Eimona [Hardcover]

G. B. Prabhat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2006

The world is flat. And India unabashedly embraces western culture and capitalism. Eimona-"anomie" in reverse-is the tale of a future already happening to India. "Eimona is a chilling account of a future that is almost upon us: sophisticated technology and global finance altering the fabric of human relationships to cre-ate a world where each individual is alone in a virtual space and nature is irrelevant unless captured as a computer screen-saver. A timely fable which might make our high-achievers pause and think." Meenakshi Mukherjee India's leading literary critic and Sahitya Akademi Award winner Eighty-four year old Subbu's world has gone topsy-turvy. The normal is now the abnormal, and the abnormal, the normal. With distant amusement and mischief, he watches the con-flict between the Old India that is struggling to retain its essence, and the New India of stock options, freshly minted millionaires, prenuptial agreements and layoffs. His only interest in life is his eight year old great-granddaughter, Maya. Overwhelming doubt characterizes the life of Bharat, Subbu's grandson-a successful in-vestment manager, who becomes a millionaire, then watches his wealth catastrophically vanish. Indu, Bharat's wife, is young, attractive, and filled with a certitude that contrasts her hus-band's uncertainty. Maya, Bharat's daughter, does not understand why she has to chat online, play games on the Internet, and attend a multitude of classes from karate to dancing. A nature lover, she loves to play hopscotch with the children from the nearby fishermen settlement. A tiny voice keeps urging Subbu to flee from the dystopian world of eerie loneliness, fear and disconnectedness. Combining sharp observation with stylish satire, Eimona is the definitive story of this "electroni-fied" generation. "Twenty-five years ago, acclaimed writers such as Salman Rushdie and Anita Desai presented the world with an India wres-tling with the simultaneous formation and partition of its national and traditional identities. Today, G. B. Prabhat has provocatively expanded the purview of world literature with Eimona, a novel that depicts another psychic partition defining contemporary In-dia. Between the nouveaux riches enraptured with the magic of the stock market and modern media, and those left behind by the new world economy, the reader glimpses a society all too willing to gate its communities and sell off its sense of history. Ulti-mately, Eimona is much more than an essential addition to Indian literature, as it illuminates a brave new world everyone must come to terms with. For we all come from Eimona." Kevin Carollo Professor of World Literature and Writing Minnesota State University Moorhead

Editorial Reviews

Review

A timely fable which might make our high-achievers pause and think. -- Meenakshi Mukherjee
India's leading literary critic and
Sahitya Akademi Award winner

From the Publisher

This year the Frankfurt Book Fair is honoring India as its featured country. Contemporary Indian literatue is growing in popularity as its economy booms. EIMONA is one of the finest samples of this unique blend of cultures and perspectives.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: ArcheBooks Publishing (June 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595071423
• ISBN-13: 978-1595071422
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,892,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

G B Prabhat's first novel, "Chains", was published in 2000 to critical acclaim. "Eimona", his second novel published in 2006, is a dystopian story set in modern India that has been compared with "Brave New World" and "1984". Prabhat's short stories have appeared in Asia Literary Review, The Hindu and The Indian Express. Some stories have been translated into Telugu, Hindi and Chinese.

"Early Indications" is his third novel.

Prabhat has spent over 25 years in the IT and consulting industry and is widely considered the pioneer of the offshore consulting model. He has been featured by the media worldwide for his literary and professional accomplishments. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering (P S G College of Technology, Coimbatore, India) and a graduate degree in Computer Science (IIT, Madras).

Prabhat lives with his family in Chennai, India.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read, September 6, 2006

By 

Sadagopan.S (Sunnyvale, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eimona (Hardcover)

The new flat world is forcing disparate cultures to come together in an enmeshed way - with business and new-found prosperity accelerating the pace of life like never before resulting in practices and events that were unthinkable a couple of decades back. These happen quite routinely and have the potential effect of denting the fabric of societal and traditional family values. Eimona is certainly amongst the early attempts to capture and bring out in its own brilliant way that these advancements come out with a tradeoff. Invariably society and most individuals pay a price for pursuing things that are centered on the likes of "live for the moment", or "follow the group syndrome". The deleterious consequences of such mechanical life characterized by hollow plastic smiles and superficial values generally follow hauntingly and unfailingly. Prabhat's work is woven brilliantly combining wit, humor, false values, aimless materialism, simplicity, and virtuous life, and raises serious questions. While the novel is set in Madras in India and the message is universal, while the setting may be contextual.

What is Eimona? It is the reverse of anomie - "an affliction that causes the victim to have social interaction that's lower than the usual standards in the group, a sort of rootlessness". For Subbu, the eighty four year old simple man, the key character in the novel, the world as he sees it, is changing so fast in all its facets that established norms turn upside down. The way the change in norms are captured and presented makes the reading quite absorbing, filled as they are with good humor and deeply thought out observations. Subbu's mind goes back and forth and assesses events and happenings based on new norms highlighting the conflict between the New India of stock options and artificial values and the Old India. The powerful characterization of the ever uncertain Bharat, a successful investment banker and Subbu's grandson and his personable but aggressive wife Indu, an executive in a software firm adds to the richness of the plot. Of note are the ways the events move when she can't accept their young daughter's nonchalant attitude towards the eworld's modern tools - online chat, games and all other non-academic activities while the girl loves nature and pursues simple interests, which transcend social class and technology barriers. A nature loving child becomes a problem child when she does not get attracted towards the internet, expected of her in these times. Several of Indu's actions, so well brought out typically represent the false sense of righteousness that pervades the society and her own response towards sad personal events and partying life makes readers wonder and worry about the chaotic degeneration that we all see in our present day lives. Bharat's inability to make up his mind, particularly in moments of crisis, the appearance of Buridan's ass and the tutorship he got that in the long run - the majority always wins, are all classic follies that we tend to see in modern life. What happens to the simple minded old man Subbu and his great grand daughter Maya closer to the end adds to the excitement in reading the book.

Yet, despite addressing such serious issues, the novel has a well felt undercurrent of natural humour that amplifies the effect of the book many times over. Eimona brings out quite fascinatingly many destructive shortcomings of the so-called meritorious society where conformance to the new norms is non-negotiable, however bizarre they might appear to the balanced mind. It pops up several questions that deserve to be answered by every thinking person. This is a MUST READ book - one can perhaps keep reading year after year.