The Tribune : Multi-layered and sensitive narrative (Book Review - Oleander Girl)

Read the review and an interview with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni here.

Book Review : Oleander Girl

Title : Oleander Girl

Author : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Publisher : Penguin Books India

ISBN : 978-0-670-08673-3

No. of Pages : 288

Korobi (named after a beautiful but deadly flower) is brought up by her grandparents in Kolkata, after her parents expired in a car crash. Though very strict and righteous old man, her grandfather Bimal Roy showers love and affection on Korobi. Grandmother Sarojini is warmth, gentleness and wisdom personified. The story begins on the day when Roy household is buzzing  with joyous activities as Korobi is getting engaged to Rajat Bose, the only son of a high profile business family of the city.

On the engagement party night, Korobi's grandfather dies of a sudden heart attack. Sarojini understandably feels a big jolt post the disappearance of that strong anchor - Bimal Roy, from her life. But readers are subtly introduced to the underlying liberating feeling that she experiences for the first time then. She clearly wants to atone for the sin that Bimal Roy had committed by creating big secrecy surrounding Korobi's birth. Exemplifying an individual with mind of her own, she feels it to be Korobi's right to know about her parentage.

When Korobi comes to know about some part of the truth, she decides that she needs to find her true identity first before building a new life with Rajat. For that she needs to embark on a journey out of her sheltered life of Kolkata, to a new world - the United States of America, where her mother had spent some years as a student. The combination of - ticking away of the limited time lease that she had committed for, the threadbare budget and the burning desire to find her identity - keeps the readers glued to the narrative. As she progresses in her pursuit, her sincerity, commitment, conscientiousness and her experiences mature her into a confident individual who does not want to shy away from the truth of her parents.

Though the plot is not entirely unique yet the sensitive handling, which is distinctly Chitra's style, makes it a great read. The way she portrays the poise, grace, vulnerability and strength in a woman, be it in Korobi, Sarojini or Rajat's mother - is commendable. 'The Palace of Illusions' penned by her was a masterstroke and the glimpses of the same excellence are visible in her other writings too, including Oleander Girl.  She painstakingly etches each character beautifully which makes the narration a little slow in the beginning but then the pleasure of reading a well thought through tale increases manifolds.

The story is narrated from the viewpoints of various characters throughout - Korobi, her prospective mother-in-law, her grandmother, the Muslim driver and some others, bringing in extra layers to the proceedings. Chitra Banerjee yet again enchants the readers into a story brimming with mystery, intrigue, heritage, romance, familial ties, revenge, forgiveness, emotions and much more. In the end, Korobi's character rises above, triumphant over all obstacles.

MySmartPrice, thanks for sending me a copy to review.

Rediscovering Hindu Mythology : A Literary Perspective

Belonging to a generation which is now parenting the new e-gen, we were fed the regular potions of stories from mythology as part of growing up. A righteous son,  brother, husband, prince and king, Lord Rama was portrayed as being  anukaraneeye (ought to be followed) whereas Lord Krishna became vandaneeye (ought to be prayed) as his trickeries, manipulations, friendship with big gang of gopies were definitely some of the actions which should just be revered as Lord's special tricks. During the schooling years the magna stories got adorned with regal illustrations, thanks to Ramananda Sagar and B.R.Chopra for bringing these grand epics to our homes.  Those slotted times over the weekends, the small screens, the places in the drawing rooms (yes, those were the times when idiot boxes embellished the beauty of most of the drawing rooms in the homes) assumed the significance of a shrine and the characters mouthing the dialogues of our Gods became real life Gods. 

Opulent mythology on screen became an in thing and many followed suit and still do but the charm of 'first' is always unique and can never be replicated.

The literary field followed a similar trend. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhaagwat and many more were supposed to be read and recited directly from the religious scriptures, the holy books, neatly wrapped in bright red cloth. However, C.Rajagopalachari was among the prominent names who brought the grand epics in easy to understand language making reading and understanding these scriptures more accessible for all. Such books became official retellings of the epics.

