An unusual theme coming from a talented writer made me hold the book in my hand and turn it around staring in bewilderment at the arresting title and also the cover design that depicts a woman clad half in an ancient garment and half modern. I started reading, turning the pages with avid rapidity.
Hinduism as we call it today has been known as Sanatana Dharma to the ancients. It has shown people from time immemorial the right way of performing worldly duties that are sustained by value-based restraints and natural laws. To explain the how and wherefores of this, Vedic systems were born.
Picture books hold a special place for children. They are a tool for learning, a visual journey, the basis for story time with family and a tactile resource for sensory exploration.
How do you review a book like Karuppu? I’ve asked myself this question ever since I finished reading it. Last page read, book shut…and there I am, left with a feeling that I have yet to emerge from a fog-shrouded mystical world, sprinkled with violence, poignancy, tragedy, micro-stories of relationships filled with sharp shards, and a sense of something ending. Alongside are clearly etched images,
Chandrasekhar Kambar, though recognized as one of the foremost Navya (modernist) writers in Kannada, along with the likes of UR Ananathamurthy, P Lankesh, Girish Karnad, Ramachandra Sharma, Shantinath Desai and KV Tirumalesh, was always different from them.
Since the emergence of Folklore Studies in the nineteenth century, the study of folklore grew exponentially in the twentieth century and continues to thrive through academic as well as popular literature in the twenty-first century. In the context of India, there is a sizeable market for books dealing with oral traditions as in recent years