To be or not be

Karan Johar has famously declared in his autobiography that he doesn't understand the social repercussions of the way he portrays the characters in his movie and also that he is least bothered about it. All he claims is that he knows to make fun movies.

Let me zoom in a bit and come to my small world of friends and families. Few believe that making innocent sexually violent comments about the opposite sex, preserving interests on one's own caste and deriding people's looks are all personal choices with no far bearing consequences on the larger society.

Come to think of it again!

Are our actions so isolated and limited to our personal space? Are personal and public lives really that tangential? If they ever meet what is the dynamics of that tumultuous space? Do humans exercise any control over the forces in that realm?  When does the personal become political and where does political impact our personal choices? Can we be naive and behave in a way so as to implicate absolute disconnectedness to the larger game of life?

Can I watch sexually violent teenage porn and fight for child rights?

Will I not add to the communal riots by not inviting my other religion friend to dinner at house?

Should I call myself a feminist if I enjoy making and laughing at sexist jokes?

Would it impact the nature if I decorate my house with only plastic stuff?

K P Poornachandra Tejaswi is a renowned Kannada author whom I like specifically for bringing in the social angle to his stories. Seemingly innocent and isolated incidents are shown to create a wave of social sensitivity and one cannot be awed by how effortlessly he shows these connections in his writing. If you have ever wondered about the implications of your actions in your private space on the workings of the public sphere then reading Tejaswi's "Chidambara Rahasya" book is a good start at gaining clarity.

Book review : Aavarana

There are two kinds of history - one which collects, analyses and presents the truth about events and the other which masks the truth in opaque veils and presents it in a form deemed suitable for the existing socio-political sentiments. I now write about the book standing under first category of the two types of history mentioned. It is a work which created quite a stir in the world of intellectuals and which proved to be one of the biggest controversies of it's time, Aavarana by S.L.Bhyrappa. Aavarana saw 10 prints in the first 5 months of release, a big proof for its relevance and popularity.

I am fortunate enough to have read two of Bhyrappa's works. He is a no nonsense scholar with a brilliant grasp on the writing and the research he does.  Aavarana is based on the most sensitive topic of medieval Muslim influence on India; a topic all secular individuals love to hate but cannot ignore. Bhyrappa has taken the courage to speak out truth in a politically charged country which denounces anything secular that tries to demand proof. Being used to read only about the architectural or administrative influences of Mughals, I was gripped by this book which so intrepidly chided the wrong doings of Muslim rulers on the Hindu culture. Bhyrappa substantiated the naked truth of Islamic intolerance towards Hindus with accurate proofs and references. Any sensible unbiased Indian (irrespective of whether a Hindu or a Muslim) burns with rage on reading about the atrocity committed on humanity during the reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707).

Bhyrappa has given heart wrenching description of Aurangzeb's inhuman attitude towards anything that is non-Islamic. A land where there are crores of Gods and where people give excess importance to the artistic expression of the forms of God had to naturally see the wrath of a Muslim ruler who simply couldn't comprehend the concept of more than one supreme God. Bhyrappa has adopted a play-within-play technique. The protagonist of the novel is a converted Muslim, Razia. The story begins when Razia goes along with her husband, Ameer to Hampi. Razia has to write a script to the documentary film her husband is directing signifying Hampi as the place of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood . But her intuition and  research doesn't let her to commit that folly. Husband and wife get into altercations because of this difference in opinion. When Razia is constantly compelled by her husband to write a script as he wishes, she learns that her father with whom she had broken all ties after the wedding had passed away. When she goes to visit her home near Hassan she comes across a treasure of books and research her father owned. There begins the second plot of Aavarana.

Razia aka Lakshmi's father Narasimha Gowda had left behind intensive notes in every book of the library on Muslim influence in medieval India. Lakshmi immerses herself in the study and starts living away from her problematic marriage. Thus takes the birth of her novel and it's hero Khwaja Jahan. The hero is a proud Rajput prince happily married and the heir for his father's throne but the one who looses all dignity when his kingdom gets defeated and crushed under Aurangzeb's army. The valiant prince falls prey to the homosexual army general's lust, slave trade and later castration. The story goes on to describe prince turned eunuch's journey thereafter, Aurangzeb's temple-destruction scheme, Khwaja Jahan's ironical privilege of watching Kashi Vishwanath temple destruction and his efforts to escape the ill fate.

I was angry when Lakshmi was intelligently made to convert her religion though her husband pretended his love is beyond caste, religion and tradition. I was disgusted when Razia was made to eat beef much against her birth religion beliefs. My heart went out to her when she had to prove her dedication to Islam time and again. A woman can bare only so much victimization. But my spirits sored high when she continued her intellectual pursuits, when she strived to maintain her dignity and choices. I couldn't help but show pity to the prince when he was used by different men for their pleasure. My heart cried for his pain when he got castrated. I earnestly hoped he would get a chance to run away with his wife (also subjected to trade and conversion) when he found her mothering children of some other Muslim powerful man. The roller coaster of emotions could only be felt by reading the novel.

The four figure count of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb, the fate of war torn men and women, the rigidity to which Muslim converts are subjected, the various other heart wrenching facts substantiated with evidence from Quran, Hadiths (reports of statements or actions of Muhammad) and Sira (traditional name for biographies of Mohammad) can be found in this brilliant piece of historical fiction. To quote Bhyrappa "the deceptive act of hiding the truth is Aavarana". Read this much cussed and discussed novel to find out the distorted and hidden truths.

I write here a plain analysis of a novel without holding ill feelings for any religion. I am just against the horrible immoral deeds which the author has described in the book.

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