BOOK REVIEW: MARATHI BOOK फिन्द्री

फिन्द्री

लेखक सुनीता बोर्डे

एका उपेक्षित समाजाच्या एका गरीब, व्यसनात राख झालेल्या कुटुंबाची कहाणी आणि त्याच राखेतून एक ठिणगी उठते, ती ठिणगी शिक्षणाची, ती ठिणगी प्रवाहाच्या विरुद्ध जाण्याची, ती ठिणगी जगण्याची!!! 

सुनीता बोर्डेचं फिन्द्री म्हणजे एका नकुशी झालेल्या मुलीची गोष्ट, त्या काळातली गोष्ट जेव्हा स्त्री ही नकुशी होती. आई म्हणून हवी, बायको म्हणून हवी, पण मुलगी म्हणून आपल्या पोटाला नको. मग संगीचं आयुष्य सुरू झालं तेच जन्मदात्याच्या शिवी पासून. खायला अन्न नाही, अंगावर पुरेसा कापड नाही तिथे शिक्षणाची काय सोय, पण संगीची आई भलती जिद्दी आणि पक्क्या निर्धाराची. सारं जग विरुद्ध गेलं तरी चालेल पण मुलीला शिकवायचं हे प्रण घेतलेली. या कादंबरीत जात, धर्म, पितृसत्ता (patriarchy), लिंगभेद, स्त्री संघर्ष, स्त्रीचं आर्थिक परावलंबन ह्या सर्व गोष्टीचें अनेक पैलुंचे चित्रण आहे. या कादंबरीत संवादात महाराष्ट्रातील मराठवाडा प्रदेशातील अति ग्रामीण भागातील बोलीभाषेचा पैलू लेखनात दिसून येतो. 

कादंबरीतील काही टिपलेले वाक्य

* गरजेच्या तिव्रतेवर माणसाचे वागणेच नव्हे , तर भाषादेखील अवलंबून असते हेच खरं!

* जास्त आनंदात जसा माणूस फक्त मातृभाषाच बोलतो तसा दुःखात, भीतीमध्ये देखील तो मातृभाषा बोलतो!

*भूक हाच जगातला सर्वव्यापी धर्म असतो, म्हणूनच स्वतः भुकेला कोणताच धर्म नसतो. खरं तर जगात भुकेएवढं धर्मनिरपेक्ष कुणीच नाही!

* पुढे चालून लक्षात आलं माणसांच्या जातीपेक्षा शब्दांच्या जाती वेगळ्या असतात! माणसं जशी जातीवरून भांडतात,

तसे शब्द भांडत नाहीत. माणसासारखा शब्दांना एकमेकांचा बाट होत नाही, शब्दांच्या जाती-जातीत जातीवरून दंगे होत नाहीत. उलट, एका रांगेत एकमेकांच्या शेजारी बसून वाक्याला अर्थ देतात. अशीच वाक्य जीवनाला अर्थ देतात. माणसांच्या जातीपेक्षा शब्दांच्या जाती खरंच शहाण्या असतात!

BOOK REVIEW: पानगळीचं झाड

 पानगळीचं झाड

लेखक: रत्नाकर मतकरी

पानगळीचं झाड हे रत्नाकर मतकरी लिखित पुस्तक ही एक सत्य कथा आहे. 1960-70 च्या दशकातली. एका मासिकात एका समाजसेवकाची कथा मतकरी यांनी वाचली.त्या समाजसेवकाने आपली प्रतिष्ठीत नोकरी सोडून कुष्ठरोग्याना मुख्य प्रवाहात आणण्यासाठी केलेले प्रयत्न आणि एका तरुणीची कुष्ठरोगातून झालेली मुक्तता, तिचं पुनर्वसन आणि नंतर समाजापुढे आदर्श म्हणून त्याने तिच्याशीच केलेलं लग्न यावर ती कथा होती. ही कथा वाचल्यावर त्यांना ती विलक्षण वाटली म्हणून त्यांनी स्वतः पुण्यात जाऊन त्या जोडप्याची भेट घेतली आणि त्यांचा प्रवास रचनात्मक पद्धतीने या पुस्तकात मांडला.

हे पुस्तक दोन भागात समजून घेता येईल.

