Author : Kota Neelima
Publisher : Rupa Publishing
ISBN :978-81-291-2396-1
Genre : Political Fiction
Pages : 274
Language : English
Edition : Hardcover
Price : Rs. 495
Website : www.kotaneelima.com
About the Author :
Kota Neelima is a political editor with The Sunday Guardian and a Research Fellow for South Asia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. Her previously published work includes the novels Riverstones and Death of a Moneylender.
My Review :
A Political Fiction... This book will show you the true path of Rural India,part of our country untouched by the "governing gods" and there is an inside story behind the manipulation of facts for the sake of political agenda. There is nothing mystery, no thriller, its a straight forward story, rather a serious one, which will tell you the story behind the curtains of so-called "Democratically elected representatives" and their "Hard-Work" for the upliftment of the society. Starting with the Cover, you will see the contrasting pictures of a dry arid farm land, and the mecca of democracy, it is on its own a sarcastic picture of our country.
The story is about the rising number of deaths, particularly the suicides by the farmers, because of their huge amounts of debts to the banks and the money lenders, the humiliation caused to them, for the loan recovery is also one of the important reason for their suicides. Obviously, this number of farmer suicides can be vary disturbing for a nation building up its image as a leading country of the world, and when it comes to the farmers death, it affect the local authorities as well, pressurize them to do something, and the one who is at the centre of this, is the local representative. And the main reason for the pressure is the increasing opposition by the locals, by the families of the farmers, and by the political opponents. The story moves with the plot and revolves around the every powerful conspiring corner, telling the readers, each and every tactics by the powerful to shut the mouth of the weaker, to change the story within nights, and to glorify self-image as the helper rather than making an image of an inoperative representative.
The whole plot is set around a newly elected MP, who is also a son of a powerful leader of the governing party, this MP, named Keyur Kashinath, is facing problems with the increasing number of farmers' suicide in his constituency, and the increasing number of media stories about it, and was therefore, searching for the ways, to change his inert image, and show the media that he is doing something. Previously, he was getting help by a local money lender, and a maha-sarpanch of that district, both are the members of the district level committee along with money lenders, bank mangers, district collector, agriculture officer etc., and which was set up to examine each suicide case, and declaring whether it is because of infertile land or loan-debts, and thereby giving the compensation for the respective widows and their families, these two as instructed by Keyur were constantly disqualifying the suicide cases as a case because of loan-debts and therefore making down the farmer suicide toll. One such disqualified case, was of Sudhakar Bhadra who commits suicide because of the loan debts. To get the justice, his brother Gangiri, a teacher in city, comes to village, and fights with the system, with his limited resources. Somehow, Gangiri manage to become a part of this committee, and then after his arrival, he influence, other votes and thereby most of the cases are now qualifying as the debt related suicides, and the number of farmers suicides rise again in the area, worrying the MP, Keyur, for which he start conspiring against Gangiri. But, somehow, with the help of a reporter Nazar Prabhakar, and a researcher and wife of the local industrialist, Videhi, Gangiri learn out the whole plot against him, and get necessary measures for his safety. Failing in his conspiracy, Keyur, make mistakes one-by-one leading to a situation where he comes to the spotlight in the media, and get his image spoiling because of his mistakes. The Story, then leads to a very uneasy end, never expected, but what a brave, a rebel, against our system, leads to, the sacrifices, its very sad, though it is much realistic, in our system.
The Characterization is beautiful, and the story never get weak in any part. However, you will find a slow pace of the story in the beginning, but it turns out to be an important part to understand the whole plot, and characters. There are some very good moments, where you will never put the book down. There were some very good descriptive parts, for things like ending evenings, or lonely homes. The fact is, inspite of raising too many questions to the system, Neelima made it still an enjoyable read. Overall, this is a good read and I do recommend it.
My Rating : 3.5/5
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