Book Review #94: 31 Miles:Can we ever win against ourselves? by Vinita Bakshi

Title: 31 Miles: Can we ever win against ourselves?

Author: Vinita Bakshi

Publishers: Rupa Publications India

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 220 (Paperbound)

Source: Advanced Review Copy by Publisher

There are certain epochs in one’s individual life where it takes a substantial twirl and the whole thing happens so fast that one cannot fathom the rationale or judgment behind it. And undoubtedly, it poses some vital consequences when this happens in the middle of the life. The book “31 Miles” precisely narrates the midlife crisis of a woman who has lost a sense of control over some events that has changed her entire life.

The protagonist of the novel is a middle aged woman, Manasa, aged about 40 years. Growing up in a traditional orthodox family left her no choice but to give her consent for an arranged marriage at a young age. Now, she is well over 40 years, blessed with two beautiful daughters Malvika and Shonali and an ever loving husband, Abhijit. She considered herself as a regular Indian middle class home maker with the sole intention of taking care of her family and giving the best of her abilities to keep everyone happy. She grew up with no concerns whatsoever. But, an ill-fated episode made her to lose trail of her life and go into deep crisis which occupies the next part of the novel.

Sitting at home doing mundane tasks made Manasa to distaste her life. One day she decides to join a cuisine course. There, she befriends some affluent people that changed her perspective towards life. She now considers establishing her own company that specializes in the nutritious food, new food recipes and everything related with food. In order to keep herself in this advanced technical world, she learns computer and most significantly she decides to make her presence in the social media world. She opens her account in one of the popular social media websites and to her surprise she sees many of her childhood friends. One among them was Rajan Chopra. Though she was quite familiar with that name in her memory, she couldn’t relate this person to any of her childhood friends. Within few days, Rajan Chopra introduces himself as Manasa’s elder sister classmate and befriends her on social media. Slowly unanticipated events started to unfurl between them.

Rajan Chopra, the strange character from the novel starts to communicate more candidly with Manasa. He started sharing couplets, poems and Bollywood songs with Manasa to win over her. This is the important part of the novel as far as I can see. Now, readers shouldn’t judge the protagonist as too naïve and pretentious that falls for a guy at this age. Manasa never experienced this kind of admiration even from her husband. She felt surreal to hear Rajan’s swaying words every day. As the days progressed, Manasa was absolutely immersed with this outlandish man. She started to develop feelings towards him.

In a general sense, befriending strangers online is not advised. Teenagers at present are the most affected people. So, what would possibly happen when grownups, who are new to this social media circle, that doesn’t know the consequences it would have on their life, befriends strangers? Things can get hideous if they start interacting with them. There can be many appalling experiences. Our protagonist exactly faces the same experience in her life.

The next stages of the novel are the main part which I am not including in this review. 

Manasa became too emotionally involved with this man and she started to feel culpable towards her husband and daughters. Was she able to meet this mystery man? What was her thought process when she decides to meet him in person? Was this man as genuine as he appeared to her in social media? Was Manasa ready to give up everything to get back to this person? What happened at the end? Has everything become normal again? To know the answers, read this book.

Overall, the book is quite impressive. As a debutant author, Vinita has done a brilliant work. The language is simple and narration is lucid and engaging. The best part of novel is the emotions expressed by the protagonist Manasa. You can vividly capture those moments while reading. Personally I felt that the novel is bit stretched. It could’ve been reduced by 20 to 30 pages. Apart from this, the novel is quite brilliant and I enjoyed reading it.

P.S: There is a sequel to this novel coming up in future!!

My Rating:

4/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange of an unbiased review.

Book Review #55: Jalapatha By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This is a short book with full of wisdom and full of philosophical thoughts. This book “Jalapatha” by my favorite author, philosopher and a great human being Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa has created a much debatable platform of the subjects like birth, marriage and procreation. The protagonists from this novel are a mere representation of the current society. The thought that runs in these minds is way beyond imagination and it gives us the right amount of information to ponder over and makes us to churn for answers. Jalapatha can be translated to English as “Water Falls”.

As a philosophical buff, I adored this book very much. Though this book might not be one of the popular novels of SLB sir, but, it doesn’t mean that, it lacks the USP of SLB. It has everything that one is looking out through a philosophical mind. This book mainly explores the idea of marriage, explores the idea of having kids and also explores the idea of creating an art that stands on a platform of morals. After all, who doesn’t like to debate about the right time to having kids or when will be the right time to get married? 

These are considered to be taboo among the conservative orthodox Indians. For them, these kinds of debates or discussions must confine to the 4 walls of their bedroom.

The protagonist of this novel is a freelance artist named Sripati. He had his own set of ideologies about life and its oddities. He was living with his wife who is a graduate. They were living in a small town like area in Bombay. They both had a son who was going to school. They often wondered about their respective lives. Sripati always used to wonder, whether his wife should work to support his family or she should stick to take care of the household chores and help in bringing up their son in the right way. They often used to discuss about extending their family with one more child, but, with an instant, their idea itself seems very dirty and ambiguous. Sripati had a colleague where he used to submit his art works. She was attracted towards Sripati and often expressed her interest in him. Initially Sirpati was not so interested to go for this extra marital affair. But, later, he gets attracted towards this lady and he begins to go her house every alternate days.

In another track of the novel, the neighbor family of Sripati, a doctor by the name Nadagowda living with his wife. He is more of a scientist than a doctor; he was specialized in animal science. This doctor had a special notion and belief within himself that, whoever is bound to have children whether its humans or animals, will have to adhere to the best of breeds. He used to explain in his own terms that, only a strong male and female must have sex in order to conceive children. If anyone of them is weak or their ancestral background seems to be weak, they must abandon having kids, because, this will get resulted in the birth of weak children. This is the reason that the doctor had never indulged in sexual intercourse with his wife. He believed that, his diabetic background will result in a child that is prone to diabetic diseases. He discussed this topic with Sripati on various occasions. Having a weird feeling towards this thought, Sripati used to ignore him.

During one fortunate or unfortunate incident, Sripati decides to break the vow of celibacy with his wife and invites her to have sex with him. This resulted in Mrs. Sripati to become pregnant for the 2^nd time. During this time, both Sripati and his wife decide to visit a water falls and there they encounter something which is beyond the explanation for both of them. They thought their act of having one more kid is not only a noble cause but it’s a natural phenomenon. They both visits the same water falls on numerous occasions. Sripati decides to draw an epic piece of art that captures the pregnancy of his wife every month. He draws a piece of art that not only makes them both happy but also made them realize the secret of birth. Sripati dedicated this painting to his wife and said that they must not get feared for having another child. This philosophical dialogue exchange between both of them is a treat to read from the book.

In another track of the novel, the doctor who was living next to Sripati’s house will commit suicide. The cause of the suicide is never known. But, this doctor leaves his personal diary with notes about his thoughts of marriage and birth. Sripati reads this script from start to end and feels awe for the doctor who just died. The doctor’s wife will also commit suicide by jumping off from train. This has deeply moved both Sripati and his wife. They decided to cease their city life and heads back to their ancestral village. There Sripati will face the hardships like never before. He even starts to sell his belongings to make the ends meet. Having no money to treat his newborn daughter from a rare fever resulted in the death of his daughter.

Deeply disturbed by all these events, Sripati decides to head back to his former job as an artist. But, what he realizes by witnessing the events in his life is beyond the imagination. After reading the novel, I was left with numerous questions than answers. Is sex and marriage are both linked together? Or is it altogether a separate decision of the husband and the wife? Is having kids is the only aim of a successful marriage?  

I recommend this novel to everyone.

My Rating:

5/5