PENGUIN Mahashweta

Still reading

I completed reading the book in just 5 hours!!!! It's such a beautiful story!! You get to learn so much from Mahashweta! It's all about dignity and integrity!

"Of the thousand flowers that blossom on a tree only a few will bear fruit. And out of those few fruits, insects and squirrels will eat some. The tree does not keep anything for itself. Does that mean that the life of the tree is wasted?"Mahashweta is an extremely beautiful princess and the daughter of the king of Gandhara. She fell in love with Pundarika, the handsome son of a Rishi. Their love was pure and divine. But Pundarika meets with death and she undertakes a severe penance in the forest.The above mentioned Mahashweta is a character in the novel named 'Kadambari, written by the great scholar Bana Bhatta, in Sanskrit. But this Mahashwetha, written by Sudha Murthy is the story of a beautiful girl named Anupama. Her passion towards acting and theatre has made her the Mahashweta, whose love for Pundarika was unconditional. Anupama fell in love with a handsome doctor named Anand. In this book, Sudha Murthy has described the pain and patience of every woman who suffers from leukoderma. Through the life of Anupama, she shows the social challenges, a leukodermic woman faces especially in a remote village area where no knowledge can rule over beliefs and traditions.Anupama's life was not so happy as she lost her mother at the age of one; and for her father, she was a responsibility. Her stepmom and her daughters hate her as she was more beautiful than them. Anupama was a studious girl and so she got a scholarship which helped for her further studies. She was doing her MA and her goal was to help her father financially. So she dreamt to study more. Her fairy tale marriage and sudden discovery of her disease worsen her problems. At a point of life, she felts that there is no value for her life and decides to suicide. Mahashweta is an inspirational story of Anupama from the point where she decides to end her life,  to success. This is her journey to rebuild her life. And the path is not easy. Like always the path towards success is always risky.This is the inspirational story of courage in the face of betrayal and disappointment.Sudha Murthy, an Engineer, a teacher, a philanthropist, and an author. A lady with multiple roles is always an inspiration to the society. She had written many books, and all of them holds the flavor of life, a simple life. She writes in Kannada and English. Her writings are easy to understand and full of values.

Mahashweta is an extremely beautiful princess when she meets Pundarika the charming handsome son of rishi,it is love at first sight for both of them.That's how Anand & Anupama fell in love but being a practical woman our protagonist Anupama is well aware of her situations.She knows that they have a totally different financial background.It would be unrealistic on her part to dream of material life with Anand. But it is Anand who fell in love with Anupama's beauty and convinced her orthodox mother for the marriage. After a few months of marriage, Anupama discovers a white patch on her foot, she learns that she has Leukoderma.Social stigma, prejudice falls apart their marriage, abandoned her form her in law's house and forced to return to her father's house.But How could a married woman stay in her father's house day after day?What will people say? Her stepmother's constant tauting,not only that her step sister's life is affected,no one ready to marry a girl whose elder sister has Leukoderma.All those conditions forced her to committed suicide but Anupama is a practical person, she decided to fight against all odds,She moved to Bombay where she finds success,respect & true friendship.But this path of her journey was not easy too.She is sexually harassed by someone whom she considered her elder brother. ..Mahashweta is an inspiring story which deals with socio stigma, prejudice, orthodox culture in our society.This the story of a single woman who copes up all her difficulties& finds a new independent life. Mahashwta gives you courage, hope and strength. ..Simplicity is a speciality of Sudha Murty's writing and that's how she highlighted a sensitive issue in such a beautiful way & explain to us how important is Girl's education in India. I really adore her writing. Mahasweta also makes you think that how people easily judge a woman or a girl ( because Man in our society is always perfect ) on her physical appearance rather than her inner beauty..This story really offers hope to those women who suffer silently all prejudice and suppress their emotion in society even today5⭐

OK. Let me confess. I have this bitter prejudice towards ‘celebrity’ authors. But you will understand my prejudice if you look around the current literary scenario. These days any celebrity can lend their initials – literally – to the brainchild of somebody else and smugly enjoy all the accolades and royalties for someone else’s efforts. How else can you explain it, when a fast-bowler, known more for off-field antics than on-field heroics, one who cannot even write a proper tweet without making himself a butt of jokes, suddenly writes a ‘memoir’ (!) and rakes in the moolah?!Sudha Murty was one author whose works I had shunned for so long due to this same prejudice. I thought of her as someone who was making hay as the sun shined – hogging limelight more for her being the spouse of Narayanamurty, the legendary founder of Infosys, than for her own literary prowess. This book proved me wrong completely. This book is a flowing tale of a female protagonist, who gets shunned by all and sundry, including the man who ‘loved’ and married her, for the only reason that she has started developing white patches on her skin.Anupama is your quintessential Indian heroine, her beauty sans pareil, her intelligence of highest order, everything about her good and lovely. The only defect about her is her poverty. Anand is an equally charming, equally brilliant, but abundantly rich hero, who falls in love at first sight with our heroine. Then come the typical step-mother and the equally typically incapable father of Anupama. On Anand’s side are his mother, who is bent on flaunting her social status, and an arrogant sister. When Anand from high-society falls in love with Anupama, they get married without any trouble. While everything seems to be going in Anupama’s favor, she develops ‘leukoderma’, which results in her developing white patches on skin. As could be expected, she gets shunned by her in-laws, with her husband proving to be utterly uncaring. Returning to her maternal home, she gets ill-treated by her step-mother as could be expected. While on the verge of killing herself, she has her epiphany and decides to take charge of her life. Was she able to rebuild her life? Did she find the overcome the ‘stigma’ of skin deformity in a society obsessed with mere external beauty? The book answers these questions.The tale is written in a simple, flowing, interesting manner. But nothing about the book feels original. The events all remind you of those sad Indian movies of 1950s and 60s. The end is, again, not much convincing or, as modern-day ‘feminists’ might say, ‘ground-breaking’. Also the claim that there is a similar novel with the same name, written by Marathi author Sumati Kshetramade, leaves a not-so-pleasant taste in the mouth.This book is a nice read, but nothing much can be taken from this.Mahashweta – mixed emotions!

I am not a keen reader, infact also feel asleep while reading books.This one is my third book by Ms. Sudha Mam and it's just amazing. Whenever I read her books, I always remain excited to read next what's going to happen. The detail and purity with which she describes things keeps me holding.This book teaches us about the importance of internal beauty and portrays picture of a strong woman.I think it's must read.