Book Review #12 - Unreal Elections By C.S.Krishna And Karthik Lakshman

Bhaiyon aur Behenon aur mere pyaare mitron, When I read this book, I was simply taken aback. Can satire go to such an extent ?. Indeed Yes. This is an awesome attempt to take a dig at the Indian political arena. Loaded with witty jokes, fake facebook walls and fake interviews and what not. A complete laughter package to end your apetite for humour. No matter, whether you are an AAPtard, Congtard, Moditard or BJPtard. You will love this book.!

This book, Unreal Elections penned by the founders of the satire site THEUNREALTIMES CS Krishna and Karthik Lakshman. It is a complete package of comedy and spoofs. After all the serious election battle came to a conclusion a week before. And, expectedly, Mr. Modi's thumping win has set the records straight for all his haters. All modi baiters are finding a new channel of hope to malign modi and BJP.

When the whole country was in much awe of the elections, who can think about writing something funny that cools down you a bit. Ofcourse, you should be a hardcore political enthusiastic maniac!!. Take a break from your regular work and sit back, relax and put your hands on this book. I assure you, you will never be disappointed. At the end of the book, you feel much delighted and refreshed.

Coming to the writing style of this book, it is much more lucid and engaging and holds you back till the end. You can very well finish reading this book in one sitting. You would certainly find a new way of looking at the politics than regular one and wish that this writing is actually a real incident. As far as the characters in the book are concerned, all the main politicians, party spokespersons, TV journalists names and their pictures are retained as it is. This is a classic attempt, becuase, the reader actually feels the story as real while reading through. The readers feels connected to the story and they can easily relate to the existing political affairs.

The story opens with Ravi Shastri's epilogue of welcoming the audience to the match. Whereas, the match is a preparation of all political parties for the 2014 elections. As the book progresses, Ravi Shastri's commentary runs like a tracer bullet, who introduces us to the opening overs, slog overs and climax.

Few tidbits from the book which I would like emphasize:

Incident 1:

When Narendra Modi was about to wake up in the morning:

"Dekho Dekho, kaun aaya ?", "Gujrat ka sher aaya"
"Dekho Dekho, kaun aaya ?", "Gujrat ka sher aaya"

And, suddenly, Narendra Modi, stops his NAMO Smart Alarm clock!! :)

Who would have thought about this (Un)real story. Can this joke be a true incident after all?, Only, NAMO can answer. :D

Incident 2:

Why Mamata Banerjee hates McDonalds that server Mayonnise ??

This is certainly a takeaway from the book. Its a sheer brilliance of the author to connect Maoism with McDonalds. May be the symbol "m" would have distracted her a bit.

The discussion with famous quiz master and a sitting MP Derek'O Brian and his madam Mamata Banerjee.

Mamata: What do you call a person who plays a piano ?
Derek: errr... a pianist.

M: OK, What do you call a person who exercises ?
D: Well, may be.. excorcist ?

M: ok.. now answer me., what do you call a person who server Mayonnise ?
D: Ohh madam, you are genious, It is indeed, Maoist.

Then Mamata tells derek, why she hates to eat at McDonals, and justifies calling McDonals, a Maoist restaurant.

These are just few trailers from the book. Picture abhi baaki hain mere dost. The (un)real stories of why Pawan kumar bansal had to quit. The grammar battle of former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Why Sanjay Jha feels Rahul Gandhi is a true Heir Apparent and why he fits to be the prime minister, etc.. Both of the authors had shown no mercy while poking fun at everyone. Right from Modi's 56-inch chest comment till Arvind Kejriwal's "Main ek aam admi huun, mere koi aukat nahin".

The best part of the book is when the authors go after media guys, especially Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami. The funny incident of why Arnab Goswami had argued with Doodhwallah is a real cracker. Every little incident has blown out of proportion to achieve the full comic effect.

The climax part is the best one, where the elections are conducted not by voting, but by playing a game of KBC, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. Where the ace contestants were asked to answer some questions in first round, had to give speech in 2nd round, and goes on till the end to announce who is the winner. But, who is the winner ?, that you must read it in the book.

