Book Review #51: Gruhabhanga By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

A book that is full of tragic events. A book that is full of emotions. A book that is full of family problems. A book that is full of foul language. Yet, this is a book that speaks about a woman. This is a book that speaks about the hurdles overcome by a strong woman. This is a book that speaks about what it takes to live life. Finally, this is a book that speaks about strong will.

Gruhabhanga is a stirring, emotional and tragic novel from my favorite author Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa. The title “Gruhabhanga” can be fairly translated to English as “Destruction of a house”. Well, this is a literal translation. The real meaning or the crux of the novel speaks about a household. It speaks about various people from this household and their little stories. This is one of the epitomes of Indian Novels. This novel has been made into a daily serial or popularly called as sitcoms. It was such a huge hit at that time and even today this book marks as the only few books that got translated into all Indian official languages. This novel was originally published in Kannada language.

The entire story of the novel takes place in somewhere between 1920’s till 1950’s spanning close to 30 to 35 years. Due to the backdrop of village in this story, this novel strikes a chord with its readers. The main theme of the novel can be considered as a mere family story. But, the stirring images of each and every character are what make it as a class apart.

The main protagonist of the novel is a woman called Nanjavva.  She was fairly educated girl and her father Kanthijoyeesa is a well learned Brahman. In one of the unfortunate events, Nanjavva will get married to a person called Chennigaraya. Chennigaraya had a mother Gangavva (A widow) and a younger brother Appannayya. Chennigaraya was a village revenue collector. His job was to collect the revenue from the farmers, counting the number of acres that each farmer is cultivating, and type of the crop they are cultivating and amount of the crops that they grow each year. He has to sum up all these calculations from across 40 other villages and should submit these records to a nearby government office. He will be given commission based on this records collection.

During Nanjavva’s initial marriage days, everything was going smooth and happy. In just few months, her mother-in-law Gangavva, a bad mouthed woman will unnecessarily interfere with the affairs of Nanajvva and Chennigaraya. This intrusion has become worse day by day as such, one day, Chennigaraya who is a momma’s boy, will start beating Nanjavva and he even stopped going to revenue collection. This was the turning point in this novel.

Having learnt all these things, Nanjavva decides to take care of her family. Now she is a mother of 3 children. She begins herself to go for revenue collection and she starts to write all the records and only she would get the signature from her husband. Few learned members from the village will be aiding Nanjavva in her quest towards raising her children. During all these years, Gangavva, the mother-in-law of Nanjavva will be badmouthing her and often tries to link up illicit relationship with other men in the village. These events made Chennigaraya to abandon Nanjavva forever.

Later part of the novel is simply mind blowing. Author SLB has made this Nanjavva a role model for all the working women out there. Nanajvva slowly build her identity in the village. She often begged for few days in order to feed her children. She stayed in racks of an old abandoned house and making leaf plates to make the meets end. By this time, her elder son Ramanna was about to finish his school and his elder daughter is the age of marriage. Due to the help of few kind hearted villagers, Nanjavva was able to conduct her daughter’s marriage in a simple ceremony to a school teacher Surya Narayana. Surya Narayana, who is a school teacher in a neighbor village, will inform Nanjavva that, he will find a house and then he will take his wife there. Till that time, Nanjavva’s elder daughter will stay at her mother’s house.

Here, the fate plays an unfortunate incident in Nanjavva’s life thorough the author’s imagination. The entire village was attacked by plague epidemic starting with her house. Unfortunately, both her elder son and elder daughter passed away on the same day in a span of 3 hours who was suffering from plague. This incident made Nanjavva to lose faith in god. Fearing the same death for her younger son, she sends him off to her brother’s house and starts to live alone.

Nanjavva had always dreamt of her own house in the village. She works very hard to save the required amount of money and buys an old house and she starts to reconstruct the house. But fate was planning something else for her. As soon as she finished the construction of her house, there was another tragedy that struck in this household through the death of Nanjavva herself. She was attacked by the same plague epidemic and now the entire novel takes it turn towards climax.