Generations changed, the new breed of authors took another big leap and made an attempt not only to understand but to analyse various towering personas of the epics from their individual perspectives. The first in this category which captured the attention of many and mine too was - 'The Palace of Illusions' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She made the voice of Draupdi audible for the first time, a woman who does not feel shy of verbalizing her fantasies, desires, aspirations and more importantly her dislikes too.  With liberal fictional support throughout the narrative, it succeeded in bringing a very fresh perspective.

Gurcharan Das, a fine author, a public intellectual  and a well respected commentator on social, economic and political fabric of the country extrapolated the events and reactions of those existing in the era of Krishna to the situations today in his 'Difficulty of Being Good'. He introduced and taught the world the wisely worded definitions of sadharan-dharma and sva-dharma. Former being associated to caste/varna/society and the latter defines the innate nature of an individual and how the work of these two in unison or otherwise defines and dictates our actions.

Devdutt Pattanaik, has accumulated a great body of work in lore writing. His 'Jaya' is a fine version of Mahabharata originally called 'Jaya' only.  Devdutt works on the premise that since this ancient epic has been written, retold, translated and interpreted by many, there are many variations in the main story as well as the tertiary stream of stories that join the main saga. He has written books on Shiva, Kali, Ganesha, Rama and many more. He has penned some interesting short stories for children too with some contemporary twist.  

When we talk about the names to reckon with, in the genre of mythology, Ashok K. Banker's name is surely among the front runners. He has made an indelible mark on this literary space through his much acclaimed - Ramayana series, Krishna Coriolis and now ongoing series on Mahabharata. He has presented the heroes as ordinary humans going through similar vicissitudes in life as we do.

Not just of the abovementioned seasoned authors, mythology has caught the fancy of many new entrants on the literary firmament too. Nilanjan P. Chodhury (Bali and the Ocean of Milk) and Amish Tripathi (Immortals of Meluha) are a couple of names who have taken cues from legendary stories and have fabricated their own tales around them with a lot of fictional element in the narrative. They have showcased their wit and creativity in spinning a completely new yarn out of the raw material. It is impressive how they so seamlessly conjoin the historical and mythical facts with contemporary terminology so that their pieces of writing take modern look and feel.

For instance, Nilanjan integrates the setting of ocean churning with scientific facts like Big Bang while astutely incorporating political references and peppering the whole medley with some extant lingo - facebook, mobile phone cameras, animal rights violation, low fat milk and likes of these.

Highlights of Amish Tripathi's writing are - the introduction of duality of life and their coexistence, and the definition of Shiva(God and goodness). He mesmerised the readers with his belief when he writes thus - an ordinary man can become Mahadev and that is possible only when he fights for good. Har Har Mahadev - All of us are Mahadev.

A very recent entrant in the writing field, Ravi Venu retells the story of Ramayana - 'I, Rama' from the voice of the central character - Rama himself. The book has the potential of getting noticed and appreciated because of some unique points. 

There are some books written from Ravana's point of view too and I am sure time is not far when we would have these great tales presented from each and every characters' perspective.

But what is the need to retell or redefine the stories? As I understand it, there could be more than one possibilities.

"Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya, Glanirva Bhavathi Bharatha,

Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya, Tadatmanam Srijami Aham."

Which means - "Whenever there is decay, of righteousness O! Bharatha And a rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself!" These words are believed to be uttered by the God himself in Bhagawat Gita. We grew up believing that we are in Kaliyug and we must await the arrival of the tenth incarnate of God who will bring semblance to the chaotic ways of life on Earth. Seeing all the research and analysis that is going on in order to understand and redefine time defying epics, I wonder, would some literary piece rise to reach the zenith to be an incarnate itself? Who knows, it might just happen this time. 

Or as the well acclaimed writer - Devdutt Pattanaik says - "In these modern times, we are eager to correct people, Rama (Gods) included, rather than understand them". So perhaps the critically analysing(rather fault finding) tendency of modern human is making us question our super heroes and eventually leading some of us to re-sketch them as per our tastes and sensibilities.

Or have we understood that the pearls of wisdom that get accumulated over the ages are the ones which can withstand any test of time? As a result a little bit of tweaking is done in order to package them as relevant and relatable for the contemporary generation.

