Book Review #24: Anchu by Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This is yet another masterpiece novel by my favorite author, Professor, Thinker, Philosopher Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa sir. It is amazing to think that, how he could possibly be able to capture such thinking and ideologies under a single book. Then it struck me like a jolt, this is the theme of all Dr. SLB sir's books. No wonder, the immense feeling I got while reading this book is beyond explanation.

This is a profound book, making the readers to go beyond the material relationships and arrive at a conclusion. Detractors can always bang their head against the wall, but, they can't deny the fact that, this book makes everyone, literally everyone, to think for a minute or two about their own lives.

This book mainly revolves around only 2 persons. Though there are other filler characters for the sake of the novel, readers are not much bothered about those characters. The protagonists of this novel is enough to carry out the story. This book is certainly unputdownable. It takes the readers on a ride, the psychological ride that anyone could imagine. It takes only a man like Dr. SLB sir to write such books.

The plot of the novel introduces us to the main protagonists of the novel. A well educated woman, Dr. Amrutha, a Ph. D. scholar and a lecturer in a college. Though she had a good job to support her, psychologically she is a woman of suicidal tendencies. She was deceived by her own family members, by her husband and her aunt. By their dubious coup, she lost all her properties and she was thrown on the road along with her two small kids Vijay and Vikas. She and her kids lived alone in the house that was left by her father years back.

Another protagonist of the novel is Somashekar, an Architect by profession, who is well settled and came to Mysore from Mumbai in search of expanding his Architect business. He is good at heart and an honest person, but, he is too weak to express his feelings. That leads him to a bigger mess in his life. Having lost his wife and a daughter, and a failed relationship in his mumbai days, he had no plans of another relationship and was quite happy with his job.

The phase that connects these 2 protagonists is a situation, where Dr. Amrutha calls Somashekar for an urgent repair of her house. He finishes of this repair job and finds himself attracted to this woman. She also had the same feelings towards him. As the story continues further, these two persons were found out that, they love each other and finds a new ray of silver lining in their respective lives. Their love story continues just like any other love stories. But, her suicidal tendencies and mood swings makes both of their lives difficult at many stages.

Author had brilliantly imagined the psychological imbalance state of Amrutha. She is happy at sometimes and in split seconds she gets this immense feeling of loneliness. Everyday she decides to take her life and writes suicide notes and takes her revolver and heads to a hill station and within no time she decides not to do so. These events had made her traumatized everyday. Somashekar feels that, he needs to take care of her and he supports her in every possible way. He changes his timings of work just to be with her. At some point in the novel he was succeeded in changing her mind to concentrate on future rather than taking life.

There are few stages in the novel, where both of them quarrel and decides not to see each other again. Later, they finds their lives are even more empty and dull, which leads them to concile again. As the story further reveals, Amrutha finds out that she is carrying the child of Somashekar. For which, She felt very guilty and again she decides to take her life. But due to the intervention of Somashekar, this plan was failed. Later, she decides to get aborted and still she finds her life pointless, aimless and meaningless.

As the book reaches its climax, Somashekar encourages Amrutha to file a lawsuit against their Aunt and relatives to take back all the properties that was belonging to Amrutha. Also, he gives timely suggestions on how to handle this case. Amrutha slowly recovers from her traumatic stage of her life and finds a new hope for her life. She fights the case with all her might and wins the lawsuit against her aunt and relatives. As the climax approaches, Somashekar feels that, he should marry Amrutha and accept her two kids as his own kids. For which she agreed.!!

The story seems very simple and straightforward. In reality, it is impossible to express how does one feels when someone was deeply wounded psychologically and how their behavior will affect their loved ones and surroundings. This is the crux of the novel and one should read it to experience it. Readers are hard pressed for words to describe the state of Amrutha and her waves of thinking in the book. It is best not to mention in this review. Overall, a must read book, it actually changes one's behavior and thinking.

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #23: Asura - The Tale of the Vanquished By Anand Neelakantan

As I started reading this book, I was in a hope to understand the Ravana's side of the Ramayana. As the author himself proclaims at the end of the book "And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors, that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence." I was thrilled to read this line and I was all ears to hear the Ravana's version of the Ramayana. What the mightiest Ravana has to offer us, the mere mortals, about his version of events that unfolded in the name of Ramayana.

Well, the book picks up really good, opening up with the soul of Ravana gazing upon the remnants of what is called as an epic battle and was thinking in his mind about what all the events that led to his downfall, the downfall of the mightiest king that India or was it the Lanka ?? has ever produced?.

Later what is I expected of the book all went in vain. I judged this book by the cover of it, literally. This is not Ramayana. Instead, it is Ravana-yana.Let's give the benefit of doubt to the author, who said, this is a work of fiction. So, expected a little damage to the original mythological epic that was revered with at most respect and kept at high regards among Indians ,well, Hindus.

As the book unfolds in subsequent chapters, I realized, wait..., this is not I am expected to read, right ??. I continued, Author had no clue what he was telling in every chapter, with an urgency to finish of this book, author had done great damage to the original version of Ramayana and went a step ahead to give a character certificate to Lord Rama.

Let me get some of the points I thought it is disgusting:

The Writing Style and Editing:
Author had not realized the numerous spelling mistakes and errors in sentences formation. When an author is capable of writing such a huge volume, It is expected to make some grammatical errors. But, not in this case, he doesn't even know the difference between "STRUCK" and "STUCK", "ADVISE" and "ADVICE". This is repeated in various section, and I had to bear the entire novel, correcting the grammar myself and continue to read. I don't even know what sort of proof-reading has been applied for the novel. You would read it anyways. Enough said for this grammatical aspects.

