-thrillers by Barry Eisler. In 2022, I had loved reading Barry Eisler's The Chaos Kind, which had an international group of assassins working together to save the life of a US attorney. Eisler writes great action-thriller books and he has created an inter-connected world of books about those assassins. I read two of his books this year and I think that I am going to look for more of his books in 2025.

1. Graveyard of Memories" (2014) by Barry Eisler is about how a CIA guy in Tokyo manipulates a Japanese guy Rain to become an assassin and about Rain's love story with a beautiful paraplegic girl of Korean origin. The book has great action scenes, good pace and enough twists, but what makes it special, are the psychological dialogues the assassin-guy is having with himself as learns about the zen of being an assassin, using mindfulness and careful attention to details, as one would in a tea ceremony.  Highly recommended for people who like action-thrillers.

2. Killing Rain" (2005) by Barry Eisler, has the same hero, John Rain, at the end of the his assassin career. He starts using his skills to protect good people. It also has 2 more assassins from the Barry Eisler's assassin world - Dox, the tall and good-natured American guy, and Delilah, the Jewish girl from Paris who works for the Mossad (Israelis).

This book also has great action, nice bits about assassin psychology and brief but strong emotional parts as well. I think that Killing Rain was the earlier title of the book and it is also available as "Redemption Games". Our library has some of the Barry Eisler books, so it is very likely that I will read some more of his books in the coming years.

3. The Bourne Defiance by Brian Freeman (2023) is set in the Jason Bourne world made famous by the books of Robert Ludlum, on which many films have been made. Different authors seem to be writing books based in that world and Brian Freeman is one of them.

This action-thriller is based in the USA and it is about a senator, his assistant, a secretary of state, and a cool-headed spy-killer with two women who love him. It has nice pacing, and a lot of action. It is a good fun book for fans of Robert Ludlum.

4. Insidious by Brett Battles (2020) has an unusual action hero called Nate, who can talk to his dead-wife Liz and she tells him about women in situations of danger who need his help.

Nate also has a Thai girl friend and partner called Jar who is on autism-spectrum. They need to solve the mystery of a girl who was kidnapped as a child, had managed to run away. Many years later, she has found her kidnappers and wants revenge but her life is in danger. The book has well-drawn and unusual set of characters. It is recommended for the fans of action-thrillers.

5. Deadlock by James Byrne (2023) is an action thriller with a witty hero called Desmond Aloysius Limerick, aka, Dez, who paraphrases half his sentences with "Love" and has a whole trove of nice one-liners. For example, I liked, "The God answers all prayers, sometimes the answer is no."

This book's villains are nerdy looking techs, a philanthropy-promoting TED speaker and some instagram-influencers.

Dez is better than Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson combined, he can kill hundreds and destroy whole buildings, so the thrills go together nicely with popcorn munching. It is recommended for good entertainment value for fans of action-thrillers.

Conclusions

This year I also liked some Italian books but since they are not translated into English (for example, a couple of books by Ilaria Tuti), I have not included them in this list.

Last year (2024) also has been good for me for writing books. I write in Hindi and in 2024, I finished the first draft of my third book - I really like the way it has turned out. A gentle love story, I think that it will make a great film.

I am now writing something else, and intended to go back to reviewing and rewriting my third book after a gap of a couple of months. In the meantime, I am still waiting for the publication of my first book, it was accepted by a Delhi publisher in 2023 but I am not sure when it will come out.

I am hoping to read more good books in 2025. Best wishes of a happy reading 2025 to all of my readers. If you have read some good books, do tell me about them in the comments below, thanks in advance.

If you like non-fiction, you can also check the non-fiction books I had liked reading in 2024.

*****

Non-Fiction Books 2024

In 2024, I decided that every time I will read a book till the end, I will note down my comments for my blog, instead of trying to come up with a list of books at the end of the year. Thus, this time making a list of my recommendations has been easier and is comprehensive.

This post is divided into 2 parts - this first part is about non-fiction (6 books) from 2024, while the second part will be about fiction books.

1. Spring Chicken - Stay Young Forever (Or Die Trying) by Bill Gifford  (2015)

It is a 2015 book about ageing, living longer and becoming older with less health-problems. It looks at the whole world of living longer movement - from what does ageing means, what causes ageing, the impact of ageing on different body-systems including muscles and movement, heart, lungs, brain and neurons, metabolism, etc. and and what can be done to slow down this process.

The author talks to the well-known experts and researchers in each domain, as well as to people with crazy ideas who are trying to stay younger and live longer. Most such books are repetitive, they have only a few ideas, but this book takes a wide overview and hardly ever repeats itself. It was my first read in 2024 and it got me straight away. It is a well-written book.