Also, you must not miss the "Baker and Bakery" analogy at the end of the book. The candid talks between Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi, which will leave you spellbound and feels like it is for real. There is also an interesting character V-MAN, created as an alternate to BATMAN. I can't reveal much details of V-MAN here, you must fetch your copy to read who is V-MAN here.!!

All said and done, the things with the satire, especially political satire, is that you actually never come to a conclusion that is this real or (un)real. And being a regular reader of the unrealtimes myself, I never had a thought of reading a fiction though. Because, it makes you think parallelly about the current political happenings as well. As I flipped the last page of the book, I am left with a big question, "What if this is all real?".

My Rating: 5/5 

Book Review #11 - Matadana (Casting Vote) By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

Matadana (Pic Source: Internet)

This is a simple but elegant novel penned by Dr. S. L. Bhyrappa. Unlike his other novels, this novel is not interwined with so many characters. Rather, it is quite straight forward. The main theme of this novel is about the elections, politics of a small village. Interlaced with engaging characters and adding a portion of Tragedy and family problems makes this novel as one of the best fiction novels of Kannada literature.

With a strong plot this book makes it an easy adoption for movie. Without surprise, this novel has been adopted to movie that goes with the same name as "MATADANA" directed by one of the renowned directors of Kannada movie industry T.N. Seetharam in the late 1970's. This movie has won the best regional movie golden award from the President of India at that time.

The main protagonist of this novel is a well educated, MBBS grad, simple man Dr. Shivappa, who was practicing in his village by serving poor people. Shivappa's family consists of his mother Kallamma and an elder sister. His father was already dead even before the novel starts.

The other main characters of this novel is, Ramalingappa Gowda the popular contractor of neighbour village. His 2 daughters Kempalakshmi (elder) and Rangalakshmi (younger). His son-in-law Putta Tammayya who married Kempalakshmi. Mr. Appaji, the local elected MLA, now a minister. Mr. Sadaravalli and his son Mr. Prakash Sadaravalli, who was the political rivals of Mr. Appaji and Ramalingappa Gowda. Mr. Appaji and Ramalingappa Gowda were close acquaintances. Through Mr. Appaji, Ramalingappa Gowda has acquired many contract works in his village. And lastly, Cheluvashetty, a close friend and adviser for Dr. Shivappa.

The plot opens when Dr. Shivappa goes to see Rangalakshmi for a marriage proposal. This meeting was setup by Shivappa's mother Kallamma. Reluctantly, Shivappa agrees to see this girl, but never accepts for a marriage. Shivappa had a thought in his mind that, once he marries, he has to increase his earning, which makes him to leave the village and start his practice in some city, which is totally against his principles. Shivappa had always thought to server poor people and hence he has declined serveral high paying jobs from various hospitals from city and decides to practice in his own village.

Though Shivappa liked Rangalakshmi and it was reciprocated from Rangalakshmi as well. Shivappa declines that marriage proposal once and for all. He continues his practice without giving a much importance to his marriage.

As the story further reveals, Kempalakshmi would die of pnuemonia and hence Putta Tammayya along with his kid Manjayya comes to Ramalingappa's house to ask him to get married him to Rangalakshmi again. Here author tries to tell us that, through Mr. Appaji's influence, Ramalingappa had succeeded in getting a good government job for Putta Tammayya, which was supposed to go to Prakash Sadaravalli. Ramalingappa agrees to this marriage proposal reluctantly, and hence Rangalakshmi was married off to Putta Tammayya for the 2nd marriage.

Now the actual plot opens up, when the general elections was declared in the country. And, all political parties were in a frenzy in selecting their candidates and canvassing for them, etc... Even few lawyers and other influential people from city comes to Shivappa's house one day and asked him to contest for elections, because Shivappa as a doctor has garned much respect and popularity in the neighbour village. Finally Shivappa agreed to contest in elections. Even Mr. Sadaravalli's son Prakash Sadaravalli is also contesting in the same constituency along with Mr. Appaji, thereby making it as a triangular fight between himself, Shivappa and Appaji.