In all these events, Chennigaraya the good for nothing husband of Nanjavva was seen with no emotions at all. Brainwashed by his mom, he expresses no grief over the death of his wife or children. He didn’t even bother to check on his younger son who is staying at Nanjavva’s borther’s house. He ended up visiting prostitutes on a daily basis.

What happened to Nanjavva’s younger son? Was he living peacefully in his uncle’s house? To know the answer, one must read the book. I think there was no better climax given to this book than this.

The above synopsis seems very simple. But, the vivid story described in this book will make anyone weep while reading this novel. The choice of words seems very daring. Since, no other novelist was dared enough to write such foul language in any novel. These words include Bastard, Son of a Bitch, Fuck You; Fuck your mom, Slut, etc... Etc… as I said, this is a village backdrop story, hence, the foul words is an apt choice of expressing one’s anger or resentment.

Overall, I feel this novel will stand tall as one of the greatest novel ever written in the history of Indian literature. At the same time, this novel will make the readers understand about the cultural practices, traditions, caste systems of a 1930’s India. I recommend this book to be read by everyone. It’s like a once in a lifetime.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #33: The Pregnant King By Devdutt Pattanaik

My fawning over the tales of Mahabharata and its oddities never stops. It is rich, it is endless and it is window to witness what one could’ve only imagined. I have become a great fan of Devdutt Pattanaik after reading his Jaya (Retelling of Mahabharata), Sita (Retelling of Ramayana) and Business Sutra (Management from Indic point of view). He is a true master in compiling the mythological stories. Pattanaik, a medical doctor by profession and Mythological writer by passion, Pattanaik have written his first ever fictional tale that will juxtapose against the tales of the Mahabharata.

I took this book by only reading the title of it. It is strange, isn't it ?. How on the earth ***** ? As you can exclaim!! :). This is the tale of Yuvanashva, the king of Vallabhi, a descendant of Turvasu clan. Vallabhi a city placed adjacent to the kingdom of Kauravas, the Hastinapur.

The novel picks up really well with the introduction of Yuvanashva parents, his father Prasenjit that dies very early, which leads his mother Shilavati to rule the kingdom. Here author brings up a very interesting argument over, why women cannot become the king and sit over the throne, which is a must read from the book. All the villagers and other neighbor kings were not really in acceptance mode, when shilavati was ruling. This was adharma according to them. Hence, Shilavati just became a proxy ruler, until his son is blessed with a child, that’s the right time to allow him to become the king.

To everyone’s dismay, Yuvanashva remained as childless though he was married to 3 different queens. His first wife Simantini, Second wife Poulomi and third wife Keshini. These characters are just the filler roles for this novel. There is not much about them that you can guffaw over it. Hence, Yuvanashva conducts a ritual by calling the sages Yaja and Upayaja to prepare a magic potion by offering richly to the gods through Yagna. But, unfortunately, Yuvanashva drinks this potion accidently and he becomes pregnant! :)

What follows after this accident is a splendid art work of fiction. Author had brought the woman in Yuvanashva through his tales of emotion, happiness and feelings. Yuvanashva's dilemma/jignasa over whether his firstborn son Mandhata, should call him MOTHER or FATHER ?. Whether he can announce the world that, he has given birth to Mandhata ? Whether the world will agree to such story?, etc.. To his surprise, when he revealed this secret to his son Mandhata a few years later, Mandhata also silences Yuvanashva citing the reason “Whatever happened has happened, now I am your son and you are my father”. Yuvanashva pleading his son Mandhata to call him as MOTHER at least once is one of those highly charged scene from the book.