2. Midnight's Machines - A Political History of Technology in India by Arun Mohan Sukumar (2019)

It touches on an unusual theme - the relationship between culture of a people and technology. I had never thought about the cultural attitudes about technology in India in this way before reading it, and it made me rethink about some of my earlier beliefs. In India, we have beliefs about nature, environment, divinity and our own (human) role in the larger scheme of things.

Many of these ideas are expressed in terms like Gandhism, the ideas of self-reliant communities, the beauty of small things, and the distrust of modernity and technology (and of rich industrialists). The book touches on all these and how these affected pre-independence and post-independence developments in India, the role played by Rajiv Gandhi and even greater impact of Y2K disruption in bringing a grudging acceptance of technology to India. Though youth is enthusiastic about this change but the book suggests that the older distrust has not yet disappeared, it continues to shape our decisions even now. A very interesting read.

The Indian Ideology by Perry Anderson (2012)

This book looks at 20th century's India (at the 120 years period going from the birth of Congress party till the last UPA Government). Anderson's main area of interest has been Marxism and his analysis of the recent Indian history is shorn of any romanticism about India's freedom struggle and the role played by Congress in it.

His main criticism of congress in the pre-independence period is that its ideology was not progressive and modern, but was "Hindustani" (biased towards Hinduism). After independence, his judgement is that there was a confused polity. He looks at the ideas of Gandhi and Nehru, finding much to criticise, conceding some good intentions and a lot of bad choices.

He lays the blame for the creation of Pakistan on Gandhi and congress party "because they wanted a strong central government". He also finds fault with Indian electoral system (it is not proportional representation), inclusion of Kashmir in India, crushing of the independence movements in the North-East and the treatment of Muslims in post-independent India.

I feel that in India, we are used to a fawning adulation towards figures like Gandhi and Nehru, and any attempt to look at anyone critically is seen as sacrilegious. In that sense, I found his analysis refreshing and provocative. However, I do not agree with many of his conclusions for example, that aiming for a strong central government or not allowing successions, were bad choices for India. In any case, I feel that this book should be read for an alternate point of view about contemporary India.

Who Ate the First Oyster by Cody Cassidy (2020)

Simple sounding questions like "who ate the first oyster" or "who invented fire" or "who invented clothes" can lead to a profound reflection on human evolution over the past 3 million years and understand the significance of things that we take for granted.

For example, eating oysters required people to understand the science behind the tides of oceans because the oysters can only be gathered at low tides. It required making a connection between high-low tides with phases of the moon and a keen spirit for the observation of the world.

It is a book about human evolution science and I found it very interesting, full of A-Ha moments. If you like reading the natural history and science books, try this book from 2020 - it is full of new insights.

Age of Revolutions by Fareed Zakaria (2024)

I knew Zakaria only as a TV personality and this this was his first book for me. The central theme of the book is that big and transformative changes occurring in short spans of time, are revolutions for the human societies, each of which follows a trajectory ending with an inevitable backlash of some kind. He focuses mainly on the revolutions in Europe over the past 500 years, especially about economical and social organisation of society, including the technical innovations.

I liked the first half of this book more than the second half. I felt that the last part of this book was scattered and confused. However, even in the second part, I found interesting ideas about cultural backlash to explain part of the Putin-Xi Jinping effects in Russia and China. I also agree with his view that today many countries in the world are not looking to the West to copy its ideas of organising societies, but instead, many of them are exploring their own understandings of modernity.

I also felt that the book sidesteps the whole issue of spread of Islamic orthodoxy, which is another huge phenomenon influencing geopolitics today. This orthodoxy can also be seen as a backlash to sudden modernity and changes in those countries. It seems that some of them, especially in the Arab world, seem to be finally overcoming it, while others, especially Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, seem to be lagging behind.

In conclusion, this book is an interesting read.

The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2022)

Pulitzer prize-winning Mukherjee writes big but interesting tomes about themes related to medicine. This book had come out in 2022 and I had been planning to read it for a long time.

In the medical college, I used to love physiology and had been fascinated by the microscopic "organelles" inside the cells, but at that time the understanding about these was fairly superficial. However, over the past decades, thanks to new research and technology (including genetics & molecular biology), our understanding of human anatomy and physiology have improved in ways that I could not have imagined. Thus, I was looking forward to reading Mukherjee's book on this theme.

It is great book, immensely readable, but it is for general reader. For me, it skimmed the surface, giving tantalising glimpses of the new knowledge but not really going deeper into it. For deeper learning about human physiology, I need to read a textbook. However, if you like to learn about the human body, it is an interesting book.

