Ashok Aatreya, journalist-author’s first English novel “All The Beautiful Daughters of Mara” (Amba Publications), has hit the book shelves. The story revolves around Anand, the women in his life and how different people and events change his life. Part one of the trilogy, which took six years to complete, fulfils author’s burning desire to write in a language which he considers an important tool of expression.
According to the writer through this fiction he intended to highlight and address “the decadence which has seeped into the Indian culture with discarding of old and time tested values coupled with vanishing religious and social customs.” With faulting it he attributes it to development especially at the global scale and terms it as “rational decadence”. The change in the main protagonist’s character reflects the alteration in social fibre and emergence of new value systems.
The story unfolds many layers and sub-layers of life through depiction of Anand whose family suffers due to problems resulting from political and social events, including abolition of princely states and independence of the country. “Having witnessed the transformation of circumstances, Anand tries to revive his fortunes and elevate himself and in this journey he encounters different people, women, friends,” explains the writer.
The novel is not restricted to the simple narration of Anand’s story since it brings to fore many principles, doctrines and philosophies like that of the theory of karma and paying for one’s wrongs committed in the previous life. Similarly Aatreya defines protagonist’s affairs with women as “unfulfilled desires from earlier births”. “A human being has a real self, that is known and an unknown side which is mystical and spiritual. Anand through his actions emphasises this point. My aim was to show that the real and unreal are important and parallel. I have left it to the readers to decide whether he is black or white or grey,” comments Aatreya.
Interlaced with ancient tales, myths and legends, like that of Rostam and Sohrab which actually plays out in Anand’s life too, makes the novel interesting and informative for the reader. This was intended to drive home the point that the life is not a straight road and there are many aspects of it which cannot be scientifically or rationally explained.
Several real-life episodes from our political space which readers will identify and be familiar with have been interspersed into the narrative. “Including them was to convey that our present day politics and politicians are devoid of commitment to ideology or the nation.
Each of them is manipulative and wants to attain power and fame irrespective of the means. So free is trading of values and ideologies that anyone can join any political party and any political party can court anyone,” says Aatreya.
