sowparnika’s blog

Yup, he's out. Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, better known as the dearly departed Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is gay.
His creator JK Rowling pushed him out of the closet just last week while answering questions at Carnegie Hall. Well, that was a bolt out of the blue.

Yes, he was pushed out, he did not come out on his own. What I do not understand is why Jo had to do it. What points was she trying to score? Of course, she has always been awfully PC right from the start. She has been very careful to show no discrimination based on race, religion, sex, gender, class, financial condition or intelligence. But she always steered clear of sexual orientation, to an extent that all teachers at Hogwarts were portrayed as almost asexual. Maybe this was because the books primarily started off as children's books, before they became darker and more serious, as the series progressed.

Except for the late revelation about the ill fated love of Prof.Severus Snape, we know nothing about the love lives of the rest of the teachers at Hogwarts. No mention about spouses or children or families. Many did speculate if the kindly Headmaster with his twinkling blue eyes and joi de vivre and his stern, strict but warm hearted deputy Prof. Minerva Mc Gonagall had something going on. A case of opposites attracting. Apparantly not.

What we now know is that Dumbledore desired a man, a dark sorcerer no less, Jo's Hitler - Grindelwald. But once they separated ways, what did he do? Did he not want to seek love after that?

So coming back to the revelation, why did Jo do this now? Was she trying to score points with the homosexual community? Wasn't it a bit late for that? If she did, she should have said so in at least one of the seven books- atleast the last one where she brought this much loved, character a notch or two down, and revelaed to us his feet of clay. When she showed us that Dumbledore was only human, she could have revealed this too.

And more importantly, if she wanted to show that she had no sexual prejudices, the fact should have come from the man himself. Since he kept it a secret, does it mean he was ashamed of it? So how does that make her look?

Frankly speaking, though I have nothing against anyone's sexual preference, I feel that this was totally unnecessary. At this point anyway. The man is dead and buried/cremated/whatever, His tomb has already been plundered. Voldy's gone forever and everyone has got on with their lives. And most of us have come to terms with his humanity. Why dig up this new controversy now?

 Jo, leave him alone. Just let his weary old bones rest in peace, atleast hereafter.

It's here finally the long wait is almost over a wait spanning a decade. In a mere matter of less than 24 hours, as I sit writing this, publishing history will unfold before my eyes. A simple idea conceived by a struggling single mother on a train ride, way back in 1990 is near completion. Tomorrow the world will know. Tomorrow millions of devout readers will know everything if their favorite boy wizard lives or dies in his unenviable quest to rid the world, both magic and muggle, of the most fearsome dark sorcerer of all, the most evil of them all, the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, a.k.a. Thomas Marvolo Riddle.

Saturday is bound to be quiet day, across most of the world, TVs are going to be turned off and movie theatres and amusement parks are bound to be empty. Simply because millions of readers both young and old are going to be buried deep in the nearly 800 pages of a book, not just rooting for, but living, breathing, dueling, planning, searching, hurting, loving, laughing, grieving, and hopefully triumphing with a young wizard, an extremely likeable young man by name of Harry James Potter.

The count down for the release of the 7th and last book began as 2006 ended. Sometime around Christmas, JK Rowling announced the title of her last book and soon the date of release was announced. And since then this post has been in the making. I just did not feel ready enough to write it. Even today I wonder what exactly I am feeling right now. I am going through a whole gamut of emotions. Anxious, eager, of course, to get my hands on that last book and finally know how it will all end.

And at the same time, I am feeling extremely sad. A vague kind of emptiness. Not just because I know that the bell might toll for some of my favorite characters. It's that sense of finality. That this is it and then there is no more. After every book, there was that sense of anticipation. The nonstop theorizing, guessing, the endless rumors doing the rounds, the wait, the countdown, the excitement of it all.

But now what, or rather after this what? It's an acute sense of desolation I tell you. I feel wretched. I want that book in my hand and I do not want it. I might try to put off reading it or try to read it in small bits. But no, I know I will have to read it in one sitting or at the most two. How can I let it be when Harry's life hangs in balance?

I don't think any book or series in the past or future has been so anticipated, and eagerly awaited. I think we are all very fortunate to be part of what I can only describe as history. Yes, this is part of history. Argue if you will that this is just hype and clever marketing and what not. And it was just the thought that it might be just hype that made me avoid the series till long after the 4th book was out. I refused to read it dismissing it as just a marketing ploy. But finally I succumbed and since the library ran out of the 1st three books, I started off with the 4th. Needless to say, I fell for it, hook line and sinker. It was a veritable feast I tell you, to have 3 other books immediately available for me to read. No long waits.

And to anyone who comes to me with this argument, I have but Abe Lincoln's words to quote," You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time." Exactly. If millions of people could be bowled over, it cannot all be hype now. Can it?

So as I prepare to say goodbye finally to all of them, I remember the ones we already bid farewell to. The young boy Cedric Diggory, who was, "good, and kind, and brave,"

Harry's godfather the dashing, handsome, ill-fated Sirius Black, a man who spent more than a decade in the living hell of Azkaban for no fault of his, a life of tragedy, a life so wretched, a man who till his very end never really tasted happiness and contentment that comes from family, Harry's surrogate father who hoped to live a life of peace with him, sometime in the future I am sure every reader mourned with Harry at the end of book 5 and many I am sure secretly and sincerely hope that he will be back. "Sirius for ever "

And then, the most noble of them all, the most brilliant one of them all, the only one the Dark Lord feared, our favorite headmaster Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore. He with the twinkle in his eye, a spring in his step, and a love for muggle sweets and knitting patterns. The wisest one who considered music to be a greater magic than all they do within the walls of Hogwarts. A quirky, eccentric lovable genius whose few words before a feast consisted of just ' nitwit, oddment, blubber, tweak'.