Now, the twist in the novel appears, though Shivappa agreed to contest in elections. This was a sheer game plan of Mr. Sadaravalli to finish the political carrier of Mr. Appaji by appoiting an honest man like Shivappa to contest in elections, mainly for the reason of polarizing the votes that used to go to Appaji, now will go to Shivappa and his son Prakash. Without understanding these things, Shivappa with full enthusiasm particiaptes in campaignings, meetings, gave speeches. One day, his close aides reveals him that, the opposition parties are distributing money and they must also do the same with villagers. Speeches alone cannot help to win elections in village and they demand money as well. This was again a plan of Sadaravalli to distribute money to villagers in the name of Shivappa. Villagers till now beleived Shivappa as an honest man, now in a doubt once Shivappa started distributing money.

Off late, Shivappa understood that he was made as a scape-goat in the elections. Without a surprise, Shivappa lost the elections and Prakash Sadaravalli have won with a huge margin winning against Mr. Appaji.

Soon the new government was formed, making Appaji powerless. The new government in which Prakash Sadaravalli was also a part of, ordered a probe against Ramalingappa's contract work. They set up a committeee to investigate all the contractual works of Ramalingappa. Ramalingappa has minted lot of contractual money when he was getting the support from Appaji. Now, he became helpless, he decides to seek support from Appaji. He was disappointed that Appaji couldn't able to help him in any way. Here the new committee has ordered Ramalingappa to pay all the money that he has minted in contracts. Ramalingappa tries to seek his son-in-law's support, disappointed there also, he sells his land in the village for a nominal price and tries to settle some of the dues. Having learnt that, the new committee is all set to put Ramalingappa in jail. Frightened for his reputation in the village, Ramalingappa commits suicide by jumping into a nearby dam in the village.

Here, Rangalakshmi decides to leave her husband Putta Tammayya comes back to her village and decides to take up the nursing course and was wishing to work with Dr. Shivappa.

Having lost his mother and damaging his reputation as an honest man by contesting in elections, Shivappa had no interest in practicing in his village. He seeks his friend Cheluvashetty's advise on this. One day when Shivappa was treating Cheluvashetty's wife in a hospital. He saw Rangalakshmi working as a nurse in the same hospital. Without a second thought, he goes and proposes to Rangalakshmi. Wishing for the same, Rangalakshmi had also agreed for this proposal. And they lived happily ever after.

My Rating: 4/5

Book Review #10 - Parva By Dr. S.L.Bhyrappa

Parva (Source: Internet)

 I wonder how many times such masterpieces can be possibly written ?. The experience of reading such books is out of the world. The vaccum it occupies once you finish those books and the impact it leaves behind is magnificient. Out of those books, this awesome book PARVA certainly tops the list. I recommened this to every reader who is intereseted to learn the alternate Mahabharata.

 Foremost Kannada Novelist, Writer, Philosopher, Thinker and Professor Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa has put in lots of efforts for this book, where the actual research of the author lasted for 7 long years!!.Written with great eloquency and massive research and surprisingly presented the household Mahabharata story as a fictitious story requires great conviction.

Though his every work is bitterly fought over by critics on their interpretations, though I must confess that I am in no position to offer my experience of his other works. I just started his works by reading his popular novels first, may be, by the time I finish reading his every other novels, I get a sense of his writing style. But PARVA, perhaps the best book I have read under the fiction category. Categorizing this book under fiction category makes unjustifiable. One would not get a thought to rewrite the entire Mahabharta until and unless he is S.L. Bhyrappa.

PARVA is not just a masterpiece; it's a brilliant masterpiece. It is the "MAGNUM-OPUS" of the Kannada literature world. Reading a book in its original language is priceless. This book has been translated to English by Dr. K. Raghavendra Rao. This requires a great composure to translate a book of nearly 700 pages without diluting the effect. He has done full justice in his translation work.

In Short, PARVA is a Mahabharta in reality. Every character is HUMAN. Each and every character created is a complex package which feels a gamut of emotions be it jealousy, romance, politics, anger, forgiveness. Pandavas fight among themselves is as much as each of them introspect into their own lives and decisions which gives rise to several important questions of the basic epic. Few instances like "Does Pandavas actually depicted the epitome of brotherhood among themselves?" Or "Are there any instances of fight between themselves for petty things?", "Was Draupadi being forced while getting married to 5 Pandava brothers?", "What was their actual food habits?", "How did the political alliances have made between other kings?", "Does Dritharashtra has fathered 101 kids in reality?", etc... These kind of doubts never seems to appear in the actual epic of Mahabharata. But, PARVA certainly seems to questions these things!!

