|
Literary Review
First Impressions
MYTH, Reality and Legend. A tough mixture you would say. But as the letters of the alphabet join and form the most ordinary of words, they tell you a story that is so extraordinary that you feel it could happen anytime, anywhere. Slowly and hauntingly legend is mixed with the present, the present is linked with the past which leaps out each time the protagonist wants to break free.
So here is the story of Singarevva. Young and beautiful but is she cursed? Singarevva, her greedy father, a mother who whimpers in pain but listens to the speech of men and acquiesces. Singarevva, who is first married off in a hurry to a corpse. Widowed even before the marriage is solemnised, she is back at the father's house. Once again the stars are propitious and another match is set. Is this the charmed prince of her dreams? Read on and discover the real world through the eyes of Singarevva's constant and devoted companion, maid, mother-in-absentia and only friend — Sheenigavva.
This is a story that transports you beyond the confines of four walls and as you read you silently salute the storyteller and his craft.
Singarevva and the Palace, Chandra Sekhar Kamabar, translated by Laxmi Chandrashekar, Katha, Price not stated.
"IN Sunderbans you are at the mercy of a world not only unseen but unsuspected. The only constant is change; new land forms so quickly here that on the Bangladeshi side, cartographers must redraw their maps every three years. Nature does not obey the rules; fish climb trees; the animals drink salt water; the roots of trees grow up towards the sky instead of down to the earth... And here the tigers do not obey the same rules by which tigers elsewhere govern their lives. They hunt people. They take their prey even in broad daylight. They will even swim out to the Bay of Bengal, with the waves may be more than two feet high."
Sy Montgomery's book defies all boundaries in recounting an amazing journey that few make. There is a human angle where legend is hooked with reality and as you swim into the current with her, an amazing tale unfolds where people who worship the man-eating species, despite all the grief they have endured, still revere the tiger. These mythical animals attain almost supernatural qualities. An interesting book, the Spell of the Tiger is a good read on a quiet afternoon.
Spell of the Tiger, Sy Montgomery, Penguin, Rs. 295.
WELCOME to U Belly. You might not want to alight into this unrealistic zone, but since everything is so ordered and somewhat dictatorial, you may be advised into following the arrow. Once in U Belly you will find that you can set your mind at rest. Life is neat and ordered. Just like the sidewalk that you been looking at: Clipped, short, hewn, mowed, freshened up. No questions asked, no answers needed.
Life in U Belly seldom does a u-turn and when something as ordinary as someone's daughter does a flip-flop the idea of the great council of elders is to stem the rot. As you trawl through 360 pages of descriptions, details, plots and sub plots, you keep trying to figure out the central theme. Everything in U Belly is at cross-purposes and so is this story. Heavily overwritten, badly edited and flabby at the middle, this is a book that, despite the shortage of good reading in the early summer months, one can avoid.
The Chronicler's Daughter, Kishore Thukral, Ravi Dayal, price not stated.
SUDHA MURTY, like her husband Narayan Murty, is already a household name. She is the woman who, despite having reached the zenith of her own career, stepped aside so that her husband can build an organisation where people's dreams could come true. Infosys today is already a legend — a company that dreamt and realised its dreams. But Sudha Murty was not content to do nothing and as she went about setting up projects to help the needy in education or health, she found time to pen down some of the more interesting facets of life and her observations about them. Wise and Otherwise — A Salute to Life is a candid account of Murty's encounters with different people where she stresses the moral fabric of humanity. The book brings out what Murty herself stands for: integrity and dignity of mankind.
Wise and Otherwise — A Salute to Life, Sudha Murty, East West Books, Rs. 150.
SUCHITRA BEHAL
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
