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Some interesting reads in Kannada...
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Best of Narasimha Murthy
Edited by Krishna Subba Rao,
Ankita Pustaka, Rs. 95
M.S. Narasimha Murthy of Paapa Paandu and Silly Lalli fame needs no introduction to the contemporary Kannada reader. Though these two comedy television serials have brought him immense popularity, they do not mirror his abilities as a great humour writer as they fail to appeal to an audience with refined sensibilities.
On the other hand, Best of Narasimha Murthy, a collection of 40 humour articles by him, reveals how gifted a humour writer he is. The articles prove beyond doubt that he has all the qualities of a good humour writer: he is well read, he is a keen observer and is self-critical. As the title suggests, these 40 articles are the finest pieces by Narasimaha Murthy, a bank official, who has been contributing humour articles for various magazines for the past three decades. The striking aspect of Narasimha Murthy's writings is his ability to generate humour even out of an ordinary incident such as a journey by an autorickshaw, a train or a BTS bus as reflected in Yechhara, Katthu Novu and Operation Auto.
His thoughts are original and the language is easy, sometimes colloquial. He succeeds in retaining the reader's interest and curiosity till the end. Most of the articles have surprise endings, reminding one of O'Henry's short stories.
Though the human follies are the butt of his ridicule in some articles, he abides by the principle that humour should not be at the cost of others.
Of course, the most interesting of the articles is Saalada Hasu. It is an amusing narration of how a cow, purchased by a farmer through bank loan, transforms into a buffalo and subsequently into a sheep and a dog, much to the bewilderment of the bank manager. The article not just makes you laugh uncontrollably, and at the same time sets the reader thinking. Pekarappana Sanmana and Tubelight Kelage are good examples of social satire.
K.V. Subramanya
The honest voice
Bhoomigeetha
by T.S. Vivekananda
Indraprastha Prakashana, Rs. 180
Bhoomigeetha literally means the song of the earth. But song of the earth recorded in this book is not one of joy but a craving for mother earth's existence even as it makes a genuine case for its natural custodians, the poor. Bhoomigeetha is an unusual, original book, particularly in the genre of environmentalism.
Authored by T.S. Vivekananada, a well-known environmental activist and writer, the book is a collection of 44 articles written over the last two years for different Kannada weeklies and journals. The book is significant for the lack of any serious work in Kannada on issues related to environment, environmentalism, its political economy and a culture that it is rooted in.
At the outset it is a scathing critique of what the author calls "convent environmentalism". According to the author, the basic discourse about environmentalism in India and particularly in Karnataka is that which has its basis in Western thought, devoid of any desi understanding and concern for social justice. In one of the articles he rightly describes such environmentalism as love for the animals and contempt for the poor.
Since all the articles are written for weekly columns, each article deals with the same subject but explores it from different angles. This provides the book with a rare quality of establishing the universal with particular. Even the presentation is so rooted in the Kannada culture and literature that it makes the subject under discussion relevant as well as intimate. Hence the form can be described as Glocal!
Development or environment? This cultivated dilemma in the field of environmentalism, which is nothing but a smokescreen for a structural exploitation of nature and poor alike, the vision of the poor and the third world environmentalism that unfolds in the pages of the book attempts to provide an alternative framework to understand the issue. In that this book is a compulsory reading not only for those who are interested in environment but also in structural change. This being the basic feature of the book, the perspective of the author at times appears to suffer from serious theoretical and ideological flaws. While the author is completely justified in identifying the sources of pollution in the lifestyle of the elite class, the failure to extend it to a capitalist system which breeds a dichotomy, causes serious contradictions in offering solutions. Likewise, even though the author is successful in identifying the cruel State and the loopholes of the democratic system as the source of all problems, in his refusal to understand the State as an instrument of the affluent class, his diagnosis of the problem and solutions become problematic. The author also fails when he makes sweeping statements about the west and east as a single whole.
Even though the perspective of the author could be described as left liberal, the commitment of the author to the cause betrays his ideological convictions and takes his arguments beyond the limitations of liberal framework. That seems to be the source of strength and also the reason for contradictions in the book.
SHIVASUNDAR
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