Anna Karenina

 I started or rather resumed the book "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy. Well, that is going to take me almost an year to finish. And I can just say goodbye to my 40 books/year goal. 

But the book is marvelous. The story is from 19th century. Or earlier? The place is a far away country which I know nothing about. The customs are unfamiliar - even the names are almost unpronounceable for me. But still I do not feel alien-ness with this book. I feel I am there watching the lives of Anna, Dolly, Vronsky, Stephen. I think that is the feature of a great literature - it is sarvakalika and sarvasthanika. 

We are all humans - no matter which class, caste, religion, language, color we belong to. Our blood is same - like Nana Patekar said in a movie. Our needs are same - same Maslow's pyramid. 

Levin who wants to live in rural area but loves Kitty - the city girl, who feels it is his duty to take care of his half brother who is broken, Kitty who feels Vronsky is her soul-mate, but is heart broken when she sees him dancing with Anna and realizes he is in love with Anna, Dolly who is cheated on by her husband and feels her entire life has been a lie, but who doesn't want to give up on her marriage, Vronsky who loves the idea of being surrounded by pretty girls and having harmless affairs with them, but hates the idea of marriage, Anna who is attracted to Vronsky, feels terribly guilty for it, but now realizes that her picture perfect married life isn't perfect at all. 

I had once completed War and Peace - oh my god, did I finish the great work with thousands of pages?

How does one read a thick book of thousands of pages. In this era of digital media and its instant gratification?

When I talk of classics I am reminded of "Malegalalli madumagala", a kannada book by Kuvempu and of course Mahabharatha. I need to read these again too. Or may be blog about individual characters of Mahabharatha - I had started that process here , here and here.