पहिला भाग नायिकेच्या म्हणजे 'बेटी' च्या आयुष्याच्या. एस.एस.सी. च्या परीक्षे नंतर लगेच लग्न करून संसार करावा अशी स्वप्न रंगावणारी ती, तिच्या आयुष्यात भूकंप आला जेव्हा तिला कळालं की तिच्या आयुष्यात कधीही रंगच्या छटा असूच शकत नाही. तिला कुष्ठरोग झालंय! घरात वडिलांच्या व्यक्तिरिक्त इतर व्यक्तीनी आणि समाजाने केलेली घृणा सहन न झाल्याने ती कुटुंब सोडून कुष्ठरोगी वसाहतीमध्ये ती राहायला जाते. मानसिक आणि शारिरीक रित्या पूर्णतः खचून गेलेली असते. कुष्ठरोगामुळे होणारी अंगाची लाही, होण्याऱ्या reactions, जखमा हे वाचलं तरी अंगावर काटा येईल, ती ते सगळं सहन करत होती! असंच ती आयुष्याचा एक एक दिवस ढकलत होती.

दुसरा भाग म्हणजे एक शिकलेला तरुण, शिकून उस्मानाबाद जिल्ह्यात एक खेडेगावात शिक्षकाची नोकरी करत असतो. त्या गावात कुष्ठरोग्यांच्या संख्या बऱ्याच प्रमाणात असते. ह्या भीतीने तो बदलीसाठी निष्फळ प्रयत्न करतो. अश्यात एक कुष्ठरोग्याशी जणू त्याची गट्टी जमते. कुष्ठरोगी सुद्धा माणसंचं आहेत आणि त्यांना ही निरोगी माणसांइतकाच जगण्याचा हक्क आहे ह्याची त्याला जाणीव होते. बरेच दिवस या गोष्टींचा विचार करून तो आपला आयुष्य अश्या लोकांच्या सेवेत घालवायचं अस ठरवतो आणि नोकरीचा राजीनामा देतो. तिथून त्याचा प्रवास त्याच कुष्ठरोगी वसाहती मध्ये येऊन ठेपतो जिथे 'बेटी' आहे.

मग पुढे सुरू होतो तो 'त्यांचा' प्रवास...त्याने अभिभावक म्हणून तिला दिलेला धीर, जगण्याची उमेद, बरी होण्याचा आत्मविश्वास आणि साथ. मग तिची झुंज त्या असहाय्य वेदनांशी, Guinea Pig असल्या सारख औषधांचे experiments, त्यातून होणारे reactions, देवासारखे भेटलेले Dr. Rao, मग मुंबईच्या leprosy केअर सेंटर मध्ये झालेले उपचार आणि शेवटी तिची रोगातून मुक्तता. सरते शेवटी बरेच वर्षांनी त्या दोघांची भेट!!!

आपण प्रत्येक व्यक्ती पण पानगळीचं झाड असतो का? आयुष्याचा कालचक्र चालू असतो, बहर येतो, नवी पानं फुटतात, मग फुलतात, मग पानं पिकतात, मग पानगळ होते मग पाऊस येतो मग पुन्हा नवी पानं फुटतात....

P.S. : रत्नाकर मतकरी यांचे मे 2020 मध्ये कोरोना मुळे निधन झाले. त्यांना विनम्र अभिवादन.

BOOK REVIEW: FALLING APART SUCHITA BHATTACHARYA

 Falling Apart by Suchitra Bhattacharya translated by Rani Ray Srishm.

It is a story of two families based in Kolkata. These two families are related to each other and the author wants to subtly highlight the shift of value based system to superficial consumerist and money oriented way of life. One family is of a corrupt government official Chandan and his wife Anuradha, their son Raja and Chandan's mother Pratibha. Second family is that of Chandan's sister Lajwanti aka Laju married to Satyaki. Satyaki who is into politics and construction business is blatant to engage in earning easy money. Anuradha is proud of her husband Chandan and turns a blind eye to his unethical means of earning money. However exception is Laju who believes and sticks to her ideals and so is not happy with Satyaki and his bad money and company too and finally leaves him and wants their marriage to end. Raja, Chandan and Anuradha's son who undergoes tremendous pressure from his mother for achieving results in exams also becomes aware of incoming of easy money, his father's indulging into addiction and womanizing and ultimately suffers from hysteria and exhibits violent behaviour in the examination hall which results in his expulsion. It is after this that Anuradha realises that this is the pain that has come because of burying the ideals and that they have been intoxicated by ideas of achievements, money, status and so on.

Often in life we all somehow come across these situations...when we all think why seek truth when it's so easy to live a life of lies but we fail to understand that truth is relentless.

P.S.: I haven't like the way it is translated. It could have been done much better. And the proof reading should have been done better. Typos and spelling mistakes really are a turnoff!!!!