Though this entire story takes place at the time of Mahabharata, The story of Vallahi and Yuvanashva takes the cake. The people of this kingdom were least bothered about what’s happening in Hastinapuri. One such example is when a bard comes and announces that, all the Kaurava army was destroyed in the battle of Kurukshetra, everyone exclaims “Oh, is it so??”, then they carry on with their regular chores. :)

Yuvanashva is one of those kings who don't participate in the battle of Kurukshetra, reason being obvious, he is pregnant. There are multiple references to bulls, fields, soil and seeds as euphemisms for sex and conception, and to illuminate the vexing question of “ownership” that arises when a woman is made pregnant by someone other than her husband (famously called as NIYOGA system). And then there are those troublesome dead ancestors, the “pitrus”, waiting for the arrival of a child so they can be reborn in the land of the living. Taking the form of crows, they perch outside bedchambers, waiting for quick results, flapping their wings impatiently when foreplay goes on for too long. (“Does it not bother you that your son’s seed is weak?” one of them indelicately asks Shilavati.) The book is bit "for adults only" too, that doesn't mean that, it is disgusting to read. I guess it is appropriate for the tale that the author is describing.

There are other supplement tales. Two best friends Sumedha and Somavat(i), their tales of how they were supposed to get married and it was severely dealt by Yuvanashva, by burning them alive. Later they became ghosts and were tormenting Yuvanashva.  These ghosts are responsible for Yuvanashva drinking the potion that was meant for his wives. It’s an interesting section to read. Shilavati, who cannot rule as a king because she is a woman. Pruthalashva (grandfather of Yuvanashva), who must sire a child because he is a man, a Yaksha named Sthunakarna, who surrenders his manhood so thatShikhandi (a woman) can become a man and a husband, and later reclaims it, and of the great warrior Arjuna with his many wives, who is forced to disguise himself as a woman (Brihannala) when a nymph (Urvashi) castrates him. And in this journey, we witness King Yuvanashva's struggle to be just to all, his conflict with himself, and his duty to bring about Dharma in his kingdom.

The climax part is what gave an amazing conclusion. Yuvanashva decides to renounce as a king and becomes a hermit. He wanders through the forests meeting sages and other learned rishis. He realizes there is more to life than what he had imagined. He slowly raises his consciousness and becomes Nilkanth Bhairavi or Yuvaneshwar.

Overall, this is a sporadically successful, intriguing, spectacular, beautiful, yet thought provoking book that tells an engrossing, subversive story but meanders a little too much.

Some of the quotes which I liked from all the characters:

- "What sounds sweetest, being called Mother or being called Father"?

- “Does it not bother you that your son’s seed is weak?”

- "You are assuming you know the boundaries of nature. You don't. There is more to life than your eyes can see."

- “Who is a King? Who can claim to be mother or a father? Who is the rightful heir to the throne?”

- "To be a woman is like becoming a prey, her every move watched by hungry predators. Every glance of man is a violation. No one is spared. No one. Not mother, not sister, not daughter. It is only fear of Dharma that keeps men in check. (Arjuna describing his story to Yuvanashva when he became Brihannala for one long year)"

The realization quotes of Yuvanashva:

- “It will not make sense to your logical mind. You will say, a parent is a parent, whether you are father or mother. But it is not the same. I cannot explain. You have to experience it. All I know is what I feel. I feel, while there is sweetness when your son calls you “father”, there is more sweetness when he calls you “mother”.

- “I am not sure that I am a man…I have created life outside me as men do. But I have also created life inside me, as women do. What does that make me? Will a body such as mine fetter or free me?”

- “That’s what they were. Vehicles of an idea. Two ideas. No. One idea, two expressions. Two halves of the same idea. Mutually interdependent” - (on being Male and Female).

- “Within you is your soul, Adi-natha as Shiva, silent, observant, still. Around you is matter, Adi-natha as Shakti, ever-changing, enchanting, enlightening, enriching, empowering”.

- “The imperfection of the human condition and our stubborn refusal to make room for all those in between”

Endnote (Quote) by the author:

“Did the events actually happen? Does it matter? Is it really about Shilavati, Yuvanashva, Shikhandi or Somvati? Or is it about love, law, identity, gender, power and wisdom? The impossibility of universal fairness?”

My Rating:
5/5