WORLD LITERATURE

HARRY POTTER BOOKS

There are many famous children’s books like ‘Secret Seven’ and
‘Famous Five’ are around. They are read and greatly admired by
children. One of such books widely read and liked by children all over
the world is the Harry Potter series of four books that include ‘Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets’, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ and ‘Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire’. Its author is J.K.Rowling. The series is about the
adventures of Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione in
Hogwarts, which is a wizarding school. I consider the fourth book of the
series namely ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, which runs to
voluminous 636 pages in the popular paperback edition as the
magnum opus of the author among the lot.

The series is about a young wizard called Harry Potter who lost
his parents during Halloween when he was one year old and brought
up by his aunt and uncle and sent to Hogwarts, a wizarding school. The
four books concern about his adventures in Hogwarts. The books are
full of funny and awful incidents that make the books interesting to
children and capture their imagination.

The main characters of the Harry Potter series are Harry Potter
himself as the hero of the story, Hagrid who rescued Harry Potter from
the Dursleys, the uncle and aunt of Harry Potter, Dumbledore who is
the headmaster of Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione as the best friends of
Harry, Draco Malfoy as his enemy, Lord Voldemort as his bete noire
and the villain of the piece, and Professors of Hogwarts like Snape of
Slytherin House, McGonagall of Gryffindor House, Sprout of Hufflepuff
House and Flitwick of Ravenclaw House. All these characters make
interesting reading by their variegated oddities and antic. The
characters are well knit to the story.

Some of the incidents in the series make lasting impressions on

the readers. A funny incident I fondly recall from ‘Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire’ relates to Professor Moody transforming Draco Malfoy
into a ferret and bouncing him up and down. Another incident from the
same book that caught my imagination is the fight between Harry
Potter and Lord Voldemort. The hilarious combat involves Harry Potter
after being hit by Cruciatus and Imperius curses of Lord Voldemort,
stopping his Avada Kedavra curse and escaping from the latter in a
tight moment while he really had no place to go.

A funny incident I recollect is from ‘Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone’ wherein Hagrid makes a pig’s curly tail come out
of Dudley Dursley’s pant for Dursleys being rude to him. ‘Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets’ portray the death day party of a ghost,
Nearly Headless Nick, with piles of rotten food to be eaten by ghosts
attending from all over the wizarding England. An interesting incident
from ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ concerns the
unfriendliness of Ron and Hermione. Ron accuses Hermione’s cat of
killing his pet rat called Scabbers. Hermione says sorry and both make
up their differences. The incident of Hagrid meeting Harry Potter on a
rock way out on sea in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ also
makes interesting reading.

The incident that touched me most in the extravaganza of the

four volumes of more than 1300 pages of J.K.Rowling is from ‘Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ concerns the meeting of Sirius
Black and Harry Potter wherein the latter learns that Sirius Black was
really his godfather and had nothing to do with the death of Harry’s
parents, James and Lily Potter. He found out in the meeting that it was
his parents’ another friend, Peter Pettigrew, who was responsible for
the tragedy. Both of them meet Peter Pettigrew and find out the truth
about what happened in the fateful night. It is really a touching event
in the life of Harry Potter.

I hope that J.K.Rowling will continue to write many more books

like Harry Potter and continue to enthrall children all over the world by
her imaginative and colourful stories. It is interesting to know that
J.K.Rowling is presently working on three more books on the Harry
Potter series, and children from all over the world are eagerly waiting
for them. I hope that the books will be as interesting as the first four of
the series.

THUNDERPOINT

“Thunderpoint” is a fiction authored by Jack Higgins. It is an

interesting work on a fictional character called Sean Dillon, a former
IRA soldier caught by Yugoslavians but bailed out by Charles Ferguson,
the leader of Group 4 of Britain, an institution that investigates
terrorists. He is faced with two options for his release. One of them is
to die at the hands of the Yugoslavians and the second is to join
Charles Ferguson. He chooses the second option. Ferguson was
working on a case of utmost importance. He chooses Sean Dillon to
undertake it.

Martin Bormann, the Reichsleiter of Germany under Adolph Hitler

is said to have escaped in a submarine carrying some papers of utmost
importance in a briefcase, which if revealed would destroy the careers
of many Cabinet Ministers of England. One of the Ministers, Pamer,
asks the help of one of his friends, Santiago, to get the briefcase to him
to safeguard his personal interests. The fight ensued between Sean
Dillon and Santiago for the briefcase ends with the briefcase coming to
the possession of Sean Dillon and the papers therein reveals the
involvement of Mr Palmer in anti-national activities. Sean Dillon kills
both Santiago and Pamer in the process and the briefcase reaches the
Prime Minister. The Prime Minister finds his own uncle’s name also
figuring in the secret papers and gets the secret papers destroyed on
the plea that wrongs committed by parents should not transfer to sons.

The fiction sheds light on corruption at highest political levels in

contrast to the commitment of the professionals down the line to
safeguard the interests of the country.

CLOSING TIME

“Closing Time” is an interesting fiction authored by world-

renowned writer, Joseph Heller of “Catch-22” fame. It is a story of a
man called as John Yossarian, an old man always suspecting that he is
under surveillance. He has got a friend called as Chaplain Albert T.
Tappman, a chaplain who had served in the World War II, who is
biologically producing heavy water, which in turn was producing the
gas, Tritium. They have to see what else is coming out of Tappman. If
it is Plutonium, it was very bad. If Lithium comes out of him, it could be
catastrophic as it may cause the end of life on Earth as Lithium
Deuteride is used to make the legendary H-Bomb. This would indeed
be a big blow for the dubious M&M Enterprises who are trying to patent
him and spending a lot of money to get it done. Then of course, is the
President of the United States of America who has a tutor called as
Noodles Cook and who loves to play video games. One day, he presses
the button near his desk several times, which is popularly called in the
United States of America as the Football. It launches all the Ballistic
missiles and bombers and fighter planes into the air towards the Soviet
Union. He does so without knowing what it is supposed to do. Yossarian
and all his friends go underground to escape the onslaught of the
Russians.