Title: Gandhi's Epistle to Obama
Author: K. B. Ganapathy
Publisher: Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 2009
Price: Rs. 125

How shall we describe K. B. Ganapathy's Gandhi's Epistle to Obama? Or, does it defy any easy classification and set out to remain a teasing mix of various fictional and non - fictional forms or does it jauntily try and belong to a new genre which most hospitably receives into its structure reportage, history, biography and what have you and out of it all make an interesting and provocative but maverick text? Since it is rightly said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the best course is to go to the book itself.

An epistle, like the epistles of St. Paul to the Romans or the Corinthians, may be formal in its tone and content or it may be bitingly humorous as in the well - known "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope, the celebrated eighteenth century poet who gifted the English language with innumerable lines of memorable verse. K. B. Ganapathy, who is called by his pet name Gandhi in his family and by his friends, writes to, reasons and pleads with, argues often by exhortation and draws the attention of Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America, to many ills plaguing India in particular and the world in general.

The epistles, originally written for the Editor's regular column Abracadabra in the evening newspaper Star of Mysore, have within them a couple of interesting strands of narrations. The major one focuses its attention on the political events of the past and the present and the minor one, employing suspense-based literary devices, presents an epitome of our new generation of shameless, go - getting politicians. The minor strand, in fact, has in it the text's revealing real sub - text; other minor, tangential strands occupy themselves with biographical and historical details, often of a humorous or witty kino.

The present - day Congress rulers will find many of the views of Ganapathy not only unpalatable, but uncomfortably annoying and irritating: for example, he has the courage to say that Nehru "ushered in an era of Licence-Permit Raj in India" and that it was only with the entry of a "South Indian Brahmin Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and a Punjabi economist Dr. Manmohan Singh" that we opened up ourselves to globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation and carved our path of progress — a hard fact the Congress party is shy of admitting. Rightly again he comments on the way the Great Gandhi's name has been cleverly monopolised by a single family: "My country's most famous political dynasty of Nehru has succeeded in this scramble by a quirk of fate when Nehru's daughter married a Parsi with a surname Ghandy (see the difference in spelling!). The spelling has been politically corrected. So you get Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi... This will continue ad infinitum, ad nauseam."

The sub - text I mentioned presents most interestingly the rise of Narayan Kutty and traces his rise to power and pelf and political eminence and makes us see how truly, symbolically he represents our new crop of politicians. Against the backdrop of the I & B, Ganapathy narrates Narayan Kutty's abominable but successful method of gaining access to dangerously influential political circles and the havoc it brings on society.

Terrorism is one of the main issues in Ganapathy's book. Unlike our pseudo - secular intellectuals and party bosses, he has the rare courage and honesty to write: "Terrorists, our politicians say, have no “religion”. Dear Bar, how can it be? Don't they belong to any religion? Why are they shy of naming their religion when most of the terrorist acts are committed in the name of religion?"

In Ganapathy's and our today's secular world, Obama is "God" and to him therefore, he appeals: "Since UN is already a captive of your country — that is you now — please give justice to my country. Help us get the Pok liberated... Mumbai 26 / 11 has afforded your country and UK an opportunity to atone for your 1948 sin by being fair at least this time..." And, he rightly laments our own inaction and pusillanimous political behaviour.

Considered in its entirety, Gandhi's Epistle to Obama is best described as a lively and intelligent socio-cultural critique of both India and the US. The critique, written in a remarkably readable conversational style, would surely have gained much by more careful copy editing and greater attention to niceties of the English language.

Dr. D. A. Shankar
Courtesy: Star of Mysore

Click here to read articles by Mr. K. B. Ganapathy.
Click here to go to the main page of Star of Mysore.
Click here to read more Book Reviews.
Please send your opinions, feedbacks, articles to shshenoy at yahoo.com