The Weekend: a little of this/a little of that

1. The Book. "River Sutra" by Gita Mehta. I usually like novels set in India. The setting is normally just exotic enough, and the characters distinctive. But this novel is not really a novel. It is more like a series of short fables, told by pilgrims of all faiths wandering up and down the banks of the Narmada River. The central character is an Indian high level government bureaucrat who leaves his post and takes up a much easier one in the quiet Narmada country, where he runs a government inn for travelers and pilgrims. So, the book is like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with Moslem, Hindu and Jain travelers telling their fairy-tale like stories, all of which have a similar theme. I used to be very different from the way I am now, but the world was too much with me, so I decided to leave it all behind. Worth reading? Not really.

2. The Play. See yesterday's blog.

3. The Restaurants. Mixtec, a low-key Mexican restaurant in Adams Morgan (stick with the baked cheese appetizers) and Cafe Luna on 17th and P (soup and a salad; guess what? it was excellent).

4. The Book Sale. Arlington Library's spring sale, always a big one. Didn't get there until today at noon (it opened Friday), but the big book I found was "This I Cannot Forget" written by Anna Larina, Bolshevik Mikhail Bukharin's widow. After a life no one should have to lead, she wrote this book when in her late 70s (she was much younger than her husband). It was published in the 1980s. Larina signed the book (in Russian). there are no signed copies on ABEbooks.

5. The Rally. The Dafur rally on the mall this afternoon drew a large crowd (I would guess 30,000 to 40,000, but the estimates I have seen so far are not that high). Many speakers; most repetitive. But you have to admire those who are trying to do something. 200,000 people dead. 2,000,000 displaced. Unknown numbers attacked and raped. Still going on. Best speech that I heard: Al Sharpton. David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center spoke well. I would say 1/3 or so of the rally attendees were members of Jewish groups. This is probably OK--the motto is, after all, 'never again'.