Book Reviews

India’s Ever Evolving Culture: Women in R. K. Narayan’s Fiction. By Dr. I. Satyasree, #207, Sumanjali Apartments, Gandhi Nagar, Hyderabad-500080. Price: Rs. 100/, Pages:73.

I have gone through as many as dozen novels of R. K. Narayan and often felt he is one of the greatest writers of Indian English fiction. Apart from his skillful presentation of characters, he is an accomplished writer of Indian English. When I have come across the book ‘India’s Ever Evolving Culture: Women in R. K. Narayan’s Fiction’ based on the study of R. K. Narayan’s women characters by Dr. I. Satyasree, I became inquisitive and started reading the book. I must sincerely place on record my compliments on the subtle analysis made by the author on studying each woman character and to find analogies which relate to various aspects of Indian culture.

In retrospect, Indian culture has survived for thousands of years with its remarkable quality of projecting tolerance. Chakravarty Rajagopalachari said, ‘The hallmark of true culture is humility’. And this is precisely a salient feature of Indian culture. Dr. Satyasree in her book, perfectly chose the woman in relation to family, community, art, tradition and marriage with care and concern to family as a whole, besides her own development with a sense of responsibility.

The last book of R. K. Narayan, The Grandmother’s Tale, is perhaps a rich, tribute, to Indian culture in which the woman character, Bala, demonstrates her faith in marriage as a sacred institution and wins her husband from an alien place and the ‘other woman’. The interesting aspect is the ‘other woman’ also regards Bala, the legal wife, with concern and tolerance, the most significant traits of Indian culture. Another fine analogy is the comeof Savitri in the novel The Darkroom to attend to her home, children and husband.

Of course, varied aspects like match making, festivals and celebrations, astrology, its relevance to marriage, superstitions, beliefs are all dealt minutely in the novel with reference to Narayan’s statements. Years ago if Narayan could bring out women characters as responsible, committed individuals and with regard to our culture and values, carrying out their role at home and outside, it is an eye-opener to today’s society.

Indeed, Dr. Satyasree has brought out the book at the right time to focus on Indian culture through women, who can be a potent force in preserving our culture and values.

M. Raghuramiah

Emergence of New Woman: R. K. Narayan’s Feminist Perspective. By Dr. I. Satyasree, #207, Sumanjali Apartments, Gandhi Nagar, Hyderabad-500080. Pages - 123, Rs. 100/-

R. K. Narayan is a renowned writer across the world and hardly needs an introduction. However, the recent book on ‘Emergence of New Woman: R. K. Narayan’s Feminist Perspective’ written by Dr. I. Satyasree based on her doctoral thesis ‘A Study of R. K. Narayan’s Women Characters in the Context of Indian Culture’ deserves a special mention.

Truly, Dr. I. Satyasree has discovered this ‘New Woman’ through an incisive analysis of women characters in R. K. Narayan’s fiction. These women in different roles suggest that there is scope for perfect balance in maintaining individuality, building personality and focusing on feminist perspective with respect to values, traditions and culture. It is indeed a fine note of ‘humanism’ of this new woman, which Dr. I. Satyasree has portrayed. It appeals to every reader, both men and women, when they go through this simple and elegant work. One significant aspect of the book is the empowerment of women and its power, which the author has vividly dealt with. This empowerment imperceptibly leads to building a personality and emancipation.

Indian culture, which retained its form over thousands of years, had to acknowledge ‘woman’ who was primarily responsible for nurturing it with her different roles as wife, daughter, mother, grandmother and as an individual. In The Dark Room, Savitri, being a part of the family, shows care and concern to her family and people around and yet expresses her freedom quite strongly. In Waiting for the Mahatma, Bharati balances her cause and commitment with personal aspirations and with deep roots in culture and traditions. In The Guide, Rosie with her dedication to art and traditions, exercises constructive freedom, with focus on ethics and commitment. In Grandmother’s Tale, Bala demonstrates her individuality and maintains faith in marriage as sacrament. In The Painter of Signs, Daisy has skillfully shown her freedom to sacrifice herself for a cause, yet with sensitivity to love, could emerge as Daisy-ism, in the words of R. K. Narayan himself.

While R. K. Narayan probably existed totally in a different contemporary environment, he handled women’s issues in his inimitable style. Dr. I. Satyasree proved a remarkable researcher of analytical ability by bringing out this aspect of R. K. Narayan. She in fact also proved her finesse and with her critical evaluation brought forth ‘New Woman’ of substance. This book is aptly titled as the author projected a rationale of feministic perspective of Freedom, Equality and Identity with a touch of liberal feminism in this new woman, who is humanistic to the core. Undoubtedly, Dr. I. Satyasree with her new book gives a profound message.

M. Raghuramiah

VEMANA SATAKAM in English Verse by C. Jacob. Ph.d, published by the author, Printed at Print Plaza, Narasapur, Pages 61, Price Rs 30.

Vemana, the people’s poet, wrote his poems in the language the common man speaks, revealing profound truths in simple words. Many of his lines have become proverbial sayings full of moral import and practical wisdom. Vemana wrote with an astonishing economy of words putting in a nutshell ideas pregnant with meaning and thought. Brevity being the soul of wit with him, the translator faces a challenge. Yet many translations of Vemana’s poems have come out with varying degrees of success. The critical readers may not be easily satisfied with the English version and some may even scoff at the attempts. As for translators, no two translators agree with the version of the other, more so in poetry which does not lend itself for easy translation.

Justice Jacob, himself a poet who is deeply read in English poetry and is equally proficient in Telugu language, does a fairly good job in his translation with care, caution and courage weighing the pros and cons, balancing his exercise with wisdom and temperance. He takes recourse to rhyming the last words of the first and third lines of each stanza which help him in expanding and explaining with ease and tact the meaning and essence of the original lines. He uses simple and familiar words without going in for ornamentation and metaphor. He presents the original text along with the translation which is the right thing to do in a literary exercise of this kind. More so while dealing with poetry.

Here are a few stanzas from his translation for the reader:

The fruit of a fig tree when looked at is grand
When you break open its stomach, you see there worms;
The courage of the timid belongs to this brand:
The lover of the universe O, Vemana, listen.

By Rama’s birth the Surya dynasty prospered,
Ruined were the kouravas by Duryodhana;
Aren’t good and bad on earth in this way nurtured?
The lover of the universe, O, Vemana, listen.

A stone in the shoe and a gad-fly in the ear,
A mote in the eye and a thorn in the foot,
A quarrel at home can’t be told in words clear:
The lover of the universe; O, Vemana, listen.

Earlier the author had produced his own satakam, a book of more than hundred poems dealing with his appreciation of Palgrave’s Golden Treasury. Now Vemana. We expect the poet-critic cum translator to come out with more satakams to sooth, feed and enlighten the readers.

D. Ranga Rao