I am delighted to bring the famous Kannada novel by Mr. K. P. Poornachandra Tejasvi to the global literary world. Jugari Cross is a suspense thriller woven around the common incidents that occur with an ordinary farming couple’s life. The story set within 24 hours is not just an ordinary suspense thriller with a trace of history and a literary quest, but seriously stimulates the reader to analyze the broader spectrum of philosophy, literature and the principles of global economies established around us.

I am happy to share a chapter below for my beloved “Our Karnataka.com” readers. I hope you enjoy this suspense thriller that gives the glimpses of nature, ecology, social reforms, literature, global / local economies, and many more dimensions of the society.

The book is available on Amazon.com in traditional paperback as well as on to your Amazon Kindle or Apple Ipad. Thank you all and have fun.

http://www.amazon.com/Jugari-Cross-K-P-Poornachandra-Tejasvi/dp/1450573525/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272999246&sr=8-1

Shattered images of God’s Town:

Rug merchant Sid obtaining the telephone connection became the preface of a tragic story and it is still unknown whether he died or committed suicide or was murdered? It’s quite possible to imagine the invisible hands behind the invincible powers that control God’s Town. God’s Town does not look like a built town. The town settled over the hill and the adjacent slopes of that hill, looked like it emerged from the earth like an anthill. With no definitive or specific architectural structures or plans, the town looked like a confused place of broken images.

Other than the cardamom business, there were no other businesses even to mention in God’s Town. Similar to Jugari Cross, God’s Town was also stuck unproductive in the prison of magnificent wild trees. Perhaps it would have had the same fate of Basketry Grove if it wouldn’t have had a few accidental incidents that occurred in the past. For the good or the bad of God’s Town, it was situated in the middle of a railway track planned between Mangalore and Bangalore. A need for an installation of a telephone tower atop of a hill next to it, and a few further more small developments turned the fate of God’s Town into a real town. Whether it’s a good, or ill fate of God’s Town to have these developments depends upon ones’ perspective on how they perceive at it!

Despite easy and smooth sailing of life long before the arrival of telephone line to God’s Town, now things go crazy even if the telephone line dies for few hours. As soon as it gets dark and long distance calls become cheaper by the night, the cardamom merchants rush their calls to Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay and Kanpur to enquire about the wellbeing of the cardamom price. The telephone line to the town has definitely influenced a bit of cardamom’s fate. The people of God’s Town driven by miracles and curses claim that cardamom also has a curse! The curse goes that either the grower or the trader of cardamom must not make a fortune out of it! A Marvar (Indian tribe mainly engaged in trading businesses) cardamom trader in the town casually challenges people “I would quit my faith in my religion if you show me a single guy that made a fortune out of cardamom trading” and expresses that he is simply surviving because of his ancestral fortune made in lending business. Otherwise his whole family would have gone bankrupt four years ago when the cardamom businesses went belly up. Despite all these ups and downs, none of the traders have shut down their shops. That’s interestingly surprising!

The gambling factor in the cardamom trading is the only factor that’s keeping the cardamom trading alive in God’s Town. The traders who had stocked up tons of cardamom when the prices hit eight hundreds, disappeared from God’s Town loosing their shirts when the prices fell back to hundred twenty within the next fifteen days. But determined to fetch back their fortune where they’ve lost, they had returned back to God’s Town. Presumably there is no way out from this cardamom trading once entered. The ghost of greed rides on every trader.

Indeed this trade of gambling has paved the path for many more types of gambling into this town. Now it’s not just the cardamom folks that get mad when the telephone lines go bad, many strange faces visit the telephone exchange office and yell at the personnel. The gamblers that gamble on Number Game, New York Cotton, Bumper Lotteries, Horserace betting, League Sports betting and many more unknown strange varieties of gambling scream at the telephone exchange blaming at their missed signals or calls of fortune. They religiously believe in the farther invisible boss who decides everyone’s fate! Everyone including local politicians to government personnel will be expecting a call or a message from the boss from Delhi or elsewhere whom they have unseen or unheard. They simply sit and wait by the telephone at their self-imposed house arrest, like a fairytale frog that waits for the kiss of a princess!

As the days rolled by, the boss who rolls the dice of God’s Town’s fate grown farther and farther away from God’s Town. The folks of God’s Town begin to consolidate their numbers hearing the number set from Sakaleshpur and Madikeri. The people begin to tremble and think about who they’re, why they’re here, why do they behave like this and so on when they get unexpected calls from Delhi, New York, London or from the infinite universe on the other end of the telephone line. Occasionally they would slip into deep thoughts for a while like Lord Buddha! But they lack the courage to find a solution out of their fear. Perhaps it may take a life span’s worth of guts to stare in the eyes of death or it may well take the courage to face the truth that is equally as bitter as death!

