While we have had a plethora of first time novelists who burst on the literary scene, only to fade away over time, Lakshmi Murudeshwar Puri is clearly here to stay, says Kumar Chellappan
No one can deny the role novels play across various genres deemed literature. This fact is evident in the innumerable number of novels authored by writers from India inside as well as outside. However, the truth is that a huge majority of these works end up in waste paper baskets because of their readability, or rather the obverse, factor. The truth is nobody can be trained as a novelist or a dramatist or a poet unlike vocations like doctors, engineers or lawyers.
There are eminent singers like Jayachandran, Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Mukesh or Jagjit Singh and Pankaj Udhas who to this day elevate us to a celestial world with their mellifluous tone and tenor. All share the inherent qualities that of a singer which they are born with. Kishore Kumar, an untrained musician, reigned supreme for decades because he could captivate the listeners with his voice, diction, pronunciation and modulation. The songs rendered by him echo even now despite the fact that he lived in an era when satellite TV channels and FM radio stations were alien. Although there are music colleges across the globe, one simply cannot graduate as a singer; one has to be born to it.
The same stands for the field of literature. One cannot train a person to be a writer or poet or a dramatist by simply attending a degree or diploma course in novel writing. One should have a flair for writing and words should flow out of the creator's mind like a river meandering through the valleys reminiscent of the way the great streams cascade. This has been proved right by Manoranjan Byapari, the school drop-out-turned-rickshaw puller who created a sensation with his book Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit. Reading this book was an experience of a different kind and Byapari showed the world that one need not have a PhD in English or even a formal education to write a story or novel. It is another thing that he ended up as the chairman of Dalit Sahitya Academy but that is part of a political journey. Interestingly, there are PhD holders in English who are incapable of speaking or writing even one sentence in the language without an error.
The works of Kalidas, believed to date back to the third or fourth century is unique and he stands out in history as a first of a kind author. All one could say about Kalidas is that he was born with the blessings of Vaag Devatha (Goddess of Letters). Whatever he wrote remains as divine and sublime as they were when they were first penned.
All of us have a story buried deep in our subconscious, in some corner of our mind. Our own life, the place where we were born and brought up, our parents, siblings, relations and people with whom we interacted, the school and college we attended, the village or town square we frequented, the tea vendor selling garam tea and vadas are all storehouses of narratives. If each of us were write our reminiscences, the world of literature would be enriched, and may even open up avenues for debates and discussions.
It is little wonder that the works of Kalidasa like Raghuvamsam, and Megha are major benchmarks in literature. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in 1866 yet the novel retains its charm and relevance, 157 years after it was first published. We in India can so easily empathise with the anguish and agony of Rodion Raskolnikov, almost as their personal pain and distress. The narrative, the style and the smooth flow of the storyline make the work eternal. It is almost like a sculptor carving out a figurine from a solid lifeless stone or metal. The work he crafted has beauty and style is eternally alive. One need not look for more secrets behind the success of some novels while others misfire and evaporate from the mind of the readers.
This prelude was necessary to explain the significance of Swallowing The Sun, a novel by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, a former career diplomat. I understand this is her first foray into the world of novels and she deserves to celebrate the fact that she has crafted such a beautiful piece of work. Ambassador Puri, almost unveiling her own life, places her narrative in an era when India was under colonial rule and but there were still some remnants of the Maratha dynasty in the region where she was born. The protagonist is not necessarily the author but she weaves her story around three sisters, Surekha, Malati and Kamala, who were born in a typical Maratha village in Ratnagiri and their fights against all odds.
While the elder sister Surekha is married off to an aristocrat in one of the princely States, the younger sisters grow into adulthoods starting from the Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar Ashram at Indore to Bombay (now Mumbai) at a time when the movement against British colonialism was at its peak. The trials and tribulations of Malati and Kamala have been portrayed poignantly as the author draws the readers into the pathos of the three sisters' lives, their sorrow and their joys.
What stands out in this novel is the descriptive power of the author. My friend Dr Prajesh Panicker says Puri's language is honest and is not pretentious. I cannot agree more with his observation that the writer has truly spoken from her heart and has not tried to impress any literary critics or fancy theorists.
We have had many one-book wonders in the past who remain darlings of the media, particularly one unconventional writer who managed to get an international award with her first novel but failed miserably in repeating the feat again as her second work fell flat and vanished from public memory.
Eventually, readers decide the quality of a literary work and not those who sit in their ivory towers sipping scotch. In Swallowing The Sun, the author has a lot to tell the readers and that job she has perfected with an ace. I am not competent enough to call this work an eternal classic but the truth is that Lakshmi Murudeshwar Puri is here to stay, stay as a leading literary figure of our times because of her articulation and honesty. Swallowing the Sun is a great read as you feel you are sailing smoothly across a river with no swirls or undercurrents. Waiting to read more of Lakshmi Puri'S narratives in the days to come.
