Book Review #55: Jalapatha By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This is a short book with full of wisdom and full of philosophical thoughts. This book “Jalapatha” by my favorite author, philosopher and a great human being Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa has created a much debatable platform of the subjects like birth, marriage and procreation. The protagonists from this novel are a mere representation of the current society. The thought that runs in these minds is way beyond imagination and it gives us the right amount of information to ponder over and makes us to churn for answers. Jalapatha can be translated to English as “Water Falls”.

As a philosophical buff, I adored this book very much. Though this book might not be one of the popular novels of SLB sir, but, it doesn’t mean that, it lacks the USP of SLB. It has everything that one is looking out through a philosophical mind. This book mainly explores the idea of marriage, explores the idea of having kids and also explores the idea of creating an art that stands on a platform of morals. After all, who doesn’t like to debate about the right time to having kids or when will be the right time to get married? 

These are considered to be taboo among the conservative orthodox Indians. For them, these kinds of debates or discussions must confine to the 4 walls of their bedroom.

The protagonist of this novel is a freelance artist named Sripati. He had his own set of ideologies about life and its oddities. He was living with his wife who is a graduate. They were living in a small town like area in Bombay. They both had a son who was going to school. They often wondered about their respective lives. Sripati always used to wonder, whether his wife should work to support his family or she should stick to take care of the household chores and help in bringing up their son in the right way. They often used to discuss about extending their family with one more child, but, with an instant, their idea itself seems very dirty and ambiguous. Sripati had a colleague where he used to submit his art works. She was attracted towards Sripati and often expressed her interest in him. Initially Sirpati was not so interested to go for this extra marital affair. But, later, he gets attracted towards this lady and he begins to go her house every alternate days.

In another track of the novel, the neighbor family of Sripati, a doctor by the name Nadagowda living with his wife. He is more of a scientist than a doctor; he was specialized in animal science. This doctor had a special notion and belief within himself that, whoever is bound to have children whether its humans or animals, will have to adhere to the best of breeds. He used to explain in his own terms that, only a strong male and female must have sex in order to conceive children. If anyone of them is weak or their ancestral background seems to be weak, they must abandon having kids, because, this will get resulted in the birth of weak children. This is the reason that the doctor had never indulged in sexual intercourse with his wife. He believed that, his diabetic background will result in a child that is prone to diabetic diseases. He discussed this topic with Sripati on various occasions. Having a weird feeling towards this thought, Sripati used to ignore him.

During one fortunate or unfortunate incident, Sripati decides to break the vow of celibacy with his wife and invites her to have sex with him. This resulted in Mrs. Sripati to become pregnant for the 2^nd time. During this time, both Sripati and his wife decide to visit a water falls and there they encounter something which is beyond the explanation for both of them. They thought their act of having one more kid is not only a noble cause but it’s a natural phenomenon. They both visits the same water falls on numerous occasions. Sripati decides to draw an epic piece of art that captures the pregnancy of his wife every month. He draws a piece of art that not only makes them both happy but also made them realize the secret of birth. Sripati dedicated this painting to his wife and said that they must not get feared for having another child. This philosophical dialogue exchange between both of them is a treat to read from the book.

In another track of the novel, the doctor who was living next to Sripati’s house will commit suicide. The cause of the suicide is never known. But, this doctor leaves his personal diary with notes about his thoughts of marriage and birth. Sripati reads this script from start to end and feels awe for the doctor who just died. The doctor’s wife will also commit suicide by jumping off from train. This has deeply moved both Sripati and his wife. They decided to cease their city life and heads back to their ancestral village. There Sripati will face the hardships like never before. He even starts to sell his belongings to make the ends meet. Having no money to treat his newborn daughter from a rare fever resulted in the death of his daughter.

Deeply disturbed by all these events, Sripati decides to head back to his former job as an artist. But, what he realizes by witnessing the events in his life is beyond the imagination. After reading the novel, I was left with numerous questions than answers. Is sex and marriage are both linked together? Or is it altogether a separate decision of the husband and the wife? Is having kids is the only aim of a successful marriage?  