So what are these soft, whispery, exclamatory words of signals that arrive through telephone cables’ as long-distance call means?

Which is that super Jugari (Gamblers’ Den) that’s beyond this Jugari and controls this one? Who is running these chains of gambling dens and why? Are these just tax - cheating, check - discounting, all - cash transactions’ credit shops or do their business goes way beyond all that? It’s a million dollar mystery!

Sid was neither a native of God’s Town nor did he migrate knowing about the God’s Town mafia deeds. He was a rug trader that used to bring loads of rugs from Fortville during the monsoon season and sell them to coffee planters in this region. It is impossible to survive the Western Ghats’ monsoons without these coarse rugs. These hand - loomed coarse, unprocessed sheep-wool rugs serve as a single tool for many needs of a plantation labor from blanket to bed, mat, umbrella, roof of a makeshift tent, and many more adhoc needs. The cost of a jacket / rain coat and their inability for multifunction has kept this rug - making artisan business still alive unlike basketry making! People would freeze to death if they don’t cover themselves up with these rugs during monsoons. As the business settled, Sid became a permanent resident of God’s Town by making his make - shift shop permanent. He moved his family to the two bed rooms’ quarter attached to his shop and called it home. Once the monsoon season’s over, Sid used to engage himself into the business of supplying farm labor to coffee planters and make a marginal commission out of it. He used to bring tribal gypsies from around Fortville and supply them as farm labor. A telephone connection was not at all needed for what Sid has been doing. But who knows what other businesses he was venturing into by getting a telephone connection!

Once he got a wrong connection when telephone cables were tangled because of a dwelling water buffalo scratched itself to the telephone pole next to Sid’s house to soothe - off its itch. By hearing the whispery code words on the call, Sid’s eyes and mouth wide opened! After hanging up the phone, Sid was cursing himself for having the telephone connection and for taking that call. Panicked Sid disappeared from his house the next early morning without even telling anything to his wife. No one has seen him since!

Most of God’s Town residents are religious, god - fearing, and spiritual. They do go on holy trips and contribute generously to those holy temples they visit. They never sees that their desire for money as greediness because the money is the very visible representation of their materialistic wish list unsatisfied yet from the non - materialistic invisible existence, the God. That’s the reason they simply accepted and adopted the number game, lottery, betting and other forms of gambling as an extension of their religious faith. The money that gets distributed for a number that’s picked from somewhere, the money that shower for an unknown lottery ticket, went on re-assuring and renewing their belief in invisible existence. More the money interlinked, the faith in invisible god deepened strong.

Despite being a small town on a less known terrain, God’s Town was no different from any town from any part of the world. It’s the same human beings with a different face, same god with different names, same gambling with a different perspective, and the same goals with different technology toolsets. It may be the casinos in Los Vegas or Wall Street of New York or oil rigs of Saudi or a small potato farm in Idaho or even the career ladder of a common professional. Every individual’s fate is dependent on some unknown superior’s decision!

People of God’s Town were bit worried by Sid’s disappearance for a while. But once the fate has been handed over to invisible existence, isn’t it in the discretion of that or his or her magical miracle hands? Who is this great almighty Boss, anyway? Is it Lord Shiva, or is it Jesus Christ the son of god, or is it the almighty Allah! Or who knows there may be a super Chief in all these gods’ tribe. The unknown invisible Chief sitting somewhere decides our fate on the basis of a logic that’s way beyond our understanding or imagination. The law and the court are all just a mere material attempts that make one to forget for a while about the final vacuum that remains after the life.

People of God’s Town talked a while about Sid’s disappearance and carried on with their life. Some folks gossiped that someone gave plenty of ransom to Sid’s widow that would keep her content for life. Who would be that final supreme at the end of this entire network? Well, who cares for that anyway when all roads lead to one, and all gods lead to one! The boss is the one who need not have to justify any of his deeds, the deeds of ending and sparing lives, or the deeds sanctioning gifts and the grieves. To please this ultimate boss, few conduct worships, fasting, offer prayers, and sacrifice goats and chicken or even human as barbarians did! They’re all the different facets of expressing their faith and belief in God. Ultimately, the faith is important.

Because faith creates and evolves the boss, the God!

Ravi Hanja
obba.odhuga@gmail.com

Click here to go to the main page of Ravi Hanj.
Click here to go to the main page of Book Reviews.
Please send your opinions, feedbacks, articles to shshenoy at yahoo.com