(27 of 2020)
"The Great Indian Novel" is the debut work of Fiction by Shashi Tharoor and he was 33 yrs old when he wrote it. I mention this fact for 2 reasons - I entered into my 30s this year and it is a big deal to me and now I, not so subtly, compare myself to all the well-performing 30s out there. Mr Tharoor’s shoes are too big to fill!! Secondly, the level of ingenuity and creativity displayed by Shashi Tharoor is unparalleled.
The book is an amazing mix of Mahabharata and Modern Indian Freedom Struggle where characters and events of both the times have been knitted quite deftly. You would not even know when the character of a chaste Bhishma turns into Gangaji (Paichan Kaun!!) of the Freedom Struggle who restrains from all kinds of amatory activities but would not flinch from sleeping (literally!! Just zzz sleeping) in the company of Sarah-behn. Dhritrashtra of the Great India is educated in the King’s College at Cambridge but is still blind - literally and figuratively. Pandu, his half brother, is just the opposite - the pakka Bharatiya Revolutionary who believes in walking the talk. And Vidur - O Wise Vidur - is, as the book says “the most valuable and underrated of creatures, the bureaucrat”. In the first leg, the tussle and struggle between Nehru and Patel, Oops!! Dhritrashtra and Pandu is shown in a quite witty manner but leaving no details, nevertheless.
The Second and the Climactic Chapter is the Game of Thrones between the daughter of Dhritrashta - Priya Duryodhini (see what he did there ;) ) and the Pandavas with their wife Draupadi Mokrasi (which BTW is a rhyme to Democracy). The comedy of Emergency, the unstable Government formation later on is interspersed with chucklesome poetry. In fact, the death of Pandu and the Geeta-saar by Krishna are all in verse. It is uncanny but the silly yet wise, heavy yet lithe humor of the book reminded me of “Catch-22” and “the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
And here I should stop singing paeans to this one or you would accuse me of being partial towards Shashi Tharoor (which BTW I am!! All the nerd chicks and wise (read secure) men are!). Coming to the cons, the only one that I could think of was that one not versed well with the Indian History and Indian Mythology may not enjoy the nuances and events of the book. So, to read this Fiction, non-Fiction is a Prerequisite.
One last thing - being a self-proclaimed linguaphile, the wordplay in this book is just astounding. Leaving you with a few gems here:
“To all these theorists, Ganapathi, I say: That’s absolute cow dung. Or its male equivalent.”
“Thus it is, Ganapathi, that the sublime degenerates into the sub-slime”
“If your spies only give you good news, something’s terribly wrong.”
“The fortunate man samples hell first, the better to enjoy the taste of paradise that follows”
Rating (Got nothing to do with my crush on Mr Tharoor, I swear) - 4.5/5 ;) ;)
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