Writing Style:
This must and should be mentioned without fail. As I read through the novel, Author depicted Ravana as a fickle minded person, who is not sure of what was going around him. And, author let Ravana continue in that stage throughout the novel. Poor Ravana, I thought, he is schizophrenic. Later, realized, it is the author, who is not capable of maintaining the order while writing the events. At times Ravana seems to be happy and content, and in split seconds, he is sad or angry. In one of the chapters, Ravana is holding his Prime Minister Prahasta's dead body and utters something "I always loved you and want to scream to the world that, you are one of the nicest persons I have ever met" and in next sentence "But, I didn't liked the advices you were bestowing upon me, hence, I would hate you for that". From love to hatred in just 4 sentences???!!!. What the f***??. Common man, I do not have time for this fickle trail of words from you.


Protagonists:
The story unfolds between 2 main protagonists. Bhadra, the self proclaimed, close aide of Ravana, who sprung into action from nowhere. And, the main protagonist Ravana.

Bhadra a close aide of Ravana, or, that's what he thinks. He comes from nowhere in the novel and declares his unconditional support to Ravana. He declares, Ravana as the king he was looking for all these years and he can vouch for Ravana, who can battle the "BAD" Devas and restores the "GOOD" Asura rule throughout the India.

I never seen a disgusting character as Bhadra's. He is a spineless, jobless, character less, drunkard who always finds himself in ditch. Any story narrated by him has the final ending of seeing him in a nearby ditch. But, why ??. Author had to explain to us. Bhadra's version of story is truly disappointing, he always finds himself in mess, his thoughts runs like a gutter water, he has no clue what was going around him, neither author helps him to regain his lost glory. Bhadra has a wife and daughter, who never appears in the novel, rather he wanders wagging his tails before ravana, he do not have a purpose in life, he was used as a mere pawn by Ravana or he gets this opportunity himself ??. Sometimes he loves Ravana, he does anything to gain Ravana's trust, he kills Ravana's sister Soorpanakhi's lover, he poisons Kubera's entire army, but still he was not recognized by Ravana, why??, Towards the end, he outrages against Ravana, he kicks ravana's dead body and he leaves lanka and settles in Ayodhya??. I mean what the f*** again??. Why we have to bear so much confusion is one single character ??.

Ravana is as confused as Bhadra or rather more. He has no clue what was happening and why was happening. All he wanted was to becomes the king of Asura empire. Author had miraculously wiped off all the values that many people have kept on several mythological characters. Brahma becomes the Asura teacher, Shiva becomes the Asura god and Vishnu is a bad ass. Why??, you won't even find a clue in the book. All his life, Ravana thought Devas as bad, Brahmins are bad. He thought, Brahmins and other North Indians hated the black people. Author's constant use of words "BROWN", "BLACK" and "WHITE" while describing people shows how much hatred that author is imbibing into people's mind. It is better not to mention Ravana's character much, as people will lose all the respect that Ravana has gained all these centuries. It is pointless.

Ravana realized that Sita will not be happy with Rama (with just an assumption!!). Hence, he abducts her. What the f*** again??. Author goes on supporting this claim that, all these white skinned aryans, and brahmins are not good. They will not take of their wives.

Some points worth to be noted:
As per the author,

• Lord Rama commits suicide by realizing that he has done grave injustice to Sita mata.
• Sita mata commits suicide by jumping off to the Sarayu River, when her chastity being questioned by the citizens of Ayodhya. This is such a bad interpretation, I am sick about the author.
• Lakshmana will be executed by the orders of Lord Rama, because people accused Lakshmana for not taking care of Sita mata in the forests.
• Maricha's the close aide of Ravana, disguised himself as a golden deer by wearing a deer skin and jumping around like a mad deer infront of sita!!. OMG!!!
• Sita Mata, is none other than the daughter of Ravana, who had a sexual relationship with Vedavati when he was in a battle against Devas.
• Lord Rama was beheading all the people (of low caste) who was reciting vedas.
• According to the author, entire India spoke Tamil, so if someone seen speaking in Sanskrit, has instantly became an alien language.
• Mandodari, the wife of Ravana, will be abducted and raped by Hanuman, Angada and his troops. (Sick)
• Kumbhakarna is a big time drunkard, who was always high.
• Brahmins always hated the Black skinned people.
• Vibhishana, Varuna are portrayed as a mere traitors, because they joined Rama's army.

At the end of the novel, Author had given some 3 chapters of how the caste system has evolved. He writes that, Rama has pronounced Vibhishana as the king of Lanka. And, Vibhishana has abolished all the asura practices and introduced all the vedic practices. He writes that, vedas are the root cause of Jati and Varna system in the country. He narrates through Bhadra that, all the vedic rituals led the people of lanka to migrate to different parts of the world.

I am so flabbergasted while writing the review of this book. So much to vent out, but not sure where to begin and end. I am sure my central amygdala has gone haywire. Credits to the author.!! :). I can sum up the entire alternate version of the story in few lines:

Ravana: "Hey you, all my supporters, what's up dawgs ??. Well, as you can see, there was nothing under my control, and all happened in quick sessions. I do not even have time to protect y'all. All I wanted is to become just a king. I am not responsible for all your miseries and difficulties. I should've realized this long ago. May be instead of becoming a king, I should've chosen music or teaching or something"


What I liked about the book ??

ENOUGH SAID!!!

My Rating: 1/5