Conclusions

I feel that most non-fiction books do not need to be a full book, they can be much shorter. Most of them have very long initial parts where they talk at length about the context, but most of it is already well-known. When they do touch on their subject, they are often repetitive. Therefore, though I do start reading a lot of non-fiction books, I rarely finish them. Thus, I am really happy that I have 6 books in this list this time.

As the year comes to an end, I am listening to an interesting podcast by Devdutt Patnaik, which is more than 12 hours long. Recently, I had also listened to another interesting podcast with Manu Pillai. Hopefully, in 2025, I will read some books of both of them. This year (2025), I am also hoping to read some biographies, a genre that I have largely ignored so far.

Best wishes of a happy reading 2025 to all of my readers. If you have read a good non-fiction book, do tell me about it in the comments below - thanks in advance.

You can also read about my choice of fiction books that I had liked in 2024.

*****

Mutations Art Exhibition Schio 2024

Our tiny town of Schio in the north-east of Italy has an active art & culture scene. One of the annual events is the Mutations (Mutazioni) exhibition, held usually around the end of the year, held recently from 30 Nov. to 29 Dec. 2024 at Spazio Shed in the city centre.

I want to present 12 artists whose works I liked. I start with 4 sculptures and installations, and follow them by 8 paintings. Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

1. Sculpture by Paolo Ceola: It had a white jacket standing up in the air and asking "Where is the man?" Made of ceramic and oxide combination, it had a shining smooth finish.

With this sculpture, Paolo expresses his fear that we humans are losing our identity.

He defines himself as a experimenter and researcher, looking for innovation, and working with different art-languages including photography, painting, sculpture, videos and films. You can check Paolo Ceola's other works on his Instagram page.

2. The Playful Installations of Roberto Marconato: There were two installations by Roberto in the exhibition. Both had the bust of a young woman, both with headphones listening to music, one in a pink t-shirt placed over a tower of balls and books, and the other with a pink knitted cap, connected to her computer-monitor by a cord.

The installations seem to be talking about a future world, which is partially already there in our lives, where our work and free-time lives, both revolve around technology and even our human relations are mediated by it.

Roberto is a self-taught artist and he defines his art as "surrealistic", with a preference of using recycled materials in his works. You check his other works at his Instagram page.

3. The Colourful & Playful Animal Sculptures of Giorgio Nalon:  Giorgio's animals seem straight out of mythologies and fairy-tales with bright colours. There was a cut head of a zebra resting over a Rubik's cube, vaguely similar to the bronze horse-head sculpture by Nic Fiddian-Green at Mable Arch in London, also reminds me of Mario Puzo's Godfather where the horse-breeder wakes up with the bloody head of his favourite horse in his bed.

Then there was a colourful chameleon, again clutching a Rubik's cube in his front legs. Finally there was a blue frog with a crown on his head, the frog-prince, waiting for someone to kiss him. You can check his Facebook page to see his works of art.

4. The Ceramic Dress by Daria Tasca & Vania Sartori: I was intrigued by this installation created jointly by 2 women artists - a fashion designer and a ceramic-maker.

It had a cream-coloured dress in silk-twill with a front-armour similar to a bullet-vest made of ceramic, out of which shining golden plates come out to surround the neck, while the hands-gloves have blue Sardinian wool gathering in 2 ceramic cups near the feet.

Daria started as a fashion designer and has been experimenting with painting on clothe, mixed techniques with photography and painting, and frescoes on wood. 

While, Vania studied to be an architect and then started to work in her family's ceramic workshop. To see their other works, you can check the facebook page of Daria and Vania.

After the sculptures and installations, lets now move to the works of painters.

5. The Pentatych by Luciano Gasparin: Luciano had put together five canvasses to create a combined rectangle, dominated by shades of reds.

His work was titled La Vita, the life, and had a quote by Seneca, saying, "No one would give you back years, no one would give you back to you; the time of your life will pass on the path you have undertaken and would never come back or to stop passing ..."

The painting combined a few figures - a head, a photograph and a church, while the remaining spaces were filled by abstract colours. It touched me deeply and I spent a long time standing there to look at it. You check his Instagram page to look at his other works.

6. The Immense Blue Ocean of Salvatore D'Oria: Salvatore is originally from Reggio Calabria in south Italy. His initial work was with oil paintings. In the recent years, he has starting doing more work with acrylic colours, which he uses to express motion and movement.

His painting in this exhibition was titled L'Immenso, the Immensity. The blue and whites of this work expressed communications and how the modernity with rushing time takes away our individuality and identity.

