Holy Smoke It’s a Godman by Satish Georgy Kashyap
Not only India has enough religion/caste divisions
to fight over, the self-stylized Godman of India are further distorting the
picture by setting up their shops in every nook and corner of India. People fall
in their traps either by misfortune, force, or because of their stupidity. The close-knit
nexus of Godmans with the politicians, police and other power hungry people further
fuels their ego and they started to believe in their god-hood. They modulate
people’s opinion (at times creating situations like mild form of civil wars),
treat their illness (mental and others, you can imagine), plunder wealth (in
form of various fees/gifts), and end up in some court case or another (sex or
drugs trafficking, rape, murder, or simply creating nuisance), ultimately
distorting the definition of trust, faith, religion, and communal harmony.
Here (Dr., though he hasn’t mentioned it here) Kashyap
through his protagonist Redney Yog, a runaway, looks at these problems and drug
trade from India/Pakistan to Denmark and other European countries while dabbling
in various characters from slums of Bombay to hippie town of Denmark. Written
in first person narrative, this is a light read even though its contents are
dark. There is so much humor in this book. The way details of places of India
and Denmark are depicted in the book, it reads like a travelogue at times. So,
if you are going to Denmark (and if people from Denmark are coming to India) this
is a must have book for you apart from its fictional narrative.
The book is basically an underdog story which starts
off with Redney Yog writing a letter to President Bush. The book reminisces of darkly
realistic The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (where protagonist Balram Halwai
writes a letter to Chinese President) and The Slumdog Millionaire movie but lacks
the urgency of both. At places, this book is overwritten which is a common
problem with most first person narratives. Even though problems discussed in
the book like murder, drugs, sex, police brutality are serious/heinous crimes,
reading this book make all these problems not-so-serious, if not petty. The
book is gut-wrenching at places where characters are brutalized by police or
sex-slaved by godman but such scenes aren’t many or not depicted to evoke
emotions, as if the author chooses not to delve in darkness/too much realism. The
climax of the book leaves much to be desired.
Overall, this is a beautiful case study on
self-stylized Godman of India and what is going underneath their so-called
religious prayers, teachings, yogas, and their special classes. Or is the
author mocking at naivety of we Indian who believes and trusts in these Godmans?
A breezy, fun read!
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