SALE OF SOULS

By Anant on 8 January 2015,in  amazon.com/sale of souls

Format: Paperback

Soul stirring…realistic and romantics at its best

Yes…I felt souls have been sold. I was agitated enough to react and queries in my mind about the characters, events and obvious clashes like passionate young love between 1st generation of academician – professionally educated characters in 21st century where girl is leading from front versus morons…developments versus environment… was increasing with each passing hours.

To understand my queries and explain the replies to my conscience, I re-read few sections repeatedly. The more I read, better I understood. All fellow potential reader, be assured that you will enjoy the feeling of suspense intrigued with love of all seasons!
Everything is perfect, in this book…starting from names of characters, minor details which create the plot up to perfection. Author conveyed his version on idealism through sufferings of lead characters and statements of secondary characters.
You will certainly end up thinking about the price paid by neighboring villagers for the rewards of growing city who envisages development definition as per its limited abilities and ever growing demands.

Yes, in democracy, everything is for everyone even though we have not worked for it. Everyone has sense of individual rights and entitlements but duties become collective responsibility. I think author is sensitizing all of us to be aware of our duties and try to be self-driven in implementing it. Otherwise we should be ready to pay price. This made me feel that this book is classic and must read for all.

Author is correct that purpose of economic development is to ensure more & more people earn their livelihood and live happily. Development of city & industry has given a lot to society and removed large number of inhuman practices like caste – creed based practices, opportunities controlled by few individual et cetra.

Price of industrial development led growth of human civilization has been paid by mother earth. Why economic development always implies industrial development? Why not concept of village based economies (co-operatives) and self reliant villages guided by professional as forwarded by Mahatma Gandhi - Vinoba bhave and many others is ever considered as viable option? Author is silent on these aspects.

Sustainable decentralized Industrial growth like internet based governance systems, zero discharge home- city & industrial units, non-fossil based power & transport means, no landfills, increase in local area based green top – forest cover…are need of hour. It is a challenge for our generation. Environment cost is always underestimated by current generation. Glaring examples are invention of plastic by scientific communities and havoc of plastic in city life of today.
Lead character of novel believes that we must allow development as much as environment can sustain without damaging it irreversibly. I am not sure that we have scientific reliable ways to quantify how much can be sustained and when to qualify that irreversibility has peeped in. How can any society, who is reaping benefits of industrial growth, tame a raging bull of irreversible industrial growth? Is this idealistic statement? Humans are gullible. I hope to find answer for above.
The author is convinced that human civilization can never go backwards. Thus, all arguments about keeping our consumptions reduced if not returned to earlier level is not a point of discussion. His lead character states that even poorest among poor also wants lifestyle & opportunities as offered to city dwellers. He believes that mitigating human resistance about industrial developments is all about effective implementation of control cum corrective measures on implementations of welfare efforts, adding all stakeholders as part of revenue sharing model instead of one-time payments. He is more concerned about hunger of fellow human instead of wild life conservation, ecological imbalances and natural tragedies. Above are more theoretical concerns of academicians. This novel restricts itself to human interactions only. Although it never misses to subtly highlights the wildlife angles. All of above mentioned are real life topics always discussed in any forum during land acquisition committee. I can connect with the experiences of lead character and statements they made.

Nature is never fair during life time of any human. Nature never justifies its action. Nature never gives everything equally everywhere all the time. Equality for all is concept initiated during onset of democracy. Human civilization and current scientific – technological world is way back in meeting the challenges offered by philosophical concept of equality led demand of physical good & services. It seems that we are in rat race of non-ending thirst of growing city dwellers who are never satisfied with state of life offered to them. I tried but failed to locate answer for this.

I loved all the secondary characters that form the core of all soul stirring queries. They are indeed real-life characters. Whatever is happening in our society is well depicted by them. I am still intrigued by why raghoba didn’t fought from front and rectified his age-old wife Pratibha’s belief…has he paid the price for enjoying the perks without initiating the changes…Has James/Gangi paid price for goodness instead of leading a team of villagers? Why his family – Aloma & kids paid the price for James goodwill? Is suffering of James family because of Samar not coming forward? Why priest Aacharya – Francis & his law abiding father doesn’t offer action point?

Roshini is true to her name unlike others. I’m curious, how she responds to challenge of life…she is the heart of novel. I am moved by reading this amazing piece of art. We must act and offer sustainable engineering solution to needs of environment & human civilization. Let’s work for “positive environmentalism”. I hope Anita, Dr. Sam Zakaria, Mahantesh, Dr. Shastri, Sumedh Singh, Sangeeta Kamath, Pawan Pimpri and Alige residents will accept. Idea of India has changed with time. You will experience it.

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Sale of Souls is a unique story of land acquisition which is relevant to the post-globalisation era in developing countries. The author, in this stunning story, has captured the uncomfortable realities of the present era. It is also a romantic story which is set in a remote village on the coast of Canara, which is known for its beautiful environment and bio-diversity.

