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Eimona

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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.