Thursday, June 12, 2014

Book Review #16: Mookajjiya Kanasugalu By Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth

Every Indian who grew up watching some of the notable authors getting conferred with Jnanpith_Award sometime or the other. Usually, this award will be given to the authors for their notable literary works. The regular held notion of any of the Indian readers that, to win a prestigious award like Jnanpith, the author has to write a voluminous book that lasts hundreds and hundreds of pages. Well, I can't completely agree or disagree with that. The reason being, the book which I am reviewing in this post.

Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth, Kannada's renowned author was awarded with the Jnanpith for this book Mookajjiya_Kanasugalu in the year 1977. This book is just about 270+ pages, but, the quality of the writing and the plot of the novel is epic. Novel is very profound and thought provoking which actually makes the reader to question themselves about various basic questions of everyday life, like God, Culture, Belief, Sacred texts, Bhagawad Geeta, Death, Rebirth, Evolution etc, etc..

The title of the novel can be translated to english as "Grand Nanny's Dreams". The heroine of the novel is an 80 year old grandma named Mookambike who is the grandmother of Subraaya, the 2nd protagonist of the novel. Story which is set in a village called Mudur which is near to Shimoga district of Karnataka.

This book narrates the interaction of the grandma Mookajji and her grandson Subraaya about various subjects and situations. Subraaya poses various questions to his grandmother and through her response author tries to convey his ideas about the various topics in an easy and understandable way. Author's thought about the various subjects like God, Culture and other aspects is very elegant.

The journey takes the reader like a smooth wave of wind in every page and makes the reader to longe for more questions that Subraaya must ask his grandma. Readers will be so engrossed and wish even they must have such a grandma after all.!!. Though there are multiple characters in the book, the book mainly focuses on Subraaya and his questions for his grandmother and of course her answers. Subraaya is an educated man, but decides to stay in the village by looking after his land and farms. But his college degree in history makes him to learn more about history and he always believed that, his village Mudur has a long lasting history of more than 1000 years. He often tries to go into forests and caves around his village and collect some of the old artifacts and show it to his grandmother to know the details of those items. He always beleived that, his grandmother had special magical powers that, with just a touch of things, she can able to recall most of the history behind those artifacts. This special quality of Mookajji what attracted Subraaya, that made him to pose hundreds of questions everyday. At the same time, Mookajji is happy to answer all of his question in her own way which is the lucid part of the novel.

The best takeaway from the book is when Subraaya poses questions on God's existence and the answers given by granny Mookajji in her own way makes the reader to chuckle. Mookajji had her own belief and stories about Idol worship, Tantric experts, Jainism and Buddhism. According to the book, Mookajji was able to visualise many of the things as if it is happening in front of her eyes. These events made Subraaya to ask many questions and he enjoyed the various stories told by his granny.

Overall, going by the content and quality of the book and the simple way it was presented, I recommend every reader who is really eager to read yester year's kannada books, must read this awesome book. It has lots of comic incidents and more than that, it has food for thought for the readers. I will assure you that, the time you spent on reading this book will not go wasted. It increases your perception and gives you a new ray of light for looking the things that you have seen all these years, in a different way. The Jnanpith award for this book is greatly justified. Author had shown us the way, in which, even the most complex thoughts and ideas can be presented in a simple, understandable way.

My Rating: 5/5

1 comment:

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