The author has skilfully portrayed the harsh reality of poverty vs. development vs. environment. The gullible villagers who have lost their land, which is more valuable than their life to them, fight against the powerful lobby of industrialists and politicians. Samar, the protagonist, in his endeavour to solve the issue by way of sustainable development discovers himself in love with Roshini, an advocate. The novel is built with scrupulous care. The action is tied into a perfect and permanent knot by the skill with which the two themes of love and land acquisition are intertwined together. Though, there are two themes the story is one, not two.

The author's simple style of writing is easy to comprehend. It is characterised by good diction and sentence structure. The clarity in writing has made this novel more effective.

The author has conveyed the feelings and thoughts of the characters through dialogue and brief passages of psychological analysis. The stream of consciousness technique and the narrative technique are the striking features of this novel. Characterisation is magnificent.

The novel is very interesting to read and keeps the readers engrossed in it. I enjoyed reading it and you will definitely enjoy reading it----Review by Sujatha Durgekar

The Story

In a remote coastal village of Canara the life is quiet & slow, villagers lead their lives in spite of the government apathy for any infrastructure. Only few dare to cross the village and take up higher education in the nearby town. Samar, our protagonist, is one of them who is the first person to do a PHD from this village and is happy being a professor in a college in the town. Roshni the young daughter of the village head is fresh out of law-college and is eager to spread her wings.

In the trying times the villagers face with the mean government body which is waiting to grab their fertile land for developmental projects. It not only poses a threat to the villagers and their livelihoods but also the bio-diversity of the region. In these difficult times Roshni tries to make her voice heard by getting people together and opposing the political big wigs where as Samar tries to look for a peaceful solution and both with their opposites finds themselves in love.  

My Thoughts

I am really surprised by the way the narration is kept simple yet endearing. I have been reading some serious heavy books recently which have such deep under linings. We read about land acquisitions and all the protests, rallies and ‘morchas’ against them in the papers, but probably never think about how the people who are entangled in that feel or think. In literal sense we see ‘sale of souls’. It’s quite awakening, and I hope we start thinking about it seriously. I like how the characters have been developed and the little nuances that are detailed.

About the Author

Vidyadhar Durgekar as I read over the internet is a multi faceted man. He has worked for the armed forces, in the corporate world in India & abroad and now is an author. This is his debut novel and I think he has done a great work. ---By Ms Tina Basu 

My Rating – 3.75/5. It’s a good serious read

The author unhurriedly takes us through the picturesque Western Ghats, the Sahyadri before leading us into the trials and tribulations of the people of Alige who are fighting to save their lands where the government has sanctioned the SEZ Project. Alige comes alive with the visual descriptions of the place and people. The novel which picks up gravity from the fourth chapter revolves around Samar and Roshni and their efforts to prevent the land acquisition which has stolen the sleep of the villagers. Many other supportive characters form the backdrop and each plays an interesting and distinct role. One such character is Damu whose activities make a startling revelation. As the book promises the focus never veers off from the theme which makes for an undistracted and intense read. The author has sprinkled the story with mild humour: If one could reserve the President’s seat with a kerchief is amusing, so also Bilal’s little son breaking into a giggle in the boat and also the happenings at Damu’s speech where his hired goons follow his pause in the speech as a hint to clap.
The apathy of concerned authorities and of the so called environmentalists, who host social dos for publicity where the real issues lose their voices in the clinking of champagne glasses, could not have been better expressed. The lines of Maya Angelou are strategically quoted. In the whole the novel leaves the reader with a heartfelt concern for all those who have gone through the pain of land acquisition. Towards the end of the book the author puts forth through Samar, a well contemplated and balanced thought on the entire issue of land acquisition. There is a love story which portrays more of the uniting of minds which is fresh and welcome and the focus is intentionally more on the graver issue.--By Ms Daya Bhat

Sale od Souls........is soul stirring

For a first attempt by the author, this book manages to keep the reader engrossed. The theme is current and essentially aims at demystifying concepts such as sustainability, land acquisition, globalization etc. through a simple love story set in the back drop of a scenic coastal village on the Konkan coast. Crisis, conflict, confusion and chaos that reign in the lives of the villagers when confronted with the harsh realities of development and greed have been realistically etched and keeps the reader engrossed.

The attempt is in the mould of R K Narayan, especially when describing the day-to-day happenings and situations in the village. But the book is also about facts and reality, much like an Arthur Hailey novel. Yes, the book could have done with better editing; and at times the narrative is verbose. But these are minor aberrations that should possibly be taken care of in the next edition.

On the whole, the book is arresting, informative, realistic, contemporary, awakening, soul stirring…….and certainly a good read--By Mr C.Kumaraswamy

A review from the other side of the globe:-

Hi Vidyadhara: I finally got your book "Sale of Souls" from Amazon.com.They ordered one for me. I have started reading and I am absorbed without much break. Your description of Chendia and surroundings is absolutely great and to the point. So far I have read about 150 pages and continue to enjoy. The love story entangled with the lost land and rights of the citizens almost looks like story I heard about the Indian Govt which took over the land to build Seabird Naval Base. I was remembering reading Sanskrit book :Kadambari" by Banabhatta in which he describes beautifully the nature and the life like a flow of a stream without any break. You have done the same way. Congratulations. Hope to read your next book soon.

Dr. Laxmidas Sawkar, Overland Park, KS. USA