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Closer to the soil

Some interesting Kannada reads…

Desi Jeevana Paddhati by Prasanna Ontidani Prakashana, Rs. 100

Desi (local) lifestyle has two key features: it blossoms within the limits of its environment and evolves at a natural pace. Modern lifestyle, which works in contrast, falls foul of the limits of an environment and has a manufactured pace to its prog ression. This is the basic premise of Prasanna’s insightful work, “Desi Jeevana Paddhati”.

Fraught as we are with dilemmas about how much modernity is good for our lives and how much of our lives should still be in the traditional mode, Prasanna’s forceful argument that such complicated encounters do have a solution, comes as one of great conviction. This, probably because Prasanna has been living such a life for almost two decades now. In fact, he speaks of perfect examples in the Mahatma and Jesus Christ, who brought a change in their own ways of life that went on to become models for entire communities. Prasanna’s book has a nice progression to it: it moves from the personal to inspirational to a larger market perspective. Right from the cover of the book (Sevagram, Wardha) it rings clear that the Gandhian way of life has shaped much of Prasanna’s perspective, though he says in his foreword that he has moved beyond straightjacketed ideological positions. Prasanna feels that many of the local movements taking place today aren’t drastically different from the Swadeshi that Gandhiji initiated. While Prasanna is a strong votary of the desi, he doesn’t decry modernity or make it completely evil. He clearly recognises how modern lifestyle – an engineered one and linked directly to a rampant consumer culture – can’t be rejected. It’s a reality that one needs to live with and hence we need to find innovative methods to get around it. He says: “In our times every person has been transformed into a consumer. The Desi movement aspires to promote handmade products and hopes that our buying choices are guided and are indicators of the things we don’t buy. The market shouldn’t become a sanctuary of unwanted products rather than a rightful fulfilment of real needs.” He very rightly notes that the tragedy of these times, seeped as it is in consumerism, is that even the rich feel constantly poor.The book is an interesting mix of history, cultural studies and personal experience. It has a simple, engaging style and makes profound observations quietly. Prasanna is aware that he is treading a complicated path and therefore urges that evaluation of tradition and culture should be done with the vigilant eyes of a Sherlock Holmes.

DEEPA GANESH

Naagasampige by N. Lingaiah, Hasiru Prakashana, Rs. 60

While some memories weaken, some get erased and vanish. However, quite a few survive and ripen over the years. A person dies in 1944 and after six decades his son tries to capture his life in words. He wishes to make the narrative interesting to thepresent day readers. Notes pertaining to a three decade period turn into a story with his father as the protagonist. Such an effort is fraught with risk; the viewpoint can become narrow and may fail to capture the village that is in transition. Naagasamipge opens with an exclamation: “What a person: What a death!” This tone has been maintained in most parts. Nagavara Lingegowda, popularly known as Doddanna, succeeds in emerging as a hero with a difference. But the incidents and pictures of the village do not add up to become a cohesive canvas. After about two-thirds of the story, the account turns rather personal. An important episode in the book is about the standoff created when the Harijans implement the advice of Doddanna and discontinue the practice of skinning and disposal of cattle carcasses. Doddanna unlike his forefathers chooses a non-agricultural profession; he is a forest contractor. Though he visits towns and cities often, his efforts are directed towards reforming his village. However, at the end he advises his son not to remain there and join Government service.