I wonder who will be the next. I have my own pet theories regarding that, but let me wait and see. And I with all the other Potter fans (go ahead, call us Pottermaniacs. At this point, we would consider it an honor) would deny, rage against, grieve, and finally accept, not just all those coming deaths, but the final passing of the series itself.

Tomorrow when I go to the midnight book release party at the neighbourhood bookstore, our fraternity will be celebrating with an underlying sense of sadness. Our jubilation will be fraught with sorrow. But we will celebrate, celebrate the victory of good over evil, celebrate the lives sacrificed, but not in vain, celebrate the survivors, and above all, celebrate the return of the magic and the joy of reading, which I think is the greatest magic that JKR performed.

The magic lies in the wonderful way she has created a whole universe and populated it with characters that are so fantastic and at the same time so believable. The magic lies in the way she presents to us in the words of Dumbledore, the most important message of the book, the underlying theme that runs throughout, that it is not our abilities, but rather our choices that define who we are. Words that I personally find powerful and comforting.

Meanwhile, before Harry battles his nemesis, I have another battle to face at home. Amazon has promised to deliver my copy on the day of release itself, but who will read it first? Me or my daughter? The battle is on. I think it would do us all well to remember who the adult here is, and I think this is a fine time to exercise the God given right of parenthood. Of course, I get to read it first

Spoiler Alert. Stop reading if you haven’t yet read (what you haven’t read them yet?) the 5th and 6th Potter books. If you started out reading and haven’t got to them yet, you aren’t probably a serious reader and so it wouldn’t matter to you who dies etc… so go ahead and read, i don’t care.

It’s finally out. The title of the 7th book. My reward for the umpteen times a day I visit Mugglenet for the latest updates on the Potterverse. I followed the instruction on the site to learn the new title from Jo herself instead of just reading it off Mugglenet. The fun would be in discovering it myself. I opened the locked door, clicked on all the appropriate objects, the fourth chime gave me the key, I opened the gift package, I played hangman, and got the title at one go, errors nil. And then came the anti-climax.

The title… ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. I didn’t know what to think. Somehow, I think this is the title I like the least. The rest were awesome. But who knows, time may change that. i may grow to like it after the initial indifference as it happens with me and AR Rahman’s songs. 

My daughter asked if it was 'deathly' or 'deadly'. To her 'deadly' sounded better. Some papers even reported it incorrectly as 'Deathly Hollows'. (They probably were thinking of Godric's Hollow.) Uh, uh. Not deadly, not hollows , it is 'deathly hallows'. And I am still confused.

Though I had an idea of what hallow meant (as in 'our father who art in heaven, hallow'd be thy name ) I didn't go to a catholic school for nothing. I learnt all their prayers by heart. Though for a while I did wonder why His name had to be 'hollow'. Anyway, back to 'hallows'. The online dictionaries I checked said it means holy, to make holy etc. so what exactly does Jo mean here. As usual, she has thrown everyone for a loop.

Thousands of discussion forums are debating the title and what it could signify at the very moment I am writing this now. Theories are flying fast and furious left, right and center. Excitement has started welling up, since the revelation of the title points to yet more evidence that the 7^th book will probably be out as we fans expect on 7/7/07. 7 being a magical, powerful number and a whole lot of explanations.

The title has been revealed as Jo's Christmas present to her millions of readers and now we can all finally put a title to that much awaited book we are all going around, carrying in our hearts. It came out right a t winter solstice and as usual, Jo had dropped an apparently innocuous looking hint about this in the 5^th book. I didn't spot it though. Someone else had and I just borrow that theory.

In 5^th book, in the room with all those glass balls of prophecies, when the death eaters and DA fight, a lot of glass balls get smashed and prophecies and lost, their contents lost in a Babel of voices. We just 'hear' a few lines here and there. "at winter's solstice' shall come a new "  "and then no other ". Jo in her way was dropping us a hint. The news of the new book has come at winter's solstice and sadly, there is to be no more.

I definitely consider myself very fortunate to be living at this time, to keep up with the books as they come out. I envy all those people who haven't read it yet, because they have 7 whole books to read, while I have only one. A whole world of wonderful magic awaits them. I just hope they don't get spoiled by the movies first. But I know, I am going to be very sad when the next book comes out. Since I know that it is going to be the last. In that way, I both want it and I don't. I shall definitely miss the anxious wait for the new book, the million guess works and theories thrown across, the mad rush to the previous book while reading the new one to find that Jo had dropped a hint there, a hint here, the wonderful discussions with like minded souls, the looks of utter disgust I receive from 'muggles' for being so immature and crazy about a 'kids' book,   I shall miss it all.

I know, but I still can't wait to get my hands on that book. To finally find out if Snape is good or evil, if RAB is indeed Regulus Black (as I firmly believe), if Sirius will ever be able to contact Harry from behind the veil or beyond death or wherever he has gone to. If as I again believe, Dumbledore will be a guiding light to Harry, though in spirit,  if Lupin and Tonks will get together, and sadly if Hagrid (once again, my belief) is next in line to be Avada Kedavraed. I know he will go. I love that bumbling giant and like all the adults whom Harry gets attached to, he too has to go. If any of the Weasleys has to go, - since it is highly unlikely that such a large family, so involved in the order could escape with no casualty at all ' if any of them has to go, I hope it is that snooty, pompous, insufferable Percy. And finally I will know if Harry and Ginny will be together as will Ron and Hermione. I definitely don't believe that Harry will go. Come on, Jo is not that cruel though I know all those theories about authors killing off their heroes and all that blah blah I DO NOT THINK THAT HARRY WILL GO. PERIOD.