There are no gods here, no demons, but just humans. If we were to beleive that Mahabharata as a factual incident, then we have to certainly ponder over such things. If Pandavas has 7 Akshohiny troops and Kauravas had 11 Akshohiny troops, does Kurukshetra was wide enough to accomodate such battle to take palce ?. Krishna is as much as human as Ghatothkach. The sheer brilliance of the author comes in when, he disapproves of any godly references that normal Mahabharata refers to, and thereby gives his work a rational perspective as well as historical insights into the life of those times. Without any doubt, PARVA is an interpretation of Mahabharata in reality with ordinary people, ordinary rules and ordinary battle.

In all his other books, Author Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa tries to tell us the story by creating a main character which narrates the story to a third person. And like his every other book, there are female protagonists. In PARVA also, all the other characters seems to be unimportant compared to the characters of Kunti, Draupadi, Gandhari, etc...

He also tries to enlighten us the readers about the age old ancient practices (Though there is no practical proofs of such practices in this current society). This is NIYOGA. NIYOGA actually refers to having an extra marital affair when any of the spouse is found out to be infertile. Through Niyoga, anyone can have a child which is completely law abiding. In the book PARVA, Kunti actually undergoes the Niyoga system to have children, with the mutual consent of Panduraja, her husband. Having said that, Author tries to remove any magical references to the DEVLOKA (God's Kingdom). There are no gods here and no magical powers of gods. Here, the Gods actually means a tribe of people who were lived in the forests of Himalayas. Through them, Kunti decides to have relationship, only for the purpose of having children.

Author also explains us about Draupadi getting married to all 5 Pandava brothers. Infact, this system is still in practice in some of the remote parts of Eastern India and some parts of Tibet. A single woman marries all the brothers of a single family. Author had adopted this method of marriage for Draupadi's wedding. It was because of Kunti's request that Draupadi agreed to marry all 5 Pandava brothers.

Author had imagined brilliantly by creating a fictitious work on the birth of Kauravas. According to this book, Gandhari had only 14 children of her own. The other 86 children were born to the slaves of Dritharashtra. YUYUTSU is one among those 86 children, who at the time of war, changes his side and fights for Pandavas. Since, he believed that, Pandavas are following the Dharmic principles. We cannot read this part of story in actual Mahabharata.

The heart wrenching episode of war is brilliantly imagined and written, which cannot be read in the actual epic. It is believed that the war had took place for almost 18 days. As the days of the war progressed, imagine the foot soldiers who have to fight all day long have to step on the dead bodies that were lying in the battle field. They have to step onto the beheaded bodies of the dead corpses and animals. Thousands of Elephants, Horses that were killed. None of us would have imagined that what happened to those animals after all. Did they conducted the last funeral rites for all the soldiers that were dead in the battle.?. Hundreds and Thousands of broken chariots that were still stuck in the middle of the battlefield. Was there any space available to continue the war despite all these difficulties?, only time can answer all these questions, raised by the Author in this fiction work.

These are just some of the glimpses of what is known to be a humoungous volume of nearly 700 odd pages of book. Surely, if this book would have published in this modern era, it would have gone to unimaginable heights.

There lies in the beauty of the book. It captivates and holds you with such fervor that not for a moment do you think are in the present, but always a feeling that you are with them, seeing it, and feeling it. The master stroke lies in the last 15 pages of the book and a single paragraph of last 9 pages that describes the end of the war and its after effects. Every frame of the war between Pandavas and the Kauravas will stay on in the mind after you have read the book.

As I pondered at the end of the book, there is just one question. If this is what the author aimed at, I bow to him for, I too have changed. Emptiness beyond the deepest well had overtaken me too at the end of this fascinating book. Beyond the waves, the rain, the silence, laid the emptiness of having accompolished something. I was almost there to witness the silence of war, the thundering clouds, the violence of the rain and the anger of the waves upon the lands that fought the war in the name of Dharma. An empty feeling had overtaken me as I flipped the last page of the book.

My Rating: 5/5