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 #29: Vamshavruksha By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

There are few books that questions your own existence and the root of your family.!! Yes, S. L. Bhyrappa had written this novel in the year 1965 which is close to 50 years now and still it is one of the epitome of all his novels put together. Written long ago, this book captures the essence of transformation of families and persons from a traditional Indian background to a modern India and the ups and downs that they face while doing so. Vamshavruksha can be literally translated to english as FAMILY TREE.

In the year 1972 this novel has been adopted as a movie under the same title by one of the renowned directors and a great personality in Kannada B.V.Karanth in association with a popular kannada plays writer, actor Girish Karnad. This movie have won the best direction national award and southern Indian filmfare award. The story is so gripping and it is thought provoking.

As I finished reading this novel, several questions arose within me. Who am I ?, Who are my ancestors ?, What is the purpose of our family tree when we are not even sure of who was the first person from our family ?, Can anybody answer such questions ?, Certainly not. This book captures this very arguments through our protagonists and gives us an amazing literary journey.

This novel captures the tale of two families, Shrotri and Rao households, that captures their journey that spans over three decades. In first few chapters, there is introduction of the characters of these 2 families without any twist. Later what follows in subsequent chapters is almost a biographical journey of Srinivasa Shrotri, his wife, his young widowed daughter-in-law Kathyayini (she plays an important role in this novel) juxtapositioning against the literary journey of Dr. Sadashiva Rao, his wife Nagalakshmi and his younger brother Raja Rao.

The journey of Kathyayini and Dr. Sadashiva Rao from their own perspective is a way ahead of time considering the novel's publishing time, where modernism was not so encouraged by the traditional practitioners. This particular part of the novel explores the love life of Kathyayini with Raja Rao that stood on questioning grounds of morality and cultural impact. Whereas, Sadashiva Rao's tryst with Karuna Rathne a research student of him, whom he marries on the sole purpose of completing his research books, after realizing he alone cannot complete his books.

The essence that these stories are narrated by Bhyrappa is a treat to read from the book. Through his characters he explores the age old fight between social norms versus personal happiness, morality versus individual choice, cultural tradition versus modern aspirations, family values versus individual choices, etc..etc..

This book brings us, the readers, into a debate on what is most important in our life. Holding onto the moral values or just be happy with the way we wanted. The re-marriage of Kathyayini with Raja Rao is a phase, where readers will question themselves on what she did was right or wrong. It also brings us to debate on the moral policing by Srinivasa Shrotri, who questions his daughter-in-law regarding her marriage and why its against the traditional social pattern, he also questions her whether she should take the kid along with her to her new house, by citing a reason that, kids actually belongs to the family first and then to the parents. Kids alone can represent the continuation of the family tree and when these tree breaks by a non-acceptable marriage, then it will be a bad name on their family and not on parents. Hence, it is left to Kathyayini's choice whether to uphold the accepted social pattern or to continue with her own decisions.

The ending is a true realization. The realization of Srinivasa Shrotri about his true birth and he himself doesn't belongs to the right family. Kathyayini realizes that, she shouldn't have remarried again just for the material pleasures that has no purpose after sometime. Whether Shrotri is right in terms of his traditional upbringing or Kathyayini is right in terms of her wishes is a never ending dilemma. Imagination left to the readers. Readers can introspect themselves which one is more important.

For sure, author SL Bhyrappa focuses on the moral decisions that people make or the social implications of the same for others. This is a must read book for everyone including the new generation of people. And must read for those, who justify the moral policing based on traditionally accepted societal patterns!!.

My Rating: 
5/5