Book Review #45: Anveshana By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This book is a sequel to SL Bhyrappa’s highly acclaimed novel Grihabhanga. The story starts from the point where Grihabhanga has been left off. It is such a nice attempt of SLB sir in this novel that, we can easily remember all the stories, characters from the novel Grihabhanga.

For those who haven’t read Grihabhanga, let me tell you the crux of this novel. So that, readers can actually relate to this novel Anveshana. A small fictitious village in Tumkur and a poor farmer family was living in that village. Nanjamma the main protagonist in the novel Grihabhanga was married to a loaf called Chennigaraya. She faces many hurdles and difficulties in her life throughout the novel. She loses two of her children who were suffering from plague. Her husband is a good for nothing man, who wanders day and night around the village doing nothing and spends the money eating in hotels and other illegal activities. So, it was Nanjamma who takes care of her family and starts earning money so that she can build a home of her own. The only surviving child of her, Vishwanatha, who grew up with a monk leaves the village once his mother dies. Vishwanatha has a maternal grandfather called Kanthi Joyisa who stays in the outskirts of the village doing black magic and other stuffs.

In Anveshana, the story picks up from the phase where the grandfather Kanthi Joyisa who became terminally ill, wanted to see his grandson Vishwanatha for one last time. He wanted to leave his belongings, money and other stuff to his grandson. So he sets out on a journey in search of his grandson. This epic journey is called as Anveshana.

Kanthi Joyisa wanders many neighbor villages, town and other cities to know the whereabouts of his grandson. He meets many acquaintances of Vishwanatha and follows the route information that he gets from them. On his final voyage he meets a childhood friend of Vishwanatha. He is a tailor in a small village. He informs Kanthi Joyisa that, the last time he saw Vishwanatha was near a movie theatre, where Vishwanatha was working as a ticket collector. And the journey of Kanthi Joyisa continues.

Here author introduces the character Vishwanatha and his life journey in subsequent chapters. Vishwanatha who leaves his village settles down in a town and works as a hotel waiter for some time. Later, he moves to the house of a lawyer and works as a cook for some time. He leaves that place and travels to Mumbai and works as a Tonga Walla for some more time. And he continues his journey leaving no trace of him for his friends or relatives.

The magic of the novel is in its immense detailed explanation of Vishwanatha and his way of living life. Author introduces us to a phase where Kanthi Joyisa, the grandfather of Vishwanatha loses all his hopes of finding his grandson. He informs the tailor friend of Vishwanatha and goes back to his village and dies in isolation. This scene closes the curtain to the character Kanthi Joyisa.

Author introduces us to various traits of Vishwanatha throughout the novel. His love interests, his marriage, his college life etc… the vivid description of Vishwanatha’s love life, married life and college life and renunciation is a treat to read from the book. From this novel, we will come to know that, Vishwanatha has a habit of writing diary. As he leaves his final destination to the renunciation life, the school teacher of Vishwanatha discovers this diary and starts to read it and tries to understand the character Vishwanatha in a better way. This marks the end of the novel.

The striking gesture in this novel is the character Vishwanatha never appears in this novel as a first character person. He was often remembered, described, referenced but never in any way appears as the main protagonist of the novel, yet, he is the hero of this novel. All credits to the magical writer SLB sir. He has marveled in each of his novels. I have no words to explain more about this novel.

My Rating:

5/5