Selected Satire: Fifty Years of Ignorance brings together about 20 satire pieces of eminent Hindi writer, Shrilal Shukla. Most noted for his novel Raag Darbari, for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award, Shukla also wrote several collections of satirical essays and short stories.
The pieces in this volume include his socio-political and cultural satires, where he caricaturizes politicians, mocks the bureaucracy (many of whom were his friends), and picks on the so-called developmental schemes of the government. A couple of pieces are also about small town attitudes and pretentions of intellectuals. The overall flavour is of an irreverence to authority and humour drawn from everyday occurrences.
Catagory: Literature & Fiction
Resolve
The vision he saw in his dream, a world in ruins and bereft of women-was that going to come true soon? If he could get married, he would live the way people lived in the old days. He wanted to have at least ten children, and he wanted them all to be girls. The world should never again witness the sorrow of a man like him.
It might be a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, or at least a piece of land, must be in want of a wife, but Marimuthu’s path to marriage is strewn with obstacles big and small. Inward-looking, painfully awkward, desperately lonely and deeply earnest, Marimuthu is fuelled by constant rejection into an unforgettable and transformative matrimonial quest. Enter a series of marriage brokers, horoscopes, infatuations, refusals and ‘bride-seeing’ expeditions gone awry, which lead Marimuthu to a constant re-evaluation of his marital prospects.
But this is no comedy of manners, and before long we find ourselves reckoning with questions of agricultural change, hierarchies of caste, the values of older generations and the grim antecedents of Marimuthu’s poor prospects, as decades of sex-selective abortion have destroyed the fabric of his community and its demographics.
Perumal Murugan’s Resolve is both a cultural critique and a personal journey: in his hands, the question of marriage turns into a social contract, deeply impacted by the ripple effects of patriarchy, inequality and changing relationships to land and community. In this deceptively comic tale that savagely pierces the very heart of the matter, translated with deft moments of lightness and pathos by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Perumal Murugan has given us a novel for the ages.
The Odd Book of Baby Names
LONGLISTED FOR THE JCB PRIZE 2022
As a thin ribbon of smoke rose from the edge something stirred in me and I slapped the book against the railing until small specks of fire fell to the floor and died down. It was not just a book of baby names. It was an unusual memoir my father was leaving behind, memories condensed into names; memories of many kisses, lovemaking, panting and feeling spent.
Can a life be like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces waiting to be conjoined? Like a game of hide-and-seek? Like playing statues? Can memories have colour? Can the sins of the father survive his descendants?
In a family – is it a family if they don’t know it? – that does not rely on the weakness of memory runs a strange register of names. The odd book of baby names has been custom-made on palace stationery for the patriarch, an eccentric king, one of the last kings of India, who dutifully records in it the name of his every offspring. As he bitterly draws his final breaths, eight of his one hundred rumoured children trace the savage lies of their father and reckon with the burdens of their lineage.
Layered with multiple perspectives and cadences, each tale recounted in sharp, tantalizing vignettes, this is a rich tapestry of narratives and a kaleidoscopic journey into the dysfunctional heart of the Indian family. Written with the lightness of comedy and the seriousness of tragedy, the playfulness of an inventive riddle and the intellectual heft of a philosophical undertaking, The Odd Book of Baby Names is Salim’s most ambitious novel yet.
Midnight Freeway
Pranav Paleja, a criminal lawyer who works at a legal Chamber-Mangesh & Mangharam. He’s an ordinary man with an ordinary life. And while it his job to uphold the law, he seems pathologically incapable of doing this in real life.
The mystery of this novel concerns an accident. We follow the investigation of a horrific car crash into a toll booth on the Bandra-Worli Sealink, and the ensuing death of the person driving, who turns out to be someone our protagonist Pranav Paleja had butted heads with; a disreputable builder by the name of Yogesh Moolchandani. All the signs say suicide but there was nothing even remotely wrong with his life. He had just cracked a deal and things were looking hale and hearty for him. He had even recently purchased an imported Volkswagen Jetta. The CCTV footage shows him crashing into the toll booth at a speed of 180 km per hour.
The car dealer he had purchased it from had received five missed calls from him just five minutes prior to the alleged time of the crash. The authorities begin to wonder why he was so frantically trying to get in touch with him and what on earth could have possibly transpired to cause this death? Since Pranav Paleja was settling a dispute with the man concerned only moments before the crash, the police land up at his doorstep. Who or more supposedly what killed Yogesh Moolchandani?
Whisper to Me Your Lies
Ekantika Pakrashi has just lost the love of her life. Preliminary reports suggest it was no accident. Her boyfriend was murdered in cold blood and the modus operandi resembles that of India’s most notorious serial killer of the 1990s: the Cellotape Killer. He was never caught, and if this indeed was him, then he had resurfaced after twenty-one years.
