Holy Smoke It’s a Godman by Satish Georgy Kashyap
Not only India has enough religion/caste divisions to fight over, the self-stylized Godman of India are further distorting the picture by setting up their shops in every nook and corner of India. People fall in their traps either by misfortune, force, or because of their stupidity. The close-knit nexus of Godmans with the politicians, police and other power hungry people further fuels their ego and they started to believe in their god-hood. They modulate people’s opinion (at times creating situations like mild form of civil wars), treat their illness (mental and others, you can imagine), plunder wealth (in form of various fees/gifts), and end up in some court case or another (sex or drugs trafficking, rape, murder, or simply creating nuisance), ultimately distorting the definition of trust, faith, religion, and communal harmony.
Here (Dr., though he hasn’t mentioned it here) Kashyap through his protagonist Redney Yog, a runaway, looks at these problems and drug trade from India/Pakistan to Denmark and other European countries while dabbling in various characters from slums of Bombay to hippie town of Denmark. Written in first person narrative, this is a light read even though its contents are dark. There is so much humor in this book. The way details of places of India and Denmark are depicted in the book, it reads like a travelogue at times. So, if you are going to Denmark (and if people from Denmark are coming to India) this is a must have book for you apart from its fictional narrative.
The book is basically an underdog story which starts off with Redney Yog writing a letter to President Bush. The book reminisces of darkly realistic The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (where protagonist Balram Halwai writes a letter to Chinese President) and The Slumdog Millionaire movie but lacks the urgency of both. At places, this book is overwritten which is a common problem with most first person narratives. Even though problems discussed in the book like murder, drugs, sex, police brutality are serious/heinous crimes, reading this book make all these problems not-so-serious, if not petty. The book is gut-wrenching at places where characters are brutalized by police or sex-slaved by godman but such scenes aren’t many or not depicted to evoke emotions, as if the author chooses not to delve in darkness/too much realism. The climax of the book leaves much to be desired.
Overall, this is a beautiful case study on self-stylized Godman of India and what is going underneath their so-called religious prayers, teachings, yogas, and their special classes. Or is the author mocking at naivety of we Indian who believes and trusts in these Godmans? A breezy, fun read!
Here is the amazon link:
http://www.amazon.in/gp/customer-reviews/R1XHCKVWQAIQ20/ref=cm_cr_pr_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=9382711147