BOOK REVIEW: सुखाचा शोध

सुखाचा शोध

- वि. स. खांडेकर

वि. स. खांडेकर ह्यांच्या लेखणीशी मी connect करू शकते. सुखाचा शोध वाचायला घेतलं आणि पुन्हा एकदा त्यांच्या लेखणीशी connect व्हायला मिळालं. कथेचा नायक आनंद याची कुटुंब ऋणाची भावना, उषा या नायिकेला आत्महत्या करण्यापासून परावृत्त करून तिला घरी आणने आणि उषाने आनंदाने आनंदाचे आभार मानत, मनातून प्रेम, प्रेम काय त्याची भक्ती करणे हाच जणू तिचा धर्म आहे असं मानून त्याच्या घरावर आणि कुटुंबावर प्रेम करणे, अश्यातून आनंदाचा मोठा भाऊ अप्पाराव संसारात विलास नसलेला पण समाजसेवेचा नाटक मांडणारा आनंदाचं लग्न ठरवतो ते माणिकशी. माणिक कोण तर पुरुष वजा अप्पारावच. नाटकीय स्त्रीवादी स्वभाव, गरज म्हणून केलेलं लग्न, आनंदाच्या प्रेमाचा एक तुषारही तिला भोगता आला नाही, इतकी ती रुक्ष कशी लिहिली वि.स. नी! आनंदाचा सुख कुटुंबात, उषाचं आनंदा मध्ये, आणि माणिकचं सुख कशात हेच तिला ठरवता आलेलं नाही...कथे मध्ये इतके सुंदर रित्या व्यक्ती रेखाटने आणि वाचताना कुठेही आपण एकही character चा हात सोडला नाही... सगळ्यांसोबत आहोत असंच वाटणं हे माझ्यासाठी वि.स. च्या कदंबऱ्यांमध्ये होतं. सगळे characters आई, अप्पा, आनंद, उषा, माणिक, धनंजय, चंचला जणू प्रत्येकाला एक clear drafted identity दिलीये. शब्द गुंफणे आणि त्याची एक सुंदर माळ होणे आणि त्या माळेचा कधीही अंत होऊ नये असं त्या कादंबरीच्या शेवटच्या टप्प्यात वाटतं...हीच जादू आहे वि.सं. ची!

BOOK REVIEW: The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas by John Boyne

The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas by John Boyne

A story that dates back to Hitler ruled Germany. A story of a boy, Bruno who is son of a Commandant in Hitler's army. Bruno and his family leaves a comfort life in Berlin as a result of his father's job. He has been asked to take charge of a place Out-With (as spelt by Bruno)which is actually Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration camp built during the WW II. These camps were set to imprison and exterminate people across Europe in the name of cultural cleansing.

Now this boy Bruno always watches the people on the other side of the fence, the prisoners but poor soul did not understand that they were prisoners and they were there because of his father's instructions. He wondered if people from the other side too had families and they stayed in huts happily on the other side. Life in Out-With becomes very boring for Bruno as he misses everything he has left back in Berlin. And he now tries to adapt to the new life and accept the fact that he might not return to Berlin. So everyday he starts exploration in and around the house. He walks along the fence everyday and one day he finds a boy Shmuel, same age as him but weak and sad, imprisoned along with his family. They talk to each other and find out that both share their birth date. A year passes in the same routine, both the boys sharing their past lives and hoping to return to their home. For me this care and affection they have for each other is essence of this book. After a year Brunos father, the commandant realises that his wife, daughter and Bruno aren't very happy in this place and decides to send them back to Berlin. Bruno is happy for the return but sad for he'll miss his friend. The boys decide to meet one last time. But the day they decide this Shmuel seems very unhappy as he is unable to find his father anywhere in the camp. Bruno wants to help him one last time to find his father and he can do this only by crossing over and going to the other side of the fence. He wears a striped pyjamas uniform trying to resemble as a prisoner. Suddenly then the workers order MARCH. The boys are unable to understand the command. By this time they are pushed into a dark room, Bruno thinking it as a shelter to protect against heavy rains. They hold each others hand and promise to be best friends for life. Little did the innocent souls know, where they were pushed into. After that Brunos family tries searching him for years in hope that he would return one day!

BOOK REVIEW: OUR MOON HAS BLOOD CLOTS

 Imagine home! Your home, your family, your things, all that belongs to you and one day you are forced to leave them all and go! Where to? Anywhere on earth...Just go away and live or die!

It hurts! It pains! It wrecks your heart! It tears you apart...Isn't it?

