I Got A Message!

There was a special message for me from a special person today on my mail. The best known Marathi writer Ranganath Pathare had left the message for me on facebook wow! I felt great.

It said 'thanks shruti.'haran'was written 20 yrs ago.things have changed for worse since then.it was nice hearing from you.many critics feel that ,this is not one of my good works.but there are many readers like you ,who think otherwise.personally ,i also like this work of mine despite some dissatisfaction.by the way , have you come across my new novel,'bhar chaukatil aranyarudan'? i feel that ,this is one of my remarkable attempts in recent times.'

I had commented on his book Haaran actually and he replied to that. Now I am very excited to read his new book.

Crazy surprise

Forgotten an incident to share (as usual busy schedules to be blamed). I came to office after a long day work. Checked mails, letters, fax etc. Had a glance at stories filed and updates. I was just planning to leave and my friend asked me to give his newspaper lying on my table.

I picked it up and returned him, but there was something in that newspaper. Guess??? a book 'Rivana Vahili Mungi' written by Rajan Gawas. I was searching the book for a long time. It was out of print actually. I was a surprised by my friends act.

I remember that I had mentioned him once that I was searching the book but it was very unexpected that he would get it for me. I finished it in three days. The stories were written on rural background and the style was superb.

No, but the surprise was not over yet. I was explaining the friend about the stories I read initially. While talking to him, he suddenly called up someone. It was the author of the book Rajan Gawas. I spoke to him and said I liked his stories. But couldn't talk much it was so sudden. I didn't understand what to say.

The author must be thinking us crazy. But it was really a crazy moment.

Two Marathis Novels

I read two Marathi novels which were completely different from each other. One by Vilas Sarang 'Rudra' and other by Ranganath Pathare 'Haaran'.

Rudra is the story of a poor God. Now one would wonder what is rich God and poor God. But its true. People belongs to different strata of society have different Gods. So he was the poor God. Then he tries to create the world but others rich Gods like Vishnu prevents him from doing so. Rudra has always been given secondary treatment by other Gods and Goddess.

This is sufficient to understand that the author wants to comment on the contemporary world by using mythological characters.

Sarang is known for his experiments in Marathi literature. Some say that his writing is inspired by Kafka, Camus and Sartre. He writes in English too and has been recognised as a modernist writer. I have read his earlier book of stories 'Atank'. The stories are of magic realism type.

Other story of a beautiful girl named Haaran. She born in lower caste, marries to an unsuitable man. The society forces her to break the barriers because everyone wants monopoly on her. But this is not so easy.