Or is this because of the lack of any contemporary hero; because as Mc Henry says 'every generation needs its own heroes'. In the absence of any hero in our lives, we are trying to shuffle the pages of history and mythology to look for solutions to our current age problems.

I firmly believe that the way any story (epic or otherwise) is understood, analysed and presented has a lot to do with a myriad of factors - the time, and the prevailing mindset, customs and culture of that time. So when we experience almost complete metamorphosis of our society with time, perhaps redefining mythology is not wrong either. Some great endeavours have been made by comprehending minds and we must appreciate the same.

Book Review : Sister Of My Heart

Image : www.amazon.com

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

As I had promised to myself, I went ahead and read another book of Chitra Banerjee. I am really impressed by the author's style of writing and narration, her books are too gripping and it is hard to leave them unfinished once you start them. In both the books the high point is the beautiful portrayal of human emotions.

"Sister of my Heart" is a story of two girls who are cousins - Anju and Sudha. They are born in one household on the same day. They have different temperaments and different dispositions but inspite of all these differences they love each other dearly. A bond, which can not be compared to anything else in this world.

Sudha's life appears to be a little more complicated than Anju as she comes to know the half truth of his father and his crime, and how she has to endure that pain alone. The guilt that her family has been responsible for the misery of Anju's family makes her sacrifice her happiness for Anju's sake without even letting her know about it. But later when Sudha needs support, Anju silently does her part to help her and while doing that she loses her unborn child.

The detailed account of how their lives change slowly as they grow up and some mysteries like their driver Singhji's story makes it an interesting read.

But personally I would recommend "Palace of Illusions" to this book.

Book Review : Palace Of Illusions

Image source : http://www.amazon.com/

Author : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In simple words - the story is that of a great epic, the Mahabharata, which we all grew up listening to. The story in itself is complex and its characters even more complicated. Compared to another major Hindu epic - Ramayana, this one is too intricate with endless (almost) side stories of each character. The incarnations of God Vishnu in both the epics are also very dissimilar - Ram with his simple and truthful ways leads a much simpler life compared to Krishna who comes across as a very cryptic personality.

In this book, Chitra Banerjee has narrated the story of Mahabharata, from the eyes of one of the main characters of the story itself - Panchaali or Druapadi. The book starts with the story of birth of Panchaali and his brother Dhristadyumna through a yagna which was performed by their famous father - Dhrupad to take revenge from his one time bosom friend - Drona. Both these siblings knew right from the beginning that they have been brought in this world for a special purpose. In the course of time Dhraupadi comes to know through Vyasa himself, about the future that awaits her. How she will be instrumental in making history. While telling her so, he gives her advice to

- hold back your question
- hold back your laughter
- hold back your curse

when you desperately want to do these at some points in your life. But as she becomes part of destiny, how the same moments come and she does the same as has been destined already.

I appreciate the author's attempt to peep into the mind of Draupdi and narrate the incidents from her perspective. How slowly with time she comes to realise the essence of life - the freedom she feels towards the end in finding out that one was not as important as one had always assumed. She learns quite a few lessons that the great ups and downs in her life teach her. While undertaking her last journey, she remembers all the goodness of the dear ones in her life and how she had the chance to appreacite the goodness while she spent the time venting her dissatisfaction on them.

She dearly loved her "Palace of Illusions" but as she is taken by destiny through different times, she realises that actually all places are palaces of illusions and like every other home, the body is also a crumbling palace.

Throughout her life, she feels the presence of one of her closest confidant - Krishna with her, till her last moments on earth. He had always been there with her, sometimes in the forefront, sometimes just blended in the shadows of the life. But all through her experiences she does not miss noticing that even though Krishna takes care of her dearly, she does not get anything if she does not deserve it - like the Virat form that Krishna reveals to Arjun only and not to her even though with Vyasa's boon she chould see everything happening on the battlefield. This makes me think, the divine justice is so fair and no short cuts are possible.

A really engaging book and personally I liked the way it makes the readers also realise the common follies that we get entangled in while on this earth. A lot of material to ponder upon. Compliments to the author for such a well written product. I haven't read any of her other books but would love to read some soon.