Buddha smiles. Not just when bombs are tested, but also when life and love enter into a friendship. When thoughts of death visit life so often that it becomes a dear comrade more than a sadistic stranger.
Buddha also smiles when man consciously keeps aside his understanding of love to win love as in the title story of the book Buddhante Punchiri . Indu Lekshmi’s pen describes a woman who yields to the conditions set by her lover willingly, just to get married to him. She says Buddha smiled then.
The title of the book created a soaring sense of freedom as one picked up the book. But that was cut short in the first story that pulled spirits down into a whirlpool of complex emotions camouflaged in dense words. Was the title – something that evokes mirth and misty joy – a mistake or another play of words?
Reading through, one can find out it is not quite so. The dense feelings we get in the first story ease slowly into a lucid narrative. And characters talk from the heart with a streak of satire punctuating their moods; a welcome relief from the initial pages where thick clouds of routine literature almost covered the storyline and the suppleness of the language that the author has.
The stories in the collection are stark, death finding a solid presence in each of them. Yet, death is presented here as a turn of life, and not as an event to mourn. Negativity is thus kept largely aside.
The smattering of spiritual feelings the stories hold displays a near-Zen like outlook to life and death.
The defining story of the book is the one titled ‘Rudrakshamanikal’ in which the protagonist hankers after moksha fearing the ‘terrible’ births he would have to take as worms and insects. But the light dawns on him towards the end when he realises himself to be a small part of nature, to feel intrinsically one with all its flaws and perfections, is salvation itself.
‘Sukrutham’, the last in the collection, ends the choppy read on a tranquil note. The lead character offers every thought and deed of hers to the essence that underlines life. To her, living itself is a prayer. The author narrates the story well, creates a passion for prayer, but leaves some chords untouched. Somewhere, the reader thirsts for more. Maybe that is the effect of her pen or even the ineffectiveness of it. But yes, her Buddha does smile, and sweetly so.
Buddhante Punchiri
Indu Lekshmi
Olive Publications
Rs. 60
