One of the minor characters in this novel says - “Don’t paint any colour to anything that you find here. The truths that are accessible here have their own colours. If possible do recognize their true colors; otherwise just keep quiet…” (p.50). The novel Agedashtu Nakshatra by Sumangala, is an exploration of this idea of uniqueness in the things around us and the dire need to perceive them as they are, but not as we want them to be.
A post doctoral scholar of Archeaology, at the instance of his guide, chooses to participate in an excavation work on a site called Dholavira, in Gujarat. Along with the excavation work at the site, a series of explorations take place in and around the lives of three people in the novel. The three characters offer three simultaneous narratives juxtaposed with each other – the first narrative is of the main narrator himself who feels lost when his boyhood friend, whom he had thought had loved him, leaves for good to get married to a doctor; second narrative is of his friend, who is a computer engineer who opts out of marrying the man she had liked for her own reasons, who subsequently leaves her job as she finds it meaningless and takes to socially relevant work; third is of the scholar’s guide who is a widower, successfully faces the wrath of many around him when he wants to get married to a widow. Through each one of the three, the novelist is able to portray the complex nature of human behaviour. The common thread that binds the three distinct people in the novel is their concern, their understanding and their long association with each other.
The first narrative is about an excavation in literal terms. The excavation that is undertaken here is not just an academic exercise. There are personal, social, cultural and political dimensions to it. The task of getting ready for excavation both physically and emotionally, the actual hardwork of excavation under extreme environmental conditions, and putting the findings in an order to draw broad generalisations about the life that existed in the distant past are all experientially satisfying details presented here. The process is actually digging the past to understand the present complexities. The excavation as an image is also quite interesting. Agedashtu Nakshatra - The more you dig, the more you get – but though materialistically speaking, the outcome is just a clay star that is procured as a gift to the beloved, the act of exploration is in itself valuable.
The second narrative includes personal interviews of five people who were directly affected by the suicides of families in old Mysore area. Though the main reason for farmers’ suicide appears to be sheer financial crises in their lives, a closer exploration reveals that the genesis of the problems is also of socio-cultural nature. The heavy loans, which are beyond the capacity of repayment of any of these families, are taken for compelling socio-cultural reasons. Though it is men who commit suicide, cutting across caste, it is only women in their families who take all the brunt of it, - it is always either the wife or the mother or the daughter, or the sister of the deceased. However poignant each suicide is, and however useless it is to track the nature of suicide as no help seems to be forthcoming either by a governmental or a non-governmental agency immediately, interviewing the families is found to be important as it could lead to an understanding of the complex nature of human beings in great distress. The third narrative has to do with the marriage of a widower with a widow; but the people belonging to the families related to them are deeply affected by it, rightly or wrongly. The relationship is challenged on moral, social and economic grounds. But the firm stand taken by the two ends in the marriage.
The two protagonists of the first two narratives come to live together to lead a life of their own. Agriculture, which affected the lives of the five farming families so tragically, is chosen as a medium for their expression of social and cultural concerns.
The predictable nature of the characters and the plot lessens the impact of the narration in the novel. But the sensitive nature of the narrative as a whole makes the reading enjoyable.
