Parv: An amazing reading experience

Parv: An amazing reading experience

Author : Shri S L Bhairappa/Marathi Translation : Mrs Uma Kulkarni /English : K. Raghavendra Rao    

Generally, I do not share book or movie reviews, since art is so subjective. But some books are special and have an impact worth sharing.

The book was recommended by many avid readers who knew my taste in reading which actually “anything” !

I have found Mahabharata  , an epic in true sense since it depicts whole spectrum of characteristics emotions and complications in all human relationships. The transition of values, morals throughout and merging-demerging of cultures is so rightly captured by Maharshee Vyas. A complicated Family tree indeed!
I found it fascinating that whatever stories, characters being written today, are easily mapped to one of the threads in this epic.
However, Parv is different and special in many ways. Shri. S L Bhairappa is not just telling a story, but interprets the action-reactions of human beings beautifully. This book is written with very practical approach and speaks about real grounds which makes it so believable and not just a fantasy.

The book is all about the journey of various characters together in a specific period. It does not pin point what is wrong and what is right, rather it makes a reader think about each character in a different way. It touches your soul on human emotions level, makes your brain to analyse the incidences, at the same time. 
It talks about various different cultures with geographical differences across the country and it also covers their struggle for survival during journey of towards Kurukshetra. 

For the very first time, I could looks at the female characters of Mahabharata from a different aspect , Kunti, Madri, Gandhari, hidimba, Subhadra and many more !

Most importantly, this book has made me think about Draupadi in a way that I have never thought before even after being a woman myself. Now I could understand Draupadi as a wife of 5 husbands, as a mother, as a daughter and as Maharadnyee. I could not understand her before probably because everyone showed her as the strongest woman, but not what made her the strongest. The circumstances and emotional trauma she had to go through, her emotional evolution.
The strength was not god gifted, she had to earn it at every step of life. Her life has been the struggle right from the birth. When It is difficult for a mother being fair to each child, imagine how challenging it would have been for Draupadi being fair to all five pandavas who were brothers, totally different from each other. How tough it would have been to keep them united.  Even a small scratch in the relationship of all five pandava’s , would  made her life miserable and carry the blame for the same. She is the only one who has always accompanied them through all the  tough times. Being a princess before, she adjusted herself with the “Vanvas” period. She is the core strength of all five brothers in journey of Mahabharata. There is much more in my mind about her now. But yes, this book has made me think about her on emotional level, as woman and especially as a human. 
The book is so realistic, that it also talks about relationships in all aspects. The acceptability of pre marriage and post marriage physical relationships in the society, the future of such relationships, the views about single parenting is well covered and commented. We arelly don’t know what our traditions were , do we , huuh !

The specific period covered in this book gives an insight of the different thoughts of schools on the above said facts, their presence in the society at the same time , their fight of existence and mainly it  goes deeper to find out the transitions in the society , its values, its thoughts , morality  during this  period. It also makes the reader aware about the fact  how the concept of Samryajya and its expansion was rooted and started growing during this period. It also talks about civilized and uncivilized parts of societies and the frictions between the same. I find the same is still there in our society, we couldn’t bridge such gap even today.

The amazing part is, this book has introduced me about the facts of the Battle Field. Unfortunately the visual Mahabharata has shown more dramatic side of it. Further the books I read covered the main incidences during those 18 days including the Geetopadesh. However this book really talks in detail about the actual battle field and the situations there. It was very painful to read all the struggle people were facing; however it convinced me totally that it was the biggest battle.

One more interesting part is , the way in which character of Shrikrishna emerges. The effect of he being a perfect god is demolished now. I started to respect him more as a talented, human, innovative manager, who challenges the existing rules and rituals and concepts of morality and tells you the fact that everything undergoes a change with the situations and it should be like that, then and then only you can fight for the truth, for you battles. The world is runing on the term of relativity and nothing called as “absolute”.  It is interesting to read about his life in Mathura, then his thought behind creating Dwaraka, his relationship with Balaram, Subhadra, his wives, his friends and relatives and his relationship with Kurus.

There are several other characters who comes with a totally different angles  in front of you. It may be Gandhari and her decision to blindfold, Kunti with her thoughts to  get the best for  her son’s, her relationship with Pandu and the way in which she thought about the relations she has shared with all other characters including Karna. 

The characters like Maharshee Vyas, Devavrat (Bhsima), Shukdev, Vidur, Maharja Shalya has been wisely used in the book to explore the layer of philosophy. It really makes you to think about the facts of life, about the philosophy of life and moreover the psychology of  the characters. There is a part of Gandhari’s explanation about her lifelong decision and somehow I find it resembling to the last famous monologue of Acharya in the play “Tuj ahe Tujpashi”. And it just came in mind that characters in Mahabharata are immortal. They still exists around us, within us. Mahabarata is a soul of every story/script written after it due to its larger scale and scope and also the micro and macro level thought on the relationships.  
Last but not the list, I have  skipped some details here on purpose , so that one can explore it their own after reading. I would recommend all of you to read this book , as one of the excellent books on Mahabharata, with a tremendous realistic approach and don’t forget to read the prologue in the book to know how much deep study was pursued in making of the book. 

Salute to the author to introduce me to each character close to realism than fantasy!
Thank you : Bookspace, my own library to provide me this book.

-       Sheetal Joshi ( credits shared with snehal joshi for her valuable inputs in redrafting J)