Krishnavatara

K. M. Munshi is credited as the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. But his literary work, "Krishnavatara", a seven book series on the life of Krishna, was brought to my notice by a colleague of mine. Most of the books on Krishna or the Mahabharata, portrays him as a super-human immortal who can work miracles and ensure the safety of the right by destroying the evil. However, Krishnavatara is a little different. It portrays Krishna as a clever and self-realized individual rather than as God. This work downplays his super-human aura, but still highlights his great personality. K. M. Munshi has tried to give a rational explanation for most of his miracles. By doing so, he has definitely instilled confidence and has made it easy for people to emulate Krishna's way of living.

Unfortunately, the author did not survive to complete the entire work. The 8th volume is incomplete. I have read the first book of the series called "The Magic Flute". This book covers the wedding of Devaki and Vasudeva, the birth of Krishna and his youth at Gokul and Vrindavan. The book ends with the killing of Kamsa. On the web, I found some interesting excerpts from different books of this series. The best was the excerpt on Dharma and how Krishna himself is confused about it. The link for the Dharma excerpt is given below.

What is Dharma?
" Dharma is not merely a hope. Nor speculation. Nor rituals. Nothing which is inspired by anger, greed or fear.... It is the will to shape oneself, men and situations, by rising above weaknesses. No, that was not enough; Dharma for each one is, to weld the vision, the will and the deed - they are not three but one - so that he may strive, each in his own way, to live in All - VAASUDEVA - so that All may live in him."

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Chetan Bhagat

Over the last couple of years, Chetan Bhagat has come to fame as a youth writer. His novels "Five Point Someone" and "One Night at the Call Center" have been pretty popular. I got an opportunity to borrow these books and have read the latter. His writing style is ok and the comedy is a shade dark in the books. He has tried to depict the current youth culture in India in his books, though I cannot comment on the authenticity of his depiction as I have not been part of it.

The book "One Night at the Call Center" is about a bunch of call center "agents", and their struggles with life. The entire novel takes place within the start and end of a daily (nightly) shift. The book is good in patches, but these purple patches are far and few. The character sketches are commendable. The manager, "Mr. Bakshi"'s jargon is hilarious and is very apt with what happens in real life. The phone call from God is a little too unrealistic for my taste. Overall, I would say that it is a good read if you have nothing else to do and want some entertainment. Also, it helps you get a perspective about how the youth of the country are shaping up, given the current economy and nuclear families.

The message I got from the book was that the youth of India have the intelligence and the imagination to do well, but lack self-confidence and fear failure when it comes to its execution. On a corroborative note, a similar message is actually conveyed in the movie "Rang De Basanti", where Aamir Khan as DJ doesn't want to leave the comfort zone of his college as he doesn't believe that he would be treated with the same respect outside the college walls. Cannot agree more with this message........

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