I recommend this novel to everyone.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #52: Puppeteers of Palem By Sharath Komarraju

Pic Courtesy: Internet

I read a completely new style of paranormal action based novel. The sheer brilliance of the author Sharath Komarraju is exceptional. I believe this book "Puppeteers of Palem" is a class apart. It carries all those spookiness, creepiness, horrifying scenes, mad people, dreaded killers and what not. Certainly, this novel is a much needed break for the readers who are reading the same old love stories, or some kind of regular thrillers.

Right from the beginning of the book, the story takes the grip of its readers making them not to put down the book. The plot of the novel is what makes it as a must read.

5 friends that grown up in the same village, Rudrakshapalem, in short called as Palem will head back to their village after receiving a mysterious letter. What makes more interesting is all 5 of them receive similar letters, but, they will realize it when they met each other in the village.

The story takes its twist in the opening scene of the novel. There is a murder in the village. The victim is one of the 5 friends that came back to village. The Police were investigating the case and soon the police will realize that, 2 crippled boys with wounds and bruises were somehow responsible for this assault on the dead man. By questioning the local villagers about these boys, the police will take these boys into their custody for little verification. A news reporter cum journalist called Sonali was covering this murder incident. She questions every person in the village, she also questions the parents and guardians of the victims and also she questions those 2 boys about this murder incident. Sonali feels something is not going right in this investigation and she decides to stay in the village for some more time to cover this in greater details.

The author introduces us to the younger days of these 5 friends that grew up in this village. There is an old man in that village who was narrating stories to the kids almost every evening. Expectedly, these 5 kids are regular attendants of this story sessions. Here, the author introduces us to a very important story through the old man’s narration. This story is a true incident happened in their village few years ago.

One day, this old man narrates a story of a woman or we can call as a mad woman, Lacchi and her drunkard husband Sangadu. He described the story in greater detail, to which, all the kids listened to him in great intent. He concluded the story saying, the woman had murdered her husband with a stone. And, she kept her husband’s dead body on her lap throughout the night singing a chilling song. The old man also told the kids that, she is still living in the outskirts of the village, near the shivalayam (Shiva Temple). 

The kids who grew up listening to this story was curious enough to check out this old temple, so all these 5 friends will head out to this temple one day and decides to spend the night there. Once they returned to their homes, they were not the same, something has happened to them and nobody knew what it was. They were feeling strange throughout the week and felt someone is watching them from behind. After few years, they left their village for their higher studies and soon forgot this temple and the madwoman story.

This point sets the stage for the novel. As the book progresses further, these 5 friends that returned to their village Palem will find it very difficult to come to terms. They will behave as if each other have written the letters to each other asking them to come to village. Slowly one after the other will die in a suspicious way. Nobody knew who had killed the other one. This has brought the rift among them. Who is the puppet here? Who is the puppeteer here? Who has written those letters to them asking them to come back to village? Was the old man responsible for all these miseries? Was he the actual puppeteer? What might be the conclusion to this killing spree? Was the mad woman Lacchi that killed her husband is taking any revenge by taking the form of a ghost? These are the questions that pop up regularly as we read through the novel.

As we approach the climax to the novel. There is only 1 friend left among the 5 friends. Of course, the old man is still alive. And the journalist cum reporter Sonali who stayed back in the village is still in the village. She wrote too many notes in her diary addressing her sister Shilpi. She explained everything that was happening in this sleepy village. But she never posted those notes neither she was aware of writing those notes. So, was Sonali responsible for these murders? Did Lacchi has crept into Sonali’s mind and making all these things? The million dollar answer lies in the book. One must read this book to understand who the puppet is and who the puppeteer is.

Overall, I find this book very interesting and refreshing. It is certainly a break from the regular thriller. Combined with the paranormal activity and keeping the village as a backdrop makes this book even more awesome. The cover image of the book looks very promising and at the same time brings that curiousness among the readers. I recommend this book to everyone. You won't regret reading it. You’ll enjoy each and every page of it.

