Inner Metamorphosis

“If you think that your culture is being unfairly portrayed in news, books and movies, why don’t you produce them yourself?” I’m old enough to remember how leftists used to the taunt Hindus who complained of biased representation of their religion in the popular media. At the height of their cultural monopoly, they didn’t anticipate a day when Hindus could escape their choke-hold. Enter, 2014. Leftists assert that it’s BJP’s ascendance to power that radicalized people. They’ve got it upside down. It’s the new breed of aware Hindus, energized and educated by literature on the internet (which left didn’t set its eyes on yet) that made BJP’s rise possible. Without the ideological support of these self-educated people, angry at the systematic injustice meted to their lot for decades, BJP could still have been a marginal power. Certainly not the juggernaut it has become today. No more monopoly For his seminal work on Veer Savarkar, its author Vikram Sampath got elected as a Fell...

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you .” – Maya Angelou. In the age of social-media fueled narcissistic fetishism, the very suggestion of writing about one’s problems invariably invites scorn if not disinterest. However, research indicates that there’s more to this than meets the eye. The Grieving Angel The crucial role of writing in helping alleviate trauma wasn’t so apparent to me until I read “ Eaten by the Japanese ” (review here ; briefly a story about a British Indian soldier captured by Japanese as PoW during World War II). Richard Crasta’s essay makes a very insightful observation about his father’s book which, according to him, was probably an effort to “ exorcize his ghosts by consigning them to paper ” (what a vibrant phrase!). Likewise, the after-taste of Richard Crasta’s “ The Killing of an Author ” (review here ; the story of the struggle of an uncompromising, independent writer) lingered in my mind long after I had finished...

Author Stephen King, the master of the macabre, to demonstrate his ease with variety wrote “ Different Seasons ” – a collection of four novellas, probably in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed into his forte of horror genre.  Yet, when a young film-director Frank Darabont approached him for rights to adapt one of its novellas “ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ” into a movie, he didn’t think much of it. The rest, as they say, is history; with some alterations the movie “ The   Shawshank Redemption ” turned out to be the best-ranked movies in IMDb, surpassing even the cult-film “ The Godfather ”. Plot A banker Andy Dufresne is sentenced to life at Shawshank State prison for murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. At prison, he befriends Ellis Boyd “Red”, the prison entrepreneur, and turns out to be the most unconventional prisoner. Meanwhile, the ruthless prison warden is eager to exploit Andy’s financial skills for his selfish e...

Outside the fictional landscape of The Fountainhead , how would a real-life Howard Roark fare? What might be the fate of an individualistic professional who stubbornly chooses to struggle for what he believes to be true and right instead of compromising his vision and values? The non-fictional counterpart of The Fountainhead may as well be “ The Killing of an Author ” . In the former, the protagonist is finally rewarded with flourishing career, reputation and the leading lady. How does narrator-protagonist of the latter book do in real life? This is a true story, and the author uses real-life names of many prominent people to retain the authenticity of the narrative. Book Struggling his way through lower-middle class Mangalore family, Richard Crasta clears IAS exam only to find his calling in writing.  Off he flies to the land of opportunities, US, where his creative wings would be at full liberty to sour unrestrained – or so he feels! It begins with what ...

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer struck by the macabre expanse of turtle skeletons probably resulting from being eaten alive by wild dogs wrote,” For what offence must they suffer this agony? What is the point of the whole scene of horror? The only answer is that the will to live thus objectifies itself.”   All creatures are thus instinctively evolved to cling tenaciously to life (both hunter and hunted), notwithstanding the tremendous odds. The book in review is one such tale of survival amid unbelievably horrendous tribulations. A published author with critical acclaim chances upon his father’s handwritten manuscript in a rusting steel trunk and discovers a “tale of unmitigated horror”*. Besides stray references, the father would never reveal the true depths of despair he underwent. For this was a job his son was destined to undertake. After lying around for 50 years, these papers are found by the son who edits and publishes them and our grand old man who has seen it all in...

Can the flame of faith sustain the storm of helplessly witnessing one’s God’s idol smashed to pieces? Will an ideologue who witnesses the entire edifice of her perspective crumble under the weight of truth revert or revolt? AAVARANA as Bhyrappa explains in the preface is an act of concealing truth. And our intensely ideological, middle-aged protagonist experiences a catharsis of sorts when confronted with truth, a truth that shines through the pervasive deception if only one looks for it. Plot Razia, an ex-Hindu who converted to marry her Muslim college-mate, has an ‘enlightened’ view of history, thanks to the ‘progressive’ arts course at the film-institute she and her husband Amir have been through. She finds her father’s fierce opposition to her marriage with Amir dogmatic. Aren’t all religions equally regressive and fit to be thrown into the dustbin of history? Surprisingly, despite the Marxist bent of both Amir and Lakshmi’s mind, Amir insists on her conversion to I...