Ekantika swears to find the killer and get an emotional closure, but what she doesn’t know is that in the process she may end up wounding herself irreversibly. Follow this exciting chase as the dark alley turns out to be a twisted labyrinth and it seems the killer is actually coming for . . . her.
Whisper To Me Your Lies is a fast-paced, chilling crime thriller and a poignant tale of a girl’s single-minded obsession to find out who altered her life. And why.
Escape from Pakistan
The story about a Naval Officer located in Pakistan during the 1965 Indo Pak war. The nerve wracking events that took place in Karachi, a brave and valiant attempt to extradite a wanted Diplomat and his family safely out of Pakistan. The consequences that played out as a result, at a great personal cost .
Sita
The vibration of the sacred sound of her beloved’s name, ‘Ram’, filled her mind as it emanated from the tiny Vanara. ‘His being is filled with Rama,’ she pondered, ‘but does he know me?’
Sita, the beloved princess of Mithila, is one of the most revered women in Indian history; so well known, yet probably the least understood. At every crossroad of her life, she chose acceptance and grace over self-pity. Her life was filled with sacrifice yet wherever she was, there was abundance. It was as if she was carved out of an intense longing for Rama, yet she had infinite patience. In every situation she reflected his light and he reflected her love.
In her, we find someone who is so divine yet so human.
In this poignant narration, Bhanumathi shows us the world through the eyes of Sita. We think what Sita thinks, we feel what she feels, and for these few special moments, we become a part of her. And perhaps, through this perspective, and Sita’s immortal story, we will discover the true strength of a woman.
The Hidden Hindu
Prithvi, a twenty-one-year-old, is searching for a mysterious middle-aged aghori (Shiva devotee), Om Shastri, who was traced more than 200 years ago before he was captured and transported to a high-tech facility on an isolated Indian island. When the aghori was drugged and hypnotized for interrogation by a team of specialists, he claimed to have witnessed all four yugas (the epochs in Hinduism) and even participated in both Ramayana and Mahabharata. Om’s revelations of his incredible past that defied the nature of mortality left everyone baffled. The team also discovers that Om had been in search of the other immortals from every yuga. These bizarre secrets could shake up the ancient beliefs of the present and alter the course of the future. So who is Om Shastri? Why was he captured? Board the boat of Om Shastri’s secrets, Prithvi’s pursuit and adventures of other enigmatic immortals of Hindu mythology in this exciting and revealing journey.
Fakira
Born into an untouchable community, Anna Bhau Sathe’s upbringing and experiences shaped his writings and political activism. Winner of the Maharashtra Government’s ‘best novel’ award, Fakira, among his best-known works, is one of the first prominent Dalit novels in Marathi.
The undaunted and ceaseless battle of the eponymous character, Fakira, for the collective welfare of his community forms the narrative. He revolts against the rural orthodox caste system and the British Raj to save his village from utter starvation, humiliation, and death. His efforts are dramatic and daring, and his methods in violation of the law. When attempts to capture him fail, the British authorities hold the community hostage, stating that unless Fakira surrenders, they will torture his people to death.
Translated by Prof. Baliram Gaikwad, Dalit magnanimity, fighting spirit, and thirst to live a dignified existence are at the core of the novel. Encompassing both historical and contemporary reality as well as the truest human emotions and situations, Fakira is part of a powerful literary genre that brings to the forefront the most encouraging, moving and realistic delineation of Dalit lives.
Farside
When Charulata Srinivasan returns from the US to Mumbai following the unexpected death of her brother, Ravi, in an accident, she stumbles on something that suggests a more sinister game is in play.
With her suspicions that Ravi may have been murdered dismissed by the police, Charu has no choice but to turn to Ravi’s best friend, David, and retired-policeman-turned-detective Anand to help her piece together the truth.
A startling discovery brings to light an immaculate blackmailing scheme, not only placing Charu in grave danger but also forcing her to grapple with the terrifying possibility that her brother was not the honest, decent man she thought him to be.
Can Charu deal with the horrifying truth to unravel the twisted threads of a conspiracy that has left her brother . . . and others . . . dead?
Like the farside of the moon, everyone has a face that has never been seen.
Does Charu have it in her to find the other side?
Praise for Krishna Udayasankar‘s previous works:
‘Spectacular’-Sonam Kapoor for The Aryavarta Chronicles
‘A fast-paced book, full of intrigue and guile’-Sunday Tribune for The Aryavarta Chronicles
‘. . . a thrilling page-turner that keeps you hooked from the start’-The Hindu for Beast