I said there is a chilling song that Lacchi sings holding her husband’s dead body. What is that song is all about? Well, read it in the book.

My Rating:

5/5

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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 #37: Naayi Neralu By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

A book that speaks about reincarnation and occult science. I think, this book is an example of what actually a reincarnation means. It speaks about Karma, the way of life. This book explains in a tone where modernists shall out rightly reject rather than discussing it. What is Karma after all? SL Bhyrappa explains this rare terminology in this short book that spans over 160 pages. The title of the book "NAAYI NERALU" can be translated to english as "DOG SHADOW".

A child (Kshetrapala) at the age of 3 started saying things that are totally irrelevant “I am married; my wife’s name is Venkamma. I have a child too”. Probably, these statements from a 3 year old don't in any way indicate that, this kid is planning for a con job in 15 years down the line. Then what is this? Has some devil spirit possessed in that little kid’s body? Or, as the author writes, he is a reincarnation of a man (Vishveshwara) that died 18 years ago.

The book begins with the plot that reveals an engrossing tale in future chapters. Does everyone have to finish his duties as per his birth? If not, does nature allows him to take rebirth? Author had brilliantly imagined the symbolism here, a dog, that represents the Karma of a man. We all know, Dog follows his master no matter what comes as an obstacle. The same way Karma follows every living being on earth. This is depicted even in Mahabharata as well, when Pandavas were entering the heavens in their last moment; everyone fails except for Yudhistira and his dog. Here, dog is just a representation of the Karma that indicates the good or bad deeds of a man.

In this novel, Kshetrapala (the re-born Vishveshwara) enters the house of Acchannaiah, his father from previous birth along with his dog. The dog doesn't have any name as such in this novel. When Acchannaiah’s own dog was skeptical about this new dog that has just entered the house, it never reconciles to its presence in the house, but the local dogs in that village was in acceptance mode, though showed some resistance in the beginning. This particular dog of Kshetrapala plays an important role in this novel.

There are some weird stories that you may read from the novel. This Vishveshwara (now reborn as Kshetrapala) often gets reminded of something is incomplete in his birth. As the story reveals further, you get to see that, Acchannaiah had cheated a monk by stealing his gold ornaments, replacing it with the iron duplicates. Here the story takes another turn that actually brings us to the 1^st birth of Vishveshwara who is none other than the same monk that gets cheated by Acchannaiah. Readers cannot believe these stories where a person reincarnates 2 times to finish of his karma. But, that’s the crux of the novel.

There are few sub stories of a monk that stays in the temple of a hill station, who often advises the local villagers regarding Karma, Moksha (Salvation), etc... Achyuta, the grandson of Acchannaiah, a college student and did not believe in all this re-incarnation stories. Achyuta, who believed that Kshetrapala as a con man and decides to lodge a police complaint and puts his re-born father (Vishveshwara) in jail for 7 years.  Venkamma, the wife of Vishveshwara, was in total dilemma whether to accept this reborn person Kshetrapala as her husband, who is actually 18 years younger than her. She suffers the most throughout the novel. Her own son, Achyuta admonishes her for accepting this new person (reincarnated person) as her husband. He mocks his mother in front of everyone.

Whether to believe in such occult stories or not is entirely up to the readers. As a novel, it strikes the chord with the readers by raising important questions regarding these reincarnation beliefs. This novel is particularly works a specific theme that you will certainly enjoy while reading. There are few village practices that author tried to bring up in this book, mainly, the grama-devathe (the village goddess) that answers people's questions in the form as a possessed priest. Acchannaiah recalling his tale that he has kept to himself for many years is one of those revealing acts from the novel, which actually gives a complete picture of the novel. Yet, there is no happy ending. But, that’s acceptable, since it is not a fairy tale to end in happy climax.

Overall, this book can be read once. A movie by the same name “Naayi Neralu” has been directed by Kannada’s renowned director, Girish Kasaravalli who made several changes to the existing characters that gives a new perspective to the novel itself.

My Rating:

4.5/5