Such was life of Kashmiri Pandits for decades. Homeless in their own land. Our moon has blood clots is a memoir, untold story of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990's and later, written by Rahul Pandita, a Kashmiri Pandit. He was 14 years of age when his family was forced to leave his home in Srinagar. He narrates the stories of exile of Kashmiri Pandits, the horrific incidents of brutal murders, bloodshed, killings of Pandits. He also narrates the stories of torturous incidents the families went through after leaving their land. The memoir narrates the fight of the Kashmiri Pandits to live! The fight to exist! The fight to be!

BOOK REVIEW: BOOKSHOP BY THE SEA

When it's a dream of Sophie, and Aiden wants it to come true!

The book revolves around the central character i.e. Sophie whose dream is to own a bookshop in Piper's Cove. She has spent her life till now in the role of a mother to her siblings after their mother died. Her father has left all the three children to Gods mercy. He is alive yet absent in their life. The siblings grow up to have their own journey, have settled in their life but have taken Sophie for granted and considered always available for them. And Sophie is carrying out all the responsibilities happily without any burden until one day when she had to make a hard choice between a wonderful date with her love, Aiden or travel to a place and get a task done as her sister wished. She chooses the latter and they once again part away.

Flashback: Sophie and Aiden, her college love, reunite at her sisters wedding. The bitterness between them is because of their breakup after college days. Now this bitterness has turned to awkwardness. They just want to be away from each others sight and pretend as if everything is fine. After the wedding, the situation turns out in such a way that Aiden has to stay at Sophie's place for a day. Sophie isn't very comfortable with this. There is so much going on in her life. The most important event of her life, opening of her bookshop has come close. She is happy and tensed at the same time. Happy for her dream turning into reality and tensed for so many tasks to be completed before opening of the shop. Between all this, she injures her ankle badly which makes her limp. She is disheartened at the thought that she'll have to postpone the event. Aiden, however motivates her and assures her that event will happen as decided. He decides to stay back in Piper's Cove to help Sophie get the tasks done. He also takes care of her injured ankle. This togetherness sparks their lost love and make them realise that they still want to be with each other.

Fast forward: Sophie makes the hard choice and Aiden decides to leave as he thinks that Sophie is ignoring all the important things in her life under the burden of unreasonable and unrealistic expectations of her siblings and father as well. Sophie, however decided to go ahead with the event which turns out to be a grand success. People of Piper's Cove love the thought of bookshop in their town and have helped Sophie with lots of purchases.

Finally some incidents happen wherein both realise that trivial matters shouldn't shake the strong bond between them and that they can work out things between them.

Heartwarming and light read. Moreover, the theme of the book is evolving of wonderful relationship, a wave of emotions, a bookshop and a happy ending. What more do I ask as a book lover?

EDUCATED BY TARA WESTOVER

Educated by Tara Westover is a memoir of her upbringing in a crazy pack of family members who believe only in the invincible power of God and Angels. Her parents are unacceptably God fearing which results in not getting their children immunized, not visiting doctors when sick, not enrolling their kids in school, not letting them do what they want and constantly bound by the fear of punishment if they do anything not accepted by the religion. They hate the government for they 'think' that the government establishes their power on people if the people use any facilities provided by the government. They loathe any kind of government assistance.They stay at a far away hill to hide from the Government and avoid any kind of entry to the 'normal' world.The worst part is they don't even register the birth of their children. All the children are raised to believe that their parents are doing right and there is nothing wrong in all of the above. Their father forces them to work in the junkyard scraping metals and their mother wants the girls to learn the herbal ways of medications and healing. The kids are denied an opportunity to get education and be in the mainstream. Getting education is considered sinful. The members of the family, Tara's siblings and her mother all are submissive when it comes to her father's 'verdict'. Sometimes their father becomes too defensive in the name of God and religion. But no one is allowed to question his way of thought.

Tara lives 17 years of her life in the same way as chalked out by her father. But then she decides to find a way to get educated. It's very difficult for her to enter the high school as she never went to school and has never got formal education. She has only a introduction to basic books and math, and knows how to scrap metals and prepare tinctures and herbal concoctions under the label of homeschooling. But Tara is determined to step into the new world. Many a times she is at the crossroads of being a 'good' daughter of the family or diving into the totally unknown world of education, hope, and more important finding a way from ignorance, self doubt, worthlessness. She takes a latter path to get into the esteemed colleges of the world to pursue Doctorate. Finally she is Tara who finds a way of enlightenment through education.

This book was on my TBR since I heard someone bragging about it on bookstagram. But what compelled me to pick up asap is that I saw Bill Gates review this book on Goodreads.