Hi all,
Wanted to share with you all about a book which sat in my mind for more than 15 days when I finished reading. Probably after a long time I read a book which impressed me so much. It is S.L.Byrappa's novel 'Gruhabanga'. The book was first published more than 20 years back. I got a chance to read it recently. The novel is said to be autobiography to Byrappa, though it is not mentioned any where.
I had seen few episodes of the serial taken by Girish Kasarvalli (if I remember right) which came in ETV. The serial had come out very well. I was impressed by acting of Lakshmi Chandrashekar, Malavika, Lohitasva, Shivram, chenniga, appana (do not know the name actors who played it). While reading book I could personify the characters with these people. The novel is picturise the life of people of Hassan and surrounding areas, from 1920's to 1950's.
Probably after reading the novel, I understood what does 'struggle for life' mean. The family in the story faces difficulties like famine, plague, war. These difficulties are well blended with the selfishness of the priests, patels and other powerful people of the village. The family I told above is mother with her 3 children, with her husband and mother-in-law last to face problems and first to make profit of a situation. In the whole book, the character of the mother is well built. She always thinks of what best she can do to come out of every worst situation she is in, instead of lamenting.
I was moved by her determination in one situation, where she would have married her daughter out of great difficulty to a nice guy and even before she goes to her husband's house plague would have attacked her. It gradually spreads to her second son, on whom she would have kept high hopes of educating him and bringing him up to a high position. In spite of all the medicines she gives, the kids die. The people who come back after burning the bodies do not find her in house. Few people think she would have attempted to suicide and starts searching near water bodies... But she would have come to a temple where her third kid is lying with initial stages of plague.
The novel has many such situations where she reacts with a very different state of mind than what I expected.
Probably if you are a person like me who get defeated even with small losings in life, we can get inspired by this... Happy weekend!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Seems like you wrote this bit offhand. However, a nice one. I liked the novel too and I agree with your last sentence.
Yeah, I started this blog some time back and finshed it much later. So the thoughts does not look like flowing.
Gruhabangha is not a autobiography. Its just a Novel written by S L Byrappa. His Autobigraphy book is called "Bithi".
Hello All,
Even I happen to finish reading this book last friday and I too was mooved by the story. It is true that Byrappa's writing always reflect real life incidences and lot of research will actually go into it. Read "Bitti" and read "Grihabanga". who could see lot of resemblance between the two - which actually indicates that "Grihabanga" is Byrappa's own story !!!
I am told that his father was more or less like the character chenniga! ( My mother is from Santeshivara, Byrappa's native village.)
I too read Gruhabanga and i could not stop thinking about the characters, My mother who passed away 15 years ago was telling stories of how the meals & life used to be when they were growing up in 50s. this novel strengthened those facts. If only i could speak to her now. all through the novel, Namjamma speaks so less but her thoughts run so deep...!! So proud of those people who lived those days
Post a Comment