Monday, April 5, 2010

Gently Falls The Bakula by Sudha Murthy

The story "Gently Falls The Bakula" revolves around Shrikanth and Shrimathi who are neighbours in a village in North Bangalore. Both of them are classmates and are very intelligent. But Shrimathi wins the first slot in the board exams. Even though Shrimathi is brighter than Shrikanth, she follows her heart and opts for History as her subject of specialization. Shrikanth opts for engineering from IIT, Delhi.

Forgetting or ignoring the long-term feud between both their families Shri and Shri fall in love with each other. The Bakula tree with fragrant flowers becomes their meeting point. After passing out of IIT, Shrikanth gets a job in Mumbai and he marries Shrimathi much to the chagrin of both the families! Of course, Shrimathi is happy and wears a string of Bakula flowers for her wedding.

All is well in the first few years of marriage as Shrimathi is madly in love with Shrikanth and makes a lot of sacrifices to run a home together. Shrimathi never wins the approval or love of her in-laws and she almost swallows allahala visha every times she meets them! Her plans of higher studies in History are quashed by demands of money for loan repayments by Shrikanth's mom. Shrikanth is an ever-obliging and polite son. He is also an extremely dutiful worker at office. Because of his hardwork, he overtakes a lot of seniors and classmates at work. And he gets promoted and they buy a house overlooking the sea as per Shrimathi's wishes.

In spite of material comforts, Shrimathi is put off by the innumerable parties she has to host for Shrikanth's prospective clients. And the artificial talks and lifestyle of these party fellaws intrigue Shri. One of Shrikanth's friends put their child in a boarding school so that they can be free at home. Shrimathi is philosophical and admires King Ashoka and Buddhism, whereas Shrikanth is pragmatic and calls a spade a spade. Shrikanth is not too keen to have a kid even after 10 years of marriage and a doctor declares that both of them are sub-fertile and have to wait indefinitely!

Shrimathi once jokes that she thinks of Bhamati, a wife who devotes her entire lifetime cooking and caring for her husband. Her husband is too focused on writing a book and discovers his dead wife only after finishing his book. And he calls the book Bhamathi in remembrance of his dead and devoted wife!

Shrimathi wonders if a workaholic who ignores his/her family is any different from a drunkard. Both of them seem to be intoxicated and on a high! Many women resort to drugs, fall into depression and become kleptomaniacs to attract the attention of their ambitious and busy husbands.

What happens to the marriage of Shrikanth and Shrimathi? Does Shrimathi pursue her doctorate in history? Or does she become another Bhamathi? Read the book to find out more.

Once you start reading the book, "Gently Falls The Bakula", you will never put it down till the finish - if u have no distractions! And I wondered if the story reflected major tiffs between Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy.

4 comments:

Hitesh said...

i'm too lazy to be a book reader.....blog reading is my hobby...but books takes a lot of time...and i don't have patience to do that......that's why....i have never even read a book completely.....i'm not proud of it.....and yea..i always wait for a book to be made into a movies....cause i can give that much of time........


about this one......Indian society is full of women like this.....i think it's the dependent women which make atleast this part of the world go round......i fear the day when women also become independent like men .....i think on that day....the institution on marriage will die......

women will also grow a EGO as big as of men....and then as they say..... "There can't be two lions in a jungle" it will be a huge war.....and i know women will succeed in that......


no no you are thinking wrong.....i'm not a woman, girl or female....i'm a guy.....but very pratical and a bit of feminist....though i do have that BIG EGO too...........


\,,/ this is the first here....hope to be around more...\,,/

Anitha said...

Hmmm...nice viewpoint Hitesh. It is not a question of whether two people are working or one person is working. It is a question of spending quality time with each other and giving space for the better half's growth and interests.

srinath007 said...

its a wonderful story, but wat could have hapened to shirmati after she leaves shrikant its not given in the book can anyone tell me abt dat please....

sappy said...

Your way of writing a book review is very clear.I too had done a review of the same book in my "not yet named."