My Reflections

Perumal Murugan’s novel ‘Kazhimugam’, translated as ‘Estuary ’ into English by Nandini Krishnan is a story set in a technologically advance but morally decayed town. It depicts struggle of a government servant to fit in a fast changing world, his unease and incompatibility with the changing social norms.  ‘It is the world where ugly habits prevail, where rules are broken, a world with no values, a world of greed and desire and cruelty, a world that has rotted from all these that best lends itself to fiction, and this world is that of asuras, Asuralokam’. The novel is as much about midlife fear of its protagonist as it is about flaw in education system and a commentary on modern times. Kumarasurar, the protagonist of the novel lives a disciplined and modest life. He doesn’t carry lofty ideals and is bereft of big dreams. His predicament starts with education of his only son, Meghas. He admits him in school which has very strict rules. Kumarasurar laments when he sees his ...

Reading Nadeem Aslam is like living with the characters of his novel. The words keeps echoing, the scene keeps flashing and the characters stay with the readers much after one finishes the book. The author has penchant for detailing scene, event, emotion and expression in his writings. The reader experiences and visualizes Color, smell, sound, pain, fury, cry, smile, and laughter in the course of reading his stories. In fact, the portrayal is so vivid and engrossing that reader is transported to the imaginary world created by writer. Without rousing the sentiments, the author lets readers simmer with the empathy and sympathy for the characters. “Many things in my books come from real life; but a novelist has to be careful in transporting a real event into the landscape of a novel. It is patient work, like moving a lake from one place to another with a teaspoon” writes Naeem Aslam about his own craft. The writer of five novels including “Maps of lost lovers” and “The ...

Book Review - The Party Worker by Omar Shahid Hamid When a cop writes fiction depicting the unholy nexus of crime, politics and religion, the line between fiction and fact is bound to get blurred. The party worker by Omar Shahid Hamid is a realistic crime thriller. After his father was murdered in cold blood he joined Karachi Police as an officer, witnessed crime world from close quarters, survived Taliban’s attack on his office, took sabbatical and decided to write. Omar produced three best sellers one after the other; overshadowing the previous ones. ‘The Prisoner’ is based on the killing of American journalist, Daniel Pearl, the second novel, ‘The Spinner’s tail’ is on root of terrorism within Pakistani society and the third one ‘The party worker’ is on crime and politics of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Omar Shahid Hamid, son of slain bureaucrat is currently SSP Intelligence of counter Terrorism Department in Karachi. He studied at London school of Ec...

Book Review -           Dvarca by Madhav Mathur Imagine a country having one race, one language, and one religion where the state intrudes into personal life of citizen. State decides pregnancy and traits of progeny to be born, distributes quota and type of food for individual, decides profession of people and promotes one language and one religion. The control is such draconian that the thought process is manipulated and conditioned. “Multi-culturism is dead” is boastfully declared. It is futuristic imaginary country depicted by Madhav Mathur in his new novel ‘Dvarca’.  Madhav Mathur a Sigapore based writer, works for an MNC. Dvarca is the second novel by this writer-filmmaker. His first novel is ‘ The diary of an unreasonable man’ . His award winning films ‘ The Insomniac’ and ‘The Outsiders’ have been screened at numerous festivals.  At a time when the ultranationalists and right wing forces are coming to cent...

               I’ve begun moving mechanically like a zombie, like a sleepwalker. And everything appears to be like a bad dream…nothing but a sleepwalker’s dream.’ The sleepwalker’s dream is first novel in English language by prolific Assamese writer Dhrubjyoti Borah. He is one of the eminent writers of Assamese language who received several award most notably Sahitya academy, a prestigious literary award of India. Being a practicing medical doctor Borah deftly deals with psychology of individual and group. Many shades of human persona are finely depicted by the author. Loyalty and treachery, Cooperation and suspicion, discipline and defiance, love and lust are nature of human beings and the same is displayed in this remarkable work of fiction. Through the novel, the readers peep into Bhutan’s beautiful valley of lush green forest. The readers travel through tortuous terrain, the inclement weather, high mountains and deep gorges....