James - Percival Everett

 James is a reimagining of 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' where the fugitive slave Jim is the narrator. It won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

James is a slave and lives with his wife and daughter on a white man's farm. He hides the fact that he can read and write and has opinions and thoughts, and behaves like a dumb slave. He has a friend in Huckleberry Finn, a young kid with an abusive father. When James realises his owner wants to sell him off mins his family, he runs away. In his running away he meets Huckleberry Finn and they travel down the Mississippi meeting interesting people out to exploit them - a couple of con men, Huckleberry's father who dies (Jim later reveals that he is in fact Huck's father), a music  band which hires Jim as a tenor (funnily they are whites posing as blacks) and so on. Sold by his friend to a white man, Jim helps a young girl escape, only to see her die, decides enough is enough, kills the slave owner, frees all the salves, goes back to his farm and frees his wife and daughter.

It's very well written and one can see how well Jim tries to disguise his erudition, his knowledge and bargains it for peace until he is pushed too far. Enjoyed reading it.    

The Himachal Diaries - Some Random Pics

Here are a few random pictures from the visit to Himachal.

Treeline on the hills

Pastoral life

I think this is the Raja's royal residence

 A very interesting house

Temple cum home

Another temple

Prudent with the gates - no walls though

Chariot

Old man carrying grass and firewood - we would pass him everyday with his granddaughter and his wife

Road to Delhi

On the road to Delhi

The Himachal Diaries - Jwalamukhi Temple

The temple town of Jwalamukhi is centred around the temple of Jwala ji, one of the 51 shaktipeeths.

The many steps leading up to the temple

The temple complex

The temple town is where one of the 51 parts of Goddess Sati's body fell, cut by Lord Vishnu's Sudarshana chakra, so people on earth could pray to the goddess. Jwalamukhi is where the tongue fell.

Idol of Lord Shiva on the hill

NP and I took an auto to the temple - standard rate of 100 bucks and the auto chap veered off the main road and went up a steep hill side that to my mind can only accommodate one auto. How they return is a mystery. 

Check out the lions

Anyway we walked up, went to the temple, with its many smaller shrines, found the main one, prayed to the blue flames coming out of the crevices in the walls, the main flame in the centre.

Better view of Lord Shiva

The route to the temple filled with shops on either side

Up above the temple is a huge idol of Lord Shiva on the hill side. We walked back to the main road through a typical street full of stores selling puja stuff. We bought a couple of Himachali caps and returned to the hotel.

The Himachal Diaries - Amtar Fort

Half a kilometre from the stadium was the Amtar Fort or the Nadaun Fort which was the royal residence of Raja Sansar Chand of the Katoch dynasty. The original palace or fort is in a dilapidated condition but it's still worth a look to imagine the grand building it might have been. 

First view of the Amtar Fort

Cricket in the courtyard

The Raja apparently lives close by in a huge yet modest estate and i believe we passed it by. Also the stadium land is leased to the Cricket Association.

A view of grandeur

Broken down

The fort or rather palace's courtyard is now converted into a cricket pitch, where some young men were playing tennis ball cricket. 

Stairway to heaven

Another view

There were steps leading up to the first floor but for some reason i didn't risk it. The building looked like it might just collapse any moment. Apparently there are some painted walls and frescoes.

Imagine how it might have been in its heyday

The palace is also right next to the river Beas so we just walked down to the river again.

The Himachal Diaries - River Beas

River Beas flows right next to the stadium so NP and I walked everyday down to the river. It was clear, clean and has the most amazing round rocks of all colours. At 470 kms it is considered one of the smallest rivers of the Punjab river system. It starts at Rohtang La in Himachal and joins the River Sutlej.

 

The River Beas

NP and I in the boat

Our car driver Mukesh ji told us there was a boat and we could go across the river and we did. Turned out that both boatmen were avid cricketers and told us they never lost a match in all tournaments. One old gentleman also joined us. One side of the river is Kangra district and the other side is Hamirpur.

Across the river on the other side - Kangra (can see the stadium in the background)

Our cricketing boatmen

We crossed the river, walked a bit, saw a few small temples and returned to our side.

Smooth, round multi coloured stones

 Everyday this was our ritual, walk down to the river and come back. It was beautiful.

The Himachal Diaries - Amtar Stadium

Amtar Stadium is one of the five grounds that Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association has - Dharamshala, Una, Bilaspur and Shimla being the other four. It's a beautiful stadium right next to the River Beas and the boatman at the river, an avid cricketer, told us that once Yuvraj Singh hit a ball into the Beas. It's that close. 

The HPCA Stadium at Amtar

A panaromic view of the ground

From the stands

To all sides there are mountains and NP and I explored the river, the hill top and the village where this gentleman sold the most amazing pakoris.

A beautiful sunset over the ground

Some pics of the stadium.

The Himachal Diaries - Jwalamukhi

Came to Himachal Pradesh to a place called Jwalamukhi. Now this is the first time I've been to Himachal and all I know of HP is Shimla, apples, Manali and snow. So NP and I decided to take some nice warm clothing. 

Himachal (snow laden mountains) is one of the 13 mountain states of India, also known as Dev Bhoomi or Veer Bhoomi. We flew in to Delhi early on the 31st, took an afternoon flight to Dharamshala, and then a cab to Jwalamukhi, a small temple town where we were to stay. 

That house is a temple - in the front and living quarters at the back

Jwalamukhi or Jawala ji is a shaktipeeth, one of the 51 shaktipeeths. The temple has no deity and people pray to the naturally burning fire that comes through the walls and crevices. The fire has been continuous and is believed to have been burning for 3000 years. Little else in the temple town otherwise which has many ashrams for pilgrims 

One of the many routes to the temple

A very cute temple we saw on our walk

Winding roads, chai joints, ashrams, a Queen Victoria wedding hall and such.