7. Suspended Horizons by Paolo Pallara: Paolo had 2 canvasses in the exhibition, both titled "Suspended Horizons", one of which is presented here.

He uses acrylics, tar, oil-pastels and ash to create the dirty yellow backgrounds with a tiny black sun and dark splotches of the horizon, from which black threads reach downwards. He describes these as, "In these suspended horizons, the becoming of days becomes the space where you find refuge ..."

The two paintings make me think of our polluted towns, as the evening falls and the skies turn yellow, both ugly and beautiful, at the same time.

You can check Paolo's Instagram page to look at his other works.

8. Urban Landscape of Claudio dal Pra: Claudio's landscape was located in Chiuppano, a tiny mountain town, not very far from Schio. It was an urban landscape, located clearly at the fringes of the rural-natural and is made ethereal by shades of yellow, old medieval buildings, and a complete contrast to Paolo Pallara's canvas-world above.

In fact, Claudio's colours were lighter and brighter, his buildings seemed wrapped in the mountain mist, almost a dreamland.

You can check Claudio's Facebook page for his other works.

These two artists, Paolo Pallara & Claudio dal Pra, made me think about the aesthetic pleasures of the two completely contrasting styles, and how we can appreciate beauty in so many diverse forms.

9. The Masked Animal by Sergio Polli: Sergio had a gothic looking canvas in the exhibition, with dark colours and a portrait of someone with a hybrid animal face - the face looks like that of a horse, but it also has two big horns - perhaps it is a male deer?

Animal masks have been used by the shamans of ancient people, they represent the capacity to visit the spirit worlds and to talk to the spirits. At first glance, Sergio's work looks like that. However, he has titled it the "masked animal", thus, it is an animal with a mask, probably referring to the animal instincts of certain persons who wear masks to seem civilised?

Sergio had recycled the wood from that used for making boxes, to make his canvas for this painting. His Instagram page defines his work as "recycling for painting, painting for recycling" and likes to use his art to express things for which there are no words.

You also check Sergio's Facebook page to see his other works.

10. AI Art of Annabella Dugo: Annabella had the prints of two very striking works, one titled "Meditation" and the other, "Sin of lust". These have been made with the help of AI.

At one level, it was impossible, not to be fascinated by the two works, for their surrealistic hyperrealism and their choice of subjects & colours. At another, it raised the question about manual artistic skills.

I think that in the past, artists needed to have both, imagination and manual skills to create art. But with AI, it combines imagination with software skills, while the manual skills become unimportant. How is that going to influence our ideas about art? Annabella is a renowned and award-winning artist from Naples, so she has manual artistic skills, yet here she chose to use AI to create these works. How does that affect our views about her art?

You can check Annabella's Instagram page to look at her other works.

11. Painted Glass Works of Loria Orsato: Loria, based in Vicenza, uses glass in her works. In the two works presented in Mutations 2024, she had hand-painted glass on canvas to represent the "Family of long-necked queens".

North-east of Italy, including the famous Murano island in Venice, are known for their glass related works and workshops. Perhaps Loria is a part of this tradition. She defines herself as an art designer and colour-researcher, and she hand-paints on glass.

At the same time, over the past decade, she has been active in dance-therapy, the Dancing Hands, inspired by the works of Argentine dancer Maria Fux. I had heard of Maria Fux from my friend Pio Campo and once gone with him to see him use dance-therapy for persons with mental health problems in Goias, Brazil. I feel that this combination of artist and dance-therapy, makes for an interesting person.

You can check Loria's Facebook page and her Instagram page to see more examplesof her works.

12. The Contrasts in Paintings of Daniela Toniolo: The 12th and last artists for this post is Daniela with 2 acrylic on canvas paintings titled "Rebirth" and "Opposites".

Against a background of grey and purple, the two artworks had geometric spaces, like floating windows and glasses, which seemed to be reflecting into each other, making me feel as if I was getting lost inside a mirror room, which reminded me of the final scenes of Bruce Lee's film "Enter the Dragon".

Daniela is from Schio. About her works, she says, "It can be defined as fluid-ordered, with inexistent brush-strokes, highlighting the diluted and transparent colours, with counterpoints of bright white ..." You can check her work on Instagram.

Conclusions

I felt that this year, Mutations exhibition had fewer sculptures and installations, and fewer works with a strong visual-aesthetic impact.

Let me conclude this post with a close-up image of cubes titled "Eva's Garden" by my friend Eva Trentin from the Mutations exhibition. Eva makes beautiful works by bringing together nature and its organic imprints on different surfaces. Her works are like labyrinths, the more minutely you look at them, the more facets you can discover. You can check more of her works on her Instagram page.

*****