Blueprint Of ‘The Great Indian Novel’

The late Manohar Shyam Joshi (1933-2006) was an extremely talented writer who tried his journalistic hand in various directions—politics, sports, culture and films. He edited a leading Hindi weekly—Saptahik Hindustan for many years and also an English publication. At the same time, the DD serial ‘Hum Log’ penned by him was the first soap opera on Indian TV followed by ‘Buniyad’ and ‘Kakka ji Kahin’. He wrote many popular film scripts as well.

Joshi’s most important and lasting contribution, however, was in the field of literary fiction.Through innovations in structure and style coupled with insightful exploration of the human situation and relations, he created a unique niche for himself. Remarkably, with all his innovations, his fiction remains quite popular. He wrote fiction early on, published a couple of stories in the fifties and sixties of the last century, but his first serious entry into fiction was made with Kuru Kuru Swaha—a brilliant novel published in 1980 when the author had turned forty-seven.

Obviously, Joshi had a very deeply rooted element of self-doubt, which in a sense, is necessary for any serious writer; but in the case of an excellent writer, this self-doubt seems to have taken a bit too much of toll. The book under review is an example.