Book Review #83: Bettada Jeeva By K. Shivaram Karanth

Title: Bettada Jeeva

Author: K. Shivaram Karantha

Publishers: Sapna Book House

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 150

There are few book which haunts you for some time though you’ve finished reading it. Bettada Jeeva is one such book where it is almost impossible to forget the characters or the story as such. Set up in a remote mountain village of South Karnataka, the book captures the scenic beauty of the entire village and mountain as well as the subtle tragic events of a family. This book is short with just 150 pages. The story that the author had written is brilliant in many aspects leave alone the main plot of the novel.

The book has a prominent plot which carries the story till the end with its elusive narration. There are multiple protagonists in this novel and the main characters are the old couple Gopala Bhat and his wife Shankari and a visitor guest to their house Shivarama. The story appears as simple as it sounds in the first few pages of the book, but, as you read through it, it has something else to offer. The tragic and secluded life of the elderly couple will remain a focal point in this novel.

The story begins when Shivarama, another protagonist in the novel loses his way towards his hometown Puttur. While roaming in the forest pathway to decide which way to go, two strangers appears who were heading to a different village and offers their help to get Shivarama to a nearby village. As it was already night and there was no way that Shivarama could get any bullock cart to find his way, agrees to go along with those men and finally lands in the house of the elderly couple.

Shivarama received a warm welcome from the oldies and they treat him as one of their own relative. They offer him the best food and shelter and knows his whereabouts. As they begin their conversations, Shivarama was awestruck by the liveliness of these old couple and tries to get along with them. He speaks about their life in that secluded village and in that single house. Shivarama learns that, the old couple had two children, a boy and a girl. While the girl married at any early age and due to the complications in her pregnancy, the girl loses her life. While the younger son was the only solace for these couple, but he turns out to be a bigger disappointment in their life.

To get higher education, the son leaves their hometown and heads to Mumbai. Months and years passed and there was no sign of him. The couple became old and vulnerable waiting for their son’s arrival. 12 years have passed since then, and there was not even a single letter from their son. Dejected by their son’s behavior, the old couple comes to term with the situation and continues to live their lives by accommodating any new guests in their villages and treating them as if their own kith and kin has arrived. This was a turning moment for Shivarama and he decides to stay in the house for few more days to hear the couple narrate their entire story.

As the story drifts further, there are other short tales of how the elder couple adopted an orphan person Narayana and raised them as their own son. They got him married and provided him the land to till and build his own life. Now, this orphan person has two kids, which the elder couple feels them as their own grandchildren. There are also few short stories of visiting the deep forests, hunting down a tiger in the traditional village way and roaming around the water falls deep within the forests and so on.

As the days progressed for Shivarama, he approaches the elder couple and asks them few question regarding their lost son and promises them to find him in his next journey. As soon as he sees the photograph of their son, he remembers the face is quite known to him. He immediately says to the couple that he has met this person somewhere in Pune and promises them to find him out. The old couple lives with a renewed hope.

My Rating:

5/5

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

Book Review #15: Chomana Dudi By Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth

There are few books which completely takes the readers into a trance and leaves them for several days. "Chomana Dudi (Choma's Drum)" is one of such books. With full of emotions and tragic sequences in the entire novel leaves the reader spellbound. This is one of the short stories written by Kannada's ace novelist, Jnanapith award winner Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth in 1933. This book entirely focuses on the untouchability practices that was rampant in India during that time. The main protagonist of the novel "Choma" is an untouchable or what we popularly call as "Dalit". 

This short book has been made into movie in the year 1975 under the same title directed by B.V. Karanth. This movie has won the Swarna Kamala award from president of India.

The practice of untouchability is not new to India, it is much worse than racism. Author has elegantly captured all these practices and given the shape of a journey of a man called "Choma" and his beloved "Dudi" or "Drum".

Choma is an untouchable bonded labour in a village. He and his entire family was working for a landlord in a village, as he was not allowed to own a land and till on his own. Due to the tag of a backward class, Choma was not allowed to till any land, which he has desired the most. Though he had acquired a pair of bullocks from a nearby forest, he wish of owning and tilling a land remained a dream after all. This has frustrated him for life long and to forget his sorrows and show his anger on the society he gets drunk every night and starts playing his Dudi or Drum.

Without much success with any of his landlord, Choma was contacted by some Christian missionaries who intimidated him to get converted to christianity by offering him a piece of land to till. Though choma was interested at the beginning, later he rejected that offer and felt proud of his faith and religion.

Choma has 4 sons and a daughter, 2 of his elder sons Guru and Chaniya who were working in a coffee estate far away to pay off the debt. Chaniya dies of Cholera and Guru converted to christianity and marries a christian girl and never visited his father ever again. Here, choma's daughter Belli, goes to the same coffee estate to pay off his debt, who falls prey for Manvela, the writer of coffee estate's owner. She was abused constantly and even the estate owner had raped her often and one day sends her off from the coffee estate saying the debt was cleared.

In Choma's village one bad day, his 2 younger sons were playing near the river and accidently one of his son slips into the river. Since, they were untouchables none of the other villagers couldn't come forward to help him to save his son. All these events had eventually made Choma to lose his senses. He lost his sense and was always staying at house without going to labour work and often playing his Dudi (Drum) in a deafening noise to forget his tragic fate. When he thought everything was over, he and his daughter Belli decides to join Guru, and accept christianity.

Choma decides to go and meet his son Guru, he leaves his village. When he was half-way, he changes his mind and decides whatever happens to him, he is not going to change his faith and religion. By deciding this, he heads back to his house, but, he saw an unexpected scene at his house. His daughter Belli was seen in a compromising position with Manvela, who was that writer of that coffee estate. Full of anger, Choma beats his daughter and throws her out of the house and he chases off his bullocks into the forest and comes home, locks himself inside the house and starts playing his Dudi or Drum non-stop till he breathes his last breath. This marks the end of the book.

Choma's dream of becoming a farmer and tilling his own land remained a dream after all. Throughout all his tragic fate of incidents, only his Dudi or Drum remained as a loyal friend to him. Just because he was an untouchable, his entire village was against him and never allowed him to till his own land.

A must read book, it just opens you to an entire new world. Also, it teaches a great lesson to learn humanity first rather than clinging to one's own religion. The oppression Choma faced in this novel is beyond imagination. I have left with only one question, when this upper-caste, lower-caste altogether the caste system will be thrown out of this world ?

My Rating: 5/5